Microsoft NEW technology Microsoft Surface

This weird technology can let you do everything at a touch of a screen. You can order food by selecting it on a screen, hold your credit card to it and pay. You can sit a camera on top of it and it will automatically download your pictures.....just watch, it's pretty amasing.



(H-Ref 1)

Reference:

H-Ref 1:youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKQNwqNLLk
Accessed Wednesday August 26, 2009.

The Samsung BeatDJ M7600

This is a new phone created by Samsung and another form of convergent technology to add to the list. This phone allows you to create your own music and remixes of tracks already on your phone, you can create scratches and listen to these on a built in surround sound system. This phone, like the i-Phone can also be used via the touch of a screen. You can also take pictures with this phone which has a 3 megapixel camera (H-Ref 1).



Reference:

H-Ref 1: gaj-it
www.gajit.com
Accessed Wednesday August 26, 2009.

Sex and the City

(H-Ref 1).

I chose to watch Sex and the City for the task where we had to see the different shots that show who, what, where, when, why.

WHO: I found that the introduction to the show, before the show even starts a close up of Carrie Bradshaw tells us the who.

WHAT: A mid shot in this specific episode is of a shrinks office, symbolising that the WHAT is Carrie Bradshaws problems.

WHERE: There are numerous wide shots of New York streets throughout all of the Sex and the City episodes, making it clear it is set in New York.

WHEN: There are various times within singular episodes shown, I didn't really think that any specific shot symbolised this as there were no specific times shown. Instead you could just tell by the shades of light etc.

WHY: Why is symbolised by close ups of Carrie where she is venting about men who cause most of her problems.

HOW: Close ups of Carrie being on her own again, in her apartment show how she has ended up at the shrink and how things haven't worked out.

Reference

H-Ref 1: Scene Stealers
http://www.scene-stealers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/2008_sex_and_the_city_002.jpg
Accessed August 24, 2009.

Scavenger Hunt

1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin? How long did it take to grow?

The weight of the world's biggest pumpkin is 693.08903kg and it grew within four and half months (H-Ref 1).

2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Lilly Allen?


If I wanted to contact Lilly Allen I would create an account with Twitter and add her on there. Twitter seems to be overtaking Myspace and Facebook to a certain extent and it's something stars use regularly. You could also create Myspace and Facebook accounts, but I think Twitter would be the best.

3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?


A giraffes tongue is 46 centimetres (H-Ref 2).

4. How would you define the word 'glycomics'? In your own words, what does it really mean ? What does the term 'seagull manager' refer to?

Glycomics is a term ascribed to the study of carbohydrates and more specifically sugar (H-ref 3)

To my understanding the seagull manager is someone who comes into a workplace and rather than helping as they should creates more havoc and causes a stir within the work environment (H-Ref 4).



5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film? Which of his films Had 'Blondie' in it?

His first feature film was Shivers and was made with the intent to create the first horror film in Canada (H-Ref 5).

Cronenberg's film Videodrome had Blondie in it (H-Ref 6).

6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?

It was written in January 1986 (H-Ref 7).

7. Why do phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?

The use of 555 is used to replace numbers that may be used to call real people. You are able to call numbers with 555 in front of them, however, it is likely to be a directory and therefore you wouldn't be calling a real person (H-Ref 8).

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Sydney?

I find this one a hard one to answer because there are so many variants. To drive it would depend on what car you have and how much fuel it uses to determine a cost. To walk it would depend whether you set yourself a budget and got free help on your way and what happens on your way. To determine whether flying is cheapest then you would need to know about the above first.

With this in mind the cheapest way would be to book a ticket on webjet for the 28th of August 2009 and you could get there for $99.00 (H-Ref 9).

9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?

Single on Decca which was created by a Dutch Band (H-Ref 10).

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?

Black Assasins. I found this answer via Yahoo which led me to another new comm tech blog, this person found the info from:http://steveylee.wordpress.com/ (H-Ref 11).



References:

H-Ref 1: World Records 2008 2009
http://www.worldamazingrecords.com/2008/10/worlds-biggest-and-heaviest-pumpkin.html
Accessed Tuesday August 26, 2009.

H-Ref 2: SAN DIEGO Zoo
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html#Photos
Access Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 3:Griffith University
http://www.griffith.edu.au/science/institute-glycomics
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 4:BNET
http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/seagull+manager.html
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 5: New York Underground Film Festival
http://www.nyuff.com/2002/realarchive/8th/shivers.html
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 6: http://www.hypercubism.com/pages/blondie2.html
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 7: http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
Accessed Thurdsay August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 8:Mark Cuccia
http://www.omegarobot.com/article/555.html
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 9: Webjet
http://travel.webjet.com.au/webjettsa/home.aspx?flight_search_action=http%3A%2F%2Ftravel.webjet.com.au%2Fwebjettsa%2Fhome.aspx&TripType=Return&CityFrom=OOL&DateOut=2009%2F8%2F27&CityTo=Sydney&DateBack=2009%2F9%2F4&TravelClass=ECONOMY&NumAdult=1&NumChild=0&NumInfant=0&EntryPoint=Flight&RequestFrom=Outside&x=45&y=18
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 10: Kelu McDonald
http://fever-sea.blogspot.com/
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

H-Ref 11: Erin
http://2716085.blogspot.com/
Accessed Thursday August 27, 2009.

Cine-Speak: Lecture 3.

In the third lecture I learnt about different shots- the slang (BCU-Big close up, CU- Close up) and how these shots can be used to help create meaning.
This is an example of a close up, which helps the audience answer the who question. Who the character is. (Image H-Ref 1).

This medium shot helps to define what......the what here being dancing. (Image H-Ref 2).

The long shot can be used to show where, here it is show that she is at a party/club. (H-Ref 3).

Wide shots AND close ups are both used to show when as seen within these two pictures, the clock shows you the exact time, and the wide shot shows a certain period of the day. (Images H-Ref 4, H-Ref 5).

WHY- It was said in the lecture that the BIG CLOSE UP can answer the WHY question, when it comes to a still picture I find this concept hard to grasp, however within a movie a big close up may help to clarify the WHY question.

Medium close ups or a series of close ups can demonstrate the HOW. If the above picture were to be shown next to that of a pregnant person we would be able to see how that ocurred. (Image H-Ref 6).

The lecture also looked at head space and talking space which basically is about where a person is positioned in a shot. The rule of thirds was also looked at, however, the different shots was the most interesting part of the lecture for me, which is why I have concentrated on it for this blog.

Referencing:

H-Ref 1- Yahoo

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/paramount_pictures/save_the_last_dance/sean_patrick_thomas/lastdance.jpg

Accessed Thursday 20th August 2009.

H-Ref 2- Ashleigh E Smith

http://cndls.georgetown.edu/applications/posterTool/data/users/save.jpg
Accessed Thursday 20th August 2009.

H-Ref 3- The Internet Movie Database

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://ia.media-imdb.com/images

Accessed Thursday 20th August 2009.

H-Ref 4- Time
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626481_1373607,00.html

Accessed Thursday 20th August 2009.

H-Ref 5- Weddingbee
http://www.weddingbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/10/8.jpg

Accessed Thursday 20th August 2009.

H-Ref 6-

http://minimousemaybe.xanga.com/
Accessed Thursday 20th August 2009.

New Comm Tech Tutorial

Language of the Screen

Step 1: Google
Step 2: found that I should look up "Film and Screen Analysis ECU WS MS" from the following blog site: http://skye-darksideofthemoon.blogspot.com/2009/08/language-of-screen.html
Step 2: Returned to Google and entered "film and screen analysis" AND "ECU"
Step 3: Was referred to http://sheleftanote.blogspot.com/2009/08/language-of-screen.html found that:

ECU- Extreme Close Up: a very tight shot of a detail, often of a part of a human body, which fills the screen (H-Ref 1).

Pic: (H-Ref 3)

WS- Wide Shot: Shot which covers the action of the scene in a wide or panoramic view (H-Ref 2).













Pic: (H-Ref 4)

MS- Medium Shot: Camera shot midway between a close-up and a wide shot (H-Ref 2)












Pic: (H-Ref 5)
Bibliography

H-Ref 1: Gavilan College
http://hhh.gavilan.edu/grichards/hum4/terms_000.html
Accessed Wednesday 12th August 2009.

H-Ref 2: Australian Screen
http://australianscreen.com.au/glossary/
Accessed Wednesday 12th August 2009.

H-Ref 3: flickr.com
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/435547372_eb5b7f0184_b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://animalphotos.info/a/2008/01/04/extreme-close-up-of-llama-eye/&usg=__GcveUHVqASYXLqKCrf8oizgbflk=&h=989&w=1024&sz=594&hl=en&start=3&sig2=BJ7HumTFrkbiH9Wt8giBlw&um=1&tbnid=xDLt2lBwT-43dM:&tbnh=145&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3DExtreme%2BClose%2BUp%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=Xm2CSr64HpTW7APg5dGKCg
Accessed Wednesday 12th August 2009.

H-Ref 4: My Opera
http://my.opera.com/garytmarsh/albums/show.dml?id=823149
Accessed Wednesday 12th August 2009.

H-Ref 5: Blue Tongue Screens
http://www.bluetonguescreens.com/MyImages/Mid%20Shot%20Cropped%20Zebra.jpg
Accessed Wednesday 12th August 2009.