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.