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.

Copyright

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)

-          Copyright ©

-          Trademark ™

-          Patents

Copyright © 

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

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)

-          Copyright ©

-          Trademark ™

-          Patents

Copyright © 

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.

Research for Unit 8 Task 4

The Changes in Technology in the Last 30 Years

Analog recording versus digital recording compares the two ways in which sound is recorded and stored. Actual sound waves consist of continuous variations in air pressure. Representations of these signals can be recorded using either digital or analog techniques.


An analog recording is one where a property or characteristic of a physical recording medium is made to vary in a manner analogous to the variations in air pressure of the original sound. A digital recording is produced by converting the physical properties of the original sound into a sequence of numbers, which can then be stored and read back for reproduction. Normally, the sound is transduced (as by a microphone) to an analog signal in the same way as for analog recording, and then the analog signal is digitized, or converted to a digital signal, through an analog-to-digital converter and then recorded onto a digital storage medium such as a compact disc or hard disk.


High-definition television (or HDTV) is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems (standard-definition TV, or SDTV, or SD). HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD. Early HDTV broadcasting used analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcast using video compression.


Low-definition television or LDTV refers to television systems that have a lower screen resolution than standard-definition television systems. The term is usually used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same (or similar) resolution as low-definition analog TV systems. Mobile DTV systems usually transmit in low definition, as do all slow-scan TV systems.


The most common source of LDTV programming is the Internet, where mass distribution of higher-resolution video files could overwhelm computer servers and take too long to download. Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics. In filmmaking it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation. When it includes face and fingers or captures subtle expressions, it is often referred to as performance capture.


In motion capture sessions, movements of one or more actors are sampled many times per second, although with most techniques (recent developments from Weta use images for 2D motion capture and project into 3D), motion capture records only the movements of the actor, not his or her visual appearance. This animation data is mapped to a 3D model so that the model performs the same actions as the actor. This is comparable to the older technique of rotoscope, such as the 1978 The Lord of the Rings animated film where the visual appearance of the motion of an actor was filmed, then the film used as a guide for the frame-by-frame motion of a hand-drawn animated character.


Camera movements can also be motion captured so that a virtual camera in the scene will pan, tilt, or dolly around the stage driven by a camera operator while the actor is performing, and the motion capture system can capture the camera and props as well as the actor's performance. This allows the computer-generated characters, images and sets to have the same perspective as the video images from the camera. A computer processes the data and displays the movements of the actor, providing the desired camera positions in terms of objects in the set. Retroactively obtaining camera movement data from the captured footage is known as match moving or camera tracking.


Motion capture offers several advantages over traditional computer animation of a 3D model:


More rapid, even real time results can be obtained. In entertainment applications this can reduce the costs of keyframe-based animation. For example: Hand Over.
The amount of work does not vary with the complexity or length of the performance to the same degree as when using traditional techniques. This allows many tests to be done with different styles or deliveries.
Complex movement and realistic physical interactions such as secondary motions, weight and exchange of forces can be easily recreated in a physically accurate manner.
The amount of animation data that can be produced within a given time is extremely large when compared to traditional animation techniques. This contributes to both cost effectiveness and meeting production deadlines.
Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
IT is the area of managing technology and spans wide variety of areas that include but are not limited to things such as processes, computer software, information systems, computer hardware, programming languages, and data constructs. In short, anything that renders data, information or perceived knowledge in any visual format whatsoever, via any multimedia distribution mechanism, is considered part of the domain space known as Information Technology (IT).


The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the times. The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. Most notably, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth.


Most traditional communications media including telephone, music, film, and television are reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IPTV. Newspaper, book and other print publishing are adapting to Web site technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. The Internet has enabled or accelerated new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Online shopping has boomed both for major retail outlets and small artisans and traders. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries.


Globalization (or globalisation) describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through communication, transportation, and trade. The term is most closely associated with the term economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, the spread of technology, and military presence. However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, socio cultural, political, and biological factors. The term can also refer to the transnational circulation of ideas, languages, or popular culture through acculturation. An aspect of the world which has gone through the process can be said to be globalized.
http://www.wikipedia.org/

Regulation

REALITY TV  - INVASION OF PRIVACY - ETHICS

Political Influence on the Media

To better understand media, we need to understand the political environment.

Media in A Democratic society is different from media in TOTALITARIAN nations (country run only by one political party) example China, North Korea.

THE BASIS OF DEMOCRACY

1.       Government is chosen and replaced through free and fair elections

2.       Active participation of the people as citizens

3.       Protection of the human rights of all citizens

4.       The Laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens

DEMOCRATIC SOECIETIES

1.       Protect freedom of the press and freedom of expression – PUBLIC INTEREST (INVASION OF PRIVACY)

2.       Characterized by a more diverse mix of public and privately owned media outlets offering a variety of arts, news, information, and entertainment

3.       The media is still subjected to government regulation - generally operate independently

Regulations

1.       When it comes to regulation, not all media are alike :  Print media,  broadcast media.

2.       The differences in regulations are often associated with technological differences example the Internet – New regulations are created with new media

3.       Differences emerge about the limits of free speech and the meaning of “public interest”

Regulatory Bodies

TV   : BROADCASTING AUTHORITY

1.       OFCOM – REGULATORY BODY OF UK

What is OFCOM? (OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS)

·         Operates independently from the government and party politics

·         They act solely in the interest of citizens and consumers

Legal Duties OF OFCOM

UK COMMUNICATIONS ACT 2003, to ensure that:

·         The UK has a wide range of electronic communications services example BROADBAND

·         A wide range of high quality TV AND RADIO programmes appealing to a range of tastes and interests.

·         TV AND RADIO STATIONS ARE PROFIDED BY A RANGE OF DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS

·         MEDIA AUDIENCES ARE PROTECTED FROM HARMFUL OR OFFENSIE MATERIAL

·         PEOPLE ARE PROTECTED FROM BEING TREATED UNFAIRLY IN THE MEDIA AND FROM HAVING THEIR PRIVACY INVADED

·         THE AIRWAVES ARE USED IN THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY (TAXI FIRMS, BOAT OWNERS, MOBILE-PHONE COMPANIES AND BROADCASTERS)

·         OFCOM’s Broadcasting Code sets out rules which TV AND RADIO BROADCASTERS must follow

·         These Codes set standards to protect people under the age of 18 from material that is not suitable for them, while allowing broadcasters an appropriate amount of creative freedom.

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR :

·          DISPUTES BETWEEN PEOPLE AND THEIR TELECOMS PROVIDER

·         Emails and internet content

·         Premium rate services (including mobile phone text services and ringtones) PHONEPAY PLUS

·         CONTENT OF TV AND RADIO ADVERTS (ASA)

·         Complaints about accuracy in BBC programmes (BBC)

·         BBC TV licence fee (BBC)

·         Newspapers and Magazines (PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION)  - PCC

SITE

www.ofcom.org.uk