First Year of University

I cannot believe how quick my first year of uni has gone, it feels like just yesterday we started. Over the year I have had some ups and downs, times when I have thought about is uni really for me. But then I realised that I have made new friends that have made the uni experience worth while. I’m really looking forward to our second year in our new building, as we will be one of the first students to use the new television studios and equipment. I can only imagine how fast our second year is going to go, as this year has gone too fast. 

I have enjoyed most of the modules we have done this year; 

• Production Practice
• Creativity & Concept
• Contemporary Media Issues
• Digital Tools
• Film Language 

In each of the modules I have learnt something new, before uni I had never really done any camera work, but I found myself doing a lot of camera work when filming our personal profile video in production practice. Also I had never gone into depth when coming up with different ideas for certain assignment and I had never used any reflective techniques, creativity & concept has helped me a lot it has stopped me just rushing into things. 

Creativity & Concept / Digital Media Tools

To start the last day of our first year we had our pitch for creating the exhibit for the new Liverpool Museum. Our group had been given an early time slot of 9.30 in the morning, as a group we were well prepared; we had practiced the presentation pitch a couple of times over the last week. Also we had created a model that would explain our exhibit idea. I think our presentation went really well, we had little cards that had points on to help us so that we didn’t need to keep looking at the screen. Also we set up a little table with the model and some artefacts that could be used in the exhibit, so that the panel watching our presentation could interact with our idea. At the end of the presentation I felt a sigh of relief, I thought the presentation went over so fast. I am looking forward to receiving feedback from the presentation. 

Once we had done our presentation I then moved onto completing my website as I only had to finish my videos page on the website and also to make the website live, so that anyone can see it live on the internet. Also to save a copy of the files that contains all the content for the website on our tutors hard drive so that he can look at all the content, and also mark our website. To complete the website I had to collect three videos that myself and the production group I am in made; It’s Liverpool, Personal Profile and also our Factual Short. I found a member of our group had already uploaded the It’s Liverpool video to YouTube so I decided I would embed the video the same way I embedded the People of The Move video onto the page. As the other two videos had not been uploaded onto YouTube so I decided I would go and download the personal profile and the factual short as quicktime videos. And then uploaded the videos onto my own youtube account as I had problems trying to upload the quicktime video straight onto my website as it was to large. So I thought putting them onto youtube and then embedding them onto the webpage would be a lot easier and quicker to do. After the embedding all four videos onto the page I  adjusted items onto the page and checked the webpage looked ok, once I had. I made my website go live so everyone could see it, I then uploaded the files onto our tutors hard drive.

When I started to create my website I found it slightly hard because it had been a while since the last time I had created a website. But once I had spent a while messing about on dreamweaver again it all came back to me, and I found it easy to create the website whereas other people found it difficult as it was their first time using dreamweaver to create the website. 

This is the link to our presentation for our museum exhibit; http://prezi.com/cedvkst1gdki/museum-project-local-history-groups/ 

This is the link to my website; http://www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/lssskead/ 

Creativity & Concept / Digital Media Tools

Creativity & Concept;

As tomorrow is the day we have to present our final pitch for the idea, for a new exhibit for the museum of liverpool. Because we have already finished our presentation, we created a model to show our idea visually. Last week we had started to create the model, and today we completed the model. We printed off images to place them into the certain rooms within the model. We also adjusted the model slightly, we made it a bit smaller because it was too big, also we had some pictures of the bricks in black and white. We added the brick paper to the outside of the box, so that the model didn’t look boring. 

Digital Media Tools;

Tomorrow is the deadline for our website, because I had already completed a couple of pages for my website, I continued to to complete the other webpages. As I had already added an image to my about me page, I added information about me onto the page such as; name, age, university I attend and what I am studying at university. I then adjusted the layout of the picture and also the text, I decided to place them into the centre of the page. I made the page simple and not to over the top, once I had finished my about me page I then moved onto adding content onto my video page. 

When I moved onto the videos page, I decided that I would like to have a film strip as a border around the videos I add onto the page. As I knew that one of our videos had already been uploaded onto YouTube, I searched for the video on YouTube and then copied the embedded code and then opened up the page on dreamweaver and drew a tag where the video would be placed. Once the tag had been added I then opened up the coding format for the page and placed the embedded code which would place the video onto the page. I then clicked back onto the design view of the page to make sure the video was there, I then opened the page on the internet to make sure the video would play. I placed text under the video to inform the user looking at the page what the video is called. Tomorrow I am going to collect the other videos and add them onto my website, once everything has been checked and completed on my website I will make my website go live. Also I will save a copy on our tutors hard drive so that he can look and mark my website. 

Production Practice

In todays session we edited our film as our deadline was today at 2pm. As a group we decided that we would all come in early and make sure we finished editing on time. When we showed our rough edit our tutors said that we needed to have a doctor explaining about alopecia and also another alopecia sufferer. We made sure that we found both for our final cut, as we had filmed the second alopecia sufferer last monday night. The lads from our group went and found a school teacher who is head of biology and said that he would let us interview him about alopecia. This morning we uploaded all the footage and started to add the clips into our film sequence, once we had added all the footage we needed. We then added titles for each of the interviewees, who appeared on screen. We also added a title to the start of the film and also credits to the end of the film, we decided to called our film ‘Herloss’ and also we made sure that we thanked all the staff and customers at Hairway Salon.  

I am kind of glad that this film is the last film for the semester and also for my first year. After everybody had finished editing and burning their films onto disc, each group had to show their film. After each film groups had Q&A with the tutors and the rest of the class. One of our tutors said that they were glad we had followed their feedback from the rough cut and also they explained which shot they liked. Once each group had presented their films our tutors explained what we need to add into our dossier which is due in on Monday 23rd April. Once I have completed the rest of my work for other modules which are due in this week, I will begin on my dossier so that I have plenty of time to focus on it. 

Film Language

This lecture was about Peter Greenaway and his films, our lecturer made a list of his films from his short films up to more recent films such as Rembrandt’s J’Accuse (2008). After we  had discussed the films, our lecturer played two clips from Peter’s short films; A Walk Through H which, Dear Phone both films were released in the 70s. We then moved onto who is Tulse Luper the character. After discussing the character we then started to watch a clip from The Tulse Luper Suitcases (2003). After a short break from the lecture we then moved onto watching clips from; The Draughtsman’s Contract, A Zed & Two Noughts, The Cook The Thief His Wife and her Lover, Pillow Book. 

After watching all the clips we then moved onto discussing about the motifs  and themes used in Peter Greenaways films. 

Motifs

• Games/Play 
• Violent Death
• Sex and Nudity
• Writing/Textuality 
• Painting
• Music
• Water
• Power in Relationships
• Taxonomy/Categorisation
• Clothes/Masks
• Coincidence/Chance
• Frame/Tableaux

Themes

• Nature/Culture
• Greed and Perversity
• Communication and Language
• Sexuality and Desire
• Art and Aesthetics
• Civilisation and History
• Crime
• Knowledge
• Ambition
• Mortality
• Fate
• Mind/Body Duality
• Consumption/Destruction

At the end of the lecture our lecturer explained what we needed to do for our film language essay which is due for Monday 23rd April. Pointers we were given were; 

• When writing the essay we should focus more on the film and not on the filmmaker. 
• If you put a still image into your essay, you have to make sure you talk about whats going on in the still. 
• When you use a quote from a book or online, you have to explain what you think the quote means or how it fits into your argument.
• A 2000 word essay has to have at least 3 to 5 references.
• Make sure you have at least two drafts before handing your final draft in. Hand write the first draft, type up the essay which would be you second draft. Print off your second draft have someone read over, to make sure there is no spelling mistakes and then adjust the mistakes and hand the final draft in. 

I am looking forward to starting and completing my essay, as I believe it will be a great way to finish the module and also the semester. 

Digital Media Issues

In this session we were allowed to develop our website design, as our deadline is Wednesday 28th March. As I only had my home page created, I then moved onto creating the next few pages; About Me, Photographs, Videos. Once each of the pages had been created I then moved onto adding content to the pages, on my home page I added an image I had edited using photoshop. I decided that the image would be a rollover image, so that you can see both the original and edited version of the image. Below the image I placed a quote about Liverpool. On the photographs page I added four polaroid onto the page and then placed the images I had entered into them, all the image I added to the page would be rollover images showing the original and the edited photographs, also they would have a caption explaining what the photograph was of. Once I had added the photographs onto the page I then moved onto my about me page, adding an image of myself I still need to complete this page before the deadline and also add some films I have worked on, onto the videos page. As well as adding content to the pages I also made sure that all the buttons on each page linked to each other, so that you can navigate yourself around the website. Once I had started to add content to the pages, I started to remember all the things I had been taught when using Dreamweaver in school, which meant that I found it easy to build up my website. 

Contemporary Media Issues

In this session each group had to get up in front of the class and discuss about the three social networking websites, we had to create for the character which we made up. A couple of groups presented there characters information, some people created; sound clouds, flickr, tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, second life, Youtube accounts. As a group we got up in front the rest of our peers and also tutors, and started off explaining about our characters Facebook been blocked for some security reason. After we had explained about being blocked we then explained about speaking to some Facebook users who accepted our character friend request. We told the story we had given to users when asked if they knew us, our story was; I’m a freelance writer who is looking for inspiration from people who live in Liverpool. A couple of people believed our story and said that they would share our story to their friends. 

After we had discussed about Facebook, we then moved onto explaining about Twitter and how we built up our character using Twitter. We created the Twitter account and then decided to start following people off our personal Twitters, which meant that we started to get a couple of followers. We then decided to tag celebrities which then meant that people from around the world would start to mention our characters user name. Also with tagging celebrities into our tweets it built our tweets up. We then moved onto talking about the second life we created, explaining about how we started talking to other second life users. I was glad that each of our group members took part presenting our character profiles. I think it was a great way to finish the module and also to finish the semester. 

Creativity & Concept

Today instead of having a lecture the class was allowed to carry on with our presentation for our museum exhibit. As we have already done most of our presentation we decided we would start to make our model, that will show our exhibit. The model will consist of the five different rooms we have decided on, living room, bombing shelter, solider’s office, aircraft and a room with artefacts and also objects that were in the first room but also affected in the war. To make the model we decided to use a cardboard box, cardboard dividers, paper  and also cartons to make the simulators. We also created a poster to show off our exhibit, the poster will give the judges an idea how we would advertise the exhibit to the general public. We also made a poster for our folder that contains all our documents about this assignment; brainstorms, profile of characters that would come to our exhibit. As our pitch is next week we need to make final changes and also start to practice presenting our pitch, so that we don’t have any mistakes when presenting our pitch.  

Production Practice

Today we started our rough edit of our factual short film which is about alopecia. To start our rough edit we had to capture all the clips we wanted into Avid. Once we had captured all the clips we wanted we created the sequence were the film would be placed, to start the sequence we took a clips and edited to make the start of our film. We then did the same throughout the other clips to make a rough, we had to shorten certain clips as some were to long and some had mistakes in them. Once we had a rough cut our tutors came around and asked if they could see it, they both sat down and watched the whole of the film. Some of the comments we received from them were; you need to add a clip of somebody who has alopecia and who would show their patch. They also said that we would need to add more clips of the hairdresser fixing a clients hair, after the feedback we had received we started to think of people we could use. As a member of our groups mum has alopecia, we asked her and she said she would allow us to interview her and also to be able to get a shot of her hair, where the disease has affected her. As we have only a week left for our final cut to be completed and handed in we decided to book out the equipment and film tonight straight after university. Now that we have filmed those little clips, we think that there should be enough footage of people been about alopecia. 

I have found the day long and tiring day, as we had been in the edit suite from this morning  to late this afternoon and then we began filming again straight after university. I think I will be glad once the final cut if completed and we only have to focus on our dossier for this module. 

Film Language

Todays lecture was all about David Lynch, The themes that were discussed in the lecture were information about David Lynch as a person; filmmaker as a child, filmmaker as painter, filmmaker as filmmaker. Once we had discussed the theme of filmmaker as filmmaker we then watched a short clip of David Lynch’s The Alphabet (1968), I really found that clip strange and weird. After all the themes had been discussed we then moved onto to talk about the film we were going to watch, which was Blue Velvet (1986). As I hadn’t seen the film, I didn’t know what to expect from the film personally I thought the same as from watching the clip from The Alphabet. 

Production Practice

On Thursday 15th March 2012 as a group we filmed most of our factual short film. Our factual short film is about a client and hairdresser, the client we interviewed had alopecia. We asked how it had effected them, how the hairdressers helped to boost their confidence. The hairdresser we interviewed spoke about how they have had to tell people if they have alopecia. The hairdresser also explained what clients have to do once they have been told they have alopecia e.g go to the doctors. Also well as the hairdresser explaining about alopecia, she also told us how she decided she wanted to become a hairdresser. After we had the interviews done we then made sure we had a number of different shots of objects around the hairdressers e.g. scissors, hair dryer, towels, brushes, other clients getting their hair done. Now that we have most of the footage we will be able to start editing so that we have a rough cut for our next production practice lecture. 

Digital Media Issues

In the session we carried on designing and developing our website, I started the session by adjusting the background image to fit the screen. As the image kept looking small on the webpage, I also edited the title so that it didn’t look that squashed on the page. Once I had edited the page and titles, I then created the buttons that would be placed at the top of the page. The buttons will be used to navigate the user around the website so that they don’t have to keep going to the home page to go onto another page. I think my website is developing as I’m starting to get used to Dreamweaver and Photoshop once again.

Contemporary Media Issues

Todays session was all about developing the character we made up last week. Last week we had only created a Facebook account for the character, but this week we created the character a second life and also a twitter account. As we thought the first idea of the character personality was boring we decided to change it, the character is a freelance writer and loves taking photographs and also loves his dog Steven. Once we had changed the characters personality we started to add status on Facebook and also adding people to build his profile up. Once people started to accept on character on Facebook and were asking  if they knew the person we told them that he was a writer and was looking of inspiration, a lot people believed our story. Also on twitter we started to follow and tweet people and celebrities so that we could to build up the characters profile, was also tweeted  quotes so that the character didn’t look boring as he is a writer. Our characters name is Mark Hepburn. 

Mark Hepburn Twitter

Creativity & Concept

In todays session we had another production meeting with our tutor, like we did last week. In the meeting we discussed how we have developed from last week e.g. taking some of the ideas the tutors gave us, also we showed them artefacts material we had brought from Amazon. We decided to buy the artefacts so that we could show objects that would be in our exhibit. Our tutors thought that the artefacts were brilliant, we also explained to that we have been creating our presentation pitch. Having the meeting in the session worked out well for our group as we had a few questions about adding certain things into our presentation. We also explained that we have created a letter from a solider to tie in with the story the exhibit is telling. Also we are going to create a model of our exhibit so when we present the idea, the panel in front of us will be able to see what the exhibit will look like. 

After our meeting we then moved onto completing a task that needed to be finished. The task was a concept extraction of ideas, as a team we all came up with concepts and ideas and then made a table for them both, once we had we then took a picture so that we can add the picture to the presentation. We also made a plan for next week that we will be creating the model and also start practicing our presentation. As we are up to date with our presentation I feel that as a group we will be prepared for the presentation. 

Local History Groups Museum Exhibit

Film Language

In this session we had a lecture about Alfred Hitchcock and his films. The powerpoint consisted of Hitchcock as Auteur, When he made his mark in hollywood. We then moved onto talking about Alfred Hitchcock - ‘The Birds’ as this was the film we were going to watch at the end of the lecture. Our tutor explained the themes of the birds, the motifs in the birds, Mitch and female relationships, the birds as a symbol and also the punishing of Melanie. I was slightly unsure about watching the film because I personal don’t like birds, the film made me dislike them even more. Also within the session we were given are essay questions we have to complete for the 23rd of April. 

Digital Media Tools

In todays session we carried on with designing our website, as I said in my previous blog for digital media tools I didn’t like the background I had picked. So I searched for another background and found one that had a grey background and some colour balls in the right hand corner of the page. I then edited the background using photoshop I used the brightness tools to adjust the colour of the balls. I then started adding text to the design, the colour of text I picked was an emerald colour as it worked well with the background design. Next week I will start creating buttons and adding the items onto the design in Dreamweaver. 

Contemporary Media Issues

At the start of the session about the twitter and weavrs accounts and how we found them, our groups said that they are inconsistent and also random. We then moved onto how people use characters to represent themselves or a story. The characters should have a purpose and should have an appearance within a story but also a physical appearance. Within films the character should have a wardrobe, certain actions mannerisms/gestures, the use of lighting should be used to tell a story. Connections to other characters should be  shown in the film. Within films there are story clues which us as audience have to work out, where as visual clues just wash over us when watching films. 

Our tutors introduced us into the next brief we have before the end of the semester, they explained that we had to create an online character creation we have to create three different profile on different social networking website e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr. The profiles should consist of pictures of the characters and their likes and dislikes, also we have to make sure that the content is made out to look realistic like a real person. The pictures should show relationships with other people. We have to make the profile so that real people would think the characters are real. 

Mark Hepburn Facebook

Creativity & Concept

At the start of the session our tutor gave us time slots for meeting up with them and discussion our idea for the museum exhibit. We had to decide which one we wanted to have, we decided to pick the time slot of 10:35am. Which meant that we had enough time to work on the feedback we had received from our tutors. We explained to our tutors that we had worked on the feedback we received off our peers, we then began to present our final idea. We explained to the tutors we have just picked one area of history for our exhibit, we have decided to focus on World War II. The exhibit would consist of five rooms; 

• The first room would be a living room with a hologram of a women, her husband and kids  that would appear to the audience and they would tell their story. The audience would then walk through into the second room.
• The second room would be set out like a bombing shelter, so that the audience could experience what a bombing shelter would be like in the war.
• The third room would be set as a office with soldiers and pilots in discussing the war. 
• The fourth room would be a aircraft simulator, which would allow the audience to believe their in the aircraft flying. 
• The fifth and final room would have artefacts that the audience would be allowed to hold and also take home with them e.g. newspapers, pictures.

Some ideas that one of our tutors gave us was to have something playing on a radio in the background and also a photograph could turn into a video. We decided that we would have newspapers for people to look at and read so that they would be interacting with the exhibit, instead of them just watching and listening. Also allowing them to buy newspaper artefacts raises money for the exhibit. Another idea was to have a letter from a Nazi soldier  to his family saying how worried he was, having this letter made sure that our idea was not bias. After we had our meeting we started researching information we could add to our final pitch. 

Production Practice

In todays session we received feedback from our personal profile, the feedback consisted of good and bad points about our film and how we could of improved on our next film. Our next film is a short factual film also in today session we spent sometime developing and coming up with ideas so that the film is not just about a hairdressess. But also we need to develop the idea slightly more before we start filming. 

Digital Media Tools

In this session we had to start designing what our website is going to look like. I searched for a background, I finally found one which was one of a beach with flowers on the side and a parrot next to the flowers. Once I had the background I then added text to the design, the colour of text I picked was pink to go with the flowers. Some of the text was placed at the top of the page and also in the middle of the page. After having a discussion about the design with our tutor I decided to change the design, because the parrot started to get on my nerves. So next week I will be changing the design to something more simple but nice, also for next week I will start to gather my university work that I will place on the website. 

Contemporary Media Issues

In todays session we had a discussion about identity and what we believe identity is. As a group we said it is what you’re per received as, also how we represent ourselves to others. Most people use the internet as an online representations of their identity; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. People also make avatars which are mediated versions of themselves and their lives. Using social networking websites people can create identity and have online relationships; the relationships can be distant but also entertaining. But avatars are fictionalised, after the discussion about identity we then moved on. We moved onto watching a presentation about identity, throughout the presentation there were quotes from  Sherry Turkle, also there was an introduction about Pierre Levy who came up with collective intelligence. 

We then learnt about when social networking came into the world and in different forms; MySpace (2004) and then Facebook and Twitter. After the presentation we had to come up with a person and create a Twitter account for the character, the name I gave my character  was Daisy Poppy. Once I had created the Twitter account for Daisy I then created a Weavr for her, on the weavr I answered personal questions about the character e.g. activities she likes, emotions, locations where she enjoys. After I had entered the information I then gave the weavr permission to post tweets on the Twitter account. The weavr goes around and collects information and tweets the information. Within a couple of minutes Daisy had tweeted 7 times and had 4 followers, the following week we had to see how many followers each character had to see who got the most followers.


Daisy Poppy Twitter