Here is my clip from iReport, its actually a real news story, (although I think my reporting skills may be below par...) We did a story on the dust storm as it was happening that day. Unfortunately most of the dust had gone by then, but at least our story was real... :)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Lecture Week 6 - Production & Consumption
This weeks lecture was on the production & consumption of the big & small screen.
Consumption
Traditionally, and for the most part nowadays as well, we are consume professionally created media including television shows, movies, music videos, documentaries etc. We do this through a variety of different media including:
Big Screen -
Because of the small screen size & often slow download times the most frequently viewed information on these smaller media devices is news. However at this stage, there is a lack of quality entertainment media available for these smaller platforms.
Production
Since the invention and wide use of the internet, the production of media has now become possible for all of us. We can now all shoot footage on our mobile phones and them upload it onto a global platform like Youtube. Some examples of 'consumers' now producing media include;
Fan Films - Short films produced by fans of a particular film that parody, make fun of, take off, or rip off the film itself. For example see the below fan film "Troops" which is based on Star Wars but turns it into a cop show.
Re-Genres - this is where fans of a particular film take clips from the film, add in music and a voice over and create a trailer so that it appears that the movie is in an entirely different genre. For example making The Shining look like a romantic comedy.
ireport.com - This is a website that allows people to upload their own news story. This is an interesting way for people to actively participate in the news, however the stories do not need to be checked before they make it online, so this can end up with alot of fake stories being posted online. For example, check out the story below.
Mobile Film Festivals - since just about everyone now has access to video recording via their mobile phone, just about anyone can now make a movie! As a result of this new medium, there have been a number of mobile film festivals. However there are a few problems with making films on mobile phones. For one, the sound quality is usually horrendous once you get a few feet away from the sound. Picture quality is also bad, and then there is the 'wobbles' you get with it being a hand held device. You can see one of the better mobile phone short films below. Its successful because it keeps these limitations of shooting on a mobile phone in mind.
Consumption
Traditionally, and for the most part nowadays as well, we are consume professionally created media including television shows, movies, music videos, documentaries etc. We do this through a variety of different media including:
Big Screen -
- Cinema (this is a shared experience)
- TV (shared within a private setting)
- Computer (traditionally private but now becoming increasingly shared)
- Personal media players (iPods)
- Smart phones (iPhone)
Because of the small screen size & often slow download times the most frequently viewed information on these smaller media devices is news. However at this stage, there is a lack of quality entertainment media available for these smaller platforms.
Production
Since the invention and wide use of the internet, the production of media has now become possible for all of us. We can now all shoot footage on our mobile phones and them upload it onto a global platform like Youtube. Some examples of 'consumers' now producing media include;
Fan Films - Short films produced by fans of a particular film that parody, make fun of, take off, or rip off the film itself. For example see the below fan film "Troops" which is based on Star Wars but turns it into a cop show.
Re-Genres - this is where fans of a particular film take clips from the film, add in music and a voice over and create a trailer so that it appears that the movie is in an entirely different genre. For example making The Shining look like a romantic comedy.
ireport.com - This is a website that allows people to upload their own news story. This is an interesting way for people to actively participate in the news, however the stories do not need to be checked before they make it online, so this can end up with alot of fake stories being posted online. For example, check out the story below.
Mobile Film Festivals - since just about everyone now has access to video recording via their mobile phone, just about anyone can now make a movie! As a result of this new medium, there have been a number of mobile film festivals. However there are a few problems with making films on mobile phones. For one, the sound quality is usually horrendous once you get a few feet away from the sound. Picture quality is also bad, and then there is the 'wobbles' you get with it being a hand held device. You can see one of the better mobile phone short films below. Its successful because it keeps these limitations of shooting on a mobile phone in mind.
Something Interesting - DeviantART
Here's another one of my favorite sites on the internet DeviantART.
They have so many examples of amazing artwork. Here are a few of my current favorites.
They have so many examples of amazing artwork. Here are a few of my current favorites.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Tute Week 6
This week, we firstly went to Persona's. You put in your first and last name and it searches for instances of your name on the web and then depicts these findings in a visualiser. Mine didn't actually have anything about me but it found stuff about another Kristen Skinner that is apparently a baseball/softball player. You can see my results below.
View The Netherlands in a larger map
Internet Archive
Polyvore
Disaster Maps
Disaster maps is an online visualiser of disasters that are currently happening around the world such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods etc. Its a really quick and easy way to see whats happening around the world.
SpeedTest
Speedtest is another online visualiser that shows how fast information is travelling across the internet to different parts of the world. For example you can choose to connect to Russia and then see in real time how long it takes the informaiton to get there. Pretty cool!
Then we went to googlemaps and made our own map. I did mind on The Netherlands as I lived there for 6 months on a University exchange.
View The Netherlands in a larger map
Then we went to Sketchcast (my new favorite site) and I made a sketch, check it out!
From our lecture last week they provided links to lots of fun websites. The ones I liked are;
Internet Archive
On this website you can see how websites have progressed over time from when they first came onto the internet to the present day.
Polyvore
This website lets you create your own magazine layout of fashion! So much fun picking pretty shoes and bags to match. Hours of fun. You can also put text in, it looks really professional. Its a good way to express creativity on the internet.
Disaster Maps
Disaster maps is an online visualiser of disasters that are currently happening around the world such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods etc. Its a really quick and easy way to see whats happening around the world.
SpeedTest
Speedtest is another online visualiser that shows how fast information is travelling across the internet to different parts of the world. For example you can choose to connect to Russia and then see in real time how long it takes the informaiton to get there. Pretty cool!
Tute Week 5 - Internet Movies
Here are two examples of movies that have been made for internet release.
Firstly, "Living With The Infidels" has just been released. Its a black comedy about failed terrorist attacks. I chose this movie because its been on the news at the moment because its causing a bit of outrage because its a comedy about terrorists. I thought it was an interesting example of how the internet has given people a medium they can put these sort of productions on without censorship etc and people can consume it without being judged as they can watch it in the comfort of their own home. Check it out.
The second movie I found was another one of the Clive Owen BMW ads, this one is called "The Ticker". I chose this one because I really enjoyed the other clip that was shown in the lecture and I wanted to find something similar but I couldn't find anything that was as good quality and had such big name celebrities in it. Also its a good example of how the internet has been used as another platform to advertise on. Although this ad campaign was apparently not successful when it was released in 2001 & 2002. I think these days, with the increase in the use of YouTube and the explosion of social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter alot more young people are spending even more time online so I think the ad campaign would be more successful if it had of been released now. Hopefully another company will recognise this and have another attempt at advertising in this way.
The final movie I found was one about globalization. This short film raises issues about globalization and urges people to take action. Again, this is a prime example of how the internet gives people a platform to voice their opinions and reach a large number of people that was otherwise not possible.
Firstly, "Living With The Infidels" has just been released. Its a black comedy about failed terrorist attacks. I chose this movie because its been on the news at the moment because its causing a bit of outrage because its a comedy about terrorists. I thought it was an interesting example of how the internet has given people a medium they can put these sort of productions on without censorship etc and people can consume it without being judged as they can watch it in the comfort of their own home. Check it out.
The second movie I found was another one of the Clive Owen BMW ads, this one is called "The Ticker". I chose this one because I really enjoyed the other clip that was shown in the lecture and I wanted to find something similar but I couldn't find anything that was as good quality and had such big name celebrities in it. Also its a good example of how the internet has been used as another platform to advertise on. Although this ad campaign was apparently not successful when it was released in 2001 & 2002. I think these days, with the increase in the use of YouTube and the explosion of social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter alot more young people are spending even more time online so I think the ad campaign would be more successful if it had of been released now. Hopefully another company will recognise this and have another attempt at advertising in this way.
The final movie I found was one about globalization. This short film raises issues about globalization and urges people to take action. Again, this is a prime example of how the internet gives people a platform to voice their opinions and reach a large number of people that was otherwise not possible.
Lecture Week 5 - Creative & Social Uses of the Net
This weeks lecture was very entertaining! This was perhaps the first time I have been fully awake at 8am!
This lecture was all about the internet, its uses and history and gave us many examples of the best/most interesting websites on the internet. My favorite was Disaster Maps where you can see a real time visualisation of all the disasters that are currently happening around the world eg floods, fires, cyclones etc.
Lecture also discussed the dot com boom and the rapid rise and fall of internet based businesses in the late 1990's. As there were no lecture notes I hit up my good friend Wikipedia for some more information on the topic. The dot com boom occurred roughly in the period between 1998 and 2001, and it refers to the period in which countless internet companies were founded and soon after, failed. Such was the influence of the internet that companies who simply added a '.com' to their name saw their stock prices soar.
The initial success of the dot com boom can be attributed to the 'buzz' and novelty surrounding the internet at the time. Low interest rates also helped investors to get the capital needed for investment. Furthermore, because of the new medium, online companies were difficult to value and this resulted in many of the companies being rich but only 'on paper'.
The reason the bubble burst was because so many of the companies were over valued, and people were only buying their stocks because they thought the market would continue to rise, which it obviously could not do forever. Another reason that was covered in the lecture was that many online companies that sold products forgot to factor in the cost of postage. So their products may have been cheap (as the eliminated the cost of operating a store front) but then the high postage costs outweighed any savings that the customer would have made.
An interesting fact of the dot com boom is that internet companies that were successful and are still around today including Amazon and Google did not make a profit in their early years. Instead they were more focused on increasing their awareness and customer base, which obviously paid off for them in the long run.
Click here to see the full Wikipedia entry on the dot com boom (or the dot com bubble as they call it).
The lecture also covered social networking sites and the fact that there are a variety of other sites besides Facebook, MySpace and Twitter that allow people to network online. Many of the other social networking sites are specialist sites, based on a particular theme, culture or interest. See for example Gaia Online which is for lovers of Anime, or Ravely for people to share their knit and crochet work (thrilling!)
The lecture also covered how social networking, although heralded as the best thing to come from the internet so far, doesn't really allow the user to be very creative and can also be quite boring. You often end up hearing about the dullest parts of everyone's life "Ben is going to bed now", "Sally just had a cheese sandwich" etc. Furthermore you also run the risk of your future boss checking out your facebook profile and being none too impressed by the photo of you partaking in a beer bong (oops!).
This is where the lecture got really interesting, listing a number of websites that allow the user to be much more creative than any social networking site. We looked at Google Maps and saw how you can create your own interactive map where you upload your own picutures, videos and text about a location and then share it with your friends. We also looked at Sketchcast which I thought was the coolest thing ever and can't believe my internet savvy friends had not found it already. The clip below is one of the best examples of the site being used the way I think it should be. Although its all black & white and pretty basic, it attempts to create 'real life' action, rather than just recording you drawing a stationary picture, which is actually pretty boring... :(
This lecture was all about the internet, its uses and history and gave us many examples of the best/most interesting websites on the internet. My favorite was Disaster Maps where you can see a real time visualisation of all the disasters that are currently happening around the world eg floods, fires, cyclones etc.
Lecture also discussed the dot com boom and the rapid rise and fall of internet based businesses in the late 1990's. As there were no lecture notes I hit up my good friend Wikipedia for some more information on the topic. The dot com boom occurred roughly in the period between 1998 and 2001, and it refers to the period in which countless internet companies were founded and soon after, failed. Such was the influence of the internet that companies who simply added a '.com' to their name saw their stock prices soar.
The initial success of the dot com boom can be attributed to the 'buzz' and novelty surrounding the internet at the time. Low interest rates also helped investors to get the capital needed for investment. Furthermore, because of the new medium, online companies were difficult to value and this resulted in many of the companies being rich but only 'on paper'.
The reason the bubble burst was because so many of the companies were over valued, and people were only buying their stocks because they thought the market would continue to rise, which it obviously could not do forever. Another reason that was covered in the lecture was that many online companies that sold products forgot to factor in the cost of postage. So their products may have been cheap (as the eliminated the cost of operating a store front) but then the high postage costs outweighed any savings that the customer would have made.
An interesting fact of the dot com boom is that internet companies that were successful and are still around today including Amazon and Google did not make a profit in their early years. Instead they were more focused on increasing their awareness and customer base, which obviously paid off for them in the long run.
Click here to see the full Wikipedia entry on the dot com boom (or the dot com bubble as they call it).
The lecture also covered social networking sites and the fact that there are a variety of other sites besides Facebook, MySpace and Twitter that allow people to network online. Many of the other social networking sites are specialist sites, based on a particular theme, culture or interest. See for example Gaia Online which is for lovers of Anime, or Ravely for people to share their knit and crochet work (thrilling!)
The lecture also covered how social networking, although heralded as the best thing to come from the internet so far, doesn't really allow the user to be very creative and can also be quite boring. You often end up hearing about the dullest parts of everyone's life "Ben is going to bed now", "Sally just had a cheese sandwich" etc. Furthermore you also run the risk of your future boss checking out your facebook profile and being none too impressed by the photo of you partaking in a beer bong (oops!).
This is where the lecture got really interesting, listing a number of websites that allow the user to be much more creative than any social networking site. We looked at Google Maps and saw how you can create your own interactive map where you upload your own picutures, videos and text about a location and then share it with your friends. We also looked at Sketchcast which I thought was the coolest thing ever and can't believe my internet savvy friends had not found it already. The clip below is one of the best examples of the site being used the way I think it should be. Although its all black & white and pretty basic, it attempts to create 'real life' action, rather than just recording you drawing a stationary picture, which is actually pretty boring... :(
Monday, August 24, 2009
Week 4 Lecture - From the Big Screen to the Small
1895 - The birth of cinema. The Lumiere brothers show 20 x 1 minute clips of moving images to a paying public. Movies have come a long way since these humble beginnings.
1906 - The first full length narrative feature film, "The Story of the Kelly Gang" was released in Australia. See a short clip of the film below.
1927 - The birth of the 'talkies' or films involving dialogue with the release of the movie "The Jazz Singer".
1929 - The first full-length full-colour and sound movie "On With the Snow" was produced.
1933 - The first Drive-In movie theatre.
1937 - The first full-length animated feature, Disney's "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs" was released.
1939 - TV was formally introduced at the New York World Fair. This was also the year many 'classic' movies were released including "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz".
1952 - First 3D movie released.
1955 - Movie back catalogue released to TV.
1956 - The first practical videotape recorder was released.
1959 - Two interesting but short lived ideas emerged; percepto-vision where viewers were given a small electric shock during crucial moments in horror films & Aroma-Rama or smell-a-vision.
1963 - The first Multiplex cinema opened. Also the first consumer version of a video recorder was released.
1967 - Sony introduced the PortaPak, the first portable video camera system.
1969 - Sony release the VCR.
1970 - The first IMAX is built.
1972 - Pay TV is introduced.
1985 - The first blockbuster video store is opened.
1986 - Pixar released the first fully computer-generated and computer-animated film.
1995 - Toy story was the first totally computer-generated feature length animated film.
1997 - DVD's are released.
1999 - TiVO released.
2001 - BMW releases a series of short films promoting their cars on the internet.
2002 - Movielink is introduced, a large bank of movies you could legally download from the internet.
2005 - Blue Ray discs are introduced.
2006 - YouTube creates a new place for video's to be viewed from.
2007 - For the first time a movie was released online before its DVD was released. The film was the sequel to Jackass.
2009 & beyond - The movie industry probably needs to work more with the internet as many people are now illegally downloading TV shows & movies off the internet rather than paying for them at the cinema or on DVD. Who knows where it will take film in the future...
1906 - The first full length narrative feature film, "The Story of the Kelly Gang" was released in Australia. See a short clip of the film below.
1927 - The birth of the 'talkies' or films involving dialogue with the release of the movie "The Jazz Singer".
1929 - The first full-length full-colour and sound movie "On With the Snow" was produced.
1933 - The first Drive-In movie theatre.
1937 - The first full-length animated feature, Disney's "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs" was released.
1939 - TV was formally introduced at the New York World Fair. This was also the year many 'classic' movies were released including "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz".
1952 - First 3D movie released.
1955 - Movie back catalogue released to TV.
1956 - The first practical videotape recorder was released.
1959 - Two interesting but short lived ideas emerged; percepto-vision where viewers were given a small electric shock during crucial moments in horror films & Aroma-Rama or smell-a-vision.
1963 - The first Multiplex cinema opened. Also the first consumer version of a video recorder was released.
1967 - Sony introduced the PortaPak, the first portable video camera system.
1969 - Sony release the VCR.
1970 - The first IMAX is built.
1972 - Pay TV is introduced.
1985 - The first blockbuster video store is opened.
1986 - Pixar released the first fully computer-generated and computer-animated film.
1995 - Toy story was the first totally computer-generated feature length animated film.
1997 - DVD's are released.
1999 - TiVO released.
2001 - BMW releases a series of short films promoting their cars on the internet.
2002 - Movielink is introduced, a large bank of movies you could legally download from the internet.
2005 - Blue Ray discs are introduced.
2006 - YouTube creates a new place for video's to be viewed from.
2007 - For the first time a movie was released online before its DVD was released. The film was the sequel to Jackass.
2009 & beyond - The movie industry probably needs to work more with the internet as many people are now illegally downloading TV shows & movies off the internet rather than paying for them at the cinema or on DVD. Who knows where it will take film in the future...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
