Unit 7

UNIT 7

Log 1

For this part of the course I have been asked to plan, create and produce an interactive powerpoint that outlines the structure and ownership of two businesses. These companies were not choosesn at random, they were companies that have strong links in the media sector. We were given a list of media sectors (such as TV, radio, film and computer games). We then (in our gropus of two) had to pick two secots between us, and research a company within thoes chosen sectors. I myself decided to do Television and film. These two sectors are grwoing each year, and I didn't need any research to know that these two areas have rapidly changed over thy years. Therefore, with strogn research and knowledge, I beleived that I could make a very informative powerpoint.

The two companies I researched were 'BBC' (television) and 'DreamWorks' (film). Meanwhile my partner (Sam Turner) decided to work on Nintendo for computer gaming and Aardman for animation.

At this point we choose our companies and have collated our research. We were then asked to discuss and present our fidnings in a meeting within our groups and planned how and what our powerpoint was going to look like. In addition to this we planned how we were making the powerpoint interactive and attractive to our target audience.

Soon after, we gathered and created our material for the interactive guide. It was (at times) considerably difficult to find certain information. Some of the areas that was asked of us to cover were hard to understand and at times I did feel like I wasn't getting very far. However, with hard work and dedication, my slides were beginning to come together, and I soon had my research collected and presented within an interactive powerpoint. This also included images, videos and animations throughout. I then combined my slides with Sam's to finish of our interactive powerpoint guide!

Log 2

This week we have been asked to continue with our interactive guides. This time we were to consider and research the ethical and legal constraints of the two companies we studied earlier. Once again, this involved adding any found research and collating it into a research bank and applying this information to the guide. We looked into what guidelines these companies have set out and what (if any) laws they follow.

Here is one of the slides I created for the BBC based upon this task. It was considerably difficult to find this information- especially for DreamWorks. The BBC seems to be more open about their regulations as i found various sites that spoke of he BBC'S editorial guidelines. In contrast, DreamWorks have kept a lot of their information private, so it remained a very difficult task to find any relevant information. This meant that it took me most of my available time on finding the information and therefore didn't spend so much time on the appearance of each slide. I believe that the appearance could be better and much more attractive to the audience, however, it was vital that the content included was appropriate and affective. 

Soon, after that we had another meeting to discuss with our partners any issues or problems. We were happy that we are working well and the communication was affective. We also agreed that finding the information was the toughest part of the task, but we reassured each other that we will still be able to achieve a high grade if we kept up our efforts.

Log 3

For this week's work, we were asked to look into controversial issues that accrue in our sectors. I have been working on film and TV, so I had to go away and research into controversial films and TV. I believed this was considerably easier than the other tasks, as the information was much more accessible.  There are many listings of controversial films and TV programmes, and whilst some are debatable, there are others that clearly controversial. 

My chose programmes for TV were 'My baby's mommas' and 'dexter'. My baby's mommas was seen to be controversial as it stereo-types african-amrcians and made that culture look bad. Meanwhile, it is known that Dexter had influenced teens to commit murders, and presented some horrifying and disturbing murders through each episode.

For film, I chosen 'A clockwork orange' and 'the passion of the chris'. Just like My baby's mommas, the passion of the chris also went against some people's beliefs and believed that jesus was portrayed in the wrong light. A clockwork orange, similarly to dexter also caused teens to cause harm and murder on innocent people.

As mentioned, this task was by far the eases in my opinion, and I believe with the task I have completed so far, i am on track for a high grade.    

            
Log 4

We are now well into this project, and we have undertaken a new challenge for this week. For this task, we have been asked to present the knowledge about employment opportunities and job roles in the media sector. There are many roles in the media sector, but we have been specifically to demonstrate job that are in our two chosen industries (for me TV and Film).

When doing my research, I realised that there are many roles within these two sectors and therefore it'll be easier to find information on them. I think if I was researching sectors such as gaming and printing, it'll be difficult to find so many roles.

I decided to research into 'set design' roles in TV. There was an interesting site in particular that showed what the job consist of, experience candidates need and how to generally become a set designer. This helped my research as this is the sort of information needed for my interactive powerpoint.

In terms of my film research, I found that they had similar job roles to TV. I went for 'film producer' as this is one of the biggest roles and therefore would more accessible information on it.

Here are two of the slides I created:

                   

       At this point in the assignment we have completed most of the tasks, and in fact we only have one more standing between us and the end of the project! I feel that I developed my researching skills further than ever before and by filling in research banks, I am also continuing to use skills I have picked up in previous projects.

I now understand that there is more to TV and film other than their products. There are so many considerations and precautions they have to take to ensure they remain professional and keep the profits high. I already knew that there are various roles in these two sectors, but I was taken by surprise when I researched just how many there were.

In addition to this, I feel I have learnt new PowerPoint skills. I have used this software for many years, but only now have I realised that jut how important it can be to use interactional elements such as buttons.

The most trickiest task yet is to find the research for the ethical and legal constraints. However, I strongly believe that I have managed to find useful and reliable information that relate to the topic in question.

I have been concise in terms of how much text can be seen on-screen, and i have intended to make it as attractive as possible. This was not easy as it meant that I couldn't fit all my research findings into this one guide. On the other hand, I have created two research banks (one for each sector) which contains all  my data and research. Below, is an example of one of my slides that doesn't contain too much text;

If I was to improve anything at this stage of the project, it would be the communication between me and my partner. So far I think we have lacked in meetings, and we could've had more to ensue we kept the communication flowing between the production team. However, we are both clear on what we need to accomplish at the end of each week, and when in doubt we are sure to help one another. (Out meeting scripts can be found in our Guinsberg school hard rive)

It has been difficult to keep up with the short deadlines, but so far I believe I have achieved a high stnadard of work. I am impressed on how quickly I am working, and at some points, I am not adding content to the guide, but improving on what I already have. I now hope to keep up my eforts for the final week on this project!

Log 5

So at this stage of the project we have included employment opportunities within our chosen sectors, and added this information into our interactive guide.

Now, we were asked to include how to present yourself and your work to a potential employer. We had to look at things such as; dress sense, how to talk/ what to say and how and where you can present your history/ work in the best possible light!

We then had to link this and relate it to the media industry, and of course our chosen sectors. This information was widely available, and wasn't too difficult as some of the information I already knew. I didn't struggle with this part of the assignment, and I was able to complete this task with some time still remaining. Therefore, with this spare time, I was able to become more creative with my guide. For example, when talking about what to wear in an interview, I used imagery and symbols to represent what was perfect and what was completely wrong. This was done to initially stop the page having too much text and thus becoming more interesting to the user/ audience. This can be seen in the image below.

             


Overall, I feel this task went quite well and smooth. I used a great balance of imagery and text, so the guide remains interesting and informative at the same time. This is something I could've possibly done with the previous tasks. As I look back, some slides are quite wordy. On the other hand, I strongly believe this txt is needed. In addition to this, it also shows that I have developed my skills and knowledge on creating an interactive guide!

For now, we are preparing to present some of ideas to our teacher next week. We will discuss ideas we had/ didn't use, any issues and how we solved them, what was affective/ successful and what could be improved! This is where we will have to strongly communicate with our partners as we are doing this presentation together!

Log 6

Now, this unit is technically complete! At this satge our interactive guide, research and final presentation have been completed. In terms of preparing for this presentaion, we firstly created a PowerPoint that contained all the information we needed to discuss. We then decided to reherse on a number of occasions to ensure we were well prepared and complete it in the shortest amount of time possible. To find out how successful I felt this went visit the post entitled; 'reflecting on Unit 7 presentation'.

Log 7

Unfortunatley, this project didn't quite get me the grade I was aiming for. There were a few points and adjustments that are needed to be taken for me to reach all the disitnction criteria. Thankfully, we are allowed to go back on old projects, and we ae given two extra weeks to make these adjustments. This would mean however, that I will have to balannce current units with this one, so it is important that I stay on top of this work-load!

Major Project Reflective Learning Log

Log 1:

In addition to unit 7, we are also currently working on unit 1. This unit is all about internet safety. With the growing poularity of social media and websites such as Facebook and Ask.fm, childeren are at risk! Our client- once more Bluecoat Academy has commisioned our class to create an online resource for students and parents about online safety. This task is somewhat unique in compariosn to previuos tasks as this assigement expects us to work as a whole class. That's right, our whole class has now been transformed into a hardworking production team, which may sound interesting and fun, but it is vital that we show communcation skills, managment and organisation throughout the project.

Our first task was assignment 1. We were to collect as much information about internet safety. Weather it was an image of google or a article submitted by the Police, we had to simply find it, and stcick it on the board for our whole team to see it. This was also a first test of our communcation skills. We had to communicate to let others know what we are covering, what we have found and what we are looking at, to avoid any repeated work. Unfortunately, we did come across the same things as eachother, but in time our communication as a team will surely improve.  We then had our first metting as a team- dicussing key areas about the prject and sharing out roles, organising tasks and appointing our producer. From here we will develop this project further.

Here are the roles that were given out;

• Producer - Maqsood

            Assistant -  Nicole

• Branding - Nicole:

            Assistant - Maqsood:

• Animation - Dieter: 

• Game - Sam

• Video - Edna

• Suitable content - Josh

• Resources - Maqsood

• Case studies -  Deniz

• Website design - Dieter 

            Assistant - Sam 

Log 2:

This week, we also researched upon campaign/ awareness adverts. Simialrly to internet safety, there are different target audiences, websites and genres covered by these adverts. By researching into two exsisting adverts, we are preparing ourselves for the upcoming task! We chose two adverts/ campaigns that we would like to research (as induviduals) and in time we will collate this into a powerpoint or prezi presentation- to be presented to the rest of the class. My chosen two adverts are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI4Ye4EZo00 AND https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWN6kchSI2E.

Log 3:

Today marked the day of our second meeting! It is within this meeting where we had two new attendees- Jessica and Deniz. Last week they were unable to attend the meeting. This meant that they were unclear this week about what roles they will be picking up and where they fit into this task. We decided that Deniz would be suited to case studies, as he seemed a little confident with this. We also decided the Jessica would have the role managing Aesthetic design. Once we established what roles would suite them the best, we started to bring together some ideas for this project. We decided to go through each section, and outline any tasks that needed to be completed within that section.

Here is a photo that shows some of the points we made;

               


This task/ brainstorm helped alot. By doing this, we are able to see what exactly needs to be completed under each section. The area the class agreed I should be in charge of is the 'suitable content'. Now, this area seems to cover quite alot, as sutibale content needs to be considered throughout each task. However, one are sutiable contnent links in with stronlgy is 'Case studies'. These two areas need quite a lot of research from a different sources. We may need to ask students/ parents for their views on our ideas or we may gather a few ideas and knowledge of the internet. Either way, the research here, will be needed to be carried out to a near-professional standard- likewise for other areas too.

So why was I the one chosen for this area? Well, as a team, we thought that some articles will be a great feature. This could be a key part of the site where students and parents are able to pick up the most important information and could allow us to make the site very informative by creating these articles. With expereicne and knowledge in writting artcicles, it felt like a strong area for me to take charge of. I can be a very creative, persuasive, informative and passionate writter if I put my mind to it, so I was more than willing to take on this part. In addition to this, I will certaily need the input of market research and of course my team mates for any ideas, to achieve the very best out of the articles. I feel this area will be a strong one of mine, but I know there will be some stumbling blocks along the way. I will become increasingly difficult for me to work on this alone. For example, market research is a task that usually involves more than one partciapant (to speed up data collection) so I will need to direct my peers to help me with this. 

For the final part of the session, we looked further into our ethos we aim to present in our website. A few ideas was discussed, some have great potential and can be found in our production team wiki!

Log 2

At this point, we have yet to start this assignment. We have worked and researched upon various awareness campaigns, which will help us on this project. With this research, we have presented it to the rest of the class...where we were marked on our communication, informative and clarity. To my surprise, it wasn't too difficult to find the research and apply it to my powerpoint. I felt like throughout this task, I was always on track and managed to find plenty of useful information. It was just the case on how I would communicate this to the rest of the class during my presentation.

Log 3

Today, we completed our presentation. I have to say I was pleased on how it went. To find out how successful my presentation was, and what I learnt- visit the post named 'What is Social Action and Community Media Production? Unit 31'.

Log 4

So at this stage, we have now aassigned each member of the group with sprecified areas on the project. As mentioned, I am working on sutiable content. In addition to this, we have researched into existing social and community action campaigns, and also looked into how to work to a brief. 

Now, we are progressing onto assigment 3, which asks us to:

Be able to originate, develop and research an idea for a media product.

Be able to research for social action and community media production work.

This requires us to look further into exsisiting media campaigns using quantitative and qualitatitive data and look for the following:

Aims and objectives

Social, personal and political issues

Ethical considerations

Access issues

Audience research

This had to be collated into a research bank, and with the expereicnes I now have in creating this, this first task wasn't too difficult, but still took a bit of time to compelete. 

For the second task, we were asked to collect similar type of research and various methods, but considering more on the area that we were focussing in on in the e-safety project. I was given 'sutiable content', which doesn't actually foucus on one paticualr aspect. This meant that I had to find one of the aspects that needed more than one person in charge. For example, branding and logo design doesn't need more than one person researching into it. In contrast, the video and game design, is more lengthy and will need alot more planning. We decided as a class that I should help research into the video for the site. Again, this type of task is frequent in Media, and therefore wasn't a strain, but very time consuming. 

For task three, we were asked to collate some primary research. This included interviews and questionnaires. The questioanire I created, recieved some unrealiable data/ answers as some didn't take it too serious. On the other hand, the recorded interviews I did allowed me to gain some intersting points! I was paticualarly intrigued by one of the comments a teacher made. He said the video should answer the following questions for students;

Would this happen to me?

Why would this happen to me?

How do I stop this happening to me?

This is an intersting idea, as it seems to have it's own sturcture already, by simply answering these questions. It is basic, to the point and answers the more vital questions the video needs to answer! This is one of  many things I will consider for the video.

For the final task,  we were asked to gather all our initial ideas and thoughts into one presentation. Thsi included mind-maps, notes, sketches, storyboards and moodboards! We also had to consider factors such as; cost, time, ethical considerations and personell. With this being the last task, time was heavily against me. 

I beleive that, given more time, I may have produced more quality in this assigment. However, I do strongly beleive that I have carried out my research professionally, and have worked hard to get the information I need to help me progress onto the next assigment in this project. 

Overall I feel that this major project is going well. There are areas that may need a little work on, but I do feel that I am progressing well at this stage. In paticular, I feel my presenting, is getting noticabely stronger. The feedback from my peers, suggests that I am able to produce presentation that meet the high grading criteria, but we will find out come the end of the project!

Log 5
 
Now, the near future will see us sitting down as a production team discussing our ideas further. This will incude more feedback on our ideas, when we plan to have our team meetings and what tasks should start when. 

At this, we have had one production meeting where we have discussed these topics. We are now ready to create a gantt chart as a team which will present some of the time decisions thta were made in our first meeting. Unfortunatley, due to technical issues and time constriants, we were unable to complete our gantt chart. Therefore we shall use part of next week's lesson to ensure this chart has been created. This will be difficult as half of the team is away on a trip to Germany! Hopefully we can over-come this obsticle.