Week 8 - Tutorial Task

Report on your progress of uploading your own one to two minute audio-visual production using still images, text, audio, or video and embedding it in your blog. Question: do you own this production? Consider whether you have created all the content yourself OR used content that is available to re-use under a creative commons license OR used freely available public domain material. Remember, you may only use creative commons material that allows derivatives to be made. If it specifies that you must share alike - then you must also share your video material under a CC license.

If you want to try using content that is freely available here are two places where you can find some content that you may use without breaching someone else's copyrights: CC Search, and a blog post with a list of free content providers. You may have to try a few of the places linked to from that blog post. Remember to attribute all CC content that is not yours in the credits of your video (or on your blog). Will you release your own work under a CC license, including your blog content?

Our group met on Tuesday the 13th of September in order to show each other our edited interview footage. Before hand I had interviewed two of my roommates asking them the five question we came up with in last week’s tutorial. I made sure I ask them prior to filming, "Are you willing to let us film, record and share your answers for the purpose of a Griffith university study." Once this was done I used my roommates MAC laptop to edit my footage on Final Cut Pro. This needed to be done in order to discover the important answers and to make time putting the whole video together a lot faster and smoother. On Tuesday all of our footage was put onto one memory stick and we went through and grabbed the best and most varied answers from all of our footage. We were unable to use everyone's complete footage as it would go way over the 3 minute limit and also some footage was clearer and louder than others. Jellan then took the footage home, to structure the final film. Jellan used iMovie, on MAC to compile the footage into one film. Putting the footage together was an issue, during putting all of our chosen answers together one of the interviews was freezing 10 seconds in which caused us problems. We then had to convert each piece of footage to mp3 in order to make them useable. This then caused a further problem, as the sound then became out of sync with the visual footage. It took a very long time editing and moving the sound, piece by piece to finally match with the visual footage. As for the introduction to the film we all put some ideas together and came up with, a school boy coming home from school and going straight on facebook, where he had a friend request from Denis Ferguson. This was filmed by Jellan, with his neighbour before Wednesday’s tutorial.

In our tutorial the next day, Wednesday the 14th of September, we used Jacqueline’s Mac, on IMovie to add the introduction to the interviews. We then created and added subject pages showing each question the interviewees were about to answer. We then needed to select music for the film. We originally through of using garage band to create our own soundtrack but figured using Creative Commons would be easier and quicker.

In out next tutorial on Wednesday the 21st of September, we added the credits and music to our footage. We were told to show our tutor our video before we uploaded it to YouTube to prevent any errors or law suits for compyrighted material. Unfortunately, due to copyright we are unable to upload our video to YouTube and must email it to our tutor instead. This was because of firstly, we need to get Facebook’s clearance on using their logo in our video and due to the lack of time, this wouldn’t have happen fast enough. The other issue we had was due to the fact that we created a facebook page for Denis Ferguson and used a picture we found on Google. As we do not own the rights to his picture we are unable to use it without permission from either the photographer or Denis Ferguson himself. Because there is so much media attention and legal restrictions surrounding Denis Ferguson the chances of getting permission would be very slim. To overcome this issue we therefore had to change the name to Peter File, and get a photo from Creative Commons, and we would then not be breaching copyright.

Week 8 - Response to Content

Report on some aspect of your essay preparation or class discussion on this week’s lecture and readings:

• Free Software and the Creative Commons

• Why doesn't strict copyright make sense for some things?

• What are the benefits of proprietary software versus free software?

• Where does free software come from?

• It is not illegal to share food or clothes or recipes, why should it be illegal to share software?

• What is the difference between free and open software?

• Why is free software important for all computer users?

• Try some open source software and report back.

‘Free software is software that gives you the user the freedom to share study and modify it. We call this free software because the user is free’. (Lee, M. 2011). When using free software, you are given the choice to learn, and also share information with others. It allows people to share their knowledge and then for others to build upon that knowledge with their own. The amazing thing is, is that, you don’t have to be a computer genious to use the software it is made easy to access and readily available. It also releves the stress of being caught for copyright when copying information for a friend. Unfortunately there are some threats to free software which include digital restrictions management, Software patents and treacherous computing. These can cause problems to the use of free software. Overall free software is a very useful component for all computer users and is easily accessed.

Lee, M. (2011). ‘What is free software and why is it so important for society?’, Free Software Foundation, Viewed September 21st 2011, via https://learning.secure.griffith.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_101249_1&frame=top

Week 7 - Tutorial Task

Report on your progress in producing a video that you can embed on your blog. Remember, students can use mobile phones, home cameras or laptops to capture fresh footage that you definitely own the copyright to. It is a challenge and your grade will depend on how well you write up your experience.

Our group further discussed our concept this week and wrote down 5 questions to go away and ask 3 of our friends. The questions are:

1. Have you read the terms and conditions before setting up your Facebook account?

2. On average, how many times do you go on Facebook a week? 


3. CYBER BULLYING: 


Have you ever been involved in an argument on Facebook? 


-Would this be the same in real life?

-Has this lead you to delete or block people involved in this argument? 



4. Do you have personal contact information on your profile? 


5. Do you accept or add people you don’t know?

The first 2 questions are concerned with getting some back ground information on our guests and we then launch into the important questions about their privacy, knowledge and usage of Facebook.

We have to be aware about copyright in relation to using names, images, brands or logos in our film. Since we are going to be showing a Facebook page in our video we will have to research, if we are allowed to use the Facebook logo and homepage. Another issue will be the music we end up using due to the fact that we would be copyrighting it. Our tutor did suggest us to have a look at Creative Commons.

We thought it would be a good idea to make a plan, and decide where we want to be in terms of finishing our video each week. We decided to work individually at first in order to get our individual footage to a decent standard before getting together and puting the film together. We also have created an event on Facebook so we can all keep in touch and remind each other of our meetings and discuss any further ideas we may have.

Week 7 - Response to Content

Discuss issues that came up in the lecture:

*How is Wikipedia useful?

*Has anyone here edited Wikipedia? How hard is it?

* Why does Facebook work?

* What would it take for you to close down your Facebook account?

* Where is the profit to be made in produsage?

* Is citizen journalism the end of traditional journalism?

Or any other topics that emerge from the lecture and readings.

Wikipedia is one of the most well known and most used sources online, that people turn to for definitions or basic information on any topic you can think of. It is highly useful in the sense, as it gives you a basic idea of the topic and is extremely easy to use. It provides hyperlinks to definitions, for words people may not understand. There are however, many criticisms of Wikipedia and its credibility. It is stated in the First article journal that the ‘power structure within Wikipedia is invisible, vague and opaque, giving rise to a tyranny of structurelessness’ (Kostakis, V. 2010). Wikipedia is often seen as an unreliable source, as anyone can post ideas and information on the site; however it is most defiantly useful as a beginning to any research. With Wikipedia an individual can start with searching their topic using and then find useful references which will then lead them to the original text that the quote came from, which in most case will be a more legitimate and academic source than using Wikipedia.

Kostakis, V. (2010). ‘Identifying and understanding the problems of Wikipedia’s peer governance’, First Monday, Vol. 15, No. 3.

Viewed September 21st 2011 Via http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2613/2479

Week 6 - Tutorial Task

The challenge over the next three weeks (week 6, week 7, week 8) is to produce one or more short audio-visual pieces, preferably with a new communication technology theme, while all the time blogging about your experiences.

This week do a short report on different production tools that you might use and explain your basic concept in one sentence. Keep in mind

1) How you can add elements that you have created (photos, music, video from your phone etc) into the production,

2) Problems you may have with copyright over elements that you did not create and

3) The dangers of defamation (saying or implying something that harms another's reputation).

As I was unable to make it to the week 6 tutorial, I had to wait till the next week to be put into our groups. The next week however once we were put into groups, we began brainstorming and initially came up with two ideas; the first idea was to interview people about their thoughts on the neural implants and if they would be open to the idea. We then realised, however, that we would be limited to interviewing other students studying ‘New Communication Technology’ as they will be roughly the only ones with any idea of the pros and cons of neural implants.

The other idea was the one we decided was most appropriate and logical. We plan to research in the form of interviews and find out how individuals respond to the privacy of Facebook and the impact this has on their personal life. We will be using films to create our production. Based on our brief concept at the moment, it appears that we will not have any problems with copyright as we are not using anyone else’s material. We will be however, asking our interviewees if they are happy to be recorded when answering our questions, so we can use their responses in our production.

Week 6 - Response to Content

Discuss issues arising out of the lecture particularly why Hollywood is having so much trouble adapting to the rise of the internet. For it 116 year history, cinema has depended on technological change for its existence and then for the new developments (colour, sound, TV, recorders, 3D, VHS, DVD, CGI) that have kept the format fresh and interesting to audiences who can quickly become jaded. What makes the internet different? Is downloading killing Hollywood or could it be the path to new beginnings?

The internet has allowed easier access to films for the everyday person. Whether this is a good or bad thing for Hollywood films is unsure. The positives of the internet being involved with films are that, it makes it a lot easier to market films to a greater audience. Rather than wait for something to come into cinemas for people to hear about it they can now be advertised on line and with such websites like YouTube. it is also now easy to watch the trailer of movies and builds anticipation for the audience to when this film will come out. As Michael masciono states in his article 'Transforming filmmaking through crowd sourcing', 'Crowd sourcing is playing a more significant role in the development and marketing of certain kinds of films, especially independent and short films, driven by dramatically changing conditions in the independent film world.' Crowd sourcing has broad potential in filmmaking. It will likely have greater value in testing films with audiences, and it may contribute to the release of a greater variety of film versions on different platforms.

On the other side of things the internet has also allowed a person to download films online for free which leads to massive losses in the profit of the film industry. Traditional Hollywood films are also now being undermined by amateur films that are being released online for free for people to download. Not to mention that the internet has allowed anyone to upload their film and claim that they are now a film maker taking away the importance of it from classical Hollywood film directors.

Another clear example of how the internet can assist in getting your name known, as a film maker, is the film ‘The Tunnel’. Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey had a great idea to pay for the creation of their film via user donations. Once this occurred and the film had been made they released the film online for free. As stated by Ed Gibbs in his article ‘The Tunnel: going viral’, ‘then they would sell a special edition DVD off the back of the publicity, and screen the film at select theatres and special events.’ This was a great success and created a whole new side to the internet and its connection to the film industry.

Mascioni, M. (2010). Internet Evolution: Transforming Filmmaking through Crowdsourcing. http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=709&doc_id=190970

Gibbs, E. (2011). The Tunnel: Going Viral. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-tunnel-going-viral-20110523-1f0b2.html

(Viewed 4^th Sep 2011)

(Viewed 4^th Sep 2011)