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.