Leave Color Effect

Last year I had a project on a course called Theory and Practice of Cinema. The lecturer wanted us to write a script and create a short film 5 to 10 minutes. At the beginning I had difficulties finding a topic, but with the help of the lecturer I decided to make a short film about me having trouble finding ideas for the project. Obviously it was a comedy, at least I tried. The way I thought that the flow of the story was going to be, was me talking to the camera saying what were the difficulties I faced and what were the Ideas I was changing all the time because of these difficulties. I have done the script and the production and the last step was the editing. I was trying to find effects that will help me keep the interest of the viewers so they won’t get bored. Looking around YouTube I found out an effect called ‘Leave Color Effect’ (Adobe Premiere Effect). This effect allows you to choose which colour you want on your video or picture and then makes all the others black and white. Most people refer to this effect as ‘The Sin City Effect’ because of the constant use of it at the actual Hollywood movie. This effect makes you focus on one colour of your screen showing you what is important on this image/video and what not. The way I wanted this effect to work in my case was similar to the sin city movie, keeping the interest of the viewers with a cool, unusual and amazing effect that everyone will wonder how this effect was added to the film. Well, to help some of you who want to use this effect I created a tutorial with Camtasia Studio 8. Hope you like it.

Andreas Papatheodoulou – TV / Audio  MZ Lab Assistant

March 6, 2014 /  

DO|YOU|SEE?

We all realize that we live in a decade that is mostly influenced by the power that the mass media possess. Nowadays, this is the most usual thing, but is it real? Of course it is. As years go by, people recognize the brain washing that they get by the media, and it’s more difficult for the media to keep brain washing.

So, if it is true, how do media still manage to exist? Have they stopped telling lies and started to focus on the truth? No, that’s not true at all! Media have their own purposes and goals that they strive to achieve in order to survive. So the mass media will always keep their best interests in mind, no matter what.

Has anyone been brainwashed lately? I don’t think so. I believe we have grown up brainwashed. How can I tell if any of the information I get from any means of media is true? The media is ran by people. People have feelings, ideas, weaknesses etc. I believe, we all can agree with that. When someone has a lot of media power, and this media is watched by millions of people, do they feel responsible? Do they remain committed to their ideal objectives, or do they exploit this power in order to gain more power or money? Continue reading →

March 5, 2014 /  

Proper use of a computer

Recently I went to the hospital to make some general analyses due to some dizziness and weaknesses I had.  Before I went to the hospital, what came into my mind was that I most probably had problems with my iron and haemoglobin count since I had these kind of problems in previous years when I was younger.  When I did the analyses,   I had a conversation with my doctor, and he told me that there was no problem with the iron or haemoglobin so we tried to find out what exactly I had.

We finally reached the following conclusion, the problem was my seated position when I was using the computer – it was totally improper, so due to this fact I would like to give you some tips about the right positions when using computer. Continue reading →

February 27, 2014 /  2

COMM -117 VIDEO PRODUCTION – Love this course

The video production course is part of the “Radio and Tv” section from the “Communications” studies and it’s a practical course. In this course you will have to learn clearly 2 things: the PD170 camera and Avid, a computer programme to edit video. I believe that for students who are interested in video, cameras, those that want to be a director, camera person, editor, it is a great choice to add this course to their path. We have the first contact with the equipment and how they are working. I helped myself with this course and generally it is very interesting because we have to do video productions in groups. Usually the lecturer makes groups (4 students) so everyone has a responsibility like camera person, director A, director B and model.

As a result, in my opinion another one benefit from this course is the opportunity to work in groups and have as a small experience how the professionals work! Do not miss this course, it’s interesting and at the University of Nicosia, & the level is high!! Continue reading →

January 31, 2014 /  

Fetes des Lumieres – The Lyon Lights Festival

The celebration of  the Virgin Mary is held once a year in Lyon in a very magical and beautiful way. A celebration that begins on the 6th of December and lasts for four days takes the breath away of everyone who is lucky enough to witness it. The Lyon Lights Festival, otherwise known to the French as Fête des Lumières is the combination of continuous lighting and video effects, visual arts and creative audio features  that are displayed all around Lyon in a very spectacular and beautiful way. It’s as if the whole city turns into a canvas and all the buildings, historic and new, all the people, roads, bus stops, water fountains and so much more of what the city is made of becomes a continuously changing art work represented by lights. It’s almost like walking into a fairytale of lights, where giant figures of people move from one building to the other, where the unexpected can be expected. Continue reading →

December 4, 2013 /  

Racism

It was Tuesday and my first day at the University of Nicosia. My first lesson was “Introduction to Communication Studies”. When we started analysing the first chapter, the lecturer started with this sentence: “A human is born to communicate, we don’t have other choice because nobody can’t afford the loneliness”.

So from this simple opinion, I started thinking “What about racism?”. Automatically I remembered a subject that we did when I was a student in high school about the Second World War. The main point that we easily understood from this remarkable chapter of world history, is that hatred generated by the German 3rd Reich was rooted in the inability to accept differences, like colour, religion, origin, people with handicaps etc. The end of this horrible situation was the deliberate death of 6 million people. Continue reading →

December 2, 2013 /  

The Omcopter

The Drones are among us! In reality & fiction film!

Have you ever thought that your camera can fly? That with a remote controller you can direct your camera and take video footage from the sky?

For many years film-makers have tried to achieve the effect of shooting from an actual helicopter without using one, and most of the time this resulted in broken cameras or at least lens.  Not everyone has the budget to include a giant crane or a flying machine as a technical part of his production. Nowadays there is a solution, for all this crazy attempts to be achieved natural flying movement of the camera. A German company has developed a device called the “Omcopter”. Continue reading →

November 24, 2013 /  

Light Sensor Examination and Comparison Study of the Human Retina and of a Professional Cinema Camera’s CMOS Sensor

In this study, the image resolution of the human eye and of a professional cinema camera have been examined and compared based on the surface area and density of the light receptors in both the human retina and in the CMOS digital imaging sensor. Based upon our comparisons, the conclusion that was drawn reveals that the image the human eye perceives has a higher resolution than that of current technology of state-of-the-art professional cinema cameras. Continue reading →

November 21, 2013 /  

Being A Radio Producer

Being a radio presenter, producer or even a DJ at a radio station was just a dream job for many people a few years ago.

Today, thanks to the Internet  any user can be a radio producer even if it is not professionally at a studio. I remember 10 years ago, when I came to Cyprus I used to go to internet cafés to check my e-mail or talk to friends or surf the Internet, however today we have internet access almost everywhere. You might ask how this can be related to my subject. Well the real meaning of transmitting has changed by the invention of online Radio. That is, every single internet user can be a radio presenter, producer or even DJ and transmit the content digitally online. Nevertheless the real feeling of being in a professional radio station is still different. Continue reading →

November 20, 2013 /  

Facebook – staying social, I like it…….

Facebook nowadays has invaded our daily activities and generally our lives.  For more information about it’s creation click on:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook.

It’s no coincidence that millions of people spend so much time on Facebook.  Personally, I spend more than the half of my free time on it.   It can provide several things, such as free communication with people around the world, especially for people who have relatives in other countries like me.  Another thing that Facebook provides is, that you can add all of your friends and also learn new things through the posts of articles or pictures that you can share with them.  Moving on, another function of Facebook is the games that it includes, my favourite one lately is Candy Crash, which also attracts many people. You can also, spend your free time chatting with friends, uploading pictures of yourself and your friends. Continue reading →

November 18, 2013 /