WE ARE NOT ILLITERATE- COM264 IS THE BEST. WELCOME

By Aron Mturi

Go! Go!

It is my understanding that for one to gain, s/he must lose. One must give up a little of their energy once in a while in order to gain something. For this reason, we have lived by the slogans of 'No pain No gain' and 'No sweat No sweet'. It is amazing that in the olden days, for one to get pardon for their sins, an animal had to die. Thank God that is no longer the case but for us to gain eternal life, God had to give his only begotten son.

An appeal to all striving for excellence in various classes and especially in COM 264. Thou shall not give up. Thou shall not say quits and thou shall strive for the best. We will have to give so as to get. Go! go! go! Kudos for being part of this great team. Let us join in the drive to a better understanding of techniques and an advancement of Knowledge. Go! go! go!

COM 264 ROXX!!

So this is how it feels to have a blog and vent out your problems, issues and frustrations to people who do not really care. I must say, it feels amazing because even if just a single soul reads this…weeell I’ll be satisfied because it could be worse.

Our first class was really interesting, right guyz? In other words, we got busted for sitting there and pretending to actually listen. It took me around 15min to learn what George and the first group had been taking about for the last one and a half hours. Who didn’t anyway when the follow up questions started?? That was one clever strategy you used mwalimu.  #just saying. Kudos to that first group lakini. Despite the fact that there was actually zero creativity, you guyz tried to be interesting and you were very informative.

I know you now want to correct me by saying that it was not the first class: but according to me and a few others,..umm..no..why lie..me and the many others who consciously decided to skyve; the first week was put there just to set the mood for learning and get our heads back from the holiday mentality. Ama?

The better part of the class was visiting the studio, which was the first time for me, her and him (pliz 4gv e’ bad grammar) The best part was during the break when we get to bring out the kids in us and play those games while relating them to what we learnt. Talk of a fun house!! I wouldn’t be a trumpet blower if I failed to notice the keen Fiona whose future in this industry is looking bright. Without saying which group stole the other’s idea, I must say it was a lesson and a reminder right there. As a journalist, it’s your business to stick your nose into other people’s businesses, so you’re on the right path gal ;)

Time for me to press my mute button or is it the solo button??

Signing out…

~Master Control J
            ~Siren *the trumpet blower

VIDEO CRITIQUE BY JOY CAROLE (08-0464)

VIDEO CRITIQUE FOR INSPEKTA MWALA

Introduction:

Inspekta Mwala  is a hilarious weekly show that takes place at Kona Mbaya, a small town centre. It’s a local Kenyan drama aired every Monday from 7:30pm-8:00pm on Citizen T.V. It involves insecurity issues going on in the town an also incorporates the current activities going on in Kenya for example the ‘Operation linda nchi,’ an on-going military operation in Somalia where the Kenyan army is fighting Al-shabbab militants. The people who carry out all these are stationed at Kona Mbaya Police Station which has five policemen with a lady and inspekta mwala as their leaders. Sometimes the actors pass across messages of social responsibility and encourage good behaviour in the community.

Critique;

After watching ten episodes of Inspekta Mwala, I realized that the cameraman used the same camera shots in most of the episodes, nothing was done differently. The drama always starts with a long wide shot of a town or houses. This is also a common characteristic with Machachari, a local T.V drama aired on Citizen. The camera is usually zoomed out at this point. After a long wide shot of a town or houses, there is a close up shot of cars either in a jam or cars moving in a highway. For both these scenes, there is usually music in the background which is droned by the sound of the moving cars in the second scene.

After these, there is a close up shot of the actors in the third scene for example a shot of a man and woman talking.

After which the camera man takes a medium shot of each of the actors. At this point, the actors would be conversing and in most of the episodes, the conversations carried out in an enclosed place always have a little bit of feedback.

There was the use of the sun as a form of natural lighting, the light was evenly distributed in the room and there were no noticeable shadows.

After the third scene, to break monotony, the cameraman takes shots of different places and mixes up various camera shots. The next scene is then acted outside in a sunny day, this means that there will be no need of light since then sun is already there. This scene is acted out in the police station where the cameraman takes medium close ups from one actor to the other. This type of shot usually gives more detail and makes the audience get a clear view of the face of the actors. The lighting at the police station is always affected by a reflection caused by the door this makes it hard for the cameraman to take a shot of a person walking into the station. The production team should find a way of dealing with the reflection.

The next scene is usually a long shot of a building or an extreme close up of moving people’s legs. The lighting at this point is facilitated by the sun. The cameraman then uses the dolling shot from one actor to another. This is not a suitable shot because someone can see the actual camera movement, it looks unprofessional. A medium shot or a medium close up would have been used for the two actors who were conversing.

Finally, the cameraman takes long shots from one scene to another while zooming in. Apart from this, there would have been use of transitions to connect one scene to another.

The cameraman ought to reduce on the many long shots, he or she should incorporate other shots like over the shoulder shots (shot behind the person taken towards the subject), point of view (taken from near the eye-level of the actor and shows what he or she might see) and selective focus (using a large aperture value thus creating a shallow depth of field; this effectively leaves one part of the frame in focus while blurring others such as the foreground or background) and cutaways. The production usually relies a lot on the sun as a form of lighting, in order to show professionalism and skill, there should be the use of artificial light; the key light, fill light and back light.

August 2011

Guess am the first one to post. Let me start by saying that am impressed with Daystars introduction of an E-Learning site though i was surprisingly met with an incorrect username or password message in bold red, a color a student rarely wants to see. Regardless, today's class was interesting, some of my colleagues actually already have a wealth of knowledge in maters relating to media. I am still googling on the difference between a teleprompter and an autocue. I hope that our class will be as interesting and informative as was today. Marcel {PS. Mrs Rosemary's Kowours' e-mail address urgently needed}

com 264 reflections

The first day of this class was quite challenging for me and I kept on wondering if i will be able to keep up with all those new terms!right now its five weeks down the line and all I can say is WOW!This class is so intersating and it has really opened my eyes into what broadcast is all about. The first class started off well with Ann and Nyakeri doing a brilliant job in introducing us tobroadcast techniques.They were well vast with the topic and well dressed for the part,awesome job guyz. The other lessons that have followed have also been good with the most outstanding ones including the discussion on turntables and also the one on consoles and mixers.

Last class on microphones was also good however,the facilitators would have improved on their presentation to make it more interesting.It was evident that they werent conversant with the topic which greatly affected their presentation.Nonethe less, we learnt about different types of microphones and which ones are suitable for which event. We got to know the difference between the condensor and dynamic mics. The activity at the end of the class was also nice since it helped us get a feel of how it is like when your doing post-production. I love the openness in class and the different ideas that each member of the class brings up.I am looking foward to the next classes.
Wendy Mise 10-0046

Microphones

Last class we were able to learn more about the microphones in addition to the little taht we already knew about the condenser and the dynamic microphones. It was stated to determine the kind of microphone to use, one should consider the proximity effect, the frequency response and the pick up patterns. Today in chapel i found it quite intriguing trying to analyse the microphones that were being used, their pick up patterns and if there were any other kinds of microphones the school could buy to ensure that the sound amplified at the end of the day is of good quality. So far, I believe that the microphones in chapel are dynamic microphones with a unidirectional pick up pattern.

The facilitators of yesterdays class did a good job for it takes alot of work and determination to ensure that you know most of the content so that you may be able to pass it down to the rest of the class. The group activity that was conducted by Mrs. Kowour was quite interesting as well. Creating a script for a hypothetical situation and deciding what kind of microphones to use was the highlight of the day. It made me realise just how important the techniques are and how one wrong choice would actually ruin a whole production.

I do have to agree with Fadhili that the Monday blues are no more. We come to class knowing that it is upto us to make the class interesting and interactive as possible. as much as the first 20minutes or so, most of us are always adjusting, we always end up talking and sharing ideas in groups which makes learning easier. Just to encourage all the class members, let us keep up with the good work that we began and God will bless our work.

Anne Warui