07-05-2011

We made our way down to Los Christianos at 9.30am then walked across to Peurto Colon for our diving. On the way we stopped at the surfing beach so a few of us could go surfing. I would have loved to do this but I had previously twisted by ankle and did not want to push it with Masca and Tiede coming up. After surfing we went to the diving place where we met Agata who had already been out diving. Agata and Joe were doing their navigational test for their padi certificate today and we were doing a try dive. We got into our wet suits then walked to their speed boat. The place we went was called turtle bay because they have 3 resident turtles who interact with humans. There were not enough instructors for us to all go at once so I got a snorkel out and went snorkelling which was so good because the water was so clear. The instructor then came over and took me diving which was so amazing. I was surrounded by fish and soon saw the turtles which I was able to touch. I had a few pictures with the turtles and having the fish surrounding me made me feel like I was in a screen saver. After my diving time was over, I stayed in the water with my goggles on and watched those interacting with the turtles below me. It was such an amazing experience! This has now made me aspire to be get my padi certificate in diving and will look for a course when I get back to England. After this we walked to Los Americas and went for a meal in a Hong Kong restaurant. We paid for Joe and Agata as a thank you/leaving present. We spent so much time there we ended up having to get a taxi home because we had missed the last bus!

06-05-2011

Today Agata drove us firstly to the pyramids of Guimar to film them but Ed told us to film through the fence because you had to pay to get in! Once we got there, we looked at the pyramids through the cafe window and looked for a place to film. Unfortunatly there was not any gaps in the fence and we could not film in the restaurant. We also thought just a still shot of them would be quite boring so we moved on to the next location. This was to Candalaria to see the statues and the Black Madonna. We started off with an establishing shot of the statues but there were cars in the way. Rich said this was a bad shot and needed a new angle but did not have any suggestions of where to put it. Emma then suggested a place to put it which worked well so I moved the camera to this new angle. Richard was not happy that I did not move when he said it was a bad shot but this was because he had no suggestions. This was the only problem we had between the group but it was quickly dealt with. I then began to create close-ups of the statues before going inside the church to film the religious Black Madonna. After filming a variety of shots in the church, we were looking around for different shots we could get but the clouds had come over so everything looked quite grey and not good through the camera. After eating lunch we drove to Santa Cruz. There was meant to be a festival going on during the evening so we were planning to film that to put in our beauty of Tenerife promotional video. By the time we got to Santa Cruz it was around 6pm so we filmed the cathedral and the decorations that were put up for the festival. After filming this we went to the fountain and created a time-lapse. After we completed this we went for a walk and found a variety of sea creatures made out of recycling and some horses being ridden in the street with the riders wearing traditional Spanish clothes. By now it was almost dark so we made our way over to the stage we had seen earlier and set up the camera. After filming the Spanish band and the audience, Emma and I went to film some people dressed in traditional Spanish wear. After this we went back to the car and went to the main statue in Tenerife where we filmed then talked for a while before leaving and arriving back just after midnight.

03-05-2011

Today Jake stayed in the house to talk to Ed about our projects. In the meeting we did not get any feedback so needed his opinion on our work since we are creating the projects for him. We could not progress much further without his feedback. So I went on the boat the ‘Mustcat’ with Ceri who had never been on a boat before. I had not been on the Mustcat yet but had heard mixed opinions but I absolutely loved it! It was defiantly my favourite boat so far, the crew were really friendly, we went swimming on the first trip because the crew said we had to because it was our first time on their boat, then went snorkelling on the second trip. It was sunny and the sea was calm so I did not feel sick. The views were so pretty and we spend most of our time talking to the tourists on board because they were interested in what we were doing and friendly. We saw many pilot whales who came so close to the boat, I had never seen them this close before and it was absolutely amazing! There was a large one with a distinct fin so we were able to identify it. I got some really good pictures of them. We also saw some bottle nose dolphins on the second trip which was good because the Mustcat focuses on seeing whales. This was the first time I went on the morning and afternoon trip and I wanted there to be an evening trip! I had such a good day. When we got off the boats, Ceri and I went to the shops then waited to be picked up by Agata. We got back tot he house just as dinner was being dished up then we entered our data onto the server. Ceri then entered the signatures we got for our anti-whaling petition whilst I uploaded good finshots so the whales we saw can be identified.

02-05-2011

After cleaning our apartment, I edited the footage of the Royal Delfin more throughly because it was 4 minutes long and needed to be cut down into 2 minutes maximum! I went through cutting off parts of the clips such as the shaky parts at the beginning or end of a clip then deleted some clips all together because there was too many similar shots or it was just not needed. It was not in any particular order so I created an order which I think looked good and linked the shots together well. It was now 1 minute 40 and in an appropriate order. I know I needed to sort out sound and needed a few more shots of the boat but we were showing Ed what we have done so far, so it was exported to show him for feedback. Emma and I were origionally supposed to film more on the Maxi Cat today whilst Jake and Rich recorded an interview with someone on the Royal Delfin but Agata received an email from Ed saying he wanted the media people to stay in tomorrow so he could have a meeting with us. I feel like the meeting could have been done in the evening because we needed to film on the boats because we had not done much on the boats last week but we will film tomorrow hopefully instead. We had a meeting and showed our films so far so we will receive our feedback tomorrow.

05-05-2011

This morning we went to the fishing village we went to the day before and this time it was sunny and the fishermen were present and unloading their catches. We filmed the fish and the boats for a while from a few different angles. Emma asked some fishermen if we could specifically film them and they agreed. One of them held the fish up to the camera which was quite nice. After getting a few shots of here, we headed towards Taganaga and the lorel forest. Firstly we stopped in part of the lorel forest and had a look around to find a good place to film. To be honest, it looked like any ordinary forest so we were unsure if we were in the right place. After filming a few shots, we drove through to Taganana. We found an amazing view with a part where you can pull over and take pictures. I went under this wooden pole to get a better view. There was a big rock face next to this so we decided to climb up this to get an even better view. This was quite difficult and we had to work together to get the equipment up there safety. Once on top, we filmed the view then climbed down and moved onto our next place. This was in the rural part of the village so I got out and got a shot of a building with flowers outside then shots of the taps with running water. I could hear running water so went down to the stream to get some good shots of the steam and flowers. I found a really good position but I then realised I was in an ant’s nest so had to move pretty quickly. After getting a few shots we moved on to another part of Taganana where some of the good restaurants and black beaches were. We decided to do a time-lapse of the beach for half an hour then Jake and Emma went to film the restaurant. After this we returned home and uploaded the footage, had dinner then slept again.

04-05-2011

We had a meeting with Ed at 9 to discuss what else we needed to film before we leave. The main project we needed to work on was the beauty of Tenerife. Ed wanted us to be driven around Tenerife in the next few days to film places he wanted in the video. We were told that there was no point going on the boats unless it was sunny because it does not make the boat look appealing when it is cloudy with the passengers seasick. After our meeting, we got ourselves ready by charging the cameras and laptop. We then got taken to which is a small fishing village. Unfortunatly, when we got there it was very cloudy and there was not much going on because the fishermen had already left. We looked around and decided to come back tomorrow morning so we could film the fishermen. We then went to the horse ranch where Emma and I had previously gone horse riding. We spoke to the man in charge and he said it was fine to film his horses. I loved being on the ranch before so being able to walk around and film the variety of animals there was so good. I started off doing a long shot on the path above all the horses then walked down and got a few more close-ups of their hooves then Jake got a close up of the horses face. We walked around getting a variety of shots then I saw a horse moving its tail around so I filmed  that then the dogs came up to me so whilst I stroked them, Jake filmed them. We then went round the corner to see the Shetland ponies. There was one adult and one foal, it was so tiny and cute! They were fenced in so it was quite hard to get a shot of them but we found a hole in the fence to film through. After this, someone was on one of the horses so I filmed them going past. I then heard some horses cantering so ran up this hill and saw four huge horses cantering around their big pen. I filmed them running past then put the camera on the floor to catch a close up of their feet. I was showered with a few stones because they ran past quite close and fast so flicked up a few stones but we got a good shot. When we felt like we had all the shots we needed, we thanked the owner and left to find some goats. We had seen them on the way there but they were in a small pen but when we drove past again, they were out in the field. Unfortunatly, they were too far away and we could not get onto the land because it was boxed off. There were a few that we could have filmed but by the time we got there, the Shepard moved them because they were too close to the road. We then came back, ate, uploaded our footage, charged the camera, had a meeting then went to bed.

01-05-2011

It was very sunny when we woke up today, there were no clouds in the sky but there was quite a bit of wind. When the weather is like this here, it usually means it is so windy down by the coast. We spoke to Joe who said all diving is cancelled which was instantly a sign of how windy it was because he is an experienced diver. We were planning to go surfing before we found out this but it was probably not possible to surf if you have not surfed before when the weather was like this. Instead I spent the day around the house and done some blogging. There is a place called ‘the wall’ which is basically a really tall wall from where you can see loads of Tenerife. I went up there to take a few pictures and spent nearly an hour up there just looking at the views and watching the falcons. Jake and I also returned here in the evening and ate our dinner on the wall. After this we just browsed the internet and talked. I had a relaxing day but got a bit bored towards the end.

30-04-2011

Today we were suppose to be going diving in a place called turtle bay but it was so windy that it got cancelled! We were told the diving instructors would come to the house tomorrow to re-book the diving for us. So instead we went to the beach but it was not very sunny. After spending a while on the beach, we came back to the house and cooked some food. After this we chilled in the research room til I got bored so went to my room to watch a film. It was meant to be rainy today and tomorrow so we are unsure on our plans tomorrow. We would like to go surfing but we think it might be too windy but we shall find out tomorrow.

29-04-2011

This morning we were doing another time lapse of the sunrise on the base of Mt Teide. We got up at 5 to be in the car for 5.30 then drove to Mt Tiede. We set up the camera in the position where we thought the sun was most likely to come up because of the colour of the sky.  It was so windy and cold, Jake and I were on one camera and stood around it to try and shade it from the wind but it seemed to be moving ever so slightly so will have to see if it moves too much when we put it together. The shot was really pretty with the clouds and colours of the sunrise but half way through the sun rise, we thought it looked like the sun was coming up in a slightly different place. Jake and I decided to change it because we had quite a bit of time lapse in that place which we could use. We also changed the shutter speed because more light was going to be coming in so would be too bright. After about three-quitres of an hour of the camera in this position, we unfortunatly had to leave because the car needed to be back to drop people off at the boats. This was quite disapointing but there was nothing we could do about it. We might be able to do it again at another point but we have learnt from doing it this morning. We learnt that we need more layers because it was freezing, we need to find a more sheltered spot from the wind, and work out where the sun is definatly going to come up from. For the rest of the day, we sorted out the pictures we had taken and set up the time lapse from the morning. We were right in thinking that the images may move quite a bit because when we put them together you could see the movement between the shots where the moon was slightly moving the camera each time. Some of the footage is useable but it would be good if we could do it again. We were going out in the evening for a meal for Richard’s birthday then went out to a few bars and clubs.

28-04-2011

We thought it would be a good idea today to go to one of the ports – Los Gigantes, to try to get a shot of the boats in the port and the whale watching boat, Son Caliu, leaving the port. We also hope to get an interview with a woman who works for this boat to use in our promotional film. She said she is willing to do it and is there nearly everyday so to go down whenever. The first thing we noticed when we arrived in Los Gigantes was the cliffs. It is very scenic and we hope to show this in our film. We walked down to the port and saw the Son Caliu boat where the woman normally is but typically, she was not there so we unfortunately could not get this interview today. We filmed the Son Caliu leave the port, then I filmed a pan of the port. I had previously helped Laura record some atmosphere sounds so thought it would be a good idea to get some whilst we were there. Instead Emma and I used the Marantz to get some atmosphere sounds of the port. It was quite windy so we had to try to shelter it to stop the wind sound. It sounded quite good apart from a slight banging noise from some machinery which came in half way through. We will try it with the film and see if it sounds ok because we can always loop the sound if needed. We then decided to film the sound of the water hitting the rocks. Whilst we were doing this, Rich and Jake were filming the boats in the port and other things such as the sea and views. After we had got sufficient amount of footage, we went back to the house and uploaded footage. We looked through all the footage then had a meeting about what is going to be going on tomorrow.