The Immortal Sky

For my media product I decided to use the pictures I've been continuously taking of the sky. Some locations include, Germany, London, Bradford, Kettering, Wellinborough and Birmingham.
I also wrote some poetry to fit in with my pictures. I chose this music because it links in with the calming and serene image of the sky. I'm pleased with the way my video has turned out because the scenes or images fade into each other well and even though it was hard to try to get the timing right, it still works well.

The majority of my pictures were taken with my mobile phone because i liked the way the pictures turned out. That is to say i liked the slightly 'rough' feeling of them since nature isn't exactly controlled or refined. The pictures that were taken with my camera were sharper and much more focused and some pictures even had a slight 3D like effect, however, in my opinion they looked too clean and sharp to represent the image of nature and that is why I picked my mobile pictures over the camera ones.

My poetry was inspired by the long bus and taxi journeys I took to get back home in the evening. After looking at the sky I felt calm and I could easily allow my mind to wander. Over the past couple of years, I have been moving around the country and realized that even though the sky might look a but different in another town, it's still the same sky no matter where you are. I was also inspired by Philip Larking. In one of his poems he said:

"How we live measures our own nature" - Mr Bleaney

  I actually agree with this because we live by following our own beliefs and by making our own decisions so surely that reflects our own nature or personality. By writing and creating this video I realised how much I enjoyed writing.

In my opinion this video is visually soothing because it calms you down and just listening to the song itself it fills you with peace.

Blossoms, the sign of Spring

I took this picture without even thinking about any details. The only thing i thought about was taking it as soon as the sunlight was covered by the clouds because the pink petals stood out even more with little light. There is an element of beauty because even though the tree is has a car park in front of it and a busy building behind it, it still tried its hardest to blossom. I personally like how the tree looks with the dark and angry looking sky behind it, the dull colours also make the tree look more magnificent. I did consider changing the brighness and contrast of it and even sharpening the picture a bit, however after trying it I found that the original copy looked the best since it looked natural. I think that this picture could represent the beginning of spring time.

YouBe-TV

YouBe-Tv is our univesity Tv channel that we are hoping to launch in September. This is the final design of the logo. At the beginning the body was red but in the end we decided against it since it looked to much like the YouTube logo. After a while we decided to make it blue since it's our Student union colour. Usually Tv logos are 2D, ours as you can see is 3D which makes it more noticable. When we put this logo in the corner of our videos, we make sure to keep its size small since our audience is supposed to focus on the video rather than the logo.

The aimn of our channel is to entertain and inform not only the Students at the university but also anyone else who happens to watch our videos. So far we have already produced a trailer for it, recording of the varity matches are also available and so is the footage we took of the charity event we held for Japan. Anna's story will also appear on it soon.

By doing this we are hoping not only to leave a legacy behind but also to help develop and engage the university in new and different things; to allow them to experience a variety of things.

Horizons Ablaze

I took this picture on my mobile phone which explains the poor quality of it. I personally think that this is one one the best pictures I have taken because it makes the sky look like it's about to burst into flames. I made sure to point the camera towards the sky which created the silhouette of the tree and hill in the foreground. This picture truly conveys the feeling that the day is slowly coming to an end. I especially like how the clouds were captured because they look like they are passing by in a lazy and sleepy manner.

Anna's Story

This was a feature film Produced and Directed by my friend Vytautas Rudys also known as Alex. I played the main role of Anna. Anna died in a car crash in during the film she re-lives some of her favourite times and says her final goodbye to her friends in a way. Whilst playing this role, I truly felt like I had become Anna, because her friends were my real friends in reality. The film itself took over 3 days to film and Alex spent around 2 nights editing it. I prepared the clothes and helped Alex with some locations and camera positions since i couldn't film properly with the sun shining directly into my eyes. Throughout the film I'm doing a monologue which took some time since I changed and improvised some of the script so that it was easier for me to say. The timing also took a long time to get right because when Anna was listing her possible career paths, we wanted to insert the scenes of her actually doing those jobs. In my opinion the film was a huge success and we're hoping to put it onto our University Channel as soon as possible.

Beliefs vs Modern Times

Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new -
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches will fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

- Philip Larking

A forgotten Dream

This is one of my favourite pictures that I took and I loved it even more after seeing Fay Godwins exhibition. The old Alambhra Theatre used to look so glorious but once the new one was build, this one was slowly forgotten. I wanted my viewers to feel this. I wanted to make this picture and building seem like a memory so naturally I took it as a black and white picture. I then increased the light that came from the lamps in the picture and made the sky look slightly darker. By doing this i made the building itself more noticable. Fortunately the streets and roads were empty which added a slight ghostly effect to it which in my opinion is perfect.