Applied Media Research is in progress!

Okay, so as I have previously stated, our module leader has kindly put back our deadline for the presentation and report for this module, thus resulting in us being able to concentrate more on the recent deadlines. However as I have gotten those out of the way, I can now concentrate more on researching for this module. 

As we have opted for the question 'What are the top three most successful multi platform television programmes', we decided to choose are top three which is Doctor Who, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. We then decided to go for a crazy idea of instead of the usual interview or focus group, we wanted to be more creative so decided to create a short film during our research. One team member was absent from this day so myself and other team member Stevie, grabbed three cameras and tripods and three laptops. We then set up each website for the appropriate TV show on the laptop and set up a camera to each laptop in front of the where the person will be sitting when on the websites, so that we could get a clear view of their reactions to each online experience. We wanted a variation of male and female so sat them in front of a laptop and asked them to use the webiste to their advantage for five minutes. Once the five minutes was up, we asked them to switch to another laptop until all had visited each site. We repeated this exercise with bot males and females. 

Straight after, we then asked each member of the focus group some questions relating to their online experience. These questions were: 

• which online experience did you prefer out of the three?
• do you think having the online experience makes you more involved in the show?
• do you like having the option to watch extra content of the show?
• what online content did you enjoy the most? e.g games.
• do you generally use online content or apps relating to the TV shows that you watch?
• rate all three online experiences out of 10...
• what do you think you gain from the experience?

To our surprise, answers where rather similar according to certain sites, however the females seemed much more less interesting in using multi platforms than males. They seemed to want to just watch the show and leave it at that, where as the males preferred to engage more afterwards to try to find out more info about the show or go on the games. 

Throughout the exercise we saw that females we using the online site and trying out its different platforms such as charter info, blogs and quizzes where as the males went usually, straight for the games. 

Our idea is to review our footage after the christmas break and create a short film and time lapse as its something much more creative than just asking questions and writing down answers. In doing this, we feel we are seeing more of a reaction therefore getting a more in depth analysis of how people fact to multi platform experiences and are then able to research deeply. 

I intend to post a link to my film after christmas on here for you all to view! Keep your eyes peeled!

Final weeks before Christmas!

Hey guys, recently I've had rather a lot on my plate personally therefore I have not to been able to update my blog. I am sorry but heres some updates before I shoot off for my Christmas break!

So this is my final week in Uni before I break up for christmas so theres been quite a bit of stressing; I finally got the dreaded essay boxed off and uploaded to Blackboard. It literally felt like the biggest weight off my shoulders and I feel pretty happy with it. I could have done with putting a couple more references in there however I feel that I got my point across and discussed my question to a high level.

Another assignment that was in this week was the Sound Scape for Beyond The Camera module.
This one has been a bit crazy as we chose to instead of using all archive footage and sourced material, myself and team members decided to film all are own footage. So as I have [previously stated in my past posts on here, we got up early in the morning to film Liverpool 'coming to life' and also 'going to sleep' at the end of the day. Our idea was to capture Liverpool in a day and use the rostrum camera effect to make our footage look a little more interesting. We all felt confident in this module and knew that we would have a good sound scape at the end. After weeks of uploading, planning and capturing footage, we came in early on deadline day and managed to get everything done.
In relation to this, I must state how annoyed I am with my module lecturer, as our my team members equally. We explained our full idea to our module leader 'Ian' who was all for our idea and thought it great. We are to use After Effects within this module so Ian told us that we would be able to capture our footage using the editing software Avid or Premiere Pro and edit our full sequence in this, where by once fully editing, we can then upload to After Effects where we then use rostrum camera and finalise the sound scape. This was not the case. On deadline day once we were happy with the final edit in Premiere Pro, Ian then came over (about half an hour before deadline at 4pm) and told us that we are not able to transfer our footage into After Effects. He said that is not what he stated. This angered myself and team members no end as then we had to just do what we could with our product. However, the final piece looked ok so we handed it in. I suppose next time I should maybe record what my lectures say so I have proof...

Production for the TV Show that has been in production for the past twelve weeks is finally over. We made final touches to the title sequence and edit and handed int eh finished DVD. I have mentioned throughout the process of this production in my blog about how our first guest dropped out and how we managed to find a new one. In the edit we realised the demonstration really dragged. It certainly wasn't anything myself or Michael were doing in presenting, it unfortunatly was because our guest liked to talk. We therefore cut down the demo in the edit and were much more happier afterward. There was a screening this Friday for all shows which really did all look great and you could tell everyone in the room was relived it was over, even though secretly annoying we rant carrying on with the production module after the christmas break. So after a couple of Mince pies we all parted ways until the new year, although not all sad as tonight we will be having a little get together with lots of food and drink! Great way to end a good first semester.

Catch you all soon with my updates through Christmas for Applied Media Research!