ScreenR

Even though I don't like recording my own voice, using ScreenR was nothing new to me. During AS and A-level Media I had to present my evaluations digitally which meant me sitting in front of a camera talking for 10-15 minutes. The good thing about ScreenR is that it can't see me like a camera can. Using ScreenR wasn't something that I liked doing very much as I found it quite frustrating having to re-record your speech again because you just messed it up for some reason or other. Another thing I found was that I spoke to fast on a lot of my takes meaning that I had to then record it again but this time try to do it a bit slower - this is something that I've always found difficult when giving a presentation or speaking in front of an audience.

Creating a Game - Sounds easy enough?

For one of our Contemporary Media Issues projects we had to create a brand new game in pairs that could be played in the Liverpool Screen School. For ours we came up with a game that we then realised was quite similar to 'Capture the Flag' - that was the easy part. The hard part came when we had to user test our game as we came up with a few problems there. Here's the presentation which we had to give about our game, what it is and the problems which we encountered with it.

Creating A Game

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ZEE

Imagine that you're in a room and it's filled with dry ice, you can't see further than about 30cm in front of you (at the best of times). Now there are coloured strobe lights all around you and music. It all feels as if it's happening right in front of your face...and you've got no control over any of it. You can't properly imagine this until you've experienced it for yourself. Well this is exactly what ZEE was like.

ZEE is an "immersive audiovisual" experience at FACT and is part of the Abandon Normal Devices exhibition. It's been created by an Austrian artist called Kurt Hentschlager who's spent a lifetime creating artworks that push the viewer into a state of sensory overload. "The core visual impression of ZEE is of a psychedelic architecture of pure light, an abstract luminescent landscape enveloping the visitor. Time appears to stand still."



Even though I was told what ZEE was beforehand by someone who'd already been to the exhibition, it didn't prepare me for what was about to happen, I had no idea what I'd really let myself in for. It's difficult to explain ZEE to someone who's not been in there and everyone has a different experience when they go in.

You're in a room full of people but you feel as though you're alone in there. You even feel like someone is walking past you when actually there's no-one there. It's a really strange sensation in there and I don't really know what to make of it, I'm not sure if I'd actually want to go in there again.

ENVY Post-Production

Today there was a talk on in the LSS by Mat Appleton from ENVY Post-Production. ENVY are a post-production house where editors can hire out rooms in order to cut together their programmes and have all the in-house support that they may need from ENVY.

I found this talk really interesting as editing is an area which I'd like to go into so it gave me an insight into what goes on in a post-production house as this wasn't something that I was really aware of before. There's a lot more to a post-production house than you'd ever think. Mat also gave us tips on how to do a CV for applying for a job or work experience in the media industry as this is what can make you stand out from everyone else.

During the talk, Mat told us about an editing competition that is open to students only and this is something that I'd really like to get involved in. This would be a really good opportunity for me as this is an area of the industry that I'm particularly interested in and would give me something extra to put on my CV and in my media portfolio.

Till I'm Gone

Most of you will not be aware of this yet, but I have a lot of love and respect for Tinie Tempah, and I mean A LOT! Well yesterday I decided to put on 'Till I'm Gone' - Tinie's track with Wiz Khalifa - on YouTube and as I was bored thought I might as well watch it. I'd seen the video before but this was the first time that I had watched it properly. When I originally watched it, the shots of the black Aston Martin caught my eye when France's Eiffel Tower (2:11-2:13) and the city lights (2:21-2:25) were reflected on the car. This time I noticed something which I never saw before - shots of different cities appear in the video:

Switzerland and Monaco on the car window (0:35-0:38)

Amsterdam, Milan, Australia and Singapore instead of the cityscape that is behind Tinie (1:34-1:38)

Night shots of New York and London's Tower Bridge (3:04 and 3:07)

I was quite surprised when I realised these images were present and I thought it was a really clever idea and one that I liked very much.

Looks like artists don't always have to travel to places in order to have them in their music videos.

Wikis on Wetpaint

Wetpaint Central hosts wikis that have been created both professionally and by members of the public. Last week I set up an account to enable me to create wikis online.

In a small group we created a page and on it we wrote a piece about the article that we'd each brought in. Our page was about music articles. In future we are planning to use this site, as a course group, to collate research from tasks and other useful information.

We are also using this site for our first Contemporary Media Issues assignment. As a group we have a book to look at and a question to answer relating to that book. We are looking at 'Futuretainment' by Mike Walsh (2010). In the group we have chosen 2 chapters each which we think will be relevant to our question and then we will each post about our own chapters. As this is a group assignment we are going to create a Prezi together which will bring together all of our chapters so we can answer our initial question by coming to a conclusion.

This is a link to our 'Futuretainment' wiki: http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/%27Futuretainment%27+M.Walsh+%282010%29

BBC Academy

Today I attended a talk during my lecture by 3 members of the BBC about the BBC's College of Production and College of Journalism. I really enjoyed this talk as it opened up something that I might not have otherwise been introduced to - a fantastic website. The College of Production, or CoP, website has lots of videos on it, containing tips on how to do different things and all sorts of other useful information, that have been made by people working at the BBC. I think this is a brilliant and very valuable tool for students like myself who are wanting to get a job in the media industry at the end of their degree as it gives you a 'heads-up' from an industry perspective.

If there's one thing that this talk has inspired me to do today then that's to be proactive about getting out there any finding myself some work experience in the industry.

Getting to grips with Prezi

Prezi is an online presentation tool that lets you create a moving presentation, allowing you to zoom in on different parts of the information and move around.

I was introduced to it for the first time last week but unfortunately I didn't get to use the software myself - as we were working in a group we nominated someone to create the Prezi. I really liked the idea of using this tool to create presentations in the future and I'm looking forward to having a play around with the software and getting to grips with it myself.

The Beginning of it All...Well, LJMU that is

What has been your experience and interest of media to date?
Experience: I decided to take Media Studies back in year 10 when I chose it as a GCSE subject. I then went on to study it for both AS and A-level.
These are just some of the things I've looked at or created;

Horror and Thriller openings

Advertising

TV Drama

Music videos

Digipaks

Web pages

Interest: The practical side of things. I'm really interested in TV Production as that is the sector of the media industry that I want to end up in.

What would you like it to be in the future?
In the future I would really like to have a very broad range of skills that I can use and knowledge that I can draw on in many sectors of the media industry. At the end of my 3 years studying Media Professional Studies I want to be competent, and confident, to work in the real industry.

What media are you interested in as both a consumer and a producer?
I think that TV Production has to be at the top of the list as I've already mentioned. I'm also interested in music videos and this is something that has come about from studying A-level Media Studies. Print media, especially in the music industry, is an area that particularly interests me. Again, this has come about because of my A-levels.