Saturday 24 March 2007

MCS4120 - media research

6. "Lead time" is the amount of time needed by a medium to receive press material and then turn around a story for publication or airing. knowing the lead time eliminates the possibility of missing a potentially "hot" media opportunity.*

a monthly magazine - five to six months
a weekly magazine - one to two months
a radio news bulletin - two days
a daily newspaper - one to two weeks

7. Circulation is the number of newspapers that are printed and distributed each day.
Readership reflects the actual number of people who read those newspapers/magazines.

8. A News Agency is an organization established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade : newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters.^
- Agence France Presse (AFP) is the oldest news agency in the world
- Associated Press (AP) is the American news agency
- Reuters Group plc , news service - reports from around the world, but mainly supplying financial markets with information and trading products.

10. A News story in a newspaper is a story about an event that has just taken place.
A Feature is a detailed in depth story on a person, an issue or event.#


*reference for lead time

^more info here

#more terms here

Thursday 22 March 2007

Σ'αγαπώ

Δεν θέλω να δω το φως του ήλιου
αν δεν ξέρω πως απόψε θα κοιμηθώ στην αγκαλιά του.

Δεν θέλω να με δει το φως του ήλιου
αν η αγάπη του για μένα έχει χαθεί σε στενά δρομάκια.

Δεν έχω ζωή ούτε τη δύναμη να κρατηθώ
για να μην κάνω το κακό στον εαυτό μου.

Σε πλήγωσα αλλά το μαχαίρι κάρφωσε την δική μου καρδιά.

Ούτε ο αναστεναγμός ούτε το μοιρολόι θα σε φέρουν πίσω, μόνο η αγάπη μου αν την συναντήσεις κάπου εκεί στα στενά δρομάκια που γυρνάς.

Είσαι μια αγάπη , μια αναλαμπή στης καρδιάς μου την πληγή.

Είναι καιρός να μεγαλώσεις, να βγάλεις τα ψεύτικα στολίδια και να φορέσεις τα μεταξωτά μαζί με τα χρυσά.

Όσο ο καιρός περνά , τόσα άλλα χρόνια σου σκεπάζουν την πλάτη.

Μια ζωγραφιά που φτιάξαμε κάποτε μαζί, παίρνει τώρα μορφή και μου θυμίζει όλα αυτά που ζήσαμε σε μια αγκαλιά.

Wednesday 21 March 2007

Guest Lecturer - 21.03.07

Notes on Matt Flenders lecture from Edelman

What is PR?
A third party endorsement (get a journalist to cover your story, and appealing press release though is required!)
Build up relations with important people and give them as much information as you can. Dinners and coffee breaks are a good start...
Is all about reputation!

Audiences
Traditional media (newspapers,magazines,tv)
New media (internet)
Stakeholders (public or private sector)

define the media which is more relevant with your target group!

Media campaign on a company's profile awareness:
- UK national coverage
- Broadcast interviews
- Coverage in numerous European and worldwide press

PR in 21th Century
Things are changing through time!
- Social Responsibility
-obesity
-the environment
-New Media
-online news
-blogging
-social networking (myspace,facebook,etc)

Getting into PR
- Work Experience
- Graduate Schemes
- Necessary Skills (good writing skills, teamwork spirit, working under pressure,have general understanding of media)


Tuesday 13 March 2007

EDITING workshop notes

Program: Final Cut Pro 5

First
you should always allocate the scratch discs that you are saving your work in order to be able to have your work safe!

When you open first the program make sure is your work open because usually it opens the last project. File - close project / File - new project

Setting scratch discs - so all the folders will go and saved in one place -

File - Log and Capture

Capture settings - scratch discs

1st SET - find the scratch disc you wish to save your work on - choose

do the same act for Waveform cache
Thumbnail cache
Auto save cache

Inserting the tape in the console - carefully without pushing it inside by force.









Logging - change the description name every time you change subject and the reel every time you insert a different cassette

Your work area includes - the Browser / Viewer /Canvas /Timeline
If needed rearrangement - window -arrange - standard - in order to arrange your windows in a standard layout to work better.

2 ways of digitization

1. For single shots
To capture - press space bar to play the cassette - with (I) and (O) letters you can Mark In and Mark Out the piece of the cassette that you want to digitize.


When you press
(I) a mark appears on the deck control as mark then press (O) to mark out your capture. Play in and out to select you markings in exact seconds you desire.


To clear markings press control +click once and select from the drop menu clear in and out.

After you capture your scene have ready the mouse over "now" when click you are capturing the clip. "esc" to stop the capturing processes

2.For many shots
To capture - press space bar to play the cassette - with (I) and (O) letters you can Mark In and Mark Out the piece of the cassette that you want to digitize as mentioned before. After you mark your capture click log clip.This will appear on your browser menu as offline. Repeat this step as long as you need for your captures.

Batch - all offline items in logging bin
SAVE all your projects !!!!!

To make a new bin(folder) in the browser ctrl+click - new bin

At the timeline blue indicates video and green the audio

Click n hold to select and move the clip on the timeline and snap to the end. Space bar to play the clip. Black screen means that there is nothing on the timeline. Canvas replicates what is on the timeline.

Magnify - bottom line so it will fit all your clips when you have many.

When you click on the edge of the clip it edits the clip by making it shorter - to move it click on the middle of the clip.

When dragging a clip in timeline by drag n drop you actually copy it so you have the original clip on the browser.

Click on it and drag 2 or more clips at the same direction


Other option is to click and make a square to select and move.

Razor tool - click on it when you move it in the middle of the clip you want to cut.

Edit - undo to go back to the beginning and make sure you select the selection tool again

Effects - 2 clips together to make transition - effects panel - (make sure you are active on timeline) - video transitions - dissolve - cross dissolve

sequence - render all - render both (in order to play what you have edit)


P.S. I apologize for not having prt sc visual of the program but unfortunately i do not own a mac book pro and neither the final cut pro 5 program :( so visit the computer labs for more information:P LOL

MCS4110 Week6 notes

13.03.07

Light
The sensitivity of our eye is much more than the sensitivity of the camera!

Always take in consideration the Ambient Light on locations. (The received light in the environment)
Remember to use as much ambient light as you can and also think what kind of lighting can be used. Moving quickly through different location scenes can be difficult to use tungsten lights.
-Be aware of ambient light and general conditions of location
-Notice the dark areas - when becoming grain and noisy

always ask yourself:
CAN I SEE IT?
IS IT OVEREXPOSED /BURNED OUT?

make sure that the light on the skin is white!

Reflected light is really important
- use the ND of the camera to enable sunglasses when in sunlight
- use reflector board /white sheet/white t-shirt
- aluminum works as a mirror (you can crush up a bit the aluminum sheet to reflect in variety)

Shadows are our friends! - shadows make the images look more real and give depth and dimension.

Dimension is important in the image

Light can tell us the narrative as well as inform the viewer understand what time of the day is and also provide a sense of where we are.
-light can give a natural look to environment thats normal
-change of lighting can give a different look thats up normal.

The style of film can also be determine from the usage of different lighting

KEY : Hi-Key
bright light overall level of lighting/more colors
Low-Key not too bright light /a lot of shadows/ex. X-files, Films Noir

TRUST YOUR INSTINCT! if a it doesn't feel good change it/ let your emotion and instinct to guide. How do you want your project to fell?


3 Point Lighting
Placement of light
Light source
Inverse Square Log


Keep people reasonably close to the light source




Always remember to do White Balance. It should always be done before starting filming in order to choose the correct light environment. Light has different hue and color.

Yellow - inside / Tungsten =3200 k yellow hue
Blue - outside / Daylight = 5600k blue hue

SOUND
Think separate of image and sound. First test the locations of filming to identify the ambient noise.

When record interviews the sound should be "SYNC" synchronized sound lipsync - sound and lips of the interviewee should be synchronized and matching.

voice, facial features and how they communicate are really important so avoid recording the sound later and try to sync with the lips of the interviewee.!

Ambient Sound -consider locations sounds when recording
Dead rooms are more preferable for recording
Avoid rooms with echo (echooo ooo oo) add foam material - absorb sounds

Dead sound is really important

Picture should matches the sound on the background - the worst sound is the one out of your frame that interferes within.

When editing be careful with the background noise to have a continuity. To avoid this always record a BUZZ track - an ambient sound of your location and record it as separate track.

Don't be shy to ask someone to STOP making noise if interfere with your ambient sound and visual.
Drill/ A/C should be turn off at all times when recording

Wild track record specific noises in dead rooms that need to be record more closely. (Steps, animal sounds)

Narrative recording should be in a dry location with dead sound.

Music- try to find copyright free music in that way your video clip can reach a wider range of audience.

Mic's

Monday 5 March 2007

Ένα μύθο θα σας πώ.....

Ο Βοριάς, σαν περνούσε λυσσασμένος να φύγει, βλέπει να τον κοιτάζει μια όμορφη κοπέλα από το παράθυρο της. Ήταν η όμορφη Αμυγδαλιά. Ο Βοριάς την είχε ερωτευτεί και την παρακαλούσε νύχτα μέρα να βγει για λίγο να την αγκαλιάσει για μια στιγμή. Η μητέρα της όμως, την συμβούλευε να μην βγει γιατί το κρύο ήταν τσουχτερό. Ένα πρωινό, που η μητέρα της έλειπε, παράκουσε την εντολή της και βγήκε να χαιρετήσει η κοπέλα τον αγαπημένο της Βοριά που έφευγε. Ο Βοριάς τρελαμένος από την ομορφιά της και την αγάπη του γι αυτήν, την έσφιξε στην κρύα αγκαλιά του. Η Αμυγδαλιά όμως δεν αντε3ε το κρύο και έσβησε στην αγκαλιά του. Ο καημένος Βοριάς δεν άντεξε τον πόνο στη ψυχή του και μετάτρεψε την αγαπημένη του σε μια όμορφη Αμυγδαλιά όπως τη ξέρουμε σήμερα. Γι' αυτό και ανθίζει πρώτη απ' όλα και την βλέπουμε ανθισμένη το χειμώνα, γιατί βιάζετε να προλάβει να χαιρετήσει τον αγαπημένο της βοριά πριν φύγει.

Friday 2 March 2007

Νυχτοπερπατήματα

i have said i wont drink coffee again...but i can't! coffee for me is passion ...is love...even if it doesn't let me sleep tonight...i pay my debt...and i walk my thoughts through night and i express myself ....always wondering if its really me inside this....

Thursday 1 March 2007

Μάρτης


Καλό μήνα να έχουμε!!! άντε με το καλό να μας έρθει και η άνοιξη!!!

Have a great month!!!! waiting for the spring to come soon!!!

"Τον Μάρτη ξύλα φύλαε μεν κάψεις τα παλλούτζια"