sarah-burch
Welcome!
Hi! My name's Sarah, I'm 21, I like long walks on the beach.
Ah. Wrong place, sorry.
Welcome to my blog! Here I'll write about all things Bucks New Uni and studied media-related; from ideas and concepts to experiences, lectures, theories and lessons learned. Enjoy!
Navigation is to the right, find out more about me on my website!
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Thursday 21st May, 2015
Apple Watch and Technological Convergence
With the release of the Apple Watch just days ago, it’s a prime time to discuss its stance as an innovation.
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Flicking through this video, it’s apparent that this product is not simply a watch. The gradual shift in capabilities of technology over the years - specifically the invention of smart phones - has resulted in mass technological convergence in thousands of products.
It seem that it was just a matter of time until these products scaled down into something much smaller than pocket-sized, but rather an actual wearable object.
As mentioned in the video, several obstacles have had to be overcome through the invention of new technology specific to a product so small such as the ability for the screen to detect difference in force; such as a tap or hold.
Of course this product has proven to be massively popular thus far despite it’s faults, which many users are keen to overlook. Just like other Apple products it features software updates so to keep as applicable as possible, but it can be guaranteed that there will be new releases of this product in the form of improved updates to both software and hardware.
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Wednesday 13th May, 2015
Exit Black - BBC Introducing & My 21st Birthday!
This was our last ever shoot as L6A class of 2015. I think it was a pretty good shoot with a few exceptions, some of which being role changes (when team members are in roles they aren’t normally in, it brings about some teething pains as the rest of the crew aren’t used to their work methods)
I was on camera again which I was fine with, as I enjoy being a camera op plus I think I got some pretty decent shots.
The band were great fun and I think our final edits turned out okay - not our best - but they seemed to enjoy them so that’s all that matters.
Lighting was pretty fun on this shoot too; Chris mixed it up a bit which resulted in a look we hadn’t tried before but I still think it looked really neat.
Fraser’s jib shots always looks so nice
Things got a bit emosh towards the end but I think the stuff we’ve produced over the year certainly shows improvement.
As a group, we found our symbiosis which meant we could work efficiently and by the end, produce work of a pretty high standard.
These shoots have been great fun and gave me the opportunity to work with some amazing people as well as resulting in some really good footage for my showreel.
BBC haven’t uploaded the videos yet, but here’s a link to them on Google Drive
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April 2015
Work Experience with Suited and Booted
My work experience was incredibly jam-packed and educational! I learned so many things, most of which you can find here on the presentation I created to present to my class as part of the assignment.
The presentation itself didn’t go too well unfortunately! I had so much to talk about I ended up skipping about 7 slides, which was definitely disappointing as I feel like the majority of them were very important ones. There’s plenty of pictures too, if that’s any incentive!
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Easter, 2015
Multi-platform and Convergence Advertising
Over the Easter Holidays I returned back home where awaits me a loving family yes, but a glorious glorious TV.
Being one of those students, I can’t afford a TV licence at University so my housemates and I agreed we wouldn’t get one. This means that fortunately, I don’t see very many moving image adverts (Adblock, yo) and can spare myself the agony of cringey American commercials.
One of the adverts I witnessed back home however, was a car ad (don’t ask me what I’m useless at that kind of stuff) which was coupled with Shazam.
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Whilst that isn’t the actual advert, it’s pretty similar. I found it interesting how advertising companies are now utilising the demands of consumers - many, many views on YouTube videos of product advertisements are from viewers searching for the name or band of a song they heard from the ad; something testified by the countless comments all asking the same question.
So it makes sense that a company designed specifically for music identification will have a share in an advert containing music potential for mainstream consumption. It’s quite a solid set up between all 3 partners; primary product gets a good ad, Shazam get a cheeky little plug, and the music artist get a bunch of profit from music-hungry consumers.
I also find it interesting that Shazam has taken on a similar role as Google; “I’ll Shazam it” or “I’ll Google it” are phrases heard pretty frequently nowadays, the English language is quite clearly accommodating terms of which companies can replace a longer-winded way of saying something.
Evolution yo.
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Wednesday 11th March, 2015
To The Waters
BBC Introducing
This shoot was really interesting because we tried something different with set design. Chris and Dan designed a type of rig which consisted of multiple light bulbs hanging from their wires which could be hung on the stage lighting in the studio.
It looked fantastic after a good few hours of them setting it up, until MR came in and said the whole thing would have to be taken down. This was frustrating because it looked amazing but they were coming up with pretty silly health and safety reasons for why it should be taken down.
In the end, we were allowed to keep it up but they weren’t happy about it. I think the result looked fantastic and the mild arguments definitely paid off.
To The Waters were like Natasha North in that they were quite relaxing and pretty easy to come up with stylistic choices. I think the end result looked really good again, although problems with jolty tracking did lower the standard a little bit. I also think one of my shots didn’t look particularly good in the framing, but Chris wanted one of the light bulbs to be in shot, so like a good camera op I listened to the director.
At the prelight, hanging the rig
The view from my camera
Fraser definitely has the nack for jib shots. Both on Natasha North and this shoot the shots flowed nicely and added a really pleasant touch to the pieces.
I think the tracking and jib shots are important in shoots because too many static shots get boring. Especially with quite ethereal music it looks really good paired with flowing shots and steady movement.
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Wednesday 4th February, 2015
“Natasha North on the 4th!” - Gary Emmins, 2015
BBC Introducing
This was a really great shoot. I was on camera again, but handheld this time! Man, pins and needles galore.
Natasha and her band were incredibly nice and pretty chilled out. Her music was quite acoustic-y and was actually pretty easy to style around - the lighting, VM style and camera angles were simple to agree on, tbh.
My first attempt on handheld wasn’t that great and I definitely learnt from mistakes. Quite a lot of the time I wasn’t in critical focus which slightly ruined my shot, although I wasn’t told to sharpen up from the truck during takes so I don’t think it’s that noticeable in the final edits. I absolutely adore the way these turned out because I think it looks incredibly professional, it also doesn’t hurt that Natasha’s music is really soothing and easy to listen to and watch.
Pics, as per:
Me and Fraser setting up the cables
Lead guitarist and Fraser working the jib
We moved the set around for her final song which made a nice change, I think. We also tried a set arrangement we hadn’t attempted before: an inwards-facing triangle!!! *shock horror*
I think it actually ended up working pretty well and definitely mixed things up a bit. I think Natasha really enjoyed the shoot and final edits too, and this shoot is definitely one of my favourite pieces of work. It was really good fun an experience working with a company who’s name is great to drop into conversation!
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November 2014 - January 2015
Stage 2 Studios Client Video!
Boy this was an experience! Check out the navigation heading Tagged: TV602 on my initial contact and agreement with Stage 2.
So the usual happened, emails were sent back and forth between myself and Dan and we agreed I’d shoot initially on 15th November, but I ended up going back again on the 16th to get a few more shots.
Dan told me he wanted a client film that would essentially consist of a band (Small Town Echoes) recording/performing with a few shots of the studio thrown in. The end result actually doesn’t look much different to a typical music video which is mildly frustrating, but at the same time I recognise that it is a client video which doesn’t necessarily mean an advert-styled piece.
I sent over some initial examples of client videos Dan might want for our piece to be style similarly to, however not many of them really ticked any boxes he was after, so we agreed that it would comprise of about 70% band and 30% studio.
The shoot was a long day as Small Town Echoes had booked their slot for the entire day - something I was not prepared for which resulted in not having any lunch! Fortunately my Mum cooked a beast meal for tea that night though so all was good.
Here’s some pictures I took of the day (not many as it was a one-man shoot so the camera was pretty much solidly on the band):
Lois’ EP!!!!!!
Small Town Echoes and Ben Turner, Audio Producer
On this shoot I used a Canon EOS 5D Mkiii was actually produced stunning results that I was very happy with. I was really nervous to start off with because I hadn’t had much/any experience with DSLR’s by myself before, so it was in a way extra stress on top of running a shoot entirely by myself as well as making sure I captured good footage.
Another spanner in the works was that Ben announced mid-shoot I should get in the studio as “this is the song that band want for their music video” which was a bit of a shock to say the least! It wasn’t agreed anywhere beforehand that I would also produce a music video for the band, which resulted in my storage and battery being used up twice as fast. It also put a bit more pressure on the edits as I then had two things to edit, but in hindsight I’m glad it worked that way as I now have both a client video and music video I produced completely independently. It was definitely an experience! Lots of hard work too, but it totally paid off.
Dan also says when I graduate to let him know as he may have some paid work for me! They’re a great company and the team are lovely, I’ll definitely be getting in touch with them in the future to produce more independent stuff for them and other bands. All in all I’m pretty happy with the results, even if I did c*ck up a few times!
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Saturday 13th December, 2014
Watford v Wigan
A significantly better starting day than the last football match!
For this shoot I was given the role of Vision Mixer which I thoroughly enjoyed. I definitely had more fun VM’ing than being a Racks Engineer as since I’m a pretty responsive worker I certainly found it less stressful trying to fix things not in my control (such as uneven sunlight) but rather working to commands given by the director. It was good fun to be able to watch the piece come together as well, since in every live music shoot I was always on set floor which meant I didn’t have an idea of how the product would turn out until the end when I received the final edits.
Here’s some pics:
Sir Elton John made an appearance opening the stand dedicated to him
This kind of half and half lighting makes being a racks engineer pretty difficult! You need to learn to find a balance getting a good exposure which suits both the light and dark sides of the pitch.
It was incredibly cold that day! Lots of gloves and thick clothing
The Vision Mixing control panel
When the Sun was setting it turned the sky into a beautiful purple/pink colour. The picture doesn’t do it justice!
The football shoots were an incredible experience, something completely different to studio shoots. Not only were they quite physically demanding (rigging up an entire studio is not easy work - especially in freezing temperatures) but it’s an entirely new performance to shoot; things can change any minute.
I would’ve liked to experience being on camera for one of the football matches, but I still believe the work I conducted within the truck was good experience nonetheless.
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Tuesday 20th January, 2015
Technological Convergence
☆ The Black Box - the consummation of information and entertainment through one device. e.g. Xbox one
Disposable income is a fairly new phenomena - roughly 150 years old. With the practice of basic survival out the window, people were now earning extra money to do nice things and spend more on entertainment.
However, because of England’s high import, the price of living also increased which resulted in the country becoming poorer as our export ratio remained - and still does - fairly low.
The rise of the MP3 - spreadable audio for cheap money and easy accessibility across the internet - Napster is a great example and arguably its good reputation for being a reliable P2P site encouraged people to participate in spreading and uploading media - despite the few piracy laws that existed and have arguably grown and become more severe.
Napster however ran into several legal issues with Metallica. Since the band was not making any profit from people streaming and downloading their music for free via the site, they demanded all music be removed from P2P sharing sites.
It was only ten years ago—on April 28, 2003—that Apple opened the iTunes Store (then called the iTunes Music Store) and changed the way we buy music. The store arrived with just 200,000 tracks; in the ensuing decade, that library has grown to more than 35 million songs, from the Beatles to Jay-Z.26 Apr 2013
http://www.macworld.com/article/2036418/the-itunes-store-at-10-how-apple-reinvented-the-music-business.html
Similar to Metallica, T-Swizzle had other plans for her music.
Taylor Swift removed all of her music from popular music-streaming service Spotify due to her unhappiness with the margin she was receiving per song.
☆ Bitorrent - swarming application - you have a file, send it out, 10 other people with your file. User had 1 bit and would be downloading 1 bit simultaneously
Work and content being available for free vs. work and content being available for purchase.
Steal This Film - a Documentary on piracy
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The value we give to creative content is always relative - sometimes it’s not the content or product itself that’s impressive but the idea or niche-ness of it.
Ship your enemies glitter - website URL is craved that's why people visit it instead of going to a similar smaller company.
Also see: ship a bag of dicks
Tbh with you if I had the money I would.
I know a fair amount of people whose day I’d like to ruin.
Via exploding glitter.
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Beyoncé used her Grammy performance to send a powerful message about race
Beyoncé could have performed any of the hit songs from her critically-acclaimed, self-titled album, which ultimately was snubbed for album of the year on Sunday. But instead, the world’s biggest pop star used her platform to send America a profound wake-up call on behalf of racial justice.
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Tuesday 13th January, 2015
The power of social media
On 7th January 201512 people were fatally shot in the Charlie Hebdo offices in France.
Supporters of freedom of speech and freedom of thepress quickly started spreading the Je Suis Charlie slogan and within days the hashtag on Twitter was one of the most popular in Twitter history.
News companies were eager to report on the rapid social media response to the shooting; accurate or not.
Fox New of course had something to say about the subject.
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Perhaps one of the most ridiculous things to air from the show:
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In response to Fox News' reports, one member of the public started Fox News Facts on Twitter alongside many other satirical replies and another hashtag trend called #FoxNewsFacts.
The tragic events that occurred in Ferguson a few months prior to the attack in Paris also provides evidence on the power of social media and the ease in which information can be spread worldwide within seconds.
Twitter as a platform holds a huge power in that it allows connection to thousands of people within seconds. It not only gives those a voice who are overlooked or silenced but the trending feature ensures that accurate accounts from those experiencing the live events get their view shared.
☆ Hypodermic Model - completely powerless to our own actions because we've SEEN others do it e.g. violent films
☆ Uses and Gratifications - all the power is with you. You research things because you want to and aren't effected. The individual. Gravitate towards groups that are reflective of our interests
☆ Cultural effects - general trend towards stuff
☆ Two Step Flow - prior to social media existing. You will follow what individuals in your life say or do because you trust them. You will connect to it.
People look for something to blame especially when it comes to media and behaviours.
A recent scandal that involved Jennifer Lawrence's private photos being leaked sparked another internet debate about privacy, and in particular (more often than not men's) toxic view that if a woman doesn't want her pictures hacked or spread, she shouldn't take them.
This crime could be explained in that the culpritts are only interested in hacking their documents because they're celebrities and it contradicts an image; celebrities personas.
Of course, everyone has perception of others and others have perceptions of us whether we like it or not. Often, preparation goes into the image we place and allow people to see but this is heightened with celebrities.
☆ Doxing - opinionated stance in an argument. People take your personal documents and information such as address and spread it all over the internet. Common form as an attack on celebrities and within the gaming community.
Cartoon animation is an accepted form on the uncanny valley scale. We're not watching it because it's realistic; it has to have some of the same relatable characteristics as humans in order for us to relate.
Psychologically we are more likely to keep watching something that we can't see but can hear clearly - such as this video going viral within days of posting (in part due to the shock factor) could be argued if the video wasn't so emotional to watch and a 'controversial' topic perhaps would not have been spread so much because of visual quality.
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Friday 17th October 2014
This isn't even a work post. Just a reminder that this happened.
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First Live Football Shoot Ever Ever!!
Saturday 22nd November, 2014
Watford v Derby
This day could not have started any worse.
Alarm was set for 5.45 am. Early, but so far so good.
Hot water isn't working to take a shower. Not quite so good, considering a work out was had the day before.
But oh wait, electricity not working too? Not even the kettle for a cup of coffee? Oh crap.
Panic ensued followed by a mad rush to Uni at 7am. Backpacks filled with lunch, paper and pen, and yunno - straighteners and foundation. Not where it's at.
Cheeky little stop in McDonalds for some breakfast (and seriously needed coffee) and then an hour's wait for everyone else and the van to arrive.
Travelling to Watford wasn't too bad, everyone was tired that was apparent but I was excited for our first match.
My role for the day was Racks, something I hadn't had experience with. I was hoping to get a role on camera as it would look great for my showreel, but I also wanted the experience of being on camera under such pressure. After a quick briefing on the controls, I felt less nervous on my role but still worried that I would mess up.
Considering 3 of us hadn't worked a match before, I feel like we got the stadium rigged and equipment set up fairly quickly! We all worked well as a team and even got time for a nice hour-long lunch.
Throughout the match we had some difficulties which was to be expected. One of the cameras in particular is located right behind a pole so it's a challenge to make sure we cut to it with the pole not in shot.
As for myself there were a couple of times where I didn't keep on top of every camera resulting in some less than great looking shots when cut to, however I quickly fixed the problem.
In general, I performed better than I thought I would. It didn't help much that my morning was incredibly stressful and if it were just a bit smoother I think I probably would've done better. It was a pretty good role for my first match though since there wasn't too much pressure but I found myself getting too into the game occasionally which was definitely not good! The excitement being behind the scenes got to me a little - especially working in the truck when there's so much happening at once!
All in all it was a long day but it definitely went better than expected. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would, it wasn't all work no play and even being able to walk around the grounds without any fans there was an interesting experience. I enjoyed being a part of our team and I definitely would not mind doing more shoots!
Here's some more pics, because I'm nice
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Motion Capture Technology
Tuesday 25th November, 2014
☆ Community and spectacle - fan conventions - fans are essentially free publicity!!
Twitch has been embedded very quickly into society as an output, in part arguably because of the ease that both producers and consumers can enjoy the experience. By mid-2013 it had amassed an average of 43 mil viewers per month.
☆ Edward Castronova - Synthetic Worlds 2005 - online worlds have gradually evolved
☆ Dich Hebdige - the study of subcultures and trends - the fringe into mainstream
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Smashing together motion capture technology and the Oculus Rift has produced a love child of immersion.
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Machinima
Tuesday 4th November, 2014
machinima
məˈʃɪnɪmə/
noun
the practice or technique of producing animated films through the manipulation of video game graphics.
Bastard of the Old Republic
Choices made in gaming often reflect the player's insight - e.g. funerals hosted in-game in commemoration of a player. Studies suggest that playing as an evil character often amplifies player's characters "go hard or go home" - that is, if you're killing other characters, you might as well kill them all. This can often lead to reflection of player's morality and ethics
Why make machinima?
existing fanbase
with regards to production, it's certainly easier as the equipment to produce media is a already there and set up
no actors or crew needed
ability to control the circumstances easier - no weather to battle with for example
Disadvantages to machinima
limitations of the engine for example camera angles
no profit
☆ Machinima is remedition - taking content and using it in a different form
Companies are starting to remediate the aesthetics - cinema style trailers for game releases e.g. MASS EFFECT , SAINTS ROW , GTA
☆ Crowd source funding - looking at what disposable income audiences are willing to pay for something they would be interested in receiving as a bonus (even for large amounts of money) such as extras and BTS
Assassins Creed Unity & Rogue - the games are very well researched. Try to be as historically accurate as possible, similar to most AC games they feature or mention historical figures. Assassins Creed Unity is set during the French Revolution.
Some issues fans have with Ubisoft involve the companies seemingly lack of dedication to create female characters. Charlotte Corday was a key figure in the French Revolution, yet there's no sign of her in Unity.
Ubisoft's explanation was that
"It's double the animations, it's double the voices, all that stuff and double the visual assets," Amancio said. "Especially because we have customizable assassins. It was really a lot of extra production work."
I personally feel female assassins would have doubled the bad-assery. Your loss Ubisoft.
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