Lectures...

Week 1
Today Jack Nicholas rambled about 'Old' and 'New' technologies. He seemed to have a sense of humour. That's always promising :] some of the elderly technologies included:
*Oral communication
*Graphic communication
*Written (letters,newspapers, etc.)
*Radio
*Telephone (landline)
*Television (Advertisement-This was said to be very unlikely to die out in the face of the internet due to the consistant capabilities advertising by this medium.)

Some 'New' technologies were
*computers
*mobile phones(SMS, MMS. Phone's are currently capable of performing all of the same functions as a computer)
*internet-email (this is slowly dying in the face of IM and other forms of communication)
-message boards/discussion lists.
*IM (Apparently this is 'ruining' communication due to the manner in which the participants continually abbreviate, making spelling and grammar a continual battle.)
*Twitter
*Blogging
*Social Networking (Facebook, Myspace, etc.)

'Convergence' was mentioned after this, especially in regard to 'Smart Phones' which have the ability to access the internet and are becoming more popular.

Week 2

This week the History of the Internet was discussed which was refreshing as I'd only heard Stephen Fry mention it in passing..
From Babbage, to Turing (didn't he sound lovely? I want to meet him :/ German, massive nerd, gay, what's not to love?), to IBM AND Moore's Law (that is, that the power of a computer improves every 18 months. Wait, really? Because mine enver seem to last that long..Is it like a fine wine?), to XEROX PARC and it's invention of the mouse, to Apple and Steve Wozniac, to Bill Gates and his anti-software share epiphany, to Gary Kimbel (a massive hippie...Sweet...For some reason it makes me crave Ben and Jerry. Not the hippies, more their brilliant creamy inventions..) to the emergence of the Microsoft industry, to IBM and Apple, to Windows and 'The Great Battle of IBM and Apple' (You know their going to make a movie. Non-stop action. Ya-ya's aplenty), to the web and internet, to cyberspace, 'The Internet' has evolved an amazing amount since it's invention from it's humble 'calculator on crack, Difference Engine beginnings.

Week 3

Today was basically like the usual film lesson. It got a bit old hearing all the old stuff again and I could see people shifting uncomfortably so perhaps I wasn't the only one wishing they'd stayed in bed rather than re-learning year 11 film basics. The 180 degree rule was helpful though, the image I usually work from wasn't nearly as clear as the one that was used, so that was helpful. And the Rule of Thirds makes a whole lot more sense too. I mean....I do art and things so I kind of had that engrained in me somewhere somehow but that made it very clear. The Head Room bit made me laugh though P: Good times, good times...

Week 4

Today's lecture was from the Big Screen to the Small Screen. The history of film and the emergence of television was a long and arduous journey but important and educational, one would hope. The birth of cinema was in 1895, followed closely by the first feature length narrative film, an AUSTRALIAN 60-70 minute long Ned Kelly pic. That's pretty impressive. Next Europe and the US caught up in 1911 and started trying to cash in. In 1927 was the first 'Talkie', "The Jazz Singer", followed two years later by the first all colour film, "On with the Show". This was one that hadn't just had the colours sort of dubbed in later, which never looks right, am I right? 1933 spurned the first drive-in theatre and 1937 was the first full length, singing, animated, colour, Blockbuster film, "Snow White". In 1939 TV's were finally introed in New York track fairs. Not many people could buy them and they didn't do much at that point though..1952 saw the first 3D film because no one was watching movies anymore due to the whole 'War' issue. Which is no excuse really. If I was going to die in a war I'd do it sitting in a movie theatre. 1955 was when movies were finally released on TV because it made more money for the moviemakers. A year later the AAPEX VCR-VTR was made but was extremely expensive so not many people got into them. 1959 was the birth (and death? why don't we have this?? It sounds insane, but at the same time, what an awesome freaking idea!) of 'PERCEPTO' Vision, for the movie 'The Tingler' where the audience is given a small electric shock just to freak you out. With it came 'smello-vision' or the 'Aromarama' (which sounds just as good, if not better.) in which 50 scents could be used to make any scent and were released in the cinema at appropriate moments.
In 1963 AAPEX released the consumer version of the VCR for roughly $30,000, and Multiplex theatres were introduced. In 1967-9 the Portapak 'camera' was released by Sony-the first VTR.
In 1970 smaller screens and TV's were finally being accepted and IMAX was making it's debut. 1972 introed pay TV to the masses and 13 years later the first Blockbuster video shop opened. 1986 was the first entirely CGI animated short film, "Junior" by Pixar and 9 years later saw the first feature length Pixar CGI animated film, "Toy Story". In 1997 the first DVD was released to the public after the 'Laser Disc'.

After this short history we watched some short films and parodies. Troops was especially good, a mixture of Star Wars and Cops, which is just...classic. The other one was something like, "The Driver", a series of BMW sponsored short films detailing the exploits of one Clive Owen under the guidance of some of the more well-known directors of this generation...