Beyond the Camera completed

So mine and Beccas digital artefact has been submitted!

I'm actually really happy with the result of it, however I do wish we could have been more creative in our imagery, , as we wanted the tone to be quite dark and unnerving, we needed to shoot all our footage and imagery at night, which proved to be difficult when finding a park with swings with decent [Text Box]lighting to take the images. So again we had to compensate by using an image we found from Flickr. Through the development stage we did have to change some of our original ideas of what shots and photographs we could take, such as leaves blowing across a path, however on the night we filmed, its wasn’t windy at all. We did try to create wind with newspaper; however it just didn’t turn out in the end.  

I think we both worked really well as a team, both participating in the development stages. Although we both didn’t feel hugely comfortable using After Effects at first I think both being able to experiment with it was better than each person doing separate elements, as it meant we got a turn at everything.  

Here's the final film anyway!

ENJOY

 

Focus Group/Research

So unfortunately I couldn't make it in for the focus group today, which I know my group probably isn't happy about, however i explained due to ilness and appointmenst etc.

However, they informed me that everything went well, and they had correlated the results.

Now, I just wanted to make it clear that, even though i haven't been able to attend some of the meetings, it doesn't mean i haven't done the work, which almost everything is thinking.

So I did as much research on Doctor who as i could today:

I found many different sites with statistic on viewers over the years, and started to look at its American audience, as well as asking people on Facebook, from America, what they thought about the 3 different shows the 3 of us were researching, so i conducted a little poll.

http://www.kasterborous.com/2011/10/doctor-who-stats-infographic/

http://mashable.com/2012/08/31/doctor-who-america/

http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2011/04/22/watch-now-mysterious-new-viral-silent-videos-online-for-doctor-who

General facts about doctor who:

Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television series broadcast on the BBC

•It was first aired on television on the 23rd November 1963 on BBC One

•The story follows the character of a timelord named ‘The Doctor’ who travels through time and space.

•From 1963-1989 there had been a total of seven ‘Doctors’

•In 2005 the series was revived and continued with a a new Doctor starring Christopher Eccleson.

•The show draw’s in an average of 8 million viewers

•Although the British-American-Canadian Tv-movie created drew in a total of 9.8 million viewers in 1998.

•The TARDIS and the DALEKS have become worldwide iconography of the show.

Also, Doctor who over the years have created many online content which interacts with its audience such as Pond-life, and online webisode, featuring clips each week exclusively online, aswell as online games where the audience could use social networking to participate.

There links to official Twitter pages, Facebook, and also has an offical app with more extra content for its audience.

More creative!

Been so stressed out lately that i have hardly done anything create, in terms of projects. I used to be so motivated, but this year has just drained me of everything, so it was really nice that i've finally picked up the pace and made something!

Just an image of some unique snow globe glasses i made for decoration! In fact Becca's mum bought two of them at the Christmas fair i did! which i was really pleased about :)

Show is finally done!

I'm honestly thrilled that the TV show is all done, there's been so much stress over it. Not because of the work, but the lack of it, and it's really got me down. Especially when i was looking forward to doing it, but i think everything just took it's toll on us, and we all didn't try our hardest

Personally I thought the overall show went great. Our guest. A professional Rugby Player, maybe wasn't the best choice, but for the idea he was appropriate  I think in the end we just had to work with what we had, which was a shame.

I got quite a bit of the backlash though in terms of how little work we had done. I had literally a day to come up with the set design, with no money, and i couldn't travel anywhere to pick anything up, so it was kind of impossible for me to make anything fantastic.

Genuinely nobody told me we couldn't use the store cupboard for the set, so when i got slated for that i was a bit taken back. I thought i had a solid concept for the set, sort of like an old english/tradition feel, very cosy and homely, with exposed brick for a more masculine touch with it being a sports show. But i guess in the end it just didn't work

I was a little bit, well very much so annoyed about the fact nobody said anything to me about if the dick didn't work we would ultimately fail on the spot, especially when i could have sorted it before i handed it in, which i feel wasn't very fair at all.

So at the moment i'm really in a good place with the course and have a lack of motivation to carry on.


But in other news i got all my drawings done. Heres is a few i sold. 

Also here is a link to my official facebook page: 

Artwork by Elicia

Stress!

I honestly can't even deal with the stress of the Tv studio module now. We still have not got any idea what we're doing, I've tried to come up with plenty of ideas on what we could do, because personally i think a generic sports show does not fit the brief and it needs to be more quirky and fun! Which Channel 4 viewers are going to find interesting.

I came up with the idea of 'Weird and Wonderful' were we could have had a unique guest such as a fruit carver or somebody who does street art, as i thought it would make a captivating demonstration and would be great for the brief, however, it just it panning out the way we all want it too, which is really disappointing.

I also have a Christmas stall I on the 27th which is the same week we film our show, and i'm not sure how i'm going to get all the drawings i have to done, completed, as well as work on this, and get to grips with my other modules, ans i've been having quite a stressful time out of uni.

Hopefully it will sort itself out!

Groups for Applied Media research

So last Thursday we had to choose what question we wanted to do, and had to put them into preference order.
Ultimately my first choose being number 3!

Nine Lives Media
Which are the three most successful ever examples of cross platform television programming, how did viewers participate and most importantly, what did they gain from the experience? (I would anticipate answers such as the London Olympics/Paralympics & Embarrassing Bodies) 

This had always been my preferred choice and I'm happy that i was allocated that question, and was put into a group with people whom i'm going to enjoy working with!

So with that done, the three of us got to work on researching what the most successful cross platform shows were on television at the moment.

This is the list we came up with:

X Factor
Million pound drop
The walking Dead
Doctor Who
Big Brother
Valemont

we wrote up a questionnaire to give to our peers, however, this was just breif, so that we could get to grips on what people thought about cross platform shows. So then later we can devise a more detailed survey online, mainly on social networks such as facebook and twitter.

So my job within the group is going to be researching about Doctor Who and Eastenders.

Music Treat

So yesterday in the TV studio, we got to watch some great performances by TJ and Murphy  a local duo band from Liverpool. They will be a feature in our tv shows, which we will be recording a liver performance next month! Which i'm happy about because I've always wanted to shoot a live band performance!

Anyway, we watched them play their 6 songs which where: (hopefully i have them correct)

Michigan
I won't be afraid
Notes in the wine
In a heartbeat

Good night Houston
Joe crazy rose

I loved Michigan and Notes in the wine, however, when it came to our group picking the song that will be appropriately featured in our show we chose 'Joe crazy Rose'

I was kind of skeptical, because at this point we don't really have a solid idea for our show, like other groups have and i feel like the lack of research and meeting with my group is going to suffer at the end. But we shall see!

Here is a link to their myspace page! please go check them out!

TJ and Murphy Myspace

Soundscapes!

At first i didn't understand the concept of what we were being asked to do, however finally I understood it.
So the task was, to produce an image sequence, exploring different techniques to create a story through a compilation of audio files, footage and still imagery and incorporate together.

Using after effects to manipulate the imagery. At first Becca and I were excited to come up with ideas, firstly one being a seaside theme, as with living right on the prom in New Brighton,  there was a lot for us to record and collect and get inspiration off, however we changed our minds and now we're doing a horror based one.

Our title is 'A run in the woods' where a man is going on a casual late night run though the park, however, is being stalked my an unknown person, ultimately giving a kind of creepy atmosphere. We looked at sounds to get inspiration from www.freesounds.com and found quite a lot of clips that we played around with.

This is our first audio file, without the imagery.

Digital media cultures!

So at the moment i'm not sure if its going to be one of my favorite modules, but its one of them, where its essential for learning about the media industry. How its developing, what going on etc.
 The first assingment sounds pretty daunting when you think about how much research will be needed, but i think it will good good to get to grips with whats out there, and how its effecting us as its audience. So we have to get into groups of three and make a presentation using prezi or something of the sort to answer one of the three questions, which are:

Digital Fiction Factory

The Internet, social media and other open systems have allowed for user generated content (UGC), crowd-sourcing and other forms of audience participation to prevail in digital media. But how do we translate these

features into storytelling experiences, without treading on the toes of the author?

ONTECA

What new models are there for selling media? When people download so much media freely, what are people willing to pay for and how? What are and what can we learn from the best monetization mechanics for Freemium games on mobile?

at the moment i'm not sure of the third, and the talk from Nine Lives Media will be next week, so i will update!

**UPDATE

Nine Lives Media

Which are the three most successful ever examples of cross platform television programming, how did viewers participate and most importantly, what did they gain from the experience?

From all the talks I found the last talk more engaging because i feel, like as a viewer, and having being currently involved in what the questions asking the research will be more interesting and relevant to my interests. Although I liked the content brought about in the very first talk, within storytelling in the media. I found that really interesting.

Paper Airplanes!

So the first assignment was to shoot a 2 minute clip for a children's show, on 'How to make a paper airplane' The brief was pretty plain so we could develop it how we wanted it. We were set our teams, and though i wasn't working with anybody i really knew i was excited to start the work! 

We had to choose what roles we wanted to be firstly within the group. Nobody really had their preferences but i knew i wanted to either be the floor manager or the set designer. However we decided it was best if i did set design because apparently i have a 'creative eye'

Although we hadn't planned very thoroughly we knew what needed to be done, we had a script for our Presenter, Mathew, and Drew had written the camera script. It was very basic, but for a childrens show and our first time, we thought we could change a few of the shots on the day, which would work better, which is exactly what we did.

Looking at the other groups set design i wish i had done more for the background, but all i had made was some different type of paper airplanes and some novelties for the table to give the show a bit of character, however i don't think it really came across in the end.


I did get a chance to be operating one fo the cameras however, which i really enjoyed, more than i thought i would. Which made me realise how much i wish i had chosen the role of the director, being more in control.

Beyond the camera

So over the past couple of weeks, we've just been going over our first assignments in each module. To be honest, i'm actually looking forward to them.

For Beyond the camera we have been asked to create a still image composition to creating an illusion and to be edited and manipulated on Adobe Photoshop. To me, this module has always been my favorite because i've always liked manipulating images and using programmes such as after effects and Photoshop.
I'm a confident user of Photoshop so creating an image would be a simple and enjoyable task for me. The only is getting the idea. However, I came up with so many i couldn't choose what to do.
Using an app on my phone i quickly sketched some ideas down (they're quite messy)

Heres also a few i came across online which i thought were cool!

But I decided to come up with the concept of somebody coming 

through from another world, using a mirror.

Having liked the idea, i wish i had of thought of it sooner so i could have used the green screen for my imagery as it was a struggle to edit some of the originals such as cutting them out due to the complicated background.

In the end i think it turned out well! Here is the result.

Digital Fiction Factory!!

So the very first of the guest speakers coming in was Ian Wareing from the 'Digital Fiction Factory' last Thursday.
Initially i didn't quite understand what he was talking about however when he got more in depth. and talked about the production the company does, and some of its projects such as 'The Well' the more i found it to be really interesting. 

He went on to tell us how being partners with big media company's such as BBC, Creative England, Conker Media-which is part of Lime Pictures, and Channel 4.

They work with multi-later storytelling which basically starts off with the writer, however, splits off into different tangents creating different layers to the story, going more in-depth with characters and detail, across different media platforms to make it very audience interactive.

He showed us a model which explained this relatively easier..

Having being shown many other examples that are used on different platforms such as radio, tv, online, ipads and social media, it showed that this is becoming a big thing. With audience participation increasing, its allowing us to be more involved within the media, and with having it on a wide range of devices we have more access to these features.

I'm excited to hear about the other companies now! Although Onteca is mainly based around Games, which doesn't really interest me as much, however it'll be interesting to learn about the developments within it.

I'M BACK

Well, it's the start of 2nd year, and i'm actually quite excited to be back doing some work after such a long break over summer, don't get me wrong it was great having a lovely holiday and working more on my art now that i had all that time! But i'm happy to be back, and getting to see my friends again!

after looking through all the modules i'm really glad we have a tv studio module! I can't wait to be working with the new equipment in there. Also Beyond the camera, which is more of what i'm interested in-post production. Were we will get to use, hopefully in more depth, After Effect, and Photoshop again, which i love!

So that's it, will update after we get some of our first assignments!

:D

Pierre Dubois is born!

Our last assignment for Contemporary Media Issues is definitely interesting one! We have been asked to create a fictional character and give it life through the use of Facebook and two other social websites. This is definitely one of my favorite assignments we've had!

The 6 of us in the group decided that we wanted to create a 'Flat' of roomates, but create very stereotypical characters. 

My character being French, and male, meant that I could have some fun with the whole thing, and a whole different identity. 

Character Profle:

Name: Pierre Léon Dubois

Age: 21
Birthday: 31st October 1991
Occupation: Student
University: University of Liverpool, World culture and Literature.

Then we started looking into what types of relations we could have. Stevie and I wanted to create French brothers, So that is how Jackques Dubois was born. 

I started off creating a Facebook

He got 116 friends!

I found interacting with others amusing, as a lot of people did not recognise it was me. I tried to make him look a real as possible using ideas from my own Facebook profile. I added Likes, and interests on his page, and even interacted with French people, added from a group I joined.

The fact I was able to communicate in French was actually quite an interesting experience, and made it much more believable.

I also added a Tumblr account and Soundcloud, and also Twitter, where I could interact with my group and their characters.

We even created our own little facebook group dedicated to our Flat called 'Flat 34' 

Here we spoke to each other, in our characters, sometimes being in French which was also very humorous.

Click the picture to look at Pierre's Profile Page

Website developments

So today I've done a few mock-up for my website design layout. Initially I started on Dreamweaver, using the design view, although it was actually really time consuming, as i thought it would be just as quick to just put everything onto Dreamweaver, rather than developing it on Photoshop first then importing it.

Creating them on Photoshop meant i could play around more with the design.
I won't post the mass amount of design i came up with, but here is my final design.

Social Networking Wiki

We were told to create another Wiki Page using Wet paint about Social Networking for another assignment. 

In groups of 5 or 6m we were asked to create a 300 word thread about one of these subject areas:

Social Networking and Identity

Social Networking and Collective Intelligence

Social Networking and the Creation of Communities

Social Networking and Democracy

Social Networking and Distribution

I chose to do Sicial Networking and democracy. I found it quite interesting researching this because I didn't belive so many groups and pages were made just about deforestation on social networks. I came across a thread on a website about how Greenpeach were outraged about Mattel's deforestation habits within their company, which forced 'Ken' to be spokesperson for Greenpeace!

Here's the link to the Wiki Page  

Imagine that!

So myself, Stevie, Gemma, Becca, and Josie, have all decided to create a production team. We have named ourselves Imagine That Productions. 

We aim to get together during summer and make films, although we have already come up with a few ideas of what we'd like to do.

Hopefully we'll be able to get some work or events that we could possibly contribute to!

I've been drawing a lot lately. It's something I've always been interested in, and love incorporating it within graphic media.

In Digital Media tools, we are going to be creating a website, as a reflection of ourselves. Our lecturer asked us what type of content we wanted to include on our sites. I hadn't really thought about it because, I'm not someone who has a certain veiwpoint on what I want to accomplish in the future, or what type of media i want to go into. So drawing is really the only thing I have.

I'd love to incorporate it into my website design though, using mixed media effects in Photoshop, to produce a layout for my website, or even some sort of logo for myself.

Here's some of my recent drawings I've done. I know its not media related but hey.

This is just a little photo manip that i did with the last image playing around with layers.

Google Maps!

So just before Christmas, we'd been given a brief for our next assignment; to use the tools from Google Maps to tell a story. It could be either fictional or factual.

We got given a started place, our's being 'Antony Gormley's Another Place, Crosby'. being from the area I know this place well, so it was nice starting with something which was familiar to me.

Most of my group didn't really know much about them, just that they were 'Iron Men standing on a beach' so firstly we needed to research the story behind them. Although after about an hour googling, we could not fin a thing as to why the sculptures were built.

So with that being said, we ha to come up with a story based around them. So we decided to look up 5 other iron statues around the world and link them together using a 'fairytale-like story based around an Iron witch that turned all these people/animals into stone as they were about to go home.

You can have a look at our stories below..

View The Iron Witch in a larger map