CatchCards Presentation

Today we presented our Prezi's in front of the class and basically talked about the game we had created and why we thought it was a fun, enjoyable game. As you may already know, me and my group created the game CatchCards which is a combination of throwing and catching and word association. I actually enjoyed presenting our idea to the class as it gave us a chance to talk about what we have been working on for the past couple of weeks and enabled us to showcase our ideas and get constructive feedback from our peers and tutors.

Here are a few screenshots of the Prezi and a link to the full thing...

http://prezi.com/kuolw1ccvnvh/catchcards/   <---- copy this link into your address bar to view the full Prezi.

No more People On The Move :)

We finally came to the end of our People On The Move films in Monday's session. My group planned on coming in a few hours earlier to complete editing, putting music on the film and burning it to disk, however, we made a mistake and thought we needed the tape to edit and panicked because the group member with the tape had actually been working at that time! So in the end we had to rush to uni, finish editing as quick as we could and managed to make it just in time to present to the rest of the class. Corin and Camilla seemed impressed by our efforts and we recieved positive feedback on the film especially the shots we chose to use.
I couldn't be more relieved as this assignment was probably the most time consuming and demanding task we've had yet and i think it's safe to say we're glad it's over!

Gaming...

 In Tuesday's session we developed our gaming ideas by using half of the class as users for our chosen game and took pictures and began working on a Prezi to present to the class in next week's session. The game we chose was a combination of throwing and catching with word association. We decided to call it CatchCards and the game requires players to basically throw and catch a ball whilst thinking of linking words from a chosen catergory. For example if you were to get the catergory Nature you would start off with the word 'tree' so the other player would say 'green' etc. As a group we created rules for the game and plan on making examples of the cards players would choose a catergory from later this week.

Here are a few pictures of a couple classmates playing the game whilst doing a forfeit eg. kneeling on one knee...

Finished Filming!

Ok so today we finally managed to finish filming for our People On The Move films, we started the day by editing the footage we had already taken and ended up going 1 minute over the limit. Luckily, we managed to impress Camilla with what we had achieved so far considering we only started filming last week. After talks with Camilla we decided to re-film a few scenes that needed tweaking a little bit and managed to wrap up our filming session within less than half an hour, completing all scenes that needed to be changed. I feel relieved we finished filming today, now on to editing!

People On The Move...

Tonight we managed to get filming for our People On The Move films which are in for the beginning of December. We got quite a lot of footage however still need to film a fair amount for us to edit next week. The only problem was that the LED light wasn't working for the outside scene, but luckily the location had an adequate amount of lighting for us to film successfully. We'll finish off filming next Monday in time for us to edit and present to the class before we break up for Christmas.

Stop Motion...

 After uni we went back to Kay's and got started with the stop motion.. i didn't realise how much effort goes into it but we had fun anyway and got used to the fact that we had to take at least 2 pictures of one frame after each movement. We haven't completed it yet but we're quickly getting there :)

Game...

In the morning session yesterday we developed our game ideas and managed to come up with a simple game called CatchCards in which the players are throwing and catching while saying words that link to the previous word said, so for example if the game started off with the word 'fire' the next person could say 'orange' and so on...

Swimming Pool...

Ok so this film was by far the weirdest film we've watched in Film Language to date! The film itself was hilarious even if it didn't intend to be and had the whole class cracking up. However the narrative completely baffled me as i didn't fully get whether the book Sarah Morten wrote was the storyline of the film or it was in her fantasy.
If you haven't seen this film i think you should, even though most parts are cringey i think the way it was put together
was really good.

Wiki's, Xbox & Wii

Today we went through our completed Wiki's and went through any changes we needed to make, luckily my group managed to write a few last minute paragraphs to add details to the Wiki before getting assessed tomorrow. The Wiki can be viewed on the following link ... http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/Theory+of+Fun
After the break we did something a little unexpected which was playing on the Wii for a good half an hour! This was to do with the Theory of Fun concept that we are always learning while staying entertained whilst playing games.
I actually enjoyed today's lecture even if it was a little unexpected!

People on the Move, Editing Workshop & Theory of Fun

On Monday we more or less just discussed our plans for the People on the Move assessment and my group managed to finalise our narrative which is based on the dangers a female student faces when she leaves to go home from a flat party.. i'll update you more on this when we begin filming next week. We also attended an editing workshop which was slightly helpful in teaching us about Avid which is the software we'll be using to edit our POTM films. I found the software fairly easy to use as i used similar programs at A-Level however i did find some areas a bit difficult but the more i practice the more i'll find it easier to grasp.
On Tuesday we worked on our Wiki's but because a couple members of the group weren't in we found it slightly difficult to decide what we're going to put in the Wiki and who's going to write what. Luckily, James (member of the group) had read about things like the theory of fun before, so he made notes that helped me get a better understanding of the book and so i should find it easier to start writing my part of the Wiki next week.

Catch Up...

So today we were given our first assessment based on a particular media text; our group were given 'The Theory of Fun' by Raph Koster and were given the opportunity to create a Wiki based on the book and the question 'why do people find games fun?'. Like I said last week I don't really enjoy the Wiki format but I was game for getting this assessment done and if it's going to help me in the long run I guess it's not too much of a big deal!

Wiki's...

In groups we collectively created a Wiki based on what our article's were about. My group had the topic of 'Cinema' therefore in the Wiki we discussed issues in the Cinema such as copyright, legalities, interviews with characters and reviews on films. I didn't really enjoy the format of Wiki's as i found it quite difficult to write about the issues we came across. However i do understand that Wiki's can be helpful in coming together to write about a certain topic and sharing research rather than doing it alone.

Prezi...

Today i was a bit late to the lecture however still managed to get an idea of how to use Prezi, which is basically like a Powerpoint presentation but without the seperate slides. I found the program quite easy to use however, after looking at the other group's presentations i knew i needed to get more familiar with the program and learn how to use different tools to make the Prezi look more professional.
I think Prezi's a really useful tool for presenting information as it allows the user to see the content on a bigger picture by the click of a button rather than creating different slides and having to go back and forth like you would on slideshows.

Take 1...

Hey i'm Sonal and i'm a Media Professional Studies student at LJMU. I enrolled on this course to learn more about the media and the way in which it works in order to help me express my own ideas about the subject. My experience of the media started at GCSE making short documentaries and print media then eventually short films when it came to A-Level. Since then i have grown a strong interest in the topic and would like to go into the industry working in either TV or Film, however i'm not completely sure as to what i want to do yet but hopefully something like presenting, directing or working back stage at events.
As a consumer i am majorly interested in TV and watching different programmes, anything from Come Dine With Me because of the diverse characters and hilarious presenter, to Jersey Shore, where the infamous American Italians or 'Guidos 'as they like to call themselves revolve their lives around 'gym, tanning and laundry' oh, and of course fist-pumping.
As a producer i enjoy making documentaries, short films and have always wanted to make a professional music video as it's something that has always interested me and seems like a lot of fun, so we'll see how it goes :)