Day 1 to Video Media…

Not going to lie but it was tough getting back to the uni routine. Last year i had the chance to switch to the communication side of the course but as i have enjoyed CDP and my grades turned out to be the highest i thought why not give this module a try! i really enjoyed the whole creating a project from starch and producing some sort of media. Video Media was one of the modules that grabbed my attention.

Friday was my first day and we just went through the module and the assignments that are required through the whole year. We mainly focused on semester 1 assignments as there the ones coming up soon. Video Media is a practical, historical and theoretical intro to the contemporary moving image technologies and production. The module explores the current changes in media production. There will be quite a lot of group work as well as independent work to be done. As you can see its quite similar to CDP. The main focus of this module is through practice. Yes it may seen like a lot to take in but i believe i am ready for this.

The assignments for semester 1 is quite a lot. There an individual portfolio to be done which is 30% overall. This contains 4 chunks of work, Sonic Environment, Appropriation, Video Essay and lastly a written essay. This has to be done in semester 1. Throughout the whole module we must contain to write up our blogs, updating each work we process through. Semester 2 will then be a group presentation of our idea, our project and a essay.

After discussing all of the assignments we got down to the theoretical side of the module where define the terms video and audio. I thought the whole video ‘i see’ and audio ‘i hear’ was quite interesting. Both of theses are a thought process. Looking more at video i thought it was more of a active thing as it provides some sort of evidence. Its documents information and also gives a realistic feel. Where as audio gives you the feel of present. We looked about a couple of examples of moving images by Lumiere Brothers 1,2 and 3 versions. All were the same video but the video and audio was different which created a different perspective. Another video we looked at was a Syrian bombing video, this was to prove how videos can been seen as evidence to show people what has happened and also used for research purposes.

Looking at sound we looked at a example. Francis Alÿs Railings- Fitzroy Square, the sound from this gave a thought process. At the start the sound was irreverent, annoying, repetitive to then a music beat. This shows how people find sound.

The 2nd half of the lesson was a workshop with Phil. This was quite a fun lesson as we were introduced to new equipment! We went through the aspect ratio, resolution, framing and camera movements just to refresh our minds,before using the equipment. The cameras we used were XA304 LCD, theses camera were very good, much better to the ones we had last year!

So far this module sounds a lot of fun and i believe it will allow me to continually build on my knowledge of media production through life. I am excited to keep trying and see what new ideas i will bring. choosing a module outside your comfort zone is beyond worth it, because it brings out a different side of you.

Handing in the final bits….

Today is the hand in date for the essay and blog, even though the hand in date is on Thursday 26th I wanted to get it out of the way. Missing any kind of deadlines just frightens me! So I think its a good idea to always hand in any work a day before the deadline just to stay on the safe side.

After completing my essay and blog it feels super good! This project has been hard work but certainly fun, I enjoyed every second of it. Seeing the final outcome of the website, blog and essay, I must say my group have worked very well together. Even though the essay and blog is an individual assignment, working on the group project together we have worked very hard. We had regular meetings, discussions and communication in order to produce this project. I am happy with the final outcome!

As its coming to the end of the 1st year of my Media degree, it has certainly been great fun! I enjoyed every bit of this module. Very interesting lectures and learnt so many theoretical context that will be beneficial for the future too! This module was such a good experience for me and allowed me to learn many new theories and technical things. At the start of the module, learning about the equipments and camera work was defiantly not my thing. I was very confused and felt the pressure as it wasn’t my strongest skill, HOWEVER I can now say I have learnt new technical aspects from this module. Attending Phill’s workshops were very useful and I do advise people to attend theses workshops.

Overall I  think 1st year of university is always going to be an experience, quite personal and reflective. I know for sure next year I’ll probably look back at 1st year and wonder why the heck I was so stressed about my work load? But that’s what it’s all about; learning and organising yourself! Its now time to take a break and prepare myself for the second year….

 

Essay Time…

After completing the first deadline, its now time to make a start on the evaluation. As I have been keeping up on my blog the essay will be easier to write about because I have kept a track of everything I have done during this project. Many people in my course are struggling but thats due to the fact they haven’t been posting their blogs regularly! I’m glad I was able to do this because when it comes to writing up the essay I can just look and reflect back on my blog!

As it is 2,000 words essay, it will take time to discuss all the important issues taken place during the project, I have planned out what to write for each sections on paper then I will slowly begin it on screen.

I started the essay last week as my group handed in our project early. By making a early start on the essay was a good idea because then I can focus on the other deadlines we have. On Monday, even though we don’t have anymore lectures I still made time to go to the library and finish off my essay! I have completed it and happy to submit it on Wednesday. On Tuesday I will double check all the literacy and spellings and Wednesday will get someone to read over my work.

When it came to writing up the essay, I believe I have considered everything in the evaluation from the ideas I was inspired by, designs references, codes and conventions I used and an overall insight of the project and module. I happy with my final outcome of the project therefore it was easy for me to write everything up because everything went right during the process! The only part I had difficulties with in the essay was the last question on feedback. it was hard to get hold of people to get feedback on the project as everyone either gone home or got to much work to do, but eventually I got hold of a few people, who don’t do the course to look at the website. I think that was a better idea to do because they won’t know what the brief is about. I included images of our work and other artist work, this is so my essay doesn’t bore anymore. Im happy with my process throughout this semester and the hard work I have kept up. On Thursday I will write up my last blog for this semester! Lets just hope the outcome of this is a good grade!

Uploading part 1/2

As we have no lessons today we thought meeting up and finishing off the site would be ideal. Today we have completed our final proposal and also created our contact sheet to show our progress on the images we captured. Most of our images we used were from London. We got loads of images but only used a small range of them because the site should contain only 8-12 pictures. We picked out the strongest images and edited them to present how social networking is a disease and also a way so people can reflect on their problems they have. We aimed to be as creative as possible, by making little changes.

We have made a contact sheet to show the images we have captured and also to show the progress we made. As you can see their is a difference with the before and after. The edited ones are very effective and really match with our theme. Yes the originally images look plain Jane but that was our purpose. Simple images so viewers can reflect on them.

Contact Sheet.

Final Proposal.

disrupting-the-everyday-propsal-new3

Website:

www.uwewebmedia.net/cdp/2018/addict/index.html.

Website is officially done as well as our proposal and its UPLOADED! We managed to get Phill’s help on how to upload it onto Black broad and get our website live. But overall i’m pleased with what our work today! I’m happy with the website and with the whole idea! Now bring on the essay….

We’re getting there…

Today was our final lesson we have with Becky to get any final bit of information off her. We went over our website and uploaded all the images that myself and Abi have edited. We thought how it would be a good idea to have each image pop up when they click on it, explaining what the image is about, with advice given too. Final adjustments will be made on Tuesday! And hopefully our site will go live then too. Created a logo and slogan for our site, this is to make it look professional and realistic as possible.

Simple slogan but yet effective. The colour red is effective as it symbolise blood and danger. The cross reflects on emergency and health and the laptop shows how our advice is online! Help us help you is something we thought that would be suitable so people can pass that around in their everyday life.

At first I didn’t understand the contact sheet but Becky has quickly shown us what we have to do and make sure it is up on our blogs. This is so they can see our progress and see the images we have captured and used.

I also went over the essay brief with Becky because on blackboard it’s the same structure as last years essay however with the due date changed. Where as in the handbook it has different questions. I was confused on which layout to follow but as I have mentioned it to Becky hopefully she will get back to me by end of this week.

With our website we have made a few touches, adding more hyperlinks, and rewriting some information. I have written a list for Tomorrow and we are hoping to finalise the proposal, contact sheet and upload it. This is so we can focus on the essay for next week! We’re up to date and I’m happy with the progress we have done so far.

We are finally getting there!!

In the past couple of days we all have really got our heads down to production work! The website is coming along together and with all the images completed and edited, its ready to go up on the site. I am happy with most of the images myself and Abi have produced. There simple yet so effective! I do want to show them all here but don’t want to spoil anything just yet. Here is one of the images we have edited.

We used all of our own images we captured and edited them to match our theme. Some give advice, where some of them reflect on the affects of social networking. I personally find all of our images very creative!

Next job is now putting everything together, and seeing the final results. On Monday I will see what Becky thinks as well as my group. We also can retouch on your proposal to try and cut some words down and also produce a logo/slogan for our website. Overall I am happy with the production work we all have done and excited to see the final results! Once the website and proposal is fully completed I will begin to work on the essay.

 

Little changes to the proposal… or many more??

As each weeks go by, our idea seems to expand much much more! Becky has said how we have a word limit of the proposal so I tried my best to cut down 200 words as our proposal was originally 500 words! However we haven’t changed our themes and still stuck with the same idea. We’re still thinking to have the theme ‘social media as a disease’ but just presenting the layout of the website as a advice centre where people will find out their problems with networking sites. Don’t you think this is a very creative idea??

Here is our latest proposal, near the time of the deadline we may change it even more, but don’t worry it will be seen on here!!

Disrupting The Everyday Propsal New

Editing session!

After Mediated Lives lecture all of us have sticked to the plan. First step was to photograph portrait images of ourselves dressed as doctors, second step was to create a flow chart with one of our images we captured from London. And lastly continue building the website.

As Jodie’s main job is working on the website, the images we took today of ourselves have been put up on there! Hats off to Jodie as she is working on the website from stretch as most people are using a template, here is a little sneak peak…

Next was creating the flow chart for our homepage. We used our own image we captured and used that as a flowchart background. The image was shot in London. We thought using a public open space for the flow chart would be interesting as the shot is quite relaxing and audience can reflect on the questions better, without having anything distracting. We also thought its quite creative by using a background outside, makes it more realistic and gives the audience a sense of their everyday life.

I did a layout and template of what the flow chart could look like with the links attached. So as you can see this is a simple flow chart with questions about their addiction to networking. The questions are quite basis but again very powerful because we know a lot of people will have issues with networking. Where the links will be on the bottom will shift people onto another page, where we will be discussing their problems, giving advice and providing our own images that link with the text. Yes it does sound confusing but this is why we are keeping the website simple as our idea is quite powerful!

We thought this wouldn’t take to long however it took forever! it was very complicated as we had to make sure all of the questions link together and give out the right results at the end. With the hash tags were thinking having them as links where people will click on them to seek advice from us ‘doctors’. Again we thought this is a very creative idea to do and meets our theme very well! Here is a sneak peak of the flow chart, what do you think??

Next step will be editing our own images and arraigning which section they will go under. Aiming to complete this by Thursday!

 

Production Meeting

Well in the last 2 weeks my group have stayed in touch with each other and discussing our ideas for our project. Due to everyone being busy with work and family business we haven’t had the time to meet up during the Easter break to being any production work. However we have made a start on the website before we broken up and also produce some pictures to go on the website!

As our idea is still going strong with ‘networking being a sort of disease’ we haven’t added any changes to the proposal however with our website layout we have made a few changes where we thought produce the website as a advice centre for people who need help with their addiction to social media or to find out what problems they have to networking. The layout will be again simple as our idea is quite complexed. Even Becky has advised us to produce a simple website as the audience is aimed to everyone.

We wanted our website to be a page where audience would seek for help for their problems and find out what there problems might be. An example would be like NHS website where people would go on their to look for advice and symptoms they have. We thought this would be a great idea to produce so on the homepage we would have a flow chart, inspiration came from print media, this is so people can see what issues they have networking. The results would be the images we produced and edited with fact, advice and information of their problems.

Then we would have another page under ‘About us’ where myself, Abi and Jodie will be shown as the ‘doctors’. This is a very creative idea to be added to the website! So on Tuesday we will clips portrait images of ourselves dressed in doctors uniform, and add that in to our website with background information of our history. This week we have said how we will mainly work on the website as that is our main priority. we aim to get this done by this weekend, FINGERS CROSSED!

Back to work…

After our 2 weeks Easter break it was time to get back into our projects. So far we have made a head start on the website and produce more photographs before we went on our break. This is so these 2 weeks we will begin our production work. However today was going over Sontag Susan extract 2003 ‘Regrading the pain of others’.

This reading was Susan argument how she has an important discussion of the meaning of photography. It was mostly her own thoughts of images as she thinks too many images in the world that causes a massive problem in the society.

One main concern she has with photography is its prurient intrusiveness. Its surreal dislocation of reality, its irrelevant aestheticism. She finds actual photographs less interested to her and is ‘only to be reproved for their untrustworthiness.’. In the reading she disagrees with Virginia Woolf, who wrote about photographsof the Spanish Civil War in Three Guineas (1938), which was interesting to take in. Using War as a example to show her argument, she talks about how the images of war of Robert Capa or David Seymour should belong in newspapers, where they are ‘surrounded by words’, rather than in magazines. This was very interesting and I do agree with this as well too.

There was one particular line that I agreed with where Susan talks about how Gruesome images invite usto be “either spectators or cowards”, I can say myself that is true because when I see images that are disturbing to me I feel scared and put myself away from that position.

This reading was beneficial to me as it has made me think how these media trained us only too well, as we now instinctively transform an intolerable, unintelligible reality into fiction. There was a very interesting section in the reading where Susan blames the eyes’ indiscriminate lust, claiming ‘the appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost, as the desire for ones that show bodies naked’. Later on the extract Susan also discusses about TV, how we as an audience now have the choice to shift to another program, by swiping across different channels.

Overall on the extract I found it very useful and powerful as she puts her input about photography by self criticising that photographs have come to possess the power to make real butalso tend to make viewers of them callous; now she regards this as a dubious cliche.

In class we spoken about how documentaries present a representation. ‘Ideal of closeness.’ when then looked at two clips ‘Societal Desensitisation SD’ on Youtube and ‘Why the Media ignore Genocide and Atrocities in Africa?’. At first I found them both quite confusing but when Becky explained the use of these sources and how they link to  Susans reading I understood overall just. Once we finished our lecture Becky went over threw the deadlines that were approaching. 19th and 26th April were the deadlines for our CDP project as you know that is not long left!

Theses notes are made on my blog so I can look back to it when it comes to doing my evaluation, proposal and website. So it may sound a little bit confusing….Evaluation theoretical you drawn onto? Readings that were intresting to you and helped you with your project, Digtal addictiion, The designs references. What have you learnt? How have you used existing codes and conventions?Written proposal- Details of what your doing and the projects. Research of what you looked at. Intnetion, clear goal. 100-200 WORD COUNT,Wesbite link and blog link, Student number. Website- don’t leave your website last min. Wednesday upload. Need to publish the site. Fetch upload.