We saw some example of second years work in our lecture earlier this week and I have to say it got me really excited for next year!!
I've chosen to take the video techniques module ( which include photoshop and a lot of effects) and 3D modelling, as this is something that had always stood out to me, and although I havent had any previous experience in this I really want to give it a go!
Looking at others people work made me really eager, and had inspired some more ideas for my creative video piece i am shooting next week, especially Craig's use of camera angles and the old fashioned style of his music video. I need to do a lot more planning but I have a concept, a rough idea of what I want to shoot and an actor ( my lovely friend Christopher) and I'm feeling much more inspired for this than my previous music video shoot.
I cant believe there's only two weeks of this term left( not including this week) and then only a week until exam leave after Easter, its strange how fast this year has gone! I'm really excited for next year though, both the living in a house aspect and getting deeper into doing stuff i love ( My summer will be full of trying to get as ahead with some of the programs as possible!(
I think I'm actually going to miss doing this blog! So you may find i continue it even though i will definately have no one viewing it haha, I like that I can look up a topic I think is interesting or aimed at something Ive watched/enjoyed and just ramble ( as I try to write a coherent argument) away.
 :)

Studentship Task- Week 23

I enjoy this type or learning activity, being allowed to make your own choices ( and then find out if you are wrong) helps to ingrain facts into your mind. Rather than reading a large bulk of text you also have short paragraphs or even just sentences, all aimed around certain facts and so you get straight to the point.
The interactive sections, such as on this task the page with the Phonograph make you pay more attention as you have to react, and the pictures add more interest.

The main reason I feel this tasks are successful are the small amount of text, although i personally like reading large sections of texts and highlighting relevant sections ( this is how i revise mainly) on these studentship tasks you basically cut out the middle men and just have the relevant text, being able to answer questions also make it more effective, and I feel help you to remember facts better and I visual text in my mind rather than just remember so I can visual where each sentence was on the page and what it said.

I think the pages could be brightened up a bit, although they may be this way because of the format of Blackboard itself and also as people may otherwise become distracted by any patterns in the background.

Overall I think these are very effective means and although I would not want to use things such as this permanantly for revision they are effective.

Most popular films

IMDb tops rated films, voted by the users of the website.
Looking at the graph you will notice that apart from "The Dark Knight" and " Return of the king" all the films are rather old, all before the turn of the millenuim, had the quality of film decreased in general over the last few years, have ( as i have touched on in a previous post) directors put too much emphasis on special effects and "3D" and the actual storyling is lacking?.

Something to think about.

1.	9.2	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	726,800
2.	9.2	The Godfather (1972)	543,850
3.	9.0	The Godfather: Part II (1974)	342,638
4.	8.9	Pulp Fiction (1994)	571,542
5.	8.9	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)	227,415
6.	8.9	12 Angry Men (1957)	178,131
7.	8.9	Schindler's List (1993)	381,867
8.	8.8	The Dark Knight (2008)	661,880
9.	8.8	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)	510,532
10.	8.8	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Twitter

So, Lady Gaga has recently hit 20 millions followers on facebook....

20 MILLION ( almost a third of the population of Britain)

The other most popular twitter accounts are fellow pop stars Justin Bieber (18 million), Katy Perry (15.7 million) and Shakira (14.5 million).
Lady Gaga is one of the only large stars who actually write their own tweets, many celebrities actually have other people do it and so fans feels personally connected.

Twitter in itself is massive, easily catching up with the popularity of Facebook, although it is much simpler, "tweets" are limited to 140 figures and unlike Facebook you don't have groups, games etc...
So why has it gained so much popularity, unlike Faceook it is home to a mass of celebrities who ( or whoever they have doing it) tweet regularly and use it as a way to talk directly to their fan....

- Twitter has approximately 225 million users and rapidly growing.
- About 200 million tweets are sent each day. In January of 2009, users sent two million Tweets a day, and in 2010, they posted 65 million a day

Clearly over the few years it has been active it is gaining popularity and I dont see it stopping anytime soon, but what is it in for the average person? I use Twitter to write random thoughts I wouldnt do on Facebook ( I only have 70-odd followers, so I feel like i can talk rubbish without people thinking im weird) You can also write about anything, and it is easy to do, you can pick it up almost instantly.
Unlike Facebook you can, as a major selling point once again, see what celebrities have to say, you can retweet them and show your friends what amuses you.

I just found this - Why Twitter is Popular and I thinksomeof the points he makes are true, things I would add would that be unlike Facebook, the limit in number makes peoples tweets more interesting, no long rambles moaning about boyfriends of school. People have a limited amount of characters and so people put more effort it about what they write, trying to be funny or simply getting to the point.
Populairyt is something people craze on Twitter, i see many retweets from celebrities of fans who " Im your biggest fan, a retweet from you would make my day xoxox" People seem to craze followers and so again try to write more interesting tweets.... this was something i started off doing until I got bored and realised I wasnt actually very funny haha.
You can also contact a lot of television programs via Twitter, using hash tags which programs will often ask to use as you state your opinions in a tweet, and everyone would love to get a mention on the tv.


On a more personal note we have been using Twitter for this module, it allows people to comment on lectures or anything to do with technology and removes the "schloary" feel of a lecture, making it more easygoing and people more comfortable expressing their ideas.

I think twitter will continue to grow and flourish,but i also think that if celebrities suddenly lost interest or a new, more simple format came out, that the popularity would greatly diminish.

Is television too honest ( This is England 86)

Honest
Graphic.

Has television become too real? Has it become too like real life, making people uncomfortable.
Watching " This is England'86" a lot of people seem to think so, the third episode of the series features rape. Always an uncomfortable subject, and the scene itself is vile. It makes for very uncomfortable viewing and made me feel towards both characters VERY strongly.
It is believable, beyond believable actually, the way the characters react and even the camera angle make it so.
The scene is not up on you tube or available on any websites i have viewed articles off of. Graphic is something people happily deal with, as long as it is wounds, blood, guts etc... When it comes to an act as horrific as this it effects people more. This happens to people, people are sick enough to do this, and this scares people. freaks them out.

There are multiple opinions stated on websites, some say that the director ( Shane Meadows) is trying to make rape "entertaining", and that people " Get off on it"
Others understand the need for this scene, sexual abuse is seen as Taboo and people avoid it, so putting it out there help people to understand it better... See why she stopped fighting him off etc...

People watch television to escape from reality ( although ironically one of the most popular programs is Eastensters which is, abeit melodramatic and grim, "real life" television)  so when they witness something so real and emotionally damaging in such a raw light, it is shocking.
But the point is that you cant hide from this, this happens and it cant just be brushed under the carpet and shushed up.
People are happy to watch programs with murders etc... as they can see how fake it is ( usually) it is not overly graphic and there is a reason in the show. Rape is different, and what makes this instance worse is that it is by someone she knows and trusts, this again is a truth of rape.

The show contains warnings, is after the watershed and also had numbers and advice centres avaliable, hopefully it will raise awareness and people will understand more the situtaion ( or at least think they will)

Kony

The video, KONY 2012 has gone viral, links are all over facebook, twitter, youtube, forums etc...

The video is a half an hour piece created by the charity "Invisible Children" and it was created to raise awareness of Kony, part of a rebel group that kidnap children and use them in their army.
For about 12 hours i was oblivious to the video, i saw it kept being posted up but chose to ignore it, and then i watched it.
The video itself is very well put together, using interviews from children affected, the main "character" is a member of the "Invisible children" who has apparently spent much time in Uganda helping. They say the video is to raise awareness, and enough to get people to act.
Of course, as with anything that becomes worldwide there have been several blogs and forums etc... that have hit out at this project, e.g - here
People are mainly criticizing the funding aspects of the group, some claiming only 30% of all money raised actually goes to Africa ( the video itself must have cost a lot to produce) others say that the charity are very pro-military and want to therefore use military force to capture Kony ( which would no doubt lead to the deaths of many child soldiers)

There are arguments for both sides, "facts" are being flung around that are completely contradictory. Whether or not " Invisible Children" are trustworthy is one thing.
The positive thing to come out of the video is AWARENESS, which is a large focus of the video itself. Even if you don't agree with the charity, you don't have to donate to them, if people want to help either financially or by raising awareness they can do.
Plenty of people I know had no idea who Kony was before all of this. So with the power of the internet thousands, millions of people now know who he is.

Whatever way you view the rest of it that had to be a good thing.

Isle of Tune

My attempt at Isle of Tune ( from todays lecture)

^^^ It's pretty terrible but I can see why its so addictive.

Could we survive without modern technology?

My laptop is dying, the fans broken and so im in a constant fear it will set on fire ( very unrealisitc i know) and so on Wednesday when the insurance people pick it up, i may be without a laptop for roughly a day.

Frankly this makes me very uncomfortable and makes me think.

Am i really so obsessed with my laptop? A day without it is hardly a big deal, then i started thinking about other technology I would feel 'lost' without, my phone and ipod for example.

Obviously I could survive without any of these, people all over the world still do. This made me think are we, in first world countries relying too much on modern technology? Would we survive without it?

There have been many films/ books where the idea is that technology had developed so much that it had taken over us. My grandma genuinly seems to have a similar fear, and all modern technology baffles her. Obviously I am part of a  generation that had grown up with this developing technology, from my first Nokia 3310 ( cant quite remember) when i was in year seven to iphones, ipads, etc...

People have got too reliant on these tools, we no longer need to catch our own food, or properly cook it ( yay for microwave meals) We have the internet so can find out almost anything we want, we have phones where the bare minumun even goes far beyond just being able to ring someone.
People have lost simple survival skills, why play outside when you can play on your xbox? Why go and meet someone when you can text or BBM them, people are gradually loosing both their survival and people skills ( something i touched on in my blog about facebook)

If suddenly, all modern technology were to vanish, we would truly be in a lot of trouble. People would be pushed to actually make an effort about things, but yet just when my mum was young technology was so different, and she survived, people have survived for the past two million years without the excessive technology we now surround ourselves with.
How long will it be until we end up like " Walle"? Completely dependant on technology, too lazy to do anything else?
 - Truly a first world problem.

The Oscars, who won what? ( And whats the big fuss about the Artists?)

The Oscars took place last night, and from the sounds of reports and various gossip sites the bit winners of the night were Hugo and The Artist, here is a list of all the Oscar Winners.

Best cinematography

Robert Richardson, Hugo

Best art direction

Hugo

Best costume design

The Artist

Best make up

The Iron Lady

Best foreign language film

A Separation

Best actress in a supporting role

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best film editing

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best sound editing

Hugo

Best sound mixing

Hugo

Best documentary feature

Undefeated

Best animated film

Rango

Best visual effects

Hugo

Best actor in a supporting role

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best original score

Ludovic Bource, The Artist

Best song

Man or Muppet, The Muppets

Best adapted screenplay

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash, The Descendants

Best original screenplay

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Best live action short

The Shore

Best documentary short

Saving Face

Best animated short

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

Best director

Michel Hazavanicius, The Artist

Best actor in a leading role

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Best actress in a leading role

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Best picture

The Artist

Clearly the largest winners of the night were Hugo and The Artist, two filsm I havent seen yet but with too.
And the two films that stood out the most, The Artist is a modern silent film ( apart from the music and occasional dialogue) shown in black and white and based in the era of silent films.
Hugo is set in an abstact very stylized world, in which time and clock seem to be the focus of the film.
As shown, Hugo won awards for Sounds Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual effects, Art direction and Cinematography. All are based on the film, not around the actors.
The Artist however, won, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Costume design. Three of which are heavilg based on the actors and their abilities.
Did the much more simple plot and setting allow more focus to be placed on the actors rather than background?
Perhaps.

The Artist has been massive this year, not just award wise but also with the masses. But what is the reason for this? Is it because we are taken into the past, both through the storyline and setting of the film, and the fact that it is set out like an old-fashioned silent movie, something we are not used to and therefore hold more interest in viewing? Along with this the film also contains much less well known actors, the lead actress is, I believe the directors wife, does the fact that this is almost brand new to us? we are used to see famous actors in an array of films, you can hardly find a poopular film without A-Listers in them.
I think it is a mix of thses things, the unorthodox style of the film is instantly attractive, people may want to view what film " used to be like" and not having the film " shoved down our throats" as you often get when they are filled with A-listers, e.g - The Descendant, although popular and it did win an Oscar did not reach the heights of the Artist, and I definately saw this advertised a lot more, a lot of this aimed around George Clooney being in the film.
Will The Artist start a trend of unusual films, or will other films even copy its format and use older styles again?
We shall have to see

The problems with Live television ( focusing on the controversy of the Brits)

A really controversal subject in the last week or so has been the cutting off of Adeles speech at the Brits.
After recieving the MasterCard album of the year award, one which, even presenter James Corden stated was the most important on the event, Adele came on stage and began to tearfully thank her fans.
However,shortly into her speech James Corden came back on stage, saying how he " could believe he was doing this" AKA- cutting Adele off. She swore at the camera's in what she now says was in no way aimed at her fans or the audience, but was just to express her irritation at that time.

Adele was cut off due to timing issues, other speeches had run over and so the time slot for Blurs end of the night performance overlapped with Adeles acceptance speech.
There has been many opinions stated over this, from celebrities such as Lily Allen who claimed it was a show of how the televison industries were still male based. Other celebrities such as Professor Green also expressed that he did not feel it was the right thing to do.

However, some people do not see the issue, they state that they would rather have watched Blur perform than another over long speech. Or that simply it is a common issue and not to make a big deal of it.

Over-running is a risk with all live television programs, especially award shows where, as shown, speeches can run overlong or mistakes can happen ( such as with Eastenders live program) with lines, camera operators missing their signal etc... There is little room for mistake and as shown with the Brits it can cause outrage and multiple news headlines.

Is Vlogging the new blogging?

Vlogging is basically, doing a blog through the meduim of video rather than text.
Text or writing has always been a popular way of people getting their opinions across, and combined with the power of the internet blogging was created.
- At last actual count by Technorati there were over 112.8 million blogs being tracked, not including those not in the English language.
Over the last decade blogging has become massive, and can range from people exploring important topics, to using it as a diary of sorts. You can blog about anything.

However,

On January 2, 2000, Adam Kontras posted a video alongside a blog entry aimed at informing his friends and family of his cross-country move to Los Angeles in pursuit of show business, marking the first post on what would later become the longest-running video blog in history.
Since this initial use of a video blog ( or Vlog) it has taken off, especially after video hosting websites such as Youtube became popular;
FOr example, quite a few people currently on my Media Production course Vlog regularly.

But why choose to Vlog rather than just blog?

Is it simply that people can talk more freely? They can change their opinion as they talk and arent restricted by having to type their feelings.
Is it quicker, choosing a topic and expressing your feelings outright rather than having to write/type them in a coherent way?

Perhaps it is due to this, but is this taking a step forward with technology, or are people simply becoming lazy and would rather just "wing" it rather than plan ahead?
As friend of mine do "vlog" i find myself following various links on youtube until i see a strangers face looking at me.
But thats another issue with Vlogs, you cant tell if theyre going to be of interst or not, with blogs you can skim read ahead, opening paragraphs will help you decide if you think it is a worthy read.
But with Vlogs until you watch it you have no idea what you are going to see, and the lack of planning can lead to boring rambles which i imagine are of little interest to anyone.

Whilst blogging still may be a hugely popular aspect of modern society, Vlogs are quickly catching up.

I just hope they dont take over. I personally would rather have more choice in what i experience, and have my own say in what i take from it.

Take a look at this!

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2012/0222/How-Heinrich-Rudolf-Hertz-revealed-the-invisible-world

Interesting stuff :) Will help people understand todays Google "scribble" logo

How did they animate Gollum?

^^^ Andy Serkis performing Gollum split personality scene.

In a lecture the other day we touched on motion capture for animation in films. And as a Lord of the Rings Fan ( i just finished the first film before writing this) I thought looking into the history and "how it works" of motion capturing was appropriate.

"  The use of motion capture for computer character animation is relatively new, having begun in the late 1970's, and only becoming widespread over the last decade.

Motion capture is the recording of human body movement (or other movement) for immediate or delayed analysis and playback. The information captured can be as general as the simple position of the body in space or as complex as the deformations of the face and muscle masses. Motion capture for computer character animation involves the mapping of human motion onto the motion of a computer character."

 This isnt a new idea however, for years animators ( 2d) have had people act out their scenes so they can draw their characters to the utmost believability making movements more realistic.

Gollum was created in various steps -

1- Designing and creating the characters look ( including making models etc..)

2 - Building the character on the computer

3-  Adding levels to the character- bones, muscles- all elements that can be controlled

4-  Creating the controls, especially facially every little move can add to emotions etc..

5- Animating the model after Andy had acted out the scenes wearing the motion sensing equipment ("For some of Gollum's scenes, an  Andy Serkis (who provided Gollum's voice throughout the trilogy) put on a motion-capture suit and played the part. Andy's motion drove the movement of Gollum's body in the movie. In other scenes, the animators used key-frame animation to control Gollum's body. In all of the scenes, they used key-frame animation to move Gollum's face")

I think we can all agree that Gollum is a very successful "character" in both terms of how Serkis characterized him and how well animated he is, there are so many subtle movements that give the character realistic emotions and the scene above ( his split personality talk) is captivating. It creates a sense of a real ( although "bad" character) and so in this way has completely achieved the aim of the animators. The character brings emotions out of the audience, even though they know he is clearly not real.

http://www.awn.com/articles/technology/two-towers-face-face-gollum

^^^ And a bit more insight into the process.

 - A Brief History of Motion Capture for Computer Character Animation. 2012. A Brief History of Motion Capture for Computer Character Animation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/motion_capture/history1.htm. [Accessed 15 February 2012].

- Generating Gollum: Anatomy of a CG Creature. 2012. Generating Gollum: Anatomy of a CG Creature. [ONLINE] Available at: http://express.howstuffworks.com/gollum1.htm. [Accessed 15 February 2012].

I love looking through Photo albums at home.



And I'm so happy my mum continues to fill them. Rather than just keep our photographs digitially.

They seem to mean a lot more when you can actually touch them.

Photography

Photography is something ive always wished i had a natural talent for.
Luckily, a friend of mine, who is VERY talented has leant me her old Canon 400D which allowed me to play around more with ideas and places of my photomontage project.


However, since then, it had just lay idle on  my shelf... and i definately want to start using it more to capture moments. And isnt that what photography is all about? capturing a moment that will never happen again.
I saw a quote i like - "People change, Photographs don't"

I dont always like photgraphs of people however, theyre too planned- forced. I prefer natural photogrpahy, of animals, landscapes,spontaneous moments etc...


and i LOVE photographs in either black or white or with a heigheneted contrast to really make sections pop.

And i would have to add, if anyone does read this you should most definately check out - http://www.facebook.com/ephajroe
He's a friend of mine, and whilst most of his pictures are of himself in various "characters" both he and his work is completely stunning!

I currently has this photograph he took and edited as the background on my laptop <3 ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/epharoe/6808251973/)


A photograph tells a story, but its YOUR story. You can interpret the image in any way you want and take your own meaning from it. Which is a concept i adore.

Most watched TV Shows 2011

Thought this would be interesting to look at- see wha the general public have been watching the most over last year. Gives an insight into what people like, how intellectual the programs we choose to watch are and various other things...


WELL, according to IMDb the most popular TV series from last year are- ( top 5)
- The Walking Dead
- Alcatraz
-Spartacus: Blood and Sand
- The Big Bang Theory
- How I Met your'e Mother..

An Interesting 5! A mix of American comedy shows and action filled thrillers....

Over in the UK however, the most watched television broadcast of the year was.... The X-factor final... In a world where we seem to thrive on "reality" tv shows this is not surprising... the final had an audience of 13.7 million people, topping the Royal Wedding which, was, until X-factor the most watched broadcast of the year with 13.5 million viewers.
Infact the top ten most watched programs ( not throughout the whole series but based on ONE episode/viewing) included ITV1's reality show hits I'm a Celebrity and Britain's Got Talent, BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, the Valentine's Day episode of Coronation Street and EastEnders.

Strange that at no point on any website i looked at, the News appeared as a most watched program... is this because we can now easily see and reach the news through powers such as the internet? That news programs on tv are slowly loosing importance?
Maybe so.. but im sure that wont stop my Grandma watching.
Haha
x

Is Facebook taking over our lives?

Okay, I for one spend far too much time constantly refreshing my homepage on facebook, and everymorning checking it on my phone is the first thing i do.
Waste of time, definately. Addictive? Hell yes.

Well, According to the official Facebook statistics page (http://www.facebook.com/press/in...) Facebook users 1400 minutes per user per month.So over the course of a 30 day month, the average user spends approximately 46 minutes per day on Facebook. 

Now this is  average, and im not sure wether they mean, actually engaging on facebook, or simply having it open on your browser. A lot of people i know ( roughly about the same age) will have facebook open the WHOLE time they're on their computer, so for HOURS a day...
One report i read however - "http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2026086/Facebook-Young-people-spend-time-online-theyre-lonely-elderly.html"
States that even though we teenagers/youngadults spend so much time sitting on Facebook,catching up with friends that people are actually LONELY, of course there is a massive difference between typing to someone, and actually talking to them in person. But still the fact that "Sixty per cent said they found it difficult to make friends 'in real life' compared with online and a similar number (69 per cent) said they believe that Britain is an unfriendly place to live." Is shocking!! 


Are teenagers now so engrossed in Facebook and that way of communicating that social skills are being damaged? That they cant comfortable have a conversation or meet someone new? ( When random facebook adds leading to a strange sort of "online" friendship are common)
Is this really what the future holds as technology builds? That people are much more comfortable behind a screen than outside?
Its a strange thought, and one i hope wont turn out to be true.