Research for Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy)

Final Fantasy is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games (RPGs), but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise. The series began in 1987 with the eponymous video game conceived by Sakaguchi as his last-ditch effort in the game industry; the title was a success and spawned sequels. The video game series has since branched into other genres such as tactical role-playing, action role-playing, massively multiplayer online role-playing, racing, and fighting.


In My Own Words
Hironobu Sakaguchi created a successful on going, best selling franchise. Final Fantasy has become a best selling franchise in the gaming industry. With thirteen main titles to date and many spin offs. The tradition of the franchise is to make a a completely new story, setting, characters, music and many other changes to each instalment but still sticking to the traditional Final Fantasy feel, rarely do they make a sequel to a certain installment, such as Final fantasy X-2. I think this is a really good way to treat each installment to the franchise, it keeps each game fresh and new without the franchise going stale from same story and characters.


References 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hironobu_Sakaguchi

Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli, Inc.  is a Japanese animation film studio founded in June 1985. The company's logo features the character Totoro (a large forest spirit) from Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro. It has its headquarters in Koganei, Tokyo.

Several anime features created by Studio Ghibli have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award, including: Castle in the Sky, in 1986; My Neighbor Totoro, in 1988; and Kiki's Delivery Service, in 1989. In 2002, Spirited Away won a Golden Bearand an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, which it remains the only film made outside the English-speaking world to have done so.

This is no longer the artist I am using for my project.

Daft Punk

Daft Punk is an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974) and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975). Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s housemovement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop. The duo is also credited with producing songs that were considered essential in the French house scene. They were managed from 1996 to 2008 by Pedro Winter (Busy P), the head of Ed Banger Records


Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo met in 1987 while attending the Lycée Carnot, a secondary school in Paris. The two became good friends and later recorded demo tracks with others from the school. This eventually led to the formation of the guitar-based group called Darlin' with Laurent Brancowitz in 1992. Bangalter and de Homem-Christo played bass and guitar, respectively, while Brancowitz performed on drums. The trio had branded themselves after The Beach Boys song of the same name, which they covered along with an original composition.Stereolab released both tracks on a multi-artist Duophonic Records EP and invited the band to open for stage shows in the United Kingdom. Bangalter felt that "The rock n' roll thing we did was pretty average, I think. It was so brief, maybe six months, four songs and two gigs and that was it." A negative review in Melody Maker subsequently dubbed the music "a bunch of daft punk." Instead of dismissing the review, they found it amusing. As de Homem-Christo stated, "We struggled so long to find [the name] Darlin', and this happened so quickly." Darlin' soon disbanded, leaving Brancowitz to pursue other efforts with Phoenix. Bangalter and de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk and experimented with drum machines and synthesizers

In 1993 Daft Punk attended a rave at EuroDisney, where they met Stuart Macmillan of Slam, co-founder of the label Soma Quality Recordings. The demo tape given to Macmillan at the rave formed the basis for Daft Punk's debut single, "The New Wave", a limited release in 1994. The single also contained the final mix of "The New Wave" called "Alive", which was to be featured on their first album.

Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record "Da Funk". It became their first commercially successful single the same year. After the success of "Da Funk", Daft Punk looked to find a manager. They eventually settled on Pedro Winter, who regularly promoted them and other artists at his Hype night clubs. The band signed with Virgin Records in September 1996 and made a deal through which they licensed their tracks to the major label through their production company, Daft Trax.

"Da Funk" and "Alive" were later included on Daft Punk's 1997 debut album Homework. The album was regarded as an innovative synthesis of techno, house, acid house and electro styles, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential dance music albums of the nineties. "Da Funk" was also included on The Saint film soundtrack. It was during this period of change in dance music that Daft Punk became largely successful. They combined the aforementioned music styles with crowd pleasing elements of rave. The most successful single from Homework was "Around the World", which is known for the repeating chant of the song's title. Daft Punk also produced a series of music videos for Homework directed by Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Roman Coppola and Seb Janiak. The collection of videos was released in 1999 and titled D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes.


In My Own Words

References


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daft_Punk

James Cameron research

James Cameron, born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, on August 16, 1954, moved to the USA in 1971. James first landed his professional film job as art director, miniature-set builder, and process-projection supervisor on Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) and debuted as a director with Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981) the following year. In 1984, he wrote and directed The Terminator (1984), a futuristic action-thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. It was a huge success. After this came a string of successful science-fiction action films such as Aliens (1986) and Terminator 2 Judgment Day (1991). Cameron is now one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood.
As Cameron continued educating himself in techniques, he started as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981),

After completing a screenplay for The Terminator, Cameron decided to sell it so that he could direct the movie. However, the production companies he contacted, while expressing interest in the project, were unwilling to let a first-time feature film director make the movie. Finally, Cameron found a company called Hemdale Pictures, which was willing to let him direct. Gale Anne Hurd, who had started her own production company, Pacific Western Productions, had previously worked with Cameron in Roger Corman's company and agreed to buy Cameron's screenplay for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. Hurd was signed on as producer, and Cameron finally got his first break as director. Orion Pictures distributed the film. Linda Hamilton first appeared in this film in her iconic role of Sarah Connor, and later married Cameron. The Terminator was a box office hit, breaking expectations by Orion Pictures executives that the film would be regarded as no more than a sci-fi film, and only last a week in theaters. It was a low-budget film which cost $6.5 million to make, cutting expenses in such ways as recording the audio track in mono. However, The Terminator eventually earned over $78 million worldwide

During the early 1980s, Cameron wrote three screenplays simultaneously: The Terminator, Aliens, and the first draft of Rambo: First Blood Part II. While Cameron continued with The Terminator and Aliens, Sylvester Stallone eventually took over the script ofRambo: First Blood Part II, creating a final draft which differed radically from Cameron's initial version.

Cameron next began the sequel to Alien, the 1979 film by Ridley Scott. Cameron named the sequel Aliens, and again cast Sigourney Weaver in the iconic role of Ellen Ripley. According to Cameron, the crew on Aliens was hostile to him, regarding him as a poor substitute for Ridley Scott. Cameron sought to show them The Terminator but the majority of the crew refused and remained skeptical of his direction throughout production. Despite this and other off-screen problems (such as clashing with an uncooperative camera man and having to replace one of the lead actors – Michael Biehn of Terminator took James Remar's place as Corporal Hicks), Aliens became a box office success, and received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Weaver, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and won awards for Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film and its lead actress made the cover of TIME magazine as a result of its breakthrough feminist themes about women in combat. Following the phenomenal success of the film, Cameron now had more freedom to make whatever projects he wanted.

Cameron's next project stemmed from an idea that had come up during a high school biology class. The story of oil-rig workers who discover otherworldly underwater creatures became the basis of Cameron's screenplay for The Abyss, which cast Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. Initially budgeted at $41 million U.S. (though the production ran considerably over budget), it was considered to be one of the most expensive films of its time, and required cutting-edge effects technology. Because much of the film takes place underwater and the technology wasn't advanced enough to digitally create an underwater environment, Cameron chose to shoot much of the movie "reel-for-real", at depths of up to 40 feet (12 m).

 

In my own words

In my opinion, James Cameron is one of the best film directors/producers in the movie business. It isn't just a coincidence that most of my most favourite films are made by him, Aliens, Terminator and Avatar for example. With Titanic and Avatar being the two highest grossing films of all time, Avatar being the highest, it's no matter of questioning that James Cameron is Extremely succesful, highly praised and one of the most sought-after directors in hollyword. He is also the second-highest grossing director of all time.

Refrences


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron

Spider-man comic

The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. The series began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was relaunched with a new numbering order in 1999. In 2003 the series reverted to the numbering order of the first volume. The title has occasionally been published biweekly, and was published three times a month from 2008 to 2010.


In My Own Words
First appearing in the early 1960's, Spider-Man is a classic in the comic industry and one of the most popular characters of Marvel comics and all time, being Marvel company mascot. I chose Spider-Man as it is a childhood favourite of mine and largely appeals to me. What I like about Spider-Man is how original the character is and how it largely appeals to children and teenagers. With the character being teenager himself, it attracts younger audience more. The appearance of Spider-Man is an red, blue and white primary colours, much like other Marvel characters such as superman. This is an attractive combination of colours that bold well for younger audiences and is a good representation of a cartoon. Spider-Man's outfit is meant to resemble a spider(for obvious reasons) with large spider like eyes and webs running through his outfit.


References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man 

Halo graphic novel

Published by Marvel Comics in partnership with Bungie Studios. The Halo series began with the award-winning popular video game Halo: Combat Evolved, which spawned several books as well as video game sequels, and is focused on the story of future humanity fighting against a powerful collective of races called the Covenant. The Halo Graphic Novel is the series' first entry into the sequential art medium, and features aspects of the Halo universe which until then had not been discussed or seen in any medium.

The majority of the book is divided into four short stories by different writers and artists from the computer game and comic industries. Each story focuses on different aspects of the Halo universe, revealing stories that are tangential to the main plot of the game. Apart from the stories, the book also contains an extensive art gallery compiled of contributions from Bungie, Marvel and independent sources


In My Own Words


Halo has been one of the most popular video game franchises to date. Making its first appearance with Halo: Combat Evolved which was successful and critically acclaimed. It is considered the platforms "killer app". Due to such success, it spanned sequels and many other adaptations such as anime series, books, novels and a possible film in production. To me, Halo was one of my all time favourite games, starting with Halo: Combat evolved which I personally think was the best, mainly because it was the first original game of the franchise. It appeals to adults and younger audiences alike. It's bright, colourful, imaginative and very entertaining. This game was a main cause for me buying an xbox as it's only exclusive to xbox due to microsoft's hold on it. The franchise is still on going with a fourth installment on the way, the franchise is a one of the leading games in the gaming industry 


References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_Graphic_Novel

Nevaeh game

The group has discussed my design idea and we have settled on this idea, and are now planning to make the story, characters, setting, structure.

We have each been gathering ideas for different things in the game, such as one finding images, that are similiar to the setting of the game, which help build an idea of what the game would look like. And another looking at possible characters, with costumes or armour on. We are further developing new ideas for the game, which is going along progressively. We have the general storyline plot and setting covered, which allows to focus more onto the game structure and elements, Allowing us to plan the gameplay.

Xbox 360 game design plan

Influences: Mass effect. Tron. GTA. Hitman. Assassin's creed

Genre: Sci-fi

Type of game: A possible free roam/sandbox style game, based in a futuristic megacity in the year 2157, the game follows a assassin through missions where he is set out to kill a target(s). Since it being set in either free roam or a sandbox style game, the player gets to choose how he goes about to kill these targets, with there being many different ways to kill the target, whether it's a stealthy approach or all in guns blazing or somewhere inbetween. If the game is to be free roam in the city, then vechiles will be introduced to help travel the large city. The player will be able to choose how their character dresses, whether they choose leight clothing, or armoured wear. While the armour clothing will give better protection, the leight clothing allows faster and less restricted movement. The character will have contacts, which can sell him weapons, equipment, armour or clothing, and upgrades. With this being set in the future, you can expect high tech equipment, armour/clothing and weapons. With such equipment as stealth camouflage. The game will have a day and night cycle, with city life changing between the throughtout it. When you are given contracts for targets, that target could be in different places, depending on the time of day, either at work or at home. With the some targets not under a time limit to deal with, this can allow the player to plan how they are going to deal with their target.

Story plot: I think the story shall follow the character throughout his missions, at first knowing very little about the character, trying to give the character a sort of mysterious badass impression, something players can like about him, and as the story goes on, we learn a little about the character and his past. Trying to keep the character very intresting and pondering his past life. Players will feel more immersed in the game if they are playing as character that is very likeable and fun to play as. The targets he is set to kill or as such, will mostly be corrupt officials, people considered important to the city but with corrupt and bad intentions or doings. And depending on player choices, there may be contracts they set you out to good people, with a possible twist of the player not knowing they are killing good people, leaving the player to pick up on hints, and making the final decision whether to kill their target or not. With there being decision and consequences to them, this could lead to more than one ending outcome.

How this game will challenge players is with how they decide to go about getting to their target, and what weapons and equipment they decide to use for a certain assignment. The player can scout around the area of the target to find possible areas to get closer, take for example a target in a skyscraper building, the player could try to get to the roof, and go from there, possibly finding air vents, which the player can move through unseen.

Here are some images to help you get an image of what sort of setting this game will be set in

John Heartfield

• John Heartfield is the anglicized name of the German photomontage artist Helmut Herzfeld
• His photomontages satirising Adolf Hitler and the Nazis often subverted Nazi symbols such as the swastika in order to undermine their propaganda message.
• Of the Berlin group, John Heartfield remains the best known and revered as a result of his single-minded devotion to anti-Nazi political activism. However, his early montages were collaborative efforts that resemble the work of all the other Dadaists. He and George Grosz experimented with cut-up pieces of newspaper and photos of their fellow artists, and produced many of the early designs for Dada posters and manifestos.

David Hockney

•  English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer
• Pop art movement of the 1960s
• educated first at Wellington Primary School. After being educated at Wellington Primary School, he then went to Bradford Grammar School, Bradford College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London
• David Hockney has also worked with photography, or, more precisely, photocollage. Using varying numbers of small Polaroid snaps or photolab-prints of a single subject Hockney arranged a patchwork to make a composite image. One of his first photomontages was of his mother. Because these photographs are taken from different perspectives and at slightly different times, the result is work that has an affinity with Cubism, which was one of Hockney's major aims—discussing the way human vision works. Some of these pieces are landscapes such as Pearblossom Highway #2,others being portraits, e.g. Kasmin 1982, and My Mother, Bolton Abbey, 1982.
  These photomontage works appeared mostly between 1970 and 1986. He referred to them as "joiners". He began this style of art by taking Polaroid photographs of one subject and arranging them into a grid layout. The subject would actually move while being photographed so that the piece would show the movements of the subject seen from the photographer's perspective. In later works Hockney changed his technique and moved the camera around the subject instead.
  
  
  I have taken this information from wikipedia, and used what I consider to be important information for my research on David Hockney. This link will take you to the page where that I used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hockney

Research summary

The presentation went rather well. Everyone showed interesting research and presented them well to the group, I think confidence was quite strong when it came to presenting their work to the entire class. Many people were pleased to show humorous videos and pictures from their research, I feel this shows that humour plays a large role in how advertisements attract our attention. Many well known adverts were shown to us, for things that make them stand out for how we recognize them, such as the meerkat advert using the catchphrase "simples!"
The list that has been linked here is to help understand the different ways in what makes adverts stand out.

Web banner advertisement

Web banners are rather uninteresting to me, I don't usually pay attention to them, they just tend to be all annoying and in your face. But I picked this wed banner advertisement especially because of BlackBerry. You can easily find such a thing being advertised on tv, in magazines, in the streets, pretty much everywhere. I just like the broad range of advertising that gets used for advertise this product.

Tv advertisement

The first video I have linked is an advertisement for Skoda, in which they literally make a cake in the form of the new car that went on sale at the time. What I like about this, is the fact they actually did make the car entirely out of cake, but also a saddening fact is the cake could not be eaten at all, due to health and safety policy.

The second video is the lastest advertisement for the new Skoda car, this time around they are creating the car out of evil, whereas the first video was based on being sweet.

The third advert I have chosen, is the Go Compare advert. Which in my personal opinion and judging from reactions, many others aswell, is an incredibly annoying advert. But I think that was possibly the idea behind this advert, to be so annoying that it grabs your attention. Even if that wasn't the idea for this advert, it certainly works.

The fourth advert I have linked, is an advert for SpecSavers, it gives off the impression it's an advert for Lynx body spray, but then has a humorous surprise at the end.

Kinect advertisement

Kinect is the revolution of xbox 360 gaming, designed to use your body and voice as the controller. This opens the xbox 360 gaming up to much larger audience, it allows players to be alot more interactive and practical with gaming. Some examples of the games playable with the Kinect sensor are like, dancing games, sports and fitness games, interacting with whatevers on screen, one example would be a game called Kincetimals, which allows you to interactive with an on screen animal, such as petting the animal. These types of games playable on the Kinect open up to much larger audience, such as dancing games are appealing to just about all ages and interests, for whether it's on your own, with friends or family, or a party.
The video I have linked is the release advertisement for Kinect. In the video it goes through different scenes of different people of different ages interacting in different way with Kinect. You can judge quite easily by their movements what type of game they are playing, I feel this advert is great for showing how it can be appealing to all types of people and ages, showing scenes of people playing in their houses, work places, gyms and such, playing on their own, with friends or family.

Ipad Advertisement

Apple, and their well known products such as iPod music players, have grown in popularity and recognition over the past few years. With their ever popular touch screen iPods, iPhones and iPads. Products such as the iPad are largely advertised right, whether it be on tv, the web, in magazines, people using the products in public are adervtisement in itself. These videos I have used to demonstrate the recent advertisements of Apple's iPad product, show how they are trying to attract all types of aduiences and their interests. I feel they are literally trying to grab everyone's attention by showing what this is product is capable of, that it can appeal to everyone and everyone's interests, I feel the adverts are trying show how convienent, appealing and fun their product is, with such a broad amount of abilities.

Tron Legacy Review

Back in 1982, the original Tron was written and directed by Steven Lisberger, which was a great hit for a stylish and visually fascinating science fiction movie. Now it's 2010 and Joseph Kosinski brings the sequel Tron: Legacy, produced by Walt Disney pictures.
The synopsis of the plot is basically brought down to Kevin Flynn(Jeff Bridges), a innovative software engineer who created 'The Grid' Which is where the film is based around in both the original and the sequel, which is basically like a motherboard system, which runs programmes. So Kevin Flynn disappears and about fifteen minutes into the film, his son Sam gets a surprising page from his father at his old arcade. And this is where just like in the original, Sam gets warped into the 'The Grid'. Now dealing with the alien like dimension he is in, Sam try's to deal with where he is, where his father went and how to get out.
I'm going to begin with what I thought were the best parts about this film. Firstly I would say the soundtrack really set the bar for this film. Being composed by the Electronic duo Daft Punk, this really set the right tone for the film with pulsating retro synthetic beats. 
Visually, this film is rather impressive. The 'The Grid' is a setting that actually feels as if it's inside some technical computer system, making viewers quite emerged. 

Mind maps

Guerilla advertisement research.

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promoting, which relies on time, energy and imagination, shying away from big marketing budgets. Guerrilla advertising will come across to people as intresting, eye catching and can also come across as very creative and artistic in a way. What interests me about this type of advertisement is how they are using an area of busy people going about their business to get the message across for what this advertisement is aimed at. The advertisement is clearly about pets and the common parasites that can infest domestic pets, such as fleas and ticks, that can easily become worse if left untreated. So this advertisement is trying to express the importance of dealing with an infestionation, and doing so by using their product Frontline.


 This image above, is trying to advertise for volunteers to give blood. The catch is, if not already blatently obvious, the owner carrying a bag with an image of a blood bag on it, with the tube leading up into the owners hand, giving the illiusion the tube is in the persons vein on their wrist.