Final Post for MEDI 259!

Well here it is, the final post for this project, MEDI 259 The Experiment Project.

It’s been a fantastic journey creating something I’ve always dreamed of doing but first I shall talk about the exhibition before getting all gushy about my dreams and stuff haha!

The exhibition was a really great experience and so exciting to see everyone’s work as for the past 2 weeks we’ve all been keeping to ourselves being busy making final touches to our work.

But now that it’s all done it was a truly great day to see some incredible work from everyone and see everyone in general!

I particularly liked Anastasija and Joshua’s piece on Milk used to make clothes as I remember her saying about doing it back in December but they have truly outdone themselves as it’s incredible.

I also loved James Wright and Andy Warren’s piece which was gruesome but so well done you loved it haha!

These were only two mind of the other brilliant work shown in Scott building and I cannot wait till next year when we finally begin year 3 and move on up into the world. Gulp!

But before we go there, I shall sign off this project’s blog by saying I have had a really enjoyable time working on this project from day 1 as it has always been something I’ve wanted to do and I am over the moon with the result and the praise it got. In fact, It was voted the third best video of the exhibition by my coursemates and though prizes were only given to the 1^st and 2^nd places, this doesn’t bother me what so ever as I am truly thrilled to have come in the top 3, let alone the top 15 it was chosen out of. :)

So here at last is a link to my Vimeo account and the page for “Professor Marble and His Music machine” which I uploaded today:

http://vimeo.com/23913478

Note this post was made after the hand in deadline but I hope you can forgive me as I wanted to talk about the exhibition and also I have re-edited this post to include the link to the video. The video was uploaded today (18^th May) so to cause any confusion the post here was made on sat 14^th may after the exhibition, but the link and video are recent. :)

So there we go! It’s had ups and downs, stress and enjoyment but overall I loved every minute of this project and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have making.

Again a special thanks to all who have helped me along the way to making this piece, and in particular (even though it’ll embarrass them should they ever read this!):

John and Lilian Hill

Eden Bluebell Peskett

Jane and Steve Mercer

8WT

Jane at Cheatwell Games

And again, everyone who has helped out on this project.

Until the next project, take care and thanks for reading. :)

Professor Marble A.K.A Joe.

Extras Bits I forgot to Add to Last Post

To celebrate it’s finality, here is a final video of me explaining the piece once more before it was dismantled and put away, which took over 2/3 hours until the room was back to normal!

I've also included the production stills of the video clips I used for you to see in closer detail.

These photos also show the close-ups I included by zooming in on the original film then adding a black border around it and playing them in sync.

Check back soon for my final sign off for this project after the exhibition. :)

Take care,

Joe.

Editing and Final Exports! IT'S FINISHED!

Hello and sorry for the delay in posting it has been a massively stressful and busy period these past few weeks!

But, on the absolutely fantastically positive side, I HAVE FINISHED THE FINAL EXPORT OF THE FILM AND IT IS 100% COMPLETE!!!! :)

I am ABSOLUTELY over the moon with the final piece but here I will explain the monstrous journey it took to get here!

Editing itself wasn’t too hard as I was able to use my expertise if you can call it that with playing drums to move pieces into the right tempo etc. but the main thing was getting the visual to sync up correctly with the audio when I had to manipulate pieces.

This was VERY stressful as having to hear something so repetitive as the guitar sound over and over and over again was a task like no other! What began to happen was the visual was all lined up perfectly and looks great, almost the final cut for the visual I reckon. But the problem was the audio and drums went in and out of tempo due to the timings of them being shot etc. so I had to spend a lot of time cutting the drum audio and recorded drum track in the environment to fix this problem and make it smoothly play. I had to do this for most of the piece as bits and bobs had higher and lower volumes on the video and so I essentially re-mixed the song as a proper song, and then added the visual to put it all in sync again.

As you can imagine, this was pretty much double the amount of work as I made the piece twice technically but never the less once it was done it was the most wonderful feeling to know it was sorted.

But as with everything there is always room for improvement, but staying your hand is a wise move too. I say this because as I exported it for the final time, as I viewed the video in Full Screen Mode, I noticed that as the CD player is turned on, the music plays but in the next clip the CD isn’t moving.

The horrible moment when your stomach lurches is exactly what happened at this moment as this was luckily noticed very close to the deadline.

So once again I went back into Final Cut Pro and had to re-edit my perfect order/mix to accommodate this continuity error.

This took longer again and once it was fixed, I re-exported it and realised it was still 2 seconds out!

So repeated the fixing process, exported again and it didn’t work again!

This carried on until 8^th time lucky It was fixed properly, no continuity errors for this part, no glitches just smooth edited movement from one scene to the next and at last I slept.

I still cannot get over how long this took and overall in this project I’ve realised I REALLY need to organise and plan much more than I already am because this was cutting it too close for comfort.

Never the less. IT. IS. DONE. And I am exceptionally proud of the end result. :)

That’s it for now until the actual exhibition. Unfortunately having left this so late/been unprepared in too many parts I haven’t had time to create my idea of a mini marble run turning on the TV and playing my film.

So for the exhibition I will be now be showing this on the show reel, hence the titles at the beginning instead of just starting as I’d first thought of doing once the marble hit the “Play” button.

I’ve also added Jazz influenced music and text to hype up the piece and then the viewer come to find that the film is not as epic as the music and text make it out to be. This all adds into the tongue in cheek science experiment feel of it all, along with the title I have finally decided on with help from friends and family, which is:

“Professor Marble and His Music Machine”.

I worked with a lot of titles for this piece such as “Marble Run Music” and “Music, Marbles and Machinery” but this one I find sums up the playfulness of the piece as well as retaining a scientific feeling to it. :)

So that’s it for this post but check back soon for my final sign off for this project and a link to the final piece on my Vimeo plus find out how the exhibition went (although technically this is after the deadline I hope you won’t mind!). :)

Take care,

Joe.

Extra Extra Bits From Filming!

Here in this post just quickly is the video of me playing the keyboard/solo part of the music for you to see in full. This is the video shown playing on the TV in the piece and the audio is exactly the same as here.

Also I apologise in advance for the creepy stares of me playing the Keyboard, I was very tired and trying to look serious yet also comical haha! I hope that has come across instead of creepy haha!

I've uploaded it mainly to show that it wasn't a pre-recorded piece just played over the top of the visual, it was actually me playing it live (technically) through the TV and not just an MP3 file.

Speaking of MP3 files,the second thing I've uploaded is the MP3 file of the Bassline which i burnt onto CD and is played through the CD player. Here it is as a quicktime file but I just thought I'd document it as it's a crucial part of the piece and thought it should be heard in full, without chimes or Xylophones getting in the way.

And finally here is a photo of the aftermath of the Party Poppers scene where we had to clear up a lot of confetti! But the scene is one of my favourite so I think it was worth the ffort of cleaning up. (P.s after I took photo I did help to clean up, I didn't just leave my Gran too!)

That's it for this post but check back soon for how the filming went. :)

Take care,

Joe.

FILMING IS COMPLETE! (From My Grandparents Coming Home to Final Completion and Ready For Filming!)

FILMING IS COMPLETE!

Yesterday I finally finished filming and all is well. :)

However, filming did not go as smoothly as planned.

Firstly, making the bassline and keyboard riff to go along with this piece took much longer than expected. Luckily this was done the day after my last post (Thurs 21st) and so that whole day was taken up making those pieces and exporting them ready for filming the next day.

Sadly though, the filmed Keyboard bit didn't work. I had made recordings of the machine working so that I could figure out how long the piece was going to be (e.g. how long the marbles took to turn on the CD player and Xylophone etc.) and so how long the bass lines/keyboard bits had to be as well.

Once I'd done this I set about recording the keyboard bit to fit in with this time frame and my drumming tempo so it all ended at the same time, but the piece I'd recorded didn't fit properly.

So the day of filming properly (Fri 22nd) I got up extra early and re-recorded this keyboard piece in a different location too as I filmed it against the white background at the end of the room and unfortunately got half of the robot part of my machine in next to me.

These minor setbacks were incredibly irritating but after re-shooting on a totally white wall in my Grandparents bedroom and fixing the music I got the keyboard part fixed and ready to go with the rest of my machine so ultimately it worked out for the better. :)

Making the recordings of the machine for timing issues was a massive help as the tempo could be adapted easily since I was playing it, not a machine and so everything fitted together well and filming could finally begin. :)

On the other hand, when it came to actually filming we had more issues again!

Firstly we had less time due to re-shooting the keyboard scene, and secondly I realised that since I was going to be behind the drum kit playing, I couldn't operate the camera as well!

So as you can see in the small video I've uploaded and the photo, my Gran and myself constructed a makeshift dolly out of her vacuum and I taught her how to operate the camera.

Originally I did say I was going to use straight shots but wondered if it would look better on the day if we could figure out a smooth camera effect. Here is a photo of the makeshift dolly:

Although she did a good job, the camera itself was too shaky due to the dodgy wheels and floor, which you can see in the video although this is on concrete in the garden.
However, even on carpet the camera jerked and joggled around so in the end we came to the conclusion of using straight shots again. It would have been lovely to have straight smooth shots following the machine as it worked, but sometimes you’ve just got to do what you can with what you’ve got so I stuck to my original plan of straight shots.
I remembered how earlier I had said I would film from different angles as if it were a dangerous experiment so I think it will be fun and more visually exciting this way actually as static cameras mean you can see what's going on, no realistic camera shake or distracting movement, for example my film might have ended up like the camera work in “Cloverfield” where many complained of feeling sea sick due to trying to focus whist the camera jostled around wildly!

I really wanted to avoid excessive camera movement since my subject was so small (seeing the marbles fly past is quite tricky!) Plus when it actually came to filming, the amount of time it took to re-set up each piece was longer than expected, let alone trying to do this in one solid take so static camera was a fantastic choice!

Once we’d decided what type of camera movement to use, we began by making a list (which I’ve uploaded) of what shots we needed and the order of importance. The most important shots were the ones where I was present, as after that I could do the close-ups of the machine working on my own, allowing my Gran to have a rest as she’d done so much for me already.
So starting with the beginning and working as chronologically as possible, we shot all the scenes of me playing the drums/with me in the background as the machine worked and then once these were done the end scene after the marbles have hit the cymbal and I set off the printer scanning.
I’ve also uploaded a photo of the aftermath of the final scene with my Gran’s help, where we spent ages cleaning up bits of party popper confetti!
Even though this wasn’t the last scene all together, it was a wonderful way to end working with my Gran as it’s a celebration of the film chronologically ending, and also of our time working together so she could at last relax after I’ve taken over her front room for weeks!
I still feel that this piece could have been completed a lot quicker if I stuck to original plans as I have a habit of working on something and still continue to think up new ideas and adaptations to a piece, when in reality the original works fine and we’re running out of time!
I found this out when working with Simon Wills on MEDI 262, The Experimental Animation Project, and as much as I try to change this habit, I love to experiment and keep developing ideas. It’s going to be very hard to stop going the extra mile as in some ways it’s very handy and beneficial as a lot of errors are found by re-thinking every angle, but at the same time I think I need to stop being a perfectionist at times and relax and trust what has already been designed. I’ll keep working the way I do, but I think I shall be more realistic in future when it comes to making pieces to a timeline. It’s all about balance and this is one area where I will work on balancing these aspects of my work method.
Moving on, once the shots with me in were done, we had a small break for lunch and then I cracked on to film the close ups from as many angles as I could so that even if one didn’t work, I had plenty of “Plan B” backup shots which could. This is because after the filming was done we were going to start dismantling the machine and so the more I filmed, the safer and more prepared I was should I need another angle in post-production, but be unable to re-film due to the machine not existing anymore!
The close-ups went well and I got all I need but again it took much longer than anticipated so once all the footage was collected and completed, I backed it all up and slept properly for the first time in ages!
The next time when it was day again I was able to record the background noise through the camera and also record the bassline and keyboard and all the other instruments playing on their own in the environment. I was going to do this on the night of filming but it was so late when I finished that I couldn’t have recorded the drums etc. for example without waking people up so the next morning I’ve recorded all the pieces in the environment just in case in editing the videos don’t quite match up musically, and so I can then add in bits of the music as the machine’s will be mostly off screen and so the edit will remain unseen/unheard.

That’s it for today but before I sign off for today, I’d just like to point out that the piece does actually work overall and so this truly is a kinetic sculpture and not just a fake created through editing alone.
I know that most sculptures like this do use cuts to make it seem seamless but even then the machine does work, it’s just due to time and money etc. that it is easier to cut and paste it all together from takes than wait and re-setup every time and hope it works perfectly throughout.
I was very worried about “cheating” and editing it all together like this but in my opinion now, I am not cheating as the machine does work all together as a full piece, but I have simply filmed it in the easiest way and still retained the fun and working merit of this piece.
So I hope that’s cleared up everything, although it was mainly just for my conscience as I was worried about the piece losing interest should people think I faked it due to the many different cuts, it is a real and fully working kinetic sculpture, I’ve just filmed it in the easiest way due to time and money etc. :)

So that's it for this post but check back soon for my post on how the editing went and what is left to do. :)

Take care,
Joe.

Extra Bits From Finishing The Physical Aspects of The Machine

Here before we move onto the filming etc. are some extra bits of information etc. I wanted to point before the final shoot.

Firstly, the cat and keyboard you see in my post before the last (before I finished the physical machine) were taken out due to the fact that the final layout I have chosen was so much easier to work with and assemble than figure out how to get the cat to walk (the On/Off switch was on the bottom of the cat so very hard to get to with a marble etc.) and the keyboard playing only one key sounded rubbish if I'm honest.

Secondly, I have attached a video of the Guitar sensor in action so you can understand what I was trying to explain about why the sound will come out when the laser from the sensor is broken.

In the video I move the guitar sensor in front of the camera causing the sound and so just replace the camera with the marble holders on the elevator and I hope it's easier to understand how the laser (the blue light you can see on the sensor) is broken when you see the final video where that guitar sound is coming from. :)

and Finally I have added the final photos of the Machine, showing the full thing at the end and then in 4 parts starting from the drum kit and ending on the robot, all ready to go for filming. I was talking about how to show how much has gone into this piece without making it boring using long panning shots. Basically I just wanted to show the machine in it's full form but didn't want this to drag on so instead we came up with the idea of showing these final photos in order at the end of the film. That way I can show the machine completely but not in a slow and dull way. :)

We've also added a yellow/black/silver colour theme and the extra clockwork robots I had to cover up the Blu-Tack and Duct Tape fixtures throughout the piece, and tie it all together with what I believe is a professional look and feel and I hope you agree it works well.

The robots were going to walk off the edge along with the Daddy Fantastic robot but didn't have On/Off switches and so I couldn't keep them stationary until set off, they just kept walking if wound up.

So instead I have placed them throughout the piece to pretend to hold up track/maintain the piece, which again links to the influence I had of clockwork, cogs and gears and machinery sustaining machinery, which rounds off the feel of this being a machine and robotics inspired piece nicely in my opinion. :)

That's it for now but check back soon to find out how the filming went and how editing went as well. :)

Take care,

Joe.

PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION IS COMPLETE!

As the name suggests, PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE MACHINE IS COMPLETE!

It's taken absolutely ages but at long long last, it is fully complete and we are ready to film. :)

I'm only going to do a small post as I've done a post that explained all of what happens in the film out in text but it got deleted and so since I am absolutely shattered from working non-stop to finish it physically, I am going to upload a video at the end which will explain the machine so I can finally sleep properly(ish).

I say "ish" because tomorrow I'm getting up early to film the keyboard scenes and make the bassline which will play through the CD player.

So yeah, that's it for now, I am over the moon that it is finally finished but I think it's time for me to rest and prepare myself for filming soon. :)

Check back soon/tomorrow for the extra bits I have of finishing the physical piece, E.G. Photos etc. :)

Take care,

Joe.