A New Job!

Finally! I have a permanent job doing something I love - filming! I now have a job for the SU making promotional films and other media work for them. I am so excited to get started on all the work they have to offer, and the cherry on the cake is that I get paid for it! Oh and I also get to work with two of my friends Mark and Joe (WOLVES!!).
Today we had our first meeting in the Student Union to talk about what we will be doing this coming year. We were told of a couple of films that we could do and then were asked what we may be interested in. Me, Joe and Mark chose doing a promotional film for the clubs and societies of the Student Union. We started to brainstorm and came up with a lot of ideas and now we are very excited about starting this project! I am going to email the clubs and societies coordinator soon to organise a meeting with him to find out which clubs we could get in touch with! I am very, very happy that I have this opportunity and I think it will be amazing for my CV!

Speak Soon!

Applied Media Research - Qualitative Research

Last week in Applied Media Research, we had our first question for Digital Fiction Factory. This week we had a break and so focused on qualitative research and in what ways we can use it. Next week we have our question from Onteca and then the week after its a question from Nine Lives Media.
So. Qualitative research! We discussed this in detail in one of our earlier lectures and so today we created exercises in our groups to practice and see if we could produce some qualitative data. Basically, we had to create something that would take about 20 minutes at most, where we would find some sort of answer to the question 'how do we promote a course to students?'. The idea was to find out their experience and more than just numbers.
My group decided on doing something physical and so we created a table which looked like this...

Then we picked 6 different ways in which a student could find out about university...

We then explained each one to the participants and here is what I said:

Interview

• One on one with a university representative or lecturer talking about the course

University Fair

• Stalls from multiple universities at one place e.g. Echo Arena. Where you are free to walk around

Open Day

• Open day at the university of your choice, where you can walk around and talk to people about them

Website 

• A university website where you can navigate freely through information, videos and more

Prospectus

• A book filled with everything you need to know about the courses

Seminar

• A lecture type situation where a presentation is shown and university representatives/lecturers share information

What we also did disclose is that if we actually had the time, we would allow the participants to experience each of these situations or a simulation of the situation. This would have gave a truer result that them just thinking about what they might be like.

The results that we got were as follows (from 3 participants):

From these results I worked out the order that the categories go in:

1. Website
2. Open Day
3. University Fair
4. Seminar
5. Prospectus
6. Interview

The students who took part said the exercise was fun and easy. They understood why and what they were doing. They took about 5 minutes on the exercise and seemed to think about and discuss their ideas. We wanted to ask them what they thought so that we had more than just the information in the tables to take from the exercise.

What was our method?
We wanted something that was quick and simple to do, bit of fun and not too serious. We allowed participants to order their best and  ways to find out about university courses. We observed what they were doing when arranging the categories, and listening to what they were saying.

What did we find out?
The best way to advertise/promote university is through a website or some sort of online source in which students can freely navigate through and choose what to see and what not to see themselves.

What did I learn about qualitative research methods?

It is more about the detail and the understanding of the questions. Qualitative research can be fun rather than simple yes or no questions.

Other ways of using qualitative research were used by the other groups through diary entries, video diaries, letters, postcards, focus groups and other physical activities.

My Reflection

This lecture was interesting to do because we were allowed to just work on something rather than watching a presentation or slide show which is something we do a lot across the course. I liked creating the activity because I have a kinesthetic way of learning where I prefer to do rather than just read. Although in school I have done a lot of work on research methods, I suppose it was good to have the refresh.

You Learn Something New Everyday

The main thing that I took from today is that practically doing something seems to be a better way of getting results, over questionnaires or other forms of quantitative research.

Speak Soon!

TV Studio - Recording Our Show!

Today we finally got to record our show 'Making Stuff', where we had to make a paper airplane for kids. We arrived early in the morning because we had a lot of stuff to set up. Jodi had done a wonderful job on the set and so we all helped piece it all together in the studio. Here is a quick photograph I took when it was all set up.

We really wanted to work hard on this piece even though we are not being marked on it because we wanted to show that our group dynamics were working well and also that the roles that we have chosen are spot on.
Once we had set the show up, we had a rehearsal so that we could see the lighting, script and cameras were all correct and ready to go. We had a lot of help from the lecturer and she gave us a lot of tips which we appreciated. We had a lot of compliments about the set and the fact that we had camera scripts ready for each camera. I think that we made a very positive impression for this assignment. 
Shooting the show was fairly straight forward, except for throwing the paper airplane at the end! As I'm sure the other groups realised, its hard to film a paper airplane flying, especially when it wouldn't play along! We got there in the end though and I believe that our final recording went very well indeed.

My Reflection
I am very happy with our recording today, we worked hard as a group and the results of this will hopefully reflect back to the lecturers. I loved using the studio and I would have to say this is my favourite module. The equipment is amazing and I feel very privileged to be using it all. I think that the roles that we all have in the group are working very well so working on our main project should be good fun. I wanted to show the lecturers that our group dynamics were working well because I had a lot of trouble last year with other people not pulling there weight. I am very happy with our group now and I think that our show will be successful.

You Learn Something New Everyday
Working on the camera today, I learned how to use the camera a lot better. For example, the weight and movement of the camera became more familiar to me. I now feel more competent using these new cameras and I am excited to use them again!

Speak Soon!

My First Newspaper Article!

All I keep doing these days is applying for jobs and opportunities  and its paying off! The Student Union paper 'Looprevil Press' allowed me to write an article about the AVID Awards Ceremony for them! I suggested the article after I spoke about doing film reviews for the paper, and kindly they said it would be a nice article to have! So this is just a quick post, but here is the link to the article that is currently on their website! Hope you enjoy it guys...

http://looprevilpress.org/2012/10/08/avid-awards-night/

Speak Soon!

Beyond The Camera - Photoshop Compositing

Last week in this lecture I discussed my ideas with the lecturer about my Photoshop compositing image. Throughout this week I have been creating the image that I set out to make. I went out and took photographs for the background of my Photoshop piece. Here are a few of the photographs I took. 

 I wanted to get an image of a long brick wall for the subject to 'walk through', so that I had plenty of space to work with. This street was perfect because there were a lot of walls to take photographs of. After this I went to the TV Studio in university and used the green screen to take photographs of my subject - Ian!

As you can see I tried a few different thing with Ian; body shape, lighting, etc. I wanted in the end to get him as if he was walking in to the wall rather than just standing still. I thought this would look better because then he would be travelling. On the image with flash, the shadow was too harsh and so I used the image without the flash in the end so it would be better for me in post production.

From this I began to play around with Photoshop, I wanted him to be travelling through the wall like it was a portal or he was a sort of ghostly figure. This is the first image I created.

In this image Ian looks like he is a ghost walking through a wall. I wasn't exactly happy with this image because it isn't what I envisioned. I wanted it to look more 'alien' rather than ghost-like and so I decided to create another image using the same photographs. I spoke with the lecturer and he said that I should stick with the portal idea and so I developed this final image.

Firstly I used the background eraser tool to get rid of the green screen behind the subject. I then used various tools, such as burn, to get rid of the green screen bleed that occurred on the figure. I put the subject on top of the background layer and positioned him accordingly. I then added a drop shadow to the subject to make the images more compatible.

Something that I played around a lot with is the brightness and contrast of the images. I needed to make them more attuned to each other. I think next time I should take a tripod out and take the background image without the subject, and then with the subject. This will have been easier to manipulate and I am going to think about this next time.

To create the portal, slight adjustments to the wall area were made using the zigzag filter, giving the wall a waving effect where the subject is contacting it. I also changed the opacity of the edge of the subject so he is blending in to the wall - as if he is going through.

My Reflection

I know that this image could be a lot better than it is; however I think that my original idea of the film screen was too elaborate for my first attempt at compositing.

Something that I really wanted to do was use the green screen for this small project; which I did. However, it proves that more image manipulating, green screen is not always the best route to go.

Over the next few weeks I intend to carry on using Photoshop more and working harder to understand how to manipulate images as this will help me with after effects when making my films this year.

Personally I am disappointed in the image as I know I can do so much better; but I suppose practice makes perfect! So I better get practicing. 

You Learn Something New Everyday

I think the biggest thing I have learned through this exercise is to keep things simple. Coming up with ideas is something I do pretty well, but I need to be realistic when it comes to Photoshop because it can be difficult when it comes to using some of the tools that I haven't before.

Speak Soon!

Digital Media Cultures - Television In The Digital Age

Another intense and informative lecture from Keith today and it was all about what is happening specifically with television. We focus mainly on Public Service Broadcasting and how the media has changed from being dominantly PSB to being mostly commercial. Again, with this lecture I just make a lot of notes so I am going to reiterate them here and then obviously reflect as I do at the end :) the notes that I make are in short hand so I will expand them so they make more sense to you all. Some are just small points of information that are useful to know. Here we go!

• Duopoly - Two institutions dominating TV (70's).
• Michael Tracey in 'The decline and fall of public service broadcasting' (1998) - cultural elitism.
• The difference between PSB and Commercial Broadcasting is that PSB acquires money to make programme's and the latter makes programme's to acquire money.

PSB Principles

Universality of availability

• Can broadcast no matter time, place, etc (place is most important)

Universality of appeal

• Has to please everyone - some of the people some of the time and most of the people most of the time

Provisions for minorities

• Minority audiences and groups. Allowing a broader audience - informing others in minorities

Serving the public sphere

• The general public - outside world. 'The media bubble' - modern digital age

Educating the public

• BBC are a prime example of education especially children's TV

Distanced from vested interests

• Distanced from political agenda's, religion, commercial interest. Shouldn't focus on making money

Encourage competition in good programming

• Maintaining and increasing quality

Liberation of programme makers

• Should be allowed to take risks and create new ideas

PBS Model

• Cultural resources
• Inform, educate, entertain
• Programming universality
• Informed citizens (viewers)
• Cultural homogeneity

Market Model

• Commodity
• Provides viewers with what they think they want
• Demand driven programming
• Consumers
• Cultural fragmentation

Up until 1980, there were only 3 channels - BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. BBC2 was seen as a minority viewed channel, so at any one time, the majority were generally viewing the same thing.

The case against the market:-

Culture must be distanced from commerce and dedicated to the tasks of discrimination, evaluating, informed and educating. The very principle of democracy becomes associated with market freedom and diversity, and with customer sovereignty and equality.

Questions arising in reaction to the purpose of PSB:-

• Paternalistic
• Controllers are seen as 'cultural elitists'
• Undemocratic
• Not seen as cost effective

PSB and the BBC:-

The Royal charter and the agreement provide the constitutional basis for the BBC. The Royal charter sets out the public purposes of the BBC and guarantees its editorial independence. The BBC trust will be reviewed in 2016.

___

After the bulk of the lecture and slide shows, we then watched 'TV is dead'; a channel 4 show which talks about the changes in the media and how it is effecting TV broadcasting. I decided to, once again, make loads of notes because this is what I do best. I think doing these notes just helps me understand and process the information more as I am very forgetful.

TV is Dead

• The internet and other forms of media are threatening TV's lifespan
• Anybody, anywhere can broadcast to a global audience
• Music went through the same crisis with online music sharing
• People do not want to be passive viewers anymore - becoming users
• UGC is now bigger than ever thanks to YouTube, MySpace, etc
• There is no schedule - public can choose when and why
• Broadcasters now make their content available on the internet
• As broadband speeds increase, so does high quality content
• Current TV
• NarrowStep
• 'Content needs to be funded' - advertising and licencing fees
• Joost
• Advertising can be much more effective online - know the user
• Convergence is going to carry on developing allowing downloaded content to be transferred straight to TV itself
• Microsoft Media Center
• Apple TV
• Choice fatigue - choice is becoming too much - overwhelming. On demand is the reason why people still watch broadcast channels
• Business model for broadcasters in the future will more likely be about the quality and also the ways in which they present themselves will allow them to make more money, than just through TV

Is public service broadcasting still viable? Should we still support the institutions such as the BBC? If we have the freedom to choose then what will we choose?

There are many questions surrounding this cloudy area of the new media age. But as it is constantly developing, we will just have to see what happens and see what the audience decided to do with the new developing technologies of the 21st century.

My Reflection

In this lecture, a lot of the information was new to me; however it wasn't hard to understand and I quite enjoyed it. Learning about the differences between public service broadcasting and commercial broadcasting was useful because I have never spoke about these differences before. I am glad that this information was fully discussed and not just skipped over because we didn't all learn the same things before university and so I appreciate the extra mile that the lecturer went to to make sure everyone understood the lecture.

As for 'TV is Dead' I would like to watch more of this show because it had a lot of people in the industry discussing what they thought about the development of new media and the changes that are currently happening in the industry. I feel that this was the easiest lecture so far on Digital Media Cultures because it wasn't as difficult to understand like the past couple. It is nice every now and again to be in a secure place where you know whats going on and can understand the content.

You Learn Something New Everyday

Television in its broadcast form may not be around for much longer, and TV licencing might not be either. Developments in digital media are taking over and could change the media landscape dramatically in the near future.

Speak Soon!

Applied Media Research - Digital Fiction Factory

In this module we are going to aim to solve some pressing questions from big names in the media industry. Today we had our first question asked to us from Digital Fiction Factory. Here is their website profile :-

The Digital Fiction Factory is a creative partnership between the BBC, Channel 4, Creative England and Conker Media.

Conker Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lime Pictures and part of the All3Media Group.

The BAFTA, Rose d'Or, Emmy-nominated and RTS and double-BANFF winning Conker Media team have played a leading role in the development of multi-layered storytelling in the UK; the achievements of which have been recognised internationally.

Ian Wareing, Digital Producer for Digital Fiction Factory, came in and shown a presentation about DFF and what they do. One of the first slides had this quote - 'Completely new kind of development and production center' Peter Salmon, BBC North. This made DFF sound exciting and so I wanted to hear more. Throughout the presentation I learned what projects they have been involved in, such as 'Hollyoaks - The Morning After the Night Before' which is a multi-platform, digital fiction event. DFF are all about using multiple platforms for their media productions; using more than one platform makes the media item much more exciting to the audience. To explain what he meant by multi-platform; he used these diagrams.

Digital Fiction Factory are all about audience participation and allowing them to become involved in the media products. This is happening throughout the media as we speak and so DFF want to know more about this.

The question set by Digital Fiction Factory was:

The internet, social media and other open systems have allowed for user generated content (UGC), crowd sourcing and other forms of audience participation to prevail in digital media. But how do we translate these features into storytelling experiences without treading on the toes of the author?

From this question the key points are:

Audience Participation

Storytelling Experience

Author

My Reflection

I think that the question set by Digital Fiction Factory is very interesting because audience participation is something that is expanding and increasing all over the media. The question would allow me to explore the possibilities of audience participation and find the limits of where it can go before it intrudes to much on the authors work.

This being the first question that we have been set I am thinking very positively and I feel that choosing a question might be difficult if they are all of this standard. I liked the presentation that was used but I would have liked to maybe been more hands on with something they had made or even just examples of audience participation through other media products.

I look forward to the other two questions and figuring out my choice!

You Learn Something New Everyday

Today the main thing that I learned was that the media is developing faster than producers thought it would and so now they are playing catch up with their audiences to keep things exciting and interesting!

Speak Soon!

Images courtesy of Digital Fiction Factory

TV Studio Production - Meeting!

Our group for the TV Studio module decided to get together today to have a production meeting about all of our roles and what else needed to be done towards the 'paper airplanes' segment that we need to do next week!
Here is the agenda I created for the meeting:

1. Have all the set finalised. Try and get in to the studio, test the set out and take photographs.
2. Go over the presenters script - see if it flows, makes sense and is long enough.
3. Go through camera script and see if it matches up with the presenters script.
4. Make sure everyone knows their roles for the day - who is on what camera, etc. Make sure everyone is feeling positive.
5. Any questions should be answered today - e.g. the presenters clothing and the flying of the plane at the end of the show.

After I presented these items to the group, we then went through each step and discussed what needed to be done. We first addressed the set design and where we were with it. Jodie has done a wonderful job of painting some wall paper to go on the flats that we are using and has also made a title for the show that will drape in front of the table that we will use. We have also been working hard making lots of paper airplanes just to go around the set. 
After we had checked this item off the list we decided to see if we could go in to the studio to see if the wallpaper fitted on the flats. We went in to the studio and we were able to have a little mess around and see what our set is going to look like. I took a few photographs:-

 As you can see from the photographs, this is what we are going to have the set looking like. However, the other two flats will also be covered by similar patterns, but they were drying off so Jodie wasn't able to bring them in. Doing this allowed us to visualise what we are going to have on the day of the recording.

The next item that we covered was the presenters script and also the camera script together. These two scripts run alongside each other and so need to marry up. We wanted to make sure that the shots fitted well with the speech and also with the demonstration that will be going on.
Here is the presenters script that Kirsty wrote:-

“Hello kids and welcome to this weeks episode of 'Making Stuff!'
If you tuned in last week you will have learned how to make a big chocolate cake with your parents! 

Well this week we are learning how to make paper air-planes! This is one of the best makes we have done yet because there are sooooo many different planes you can make!”
“Here is all the ones I have made earlier – This is my favourite one” (Picks up a paper air-plane) 

“Now we are going to make our own paper air-planes together. First of all, you need to get a piece of paper like this one” (Holds up a piece of paper), “Once everyone has their piece of paper, we then place it flat down on the table like this.” (Place piece of paper down) “This is just to make it easier to fold our paper for making our air-plane”

“The next step kids is going to be folding the 2 top corners on the shorter end of the piece of paper so that they meet in the middle of the page, like I am now doing. This is going to be the front of our air-planes.” (I will then lift up my piece of paper to show).

“Now to make the body of our air-plane we are going to fold the paper in half long ways, just as I am doing now, keeping the folded parts to the outside” (close up may be needed here to help explain)

“The last step to creating our paper air-planes is creating the wings. This is the part that helps make our air-plane fly”. We create this part by folding down a short section down the long sided piece of paper the way I am showing now. (Hold up the air-plane to make it more clear to children watching)

Now you should have your very own paper air-planes kids. Time to test them out. (Throw paper air-plain)
That all we have time for kids, but I hope you all enjoyed our session of making paper air-planes. Don't forget to come back and join us next time on “Making stuff”. Goodbye (Waves to camera)

We all agreed that this script is fitting for what we want out of the show we are making. I suggested a few things about talking when she is making the planes. She could bring up some information that I have researched about their history, etc. Here's what I was thinking of:-

Maybe if Kirsty is stuck for content whilst she is making the plane, she can use some of this information to fill in the time where she isn't speaking.

After this, we looked at the camera script that Ian created. Here it is :-

Camera 2 - (Midshot) “Hello kids and welcome to this weeks episode of 'Making Stuff!'

If you tuned in last week you will have learned how to make a big chocolate cake with your parents!  Well this week we are learning how to make paper air-planes! This is one of the best makes we have done yet because there are sooooo many different planes you can make!”

Camera 3 - (cut in to close up of plane) “Here is all the ones I have made earlier – This is my favourite one” (Picks up a paper air-plane)

Camera 2 - (midshot) “Now we are going to make our own paper air-planes together. First of all, you need to get a piece of paper like this one”

Camera 3 - (cut in to close up) (Holds up a piece of paper),

Camera 2 - (midshot)“Once everyone has their piece of paper, we then place it flat down

Camera 3 - (cut in to close up) on the table like this.” (Place piece of paper down) “

Camera 1 - (Medium Close up of kirsty)This is just to make it easier to fold our paper for making our air-plane”

Camera 1 - (Medium close up) “The next step kids is going to be folding the 2 top corners on the shorter end of the piece of paper so that they meet in the middle of the page,

Camera 3 - (cut in to close up on plane) like I am now doing. This is going to be the front of our air-planes.”

Camera 1 - (medium close up) (I will then lift up my piece of paper to show).

Camera 2 - ( mid shot) “Now to make the body of our air-plane we are going to fold the paper in half long ways,

Camera 3 - (cut in to close up on plane) just as I am doing now, keeping the folded parts to the outside”

Camera 2 - (mid shot) “The last step to creating our paper air-planes is creating the wings. This is the part that helps make our air-plane fly”. We create this part by

Camera 3 - (cut in to close up) folding down a short section down the long sided piece of paper the way I am showing now. (Hold up the air-plane to make it more clear to children watching)

Camera 1 - (medium close up) Now you should have your very own paper air-planes kids. Time to test them out.

Camera 3 - (Wide shot/tracking) (Throw paper air-plain)

Camera 1 - (medium Close up) That all we have time for kids, but I hope you all enjoyed our session of making paper air-planes. Don't forget to come back and join us next time on “Making stuff”.

(Camera 2 Midshot) Goodbye (Waves to camera)

Again we agreed as a group that this is very good, Ian has complimented the presenters script very well. Finally, I wanted to see if anyone had questions: Kirsty needed to know what to wear for the show and so Jodie described what she would like for this and we also agreed on our final shot of the plane flying.

My Reflection

So this meeting was very productive and finally all of us were able to sit together and work as a team. Last time we tried to meet up not everyone attended so this is an improvement! We are working at a quick pace and getting everything done that needs to be done on time so I am happy with the results so far. Lets see how the show goes!

You Learn Something New Everyday

A little effort goes a long way? This is false. You need to give your whole self in to something if you want it to be successful. A little effort won't suffice in the media industry.

Speak Soon!

Beyond The Camera - Photoshop Development

In this module we are currently working on Photoshop compositing for our first assignment. I have started thinking about the idea that I would like to do so here are my personal notes and sourced images that I have collected.
First of all I was thinking about doing a cinema screen with one person sat watching in 3D glasses. I wanted the content of the screen to be coming out at the viewer. I collected a few images just to refer my lecturer to as ideas:-

 So I was thinking either a side on view of the screen or from the back. I had access to the Odeon cinema in Liverpool One to do this as my friend works there.

 These three other images were ideas of what I could have coming out of the screen, as if they were 3D. I thought a stampede would be interesting but then it would be a lot of hard work cutting around a sourced image. Then I thought I could get my friends to pose as either superheroes or zombies. This would have been a better idea because then all the images would be mine and none would be sourced.

After this thought process I was ready to start producing an image but then unfortunately I have been unwell and so not able to really go far to get images (such as the cinema screen). I decided to revamp my idea and make it something more simple. 

I moved on to the idea of someone walking through a wall, as if they had super powers or as if the wall was a portal. I looked at the idea of platform 9 and 3/4 from the Harry Potter series and this was a nice influence to have (as I am a MASSIVE fan). However I couldn't really find any stills from the film to demonstrate what I mean, so I sourced this image:-

This was just to give a sense of what I wanted to achieve; the look of travelling through a brick wall.
When researching into walking through walls, I discovered a statue that is in Paris, France called 'Le Passe-Muraille' or 'The Man Who Walked Through Walls'. This was even more of an inspiration because you can actually see more of my intent through this sourced image:-

The only issue with this image is that I want to get the effect of someone heading in to the wall rather than out through the wall - but you get the idea! Hopefully I can meet the deadline and come out with something that meets the goals I have set myself.

Speak Soon!

Digital Media Cultures - Photography and Visual Culture

In this lecture we focused on the history and development of photography, and also the era of image manipulation and people perception of what is real or constructed.
Photography was seen as a 'sworn witness' - fact based medium to convey information. It is strongly linked with documentary and the form of recording information to convey to an audience. It is debatable that photography is unbiased because everything has subliminal views; the photographer took the photograph from a certain angle, in a certain light, etc for a reason.
Photography has been closely associated with realism, however it is a representation of reality which is recorded by individuals. This is called 'constructing' because they think about the image that they want before that take the photograph; constructing its final outcome.
Digital manipulation has problematised the concept of documentary realism and truth because now we can literally do anything with photographs to change them and edit them.
Photography became central to the concepts of modernity and modernism in the 20th century. Modernism is a concept and movement aimed to encourage new ways of perceiving, which would ultimately produce a new kind of person.
Russian constructavists started to explore aesthetics and views through photography. An example of this sort of work is by Aleksander Rodchenko; famous Russian artist and photographer. Here are few examples of his work that we looked at in this lecture.

Pioneer with a trumpet, 1930

Stairs, 1929

Photography in many ways has helped create a fairer society as people were able to see poverty, war and social injustice for the first time.

Photographer Dorothea Lange, famed for her photograph 'Migrant Mother' (1936), has been under much debate because of the way in which she constructed her photography. The images were viewed by the public as simply fact and documenting something that had happened. However, Lange constructed her photographs in such a way to make the most impact on the viewer.

Migrant Mother, 1936

The image was constructed by Lange because she wanted something to represent poverty and present it to the masses. She 'wasn't interested in her name or her history' and so she was literally in it just to get that perfect metaphor for 'poverty'. 

We then looked at Dzigo Vertov and his work in the film industry. He was heavily influenced by futurism which celebrates technology over nature. Famously, Vertov created the film 'Man With a Movie Camera', a film showing Soviet citizens interacting with the machinery of modern life. He was part of a film movement where the filmmakers were called 'kinoks' or kino-eyes. The films made by these Soviet Kinoks in the 1920's were referred to as 'life caught unawares'. They wanted to abolish all non-documentary film making; causing a stir in the industry.

'I am eye. I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, am showing you a world, the likes of which only I can see.' - Dzigo Vertov.

At the end of the lecture, we watched 'The Genius of Photography'; one episode in a short series that discusses photography through the ages and what is happening now with photography. We watched some of the last episode in the series, and I intend to watch the rest of the series in my own time because I found it very enlightening.

My Reflection

So I was excited for this lecture because as you may know I love photography. I am starting out and learning about photography outside of university. The whole lecture to me was so informative and I couldn't get enough of the discussions that we were having about the impact that photography can have and also about image manipulation. This is why I intend to watch the rest of the series we looked at because I know that I will benefit from learning about the photography industry as well as the film industry! I would also like to watch Vertov's 'Man With a Movie Camera' because I have heard of this film prior to the lecture and also seen some footage. It looks like it would be a interesting film to watch and from watching it I would hopefully learn more about futurism as this intrigues me. Overall in this lecture I was pleased with its content and fully understood what we were talking about. Doing the reading before hand really did help a lot and I know why we get these readings each week - they help!

You Learn Something New Everyday

It seems a few people knew of Dorothea Lange; however I was not familiar with her work. I now know about her and her photographic style, so I look forward to learning more about individual photographers and filmmakers.

Speak Soon!