Hello everybody and welcome to my new look website! As I’ve mentioned in posts in the past, it’s a design I’ve been working on for a while, and I’ve finally managed to launch it tonight – as a bit of a surprise as I haven’t really given any warning. The new site incorporates a tonne of new and improved features – check a couple of my favourites out below:
Projects — A much improved look at the design and other projects I’ve been up to recently.
Travel Diary — A new-look overview of my travels which includes photos, recommendations of what to do, and of course what to eat.
If you notice any problems or bugs in the site, please feel free to grab a screenshot or write and get in touch via my new contact page! I’ll be adding plenty more pages, blog posts, and features to the new design as I go on, so stay tuned!
My first project for my final year of university was set by Elmwood’s Leeds studio and was to reimagine a local radio station for a world in which all cars are now automatic. My outcome ended up being a connected in-car karaoke service, which you can find in it’s entirety within my projects section or via this direct link.
One of the main pieces I created for the project was a light-hearted advertisement which shows how the service can be a lot of fun, which can be viewed on the Autokara project page. For this post though, we’ll be looking at just how we managed to create the Karaoke Car…
As you can see above, the video was filmed in our family car, which was stationary for the duration of the shoot despite the illusion that the car was moving down a street. This illusion was created by a set of four orange floodlights which faded in sequence to create the look of streetlights passing by as the car was in motion, coupled with the sound of a car engine running which was added in during editing. These lights are mounted on the bar to the right of the car in the image below.
In front of the car we see two colour-changing LED floodlights, each one trained on one of our faces through the windscreen. These remain white until the song in the advert begins, when they begin to flash different colours, coupled with an elongated LED bar light which was mounted on the back seats of the car, which lit up the roof of the interior in different colours.
As can be seen above, I also set up a pair of white spotlights on the dashboard to better illuminate the faces during the dialogue at the start of the video, which faded out once the coloured lighting kicked in and the music began. Between them was mounted the camera, which was simply my iPhone 6 with a clip-on wide angle lens, which was then mounted on a small tripod.
All the lighting was wired to a console which I sat on my lap in the passenger seat during the filming of the video – in fact, if you watch closely you will notice that I only ever have one hand in shot, the other one is always controlling the lighting desk. It was quite a challenge to sing on video and control the lighting at the same time!
The above unflattering image shows the lighting desk in situ on my knee, and was taken as I was programming the lighting desk with the necessary sequences and lighting states to create the video. And yes, I was playing music and dancing along to get into the mood in the video from which this photo is taken. Don’t judge.
As a bonus the above image is taken from one of the two as-yet unreleased Spanish versions of the video, in which I can be found singing both a medley of classics from old Spanish one-hit wonders, and a super cheesy classic called Una Estrella en Mi Jardín. I’d like to once again thank both my mum for starring in the video, and my dad for helping with the process of installing all the lighting, and I’ll leave you with another bonus photo – this time a GIF of me and my mum warming up for our performance by dancing along to Oops Upside Your Head. You’re welcome.
This post is just a quick update stemming from the Autokara project I completed a month or for back, and which was set by Elmwood. After submitting my wacky car-karaoke idea to the guys at Elmwood I was happy to be invited back to present my project to the team in the studio, albeit a little nervous – the video of me and my mum belting out Circle of Life is really quite something…
Anyway, after presenting my research, process and final outcomes (including the video) to a lot of the studio (who were on their lunch break and so gathered to watch, just my luck) we heard back quickly thereafter and I am happy to announce that I was chosen to complete a placement with the Leeds studio for two weeks which will take place over the coming Easter holidays.
For more information on Elmwood check out their website, and of course be sure to check out the Autokara project which won me the placement and even a behind the scenes look at how we pulled together that ridiculous video…
As promised just over a week ago, I did go into hibernation for a short while, but I am back and very pleased to report that my final typography project and my dissertation are all handed in! My dissertation, which I haven’t really mentioned up until now, explored the practice of branding when the organisation in question sits in the nonprofit arts sector.
This, along with the typography project I submitted just this morning, meant that I spent much of the past few weeks in the library, either alone in the silent study area or with everyone else who was also trying to wrap everything up ready for submission. It wasn’t too bad though, with a shop for snacks across the road, and the lovely view from the new Laidlaw library…
Between submitting each project me and Emily took a few hours out to catch the new Beauty and the Beast movie, which I enjoyed a lot more than I expected. The subtle jokes were on point, the music was very catchy and the Be Our Guest scene had my jaw on the floor with the sheer amount of colour and explosive visuals that the guys at Disney had managed to squeeze into a 5 minute sequence! If you’re in the mood for a bit of joviality then be sure to pop the song on.
Anyway, before heading into the cinema we paid Five Guys a sneaky visit, where I loaded myself up on a little too much burger before buying a large popcorn, but you live and learn.
Just this morning I handed in my final typography project, and so this afternoon I am doing a tour of some of my favourite coffee shops in Leeds, including Layne’s Espresso from where I bring you this post. If you’re ever in Leeds be sure to drop by and grab a flat white and salted caramel brownie – you will not be disappointed.
In less work-related and more uplifting news, tomorrow afternoon I fly out to Madrid, from where I’ll be embarking on a four-day tour of Andalucía before returning to Madrid for another four days. Whilst down in the south of Spain I’ll be checking out Cordboa, Sevilla, and Granada, and then I’ll be spending as much time as possible on a comfy sofa with a caña (small beer) in hand whilst in Madrid. I’ll be sure to bring you all the updates once I land back in England next week!
I’m here today with a pretty boring text post just to give you guys a quick update as to what’s going on in my busy world. As the title may suggest the next few weeks are full of deadlines, including my final year dissertation, and so there’s not much fun on the agenda and there’s no time for me to report of anything interesting anyway!
I will hopefully have my new website running before the end of April – maybe I’ll launch it to coincide with my birthday on the 30th, who knows! It may even be that I leave the writing of any new blog posts until then, so you’ll be able to see them in the newer, fancier format.
I should return to the virtual land of the living around the start of April. In my absence why not listen to Lorde’s new song – I love it!
