Umar's Journal

Research Project - Artefact 6 Evaluation

2011-04-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Artefact six formed a research document that summed up the whole research and came to a conclusion to what the future on online content will be. It shows how content is being adjusted to keep up with the issue of online piracy and presents new strategies that are being used to tackle online piracy.

It argues a case that not enough is being done by big companies and associations to reduce piracy. Issues are raised about these organisations not successfully working together to beat online piracy and how this affects the industry as a whole.

The artefact looks into laws being enforced in countries to reduce online piracy by tracking and prosecuting individuals who frequently share files illegally. It highlights the dispute of anti-piracy technology being introduced to Freeview TV to stop illegal copying of TV shows for distribution on the internet.
It draws attention to the amount of illegal file sharing websites that have been fined or prosecuted and the vast crackdown countries are enforcing in their anti-piracy laws.

This document provides the new ways that are being used to help prevent online piracy and concludes how successful they may be with reference to previous artefacts.
It indicates measures that may be successful in helping, with what is an issue that affects every user of the World Wide Web.

Research Project - Artefact 6 Ideas

2011-04-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

For my final artefact I want to sum up and bring together all my previous artefact's, and come to some sort of conclusion to how the issue of online piracy can be successfully tackled. I think the best way for me to do this is by producing a research document, that looks into strategies that were used previously and ones that are being used now, to ones that are newly being introduced and compare their success rates.

I think I can also look to where the future of online TV and content is leading to with its association with online piracy. I will need to look into new laws and legislations being introduced and how they affect it. I believe the new Digital Economy Act enforced in the UK last year (2010) will play a part in the argument for stopping pirates and prosecuting them for future decrease in piracy.

For this, I will need to do thorough research to come to a strong conclusion that justifies its findings.

Research Project - Artefact 5 Evaluation

2011-04-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Artefact 5 interviewed a famous Nottingham director called Chris Cooke, well known for his film ‘One for the Road’ (2004). It presented Chris Cooke with a series of questions about online piracy. The aim of this artefact was to understand his view on online piracy and how he is dealing with the change. This artefact focuses on a local person in Nottingham to get a more personal view.
This artefact provided me with essential information as it not only said why piracy is bad, but it also gave reasons why it was beneficial. I received unexpected answers, which in turn provided me with a different side to the issue of online piracy.
When asked about his view on online piracy, I received a strong view in favour of online piracy. The reasoning behind this was that he said a lot of films that were old or rare have been re-discovered by online piracy. He goes onto say that online piracy has been the main platform for films that would be lost, or films that haven’t been seen for centuries and it enables people to become fans of those films and learn from those films. It also gives an opportunity for those films to be re-released or re-mastered, and ‘piracy is what saved those films.’
The thing that struck me was when Chris mentioned being approached and being sold a pirated DVD of his own film, to which he gave a positive response. He said that he was happy that someone had even wanted to even copy his film and re-sell it and no one had really lost money. He mentions that he made it his priority to make the extras on his DVD have ‘real added value’. My next artefact will look into the future of online programming and piracy.

Research Project - Update - Chris Cooke Interview!

2011-04-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, after a loooong time waiting I have managed to get myself an interview with Nottingham director Chris Cooke, known famously for his film One for the Road (2003) -

I will interview him next week and have written up a list of questions for this. I am hoping to get a very good response from this. I am glad I have managed to get this interview with a renowned director as it will make my artifact have good response and make it strong.

Research Project - Update

2011-04-20T04:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have'nt updated my research project in about 3 weeks. I've been really busy with filming my client project. As well as this, I have contacted so many different film companies/organisation in Nottingham for my next artifact and haven't had success. My idea for this artifact was to interview an industry expert and get their view about online piracy. See how they are dealing with it and what measures they have in place etc. Two people I had in mind were Shane Meadows or Chris Cooke (Yes, i may be getting my hopes a bit too high). But the idea I want to put across a more personal approach, hence having a director based in Nottingham and see how they cope with piracy with their work. This will also help me as a practitioner to learn how this could affect me in the near future and ways it can be prevented. I will continue to look for someone and hopefully I will soon!

Research Project - Artefact 4 Evaluation

2011-03-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

For my fourth artefact, I set up a series focus groups in the well-known school called the Nottingham Academy, with the time I had there as part of my PGCE work experience. The aim of this artefact was to see whether students were being made aware about the issue of piracy at school and the role teachers had in this.
It presented a class of twenty-two sixth form students with three popular anti-piracy adverts by to watch and followed by them completing a short questionnaire with feedback. They were also shown an anti-piracy advert I produced as part of this. From the class, 82% of students had never seen these piracy warning videos before.
Most students in the class were aware of what online piracy was and 91% of them admitted to downloading content without paying for it. When the students were asked whether these videos will make them change their minds and stop them from downloading illegally in the future, 21 out of the 22 students said it would not.
These videos were then presented to a series of teachers. I specifically picked teachers that could relate online piracy to their subject of teaching. I showed the videos to a head of Media Studies, a Media Studies teacher, and two heads of ICT for year eight and eleven. When asked whether the issue of piracy is in any way made aware to their students in their subject of teaching, 100% of the teachers answered no.
This is a clear indication that more needs to be done in schools to make children aware about the issue of online piracy, which may help in tackling the issue in some way. My next artefact will interview a film industry expert and see what measures they have in place to tackle this issue.

Research Project - Artefact 4 Ideas

2011-03-30T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have been on my PGCE work placement for 2 weeks now, and I have been given the chance the teach part of the lesson in the ICT class. I was told I could do anything of my choice as a 'task' for the class next week. This got me thinking and it provided me with an ideal chance to get a really good strong next artifact. The questions that arose to me was: What is being told to children at school about the issue of online piracy? I have decided to set up a series of focus groups with students in which I will show three popular anti-piracy adverts. This will follow by the class completing a question with their feedback. This will determine what they know about the issue and what affect, if any, these anti-piracy adverts have on them.

I will do this separately for a teachers focus group in which the same procedure will be carried out, however with a different set of questions. This will hopefully show what is being taught, if anything, in schools about online piracy. I have planned the focus group for the teachers by letting the relevant teachers know to be present e.g. Head of ICT, and media teachers.

Client Project - St. Mary's Church Video

2011-03-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is my first edit of the 2-minute video for St. Mary's Church. I showed this today at my tutorial and got some good feedback from my tutor. The feedback included things like re-taking some shots that are over exposed, include interior shots of the church, include images which could include historical images of the church, and lastly include a lot more still shots as there is too much movement e.g. panning, tilting, zooming etc. I will contact Wendy Piece again and schedule a day next week to film these extra shots.

Research Project - Artefact 3 Evaluation

2011-03-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Artefact 3 followed from the results received from the previous artefact and highlights the issue brought forward about time-shifting in US and UK television programming. It presented users with a task about the availability of programmes online. Two users took part in this experiment; one who watches online television regularly and one who doesn’t.
As the previous artefact made clear, TV shows are aired in the US many weeks in advance and are then available for viewers online to see before being aired in their own country. The task required the two users to go online after the latest episode of a TV show called 90210 was aired in the US, and see how long it would take them to locate it online after its broadcast.
Users were given details of the task in hand and the TV programme. The episode they were required to find was episode 15 from season 3 called ‘Revenge with the Nerd’, which aired on the 14th February 2011 at 9.00pm US time for one hour.
User one, who was a regular online programme watcher, located the episodes availability online in a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes after being broadcast in the US. User two, who didn’t watch television online, located the episode by the early following morning and took 11 hours.
Taking into account that this specific episode was a whole six weeks ahead in programming than the UK, it shows that it is easy even for the people that have no knowledge of online programming to watch these episodes illegally if they wanted.
My next artefact will try tackling this issue and see what children are being told about the issue of online piracy in schools. For this, I will visit the Nottingham Academy and set up a series of focus groups.

Research Project - Artefact 3

2011-03-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

I have now completed my third artifact. I gave both users 90210 – Season 3 Episode 15 – Revenge with the Nerd to locate which was aired in the US on 14/02/2011 @ 9.00pm (1 hour run time).

The user who used online TV a lot managed to locate the programme in a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes. The user who did'nt use online TV located the file the following morning takinf only just 11 hours. I think these results show how quickly ans easily it is to find illegal content that can in effect change the viewing figures for shows in the UK dramatically.

Sound Booth 2 : Voice-over Recording

2011-03-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Today I recorded my own voice using the mic and edited with Adobe SoundBooth. I will use this as a draft to over the edit which I will do of the St. Marys clip over the weekends. This is because Laura (our voice-over artist) only has this coming Tuesday off work to come in and record. I will use my own voice for now to get a rough draft so that I can show this in my tutorial and get feedback from my tutor.

Research Project - Problem

2011-03-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

For my third artifact, I initially had the idea to look into how easy it is to download content from the internet. This followed up from the results gained from the diary in the previous artifact about time-shifting in TV in the UK and US. This artifact would include two users; one a regular online TV consumer and one that isn't and get both to download a video online after broadcast in the US to see ho quick they can get it.

However, after talking to my tutor Danny, I realised that I could not get my participants to do this as it would not comply with ethics for my research. Therefore, after several discussions I decided to continue the same experiment, but only having the users 'locate' the certain video file online rather than download. I think this will work well and I have got two people lined up to do this experiment.

Research Project - Evaluation 2

2011-03-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

This is the evaluation for the 2-week diary of television viewing habits I collected for two students:

For my second artefact I collected a two-week television diary from two students; one was 20 years of age and the other 30. I have followed this up from results on my questionnaire that showed me that most television is consumed by students; therefore
I decided to get a wider age range to compare.

These results show that the younger student watched a huge amount of pirated/illegal content online whereas the more mature students didn’t consume any content online. I believe this may be due to young people, especially students, being more computer-active and having knowledge of software allowing them to download content for free.

The 20 year old student watched thirteen programmes online that were not yet aired in the UK, in the two-week period. These included American TV series, which were ahead of schedule by as much as 6 weeks. For example, the weekly show 90210 in the UK is currently on Series 3, Episode 9. However, the student had already watched up to Episode 15 online. I believe this shows a huge problem with the programme time-shift between the UK and US and the impact this could have on viewing figures.

The 30-year old student spent a lot less time watching programmes compared to the younger student. The 30-year old student also tied themselves to the main free channels which where BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, and Channel 4. The times they watched their programmes were either afternoon or evening, whereas the younger student had a wider mix of timings for their viewing.

The schedule for the 20-year old student was more fixed as they watched the same programmes daily on the allocated times, both online and offline. For example, Eastenders was watched every day and if it was missed; online catch up services were used.

Research Project - Artefact 2

2011-03-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

For my second artifact I have collected a two-week diary from two students, one ages 20 and the other 30 to get a wider student age range following from my questionnaire.

Here is an image of the tables showing the results:
(sorry about the quality, couldn't get a table into here - click image to view bigger)

Diary of the 20-year old student:

Diary of the 30-year old student:

Sound Booth : Voice-over Test

2011-03-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

I decided it would be beneficial to book out a sound-booth and make sure I knew how to use the mic and software to record and edit sound before I call in Laura to record the voice-over.

Client Update

2011-03-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

This is the title sequence that will be presented to the user upon initially viewing the Lace Market interactive tour. It is still really a rough draft as it needs to be improved further.

Client Project - Filming day Three

2011-03-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

Today I filmed inside The Adams College and got some good interior shots. I filmed on floors one, two and three. Even though I only need a few shots to show the interior I collected quite a bit of shots. I got shots of the fashion rooms, film production studio, the media department and many others. Again, I used the Nikon D200 for higher quality of images as some may be used to go into the final product. Here are pictures from the today:

Research Project - Evaluation 1

2011-03-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Here is the evaluation for the results of my questionnaire. I got results from 50 people altogether:

Artefact one presented respondents with a total of eighteen questions to gain an insight into their viewing habits. The answers ranged from simple yes or no to detailed answers. I collected fifty responses over a period of a few weeks which gives me a good basis for my next artefact.

60% of people taking part in the survey were female. 92% were between the ages of 18 and 25, 88% were students.

58% watched most video content over the internet narrowly beating television’s 40%, with 43 out of 50 respondents accessing a high-speed internet service at home. 80% skip adverts when watching content online.

When asked ‘How much time do you spend on the internet daily’, 34% said, on average 3-4 hours. However, 92% of people used this time to view video content such as live television, catch up services, films, or television shows.

66% of people were aware that television programmes which are aired in the US before the UK, are available on the internet illegally.

Most respondents stated that the two main reasons they prefer online viewing were because the catch up services are free and they can be viewed at a convenient time. The least popular reason was better quality of content.

The respondents were then asked to rate the website layouts of four online television providers (YouTube, 4Od, BBC iPlayer and ITV Player) on a scale of 1 to 5. The highest rated was BBC iPlayer followed by YouTube, 40d, then ITV Player.

Lastly, the biggest problem users have with online video services is buffering speeds and the time lag between television broadcast and its online availability.

Following up from this, my next artefact focuses on two individuals specific television consumption. Two respondents of different ages will collect a two-week television diary for me to analyse.

Update: personal progress

2011-02-28T17:27:00.000-08:00

Great news. I done my interview for my PGCE and it went really good. A lot better than I expected. I revised quite a bit, and it payed off. And then the following week (which was last week), I got called for another interview for my GTP teaching course. I was more relaxed for this as I was aware of how it went etc. Alongside this, I have also been doing a placement at the Nottingham Academy secondary school to help me get more experience. I am still a little confused of which to do; a GTP or PGCE. I have got a few ideas lined up for completing one of my artifacts at the school and conducting some focus groups. My decision is probably going to go for the PGCE, seen as it is more recognised in other countries.
So, I received a conditional offer for my PGCE the other day! and I just accepted it last night. I'm just waiting on my GTP decision to get back. My life's career is now slowly planning out in front of me.

SPP3 Update

2011-02-25T17:21:00.000-08:00

So, I'm nearing the end of my SPP3 assignment 1. I have done a website to act as an interactive portfolio for me. It's not the greatest website in the world but hey. Here'e the link:

http://www.umar-hussain.com

Client Project - Filming day Two

2011-02-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

My partner in the group let me down massively today! No call, text anything. I turned up at 9.00am at university, waited a while... few hundred phonecalls. Nothing. However, I decided to go and film myself, seen as I went to all the trouble of gaining permissions etc. And yes, I took a Sony Z1 this time, I didn't bother to hassle with the Panasonic. Although I did'nt get any more interior shots, as there was rehearsals going on for a Hamlet play (want to find out more or buy tickets to this play: http://www.em-media.org.uk/pages/news/article?2B399DD7-98AF-45E5-9A95-229DEF0AA266). I did get some exterior shots. Didn't last long. Rain stops play... The sagas continue.

Also, used a Nikon D200 today for better picture quality and testing with ISO, shutter speed etc. This picture was taken using the Nikon D200.

Client Project - Update

2011-02-18T17:01:00.000-08:00

I've collected the clips I shot on the test day and also the first day of filming to edit, both which were shot using the Panasonic 151. I am now faced with a problem. The Panasonic 151 exports video in .MTS files. Now, I've tried to edit using my Premiere CS3 and home, however I have now found out that .MTS files are only recognised from CS3 upwards i.e. CS4 and CS5. Therefore, I edited at university. After a few hours I got the clips to work, however they were playing at a really slow speed. I asked our uni technician to help, but after a while he couldn't also work out what was wrong and said the computer at uni we not fully capable to handle these files and it would take REALLY LONG. And yes, I tried and look how long it told me it would take...

And that was just for 2 clips.

Only other option I could think of was to convert them. After looking/asking around I was given a good .MTS converter by my friend Chris. Okay, this does work (when it wants to), but it takes soooo long to convert. I've converted about 6 of 7 videos so far. Let's see where it gets me. P.s. I'm going to use a Sony Z1 from now on!

Client Project - Filming day One

2011-02-16T16:03:00.000-08:00

Filmed the interior of the Broadway Cinema today. Lack of lights I think was a major issue here I believe (even though I insisted to take them, but my partner decided it would be fine for his video). As it being a cinema, only small spot lights could be switched on from the ceiling. Oh yeh, there was also a guy who came in to tune the piano at screen 2, so we had to deal with constant piano key smashing. Besides that, it went fine :)

Next stop was St. Mary's Church, and as I thought... it was big. Caretaker there was fairly friendly. I got loads of really good shots, from the south, east, north and west side of the church. I mean, I could have been there all day. I took shots of all the the windows, the sculptures, the main church hall, and various shots of the great architecture all around the building. After about an hour and a bit we finished and wrapped up. I will now gain permission from Wendy from St. Peter's Church to film again next week.

Client Project - Update

2011-02-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've now confirmed all permissions to film our interior shots at both the Broadway Cinema and St. Mary's Church. The Broadway was pretty okay, however for St. Mary's Church, I had go to St. Peter's Church and arrange a meeting with someone called Wendy. After doing this, I luckily confirmed the date the same as the filming for the Broadway, so both myself and my partner in the project can assist each other for our videos. I think there are a lot of shots that can be taken from both of these buildings, especially St. Mary's. I've been reading up about the church on the internet and it has a lot of history and seems pretty huge.
I have also fully completed my risk assessment, after being re-checked by my tutor Deborah Tuck, so everything is ready for shooting this Wednesday.

Client Project: Test Filming Day

2011-02-11T15:06:00.000-08:00

Today we did some test shots of The Broadway, The Adam's Building, St.Mary's Church and The Galleries of Justice. It turned out really good and we collected a lot more shots than we intended. I think quite a few shots completed today can be used in our final videos. We used the Panasonic 151 camera. Oh yeh, I also got someone for our voice-over. Well, I just got lucky really. As we were filming outside the Galleries Of Justice, I noticed two actors all dressed up and make-up on. So I took the chance and walked up for a chat. Few minutes later after a brief chat, I explained what we were doing for our project and if they knew anyone who did voice-overs. It turned out that this girl Laura actually produced voice-overs for the Galleries Of Justice tours. So I asked her if she was willing to help us out with our project and very willingly she agreed. Swapped contact details. She has now sent me a voice recording of herself in the Galleries Of Justice Tour. Voice-over sorted... Bingo!