Prezi, final game

So, we have finally finished our game design and created a prezi which explains how our game works and its unique selling points. I am pleased with the game we have created and the way we have presented it. I have never used Prezi before so I took the oppertunity of creating it, I quite enjoyed this task and it's something I would opt to do again.

Here is the link to our Prezi explaining our game.
http://prezi.com/nxgi0tohwp_l/present/?auth_key=fmhyspp&follow=o2j8ahbrkcrf

We will be receiving feedback from our tutors and peers on our game today, I will blog about that later.

Finishing our film

We had to edit our film and have it on DVD by 2pm today. It was a stressful few hours! We captured the last of our footage and cracked on with making our film better. It actually wasn't as hard as the first time round, probably because we've got a little used to it. We added the footage inbetween what we already had and extracted some footage to replace it with other. We changed our song to 'Bad Day' as well because it went a lot better and had more of an uplifted beat to it, exactly what it needed. We started the song from the middle as the word Bad Day was sung as Tom stepped onto the mirror. Burning it onto DVD was also an easy process, went on in the matter of minute.

We shown the films in our lesson and we got a positive feedback by the looks of it. Everyone understood the bad luck being passed on narrative, thank god! We have feedback sessions with out tutors in our groups next week which I am unable to make as I am with BBC being filmed as part of a group for the new drama series The Fuse.

Skittles for the last time

Today was the last dat for our stop frame animations, finally seeing the end of skittles! We set the camera up again and took our pictures. We changed the beginning to Tom opening the packet of skittles and the end to him eating one. We also wrote the word skittles with the skittles! This was the most time consuming task EVER, skittle by skittle we took a picture. I twas worth it thoug, I'm happy with the end product just a couple of things to fix up.

I'll upload the animation one day soon!

More fun and games!

Today we had to test our game idea and start putting it together for the final hand in next week. We made a cardboard model of our game, we made a little maze out of a box and had to colour it all in, pretty fun. We used lego people and took snap shots of the lego people 'playing' the game so that we can create a stop motion animation kind of thing to show how to play our game. Obviously the real game is in a life sized maze and is based on a human pac-man version of hide and seek, not a cardboard cut out!

when we were thinking of our game rules and what not we had to take into consideration

Beginning

-How do we know what to do? 

Traditional game Pac-man, so the rules are kind of already set, someone will stand with the costumes who will also explain the rules and there will be a rule board to make it all clear.

-What type of experience is it?

There is an adrenaline and thrill experience, taking you back to your childhood days of hide and seek

Middle

-What raises the tension?

Whether you get the lights out, stuck in a dead end or get caught. This all raises the tension

End

-How do we know when it's finished?

If you get all the lights out and escape or get caught, the game is complete with one winner.

-Is there a winner?

Yes, one winner, either the Pac-man or Ghost, depends if you are caught or get the lights out.

We have to hand the final assignment in next week so the hard work is in progress, I've took on the role of creating the Prezi and putting everything thats needs to be included on it, images, rules, text, the lot! Amy is designing the costumes on Photohop and Rio is putting the pictures together for an animation effect. The link to Prezi will be here by next week, finger crossed!

Editing our film

On Monday we finally started to edit our film and what a disaster it started off to be! Avid is new to us all so it was mind boggling getting round it and working it properly. We managed it though...eventually. Capturing was the worst part and tool us 3 and a half hours! I got so stressed and irritated because nothing was running smoothly and I knew it needed to be done. When we were capturing our footage the computer was jumping and skipping some of the footage. This was our fault because we never left 5-10 seconds free filming before our footage. Definitely learnt from this, never ever want to be under that pressure capturing again. So some of our shots ended up with little bits missing, they were shorter and kind of snappy, completely not what we wanted! But we decided to edit it together for our rough edit, and surprise surprise we needed to film a few bits again. However on the whole the film didn't end up as bad as we thought, which I'm extremely happy with. Definitely learnt from that filming mistake!

Film Language Exam.

Today I had my film language exam, my first proper exam in uni. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, which I was pleased with. We were shown a 10 minute sequence from a film 3 times which we had an hour to analyse using what we have learnt so far in lectures and seminars. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. The results are issued on 16th December 16th so we will soon find out.

Animation with Skittles!

On Tuesday we started our animation with Skittles! It was a long and tedious process, but still enjoyable. We had to position the camera and then keep it still. One by one we had to add a skittle to make a picture. We tried to have different patterns and techniques and even managed to create a swirling motion to get the skittles off the page. Just creating a house, tree and taking them off took 2 hours and 150 pictures! But it's a lot of fun. The skittles continue next week.

Designing our own game!

So it's time to create our own game, sounded so fun at first until the thinking part started. Were no going to actually make the game, we just have to design it and somehow present it online. Thinking of an idea was hard, it's just like when you were little and got given a blank piece of paper and told to draw a picture...I felt the same feeling as that! I paired up with Amy and after searching the web and brainstorming different words to come up with ideas we finally got one. An interactive floor game with twenty split screens. wireless controllers, anyone can play and a lot of other too complicated things too. So we went back to the thinking board and remembered about the repetition thing and using something people are familiar with. Pacman! Everyones classic favourite game. So we decided on having a maze room with lights on the floor. When the Pacman runs across them the go off and you have to try and do them al before the bad guy gets you. Its like pacman/hide and seek! Sounds pretty fun to me. Were going to draw the game out and upload it on our blog for our online version!

Childs play

So last week we got to play with games, which was pretty fun. However there was obviously going to be a lot more to it that us juts having fun (unfortunately) We were given a lecture on child's play and how pretty much everyone plays. Whether it's a game, an activity or even a role, the majority of us adults play every single day without realising so.

Play is older than culture, it goes back so many years I didn't realise what was actually classed as 'play'. A good example of play that goes back many many years is the olympics, I didn't even realise that this was a form of play. Things such as the olympics and acting a role as a teacher or a nurse, can also be known as play. This compares to child's play such as a child dressing up as a nurse or racing a friend to the bin. They are all forms of play. Play always seems to have a winner, its a tense competition of who's the best. We always want to be the best and most successful player in the game. Children shout things like 'Last one to the bin stinks' No child wants to be the looser who stinks do they? Play has a tense atmosphere from the beginning.               "Play is tense" - J Huizinga 


Repetition 
Repetition is something that we love in play, once we know how to do something we feel satisfied when it's the same throughout. even down to using the same buttons on a controller throughout a game. When thinking of our own game idea, we should look at using repetition or something that people are already familiar with. 

And action!

Today we began filming our film for people on the move. We met up at 12:30pm and filmed until 5:30pm, one word? Tiring. Carrying the equipment from place to place and setting it up continuously was quite tiring to say the least. The storyboards helped us a lot though, they stopped us from getting as confused and kept us pretty much on track. We managed to get all the filming done, but more than likely we will be sent back with something we have missed. I quite enjoyed being out and about but the cold weather wasn't appealing although thank god it didn't rain! I'm looking forward to seeing the footage and editing the editing process (my favourite process) begin!

Analysis result...

So it was the day our analysis results went online and to be honest, I wasn't expecting a good result as I felt I struggled slightly and I stressed a little over it. However, much to my amazement I go a total of 68%! Which is a high 2:1. I am amazed with this and it has pushed me to try and work even harder now.

Lego time

So the other day we played games and today we played with Lego, uni's not so bad after all! But of course as always it wasn't just fun and games there was a method behind the task. We had to create a tower and then say how it represented us. We then had to create a model which represented what team member we were. I made mine pretty straight and clear as I like things to be neat and organised. We also had to place them around each others models so that we could see where we belonged in a team and what brought a team together. It was quite a fun task, I love Lego so it couldn't be bad anyway!

Time to play!

"Lets take a break and when we come back we'll play some games" Probably the best thing I've heard on this course so far! We got to play like children again, we had a room full of Xbox games, Wii games, board games and so much more! We were given snakes and ladders, a nice traditional childhood game. We played for an hour or so and as per usual I lost :( but anyway it was still a fun lesson. At the end of our time playing with games, we were brought back to reality and told we will be given the assignment of creating our own game in any method. This should be a fun task!

Media Professional Studies representative!

So I'm now the representative of the course along with Tommy, sounds pretty important hey! I now have to attend monthly meetings and I'm the 'voice' of my course. This should bring some responsibility and hopefully a few other good opportunities along the way too!

BBC college of production

A few weeks back BBC college of production came to introduce us to their website and a little bit about themselves and the industry I will hopefully be in one day! The walk wasn't actually meant to be for us, it was meant to be for 3rd years but they didn't have enough students for the talk, so we got to go instead. I was pleased there wasn't enough 3rd years, I really enjoyed the talk! There was a link to videos on the website which I looked at after the talk. They're videos of peoples jobs who work in the media, I really liked the looks of a runner and production coordinator. Actually seem like my dream jobs! I've watched them a few times, and I think I really want to be a production coordinator in the future and work experience as a runner.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/collegeofproduction/tv/lynette_slight_production_coordinator_tv

http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/collegeofproduction/tv/alex_genn_bash_runner_tv

Wiki

Creating the Wiki was something I found a bit daunting, I felt a little lost and as though I wasn't doing as much I should. I'm not sure if that was the case, but I did try hard. I was in a group with people that I'm not particularly close with and it felt hard to keep in contact with them and keep tabs on what I was meant to be doing. I ended up creating the main page and adding all the information on it and creating threads with links and feedback from other sources, I probably could of done more but I didn't have a clue what was going on or where we were up to with anything, so not feeling too positive about feedback from this.
Anyway, I've added the link to the Wiki our group made, so check it out see what you think.

http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/Transmedia+Storytelling

Stop-frame animation

Digital media tools brings us the task of creating an animation. After pairing up with Tom we looked through youtube trying to find ideas after many videos we decided on stop-frame animation. Our next inspiration was skittles! Pretty random but they're colourful and seem fun to play with and of course eat! We want to use skittle to create different pictures and patterns with the sweets so they look like theyre slowly moving from place to place, this will take like 500 photos. Pretty excited about this but anxious of how hard and successful it would be.

Film analysis

So the film analysis was the first film language task we were given and to be honest, I felt a little taken back by it. It feels a bit strange there being so many in one class, I can just stick my hand up and shout a question out or pop by the class at break time to double check I was on the right track with my homework. This was the realisation of university life and the big word 'Independence' had sunken in. I had to think independently and just go ahead with what I thought what the right method. I chose a scene from This is England and went ahead with the task. It seemed to take me forever but I managed to complete it and hand it in on time using blackboard! Just hope for the best for my result.

People on the move...

People on the move is an ongoing project which I'm quite enjoying. Filming isn't my favourite thing and something I'm quite worried about doing, it was my main weakness throughout sixth form. I am still taking the organisation role, something I absolutely love!I have organised when we will be filming, where and made sure everyones got what they need. This is group work which I'm enjoying rather than creating a film on my own. We have filled in all the forms and booked our equipment ready to film our footage. We have chosen Monday 21st November to film in town. Were hoping to get all of our filming done in one day so that we don't have to keep returning to town. I hope it all runs smoothly!

Five images

In digital media tools, we took five images which we would tell a short story of a basic thing. I worked with Tom and we took five images of someone wanting sweets from a machine which they don't have enough money for, so they loose their temper and give the machine a good boot. I thought this was an easy and kind of interesting story! We went ahead and took the five images usuin the university cafe as our location. Looking at the images they told the story how we wanted them too but not in a very interestign way.

Editing workshop!

We got to have a go in the editing suite in university today, it was fun! We were introduced to Avid which is the programme that we will be using throughout uni for our projects. At a first glance it seemed really complicated and I was a little taken back, but after an hour or two of playing round with some footage and sound I began to love editing! I'm a fussy person when it comes to detail, I like everything to match and fit neatly so I sit for hours until something works. Editing fascinates me!

People on the move...

We were given out brief for our first assignment, scary! 'People On the Move' is the name. I felt a bit daunted and scared of how hard I would find my first ever uni based assignment. We are in the same group as we were for our storyboards so I was pleased with that, and we came up with an idea straight away (there's a first for everything I suppose!) We did adapt this idea to create more realistic, interesting and original ideas but it was mainly based on the first 'Bad Day' idea. Having been given the storyboard task a few weeks before this really helped us in the idea and development process of this task. I'm looking forward to getting the project on the go!

Photoshop!

In Digital Media Tools we had a play round with an image on photoshop. I struggled with this, the image i chosen kind of said what I wanted it to say without editing it. So when it came to editing I got a bit confused and had a slight block. I decided to have a go at blurring the background and giving it a black and white effect.

Heres the two images, think I'm gonna have a play with random images get my head round photoshop for a bit. I'll upload them one day too!

Storyboard time...

To get us into the People on the Move project we were given a mini assessment task to group ourselves up and create a storyboard consisting of 20-30 photographs on a short story. I grouped with Rio, Amy and Tom, we have started to work quite well together as a group. I again took on the role of organiser and allocated when we would meet up etc. I enjoyed using photographs for our storyboard rather than drawing as drawing is really not my thing! We completed the task on time and I think it worked quite well. I will upload a photo of the complete product soon :)

Creating a Wiki

After bringing in a media related article (I brought in one about the X Factor) We grouped up and discussed our articles, not before long we realised that they all related to one another and that we could discuss them together as a whole as well and individually.
We created a Wiki, an online discussion forum based site were we could talk about our articles together and add threads to discuss them individually. Anyone can access these when they surf across the net and add threads or comments to this. I didn't know before creating a Wiki that there are so many ways of having online discussions on the web. The Internet really does bring people together!
Heres a link to the tryout Wiki mt group and I made:

http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/TV

Creating and experimenting with prezi

We had to bring in an object that had some significance to us. I chose to bring in my Links bracelet that I received for my 19th birthday, yet the charms I have chosen (a carriage and a fairy) remind me of childhood memories. After being put into random groups of 5 we talked about our objects and why we had brought them in. I enjoyed speaking to people on my course I hadn't really spoke to before and it was good to do so. The main task was putting out objects into a presentation format on Prezi. We were given a deadline of two hours so the pressure was on. There was five of us so we thought that splitting the roles would be logical. I took on the role of basically organising what went on and overlooking it making sure we met our deadline, I also edited some pictures on Photoshop which were used in the presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed taking on the role that I did rather that a technical role. I enjoy taking on the role, hopefully this will come in handy for after university when I eventually want to progress onto production management!

The basics

My name is Nicki Fitzpatrick and I have just enrolled onto the Media Professional Studies course here at John Moores University. My passion for media and the industry itself has grown immensely over the past few years since taking Media Studies as a GCSE in secondary school. This is were my basic knowledge and interest began. After having the opportunity to create various mini projects such as television adverts, magazines and posters, this encouraged me to progress onto a Creative and Media diploma and an A lever in film studies which I have studied for the past two years. Studying the creative and media diploma gave me various oppertunities that eventualy intrigued me more in the media industry. I worked with BBC Radio merseyside to create a christmas toy appeal advertisement which was aired on the radio from the end of october until christmas 2011. I also created a 20 minute documentray were i had to film, edit and direct by myself. I thoroughly enjoyed this and this intrigued me into the television industry, this is the media i am most intrested in as a consumer.
Troughout A level film studies we had to work in groups to create short films. We had to take on different roles in the group, I always chose to be director/organiser. I like to eb organised and ensure that things are being done when they should . This subject encouraged me to look at the production industry and I researched into production co-ordinators and their responisbilities and this specific job intrigued me and still does to this day. I think that this industry is the place I would like to go into. I have so much to learn about the media industry and how it works, and I look forward to doing so. I am currently looking for some work experience with television were I can have a upfront look at the industry and whether production co-ordinating is what I want to go into.