Focus Group

This afternoon's session for Applied Media Research involved using focus groups in order to gain more qualitative information on Premium and Freemium games. We chose to use Jodie's group for this part of our research and began by allowing the members of that group to play on both paid for and free games on an iPad as this was the most simplest and adequate platform to use, considering the majority of people who play 'Apps' use either an iPhone/iPad. The first game the focus group played was a paid for App, Where's Wally 2 where users had to navigate across the screen in order to find the main character, Wally.
The purpose of this task was to find out what users enjoyed about the app, what they would have improved if given the chance, what stood out to them while playing and if they thought that the app was worth paying for. We gathered our results by asking the focus group to fill out a questionnaire for each app, which would encourage them to state the reasons for their choice, hence providing qualitative data.

I thought the method we used to gather our data however could have varied a little as i saw that the focus group began to get bored of filling out the same questionnaire for each app. This has therefore encouraged me to think more creatively when deciding on how to gather my data. As a quick last minute decision, me and my group thought it would be necessary to record voice clips from each individual and find out which app they enjoyed the most and why, which ones they didn't and which one they'd be most likely to buy.
I found this task quite boring if i'm honest as i am still finding it hard to find the right ways of collecting data and right now all i know is focus groups and questionnaires. I will see this as a learning curve and hopefully encourage myself to look deeper into ways of gathering data.

Editing Begins..

So yesterday me and my group finally began to edit the footage we had previously recorded for our TV show. As i hadn't used Avid since first year ,which was almost 9 months ago, i was quite hesitant getting back into the flow of editing and getting used to the software again, especially as it had been updated over the summer break. With a little help from the technicians, i was able to set up a new project in Avid and begin putting the clips together by recording the adequate footage from the HDV camera into the bins on Avid. There was a few technical issues however, as the audio on one part of the interview we had shot hadn't captured onto the computer, forcing me to go through the process of recording the footage onto Avid again, which deemed to be quite a long process.
Not long after the footage once was recorded back onto the software, (including the audio this time!) i began putting each individual part of the show together which involved editing in the intro, where i, as presenter introduce the viewers to the show, followed by the interview itself and finally the performance by TJ&Murphy, which concluded the end of the show. Our next task as a group was to add a subtle transition from the end of the interview to the performance by TJ&Murphy who would act as the outro of the show. By using the effect editor tool we were abled to fade in the music from the beginning of the performance while i was wrapping up the show, to the first shot of TJ&Murphy, giving that particular clip a more professional and industrial look.
All that was left to do after this was add in the title sequence and tweak a few problems we had with the audio, which proved to be the most strenuous task throughout our editing process. Although Avid is a very time consuming and complex software, i actually enjoyed learning the ins and outs as it enhanced my editorial skills which i thoroughly believe will prove to be very useful when editing forthcoming projects along with applying for jobs in the future. I'm glad that this assignment is finally over and i am confident that i will gain a 2:1 on this particular assignment. My next task for the module will be to write up my individual dossier which i hope won't be too stressful, speak to you soon!

Completion of Movie Artefact

After beginning our 2nd assignment of the year, a digital artefact for Beyond The Camera over 4 weeks ago, me and my team finally submitted our composition just in time for the deadline at 4pm this afternoon. Our task was to make a image based composition that would  revolve around a particular narrative while exploring the characteristics of rostrum camera technique and text image manipulation, enabling us to enhance and develop our creative skills as a group.Collectively we decided that our narrative would be horror based and would involve a young female getting followed into her house by a strange presence. We began the assignment by sourcing a range of sound clips and files from websites such as freesoundorg.com, freesfx.co.uk and soundjay.com where we found a range of sounds including footsteps, thunder, rain, a taxi pulling up outside a house, bath water running and even some gentle whispers to give the composition that extra eerie touch that it needed. From this we decided as individuals that we would put our sounds together using sound manipulation software Audacity in order to come up with our own take on the narrative we had previously decided on. As an individual this allowed me to explore my own creative side and it wasn't long before i had gathered around 9-10 sounds that fitted in with the narrative. The following week we decided on who's audio composition sounded the most adequate for this particular task and decided on my group member Pete's, who's composition was then tweaked by me and my other fellow group member as we needed to cut the audio down to 2 minutes long.

The weeks building up to the deadline day involved getting myself familiarised with After Effects which i had initally been quite anxious about as i knew it was something i hadn't experienced before, along with the fact that it proved to be quite complex in terms of understanding the format and ways in which the software worked. It wasn't long before my group and i started to source images off the internet that fitted in with our horror based narrative. With a little help from our tutor, we were able to search for images that held a tighter shot, meaning that we had more of an engaging theme, rather than sourcing a load of random shot images that would look untidy when it came to putting the images together in order to create a movie artefact.
As today was our final chance to complete the assignment, as a group we decided to come in early and power our way through so the finished item would look as polished and professional as possible. As i hadn't given myself the opportunity to have a proper go at compositing on After Effects, i felt like today would have my final opportunity to enhance my software skills. Therefore i took it upon myself to tweak any faults and make any possible improvement i could before we would have to submit the task, such as aligning the text image animation properly, editing out uneccessary sound from the sound file and making suggestions to my peers as to what i think would look more ideal.
Although we submitted the assignment in time, i believe if we had had more group meetings, the artefact would be guaranteed a 1st. However due to the lack of communication between me and my group members we didn't have enough time to make any further changes therefore the assignment was in some way rushed.
Luckily there won't be any other practical assignments this year so i look forward to going home for Christmas and making the most of my time off before i start to write my individual report :)

Second Life

As the next part of my research i had a look at how people may for media and what sorts of things they choose to pay for. Taking a look online i came across virtual world Second Life which enables users to create their own avatars and homes, similar to Sims, in which they can interact with other 'people' and more or less begin a second life. Users are given the chance to make their avatars, laugh, sing, smile, shake hands and use any other form of body language to interact with other Second Life users, allowing for some sort of escapism from their everyday lives. Although Second Life is free to join, in order to make your avatar live a more fun and engaging life in it's surroundings, users are given the ability to pay for food, clothes, luxurys, pet food and even islands.

As users have full control of what their avatar does, this may be one of the main reasons why users are willing to pay for content as they are not being limited as to what they buy and when they buy it. In comparison with mobile apps for example, there is only so many levels or stages to complete before the game is over. However with Second Life, avatars are able to live just as long as humans, regarding they are properly looked after. Therefore user control may be a good tool for media companies to look at, as my research has shown that some users are willing to pay $300 dollars simply for food for their online pets. Although Second Life to some may seem like a waste of time and money, users who do interact with the virtual world are given a chance to create their own world and socialise with other avatars in order to escape from their everyday lives.

Setting Up The Set

Today, me and my group went into the TV Studio to set up our set for our TV Show, 'That's Entertainment'. We began by decorating the flats with wallpaper as part of the background, which proved to be a difficult task at first as there was another group in the studio who were also setting up their set for their show.
Luckily it wasn't long before we managed to begin decorating 2 of the flats and putting up a couple dark brown sheets to form a drape effect in which the arch would come in between. During this process, the director of the show, Orlagh was busy completing the script so all group members would eventually have a copy so they knew what shots they'll be expected to film or in my case, to know exactly what i'm saying and what camera to look at.
Towards the end of the setting up the set process, Kelly and Ian who are in charge of the TV Studio, helped our group find the right lighting for the set in which we realised that it looked more of an evening time show rather than a daytime show due to the browns, blacks and maroon shades that filled the set. Personally i don't think this will affect our grade for the assignment as the key point is that the interview is shot and presented well with appropriate lighting and good quality shots.
I look forward to the show being recorded on Friday afternoon, even though i am slightly nervous! Pictures of the show will be uploaded in a couple of days.

The History of Advertising

As the next part of my research, i went through a process of researching the history of advertising; how it came about, how it has developed and how it has affected the media industry as time has gone on.
In 1914, the Federal Trade Commission regulated advertisements. This seems like a very long time ago. However it was almost four thousand years ago that the first ever form of advertisement was created by the Ancient Egyptians. They would carve public notices in steel as a form of advertisment which is extremely different to how people advertise in the 21st century, mainly through the means of television, billboards, social networking sites and even entertainment sites such as YouTube. The first ever print ad was actually created in Great Britain in 1472, a handbill announcing the sale of a prayer book.
I eventually came across a website that featured an article based on the history of advertising written by someone called Zoe Fox who stated 'The evolution from steel to digital took many turns along its way, such as print fliers hoping to get young men to fight in the Revolutionary War, billboards spurred by the rise of automobiles, electric banner ads following the invention of the light bulb (Times Square’s first went up in 1882) and direct marketing with the nascent postal service.'  This statement by Zoe outlined the fact that over a period of time, people found different ways of advertising and through the development of technology, companies and businesses were able to promote themselves in the best way possible.
A few decades after the invention of television, the public saw the launch of world-renown network MTV advertising music artists 24/7 in 1981 which aimed to advertise in the form of entertainment. Just over a decade later, the first ever mobile ad was introduced to consumers by a Finnish news provider, offering free news headlines via SMS which was sponsered by advertising.

Research for Onteca Questions

For my research question, i have decided to go with the ones John Wetherall from Onteca provided us with; 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 the best monetization mechanics for Freemium games on mobile?
For the first question i did a little research on what new models have emerged for selling media and the main ones i found are used by millions of people across the world. When users first started downloading music, the easiest way to acquire music was illegally - however it wasn't that people necessarily didn't want to pay for a product but they developed the habit of not paying - so when programs such as iTunes came along people could easily get hold of music and not feel bad about it. 
iTunes provider Apple makes approximately $600,000 a year with store sales of 500,000 a week, showing a relatively high success rate of music downloads. A quote from Apple's website clearly gives the customer an idea of what they can find at the iTunes store 'What’s on the iTunes Store? You name it. You’ll find millions of songs from just about any artist, album, or genre you can think of. Browse thousands of movies to buy or rent. Keep up with your favorite TV shows in standard and high definition. Browse over 700,000 apps and games.* Discover more than 225,000 free audio and video podcasts.* '
This statement clearly outlines the fact that Apple provide a service where their users can freely browse the store, like any other online shopping website and entices them into a service where you have to pay a small fee of around £2.50 per song or film for good quality. Some users haven't always been used to the idea of downloading music on a regular basis as the radio was the only form of music at one point therefore iTunes acts more as a fun and interactive experience for the consumer.

In answer to the question 'When people download so much media freely, what are people willing to pay for and how?' i looked at Mike Walsh's book, Futuretainment in which he outlined a very signifcant statement saying 'In a world where you can get any piece of content for free, media companies will no longer be able to rely on walled gardens for survival. Instead aggregators of the future will create value by understanding the individual preferences of customers and creating personalized slices of entertainment for them'. (Walsh, 2009) This clearly indicates the simple fact that users are really only willing to invest time into content that is free to access and media companies will have to be more specific when targeting audiences in order for them to make money.
The younger generation especially, have been grown up in a digital age in which entertainment is available, anywhere, anytime and on any device, according to Walsh, and for this reason, users are more likely to be encouraged to access content freely as there is a way. However, if we diverge from this idea, we can say that the older generation may be more willing to pay for content as they grew up in a age where they were basically forced to watch, listen and read any content they were given. So in a sense they are more used to the idea of 'sticking by the rules'.
Looking at programs such as Spotify, a Swedish born music streaming service, consumers are given a choice of whether they want to pay and have more access to more music, or
access music for free with limitations such as only having access to 10 hours of music per month. Giving users the choice of paying or having limited access with more annoyances such as adverts and pop-ups, they might be more willing to pay a small fee to get the most out of the online service as they can access a lot more content which in turn proves Spotify to be a successful new model in selling media.

Cross-Shooting Exercise

This morning my group (group 5) and group 4, went into the TV Studio to learn about cross-shooting, which is basically shooting two people at roughly the same angle from opposite but corresponding positions (as shown in the image).
Initially i assumed that cross shooting would be fairly easy as it just seemed like positioning 3 different cameras at different angles in order to split up the shots. However once we had to position the cameras and create shot sizes, i realised that particular shots go with how the presenter/subject is sat. So for example, in a typical Alan Carr show, the camera would be positioned on Alan in a midshot, or a wider frame than the interviewee. This is based on the simple fact that it is the interviewee that we have more of an interest in, therefore want to see a tighter shot in order to feel some what closer to them.
I personally didn't operate the cameras in this particular exercise but that didn't affect the way i was learning how to position the camera as i was carefully watching how my peers were advised to position the shots.
During the second half of the workshop, we were required to make a script for a 3 minute interview that would eventually be rehearsed and recorded. As i have taken on the role as presenter, i was confident in writing my script as i have watched many interviews in the past, be it Alan Carr Chatty Man, The Jonathan Ross show, even American talk shows such as The Ellen Degeneres Show. Watching these shows gave me a clear idea of how a real interview is designed to flow and what kind of questions are asked. Therefore i was quick to jot down around 7 questions that i would soon ask Hayley, who was going to act as my interviewee.
It wasn't long before the mini interview was going to be shot and i felt a little nervous at first. However after a couple rehearsals, i tried to let go of my nerves and the interview flowed almost how i wanted, with just a couple improvised questions thrown in.
Even though i didn't have a go on the cameras this time, i experienced how cross-shooting works from a presenters' perspective and had a very clear idea in my head of how the interview was going to be shot, as as a group we went over the shots beforehand.
I now feel more comfortable taking on the role of a presenter and will hopefully be even more confident when it comes to the final assignment in a few weeks time.

Mike Lewis - Nine Lives Media

The final guest speaker, Mike Lewis, executive producer at Nine Lives Media came in this afternoon to propose the final question to me and my peers. As i researched the Nine Lives Media website a few days before Mike's visit, i looked forward to see what kind of questions he was going to ask us. Being a producer of well known programmes such as Panorama, Dispatches and many more documentaries that are broadcast on Channel 4/BBC/BBCThree i obviously had an idea of what his talk would involve.
However i wasn't expecting to recieve a little careers advice. Mike pre-warned us that working in the Media doesn't just involve handing your CV in to a bunch of different companies, expecting to get a job just because you have a degree and some experience, but developing some sort of portfolio that highlights your interest in that specific industry.
I found the talk very helpful at times as it opened up my eyes and made me think that the industry i may want to work in, may not be as exciting as i expect and to therefore try and gain experience in different industries to see what sort of industry and job role suits me best.
Mike wanted to find out what multi-platform experiences we have had but i personally didn't have many, apart from calling in to vote for a contestant on The X Factor! I guess that shows that the interactive side of the media isn't one that interests me enough to make the effort to play along with a game or install a relatable app, which may suggest that i have a more laid back attitude towards multi-platform experiences.
Mike left us with these questions;

• Which are the three most successful examples of cross-platform television programming?

• How did viewers participate and most importantly, what did they gain from the experience? 

As this was the final question(s) set by the guest speakers, i have looked over all three carefully and considering voting for the 2nd question, set by John Wetherall from ONTECA, as i understand it more clearly and believe i won't have much trouble finding research to answer his question. So fingers crossed i'll actually get to answer it, but either way i shall keep you posted!

A Visit from John Wetherall at ONTECA

In last weeks Applied Media Research lecture, we were visited by 1 of 4 members of the ONTECA team, who are game development company based in the Merseyside county of Toxteth.
John started the lecture by introducing himself and giving us an insight as to what ONTECA is all about, which is basically a company that is most famously known for creating apps for iPhone and Android. At first i thought the lecture wasn't going to be of much interest, as i personally don't have much of a strong interest in the interacitve/technological side of media. However as the talk went on, i realised that the lecture had more to it than just John talking about creating apps. He focused on the fact that people want to enjoy the luxury of being able to interact with TV shows such as Million Pound Drop or Deal or No Deal, however when a price tag comes up, even at the price of £0.99p , users are quick to exit and look for a free app, when they will go and spend £3.00 on a hot chocolate later on that day. Therefore it made me question my own actions when it comes to downloading apps, and why i choose not to download an app that costs as little as £0.99p .. which i still don't know the answer to. Maybe i don't think the game/service is worth the price i have to pay?
At the end of the lecture we were given a few questions;

• What are the best monetization mechanics for media products?
• What can we learn by looking at Freemium games on mobile and how can we apply this to the media?
• When is it morally wrong?

Quite a lot of research will have to go into answering these questions if i decide to choose this as my assignment question so i'll keep you posted and post any research i find!

See you soon x

Qualitative Research

Today's lecture focused on qualitative research and how we can answer the question 'What is the best way to market a degree course to potential students?' without trying to gain numbers, percentages, bar charts or any other sort of statistics.
After a short brief was given to us by our tutor, we soon decided on a letter format written by the three members of another group who acted as soon-to-be Media students at LJMU.
We told our peers to act as if they were very curious about the ins and outs of the course eg. how much of the course will be based on practical? , how many hours will i spend at university? what is the success rate of the course? As the questions were open-ended, we were able to gather a lot of information about what exactly the existing students wished they would have asked the university so they knew more about the course and whether they made the right choice.
Compared to quantitative data, I found the results of qualitative data much more useful in terms of detail, as i was able to analyse the data and get a clearer idea of what specific questions the students wanted to ask LJMU before they came to university. In response to the question at the beginning of the post, i can answer the question with answers such as more people wanted to know how long they'll be in uni for, how much time is recommended for direct study, if they'll be meeting new people and many more. The method of the letter worked very well for us as a group and i can guarantee it will for future group/individual data collection projects. I was happy collecting as much data as possible as too much data is better than too little data.

A visit from Ian Wareing - Digital Fiction Factory

In today's Applied Media Research lecture, we were visited by Ian Wareing, one of the producers at the Digital Fiction Factory based in Manchester. I came into the lecture looking forward to what Ian was going to talk to us about and what sort of projects he was going to show us.
Being a guest speaker, it was interesting to hear how far he had come from being an ordinary university student to a producer at one of the UK's most successful independent production companies. He showed us projects such as 'The Beauty Inside', a social film that utilises Facebook and features members of the general public who act the characters in the film. 'Take This Lollipop' is also a Facebook based film which i believe was used as a strategy to reach the younger population and make sure they know to keep their profiles private and not interact with people they don't actually know. My personal favourite project was the Wretch32 invasion Ian introduced us to, as it gave me a very clear example as to what UCG (User Generated Content) was, as the audience themselves thought that the 'invasion' was real, yet it was all a set up by the producers at Channel 4's series Hollyoaks.
I found the talk quite interesting at times because of the simple fact that Ian had shown us projects that i had never even come across before. Therefore it made me want to look more into the notion of UCG and get a deeper understanding as to why audiences prefer this type of content, rather than the typical producer-consumer format.

back for the 2nd year...

Hi everyone :) It has been a while since i've updated my blog but i'm sure it won't take me too long to get back into the habit of letting you know what i've been up to in my lectures.
Thursday's session with Sarah introduced me to the module 'Applied Media Research', which is basically what it says on the tin! We began the lecture by being informed of what the module was going to involve and mainly focused on 'quantitative research' in the session. I have had very good experience of collecting quantitative data in lower education, therefore i knew the task Sarah was going to set wasn't going to be much of a struggle.
We were given the task of forming a questionnaire that was based on the question 'What is the best way to market a degree to potential students?' At first, me and my two peers struggled to think of questions to involve in our questionnaire as we didn't fully understand the question we were given, until Sarah gave us examples of what we could ask.

It wasn't long before i started jotting down a range of scale rating questions such as 'the media affects/influences my degree choice' and 'the achievements of lecturers influence my degree choice'. Eventually i typed up the questionnaire which would in turn collect quantitative data in the following session.
I shall provide you with more detail of the answers people gave in our questionnaire in a few days, so stay tuned! :)

Museum of Liverpool Presentation - Angler...

On Wednesday me and Hayley presented our idea for the Museum of Liverpool which was based on the target group of an Angler. We struggled during the build-up of the presentation as the target group we were given wasn't the most easiest of audience's to entice into coming to a Museum, therefore we ended up thinking of an exhibit to celebrate 30 years of the Mersey Basin Campaign set up by Michael Heseltine.
In the presentation we showed a Prezi that showed our tutors the stages we went through to think of a final idea and included research we had done, character profiles, initial ideas and our final idea. Here is a link to the prezi http://prezi.com/t5njrv8endqv/angler/ .
I personally don't think the presentation went very well as we didn't plan as much as we could have and also because there was only 2 of us, we lacked in creativity for our idea. I don't feel completely positive that we will get a good mark for this assignment but I am hoping to do well in my 1500 word essay which will reflect on problems we had, what we could have done and how we reached our idea.

Presentation of Our Online Fictional Characters...

Today we presented our online fictional characters to the class and our tutors through the 3 websites we produced for them. As you may already know from my previous blogs, my group's fictional character was Kyle Jackson, a Liverpudlian graduate who emmigrated to Australia to become a lifeguard instructor. Collectively we created a Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr account for Kyle to see how others would interact with him and whether they believed it was a real person or not. Successfully Kyle gained 62 followers and around 70 Facebook friends which was a clear indicator that people believed it was a real person.
I enjoyed tweeting and writing Facebook status's for Kyle as it allowed me to escape from my own life and imagine how another person would live in a whole other country with a different lifestyle.
I also enjoyed watching how other groups had developed their characters and had created short videos on Youtube and audio clips  on Soundcloud as it made their characters seem more realistic in a sense and showed how easy it was to interact with other fictional characters for example Josie's group who were a set of friends living in one flat. I found this as a good approach as it allowed them to create the notion of a sitcom which may have been entertaining if it was a real programme.
The only problems i had with this task was that at times I found it hard to think of what to tweet for Kyle as he led a pretty normal life for a guy who lives in Australia and in the end taught me to try and think more creatively when developing a character online.

Rough Edit of Factual Short...

In yesterday's Production Practice session, we went in a few hours earlier to prepare our rough edit to show Corin and Camilla at 2pm. We put all the footage we had together into a sequence and realised that the narrative for our factual short didn't have much depth as we were only able to interview one hairdresser at the salon which limited our overall views on male grooming. Once Corin and Camilla had seen our rough edit of the film, they suggested that we get in touch with local magazines and websites to widen our narrative and to make it seem more like a factual film rather than another personal profile. I think its going to be a little difficult for us to adhere to our tutors requests at this stage as we have less than a week before the submission deadline but i'll be sure to let you know how we get on!

Developing a Realistic Character...

In today's session we were given the brief for our next assignment which shares similarities with the Weavr task we were given last week. However this time our tutors wanted us to be a bit more creative with the new character by setting up not only a Facebook account but three other online platforms that would represent our character to the social network. My group have already set up a Facebook and Twitter account for our character, Kyle Jackson and plan on creating a blog and Vimeo alongside these.

Here are a couple screen shots of Kyle's Twitter and Facebook but if you wish to look at his full profile then links to both follow shortly after the pictures, so take a quick look! :)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003627004016

https://twitter.com/#!/jackokyle

Social Identity Through Weavr & Twitter..

So today we began a new topic in which we learnt about social identity and what it is. Collectively as a group we discussed what is meant by identity and came up with ideas such as how we are percieved, how we represent ourselves and our appearance etc.
Once our tutors finished talking to us about how we use social networking sites and the internet in general to portray our identity, we were set the task of creating a fictional identity through a website called Weavr. Within this program I was able to create my own avatar named Georgio Lopez, an Italian-American student living in New York.
Through Weavr i was able to build his profile, give him an age, show his interests and activities, what he likes to do on weekends and much more.
I actually really enjoyed creating an avatar as it enabled me to create a totally different life of a fictional character that only exists on the internet and took me away from focusing on my own profile on social networking sites such as Facebook. As my avatar is now on Twitter, I look forward to reading his tweets and seeing how many followers he gets by next week.. luckily it's enough to win me that kit-kat! (just kidding) :)

Take a look at Georgio's Twitter account ---> https://twitter.com/#!/Georgio1Lopez

Sharing ideas and why Creativity is important...

So today when we got to the creativity and concept lecture, Sarah and Alex informed us that we will be sharing our ideas for the Liverpool Museum to the class and letting them know where we have come so far in terms of development. As you may already know my group has been given the target audience of an Angler and so far we have thought of around 5-6 vague ideas of what we want the museum to involve to attract this audience. Me and Hayley collectively fed our ideas back to the class such as an interactive pond where the fisherman feels in his element but is fishing through a slightly different experience. To attract a younger, more modern audience however, we thought of an idea that would involve DJ'ing or music in general to liven up the fishing experience but still keeping in mind that fishing is a calming experience for many of those that are involved. I'll be sure to keep you posted on how we get along!
Shortly after the break, Alex explained to us why the module is important for us when it comes to looking for employment in a few years and gave us each an application form from the BBC and talked us through each question, breaking down why being creative is key in the industry. I found this talk very useful in fact as it opened my eyes as to why we do a lot of the things we do in lectures and made me realise that being creative isn't just about making a good film for uni.

It's Liverpool Feedback and Final Brief...

Today me and my group met a little earlier than usual to put the final touches on our Personal Profile film and ended up adding the backing track by MGMT and tweeked the film until we thought it was ready to burn to CD and ready to hand into our tutors at 2pm. After this we were given the brief on our final production assignment for the semester which will be a factual film with a duration of 3-5 minutes on any topic based outside of Uni. To help us kick start our ideas, our tutors told each one of us to come back to next week's session with a treatment, which is basically a detailed explanation of why our idea would be good to use as the topic of our next assignment. I decided to choose boxing as i thought this would attract the interest of fellow coursemates, especially the guys, but we will have to wait and see what ideas the rest of my group come up with!

Personal Profile - Final Footage and Editing...

Yesterday me and one of my production group members went in to edit the final footage we captured of Miles, our subject for the personal profile film that we filmed on Tuesday during his slot on Looprevil Radio. We managed to get a fair share of editing done in terms of putting together the main clips we were going to use and re-arranging the audio clips into the timeline so we would find it easier to do the final edit in next Monday's session before the deadline.

Wiki #2.. Welfare Reform...

Today I managed to complete my part of the second Wiki assignment which was based on how social networking sites and democracy are being used in the Welfare Reform process. Although i don't really enjoy creating Wiki's, i am becoming more used to the idea of creating them and actually didn't mind discussing my views on the topic using 300 words. At first i found it a little difficult to collate my research and opinions into the Wiki but once i got started i managed to complete it within a matter of minutes and now feel relieved that it's done and ready to show to my tutors in next week's session.


A link to the completed Wiki >> http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/Welfare+Reform

Personal Profile of a Radio DJ...

As part of our personal profile assignment, me and my production group chose to use a student radio DJ as the subject of the profile. Luckily we found this guy through one of the members of the production group who managed to get us to film the DJ while he was on air on a early Tuesday evening. When we got to the studio, Miles (the DJ) and his friend were just waiting for another student to finish his show so they could set up and begin. My first impressions of Miles was an approachable, friendly guy who seemed enthusiastic for us to listen in on the show and film him whilst doing so, which made us as the production group seem a lot more comfortable.
Setting up our cameras and mics deemed to be a little difficult at first but we soon managed to get our heads around it and began to film Miles shortly after while he was on air. I found this the most enjoyable of filming sessions as i would love to be able to interview, create a profile of someone in early stages of my future career and this experience pushed me to that desire even more as i was made to feel comfortable.


 

The Development of an Idea - Creativity & Concept

In today's creativity and concept session, we spent our time in The Automatic in which we got into our groups and began to develop the idea for the new Museum based in Liverpool. Each group had already been given an audience to aim their idea at; our group was given the Angler. At first i thought this was going to be slightly boring as i had seen other groups were given audiences that we could relate to more, such as bands and teenagers. However, through concept extraction, we managed to create a couple profiles for the target audience on big sheets of brown paper and soon our ideas began to flow smoothly. In between sessions me and my group intend on using other creativity techniques to help us gradually build a solid idea by the end of the term.

It's Liverpool Final Footage, Editing and Hand-In...

Today me and my group went out to the Docks to film the last part of footage for the 'It's Liverpool' competition. Luckily the weather was amazing this time round, even though it was cold, there were blue skies and very few clouds about, which permitted us to get more attractive shots of Liverpool and mainly the big wheel which we were all very pleased about. Unfortunately, by the time we had finished filming a few time lapse shots, it had gone darker and we weren't able to film the 'Welcome to the Albert Docks' sign that we were going to put in the beginning sequence. However, when it came to editing, the footage we did have looked fit for the competition, especially since we had the Paradise instrumental by Coldplay on top of the whole sequence which gave it an overall calming feel.

Creative Facilitation...

In todays creativity and concept lecture, our tutors explained to us the purpose of creative facilitation which is a skill used in many professions to lead groups to find solutions. In the lecture we went into groups of around 4 to 5 and were given the task of coming up with ideas that would be appropriate for a festival in Liverpool that would celebrate LJMU students and involve teachers. In turns we took on the role of the facilitator who's job was to help the other group members to come up with ideas and if stuck, guide them in a creative direction by (for example) telling them to think of the worst possible idea and eventually flip it round so we could present the best possible ideas.
On a whiteboard we jotted down our thoughts and i found this as a good way of getting us to stay active and alert as our minds were focusing on ideas and not just sitting down to a desk wondering what we could come up with as a group.

I found this technique useful in helping me take on the role as a facilitator as it gave me a sense of leadership and actually made me feel more comfortable around my peers. Furthermore, when i was acting as another member of the group, it became easier to think of ideas for the festival as we were able to stem ideas from previous ideas that me and my group members had already created. I believe this technique acts as useful tool in becoming more confident in your team and pushes you to be more dominant when neccessary.

Google Maps..

In last week's session we were briefed on our next assignment which is based on Google Maps. We were split into groups of 3 and each group were given a set location to start from, our group was given the Anglican Cathedral which we were really familiar with as one of our lectures is held opposite the building each Friday morning.
After a good half hour of discussion, my group decided that we were going to do a diary entry of the architect that designed the Anglican Cathedral and his journeys whilst designing other buildings across the country. As the assignment focuses on narrative i think this will help us to structure a clear storyline and help us improve our narrative skills for future assignments of similar nature. I look forward to seeing what we produce and hopefully the rest of the class will find our diary entry quite interesting.

It's Liverpool...

In our first lesson back after the Christmas holidays, our tutors basically went through what we was going to be doing for the upcoming semester. We got set two assignments which was to work on a project called 'It's Liverpool' which let's us film any part of Liverpool that signifies the city and enables viewers of the clip to easily recognise the city as Liverpool. We had a couple of new members join my group which i was pleased about as it gave us the opportunity to welcome new ideas.
At first we came up with the idea of creating a film that was based on the Albert Docks, so when we went to film we had our shots planned and were ready to go, however, the weather was a complete disappointment as it was dismal, grey and extremely windy which made our footage look utterly boring and uninteresting. After showing our tutors the rough edit, we had a little discussion and decided to change our narrative and base the film on the big wheel instead. Luckily when we went to film the weather was beautiful, although it was a little cold.. the sun was shining and there was barely a cloud in the sky which in turn made our entire footage look positive and gave a more positive feel to the film.