Showing posts with label Leeds Met. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leeds Met. Show all posts
Sunday, August 01, 2010
No more "Innovation North"
From 1.August the faculty which I joined 5 years ago, "Innovation North", ceased to exist. As a part of the Leeds Met Faculty Realignment process, this faculty has now been merged with the former "Faculty of Arts and Society".
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Two Leeds Met Staff shortlisted for THE Awards
Every year in autumn, the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine gives awards to universities in different categories. Leeds Met has been shortlisted and commended a few times in the past years. When this year's shortlist came out today it was nice to see that two members of staff are on the shortlist for "Most Innovative Teachers of the Year": Nicholas Halafifi from the Carnegie Faculty, and Catherine Sanderson from the Faculty of Health.
Congratulation to you two for this nomination, and best wishes for the actual award ceremony!
Congratulation to you two for this nomination, and best wishes for the actual award ceremony!
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Movie: "The Truth is Out There..."
Today I did something that I wanted to do already more than 25 years ago, but never had an opportunity to do so: I directed a movie.
The Leeds Met Staff Development Festival began today, in a scaled-down version compared to previous years. But nevertheless, there are great events, workshops, and activities throughout this whole week. One of these activities caught my attention back in summer when the schedule was announced: "Make a Film in a Day", organised by the Northern Film School of Leeds Met. I have been fascinated by the medium Film since the late 1970s when I began to get interested in the art of movie making. At one point during my last years at high school I even toyed with the thought of becoming a director, being inspired by such masters like Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Tati, Claude Chabrol, Werner Herzog, Robert Altmann, Billy Wilder, and the classic masters of film noir. But when it came to choosing a career, I opted out of this path as it seemed to me a bit too much high-risk. However, I kept a high regard for movies and movie-making, and while living near Los Angeles for nine years I enjoyed being so close to the movie production scene with its still vividly living history (of movie classics), with highlights of renting my old car (1971 Plymouth Fury Stationwagon) to movie and TV productions ("Almost Famous" 2000 by Cameron Crowe, although my car did not make it into the final movie cut) and with once meeting the actress Jane Russel and the TV host Robert Osborne from TCM.
So when I saw the "Make a Film in a Day" event, I did not hesitate and enrolled myself. So today at 10:00 I showed up at the Northern Film School in the "Electric Press" building in Leeds City Centre, together with 19 other like-minded colleagues. First we were taught a few of the basics and terminology of film making. Then we were divided into 3 groups: each got a task to make a short 3 minute long film. I got into the group "Leeds Metro Studio" which was given the task to produce a "Science Fiction Western", with the sentence in it "the truth is out there..." and with using the props of a space helmet, a cowboy hat, an American flag, and an alarm clock. We then divided the roles in the group. I was interested in the editing, but someone else took that first. The director's job was left - I first hesitated, but then thought about my long interest in movie-making, and volunteered for the director's job.
The first two hours were spent on outlining the story. Everyone in the group came up with ideas, from something like "Back to the Future III", "West World", "Kate and Leopold". It was hard to come up as a group with a consistent story line - each of us had very interesting ideas regarding the visuals, but it appeared difficult to include them all in a consistent story. But thanks to the help of screen writer / director Dan Meldon a story slowly evolved: a young woman, played by Victoria, exits an elevator/lift in a building, then sees something unbelievable: at the reception desk there sits the clerk Chip with a cowboy hat, played by Muthu. She thinks she is on the wrong floor, goes back into the lift, goes to another floor. There is Muthu again, this time wearing a space helmet. She asks if she can register here. Muthu sends her to the 52 floor, but not without giving her the helmet because "the air is thin up there". She goes up there, leaves the lift wearing the helmet, arriving at the ground floor of the newly opened Rose Bowl lecture hall where she is greeted by fellow colleagues who applaud her and take pictures of her with their mobile phones: she has arrived at the Staff Development Festival. A live chorus sings in the background. This latter thing actually was not planned, but it happened as we filmed in the Rose Bowl, because another event had the Leeds Met Singers in the background.
Pretty weird story, we wanted to make it quite surreal. Unfortunately we only had very little time for the actual filming. After we had the story sorted, we got an hour of specialist training, so the editor, camera and sound crew could do the job. The actors and directors of each group were told about some basic rules of filming, the different shots, and the "do not cross the line" rule. We got our props sorted, then went to the two locations: in the Civic Quarter buildings, and in the Rose Bowl. Filming time was set to only 1 h 15 minutes. The first scene took already longer than expected to shoot. We did several takes, with various shots: medium, closeup, and in different directions, to get the initial dialogue. I was the one saying "action" and "cut" - quite some fun. It was also my duty to coach the actors into great performances, and discuss with the camera woman the particular aesthetics of the shots, to preserve that intended surreal feel.
I really enjoyed this whole directing. Unfortunately time was running out, and despite of filming for a total of more than 2 hours, we could not film all the various shots we had planned.
But when then our editor put the scenes together in "Final Cut Pro", a very nice short flick developed. In the end we had a screening of all three films that were produced by the groups today: one had created a film noir murder mystery, the other had made a parody of a blackmailing mob movie.
Filming in Civic Quarter buildings of Leeds Met
Editing in the post-production
This was a great fun, and when later this evening I watched in the movie theatre Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards" (very recommendable, if you can digest Tarantino's lack of inhibition against violence depiction), I could somehow more appreciate all the work that had gone into this movie.
The Leeds Met Staff Development Festival began today, in a scaled-down version compared to previous years. But nevertheless, there are great events, workshops, and activities throughout this whole week. One of these activities caught my attention back in summer when the schedule was announced: "Make a Film in a Day", organised by the Northern Film School of Leeds Met. I have been fascinated by the medium Film since the late 1970s when I began to get interested in the art of movie making. At one point during my last years at high school I even toyed with the thought of becoming a director, being inspired by such masters like Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Tati, Claude Chabrol, Werner Herzog, Robert Altmann, Billy Wilder, and the classic masters of film noir. But when it came to choosing a career, I opted out of this path as it seemed to me a bit too much high-risk. However, I kept a high regard for movies and movie-making, and while living near Los Angeles for nine years I enjoyed being so close to the movie production scene with its still vividly living history (of movie classics), with highlights of renting my old car (1971 Plymouth Fury Stationwagon) to movie and TV productions ("Almost Famous" 2000 by Cameron Crowe, although my car did not make it into the final movie cut) and with once meeting the actress Jane Russel and the TV host Robert Osborne from TCM.
So when I saw the "Make a Film in a Day" event, I did not hesitate and enrolled myself. So today at 10:00 I showed up at the Northern Film School in the "Electric Press" building in Leeds City Centre, together with 19 other like-minded colleagues. First we were taught a few of the basics and terminology of film making. Then we were divided into 3 groups: each got a task to make a short 3 minute long film. I got into the group "Leeds Metro Studio" which was given the task to produce a "Science Fiction Western", with the sentence in it "the truth is out there..." and with using the props of a space helmet, a cowboy hat, an American flag, and an alarm clock. We then divided the roles in the group. I was interested in the editing, but someone else took that first. The director's job was left - I first hesitated, but then thought about my long interest in movie-making, and volunteered for the director's job.
The first two hours were spent on outlining the story. Everyone in the group came up with ideas, from something like "Back to the Future III", "West World", "Kate and Leopold". It was hard to come up as a group with a consistent story line - each of us had very interesting ideas regarding the visuals, but it appeared difficult to include them all in a consistent story. But thanks to the help of screen writer / director Dan Meldon a story slowly evolved: a young woman, played by Victoria, exits an elevator/lift in a building, then sees something unbelievable: at the reception desk there sits the clerk Chip with a cowboy hat, played by Muthu. She thinks she is on the wrong floor, goes back into the lift, goes to another floor. There is Muthu again, this time wearing a space helmet. She asks if she can register here. Muthu sends her to the 52 floor, but not without giving her the helmet because "the air is thin up there". She goes up there, leaves the lift wearing the helmet, arriving at the ground floor of the newly opened Rose Bowl lecture hall where she is greeted by fellow colleagues who applaud her and take pictures of her with their mobile phones: she has arrived at the Staff Development Festival. A live chorus sings in the background. This latter thing actually was not planned, but it happened as we filmed in the Rose Bowl, because another event had the Leeds Met Singers in the background.
Pretty weird story, we wanted to make it quite surreal. Unfortunately we only had very little time for the actual filming. After we had the story sorted, we got an hour of specialist training, so the editor, camera and sound crew could do the job. The actors and directors of each group were told about some basic rules of filming, the different shots, and the "do not cross the line" rule. We got our props sorted, then went to the two locations: in the Civic Quarter buildings, and in the Rose Bowl. Filming time was set to only 1 h 15 minutes. The first scene took already longer than expected to shoot. We did several takes, with various shots: medium, closeup, and in different directions, to get the initial dialogue. I was the one saying "action" and "cut" - quite some fun. It was also my duty to coach the actors into great performances, and discuss with the camera woman the particular aesthetics of the shots, to preserve that intended surreal feel.
I really enjoyed this whole directing. Unfortunately time was running out, and despite of filming for a total of more than 2 hours, we could not film all the various shots we had planned.
But when then our editor put the scenes together in "Final Cut Pro", a very nice short flick developed. In the end we had a screening of all three films that were produced by the groups today: one had created a film noir murder mystery, the other had made a parody of a blackmailing mob movie.
This was a great fun, and when later this evening I watched in the movie theatre Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards" (very recommendable, if you can digest Tarantino's lack of inhibition against violence depiction), I could somehow more appreciate all the work that had gone into this movie.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Graduation Week
This week there are the Leeds Met Graduation ceremonies, held at the Headingley Campus in the Marquee. I have set up the Leeds Met Caedmon Webcam to record an image every 30 seconds during the day. Friday will be our Graduation of Innovation North, followed by a celebration of our former Dean Cath Orange.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Innovation North Showcase - Video
As I wrote recently, last week there was the Innovation North Showcase here at Leeds Met, where the level-3 students demonstrated their projects. Leeds Met has released a video of this event:
This video shows some of the students for whom I had the pleasure and privilege to be a tutor.
(I am also somewhere in this video...)
This video shows some of the students for whom I had the pleasure and privilege to be a tutor.
(I am also somewhere in this video...)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
At the Innovation North Student Showcase
Lots of buzz in the James Graham Building here on our Headingley Campus all day yesterday on Tuesday, as our L3 students presented their work to the public. The Annual Student Showcase was the opportunity for them to display the results of their group project. I visited all the groups which I am going to mark these next three days - I will have a full schedule Wednesday - Friday!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Open Day at Leeds Met
This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, Leeds Metropolitan University is organising an Open Day, for prospective students to visit the campus, talk to lecturers, and inform themselves about studying.
For the first time, the main venue was the newly opened Rose Bowl near the Civic Quarter, across form Civic Hall. For this weekend, Innovation North has their information stands in room 317 and 320. A good dozen of members of staff were present today and will be tomorrow as well. We had quite a good turnout of visitors, despite the weather which was tempting for some outdoor activities, although in the afternoon there was a brief drizzle.
For the first time, the main venue was the newly opened Rose Bowl near the Civic Quarter, across form Civic Hall. For this weekend, Innovation North has their information stands in room 317 and 320. A good dozen of members of staff were present today and will be tomorrow as well. We had quite a good turnout of visitors, despite the weather which was tempting for some outdoor activities, although in the afternoon there was a brief drizzle.
Friday, February 27, 2009
A busy week...
This week has been very busy, for me, with a tight schedule. I was only able to devote to the iCamp which was running this week every day at the Old Broadcasting House two afternoons. Monday I was chair of a PhD viva. First time I attended a UK viva. In the evening I attended a Town Hall meeting in Pontefract, where Brian Lewis presented the project of rebuilding Pontefract Castle. Tuesday I visited Opera North, together with a group from Yorkshire Universities. Wednesday was a meeting about Post-Graduate delivery, within the framework of the new Carnegie PostGraduate School. Yesterday I was in Harrogate, giving a presentation at the St.Aidan's Highschool. Different audience for a change. In the evening I attended the Creative Networks event at Leeds College of Arts. Today I will be at the iCamp this afternoon.
A few deadlines are today as well...
A few deadlines are today as well...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Twestival Tonight
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Sonic Spatial Perspectives
On Friday and Saturday, the conference "Sonic Spatial Perspectives" was held in Gandhi Hall at Leeds Metropolitan University. Our Nikos Stavropoulos had invited Jonti Harrison from University of Birmingham to set up the BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) here. 72 loudspeakers were distributed across Gandhi Hall, allowing the creation of an incredible sound space. Derek Hales from University Huddersfield opened the conference as the Director of C3KE, who funded this event. Then Jonti Harrison gave the keynote talk to introduce the system. During these two days, there were 3 concerts with acousmatic music, two workshops, and a round table discussion. Basically, the playing of a pre-recorded spatialised piece still requires an performance by someone who is "diffusing" the sound at the mixer console, operating an array of sliders which can be mapped to speakers or speaker groups. One point of the discussions was how that interface could be improved: instead of controlling the speaker output, one might imagine an interface which allows to control the sound sources directly.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Leeds Met becomes Leeds Carnegie University
As announced today in our Vice-Chancellor's daily reflection, Leeds Metropolitan University will change its name to Leeds Carnegie University probably by the beginning of the next academic year.
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