OUDF 401 Practical

The male gaze powerpoint

View more presentations from Jestermation.

This powerpoint is what I chose to do in order to show that i understood the essay that we had to do. I chose to do a short presentation on how the Male Gaze theory effects how we view a text as well as what happens if it is inverted. 

Note Taking

In this lecture we had a brief guide to note taking.
Not alot was involved in it but we did learn some useful and reassuring things for future lectures to come.

• Title of lecture - this way you can go straight to the lecture you want and not get it confused with another lecture. 
• Key Points - take notes at whatever speed you can manage, try and fit as much useful detail in as you can but dont get overwhelmed. If you want you can refer to notes on moodle and take notes from the slides shown. 
• Summary - brief summery of what the lecture was all about and what you learned from it.  

 Be sure to try and paraphrase what it is your writing about or summarize what each lecture was about.
All in all this lecture will help us to further ourselves into taking notes more effectively in the future.

How To Skim read And Cite A Reference

In our seminar today we learned how to better ourselves at skim reading and citing references in order to help with our essay writing.

When reading through large chunks of text we learned to take note of anything that we find in the text that may prove useful to an essay or any writing related that we may need to do.
If we had our own text we could highlight or make a note of that page to go back to it at a later date.
We also learned that when picking out key points in text pick out important points within that piece of text to use for further literature searches.

Graffiti Street Art

In this lecture we studied different types of graffiti and street art and how it has developed throughout the years, from being known only as an output for vandalism to being regarded as a well respected art that is used in the media industry as well as to send messages publicly.

Graffiti artists such as Banksy use their art in order to spread messages and give public information.

Companies such as Vauxhall also use graffiti to create a more modern approach towards how they advertise, an example of this is the new Vauxhall corsa advert.

As well as advertising through street art, it can also be used to raise awareness to more specific audiences. Street art is commonly regarded as an act of rebellion directed towards teenagers and young adults. The Leith Agency uses this form of street art to attract said teens to watch their short anti-knife video, promoting a more positive outlook for youths through a medium often regarded as negative.

Through this lecture we learned that Graffiti, although still regarded as a rebellious act, has now been given a new life and shown in a more positive light as an actual art form used throughout the media industry in order to sell, promote and raise awareness about different issues in society.

Corporate Cannibal - Moving Image Analysis

Corporate Cannibal, Nick Hooker (2008) is a video written by Grace Jones and made as a single.
The video appears to be raising issues on the world today and how corporations can devour all and destroy seemingly without any backlash or punishment, hence the name "corporate cannibal."


The video itself is quite unusual as it is all in monochrome, only using different shades of grey, black and white. This use of colour gives the video a very dull and serious tone, establishing the deadpan topic that is being sung about.
The framing of the video isn’t varied as such, as it mainly focuses on medium head on shots, although sometimes the subject is shot from the side, I believe the reason that most of the camera angles are the same is because the makers did not want to detract attention from the actual topic of the song and wanted most of the attention to be focused mainly on the lyrics and topic raised in the video. 
 

The way that the film has been edited makes the subject appear chaotic, distorted and mutated which I believe are linked to the subject matter of the corporate and government worlds destroying the lives of others through their own distorted and mutated ways.  The way that Grace Jones describes these corporations and governments makes it clear what her opinions of them are. Comparing them to cannibals and Satan, stating that they are “man eating machines” that “make you scrounge” and also that “every man, woman and child is a target.” Through listening to the lyrics it is clear that Grace has nothing but hatred for the corporate society and believes that they are doing more harm than good.


My own personal response to this video is mixed, although this video has a unique look to it, being in monochrome the entire way through, I still found it to be quite bland and lacked occasional bursts of colour that perhaps may have made some more important parts of the song stand out more or be given more significance. The subject matter that this song raises I did enjoy however, as I felt I could relate to how Grace feels about the corporate world.

Typography

In the lecture we recently had we discussed the importance of typography and how big of an impact it can have on how we view and interpret a text.

We looked at various pieces of text and afterwards I looked at comic books to find examples of how the type is laid out to create different emotions and perceptions of how the character is feeling.

 

This is a good example of how text is used to create different atmospheres, the standard text in the top panel shows a more calm speech pattern, the later panels show how both characters are becoming more aggressive towards each other, indicated with more bold writing where words may be shouted, the final panel uses huge, bold and over exaggerated type to show the immediate danger of one of the characters attacking the other. 

I found the lecture on typography to be quite interesting as I think it will help me connote a more clear understanding of my own characters feelings with the correct typography and style of font.  

Postmodern Game

Postmodernism in Videogames:


All video games because they are digital constructions are in effect "simulacra" and therefore illustrate a key element of Baudrillard's view of the world of hyper-reality.

In videogames you can easily find examples of meta-reflections such as "Game Over" or "Round 1, Fight!" that appear on the screen of the player.


A videogame is self-referential in the sense that it acknowledges the technological aparatus of the computer and this can have a major impact of the player experience, a text reflecting on the fact that it is a text. It can be said that this is similar to "breaking the 4th wall" in cinema and theater. However, Rune Klevjer suggests that "game fictions are not delineated by a 'fouth wall' as they are in film or literature."

Klever would argue that its a mistake to apply this term to videogames because reality and fiction in games does not function as it does in traditional media but instead says that its useful to think about the boundary between player and fiction as a threshold rather than a wall.

Metal gear Solid (Konami 1998) is a good example of a game that refers to the apparatus it runs on, specifically the controller. An example of this is when boss, Psycho Mantis tells you to put the controller on the floor so that he can move it with his mind as well as claiming to be able to read his memory card, commenting on slopping saving habits.

Over the past few years this more direct approach of gaming has become uncommon as games are becoming more imersive.

Postmodern Film

Postmodernism in Film:

Postmodern films upset the conventions of narrative and characterization and also often interacts with the audience's suspension of disbelief to create a work that articulates its ideas or expression using the internal semantic codes and self-awareness.

Playwright Bertolt Brecht has proven important to the evolution of postmodern film in its early stages through attempting to "break the 4th wall" in order to try and empower the audience through doing things such as having the characters address the audience directly. This is known as "defamiliarisation."

A bout de souffle (Breathless), Jeam Luc Godard 1960, is a key early postmodern film about a young boy who moulds himself around the persona of Humphrey Bogart. The way that the film is shot and edited makes the audience very aware that they are watching a film and reflects postmodern ideas that no one can live an authentic life based on past grand narratives and self reflection.

A more recent example of postmodern film is Micheal Winterbottom's "24 Hour Party People" in which the character breaks out of his constructed film world to talk directly to the audience directly through the camera lens, this once again breaks the 4th wall.

What I think we have to question is as an audience do we want to be aware that we are watching a film or would we prefer feeling like a part of the film itself and becoming involved with the characters journey throughout the plot? Regardless it has to be said that "breaking the 4th wall" in cinema has becoming an uncommon sight in mainstream cinema and focuses on the story of the characters and involving the audience rather than reminding them that they have no role to play in the characters adventure. 

Modernism and Film

Examples of Modernism as Film:

• "The Fountainhead" - Ayn Rand
• "Things to come" - H.G Wells Alexander Korda
• "The Day The Earth Stood Still" - Robert Wise
• "Metropolis" - Fritz Lang
• "Spellbound" - Alfred Hitchcock
• "Un Chien Andalou" - Luis Brunuel, Salvador Dali

Examples of Modernism as Abstraction:

• "Colour Box" - Len Lye
• "Colour Rhapsodie" - Mary Ellen Brute
• "Disney's Fantasia Design" - Oskar Fischinger

Oskar Fischinger:

(mentioned above) devoted himself primarily to abstract animation. He synchronized his abstract films to phonograph records and live musical accompaniments. He did this because he believed that it helped audiences to grasp and accept the nature and meaning of his "universal" imagery. 

Modernism and the myth of the Artist:

Films about artists more often than not portray them as outsider characters or tortured geniuses.
Examples:

• The Horses Mouth.
• The Rebel.
• In the Realms of the Unreal about Henry Darger.
• Matthew Barney: No Restraint.
• Basquiat.
• In a Dream - Zagar.
• Frida.
• In the Bedroom.
• Almost Famous.
• Adaptation. 
• I'm not There. 
• Factory Girl.
• Immortal Beloved.
• Mr.Holland's Opus.
• Bleu

What I learned from this lecture is that Modernism can be conveyed through a number of different ways EG: engineering, film, art.

Transmedia

• Transmedia story telling is storytelling through a range of media forms with each element making distinctive contributions in order to understand the story world. Through these different formats "entrypoints" are created that make narratives that become immersive story worlds.

• Transmedia is as old as human existence. 
• Stories have been the content of our lives and the narratives are played throughout different medias are they are invented and developed in different societies. 

Word of Mouth -> Song -> Painted Image -> Sculpture -> Written Text -> Printed Page -> Photograph -> Film -> Game ->  ?

• Modernism 
• -> Media specificity is a modernist term. 
• -> Part of a truth to materials ethic.
• -> Anti narrative even though Modernism itself was a Grand Narrative.

Media Specificity                                                    Transmedia

Cubism & Abstract art                                             Graffiti & Street art




What I learned from that lecture is that media includes word of mouth, not only television, films and games.

My Top 10 Games You Should (Or Should have) Played

These are some of the many games I believe you should have or should play at some point. I'll explain the reasons for why you should play them under each picture.

1. Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg

The reason why I love this game so much is its creativity, its not often anyone gets to play a game based on saving a world of chickens from an evil Raven and his minions. Billy Hatcher is wonderful game, sporting colour, puzzles and an array of crazy looking creatures to both defeat and help aid you in your quest. A must play for anyone who loves the strange and stylized.

2. Super Mario Sunshine

This game was the first one I got when I first played my Gamecube and I have loved it ever since. As usual you play Mario, but this time you have a new friend, FLUD, the water powered jet pack. Its your job to clean up the holiday getaway, Delfino Island, from strange goopy paint that has been terrorizing the citizens. The reason I love this game is that it feels so unlike the other Mario games and seems to have taken a step back from the usual routine to try something new. Bright colours, funky creatures and a ton of puzzles. All you need in a fun little game like this.

3. Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage has always been a personal favorite of mine since its release onto the Sega Megadrive, hence why I was thrilled to download it on Xbox live some many years later. Streets of rage is, in my opinion, the perfect arcade game. Multi player was as good as it got back then, bosses are strange and challenging. Weapons are awesome too.

4. Starfox Adventures

If you love dinosaurs as much as I do then you will love Starfox Adventures, I bought this for the Gamecube and I was amazed at the quality of the graphics, even now I think its a stunning game for its time. The world is vast, colourful and sports an array of different characters that you can befriend and fight. Along with different combat types Starfox Adventures offers challenging puzzles to keep your mind busy and is an overall brill game.

5. Ecco The Dolphin, Defender Of The Future

 

In my opinion, Ecco the Dolphin is a must have for Dreamcast and Playstation2. Scenery is stunning and although the levels are quite closed there is alot to do, levels have complex challenges and teem with sea life, both friendly and hostile. Levels are varied and objectives range from fish hunting to killing monstrous spiky killer dolphins.

6. Sonic Adventure 

Before Sonic sunk to the bottom of the sea of bad games, Sonic Adventure was one of my favorite games for the Dreamcast which re-released as an xbox 360 arcade game. Being able to play as my favorite characters with their own individual story lines was really enjoyable, what I enjoyed most was that each character had their own unique style of gameplay, as Sonic you control him through fast paced levels, as Knuckles you use your radar to find pieces of the master emerald on a treasure hunt and as Tails you race against sonic and other characters through levels in friendly one on ones. 

7. Conker, Live and Reloaded

Never thought I'd play a game based around the adventures of an alcoholic squirrel, but lo and behold, I got my hands on Conker. A revamp of a previous Conker game, we follow our character through an array of different themed levels, from riding dinosaurs in a caveman themed world to fighting for your life in the world wars. Conker combines cheeky film reference with its own unique story to create something certainly worth playing.

8. Soul Blade

 

This was the first game I played on the Playstation whenever I went to visit my grandad, Im not sure why this game amazed me so much but it did. For a fighting game I found it extraordinary, different fighting arenas and a mash of different freaky looking characters each with their own storyline gives you plenty of play time. 

9. Okami

There hasnt been many Wii games that i have enjoyed as I've found not many appeal to my choice of genre when gaming, however Okami has proven to be one of my favorite games of all time. I love traditional Japanese art and folk tales, so being able to watch creatures from folk law spring to life in front of you was incredibly appealing. The world you travel through is fast, bosses are inventive and crazy looking and the games unique cell shaded style creates a truly stunning experience. 

10. Jurassic Park - Rampage Edition

 

Last but not least is the Sega Megadrives, Jurassic Park Rampage Edition. You can choose to play as either Grant, the male protagonist, or the Veloceraptor. Although levels are short they can be quite challenging and I always found it incredibly fun to run around as a Raptor and chomp up people. Although this game is major old now I really suggest playing it as its a short, fun game to play by yourself or with friends.