Essentially New Media refers to the change in how traditional media has evolved over the century. Ubiquity – the fact that it’s found everywhere and accessible everywhere plays a major factor in this concept. Behind the term ‘new media’ lies two main concepts that have been introduces quite recently over the a coupe of decades – Digital media and Online Media. Digital media refers to the aspects of information that can be compressed and the accessibility of data that’s much faster than ‘the ol’ traditional way’ with books and whatnot. Online media however, differs in the aspect that it directly refers to the usage of the internet – taking into consideration the element of connectivity among individuals of society. Hence the term ‘New media’ which directly refers to how these two aspects of the digital age have come together to form a new type of medium that allows for easily accessible online/digital content – i.e. videos, pictures, advertising.
In terms of how this relates to our studios and what we’re attempting to understand – New media refers heavily to online video making as it opens up a whole new world of video creation/experimentation. What we need to take from this is to be able to understand how to analyse an online video, and applying certain principles of what may make one and experiment on how we can apply those principles and techniques to our own online videos that we’ll be focusing on after out initial sketches exploring how we may go about applying certain techniques.
After analyzing my case study of MLG Gamer KennyS’ best gaming moments, I’ve come to take an interest in how gaming videos are structured. Especially this one where found footage of in-game matches are placed together in sync with the music. The whole idea of trying to synchronize the sound of the footage with the music interests me because it kind of melds the two mediums together – a montage mixed together to create a sort of experimental music video.
The level of gameplay shown comes from a high level MLG (Major league gaming) player – specifically KennyS. The reason for this is because audiences tend to watch videos expecting the extraordinary as opposed to the ordinary. The title alone is titled ‘…Best of KennyS’ which implies to those who don’t know KennyS that he must be an extraordinary player to have an entire video dedicated to his level of skill. This also applies to those who do know who KennyS is, who come to watch the video expecting to be amazed.
How well sound(s) are edited and mixed into the video, i.e. music.
The sound is mixed into compliment each other, made to synchronize with the video despite the gameplay sound and music overlapping, it creates a video we can really get engaged into where the sound is pleasant to listen to.
How smooth the footage is (frame rates/fps).
When making gaming videos such as this, it all depends on how well it’s recorded, frame rate/fps particularly is one of the most important factors that define a good gaming video. This video in particular runs on a stable 60 frames per second which gives a nice smooth feel to it whereas if it was recorded in 30fps or lower, it would seem choppy and unpleasant.
Quality of edited footage (the way the clips are placed together).
The clips themselves are nice and short, they showcase highlights of KennyS’ gaming career and this in turn keeps the audiences captivated and engaged. The fact that he also softens the sounds and allows commentary adds diversity to keep the audiences engaged as well as adds to the whole ‘wow’ factor. The duration is quite short for a reason; audiences attention tend to stray after seeing clips like these over and over again, despite adding different types of edits into the montage, there are a limited amount of things one can do to keep the audience captivated in a video like this.
Resolution Quality (HD)
Another major factor to take in consideration in a gaming video is the resolution of which the game is recorded in. In most cases depending on how well one’s gaming/recording equipment is, people would rather try to record a game in 1080p on the highest video settings, reason for this is for audiences to get a clear crisp video as opposed to a pixelated one.
Usage of in-game camera angles.
By implementing his own camera angles, Sparkles is able to add another dimension to the video, rather than having one perspective to work with the entire video, he’s able to utulize the fact that he can download the game itself and record from the area allows for diversity, giving him the ability to showcase certain moments more effectively.
Choice of footage
In this case, these clips stemmed from KennyS’ gaming experience, showcasing the major plays he’s made in his career, these are to wow the audience, to demonstrate and showcase his skill’s when it comes to the game.
How does it engage the audience
Given the context of the video, one can assume this is targeted towards an audience of gamers, not specifically CS(Counter-strike), but any gamer in general. However, the larger portion of the audience tend to be experienced gamers or gamers familiar with the FPS (First Person Shooter Genre). This level of gameplay as well engages the audience, it showcases what the majority of gamers couldn’t hope to achieve without tireless effort and hard work.
How the video is edited
The video is fast paced, it keeps the audience on edge it’s edited in a way that gives the audience little to no time to think about what they had just seen, in some cases it’s edited to show the same clip again in slow motion as to add to the whole ‘wow’ factor, to allow the audience time to comprehend the clip.
Choice of sound/music
Gaming videos tend to adopt different types and genres of music depending on how the game is played, how fast the game is paced. Specifically CS is a very fast paced game that heavily relies on the player’s reaction, precision and teamwork. Being such a fast paced game, Sparkles has deemed an upbeat electro-house soundtrack to go with the video, even managing to sync up the tempo of the music with the tempo of the editing and gameplay itself.
Today’s activity: Create a mindmap regarding the prompt: Online Video, What is it?
Activity isn’t really hard, but what I realized is that by mapping out things that stem from this question, the similarities between online video and television share significant similarities, and essentially to me, online video is a much more advanced version of television, easily more accessible for individuals and targeted mainly for users younger and more in touch with this technological generation.
First blog post, learnt about the structure of the essay assessment that’ll be due sometime later during the semester. Given information about how we can merge an informal yet formal style of writing especially if we’re citing or using references that are from outside sources. Being this as a first reflective blog post this is obviously informal.
Furthermore, in constantly writing reflective blogs may help us write the final essay much easier given the amount of past content we may refer to.
Words of interest: Polyvocal, practice based research, PB essay. [Peanut butter essay?]
