Evidence of our progress in Garageband

Risk Assessment

Edting our clips

To edit our logged clips into the real documentary we are using the software called premier pro. After we have logged the certain parts of the footage we have got, they go into a logged folder. This then allows us to get the edited footage and drag it onto the timeline for real video. Once it is on the time line we can then edit the length of the clip, the speed, zoom in/out etc.

Garageband Progress

This is just some evidence of the work that we have been doing throughout the lessons. We are currently trying to create various soundtracks to use in our documentary. we are using garage band to create the music for both the introduction and the background music. overall we will make about 3 different simple soundtracks to use through out our documentary bringing them in out at different parts. those songs are simple but fit the stye and topic of our documentary and due to them just being played in the background they do not need to stand out that much, so by making them simple we can repeat the melody to make a good simple hick song for our documentary.

Storyboarding our documentary

Chosen background music

Background Music

The music that we used at the start of the documentary for our introduction was all made on garageband by a music tech student. This allowed us to create the perfect retro game sounding song. We made the creator of the song use synth sounds because these sounds are very common within the famous and most popular game theme tunes.We also made the song very fast paced sounds and upbeat tempo that relates to the world of gaming.The result has ended up a great success and the music fits perfectly with our introduction and gives off the right impression for the documentary that we have made.

We based the music of theme tines from games such as Mario, sonic, crash bandicoot, space invaders, Tetris, packman and many more games with high pitched synth sounds that are highly common and well known within the game theme tune genre.

We were provided with pre-existing music that is already available on the college system, they varied from a large range of genres giving us a wide choice. We found this very helpful as different parts of our documentary would require different styles of music. However we made a decision to use the electric genre of the collection as it seemed to fit the pace of the documentary.

After briefly listening to many of the tracks in the folder, we were struggling to find a catchy tune that would work well alongside our footage. We eventually came accross "the next generation" which we all felt as a group was a very good song to use, we have placed it over some of our vox pops as it is light hearted and does not distract from the footage itself.

Target Audience Research

Predominant Target Audience:

(Age) 16 - 21 year olds

We have chosen this particular age group due to the fact that most game companies primarily aim for them. 16-21 year olds are most likely to have more experience with video games making them ideal candidates to interview. Our group also has very easy access to this age group, meaning that we can interview and get opinions from people to include in our documentary, increasing reliability of results.

(Gender) All genders

Whilst stereotypically, the male gender is the most interested in video games, we decided to aim our project at both genders. This is because we hope to appeal to as many people as possible with our work, including the very large female community. We also did not want to discriminate women from the documentary as we are aware their is a female audience that are interested in video games.

(Class) All social classes

Games vary in prices and quality, therefore even people of a lower class are often consumers of them. Therefore there is no particular class targeted by our documentary, due to their consumption within families of varying financial states.

 (Lifestyle)

The ideal lifestyle of our target audience would be people that play video games on a regular basis. This is because they have a clear interest in the topic and have possibly experienced certain scenarios and issues we express in our work. For example we draw upon a young adult that has a clear obsession with video games, so much so that he purposely misses out on social events. This could relate to certain audience members and even show them the possible errors of their ways.

script

this our first draft of a script for our documentary. however this is not the finished version and is not definitely going to be used. 

Script

Tom: Video games are quite literally everywhere there all over the gaff

Scott: They’re in bus shelters, billboards, public transport you name it there probably there

Tom: And there’s no doubt they have evolved over time I mean look at this, it looks real!

Scott: The once niche audience for video games has now broadened to the masses with almost 33 million people playing them in the UK alone

Tom: That’s right according to IAB UK in 2011 7 of 10 16-65 year old game players play at least 3 times a week

Scott: and 72% of them play socially online, either with friends or people they don’t actually know

(Tom: to further our search we visited the nearby Sixth form for people of the target demographic for videogames to do a little research for ourselves

Scott: Unfortunately the first student we found was so enthralled in the new call of duty we couldn’t get an answer from him

Tom: Luckily we found some other people keen to assist our research!)

Scott: Do you play video games?

Tom: What kind of video games do you play?

Scott: How often do you play video games?

(Presenters introduce interview with Julie)

Tom: we also spoke to Nick Waring a parent of two, to get his opinion on the matter.

Logging our work

Now that we have concluded the period of lessons in which we film our material, we have come to the editing stage. At the moment this entails us uploading our footage to adobe premiere and deciding which elements we should keep and which we should delete. Our group is finding this a particularly difficult process as we are yet to decide what the actual storyboard for our work is, therefore we do not know what will be of particular value to us yet. However members of our group are currently working on a story board and the footage we edit out is not completely erased, it can be revived into our production.

As you can see from the picture we are using specialist software to carry out our task on the Mac computer. Some of us found the process difficult at first, however we quickly learned the process to importing footage and editing it down to our preference. At the moment we are unsure of why there are two screens available for us to use, however this is something that our group will no doubt learn from our instructors in the lesson. We have quickly grasped the technique to using this particular software and we are achieving our work faster and faster as we learn more about it.

As we upload our footage we record the results in this table to have written proof of the progress we make in each lesson. We believe that by recording our results we can refer back to any changes we made in the editing stage of our work. At the moment we are logging the name of each individual piece of footage and writing down which elements we are definitely planning to keep. I feel that this organised preparation for our work will be very helpful in the later stages of production. 

Potential Background Music

We have created a list of potential music that we may use for our documentary.

1. (https://www.youtube.com/show/royaltyfreemusic/videos) This youtube channel has a large variety of copyright free music. some of these may suit our genre of documentary which can be used for our background music throughout the documentary. 

2. On the college macs they have a large selection of copyright free music that we could also potentially use for our documentary.

3. Our third and final option is to create something of our own in Garageband on the college macs. Garageband is a music creation application, which would allow us to create our own music, which could be tailored to the genre.

Vox pops

As a method to extend our research we asked various students and members of the public particular questions about our topic. We felt that these results would benefit us in our documentary in terms of reliability. Here are some of the locations we visited and the questions we asked....

Questions: 1. Do you play video games?

                   2. How many hours a week do you play video games?

                   3. Name your favourite video game

Solihull

At first we struggled to find results that would be helpful to us due to the fact that the people we approached did not play games at all. However as we continued to ask, our communication skills developed and we were able to extend our questions further in order to receive more interesting results. For example each individual interviewer would extend further on the specific answer that was given. 

Interviewer: Do you play Video Games

Vox Pop: No, not really 

Interviewer: Why is that?

Vox Pop: Well I just don't find them interesting really, I guess its because I just find them pretty boring. 

We felt that this technique would lead to more detailed answers that could be useful to include in the documentary. 

Sixth Form

We found it to be a great advantage to interview Sixth form students for two main reasons. One being that video game companies used 16-18 year olds as a prime target audience for their products, therefore `students around the college are likely to have a strong opinion on the matter. Secondly we have very easy access to these students due to many of them being either acquaintances or friends therefore they would be willing to do an interview. As a group we feel that the student's answers to our questions is some of the most important footage we have.

Interviewer: Do you play video games?

Vox Pop: Yes

Interviewer: What video games do you play?

Vox Pop: Mario Kart

Interviewer: How often do you play video games in a week?

Vox Pop: Probably about an hour a week

Progress Checkpoint 3

We have now completed all of our Vox Pops this week. We collected the remainder of them from around Solihull Sixth Form College. This is because we believe the target demographic for video games is around 16-19, which is the age of the students at the college. We have also finished filming the introduction, presentation and have also collected the in game footage.

Updated Schedule 22nd October

What we have done so far:

• Expert interview with Julie Maitland
• Expert interview with Tom Krawec
• Expert interview with Nick Waring
• Vox pops (10 so far)
• Presenting scene for opening of documentary
• Film mock interview with gamer (skit)

What we plan to do:

• Film background footage
• Film remaining presentation scenes
• Film "reaction to" of violent video games
• Film opening sequence- game animation
• film interview with actual gamer

Evidence of contact and organisation for expert interviews

We contacted "experts" via Tyber to check if they were willing and available to answer a few questions for our documentary. Below is a few screenshots of the messages we sent and the replies we received. Also below are the questions we asked them, we sent the questions to them in advance to allow them to prepare.

                                                        Messaging Julie Maitland

Messaging Tom Krawec

Messaging Nick Waring

Progress Checkpoint 2

We have now finished our second week of filming and as a group we feel it is really coming together. On top of last weeks filming we have now filmed three expert interviews and collected a variety of shots for background footage. We filmed our background footage in both sixth form and Solihull as well as capturing some in game footage from a variety of games. Next week we will collect some more Vox Pops from around the sixth form and film our presenters and opening title to our documentary.

Progress Checkpoint 1

We are a week into our filming and so far it is going quite well, we started our filming by experimenting with a dual on screen narrators, we decided to take quite a comic approach to presenting in the style of ant and dec to make our documentary entertaining and for it to engage audiences. Our first attempt wasn't fantastic having no script and sharing a clip on mic however the dynamic worked so we have decided to go through with having two presenters. We have also begun collecting our Vox Pops, thus far we have filmed 4 Vox Pops in different locations in Solihull, and plan to film more at the sixth form college to get a range of backgrounds and opinions. Next week we plan to film our expert interviews and collect background footage. 

    Our first attempt at filming our on screen presenters 

Filming Schedule 13th-17th October

-Tuesday 14th- Julie interview @ 12:40

-Wednesday 15th- Julie interview between 12:30 and 4:00

(Will be interviewed on one of these days, depending on her availability)

-Thursday 16th- Presenting footage Tom and Scott between 12:30  and 2:50

-Friday 17th- Interview with Tom (psychologist) @ 9:40
-Friday 17th- Vox pop interviews- 10:00 onwards.

Contacting "Youtubers"

Throughout today's lesson I found a wide range of people on youtube that have accounts that are purely dedicated to gaming. These accounts consist of game walkthroughs, reviews and general discussion about video games. The videos that the accounts post gain thousands of views making them an ideal person to interview due to their success on the internet. Yet whilst the "Youtubers" are popular on the internet, they are not experts when it comes to the topic. Therefore I feel it is very important to stress the popularity of their videos when mentioning them in the documentary, and not refer to them as any sort of expert. So I sent a message to a range of accounts stressing our situation as students trying to make a documentary about the conroversial topic of video games and anti social behaviour. Here is the message I sent:

Hi,

Our college group are currently creating a documentary based on the controversial topic of video games. We are answering the question "Do video games influence anti social behaviour?" and we would find it very helpful if we could interview you about the topic. We feel that your enthusiasm in gaming and success online would make you an ideal person to interview. If you could contact me via email: dickinson.scott8@googlemail.com and arrange a Skype or video chat call it would be very helpful in helping us achieve high marks.

Thanks for your time,

Scott

I hope to receive a message back soon in order to organise a video call that can be recorded and put into our documentary. I feel that their opinion on the matter will be very helpful to us.

shots and footage from panorama

Research into the documentary genre

Planned locations for our documentary

Concerns and benefits of video games

facts and figures of video game addiction

Interviews Mindmap

This is a list of possible people that we could interview during our exploration of our investigation.

Psychologist- Tom Krawec

Q- Do you feel video games influence anti-social behaviour?

Professional Gamer: ?

Q- Do you feel video games have effected your behaviour?

Pastrol Manager: ?

Q- In your experience o you feel video games influence violent beheaviour?

Worker at video game store (CEX, GAME): ?

Q- How often do underage kids try to buy games over their age ?
Q- What is your ID policy

Parents: ?

Q- Do you feel video games have affected your child's behaviour at any point?

Policeman: ?

Q- Do you think violent video games influence anti social behaviour?


At the moment we are uncertain of the names of the people we will be interviewing, however at some point we will update . We may also add more questions to particular people we are interviewing.

Existing Product Information

There was multiple videos on youtube about the question; "do video games cause violence in children?" Most were from high-profile youtubers instead of the television companies. Many of these youtubers posted videos of violent games.

PBS News hour documentary contained interviews with: game review editor, public health experts, teenage students, the founder of common sense media and journalists.

From the documentaries we heard multiple opinions for both sides of the argument.

Despite children learning the most at a young age, they will not understand the violence till a much later age.
The affect on children is household dependent rather than the game, meaning parental control will play a part in it.
Both the designers and consumers share responsibility. Designers because they know the game that they are producing is bound to have some sort of impact.

Video games aren't the definitive reason for the violence- all results are correlational, which doesn't show the cause.
Believed that it isn't the violence within the game that causes the real world violence, it is the competition against the computer and real people online that causes it.

Report from the US Secret Service and Department of Education concluded more than half of attackers demonstrated interest in violent media. However the report cautioned no particular behaviour, including having an interest in violent media, could be used to produce a "profile" of a likely shooter. Gun crime and youth crime- both down in the past 20 years, despite an increase in violent video games.

A study in 2013 showed that violent games such as Mortal Kombat, Halo and Grand theft auto did not cause high risk teens to become aggressive bullies or delinquents. (High risk= person has symptoms of depression or attention deficit disorder)
Researchers found that video games had a camping effect on teens with symptoms of attention deficit disorder. More unusual if a shooter did not play a violent video game, given that the majority of youth and young men play such games occasionally.
(http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/08/27/in-new-study-video-games-not-tied-to-violence-in-high-risk-youth/58934.html)

Playing violent video games can make some adolescents more hostile, particularly who are less agreeable, less conscientious and easily angered. But for others, it may offer opportunities to learn new skills and improve social networking. Video games in mental health care settings
may help young patients become more cooperative and enthusiastic about psychotherapy.

“These results suggest that it is the simultaneous combination of these personality traits which yield a more powerful predictor of violent video games,” said Markey. “Those who are negatively affected have pre-existing dispositions, which make them susceptible to such violent media.”

“Violent video games are like peanut butter,” said Ferguson. “They are harmless for the vast majority of kids but are harmful to a small minority with pre-existing personality or mental health problems.”
(http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/06/violent-video-games.aspx)

research of violent crimes caused by games

Justin Williams killed his neighbour when he’s neighbour came round to his house and told Justin to ‘calm down its just a game’. Justin replied that it his life and he grabbed his neighbour and punched him then stabbed the neighbour in the chest (geek ti.me)

A child killed his 9 month year old sister when hes sister started crying while the child played call of duty. While being distracted by his sisters crying he died on the game so he picked up the sister and shook her until she died. (geek ti.me)

Two brothers admitted in court that they where copying the mini game in GTA where the player has to shoot as many people as possible who are driving on the motorway. However in court the two brothers said that did not mean to hurt anyone. (geek ti.me)

Same week that GTA V was released the was a shooting of several people in America.

Parents should get the blame for the children playing these over aged games because they are the ones who buy them the game and also consistently allow them t play the game even though they know what is in the game.(youtube video)

People claim that the is a thing such as game addiction and the was tests taken at the American psychiatric association to see if can cause a mental illness however they did not have enough sufficient evidence to be able to say that it can cause mental illnesses.  (wikipedia)

some people think that playing games is a good thing and they think that games are good way of releasing stress and anger. however all test which have been over 130,000 participants worldwide completely contradicts this and hows that they increase negative emotions and feeling and thoughts. (http://ithp.org/articles/violentvideogames.html)

people use the excuse that they are not harmful by saying ' i play violent games but i havn't killed anyone'(http://ithp.org/articles/violentvideogames.html)

things cuased by gaming are, carpel tunnel syndrome, migraines, sleep disturbances, eating irregularities and of course poor personal hygiene. (http://www.video-game-addiction.org/physical-consequences.html)

experiments show that violent video games effect a person more then violent tv shows or movies which have been proven to increase violence within someone. (http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games.aspx)

The first study involved 227 college students who completed a measure of trait aggressiveness and reported their actual aggressive behaviors (delinquency) in the recent past. They also reported their video game playing habits. "We found that students who reported playing more violent video games in junior and high school engaged in more aggressive behavior," said lead author Anderson, of Iowa State University. "We also found that amount of time spent playing video games in the past was associated with lower academic grades in college."

the second study , 210 people either played a violent game and a non violent game and within a short time of plying the players who played the violent game punished the player and got angry in some way. however the players on the non violent game took a lot longer to say something aggressive or negative. 
(http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games.aspx)