Your reactions to BDC 101 Digital Media--what did you think of the course?
-What worked well about the course (in lecture and in labs). Why?
What worked well was the hands-on aspect of it all. I like the fact that we got time to just try things out and do the tutorials on our own. I also liked that half of the time was given to watch and learn and the other half was given to do the hands on work. It gave a nice sort of balance.
-What needs to be changed or improved? How and why?
I think the only issue I had was that my lab was right before a three hour lecture and I really did not like that. I found myself exhausted by the end of the day, especially with my long commute, too. But that's something that really can't be changed.
-In what ways has this course changed you?
It's helped me to understand certain parts of digital media that I didn't know before. I wasn't a big fan of flash and never really sat down and put time into it but afterwards I found that I was proud of myself for having learned this new program and making something on it. I also learned a lot more about the web than I knew before, especially in (X)HTML. I knew HTML before (X)HTML so it was interesting to see the difference. It kind of changed my perspective on the web too and I looked at it more analytically as to the characteristics of web 2.0.
-What is the most important thing (skill, knowledge, or otherwise) you are taking away from this course, and why is it the most important?
I'm taking away the skill to be knowledgeable in more than just the part of the course I like (audio). I think it's important for me to know what I'm doing in digital media even if I may not be going farther into it or making a career out of it. At least now I know the basics.
Shelly
Saturday, November 22, 2008
"Take ths sinking boat and point it home, we still have time."
When I wrote my essay to get into RTA, I wrote about networking websites and the inportance of them. Little did I know that I was actually exploring a part of Web 2.0. I wrote about facebook, dating websites, blogs, etc. All these places are social networking websites. Which brings me to this point: would web 2.0 really be the same without all it's characteristics?
I mean, if you look at it this way, what are most of my 8 most visited websites on my computer?
1. Facebook
2. Email --> Hotmail
3. YouTube
4. LiveJournal
5. Ryerson
6. Online Banking --> TD Canada Trust
7. A WebComic --> A Softer World
8. Wikipedia
Most of these are social networking websites. Facebook, email, YouTube, LiveJournal. All places where it's possible for me to meet other people and network. Then the rest are essentials. I can do banking without having to stand in long lines on a Saturday when I would much rather be doing my english essay. I can go to the Ryerson website and view everything I need to know about my classes, account balance, grades, etc. And even access my school email from there. I don't actually have to go outside, I can do everything from my computer. I could even order grocceries, clothes, etc from my computer all with the click of a button. I can meet people and enjoy the companies of other... Over the internet.
It's a weird world that we live in now where people know everything about us online, or can know, and where we don't even have to leave our house to do anything anymore. But hey, that's the internet for you. Either love it or hate it, it's here to stay. Might as well take advantage of it and get some grocceries while you're writing that paper. =D
I mean, if you look at it this way, what are most of my 8 most visited websites on my computer?
1. Facebook
2. Email --> Hotmail
3. YouTube
4. LiveJournal
5. Ryerson
6. Online Banking --> TD Canada Trust
7. A WebComic --> A Softer World
8. Wikipedia
Most of these are social networking websites. Facebook, email, YouTube, LiveJournal. All places where it's possible for me to meet other people and network. Then the rest are essentials. I can do banking without having to stand in long lines on a Saturday when I would much rather be doing my english essay. I can go to the Ryerson website and view everything I need to know about my classes, account balance, grades, etc. And even access my school email from there. I don't actually have to go outside, I can do everything from my computer. I could even order grocceries, clothes, etc from my computer all with the click of a button. I can meet people and enjoy the companies of other... Over the internet.
It's a weird world that we live in now where people know everything about us online, or can know, and where we don't even have to leave our house to do anything anymore. But hey, that's the internet for you. Either love it or hate it, it's here to stay. Might as well take advantage of it and get some grocceries while you're writing that paper. =D
Sunday, November 9, 2008
"The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is." - George Bernard Shaw
Characteristics that define Web 2.0
• Dynamic content, viewable on multiple platforms.
• User contribution (user generated content or user generated value)
• Social media
• Online applications
• Harnessing collective intelligence.
First Characteristic
As mentioned in lab, the first characteristic is "dynamic content, viewable on multiple platforms." In other words, it's content within content, pretty much. This includes mashups and applications that take content from other places on the web (e.g. blog posts, news stories, podcasts, etc) into another location on the web. An example of this would be iGoogle. iGoogle allows users to decorate their page with applications that they choose. For example, my iGoogle page has an RSS feed from CBC, which shows me all the top stories at the moment. Another application is my horoscope, which is taken from tarot.com. All these applications give me content from another website (like tarot.com, or CBC) and puts it right on my google search page. Voila! Dynamic content, viewable on multiple platforms.
Second Characteristic
The second characteristic of Web 2.0 is user contribution (user generated content or user generated value). What does this mean exactly? This means that the user (you, sitting at home on your computer) can choose what content goes on a website. Generally examples of this are ones mentioned in lecture such as YouTube (where users put their own videos up) and Wikipedia (where users write their own articles). Another one NOT mentioned in lecture is websites such as forums like proboards.com or invisionfree.com. These are places where users can create their own forums, their own posting boards and their own posts and dictate what content appears on their forum website.
Third Characteristic
Social media is the third characteristic. Social media can be described as "online media that provide opportunities for socializing, connecting, sharing." So, pretty much the exact definition of Facebook and Myspace. Both these websites were created for the sole purpose of networking and being social. On these websites you can cyber socialize, share photos and notes, join groups with other people, plan events, etc. Another example of this would be sites like plentyoffish.com, or other online dating websites wheren you can create a profile for yourself and socialize with other users.
Fourth Characteristic
The fourth characteristic is online applications. An example of online applications could be the applications found on Facebook (such as the photo upload tool which comes with every profile, or the applications you have to join to use such as graffiti or games.) Another example of online applications could be online games such as Winterbells or anything really found at NewGrounds because all these things - applications, games, etc - are all "software that we’ve traditionally thought of as something you buy and install on your local computer. There’s a new trend towards software that runs online." All those things are just that, software that runs online.
Fifth Characteristic
The final characteristic, harnessing collective intelligence, can be described simply as things such as tagging. Tagging is giving keywords to content which makes it easier for users to find when searching for specific things. Tagging can be found on blogs, flikr, deviantART, etc. Anywhere that a user would be searching for something specific. For example, I could type in "orange sunset" to deviantART and get pictures of orange sunsets because the user who uploaded the content put the tags as "orange" and/or "sunset".
That's my blog for this week.
This semester is almost done! Phew. Will I make it? I guess we'll see.
Also, check out the album In Flight by Florez. Amazing.
S.
• Dynamic content, viewable on multiple platforms.
• User contribution (user generated content or user generated value)
• Social media
• Online applications
• Harnessing collective intelligence.
First Characteristic
As mentioned in lab, the first characteristic is "dynamic content, viewable on multiple platforms." In other words, it's content within content, pretty much. This includes mashups and applications that take content from other places on the web (e.g. blog posts, news stories, podcasts, etc) into another location on the web. An example of this would be iGoogle. iGoogle allows users to decorate their page with applications that they choose. For example, my iGoogle page has an RSS feed from CBC, which shows me all the top stories at the moment. Another application is my horoscope, which is taken from tarot.com. All these applications give me content from another website (like tarot.com, or CBC) and puts it right on my google search page. Voila! Dynamic content, viewable on multiple platforms.
Second Characteristic
The second characteristic of Web 2.0 is user contribution (user generated content or user generated value). What does this mean exactly? This means that the user (you, sitting at home on your computer) can choose what content goes on a website. Generally examples of this are ones mentioned in lecture such as YouTube (where users put their own videos up) and Wikipedia (where users write their own articles). Another one NOT mentioned in lecture is websites such as forums like proboards.com or invisionfree.com. These are places where users can create their own forums, their own posting boards and their own posts and dictate what content appears on their forum website.
Third Characteristic
Social media is the third characteristic. Social media can be described as "online media that provide opportunities for socializing, connecting, sharing." So, pretty much the exact definition of Facebook and Myspace. Both these websites were created for the sole purpose of networking and being social. On these websites you can cyber socialize, share photos and notes, join groups with other people, plan events, etc. Another example of this would be sites like plentyoffish.com, or other online dating websites wheren you can create a profile for yourself and socialize with other users.
Fourth Characteristic
The fourth characteristic is online applications. An example of online applications could be the applications found on Facebook (such as the photo upload tool which comes with every profile, or the applications you have to join to use such as graffiti or games.) Another example of online applications could be online games such as Winterbells or anything really found at NewGrounds because all these things - applications, games, etc - are all "software that we’ve traditionally thought of as something you buy and install on your local computer. There’s a new trend towards software that runs online." All those things are just that, software that runs online.
Fifth Characteristic
The final characteristic, harnessing collective intelligence, can be described simply as things such as tagging. Tagging is giving keywords to content which makes it easier for users to find when searching for specific things. Tagging can be found on blogs, flikr, deviantART, etc. Anywhere that a user would be searching for something specific. For example, I could type in "orange sunset" to deviantART and get pictures of orange sunsets because the user who uploaded the content put the tags as "orange" and/or "sunset".
That's my blog for this week.
This semester is almost done! Phew. Will I make it? I guess we'll see.
Also, check out the album In Flight by Florez. Amazing.
S.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Title Pending - Apparently I Lack Creativity Tonight - Week Nine
Artist Statement for Flash Animation
My concept for my flash animation was to make a Saul Bass inspired opening credits scene. I looked for a movie that I could get some sort of inspiration from and once I saw Big in my movie collection I knew it was perfect. I decided to use circles throughout the movie because I thought it would go hand in hand with the title and theme, especially when I make the circles grow bigger. My objective was to have a short movie with a different type of animation for each actors name that would all flow together nicely.
My target audience is generally the people who would be interested in the movie. I tried to make it go with the style of the day (the 70s) and give it a happy, comedy-esque feel to it because that’s what the movie is like. The target audience could also be the younger adult generation (late teens to mid thirties).
Since I’m not very good with flash to begin with I decided to play to my strengths and make the flash simple. That doesn’t mean I didn’t work hard, because I definitely put a lot of effort in. I used the knowledge I gained throughout our lab tutorials and tried to keep all the concepts I learned in previous digital media classes about colours, typography and flow in my mind while I was making my animation.
My biggest challenge was making the movie long enough. I started out making it too fast and realized half way through that it needed to be fixed. I tried fixing it one way and then gave up because I was messing up all my frames. I tried again another way and realized I had created my own little system that allowed me to move certain frames and make the movie longer. Another issue I ran into was getting my button to work. It took me about an hour going through the tutorial again and fooling around in flash before I could work my button, with the background and my action layer. When that obstacle was overcome I could finally move on to my animation. Which process was a little smoother than creating a button, might I add. Finally, my last issue was getting sound to work. Because I was using Ryerson’s Virtual Applications on my laptop at home somehow it wouldn’t let me work my music. I transferred the file over to my PC, used Flash 4 (which I have but is too slow to work on) and fixed the music layer there. Voila, I was done!
I’ve learned through this process mostly how to make the most complex things simple, and find other ways to do things. In the end I believe I met my original goal and target audience and I am quite proud of the work that I did. With having only used flash once in high school I am happy to say that I can successfully use the program and make animations.
Class Critique
Class critique went a lot better this time. I always hate getting critiqued in front of a large group of people but, then again, I bet you won't ever find someone who enjoys that... Anyway, the critique went well. They enjoyed the animation with a few suggestions. Of course, the suggestions were positive and I agreed that making those changes (such as fixing the ending to not cut off abruptly, and making it a little slower) would definitely help the animation. I was happy for the critique.
My concept for my flash animation was to make a Saul Bass inspired opening credits scene. I looked for a movie that I could get some sort of inspiration from and once I saw Big in my movie collection I knew it was perfect. I decided to use circles throughout the movie because I thought it would go hand in hand with the title and theme, especially when I make the circles grow bigger. My objective was to have a short movie with a different type of animation for each actors name that would all flow together nicely.
My target audience is generally the people who would be interested in the movie. I tried to make it go with the style of the day (the 70s) and give it a happy, comedy-esque feel to it because that’s what the movie is like. The target audience could also be the younger adult generation (late teens to mid thirties).
Since I’m not very good with flash to begin with I decided to play to my strengths and make the flash simple. That doesn’t mean I didn’t work hard, because I definitely put a lot of effort in. I used the knowledge I gained throughout our lab tutorials and tried to keep all the concepts I learned in previous digital media classes about colours, typography and flow in my mind while I was making my animation.
My biggest challenge was making the movie long enough. I started out making it too fast and realized half way through that it needed to be fixed. I tried fixing it one way and then gave up because I was messing up all my frames. I tried again another way and realized I had created my own little system that allowed me to move certain frames and make the movie longer. Another issue I ran into was getting my button to work. It took me about an hour going through the tutorial again and fooling around in flash before I could work my button, with the background and my action layer. When that obstacle was overcome I could finally move on to my animation. Which process was a little smoother than creating a button, might I add. Finally, my last issue was getting sound to work. Because I was using Ryerson’s Virtual Applications on my laptop at home somehow it wouldn’t let me work my music. I transferred the file over to my PC, used Flash 4 (which I have but is too slow to work on) and fixed the music layer there. Voila, I was done!
I’ve learned through this process mostly how to make the most complex things simple, and find other ways to do things. In the end I believe I met my original goal and target audience and I am quite proud of the work that I did. With having only used flash once in high school I am happy to say that I can successfully use the program and make animations.
Class Critique
Class critique went a lot better this time. I always hate getting critiqued in front of a large group of people but, then again, I bet you won't ever find someone who enjoys that... Anyway, the critique went well. They enjoyed the animation with a few suggestions. Of course, the suggestions were positive and I agreed that making those changes (such as fixing the ending to not cut off abruptly, and making it a little slower) would definitely help the animation. I was happy for the critique.
"I'm tired." "Ooo, I've heard of that before. My doctor says sleep will fix it. I think he's crazy."
It's weird that throughout the ages music videos budgets have gone from cheap to expensive, to cheap (homemade) again. But I mean I guess that makes sense. Yeah, it started out really cheap because no one really knew how popular music videos could get, and there wasn't really a set style as to what a video should look like. Then as time went on they got more expensive, more extravagant. Instead of it being just about the music, it went to being about the video. Videos told a story, helped make the artist popular, showed how much money they had or how "cool" they were. Now, videos are becoming more homemade and cheap again and I think that's because of boredom. People are used to the outrageous videos and they need something new and refreshing. And what's more new and refreshing than whatever was new and refreshing YEARS ago? Just like in fashion and trends, the old way of doing things comes back, but with a new twist.
This time homemade and cheap videos are sending a message and that message seems to be "I don't need to blow millions on a video to make a statement. Here's my statement. Enjoy my music." And that, to the masses, is new and edgy and refreshing and they eat it all up. So of course, we're gonna see a whole new trend of homemade videos. And then you know what's going to happen?
Something newer is going to come along. Some other idea. People will get sick of homemade and go "hey, those guys who spend a billion dollars on videos were on to something. Whatever happened to doing it that way?" And things will change again and again and again. It's all about what the masses want. And it seems that the masses want one thing, then another thing. They LIKE change, they like something new and so everything has to adapt to fit what they want.
That's just what I think, anyway.
I also think that the OkGo video was brilliant.
Shelly
This time homemade and cheap videos are sending a message and that message seems to be "I don't need to blow millions on a video to make a statement. Here's my statement. Enjoy my music." And that, to the masses, is new and edgy and refreshing and they eat it all up. So of course, we're gonna see a whole new trend of homemade videos. And then you know what's going to happen?
Something newer is going to come along. Some other idea. People will get sick of homemade and go "hey, those guys who spend a billion dollars on videos were on to something. Whatever happened to doing it that way?" And things will change again and again and again. It's all about what the masses want. And it seems that the masses want one thing, then another thing. They LIKE change, they like something new and so everything has to adapt to fit what they want.
That's just what I think, anyway.
I also think that the OkGo video was brilliant.
Shelly
"It's only real if you believe it's real. Life, love, happiness. You have to believe..." - Week Seven
I know this blog is a little late... However, I think that could be a good thing. After last weeks lecture on audio and all that jazz I decided to go out and see Passchendaele. I must say, after having a lecture on audio and how it is made and put into movies, what's real and what isn't, I definitely looked at the movie completely differently. I especially looked at it differently during the opening scene. Every little sound I detatched from the actual video, and I visualized the layers. What was added in afterwards, what (like some of the dialogue) was probably kept from the original shooting. Also, I must say that I have great respect for people (like your husband, Lori) for doing sound in a movie like that. Or in any movie, really. I mean, it's gotta be hard work.
While I watched Passchendaele I listened closely to every layer of sound. The background noise, the guns/bombs/explosions/etc, the galloping of hooves and the moving of the soldiers packs while they ran, even the voices. That's a lot of layers, and a lot of sound to put into a movie. Which lead me to thinking about where I want to go in my career after RTA. Sound effect making... Sounds pretty amazing to me. Really, it's a fascinating process and I'm intrigued by it all. I never knew all the noises you could make with vegetables and I never really thought about how sound effects in movies were made. Last lecture definitely made me look at movies differently.
But, it's not the first time a lecture has done that to me in the past two months.
The radio is just a time log in my head now. I'm constantly aware of format, target audience, music, commercials, CanCon, etc.
Station IDs, PSAs and Commercials are just layers, seperate audio tracks made into one, in my head now.
I went back to my old high school for a concert just last week and while they had audio issues I was tempted to go up in the booth and help them. I actually KNEW what they had to do to fix the problems. Last year I didn't even know there was a difference between a condenser mircophone and a dynamic mircophone.
Video Killed the Radio Star came on the radio while I was in the car with my friends and I immediately blurted out "Did you know that this was the first song ever to be played on MTV when it first started up?".
I never knew Farnsworth created the television. Or that there was a difference between private and public broadcasting. Nor did I know that the Beatles made multitrack recording popular.
Look what has happened to me!
I'm knowledgable in things that I've wanted to be knowledgable in for a long time.
And hey, I'm so not complaining. I still love my program, and everything I've been learning.
Anyway, that's my blog post for week seven. I'm gonna get back on track with these blogs. I know I get behind a bit, but at least they're getting done.
Shelly
While I watched Passchendaele I listened closely to every layer of sound. The background noise, the guns/bombs/explosions/etc, the galloping of hooves and the moving of the soldiers packs while they ran, even the voices. That's a lot of layers, and a lot of sound to put into a movie. Which lead me to thinking about where I want to go in my career after RTA. Sound effect making... Sounds pretty amazing to me. Really, it's a fascinating process and I'm intrigued by it all. I never knew all the noises you could make with vegetables and I never really thought about how sound effects in movies were made. Last lecture definitely made me look at movies differently.
But, it's not the first time a lecture has done that to me in the past two months.
The radio is just a time log in my head now. I'm constantly aware of format, target audience, music, commercials, CanCon, etc.
Station IDs, PSAs and Commercials are just layers, seperate audio tracks made into one, in my head now.
I went back to my old high school for a concert just last week and while they had audio issues I was tempted to go up in the booth and help them. I actually KNEW what they had to do to fix the problems. Last year I didn't even know there was a difference between a condenser mircophone and a dynamic mircophone.
Video Killed the Radio Star came on the radio while I was in the car with my friends and I immediately blurted out "Did you know that this was the first song ever to be played on MTV when it first started up?".
I never knew Farnsworth created the television. Or that there was a difference between private and public broadcasting. Nor did I know that the Beatles made multitrack recording popular.
Look what has happened to me!
I'm knowledgable in things that I've wanted to be knowledgable in for a long time.
And hey, I'm so not complaining. I still love my program, and everything I've been learning.
Anyway, that's my blog post for week seven. I'm gonna get back on track with these blogs. I know I get behind a bit, but at least they're getting done.
Shelly
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