Reflection: Understanding Hybrid Media
Add comment Posted in Abdia January 13, 2010
Evaluation Essay for 72-hours Challenge
1 comment Posted in 101MC - Personal Professional Development December 11, 2009
100MC: Session 8. Narrative
Add comment Posted in 100MC Key Concepts November 24, 2009
100MC: Session 7. Genre
Group 5a Individual Task
1. Look at range of media objects from an easily-identifiable genre that you really love (television, music, films etc.) and answer the following questions:
Changling (2008) and
Slumdog millionaire (2008)
• What elements of each of the objects seem to be the same?
Both films belong to the Drama genre. Changeling is based on a life story while Slumdog Millionaire is based the lives of poor children in India.
• What elements mark each object out as being different from the rest that you have chosen?
Slumdog millionaire is a drama with an element of romance. The two main characters fall in love. This is different to changeling which is also a drama however changeling is more psychological drama where a mother is in search of her missing son.
• How might ‘the audience’ understand the object?
When the audience watch these two films they will categorize them in the drama category.
• What kinds of pleasure might ‘the audience’ get from each object?
Slumdog Millionaire: Audiences will gain a better insight into the lives of others in this world. They will gain an opportunity to analyze human conditions. The story shows how some people have evil intentions (e.g. when Anil kapur gives Jamal the wrong answer). The story leaves the audience with a happy ending.
Changeling: The story is very well acted. It shows the struggle of a mother and how determined she is not to give up.
2. Find and interview at least one person
a) Who shares your love of the genre (not just one of the objects within it and b) who really dislikes the genre. Try to find out from those in the first category what they really like about the genre and if there is anything they dislike about it and from those in the second category why they dislike the genre and if there is anything they like about it. Make sure that you ask why!
Like & Why: I like drama genre because it always gives an insight into the human character. Some of the stories are based on real events and it shows the strength of these individuals. I generally like this genre.
Dislike & Why: I dislike it because it’s very boring. No don’t like anything in this genre. I feel that the story lines are similar and very little variation.
Add comment Posted in 100MC Key Concepts November 19, 2009
72 hours Challange – Change for Coventry
Change for CoventryChange for Coventry
Add comment Posted in 100MC Key Concepts November 19, 2009
The History of Google
100MC 72 hour challenge mark sheet15 October, 2009
The History of Google
The history of Google began in 1996 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin were both PhD students at Stanford University in California; they launched it officially in 4th September 1998. Today, after 11 years, the company has over 19 000 full-time employees and it is running thousands of servers globally and processes million of search requests each day.
Larry Page (born 26 March 1973) is a US Computer Scientist. He was born into a Jewish family in Lansing Michigan and his parents were Computer Science professors at Michigan State University. When he was six years old his attraction to computers started and he got to play with stuff lying around. In elementary school he became the first kid to hand in an assignment from a word processor.
Sergey Brin (born August 21, 1973), is a Russian-born American Computer Scientist. At the age of six his family fled from Russia for freedom from anti-Semitism and discrimination. They immigrated to the United States. He holds his undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland. He followed his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, by studying mathematics. After graduation, he moved to Stanford to acquire a PhD in Computer Science.
In addition to being the global most popular search engine, Google is also one of the world’s most powerful financial engines. When asked about how Google makes money, Page replied “Google gets paid for every search that happens. More or less, mostly through advertising,” Page said. “People pay for advertising. We are very lucky in that we chose to make ads relevant rather than having flash banner ads. It helps us have the best search engine. We also get paid by other companies, like AOL, that use our search engine.”
Google’s Financial Scorecard between 1999-2003
The beginning year – $ in millions, except as noted
THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
SALES 220 THSND 19.1 86.4 439.5 1.5 billion
EXPENSES 6.7 33.8 75.5 253 1.1 billion
PROFITTS -6.7 -14.7 7 99.7 105.6
CASH FROM OPERATIONS - - 31 155.3 395.4
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 (Q2)3
SALES1 3.2 6.1 10.6 16.6 10.6
EXPENSES 2.5 4.1 7.1 11.5 7.5
PROFITTS 399 million 1.5 3.1 4.2 2.6
CASH FROM OPERATIONS2 2.5 3.6 5.8 3.5
1excluding income taxes
2excluding investment in computing
3unaudited figures
Over the Internet we find a lot of other web search engine, for example, AltaVista, Dogpile, Zepti, Web Crawler, Meta Ceawler Web, Yahoo etc. AltaVista launched in 1995 before Google and I used to use it. The distinguishing feature of AltaVista was its minimalistic interface compared with Google. However I find that I can find more information such as images through Google than AltaVista. I have also used Yahoo’s search engine. What I find is that the Google start page is very simple compared to the yahoo one which is the reason I prefer to use Google most of the time. In my opinion there is too much information on the Yahoo webpage which distracts me. What I also like about Google is its other features like Google images, Google maps and Google Scholar. I particularly like using Google Scholar when looking for information in journals or Google Images when looking for an image.
In conclusion, in just 11 years Google has become one of the most powerful search engines in the worlds as well as a very powerful financial engine. I like using Google most of the time because it allows me to find the information I’m looking for in a short time.
Source:
The Google Story, David A. Vise
Abdiaziz E. Yusuf
Add comment Posted in 100MC Key Concepts November 10, 2009
Still Image/Exploring Space October 13, 2009
Still Image/Exploring Space
1. Richard Billingham
2. Lucinda Devlin
3. William Eggleston
4. Candida Hofer
5. Tom Hunter
6. Hannah Starkey
7. Jaff Wall
8. Gregory Crewdson
9. Andreas Gursky
“I was living in this tower block; there was just me and him. He was an alcoholic, he would lie in the bed, drink, get to sleep, wake up, get to sleep, didn’t know if it was day or night. But it was difficult to get him to stay still for more than say 20 minutes at a time so I thought that if I could take photographs of him that would act as source material for these paintings and then I could make more detailed paintings later on. So that’s how I first started taking photographs.” (Richard Billingham)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/billingham.shtml
/Abdiaziz E. Yusuf
Add comment Posted in 110MC – Media Practice November 8, 2009
Our group: The Cabinet of Curiosities
October 15, 2009
Our group: The Cabinet of Curiosities had discussed about 2 matters – Creativity and Critical and we find these things:
Critical:
1. Lighting
2. Sound
3. Acting
4. Costumes
5. Editing
6. Use of camera
7. Location
8. Plot
9. Improvement
Creativity:
1. Editing: Sound, Sequence
2. Mise-en-Scene: Set, location, costumes, lighting
3. Originality: why do we need?: Interesting, stand out, explore new
4. Development: Story line, acting
Group members: Abdiaziz, Tayo, Gov & Sabrina
Add comment Posted in 110MC – Media Practice November 8, 2009
100MC: Session 4. Audiences: The Passive Audience… A Simple Numbers Game?
100MC: Week 4 (26th October 2009)
Individual Task
In the UK, demographic classifications refer to the definition of social grade, which are used to describe, measure and classify individual of different social grade and income and earnings levels, for social commentary, market research, lifestyle statistics and statistical research and analysis.
The National Readership Survey (NRS) is a non-profit however commercial British survey concerned with monitoring, analyzing and providing calculates on the number and nature of dweller who read Britain’s newspapers and consumer magazines. The UK Institute of Practioners in Advertising (IPA), Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), and Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) are funded.
NRS has definite the social grade widely used as a generic source series for classifying and describing social classes, especially for consumer targeting and consumer market research by the advertising UK publishing sectors and media.
Social Grade Social Status Occupation
A upper middle class higher managerial, administrative or professional
B middle class intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1 lower middle class supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2 skilled working class skilled manual workers
D working class semi and unskilled manual workers
E those at lowest level of subsistence state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers
Add comment Posted in 100MC Key Concepts November 1, 2009
Film Review: Shinjuku Incident
Film Review: Shinjuku Incident
Steelhead (Jackie Chan) has mix of slapstick comedy with lighting-fast, “clown prince of kung fu” is his nickname. In recent years he has improved his acting skills and changed his image. Steelhead attempted to take on roles that more dramatic.
Shinjuku Incident is his new Hong Kong film, is stark contrast to his popularity, however rush Hour films. Chan’s typical films, Shinjuku is more violent, he and his director Derek Yee decided to not release the film in China due to they do not feel it will pass the government’s policy. Some of the violence has been cutting, however, they decided against it because they think the movie would lose of its honesty.
Steelhead went to Japan as an illegal immigrant to find his missing girlfriend, Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). Afterward of working low-paying jobs and starting to lose faith that he’ll find her. Steelhead sees her with another man. He knows that Xiu Xiu is married to a Yakuza gang leader called Eguchi (Masaya Kato, Godzilla) and she’s covert her name to Yuko.
After Steelhead’s mate Jie (Daniel Wu, Around the World in 80 Days) is struggled by a local gang, he (Steelhead) coordinates the other Chinese in the area to struggle back. After his group has a win encounter with the gang that attacked Jie, Steelhead becomes a community bellwether. Steelhead copes with Lily (Fan Bingbing), a nightclub owner, when protectes her from a robbery attempt, so they rapidly become friends with the possibility that their relationship may become more in the prospective. Also, he makes friends with a local cope detective, Kitano (Naoto Takenaka), later on he saves Kitano’s life.
Eguchi and the Yakuza eventually get mixed up with Steelhead, and the Yakuza hoping that he can use them to support set up legitimate businesses for himself and his mates. All interrupt breaks loose, when struggling begins within the Yakuza and greed begins to poison the minds of Steelhead’s friends.
Long-time fans of Jackie Chan perhaps are discomfited with Shinjuku Incident because the mix of kicks and laughs that has made Chan a worldwide star are missing here. The smiles and laughs so common in other Chan movies are replaces with anger and sorrow. The kicks and punches we all enjoy are substituted with knives slicing and swords and dicing off anything that gets too close.
Popular Hong Kong director Derek Yee, who also assisted write the story for Shinjuku Incident with Chu Tin Nam, keeps the tight and pace swift. The action films like a waterfall, not a meandering stream.
Jackie Chan may have the longing for many dramatic roles, however, he may not have the talent to achieve it. He really tries to take a more serious approach to his behaving in Shinjuku Incident, simply its a little difficult to consider after seeing him play so many silly characters in the foregone.
Nato Takenaka and Daniel Wu give strong performances. While Fan Bingbing and Xu Jinglei present that they don’t only have beauty, but talent as actresses as well.
For those facing for a familiar type of Jackie Chan movie, you’ll probably need to skip Shinjuku Incident and hope that he’ll return to his beloved form very soon.
2 comments Posted in 101MC - Personal Professional Development November 1, 2009
