07/03/15 – Technical equipment

After a suggestion that they could offer help, I went to speak with Andrew Armstrong and Steve Young, both video tech assistants, about the visuals elements of my project.

My initial idea was to have 3 televisions screens sitting next to one another, each playing a different story/film. I hadn’t thought about anything connecting them, or feeding them the film via HDMI or similar, as I was waiting for confirmation of a space, and also these discussions, as I didn’t know how three films could be synced up.

Steve suggested 3 films edited next to each other so they could play at the same time without having to worry about the clips playing at different times. This could then be played through a projector without having to worry about different screens playing at different times. However, this wouldn’t work in the sense of it being an exhibition piece. I really want to have 3 completely separate stories which are only similar in their filming/set style and message at the end of the films.

Neither of them could think of a way to play three films on three television screens without having three laptops, so the option was put forward of having three iMacs instead. Each could have one film saved onto it, and it would simply just need to be played (through VLC Player was suggestion). This would save having to have a separate laptop form which to play the video.

Andy also mentioned that I’d need to speak with Mark Alridge about using Macs if I need to move them between buildings.

Previous to speaking to Andy and Steve, I briefly spoke to Mike Downing about using the photography studio for filming. He mentioned three LED lights which would be perfect for creating the right effect, and he is happy for me to film in there without instruction provided I have a media student/grad in there to lend a hand.