Video Games and Me

Video Games and Me!

I have never considered myself to be a hard core gamer, however when tracing back my memories, I realised that I have been playing video games since I was about five years old. My first hand held console was a Nintendo wii which I had received for Christmas, this played an important role of my social life as I would always invite my friends round to play Mario kart or wii sports. I always remember having such a fun time playing these games as they were both engaging and competitive. Furthermore, the wii was a digitally convergent media type as it also allowed us to connect to Youtube, whereby we could also play music. My sister also had a Nintendo DS where we would play 'cooking mama' and 'Super Mario Bros'. I would say that this game was the most annoying but addictive game at the same time and I could not let go of the DS until I had completed all eight worlds of the game.

After my phase of the Nintendo wii, I became obsessed with my Ipad whereby I played games such as clash of clans, subway surfers, candy crush, angry birds, flappy bird and pokemon go. I used to take my Ipad anywhere and play these games, both alone and with my family/friends. More recently, when my brother received a PS3 for his birthday, he used to make me play Fifa with him as well as call of duty; Black Ops. We used to play these games both in the living room and kitchen and when my cousins used to visit us, we would play as a group. However, now I do not play many video games as I have lost interest combined with a lack of spare time. Therefore, video games will always encapsulate a major time of my childhood life.   

Minecraft Mission

My Minecraft Mission!

Minecraft is the second most successful game of all time and for the first time ever playing it, I could finally see why! This incredibly addictive game is encompassed by a world full of textured 3D cubes, the game is free of structure and constraint allowing the user to explore, mine and build. Users are able to play on many digitally converged platforms, such as a PC, a tablet, an Xbox, Playstations...etc To date, over 121 million official copies of the game have been sold combined with over 16 million registered users. The innovative game was created and designed by Markus Persson. a game programmer, who also developed and published through his company; Mojang. A full version of the game went on release in November 2011.One may argue that the game was so successful as there had never been a game like this before! 

As a beginner in this new engrossing world of virtual lego, I found it very hard to get used to the free and open nature of the game. I found that I was just running around everywhere trying to find animals to punch. However, once I had mined some wood from the trees and built a crafting table, I started to try and build a house which ... didn't turn out so well. I mainly placed the oak wood blocks on top of each other, however, I did not manage to put a ceiling on my house or insert a door. Despite this, I made a sign using the pickaxe stating "Riana's palace" which is really quite contrasting. On the other hand, I felt more confident with the game the more I played it, thus enticing me to continue playing the game for longer.  

Latymer Radio Breakfast Show!

Riana and Livia's Latymer Radio Breakfast Show!

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

Livia and I satisfied both sets of criteria when producing our Latymer breakfast show. This is highlighted through the two snippets of contrasting song tracks as we played Rockstar by Post Malone juxtaposed with Beautifully unconventional by wolf Alice. The mainstream rap and modern hip-hop ‘Rockstar’ has been consistently playing on the Radio 1 Breakfast show, therefore it was a good choice. Furthermore ‘Beautifully unconventional’ is an example of an alternative English rock band. Radio 1 breakfast show provides a global platform for emerging UK artists to flourish, therefore playing this song was also an intelligent option. In addition, our radio consisted of three different jingles; the Radio Latymer jingle, the celebrity gamble jingle and the news jingle. Moreover, our radio includes a phone call from Jade, a fellow Latymer student, who stars in the main feature of celebrity gamble. As a result, the social media responses flooded into the show, with a special tweet from @BossmanMrsCobbet. Furthermore, our radio breakfast show comprised of a promo with the celebrity guest, Molly Foster, who is head girl at Latymer, which is relatable for the target audience. Our radio also includes two major news headlines involving a ‘Teacher Fight Club’.  

2. Have you nailed the conventions and style of Nick Grimshaw and the Radio 1 Breakfast show?

When planning our script for the Latymer Radio show, Livia and I ensured that we contained youth speak which is similar to Nick Grimshaw’s conversational style. Therefore, we added colloquial terms such as ‘lit’ and ‘true say’. Furthermore, we made sure that there was banter throughout the whole radio show as this is a typical convention of Radio 1 Breakfast show. We did this by incorporating as many jokes as we could into our everyday conversation as well as maintaining a lively, energetic and bubbly atmosphere like Nick Grimshaw does. Moreover, we made sure that our Latymer Radio show serves the three purposes of informing, educating and entertaining by including the news headlines and a diverse range of music. Another major convention of the Radio 1 Breakfast show is the audience interaction, which was evidenced through our game of ‘Celebrity Gamble’ whereby a member of the Latymer School called and participated in.

3. How did you manage your running order/ timings?

When we first rehearsed our script, we realised that we were over time, however only by 15 seconds. Therefore, we decided to cut out some of the dialogue which we thought was not as entertaining as the rest of our script in order to stay within the time limit of three minutes. Before recording properly, we ensured that all the IPads and IPhones were loaded with the correct songs and jingles and then we started recording on one of our phones as a practice run. This allowed us to have an idea of our time when rehearsing. Finally, we decided to actually record via the microphone and computer, however the timings were the hardest part of the task as we felt very rushed with playing all the sound effects and songs, therefore we made many mistakes, for example, when a song wouldn’t play or when one of us would mix up the words on the script.  

Music Video analysis - Castle on the hill

Castle on the hill music video – Ed Sheeran

1. Visual illustration of lyrics 

In the music video, Ed Sheeran is saying "I was running from my brother and his friends" which is evidently shown in the shot. The visual depiction of lyrics helps to create a nostalgic atmosphere as Ed Sheeran paints a memorable scene of his childhood adventures. 

 2. Varied and fast-paced Mis-en-scene

As exemplified in this shot, there are three different mis-en-scenes, however, they are formulating a linear sequence to the music video, as this music video is a mixture of both performance and narrative. This is a typical convention of music videos as it features jump cutting as highlighted in this shot. Furthermore, the low key lighting combined with the casual costumes illustrate a natural setting of the music video, whilst still creating excitement. 

3. Parallel editing 

                                                                             Parallel editing is a technique commonly used in narrative music videos. It is used to portray multiple lines of action, occurring in different places, simultaneously. In this shot, there is parallel editing to emphasise how all of his friends have grown up as he states what each one is doing currently; "One friend left to sell clothes, one works down by the coast, one had two kids but lives alone" This adds to the nostalgic ambiance as Ed Sheeran reminisces about when they were all friends. 

4. Variation of camera angles and shots 

As exemplified in this shot, there is a combination of a medium close up, extreme close up and an establishing shot. Music videos use a variation of these shots especially in narrative music videos to gain a connection with the protagonist and to magnify the emotions of the characters in the music video. Furthermore, the establishing shot gives the audience a sense of location, thus adding to the narrative. Also, later in the music video, there is tracking which is prominent in music videos as this includes the audience and makes them feel as if they are in the video. 



5.  Miming and lip sync  

                                                                     Miming is a well-established technique of the music video, the artists will often mime and lip sync in their videos to connect their image and performance to the sound of the song. As highlighted in the shot, Ed Sheeran is miming on the chorus of the song to emphasise the nostalgia that he inhabits.