First of all I do apologies for not keeping up with my blog, this is due to the fact that i have been spending every waking minute trying to complete the project. and I can gladly say after six weeks of this I think I have completed the website. This is not say that it needs improvements done to it but in spite of this I am happy with the final outcome I produced.

One interesting problem that arose from doing this project was half through the production period, the brief was annoying changed as the Lectures who had set this brief realised that the project that we are doing was totally buggered from the start, and we only found out about this into our 4th week into production when we couldn’t upload any content, this was due to FTP coding was not properly implemented and also that the content that would be uploaded was to be done by the BA(Hons) Television Production course and now we are 5 days from handing in the project and do I see any content done by the TV Production course, do I bloody hell and I won’t get on to the fact about them supplying the Live feed that is to be incorporated into the website.

So overall I can say that this project out of all the projects I have done at Bournemouth University, this has been by far the least enjoyable, mainly because of the time constraint and having to learn PHP from scratch grrrrrrr.

I have decided I am definitely going to be a Designer after university and stay away from anything that relates to website design.

Finally I have found the authorship unit brief at long last. So with out any further to do here is what I shall be doing over the next month and a bit:

The Brief

To design a front end solution, including branding, for a new online Media School service called ‘THE STATION’ that will showcase media students work. It will consist of an archive student work as well as present a live Television Studio broadcast every weekday at 12pm.

Design work is to be minimalist in style and reflect the nature of the website. There must also be a location emphasis within the design work i.e. that it is Bournemouth/Dorset/South Coast.

To build a back-end editorial interface to ‘THE STATION’ that will allow Level I student teams to add new media content to the website and administrate/edit material already online.

The target audience for this service will be made up of the local community, media student peers and professional media companies

Overview

As of next academic year there will be a new online repository of Media School Student work. This will be made up of archived material plus a live 15-minute Television studio broadcast that goes out every weekday at lunchtime.

Level I student teams will man ‘The Station’ on a weekly rotation, providing regular updates to both the archive and the Live shows.

There will be a web front-end to allow the general public to access this work and view the live broadcasts, as well as a back-end editorial solution to enable the student teams to update the site with new content.

As a precursor to ‘THE STATION’ going live next academic year there will be trials of the potential services that will be used, in particular the HD TV Studio broadcasts, which will commence in week 5/6 of this academic year.

Technical Overview

The live broadcast will be streamed via the HD TV Studio, using a QuickTime Streaming Server that will announce the video using Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).

Video material for archiving will be provided either on tape or as a QuickTime DV-Pal file.

Interactive Media will be provided by means of a web address or on CD/DVD-Rom as potentially Photoshop/HTML/Flash/Unity 3D files

Script writing material will be provided by means of a Word document.

Radio material will be provided either on miniDisc/CD or as a WAV/AIFF audio file.

All this material needs to be encoded into a web friendly format, archived and searchable by use of meta-data.

Material that is uploaded by the student team must be cleared of copyright or have permission from the original authors.

Archived material needs to have the ability to be rated and commented on by the viewers of the web site.

The base requirements for the server are PHP5 & MySQL

Word to the Wise

Try to be realistic about what you can achieve given the short period of time you have to complete your project. Remember this is only a working prototype not the fully finished version of the website and back-end editorial interface.

Even though this is an individual project you will be expected to collaborate with others to help provide content on their websites.

Bournemouth Universtiy BAIMP Level I Authorship Production Element Brief 2009

My personal opinion about this project is that I am not going to like it one bit….. o dear but always up for any challenge.

Well my second week of uni have been manic, mad and taken very bit of life out of me !, however in the past 5 days i have manage to design and produce my online portfolio, which would have taken about a couple of months and hopefully shall up uploaded to the internet tomorrow or thursday. In reflection I am happy with what I have been able to do with the thanks of friends to help me out when I was in trouble.

Yet this portfolio has some what delayed me in starting my first, second year project by a couple of days. So lets get down to business and i’ll explain what this project involves:

(I have just spent the past half hour trying to find the brief for this project on Mybu with no success)

As I can’t find the project brief I shall explain what mybu is.

Mybu is Bournemouth University online virtual learning environment, and this is what it SHOULD BLOODY DO !!!!!:

• helps develop independent learning (DOES IT HELL, you can’t find a anything your looking for)
• provides access to flexible, student-centred resources (THIS IS A LOAD OF RUBBISH, the user interface/navigation is the worst I have ever had to use)
• supports communication and collaboration (ERRR NO !, I would only agree if you could find the things you need)
• supports student and academic communities of interest (HAHA SURE !!! if you ask any student in Bournemouth University, I can pretty much granite that they will have something to complain about it)

So there you are Mybu explained in a nut shell what it should do and what it DOES do !

You can tell I have had one of those weeks already.

My next post will be about my project that I have been assigned to do, if I can find the brief on Mybu

Well my first week at uni has been busy, no surprise there to be honest. I knew once I got back that starting the second year at Bournemouth Uni would be a bigger step up from my pretty relaxed first year. However always love the challenge trying to get through a tough situation !!!!

Last friday I had a talk about work placement that I would be doing towards the end of my second year. The lectures were painting a pretty bleak picture about it all due to the way the economy is at the moment. But over the summer I was suppose to be doing some work experience for a advertising website company, but due to personal medical reasons I was unfortunantly unable to do it. So during this work placement lecture, I thought I would drop them an email to see if the offer was still open, and within that day got the email back confriming that it was very much still open to my delight.

So in the next nine days I have to create my online portfolio and CV to take to them up in London.

Three words come to mind at this point: God Help Me !!!!

Ok over the summer I have royally neglected my blog, however I would like to say I have had a great 4 months of relaxation, while doing various imagery jobs for people. However one will definitely need to brush up on HTML/XHTML coding.

Looking back on the Summer project I hadn’t posted many post up about the progress of the project. but looking back on the Summer  Project, I personally felt that the six-week experience, had allowed me to achieve new skills within my course and the other related courses. I had the opportunity to learn how a script is produced and how it is then passed over to TV production to make idea into reality through various types of equipment. As a result this had helped in my communication skills to develop. Along side this my knowledge broadened with Adobe Photoshop CS3, which had helped improve my authorship skills and gain a higher level compared to the start of the project. However in any project, there were weaknesses, which provide the prospect for improvement in the future. The only two main things that I would have improved would have been time management and how we utilize our project to the audience.

Ultimately the Summer Project had allowed me to form newfound friendships with my group members and hopefully have the opportunity to work with them again in the future.

Now looking forward to the future, I can say that this next year will be more of a challenge for me and will test what I have in the way of creative skills.

Here is a breif outline of what I will be doing in this year.

• Professional Studies

To develop a critical understanding of the role of the producer as a collaborative media manager in a 360 degree cross platform environment.  You will gain an understanding of the legal and ethical contexts in which the media operate and experience the commissioning process first hand.

• Media Theory Options

Students choose to specialise, focusing on two specific themes in media theory over two 6 week periods. This encourages students to reflect on the implications of such theories for their production work.

• Production 2

For this unit you will be asked to come up with a concept for an interactive media artefact, pitch the idea to your audience, and then manage and create the media artefact.  You learn how to work individually as well as within a production team and then evaluate the work you have done in a reflective manner with reference to appropriate media theories.

• Research Methods

You will be introduced to different approaches to media research methods and techniques.  This unit prepares you for your dissertation in Year 3.

• Interactive Media Project

You will work on a group project set to a brief. Topics covered include web accessibility, server-side (PHP) programming, media encoding & delivery, software master classes, pitching and presentation skills, and managing a team.

• Professional Work Placement – 4 weeks minimum

Everyone is expected to undertake a four-week minimum placement in the summer between Years 2 and 3.  The placement offers you the opportunity to put to use the skills you have learned in an industry context and make useful contacts within the industry.  Recent placement companies include: BBC Interactive TV, Sony Music, EMAP performance, and Sky Television.

from Bournemouth University Website

So I can gladly say that I will definitely have my work cut out, but will enjoy doing it at the same time !!!!!!!!!

Bib

http://onlineservices.bournemouth.ac.uk/courses/Course.aspx?course=30&school=MS&level=ug&code=BAIMP&mode=ft&page=course_content

It has been two weeks since I returned to uni and started the summer project, which I had my doubt about, however over these past two weeks I can gladly say that I am happy to be working along a highly passionate and confident group. We have all been coming up with fun and wonderful ideas about how we are going to do the project and which issue that affects people in the today’s society.

Channel 4 each year approaches Bournemouth University with a he brief that is pasted on to the students, who are in Television Production, Script Writing and Interactive Media Production. This year the brief that has been given to us, states that we have to:

C4: BATTLEFRONT

In your groups of Script Writers, Interactive Media Producers and TV Production students, create and complete a 360 degree piece, consisting of a website, moving image work and mobile phone content.

Nominated for a prestigious international digital Emmy award, Battlefront is Channel 4’s online campaign central for 14 – 24 year olds.  Download the campaigners handbook via battlefront.co.uk and you’ll find everything you need to know about creating an innovative campaign and spreading the word on a variety of platforms.

About your idea: we’re particularly looking for ideas that raise awareness about an issue in an innovative way.  International or global concerns are particularly welcomed.  You can originate your own campaign idea, or team up with an existing organisation.

The virtual presence and moving image piece must be designed as one cohesive project from the outset.  Ask yourselves, ‘how does the content on each format interrelate and complement the overall piece?’

The project must feature a campaign film, maximum 3 minutes, in any form: doc, drama or something else entirely.  The film must be embedded in the site.

You can produce other segments of video for the website – up to two minutes in total, in as many separate movies as you like.  Create up to one minute of work that can be viewed on a mobile phone.  Remember, the three platforms must relate and refer to each other.

How can you create a buzz around your campaign?  Can users create or add their own material, join in discussions etc?  Can you make use of existing online tools, such as Twitter, Flickr, YouTube or MySpace?

Channel four is looking for something edgy, possibly humorous, contemporary, creative and refreshing.    It doesn’t have to be ‘worthy’.  Challenging work, original ideas, alternative voices and approaches, an inspiring take on contemporary social and cultural issues are all welcomed.   We want you to ‘challenge people to see the world differently’.

Think about the kind of output this channel produces.  In it’s own words: ‘Channel 4 is different.  It takes creative risks that others avoid.  It offers fresh perspectives for a diverse society.’  Representatives of Channel 4 will come to the presentations.

Bournemouth University, C4 Battlefront Brief, 2009

I can say that the next 5 weeks are going to be eventful but also fun, with the people I’m working along with. At this stage in production my group have an idea nailed but can not release information about it as yet, but soon will be announcing what we will be doing.

I cannot believe how fast the past five weeks have gone over the Easter break, but finally have come to the start of the Summer Project, here at Bournemouth and now into my second day. Yesturday I can say it was an eventful day, starting with my car getting clamped in the morning before heading up to uni, but manage to resolve that little problem.

As this Summer Project would be a group based project across three degrees, which are Television Production, Script Writing and my course Interactive Media Production. I couldn’t help but reflect on the Narrative Project, which i did over the Christmas period in a group just from my course, which had it’s ups and downs, in the way of communication between people within the group and attendance of people due to medical reasons, which made organising and putting together the project harder than anticipated. Hence why i have had a few doubt over the Easter period with this forth coming project. Yet the Narrative Project was a worth while experience to how group work can be.

If you wish to read further into how the Narrative Project went please follow this link http://will89.wordpress.com/category/narrative-project-0809/

However yesturday when put into the groups, for the Summer Project and seeing who I would be working with, I can say that good chunk of those doubts I had, have now gone and I am happy to be working with a passionate and confidant group of people and I believe that over the next 6 weeks we will be able to produce a very high level piece of work.

These past couple weeks have been a challenge and half, but now it is all finally over and i can gladly say that i believe that i have created a good piece of quality work. To end this unit I would to take the opportunity to make an evaluation about my project.

Looking back on my research that I conducted before creating my animation, I said I wanted to create an animation that didn’t have any reference to violence’s and shoot’em ups blood killing content, which we can find mostly in computer games influenced by TV, film and current events in today’s society.

This is why I decided to venture down the route of creating an animation, aimed at a young audience, predominantly children, but also having the power to reach out to older audiences. In order to achieve this goal, I based my animation around an animal and incorporating the aspects of comedy and how I could create it around the idea of “A day in the life of……”, which is commonly used to help people write autobiographies, recount parts of their life. This idea and the inspiration from the animation “Simon’s Cat”, which I mention in my research, lead me to create my animation “A Doggy Day”. Taking some inspiration from the techniques from the creator of “Simon’s Cat”, Simon Tofield, I took the approach of incorporating the aspect of ‘Black & White’ for my style, for the animation. By using this style of visualization, it gave my animation a level of simplicity, however there was part of me that didn’t agree that there shouldn’t be any colour within the animation. This is where I took further inspiration from the film ‘Sin City’ adapted from the comic books. With ‘Sin City, it is predominantly black and white throughout the film, however the film uses elements of striking colour, for instance bright red to signify blood and bright blue for eyes of some of the characters and lastly the biggest use of colour, yellow for the skin of the character Yellow Bastard.

I decided to take this idea and incorporate into the my animation on a smaller scale, for example I applied colour to the dogs collar, bone and ball, also parts of scenery within the animation, for instance the Sun, the plant pot on the window, the hand and lastly the hole in the garden where the dog buries it’s bone, in order to make the audience feel a little more interested with the animation. If I took the approach of making all black and white I would have feared that my target audience would probably loose interest, as young audiences in today’s society expect a high level of bright colours to grab their interest. A good example of this is the animation Pokémon, which uses a wide and various range of vibrant colours.

Looking back on my research and what I said in my conclusion about how I intended to create my animation based around a day in a life of a dog, with a level of interactivity so that the audience will be able to interact with the dog in various situations and decisions. I feel that I have manage to for fill that goal to a high level and evidence to show that I have can be seen in my animation as the audience can do some of the following below:

· Waking the dog up by clicking on the window so the plant pot smashes.

· Choosing where dog can go, i.e. Kitchen/Living Room.

· Having to find away to get the pie down, with the dog’s bone and ball.

· Sending the dog out of the living room before it does its business.

· Finding a place to bury the dog’s bone.

I have only mentioned a few possible interactive parts for the audience to experience within the animation, but all parts that have an interactive aspect to them does affect on how the narrative progress.

To sum up this evaluation about my animation, I feel that I have managed to produce a good quality interactive animation that successfully targets the audience age to range I set myself at the beginning of this project. However this doesn’t go without saying that this project has been challenging from the word start and over coming my biggest problem, which was transferring over 2000 frames of animation into the right place in Flash, frame by frame, in order to make my animation work. I feel that I have learnt and gain new skills throughout this project and having a better understanding of how Flash works and hopefully in the future will be able to put these new found skills into work.

This will be my last post for the next 5 weeks over the Easter period. When I return to university I will be starting on my Summer Project, which I looking forward to very much.

Here are the storyboards that I have create for my animation project. These storyboards shows the rough basics of our project and how the narrative of the animation will turns out. Each shot shows a visualisation with a description of how the narrative is progressing. So here are the storyboards for my project called A Doggy Day:

A Doggy Day Project © 2009

As always in all the units there are ‘One Day Projects” we have to do, which has its pro’s and cons, the con being that it gets in the way of my project, which I would be doing at the time, and usually I would see it being a waste of time. However in some cases i.e. in my ‘Image’ project and this unit ‘Audience’, it has proven to be helpful in the way that I incorprate the work from the one day project, into my main project for the unit that I am doing at the time, which equals to being the pro about the whole idea of doing these one day project. (basically these mini projects give us a kick in the back side to start on the main project).

For the ‘Audience Unit One Day Project’, we were set this brief:

“Develop a character/style sheet for a key ‘character’ in your proposed animation idea. Work onto paper if possible, unless your creation relies specifically on digital visualisation techniques.”

One Day Project for ‘Audience Unit’ set by Bournemouth University 2009

Once we had completed the character development, we had to give a informal presentation to our groups and course lecturers explaining our idea.

Here is my character development of my idea: A Doggy Day

A Doggy Day Project © 2009