Creating A Game

So for our next task in 'Contemporary Media Issues', we have to come up with an idea of a game, that is based in the screen school.

Me and Josie decided to base our game around the theme of whales and underwater life. The game will be played inside a giant lifelike killer whale (Sebastian Charles II), and players will enter through the whales mouth, immediatley immersing them into the marine theme.

There are 6 levels and 6 players at the start, each with their own colour. The game is a 3D game with players aiming to burst as many of their coloured balls as possible in a minute. The loser is the person who burst the least amount of their colour and has to leave the game, with the rest of the players going on to the next level. As the game progresses, the levels get harder, with distractions such as fish swimming out at them in 3D to make it more difficult to concentrate. At level 6, the hardest level, there are just 2 players left and after the winner is found, the room becomes an anti-gravity chamber and the winner gets 1 minute floating round. Our game is an exercise and mind game, with players having to focus and run around the room.


I love our idea and wish it could be made in real life. If I win the lottery, I know what I'm spending it on...


Here's the link to our prezi pitching our game. Unfortunately due to pesky house viewings we were not able to attend uni on the day to present it but hope you enjoy it here anyway!
http://prezi.com/c9pelk8kwzsc/bubbly-whale-game/

Playing with Lego...best course ever!!!

Last week in "Creativity & Concepts" the class was divided, not by war or arguments, but for, and I quote, "an intense lego serious play workshop". Hardcore, I know...

The lesson was based in my favourite room in the entire world, The Automatic. For those who've never been to this room, it's a place that's meant to inspire ideas and encourage teamwork. It has lots of random things in it, such as lego, drums, a variety of different seats, a massive screen with keyboards that are all connected up to it where you can anonymously type and lots more! So after the longest walk up the longest corridor, I arrived at the workshop.

The first thing we had to do was create a lego tower. I decided to honour my inner child and build the tallest tower I could with a load of random bits coming off it. Here it is:

Impressive I know...

The next task was to change the tower in some way to represent an attribute that you bring to a team. I found this a really confusing and difficult task but in the end I chose to balance out the tower a bit more because in a team I like to have balance with no leaders so that everyone is equal.

We then had to make a completely new model representing an important thing to have in a team. I decided to take my idea of balance before and elaborate on it, making all the lego men be on equal platforms with a range of different bricks making up their levels to show diversity.

The final task was to arrange our group's models and towers in a shape on the table, showing how they all were connected to eachother. I didn't really understand what this was so am going to research into it more for my essay.

Overall the workshop was alright, it wasn't my favourite Thursday lesson we've had but it definitely wasn't the worst. I'm still unsure of what the whole technique was meant to do, so as I said before, will look into it furthur.

Scene Analysis

Over Reading Week we had to do a scene analysis for 'Film Language' so that the lecturers can see what our skills in analysis are like. As I have no skills in this field, it was a rather daunting prospect. The analysis was done in a grid, which was apparantly unusual but I wouldn't know as it was my first attempt. The table had different columns for each aspect of the film: shot description and edit, cinematography, sound, dialogue, music and meaning/dramatic effect.

Choosing a film was one of the hardest parts of this task. Being the uncultured person I am, I haven't really seen many of the supposedly "good" films such as Pulp Fiction, The Shining, The Godfather etc. The only films I have are comedies and crap films, such as "The Hannah Montana Movie" - I probably shouldn't admit to that one, but I'm not gonna lie, it is actually a good film, trust me! I was going to do "Donnie Darko" but the rabbit in the film scares me, there's no need for a massive rabbit. So instead I chose "E.T.". Odd choice I know but I found that in the opening scene of the film, there was a lot that I could say.

Here's the clip that I analysed:

I found the task quite challenging but not too hard because it was my first time analysing a film so was unsure on what to say. It was extremely time consuming too, even though I only had 9 shot sequences to do.

This Friday we have a written test, to write an essay in an hour analysing a 10 minute clip of a film of their choice so will spend tomorrow revising in some way. Wish me luck!

People On The Move

The next project for 'Production Practice' is called "People on The Move". We have to plan and produce a short film based around a journey, the character going from one place to another. The film will have no sound so will just have a backing track dubbed onto it.

I found trying to think of an idea for this project really hard as I've had no experience in creating films at all. We eventually came up with the idea of a hunt for a missing jigsaw piece. I won't say any more as I don't want to give away the ending!

To begin with the planning, we developed a list of tourist spots that we would have the character (played by me) walk past, on their hunt. We then transferred these onto a storyboard to decide the exact order of the destinations and to plan what else happens in the film. Soon it was time to get to the actual filming process which I was very excited about because I felt like a proper media student then.

Filming started on Monday morning, and it was a lovely grey day with freezing temperatures - just what you want when you're filming by the sea, or river, or lake...(i think the Mersey is a river though, worst scouser ever). We shot approximately half the film and it went really well. Unfortunately I didn't get to use the camera much because I was being filmed, but the bits that I got to use it for I loved. We used a range of different types of shots, from establishment shots to extreme close ups, and moved the camera around in interesting ways at times. I also had to publicly humiliate myself by going on the Liverpool One carousel alone, just me on it with a load of little kids...major awk. Hopefully we will be finishing the filming soon (well we don't really have a choice) and I'm waiting in anticipation to start the edit...

I'll keep you updated, although the way this blog is going, you'll probably hear about it in 2020

I may or may not have forgotton I had a blog...

Like many others, I have slacked a bit, well a lot, on this blog so I've decided I'm spending my day off catching up on EVERYTHING I haven't blogged about. So look forward to the next 50 million posts...

Futuretainment Wiki

We've just finished the wiki we did as a group for the book, 'Futuretainment'. I thought we had struck lucky out of our choice of book as I found it really interesting to read and agreed with many of the theories and predictions put across by the author, Mike Walsh. 
In our group we produced a prezi and each wrote a few threads on our chosen chapters. My 2 chapters were Shift & Platform. Here it is: http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/%27Futuretainment%27+M.Walsh+%282010%29
I found the whole experience of using wetpaint tiresome and boring. I don't find the format as fascinating as a method of putting across your ideas as other programmes such as prezi or even Powerpoint. I would say I never want to use it again but I know we have another project to do later in the year using it unfortunately. 


Here's the link to the prezi we did too: http://prezi.com/xfmn6zp8flcy/futuretainment/

Last Tuesday...

I always find Tuesdays a bit of a hassle because we're in from 10-4, it doesn't sound like much but when you're used to 3 hour days, it feels like running a marathon, without the running bit - although walking up the 2 flights of stairs can often feel as strenous as running 26 miles.

Tuesday morning we have 'Contemporary Media Issues' in which we were given our first project. In groups of 4 we have to produce a wiki page on wetpaint about an assigned book and answer a specific question. Our book is called 'Futuretainment' by Mike Walsh.

Getting the book from the library was stressful enough, there's just too many books, and codes, and librarians telling me to tie up my lace. But anyway, our question is, "What changes are predicted for the future relationship of producers and consumers of media and what are the implications of these?"
The author, Mike Walsh, has an impressive website that you may want to look at: http://www.futuretainment.com/

Anyway, the lecture to follow was 'Digital Media Tools' in which we were studying sequential imagery: the process of telling a story in a series of shots. In this case, we had to tell a story within 5 shots. Our idea was someone (me, unfortunate for my dignity) watching a funny video but laughing too much that they fall off their chair - my drama GCSE came into good use. Over the coming weeks we will be working more with photography and telling stories through the medium of pictures...it will be very exciting!

Mofilm Workshop

So last Thursday, instead of Creativity and Concepts, we had an all day workshop with the company Mofilm. They are a multi-million pound company that hold contests for aspiring filmmakers to produce films for major companies such as Pepsi, Doritos and Vodafone. Mofilm aim to help unknown filmmakers get discovered and hopefully win an Oscar!
Their link is http://www.mofilm.com/ if you'd like to find out more, watch some winning videos or enter a contest yourself.

Our task was to create, film and edit a 15-25 second advert for the paper, 'The Hindustan Times'.

The brief told us that it had involve someone doing something wrong and then being hit over the head with a paper (a copy of the Hindustan times) to tell them to correct themselves. The advert then had to finish with the line "It's time to change..."

Our group's idea was centred around the issue of wasting food as we felt like this is something that happens far too often in the world especially when there's so much poverty. The idea was to have someone walking, take a bite out of his sandwich, not like it, throw it down on the floor only to have a random passer by run out of nowhere and hit him over the head with the newspaper.

Thankfully the group I was in was full of media genius' so they knew what they were doing. I spent most of the day just watching on as I didn't have a clue about filming techniques and how to edit using Final Cut Pro. Our finished film turned out really good and I enjoyed the whole process of making it.

Here is the finished advert:

The past 2 weeks...

I'm not going to lie, I haven't exactly kept on top of this blog for the past week and a bit so this post will hopefully cover all the bits and pieces I've done in uni.

Wiki
In 'Contemporary Media Issues' we were told we had to bring in an article about the media. Rushing around that morning, I found an article on a woman who was raped, and after watching CSI all the time, she helped solve her rape by leaving her DNA in the car during the ordeal. Fortunately, the rapist was found and jailed. We were put into groups based on the topic of our articles, mine being TV. We used a website called Wetpaint to create a wiki page about all of our articles.
Here's the link: http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/TV
I didn't really like using wetpaint because I found it boring. It was simple to use, as all you needed to do was type but appearance-wise I didn't find it captivating to read, compared to the likes of prezi anyway. 

Photoshop
In 'Digital Media Tools' we were given the task of taking 3 photos of something we walk past every day. I chose the creepy looking shed on top of a building that I can see outside from my window.
Here's the original:

Our task was to photoshop it in anyway we want. As I've never used photoshop before, I didn't really have a clue what I was doing so decided to make it black and white by playing round with brightness, exposure, saturation and contrast.

Here's the photoshopped version:

I like how it looks creepier and more haunted.

Storyboard

As part of our assessment for the end of the year, an assignment we were given was to produce a storyboard consisting of 20-30 shots. Our story was about a husband who went on a date with his girlfriend and his wife is watching him. We then see a mystery figure follow him and subsequently kill him. The final shot is the figue revealing theirselves as the wife. I really enjoyed planning how the shots would look and positioning the characters in a way where the photos would come out best.

Antichrist
In Friday's 'Film Language' someone had the clever idea of putting on the film 'Antichrist' for us to watch and note the cinematography. All I can say is, anyone who managed to write notes during that film is a hero. It was genuinely the most disturbing film I've ever seen. There was no need for anyone's genitals to get bashed or cut off, there was no need for the wife to drill a hole in her husband's leg and bolt a boulder to it, there wasn't even a need for the wife to start bashing her head against the toilet. In my opinion there wasn't a need for the film. However, the director, Lars Von Trier, did create some very effective scenes such as the opening scene. It is shown in black and white, with classical music playing and shows the couple having sex and their child watching them then falling out the window. The music built up the tension of what was going to happen to the child and became slower once the child had died. Another effective technique that was used was that throughout the film, scenes would often be pretty quick and the transition was sharp.
But honestly, don't put yourself through the torture of watching this film, I couldn't even eat lunch after it, and it takes a lot for me not to eat lunch...

Presenting Prezi...

So on Tuesday's 'Contemporary Media Issues' Lesson (is that what you call it?) our task was to get into groups and create a presentation on http://www.prezi.com/ about our objects we had brought in. These objects were all items that were important to us and meant a lot.

Mine was my Glastonbury wristband from this year's festival. I chose it because it was one of the best weeks of my life, simple as. It was also one of the last trips my friends and I took before we all parted ways. I wear it everyday reminding me of my best friends and of the countless times I fell in the mud! It was tragic how many times I fell, we had to start leaving earlier from the tent just to allow 'Becca picking up time' before the music started. On the plus side I've never got so much male attention as they picked me up off the floor!

Anyway back to the point, Prezi. It's an alternative to powerpoint; whereas instead of numerous slides, it's all on the one page - kind of like a spider diagram. I'd never used the online programme before and was shocked by it's ease of use. It was simple to use, although after looking at other people's skills and abilities, I still need to practice and get to grips with the more complicated tools. One thing I loved about Prezi was the animation side - as the presentation goes from one piece of information to the other, it zooms round, as if you're watching a cartoon. I also loved how you could add picture, links and videos, and had we have had more time, we definitely would have. The presentations looked more aesthetically pleasing than the boring Powerpoint and captivated the audience more too, I found. Prezi also allowed you to link up different sections that were similar in theme or content, or use arrows to flow from one topic to another - something which is extremely useful and not found on Powerpoint.

Anyway here's the link to ours, it's called Mobjects - Meaningful objects: http://prezi.com/7sdjnortrq9b/mobjects/

And that's my first proper media themed entry over. After looking at some other people's blogs, I've realised that I really need to work on this blog, taking pictures, going to exhibitions and finding anything to write about that's media related - a challenge for me as I'm sure I'm the only student on my course who's never done media before! Wish me luck :)

The First Day...

My name is Becca Fadden and I'm 18, studying Media Professional Studies at JMU.

What has been your interest and experience of media to date?
         I've been interested in media since I was young when I used to be fascinated by how TV programmes worked and how they were made. I remember when I was about 5 I went to the Corrie studios and was amazed by all the cameras and equipment. When I went to secondary school, we were never offered Media as an option for GCSE but we learnt about some aspects of it in English and that's when I became more interested, especially when I realised I could do it as a career later on in life.
         I asked for a camera for my 12th birthday and just tended to follow family round filming them which I found really fun, but then I lost the charger and tapes so my interest stopped for a while. In the summer of year 11, I began to film little videos on my phone of what my friends and I did each day, and although they were rubbish, it made me realise what I loved -filming and tv.
         So when I joined sixth form, I was going to take Media as an option but it wasn't allowed so had to take history which was horrific. When I realised that TV and filming was what I wanted to do, I invested in a new camera and began to make videos for my friends' 18th birthdays, with everyone saying messages to them, answering questions about them, and for one friend, even miming Beatles songs for them.
         I then applied for 2 media summer schools at Chester and Hope which made me realise I had made the right choice of course as I enjoyed making a short film there. In the final year of sixth form, I undertook some work experience at 'Red Hot Media' in which I got to shadow professional film makers whilst they were filming and editing. Although I lack experience compared to many in the group as I haven't had the option of studying it previously, I have a huge interest of all media and made an effort to research the area and start to create my own forms of media.
And that's how I got here...

What would you like it to be in future?
        In the future I would like my interest to focus on TV because I've always been a big fan of it and how it's made. I don't know much about the media industry yet, and what all the different jobs are so I can't really say what exact position I want. So far, I love the whole production process, from planning to shooting to editing so my options are still wide open. If I worked on a programme like 'The Only Way is Essex' that would be amazing!

What media are you interested in as both consumer and producer?
         As a consumer I love TV, films, radio and magazines. I've already said of my ambition to work in TV but I'd love to work in radio or magazines too. I'm forever watching tv, listening to Radio 1 and buy 'Heat' religiously every week. Ideally, if 'Heat' created a TV channel, I think that would actually be my ideal job! My favourite types of TV to watch is either comedy, like 'Miranda' or kind of real life programmes like 'The Only Way is Essex' and 'Made in Chelsea', because it provides an entertaining form of escapism without adding too much tension. As a producer, I'd say I prefer to make more light hearted programmes to cheer people up rather than scare people!