The Student Union Interview was a task that was set out by the Student union to help them make one-minute interviews with the upcoming candidates for the Student Election. We would have to get into groups of around four and interview two candidates.
With our group we didn’t assign each other roles, but instead we would just set everything up and do what was needed to be done, all of us switching between roles; this worked well in a small group environment since it allowed us to be more efficient when getting the camera, lighting and sound ready to use.
The only problem I had with this task was the subtitles, I struggled to get them to be embedded on the video in my own edit.
The Audio task had us take a scene without sound and add sound to it using either our own recordings or copyright free sound. I was sick when we were put into pairs for this task to record sound, so I had to do this task on my own using the copyright free sound, for which I used the site Freesound.org to help find some sound effects that weren’t available in the file of SFX that we were given to help us. I didn’t have much difficulty with this task as I’m used to dealing with sound from previous edits I have made. For the task, I used the ET opening sequence as it caught my interest and I thought that I could add more interesting sounds to the opening, unlike the other videos we could have chosen from as those seemed to use less interesting soundscapes.
The seventy-two hours challenge had us create a five-minute-long short film with a compulsory scene in seventy-two hours and within a group of nine people. I took the role of producer and director, I took charge of the project by sorting out the risk assessments and booking forms as well as overseeing the writing process during pre-production. During which we got two actors booked in to play the detective and villain for the film, both of which were on time and played their parts well, they listened to my directions while also giving their own suggestions on how to play the characters. On the second day of shooting we found out that on one scene the audio was messed up, so we had to ADR those scenes in the recording studio, this was before we went in to film in the studio we booked out for the final scene of the short film. The only other issue we had was much later when the editor lost the SD card that had the compulsory scene on, luckily, we were allowed to reshoot the compulsory scene.
The editor had decided to cut two scenes out of the short film in order for it to fit the required run time.
For the story of the short film, we decided to go for a detective thriller, with a murderer that would poison his victims and ultimately the detective. We went with the poker theme as it worked easily as a title and it allowed for a tense interaction between the detective and the killer.
The Photography Task was to use photography techniques with a theme. I chose the theme Time as shown by my use of ruins and the cathedral as well as models of Futuristic mechs called Gundams; I did this to show the past and the future as it correlated with the time theme. The Gundam models allowed for some good forced perspective shots as well as eliminating the need for a human subject since I did this task on my own. The frame within a frame and silhouette shot was done by using two rocks at the museum gardens and placing the subject between them, I then placed my jacket over the rocks and placed my camera inside, this created a cave-like look; when it came to editing it I made the background look almost dusty like it’s on another planet like Mars, making the shot seem futuristic while also seeming gritty. The shot I had most difficulty on was the long exposure as it would bleach the image, making it look almost white, this I had to fix in photoshop by changing the brightness and saturation. The reflection shot I got a bit creative with, I used a old Tracy island set I had and added sand to one of the modules, I then filled it with water after I had made sure it wasn’t going to leak; then I set up the shot in a few ways before settling on the Gundam looking broken and defeated while staring into the pond in front of it. The depth of field shot is one I’m most proud of, I used photoshop to make the day shot that I took, appear to be at night, the background behind the machine is out of focus while the machine is entirely focused upon, making him pop out in the night with it’s purple and cream colouring. The photography task was probably my favourite one to do as it made me think about shot placement and gave me a better understanding of how to compose a shot and how to use photoshop to help enhance my images. There weren’t many issues I had while doing this task other than the long exposure/painting with light shot, but that was easily rectified in the edit
In 1979, Japan had found itself with a new genre that heavily featured giant robots, this genre was to be known as Mecha. as this genre started out the robots were more seen as ridiculous power-ups for the young heroes. however, this would change thanks to Mobile Suit Gundam. created by Yoshiyuki Tomino. the series would be a more realistic and militaristic view on the giant robots making the show more of a space opera that heavily featured political drama and focused on the characters. The first series was released on April 7, 1979, and ran for 43 episodes. the series followed a boy named Amuro Ray who gets caught up in the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. he takes the prototype mobile suit that his father made and joins the side of Earth, fighting against the series main villain, Char Anzable.
the show was not a hit when it first came out in Japan and was almost cancelled but it grew in popularity once Bandai stepped in to create the model kits for Gundam, these were known as Gunpla kits.
after it’s 43 episode run it spawned a few sequels before the story of the original series ending with the movie Char’s counterattack, after which it spawned off into multiple spin-off series all taking place in different places in the Gundam timeline, sometimes even returning back to the timeframe of the original series.
Gundam has since become a massive cultural icon in Japan and in the west, with a statue being erected in Japan (originally of the first Gundam but now of the Gundam Unicorn).
many of its spin-offs are praised for their excellent storytelling such as Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Gundam Unicorn. Iron-Blooded orphans is one of the more gritty Gundam series as it deals with heavy themes such as child soldiers, slavery, political corruption and poverty; the series handles these themes well and was critically acclaimed.
The first time the west got to experience Gundam was with the series Gundam Wing which aired on Toonami and was the first of the Gundam series to be dubbed for the western market. it was also one of the rare dubs of that time to remain uncensored or ‘dumbed down’ for the western market.
Thanks to Bandai’s Gunpla kits, Gundam became one of the most popular animes to be created, with it’s dark and realistic storytelling and it’s themes of war and kinship it garnered praise the world over.
