CDME1001: Intro to Digital Media, Equipment & Techniques

CDME1001: Intro to Digital Media, Equipment & Techniques

Date set 20/21/22/23 October 2009

Major Assessed Project Brief

‘What is Creative Digital Media?’

Overview:

So far in this module you have started to look at what Digital Media is and the things you need to be able to do to work successfully in the field. How do you acquire the skills you need? How do you confirm you really understand them? This project sets out to explore this.

The Requirement:

You are required, in your learning teams,to plan, design and deliver a TEN minute presentation that gives an introduction to ONE of the following areas of digital media:

1) The History of Digital Media

2) The production pipeline (ideas/audience/communication)

3) Graphic Design and Typography

4) Designing for the web

5) Designing multimedia

6) Sound design & Audio Production

7) Video production

8) Digital photography and image manipulation

9) Illustration

10) 2D Digital Animation Production

As part of the presentation, you are also required to produce a Powerpoint presentation to act as visual support to your chosen topic.

Your Audience:

People like you i.e. someone learning about digital media.

Requirements:

The presentation should include contributions from all members of your learning team so effective organisation, planning and preparation is essential if you are to deliver your content to a high standard in the allocated 10 minute time frame. Remember the feedback and reflective comments from previous exercises when organising your group work-flow. Considerations such as knowledge of your audience, script and subject, efficient allocation of tasks and rehearsal are the fundamentals of an effectively delivered presentation.

The accompanying PowerPoint presentation should be as professionally produced as possible using good design and with the audience in mind. It should be elegant and consistent – not a different questionable effect on every new screen.

The presentation should be thoroughly researched and designed on paper first using your layout pads and follow several keys stages:

• Rough Thumbnail sketches
• Refined sketches
• Final paper based ideas
• Implementation
• Testing
• Post-test changes

Careful consideration should be given to the most effective use of visuals – they should support, not dominate, the overall presentation.

Learning report and submission of work

The finished presentation will be formally delivered for assessment on the deadline dates outlined below. Please ensure that you provide your tutor with details of any additional media requirements that you may have prior to the deadline so that they can be ready for you to use.

You are required to submit a typed 1500 word Learning Report that explains how/why you set about creating the solutions that you eventually chose.

The learning report should address the module's learning outcomes (see the CDME1001 website to check), and also the assessment criteria, and how your solution to the project relates to each. You may wish to use the assessment criteria as headings within your report.

Considerations:

• Try to make maximum use of the equipment at your disposal when designing your presentation: How can you use the dynamic nature of the software to support your presentation?

• Don't rely on just what you think personally would be good aspects to explain. Try to look up similar things done either on the web or other things that you have seen. Use the book ‘Digital Creativity’ as a starting point and remember who your audience is; testing the presentation on a target group prior to deadline will enable you to establish whether the content has been pitched at the correct level.

• Try to make your presentation interesting and entertaining to view.

• Good research will be key – you will be marked on technical accuracy as well as good design, effective communication/presentation skills and the use of equipment. Try NOT to default to just web research as we expect a range of sources evident when we assess work.

Things to consider for the report:

• Ideas: generate, and select from a range of paper based ideas, a proposal that can be developed into one of the options above.

• Information: research and analyse a range of uses for your chosen option.

• Design and Form : design and produce a simple and effective visual solution for your choice.

• Material/software: choose and use a range of software tools appropriately.

• Media : design for a linear medium appropriately

• Contextual/Critical: demonstrate that you have explored some of the effects of your chosen option on society (newspapers, the ‘net, moving image, use of radio + TV etc.)

• Personal Skills : work responsibly as part of a team to produce your chosen option.

• Interpersonal Skills : discuss and justify their design with that of others

NB. Please also include a bibliography and any web site URLs you use in the report. Any sources should be correctly referenced using the Harvard & Numerical referencing system – for further information go to:

Deadlines:

The Deadline dates correspond to whichever occurrence of the module you are registered on.

10th/11th/12th/13thNov 2009: Paper roughs deadline (3 best paper roughs)

24th/25th/26th/27th Nov 2009: Paper based design deadline (1 worked up design on paper)

Peer assessment date - TBA

Deadline – formal presentations and learning report submission - TBA

Andy Screen, 2009