Cross Colabaration

I offered to help Ben, my best friend, out with his PPP project so he was able to document his process in a video form. My part in helping and collaborating with ben was simply filming his process, asking him questions to answer so the viewer is able to understand the idea and other related information behind his final piece. I used my GoPro camera to get some POV (point of view) shots while Ben was creating and putting together his final piece, I decided to do this so the audience felt more involved in the creation of the final piece. I also edited together the videos and edited the audio together for the best outcome. Ben was present with myself while editing was underway so he was able to distinguish which clips he wanted in and taking out. Ben studies on the interdisciplinary art and design course at college. He passes this studio brief. 

Below is a screen shot of the editing process of the video:

Below is a shortened video of the video I made for ben to hand in for marking, this is just to give you an idea of what the video I originally made looked like:

I also offered to help ben out with is final major project by filming and editing him together another making video. Below is the finished product:

I really enjoyed making this video because I feel I have been able to explore my cinematographer side more and experiment with the different cameras I use, GoPro's and Cannon 5D's. I also used my Sony Handycam for some of the shots in this video. Overall I am very please with how the video turned out and even more pleased that Ben decided to ask me again to make another video for him.

Dynamite Project

I am involved in another students project they are organising called the Dynamite Project.

Below is a little video of Mikkel Ullah, the person who is organising the whole project, to explain what the Dynamite Project is all about:

My role in the dynamite project is to create a behind the scenes documentary. So far the filming is going really well. Mikkel would like to exhibit the behind the scenes documentary in the show, which is really exciting! I am thrilled to be a part of this project because I believe it is going to be a huge exhibition/show. Hopefully it will lead to further work for myself with either new clients or even working with Mikkel on further projects.  

Being part of the crew!

During the past few weeks I have helped on some of my peers extended practice modules. I have helped Tom, Lija and Luca's group and Chris in their production of their extended practice videos.

In Tom, Lija and Luca's project for two days I acted as their sound man, I was in charge of controlling the boom mic and sound recorder, making sure I captured sound of the footsteps of their character and other key sounds.

Below are some images from the days I spent with them:

I also helped Chris with his short film.
When I was helping Chris with his production, I thought I was going to be acting as sound man again but intact I ended up being his camera man which I highly enjoyed! Tom Stevens was also camera man and got a few shots with his 50mm lens but the majority of the shots where shot by myself. I was very pleased with the outcome of the footage I had captured. I will be filming with Chris agin soon so I will definitely get some pictures to add to this post. I didn't get pictures on the first day of helping him because it was raining so we tried to get through filming as quick as possible but I have got some images of the shooting days from Chris which are shown below:

On the second day of shooting I was doing more sound based stuff for Chris as well as setting up equipment such as the crane and lights. Images of the second day of shooting are shown below:

Promoting & Representing Myself!

As part of this module we where asked to start thinking about getting business cards and a website but together to represent and promote ourselves in the industry.

I had previously had business cards before and I also have a friend who has sorted me out a website with the domain .com and .co.uk for a very cheap price. Here is a link to my website and a screen shot of it so you can see what it looks like:
www.philjonesvideo.com

As I have re-branded myself a few times over my three years of being at university, I have finally designed a logo that I am happy with so I decided to get my business re-printed. While I was going through the payment process of vista prints website I was offered some great cheap deals on other products they do with my logo on, you can see everything I got in the image below:

I have also recently had a call from BT because when I purchased my products from vista print, I received a free 20% off advertising in the BT phone book voucher. After speaking with the sales man called Scott on the phone, he offered me a further 20% off the advertising. The full cost for the year of what he offered me was £600 which would get me coverage in the BT phone book, on the BT online phonebook, the BT app and direct enquires. This would get me coverage for over 250,000 people minimum. 

Unfortunately due to my funds at the present time I was not able to purchase this amazing offer but Scott said that he will call me back in early july to see if circumstances have changed and to see if I am still interested. Fingers crossed!  

I have also pieced together a CV for applying to jobs you can see this below: 

I have also re-edited my showreel so it shows more of the skills I have to offer rather than just videos I have made in the past, I decided to do this after showing my original showreel to my tutor and getting his feedback as to what to take out and replace. You can see the new video below: 

Phil Jones Video | Showreel from Phil Jones on Vimeo.

Entering a competition

After filming my Livrids: Live To Ride video for my final piece last year (2nd year) I entered it in to a competition on the PinkBike.com called Avid's Chasing Trail. There where thousands of entries and unfortunately I didn't win but I did get a little feed back from someone which you can see here: 

I should really have re-edited the video to fit the criteria of the competition, I may have had more of a chance of winning but as this competition came up n pink bike during the editing process of my video I didn't have time to re-edit it before the deadline of the competition  Overall though the video got over 1000 views on pink bike, plus an extra 400 with YouTube and Vimeo combined!

This image below was the first place prize:

Here this the video that I entered in to the competion: 

Broadcast show

Info about Philip Bloom: 

- he worked for  17 years for sky news then quite to go freelance, it taught him a lot but he would never go back 

- he has been in the film industry for 20 years 

- he has been freelance for the last 6 years

- he had 12 years of using rather basic equipment - made him so creative! 

- when he worked for sky it is where he first learnt multi skilling

- he also learnt how to work fast, multiple disaplines, deal with people, know how to tell stories

- 17 years he shot with one Format 

- now he shoots mostly 4K 

- He shoot in HD for clients 

- when he has shot in 4K it mainly went on to the internet which down grades the format 

Seminar 001 - Philip Bloom

4K & Raw - is it worth the hype?

- Is 4K/ultra - the new standard? - yes it's inevitable 

- 4K TV's are extremely expensive! 

- affordable 4K tv around £5000

- 4K is a big investment for large tv companies 

- 4K is 4x better than HD

- 3D never was truley popular in home use, 4K will be the new standard whether is looks 4x better or not

- why does he shoot In 4K rather then HD? - because it looks better but he never uses it for jobs 

- reframing - zooming in with 5D should never do. using a 1Dc feel free to to zoom in to 800% or even 1600%

- when he does interview he shoots in 4K, he uses two camera so he can reframe the shots if needed

- 4K and reframing is not an excuse for lazy cinematography 

- 7.1 miles is the distance of the horizon in flat land. 

- Future Proofing? - being able to re use it 

4K cameras:

- Canon 1DC

- Canon C500

- Sony f5/f55

- Sony FDR

- Red Epic/Scarlet 

- Sony FS700 with V3 firmware 

- Blackmagiv 4K production Camera 

- Samsung Galaxy Note 3 shoots 4K 

- 4x more data = 4x more data - this is a problem an expensive camera 

- 4K shoots great stills 

His most popular video he has made this year he shot with an iPhone 5s at 120fps!!!

- shooting in RAW is good because you have more control of the exposure in the shots

- RAW = more data though 

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Seminar 002 - Philip Bloom 

Story telling, motivation, finding work and the joy of filming 

Storytelling:

- do you have to use video to tell a story? = no but you wouldn't sit and watch beautiful stills for 90 mins 

- storytelling keeps us intrested 

- he has been telling sotires for 25 years 

- almost all the work you do is effectively storytelling

- do you take every job your offered? = no 

- how do you know what your doing is a good story? = Because you like it

- 

Finding a speciality: 

- in this day an age you just end up doing anything really

Improving by your visual storytelling:

- gear can improve your visual storytelling but I doesn't have to

- the camera doesn't have to be moving to tell a good story 

- lighting helps storytelling 

- sound really helps the visual storytelling 

(Sometimes create your own sounds instead of downloading)

- the quality can help but it's not going to make you better

- having the right camera is very important 

- inspiration - you get it from everywhere 

Making sure you don't fall out of love:

- enjoy the work you do and work with what you've got

- swop the types of work you are doing

- try diffrent things 

- enjoy what what you do, if you don't simply don't do it! Creative satisfaction in everything you do is essential

The importance of 100%:

- push yourself no matter what you do! 

How to succeed overnight?:

- be ambitious

- it never happens over night it takes a lot of hard work! 

- talent - but it isn't everything

- gift of the god and selling yourself

- confident

- harnessing the talent, improve your ability, learn from mistakes

- push yourself and take chances

You may find yourself having to compete and not doing what you originally set out to do! 

Promoting yourself: 

- showreel - powerful short snappy (3 mins max) - best stuff at the start

- get experience anyway you can 

- the internet 

- vimeo/YouTube 

- social media 

Images of the company stands around the event:

Summer Break 2013

I had a really good summer overall, I didn't get any commissioned work during it but I still had fun making some short films with my GoPro, re-designing my Phil Jones Video logo, getting in to cycling and learning some new software. It was nice to have a good break after the stressful year I had last year. 

Logo update

Over the summer I decided ti was time to maybe start looking at designing a new logo. I took the inspiration for the new design(s) that you can see below, from my existing Phil Jones Video logo and from Thomas Bone's new logo that a graphic student from university designed for him. I decided to try adding some colour to it too instead of it just being plain black and white. I added blue and red because currently they are my favourite colours. 

Iv decided to use the last logo from the three below as a new second logo. This is also going to be used as a watermark for any videos I make in the future. Please feel free to leave any feedback about these logos. I am thinking about getting in touch with a graphic student from university to see if they would be interested in designing me a new logo and business cards because I know it would be good for both of us in one way or another.

GoPro Videos

Over the summer I spent a lot of my time with my girlfriend  her family and my friend Ben , having my GoPro and the weather being so good I decided to make some short little videos which you can see below:











I enjoyed making these videos because it was a chance to get used to my GoPro and its settings a lot more. 

Software
Filming some videos videos with my GoPro gave me the chance to start to learn some new software, Adobe Premiere Pro. Iv decided over the summer to start to learn this software because University now have completely scrapped Final Cut Pro from the systems and are now using Premiere Pro. Initially I found the software very confusing but once I had watched some basic tutorials online on how to use it I picked it up quite easy. The only thing with it now that Im finding hard is the shortcuts because I'm so used to using the shortcuts from Final Cut Pro X. Im sure with time though it will get easier. 

Working with Vans

Last weekend I was commissioned by The Works Skatepark to film and produce a day one and day two edit for a finals contest they where hosting called: Vans Shop Riot.

The Vans Shop Riot contest involves skate shops from all over Europe competing for a big cash prize.

As the weekend crept up I was trying to get myself prepared for what was to come and what I needed to shoot and produce. I was already, days in advance, trying to work out what music to use in the videos and getting hold of logos and animated intros from The Works and Vans. I also arranged to hire out a Canon 5D mark 3 from university so I had an extra camera to film with while I was there, this camera became my main camera for shooting during the weekend. 

I was extremely nervous as I had never really produced anything of this standard and I knew that there would a chance that some people from Vans would want to see the videos and possibly use them on their website. Despite being nervous I was extremely excited to be apart of something so big because the event is streamed live online and last year almost 300,000 people where watching it live! Plus I knew with Vans them selves being there it was a great networking opportunity for me.

The days of filming went well, the first day was a tad nerve-racking because I wasn't so sure where I could go on the course and I didn't really know what to film. This is because is the past while filming skateboarding videos I am usually filming the action as it happens, being very up close and personal but with these kind of videos, The Works wanted an edit that showed what was going on during the day along with footage of the skateboarding in the competition. The second day went much better, I felt a lot more confident and comfortable about where I could film and what to film, etc. 

At the end of each day filming I had to get straight home to edit the videos because The Works wanted the videos complete by the next day. This was a tad stressful for myself but it worked well because it meant that I could film and edit the weekend through the weekend and not have to worry about the videos interfering with my university work. Editing went well on the first video, it didn't take too long either but the second video took much longer because I was having some issues with software and the song choice. I ended up having to re-edit the video from the beginning with different songs 3 times in total, because the music I wanted to use wasn't quite right for the footage and atmosphere of the event I had captured. Overall though the videos came out great and both The Works and Vans loved them. 

While I was showing the videos to a lady called Katrin, who is the Interactive Marketing Manager for Vans and Reef, I took the opportunity to give her my business card so we could arrange transfer of the videos to her from myself so they could be put on to the Vans Shop Riot website and so I could have the opportunity to talk to her about possibly working for herself (vans) again in the future.

A few days had passed since the event, I had uploaded the videos The Works YouTube and Mpora channels and Vans had released there own video of the weekend. While I was emailing Katrin she asked how I would like to be credited on the website either by my company name Phil Jones Video or just my name Phil Jones. I asked her to credit myself by just my name because my company logo was already at the end of the videos anyway. Then two days after I had watched Vans video on their website I checked the website again and my videos where up there. Here is a link to the post of my videos: http://www.vansshopriot.com/stories/shop-riot-finals-day1-day-2-edits

I was so happy that my videos where posted on a Vans website, I never thought I would ever be featured on or with a big skateboard company like this. The videos are below if you care to watch them. Also I have just realised today that my videos are on the featured section on www.mpora.com which is an extreme spots video site which I am also really happy about. The videos on Mpora already have over 1000 views each which is unbelievable to think about! 

Hopefully this whole experience is definitely going to help my in the future with projects and commissioned work. Katrin said she would stay in touch with me via email as she said that Vans have some projects coming up around the UK in the next year, so that will be amazing to see if I get asked to go and help out. Overall I am really happy with how the weekend went and the connections I have made from it. I feel like also it has helped my confidence a lot in doing commissioned work or just even projects for people in the future. 

Evaluation

Over this year at uni my personal professional practice has been good, I have learnt so much more about networking and how to get myself started in industry. One of my main accomplishments this year has been actually getting some commissioned work from a small scooter company who I got in contact with while I was working at The Works Skatepark. I am no longer working there but the connections I have made there have and will help me in the long run. Another achievement I'm proud of is managing to get my own business cards and website set up on online. Iv wanted me own websites for awhile now but I haven't had the change and even better it was my old friend from school who has helped me set it up and it cost be next to nothing which has helped a lot as my finances this year haven't bed the beat! 

Leading on to money, as I said my finances haven't been that great this year again. I have been trying my hardest to balance work and university but it has been a big struggle, in the end I made the decision to give up for the skatepark and focus on my uni work, to be honest to start with I thought I was the best decision  I'd made in a long time, but then my nan suddenly passed away and everything started to go downhill from there! I wasn't in the mood to beat uni, I was fretting because I didn't have any money and all I wanted to do was move back home, so I did and finally started getting myself back on track! 

I'm still finding it difficult with money but I have got my old summer job back working for the marquee company I did a few years back but now I have the problem of not working too much over summer and making sure i give myself time to prepare myself for the third year and still accomplish some s all projects I have set myself over summer. 

Overall though this year has been very up a down but I think I am finally starting to get myself back on track with uni work and just general living. My main goals for next year are again, time management as I still haven't got to grips with that yet and money management. To conclude a very up and down year but I know and understand where I need to improve, I just hope next year doesn't have any crazy surprises! 

Business Cards & Website

Over the past year I have been trying to get my own business/name known out in the film industry, so far it is only locally that it is know through me doing a few commissioned videos for local companies and friends but to try help me network more we where told to think about designing some business cards for ourselves. So I got straight on to designing the one below with the help of Tom on my course and this is what we came up with! It's simple and to the point and I think it's a very modern looking business card. 

I had designed some business cards last year in first year, I thing I naught around 1000 or something, it was a lot but as you can see below they really aren't that good, there not clear enough and too dark. Plus 'Phil Jones Production' sounds really stupid as I am not a professional organisation yet!

The only thing with both business cards I'm not so sure about is what profession to put down, on my latest one I put down 'Filmer & Editor' but on my first one I put 'videographer' it's hard to work out what profession I'm in as I do both filming and editing. 

Having business cards to hand is a great help, I always keep some in the silver case in my bag just I case I ever bump into someone that it could be useful for them to have it! Alongside having my own business cards I managed to get my own website made through a friend of mine from back when I was at high school who works for 'Carbonyzed' web company, so that is another connection I have made which has been helpful in getting myself known out there. Below there is a screen shot below so you can get a basic look of what it looks like and I will also leave a link to it too. http//:www.philjonesvideo.com

Video Teasers

Part way though editing I decided to save and upload part of the footage I had edited so far as teaser footage for people to see and get excited about seeing the finished video buy why are teasers important?

Movies and even short films/videos on the internet use trailers to promote their film to audiences and get people interested and excited to watch it. They don't ever show the ending of a film but just enough scenes that would intrigue the viewer to want to go to the cinema to see the film. Movie trailers are sometimes called movie teasers but they are still known to a lot of people now as movies trailers. 

After putting my teaser online, I didn't get much feedback as I had only uploaded it to YouTube and Vimeo then shared it on my Facebook account. I should really have uploaded the teaser on to a bike website like Pinkbike.com to get people more interested but the feedback I got from it anyway motivated me more to make the finished video even better. I only really decided to post up a teaser of it because I knew it was going to be quite long so I thought it would be appropriate. It probably wouldn't be for sort little edits I normally make.