Yo-Sushi

It was my last day at work and my workmates took me out for dinner. We went to eat to this Yo-Sushi place and none of us had ever before eaten in such places so it was a new kind of experience to all of us.

There was food going around on some kind of belt and you were able to just catch some you like. All of the plates were color coded. So some colors were more expensive than others but we kept checking the prizes and foods from the menu since we had no idea what those were. Also the hot food needed to be ordered seperately. I tried some chicken which was super good and I later also tried some omelette, maki, and some pancake that was filled with custard. (I might have misspelled something though)

My workmates also gave me some farewell presents. I got a necklace that was made in ceramics in Flameworks and it looked very lovely on me. It was even my favourite color. I also got few drawings: a squirrel playing videogames (just like me) and moomins wearing jedi outfits and having a battle with lightsabers! I'm going to miss them all so much. Couldn't ask for any better workmates and friends.

Promotional video

This week's task has been doing a promotional video for Flameworks. My boss wanted me to use the Kickstarter one as a base, just edit out the bits about the education room and the kickstarter rewards. That was quickly done. But of course the video itself wasn't finished yet. The audio sounded like it ended all of the sudden so we needed to record a new bit to monologue, as ending words.

We met at Roger's house, the man who's voice we were recording, and first we talked about what should be mentioned in the end. From all of that he wrote down the idea and read it out loud to check if he got it all and if it was okay. After we agreed about the script, we started the recording itself. My boss showed me how to do it and it looks fairly easy so it all was done pretty quickly.

My real fight started when I had to start editing the audio bits. The audio that we recorded didn't sound the same as the audio we used for kickstarter and I myself had absolutely no idea what should I do to the audio to make it sound even close to the original. I spent two days watching and readin different tutorials how to edit audio, especially monologues and such with Adobe Audition. I tried so many different things, even some that I had no idea what it did to the audio and I wasn't successful. It still didn't sound the same. But when I got it to sound somewhat close to the original, I stopped editing and rendered out the video since I was running out of time.

The video is now on YouTube waiting to be published. My boss sounded happy that I finished the video but I myself think that someone else should still check the audio if it's possible to make it sound exactly the same.

London

During the weekend I went to see London! I took a bus up there and travelled through the night and I was pretty tired when I finally got there. I just wanted to check-in in the hostel ans sleep a bit before going to wander around. Finding the hostel wasn't as easy as I thought. My map said it would have been somewhere where it definitely wasn't but I was able to find it in the end. In the hostel I found out that the check-in starts at 14 which was a little bump in my road. Battery had died from my phone and I was planning to charge it while sleeping but I didn't let it hold me back. I just left my bag there and took my camera with me and headed back to the underground.

I remembered seeing that the London Eye was in Waterloo so I headed there first and from the station there was signs that guided me all the way there. And there it was, the London Eye, and Thimes, and Big Ben etc. Looked like I didn't need maps from my phone after all!

While I was walking towards Big Ben I saw few other attractions and one of them particularly caught my eye: the London Dungeon. From the posters outside I got the idea that it might me something like a horror house so I wasn't so sure if I'd dare to go in. I have never really liked horror houses, but since I wasn't sure I went to talk to a lady who was selling the tickets. I asked her if it was like the horror house and she said yes, so I told her that I wasn't so sure if I wanted to go in then. Then she said that it is a bit scary but it's more like a show rather than a horror house. After I confirmed that the actors weren't allowed to touch I bought the ticket. And it was money well spent! I laughed so much inside and the show itself was amazing! So if you go to London, I definitely recommend to see the London Dungeon! It's very great way to get to know the history like Guy Fawkes, the Black Death and Jack the Ripper among other things.

Then I walked to the tourist bus and asked how I could find the Madame Tussauds and he adviced me to go the other side of the road and told me the number of the bus and even the road when to get off! Even in the bus it was easy to know when I'm on the street because there was a screen that told the streets' names in time.

Inside Madame Tussauds I was first scared that I paid way too much for the ticket. Like all the figures do look great but I was expecting something more. When walked ahead there was apparently also some horror experience but because actors chase the visitors I didn't dare to go in and I took the safer path.

Later I saw a huge Hulk! It looked amazing! I also saw Batman, Ironman and other Marvel heroes. They also were selling popcorns and sweets and I realized that there's going to be a movie. I bought a Belgian waffle with white chocolate sauce and one of the employees looked at it and I saw that she also wanted one. She was amazing! There was also a guy in a lab coat talking to people before the show. He also came to me and asked me where I was from and when I told him that I was from Finland he said ''moi''. I was a bit surprised and right after he said ''Mindblown!''. He knew few words in so many different languages! Stunning!

It was a 4D marvel movie! I was able to feel a wind blown and Hulk sneezing at my face. It was great!

In the evening I found my way to Buckingham Palace, thanks to underground announces telling me that I should now jump off if I wanna see the Palace. I walked trough a park and there was this cute little statue of Paddington bear. But I wasn't believe my eyes when I was in front of the Palace. Not because of the Palace itself but there was over 100 Santa Clauses and Elves there! After taking pictures awhile I walked around the Palace and I honestly didn't expect it to take that much time to walk around.

On my way back to the underground I walked past the Duck Island and saw some duck hiss at the squirrel. I also saw some birds I had never seen before.
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On Sunday I went to see museums. Unfortunately at some point I had hurt my foot so I wasnt really able to put weight on it. I tried ignoring it and went to Science Museum but I really wasn't able to enjoy it much because of the pain. It was just too much.

After I went to Natural History museum that was right nextdoor and I asked there if I could loan a wheelchair and luckily they still had few there. It was quite an experience to go through the museum on a wheelchair and there was so much to see! The museum was great and there was also a dinosaur exhibition! I love dinosaurs and fossils <3

Vue Cinema

After work I decided to go to movies in a bit bigger movie theatre here in Plymouth. I jumped in a bus that I remembered going down that way and I decided to call my mother while waiting a bus to start moving. After the call I noticed that the vue from the bus didnt look familiar at all so I jumped off at the next bus stop and checked from the map if the cinema was far away. And yes, it was a bit too far away for me to walk there so that I'd get to the movies in time. So maybe next time I pay more attention when going somewhere where I have been only once before! I just laughed about how I forgot to keep checking outside when I was in a bus and started walking back. When I got in a bus again I asked the driver if he could tell me when to get off. When we were close to cinema, he was so nice that he even told me directions to the cinema. I bought a ticket to the newest Hungergames and surprisingly enough they checked the ticket already before the screen. After that there was the last change to buy some sweets and drinks for the movies. And I think that I have never before Plymouth seen any movie theatre to sell ice-cream for movies!

Project: Kickstarter

I got the new footage for the Kickstarter film and took a moment to go through all of those. I loved the fact that the metalwork wasn't the only thing they filmes, but they also filmed more ceramics and painting! And there was also a very nice clip of fire from metalworks. I started by gathering the clips I liked to the timeline and then the challenge began: Where should I put everything? Where should I add fade-ins and -outs and how long should I make them? Then I remembered that in the files that I received there was actually the monologue written down. I opened the word document and read it through a couple of times and then I did the same when I listened through the audio. The word document was a helpful because I was able to see fast where everything was mentioned and listening to audio helped me to get the idea of how long I should make clips in some parts. After that I started trying clips around till I found the solution that pleased me. And I was actually quite stunned how fast I got this long with the video. I was expecting it to take more time. The hardest part after the clips was audio editing. My nemesis... Even so I was able to finish the video! I'm most proud of the ending part of the video. In the end there's the clip of that little fire from the metalworks and I added Flameworks logo on it. I was even able to find one really nice fire crackling audio that fits nicely in the background. By the time the part begins the monologue and the background music actually has ended and later on the Flameworks logo has also faded out and all that has been left is a cozy fire with a calming fire crackling sound.

Painting the town red

This evening was something really special. Flameworks started ''Painting the town red'' happening. To put it short: Flameworks opened a shop in central and they'll have exhibitions there and gallery where people are able to purchase the art they fancy.

The time I got there the shop wasn't quite ready. I heard that earlier they had so much less art on the walls so they had done a great job in such a short time! They also were able to tidy up place and everything in time. And it really did look great.

Throughout the evening lots of people came in. Downstairs we had a singer and upstairs there was a performance artist. It probably was the first time I ever had seen performance artist in real life and I was impressed by his concentration.

During the evening I took lots of pictures while I was walking around. I loved how all the color from paintings made pictures so much more alive. I also played around with the depth when photographing.

The evening was amazing. I absolutely loved it. I actually loved it so much that it left the warm feeling inside my belly and a smile on my face.

Meeting

After work we had a meeting in one of the director's house. I was surprised how many were late. I didn't complain nor my workmate, we got to eat hot pizza while waiting them. In the meeting itself we talked about Flameworks, how the leaking roof needed to be fixed, and fast! We also talked about artists' studios and the teaching room. Flameworks is looking for donations for one spare room, the teaching room, and for that I've been doing the Kickstarter film. The film was also brought up into the conversation. They said that it needs some changes. The original interview that I used for the editing wasn't scripted so it didn't really sound like professional. They also wanted more clips of metalwork. Then they looked at me and said that editing is great, it's just they need the interview. I found their concern really heart warming and I told them that there's no need to worry. I understood. My boss made the plan for the next week and gathered a group to get some new clips and also audio from surroundings to create the athmosphere for the video. They also planned a little how to script the dialogue. I personally didn't mind the first video doesn't get in use. I was actually rather curious to see what new clips I get to use in the next editing. I just might come up with the different kind of solution!

Sculpture FINISHED

I've been sculpting this week now for few days and it's finally finished! (Or well, almost.) It just needs firing and glaze anymore and then it's ready for the exhibiton. I added an ear to my sculpture which was super hard to do. I needed to look up a reference image of an ear to be able to imagine it three dimensionally. And I also finished the hair! Like I earlier suspected, it needed lots of clay, and for that reason I also had to make the neck thicker to be able to support that much of weight. Hair also has some texture on it and I tried to sculpt it in a way so it looks a bit to be in a motion. Also because neck alone is not enough to hold up that head's weight, I also did a bit of the shoulders. The sculpture isnt looking directly in front but is tilted a bit on a side, makes it more interesting to look at. I also carved a bit lashes to upper eyelid! I heard also some feedback. People here really like it and thinks it looks good. Always warms heart to hear positive feedback :)

Exhibition

Flameworks is organisixing an exhibition that is apparently an annual thing. Everyone here seems very busy. Now that my poster is finished they asked if I would continue my sculpting. They even said that I could put it in the exhibition.

For the head I fixed eyelids a bit, and I also fixed nose and lips, trying to make them look more realistic. I also smoothed out the skin (I do it almost all the time to be honest). I finally even got to start to do a bit hair. I thought the hair would be really easy to do but boy, was I wrong! It's going to need lots and lots of clay!

Marketplace

I've been wandering more in the Christmas marketplace in the city centre. They sell there delicious food (not sausaged though, those are horrible!) Like waffles with cholocate and marshmallows, crepes, danish pancakes, some spanish dishes etc. And also lots of crafts work! I've seen so much wood craft and they look amazing. One guy sells like wooden statues and he seems to be really popular around the area. There's also a guy who sells wooden swords, shields and bows with arrows! I'd like to buy one of each, it's just a shame that it's super hard to take those to back to Finland with me. I also saw some stalls that are full of HUGE plushies, so I could try to win one or buy one. But I happened to hear that plushie is £40... If you have seen Despicable me- animation movie, you know that the little girl saw that unicorn plushie? THEY HAD EXACTLY THE SAME! Of course I had to say outloud ''it's so fluffy!'' and I want one, but it's also hard to take back to Finland (Why can't I live here? Why can't they sell those in Finland??!)

Grokefest

Last week I started designing the poster for Grokefest. While I was waiting for the Edward Scissorhands to start I sketched out few ideas. My first idea was a closeshot to Groke's hands holding a heart that is starting to freeze. However when I started to actually paint it on Photoshop, I realized that my color palette didn't really work out. I abandoned the idea and started all over again (like the usual). Later I realized that the poster wasn't christmasy enough and it was something that was requested so I spent some time googling different christmas symbols and ornaments. So I decided to do the mistletoe inside of the glass ball ornament. Mistletoes were surprisingly hard to paint, by the way. Then I downloaded few new fonts online that are free to use and voilà. Got the poster ready!

Christmas lights

Like I promised, here are the pictures of the Christmas lights:

One thing that I wondered when all the Christmas theme started to come in the shops that why were there so much Coca-Cola branded clothes. Apparently people here have a phrase that when you see a coca-cola truck (the TV commercial) it's a sign that Christmas season has begun. Well the phrase is not like that from word to word but close enough! It was easily seen that the season started here: first coca-cola brads, then they put up the ice ring in the city centre, they had that evening when they lit up the Christmas lights and had a light parade on the busiest street in the city centre and then came funfair and the Christmas marketplace. Christmas spirit really is all around!