Blog

Blogs

A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically, like a journal or diary. Blogs are all very different some are personal, some work based and some are play based. They help small groups communicate in a way that is simpler and easier to follow than email or discussion forums. Blogs are therefore replacing other forms of communication such as email, msn messenger, discussion forums and the old fashioned style of letters. Blogs are an instant form of communication and for discussion groups the internet means there is a larger reach to who will read their blog and opinions.

Many different social groups keep blogs but they are mostly teenagers and young to older adults. It is becoming a more popular way for businesses to communicate with audiences about topics to get their views and opinions on subject which can help their business.

Unlike traditional diaries, the world can read what you post.

The success of blogging is down to how easy it is to use. There are more than 7 million blogs and more are created each day around 12,000 each day according to recent figures.

David Lehre Productions
Vendetta Studios

David Lehre
Male 22 years old, L.A.
Director, Producer, Editor



Right hand side list of all films most around 5minutes long
Sergei Pornnchski- Olympic Gymnastics Instructor
David Lehre on 20/20
Harry Potter and the Magic Wand
Royal Casino 007
Myspace: the movie
Disease Island
All his work is based on the genre of comedy and he makes his on ideas and sometimes takes the ideas of other films e.g. Harry Potter and makes his own versions.

Contacting David Lehre Productions: There is a bar to which you can contact Lehre.

David Lehre Production’s Latest Blog Entry: Latest news on his work

David Lehre Production’s Blurbs: Learn a bit about him, links to other related sites- David Lehre Offical website

David Lehre Production’s Friend Space

David Lehre Production’s Friend Comments

Background colours pale pink and bright pink

David Lehre is using myspace it as a way to show the world his work. myspace is free to all so setting up a web page on the large reach of the internet costs nothing. David Lehre is able to make his own videos due to the cheap camcorders and software. For people who want to get into the film business setting up your blogs is a clever way to many different sorts of people to watch and comment on your movies and to hope for someone in the business to see your work and like it.

Vlogs

Vlogs

Main example of vlog website YouTube

They are short video diaries and homemade reality shows

Vlogs can be anything from something serious to comedy and these vloggers are using the power of cheap online technology to show their videos to the world. The internet provides this perfect environment for vloggers as the internet reach is extremeley large. Ammature filmmakers can use vlogs as a way to get their films on show in the hope some professional filmmaker may watch their work and like it. People you make these vlogs can comments from viewers which can help to know if their work is a success. This can also be done by looking at the number of views you have had.

Vlogging has become popular because of cheap:
Cameras
Editing programs
Simple software
Fast broadband connections

People are interested in watching vlogs as they are realistic and down to earth made by everyday people. The vlog website provides interactivity and proliferation.

Vlogging is the convergence of the internet and television

Insitutions are now using vlogs as a way to find quality filmmakers to help them make real films. YouTube along with 20th Century Fox were offering for the winner and friend to travel to Philadelphia, USA to shoot a big budegt Rocky montage, to enter you had to make your own budget Rocky Balboa tribute. This meant that wannabe filmmakers had a chance to get a taste of filming a high budget short movie and 20th Century Fox could advertsie Rocky Balboa further.

A Vlog from YouTube

‘Charles Has a Licking Problem’

It is a 55 second video of a selection of clips of this dog called Charles who has a licking problem and can’t stop licking the air around him with his big tongue. The person who made this vlog also made a song with lyrics and a beat especially for the vlog. This vlog accommodates dog lovers, comedy and music. This vlog is a good example of how random and fun vlogs can be yet with some personal aspect- his dog.

Podcasts

Podcasts

Ricky Gervais
The Podfather, as his podcasts have been the most successful I thought it was only right to use a Ricky Gervais podcast. His podcasts are discussion between him and two other men in which they talk about news and topics in a comedic way. This comedy value along with Ricky’s fame made these podcasts so popular. In this podcast it is the last of the free series and they talk about people having to pay a small price to get future Ricky Gervais podcasts. This happened because they became so popular it was stupid not for them to be earning something out of it. The topics which arise in this podcast are the Guinness World Records, cult of Karl, romance, fish and dinosaurs etc. The podcast lasts 32mintues 4seconds in which the most random thing are discussed.

Podcast technology

‘A podcast is a media file which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Like 'radio', it can mean both the content and the method of syndication. The latter may also be termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the name of Apple's portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast; a pod refers to a container of some sort and the idea of broadcasting to a container or pod correctly describes the process of podcasting. Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital audio formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically, using software capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.’ WIKIPEDIA

Institutions
Many different institutions are doing podcasts as there popularity is growing, institutions like radio, TV and film.
Podcasts allow more publicity and using the internet for downloading them means there is a much greater reach.
This podcasts can have adverts at the beginning middle and end of them which means new types of advertising and ways to get more revenue.

Technology it is replacing
Listening to the Radio to hear a certain shows you want to hear now you can download the shows from the internet making radio less linear
Watching the news from TV

Theory
Flexibility- listen to the podcasts when you want to fit around your life
Convergence

Lost Fansite

Fansites

They are becoming more and more popular with more people using the internet as it is cheaper and faster than before. Fansites are websites in which fans of a certain something can pursue this interest whether it is a sport, TV programme, actor/actress, band, singer or hobby. Fansites are made by a fan for the fans, and these people aren’t generally out for making profits but for pursuing their interest and a way to find other people like them. The internet has a massive potential reach as it is world wide which means these niche groups can form and come together. Fansites allow more interactivity within these groups than in the past. It has become possible and relatively easy for people to be able to start their own website, this means that anyone can set up a fansite.

I thought looking at fansite for a TV programme would be a good choice as it relates to the technology of television.

http://www.lost-tv.com/

The unofficial Lost Fan site
The main page to the website has a array of links and information

There is a welcome notice which includes:
‘This site is the first unofficial fansite for the show and was launched on 20 March 2004. If you wish to send anything my way - news, articles, pictures, links, wallpaper, etc. - then don't hesitate to email me at xander1600@yahoo.com.’

The main section of the front page is News and Updates, for example
Monday, January 08, 2007LOST Nominated for Producers Guild Award
Lost has been nominated for The Norman Felton Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television - Drama at this year's Producers Guild Awards. Other nominees in the category are Grey's Anatomy, House, The Sopranos, and 24. The winners will be announced on January 20.
(9:05 AM)
In case people wish to look at old updates there is a link to them.

‘Next on Lost’- a paragraph or so which tells fans what will happen next on Lost

There is a bar on the left hand side which is a list of links to other pages of the website for example:
News and updates
Cast: Photos of cast and their real and actor names, with a biography and flexography of them
Crew: Learn info about the creators and producers
Characters: Character information
Episodes: A list of all the episodes and info about them
Media: Downloads
Fan Section: Fan Fiction, Fan Art and Humour
Message Board

Advertisements: Amazon, Make Poverty History and ads powered by Google
Affiliates: LOST-TV Forums, Spoilerfix.com, Lostdaily.com, Stationzero etc
These institutions are using these fansites to advertise adverts and other websites.

This Lost unofficial website is powered by Google

These fansites will generally get viewers to look at their website, but some of these websites may not get many. This Lost website from its appearance and content must get an alright amount of surfers, but the forum with lists of different discussions did not have many posts with most with zero. This could be that people who go on this website do not go into the forum as they would just prefer to read Lost news and this fansite has to compete with other fansites and the official Lost fansite.

Theory
Interactivity- via the website
Diversification-internet allows these niche groups to form
Reach- internet can be reached by all so niche groups can form and setting up fan sites mean there are many potential people which could look at your website

PSP- converged piece of technology

PlayStation Portable- converged portable techonology
PSP (PlayStation Portable)


Units sold
Worldwide: 24.70 million units

The PlayStation Portable is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment.

Functions:
Game console
Music Player- store and play
Film Player- can buy or download films to watch
Photo- storage and view
Internet- allows users to stream live television broadcasts or other video content to their PSP, within their WiFi network, or remotely via the internet.
Wi-Fi- allows two ore more players with PlayStation portables to create a local, ad-hoc network for multiplayer gameplay, and also allows the a PSP user to connect to the internet via an internet-connected Wi-Fi router.
RSS features allow the user to download video web feeds or listen to podcasts from websites
Camera Attachment- Chotto Shot Camera and GPS attachment, the Quick Shot is a camera add-on which supports video and photo taking.

Features:
Ad-hoc networks allows for up to 16 PlayStation Portables within range to communicate directly to each other (typically for multi player gaming). One acts as the host for a game which is available to other PlayStation Portable units within that system’s range.
Game sharing
Firmware- direct download to the PSP over Wi-Fi, download to a PC

Colours
PlayStation Portable is currently available in 6 colors: black, ceramic white, pink, metallic blue, silver, and champagne. This therefore will make this portable appeal more as they can pick a colour to suit them.

Technology it is replacing
Old style portable game console e.g. Game Boy
Music players
Cameras
Portable DVD players

Theory
Convergence- merging of different technologies
Portability- small enough to be carried around
Miniaturisation
Convenience- lots of different technologies merged together which can be carried around for your convenience

Vertical intergration- users of Playstation and PS2 may feel loyal to the brand to buy this portable device

Downloading music- new media activity

Downloading music

What it is replacing
Music downloads have been replacing the buying on CD albums and singles. They have become such a large part of music that they are now included in the music charts when deciding the positioning of songs.

Why so popular with audiences?
Audiences can get the music easily from the internet for free e.g. Limewire or at a cheap cost e.g. iTunes, the music transfers directly to your PC and can be played immediately and transferred onto your mp3. You can download the music in the comfort of your home instead of going out to buy it or buying the CD on the internet and waiting for it to arrive. This therefore makes it convenient and flexible to audiences, which I think along with being free to download has been the main reason for its success. Downloading music appeals to people who do not want the whole album but only a few tracks on the artist. Downloading has become most popular with the young- teenagers and young adults as they have less money to spend on music and are techno savvy to know how to actually download music.

Relating to institutions
Positives
‘There are currently 300 legal digital music websites, three times as many as existed a year ago. Digital music services have registered 2.2m subscribers around the world, which is up from 1.5m in January. The two most popular are iTunes, offering 1.5m tracks and Napster, which offers 1.2m.’ Jul 25, 2005 PASSAGE FROM BBC NEWS ARTICLE

Negatives
Big record labels have seen their sales slide precipitously in the past several years, and have blamed the falling revenue in large part on rampant free music downloads online. Others have pointed to additional factors, such as lower household spending during the recession, and increased competition from other entertainment forms such as DVDs and video games, each of which have grown over the same time period.

Theory
Convenience- can all be done in the comfort of your home

Immediacy- transfers straight to your pc

iPhone- hot new piece of technology

iPhone- hot new piece of technology

It is a good example of convergence; phone, mp3, email, internet, watch TV and movies
Portable
Miniaturisation- many things merged together into one small gadget
Vertical intergration- iPhone is part of the iPod family so iPhone will have brand loyalty from the iPod

Screen
3.5 in
4 GB, 8 GB, internal flash memory
Networks
Data Download Speed Up to 220 Kbps
Connectivity
Computer via 30-pin iPod dock connector, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Physical size
115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
Weight
135 grams (4.8 ounces)

Functions:
· Camera phone
· Multimedia player
· Mobile telephone
· Internet services like e-mail
· Text messaging
· Web browsing
· Wireless connectivity

Features:
· Touchscreen-Designed for use with a finger to make easier to use

· Virtual buttons- It has automatic spell checking, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words as you type. Menu is used with a scroller as in the iPods.

It is possible to zoom in and out of objects such as web pages and photos by respectively "unpinching" and "pinching" them, that is, placing two fingers (usually thumb and forefinger) on the screen and moving them farther apart or closer together as if stretching or squeezing the image.

The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the touchscreen when the iPhone is brought close to an ear (to save battery power and to prevent accidental contact with the user's face and ears from triggering phone features), an ambient light sensor that adjusts screen brightness and saves power, and an accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly, albeit in only one 90 degree direction.

Audiences
The iPhone will be very expensive so this will limit its audience to the wealthier and will attract businessmen and women for its high quality of converged technology and rich teenagers for the image and label of the iPhone.