Rodianne Xuereb Media Productions

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Final Blog Evaluation

Final Evaluation

Unit 19: Digital Graphics for Interactive Media

I feel that I have learnt a lot from this unit. I learnt how to use well the Photoshop and Illustrator software and by experimenting more, I expanded my knowledge of the program further. I also learnt how to do a blog online on Blogger and post on it. I really liked to do this. I have always wanted to have like a website of my own where I can post my works from time to time, and now I learnt how. Also, now I can produce better posters and works of design, as this has always been a passion of mine.

Some difficulties that I encountered during this unit were mainly the fact that we didn’t work well as a team regarding the group MediaCast blog. Many times not everyone was responsible enough to be present for group meetings and to carry out the individual roles needed to carry out our blog task. There wasn’t enough communication between us, but not between all members, as some of them worked really hard.

This unit will help me a lot in my future career, especially to create some types of graphics. If we had to do this unit again, I prefer that will focus more on how to use Adobe Photoshop to a more advanced level of knowledge, but on the whole, I’m quite satisfied with the work that I managed to produce during this unit.

In this unit, we studied different subjects related to digital graphics that will certainly be useful later on in our career in the media industries. We dealt mainly with learning how to use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator software, so we can start doing posters, banners and colour schemes for our blog. Then, we had to do an info graphic about different elements of graphic design. We also had to set up a blog individually and post in it from time to time, according to what we are doing at the moment, the work we are producing and the research that we are carrying out. Later on, in groups, we produced a sample MediaCast blog where we voted for a banner and a poster that will be used to market the blog.

Answering Questions for the Mediacast Blog

Unit 19: Digital Graphics for Interactive Media

Task 2

The MediaCast Identity

Who is the audience?

The audience is a varied one, starting from students who attend MCAST and who form part of MediaCast, their friends from outside the school, and even their potential employers later on in the future.

What is the brief?

“Mediacast is made up of a growing community of media students at MCAST Art and Design. In order for exponential growth and more accessibility/communication between members, you will be required to design a blog for Mediacast. The chosen blog will be used by all media students at MCAST to post their profiles and portfolios as well as share information and links with other students or members.

The design of the blog needs to be based on thorough research about the meaning, identity and future of Mediacast. As the blog could also be a source for potential employers of the students, it needs to be aesthetically pleasing to a varied audience and needs to communicate a message of professionalism, community and innovation.”

Market Research

The students produce works after an intensive research is carried out.

All works of students are copyrighted and have to be shown on the blog with their permission.

Ethical Issues

The works and everything else on the blog needs to be ethical, don’t offend anyone, and everything needs to be ethically correct. Any posts and comments should be moderated.

Confidentiality

Regarding online student profiles, only the details that the actual students want to be shown will be written in the blog.

Representation

Any original works will be represented exactly shown as they are originally and wouldn’t be modified in any way.

Intellectual Property Rights

Any works are owned by the students and by Mediacast group.

Site Map and Requirements

The colour scheme of the blog

It can be the colours of the MCAST and Mediacast logos, that are white, light orange, and black.

The design of the profile page

Please refer to Site Map.

The banner

It can include something related to media, for example, a film reel and a film camera. Then there will be the Mediacast logo.

The background

There can be a collage of images with the theme of media, for example: cameras, film reels, red heads, microphones, etc.

__________________________________________________________________

Mediacast Blog - Site Map

Mediacast Blog - Site Map

· Blog Posts : where students can write . Other people can leave comments which will be moderated

· About Us: Profile - Questions and answers about Mediacast

· Portfolio : showing works from past and present students

· Gallery: Photos of behind the scenes, events and photos of any student works

· Poll: Asking a new question every week

· Forum: Where people can communicate ideas and opinions

· Guestbook: Where other people can leave comments

· Links : To other useful and related websites or videos

· Contact Us : Details where other people can contact us

Use:

· To Promote the MEDIACAST group

· To show works done by students in this group

· To give students the opportunity to communicate with each other

· To allow students to share the ideas online

More Research

Mediacast Blog

Sketch of Blog

To be included in blog:

· Banner

· Posts

· Forum

· Photo Slideshow

· Poll

· Followers

· Links

· Profile

Research

Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form (i.e., printers, programmers, signmakers, etc.) – undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that focus on visual communication and presentation. The field as a whole is also often referred to as Visual Communication or Communication Design. Various methods are used to create and combine words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may use typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to produce the final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.
Common uses of graphic design include identity (logos and branding), web sites, publications (magazines, newspapers, and books), advertisements and product packaging. For example, a product package might include a logo or other artwork, organized text and pure design elements such as shapes and color which unify the piece. Composition is one of the most important features of graphic design, especially when using pre-existing materials or diverse elements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_design

In the Media

Health and Safety

- An employer has various responsabilities, one of which being health and safety of the workers.

- This is especially true when dealing with TV studio and film set.

- A studio/set is full of potentially hazardous objects like.

- This is the bigggest responsibility of any employer.

- The OHC Authority in Malta is there to oversee health and safety at the work place.

- In high budget TV and film, a person might be employed to assess the risks of certain locations.

- In films, a risk assessment might be employed to it that all sets used are safe, and to measure the degreee of safett on set.

Equality

- The press relation act of 1976 makes it unlawful to discrimination against someone directly or indirectly on racial grounds.

- A new body, the commisssion for equality and human rights, came into existence in 2007, The commission

- CEHR (in 2007) à www.cehr.org.uk

- Identifies equality, diversity and respet for the human rights and dignity of all UK citizens.

NCPE (Malta)

- In Malta, the NCPE is the authority in charge to ensure equality especially at the place of work.

- This applies to all areas including media.

- Example: Where there is no equality.

- Equality in the work place includes issues of:

Ethinicity/Racism, Gender discrimination and stereotyping, Religion, Age discrimination.

- In 2006, the BB employed 10.2% of it’s staff from black and ethnice minorities and 5.2% of it’s senior management.

- In media, it is still very common to find that directors, executive producers and sound are mostly male domianted roles.

- Technical roles are mostly dominated by males.

- Newscasters and editing however enjoys a large percentage of female audiences.

- Editing on film without sound was very popular with females.

- We will first look at the issue of intellectual property.

What is intellectual property? (IP)

- Trademark ™

- Patents

It gives the creators of:

- Economic rights

- Moral rights

- The right to object to the distortion or mutilation of their creations.

- It is the right given to authors to reproduce the work, prepare deruvative works or to perform or publicly present this work.

Under copyright you may find:

Art, Literature, Moving media works

Copyright doesn’t protect names, titles and slogans.

Copyright is automatic.

No need to be registered.

Copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the owner. These rights may also be transferred/sold or copied.

Owners of material have the right to:

Authorize copying.

Authorize the issuing of copies to the public.

Authorize renting/performing/making an adaption of the copyrighted original.

Our Mediacast Blog

As a team to create a sample MediaCAST blog, we are:

Claudio Cilia - Design
Rodianne Xuereb - Design
Elena Sammut - Marketing
Christine Toledo - Research
Tamsin Pace Decesare - Research
Stephen Cutajar

We created this blog:
http://www.mediacaststudents.blogspot.com/

Contractual, Legal and Ethical Obligations in the Media