Visual literacy Blog Week 6

Visual literacy is the ability to understand visual images and also the ability to use visual images to communicate and relay your thoughts to others.  As technology becomes increasingly more prevalent, it has become more important to use visuals to communicate and be able to decipher others' messages in their images.  With programs like photoshop people are able to manipulate images immensely.  In a video provided in the material there was a video of extreme photoshop makeover.  By changing the color grading and erasing imperfections or artifacts that are not wanted, it is possible to reinforce the message of an image or even change the meaning of an image completely after the fact.

Visual literacy is critical in my major and and profession.  Everything I do is based on and judged by the images I capture and create.  Understanding how to change the meaning of an image and knowing how the image is received by an audience can be make or break for a specific project.  As far as marketing goes and commercial work, there are many techniques marketers and graphic designers use to reinforce their points and appeal to their respective audiences.  A commercial on the television is completely dependent on visual literacy.  The images show in a commercial give the audience a definition of the project in their own mind so it is important to convey the product so that it will be received correctly.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/148577/mediavisual_literacy_art_education_cigarette_ad_deconstruction/index.html

The Link I found from redorbit.com deconstructs a cigarette ad and analyzes what the ad men attempt to do and what the anti-tobacco people attempt to do.  It describes how lighting is used to emphasize and how certain colors can make different impacts.  Both sides of the argument attempt a similar cause, appeal to teenagers who are receptive and try to get them to go along with your cause.

Podcast Blog Part 2 (week 9)

The material covered in the second half of week 8 pertained to audio and podcasts.  A podcast a series of audio broadcasts that are downloaded off of the internet.  Podcasts can either be downloaded for listening to in the future or streamed for listening live.  Podcasts use Ogg vorbis or mp3 as the audio files so it isn't very difficult to find a device that can play the files.  The name derives from the idea that it is a broadcast originally designed for the ipod.  Podcasting is still relatively new, only catching real attention since 2004, but it is gaining steam quickly and has become a key word in the technology vernacular.


Podcasting can be important in my major and profession.  Marketing is very important for films and obviously commercials.  Podcasts are another way to reach the desired audience.  Many podcasts have thousands of listeners, this is very lucrative for advertisers.  Podcasts have yet to really define themselves in terms of how they want to make profit but advertising on them is certainly an option.  Podcasts are also ways to relay information out to the public about a project.  Pixar's "Cars" for example used podcasts to release a series of behind the scenes clips to start to promote the movie and shows like "Battlestar Galactica" provided podcasts with the creators talking about the show and their inspirations.

http://blog.experiencecurve.com/archives/uncommon-uses-podcasting

I found a very interesting site that details some uncommon uses of the podcasts.  People are using podcasts to broadcast serial plays and novels that people read in parts.  Unofficial museum tours are being podcasted so that people can download the  file and go to a museum and listen to a tour on their own IPOD or MP3 player.   Music lessons are also being podcasted in segments so that people don't get overwhelmed by a full course, as if in book format, and their progress is steady.  It seems that podcasts are still so new that the possibilities are seemingly endless at this point.  I'll be interested to see how the podcast evolves in the future.

Week 8 Material Blog Part 1

The first part of week 8's material focused on digital technology as a subcategory of digital storytelling.  Digital technology uses representative data consisting of 1's and 0's to represent what either a picture, video or audio clip is that can be later translated and reconverted to its original medium.  Analog technology is a pure physical representation of the source.  The advantage to digital is a much smaller less expensive result that, for most purposes, suites the need of the application.  Digital has been improving and coming closer to being indistinguishable from analog by utilizing higher resolutions with more mega pixels or faster sampling rates for audio at high bit rates.  However analog is still way ahead when it comes to pure quality.

This all is very relevant to my major as camera's and sound are the most important tools for film production.  Knowing what decisions to make regarding the use of digital and analog is very important as it determines costs and quality.  Where it is much cheaper to use digital, analog sources, like film, offer much higher quality.  Having directed and worked on both analog productions using 35mm and 16mm film, as well as digital medium in the form of uncompressed HD it is clear that both mediums have their pros and cons.  Understanding the differences is crucial to making your final product effective whether its a commercial production or a film.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/tg-daily-hands-4k-red-camera-unwrapping-lamborghini-video-cameras,5156.html

The website I found is a description and review of a very interesting relatively new digital technology for a camera called RED.  Where HD uses 1080p resolution, RED uses 4000p resolution.  This is important as it is a big step for digital in approaching analog quality.  Where film is still unmatched in its contrast and technical factors, digital is getting very close and to the common viewer is virtually identical.  This means lower cost for films and an easier more fluid shooting environment.  On a production using film, time has to be taken out every 10 minutes of filming time to load new film into the cameras.  With digital it is possible to continuously film uninterrupted. 

Concept Map: Film Production

I've attached a bubble map that outlines the various social media options that could be used in Film Production.  Here's the concept map.

Full Link is:
http://www.gliffy.com/publish/2249224/

Week 5 Blog pt 2

Open source software was the topic of the second part of this weeks material (the third part being word clouds).  I had heard of open source software before but didn't really know what it meant and I don't think I would have ever known had Stephen Fry's elegant British accent not informed me.  Open source software is software where the source code is not locked, rather open.  People can not only see the original programmers' source code but they can also modify it.  The GNU and Linux duo set out to provide an open source option to people because the creators felt it a right for the people to have an option that can be altered to fit their specific needs. 

Open Source software can be relevant to telecommunications and film production.  Editing Software can be very demanding on a computer and Composing software even more so.  Being able to customize a computer to suite these specific needs might be beneficial in these circumstances.  I could see how a large production company would be interested in this because it gives them versatility.  All people using their computers would have a custom layout designed to fit that companies needs.  All editing bays would be set up for editing, all pro-tools stations would be for composing, Autodesk Maya stations for 3d modeling and animation, etc.

http://www.b-independent.com/production/foss1.htm

The article I've attached talks about how open source software is redefining the roles in the movie industry.  Within the last few years affordable programs have come out on the market that allow pretty much anyone to perform basic editing and post production tasks.  The article talks about how people are using open source software to optimize their needs and streamline their work environment.  It gives the example of Firefox's email service Thunderbird as an open source program that is completely free off of the internet.

Week 5 Blog pt 1

Understanding learning behaviors was the topic of the material covered in the first part of week 5.  The slide show presentation explained the different learning theories, including behaviorism, information process learning, and constructivism.  Classical conditioning was discussed as a way to use repetition and pattern to reinforce specific rewards.  There is a sort of cause-effect learning relationship.  In information process learning the brain is thought of as a computer.  There is a focus on inside the brain as it registers information, processes, stores and retrieves information.  In Constructivism people are allowed to construct unique knowledge as they learn through experiences.  Activities with meaning create authentic experiences.

Thinking about how people learn can be very helpful to my major and profession.  In telecommunications I am asked to present ideas and pitch things to groups of people.  By understanding what is effective in getting my point across I can be much more effective in my pitches.  This also applies to marketing and commercials that I do.  By knowing what people learn from it is easier to market products to consumers.  Through use of repetition people can become familiar with a commercial and are more likely to buy that product.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Educational-Marketing---Learning-Styles-Across-Cultures&id=4037811

The article I've attached describes how learning styles translate across cultures.  Different learning styles must be used in order to obtain a broad reach of information.  By using multiple techniques for example, a marketing firm, can appeal to many different cultures with the same advertisement.  On the contrary if a product is designed for a very specific market segment, using limited learning styles may target then better and separate them from the rest of the crowd.

week 4 material

After going through the week four material, I learned a lot about the differences between hypermedia and multimedia and how they contrast mixed media in fine art.  Where mixed media used multiple forms of art to create a single piece, multimedia is even broader.  Multimedia is inclusive of audio and video as well.  Hypermedia uses links to move a user around in a non-linear fashion.  One of the power point documents describes a benefit of multimedia as being the ability to accommodate many different learning style's at once.  Hypermedia promotes proactive learning, meaning a user will have to organized their thoughts in a unique ways that should provide some insight within the user.

This material is very important to people in my major and going into my profession.  Film production and telecommunications are based on visual and audible stimuli.  Being aware of how these elements are formed and crafted to create meaning can be very important.  Also, as more and more content becomes web-based, its is of increased importance to be able to match the quality of competition on the web.  People on the internet don't settle for a what a newspaper can do, provide a single article, they want links to sources, or videos, or even audio clips.  Being able to organize multimedia is very important to telecommunication majors.

http://www.hypermedianews.com/CNN/tabid/69/Default.aspx

The link I've attached above shows the importance of hypermedia in news.  Through the portal, hypermedianews.com, a user is able to move through all major news networks and scan over their major stories.  By clicking on a linked story the user to brought to the web page where for instance, a large weather Doppler ticks away at the top of the page under the words, "Karl now a hurricane."  The site also provides video web casts from meteorologists.  They make it very simple to go back to the portal site and explore other news outlets if a different side might be needed on a particular news story.