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.

Dennis the menace downfall in my opinion

I looked at some Dennis the menace cartoons, 1st from when I was a kid, and again the more recent animated series, I don’t like how the voices are, and I think it is important to keep the voices the same or it spoils it, Dennis wasn’t northern in the first series but suddenly he is, in the future if I were to do something like this I would want to keep this in mind. It is strange as the characters are animated and so look almost exactly the same, but the voice changed, also the story lines are a bit different, maybe this is just to keep it contemporary. The old style animating works so much better in my opinion, the rough edges add something to it. I think the series I watched as a kid was truer to the original comic strip, crisper animation, the newer one seems to have been made to appeal to say America or something the streetscapes and backgrounds are much more bland and kind of could be anywhere.

SB TV

This is a YouTube programme showcasing new rap and beat box artists and other musical genres started,off little and has taken off and become quite a big thing now with a lot of followers. Of course I like this as its my kind of music and I am a beat boxer, but I like the way you can make a programme now without having a production company behind you and with the internet and social networking this can become a big thing and develop into something more. This show has a mixture of new talent and well known artists, always worth checking out.

My uncles old company the mill

I have posted this as I did work experience in this company when I was at sixth form college and this was really inspirational and encouraged me to get into this field. I got to work on some big adverts, saw all the different software they use watched them make a nokia ad and apply the special effects, really interesting and really nice working environment. I think doing something creative is a great job, as you work hard but it is interesting and you really get job satisfaction at the end of the day when you see what you and your team have come up with. I was working as a runner, which was a good training, and it felt really trendy, in soho, cool creative people. I have posted this as I did work experience in this company when I was at sixth form college and this was really inspirational and encouraged me to get into this field. I got to work on some big adverts, saw all the different software they use watched them make a nokia ad and apply the special effects, really interesting and really nice working environment. I think doing something creative is a great job, as you work hard but it is interesting and you really get job satisfaction at the end of the day when you see what you and your team have come up with. I was working as a runner, which was a good training, and it felt really trendy, in Soho, cool creative people. Even though my uncle worked there, I had to go for interviews to get this work experience, and I do know how competitive it is and how hard it will be to get into this after college.

Gold farmers

As a gamer I am aware of this trend, gold farming, basically the ability to buy a head start in a game when you don’t have the time (or possibly the ability) to build it up for yourself. So basically someone else does the ground work for you and you pay them for the service. This ahs got tob e about as far away from what my mum would call “a proper job” that is is possible to be! The site – www.chinesegoldfarmers.com is a site about a documentary looking into this phenomenon. It is so interesting, purist gamers think you shouldn’t be able to buy your way in like this, others think it is ludicrous to earn a living in such a virtual way. It is certainly far removed from doing a traditional job, linked to your surroundings and for your actual community, such as building, or farming. Bt it does get these workers involved in a virtual community and to meet up with others doing the same thing while playing the games they love, but is this going too far? And is it really any different from buying a “cheat” book like you used to be able to do when I started gaming?

Unreported world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amcHV9cdijo I always try to watch this programme on channel 4, though I end up watching it on channel 4 od. They report on otherwise unreported issues in remote places and areas where other reporters may not dare to go as it is so dangerous. I think this is a big difference in the world today that we can get so much more information about other places and other ways of life because of digital camera technology making equipment so much more portable, even mobile phone cameras can be used, and this can be a force for change in the world as issues come up that might otherwise be unreported. I think I like to see that stuff I could do could actually have an effect or even help other peoples lives, and this is very powerful. Perhaps now more than ever people can really make a difference as they can drum up internet support for their cause and this is motivating.

Gorillaz

I think Gorillaz have a great concept, they use animation and keep their real identities hidden. The animation is so cool and was really a new thing when they first came out, also the music is really good, and I think its cool that they do it for the music not for the fame as such. One of the things I would like to do with the stuff I learn from this course is to have the capability to do something like this myself. Animation really is an important medium today, and this use of animation is brilliant. They have created a style of character which has sort of become their brand if you like. The animation sequences themselves are great, they feel like the sets for a game, but with the music and instruments playing the biggest part in it.

this film released this year, is again a political satire,Again it has caused some controversy, all critics agree that this is a provocative film, it is all the usual things, racist, sexist, etc but the edge is lost somehow by the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen is of course now so well known that there is really no humour in this anymore for me, same old jokes, different characters, though of course up to date and even though I didn’t think it was great, it did make me laugh, in a guilty sort of way! The main character is loosely based on Gaddafi, the recent Libyan dictator, and footage of Sarkosy and Hillary Clinton talking about Gaddafi as though talking about this fascistic dictator from northern Africa. Throughout this and his other films, there are lots of anti- Semitic comments and footage, and I think that perhaps this is seen to be ok as Sacha Baron Cohen is himself Jewish, but this must be flawed eh? I think that this kind of assumes that the people watching are of the same mind as you, but of course you can’t assume that, and while it is ridiculous to think that this kind of blatant satire could somehow make people think it was ok to be anti jewish, anti women etc, it is not a risk I would want to take, there are enough crazy people out there that will see this kind of film as somehow making it ok to tell dodgy and offensive jokes. Where to draw the line eh…

borat

I recently saw the film Borat again, this film was released in 2006, and the first time i saw it i thought it would have a been a good laugh as I like the character Ali G, also one of the main actor Sacha Baron Cohen’s caricatures. Well, to be honest I though the film a bit silly, some bits were funny, but the main thread of the film is that the tow main characters, Borat and his aide, along with Pamela Anderson, are the only actual actors in the film and the other s are all filmed documentary style, believing that Borat really is from Kazakhstan, and a journalist making a documentary about the great U S and A! so though it is funny I think it is a bit unfair to laugh at people like that and is kind of like tricking people. The film caused so much controversy, cited as being anti-Semitic, homophobic and sexist to name a few … but the fact that these subjects are raised in the film, does not mean that the film is those things surely, especially as it is a comedy and really I think it is making fun of those who are sexist, homophobic etc The films whole title is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan which is clearly a dig at poor use of English, and it would be hard to see this film as anything other than satire or comedy. There are so many things wrong with the film, the languages used are not in fact Kazak, but Armenian, Hebrew and some Russian, and there are other (presumably deliberate) inaccuracies. So what do I think of the film, well, not great to be honest, funny, but in an uncomfortable way as you are laughing at someone for their stupidity, and they aren’t in on the joke, so it makes you feel like you shouldn’t laugh, but you do, so you feel a bit bad about it. It is shot documentary style, with moving cameras and you feel like you are watching a documentary but then it is funny. It also seemed a bit old hat actually after just 7 years, and I need to think about why that is, and why some films,, like the Agnes Varda avant garde films, stand the test of time so much better. If I do eventually make something to show, I would like to think it could last a bit better. Maybe it is the humour that is dated.