My First Year of University

I cannot believe how quick this year has gone by. So much has happened in such a small time. I am looking forward to next year in the new building and look forward to seeing what that has in store for us.

I have enjoyed everything about my university experience considering I was doubting coming at all. The thought seemed so unrealistic but things have changed. I have loved meeting new people, the kind of people I don’t think I would have ever found at any other place. I think I have found friends at LJMU with people that I plan to stay friends with for a long time and look forward to being in the same lecturese or even groups as them in the next two years to come. 

I feel I have learnt a lot from this year

·         Filming

·         Being creative

·         Making Websites

·         Editing

I didn’t think I would learn all these things so early into the course. Im really pleased with the things I have learnt and been able to produce to good standard. There have been some downs I have felt myself to the course due to the film language lecture. Its something I really don’t like so I feel I am not doing the best I can do when it comes to the work. I think it might be because I don’t actually understand why we are doing it? And I don’t feel like im gaining anything from the lecture, sadly.

So the first year has finished but we still have some written work to be getting on with that already I feel ontop of and look forward to getting them out of the way and being able to enjoy the summer and look forward to the next year of media professional studies. I have had loads of fun on this course and thats down to the people around me. I couldn’t of asked for a better bunch of people to be sat in lectures with, I think this has helped my experience. I feel I have grown as a person and become more confident, mature and independent, I don’t rely on people.

Bring on year two and three of my future...

Presentation Day

So it was presentation day! The three of us where all really nervous and didn’t really no how it was going to go but we felt we had planned it well and was hopefully going to talk for the 15 minutes we was meant to. When we went in the tutors looked relaxed and not as scary as we had thought it was going to be, like something of the apprentice.

We are three talkative people with lots to say about the things we do so our 15 minute slot ended up running longer to 20 minutes. I think we presented everything we had came up with really well and this was a good ending for me too a good year in university.

Below are links to our presentations:

http://prezi.com/f9elp2pmo_ox/museum-project/

http://prezi.com/vg1aj3htjcd7/museum-pics/

Factual Film

So we set out to film our film today, unfortunately one of our group member couldn’t be there but we were happy to carry on the filming as planned. We came across a lot of problems with the filming, we had planned to film in a local school of mine and Natasha’s as we had been for two meetings at the school but unfortunately when we arrived for the day of filming they hit us with some bad news. We weren’t aloud to film in the school because of government rules. So this set us back quite a bit and we were stuck sitting around then wondering what we could do. We didn’t have unfortunately enough time to go through the government to find out if we could film because we had a dead line and we had waited so long to finally film this day because we felt passionate about the film we wanted to film. We did luckily manage to get some voice recording of two of the teachers from the school, one that spoke about his experience of being bullied when he was younger and the other being a mentor talking about the school anti-bullying policies. This was all we had so far until one of the group members friends arrived at her halls and was willing to talk on camera for us about her past bullying experience and how it helped her in a way because now she does drama and feels she voices her emotions well from this. While filming this section of the film I felt overwhelmed and my eyes filled up, it was very emotional to hear someone the same age as me talk about how bad her childhood was because of bullies and we wanted this to be pursued into our film. We did finally get to film some children in a playground but couldn’t show them up close which was unfortunate but we worked with it. We used a time lapse of outside a school of some cars and people walking about their daily on goings. Unfortunately we didn’t get to edit this film the same day was ewe planned to ask because of all the traumas we had it took up the whole day. We did edit though the morning it was due and it was handed in on time considering all the speed bumps we occurred in the process. I am happy with what we achieved taking everything into account and just hope we can carry on next year creating good films.

Football in the Blood

Our ‘Its Liverpool’ assignment was done and dusted and edited to the bnest of our ability and look it’s on YouTube!

http://youtu.be/1eJwkMdBQlM

This for me was a happy moment as I had never had any of my work broadcasted to millions on YouTube and to look back now and see we have had views is amazing! I can’t wait to upload the rest of the films we make as a group.

Personal Profile

So our group was filming a small film ‘Personal Profile’. After a lot of pestering and phone calls we managed to arrange a meeting to speak to a man that works at Next Generation NMA gym in Liverpool. After the meeting we arranged to film there the following day and we would be doing a personal profile on one of the men that work there who gladly agreed to help us. Unfortunately I won’t be able to help film this film which is annoying!  But I am off on my holidays so I don’t mind too much hehe. I can’t wait to see what the rest of my group produce and look forward to seeing it as I know it will be good.

'The Fact'

After living in Liverpool I began to think when I started university everyone was going on about going to this cinema called ‘Fact’ this too me was something I had never even heard of which I found odd?  So I decided to take a visit there, when arriving the quality of everything was just very much over the top

·         Lighting

·         Picture

·         Seats

·         Sound

·         Image was on a larger scale

·         Quality

After this experience sitting there I felt like royalty or something sitting in a posh cinema. I think if you serious about going to see a good film with everything to the best quality then Fact is the place to visit, if I was younger and childish and going for a laugh I wouldn’t recommend it as I think you my get kicked out with the least little noise!

Overall I was very pleased with the experience and I can see myself going there again, I can’t believe I have never been there before to be honest.

Living in Liverpool

Living in Liverpool and going to university is something I didn’t think I would end up doing, when I was in sixth form I never knew what I wanted to do or go to university, I didn’t think I was bright enough for something like that even though I feel I try my hardest.

After these first few months of university I have realty enjoyed it, the work is nothing like I would have expected. I wasn’t prepared for this part of media as it wasn’t anything like what I got taught in sixth form.

I look forward to the future in university and hopefully doing well J

Living in Liverpool is amazing I love being from here and knowing that so many people come to university here because they enjoy it just as much is nice to hear.  I don’t think I will ever be able to move from Liverpool so hopefully there is a successful job here for me!

Website Mock Up...

Before I began my website I thought it would be a good idea to make a mock up one to look at how I could lay it out in different ways and check it fitted in with the boundaries.

·         Size

·         Not too much white space

·         Consistent

·         Not too many different colours

The mock up website was very easy and fun to do, messing around with different looks and styles. Photoshop isn’t my strong point but I gave it a go and found if I just messed about with it, good came from it. After this I felt happy with what I produced and decided to move onto the Dreamweaver software. Once this is done I will post a sneak preview, but might I say now it won’t be amazing as it’s my first time.

Liverpool Museum

 Our trip to the museum was to say the least fun and eye opening!

So because myself and Natasha are from Liverpool we thought that when going to visit the museum we would no more or less everything there was to know about it. When we arrived we didn’t realise how big it was! A massive building with 3 floors full of useful and exciting information about Liverpool. We went the museum for a project in university but found it was a useful experience to just visit even if we wasn’t doing a project.

Character Identity

A couple of week as a group we were set a task of creating a fake identity on social networking sites. Before going off and doing this we spoke about what we actually as a individual thought identity of a profile even was. When asked this question for the first time it makes you think a lot as I have never thought about before now. Questions began to be asked and it was noticed we all had different opinions on it even though all of these were different they were all connected to identity.

• Online presentation for example Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Bebo.
• How we present ourselves for example Fun, Outgoing, Shy or Different

After we spoke about all the different way in which identity can be present we moved on to the assignment which we then spoke about different ways in which we could link this character up to social networking websites.

• Facebook – Unfortunately got suspended
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/AngelicaBrooke1
• YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAngelicaBrooke  
• Blogger - http://angelicabrookeslife.blogspot.co.uk/

Above is our characters different account. After a few days we began to really get into character with this assignment and felt ourselves checking them every day. It was a unusual assignment but fun. We did find that we got a lot of responses from men all different ages sending rude messages that I won’t post on here as I don’t think there appropriate but they were commenting on our images assets a lot. The images we used as profile pictures was a friend of ours we asked could we take pictures of too use for this assignment, luckily she was glad to help! But still doesn’t know about the messages we received about her hehe. Im not sure if I like the experience because when I think about it I wouldnt like to be on the other side of the joke in a way.

This assignment gave us a chance to see what is like to be someone else and to basically put on a mask and create any type of person you want to be. It’s interesting that there are people actually out there today that do this every day, cover up who they really our by using these fake profiles. In a way really is sad because they feel they can’t be like this themselves, maybe because there scared of what people say? Or are they using these things for other things, I dread to think! Overall I think the experience was really good but I dont think i will be carrying on with Angelica Brookes profiles or making any new ones any time soon.

Blogging - My Opinion

So I have been blogging for a good few months now, I still don’t understand why I am doing it but I did find it helpful when it came to essay writing. Maybe blogging too me can be used as a way of remembering things that I have done over the year that I need to write essays about. In my opinion I don’t find blogging a interest I feel like it is more of a task for me to do as I don’t feel confident enough with myself writing things about stuff I have done or going to do. I think a lot can be found out about a person from reading there blog, from the way they write to even the text. My feelings towards this is I don’t think I get my point across well with words when typing. I am a more vocal person so maybe doing a video blog maybe easier to me? Overtime I hope I can come to terms with blogging and eventually start enjoying it as it is a good thing to recap on.

Production Practice - Treatment

At last our final film for production practice was in touching distance. We were each asked to write a treatment with an idea for our short factual piece. This was strange because even though we was in groups of 4 or 5 we each all still had to write one individually. After each writing one we would all meet up and decide which one we felt would work best with the factual piece. My treatment was about an older male or female that had a tuff life as a child and maybe got bullied at school. I wanted the film to be shot at a school nearby and have them speaking in maybe classrooms and on the playground. I thought that maybe the person we found could talk about his or her experience when they were younger and how it has affected them today as an older person. After we all delivered our ideas as a group we chose to go with the “bullying” idea. I felt a bit nervous about this as it was my idea we was going to create, I felt that I had a lot of pressure on me to make this work and come out a good film overall. So hopefully in the end it will!

Why Creativity and Concept is Important

Why do we have a lecture on Creativity and Concept and what does it have to do with our course in media? In our last session there was only a few students in and this gave us the chance to speak our minds without a lot of people there voicing the same opinions. Overall the main concern we found for us all was what is the relevance? For some reason people couldn’t get round the idea that all of the other subjects and lectures each had some sort of connection apart from this one. So our questions were answered, at first I didn’t think there was an issue and I didn’t think that other people had a problem with the lesson. I did feel that I didn’t really no why I was doing it but at the end of the day it was something that had to be done as it was part of the course. After a few people started to ask questions it got me thing they were right and I got involved myself asking question which any other day when all of the class was in I necessary wouldn’t have because of confidence. After our little discussion we were handed job application forms for BBC, reading over it was a massive shock to me as I had never seen such a complex and strange application form for a job! After reading through each of the questions together it made it clear to all of us why we do this module on this course. I feel now that I need to look out for more of these application forms and even if I’m not applying for the job maybe just fill it out and see how I go for experience. All of the different techniques we learnt in the first semester all made sense to me now and the group, it gives you the ability to think out of the box without just thinking but by using techniques and getting somewhere from them, in a way these are just stimulators for us. So after all that I finally understand why we have this module on the media course and overall it could be the most important to us when we leave, anyone can be taught something once they have the job its getting the job!

Sound Workshop

So before we begin filming our 'Its Liverpool' videos we where giving a short tutorial workshop on sound. Sound is very important part of a produtction and one whihc is often neglected or just simply forgotten about. Sound is an intergal part of any programme or film and when done correctly, it often blends into the background meaning that we only really notice when something sounds wrong. From this workshop i gained some good knowledge of how affective sound can be to a video, short or long. If one sound sounds out of place it can throw the whole production, this is why people need to concentrate on sound more than they think. So now that we know a lot more about sound that we did, its time to plan our production. What to do?

National Museums on Merseysides Commission

After working out as a class where about we all fitted after our teamwork test it was essential for this assignment we needed to be in groups of 3 that atleast consisted of three different types of people in the group that fit under the same catergorie as myself. So i was teamed up with Natasha and Coral, each of these where in different team roles. One being a leader and the other a encourager. I think when it comes to the work we will all work well together as already our ideas for the the museum our flowing fast! So through out this week we are going to go visit the new Liverpool Museum and see what type of things they already have and take images and notes so we know the type of things to stay away from doing again as we wont our idea to be new, innovative and do able. We have been giving a space in the museum to create something complete new and do able for different types of people that visit the museum, we chose foreign tourists as we felt as a team this was something that regulary occured, a lot of tourists come and visit liverpool and we thought it would be good to target our idea to them. So over the next few weeks we will learn new things about idea development, test ideas, pitch development and tutorials. After all of these weeks we should be able to produce a 15minute pitch that we will deliver to a pannel (scary stuff!). After all that development we will be ready to deliver!

Creativity & Concept Development - Teamworking Skills

Being asked to do a online test about teamwork skills didnt really appeal to me? wondering why we had to do something like this... So we all done the test and where giving scores for different catergories.

my scores where as follow: Evaluator - 4 Ideas Person - 6 Leader - 5 Compromiser - 9 Summariser - 7 Recorder - 6 Encourager - 8 So from my scores i realised i brought compromise to a group which when i think about it is true in a way. I feel my top three do really some up what i do have to bring to a group and think they are good things to have in a group and if you had one person from every sector you more or less would have perfection in a group! So yes, im a compromiser :)

Production Practice 'It's Liverpool'

Semester two! and we have been introduced to a new and exciting part of production practice, i always look forward to find out what new things where going to be doing in this part of the media course. Location and Personal Profiles: This is going to be two short films that profile Liverpool in some way. This will give us the opportunity to explore creatvity in terms of illustration, this is something new i was about to learn. This was to be both actual and methaphorical, key to emerging film makers. Our location profile is to be 90 seconds long and will also be entered into a film competition exciting! Once we was giving our brief we cracked on, with loads of ideas from all of us emerging together, we dont at the moment have a deffinate idea but there our a few little ones we think could work. Part Two: This film will also have a running time of 90 seconds - 3 minutes. The subject of the production can be another student on the course or someone else known to the production group. We thought of a few people we could ask to help us out and tell us a story of something they have done? anbitions in live? achievements. Something we thought would be interesting to video and come across strong from both the story telling and the video background itself. I really look forward to working with my group again on something new and different!

Google Maps

So... Google maps?

Not something i often use if im going to be honest, reason for this i dont really no? But today where where told we was going to create a narrative using the locations we where giving in groups of four. For this task we didnt get too pick our own groups which in a way is a good thing because it lets us all talk to new people that we might have not neccesarly spoken to before, for instance the 3 other people in my group i hadnt really had much conversation with so it was good to get to no new people in the class. What we had to do? As a group using a destination giving to us we where to create a narrative that uses location/space as a structure an order for story elements, rather than time. Our pin on the map was Chinese Arch in Liverpool, Nelson Street. This was going to be our starting point and we where to create any type of story just as long as it started at that point and took us to 5 other destinations, we can include anything we think will work with our story from text, images, video and audio.

Our Story... We had a few ideas to begin with ranging from imaginative to less imaginative but decided to go with a nice story that would work well with our starting points. We decided to follow our story on from a dream a young woman has about meeting a boy in her dream 'the man of her dreams' and when she wakes up she decided its fate and she is going to persue this dream, traveling round the places she seen in the dream going from different chinese arch's in all different places from: -Liverpool -Manchester -London -Canada -China so at some point in the story under one of these arches she was to find him! which one we havnt decided yet, but its a working progress. So when we think of a little more to our narrative im sure to keep use posted, if anyone even reads this?

Here is the finished product: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=212073587820743719502.0004b6cac1dad468a4f8e&msa=0

Play...

FOOT ROLLOVER

Contemporary media issues lesson, we were to create a game suitable for the Liverpool Screen School. Our imaginations could reach as far as they desired, and they did! In a nutshell here are the instructions as it better explains that a boring paragraph in my opinion:

Using your feet only! Guide the ball through the maze carefully collecting each of the coloured stars to gain points. This game will be projected from the ceiling and played with the player’s feet on

• 1 to 4 players allowed.

• Game consists of levels one to six, each one getting harder as you progress.

• There is a one minute time limit on each level except for level six, where only 45 seconds are giving.

• Each player is to collect there stars in there maze each colour giving different amounts of points

• Black – 50 points

• Yellow/Blue/Green/Red – 75 points (depending on the colour of your maze will be the colours of your stars)

• White – 100 points

• The white star cannot be collected until the rest of the stars have all been collected.

• After collecting the stars and the final white star a whole will open for the player to guide there ball and drop it into gaining them 100points and moving them onwards and upwards to the next level

• When playing four players on the first level the last person will be asked to leave the maze therefore they are out.

• Same with the second level and so on to third

• The last three levels will be played alone so the person playing can boost up there points and at the end be able to hopefully gain a spot on the high score leader board.

• High scores remain visible always, but maybe lowered.

• On level six there will be pink stars these stars if collected is automatic end to the game! NO points NO nothing.

 Here is the link to our presentation: http://prezi.com/p7wgb-ytkfur/present/?auth_key=nqzt8dn&follow=cycnyh9mztvo Enjoy!

People On The Move - DONE & DUSTED

AT LAST! we had completed our people on the move. When editing our video we has a major TRAUMA! we had lost all of work when we come to edit it the next day when it had to be handed in, there was a little bit of worry on all of our faces and dissapointment because we had all worked so hard to make it as good as we could. With a little bit of patients and hope we finally found our work but with a lot of the editing missing and this had to be completed within 2 hours before the due time but we done it. I was so proud of our little group because we had worked so hard and was proud of what we got done in such little time. Our people on the move story we went for humour as we done a more serious but funny storyboard, When it came to showing the rest of the class, the nerves hit for all of us as we where one of the last to show our work. But the laughs where all there and at the right times. It was a good feeling as this was what we intended to do when thinking and making the video. I felt as a group we all worked really well facing some obsticles on the way, good and bad. Then it was the next monday, the results! we thought to ourselves that our videos wernt as good as other groups in the class because of the trouble we had with the editing and none of us has ever had any experience with editing before so this was a new challenge aswell as us all using the new cameras. The moment of truth was here... 2.1 we where all so happy and shocked with our results but it was a relief! Roll on the next video... OUSH