Sound Woes

Had a chance to play around with the field mixers that the uni bestows upon the 2nd years, and discovered first-hand just how tough to use it is. Through headphones the quality sounds phenomenal, played back through the camera however the audio sounds louder than a NASA rocket launching off, but played back on the computer the clips were all deadly silent. We have all of tomorrow to sort this issue though so that will be fun.

Tomorrow is actually going to be quite busy in general, though I doubt I'll have to leave the house. We have a random house inspection starting next Monday so I am going to go HAM and blitz the place with the hoover and Mr Muscle. A mix CD is also taking a priority as the drive to Pickering is going to be long. Basically any track with a guitar solo or a juicy hook is going on there; just hope I have enough CD for all the songs.

Sausages Part Deux

Two more sausages in the packet on the day before they expire, guess its time to rustle up some breakfast. While I was literally cooking up a delicious pork storm in the kitchen I completely ignored the thick smokey haze I was also brewing which promptly set off not 1, but 2 smoke detectors. At 10am. And flapping a tea-towel did nothing.

After the mornings scuffle I sat down and tried to come up with an initial idea for my dissertation. I found out that it is really hard to think of something like that. While I have numerous interesting points to talk about I'm not sure if some ideas are too vast, or too thin. I'm going into a lecture tomorrow to discuss my first ideas and to hopefully formulate something more concrete.     

Sausages

On the day I was meant to help out on a course-mates show I was very nearly late getting into uni. I had run out of breakfast stuff so I needed to cook some sausages and pop them in a sandwich, which took unexpectedly long. After arriving I was introduced to the special guest who was a 40+ woman who did her own arts and crafts to sell online. When the co-presenter and I first asked her some questions for the show she looked very timid and kept looking at her little hand-made notes. Soon after they were taken from her and she needed to rely on us for prompts. To compensate we made the whole discussion much more colloquial so she would relax into speaking.

During the lunch-break I decided it would be beneficial to sit back with our director, producer and contributer. Three minutes later I realised I was in a room full of carnivore haters and there I was chowing into my sausage sandwich. No regrets though, that lunch was just what I needed to pull me through the long day and nail the final take.

  

Cars and Unexpected Journeys

Blagged myself through being a guest on a student lead TV show about cars. I know nothing about cars or makes or even watched an episode of Top Gear. Despite all these disadvantages I think I pulled it off alright and convinced most of the people making the show. I spoke mostly about what gives a car a personality which is more or less forgotten about in the long run.

Speaking of cars and long runs, we finalised our observational documentary idea and contributor. We also discovered that he's based in Pickering, which boarders on Scotland.


This weekend is going to be a roadtrip unlike any other. Our driver compared it to his journey to Paris last year and statistically, this journey is even further than that. That small bit of insight was mind-blowing to us. Everyone seems quite psyched for a long journey and what will effectively be a mini holiday for us.

Chairman Mao

Introduced my girlfriend and her housemates to the card game 'Chairman Mao.' Anyone who has ever played this game will know that there is a very, very steep learning curve for new-comers as it is basically a trial by fire experience. Fortunately after about an hour of play everyone broadly understood the rules and contributed neatly into the next rounds. New rules can be added in if a player wins a hand and this is where the game starts getting really interesting and why two games will rarely ever be the same.

You tend to get a little too into each game of Chairman Mao however and before you know it the clock has struck midnight and the evening has crept away like that one spider you told yourself you'd keep an eye on. I spent the rest of today very tired but still willing to help out my peers film a VT. I got to sit behind the wheel of someone's little car and pretend it was my pride and joy in a segment called 'Best First Car'. I'm also appearing as a guest on the show tomorrow. I hope it's not too technical a show since I know basically nothing about cars.

Bad News & Good News

Rolled up to uni today to have our briefing about our observational documentary ideas. These lectures are also hosted by a guest bought in by my university, in this case it was Ken Kirby, a man who has previously worked on Panorama and similar programmes so he has a excellent insight into what makes a good documentary.

The first thing I said to him was 'We have no confirmed contributors since our slaughterhouse people dropped out' His face fell dramatically and I knew I made a terrible first impression.

I then continued to tell him about our plan B which was the taxidermist and he perked up a fair bit after hearing that and provided some good questions we could ask him for the documentary along with some other nifty tips and tricks. Problem was, the taxidermist still hadn't confirmed with us if he was comfortable with being filmed at that point.

I then went outside to make the 'deal or no deal' phonecall and our contributor said he would be very happy to be filmed for educational purposes. Walking back to my peers with the good news was like getting a mental high-five from each and everyone of them. I walked into uni with nothing and now we got the ball rolling dramatically, a huge relief for everybody.

Get on the Blower

Another day of hasty phone calls to strangers for me and nearly all of my location filming group. I might have found the perfect contributor in the form of a taxidermist who will be willing for us to film him stuff a bird. I had a good chat with him on the phone and said he would sleep on the decision, he sounded rather eager though so I think I may have bagged that.

Rebecca and I also celebrated Chinese New Year with a stir-fry in a joint effort to get me eating a few more vegetables. While I have not been eating especially unhealthily I have been neglecting vegetables with most of my meals, fruits on the other hand, you can't get me away from them.