Santa's been!! and he knows me all too well

This year for christmas I received lots of lovely gifts but some in particular were Awesome with a capital A.
My mum and dad, I mean Santa reads my blog and has seen that I have been reviewing Empire magazine and Total film but I concluded that Empire magazine had better in depth reviews with lots of contextual information about the actors and directors in conjunction with their past films.
Having read this, I received a subscription to Empire magazine for the 12 calendar month issues. How cool is that? very is the answer.
Another gift related to my passion for films and empire magazine is an Empire movie miscellany, hundreds of amazing filmic facts that instantly guarantee a film buff status.
This book includes so many funny and interesting movie facts as well as film set lingo and cinematography slang. Many film shot names are explained and terminology is given some context.

-Did you know that the number of speaking roles in the entire lord of the rings trilogy is only 114.

-Did you know that Jim Carrey's first job was a janitor. Sean Connery used to be a coffin polisher and Kate Winslet was a Deli assistant.

Another awesome gift that I received was Christopher Kenworthy's book on master shots, there are 100 advanced camera techniques to get an expensive look to your low budget movie. After reading around half of the book so far, there are many shots that I have recognized or revisited the film it is depicted within to the watch the action of the shot unfold and let the dramatic irony take place because I know how the shot is done and that within 'fight club' many of the punches that are landed, are landed at least inches from their face but the camera techniques used make it look like they will have one big black eye in the morning.

Overall best christmas yet and thank you Santa for all my christmas presents, you may have just added a considerable amount to the look of our film and the perceived budget that was used.

My week of work experience at the 'Theatre Royal Norwich'

For the past week I have been at a work experience placement at the Theatre Royal Norwich. During the placement I was working closely with the backstage technical department which involved:
-putting up the lighting for the touring show.
-focusing it.
-Applying a rig check before each show.
-Placing various mics and speakers around the stage then connecting them to the sound board.

I then watched the first performance of 'Agatha Christies, witness for the prosecution' within the lighting gallery and 'Nick Monk' the lighting manager ran the first show, whilst explaining the process and what each button meant, I also had a pair of cans (headphones) which he was using to communicate with the touring manager back stage which enabled me to hear everything that was going on which was very fast paced and exciting.

The next day I got to do some of the ques, I would listen for the Lx cue and the number then I would reply by stating the cue and add standing by to show I was ready, unless it was a snap cue which then I had to complete upon the go ahead.
For the next three days I got to run the lighting for the whole show which was both very exciting as well as scary. The whole week was very exciting and I'm very excited about returning to help with the Christmas pantomime which they invited me back to. Above is the lighting plan which we had to follow, in all honesty this is a pretty simple plan with minimal lighting but I got the chance to look at some extremely big productions such as a nine hour Greek play called Tantalus which was a touring show with over a million pounds of lighting to give multiple effects such as the ripple on the sea. Bellow is a picture of the lighting plan for this show it was very interesting learning about all the different lights they used and got to see most of them from the Theatre Royal's collection.

An epic trip to Epic

Yesterday our media group had the chance to go on an amazing trip to Epic studios, an independent television production company within Norwich. It is home to many well known TV programmes over the years some of the highlights include: Trisha, Loose Women, Frank Skinner Opinionated, The Wright Stuff, Late Kick Off, Question Time, The Politics Show, Knightmare, Anglia News and many more.

The trip involved many different discussions about the different types of media institutions and how, if we wanted to get a Career within the media industry what would be the best way to do so, either higher education, work experience, starting off low in the job being a runner/tea service but then you have a foot in the door and you can work your way up through higher jobs. We had talks from local radio presenters, people within the field of journalism, website designers, music video directors and designers, documentary film makers and some people got chosen to have a hands on experience with some of the studios equipment.

I was lucky enough to be chosen and I got the chance to go into the gallery and look at all there equipment, we then filmed a small news programme and I was in charge of VT (video tape) this job involves playing pr-recorded footage, archival footage and opening titles. I was sat infront of a mac, given a script and a little instruction on how to use the software. I was very nervous but looked through the script, found out were I had to play footage and then played around with the software to find out what I had to do. We went through a practice run and then recorded the news programme. The thrill that I got from being on a recorded show was amazing, there was pressure to get it right and this made the adrenaline pump through my body and overall it was one of the best experiences ever
re-enforcing my desire to work within the media industry involving similar camera work to this.

The lighting and vision control part of the gallery makes sure that the composition of the camera shots are to perfection and the news reporters or characters look good on screen, changing the brightness of the shot if it is to dark or vise-versa.

Lighting and vision control from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

The production control part of the gallery is the heart of the production this is where everything binds together ans is run by around 5-6 people depending of the content. Some roles within the production control room can be from playing the opening titles and other VT's, running the autocue, pushing vast amounts of buttons to cut from camera to camera,two people instructing the cameras what type of shot they want and when they will go to your camera as well as counting down VT times and always keeping track on sound and lighting, overall gelling the whole production together and in some big production there may be another person instructing doing and controlling their own little section of fixed shots for example of the audience. This was where I was playing the VT and once again just to enforce my enjoyment it was brilliant.

Production control from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

The sound control centre would usually have 2-3 people Manning the station, depending on the content within a programme being filmed or broad casted. The screens are linked together so each part of the gallery sees the same production of their screens, this enables the sound quality and efficiency to be optimized because when an interview is taking place, microphones can be made louder or quieter in a split second which makes the recording run smoothly.

Sound control from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

Overall each section of the Gallery is as important as the others because if one section makes a mistake then the whole production is effected therefore everything must run smoothly.

Thank you To our teacher for arranging this trip it was very interesting both practically and theoretically and it provided me with lots of information about the media industry and ways to be employed and I gained some contacts which can help me with this because as you all know:

Its not what you know, Its who you know.

True leaders of film

I am part of a senior student programme that our school runs which gives me the chance to get my voice heard, we explore many issues around the school and help with non-curricular activities and various open evenings. As a part of this programme we went on a leadership course which enlightened us to become leaders of our school giving us confidence to stand up and lead a group in whatever task we face. We were asked to prepare a short speech about a leader that inspired us and I chose two of my favorite directors, Christopher Nolan and Shane Medows who have been role models to me, for many years, making so many truly touching films that you just cannot look away from.
Their ability to have a vison that they then process and turn into such amazing cinematic experiences just gives me an excuse to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a cinema ticket over and over again, (which in hindsight makes it less ridiculous).
Both directors have gained vasts amounts of respect for producing award winning films and one of the reasons that they inspire me is that they both became famous for their own hard work and determination. From a young age they both made short films which got them noticed within the industry, not straight away, but this didn't effect them they kept going with their passion and Christopher Nolan was talent spotted at a Cambridge film festival and Shane Medows got a job at Warp (an independent film and music production company) after many attempts.
Bellow are two films that were produced at the beginning of their carers which helped them acquire the respect they have within the industry to date.

Doodlebug-short film. Directed by Christopher Nolan:


The man with no name-short documentary. Directed by Shane medows:


If you want to view my leadership speech about the two directors, please follow the link bellow.
Leadership speech:
I have picked two leading innovators....
Another link that you may find useful directs you to Shane Medows official website which includes a list of all his different short film productions as well as music videos that he has produced.
Shane Medows official website:
http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk/