Creative work for Comms 4 presentation with digital help

1. A2 Communication & Culture Coursework
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•Topic
•Format
•How To Succeed
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2.  The subject material for your creative work is
drawn from your Case Study. This doesn’t
mean simply putting your CS into a different
format, but developing the work you have
done into a coherent, persuasive argument.
This is the opportunity for you to use all of
your creative and communicative abilities to
make a powerful set of points to your
audience
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3.  Key words: rhetorical, polemical, persuasive
 Examples of persuasive communication by film-
makers who want to get a message across such as
Charlie Brooker or Michael Moore. Think about
the techniques they use:
 Dramatic recreation, emotional
interview, statistics, expert
witnesses, music, humour, selective
information, loaded
words, repetition, contrasts, personalisation, pict
ure-telling, confrontation, shock, juxtaposition
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4.  Should be ‘publishable to the web’. This
means a digital format that is freestanding, ie
doesn’t need you to present it or interpret it
for your audience.
 Must all be uploaded to new Blogger site
 Should require ten minutes of your audience’s
time to fully digest the piece. However, this
doesn’t mean that a film (for example) must
last ten minutes. It may be that several
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viewings are required

5.  Your target audience is your own peers, ie A2
Communication & Culture students. This
means that you can use technical terms and
subject specific concepts without having to
explain them
 Think about a register or mode of address
that is suitable for your audience and your
purpose. What is the right balance between
formality and informality?
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6.  A documentary-style film. A traditional presentation
to camera with voiced narration or a more edgy
collage of still and moving images. You could also
consider satire, drama or performance art as ways of
getting your message over. Windows Moviemaker
and Adobe Premiere Elements are available on the
college network. Upload to Youtube and use the
colleges AV equipment.
 Powerpoint or website. Consider using interactive
elements (eg hyperlink) and sound
Listen to this
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7.  A podcast (sound package). Download
Audacity (free) on your home pc/laptop
 Use music, sound effects, different voices,
interviews to engage and persuade your
audience. You may have to listen to speech-
based radio or podcasts on the net (try i-
Tunes) to get some ideas
 Listen to the sample podcast
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8.  In a word: planning
 Your creative work needs to be carefully thought
out in advance. Use scripts and storyboards
 Try out your ideas in draft form
 Play with the software, make sure your ideas
work
 Team up with others in the class (especially if you
are filming) Help each other
 Don’t waste allocated class time
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9.  A piece of work you are proud of; something
to show your friends (or whoever)
 A demonstration of your creative potential
 A message to yourself in 20 years’ time:
 Remember – this is worth 25% of A2
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10. Blogger Format
 Make a new blog titled first and last name Comms 4
Stratford upon avon 2010
 This will be the central place for all your digitised
work – videos, podcasts, Powerpoints, images,
slideshows, music etc can be uploaded.
 Files are not stored on blog sites, they need to be
stored elsewhere online depending on what they are
 The blog format itself can be used creatively.

11. Youtube Info
 Getting Started: How to upload
 Once you've finished editing your video, made sure that it's less than 10 minutes
long, smaller than 2 GB in size and in an acceptable format; you're ready to upload
it.
 Click the UPLOAD button in the upper right-hand corner of any YouTube page.
 Enter as much information about your video as possible, including Title,
Description, Tags and Category. The more information that you include, the easier
it is for users to find your video!
 Determine if you want your video set to Public or Private.
 Click the "Upload a Video..." button.
 In the next window, click the "Browse" button to browse for the video file. Select
the file that you want to upload.
 Click the "Upload Video" button.
 It can take from a couple of minutes to an hour for your video to upload to
YouTube.
 If you receive an error message when uploading, you should ensure that you're
attempting to upload a file type that's recognised by YouTube. YouTube accepts
video files from most digital cameras, camcorders and mobile phones in the .OVI,
.MOVE, .MOVE and .MPG file formats.

12. More Youtube info
 YouTube.com is designed to host and share videos only. Other types of media, including
music (MP3s, etc.), pictures (JPEGs, etc.) and flash files that don't contain a video stream
can't be processed by our system and will be rejected. You can still have fun with these other
types of media by turning your music into a music video or making a video slideshow out of
your pictures
 YouTube accepts a wide range of video file formats. The video files below are all accepted by
YouTube. Some video formats work best and are most compatible with certain computers,
software or devices.
 Windows Media Video(.AVI)
 .3GP (mobile phones)
 .WMV (windows)
 .MOV (mac)
 .MP4 (iPod/PSP)
 .MPEG
 .FLV (Adobe Flash)
 .MKV (h.264)
 If you do not think that your current video file format is recognised by YouTube, you may get
the best uploading results from converting your file to MPEG4 video with MP3 audio.

13. Audacity Info
 Recording
 Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette
tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.
 Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
 Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
 Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
 Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.
 Import and Export
 Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your
recordings in several common file formats.
 Import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
 Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
 Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
 Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
 Import and export all file formats supported by libsndfile.
 Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.
 Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file
formats.
 Editing
 Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
 Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
 Very fast editing of large files.
 Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
 Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.
 Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.

14. More Audacity info
 Effects
 Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
 Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
 Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
 Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
 Other built-in effects include:
 Echo
 Phaser
 Wahwah
 Reverse
 Sound Quality
 Record and edit 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples.
 Record at up to 96 kHz.
 Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and
dithering.
 Mix tracks with different sample rates or formats, and Audacity will convert them
automatically in realtime.

15. Creating a Podcast
 Get Inspired and Make It Your Own. If you want to make a podcast then you obviously must
have some notion or idea about what you want it be about. Whether it’s cars, sports, fashion,
politics, or even tech–use your interests to carry over and make a superior podcast. It’s
usually a good idea to know what you want to say before going on the air so make an outline
of the session’s topic and prep yourself before recording.
 Keep a Schedule. Podcasts can be daily or weekly, or just whenever you want. Consider how
much time you have and work out a schedule with yourself, and/or with who ever is doing
the show with you, to allow enough time for this task.
 Get Equipment. You will need some equipment like a microphone, a computer (with Internet
connection) and some sort of audio recording software.
 Record and Tag. Try using Audacity, which is free, to record your show, and don’t forget to
label and save your information.
 Save and Edit. Save your audio file (in MP3 format) to your computer desktop and edit out
extra background noise or long periods of silence.
 Make an Intro. You can spice up your podcasts by adding an intro like some “lead-in” music
or something else that you think people will find appealing– or if you don’t care what people
think then just put whatever you want, or don’t put an intro at all.
 Go to OurMedia.org or box.net and chose the free package. Then go to your files, and
upload your MP3 file. This will be the place where your files are stored online. The blog
merely links to them.
 Publish it. Post it on your blog or website -make the title of the post the title of that episode
of the podcast and enter the URL for your audio file. Write a brief description under of the
podcast’s content—make it clever and informative so people want to click on it and listen. At
the end of the post, put a link directly to your media file.

16. Blogger Info
 Embedding music/audio from third-party sites
 If you'd like to embed a playlist or functionality from a third-party music
service such as Last.fm or Imeem, Blogger's layouts feature makes it
easy.
 Visit your Template | Page Elements tab.
 Create a new widget by clicking "Add a Page Element."
 Choose the "HTML/Javascript" widget.
 Enter the HTML code provided by your third-party music service into the
content window and click "Save Changes."
 If you can't find the necessary code, you may have to contact your third-
party music service. Feel free to position the page element wherever
you'd like.
 There are plenty of services to share and embed music available on the
web. Here's a list of a few to get you started. Please keep in mind that
these services aren't affiliated with Blogger, but we've heard good things
about them.
 Last.fm Seeqpod Imeem IODA Promonet Hypster Streampad Splashcast
 Project Playlist FineTune MyFlashFetish

17. More Blogger info