Barnsley BarCamp #bcbarnsley

On Saturday the 22nd of May I attended another BarCamp, this time being held at the Barnsley Digital Media Centre

As always it was great to get to hear from a range of different people all who had different, but complimentary interests as to myself. All the talks gave me food for thought I particularly enjoyed the session on JQuery, How to get inspired for photography and A rant about looking for jobs and employment.

By far the thing I enjoy most about attending these events is meeting and talking to new people. On this particular occasion I got talking to Graham who makes beautiful Flash Websites I myself have used Flash, but I was complete astounded at the level of detail when Graham showed me his work!

I once again took my camera with me so I could capture a few images of my day

Created with flickr slideshow.

Images can be seen on Flickr

Flickr Slide show to demo to Leeds Art SU

This is a Flickr slide show it is pulling images from my Flickr account. A slide show like this one can be embed online and something similar could be added to the side bar of a blog.

Each time someones comes to view the blog if new pictures have been added it provides fresh and interesting content for the viewer.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Find my Flickr Account here and follow me

3 Minute Wonder

I have watched 3 Minute wonder on Channel 4 many times. Often finding the program very interesting, but never giving it any thought in terms of the format or how I could adapt the format to help me grow as someone who wishes to produce short videos.

Essentially I would some up 3 minute wonder as a short documentary (3 minutes) on a particular topic


I would like to use this format, to help me produce a number of short documentaries. From having only just watched the program and not as of yet fully analysed the techniques used, it appeared to me as though a lot of voice over is used about the given topic and video backing up what is being said is used as visuals to support the audio voice over. This is broken up with people speaking directly to the camera.

I plan to pick a topic, film some cut aways and then get someone to talk about it.

In my head I am picturing a short (possible a minute) documentary about video games. I plan on capturing disks being put in CD drives, fingers franticly pressing buttons, power switches being turned on.

Thinking as I type I can see there would be the possibility to take this idea and create an advert for a video games console. I would do this by creating a script that shows the benefits of gaming in a positive light. and highlight the gaming system as the machine that can help achieve the positive benefits being talk about.

This is just a small idea that I would like to execute

Creative Careers Fair

On Wedesday 24th February, I attended the creatives careers fair in Bradford, hoping that I would be able to talk to a few businesses and swap business cards with people.

Previously when looking for a job I have talked with small business owners and offered to help out, or I have used social media to contact business owners directly and let them know who I am and what area I specialise in. The careers fair was in stark contrast to this.

As I entered The Atrium at Bradford University there seemed to be a distinct lack of 'buzz' about the room, and many of the stands were empty, which gave a negative feel to the careers fair.

As I walked round I identified a few businesses who appeared to work in the area of digital media. I approached them and talked to a few the relevant of the businesses, but the advice they were giving was very general, such as "when you have graduated send us your C.V." This left me feeling a little disconnected from these large corporations and I did not feel inspired that I would want to peruse things further.

To reflect on this day, I do not think that a careers fair would be my first avenue to use when looking for a job. However given the opportunity to go to another careers fair, if I was free on the day it was being held I would almost certainly attend, as you never know what opportunities are available or who you may meet.

If you are a university student, or someone who works in the area of digital media and you read this blog post, I would be very interested to hear from you in the comments. Please leave me any tips on strategies on gaining employment I am always looking for new and interesting way in which I can market myself.

On a side note I headed over to Bradford Media Museum after the creative careers fair and was pleasantly surprised to find they had a videos games exhibition that contained many retro arcade cabinets. As I had my dSLR camera with me I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing some photography. Pictures will be uploaded to my flickr page soon

Leeds Social Media Surgery

It is important to note that I am writing this article from the perspective of a University student who wishes to develop a career in technology/web/digital/social media consultancy, and not that of a patient or surgeon at Leeds Social Media Surgery.

On the 2nd of February I attended the 2nd Leeds Social Media Surgery, located at The Round Foundry, with the intention of becoming a future surgeon.

I contacted John prior to the event asking if I could be a surgeon, having spent my time at university studying the practical uses of social media as a tool for communication, distribution of digital content (as well as having the personal experience, of using a wide range of social media tools for various purposes) I felt I would have some valuable knowledge that I could pass on to other people.

As the event approached I felt a little uncomfortable with being a surgeon as I have no prior experience in consultancy. This made me feel a little uneasy and I felt it would be better for me to watch and observe at my 1st session just so I could get a feel for how the surgeries worked.

From my observations I found the surgery to be a relaxed informal chat (as most social media events tend to be) where by patients had questions and surgeons talked through and demoed software / tech that could address the patients problems.

I sat in on a session where by a local community paper (Black & White News UK) wanted advise on re-establishing their paper, they wanted advice on how to take the content from the paper and publish it online, and if taking the content online was the right way to go.

Rick, (the surgeon who I sat in with) advised on how taking content online removes printing cost, there is no longer the need in investing time (and) or money in to physical distribution if the content is online. He also demoed how twitter can be used as a simple way to publish content up to a website and furthered this demo by showing that it is possible to interface with twitter from your mobile phone, thus allowing a website owner to publish fresh and engaging content to a website, while being on the move and away from a desktop computer.

When ever I attend any social media event I always find that I learn something new and inspiring and this was not an exception at the social media surgery. Rick talked about a concept I had not heard of before called 'reverse publishing' where by you take a selection of your best online content and then use this to generate a print article for distribution.

I know I have the knowledge and ability to advise people at future surgeries as I am often advising friends and family ways in which they can get leverage from social media to make their lives easier, talk and interact with people who have similar ideas and interests, or as a way to find prospective clients who would be interested in the services their business has to offer.

Although currently I do not feel I am fully equipped to take on the role of a consultant I do hope that with the right guidance and by further building my experience in this role I am able to rise to the challenge at the next surgery and advise my 1st patient.

Below I have included some images I took while at the Leeds Social Media Surgery, I am happy for other people to use them in their own blog posts, I just request you credit them to me and link back to my twitter page.

Multimedia Journalism - Audio Blogging

I recently came across an article entitled "10 new years resolutions to make you a better multimedia journalist - by Adam Westbrook"

One thing that struck me was the mention of audio. I have previously considered making audio podcasts, but this is one area of journalism and reporting that I have the least experience in.

It also seems to be (at least in my mind) audio is one of the least developed areas of social media. The only audio site that springs to my mind is audioBoo when I think of social audio online.

With that said I wish to develop and become more competent in the area of audio. In the subsequent blog post I plan to post more audio content so I can become more familiar and confident in this area. Below is my 1st ever audio blog post for you to feast your ears upon! :)

1st Ever Audio Post (Originally posted on Tumblr)


I would love it if you could listen to this piece of audio then tell me your thoughts about audio blogging.

Have you ever tried creating or publishing an audio blog before?

Do you have a favourite place to up upload or host your audio blogs?

Do you think the audio blog an established niche?

Are you aware of any popular audio bloggers?

Do you think audio blogging will ever pick up enough interest to become as popular as the written blog or video blog?

Please leave me a comment on this post and let me know your thoughts.

iCaptureLeeds

I am in the process of creating the photoblog iCaptureLeeds

Although I worry I will be diluting the brand by posting across multiple blog platforms and other social media sites. I do however hope by doing this I will reach the largest number of people possible

I have registered on various site and platforms and I am now in the stages of skinning and customising each one. I really need help with this as this is not one of my strong points and it is slowing me down from the launch. Having to create multiple skins is also a bit of a pain in the neck and is a slow and time consuming process

I am also in the process of writing a description on the blog to post as info for people who want to know more about the project.

This is what I have so far

iCaptureLeeds is the name of an iPhone Photograpy Blog created by Luke Beaumont.
Pictures are updated on a daily basis. Subscribe to see stunning pictures of Leeds taken through the lens of an iPhone.

I feel I am currently suffering a mental block and this description does not truly represent what the blog is about.

I also need to create an avatar to represent the project online I have downloaded a few images that I have identified have an association with this project.

Below is a 1st attempt at creating an avatar to represent the blog



Again I would appreciate any help with creating an avatar for this project.


I am thinking that it may be best to get posting on this blog before I have "missed the boat" and worry about skinning later

I won't "promote" the blog to people until I have skinned it and got it looking suitable for public consumption. However if you read this blog post you can consider yourself one of the beta testers for the blog.


So that is where iCapture Leeds currently stands,

You can find and subscribe to the blog in the following places

Blogger
Tumblr
Posterous
Twitter
FaceBook
Flickr

Please subscribe and follow the blog and help me with the testing process

I will be uploading the 1st batch of test pictures in the next couple of days

Many Thanks

-Luke

If you would like to help out with skinning or creating an avatar please e-mail lukeb3000 [at] gmail [dot] com

iPhoneography - Which blogging platform is best?

So tomorrow I will be launching my new iPhoneography blog

My preference for a name is still iSeeLeeds however I have also thought if I want to establish myself as the 1st and premier iPhoneographer of Leeds perhaps the name theiphoneographerleeds would be a good name, but is it possible a little too long and wordy for a URL?

My next challenge is to decide on which blogging platform to use. I want as many people to be able to follow this blog in a way that is simple and easy for them. I need to select a platform that the majority of people use. From personal experience of people I have met in the Yorkshire Digital Community I believe this to be blogspot. However I think if I take the Yorkshire Digital Community out of the equation a larger number of (photographic / arts) people use tumblr.

There is always the possibility to cross posting using a desktop blogging application, but then this would make it harder for me to go back and respond to comments. (Would I be possibly be spreading myself (and my work) to thinly)

As previously mentioned I wish to bring this blog to the attention of people in Leeds and possible develop an iPhone Photography Community in the Leeds / West Yorkshire / Yorkshire area.

I am aware that on my own that I will not be able to reach many people, therefore a plan to approach other bloggers with interests in photography, digital media and technology to write about my project. I could also ask people who cover art projects with in the Leeds area to write about my project with the aim of gaining more publicity for the project.

If I want this project to be taken seriously by other media outlets I feel I will also need to work with other people to help me design and create skins for my chosen blogging platform. If you would like to help me out with this part of the project then please leave a comment below. In the bio of the iPhoneography project I will give you credit for your work and link back to you.

So that is where the project currently stands but ….

The question still remains, what is your favourite blogging platform? Let me know in the comments. Also suggest ways in which I can build up followers and a community around iPhoneography

Mobile Phone Photography Blog

I am hoping to purchase a new phone before the 1st of January

This has presented me the opportunity to start a new Internet blog about my unique discoveries.

When considering a new mobile device, camera capabilities are the most prevalent player in my decision making process.

Previously I have owned a Nokia N80 (with a 3 megapixel camera) and a Nokia N95 (with a 5 megapixel camera). This time around I am considering the iPhone 3G S. The iPhone 3G S' camera is 3 megapixels, but people with a knowledge of digital cameras will know megapixels only equate to how big you can print the picture and not image quality. It is the camera sensor that that gives the image it's quality and with that said I believe the sensor in the iPhone 3GS's camera is very capable of producing good images for online distribution and sharing. [See images taken with iPhone 3GS]

I have previous dabble in mobile phone photography and more recently learnt how to competently use a digital SLR camera. With this in mind I am planning on setting up a blog around the subject of mobile phone photography.

Blog Outline

Initially I am going to aim to take one interesting or unique picture a day and post it on this new blog

Initial Goals

My aim for this blog is not only to interest and entertain people by documenting the world around me, I also wish to generate a steady flow of traffic to this new project.

Further Challenges that may be posed

A personal goal I wish to achieve is to use a service such as Ad-Sense to generate relevant adverts on the blog. I hope to make my 1st online revenue stream in 2010!

Finally

If I can find the time I may also write articles about camera phone photography. I would also like to invite users to submit their iPhone pictures to also be posted (just to add some variety to the blog)

An initial starting point with any new blog is coming up with a suitable name

Here are some initial thoughts I have had to help me formulate a name

Living in the city of Leeds the majority of pictures will taken in Leeds

I will be using an iPhone to take these pictures

My current favourite name I have generated is 'iseeleeds'

Other names I have come up with include iphotoleeds & iphoneographyleeds

I am not sure if these names are a little too specific as pictures may not always be taken in Leeds. My reasons for having such a specific name is that I envision the initial community for this blog will be built up around people in Leeds (as this is where the majority of pictures will be taken) then through social media and "word of mouth" more people will discover the blog.

If you can think of any further ideas or inspiration for the name of this blog then please leave them in the comments of this post.

Testing Microphones

Having previous worked with video at a home / diy level I was aware that audio would be an important factor in giving this video a professional edge.

I wanted to test out the different microphones (directional, lapel and the built in camera microphone)

I shot some test footage using various microphones in locations of varying noise. One location was the college canteen at lunch time.

When watching the footage back I found that the built in camera microphone picked up noise from the whole canteen and my voice appeared muffled and somewhat in audible.

The directional microphone provided better results, but I found it some what inhibitive when presenting and talking to the camera.

The conclusion of this research was that a lapel mic would best suit my podcast I wished to create. The lapel mic gave me a freedom to not "fidget" while holding a directional microphone and was just a personal preference.

Unfortunately I accidently managed to destroy the video results of these microphone tests. All I have to evidence this work is a picture of myself in college with a lapel mic that I took to post on a social networking website.

LINK TO IMAGE

Location Development

Feed back I got at the 1st crit was that my location was somewhat bland and not visually stimulating or engaging for my target audience.

I did some further research into alternative locations and recorded my results in to a power point file which I have embeded below

Alternative Locations

View more presentations from lukeb3000.

Geek Brief Credits

After my initial test of recording in a studio environment I became highly aware of how difficult is to control each and every element of video production when working on my own.

Problems I incurred included

Set up your own lighting and make sure it is even on the subject

Focusing a camera on a subject

Recording and present to a camera at the same time

Moveingequipment such as lights, video camera, tripods, and microphones.

Making tiny adjustments to things and not have a second pair of eyes to verify that what you see is the same as other people may see or perceive something.

Previously I had thought that most 3-minute video podcasts were made by one person controlling and operating everything. Most video podcasts I watch do not contain any credits. However while watching GeekBrief I noticed there were credits at the end of the show, this made me aware that some of these podcasts are operating with a small team of people

GeekBrief.tv crew and cast is as follows

Producers, Writers, Editors Shooters, Janitors – Cali Lewis & Neal Campbell

Exectutive Producers – Adam Curry & Ron Bloom

Opening Graphics - Jude Ng

Back Ground Image – Trey Rattcliff

My immediate thoughts on the trial run of setting up my lighting was

“This would be a lot easier if I had a small crew / team to assist me. I found it hard to be able to evenly focus the light on myself.

To check the light was even I used a camera as my second pair of eyes (Pictures can be seen on my Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukeb3000) and while this over came the problem it was a large time drain.

On reflection I know my work could have been better had I of had a small crew to assist me and in future projects I will look to assemble a small team of people to work with.

Pronunciation and Speech

Once I had developed the script I had to think about the manor in which I would deliver it.

This video required me to verbalise my understanding of technology, I am aware that the Internet in its nature is global and therefore is watched by an extremely wide audience.
As well as having a comprehensive script. I also needed to deliver this in a way that could easily be understood aurally.
I am aware that I have a Yorkshire and that I sometimes drop my “H’s” when speaking.
To make the way I spoke in the video more understandable to a wider range of people I looked at pronunciation and speech
I also looked at speech having rhythm and fluency, similar that that of music.

I used YouTube as a tool to learn more speech and pronunciation.
I found these videos particularly useful.

Voice, Articulation & Fluency.



Vocal Warm Ups for Public Speaking : Articulation Drill for Public Speaking: Uh & Ah



http://www.youtube.com/user/English4All#p/u - Is a YouTube Channel that has a number of pronunciation and speech videos that I found useful.

Scripting – The use of powerful language.

I am not a scriptwriter and therefore I had to teach myself how to convey the information I knew about technology in a verbal manor that would maintain peoples attention.

At this particular time I was reading the book “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs”

Side Note: At the time I was reading this book, as I am interested in doing consultancy work. I have been to a lot of conferences recently and have become aware that a lot of consultants give talks at conferences about their practice. In the future I would like to give a talk about the relevance of digital video on the web at a conference. I was using this book to educate myself on how to put a good presentation together. (I also used this book as a reference for putting together my presentation for crit)

It struck me that the ideas and concepts I was learning from this book, e.g. Creating a Story & Deliver an Experience could fundamentally be used in creating a script for my video.

Talking directly to a camera can be a nerve racking experience for some people. I related the experience of talking to a camera to that of public speaking (in some ways you can can consider your audience is at the other end of the camera and therefore this exercise was not to dissimilar to public speaking.)

As well as reading The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and adapting the ideas in the book to create a script I also looked at other public speakers who I considered are influential at this current time.

I looked at Barack Obama and also more relevant to social media I studied how Tommy Fishback (a 14 year old) delivered a speech at izea fest. (Video can be seen here)

Crew Roles

While undertaking this project I have been reading the book Directing The Documentary by Michael Rabiger (Read a description of Directing the Documentary).

As mentioned I struggled not having a crew. One section I found particularly interested in this book was the section that defined crew roles.

Having read this section I am a lot more clearer in my mind of what roles I would be able to delegate to people when making videos in the future. As well as helping me focus roles I am interested in filling and perusing as a career path.

This is my understanding of each role in my own words

Producer

The producer is involved more with the business aspects of the film. A producer manages budgets, hires equipment and people, and liaise with other people to market the film and get it to distribution

Director

A director’s role is to lead what the look and feel of the film will be. They must also be able direct any crew or actors with technical* and non technical aspects of creating the film

*technical – lighting, camera angles, lenses, set,

The director also has a role to play in post production, advising on colour grading and sound mixing.

Director of Photography and/or Camera Operator

The DP is responsible for ordering cameras and lenses, they would be expected to test all equipment before it arrives for the shoot to make sure that it is full operational. Camera operators are also often responsible for lighting, finding locations to access light and electricity supplies and supervising the set up of lighting equipment.

Sound Recordist

The sound recordist is responsible for hiring and testing any sound equipment that will be used on the shoot before it is on set. The sound recordist must liaise with the people in charge of cameras and lighting to find a suitable position to place microphones that will not interfere with the rest of the equipment.

Further 3 point lighting investigation and research

I have previously mentioned I performed a 3 point lighting test run

(See pictures of my three point lighting test run)

As I researched into various lighting techniques I learnt about 3-point lighting. I choose to use this lighting, as I wanted to light my subject evenly while giving some definition from the background.

While researching in to lighting I became aware of variations of three point lighting, what effects can be achieved with these variations as well as how and where it may be used.

Below are Wikipedia links containing more information about high and low key lighting. I have chose not to reword Wikipedia’s description as I feel they have adequately described these two variations of three point lighting in a way which I understand and can not improve.

High Key

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-key_lighting

Low Key

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-key_lighting

Lyndia Tutorials (Learning to navigate the Final Cut Interface)

For this project I wished to advance my editing skills. Previously I have worked in iMovie but I felt I was now being limited by this app as there were certain things I wished to achieve that I could not create or execute with this app.

Having an awareness of digital video I knew that I needed to progress to using Final Cut Pro (not only to achieve good results for this project but also to make employable as a video editor in the future.)

I had previously used final cut but felt somewhat unfimilair with it’s interface. I knew I need to improve if I wished to use this to edit my final piece of video.

The tool I used to help me learn to navigate and use the various features available in Final Cut was Lynda Final Cut Pro Training. After watching this video I felt much more comfortable with the interface and controlling various features.

Final Cut has now my editing tool of choice as it allows me to have great control creatively over any footage that I have shot

Self Reflection from last years feed back -

It has previously been mentioned to me that when I have handed in work I have not provided enough documentation. On self-reflection this is because I have been under the false understanding that my final product demonstrates the knowledge I have learnt.

However on this occasion and I am aiming to divulge as much information as possible regarding various topics I have read into to help me create my final product.

They will appear in subsequent blog posts to this one.

Radio Plus (A new kind of interactive radio?)

During research into making my video podcast I have also been investigating Internet Radio (somewhat of a dead / old format now) However I have been using services such as blogtv.com and ustream allowing listeners to interact with me as the show is broadcast (I guess you could call it Radio+ or Interactive Radio ?)

Hear are some screen shots







The challenge for me is to give the show a context.

One idea that I particularly like is to extend the communications between people that happen after conferences.

Recently I have been attending lots of BarCamps, Open Coffee and Tech conferences, perhaps a follow up Radio Plus show where people from the conference can come and meet up virtually, to further discuss their thoughts once they have digested ideas from the conference would be of use. (I think this is an idea I can develop further, I would need to speak to each speak at the event and ask them if they would like to be part of the Radio Plus show. Then it would just be a case of routing their audio into the stream (which I believe I could do via skype)) If any one would be interested in developing this idea with me then please get in touch with me. There is a link at the top of this page with my contact details

Bradford BarCamp

On Saturday the 14th of November (2009) I attended Bradford BarCamp with the intentions to shoot a video to be edited in to content that would be put online



To shoot the video I took with me a Sony HDR-FX7



For those of you who have not been to a BarCamp before they tend to be quite small informal events, where speakers and presentations are give by people from the audience.

There is nothing discrete about pointing a Sony HDR-FX7 at someone, and I felt somewhat awkward, bustling in to a room wiith my large peli case

to then start unpacking the camera and point it at someone who perhaps hadn't had that much experience at public speak.

This is in stark contrast to when I attended PhotoCamp Bradford and took my Canon Mini DV MD205 with me



This camera seemed to provide the perfect balance of portability and discretion for filming. So although I captured no footage today I learnt the following

I need to use a camera that is appropriate to the event I will be filming.

A camera assistant would be a useful asset. While at BarCamp I found it awkward to have to move from room to room. After setting up the camera I then need to move the peli case somewhere where people would not trip over it. These required me to leave the camera on the tripod (another potential trip hazard for people) while I moved the case. Another problem I encounter was having to open large heavy doors. Not an easy task when you have a camera in one hand and a tripod in the other.

Working with video at this higher level (rather than just producing short clips from my bedroom) has made me realise that if I want to improve my work, I need to work with other people, I am now looking to use a noded network of people interested in creating video around similar topics and subjects as I wish to create video around.