How Hard Are New Year Resolutions?

Well it has been a very festive Xmas in the last year 2009. The new year by western standards has come and gone and soon the Chinese New year will be celebrated (12-28 February). This will be the welcoming of the the chinese year of the Tiger.

What does this mean for you? What resolutions and goals have you set for yourself for this new year of 2010?


The chinese Tiger has the following qualities "Courageous, daring and confident, people born in the Year of the Tiger are natural leaders. However, they can be unpredictable and tempestuous, and sometimes territorial and possessive. 2010 is the Year of the Metal Tiger, with Metal bringing additional strength and determination." quote

We have struggled through the resession and now is the time to refocus our direction an look forward with the determined eye of the tiger.

This year I am continuing my University of Canberra studies in semester 1 2010, doing the following units for my Media Arts and Production degree:

* Drama Production
* Web Design and Production

Yes, I'm still studying part time, but I am still chipping away.

Leave a Comment and let me know what your plans are for this year of the tiger?
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Exitium: Vae Victis V Amazing Half Life 2 Machinima

I did some searching on the internet for some decent machinima films and stumbled on Exitium - Vae Victis V. This would be the best machinima film I have ever seen so far.

It is really hard to find really decent well executed machinima film. Last night I found a beauty. The film was produced and directed by Eddie Smithson. As a result of my excitement for this film, I searched the internet for information about Eddie, such as a blog, website, facebook, twitter etc which resulted with no bites.

Exitium: Vae Victis V (Half-Life Machinima)


Eddie used an unusual method of making this film. He used the Garry's mod and green screen approach which I thought was very unusual, if not a time consuming process.

The Metrocop battle scenes reminded me of the Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan. The battle scenes had a WWII battle footage style which I feel is quite an achievement.

Here is a tutorial that Eddie produced to show how he did it.

Eddie Smithson's Tutorial (Half-Life 2 Machinima Tutorial)


If you have any information at all about Eddie Smithson, please let me know by adding a comment to this blog.
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Have a Look at This - Inside Games and Machinima 2

So you like the Inside Gaming: Best of 2009 Part A. Well here is the B side. I love this stuff. These guys have a great, though twisted sense of humor. Hope you like it.

So you survived part 1 and Mum and Dad don't mind the bad language. Cool, here is the B side, part two. I hope you enjoy it. Cause I did, does, do...

Inside Gaming: Best of 2009 Part B


Leave a comment and tell me what you think...
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Have a Look at This - Games and Machinima 1

Well the New Year 2010 is fast approaching so let look at the way gaming was in 2009. Some really cool games, with some really cool graphics. Doh... need a wicked graphics card for these. Here is a machinima video created by some rad hyperactive gamers...

Games aren't way they used to be, npc's made up with sprites now we have the wicked 3D virtual reality world experience that will rot your brains and give you nightmares. Ahhhh... Don't you just love it when you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and some grizzly monster is drooling over you thinking what a great appetizer you will be.

Here's Inside Gaming: Best of 2009 Part A
(WARNING! WARNING! - Wear headphones or Mum and Dad may freak out with the naughty bad language.)



What I tell you. Really cool, Hey...

Leave a comment and let me know what you think...


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Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010 Year

http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkyshapes/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Its been a while since, I last added a blog to my blogger. It all started while studying in University as part of our class assignments. When I started this blog, I had no idea how blogs work, let alone flickr, facebook, delicious and being a twit doing tweets on twitter. This new technology... well maybe not for some but it was all new to me. After some research and wanting to be part of the world wide web social networking community, I decided to continue blogging on my Blogger adding new blogs. I know it can be confusing sometimes but you get used to it.


Santa's coming to town!!!
So Christmas is 2 sleeps away. We don't have a chimney here, but we do live on the top floor of a block of units. Which means when Santa comes along we should be the first on his list when he visits our units. How do I know this? Well... Where's he going to park his slay? On the roof of our unit of course. He can't park on the ground because he will get a parking ticket.

What are you getting for Christmas
I don't know about you but I have a list for Santa. I have tried really hard to be a good boy. Yeah I know men never grow up. Well that's what my wife keeps telling me. Anyway, don't tell anyone but this is my secret present list. It starts of with Dear Mr Santa Clause. Most kids say Dear Santa. But I'm hoping using the title Mr. will win me some brownie points.

Here is my list of presents I want Santa to deliver to my unit. Please pretty please...

• A huge wide screen HD Digital LCD TV (PAL of course, since I live in Australia)
• A Mac computer with Final Cut Pro so I can edit movies and so my arty, Uni buddies will think I am really, really cool.
• A HD Digital Video Camera with a mike input. If you don't have a mike input you can't record a decent sound.
  
• A voucher for a mechanic in Canberra to give my car a complete service and tune up. It badly needs it.
• And... And... Some fairy dust that will help me write really cool blogs that will make a lot of people happy and they will like me lots and lots.
  
• And a humanitarian gift - Peace to the whole world - Food for the poor - Jobs for everyone who is unemployed - Christmas presents for all the children in third world, struggling, poor countries.

I will be leaving a big bottle of brandy for Santa to butter him up and get more brownie points.

New Year 2010
I remember when I was a little boy reading Dick Tracy comic books and thinking Hmmm... 2010... well actually it might have been 2020. But who cares, 2010 sounds good since it will be next year. As I was saying, when I was a little boy I thought, wow that is like, light years away. Will I still be alive then? Will there be flying cars like in the Jetsons? Will we have robots who will be our slaves to do our bidding? Like a really nice lady robot? Hey I was a little boy with unrealistic crazy dreams. But we won't go there. Well guess what? No... we still have cars polluting our planet and threatening the existence of animals, including us humans, and our planet earth. Have a look at Mars, we really stuffed that planet up. What? we weren't there... Well, maybe we weren't but our ancestors were. You know the men from Mars, who met these really, really nice ladies on Venus and they had a crazy party like they did in the days of the Roman Empire. They must have been really cool parties. You know Org... Org... you know. Oh what were they called...? Awe that's right Organized, meeting a new species party and sharing ideas for the future. Now that must have been a really cool party.

Yes a new year is fast approaching and besides my childhood dreams, I am still alive to enjoy this moment and to tell the child in my heart, You are so lucky to see the year 2010.

So what is the moral of these childish ramblings?
Even though we are adults, the child in our hearts(remembering the dreams we had for the future when we were a child. Like boys saying I want to be a fireman or for the girls, I want to be a ballerina). Those were the dreams we had when we were a child and it is up to us as grown up men and ladies to fulfill the dreams we had when we were a child and while growing up. Don't let self doubt hold you back in making your life a fulfilling and happy one. We have control of our destiny. Don't give up on your dreams and make the child in your heart proud to be part of you.

Conclusion to Daryl's ramblings while drinking only water

Ho, Ho, Ho... Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

Oops my wife walked in... Better go now... Hi Honey... I love you...

Psst... What are your plans for Christmas? Leave a comment and have some fun...

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Four Steps to Filmmaking

While waiting for the Introduction to Cinematography lecture, I spoke to one of my class mates comparing notes on how we are coping with our assignments. Because I have made films and 2 community television programs, I am well aware of the task that awaits us and the need for commitment to complete our assignments.

To help filmmakers understand the four steps of filmmaking:

1. Pre-Production
2. Production
3. Post-Production
4. Marketing

I have started writing articles taking you through each step from pre-production through to marketing. It is hoped that you will realize the mammoth amount of work you need to do to be prepared and organized in making films.

I would also suggest you download Celtx which is a freely available pre-production software application that will help you:

• Write a screenplay
• Create a storyboard
• Break down your screenplay
• Create a shooting schedule

You can download Celtx from here.

Link to my first article: Four Steps to Filmmaking

References
Celtx Website: http://celtx.com/
Celtx Download: http://celtx.com/download.html
Four Steps to Filmmaking: http://www.fandangle.com.au/how-to-make-films/148-four-steps-to-filmmaking.html Read more Entry>>

Production Diary - Tuesday 4th August 2009

This is the start of my production diary for my University studies in Introduction to Cinematography.and Editing Sound and Image Last week we familiarized ourselves with video camera settings e.g.

Manual Exposure (apeture)
Neutral Density Filter
White Balance
Color Bar
Manual/Auto Focus
Setting color, brightness and contrast for camera monitor
and a heap of other settings and tripod setting up.

This week we learned about three-point lighting(key, fill, back light) Uni is great because the lights are provided for us to play with. Mmmm-more toys.

I borrowed 1 book on cinematography and 2 books on lighting. The subjects I'm doing for this semester are really heavy and a lot of details to learn and master. But besides these issues it is really cool. I am learning so much and studying intensely.

More to come Read more Entry>>