Reflections on Course

Having almost completed my BDC 192 course this semester, I have to say that since the beginning of this school year, my knowledge of digital media has really expanded from what it use to be. I found first year digital media to be very informative, helpful, and fun, and I’m glad that it’s one of the mandatory courses for RTA students.

One of the components that made the Digital Media lectures so interesting were the countless examples of web designs, videos, projects, and other neat things that we were shown each week. It was really cool and inspiring to see some of the innovative things that people are doing with digital media these days.

I also found the labs to be very interesting as well. I enjoyed that the majority of the lab period was dedicated to hands on tutorials that allowed us to work within programs and encounter and solve our own problems, rather than just watching the professor at the front of the class. I find that I learn much better when I am doing rather than just watching, and that I hang onto information much better when I have to work to get it.

The programs we were introduced to this semester were all programs that I had heard of before, but had never had the opportunity to use prior to this class. I’m glad that I now have a basic understanding of Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver, even if there is so much for me to still learn about them.

This course has also allowed me to realize just how immersed in digital media the radio and television industry is. Prior to taking this class I probably wouldn't have considered a career in digital media, however I realize now how much this field has to offer. Although I am still very undecided, I’m considering to continue taking digital media courses during the rest of my time at Ryerson.

Whether I continue on in digital media or not, this course has provided me with some very important skills that I can take with me wherever I go. A knowledge of the CRAP principles has allowed me to have a better understanding of how elements within a design should be chosen and organized in order to be aesthetically pleasing, and my new knowledge of the programs we worked with this semester will come in handy in my future studies. The many exciting things going on today in digital media were also very exciting and inspiring to learn about, and I’m glad that I was exposed to so many neat things.

Overall this was a great class and I’m sad to see it end. It was a great learning experience and whether or not I continue on with digital media, I’m glad that I got to take it this semester.

Web 3.0 and LastFM

This week in class we continued our discussion of Web 2.0 from last week, and briefly touch on Web 3.0. For this week’s blog, I wanted to look more into web 3.0, and get a better idea of what the future holds for the Internet.

After doing some research online I found that Web 3.0 will be an “intelligent” and “omnipresent” web that continuously learns from its users in order to anticipate its users likes and dislikes. One website that kept coming up in my searches was LastFM, a music website that recommends music to its users by taking the music that they like, and finding new music for them that other users with similar musical tastes enjoy. This exposes the user to new music, while allowing them to contributed to the database themselves.

I decided to check out LastFM for myself, and see if it really was as great as everyone claimed. After creating an account and adding several bands that I like to my profile I was set up and ready to go. LastFM immediately had a list of recommended artists for me to listen to, many of which I was unfamiliar with. I decided to start off by listening to the station of a band I already knew and liked. Their station did not solely play music from that band, but rather played music that was popular among other fans of the band, which exposed me to a lot of talented artists I had never heard before.

After listening to the first station for a while, I wanted to look more into some of the new bands I had discovered, so I checked out some of their artist pages. On these pages the user can choose and listen to songs by that particular artist, and then add them to their own playlist if they enjoy it. The website also contains stations based on music genres that play songs that have been tagged with that genre by other users.

The user is allowed to like or dislike any song that is played, and tag the tracks with genres. As time goes on, the users profile is more and more geared towards the music that they like, and the site gains a better understanding of the type of music it should recommend for the particular user. This database is completely determined by other users, and is constantly being changed and added too.

I feel that LastFM uses the web in a way that is smart and innovative, as its system allows the website's users to generate the information within the database, which in turn benefits every user by allowing the site to make better music recommendations. I feel that this is the direction the Internet is headed with Web 3.0, and I'm personally very excited to witness more websites that utilize this kind of system in the future.

Web 2.0

This week in lecture, we discussed Web 2.0, and the different characteristics that define it. The first characteristic of Web 2.0 we discussed was dynamic content, or the way that sites are constantly being updated. One example of this would be any news website to which news stories are constantly being added and changed. To keep track of the latest content, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are often used to inform subscribed people of these updates. CBC.ca is one example of a news site that allows users to subscribe to RSS feeds. Some of these feeds include: "Top Stories," "Latest Stories," "World," and "Canada," but these are just a few of many categories, allowing the user to personalize the kind of news that they are subscribing to.

The second characteristic of Web 2.0 that we discussed was user contribution. When I think of user contribution on the web, one example that comes to mind is a website called urbandictionary.com. Urban Dictionary is an online dictionary whose content is written by users from all over the world. Similar to Wikipedia, anyone can submit definitions, which are then edited by volunteers and rated by other users. Urban Dictionary provides the opportunity for people to look up and understand slang terms that would not be present in a formal dictionary. After searching the term “urban dictionary” on urban dictionary, some results included:

“Only the coolest semi-fake dictionary ever made... updated by random ppl who usually have a sick mind and quick wit.”

“A dictionary which can be edited by anybody, so you can find many words that wouldn't be in a normal dictionary. It's mostly used for slang terms.”

“A dictionary where people come to show off their usage and clever definitions of words nobody cares about.”

The third characteristic of Web 2.0 is social media. There are many social networking websites out there these days that allow the user to create and personalize their own profile, and connect with other users. One common form of social networking website is the dating site. Probably one of the most popular dating sites is eHarmony.com, a website on which users can create a profile, and be matched with other people based on a series of questions. It is amazing to know how successful dating sights have become, and how many successful relationships result form these sights. My cousin met his girlfriend on eHarmony years ago, and they’re still happily seeing each other today. The Internet has made it possible for people to make connections with one another that would have otherwise never been made. People are now able to find and communicate with others all over the world, regardless of distance.

The forth characteristic was online applications, or applications that are accessed through a web browser rather than from a desktop. One form of online application that I use everyday is webmail. Webmail is an e-mail application that is accessed through a browser. There are many websites that offer webmail applications, including Hotmail, Google, and Ryerson! By using a webmail account rather than a desktop e-mail client, the user can check their e-mail from any computer or other device as long as they are connected to a network.

The final characteristic of Web 2.0 that we discussed was the harnessing of collective intelligence. I feel that Wikipedia.org is an excellent example of this concept. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that users may add information to about any subject that they choose. Due to this vast amount of people adding information to the site, a Wikipedia page can be found on almost any subject. Even though people edit the submissions sent in to Wikipedia, a lot of the time the information can be inaccurate or downright incorrect. Despite this, Wikipedia is still a great place to go to get information about a given subject, even if the information sometimes has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Animation Interactive

Follow this link to my Flash video:

http://kzlee123.x10hosting.com/leeflashproject.swf

After completing my animation interactive assignment, I am happy with the final result. I feel that I was able to meet the standard of work that I set out to accomplish, and despite minor setbacks throughout the production process, I was able to overcome these obstacles.

My original plan was to have two sections in my story that required viewer interaction, firstly: choosing the food from the fridge, and secondly, choosing each ingredients as the sandwich was assembled one layer at a time. Once I began work on my animation, I found that using Flash was much more time consuming than I originally anticipated, and that I would have to cut some things out of my original story idea. I dealt with this by removing the second interaction segment, and just having the girl construct the sandwich herself.

I wanted my animation to appeal to a younger audience, so I decided to utilize Flash’s cartoony feel, and use vector images made within the program for the images of my story. At times drawing my images was frustrating, especially when it came to using the fill tool. The fill tool would only work when an image was fully closed, which made sense, however even when an image appeared to be completely closed, it would not always work! To deal with this, I often had to retrace boarders, which would often make my lines appear thick and messy.

The last major obstacle I encountered was importing music files into Flash, and using them within my assignment. The audio files from iTunes worked well enough when I imported them, however editing them to the right length was a pain. Because Flash does not allow for the user to edit music, every time an audio clip was too long, I had to edit it in audacity, export, and re-import the file to Flash. It was like editing in the dark, because I would not see the animation as I was cutting down the file. The second obstacle came when I tried to import the audio files I had recorded in Protools. The original wave files I had bounced from Protools were not compatible with Flash, and had to be rebounced as Quicktime videos.

Despite the obstacles I encountered along the way, overall I think I’ve had a love hate relationship with this assignment. I really enjoyed working in Flash and creating my animation when things weren’t going wrong, and working through every problem I encountered left me feeling accomplished. I am happy with the final product, and by working through this assignment, I am now much more familiar and comfortable using Flash.

After seeing the Flash assignments of other students in the lab class, I realized just how talented many of my peers are. After using Flash, I know just how difficult Flash can be to work with, and I feel that everyone was successfully able to overcome these obstacles. I was also able to witnessed just how versatile Flash can be. Although Flash vectors are associated with a very cartoony look, they are not limited to this style. Many students were able to create various visual styles and moods in their works using Flash vectors and/or imported images. Many students also utilized buttons in very creative ways. After witnessing the work of my peers, I realize that Flash is much more versatile than I once thought it was.

Alternate Reality Games

Before this week’s lecture, I had never even heard of alternate reality games. Throughout the class, as we discussed different examples of ARGs that have existed in the past, I was fascinated by the concept that carried these games. As the world becomes more globalized, people from all over the world are finding new ways of interacting and communicating with one another. ARGs are yet another way that this is taking place.

Having never heard of ARGs, I was curious to see if my game loving boyfriend had ever heard of, or even been apart of one. It turns out he had never heard of them either, which surprised me. I decided to investigate some of these games further, by going to the websites that acted as the base for these games, such as whysoserious.com and ilovebees.com.

Upon going to the WhySoSerious.com, an audio clip immediately begins to play. It starts out as a Gotham City news report, and transitions into various clips of people screaming and being tortured, before it finally ends with the Joker’s evil laughter. On the screen is a to-do list which I assumed belonged to the Joker, containing things such as “Filter out the sane ones,” “Reveal ugly face of Gotham justice,” and “Make fun of “the Batman.”” The to-do list is placed amongst a ripped page with phone numbers on it, pictures of people with joker smiles drawn over their faces, bowling shoes, and a map of Gotham City, as well as other miscellaneous things. Because I did not take part in this ARG as it occurred, I do not fully understand everything in this image, but I’m sure everything pertains to some aspect of the game.

Wanting to see the remains of another concluded ARG site, I check out Ilovebees.com next. Upon reaching the site, a black window popped up, blocking the information behind it. The box contained a countdown to “wide awake and physical” and also contained links to “mission log” which contained a summery of the main story plot, “MIA” which lead to a list of credits, and “recruits” which lead to audio recordings that I assume pertained to different aspects of the plot. Though this website still allowed the user access to past information unlike whysoserious, it was still difficult to get the full effect of the ARG.

What appeals to me the most about ARGS is how they mimic real life by taking place out in the real world, as well as on the Internet and various other devices. Its really cool how people from all over the world can come together to help each other solve these games. ARGs are always changing and developing as they take place, and once they are completed there is no way to go back and “replay” them. This is especially disappointing to me because I was unaware of these ARG games as they took place, and feel that they would be extremely interesting and fun to be a part of. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open for the next one that comes along.

Scopitone Videos

This week we were provided with a brief history of music videos and introduced to the scopitone, a jukebox-like device from the 60s that music videos were originally made for. By comparing the 1960’s music videos made for the scopitone with those from today, one can observe just how far music videos have come from their 1960s scopitone counterparts.

After doing a search for scopitone videos on Youtube and watching a variety of these search results, I’ve realized that the scopitone videos from the 60’s are all very similar in style to one another. Being use to such a wide range of video styles and techniques used in modern day music videos, I found the lack of variety and style to be quite boring and repetitive, but amusing nonetheless.

Watching these videos from the 60’s must be done with a grain of salt. Being so use to the advanced technology, special effects and expensive budgets that make up most of today’s videos, films from the 60’s appear to be very basic and boring.

Although videos in the 60s were made with smaller budgets, and less technology, I feel that they were lacking in many other elements that could have made them more dynamic. The camera work in the scopitone videos was very simplistic. Pans, tilts, and zooms were often utilized within the scopitones; however, they lacked any dynamic camera work such as extreme angles, canters, as well as any crane or dolly shots. The scopitones often had long drawn out shots, requiring minimal editing, while many contemporary videos are quick paced with shots lasting only a second or so before the angle is changed. Lighting and tone were also fairly consistent throughout the scopitones. The singers always seem to be cheery and smiling, and surrounded by high key lighting. Today a wide variety of feelings and emotions are portrayed through music videos, effectively using differing lighting techniques to bring these emotions across.

The sets and props used within the videos from the 60’s were very simplistic as well, and often gave the setting a very stage-like feel. The props and sets, along with the actions of the people on screen often directly reflected what was being sung about. For example, in Joi Lansing’s “Web of Love,” as the lyrics: “I was game and you took aim and struck me through my heart,” are sung, a dart strikes a giant heart being worn by Lansing. While singing the lyrics: “trapped in a web of love,” Lansing dances while tangled in a giant spider web. Contemporary videos, on the other hand, are often a lot more visually figurative and artistic.

Cheesy dances performed by beautiful girls in skimpy bathing suits were a recurring element of the scopitone videos that I watched. The dances were very simplistic and their performances didn’t seem to require a lot of skill. The dances performed in music videos today tend to be more advanced and require a decent amount of skill and talent, although this is not always the case (sorry Fat Joe).

Watching these 1960’s scopitone videos from a 21^st century perspective, and being so accustomed to the videos of today, it was very difficult for me to appreciate and take these videos seriously. I do realize, however, that these videos were probably very innovative for their time, and that they are the roots from which today’s music videos have evolved.

Animation Interactive Inspiration

For my animation interactive assignment I want to tell a short interactive children’s story about a hungry boy who makes himself a sandwich. There will be multiple buttons throughout the story that allow the viewer to interact and help the main character choose ingredients as he searches through his fridge, and then builds his sandwich one layer at a time.

My inspiration for this idea came from a variety of sources. Last week in the digital media lecture, choose your own adventure novels were briefly mentioned as we discussed different forms of interactive media. I contemplated making my animation interactive a short story that had many buttons throughout it, rather than just one at the beginning. I originally imagined giving my audience multiple buttons that they could choose between that would result in differing outcomes in the story. I quickly realized that the execution of this would be complicated and above my skill level so I decided to simplify my idea.

I’m uncertain at the moment as to whether I will draw my images using the tools in Flash, or hand draw then scan my images onto the computer, but either way I expect my animation to have a cartoony, childish look. I decided to aim my animation towards children because I feel that I would be able to initiate this style the best. With this target audience in mind I decided to make my story simple, straightforward, and lighthearted. I also feel that the large amount of interaction within my story will keep younger kids interested and engaged while watching it.

After comparing my ideas to already existing media, I’ve decided that my story is reminiscent of many simple children computer games from my childhood. My idea also reminds me of a Dora the Explorer episode I saw once. Dora needed something from her backpack, and the entire contents of her backpack floated out onto the screen. She asked the audience what she should choose, and then a mouse icon come and clicked the correct item (as if the viewer at home were making this decision). Like this episode, my story will create the illusion that the viewer is making choices for the main character as he makes his sandwich, when in reality there will only ever be one button available at a time.

I feel that the Flash tutorials have provided me with enough knowledge to let me to go though with my idea; however I don’t yet have experience importing and working with images from outside of Flash (ex. hand drawn images) although I have a feeling that this task will be fairly straight forward if I choose to go this route. I am still very new and inexperienced with Flash, and I will therefore most likely encounter many obstacles and setbacks during the production of my short story. Through trial and error I hope that I will be able to get past these obstacles, gain confidence using Adobe Flash, and do my short story justice.