Evaluation of Key Learnings

 Throughout all sessions on digital practice I feel I have learnt a substantial amount of new skills and been made aware of new theories which I have enjoyed applying to the media I am interested in. This began in secession one where we first learnt about digital technologies. We discussed the evolution of the internet and the technologies that follow it, how early on each media format was dictated by the device you owned such as a phone for calls, or a television for films, but now all their mediums are available on a single device. This convergence onto one device is very interesting to me and puts into perspective the generational differences to do with technology which I hadn't really thought about before. 

In week two we discussed the ideas behind storytelling, and how vital of an artform it is that ranges back centuries. Although I didn't find this the most interesting seminar, I found it compelling to discuss in groups how the different perspectives in stories dictate the characters within it. How most often stories are told from the perspective of heroes, their morals decide what is right and wrong and their actions are often seen as the correct thing to do, but on occasion stories are told from the villain's point of view and suddenly puts the audience in a grey zone where they are rooting for the bad guy. I found this concept intriguing and enjoyed hearing everyone's opinions on it. This was also the lesson where we learnt about the Lev Kuleshov technique, where viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single image and this was a simple theory that I can now apply to most media I watch. 

Secession three was my favourite of all the seminars as I found the theories we learnt very interesting and the graphic design activity in class to be very creatively enjoyable. We walked through what made a campaign successful and different types of marketing strategies before getting to Gestalts theory. For the class task I made a marketing poster for Apple Music that involved an apple logo redesigned as a record, conveying that the company would soon become timeless like records. Although we only spent a short time on this the process was very interesting and with it being the first piece of visual design I've ever created I was happy with the outcome. I believe this was a key development for me in the world of digital practice as it was the first time in a while I had felt truly creative. This is the reason why I am currently planning on continuing this technique in the second media rich project as I am interested in improving and furthering my skills in the project.

Week four introduced Stuart Hall's theories on encoding and decoding, something which I had looked at previously at a levels. We spoke about signs and how to decode them, noting what they conveyed to an audience and whether or not that was its intended meaning. We often found these meanings picked up by the audience differed depending on the culture that person had consumed, reflecting that how people interpret signs is based on what they already know. I found this an interesting concept as I have looked into it previously at college but the different options had not differed as much as they did in the classroom for this week. We then went on to decode clips of Grease and I liked how even the smallest prop conoted a larger meaning, such as her hair band signifying her innocence.

The next week we learnt about interactive and non linear storytelling, a concept which I had heard of but never looked into. This was also one of my favourite seminars as learning about the complexe details that go into these types of stories was very intriguing. We first started by looking into puzzle gamebooks and puzzle books, both which required the reader to complete them in their own order. Reading for me is difficult enough so I am a lot more interested in the digital versions of these stories such as Bandersnatch. As this example got a lot of recognition I choses to watch it for the first time after the seminar and really enjoyed the concept and, especially after learning about it, had a newfound respect for how it was made. 

In week six we learned about transmedia storytelling, which describes a product that is spread across many types of media to usually market it. This is a technique often used in modern films and tv as they are prompted across a wide range of platforms to increase attention and traction. I reflected on how most current franchises, such as Marvel and Star Wars, deploy mass marketing over a wide range of media, some of which including real life stunts. I chose to look into this further and as a fan of Marvel I researched into how they promote their films publicly. For the latest Marvel release, Spider-Man:No Way Home, real life news stands were created around cities to hand out school newspapers based on the fictual school Peter Parker attends, guessing at who is the real spiderman, a large plot point of the film. For me this was an interesting topic as I have a large interest in these film franchises so learning about real life examples of transmedia marketing related to them only further pushed my need to understand the concept more. This feeds into what we looked at next which was world building, a technique used to create a fictional world which can be ever growing and therefore remain lucrative. This concept is referenced in media such as Harry Potter, as although the books mainly follow Harry’s story the world he lives in holds many other significant characters that each have the opportunity to grow, shown by the recent success of the Fantastic Beast films. This worldbuilding allowed for the story to not be tied to a single character, making the overall concept more interesting as it feels more real. I enjoyed learning about this concept as many of the franchises I subscribe to are built around the fictional world they are in rather than a singular character which I hadn't really acknowledged before this final seminar.