Mike j's Blog

Working with SoundCloud

2012-01-11T12:14:00.003Z

It's possible to work collaboartively with SoundCloud. You can embed some code into a webpage that allows people to submit audio recordings to your account.

The Code results in this widget.

Send me your sounds

People clicking on the widget will get a display like the one above and be able to upload any file to that particular account.

Collecting, collaborating and sharing.

2011-03-23T14:31:00.000Z

Using Jot Form and drop box to collect files.

I have been experimenting with a way to have a remote drop box. Here's a way of using the DropBox service to achieve this. I have set up an account with Jotform. Jot Form will provide a range of ways to link and embed the code. The embed code worked but fails to show the form in Blogger's Preview. It's better to use the iframe code. This one should display in Preview in Blogger.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

The last one is as a link to a pop up.

Send a File

There. How useful is that!

OK I have just tested it. The describe field is sent as a separate pdf. A folder is created with the names entered. All are placed in a folder called Jot Form. Impressive. Now I'm going to edit the form. Will it update? YES it does. So the embed is 'live'.

The process seems to mash, at least in the browser, the text's formatting. PDF is the way to go.

Within Drop Box you can share the 'send a file' folder so that just that folder appears on collaborators Drop Box accounts.

Jot Form will permit the sending of zipped folders, multiple files and .movs.

Quite neat.

Writing outlines -

2011-02-22T15:15:00.001Z

Take time to map the plot first makes sense.

Sometime the easiest route is not the most direct one. When writing scripts the usual approach once you have an idea is to write it out. Starting at the beginning and writing to the end. Last week a number of the students I work with proposed projects that would require some scripting. My advice is always to write an outline first, then write the script. There are excellent examples of writers who don't use this approach. Stephen King is a prime example. In his excellent autobiography ('On writing') he details his writing process. He essentially writes his stories from start to finish. Then there is a reviewing and feedback process. But if you are not a talented writers it's still possible to write a usable script for a short film or media project.

The starting point for this should be an outline. It's often quicker in the long run because you are far less likely to paint yourself into a corner and create an idea you are struck on but can't finish. Otherwise time is wasted trying to fix what never worked while at the same time avoiding re writing the bulk of the script. This only serves to make things HARDER. It's not unusual that there is a time pressure too. You'll feel that it's too late to start again after all the work that already been done.

Writing the outline

You don't need a computer or the internet. Just a sheet of paper, a pen and a little peace and quiet.

1. Write a series of action points listing what we will see in the order that we will see them. Avoid writing dialogue and description, focus on what happens.

2. Where the action moves location organise these points into scenes. List internal or external, the location and the time of day.

3. Add a third line that says what the point of the scene is in relation to the story.
From this simple list you can then start building an idea of:

the shape or 'structure' - how does the plot develop? Is the story told in the best order?
whose POV is the story told from? Is this the best one to use to tell the story?
what might the underlying theme be? Can you develop the theme or topic more?
is the visual aspect as strong as it can be?
the audio aspect (sound design) as strong as it can be?
what is the overall style of the project?
what is the genre of the project?
what is the duration of the project?
what is the scope/scale of the project. Is it too complicated? Can you achieve it satisfactorily?

An outline is easy to share and your creative thinking will benefit as you express your idea to others. They can then either collaborate or feedback on your ideas at an early stage.

Outlines are a good antidote for procrastination! Starting can be hard to do for a range of reasons, not least fear of failing or being disappointed with the end product. Knowing where you're going will add confidence in the eventual outcome.

Outlines make it easier to plan and manage a project and make the deadline.

Sharing and collaborating materials web 2.1?

2011-02-06T12:28:00.000Z

For team working Box.net proposes a useful feature.

As web 2.0 moves increasingly into socialising the web it's becoming easier to work on projects with friends, collagues and team mates remotely. Dropbox is a very popular service, (well worth exploring if you haven't already) and it offers a shared folder. This makes it possible to place a file into a shared web based folder, or if the app is installed on the collaborator's computer, onto their hard drive. But there are some additional features that are needed to support comment and communication alongside file sharing.

Box.net

With a recent upgraded version of their service Box.net have some way to answer these issues. Like Drop Box there is a free version as well as a premium service. My comments all relate to the free service. It comes with 5 gigs of storage.

I recently suggested using the service to a team of students who are managing the pre-production on a film project. They have all had to set up accounts and provide an email address. Any of the team can then place/view/download material from the shared folder. Some files can be viewed in directly in the browser. It supports common types of file formats like Word, Excel etc. Each file can have notes and threaded comments attached to it. People can easily be invited to join the 'sharing'. It's also possible to do a group email to all collaborators.

When you log in to your Box.net account you are presented with a list of things that have been updated. However it's not necessary to actually log in to Box.net see what's going on. Each shared folder creates an RSS feed. So all activity can easily be seen using a Feed Reader. I use Google's reader and the excellent 'Reeder' (sic) on the iPhone. (£)

Scheduling tutorials.

2011-02-05T11:34:00.000Z

Replace paper lists on doors with Typewith.me.

After the recent round of marking comes the inevitable round of feedback tutorials. The usual method for organising this has been a sheet of A4 with a list of possible time slots. Students complete these and turn up at the set times. It's never been a great system since it requires students to visit the tutorial room/office twice. Also there is no easy way for quick swaps and changes to be made amoungst students as their availabilities change.

Last year I used a wiki in Minerva (Blackboard). I allowed all students to edit it and they logged into the VLE, found the module, opened the correct section, selected the wiki page and booked a slot. It worked OK.

This year I have used Typewith.me - a replacement for EtherPad. It creates an openly editable document that can easily be shared by url. There is no login. I set up a page with empty slots. I also embedded the typeWithMe page into Blackboard (See below). I then did a group email with details of the page within Blackboard and a link to the TypeWithMe url outside the VLE. The students completed the booking form quite quickly. I printed it off and used it as a guide for me to the tutorial schedule.

If I were to do this again I would set up several Typewith.me pages with a link from the first to the second, the second to the third etc. These could then be used as the first gets filled etc. Without checking first I knew a series of tutorials was full was when a student emailed me. Otherwise it worked extremely well.

Embedding Typewithme into a Blackboard page.

You need to use the HTML view, but it's not difficult. Copy the url for the Typewith.me page you have created. Open or create a page in Blackboard. With the page in edit mode type something you will spot easily when you switch view to HTML. For example ZOE. Now find ZOE word in HTML view. (On a complicated page I use the find function in Firefox). Over type the word with this code starting with the < bracket to the closing bracket >. Make sure that you paste YOUR url into the section highlighted. Otherwise you will embed the test page. Good Luck.

This is what it should look like - one web page in another. Try it.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Insert image 2 here&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe width=630 height=400 src="http://typewith.me/ep/pad/view/ro.rl67PJTE8Jd/rev.31&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;?fullScreen=1" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Understanding montage and parallel action

2011-01-08T12:21:00.002Z

This excellent video essay takes 'Inception' and relates it's key storytelling device, parallel editing, to cinema pioneer DW Griffith. But how do Griffith and parallel editing relate to 'montage'?

When one scene follows another again we construct a meaning from their juxtaposition. We have learnt to do this. Similarly when 2 shots are juxtaposed (placed next to each other) we look for a connection or meaning between them. It’s the association of the 2 images that creates meaning for the Viewer. (There can also be a juxtaposition within a single frame too.) We take this so for granted today that as a result it’s sometimes not easy for us to actually decide why some arrangements of images, shots and scenes work better than others. To edit we need to use these ideas since they are the basis of how to assemble a visual story. If we see the shot of a building followed by a woman at a desk we assume that she’s working in the building. This is a learned response developed over time.

The first films of the Lumiere Brothers were single reel, single shot snippets of live or staged action. These would be shown as a collection projected for an audience. George Melies effectively used what we would call ‘in camera’ editing for his theatrical magic shots that showed objects and people disappearing and reappearing. The actual film wasn’t cut and rejoined, he merely cleverly started and stopped the camera.

Until 1902, all scenes were shot in one take from beginning to end. If there was a problem with the take, then the whole thing would be re shot. The audience saw what the film maker had seen, one continuous unbroken piece of action from a single, eye level, all encompassing (wide) view. A direct copy from the theatrical experience. This meant that films were short, 2 − 3 minutes long. Few films were even broken into scenes. But Edison employee, Edwin S. Porter, a resourceful Projectionist, took what he already had - footage of fire companies in action - and combined it with footage he’d filmed, into a single event for ‘The life of an American Fireman’. The juxtaposition suggested that these events were connected and had happened at the same time. By joining separate scenes together his ‘transition’ (a dissolve) released cinema from the constraint of space and ushered in the use of editing as a way of telling the story. The edits served to make the film much more dramatic too. People would now engage more directly with film.

In his next film ‘The Great Train Robbery’ (1903) he cut directly from one scene to another as well as showing simultaneous action by cutting from scene to scene, now know as ‘cross cutting’. People understood that the action shown was happening at the same time. What seems odd to us now is that Porter and others failed to take this technique further and use the cut within the scene. In 1908 he directed DW Griffith in ‘Rescued from the eagle’s nest’. It was Griffith, as a Director, who would take the limelight and cinematic storytelling further that same year.

In spite of his Producers’ concern that the audience ‘wouldn’t pay for half an actor’, in the middle of the action in ‘For love of gold’, Griffith cut from a wide angle to a close up. Importantly the audience understood the cut since it was the same scene from the same camera angle. A year later in ‘After many years’ he cut to a close up of an actress then to the object of her thoughts.

Griffith carried on innovating and for ‘The lonely villa’ (1909) in an attempt to increase the dramatic effect he ‘inter cut’ between the woman and children hiding inside, the bandits outside the villa, and the husband racing home. All the action was within the same scene. Three lines of action were shown, and their screen time bore little relation to real or likely time. All his cinematic storytelling techniques paved the way for longer films - Birth of a Nation and his masterpiece ‘Intolerance’. This film was to have a huge affect on the development of ‘montage’ developed by Russian Directors, most famous of whom was Sergei Eisenstein.

‘All that is best in Soviet film has it’s origins in ‘Intolerance’ Sergei Eisenstein.

The technique of juxtaposing images has come to be known as ‘montage’, named by Eisenstein from the French meaning ‘assembly’. Montage is used to refer to the associative or intellectual juxtaposition of images. In his quest to deconstruct film-art, theorist Lev Kuleshov’s experiments explored the associative powers of juxtaposition and stressed the role of the editing in their combination.

Lev Kuleshov (http://www.thefullwiki.org/Lev_Kuleshov)

In one experiment Kuleshov used what is now know as the ‘three shot sequence’. He took a piece of film of the actor Muzhukhin with a deadpan expression. He then cut in 3 successive ‘insert’ images; a bowl of soup, a small child and an old woman in a coffin. Then it cut back to Muzhukhin for a ‘reaction’ shot. When viewers saw the cut from Muzhukhin to the insert shot it to be what he was seeing, his POV. The viewers failed to notice that the footage of Muzhukin before and after the insert shot was identical. Instead they were struck by his 'subtle but convincing portrayal' of 3 emotions - hunger for the soup, joy at the child and remorse for the old woman, in the reaction shots. Since there was no acting in the sequences Kuleshov argued that the meaning must have been created in the Viewers’ minds purely by the juxtaposition of uninflected images. By changing the experiment to include different reaction shots he found that the meaning of the sequence could be altered by the shot order. (Smiling - gun - frowning = fear, frowning - gun - smiling = bravery).

Vsevolod Pudovkin (http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/34522)

Within Soviet Montage there were a number of schools of thought. These were particularly characterised by two ex students of Kuleshov’s; Pudovkin and Eisenstein. Podovkin went on to develop his own ‘5 editing principles’ based on montage theory and juxtaposition:

1. Contrast
2. Parallelism
3. Symbolism. Cutting from one shot to a completely different shot that in some way symbolises the action/character in the first
4. Simultaneity. This creates tension in the viewer since 2 actions on screen at the same time lead to an outcome that will connect both on screen
5. ‘Leit - motif’ - a reinteration of theme. The repetition of shots or a sequence to reinforce the theme

In 1925 both were charged with making a film about the Revolution. Pudovkin’s family based ‘Mother’ favoured the smooth montage and 'relational editing' of shots that maintained some continuity in time and space, following the route of Griffith.

Mother 1926

While Eisenstein’s grand symphony ‘Potemkin’ favoured more ‘dialectical’ editing, extending the juxtaposition further and abandoning any semblance continuity and providing a shock or jolt. The dialectic is argued using contrast and irony. His ‘collision’ of images used conflictional content, still/dynamic, screen direction, large/small, dark/light, real time/perceived time. He was particularly keen to exploit editing’s ability to create it’s own sense of time, or ‘film time’, drawing out and dramatising particular moments. He also popularised the use of very short shots.

Potemkin 1926

Griffiths, Pudovkin and Eisenstein were all keen on literature and looked to literature to provide them with scenarios and stories (they were particularly keen on Charles Dickens) not so Dziga Vertov. His approach to film and montage was different again…but that’s another story.

‘Temporal ellipsis’ is an editing device that might be confused with montage. In Hollywood and in scriptwriting formatting, this technique is often referred to as a ‘montage’. It is used to compress time, and is visibly seen to do so. It lies in the area between montage and continuity cutting. Filmic time is shortened or speeded up primarily to move the story forward, so unimportant items are omitted - ellipsis.

A great way to add material to blogs

2010-12-02T10:37:00.000Z

Embedding material in blogs has progressed further than video and images.

Using a service like Embedit.in it's possible to place a whole range of documents like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pdfs and web pages directly into your post. Like the one above. You can make documents downloadable too. You can change the embed size as well as making it available as a link rather than an embed.

I have also used the mark up function. This lets you add notes to the document or website and these are visible too on the embedded version.

I don't know if the embeds are actually live. Now that would be awesome!

Embeds can be kept private or made public. I recently used the service to embed a document in the Uni's VLE. Previewed it - and it was fine. The students couldn't see the embed, I'd forgotten to check the public option. Idiot.

Paperless collaboration with students

2010-09-23T15:05:00.002+01:00

A summary of useful services and lessons learnt.

There are 2 basic types of online collaborative services: Real time online sharing and non real time. The majority require users to create a Login. All ( bar one) of the services I will discuss are without charge (currently).

For real time online writing with a number of people we have used Etherpad. The service was bought by Google to be incorporated into Google Wave. However Google did release EtherPad’s code so there are other 3^rd Parties who are hosting the service. Like Typewith.me.

One great feature of ‘EtherPad’ derivatives is that you can play back the writing. We had just all been writing in real time and I used the 'Time slider' function to demonstrate the way it can play back all the edits in sequence.

I use Google Docs and I have used it with students. It wasn’t real time and there were issues with updating and page refreshing. In April Google announced real time collaboration, but I haven’t used the service like this yet.

Google Docs - spreadsheet as production wipeboard. Now with real time collaboration. (embed - )

If we broadened out to non real time collaboration, we are really talking about several people editing and adding to documents or adding material to a collection or assets. The most common example is the ‘Wiki’. This is just a simple website with an upload system to manage and arrange the content – a ‘Content Management System’. I did a lot of work in this area last year. All the my wikis were constructed within the Universities virtual learning environment. I wrote that up as a case study here. One of the main advantages of using a wiki is that each edit a user makes is recorded so it’s possible to see the amount of engagement and also recover deleted material. The materials produced and shared are not in the public domain which might affect copyright issues.

There has never been a particularly easy way of either showing all the scripts to all the students (26 in one class) and getting the students to review and feedback on each others work. Last year I have experimented using Acrobat.com's PDF service. The submitted PDF's are uploaded to Acrobat.com and then embedded into the VLE. The files exist only in the Acrobat.com account but are shared via embedding code into a web page. An option is also offered that means that the script can also be downloaded as well as viewed. The service displays a thumbnail image of the PDF and the pages can be 'turned'. It's also possible to display the file full screen in order to read it properly. Just scanning the layout in thumbnail view is handy when comparing drafts. Using Acrobat.com has allowed me to:

share all the first drafts
collect peer feedback on all the scripts
share the feedback with the author and the other class members
share all the re -writes
contain both drafts and all feedback including mine in one location - reinforcing the idea of process
provide an easier means of second marking, moderation and External Verification students' work

'An easy website creation tool couple with a CMS' is also a very good way of describing a Blog. I have used blogs with students for about 5 years now. These have always been one student per blog. But it’s quite possible to set up a blog with multiple authors. All can then post on the same blog. This is a good way of working with a relatively small groups centred around a single project or theme. Both Blogger and WordPress offer multi author blogging. It’s worth remembering that blogs tend to come with rather modest storage. The idea is that media (videos, images etc) are embedded and ‘hosted’ or ‘curated’ elsewhere.

There are a number of services that allow for embedding. I have already mentioned Acrobat.com. Scribd, and Issuu.com are both worth looking at. I have used Issuu.com. for module and course handbooks, embedding the documents in the Uni's VLE. Particularly impressive is the fact that any hyper links work from within the document. As well as allowing for 'publication' there is also a comment function. This allows people who have accounts (free) at Issuu.com to add readable comments to published documents. Students would therefore be able to upload their scripts as say PDFs, preserving all the formatting (unlike Ether Pad), and other students could add relevant comments.

If you need to embed a webpage into a VLE like Blackboard.

Some services focus just on storage, but they often facilitate the sharing, exchange and co authoring of documents. Dropbox allows a folder to be shared. But while the contents update quite quickly there might be confusion where several people author and edit at the same time.Drop io might be of use since it works like a wiki and document dump. Storage is limited to 100 MB on the free version. There is a Firefox addon that simplifies the addition of materials. Dropio has the added feature of not needing a login to create or access materials.

There are also services that offer curation and storage online. Alot of people use Tumblr or Posterous like this or more 'portfolio' style services such as Creaza, or Stixy. Stixy looks nice. You can add notes, photos, documents (for download not display) and To do list. But (as yet) no audio, no linking, no video, no embedding.

Where you wish to write specific documents like screenplays there are two interesting and differing services. Adobe's Story is worth looking at. Here is Adobe's introductory video.

'Story' from Adobe is an AIR powered application. You will need to have an Adobe Log in here. Once you have logged in and opened Story in your browser you can install the desktop application. I strongly suggest you do. The ability to work offline is very handy. You can sync it later with the online versions of the projects. In fact switching from on to off line is easier than I found with Celtx. First impressions are excellent. Story looks great. Anyone familiar with Buzzword, Acrobat.com or Photoshop.com will feel at home in the Adobe style environment. Naturally Story is designed to integrate with a future releases of the Adobe production premium suite including the latest CS5.

I have been using Celtx, with students for a number of years. It's been really useful, robust and simple to use. The software has been steadily updated over the years - the last addition of a sketching facility was especially welcome. Celtx also offers a collaborative function called 'Celtx Studio'. This is a paid for service that allows an administrator to set up 'seats' so that collaborators have an individual log in. Then Celtx projects can be worked on by the group, with changes noted and tracked. Updates are saved to the 'Studio. There is a useful chat function so that communication is separate from the writing. All the writing is displayed with the usual industry standard formatting. This makes it more practical under most circumstances for screenplay writing that the excellent EtherPad. Importantly for me Celtx also include a whole suit of planning and tagging for schedules, locations, prop lists etc to help with the production planning. The number of collaborators is controlled and there is a charge per 'seat' or user.

Celtx will allow you to paste text into it. This text will then require formatting - which is quite quickly done with the application. Story will permit importing a script as text or from Word or Final Draft etc. But since Adobe owns of the PDF format it's not surprising that it also allows PDF import. Not only that but the script is broken down on import. That's really impressive. You can now import any PDF and then edit it with all the formatting preserved and generate all the production reports you need. (For some reason it fails to identify the title page.) It doesn't embrace the production functions of Celtx, staying focused on the script. So it lacks the production tools that Celtx provides. eg calendar/scheduler, storyboarder, sketcher etc but at least for the short term it has plenty to offer. Where is does better, immediately, is that you can collaborate without charge. All collaborators need Adobe IDs and you just share your project with them. Privileges can be set by the administrator, very easily. I expect to use both together since there are few script changes on the short films I work on once into production.

Good luck with your collaboration!

Wish list advice for new students - Don't buy a laptop!

2010-09-22T09:59:00.000+01:00

Every year at Open Days and then later again at the start of the academic year, I get asked “what should I buy for Uni”. The answer I am supposed to give, I suspect, is a fast laptop and a smart phone. Both probably made by Apple. However what I actually say is more complicated and in some ways cheaper. There are a number of things that can support a student’s studies and prepare them for the world of work. Since I predominately deal with Creative Media Practice students some items are more specific to that direction of study. But a number are true whatever the course.

USBstick. We require students to buy a good branded USBstick with at least 4gb of storage. Use this to store and carry your files. You can load free software to help you in your studies. I installing a copy of Firefox with extensions for Delicious and Evernote. (Xmarks will sync your brower and bookmarks between machines. This way you can have the ‘same’ browser set up any Mac while using your USB portable version of Firefox and your home machine.) Google Docs is free and will provide word processing etc. For PC users AccessApps is an easy and useful collection of portable studying apps bundled together. For Macs I suggest that you install these apps on your USBstick - Firefox, production app Celtx, audio editing app Audacity and VLC media player.

Headphones. We require all students doing Creative Media Practice to invest in a pair of good headphones. Not earbuds! Good headphones are ones that cover the ear completely and are relatively ‘neutral’ in their sound. Those ‘mega-bass-tear-the-roof-off-the-sucker’ headphones will give a false impression of your audio work. Remember that most computers etc will have ‘mini jack’ sockets. So you might need an adapter.

A hard drive. We require our students to get drives in the first semester. If you are doing media production you will be dealing with a number of large files (video). Having your own storage means that you are free to use any machine with editing software. This is very practical. Since we use Macs and edit on Final Cut that means that they have to be FIREWIRE drives. If you get a ‘bus powered’ drive it will draw it’s power from the host machine via the Firewire lead. That means need for mains leads and plugs. This will raise the cost of the drive.

Touch typing. I always suggest that learning to touch type is a great investment. The humble keyboard is still here and will be for at least the next 3 years.

Broadband. You will need to ensure that you have easy broadband access. It’s not a course requirement to have broadband where you live, but it will make a huge difference. A lot of materials are made available online.

PC or Mac. You will need a basic/old model. It only needs to run a recent browser and be able to word process. At BSU we provide open access to high spec machines for editing etc. I always advise against laptops for media production. Yes, you can edit on them. And it’s dead cool. But the screen space, the audio set up and the compromised chip speed mean that a modest desktop machine is better for production critical work. There are also the weight, cost and insurance issues to consider. Use Uni machines until you are about to leave - then think about what you’ll need after Uni.

Digital camera. This is very useful in a number of ways - nowadays most new mobiles come with a camera function that is perfectly suitable, practical and easily portable. Make sure you have the lead to connect it to the computer.

Books. It’s worth buying a selection of books for each of the modules you study. Choose carefully and build up a small library that you can use over the 3 years. Buying books online, and sometimes second hand, can make them great value. We have all the books listed as recommended in the module handbooks in the library. So you can check them out before you buy.

Back up service. It’s possible to subscribe to a back up service so that your files are duplicated and stored online. That way if you lose, delete, have a computer malfunction or theft, you can retrieve your work. The services are not expensive for the amount of peace of mind they provide.

There are other items that you might like to think about in the longer term.

Yes, it might be great to have your own video camera. Being able to shoot all the time is a real advantage and excellent practice. Concentrate on what you need rather than what you’d like.
A top spec desktop machine with a large screen and production software would allow you to easy access for post production practice and course work. Approach with care! As a student you can get discounts on hardware and software.
Driving lessons! As a media student being able to drive is very useful when you are trying to get into the business. A Runner who has a clean license is in a better position to get work than one without.

Oh yes and don't forget to enjoy your course at University!

What might the iPad mean for me?

2010-04-26T21:12:00.000+01:00

I have yet to actually see an iPad but there is already so much to read about it. Some love it, some hate it. MacUser magazine have just published a nicely balanced article on the iPad - in advance of it's UK launch. It really placed the iPad into context for me.

The points they made were simple and practical:

fast Apple apps and web browsing
small text is easily readable without zooming as on the iPhone
books and magazines look really good
illustrations look great
colour text works well

But:

you need to have some means of propping it up when reading
it wont wirelessly sync
videos are displayed in 4:3 or letterboxed 16:9
there's no alarm clock
holding and typing is awkward
the iPad uses iTunes to sync and store most material. So you still need a computer
it can't ise Adobe Flash
(at the moment) it can't multitask (that comes with the next OS upgrade later this year)

They conclude that there probably isn't an over-riding need to buy one at the moment if you already have an iPhone or computer (3rd party apps that may well change this).

The ring fencing via iTunes is regretable. The same limitation exists for the iPhone - adding the problem of trying to sync to 2 macs each with separate iTunes installed. (The Dropbox iApp is one great way around geting material onto your phone.)

This week I have been asking my media students what they think of the iPad. They generally said (in this order);

they wanted one
it'll be useless for editing

None really thought about what they could publish or broadcast on it. As MacUser states

"...the iPad is about consuming media."

I would add that it's about presenting media. As a keen photographer, and with an old fashioned love of radio, the possibilities of delivering these in some multi media form on the iPad, and it's Android equivalent, look awesome. Content may be king but finding compelling ways to present and deliver that content is also important.

What the iPad does is to advance the quiet innovation that Apple ushered in with the iPhone - an easy system of making micro payments. They recently extended this further by permitting micro payments from within the applications. All of which raises the rather basic question - what exactly is an application? What is the difference bwtween a website, a magazine and an application? Could the answer be 'money stream'? Is this the reason for the publishing world's frenzy over the iPad?

How should my teaching and the materials I generate reflect the likely development of these platforms? Is the iPad robust enough to be used in education? I replaced the battery in my MacBook this month. It cost £100. If the iPads are similarly priced then running costs might well be rather high.

I look forward to using the iPad in the UK soon. The UK price of the iPad is yet to be released. I suspect that the price break will be keenly sensitive. I also think that without a deal with Adobe over the implementation of Flash on both the iPhone and iPad, Apple will lose the initiative in this new market they've created. See more from MacUser. Things are going to move very quickly in this new market and we may well know by this time next year.

Celtx Studio or Adobe Story?

2010-04-15T19:15:00.003+01:00

As Adobe gallop ahead of Apple with CS5, Adobe's Story is worth looking at. Here is Adobe's introductory video.

I have been using Celtx for a number of years now with students and for my own work. It's been really useful, robust and simple to use. The software has been steadily updated over the years - the last addition of a sketching facility was especially welcome. Celtx also offers a collaborative function called 'Celtx Studio'. This is a paid for service that allows an administrator to set up 'seats' so that collaborators have an individual log in. Then Celtx projects can be worked on by the group, with changes noted and tracked. Updates are saved to the 'Studio. I have been working with 4 students like this for about 4 months. There is a useful chat function so that communication is separate from the writing. All the writing is displayed with the usual industry standard formatting. This makes it more practical under most circumstances for screenplay writing that the excellent EtherPad. Importantly for me Celtx also include a whole suit of planning and tagging for schedules, locations, prop lists etc to help with the production planning.

'Story' from Adobe is an AIR powered application. You will need to have an Adobe Log in here. Once you have logged in and opened Story in your browser you can install the desktop application. I strongly suggest you do. The ability to work offline is very handy. You can sync it later with the online versions of the projests. In fact switching from on to off line is easier than I found with Celtx.

First impressions are excellent. Story looks great. Anyone familiar with Buzzword, Acrobat.com or Photoshop.com will feel at home in the Adobe style environment. Naturally Story is designed to integrate with a future releases of the Adobe production premium suite including the latest CS5.

Adobe have seen the value of metadata and activly worked out how control of such data can be embedded into the production process. Imagine loading a QuickTime movie and being able to search for a line of dialogue, location or character.

Celtx will allow you to paste text into it. This text will then require formatting - which is quite quickly done with the application. Story will permit Importing a script as text or from Word or Final Draft etc. But since Adobe owns of the PDF format it's not surprising that it also allows PDF import. Not only that but the script is broken down on import. That's really impressive. If you find a script online you can now import it and then edit it with all the formatting preserved and generate all the production reports you need. (For some reason it fails to identify the title page.) It doesn't embrace the production functions of Celtx, staying focused on the script. So it lacks the production tools that Celtx provides. eg calendar/scheduler, storyboarder, sketcher etc but at least for the short term it has plenty to offer.

Where is does better, immediately, is that you can collaborate without charge. All collaborators need Adobe IDs and you just share your project with them. Privileges can be set by the administrator, very easily. I expect to use both together since there are few script changes on the short films I work on once into production.

The Photographer's eye by John Szarkowski.

2010-04-13T17:02:00.000+01:00

Photographic gems from 'The Photographer's Eye'. Published in 1980 and still valid!

I recently read Mark Galer's book Digital photography in available light. It's an excellent book and one that manages to offer new instruction in a market full of other books on the same subject. In the book he quotes from John Szarkowski's book 'The Photographer's eye'. As luck would have it the University's library has a copy of this, much older book, on it's shelves too.

The book is a fantastic collection of photos from the early days of the art to the 1960's. There are few words, instead the images are left to speak for themselves. They are artfully arranged so that they relate to each other. The words that are included are understated and insightful, contrasting painting with photography. There is plenty to think about.

The book attempts to describe the nature of photography - it's relationship to reality. The role of the 'significant detail' and of symbol over painterly narrative. It explores the importance of the frame, it's ability to define content, create relationship, present juxtapositions and quote out of context. It raises the fundermental Photographer's question - What should be included what should be excluded? He proceeds to sum it up beautifully;

"This frame is the beginning of his picture's geometry. It is to the photograph as the cushion is to the billard table."

He then unpicks the relationship of photography to time and the 'decisive moment' (Cartier - Bresson). In order to impose some meaning on an image, to make it a picture, the Photographer is obliged to arrange the elements by moving the camera. The issue of vantage point is therefore raised. All the while the points made are illustrated with a great selection of photos.

See more images at JPG magazine.

web 2.0

2009-12-23T19:04:00.021Z

I have been working with mind mapping apps recently. Here's a map of many of the web 2.0 apps I use. I haven't added all the notes to explain each entry but I guess you can figure it out. There's a mac bias. Sorry. I try to pick cross platform and free apps and services where possible. This was made with Xminds free application. It was neat and quick to use. You can figure it out quite easily. The export options are limited on the free version. Here's the result.

There's a lot of stuff here! Enjoy, see you next year.

Mike J

(I've had to correct the embed code and still can't get the bottom of the player to show. Click bottom right to enlarge the viewer. Mmmm the hyperlinks don't work. I am not impressed.)

pps. OK perhaps this will be better. I have uploaded the file produced by Xmind in mm format to Mind42 and published it. Here's it embedded.

That looks slightly better and the links seem to work.

2009-12-10T15:53:00.004Z

With web 2.0 there are a huge range of tool to help you work. I have been investigating some recently to help creative collaboration. Here are a few ideas:

Brainstorming -

Mind42 (mind maps)
Mindmeister (mind maps - incl iApp (£))
Xmind (downloadable app for mind maps)
Prezi This is a web app designed as an alternative to Powerpoints and the domination of bulleted lists. Might be good for outlining ideas, pitching stories etc.

Collaboration -
(real time)

Etherpad (Google has recently acquired this technology and the future of the free service is not clear).
Google Docs, either presentations or documents.
Facebook, for groups and communication
Celtx studio. I have a test account.
Acrobat.com has 'buzzword' for documents and presentations too. Slicker than Google Presentations. But only embeds pdfs like Google (so not documents).
iPaper embeddable documents!! Really aiming as a way of publishing. Works in VLE like Blackboard/Minerva.
Evernote Its possible to share research through their note sharing facility. iPhone app, Firefox add-on, downloadable application. Here is a shared notebook. I can add research so all can see. But others can only read it. It is an easy and very quick way of gathering and sharing material. But its one sided. Creating a generic account might be one way around this. But you could share a 'look book' or scrap book for filmmaking etc

Distribution (cross platform)

Dropbox (Docs and PDFs work well but text files don't on my iPhone) Optional download App that lives in the Mac Finder window. Really neat idea. You can share items from your dropbox. Last year this seemed very slow, but it seems to work better now.

box.net - free 1GB up to 25MB file size.

The future will be strongly influenced by Google Wave. Its buggy and in beta now. I've messed around with it alittle. One to watch next year.

regards, Mike J

Re cycling HDV tapes - Don't

2009-11-25T18:36:00.003Z

Last year we decided to switch from SD DV to HDV. (How much do I regret that decision?)

I have already blogged about the issues we had with just playing the material in QuickTime outside of Final Cut. In view of the problems we had we decided to switch back. We recycled the tapes and even took the precaution of pre striping them in SD DV. Then we sent the teams out to shoot. When they returned, we started the capture and logging. that's when the timecode issues started. OK, its one of the 3 Sony Z1's. Nope they all had the same problems. Its due to the deck we striped with being faulty. Possibly but unlikely. We guess its the original HDV timecode. Wouldn't you assume that recording over timecode would have erased the previous?

The advantages of HDV over Standard Definition 16:9 video are clearly outweighed because of the disadvantages. In fact if the time spent trying to get the stuff into the edit then out of the machines were spent on planning, shooting and editing the quality of the film would be more significantly benefited. ( Have I calmed down yet?) Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Researching and web 2.0

2009-11-24T11:13:00.014Z

The web is an amazing place to research but you need to be organised. Since you have to blog as well, but not combine the two?

If you set up iGoogle and Firefox carefully they can help you do this. I use both quite a lot. I have added 'extensions' that add functionality to the browser. For example Delicious bookmarks, add to netvibes, Evernote web clipper, Screenshot pimp, Zotero and Xmarks. I also use a portable version of Firefox so that these are configured and present when I use my browser. With your home page set for something you use all the time - set several - and they'll open when you launch the application.

Searching the web.

Searching with Google using + and - and "" to refine your search.
The advantages of using tabbed browsing should be obvious. Its also worth learning a few keyboard short cuts:

CMD + T opens a new tab
CMD + L highlights the current URL
CMD + C copies
CMD + V pastes
CMD + X cuts ( and places on the clipboard)
TAB key shifts to the next field or box

Don't just use Google. Find other ways of accessing the web's store of information. Delicious is a store of peoples bookmarks. It makes a good place to search. Search blogs. You can take even fuller advantage of web 2.0 by using the power of RSS with Google alerts, yahoo searches or even Yahoo Pipes. This way the information is filtered by choices you have indicated. I find Twitter increasingly useful - its often a case of finding a good person to follow. Here's a good introductory guide written by my Colleague Katherine Reeves.

Google docs give me a suite of applications - online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I can access these anywhere and share the documents created there too.

When you embed a Google Presentation it's worth noting that this is a feed. Any changes made to the file will be updated in the embedded version too. You need to make it 342 x 410 to fit the Blogger template.

Lastly, it's good and fair practice to credit and link back to your sources. Derek Pierce, as Beatsystem, kindly allowed me to use his music with students. Where you have uploaded your edits with his music you should credit him and link to his website. This way if someone wants to know more about the music he gets the click through. I should have reminded you at the time. Sorry Derek.

Solutions to recent transcoding problems

2009-10-29T09:15:00.008Z

Transcoding is the process of changing a file from one format to another. Last week having edited as aif students needed to convert to a Wav file. Its common to have to do this converted from one to another and back again. The conversion to MP3 is also very common. These are all different CODECs.

Here is a post I wrote earlier this year about Switch - a free Mac app that makes it easy to convert from one audio format to another.

The file conversion site Zamzar is another favorite of mine. This works on all sort of file types - image, document, media.

The producers of Switch also make a free - multi platform audio editor called Wavepad Sound Editor, it looks good and will do the conversion to multiple formats too. The open source fav is Audacity - which I have found to be good. for simple stereo editing Sound Studio is neat and very mac-like. It only runs of Mac and doesn't convert to MP3 sadly, oh yes and costs $80.

You have to get used to understanding formats and develop your own toolbox and workarounds. There isn't an easy cheap one stop shop. Or maybe there is? Let me know.

The Art of Blogging 2.2

2009-10-07T15:43:00.006+01:00

This post carries on from part 1 and details the practical aspects of writing your blog. I also cover assessing reflective writing and list some blogs you might like to subscribe to.
How do you blog (using Blogger.com)?
Here is a quick introduction from Blogger.

You might prefer to use WordPress.com. Here's this post using that blogging engine.

Layout. The great thing about about Blogs is that they allow you to present your ideas and writing without worrying about the HTML code that underlies the blog - which is really a website. But you still need to think about how you make the limited number of choices about layout. Its easy to post your first blog and then experiment with different styles and looks - called templates. These will alter the form but not the content of the blog. Make sure your blog is readable. Grey text against black is not a good idea. Some of your selections can affect how they read when the blog is accessed by a Reader. Check! Here are some ideas, from the web usability expert Jake Nielson, about positioning pictures and information - the F-shaped pattern.

Widgets. These can add great content to your blog and are quite easy to set up. Add, check and remove if they detract. See cliches below!
About you. Include some information about yourself - who you are, why you are blogging, what you hope to achieve, what someone might learn from your blog. You are more likely to get people subscribing if they have these information.
(Post) Title. This is what as known in web design as 'microcontent'. Choose the title for your post very carefully. It needs to be simple and informative. Again Readers display the title. Subscribers might scan just the titles while deciding what to read. Then mark as read anything that doesn't appeal - missing your beautifully crafted post.
Structure. The opening paragraph needs to summarise the post, but in a way to raise interest. I often write this last - before publishing online. Its easier once you can see what you have said, to craft the introduction. There is a difference between academic writing and writing for the web. The structure is closer to the journalistic 'inverted pyramid'.
Links. Without any links the posting has no context. In an academic essay you are required to include quotes that support the ideas you are discussing. Then at the end of the essay there is a bibliography that relates to the reference. The idea being that interested parties can trace the reference back to the original source. How much easier is it to do this on a blog! If you find a useful site and use it, link to it. If there is more information that relates to your post, link again. Be aware that if you want to link to a blog post make sure you use that postings url (permalink) and not the blog's home page. (Whats displayed on the homepage will change.)
Multimedia. Not using images, video and audio is to criminally under use the blogging medium. As they say a picture can say a 1000 words. Not only that but this is a media course. So include media, both yours and others (its about context again). You can upload video and images to Blogger. They get stored on your account - Picasa. You can download Picasa as an application and use it instead of iPhoto (I think its better). The free storage for Picasa is actually quite modest.
You are better uploading to your YouTube or Vimeo account and embedding the video into the blog. Still images could be embedded from Flickr or Photobucket. (Keep track of your accounts and passwords). There are uploaders for iPhoto that will help you manage uploads. iPhoto will upload to Facebook and Picasa. Videonic will upload from your mac to Youtube.
Here are 13 blog cliches from Jeff Atwood's blog that are worth thinking about.
Writing. Just because its not an essay doesn't mean that you don't have to spell, capitalise, punctuate, and paragraph. I expect to see all of these displayed to degree level. There's a spellchecker in Blogger. Use it , then check it - its US English. We require UK English! Its normal to have 2 spaces at the end of a sentence - it makes the piece easier to read. Use one space after a comma. If you cut and paste from WORD you will get problems with your blog. Use a plan text editor instead, like TextEdit on the Mac, NotePad on a PC.
Organisation. Labelling (or tagging). You have the option to tag/label your posts. This is basic metatagging. It makes your blog easier to navigate. It makes sense for you, your readers and its good media practice. Things need to be organised so that you can store, search and find things. The labels allow you to catagorise your posts. If you are interested in the ideas of organisation - and they are relevant to you and your studies, watch this presentation by David Weinberger (or read his book - its an easy read!)

Content. Your content needs to be legal, fair and decent. You must avoid libel, slander and deformation of character. Your blog is public not private.

As students this is where the bulk of the marks will be given. It would help to start by thinking about what use blogs actually serve. Whom are they aimed at? Here are some broad descriptions:

A diary/daily journal - what you did, what you think,
Commercial support - development and problem solving with users
Interest groups - sharing information with like minded people on one subject, area or topic
Personal thoughts and ideas - reflecting on topics and subject(s) that interest you

Your blog may need to have some journal type of writing (1). As well as your thoughts and ideas (4).
Description. What of what happened,what didn't happen, and what were the consequences etc.
Reflection. Detail the logic of decisions and choices. You should comment on alternatives you might have taken and whether that might have been better/worse for whatever reasons.
Context. You also need to contextualise your work and thoughts - that is relate them to other examples, current practice etc. A lot of student writing tends to cover descriptive writing quite well and be less effective in reflecting on and contextualising their work.
Lessons learnt. You should also comment on what you feel you learnt, what you feel you need to learn, illustrating it by explaining how you might perform the task/exercise if you were to do it again.
How do we judge 'reflective writing'? Broadly we might define reflective writing like this:

Excellent reflective writing has these qualities: Reflective language that describes, analyses and plans subsequent actions as a result of reviewing processes and events.

Good reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression indicate engagement with the reflective process. Evidence of self-evaluation and awareness of the wider context.

Poor reflective writing has these qualities: Writing style mainly descriptive but some engagement with the reflective process. Reflection largely confined to the personal, with little attempt to connect to the wider context.

Very poor reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression entirely descriptive, showing very little engagement with the reflective process.

As with all things you get better with practice, but you can also learn a lot from just reading a range of blogs. Here are some you might like to read and subscribe to in your Reader (they may also provide context for some of your studies):
Phil Bloom Freelance Director of Photography and exponent of cinematic style video shooting. (Often on DSLRs).
Powertothepixel Great site that attempts to gather news and information about transmedia developments.

Wired magazine UK based version of the US techie site. Good for tech news with UK slant.

Readwrite More tech news this time based in the States, but very comprehensive and up to date.
Smashing Magazine Highlights design issues. Often something of interest.

Stu Maschwitz Stu wrote the DV rebel handbook and is a post production guru. Interesting and thought provoking. Some of his stuff on colour grading etc is very informative. (His books worth a read too. Check out the library.)
The Guardian (Media section) classic resource on the Media (Monday's paper issue - but there's more online)
Good luck with your blogging. If this has helped you, or you think it can be improved - leave a comment. That's also very much part of the art of blogging.
Mike J

The Art of student blogging 2.1

2009-10-07T15:20:00.007+01:00

This post carries on from part 1 and details the practical aspects of writing your blog. I will also cover assessing reflective writing and list some blogs you might like to subscribe to.

How do you blog (using Blogger.com)? Here is a quick introduction from Blogger.

How do you actually blog?

Layout. The great thing about about Blogs is that they allow you to present your ideas and writing without worrying about the HTML code that underlies the blog - which is really a website. But you still need to think about how you make the limited number of choices about layout. Its easy to post your first blog and then experiment with different styles and looks - called templates. These will alter the form but not the content of the blog. Make sure your blog is readable. Grey text against black is not a good idea. Some of your selections can affect how they read when the blog is accessed by a Reader. Check!

Widgets. These can add great content to your blog and are quite easy to set up. Add, check and remove if they detract.

About you. Include some information about yourself - who you are, why you are blogging, what you hope to achieve, what someone might learn from your blog. You are more likely to get people subscribing if they have these information.

(Post)Title. Choose the title for your post very carefully. It needs to be simple and informative. Again Readers display the title. Subscribers might scan just the titles while deciding what to read. Then mark as read anything that doesn't appeal - missing your beautifully crafted post.

Structure. The opening paragraph needs to summarise the post, but in a way to raise interest. I often write this last - before publishing online. Its easier once you can see what you have said, to craft the introduction.

Links. Without any links the posting has no context. In an academic essay you are required to include quotes that support the ideas you are discussing. Then at the end of the essay there is a bibliography that relates to the reference. The idea being that interested readers can trace the reference back to the original source. How much easier is this on a blog! If you find a useful site and use it, link to it. If there is more information that relates to your post, link again. Be aware that if you want to link to a blog post make sure you use that posting's url (permalink) and not the blog's home page. (Whats displayed on the homepage will change.)

Multimedia. Not using images, video and audio is to criminally under use the blogging medium. A picture can say a 1000 words. Especially so if you are blogging for a media course. So include media, both yours and others (it's about context again). You can upload video and images to Blogger. They get stored on your account - Picasa. You can download Picasa as an application and use it instead of iPhoto (I think its better). However the free storage for Picasa is actually quite modest. You are better uploading to your YouTube or Vimeo account and embedding the video into the blog. Still images could be embedded from Flickr or Photobucket. (Keep track of your accounts and passwords). There are uploaders for iPhoto that will help you manage uploads. iPhoto will upload to Facebook and Picasa. Videonic will upload from your mac to Youtube. There is also Divshare - this will allow you to embed and stream audio and video from your Blog.

Writing. Just because its not an essay doesn't mean that you don't have to spell, Capitalise, punctuate, and paragraph. I expect to see all of these displayed to degree level. There's a spellchecker in Blogger. Use it , then check it - its US English. We require UK English! It's normal practice to have 2 spaces at the end of a sentence - it makes the piece easier to read. Use one space after a comma.

Organisation. Labelling (or tagging). You have the option to tag/label your posts. This is basic metatagging. It makes your blog easier to navigate. It makes sense for you, your readers and it's good media management. Things need to be organised so that you can store, search and find things. The labels allow you to catagorise your posts. If you are interested in the ideas of organisation - and they are relevant to you and your studies, watch this presentation by David Weinberger (or read his book - its an easy read!)

Content. Remember that your content needs to be legal, fair and decent. You must avoid libel, slander and deformation of character. Your blog is public and not private.

From a student point of view, this is where the bulk of the marks are likely to be given. It would help to start by thinking about what uses blogs actually serve. Whom are they aimed at? Here are some broad descriptions:

A diary/daily journal - what you did, what you think,
Commercial support - development and problem solving with users
Interest groups - sharing information with like minded people on one subject, area or topic
Personal thoughts and ideas - reflecting on topics and subject(s) that interest you

Your blog may need to have some journal type of writing (1). As well as your thoughts and ideas (4).

Description. What of what happened,what didn't happen, and what were the consequences etc.

Reflection. Detail the logic of decisions and choices. You should comment on alternatives you might have taken and whether that might have been better/worse for whatever reasons.

Context. You also need to contextualise your work and thoughts - relate them to other examples, current practice etc. A lot of student writing tends to cover descriptive writing quite well and be less effective in reflecting on and contextualising their work.

Lessons learnt. You should also comment on what you feel you learnt, what you feel you need to learn, illustrating it by explaining how you might perform the task/exercise if you were to do it again.

How do we judge 'reflective writing'? Broadly we might define reflective writing like this:

Excellent reflective writing has these qualities: Reflective language that describes, analyses and plans subsequent actions as a result of reviewing processes and events.

Good reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression indicate engagement with the reflective process. Evidence of self-evaluation and awareness of the wider context.

Poor reflective writing has these qualities: Writing style mainly descriptive but some engagement with the reflective process. Reflection largely confined to the personal, with little attempt to connect to the wider context.

Very poor reflective writing has these qualities: Use of vocabulary, writing style and expression entirely descriptive, showing very little engagement with the reflective process.

As with all things you get better with practice, but you can also learn a lot from just reading a range of blogs. Here are some you might like to read and subscribe to in your Reader (they may also provide context for some of your studies):

Phil Bloom Freelance Director of Photography and exponent of cinematic style video shooting. (Often on DSLRs).

Powertothepixel Great site that attempts to gather news and information about transmedia developments.

Wired magazine UK based version of the US techie site. Good for tech news with UK slant.

Readwrite More tech news this time based in the States, but very comprehensive and up to date.

Smashing Magazine Highlights design issues. Often something of interest.

Stu Maschwitz Stu wrote the DV rebel handbook and is a post production guru. Interesting and thought provoking. Some of his stuff on colour grading etc is very informative. (His books worth a read too. Check out the library.)

The Guardian (Media section) classic resource on the Media (Monday's paper issue - but there's more online)

Good luck with your blogging. If this has helped you, or you think it can be improved - leave a comment. That's also very much part of the art of blogging.
Mike J
--
Posted By Mike Johnston to Mike j's Blog on 9/03/2009 01:12:00 PM

Blogging for students part 1.

2009-08-17T12:37:00.028+01:00

As part of the Foundation Degree in Media Production we require students to blog as part of their course work. This post explains what blogs are, how they work, and why you have to blog. There is a second post that covers the practicalities of student blogging.

It's important that you know:

What a blog is
Why you are blogging
How to blog
What they need to blog
How the blog will be assessed

What is a blog?

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

taken from wikipedia.

Commoncraft have produced an excellent guide to blogging.

But blogging is only half the story. It's the filtering and finding of information - the 'broadcasting' or distribution of your blog, that makes up the other half. This is achieved using RSS. Or Really Simple Syndication. Lee Lefever (sounding rather tinny) explains again.

How can I use RSS? There are several ways. The first is by using a 'Reader'. Since we will be using Blogger.com which is owned by Google, its easiest to use the Google Reader since you'll already have a Google ID or email address. Once more (and I tried to find someone else to explain this, but Lee's version was way better an the others.)

Or you can create a web page that updates with the blogs or 'feeds' that you subscribe to. Examples of this are Netvibes, Pageflakes or My Yahoo. Google also offers the Google page. I like Netvibes - here is one I use to share FD Media Production blog feeds. The choice is really yours. Experiment, it's all free!

I favour using the Google Reader. Since I have a Gmail account, I use iGoogle and have set up my iGoogle desk top with the Google Reader widget. That way when I open my browser (its my browser's Home page) and I can see my Google desktop with all recent posts from feeds I follow. I can also see activity on my Facebook account, Gmail account, Twitter etc etc.

(Here's more about iGoogle, using a portable version of Firefox installed on a USB stick, and getting the most from Firefox. OK its geeky but its useful I think. The only way to 'get' this technology is to use it. Take it bit by bit. You don't have to get it all immediately!

Why blog? The best way to answer this is to think of the short term and the longer term. Here's the short term logic to using blogs rather than essays.

Traditionally students write to show that they have understood what they have been taught. It's also part of the way we assess and qualify the student. As part of the course we could ask you to write an essay. However with the Internet we have (arguably) a better way of you presenting your work and ideas, since you can embed media and link to items that have informed, inspired you or support your ideas. These elements are drawn together by your reflection on them. A key part of that is to show your work as part of similar work that has or is being done (placing your work in the context of others). Reflective writing, and practice, is necessary in order to develop 'learning autonomy'. This is where you take responsibility for your learning and development. Students usually find reflective writing difficult if you need extra help, learning support is provided at university and colleges.

Since we are working in an area (the Media), that's currently undergoing radical and constant change, you need to be part of that! Utilising the web, like this, is the most effective way of being up to date and part of the zeitgeist. There is an employability issue underlying this too - you need to understand the theory and practice of this way of working - Web 2.0. It's likely to play a large part in the way you consume and create media now and in the future. Your blog might well morph into your online portfolio and therefore become part of the supporting material for a job/freelance application. It might say more about you than a traditional CV. Here are some interesting comments, taken from the Film and Digital Exchange website, about creating an online portfolios from Chris Martin an animator and motion graphics artist.

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.

The history of Web 2.0

Some interesting thoughts on Web 2.0 and where it might take us...

In part 2 I cover the practical aspects of writing your blog as well as explaining what good reflective writing (blogging) entails.

Mike J

31 outlines in 31 days

2009-08-01T16:34:00.000+01:00

The aim was to write the outline for a short film each day of the month - for the whole of July. I got the idea from doing the Bath Photomarathon. A sort of writing challenge - a' writeathon'. I wanted the outlines to be for a short film of 5 - 8 minutes in duration that would be easily producible. I largely stuck to these criteria.

How did I do? Well if I'm honest, I didn't manage 31 out of 31. Life got in the way several times. The 10th to the 15th in particular - as I tried to clear the decks before my leave!) But looking at the 21 outlines I did write, I notice several things:

I never failed to write one when I started
Sometimes they came easily but mostly they didn't
I never spent more than 45 mins writing any of them
I wrote several a day at times to 'get back on track'
Some are boring, some are obvious, and some might have potential (in that proportion)
I got better at it and worked out ways of doing it more easily
The repetition and process helped. Sometimes 2 different ideas ended up in one outline
I enjoyed it and laughed a lot
I was pleased with some of my ideas
I was pleased to get to the 31st

I found a number of ways of getting going:

save up ideas during the day (this felt like cheating)
taking any idea and thinking it out. Any idea will do...and like waiting for a bus, a whole bunch tend to arrive at once
sitting somewhere different
listening to music
pretending to be someone else
start with an object, image, character, a story, a line of dialogue
taking something that already exists and re imagineering it
doodling
what ifs...
moving around

Was it worth doing? Yes I think it was. Leaving aside some of the ideas that are worth developing, there is definitely something to be gained from really immersing yourself in an activity. It focused my mind on lots of issues around storytelling. There are some re occurring themes - the film-making process (constructed reality if you want to be fancy), mundane things behaving oddly, and strange romances. In the future I would like to write some outlines that are more associational than linear. I think that the time constraint defines the type of film. The short film is almost a genre of its own. (One of the outlines is about this.)

Would I do it again? Yes, but not for a while. I think that I might apply the idea to photography or songwriting. I intend to develop some of the outlines too. Again I think that applying a pattern to their development might be interesting. Do 1 a week? Pick 4 for a month? I might try that next. First comes a weeks holiday.

Using Youtube or Vimeo?

2009-07-20T09:28:00.006+01:00

YouTube is a great service and I use it alot. But there are some advantage of using another service called Vimeo. The main one is that you can upload videos and control the people who have access to it. So that rough cuts and work and progress can be shared or collaboratively worked on , privately. As far as quality goes I thinks its about even. YouTube has improved recently with the addition of HD and more importantly support for 16:9 playback. I, personally, find YouTube to stream more consistently. But then I think my home ISP (Tiscali) is to blame for this!

The basic account at Vimeo is free with limits on the number of HD files you can upload a week and the max weekly data upload. Thats 1 HD video and 500 mb respectively. Plenty for normal use. The video that you upload is converted by Vimeo and then the orginal is deleted after a week, leaving the compressed version to view and download. So its NOT a storage service for your videos!

You need to compress the video, initially. This is to maximise your data useage, mimimise the upload time and create the best looking online video. There are a number of ways of doing this. Here are the vimeo guidelines:

Codec - Choose H.264 for the video codec. Choose AAC for the audio codec.

Frame rate – 25 per sec. If there is an option that says "current" just go with that.

Keyframes - Every 25 frames. This is basically how often the compressor references your uncompressed video.

Data rate - 1800 kbits/sec for standard definition 4:3 video , 2500 kbits/sec for widescreen DV, or 5000 kbits/sec for high definition. Making these numbers higher will increase both quality and size.

Size - 720 x576 for standard definition 4:3 video, 1024 x 576 for widescreen DV, or 1280x720 for high definition. It is also best to export 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 video as 1280x720 too.

Deinterlace - Yes. If you do not deinterlace, you will often get weird-looking horizontal lines in your video.

Sound sample rate - 44.100 kHz

Audio quality - 128 kbps.

To convert SD DV use the free handbrake application. Instructions here. If you have FCP here are instructions. If you want to use Compressor (from the FCP studio bundle) instructions are here with a downloadable 'droplet' for you desktop to make it even easier.

I have also been trying QuickTime Pro and MPEG streamclip as ways of compressing the footage. I'll post about these soon.

Good luck.

Mike J

Bit torrent - all piracy?

2009-07-03T14:08:00.005+01:00

We are all aware that people are using the Internet for the illegal distribution of music, films. software and documents. The Bit torrent technique has added greatly to this activity. What is it and is there a legitimate use for it?

Bit torrent is a way of overcoming the problem of asymmetrical connections to the Internet. It is a communication protocol invented by Bram Cohen in 2001. We all talk about 'broadband' as being a download speed of 1 megabits per sec or more. ( I'm with Tiscali and the service stinks. Speeds vary, often stopping for short periods.)

In order to cut costs the ISPs have reduced the upload speeds, prioritising the download speeds. So uploading a film takes ages. What bit torrent does, is share the upload of a file by co ordiating its upload and download from a number of people who have the same file. This is called 'seeding'. Once you have downloaded a file, its etiquette to let it seed to others. By using your limited upload bandwidth and that of other peers, the downloads can be (for a very popular file) extremely quick.

In order to use a bit torrent you need to download a small bit torrent file and open in an application (Bit torrent client) that will handle the upload/download. There are a number of freely available ones. I have used Transmission (Mac only) in the past. It works well and is simple to operate.

There have been 2 occasions when I have used it.

Last summer Director Bruce McDonald released all the rushes for his latest film - Tracey Fragments . He made 36 gigs of data (Quicktime) files available for an edit-yourself- competition. It took me 4 days to download the lot! More recently I wanted to download the film, Good copy- bad copy, a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture. Its a quicktime file of about 700mb. I found this is a film from the Open Source Cinema movement's website.

Students work for semester 2 2009

2009-06-16T12:08:00.002+01:00

Here is a short collection of students work from 2 modules that I teach, Introduction to video (first year Broadcast Media) and Making a film (second year Creative Studies). There are more examples on the Broadcastlab's YouTube channel.

I hope that you enjoy them.

Useful and free!

2009-06-05T15:37:00.004+01:00

There are such a large number of applications that are available to try, use and sometimes buy. Here is one that I have been using for over a year now. I find it very useful and beautifully designed. Its called "SKITCH". (Mac only) Its currently in Beta so I expect that at some time it will cost to download it. But at the moment its free, and I've had no bugs with it. Its developed by the same poeple who did the excellent Comiclife. Have fun.

transcoding to MP3

2009-05-19T21:19:00.003+01:00

I hate it when Apple remove a function or facility from some software. We get so used to companies adding utility. I recently wanted to create some MP3 files from .aiff files. Easy, I used to use iTunes. Possibily the only thing its useful for. Except the newest version I have doesn't seem to allow you to do this anymore.

The solution was to use a free application called 'Switch'. This worked like a dream and with much more control and features than iTunes. Great.

When working with FCP, its easiest to disarm iTunes. I hate the way it hijacks audio CDs and automatically opens them in iTunes. I turn this off, and re set the default application. (Select the file in the finder, then click command (apple) + i.)

Now when I load an audio disc , I preview it in the Finder and when I open it , it opens in QuickTime. If I want to use the track in FCP then I save it to the media assets file of the project, and transcode it to 48K at the same time. No iTunes, no glitchy playback, all the assets in the right place.

The offical Apple way of bringing audio into FCP with Batch export is DAFT.

cheers, Mike J

Photomarathon Bath

2009-05-05T16:52:00.006+01:00

This was the second time the photomarathon had run in Bath. Both times as part of the Bath fringe arts festival. I entered it with my daughter but I plugged it several time to the media students at BSU.

To be honest I hadn't quite understood the idea or exactly what it entailed. However I showed up at the Circus - under the trees in the centre - at 9.50 as requested. I paid £6 and received a 24 exposure neg film and a card. On the card were 22 themes. The idea was that I would find a suitable image for each of the themes. I needed to take the pictures the in order listed. I had just one frame per theme. If I failed to find a suitable image I was to snap my feet. It seemed very straightforward. Stevie decided to go shopping mid morning so the team got halved. At 3.30 we would all meet again at the Green Park Brasserie for card 2. This would have the final 11 themes. It was expected that we'd finish at 8pm at The Bell in Walcot St. Nice.

The weather was good and I set off with Stevie to take the first picture. I have to admit it took me half the roll to remember how the camera worked. I just use my digital compact or mobile phone all the time now. It was wuite a challenge and having to take them in order was very frustrating. You could take a picture and then around the corner would be an even better one for the same theme.

I was looking for something abstract. When I came across a 1950's cadillac in immaculate condition. I got the shot using the chromed bumper. The I chatted to the owner. he then drocve away as I looked down at the next theme...iconic. Oh shit..... I walked off kicking myself for missing a great shot. On the opposite side of the road I watched an old biker put his helmet, throw his leg over a harley davison and roar off. Double shit I'd done it again!

I walked alot but picked up all the necessary shots. Some better than others. The break, beer and chat with the other marathon photographers at Green Park was nice. I took the next lost quickly. I went home to sort out tea for the family. Later Mary and I popped down to The Bell (Great pub) and I submitted the film and the second card. There were a small band of finishers still there and we swapped stories of the marathon. We'd all had the same issues. Now we await the exhibition in the Octagon on May 22nd.

I learnt quite abit. I know now why I love my digital - its quick i can shoot plenty of images and I can see and re take when I need to. The whole thing opened my eyes - so that alone made it worthwhile. Thanks to Arran for organising it.

More issues with HDV and FCP

2009-05-01T14:22:00.002+01:00

As we move through the production workflow with the students doing 'making a film' at BSU, more problems with FCP and HDV are emerging. There is a little trick to get FCP to recognise the capture deck that's not obvious.

IF the last project created was anything other than HDV, and you open your HDV project and try to continue logging and capturing - you can't. The deck (device control) will not link to the Mac. After trying 2 leads, 2 decks and 2 machines I found that if I changed the easy set up to HDV and created a new project. Then closed it. I could then, on returning to the original HDV project, connect the deck and log and capture. What a pain!

The pictures look nice though.

Troubles with wi-fi networks?

2009-04-17T14:22:00.006+01:00

At home I had been noticing more and more difficulties using my laptop wirelessly. It would connect to the Internet via the wireless router but often failed to load a page etc. It was driving me mad. Depending on the time of day the connection was better, quicker and more reliable than at other times. I assumed that the router was at fault. My service provider (Tiscali) has been OK. However last week I finally figured it out. The problem was that my router uses the same wi-fi channel as several neighbours. When I changed the channel my router used, the problem disappeared.

In order to perform this useful feat you need to know what channels your neighbours are using. You need to know your router's login and password and about 10 minutes of time.

Since I use a Mac I used coconut wifi - a free application that gives you the info you need to select a channel. Pick one thats a couple of channels away from a neighbour's. Open the router settings (accessed via your browser) select a suitable channel.

Job done. Thanks to Macuser for that great tip.

Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express

2009-03-31T19:25:00.003+01:00

Recently I have been helping students make short films. Their first steps into filmmaking, and a steep learning curve. We try, as much as possible, to remove some of the technical complexities. Allowing the students to concentrate on the storytelling. The last two weekends have seen 14 shorts in production. They were all filmed over 2 days (a weekend). Now we're start the post production. But first the logging and capturing.

One of the decisions we had taken fro the students was to shoot in HDV rather than our usual default, anamorphic DV. We could see the advantage of the greater resolution - we might need to tweak some of the shots. We'd project in 'high def' (HD) and drop the films down to standard def (SD) for the DVDs. The data rate is, after all the same as SD, but with greater image size. Great! OK, we know that there's a slight lag from the time you press record to when the camera records. But thats a small price to pay. We thought.

If only things were as simple as they looked! Some of the tapes we issued were pre-stripped. (We were keen to avoid timecode breaks - a perennial problem with novices). Sadly these were stripped in SD DV. We subsequently had worse timecode breaks than normal as the decks we were using for capture kept requesting we change format! We worked around this problem, but there were more.

Some students, tempted by the keen pricing and educational discount, owned FCP Express and were keen to use their own machine to do their edit. Usually we get the teams to create the master folder with a master FCP project and all the rushes. Students can then copy this onto external drives or laptops to do their own individual edits. It normally works fine. On monday one keen and diligent student, having finished logging and capturing on one of the Uni's Macs, wanted help to transfer it to her own Macbook. I was pleased to help her and we transferred the data using target disc mode. We then opened the FCP Pro 6.0 project in FCP Express 4.0. Problem - all the clips had audio but failed to display the video. We investigated and discovered that there was a codec issue with FCP Express. I suggested purchasing QuickTime Pro. That'll sort it out. Nope - at a cost of $30 (approx). The next option was to delete the media and re capture from the master tapes. That seemed a pity. Why had this happened?

Its not clever but it would appear that FCP Express encodes HDV (Mpg 2) into Apple Intermediate codec. FCP Pro allows you to natively edit HDV format. To solve the problem therefore in FCP Pro we used media manager to 're-compress' the footage into the Apple format (the file size increased only slightly). This, hopefully would work in FCP Express. What a pain. Next time we might set FCP Pro to capture all the films in Apple Intermediate Codec. But I suspect that there's another gotcha lurking in there somewhere!

Why take Black and White images?

2009-02-06T14:27:00.005Z

Its easy to take colour pictures but black and white images are still very popular. They are often seen as more 'arty' than colour ones. The Magnum in Motion images are often in black and white. Photographer Harold Davis explains here why there is a case for still using black and white in the digital age. See his Flickr monochrome set here.

Here are a couple of ways of doing this in Photoshop. Importantly they allow you to manipulate the tonal values rather than just removing the colour uniformly from the image.

Posting 1 and some more techniques posting 2.

I have a further technique that has worked well for me but I might experiment with some of those too.

enjoy, Mike J

Composition and framing in photography

2009-02-06T09:10:00.003Z

Over the past 4 weeks we have been refreshing camera skills before the start of semester 2 and starting to shoot and edit video. We discussed framing and camera controls in a crash course single session. There was alot to take in for those new to the subject. today I found an interesting 'site' covering the basics of composition. The author has a very useful photography website thats well worth a look. The photos are technically really nice but very stylised. While I'm on about photography here are some other sites worth checking out:

photoshop tutorials

lightwriting - virtual graffiti

Magmun in motion - great photo essays

photographing scenes with snow

enjoy,

Mike J

The sad demise of Polaroid

2008-12-20T08:55:00.004Z

Its a changing world I suppose so ity should come as no surprise that the old staple of design, wardrobe and make up depts, having been replaced with digital cameras, is about to expire. Polaroid - the instant colour camera, much loved by artists, voyeurs and photographers is to cease making film in 12 days time. Naturally there is an internet website that is trying to fight back (save polaroid) but the economic odds are heavily stacked against it.

One solution - and its well worth a play with - is to try Poladroid (mac only). This neat free app allows you to process an image as if you had taken it with a Polaroid camera! It must be puzzling for those who are unaware of the soft greenish images that Polaroids produce. You can even influence and control the development as you could with the real things! Waiting for the image to process reminds me of the same wait in the darkroom and the thrill of seeing the print appear on the paper ........

Here's a video by way of explanation (I recognise the music loops from Soundtrack Pro but they are very nicely used). Play around with it and have fun. Happy Christmas! See you next year.

Official POLADROID demo video - v0.9.5
Uploaded by paul_ladroid

experiments with flickr custom html

2008-12-10T16:31:00.006Z

Carrying on from my experiments with photobucket. I explored
Divshare as a storage and slideshow generator for my blog. It works quite well - although the uploader is'nt the greatest. Here's the result.

Divshare

FLICKR

This is my new preferred option. Great quality, easy upload and you can control the slideshows easily. That includes the embed size. There are monthly restrictions on uploads and a limit of 'sets' - groups of images. Still its great for a free service.

small

Large

Supersize!

Experiments with Photobucket

2008-12-08T21:03:00.004Z

I have been experimenting with Photobucket
recently. It seems better than Picassa - which is a pity. But I really like the slideshow feature. Its also dead easy to embed in blogger.

These pictures were taken with my mobile phone. Its great to have a camera on hand - all the time.

It updates easily too from the original slideshow from within Photobucket. There are some editing facilities as well that seem to work nicely. Even 'curves' adjustment - look under the 'geek' tab!

Embedding PowerPoint presentations and MP3 problems

2008-11-13T17:17:00.003Z

This week we had a number of presentations on sound pioneers. I suggested to the students that they upload their presentations and embed them on their blogs. Richard set to immediately after the session. You can see his presentation on Brian Eno on his blog.

In order to do this he used slideshare net. You don't need to join up. Go to the home page - Select UPLOAD. Select the file you want to embed on your blog. Just upload your .ppt file. It uploads quickly - but without audio files etc. You then complete this form. Click PUBLISH and its done. You may have to wait a few minutes as its processed. You should be able to see the uploaded files by selecting My slidespace.

Some of the students have been using the free audio editor Audacity to do some prep editing before working with Soundtrack Pro. There is an issue with exporting the edited files as an .mp3 file - for sharing with Divshare for example. James has posted instructions to get around this. Thanks James.

Problems with Soundtrack Pro

2008-11-13T13:56:00.003Z

In class we have been using Apples Soundtrack Pro to do audio work. On a recent editing exercise we had problems exporting from Soundtrack as an .mp3 file. Naturally the solution is simple but not, I think, obvious. When exporting from a multi track project there's no problem. If you try to export from the Wave Editor you can't export to .mp3. This was what we were trying to do. Instead you have to import it to an empty multi track project THEN the export option allows you to export as .mp3 as long as you have selected master mix! Phew!

Getting the most from Firefox

2008-11-10T13:40:00.006Z

One of the advantages of using Firefox is that there are many 'add ons' or 'extensions' that you can download and add to your version of the browser. I have experiments with a number but a good place to start is with a couple. I'd suggest Foxmarks and hyperwords.

One of the advantages of using a USB stick and running a portable version of Firefox is that you can TOTALLY customise it. It will then present a consistent 'desktop' for you. What Foxmarks allows you to do is to add bookmarks to a browser (your portable one or your 'work machine') and it will sync your bookmarks with other copies of Firefox (your home, other or spare machine). Google used to make an extension to Firefox that synced ALL the customisation, bookmarks and passwords. This was well handy. Sadly its not longer being developed and Firefox 3.0 is not supported. However seeing a chance and gap in the market Foxmarks have now included password syncing. Hurrah!

Hyperwords adds an amazing search feature to the tool bar. It allows you to customise the way you lool for things and expands on the selection of locations that you can easily click to. For example you enter 'rebel without a crew' in the search box. By hitting the return key a list of choices is presented to you (all customiable) you then select to look up the item under Google, IMDB shopping, wikipedia etc etc. You can change all the setting to use shops you want ie based in the UK. Once you get the hang of it it makes researching a lot faster.

With Firefox open, under TOOLS select ADD-ONS. There is a search box and a variety of extensions to choose from. You will also see the extensions you already have.

Enjoy, Mike J

Interesting ideas

2008-10-31T10:25:00.006Z

Reading through all the post the Fd students have been doing recently. I saw particularly struck by one video on jessies blog. Stop motion animation is relatively straight forward - we did some in the induction week for fun. But they take time - and they are fairly familiar to us. Jess found one that takes the idea and technique further. Goodness know HOW long this must have taken!

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The future shorts website and Youtube channel are great. They showed an excellent selection of short films at the Little theatre this week in Bath. One film - made in Bristol also uses stop motion. Again the idea and technique have been taken further than usual.

Lastly I have been interested in 'light writing' for a while. The technique relies on long exposures from a locked off camera with someone drawing with a bright light or touch etc. If offers an inoffensive way of adding graffiti to a building! There are plenty of great examples with this effect but this movie adds the technique of stop motion too. Stunning.

Keep blogging, Mike J

Audio processing - tips and tricks

2008-10-28T12:39:00.005Z

We have been working recently with Apple's Soundtrack Pro version 2.0. I have used version 1 a lot in the past and I really liked it. The new version has more features and I have to admit that I have found it more difficult to pick my way around it. We also had quite a few crashes - I don't know if its was bad luck or bugs. But it was frustrating.

One area that is impressive with Soundtrack is the noise removal and normalising functions. These are very nicely explained by Genius DV.

This article covers normalising, this one noise removal.

A more basic option is to use the amazing 'levelator'. This free application available in Mac, PC and Linus, optimises an audio file. Once downloaded and installed files are dragged to a panel in the centre of the screen. There are no controls/prefs. It just works saving a file next to the original one with the addition of the extension.output. Very neat. It works a treat on speech based audio. Its fast too.

Short films

2008-10-26T14:38:00.007Z

Virgin media have just run a short film competition. I really liked the winner - black hole and we've watched and discussed it in class. What about the shortlist? Since we are not doing animation I have spent more time looking at the live action shorts.

Since I am currently running a module called 'planning a film' with the aim of writing and preparing to film a short (5 - 8 minutes long). Its interesting to look at the winner - Black Hole and the runners up.

Black hole Competition winner as chosen by the judges

5 bricks high (Short listed)

Butterface (Short listed)

The calling (Short listed)

Elevator music (Short listed)

The hobbyist (winner of the the People's choice) (Short listed)

What do you think of these? Can we draw any conclusions from the short list?

Interestingly none were highly rated by the visitors to the Virgin Media website. Only Black hole was listed on the most viewed selection!

Lastly Virgin Media have now up some details about the filming and the filmmakers on the website. It make interesting reading too.

manipulation of provided material

2008-10-23T11:42:00.011+01:00

All the FD students were provided with an interview, some vox pops and a poetry performance. They had to edit and create an interesting radio package with these elements. The edit had to be completed in 3 hours.

Sean's edit

James's edit

Jessie's

Laura's

Megan's

Chris's

Hannah's

Richard' s

Fiona's

Ciaran's

Nathan's

Matt's

Portable computing - the LAPSTICK!

2008-10-21T06:37:00.007+01:00

In Fridays effective learning session we explored the idea of student 2.0. I would like to recap some of the ideas I worked through.

Some of the students had laptops - most would like one. But they are expensive and its quite possible to do your studying without one. However its nice to have a personal computing environment within which to work. So I proposed the lapstick idea.

Using a 2 - 4 gig USB stick you can load a number of applications, then run these via whichever machine at the University you happen to be working at. Then when at home you can continue working in the same environment on your desktop machine. With USB sticks now costing a mere £10 this makes it particularly cheap and convenient. But how do you do this?

First you have to consider the 'platform' issue. Namely WINDOWS or APPLE MAC. At Bathspa we use a mixture - Macs in the labs, mostly PCs (but not exclusively) in the Library.

Starting with the PC option. You need to first download a program that will permit you to run apps from a USB stick. Then load the apps as well. Fortunately someone has done all the leg work for you. You can download the whole package - including a selection of applications wrapped in the application that will allow you to piggy back on the 'host' PC. Visit portableapps.com . There you can download the standard suite - later deleting any applications you don't want. The whole process takes about 20 mins. If you want to do this, do it on a PC. The key application is the portable version of firefox.

Now the Mac version - in some ways this is easier since Macs have permitting this way of working for ages. You need to just find the individual applications you want, download and install on the USB stick. You will find them at free smug.org. I would suggest that you start with the portable version of Firefox . For Media students I would suggest that you add the VLC media player, Audacity - the audio editor and Open Office - word processing etc.

Of course it would be great if we didn't have to run different version of firefox across the platforms. So that it wouldn't matter if weere using firefox on a PC then on a Mac. The browser and be consistent. Well it might be possible. More next time.

More FD blogs

2008-10-20T22:14:00.007+01:00

Some more blogs have been set up here are the names and links:

Here is hannah's blog.

Here is chris's blog.

Here is Sean's blog.

Here is Nathan's blog.

Here is Laura's blog.

Here is James's blog.

Here is Ciran's blog.

Here is Richard's blog.

Here is Fiona's blog.

Phew! that should be all of the group. Now you should subscribe to each others logs in your Google readers.

Here is a video from Youtube that might help you. Good luck.

Mike J

welcome to the new FD bloggers!

2008-10-20T11:17:00.007+01:00

After last weeks session on setting up blogs here are the URL's of the FD students. Why don't you visit and put a comment on them?

Matts blog . Fantastic start Matt and a great example to the others! Here are Matt's audio projects.

The vox pop

The Cojack interview

Jessie's blog

When I have the other blog addresses I will add them. In the meanwhile you have to confirm your email address now with DIVSHARE before you can share your files etc. I need the EMBED codes to place the players in a post - like I have with Matt's.

Mike J

Working via a browser with iGoogle

2008-09-25T00:59:00.004+01:00

Hi All,

welcome back after the summer break. The semester has kicked off with a particularly busy week for staff, Freshers and returning second and third years. As everyone gets sorted out I was thinking about detailing the use of iGoogle . IGoogle is your personalized Google page. You can add news, photos, weather, and stuff from across the web to your page. It works as a launch pad for all the various strands of your online life. As part of the course I am course leader (FD Broadcast Media) on the students have to write and maintain a blog. We use blogger for this. Blogger is owned by Google. When you get a gmail account you effectively get a Google ID. So that its easy to set up a blogger blog. And then, if you want to take it further you can set up your own iGoogle page. Once you have logged into it you can access your mail and blogger account from within iGoogle. You can also add a number of other panes onto our iGoogle page. Naturally all will be there whenever and where ever you log in.

For example on my iGoogle page I track postings via the Google reader , my bookmarks via my delicious account, my google bookmarks, my facebook account, and my gmail account inbox. From the interface I can access google maps, Picasa (my photos - uploaded with the Picasa Mac uploader direct from iPhoto), Google video (my videos - uploaded with the google video uploader). Then there are google docs - presentations, spreadsheets and text (word) documents. These are stored online and therefore editable and via the browser and iGoogle. All these services use the Gmail 2 gig of storage. (Except google video - I think)

Are there alternatives? Yep few are so integrated. But there are sometimes outages on some of the services and I think the interface clunky. I use Firefox as my preferred browser - having moved to version 3 I can no longer use google sync. This was a Google facility accessed via a firefox extension that saved all the changes i made to the browser. This meant that I could synchronise my copies of Firefox. So all the bookmarks and toolbars home and away were the same. Google have discontinued this service so that it no longer works with Firefox 3. However it will still work with version 2. Sadly I found version 2 slow and buggy - 3 is a marked improvement.

Some other alternatives that are worth a look are buzzwords and Photoshop express . Both from Adobe with 2 gig of storage - each one! Beautifully designed these word processor and photo editor and storage are better than both Google Docs and Picassa. But iGoogle is probably handier at the moment. Will Adobe add more features and intergrate the lot?

Radiohead push the technology

2008-04-13T07:42:00.002+01:00

Having upset the apple cart by releasing their last album (Rainbows) for as much as you want to pay - or not. Radiohead have set up a competition for anyone to storyboard a video for them. Hosted on anibom.com . You can upload an animated storyboard (or just a storyboard) to the site. The 10 "semi-finalists" will be selected by audience ranking. Each semi-finalist
will be given $1,000 to create a one minute video clip based on their storyboard. The winning video selected by Radiohead will receive $10,000 provided by aniBoom to create the full music video within a time period to be determined by aniBoom. The final video will receive web-wide distribution with marketing support by aniBoom. Great idea. Take a look at the entries.

Useful FREE Apple seminars

2008-04-01T13:49:00.002+01:00

Apple offers a range of seminars with are delivered online. Here are some that might appeal to you:

The Podcast Recipe: Producing a successful show. Find out what it takes to perform a great-sounding podcast, produce a professional show, and promote a podcast to reach as many people as possible.

Enhancing Video Podcasts with Final Cut Studio. Add chapter markers, titles, images, and URLs to your podcast and produce video and sound with Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, QuickTime Pro and Compressor.

Making Music on the Mac with GarageBand . Tune in to this free online seminar and learn how to transform your Mac into a musical instrument and record new and inspiring masterpieces.

Creating a Rich Media Podcast with Final Cut Pro . Brian Storm shows news professionals how to use Final Cut Pro to take digital storytelling to a whole new level with rich media podcasting.

the second semester

2008-02-08T11:56:00.000Z

Well its very nearly the start of the second semester. We'll be tackling writing for the Media and starting to work with images and video. Find the instructions for your mobile phone's camera function - you are going to need it.

regards, Mike J

A late Christmas present?

2008-01-17T19:50:00.000Z

Just released Cinemizer headset, which is designed for use with video iPods, as well as other devices with a standard AV output. It marks a push into the consumer entertainment for the company, more famed for its camera lenses, industrial and medical applications of its expertise.

The headset - worn like a pair of glasses - includes a screen for each eye, and uses the company's expertise in optical technology to show video as though it was on a 45" display at just a touch under two metres away. Each display can be individually adjusted between -3.5 and +3.5 diopter to cater for eyesight issues like near and farsightedness.

The device will go on sale in Germany in February, with a US and UK launch planned for the second quarter. The suggested price in Germany will be €369, and five colours will be available. (Source MacUser website)

Awesome. I want one!

Visiting speaker

2008-01-15T11:01:00.000Z

We have Rob Bayly coming to talk to us on Friday 25th. Rob is a Director working for BBC Bristol Docs. & Contemporary Factual TV. His series of largely self-shot format documentaries following British families testing emigration to Australia/ New Zealand is currently on BBC1. To prepare yourselves for meeting Rob you can watch his work on the (now mac friendly) BBC iPlayer.

The King Family

Revell Family

As you watch the Programmes ask yourself:

How any particular sequence/ situation happened on Camera?
How much was set-up by Production?
How much was spontaneous or Documentary?"

Rob was Series Director on these (20 x 45 mins). He is a very experienced self shooting director producer and this a really great opportunity to understand this important and increasingly common role in TV. At the BBC Rob has been involved in training junior self-shooting directors. He is a regular mentor/instructor at BBC Elstree Staff Training. So make the most of his visit.

Blogs in Plain English

2008-01-11T00:46:00.001Z

Here's "blogs in plain english'. It explains the how and why of blogs rather well. Could you do better?

Editing masterclass

2008-01-03T14:37:00.000Z

Hi Guys,

I hope that you had a great Christmas. Have you subscribed to the BBC Film Programme podcasts yet? Check out this one - an interview with Martin Scorsese's editor of choice Thelma Schoonmaker. She talks interestingly about how she and Scorsese work. She mentions plenty of classic movies. There's plenty to enjoy here. Then check out the movies! You'll be editing too next semester! Happy New Year. See you next week.

regards, Mike J

From Trad to Rad?

2007-12-13T17:44:00.000Z

NBC is no longer using iTunes to make its content available. However its working on other ways of providing content and spreading its services. NBC Direct is currently in beta but illustrates a modern, practical and flexible approach from NBC. Here is a traditional linear broadcaster reaching out to both VOD and peer-to-peer file sharing to provide a HIGH DEF service. (Techcrunch.)What an awesome combination! The continuing problem of bandwisth presents a problem for companies wanting to provide high resolution video. We guess that people want this - look at the sales of HD TV's. The trad Companies need some way of separating their content from Youtube's frame rate and frame sized reduced output. Quality is their selling point and they therefore put distance between themselves and UGC. If you get paid for your content does that make it professional? Well, YouTube wants to give you some of that crazy Google money. If you make the cut, that is. After half a year of testing out its Partners program with 100 lucky YouTube contributors, YouTube is now accepting applications from all comers. Tell them why they should give you the money and they might enroll you in their revenue-sharing program. If they feel like it.

what's THIS got to do with broadcasting?

2007-12-06T09:38:00.001Z

Here is a thought provoking piece of video. It attempts to squeeze a huge concept into a small package. Does it make sense to you? Comment...

Free magazine - online

2007-12-06T08:41:00.000Z

COW Magazine ISSUE 7 -- Nov/Dec 2007.

In this issue of Creative COW Magazine, you will meet one of the men that made Max Headroom such an 80's icon. He'll share strategies and how it all came about, including some of the techniques used. One of the members of the legendary Robert Abel & Associates team takes you inside some of the earliest uses of CGI and how these commercial techniques preceded their later use in the world of film. You will also be taken inside a direct response advertising expert's world and how it works and why. You will also learn how one man made a commercial that you would swear used 3D software but doesn't. You will discover five ways to get control of your billings and make more money with less stress. Watch as one woman handles 11 deadlines a day -- and you thought you had it bad, eh? Learn an artist's secrets for high-end graphics workflows. And take a tour of drive technology of the past, the present and the future. Well worth a look

User generated content

2007-12-04T15:42:00.000Z

Here's a recent lecture from the man behind the Creative Commons movement that we have discussed in sessions before. He presents an interesting case for changes in copyright control which are needed as a result of technological changes and the way people use media.

Recent 'film' firsts

2007-12-01T11:04:00.000Z

As we start to see some of the ramifications of the spread of technology on the traditional forms of distribution - whether by broadcast or otherwise - there were a couple of interesting firsts recently. Rune, a movie, was premiered exclusively on the iPod and 'released' exclusively and free via iTunes in September.

"We felt Rune's distribution method should be as timely and as comprehensive as possible, and the burgeoning popularity of video iPod and digital downloads gives any filmmaker unprecedented access to a wide audience," said writer/director Arayana Thomas. "It's the new movie theatre for independent filmmakers."

Download it yourself from iTunes or directly from the creators site.

In the past filmmakers have sort interesting ways to distribute their work as well as promoting their skills. '4 eyed monsters' was released in its entirety on YouTube in June this year.

It joins some other notable web based films such as the 911 documentary 'loose change' (it explores the possibility of a cover up in the coverage of 911) and 'stealthisfilm' (Peer-to-peer distribution). These stories raise all the issues we have looked at over the semester in terms of regulation, controls and freedoms as well as changes to the structure and technology of media distribution. Whats going to happen next? Someone might shoot a film and make it ALL available for download via Peer-toPeer and invite anyone to re-edit it! Well its happened. Bruce McDonald's Tracey Fragments is being offered in exactly this manner. (That's about 36 gigs of rushes and Final Cut Pro files!)

Kraftwerk: We are the robots - sound pioneers Kraftwork

2007-11-24T11:41:00.000Z

Check out this 3o min documentary on Kraftwork. You might find it interesting in terms of sound and sound design. Kraftwerk: We are the robots . Marc Riley traces the career of Kraftwerk, whose 70s electronic music owed more to the experimental German classical compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen than to any pop tradition. When you've listened comment on it here. Enjoy. (I've fixed the link now Kym)

User generated content

2007-11-23T13:29:00.000Z

There is an enormous amount of material provided by people who are not media professionals. Referred to as User Generated content (UGC), some is obviously derived from consumers while at other times its less clear. Even the Royal Television Society has an award for the best use of UGC. This was recently won by Sky News " in recognition of its groundbreaking work in getting users involved in content and distributing video news." The UGC award was won by Skys's Green Week, which saw people throughout the country invited to help create a snapshot of climate change. In addition to special reports, exclusive interviews and practical advice, contributors were invited to make a video about the environment. Sky are not the only industry professu=ionals making use of UGC. Jake reports that Sony and Yahoo have collaborated on a venture to use this content. Michael makes the point of the implications of the use of UGC on journalists and broadcasters. Rob also highlights the way that the media industry feels threatened by UGC and while they expect to be making money from it over the next few years they are unsure as to exactly how!

Blu Ray and HD DVD

2007-11-18T10:44:00.000Z

In this weeks session we talked about these competing High def DVD formats. Here is a basic round up of the formats. It should clarify the issue for you, albeit slightly!

NEWS from week starting 5th November

2007-11-08T19:08:00.000Z

How much to download music?

Several weeks ago Radiohead released their latest album 'In rainbows' by making it available for download at whatever price the customer wants to pay. As a differnet approach to marketing and pirating it has been closely watched by the record and media industries. In July Prince provided his Planet Earth LP free with the Mail on Sunday provoking anger from the music biz and retailers (see this guardian piece). Free CD's on magazines are not new - they provided the lynch pin for Bath based Future Publishing - but this was the first studio album. (BBC website). However for Radiohead the figures are now coming in and showing that rather than downloading the album from the Radiohead website fans are still preferring to use bit torrents provided by Peer-to-peer sites. Why might that be?

A recent Canadian commissioned survey on P2P found that Down loaders actually buy MORE music. So why the fuss?

Copyrights

2007-10-26T05:25:00.001+01:00

The copyright issue is a real minefield and the Creative Commons solution attempts to propose a practical contemporary solution to the problem. It isn't universally popular however. It offers a range of licenses based on what people might want to do with material. What do you think?

Further to last fridays session

2007-10-21T20:51:00.000+01:00

If you want to listen to more about the BBC Cuts and the likely affects the most recent edition of Feedback would be a good place to start. Other BBC Radio progs that might appeal and are available via 'listen again' or podcast are:

The Film Programme

Front Row

The Leading Edge

Soundscape: the sea swallow

There are plenty of other programmes you might find interesting. Have a go at using iTunes and subscribe to a few and download them. You should get familiar with some of the programmes formats.

Now you have a blog

2007-10-11T13:15:00.000+01:00

I showed you briefly the google reader. This is a popular feed reader and using RSS will tell you when someone writing a blog has added a new posting. Since you have set up Blogger.com accounts and Blogger is owned by Google its easy to use the same ID and password etc. If you have a GMAIL account, then its even easier.

There is plenty of help on the net. These are on Youtube - setting up a google reader, adding feeds and managing feeds.

They are quite short tutorials - you could figure it out for yourself. But they might save some time and confusion.

If you're interested you might want to watch the del.icio.us tutorial. What is it? How can you use it?

round up late wed

2007-10-10T22:14:00.000+01:00

Great to see you all trying hard. Some really impressive starts. We will work our way through your research in fridays session. I have left comments on each of the blogs. Several have room for further work before friday. There are a couple of blogs missing - hopefully they wil be up before then. Use the links and view and comment on a few blogs too. regards, Mike J

Welcome

2007-10-08T20:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Guys,

welcome to the world of blogging. As each of you get going I will add links to your blogs from this blog. You can use it as a way of checking what all your colleagues are doing, saying and learning.