Free Culture, Free Society

"Our current culture is one in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past" - Lawrence Lessing (2004) Free Culture

This week's lecture entailed discussion about creative commons, which started in December 2002.and is a non profit organisation which promotes reasonable copy right. It enables creators to make their work available by being able to freely use and modify other people's works to create something else and share medias. So instead of having all rights reserved it demonstrates some rights reserved which is a much more relaxed copyright system.

Additionally we discussed free software, where Richard M Stallman started the free software foundation in 1981, however the name free software then changed to open source. There are two types of software propriety and open source. Propriety software is a closed source where you cannot legally share or copy for others. Examples of this are; Windows, MacOs, Internet Explorer, Photobucket etc. On the other hand we have free software, where you can share it with other people and anyone can see it, edit it and use it. Examples of this are: Firefox, Linux, Open Office, VLC etc.

Short Video

I had a look around to see what photos I had on my mac and thought these would do the trick. I found iMovie really easy to use, however I did use it years ago but it was an older version and forgot. I also never new you could film on photobooth, I thought it just took photos, which is really useful. Adding photos, clips and music to iMovie is easy and I chose a theme too, which makes it a bit more interesting to look at.

Consumption and Production

This week's lecture was about consumption and production. Josh discussed that the media was best shared with the public through cinema as it is a public shared place with lots of people. Secondly there was the television, which is shared within the home or privately consumed. Thirdly there was the personal computer which is both private and shared. Josh also spoke about the small screen such as fixed media players, personal media platers and mobile phones. He then talked about how we are consuming more media then ever before not only through cinema, tv and computer but through mobile phones where you can receive news, sport etc. Although there is a large amount of consumption he went on to discuss production. People are producing media such as fan films and fan edits with extra content from dvds. Josh showed us some fan made trailers which were quite entertaining and smart, however they were originally consumed at first. Additionally we watched a short youtube clip of a film made entirely on a cell phone which I thought was touching. I've posted it below.

3D Worlds and Socialising on the Internet

The 3D chat room environment I chose was habbo hotel. Firstly I registered and designed my little made up character and got chatting. There are a range of different places in habbo hotel to chat, such as, party rooms, dating rooms, trading rooms, game rooms, the pool etc. I can definately tell that majority of the users are young, ranging from 10 - 16 years old. I found this out because people were telling eachother their ages and the content of the conversation was definately immature. Personally I rather talk to my friends and only the people I know on msn messenger for several reasons. Firstly, I know exactly who I'm talking to, we can send songs, files to one another and thirdly, it's realistic! However if I was young, naive and bored habbo hotel would be a fun place to play games, meet new people and hide behind a fictional character. The 3D aspect of habbo hotel might help make chatting more exciting for younger people but for me it was actually tedious going on to the site. Ultimately if you want to simply talk to a friend in a personal atmosphere then instant messenger is the way to go, but if you want to talk to people you don't know, play games and interact more then the 3D chat world is best for you.

Media? Web 2.0? Social Media?

This week's lecture was all about the internet, technology and media. Technology is the actual physical object, whereas media is used for social and cultural communication where technology becomes the medium for that communication. There are certain themes for internet studies such as; virtual community, where people chat to each other long enough to form real feelings and relationships. Another theme is individual identity, where we can create ourselves over the internet through facebook pages, blogs etc. The internet is becoming increasingly popular and becoming normal to meet people with similar interests to you. It may be hard to meet someone in a bar, who probably doesn't hold the same interest as you but you can do specific searches on the internet. There is a new element called ego centric social network where the focus moves away from groups to you, the individual. Take example myspace, where people take countless photos of themselves and talk about themselves like they're advertising themselves to the world.



Then comes web 2.0. Out with the old and in with the new. Web 2.0 features folksonomy, using 'tags' on posts or items, the idea of user-generated context, where people make stuff such as photos, videos and put them on the internet and open API, where you can share data between services. Additionally there is social media which features blogs, social network services and content sharing communities. However with all these exciting new features, our personal details are becoming more easily accessible and it's our privacy we need to think about.

Language of Cinema

Week three's lecture was about cine-speak, which is learning the language of cinema. There are many different shots to create different effects and meaning. Therefore, the close up answers the question of 'who' by showing the character in detail. The mid shot answers the question of what by showing the actor in action. The long shot answers the where in the establishing shot. The wide shot and the close up can answer the when question, however time can be a difficult thing to capture on screen. The big close up can answer the why question by revealing more about the character, trying to see inside them. To answer how we can use a single medium shot or a range of close ups to explain an event. 

Additionally there are other elements to cine-speak such as; headroom, talking room, rule of thirds (balance in a shot), the 180 degree rule where there are cameras on one side of the event, inserts and cut aways (providing extra information inside or outside the scene) and most importantly the scene needs to make a statement and drive the narrative forward.

Video Killed the Radio Star

Just a funny vid about video taking over radio and how technology is always enhancing.