Download...

...unsuccesful, lost about a million frames; will try again tommorrow.

Put together a questionaire. Have given it to all members of the class. Though it is limited it should give me some relevant, meaningful statistics for my documentary. I'm going to collect data from at least 15 Males and 15 Females so I can compare the two.

Downloading footage finally...

....no thanks to the college, Luke has lent me his DV camera to get my footage off the tape and on to a computer.

I have started compiling a questionaire results from which I may include in my documentary. I need to get tihs complete by tommorrow really so I can begin getting people to fill it out so I can gain some sort of general consensus on violent video games.

First things first, I'm about to begin editing the footage I have so far....

Second bit of filming...

...complete got lots of good footage from my interview with Deborah Bean. Need to download all my footage to a PC today.

Interesting links:

http://www.aeropause.com/archives/2006/08/violent_games_a.php

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051012082710.htm

The many deaths of resident evil 4

Who said video games were violent? This is delightful. Cute even. Splendid!

Just finished...

...my first bit of filming. I filmed my 8 year old brother playing Red Steel on the Wii and asked him some questions while he was playing. He has played a lot of violent video games and not illegally, the games he has played are only rated by PEGI which is more of a recommendation than an enforced regulation. Red Steel is a 16+. I got some interesting comments from Kody while he was playing. It seems he enjoys violent video games more than any other type but he knows that violence as a whole is wrong. He does sometimes want to be like some of the characters in these games however.

He was very excited by things such as picking up a shotgun or a machine gun. Do these games glorify deadly weapons?

I'm off to Kent tommorrow and have started to put together some questions to ask Deb Bean which will be the same questions I will ask Steve Hogarty (a PCzone writer).

Heres the first few:

1. Whats your name and occupation?
2. Are you aware of the amount of violence appearing in video games today?
3. Is this acceptable?
4. Should more be done to prevent these games getting into the hands of children?
5. Do you think playing violent games can cause violent behaviour?
   

I'll add more later.


I think this is a very interesting article, makes some very valid points.

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

"It is true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers - 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts." - Henry Jenkins 2003

Filming

Looked at some of the work of Michel Gondry and Jonathan Glazier. Which has made me think about exactly how my video is going to be shot, I don't want it to be a simple straightforward documentary, I want it to have something special. I'm not expecting it to be mindblowing of course, considering the lack of any real budget and the fact I have never made a film before.

I have studied documentaries before it would probably be a good idea to collect the information I got from that and document it in my sketchbook...

Filming Sunday

I'm going to conduct my first interview on Sunday; a social worker named Deborah Bean. For this I'm going up to her home in Faversham, Kent (She just so happens to be my girlfriends mother). First task is to put together some ideas for questions to ask whihch I think should be the similar if not the same for the people I'm interviewing.

Today

Chris talked to us about using our sketchbooks and discussed our ideas for our 5 minute films. Sketchbooks are very useful tools for developing ideas, all thought processes, drawings, doodling, found images of interest and photographs taken should be included.

It helps puts ideas into perspective. I think its something i;m getting more used to. I would love to get into a habit of always keeping a sketchbook.

I'm already 15 pages into my sketchbook, not even halfway through this unit so it looks like I should reach the 30 page minimum comfortably....

http://whyfiles.org/165video_violence/3.html

Shepherd Neame

- Pryde-Jarman, D 2007.

Dark...

This advert could be seen as taking war, a bit too lightly. I think its a good advert though. Are Toyogo's plastics really so strong that someone would face a tank with nothing but one of their products to protect their head?

Intervieweeees

Found two potential interviewees. A social worker and a friend who who works for PC ZONE, haven't asked them whether they would like to be in my documentary, but will contact them soon.

Rule of Rose

Video games ethics
Rule of Rose is a computer game developed by Punchline/ Shirogumi. It is a survival horror game that has caused a moral outcry, many people questioning ethics of the game. Published in Japan by Sony Computer entertainment Sony refused to publish the game in the US because of the game's erotic undertones involving a cast of female minors. The developers have disagreed with this, saying that the sexual themes are not the main focus and are only a small part of the game. The game was instead published by Atlus. The game has been banned in several countries including the UK, Italy, Australia and Poland, regarded by many as “obscene”.

Rating systems in UK

BBFC
Under the film recordings act the British Board of Film Classification is responsible for the content of film released in the UK. Any film that is released has to be reviewed by the BBFC and they decide whether the film is allowed to be released or whether certain parts should be cut, they then give the film an age classification. This age classification means that by law no films should be supplied or viewed to anyone of an unsuitable age.
Increasingly video games are being submitted to the BBFC this is generally due to the sophisticated graphics evident in more recent games. In the early days of video games the graphics were such that any violent or sexual nature or depiction of an animal or human in a game was unlikely to be realistic enough to be covered by the act. Games have to be submitted to the BBFC:

“if they depict, to any significant extent, gross violence against humans or animals, human sexual activity, human urinary or excretory functions or genital organs, or techniques likely to be useful in the commission of offences.”

Games that are exempt from BBFC classification instead are classified under the PEGI system.

Above: The different classifications used in the BBFC system. These ratings have to be abided by, by law.

PEGI
The Pan-European Game Information rating system is designed to help parents make informed decisions when buying games for their children. It is not illegal to supply PEGI rated games to someone is under the age displayed on the game.

Above: The classifications and informative descriptions used in the PEGI rating system.

Wikipedia...

Where does a student go first for information without even thinking? Wikipedia of course... This is what wikipedia has to offer in terms of information about ethics in games:

LINKS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_addiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_computer_and_video_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_censored_by_Nintendo_of_America

and some external links....
http://www.growfolio.com/magazine/2006/growfolio-2-06.pdf
http://www.videogamevoters.org/
http://www.womengamers.com/doctork/gameviolence1.php
http://www.womengamers.com/doctork/gameviolence1.php
http://www.womengamers.com/doctork/inetaddict.php
http://www.gamepolitics.com/
http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/sexual-games/default.php
http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6090892/index.html
http://anthonylarme.tripod.com/gc/index.html
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article557091.ece

rating systems...
http://www.esrb.org/index-js.jsp
http://www.classification.gov.au/special.html
http://www.pegi.info/en/index/


Just compiled this list of links for my own reference so I have a large amount of reading material to get on with in one place... now I better start reading.

Video ideas...

Alrerady considering documentary, could perhaps just record audio of interviews and play these opinions over the top of footage and stills from controversial games.. or maybe a combination of videos of interviews and such footage.

Some thoughts...

Bearing the final result of this unit (a 5 minute video) in mind I think the best COA is to research ethics in video games. There is a lot of information availiable on this subject; its a subject that a lot of people may have a strong opinion about. I could make my 5 minute film a documentary including interviews investigating individuals opinions on violence in video games for example, ultimately my research could be towards forming a small selection of questions to ask interviewees...

Chris Cunningham...

Chris Cunningham is an acclaimed English music video film director and video artist.

Two of his well known music videos are for "Come To Daddy" By Aphex Twin (above) and Bjork's "All is Full of Love" (below) in which the robots are very similar to those in the Stephen Spielberg's A.I. in which he was involved.

He also directed a Playstation advert, "Mental Wealth" in which a Scottish girl who's face has been drastically altered says (in a strong accent)

"Let me tell you what bugs me of the human endeavor

I've never been a human in
question, have you?

Mankind went to the moon

I don't even know where Grimsby is.

Forget progress by proxy

Land on your own moo

It's no longer about what they

can achieve, out there on your behalf

But what we can experience

Up here and of our own time

And it's called mental wealth

(Laughter)"

I think its areally good advert especially coupled with the tagline "Never underestimate the power of the Playstation".

It highlights how games are brilliant for escaping the real world...

Masculine/ Feminine advertising.

I've just started looking for some examples of masculine adverts and feminine adverts. Ironically when looking for adverts on the net they seem to avoid you like the plague...

Here's a couple..

Very masculine, for a masculine product, all the Lynx adverts are full of women normally not wearing much, this Manwash campaign has a video thats a lot longer than a usual TV advert which is basically nothing but women dancing and spraying hoses. The kind of things these women are wearing are generally the stereotypical thing taht guys would like to see women in not how the majority of women strive to appear...

Ahhh Guinness...

A more feminine one...

These three covers are very male, and almost interchangeable they are so similar. Highlights, for me, male attraction to violence and violence.

Adbusters

"We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century"

Adbusters want to give advertising back to the people. Advertising generally is one way traffic, adbusters want to make it two way, give the people a voice They..."delight in helping other organizations deliver the messages the world needs to hear."

Advertising could be seen as taking over our very way of life in this day and age. Its everywhere and it affects everyone.

http://www.adbusters.org/network/about_us.php

Drumming Gorilla

Looked at advertising today. The 4 P's:

• Product
• Pricing
• Promotion
• Placement

Looked at a recent Dairy Milk advert with a Phil Collins Soundtrack and A Gorilla playing the drums. I would put a youtube link up but as I'm at college youtube is blocked..... Although its not immediately obvious what the advert has anything to do with Dairy Milk when looked at more carefully its more obvious what they were trying to achieve.

• The wall behind the drummer is purple which is the colour of Dairy Milk.


• The advert is quite short, and leaves you wanting more, just a Dairy Milk bar...


• The gorrilla sits at the drums for a while doing nothing, the point at which it starts to play the drums is immediately satisfying...like a Dairy Milk bar...


• Theres the contrast between this advert and other Dairy Milk adverts, its a completely different type of advertising.

http://www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com/?CMP=KNC-gkw - link to the video.

"Drumming gorillas, Phil Collins and Glass And A Half Full Productions?
Well it just seemed like the right thing to do. There's no clever science behind it - it's just an effort to make you smile, in exactly the same way Cadbury Dairy Milk does. And that's what we aim to continue to do; simply make you smile. So if a drumming gorilla's not enough, wait until you see what else we have up our sleeves." - from the Dairy Milk site.

The gorilla is computer generated, some people have been fooled into thinking its real and are worried about cruelty! -

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070909112758AAWzbYU

Digital Media Design Technologies

What impact has the development of Digital Media Design Technologies had on society over the past ten years?

Theres a large amount of things that have changed in the last 10 years in the realm of Digital Media Design Technologies in '97 things such as:

• Desktop Computing
• The internet
• Windows type interface as opposed to command line.

As well as this Email was growing as were the World Wide Web, Web sites and Multiplayer Gaming.

In 1997 under 10 million people owned mobile phones, there are over 60 million have one. Thats a massive increase. Since 1997 email has become widespread as has text messaging, bandwidth has been increased, increasing the amount of images found on the internet, as well as music availiable to download. Search engines are widely used mainly google and a large majority of western populations own computers and have access to the internet More recently social networking sites such as facebook and myspace have become incredibly popular and google have released online software, such as an online spreadsheet and google maps and google earth.
I've only touched on a few of many things that have changed the pats 10 years.

Primary Research - Likes/Dislikes

Did an excercise today into our likes and dislikes.

• What do you like?
• Why do you like it?
• Could you be convinced otherwise?

This is an example of primary research; these are personal ideas that come from within. Such ideas are possible because of our own experiences with something. Watching film or a meal for example, we form our own opinions on these from our own experience. This is obviously quite different to our views on something that have been gained from secondary sources such as information from books and the internet.

Started researching general 3D level design, heres a few links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_design

http://gamasutra.com/features/20060425/shahrani_01.shtml

http://gamasutra.com/features/20060428/shahrani_01.shtml

http://www.cliffyb.com/rants/art-sci-ld.shtml

Initial thoughts.

First day back and already I'm being invited to think about my Final Major Project. This research unit seems like a perfect opportunity for me to start thinking about what I want my final major project to be.

During the initial class discussions and briefing I have come up with two possible starting points.
I intend to research either

• Psychological effects of games, including ethics involved in creating violent games and the problems that are apparent with addictive games such as MMPORPGs.
• Or the 3D modeling of real-life environments and the appearances of such environments in computer games.

I think that ultimately, for my final major project, I would like to do something involving modelling real environment's, probably somewhere I can visit first-hand. So researching environments in computer games would probably be a good idea so I can start building ideas for my FMP. I may begin looking into the psychological effects of games also as its a subject area of which I have interest. I suppose the first thing to do is begin my research.

Where my five minute video is concerned I am considering doing some form of animation, possibly in 3Ds Max or Flash, maybe combining this with some film. I may try and model a particular location myself and document, using photography, the stages it took for me to create it.