Thursday 4th November

Today we had to move to different room in the design block in Temple Moor, because a different lesson was being done in our room, and we had a substitute as Mrs. Pawinski was doing something else, so today all we were getting done was a bit more research on the effect of digital technology on a modern family.

Tuesday 2nd November

As normal, in first lesson at Brigshaw in the music blocks computer room with Mr. Truscot. In this lesson we were entering data from the questionnaires we (were meant to have) handed out to collect data on our audience, and to find out what they would prefer for us to make the video like. In second lesson in the ICT room with Mr. Roamer, we continued the data entry and began to finalize it with data analysis. In 3rd with Mrs. Woffinden we went to the library to brush up some of the blogs to a better standard, then we moved to the drama room for fourth to start up on out story boards for the videos. Lastly in fifth we were back with Mr. Roamer finishing up what ever we could on everything we've done.

Friday 15th October

Today we went to West Yorkshire Playhouse for Off Stage Choices, a day about the other jobs in Theater that aren't about acting. The planned day was as follows:

So we met up with each other inside, and then Mrs. Woffinden registered us while we went up to make our name badges so the staff could identify us. We then moved off to the Quarry theater where we were greeted and told about the day with allot of energy about it, setting the mood for the rest of the day. We were then split off into our school groups and we were taken around for a backstage tour, seeing all the behind workings of the stage. The tour lead us around the back of the stage (obviously), through to the "construction" area where they make all the sets and props for their productions. We were then taken up to the costume department, and shown the costume designs for the "Aladdin" production. We had a quick skim over one rehearsal room, then we went outside and over the road to one of the other rehearsal rooms. There, the tour ended and we moved into a near-by room for the Make-Up workshop.

The Make-Up workshop flew by, and in essence was extremely simple. The effect we were making with the make-up was bruises, and when we were shown the demo, it didn't even take too long. It was mixing and rather thinly mixing purple, red, yellow, and green in a round, but random, way to create a bruise. The woman that was leading the workshop made a realistic, authentic looking black eye. And when it came to us making them, all of them also turned out that way. It was simple, yet good looking. After this we walked round to the next workshop on Script Writing. Here we had a look at the sort of process and thinking a script writer goes through when writing a script, then we were given a scene to wright a short script for. The scene was Aladdin going to a Magical complaints department, saying there was something wrong with his lamp, so we made a short scene on that, a few groups performed theirs (including a "Little Britain" reference). After that, we were given the begging of a scene, where one person is trying to persuade the other to get a glass of water, but the other is having none of it. When we "finished" them (Improvisation required) we performed each of them to show what we'd done, and to have a bit of an amusing finish to the workshop. So, with that finished, we left for a break to get a cup of tea (or coffee) before the next workshop.

After the break, we moved into the Quarry Theater for the Sound Workshop. In this workshop, we not only went up into the technical booth to see all the buttons and nobs and screens, but we had a quick listen to some tracks to help chose the sound that would be in the market place for the Aladdin play. We also got to sit at the Sound Directors desk, and act as certain parts of the job, such as the direct itself. In that we got to shout orders at those who were on the microphones and give them inspiration on what they should be shouting into the microphones, using them to create the atmosphere of a market place, where Aladdin is set.

We then moved down into the Priestley rehearsal room for the Marketing workshop. Here we got to see what goes into marketing, which is more than I though there would be. They brain storm, plan out, and pump out events and promotions, and all of the sort to publicise what ever production is on,  and after a very brief talk we spent the rest of the time brain storming ideas our selves, here is one of my groups for events:

The two in the cloud-type things are the chosen two ideas, those which we thought would be best for promoting the play of Aladdin, and after saying our ideas we left for lunch.

After we had eaten we went upstairs for Scene Painting. We started by thinking about what the guy who was taking the workshops job actually is, and in that we drew a blank. After he explained, he leaded us over to have a look at a scale model of the set of Aladdin, showing us the design of it. We then spent the rest of the workshop working on making fruit/vegetable or lamp pictures to go on the signs that will be in the Aladdin set come day of the production. I would have had my piece on there, but I made more of a grand design than a quick, simple thing that could be done in the time given...

Then, we moved into huuuuuge rehearsal room for the "Speed Date Session", whee we moved from one staff to the next asking the questions on what there job is, what WYP is like, etc. and find out much more about the place (I got footage of all the ones I went to). That quickly ended, and we moved back into the Quarry for a small set of performances on what we'd been working it, a final good bye, and a questionnaire on the day. All in all, a fun, hectic day of nothing but information. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt allot of the jobs that go on off of the stage, out of the audiences sight.

Thursday 21st October

Today in Templemoor we had Mr. Gardner and we were going to make a website using Dreamweaver and Fireworks. First we were going to make "rolling" buttons, for which we needed to create one image of a button in what shape, couler and font we wanted, typing what we wanted to in inside it, then we created a duplicate image, but changed some of the graphicl aspects of it, such as the couler or font, or maby adding a glow. Then we put it into Dreamweaver and gave it the "Rolling Button" property, allowing it to change from one image to the other when a mouse is moved over it. After that we made a rolling image with it, so for mine I took an image off of a "vortex" off of the internet, put it into Fireworks, and created a duplicate, couler inverted version of it. Then we put it into Dreameaver, made it a "Rolling Image" and then it would chnage from its normal self to an oposite couler when a mouse is moved over it. For the second to last thing we created a banner for the page, for which I wrote "Creative Arts and Media" in a nice looking font style, and pulled various images of video reels or creative sculptures off of the internet and made their sides fade to make them fall into each other (or the background). We finished off with hyperlinking the botton to a second page, just to show we could, and because I had abit of time to spare I poped my banner on that one aswell, and added a little something of an image for a laugh.

Tuesday 19th October

Today in Brigsahw we began to think about and make some questionaires with Mr. Truscot in the music room for first lesson, this was so then we could hand them out and tailor make our video around the answers our audiance gave us. In the second lesson we were in the IT room with Mr. Romer, in wich we continued to make our time line of the different creative process done by the Art Gallery and Testement, and began to make one for the Theater to make sure we understand what they go through to create an albumor a production. After that it was form, and then brake.

After brake it was third lesson in the PE Classroom with Mrs. Woffinden, where we had a look at the brain storms we created at Offstage Choices and re-wrote them into our books to copy up onto here as evidence for Friday, and to generaly have a portable copy of what we created. In fourth we moved to the Drama room, still being with Mrs. Woffinden, and began to create brain storms about specific off-stage jobs in the theater, for which I created one on Marketing. We had to wright down about what we though someone would have to do in that job, so I wrote things like brain storming ideas, starting advertising campeigns, and planning events that advertise the performance. Then we had alook at where on the "heirarchy" that job is, and began to timeline the ideas that we had on the brainstorm in the orer that we thnk they would have to do them in. After the lesson, it was lunch.

After lunch we went to lesson five, which was back in the ICT room with Mr. Romer, where we began finishing up and polishing the process' to make them less bland, and more informative to make sure we get the best we can out of them.

Tuesday October 12th

4^th lesson

Today we were in the Drama room starting to set up the room ready for Jessica Farmer, a WYP education officer, to interview her on her job and the playhouse and for her to ask us what we want out of the Offstage Choices day, in which we will be learning about the jobs behind (or infront of, but not on) the stage, and to tell us what we were going to be doing.  We had a brief amount of time to look over our questions to make sure we knew what to ask her before she came in. She asked us general questions, like "Whats your name?" and "What theatrical stuff have you done recently?", to get to know us more and what sort of performing arts things we’ve done before. She then told us about what was going to happen throughout the day and what the theme of the day was going to be around, which was Aladdin and so I thought it could be cool.

After she’d explained about what we were going to do we began our interview, and some of the things we found out were:

Q. “How do you class a successful production?”

A. “We mainly class a successful production by critic review on the performance or by the audience’s reaction to it and ticket sales.”

Q. “What do you class as a failed production?”

A. “Productions never rely ‘fail’, and it’s very difficult to have that happen considering while some people may hate a performance, others will like it. And vice-versa.”

Q. “What are the benefits, for both West Yorkshire Playhouse and us, in days like Offstage Choices?”

A. “For West Yorkshire Playhouse the benefits of the day are that it encourages people into theatre more, and shows them the workings behind the production. For young people like your selves it lets you experience more and lets you know the workings, and gives and shows you the range of opportunities within a theatre.”

I found out a lot about the other creative aspects of theatre in this interview and can’t wait for the in depths delve into the offstage choices of theatre! After the interview we thanked her for coming and left for lunch.

Thursday 7th October

Today we began exploring musical digital media technology, through the use of Audacity. We mashed together a part of an audio book about Beowulf, with a narrators voice, music, and sound effects, which I think turned out rather well, and was extremely simple to use (After the help of the video walk-through, ofcorse!). After which we wrote up about what we did, to make sure we understood what we just did, and began to play about with Photoshop, making a normal picture of a random guy into something befitting what comes within this month- Halloween!

Tuesday 5th October

1st lesson in the music block, we learned how to conduct a meeting and saw part of a video clip that showed what not to do in a meeting so that we may conduct our own meeting for the video in the future. For the second half of the leson, same place, we began rehersing an assembly that was to be performd on the day (and the rest of the week for the Brigshawers). 2nd lesson in an IT room, we began mind-mapping ideas on what the video would contain and how we'd go about filming and performing it, for the inevatable filming of it in the weeks to come. 3rd lesson we were in the PE classroom, conducting an ill-prepared and disorganised meeting about planning questions for the the West Yorkshire Playhouse Educational Officers visit, which rely only started getting results into 4th lesson in the drama studio when we pretty much scrapped the seperate jobs that are ment to come in a meeting, allowing us to know what we want to know from the Educational Officer, who's main purpose for the visit is to know what we want to know from the Offstage Choices trip we will be attending in a week. The last part of the lesson was looking over the clips the Brigshawers got of Testement, a beat-boxing rapper that visited Brighshaw on Monday. Last lesson back in the IT room we finished up ideas for the video, made a questionaire to help with its creation and began a story board for it. From what we got, I'm looking forward to making this thing!

Thursday 30th September

Today we were with Miss Pawinski to enhanced our mind maps and mood boards, and created in-depth views to two chosen digital media professions for the explore part of this course.

Tuesday 28th September

For the first 3 lessons we went into Leeds City Center with Mr. Truscot and took pictures/video of the area, and went into the Leeds Art Gallery to take a short look around and hold an interview with Amanda, Leeds Art Gallery's educational officer, for the video. Here is a list of what we asked her for the interview, and her answers:

1.What different audiences do you appeal to?
The art gallery has a very varied audience range: people out on a day trip with the family; school trips out to learn; people using toilets or the cafe and people who have organized meetings there. Overall the art gallery has a very wide audience
How do you go about pleasing them?
They have to appear to different audiences at different times as not everyone likes everything. so different types of events and exhibitions to look after different people.
What data do you hold on the audience and how is it collected?
The data bieng held is mainly political and is highly confidential so not to be used wrongly. also if people want there is a mailing list people can sighn up to. and ofcourse survays for people to fill in when they leave.
2.How has new technology influenced your methods of work in the art gallery?
Everything has become faster due to the internet mainly as they can use the email websites despite it bieng very expensive. It is always to be in with the new soft ware as its always getting more and more advansed so the art gallery needs to be more prepared
Have you introduced new ways of advertisig in recent years, for example facebook and twitter sites?
The art galley does have a twitter site however there are much better methods of advertising. surprizingly the most effective is word of mouth like people telling people. ofcourse money is a massive issue in advertising.
3.How do you connect to the different community's within leeds and beyond?
The art gallery was once even internationaly connected but sadly this went wrong due to money issues. They have a good connection with school with special events and workshops.
The gallery is free to enter, how do you fund the gallerys projects?
Its funded by the council mostly to pay employee wages and fund any exhabitions. Also there is a donation box a cafe and a gift shop which also help.
4. What creative procces is involved in creating an exhabition?
Everyone in the art gallery is very creative and as a group we are able to pool together some good ideas.
How do you decide the space to use for you exhibitions?
It is simple as the bigger more popular pieces of art go in the big rooms and the smaller in the smaller rooms. But if there is a piece that is very 'soft' it can be put intoa more darker and calmer room.
5.What merchandise do you have and how do you promote it?
there is a gift shop full of things that will sell they are usualy themed around art in the gallery. The gift shop its self should be promoted more as it could be used allot more but is wasted. Also the rooms can be used for meetings and therefore seen.
6.Do you have an age limit for your workshops?
there is no age limit for us but in school there is an age limit of 5-18. but to be fair there is a workshop for under 5's and there parents.
Do you charge? How is it funded?
All workshops are free but for schools its 50 pounds a day.
7.How do you know when an exhabition is a succes?
when the gallery gets allot of people in for an exhabition it gives a good vibe and also when we get a good review.
What do you class as a failed exhabition?
If even we think the exhabition. If people seem uninterested or complain which we will find out in our comment box where people give reviews.

When we arrived back at Brigshaw we had 4th lesson with Mrs Woffinden were we talked abit about narration, and I printed off a post from this blog (which should of been done for home work). 5th lesson with Mr. Romer we continued to edit the introduction to the diploma group video to get better at video editing.

Thursday 23rd September

Through 1st and second lesson with Miss Pawinski I made a mind map and two mood boards about different Digital Media jobs (Of which I made a mind map for Games Design and Graphic Design) to gain a better understanding of what it is.

Tuesday 21st September

In 1st lesson I researched up on Leeds Art Gallery to attempt to find out more about the place and to better understand what I should ask questions on. In 2nd I made a mind map to understand what I'll need to ask at the Leeds Art Gallery. In 3rd lesson we learned about narration, watching clips of David Attenbourough and Come Dine With Me to see how they do it, and to see what we need to make sure we do when narrating. In 4th we then had a look at different types of narrative on a hand out that listed an abundance of different narrative techniques, then we split into two groups and each group made there own narration aimed at: Young People, Parents and Teachers. This was a fun way to think about how we can use our voice to influence the video. In 5th lesson I started to edit together a video to introduce the Diploma group to get to grips with the video editing software.

Thursday 16th September

For the first lesson we learned about camera angles and shot types, and went around the school taking pictures on the shiny new cameras to see the best ways to use those angles. In the second lesson we put all the pictures on the computers and chose the best 6, which we then wrote about and explained why we liked them. If we finished that quickly, we got to photo shop them as well. Then we chose the best picture of the 6, and explained to the rest of the class why it was the best of them. My best 6 (The best of the bet being the first one) are below:

Tuesday September 14th

1^st lesson was more research into Creative Leeds, adding the final polish to it. 2^nd lesson we were deciding what venues and events we’d like to attend and interview people on and begging to come to grips with the video editing software which we will be making our final film on, which was cool. 3^rd and 4^th was learning interview techniques by the example of Jonathan Ross and a Grammy news reporter, reviewing our interviews and listing what we did good/bad and what to improve and begging to record our more refined interviews, which none of us were rely able to record in that lesson. 5^th we finished recording the interviews, and began editing them to improve their quality, which was enjoyable.

Thursday September 9th

1st lesson I toured the Brishawer students around the school, whcih they thought was huge and rather imprssive in its newness, and then we delved into a relaxed lesson thinking of what media rely is, which was easy as there were posts all around the classroom to tell us and I’d been doing Media before, so then we atleast have a better understanding of, well, Media. 2^nd lesson Mr. Gardener familiarized the Brigshawer students with the school system, and had an enjoyable lesson messing about with tools in Photoshop to learn how to stuff with it, but my picture didn’t quite turn out how I wanted with the body and the area around it being mishapen and obviously edited.

Tuesday September 7th

First lesson with Mr. Truscot I was given a tour around Brigshaw High School to better familiarise myself with the school and my peers. Through 2^nd lesson with Mr Romer we researched into Creative Leeds, finding events and venues which tie in with the art forms to better map out were we wanted to go, which with the blocked/never seen sites made it harder to find things and made less input from me. 3^rd and 4^th lesson with Mrs Woffinden we learned interview techniques and more about each other as peers in a fun practical way, and then record the interviews on flip cameras. In 5^th lesson we were with Mr. Romer again, and we researched more into Creative Leeds, and found more venues to go to which was slightly easier as by the time “some” of the sites had been approved.