Polar Patterns & Microphones - Thursday 30th October

Today I had a brief look at microphones and how they work. I found out that there were many different types of microphone, all of which functioned and reacted to the environment in different ways.
Below is a diagram of ‘the polar pattern.’


This diagram shows the principle of a microphones ‘directional response’ (how it hears the sound.) The more gain (volume) you turn up, the larger the balloon shape will be, consequently the microphone will pick up a larger space of sound when the gain is up and vice versa for when the gain is turned down.


Also on the subject of sound I am creating a new radio style podcast on War and Remembrance Day for next week. Remembrance day 11th November
See more about Remembrance Day here

The Composer - Short Film

Great piece of work from Josiah Brooks (AKA Jazza) about music.
I was going to put this in the 'Interesting Videos' section but this definitely deserves a fresh post.


Watch the high quality version here or here
See the video producer's website here

Phone Interview with Editor Mark Fox - Friday 24th October

Today I had a brief look into the world of an editor.
A phone interview was conducted so that I could ask various questions related to the subject of editing. I found Mark to be a welcoming character and was interesting to talk to throughout the interview.
Last year I had an idea of creating a short video on how elderly people are treated but never got around to it. It turns out that someone has beaten me to it in the form of a documentary, so I am looking forward to seeing Mark's edited documentary in the near future.

Listen to the interview

Download the interview here



Watch the car scene from Pulp Fiction (Strong Language)

Poetry Podcast - Thursday 23rd October

It turns out that poetry gets deeper than "Roses are red, violets are blue"

I think that poetry is somewhat under the radar within youth these days. There is so much out there in the media world today that you don’t hear of poetry a great deal apart from learning some lines at your local primary school. To keep kids entertained today poetry gets set aside and the xbox gets all the attention and hype it needs. While poetry is a bit underground in my case, I think that this adds to the charm of its alternative qualities.

From the vox pop section I found out that the majority thought poetry on the whole was “pretentious.”
I personally think it’s a great expressive literature type. Poetry can not only emote more than what the words mean literally, but can create third meanings and feelings that normal writing cannot.

I didn't add any formulaic 'intros' or 'outros' to the piece as I think this would annoy the general audience. The first thing that I would want to hear on a podcast that I have just downloaded is the actual subject matter, not someone enforcing the podcast name or place down my ear drums, people just don't care!
I think its important to note at this point that promoting a podcast name when needs be can be a very useful Marketing tool.

Here is a small 'radio like' podcast on the subject of poetry, including a condensed interview and a vox pop.

Listen to the podcast


Download it here
Look at poetry here

Pacemaker Pocket DJ

This is a great little device to DJ out and about or around the home. With a massive 120 gig hard drive you could fit masses of songs onto it so you'd never run out of music to mix.

Personally I'd love to get my hands on one but sadly I'm a poor student. If anyone wants to buy me one then I would happily accept any offers.

They put the Pacemaker through its paces, "Practice and enjoy!"

See the Interface and Specs here
Buy it here
See more videos from the video producer here
See photos of the pacemaker in use here

Gravestone Poem

I just thought Id share this with you as I’m learning about poetry and thought it would be fitting to post one up.
I found this short poem after Googling “poems” and found it lead me to a poem that was imprinted onto a gravestone.
How charming I say!

Firefox & iGoogle - Friday 17th October

Today we had a quick run through the customisable web browser ‘Firefox.’
Firefox is similar to internet explorer that comes free with windows, but the difference is that it is almost completely customizable.
We were then introduced to ‘IGoogle’ which is new to me. IGoogle is also a customisable part of the internet which allows you to customize the way the Google webpage looks on your own personal account. The service is completely free and it allows you to add widgets which can be time saving, fun and informative.
For instance on mine I have a world clock, Google reader and some favourite games.
The Google reader widget allows the user to read all the blogs that he or she has subscribed to in a manageable window rather than trawling though the internet or bookmarks (AKA favourites) to find out what the latest news feeds are.
Overall I think that IGoogle and Firefox are a match made in heaven and allow people to quickly access yet even more valuable information from the internet on a daily basis using their own personal spaces.

Download Firefox here
Customise Firefox here
Create an iGoogle account here

Media Consumption Street Interview - Thursday 16th October

Today was the day that we edited our vox pop street interviews that we were assigned last week. For this we had to create a question (or two) based on media consumption.
“What do you use to catch up on television programmes?”
We chose a relatively simple one as this allowed the public to answer the question more or less effortlessly.
I also asked a girl in the Student Union about how you think on demand broadcasting is affecting society which got some good responses that I could then manage later in the editing room. Some humorous responses were also recorded that I could throw in to break up the interview’s formal feel.
We were also learning to polish out edits in soundtrack pro so that there weren’t any clicks, pauses or pops in the final edit.

Listen to the interview


Download the interview here

Meeting Andy Netley, Editor for the BBC Amazon series - Friday 10th October

After starting the day off with a harsh lesson in dos and don’ts about plagiarism and the Harvard referencing system, we took a well earned break to talk about it. After lunch we joined Susan’s lecture which involved meeting one of the editors for the new BBC series, Amazon. Andy Netley edited the fourth programme in the series based on the people around Mamiraua nature reserve. I was very excited as I love editing and it was one of my favourite programmes so I wanted to ask him some suitable questions related to the process of editing.
I can imagine that a whole class of eager media students throwing questions at you can be very nerve-racking but Andy did well answering all the questions in depth giving us a good truthful insight into the work of an editor. I asked a couple of questions such as
“How do you work with Bruce to produce the extra audio/commentary?”
He replied that most of the material is written and he works with the bruce to produce the post production commentary. He also said that Bruce often adds his viewpoints to the written material not entirely sticking to the script.
The overall vibe I got from the interview was that his job as an editor was very complex. As an editor you have to be open minded to a wide range of music, have a good understanding of how to structure and tell a story and ultimately becoming a perfectionist. Not to mention the fact that they have to squeeze days of footage into a single programme that runs for a measly hour can be a daunting and mammoth task.
I tip my cap to you fine sir.

Andy Netley on IMDb here
Watch the Amazon here

Cojack Band Interview - Thursday 9th October

Today we were introduced to Matt and Rob from the band Cojack. After constructing some interesting questions, we then interviewed them. The interview layout was a 1+2 which means that there is one interviewer and two interviewees.
We decided to interview both band members together as we thought that this would allow them to play off each others characters and make the interview more relaxed and entertaining.

I think the interview went really well as there was a diverse set of questions for them to elaborate on. The recording was around 20 minutes long which meant that the cutting ratio was about 5:1 to get it down to around 4 minutes without music and 6 with music.

I then edited the interview cutting out most of the long pauses unless it was necessary for the interview. I also added a Cojack track to the start of the interview (Get me another drink) and the end (makes me sick.)

I think this music helped reinforce the fact that you were listening to a band interview and also gave the audience a taste of what they were like.

Listen to the interview



Download the Interview here
View their Myspace Page here

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