Final thoughts on #BDC192

Here we are, the final week of BDC 192. A little sad for me - I genuinely enjoyed the course, and counted it among my favourite classes this semester. I felt like I could take something away from every lecture, I threw myself into the assignments with enthusiasm, and made quite a few friends in the lab.
Despite the early lecture time, I didn't find myself dozing off anymore after the first couple weeks. Part of this was thanks to the "cool finds" Laurie showed every week, which I always looked forward to. One in particular that I liked was "Her Morning Elegance" - I actually downloaded the song afterward.

I've definitely been affected by the course. Not to brag, but I think I'm pretty good at After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator, and it's sparked my interest in graphic design. My trailer for "White Chicks" in particular is a piece I'm really proud of, and I could see myself doing work like that in the future. Maybe not as my main profession, since I feel called toward on-air work, but it would be really cool to apply myself creatively to graphic design on some sort of professional level.

(c) William Reid

All in all, I think the big thing to take away from BDC 192 is that there is a lot more to digital media than meets the eye, and a lot more ways to apply these media than one might think. Whether in the realm of internet, TV, radio, gaming, or any other branch of digital media, there is a lot of room to be creative.

Interactivity + Web Media

This week's lecture was particularly interesting, because an avid web media user and gamer, the content of the lecture was particularly intriguing. Here are three concepts that particularly stood out to me:

1) Gamer demographics
I was really surprised by some of the statistics related to gaming. I never would have guessed that the average game purchaser is 39 years old, but thinking about it, it kind of makes sense; if the statistic is related specifically to the purchaser, parents are usually the ones who buy games for their kids. Which, as long as middle-aged parents aren't buying Grand Theft Auto for their 10-year-olds, is reasonable.

2) Alternate Reality Games
I'm a little unsure as to whether or not The Sims counts as an ARG. I don't think it does, but from the moment ARGs were mentioned in lecture I was pondering this for the rest of the session. Technically it does take place in an alternate world, but this world shuts down when the player signs off. Plus, there aren't really plot-based puzzles, and it doesn't technically take place in real time. A bit of a shame, really, since I've been an avid Sims gamer for over five years. Perhaps a slightly closer comparison could be made with the Nintendo title, Animal Crossing, which actually does run in real time and continues to progress even when the player isn't gaming. I haven't played the game in years but I think I still have the GameCube disc, so it might be interesting to pull it out and see what's happened in the world of the game since I last played...

3) HTML
Before the lecture, I understood what HTML was and had a basic knowledge of how it works, thanks to my experience on fan pages and message boards. However, I didn't really have a thorough knowledge - not to say that I do now all of a sudden, but I now realize there's more to learn. Essentially, my ability to code HTML doesn't reach much further than embedding content, such as pictures and YouTube videos, as well as basic things like bold, italics and underline. I learned, in very basic terms, how to code a website in high school through Dreamweaver, but clearly there is a lot more to know.

Sneak Peek: Motion Graphic Assignment

Only a few more days until the motion graphic assignments are due! Unlike most people, I'm not using filmed footage; instead I decided to generate my content digitally. Using the movie "White Chicks" as my subject, I've come up with a few cool ideas (at least, I think they're cool).

For my title card, which will end the clip, I thought I'd give the logo a 3-dimensional look, so that it doesn't just look like words on a screen. I used the drop shadow, bevel and emboss, and stroke features in photoshop to do this. Also, I've used stick figures as the I's in both words, because it ties into the rest of my clip.

The movie's plot involves two black FBI agents going undercover as white women, so in asking myself, "how do I convey this extremely bold and profound concept in five seconds?", I decided stick figures would be the most unique way of doing this. Now it's just a matter of getting all my ideas into place to make a really cool trailer!

Internet Memes and What They Mean to Digital Media

This week, I thought I'd talk more about the online sensation that is the internet meme. Of all the topics we've covered thus far in BDC 192, motion graphics have been among my favourite, because I find GIFs so amusing. But GIFs only encompass a small subcategory of internet meme culture.
By definition, a "meme" is "an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior that spreads throughout a culture either vertically by cultural inheritance (as by parents to children) or horizontally by cultural acquisition (as by peers, information media, and entertainment media)" (UrbanDictionary.com). So an internet meme would be a meme spread throughout culture through the digital medium of the world wide web. This could include virtually (see what I did there?) anything that can be transferred online; pictures, videos, sound clips, etc.
One of the things I love about internet memes is that they make participating in the online world so much more fun. For example, literally anyone with an internet connection will tell you that wasting away hours watching popular YouTube clips is among the easiest things a human can do. Take, for instance, your average adorable cat video:

When someone sees something like this that they enjoy, they instinctively save/bookmark it, send it to their friends via a social medium like email or Facebook, or add a comment about the video in the box below the clip. And so, a meme is born.
Internet memes are also used to express emotions. More and more people take part in online communities, such as tumblr, Oh No They Didn't, and various other social spaces that are either general or more niche (e.g. a Harry Potter community message board). If a user wanted to express excitement, wouldn't it be more fun to post a GIF such as the one below, rather than type, "omg i'm so excited!!"

These are but a few examples of why internet memes are changing the way people engage digital media, but in my opinion, it's definitely not a bad thing!