Grassroots Media Investigation
As part of a final year undergraduate project, I looked in detail at issues regarding "grassroots" or "participatory" media.
Development Period: November 2005 to May 2006.
Coded With: ActionScript, CSS, HTML and PHP.
Tools Used: Adobe Dreamweaver, Sony Sound Forge, Sony Vegas, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash.
Tagged As: Web, Video and Undergraduate.
About
An examination of grassroots media was another significant project completed during my undergraduate final year. A written report investigates what it is, how it came about, what technologies drive it and what impact it has on other media.
The project implements some of the techniques and practices outlined in the research. Distributed as a media-rich document in PDF and HTML Help formats, written content is augmented with embedded video interviews and other interactive content, all of which has been produced using grassroots techniques. Relevant distribution techniques such as BitTorrent are also employed.
The accompanying website is the main focus point for the project. A live version of the entire report is available there, incorporating streaming video and wiki functionality. In keeping with grassroots principles of openness and accessibility, source files relating to the project are also available for download.
Technical Details
Featuring specially-produced "talking head" video clips, the project required a home video studio. Footage was filmed on a bluescreen background using a Sony VX2000 and AKG boom mic setup. The outcome was edited with Adobe After Effects and Sony Sound Forge, and then sequenced using Sony Vegas.
Though no longer available, the project also involved setting up a BitTorrent tracker to distribute raw video content.
The website was coded using PHP.