A2: The Matrix, Social Networks & Self-made Prisons

The Matrix is real but it's not a product of mainstream media. It's self-made, constructed by the public, proliferated by social networks. We are (knowingly) constructing personalised prisons for our minds; our realities essentially giant filter bubbles, made up of ideologies we accept. We are turning ourselves into thoughtless, marketing machines, exploited by the highest bidder.

Sounds scary doesn't it!? However, the more you think about it, the more 'real' it becomes...

During the first week back I want to make a more congruous link between the work we did on 'digital self' and Baudrillard's theories of "hyperreality" explored in 'The Matrix'. 

We'll be looking at, analysing, evlauating and debating the following material. If you've got your essay out of the way, then you may want to get a head start...

Sherry Turkle: Aspect of The Self

Danah Boyd: Incantations for Muggles: The Role of Ubiquitous Web 2.0 Technologies in Everyday Life

Steven Handel: The Dark Sides of Our Digital Self

Christine Rosen: Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism

Pieter Boder: Habermas' heritage: The future of the public sphere in the network society

Cass Sunstein: The Daily We - Is the Internet really a blessing for democracy?

Helen Keegan: The Paradox of Openness: The High Costs of Giving Online

---

Thanks go to Catherine Cronin for sharing the material for her 'Social Media Classroom' online.

Remixing with X-Ray Goggles!

This afternoon A2 Media students had their first foray into learning to code, remixing websites using Mozilla's X-Ray Goggles. Here's how they got on...

Remixed by Josh
View Original

Remixed by Lucy
View Original

Also remixed by Lucy
View Original

Remixed by Danni
View Original

Remixed by Hannah
View Original

Remixed by Alice
View Original

The Fix Factor?

An article on the Daily Mail's website presents an argument whether or not "The X-Factor" is fixed after last weekends result. This would be irrelevant unless we understood mediation and how media control the outcomes and (re)presentation of certain events. This is a small-scale scenario but this can be extrapolated to television and the news channels creating and masking the truth for their own agenda. Well worth a read.

Click here for the article - Daily Mail.

Other article - Unreality TV.

Postmodern culture

The Art of Film Title Design

A title sequence should be more than just the beginning of the film…

Blogging and Research

Melissa emailed me and asked if she was on the right track with her blog. I was happy to oblige and found that she was making good progress. I felt that it was also an opportunity to impart some advice and guidance about what she should do next, particularly in relation to the research she is doing into the Thriller Genre.  As I was finishing up the comment I realised that this was useful advice for everybody, so here it is...

"Some advice... 

The post above looks like the result of 'Secondary Research', e.g. you looked things up on the web? Am I right? If so, then you should reference the websites that you drew the information from. 

This research is a great start. Now, I would recommend that you watch some openings and analyse them technically: camera, editing, sound, mise-en-scene. This is another area where the two sides of the course cross-over. :-) 

Also, aim to be 'completist'. I liked that you posted about camera techniques, including examples. You could tie this into the task above. Watch 4 clips. For each one, analyse one area. E.g. watch the opening sequence of 'Lost Highway' by David Lynch and analyse the use of camera work. Then watch the opening of 'Se7en' and analyse the mise-en-scene. And so on. It will help you develop both an understanding of the technical codes and conventions of thrillers while also helping you to develop your skills of analysing specific features."

To summarise:

• Reference sources
• Complete textual analysis of thriller openings
• Break that analysis up into specific areas to focus your learning/understanding

Student Presentations

Your presentations have been up loaded to Vimeo. (Click on the link below.)

To embed them on your blog:

1. Find and click on your groups video from "Student Presentations" on Vimeo.
2. When your video has loaded, go to the top right of the player, where the "Share" button is, click on it.
3. A dialogue window will appear, on the right there is the code for embedding the video.
4. Copy the code, (if you want to customise the video player e.g. the width and height, click on the blue text at the bottom "customise embed options")
5. Now go to your new blog post where you went to embed the video, click on the HTML tab at the top.
6. Paste the code into here and then go back to the "Compose" tab to see your video within your post.

AS 2012 Student presentations

[TV Drama] Primeval (Representation of Gender)

Here is the clip we are currently analysing. It was used for the OCR G322 Exam in June 2010.

Remember your focus is the representation of gender. Use and build your knowledge of camera, editing, mise-en-scene and sound, adding detail to your notes. You might choose to do this on your own or as a group.

You can see all of the past clips from OCR G322 Exam in this playlist.