Deciding on a Question

After looking at all 3 questions I had decided between two questions, these were: 

1. ONTECA

What new models are there for selling media? When people download so much media freely, what are people willing to pay for and how? What are and what can we learn from the best monetization mechanics for Freemium games on mobile?

2. Nine Lives Media

Which are the three most successful ever examples of cross platform television programming, how did viewers participate and most importantly, what did they gain from the experience? (I would anticipate answers such as the London Olympics/Paralympics & Embarrassing Bodies) 

I decided between these two because they both were based on new media. While the question from the Digital Fiction Factory was also based around new media its emphasis was more on the story and the storyteller, something which I am not particularly interested in. 

I was interested in the question from ONTECA because I am very interested in gaming and apps on phones and tablets and believe they should be concentrated on carefully from media institutions as it is were most emphasis in media seems to be now. It does also interest me how people make money from free apps. As a person who pays for apps I feel even if an app that cost 69p doesn’t live up to expectations it isn’t as if I have paid £40 for an xbox game, it never seems the end of the world yet looking through the comments of some games people act as if they spent a fortune on a mini game. 

I was also interested in the question from Nine Lives Media as second screen for television is a big interest of mine and hopefully something I would like to go into in the future. Second screen is something I use often and always look out for when I get to watch television. Technology is also a big interest of mine and I think the full advantage of peoples technology is not really being reached which is something that could possibly be fulfilled by second screen technology. 

The question group I was eventually put into was Nine Lives Media question, now planning wil take place to see how we will try and answer the question. 

Planning of TV show

Now that we have completed our preliminary task of the paper plane show we have to now plan our final show. We have come up with many ideas but one idea we are going to concentrate on mainly is a programme based around the arts (music, dance and drama), yet after phoning around we have had no luck! Phoning around is not something I am usually particularly confident in doing yet I just threw myself into and phoned everyone I could fitting the specified ‘guest profile’ we had made up. Yet not many people actually answered the different ways we tried to contact them and if they did they wanted paying for it which was something we were not prepared to do.  

We have decided our set will consist of a sofas and wallpaper as we wanted it to almost mirror were the viewer would be sitting. And the script will be lighthearted to fit the brief but will be written when a guest is found. 

Qualitative and Quantitive Research

Today in Applied Media Research we look at different research methods and what ways they could be applied to the question we chose. Qualitative research methods are more in depth research methods such as focus groups and opening ended questionnaires. An example of quantitive research is simple yes/no questions in a questionnaire. 

We tried these methods out in by creating questionnaires and ideas to ask the class on why they would apply for Uni and what methods they would go through to look for a University. 

I personally found quantitive research a lot easer to produce and collate answers for as it was more simple but the qualitative research methods gave a lot more information about what people actually thought and although very hard to collate and put into groups I would personally choose qualitative research due to the information we gathered. 

Photoshop...

Photoshop is a tool I have used for a long time and have always been confident using it, so when the first task of the beyond the camera was to create a ‘Illusion’ on photoshop I was excited to produce something creative! 

I decided to create a person holding up two pieces of paper which would look like x-rays. Although I had the concept in my head it was very to produce and I feel I didn’t work to the best of my ability and the outcome wasn’t a very good standard. If I had spent more time on the assignment and put a lot more effort into I would have been a lot happier with the outcome. 

Paper plane activity

TV Studio production is a module that I am very much looking forward to especially after seeing the new studio and being introduced to all the new equipment. Now we have been put into our television show groups and completed a couple of workshops on how to use the camera and the equipment in the gallery we had to complete our first task which was to create a children's TV show on how to make a paper airplane, which seemed a lot easier than it actually was. A lot of work had to go into the script, and a lot of thought into the camera shots to ensure the viewer could see and understand everything that was happening. 

Overall I think that our paper plane activity went very well considering it was our first attempt at a live broadcast and recording. Although I enjoyed working on the camera throughout this activity I feel that I would have been better suited to the control room as I have had experience in a similar atmosphere and I am more interested in that area of broadcasting.

Applied Media Research - Digital Fiction Factory

For Applied Media Research this year we are getting given 3 questions from 3 different media companies, one of which will be answered by myself and my group. The first question that was asked was from the Digital Fiction Factory. This question was: 

The internet, social media and other open systems have allowed for User Generated Content (UGC), crowd sourcing and other forms of audience participation to prevail in digital media, but how do we translate these features in story telling experiences without treading on the toes of the author?

The presentation from the Digital Fiction Factory was based on how audiences participate with conventional media with some examples given. One particular example was Alice for iPad which talk the classic tale and put it on the iPad with interactive features which left the viewer/reader more engaged in the story. This in itself was an interesting idea basing the whole of the viewers attention on one device such as an iPad would therefore keep all there attention unlike for example second screen. 

Although this question posed a very interesting discussion about storytelling I personally didn’t engage in it very much as it is not an area I am particularly interested in. 

Avid Video Awards

At the LJMU AVID video awards me and my group were nominated for a film we made in first year up for the award 'Best Factual Film' which to our surprise and happiness we won! As it was a film we worked for many hours on researching, planning, filming and editing I felt that our effects had not been overlooked and that people had really appreciated the work we had put into the film!

This is award is the first award I have ever picked up for a film and it has given me the inspiration to put the same amount of effort into second year and hopefully come out feeling as proud as I did winning this award. 

Back to University!

After an amazing, long summer the new term came along and I was excited. From what I had seen of the new semester I am very excited to be working in the TV studio finally as it has been something that I have always wanted to do, but I also very much enjoyed the beyond the camera in last semester and I’m excited to carry on with more imedia modules. 

Also what was excited was the new building in the centre of town. The opening of the Redmonds building also meant that I wouldn’t have to go up to Edge Lane building everyday as it is only a 5 minute walk from my house! I am very excited to see what this years brings.

First year of Uni...

My first year of Uni is over and overall they have been the best months of my life. I have met so many amazing people, learnt so many new skills and settled in so well to University life.

I cannot wait for the next 2 years!

Here is a showreel of everything I have made over the past 2 years

Weavrs

Weavrs are basically personas created online that can tweet and blog. As a task we had to set up one and see what they tweeted and who they followed but also how many follows they could gain.
My online persona was called Sue Case

Weavr: http://sue-case.weavrs.info

I then linked her to a twitter to tweet and follow people, but she also gained a few followers herself but then lost them all after I failed to carry on updating her profile.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Sue_Case123

Personally I think that the ideas of Weavrs is unusual as the people following Sue Case on twitter didn't know if she was real or not and therefore I feel the information she was posting I was responsible for. While this is true I put a few of my interests in and found some of the links she posting very interesting.

Location task

Working on Google maps really opened my eyes as I felt I should look deeper into the websites and applications that I use everyday. I use google maps almost everyday to get from place to place yet I never considered that telling a story on it could be possible.

The brief for this project was getting a place in Liverpool and having to base a story around it. We got Grand Central Hall in Liverpool and therefore based our story on a person going to meet someone else at Grand central and not knowing what Grand Central they mean travelling around the world to eventually end up in New York.

Here is the finished map:
http://g.co/maps/dv6hm

I found this task to be very interesting as I had never used that side of google maps before and also the way a story can be told through it made me want to try more way to tell stories...

Finished website

After some very hard work I finally finished my website for digital media tools and I am very proud of it! As someone who enjoys creating websites after starting in high school making this website was something I was excited to do. I learnt a lot of new skills making this website many of which I want to take onto making my website better in the future!

Here is a linked to my finished website:

http://www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/lsscappl/cathryn/mysite/index.html

Wikis revisited

http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/Fukishima+Nuclear+Disaster


When revisiting Wiki's again I was dreading it! But after using it the first time I had got used to how wetpaint central worked and appreciated the simplicity of it and ease of use however uninteresting. This time we were given a topic and and a subtopic to do with social networking to write a wiki on. My group got the Fukishima Nuclear Disaster. I feel I could of put a lot more effort into the wiki and planned my answer more.

I personally would not choose to use wikis again but if it came to it I would use a different website.

Stop motion

I have spoken about my love for stop motion animation but finding this has brought something new! I cannot stop watching this animation Western Spegetti - Pes. It is inventive and extremely well made to the point were it is hard to believe it is stop motion animation at all. I hope one day to be able to come up with something as good as this or anything else PES make.

Cathedral

As one of the briefs for the production module the brief was a location in Liverpool. This is the film I am most proud of to date.

Photography

For Christmas I got a new camera. After wanting a Digital SLR for many years I finally got one this Christmas and I cannot stop using it! I hope to progress with my photography skills throughout my 3 years at Uni.

Here are some of the picture I have taken over the Christmas break: