Communicating Ideas With Film, Video, and Multimedia

Communicating Ideas with Film, Video, and Multimedia- S.Martin Shelton (2004).
My task is primerily a communication artifact and therefor I have decided to do some background reading into the theory of this topic to apply to my situation and brief.
This was the best book I found throughout the day. This will be the primary source of background reading into film shorts and the general requirements and process needed to be taken when taking on a project like this.
I started to read in the message and relationship to motion media. It explains that we are in the midst of a communication development era. With motion media dominating the modern day with mass audiences subjected to revolutionising kinestic photography. Today motion-media is our primary source of information and we send and consume information through the internet.

Shelton states 'its the communication business we're in, not the film, video or multimedia business. understand this precept to the depth of your being.' he then goes on to state that we are in essence in the psychology business. I believe that if i am going to create in information visual then I will need to understand the audience perception and psycology behind the subject.

The Communication Challange-
Graphics and motion images are the most powerful way of enhancing our perceptual thinking. As this book was writen in 2004, some of the information may seem outdated or when tlaking about the future I will refer to this as the present day. For example Shelton states 'In the future, it matters not what communication tool we work with....what matters is that we use our communication skills and techhnology to design and produce shows that communicate our messsage to the target audiences readily, effectively, and economically.'
Information, Communication and Meaning-
I will now look in greater detail into the 'communication business' by analysing sheltons theory of communication and Claude Shannons Information Theory.
A message is whatever stimulates our senses. David K.Berlo defines messages as 'Ordered selection of symbols intented to communicate information.' It is how we encode these symbols into filmic design that defines scripting. 'Meaning is a phychological function that involves cultral, social, and environmental facors. Though meaning is contianed in the message, Its sender and reciever who give meaning to messages through their common understanding' There are 3 main interpretaions of a message
-Intended message: What the sender meant to communicate
-Transmitted message: What was actually sent and recieved
-Understood message: What the audience percieved the sender sent.
It states that whatever message is convayed over motion-media, however well constructed. The strue meaning of our message can never be totaly successful in our communication.
For me my intended message is to create an awareness of the red sea tank in the london sea life aquarium and how it is run and monitored. Hopefully i will be able to transmit this message effectively through the visuals and get a good link between the understood message and the my intended.
Communication Theory-
Shannons theory states that communication is 'the encoding of information into electronic signals or messages, transmitting and recieving the messages, and decoding the messages back into information that is error free or nearly so.'
The General Communication System
This consists of several elementary components-

Noise, Channel and Feedback...This is shown below.

Shelton's communication Theory:
Importance: How important is the information to the audience? whats their advantage to know the information? The more important the information, the easier the communication. For instance, if the audience members know that to get promoted they must demonstrate skill in operaating the acme Thingamajig, they'll probably work to a fare-thee-well our multimedia program that deals with the acnme thingamajig.
Urgency:When must the audience use the information? when must they take the required action? the more urgent the information, the easier our communication task- a hurricane warning, for instance.
Currency: When does the value of the information expire, become nearly worthless, or become historical? The more current the message, the easier the communication task.
Motivation:Why is the audience interacting with the media:viewing, listening, reading? Is their interaction voluntary or compelled?Are they bored or interested in the subject matter?
Anticipation:It there a heads-up that alerts the audience that a message is coming? What is the lead time before the communication process begins? Does the audience do preparatory work?
Distribution: What media do we use to transmit the information to the audience: speech, newspaper, motion media, radio? Some of the factors affecting the distribution mediums influence on the audience are heir familiatiry with the medium, preference, access and trust.
Environment: Is the ambience of the environment conductive to communications? What are the effects of the physical surroundings: ambient noise and light, climate, decor, and furniture?

With regard to content of the video. the book states that the message needs to be short and to the point. Cute gimmicks often backfire and become noise that obscures the primary image. Most messages should be visual. About 70-80% of the information should be pictoral content. Auditory messages must be secondary and used sparingly only to reinforce the visuals. With his in mind I believe that my video should be largely visual based with pictoral content being the main focus. any audio message should be backed up with visual explination.

What did i find on my trip to sussex?

There were a number of books at sussex library that i found of relevnace as well as a minority that were not the best. Possibly the most usefull book that i looked at was 'communicating ideas with film, video, and multimedia: a practical guide to information motion-media'. In this book i found a host of information on methods and critical theories about how to communicate ideas and how audiences react to certain stimulus.
Another book that i found whilst at the library but didnt plan on viewing was 'creative documentary - theory and practice'. This was brilliant as it provided a guide on how to approach a documentary based video, from looking at a concept, and sorting relevant content of the video to how to plan and shoot the documentary with specific camera movements and editing techniques.
The other books including, 'digital media revisited','speaking into the air' and 'visual information systems:the power of graphics and video' were not of major use as their content were not completely relevant in some books. For example in 'digital media revisited' the content was very general and about varied media forms rather than video specifically making it hard to apply to my brief. 'speaking into the air' was also very general and the text consistedinformation on communication generally and not in terms of media and 'visual information systems' was quite outdated and was too hard to make any link with my task.
However, the day was a success and i have gained a large amount of knowledge on my task ahead. i n the next few days i will be writing up my findings and how i can apply the to my brief.

2/7/2012-3 Day Task

Today is the first of a three day excersise for the EPQ. We had a Havard Referencing lesson with Mrs Edwards to learn how to reference properly and appropriately for our future bibliography. Tomorrow we will be visiting Sussex University Campus and using their 3 floor library to carry out a significant amount of our seconday research. We spent an hour deciding on specific books that we want to gain access to when we go tomorrow. Here is a list of the books i have decided i want to view:
-Communicating Ideas with film, cideo, and multimedia - a practical guide to information motion-media. 
-Writing for visual edia- (ebook)
-Digital media revisited: Theorectical and conceptual innovation in digital domains.
-Speaking into the air: A history of idea of communication.
-Return on engagement: content, strategy and design techniques for digital marketing - (ebook)
-Journal of marine animals and their ecology - (ebook)

As well as these books and ebooks i also want to look into other forms of secondary research, this includes looking at semiotics, magazine layout and design from reading material i have gained in my media studies classes. I also want to look into further information on marine species and information i can put into my video.

I also completed a Project Proposal Part A for my production log and outlined a clear title/brief. I identified the specific areas and sources i wanted to research and the actions i need to take to make those possble. This is shown below.

Chosen Idea

I have chosen to base my EPQ on the Marine Habitat magazine. This is because of a number of reasons. This magazine is perfect for this type of product because as well as distributing a bi-monthly issue. There is a host of extra online available content which makes a DVD of some sort ideal for them.
The publisher is very dedicated to the beauty of the natural reefs the planet has to offer and is keen on supporting marine conservation efforts through the sales of the Marine Habitat magazine.

Secondly, There are various links of the Marine Habitat website to the Sea Life centre in London. This relationship between the two creates a perfect opportunity to make a video based on a specific tank in the sea life centre for the consumers of the magazine. This will also encourage the magazine producers to feature something they support.

THE BRIEF
To design and make a  DVD in an appropriate format to be placed in the cover of an issue of the Marine habitat magazine. The DVD should be an information video aimed at the experienced hobbyists who are interested in such a product. The video should provide detailed and illustrative information on fish, invertebrate and corals as well as a 'behind the glass' section on a reef tank from the London Sea Life Aquarium. This will also involve the designing the front of the magazine as well as packaging for the DVD.