Monday, January 31, 2011

My reflective habits by Hana Gitau 09-1240

During class, I take to quiet contemplation of the discussion going on, thinking up how I can contribute to the topic to better understand it or to help my fellow students to better understand.

The skit that was performed last class helped me to understand the topic better, as it helped me to reflect on the characters and the roles they play in broadcast techniques. Secondly, the high level of participation encouraged by the facilitators assisted me with my reflection. In a nut shell, an interesting and free class that encourages thought provoking discussions and fun informative activities assists me to better reflect.

Boring facilitators who do not encourage participation and like to be the only centre of attention as well as inaudible or extremely shy ones make me lose my concentration thus inhibit my reflective habits.

During the rest of the classes, we can participate in more skits, games, song and dance.

REFLECTIVE THINKING by Wendi 09-0084

Reflective thinking is a process of making informed and logical decisions or conclusions on matters and being able to consider their outcome or consequences. Adopting a reflective habit has helped me to become a conscious learner. I am able to discover where I am, where I have been and where I am going.
Being confident in my own reasoning abilities, inquisitive, alert to context, open and fair-minded, analytical and insightful has helped in building my reflective ability and habit. Past experiences specifically when dealing with complicated problems, situations or critical events and learning have also promoted my reflective habits.
I believe that classroom debates and discussions can encourage critical thinking.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

programme critic by Elayne Shani on Tusker Project Fame 4

A programme critic by Elayne Shani 09-0766
Tusker Project Fame, East Africa’s first ever locally produced reality show, has been described as a marriage between voyeuristic Big Brother and musical phenomenon idols, with a thrilling does of survivor-style voting. It is a show that has made contestants dreams become a reality. It airs daily, which is, the weekday show which is from 8.30pm-9.00pm and the live shows every Saturday at 8.00pm and Sunday at 7.30pm. The programme is mainly sponsored by Kenya Breweries Limited
For my programme critic I choose to do it on Tusker Project Fame season four. I will therefore use the knowledge that I have acquired from my broadcasting techniques and I will critic on the following:
• Lighting
• Microphones
• Camera shots

Camera shots
There is a convention in the video, film and television industries which assigns names and guidelines to common types of shots, framing and picture composition. Shots are generally filmed with a single camera and can be of any duration. A shot in production, defined by the beginning and end of a capturing process, is equivalent to a clip in editing, defined as the continuous footage between two edits. Frames, shots, clips, scenes, and sequences form a hierarchy of units fundamental to many tasks in the creation of moving-image works. There are various shots which are used in this programme. They are:

Extreme long shot
This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. It normally shows an exterior, for example, the outside of a building, or a landscape, and is often used to show scenes of thrilling action for instance, in a war film or disaster movie. There will be very little detail visible in the shot, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information. In Tusker Project Fame, I normally see this type of shot taken when the contestant is on stage and the camera man is trying to focus on the audience as well.

Long shot
It shows the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. I would normally see a long shot of the contestants when they are on stage performing and also while in the academy enjoying themselves or practicing singing.

Medium shot
It shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject. It is usually from above the knee length and was practiced by the camera

Close-up shot
This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail. This shot magnifies the object and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someone's face. Would normally see this during the eviction shows and even when the contestants are going on probation. The camera person would zoom in on the contestants so that we would see their expressions.

Camera Angle
The camera people would normally use a high angle and an eye level angle. In the high angle the camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general overview. While in the eye level the camera is positioned as though it is a human actually observing a scene, so that e.g the contestant’s heads are on a level with the focus. The camera will be placed approximately five to six feet from the ground.



Lighting
Lighting is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. In TPF, they normally use spotlights during the live shows, the stage is well light enabling viewers to see well. On the audience, the lighting is dull but brighter on the stage. I also think that the many CDroms that hang on the stage help with the lighting because of the shine that they eliminate.

Sounds and Microphones
The sound is good and very audible. The microphone that is normally used is handheld and is used by the hosts, judges, faculty and the contestants. The pick-up pattern is normally cardoid microphones. The reason I think they use this type of pattern is so that we can only hear the person speaking rather than the noise in the background.

In conclusion, I think that the production crew has done a good job overall.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Missing Assignments

The following August 2010 COM 264 students did not submit the following assignments:
A) Programme Critique
1) 07-0611
2) 08-0893
3) 08-1208
4) 08-1429
5) 08-1446
6) 08-1293
7) 08-1288
8) 08-2023
9) 09-0961
10) 09-0887
11) 09-0766
12) 09-1152
13) 09-0365

B) Audio Exercise
1) 07-0611
2) 08-1208
3) 08-0893
4) 07-1024
5) 09-1742
6) 08-1288
7) 08-1293
8) 08-2023

C) Video Exercise
1) 09-0805
2) 08-0893
3) 08-1204
4) 09-0365
5) 09-1231
6) 08-1288
7) 08-1293
8) 08-2023
9) 09-0887

D) Mid-semester Exam
1) 09-1241
2) 08-1208
3) 09-1152
4) 08-2023
5) 08-1288
6) 09-1567

E) Final Exam
1) 07-0611
2) 09-0805
3) 08-1288
4) 08-2023

You've lost all points assigned to this specific assignments (check course outline). Meaning; you have a low final grade or you've failed the course. Contact me on 0722346501. This is very urgent.