Evaluation

It is hard to evaluate my progress over a whole year as so much has happened and we have learnt so much. I was really pleased with my practical projects, I liked the outcomes, particularly the filming. The blogs I find really difficult. I need to give them more time. Some of them I had time to give more thought to and these turned out much better so I want to make sure that I give myself more of a routine with the blogs and lecture attending, so that I am more on the ball with stuff and able to do a little bit but often to keep on top of it. I find it hard to express myself in writing, maybe that’s why I prefer the practical stuff. I also got mumps just as I was getting it all ready in the end, and this was a real disaster. I know I got an extension but I felt so tired and the distance also made me feel distanced from the course as I was quarantined in my room and couldn’t see anyone. So I have struggled with the last bits of the course which is a pity as I would have like dot go out on a higher note! For example i was quarantined in my room and was not a loud to see anyone so i did not do a presentation. I have overall though learnt so much in this first year and I am really looking forward to the rest of the course now i all so believe i will have to put a lot more effort in to next year as i do not think i put enough effort in.

cyriax (lecture)

i love cyriaks work, the shorts are funny and so original, everything works, the music adn the weirdness. he must be a weird guy, but it makes me think of salvador dali and his surreal art, especially the teddys on the seafront, with a giant pigeon riding on top of a car kind of incidentally. i thinkits brilliant, it is hard to be original these days, but htis really is original. the music also adds to the surreal ascpect of the short films. and the special effects are so not how sepcial effects are normally applied, so excellent and inspirational.

Writing an evaluation (lecture)

Writing and evaluating your work is a really important tool in the creative process. We evaluate things in many ways without necessarily thinking about it. when you design or create something you are always looking at it and seeing what you could change, that is a kind of evaluation. At college when we have to write an evaluation really we are trying to show the tutor that we are able to objectively look at our work and see what we could have done better or differently and hopefully this means that the next piece of work will be an improvement as you have shown that you are learning as you go. At college an evaluation is basically an academic exercise, an essay with an introduction saying what you are evaluating, and the main text where you say the things that went well and those that could have gone better and a conclusion where you may want to think about the reasons for certain decisions or lack of progress. This process is really useful for students as it forces you to reflect on what you have done and this should hopefully register somewhere the mistakes you don’t want to make again. It is also useful in work, after each job or process and evaluation is a really good tool for analysing what you have done and what you could do better.

Social networking ( Lecture )

Social networking sites such as twitter and Facebook though relatively recent have really taken off dramatically since their introduction, the most popular and well known being Facebook, this was started by a Harvard college student and has really changed the way people communicate with each other. Of course there is a link with all this to the copyright issues, but in general it is now easy to communicate with all your friends and colleagues – at least all of them that are using the same site as you, for example Facebook, at the one time so information can be shared really rapidly. This is particularly effective as the rise of handheld media devices and smart phones means that people are much more contactable than they would have been even 20 years ago. This is a useful tool for those who have an issue they want to share, look how information was able to be broadcast from Tahrir square in the recent uprising sin Egypt, using social media to spread the word. Also the riots in London last year were thought to have spread and grown so quickly because of this new media technology. This also give people a chance to showcase their talents, Justin Beiber, one of the most successful recent pop artists was discovered after singing on YouTube. These days aspiring agents for example need to be fully fluent in the use of social media so they can be ready to approach the next big thing, it is not just a case of trawling around clubs and bars looking at live acts any more. These sites also give people a great way of sharing what they are doing with their peer groups and gauging reactions. They have transformed communications. Of course there are problems with exploitation; it is easy to pretend to be someone you are not on line. Copyright remains an issue too. And of course issues such as privacy and internet bullying are all the downsides of the new communications, but as time goes on I am sure this will evolve and also people will get better at protecting themselves. Politicians and governments are interested in controlling this type of communication, obviously they can monitor emails and internet use, and it will be interesting to see how this develops.

Skim reading ( lecture )

Skim reading is a really useful tool for a student, it basically means a technique of reading in such a way that you skim over the text picking out the key words so that you get the gist of the text without getting bogged down in all the language. It is of course important to do it correctly so that you so not mis-interpret the text and get the right “gist”! It is interesting to note that studies show ( see skim reading for dummies series) that people can skim read written text much faster in book format than on a computer screen. It is important to read the opening and closing or concluding paragraphs carefully though to make sure that what you are skimming off the text is the right stuff! Ti takes some practise but without realising it we all skim read a lot of the time anyway, modern journalism with its sound bites is made for skimming, you can jump from bite to bite and really get the nub of the argument or point of view. I find that it is useful to read the important intro and conclusion paragraphs and then scan through the document for key words used in those, and then to skim read to see if you can glean the gist, much faster than reading the text word for word, and practise – which I need – makes this an easier thing to achieve, important for those like me who are a bit daunted by a huge text.

Copyright laws (lecture)

Copyright law is about getting the benefit for something that is you intellectual property. This means that you get the credit for your ideas in theory and protects the creator from others using and profiting from their ideas and creations. The use of downloading and internet stores like iTunes has really opened up lots of problems for copyright as it is harder to track down those selling yoru ideas or songs for example, but as the internet develops the controls are getting better and this seems to be becoming less of an issue. In the UK the applicable law is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and this is applicable to films and other creative media. More recently The Digital Economy Act has become law in the UK and this is itself being accused of being big brother ish and not dealing with the real issues, along with being very expensive. It is attempting to deal with tracking down the culprits but by trying to make it harder for them to avoid responsibility, there are accusations that it means that eg big bosses in a company can be held accountable for one errant employees actions. It is a start though, and I suspect there will be much negotiating til a suitable compromise is reached, this is of course important, without copyright there is no incentive really to design new things, it will be interesting to see how this develops.

Gears of war

This is the game that got me into online gaming big time, I feel like I did nothing else for a while, the online aspect of the game as you are interacting with other real people rather than just playing the computer which is so much better and you can get to know how people think. The graphics were the best of their kind at the time too, really amazing, I liked it much more than all the first person shooters, this was the first third person shooter I played and I could really lose myself in the game. It was a really useful tool for me in getting through some personal traumas as I could get lost in this. The graphics are fantastic too, the colours bleak, fantastical and gritty.