Look At The Camera... Say Cheese!

This is is my first official blog post for the Center for Innovative Education and Communication Technologies Department (CIECT). I already own a personal blog of my own and I have never really taken any thought into blogging for the Digital Media Studios Unit as part of my weekly task. Well, as one would expect from the DMS, we play around with camera equipment (and I do not mean play around in the literal sense). Just in the past 2 weeks of being employed here I have learnt that being behind the camera is not always about saying: "Say Cheeese!!". It is more than that, it is the camera man trying to portray an event with utmost professionalism and courtesy.

You probably asking yourself, so what? They drilled that into you from day one, but what did you really learn while being there for 2 weeks? Well... The first task assigned to us was software download and experimenting and acquainting ourselves with all of this software. I played around with the numerous software assigned to us for exploration purposes, and I stumbled upon a screen capturing software named:"Cam Studio".

CamStudio - Free Streaming Video Software

Cam Studio basically records or captures what is being written or in essence being played on the screen. This would be a really good tool for most if not all recorded lectures the DMS actually records. Instead of just recording the words by the lecture, the presentation itself can be played in between cuts to show the viewer what the lecturer is speaking about and which slide he/she is referring to :). Click on here to check out my YouTube video to see CamStudio in action or watch below.

You might have realized the video has a lot typing errors, I could have just edited them out of the video but my experience and opinion with regard to video editing will be part of another post.

Environmental Analysis

Preliminaries - Industry Analysis The industry analysis includes the analysis of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal aspects that impact the industry we are operating in. This PESTEL analysis is part of business research and helps us to understand the market the organization is operating in. The factors involved in PESTEL are discussed below Political Government policy Political stability Corruption Foreign trade policy Tax policy Labour law Trade restrictions Economic Economic growth Exchange rates Interest rates Inflation rates Disposable income Unemployment rates Social Population growth rates Age distribution Career attitudes Safety emphasis Technological Technology incentives Level of innovation Automation Research & Development activity Technology awareness Environmental Weather Climate Environmental policies Climate change Pressure from NGOs Legal Discrimination laws Antritrust laws Employment laws Consumer protection Health and safety laws Ma

Streaming Of the 2014 Graduation

Well, the University of the Western Cape in conjunction with the Cape Peninsula University fo Technology streamed the 2014 Summer graduation ceremony at the University of the Western Cape on CPUT TV (UWC Graduation) website. I had the chance to watch the live ceremony on the 19th of March 2014 of a few colleagues of mine graduate, it was extremely exciting and inspiring. But I struggled to understand why UWC could not at all stream the graduation onto their UWCOnline YouTube Channel . I was debating the fact that the university has a full Digital Media Studios unit, with most if not all of the equipment necessary for the event itself. The personnel here at this unit are qualified and equipped enough to handle such an event, but what was the cause of UWC not using an internal resource? Events being streamed live can be one risky position and proposition to be in if the whole team has not planned it well. Viewers do expect an event that is well coordinated with no hiccups, they

First Shoot

Today was my first shoot for the Digital Media Studios at Information and Communication Services (ICS). The event was part of the ICS workshop in conjunction with other departments in the university that would include various executives of the university. The first problem we encountered was with regard to the lighting in the venue itself. The sound was also quite a problem in itself but somehow Tosin and Andre had it fixed in no time at all. Another problem I faced was the fact that I was falling half asleep the whole time, and that can not be blamed on me in particular but rather the exams and the content of the presentation that was being delivered at the seminar itself. Apart from all that, the seminar did kind of help as I was introduced to various topics and content that related to ITS itself, so it was not totally a waste of time. I learnt a lot things though at this firs shoot.

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