News Task

1.Explain you role/responsibility within the team and the task. What were you required to do?

As part of the editorial team, my role was within the home page of the Mirror Online. I had to find pictures, headlines and section links for two news stories; Meghan Markle's american wedding theme and the freak weather in the UK. I also needed to provide the skin that went on the background of the webpage.

2. For one media form, describe the codes and conventions you chose to follow and explain their intended impact.

For the article titles, I tried to keep in the style of the mirror online by using puns and punchy lines such as "The american dream wedding" and "ice attacks". The usual attempt to be dramatic and add either scandal or humor to an article was what I tried to convey.

3.Explain how your choices reflect the real newspapers values and target audience

My choice of skin was a coca cola advert, displaying their newest products CokeZero and CokeLife. I chose this because as a mainstream newspaper, the ad would appeal to their middle age demographic (the chief shoppers in the household) and also the younger generations who would be more likely to consume fizzy drinks. The CDE readership also means that the readers would likely have less disposable income, and so would be more responsive to a cheap product.

4.Explain how your team adapted the news across the three different media forms an the reasons behind your decisions.

We knew that online would have minimal text, as it usually requires you to click on the article to read it. We knew for the print version there would be more copy on the front page, so tried to include that. For the social media, the emphasis for Instagram is more on the image itself, as its audience is more aesthetically focused

5. In hindsight, s there anything about your teams outcomes that you would adapt or improve?

I think overall as a team we worked really well and didn't have any problems communicating. Personally, in the online section i think we should've been more careful with measurements of pictures when printing out as we had some blank space around some of the writing which looked unprofessional. I also think we needed to be more aware of the colour scheme as a whole rather than our individual sections, keeping in my the red masthead and left wing (red) outlook and coordinating the colours more with that.

Minecraft Pocket Edition Gameplay video for Youtube

1. How I did it

I filmed myself on the ipad camera while watching the video I used, in order to coordinate my speech with the gameplay. I then inserted this into the top right hand corner as most of these videos do. I watched some videos on youtube to prep for how I was going to speak and describe the game. Most of the videos I watched are very casual and often funny, appealing not only to people that need to see how the game is played but also making it interesting.

2. How my video might attract the attention of Mojang/Minecraft and how it might influence them.

Firstly, being a female gamer, a minority of the Minecraft community, my video might be interesting to the company. I also tried to make my video fun and relate it to my own tastes, like focusing more on how my house would look and be arranged. I would hope Minecraft might also be interested in my style of gameplay, going back to basics with no mods, and also thinking about using these kinds of videos at beginner levels as well as professional.

Video Games & Me

At the current point, I play no games whatsoever. I'm not entirely sure why this is but I used to play a lot more in the past. At a younger age, around 7/8 I had a Tamagochti and regularly played on that, I also played many online mini games at home based around TV shows on Disney Channel and CBBC. At around 11/12 I had a PlayStation 2 which I used with a microphone attachment with friends or my sister to play two player singing based games like Singstar or American Idol. I continued to largely play games at home and upgraded to a Wii, branching out into more action/adventure games like Mario Kart and Wii sports resort. Often at friends houses, these same games would be in use regularly. I also played Just Dance very regularly and I think the period between the ages of 11-14 was the height of my gaming use. I also had a Nintendo DS and would play role playing games like cooking mama, ImagineDoctor and ImagingTeacher. With my increased use of portable modes of game playing like DS, my phone an iPad, I think the social aspect I used to have largely disappeared different reason for gaming. Rather than playing as a social activity, I began playing more as a boredom buster. As I got into year 10 and 11, I played on the train to school on my iPhone, games like temple run, candy crush and solitaire. These games were played more addictively than when I was younger and I got into the habit of playing these at the same times everyday. Towards the middle of year 11, GCSE revision put a stop to most of the iPhone games I would play as I lacked the time to try and try to complete one level and since then I haven't got back into the habit again.

Minecraft Mission

I have never played Minecraft before until today and this is my first attempt at building a house. It seems like something which, with a bit of practice, could become really challenging and engrossing. Using the iPad pocket edition means you can play this game in many different locations due to its portability. So far, it seems pretty solitary as I am the only player and this makes the game quite accessible to all times of day and lack of people needed to play.

My Breakfast Show Segment

1. Did you fulfill all the content requirements; both in terms of including all the correct features as well as the actual choices made?

We fulfilled all the criteria, the jingles, celebrity gamble feature, tracks, news report and celebrity guest promo. In doing these we aimed to add our own personal flare, as the radio 1 dj's do and also make choices similar to the ones the breakfast show would chose - particularly in terms of music, jokes and news features.

2. Have you nailed the conventions and style of Nick Grimshaw and the Radio1 Breakfast Show?

In terms of chat, we tried to create the light hearted, friendly style chat of the breakfast show. We kept our tones chirpy and upbeat and used direct address to involve the audience and create a more personal feel. For music, we used tracks that are currently in the charts and recently released to fit in with the aim for youth aimed, new and emerging music. We also finished our show with a track from Mabel, an emerging UK artist, to help achieve the aim of showcasing British talent that the show has. In celebrity gamble, we made small jokes at the expense of the celebrities keeping them mildly offensive and fun like Nick Grimshaw does. We chose news stories and slang that we thought would appeal to the target 15-29 year old audience. Also, we included klaxon noises that Nick Grimshaw often uses in the show and time checks that add to the "wake up" feel of the programme. We kept most of the show centred on the music, as they aim to do, discussing charts and artist news during the show.

3. How well did you manage running order/timings?
In a time limit of three minutes, our breakfast show ended up 2mins 54seconds, which overall we were pleased with as we managed this without any awkward pauses which would've increased our time otherwise. In terms of running order, all the transitions were smooth and we took care to have all the tracks we were playing lined up and ready to go. The use of the jingles helped to structure and break up the different segments whilst allowing us to have a break between speaking and think about what we would say next. The running order fit with the template we were given and we tried to stick to the allotted time for each segment.

Continuity Video

1. Explain the story of your video

We began with Abbie walking down one corridor while reading her folder and not looking where she was going. At the same time Ollie was walking down another corridor looking down at his phone. As they rounded the same corner they bumped into each other and crashed into each other. Ollie's phone fell to the floor and broke into pieces. He picked it up and then angrily shouted at Abby.

2.How did you attempt to create 'narrative flow' (continuity)?

Before we started filming we created a story board of the six shots we wanted so we could easily work out the postioning of the next shot and create a flow in the story.
We used an establishing shot of Abbie and then a reverse tracking shot of Ollie to make it clear they were both walking along corridors of the same setting.
The audience could preempt the crash as the motivation was clear (both of them were looking downwards,distracted) and the clear movement forward between shots created a match on action effect.
To create continuity we watched back over every shot of the crash and repeated the following shots a few times to ensure it flowed and looked realistic. We made sure positioning was the same in each shot so the movement looked continuous.
Oli had his hood up at the beginning and we made sure it was up in every shot so as to look realistic.

3.Did you achieve full continuity?If not, why not?

I think we achieved good continuity with the crash as we cut between the mastershot and the following mid shot of the crash smoothly. We followed the 180 and 30 degree rules so avoided losing continuity with change of viewpoint or jump shots.We could have achieved slightly more continuity in the shot with the phone on the floor, maybe some movement of feet or some dialogue to illustrate Ollie's annoyance could've helped add some more continuity.

4. In hindsight, what would you do differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more effectively?

The first shot is very central, compared to Ollie's shot where we clearly see him moving from right to left. We should have filmed at a different angle so it would be clear that Abbie was travelling from the left to right, in order for an audience to preempt a crash.

Acting wise - the acting could have been better if Abbie had had a more convincing reaction to the crash and Ollie a more angry reaction to his broken phone