Computer Generated Imagery (CGI)

This is the application of 3D Computer Graphics, the visual scenes will be either dynamic or static. Computer Generated Imagery is used to make generated imagery for films. I think that using CGI in films does make the effects and animation better to watch and would be more attracting, however i dont think that CGI should be used all the way through a film as it would be too much and distract people from the actual story line and character roles, I also think that it depends on the target audience as to how much CGI to include into a certain film, for egsample films with lots of CGI in for egsampe explosions and more effects would attract teenagers more.

Computer Animation refers to Dynamic CGI as it makes it look more like a movie, as computer games use the term "virtual world" refers to agent based, interactive enviroments.

3D computer graphics are used to make computer-generated imagery for movies

Process of CGI:



The creative media industries

Developing Technologies in the TV film industries
TV has come a long way in the last couple of years, like having more things to offer such as 3d television and surround sound and bigger televisions. 
3d Television: A television set that captures two seperate images and puts them together, this device has been created to project a television programme into a realistic three dimensional programme.
To view programmes in 3d you are required to wear glasses this is so they can display offset images to each eye or if no glasses are require then they have the light source splitting the two images directly into the viewers eyes.
At the moment 3d television is not very popular as not many households have them, i believe this is because it isnt really a good value for your money, as not many programmes are shown in 3d so it would hardly get used. i have never seen a television programme in 3d but i have seen films in 3d and i do not think that 3d films are much different to normal films, also i dont think you should have to pay extra to see a 3d film as its not the veiwers choice for that film to be in 3D it was the producers so i dont think the veiwers should have to pay extra.

Sattelite Television: Sattalite television usually works by having a sattelite dish outside the veiwers house, sattalite tuners are also available with a card or USB stick to be attached to computers. However as sattelite dishes are placed outside, they arent always very functional as when the weather turns bad, sattalite preview is limitted and goes off. So its not verry reliable. An example of a sattelite tv company is SKY.

Cable Television: Cable television is used by sending signals to televisions through either coxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed offset optical fibres located under ground. I used to have Sattalite but now have cable and I believe that cable is better than satalletite as it is more reliable and has more to offer such as on demand and Tevo, however not all people can have cable as they need to have coxial cables in their area and as not all people do they have to stick with sattelite also cable television is a little more expensive but i believe that it is worth it. An example of Cable is Virgin Media

Analogue: involves broadcasting of encoded audio analogue and analogue video signal. All broadcast television sysetems that use analogue may be wireless or can require that copper wire is used by cable converters.

Digital Television: when video and audio are transmitted by digital signals, instead of the analogue signals being used by analogue TV. To allow other uses of the television radio spectrum many countries replaced broadcast analogue television with digital television.

Interactive Television: Usually used by ITV for voting shows, it gives the viewers the chance to get invloved in what they are watching. Sky has these features so you can interact and the ways of doing this is usually accessed by pressing the red button on a sky remote whilst watching any sky digital programme.

High definition television : showing videos in higher definition then what they are tradittionaly shown in. At first HD used to do analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcasted by using video compression.

Streaming Media and Internet Television/on demand viewing:

Virgin Media an example of a company that do on demand. Streaming Media gives people the chance to watch and catch up on any programmes they have missed and not had the chance to record. Live streaming,delivering live footage over the internet involves having to use a camera for the media, an encoder to digitilize the content, a media publisher and a content delievery network that distributes and delivers the content.

Internet TV: Sometimes known as online TV, however it should not be confused with Web television , as this only shows short programmes or short videos that have been created by a wide variety of either companies or undividuals. Some internet television is known as catch-up TV, or internet television. It covers the delivery of shows and other video content over the internet.
an example of a website that does this is BBCiplayer, this shows only BBC shows.

Digital Recorders:

digital tv recorders are a little similliar to videorecorders as you can record any television programmes that you want to watch another time, so you don't miss them. However as digital recorders are the newer version of video recorders they come with benefits, such as:

• Pause Button - gives the chance to pause and re-wind live TV whenever you want.
• Multiple Recording - instead of recording each individual episode belonging to a series you can record them all in just one touch.

• Electronic Programme Guides - gives you the chance to view whats on during the whole day and what times.

Pay-per View: provides a service so that the audience can purchase events to view even though they are on the private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the time to everyone ordering it. An on screen guide can be used as a way for viewers to buy these or they can ring up and do it over the phone by an automatic pre-recorded system or do it live directly to a service representivs. The events they have to offer usually tend to include feauture films, sporting events and entertainment.

SKyboxoffice is a pay-per view channel.

Regulation of the media secctor.

Regulatory and professional bodies:

British Video Association - A home video entertainment that was established in 1980.

Film Distributors Association, - The film distributors association decide where you can explore the essential life of a film after the film production has finished.

Video Standards Council (VSC) - The VSC was set up to develop and oversea a code of practice (written rule)that was designed to promote high standards within the video industry.

Trading Standards institute - They have an important role in engaging with and making representations to government institutes.

Press Complaints Commission (PCC), this is a volountary regulatory body for british printed newspapers and magazines, that consist of representives from the major publishers.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), The independant regulator of advertising across all media, including marketting on websites. They work to ensure that ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful they do this by applying the advertising codes.

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) - It shapes the industry, connects through leaders and provides competitive advantage to their members, this helps them to build a rusted and secure mobile content and commerce future.

The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA), - The national trade association repressenting the buisness and commercial interests of video and computer game developers in the Uk and Europe.

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) - A UK charity that hosts annual award shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and other forms of animation, gives the chance for people to be awarded for their hard work.

Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA)  - Now known as the radio company, the trade body for Uk commercial radio, represents commercial radio to the government, the radio authority, copyright societies and other organisations concerned with radio.

The International Visual Communication Association (IVCA) - A non profit academic association  founded in 1950, whose members are interested in the study, teaching and application of all aspects of human communication.

Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) - The main international standards organisation for the world wide web.

British Web Design and Marketing Association - It is a not for profit organisation and is designed purley to encourage and promote industry standards within the web design sector.

British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA) - an industry body representing the digital industry in the United Kingdom, it was formed in 1985.

Regulatory issues:

ownership - A state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property.

monoply: where one company tries to own everything and have control over everything, in my opinion this is not a good thing for one company to own everything as they are then only telling people what they believe and as they wont hear any different they wil believe what one company tells them and i dont believe that is fair, there for i don't think that one company should be able to own everything because then people will have to believe what they say even though it may not be the truth, but they will have no other choice but to believe what they say is true as they wont be hearing any different.                                                                                                                                                                
consumer choice - gives the buyers the chance to choose their personal preference for consumption goods as people shouldnt be expected to pay for things that they dont want, so the government have to give people the choice and have a wide variety of choice.


freedom of information - refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the information technology and the internet, people have the right to know things, to know whats happening.


censorship - making sure nothing inapropriate is shown, therefor it should all be censored making sure that nothing that could be considered harmful to people or the government are shown, however in my opinion i believer that now censorship is taken too seriously as almost everything is censored which puts limitations on things which stops people being able to veiw certain things, which i do not find fair as other people are able to see certain things that others arent and i believe if one person can see it then everyone else should also be able to.


taste and decency - Only certain things should be said/shown publicly through the media in order to keep taste and decency in the media. An example of reaching the taste and decency laws is when Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross publicly slated a girl on the radio, they did this by ringing up this girls grandfather and giving him their opinion of her, whilst on air. As bad things were said on the voicemail, Russell and Jonathon was accused of breaching laws however i do not think they were entirley in the wrong as everyone has the freedom of speech so i think they was right to talk about their opinion on somebody, however i dont beleive they should have rang her grandfather, however if they wanted to discuss it publicly then they should be allowed, in my opinion.

Media Representation

This is how certain people and stereotypes such as homosexuals, people of different race, etc are represented in the media industry in television programmes, film and the radio. This is because if a certain stereotype is represented in a negative way then everyone that watches that programme will then think negatively of that specific stereotype. Representation in particular programmes are chosen by the director or writer so are there for their own opinions and not necessarily what people are actually like.

An example where a certain representation is shown negatively is in Hollyoaks when a gay man named Brendon beats up men that he likes and is also shown as a bad person as he has killed people, however in the same programme there is another gay person who is shown more positively, so this shows that not all gay people are like that, they are all different.  A representation is a generalisation of a group or place etc and are used in the media as a short cut to communication which means that the audience will understand certain things without having to directly be told.

OFCOM

Ofcom – 

Basically the police for the broadcasting and telecommunications industry, their job is to make sure that broadcasting productions such as films, tv programmes and radio stations are doing what they should be and not doing anything wrong, so they have to protect consumers from material that could be considered harmful or offensive to them in any way. Some of the main areas that ofcom covers are licensing, codes and policies, complaints and competitions.

BBFC

BBFC -

British Board of film classification, it was originally the British board of film censors, it is a non- governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and it’s responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom. It has a requirement to classify videos, DVD’s and sometimes video games all under the Video Recordings Act.

The video recordings act requires that video, music and documentarys, non fiction, video games, etc under the act had to be classifies, this makes it illegal to supply any recording that had not been certified. This can restrict release to any age of 18 or under, or to only licensed sex-shops. The government currently designate the BBFC as the authority for certifying video releases, this is because the law requires the certificate to be shown on the packaging or media labels of the video recording, one of the rules is that only UK releases can be legally sold or hired in the UK.

News International Phone Hacking Scandal

This scandal breaches the human rights act, invades privacy, breaking privacy laws in which people should have the right to be left alone and have things to themselves.

This mainly involved the News of the World, but also involved other British tabloid newspapers published by News international which is a subsidiary of News Corporation. Employees of the newspaper was accused of being involved in phone hacking, police bribery and using improper stories influence in the pursuit of publishing stories.

Phone hacking investigations started in 2005 and went on till 2007, it was agreed that the papers phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities, politicians and members of the British Royal Family. However in July 2011 it was revealed that phones of a murdered schoolgirl named Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of London Bombings were also accessed, this resulted to a public outcry against news Corporation and the owner Rupert Murdoch.

On the 6^th of July British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that a public enquiry would take place to look into it all after police investigations had finished.  On 13^th July David Cameron named Lord Justice Leveson as chairman of the inquiry, with a remit to look into phone hacking and police bribery by the News of the World while a second inquiry would look at the culture and ethics of the wider British Media.  

All the negative attention caused by this scandal eventually reached the United States which is where News Corporation is headquartered and also operates multiple media outlets. On July the 14^th The Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a probe to find out whether News corporation accessed voicemails of the victims of the 9/11 attacks and on July 15^th the US Attorney General announced an additional investigation will take place by the Department of Justice, these were to find out if the company had violated the foreign corrupt practices act.

Ethical and legal constraints within the Media Sector

Ethical:

social issues and sensitivities, eg representation of gender, representation of religious beliefs, linguistic usages, accessibility; professional body codes of practice, eg BBC producers’ guidelines, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards

Legal:


people who work in the creative media induestries have certain rules and regulations that they must abide by.

Broadcasting Act 1990 (and later amendments),
A series of laws that relate to what is legal and illegal to broadcast on television and radio.


Official Secrets Act 1989,
Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments)
Art of parliment of the UK's parliment. This created offences of the disclosure of information and breach of offficial trust..




Films Act 1985
laws that concern film finance and defining british films.


Video Recordings Act 1984
laws stating that all rules that are sold or available for rental must be classified by the BBC.


 Race Relations Act 1976
Established by the parliment of parliment on the UK to prevent any discrimination.


Human Rights Act 1998,
rights that belong justifiably to every person.


Licensing Act
The Licensing Act 2003 became law on 24 November 2005.
Licensing objectives
Licensing authorities operate according to four licensing objectives, to make sure that licensable activities are carried out in public interest.
- the preventation of crime and disorder
- public safety
- the preventation of public nuisance
- the protection of children from harm






Privacy Laws
the right to be left alone. Privacy laws are considered in the context of an individuals rights or expectations of privacy. This is to ensure that producers can avoid infringement of privacy in programmes and in connection with obtaining material included in programmes, any infringment of privacy must be warranted.
An example of breaching someones privacy is like the phone hacking scandal.
Copyright
copyright protects written theatrical, musical and artistic works as well as film, book layouts, sound recordings and broadcasts. This is an automationc right, so you dont have to apply for it.
An example of breaching copyright rules is if sombody wrote a song for their favourite band or artist and they decided to bring out that song and didnt say that they wrote it then they would be breaking copright rules, for not includig them.


Libel Laws
Laws stating that no slander or discrimination will be aimed at one particular individual or group.


intellectual property
This refers to creations of the mind, litterally and artistic works, symbols, names, images, and designs. IP results from the expansion of an idea So IP might be a band, invention, song or another intellectual creation.

This was an act of the parliament of the UK. This created offences of disclosure of information and breach of official trust. This is illegal to disclose information regarding national security.


Codes of practice
a code of practice is a set of written rules which explains how people that work in particular proffesions should behave within that proffession., these rules are written by a proffesssional or official body to help them follow legal and ethical standards.


Editors code of practice
Newspaper and magazines industrys code of practice, all members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest proffessional standards, making sure that the industry follow those ethical standards, in order to protect both the rights of an individual and also also the publics right to know things. It is essential that an agreed code of practice is set and dhould be honored by all editors, its the responsibillity of editors and publishers to apply the code.

Structure and ownership of the media sector.

For my first college assignment I have been asked to learn about the structure and ownership of the media sector by assesing two media companies of my choice. The media companies i have chosen are Time Warner and Bauer media. I have done this by researching both the media companies and also using some of my knoledge whilst at the same time expanding it.

 Time Warner

Time Warner Inc is a global leader in media and entertainment it has businesses in television networks, filmed entertainment and publishing, it uses its industry-leading operating scale and brands to create, package and deliver high-quality content worldwide using multiple distribution outlets. They have approximately 32,000 worldwide employees and are also a media conglomerate company. Time Warner also operates in different major parts of the media therefore making them a cross-media company.

Time Warner started out as two separate media companies Warner Communication inc. and Time inc. that merged together in 1990. Along with the assets of a third company, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. Another merge took place in 2000 with AOL and time Warner; they became AOL time Warner this was created when AOL purchased time Warner for $164 billion it employed a merger structure in which each original company merged into a newly created entity. Due to the larger market capitalization of AOL, they would own 55% of the new company while Time Warner shareholders owned only 45%, so in actual practice AOL had acquired Time Warner, even though AOL had far less assets and revenues. According to AOL’s president this merge would make the slow moving time Warner take off at internet speed, however on May 28^th 2009 Time Warner announced that it would spin off AOL as a separate independent company. 

In the year 1972 Kinney National Company split off its none entertainment assets due to a financial scandal and reinvented themselves as Warner communications and During the 1970’s and 1980’s this became the parent company for Warner Bro’s pictures and Warner music group as well as owning DC comics and mad, also they had a majority stake in Garden state national bank.

During 1975 Time Warner expanded due to the guidance of Steve Ross and they joined with American express, which held cable channels including MTV which was launched in 1981, Nickelodeon launched in 1979 and the movie channel. Time Warner brought out American express themselves in 1984 and later sold this venture to Viacom who re- named it to MTV networks.

Commercial properties

Time Warner owns several large properties in New York City; certain buildings in the Rockefeller centre complex and many office towers one of which houses happens to be CNN news studio.

CNN

Cable news network is a US cable news network that was found by Ted Turner in 1980. CNN was the first ever channel to provide a 24 hour television news coverage and the first all news channel that the US had ever had. Time warner is the parent company of the CNN. To distinguish the american channel from its international counterpart CNN international the CNN is usually reffered to as CNN/U.S and as of augast 2010 CNN is available in over 100 million U.S households. This U.S broadcast is also shown in Canada.

A list of Time Warner's past names:

1971-1990 : Warner Communications

1990-2001, November 2002- now : Time Warner

1992-2001 : Time Warner Entertainment

2000- 2003: AOL time warner inc

In my opinion i do not believe that it is such a good idea for time warner to own so much, because it gives them the opportunity to just tell us what they want us to hear rather than the actual truth, so they can just give us their opinon and pass it off as a fact even though its not, and as we have no other information we know no better.

Bauer media group:

Bauer is the largest privatley owned publisher in Europe, it publishes in Germkany, France, Spain, Portugal and the UK. Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week.

This is a large German publishing company Bauer family formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG and it is mainly based in Hamburg; it operates in 15 countries worldwide. Sine Bauer media group was founded in 1875 by Jonathon Bauer and it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week.

They have 6,400 employees and their subsidiaries are Bauer radio and Box television.

Bauer has been managed by four generations of the Bauer family; it was originally a small printing house. The Bauer Publishing Group has grown into a worldwide publishing and media company. The Bauer Publishing Group comprises 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started in the UK and began in 1987 with the launch of Bella magazine and H Bauer publishing became Britain’s third largest publisher.

H Bauer publishing brands;

H bauer owns a number of puzzle magazine aswell as music and TV magazines.

Some of these are:

Bella

Bella sought to make an impact in the UK magazine market by mixing previously unseen real-life editorial with the classic elements more traditionally associated with women's magazines such as fashion and beauty, cookery and practical home features.

Take a break and that’s life!

Take a break tells real life stories and their target audience is Women, this magazine quickly became market leader with an ABC audited circulation of over one million sales. Up until 2005 there were only three women's magazines dedicated to delivering true life editorial, one of which was H Bauer's sister title, that's life! This was launched in 1995.

Bauer media brands;

Kerrang!

Specializes in rock music and since 2005 all of its programme content is music videos, the majority the majority of which is open scheduled, for text requests from their playlist. It is based on format of Kerrang! Brand from Bauer which also exists in Kerrang Radio and Kerrang! Magazine.

Q 

This started out as a music magazine that was published monthly in the UK.

The 1990's saw H. Bauer strengthen its portfolio with the launch of TVQuick in 1991, that's life! in 1995 and TVChoice in 1999. Together with sixteen successful puzzle titles within the stable, H. Bauer has always had a major presence in the UK magazine market with a considerable market share.


At the beginning of 2008, Bauer expanded its portfolio even further by acquiring Emap’s Radio and Consumer Magazine divisions and changed the name of these new UK businesses to Bauer Media.