Project Brief 4 Reflection

Project Brief 4 reflection.

 

Project brief 4 was the final assignment for Media 1, and was significantly bigger and more involved than project briefs 2 and 3. I feel our final project is a good, but flawed media artifact.

Unlike the previous Project Briefs, this one was a group exercise, which made me initially nervous because I usually prefer to work alone. Even more daunting was the fact that we did not get to chose our own groups, which has lead to disastrous results in the past (and talking to friends in other Media tutorials, happened there as well). However both Kristan and Ali were both great to work with, and our group functioned as an efficient team. Our group met once per week outside of class to work on the Project, which I feel was very important and allowed us to work as team much better than other groups who worked independently and combined their work at a later date.

Our group worked well and everyone stayed in regular contact and did their assigned tasks between meetings, Ali especially did incredible work on editing the footage together. We worked well as a team as both Kristian and Ali were great partners and very easy to approach with any questions or concerns. We all adhered to the collaborative contract, and there was never any serious disagreements that were not dealt with civilly and respectfully.

I feel our group worked well as a team, each having our own strengths and weaknesses. For example, Kristian was the primary writer for the script because he has a passion for writing. His first draft contained numerous errors and awkward phrases relating to gaming and gaming culture because he is not involved, this is where me and Ali helped him re-phrase it to sound more knowledgably and cleared up some factual mistakes relating to release dates and other miscellaneous facts.

Originally we had not much of an idea on how to approach the topic of “Mediums”, or how much work was expected from this Project. Our initial idea was a website that showcased the history and differences of many different mediums, with each part being portrayed in the medium it was about.

We were very excited and enthusiastic about this idea, but as seen in THIS blog post, it was quickly and brutally shot down. However upon later reflection I can see that a Media artifact of this magnitude would have been impossible to complete in the time we had available.

Our final idea was to focus entirely on the medium of Video Games (which originally was going to be 1/4th of our project) and create a 5-6min video in the style of the ABC television program “Good Game” that looked at how video games were influenced by, and incorporate different mediums to become a new and unique medium.

I feel we succeeded in making it look similar to “Good Game” in the setup of the set and how the camera worked, switching from a wide shot with both of us, to close ups of our face talking to each other. We could also use footage of the videogames to cover up continuity errors. Over the several weeks following slowly developed the idea, making several prototype scripts and trying out different ways to film it.

The feedback we received in class was reassuring that we were headed in the right direction, and provide useful feedback to improve our final artifact. An example of this was Rachel suggesting adding the quotes from scholars as on-screen prompts, to add visual flair and help people see who was saying it, and where it was published.

I’m am reasonably happy with our final artifact, I cant think of many ways we could have improved it, but I feel the design wasn’t the best choice for our topic. Making our video in a similar style to “Good Game” and simultaneously quoting scholarly references did not mesh well in my opinion. I wish we had to opportunity to be more creative, but we were limited by time and having to cite scholarly research. My major gripe with this semesters project briefs is that each media artifact I have produced has been either about me, someone else or a thing in a factual way, I am much more comfortable making purely fictional media.

I am proud of our groups work, especially when I hear about the internal problems that plagued some of my friends groups, and although in retrospect I wish we could have taken a different route, I feel our artifact is well made and conveys its message well. This Project Brief has helped my perception of group work, as well as looking into the scholarly work done in the field of media.

Minutes for Project Brief 4 – final class

Minutes for meeting 7.

  • We met in class and shared the music/sound effects we had found over the week and decided which to put into the final video. We now have background music, “whoosh” sound effects for transitions and a “rumble” followed up by a thunderclap for the HEAD TO HEAD logo.
  • In class today we showed our prototype brief to the class, and Rachel gave us feedback:
  • The feedback was good, with the only advice being to put some of the scholarly quotes/references on screen to make it more clear, and to add more visual stimulus.

Over the weekend the sound effects will be added to the video, as well as the on-screen text for quotes and names of which game is currently being shown etc…

 

As well as organise annotated bibliography and the rest of the dossier ready for submission on thursday.

 

Project Brief 4 minutes – Filming Day

Minutes for filming day

  • We met and setup the equipment in the basement area of Building 9
  • We setup 3 cameras, a light and 2 microphones
  • We also connected a laptop to the TV screen to display footage.
  • Then we began filming.

The filming process went very well, apart from a couple interruptions and the camera turning off at one point. The audio was clear and Kristain held up a laptop with out lines on it, to minimize screwing up lines.

 

We got all the footage required, and used all 3 cameras to get multiple angles for the shoot.

 

We finsished and uploaded the content to Ali’s computer.

 

By next week we will complete:

  • Ali – begin editing, and make a rough cut
  • Sandy – find royalty free music/sound effects to use in video
  • Kristian – find royalty free music/sound effects to use in video.

Project Brief 4 Minutes – meeting 5

MEETING FIVE: TEAM FORTE

14/05/2015

 

  • Figured out our new room, to be filmed on Thursday 20th at 12.30 in the lounge and workspace underground near the studios.

 

  • Kristian has finished his script, have read over it and approved the final copy.

 

  • Ali is to find footage for Grand Theft Auto and Sandy is to find footage for Resident Evil. This footage is to be used for the final media outcome.

 

  • Have hired lighting, camera and 2 tripods for our filming date.

 

  • Ali to bring in his own camera from home, which is a more professional camera.

 

By next meeting:

 

  • Ali: to have footage all found, and credited for GTA.

 

  • Sandy: to have footage all found, and credited for Resident Evil.

 

Kristian: to produce the logo for Game Scope.

Project Brief 4 – The Script

Over the last week we have been developing a script for our Media Artefact.

The Majority of our script has been written by Kristain (his Blog post about it can be found here)

After Kristians rough draft me and Ali suggested some changes, mostly terminology since Kristian is not heavily involved in gaming, so the revisited script contains more accurate terms.

For example we changed “Game-Makers” to “Developers”.

Brief 4 Meeting 11/5/15

Project brief 4 minutes for Monday 12/5/15

 

 

  • We met and disussed various issues including where to film and when to record. We settled on recording Thursday morning in a room we booked
  • We also read over Kristians work-in-progress script, and made a few edits.

 

Then we decided to record a basic prototype of our media artefact.

Movie on 11-05-2015 at 12.53 pm from Sandy Jones on Vimeo.

Obviously the script isn’t finalised and its a pretty unprofessional, but its a basic template of what we are going to do.

Brief four minutes 7th May

Minutes for Thursday 7th May tutorial.

 

Project Brief 4

 

  • Everyones annotated bibliography is completed and uploaded into a single doc (not yet put into alphabetical order, but that will be done soon)
  • Further discussed what we found in our sources.
  • Talked about ideas for artefact
  1. Concept of a Mockumentary abandoned
  2. Rachal gave us the idea to make a TV style report similar to the ABC program “Good Game”
  3. We unanimously dicide this is a good idea.
  4. Brainstrom ideas, settle on showing/comparing how different mediums are used in two different games. As well as talking about how games are different to other mediums.

 

We decide to use the Games “Grand Theft Auto” and “Resident Evil” because they are very different in their atmostshere, scope and use of other mediums such as sound.

 

Before meeting again on Monday we have the following jobs:

 

Ali: Find quotes and add them to the quote Doc

Kristian: write a rough draft of the script

Sandy: look for possible ways to get Resident Evil (possibly buy the ps1 classic to play on ps vita)


During our meeting on Monday at 12:00pm we aim to review the proto-type script and record a read-through to see how it flows and length etc…  

Week 8 Tutorial – Hopes and dreams destroyed :(

In week 8s tutorial, we brainstormed ideas for Project Brief 4.

 

Because our topic is Medium, we thought it would be a good idea to present our artefact should be presented in a multi-medium form.

 

We listed every different medium we could think of, and thought of different ways we could present our Project. We unanimously agreed that the best way to showcase a multidude of mediums was a website.

The idea was to have a website with multiple Tabs each focusing on a different medium. On each tab there would be several embedded artefacts, such as videos, images, sound-clips, etc….

 

Each “thing” would display what embodies that particular medium in a creative and interesting way. Some ideas we through around were: a short (2-3 minutes) film that showcases what makes cinema different from other mediums. Another idea was a different video showcasing the medium of television: it would be different to the cinema by being a different aspect ratio, and shot in a newscast style and break to advertisements to showcase Televisons uniqueness as a medium.

Other ideas included recording a 2 minute audio clip that was a fake radio show to showcase Radio as a medium, and having a photo gallery showing off that medium.

We also listed down the main types of medium, and dot-pointed the main points about each one.

We were very enthusiastic, and everything seemed to be going well and our ideas looked to be shaping into a tremendous Project Brief.

But alas, tragedy struck:

When we eagerly showed our mind-map of ideas to Rachel, we expected a resounding complements and encourage meant to pursue our ambitions. However instead we were greeted with “em, maybe not…….”

We discussed with Rachel and she was of the opinion that our Project Idea was too broad, and too big for the time allotted. That we should narrow down and focus on either how different mediums could be used to show a single Media text or an in depth analysis of a single Medium.

This was quite disheartening, but we managed to get some new (and simpler) ideas that we will research and discuss on our Weekly meeting next Monday.

Until then: Back to the drawing board.

First meeting Minutes

Project Brief 4 minutes

 

MEETING ONE

  •      Idea for doing a website. (Because unique, and can incorporate multiple mediums into it).
  •      Annotated bibliography, doing 2 types of medium each.
  •      Sandy – Video Games and Cinema
  •      Kristian – Radio and Social Media
  •      Ali – mobile phones and TV
  •      Filled out Collaborative Contract.

Decided what we are all going to have completed by the next meeting.

Sandy-edit and refine the collaborative contract ready for submission.

Kristian-research methods of hosting a website for the final Media artifact.

Ali-Draft some creative ideas of how to present the information/ideas in a website format.

In addition: everyone will find 6 references in their chosen 2 mediums, as well as each coming up with a definition of Medium.

-end of first meeting.