Tag Archives: troubleshooting

Week 09: Troubleshooting

Things have been going pretty well, troubleshooting-wise.

In regards to filming for our final Korsakow project, Ren has been filming on his (very fancy and beautiful) DSLR with a 50mm lens. Imogen has lent us her ‘camera-caddy’ for the filming, which is helping us get stable shots.

I have been doing my editing in GarageBand (for audio), iMovie, and then compressing in MPEG stream clip.

We have decided that in order to maintain good file keeping, the entire project will be stored on Imogen’s hard drive, and we’ve decided on a consistent file-naming protocol to ensure an easy Korsakow build.

I did have to learn how to navigate Google drive a little more now that our final project documentation is being hosted there. But this just really required some clicks around and getting to know it.

I also had to re-familiarise myself with Gantt charts in order to complete the bonus 5% for the final project. However, Imogen told us about some software she had used in the past called SmartSheet, so she built our Gantt chart in there.

The only other troubleshooting I’ve been facing is learning how to best ask the interview question which we’re approaching our interviewees with. It’s getting better as we fine tune it with every time we shoot.

(Image via flickr)

Week 06: Troubleshooting

This week I had to learn about making thumbnails for my sketch film. Seth has a post of a few ways to do this here, but after trying a few methods I decided to just screenshot as this is easier for me to do.

I also had to learn about FTP clients and uploading our sketch film. This was a very new topic for me and I was very nervous to do it. However, following these instructions I actually found it surprisingly easy.

The rest of my ‘troubleshooting’ this week has mostly been around the film essays we wrote for last week. We had to address the content, interface, and pattern of a past student K-film project. I chose to write about ‘Eulogy to Suburbia‘ and you can find my post here.

I had to make my statements clear, make my content easy and efficient to read, and stick to the word limit (which is always a struggle of mine).

I started by thinking about what pattern is and what I wanted to talk about in the film essay. Pattern is all about the relationships which are created through recurring themes/categories/sub-cagetories/keywords/repetition.

I had to stay mindful of the difference between content (the parts and their existence within a structure) and form (which is a little closer to pattern, and all about how it’s structured).

When analysing the content, I had to think about subject matter/what it’s about. What did I notice? Are there ‘groups’ of clips that keep appearing together?

For the interface, I had to look at what was being presented to me and think about how and why it has been designed that way. Are there multiple interfaces? Does the interface change shape and structure? This post on the IM1 blog really helped me to think about the thought processes that go into designing an interface, and what to look for.

Week 03: Troubleshooting

In class, Seth had us talk about mobile videography (as the majority of the class filmed their first constraints using their mobile phones). He pointed us in the direction of a mobile editing software called Splice. I filmed my sketches on my DSLR, but if I do any of the future constraints on my mobile, I will think about downloading this. Someone in class also mentioned that iMovie can be downloaded as an iOS app for free, so I have downloaded that.
Seth also introduced us to Diigo – and the wider concept of social bookmarking.
I have now installed Korsakow onto my MacBook Pro and found this really simple to do – no troubles whatsoever.
We were told it would be a good idea to test our first clips in Korsakow to make sure they are working (because we can only use h264 – which I learned about last week), so I will try and do this during the week.
(Picture via flickr)

Week 02: Troubleshooting

This week I set up my mediafactory blog and began learning how to navigate WordPress (having only used it a handful of times before). I also set up a vimeo account in order to start filming my constraints. I faced a number of challenges learning about codecs for the first time (as Korsakow requires clips to be h264 in order to run). I also had to learn a bit more about compressions, as my files were very large owing to the fact I filmed them on my DSLR camera. I did this by performing some google searches and speaking to a friend of mine who studies filmmaking.

I began thinking about the relationship between iPhoto, iMovie, Vimeo, and Media Factory, as my clips went through the processes of being shot, uploaded, sometimes edited, published online, then embedded into a blog post. Additionally, I joined the Korsakow Facebook group and began reading more widely about the software and what it can be used for.

I also sought out my first interactive documentary to watch and review. I found that many were easy to find through simple google searches, and through some links I found on previous IM1 blogs. I am now building up a list of these films to watch and review.