Well here we are… the final assignment of ALM102. In this assignment, we had to expand on video assignment 2. In assignment 2, we had to create a 3-4 minute video, whereas this assignment is a 7-8 minute video. I decided to choose the topic of discussing the positives and negatives of artificial intelligence (AI). I chose this topic as artificial intelligence as I felt I could get the most out of the topic, and it interested me most. I chose to discuss both the positives and negatives, as I wanted to portray the argument that whilst AI has taken a massive leap in terms of advancement and use in modern society, it was still developing and was far from being a trustworthy source of intelligence.

I decided to take a similar approach to this assignment as I did the previous one. Rather than being concise with my talking points, I felt like I could expand more and be more open to have a longer discussion. I decided to list two positives and two negatives that I felt would best represent AI in both a positive and negative way. I chose one of each to be uses of AI that can be seen in every day life, with the attempt of relating to the audience and have them understand what AI is capable of. Furthermore, the editing techniques I used was an attempt to build rapport with the audience, such as the way I would use a black and white filter for comedic effect. By doing this, I was able to add humour through a joke but also be able to use that shot as a transition into my next point, overall helping the flow of the video. To further help the flow, I decided to make a fast paced edit that frequented with cuts of the video and audio. By doing this, I was able to continue the discussion fluently so the audience would be able to stay interested and follow easier. Moreso, if I decided to add source material or another effect, I would be able to keep the commentary cohesive and coherent whilst the overlay played out.

The source material I decided to use to overlay my video was an attempt to improve the quality of the videos in a number of ways. Firstly, it was to make the video more interesting. By having a face be shown on screen for 7-8 minutes straight just discussing about a topic, it can become boring despite how good looking and/or intelligent one may seem. Using source material can allow the viewer to gain a better perspective on the topic at hand, and it’s also unexpected as it appears out or nowhere. Source material can also be used to verify what the speaker is saying. By showing examples of what is being discussed, you are able to demonstrate to your audience that you are not only educated enough to know what you are discussing, but also are providing proof as to what you’re saying is factual.

This assignment, and overall this unit, have taught me a new way to create video. This subject gave me the opportunity for the first time ever in my years of editing to properly plan and execute on a topic given to me. It gave me a new experience of being able to deal with many varying factors such as time, staying on topic, or even using source material with the correct licensing, to create an effective and entertaining video. The problems I faced with this assignment were the time quotas. Reaching the word count to create a 7-8 minute video was difficult initially, because I began rambling in my first draft of scripting. To overcome this, I decided to break the script up into the positive and negatives and cut down until I had an effective script that would meet the requirements of the project. Finding some source material also proved difficult. Many of the videos I found contained quite content heavy substance that wouldn’t be useful to my wider target audience. I became more specific with my examples and searches, which assisted in finding the correct source material for my video. Overall, experimenting with time limits was my main challenge, and it required trial and error to reach my end goal. In future, I will be able to use the world count from this script to gain an insight to how I can better time my scripts in the future.

Assessment 2 of Making Video saw a different approach to the type of video creation compared with what I’m used to. The video saw me choose a particular topic, do some extensive research and create a video discussing my chosen topic. For my video, I chose to discuss ‘New Realities’ – Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.

The reason I chose this topic is due to my use of both virtual and augmented reality, which I explain in the video. Also in this video, I tried to convey the message that new realities are prominent in everyday life with people not even realising. With augmented reality being the most common with social media, mixed reality has also been experimented with on such apps like Snapchat with characters appearing on your screen with some filters.

To make this video, I had to adopt a new process to ensure I met the requirements. Usually when I create my own videos, I will choose a topic, research and then create some talking points for myself and usually record and improvise the rest of the lines. As I was covering a specific topic in this video, I had to make sure all the information in the video was correct, meaning improvising was a much riskier task. Instead, I researched the topic and chose the most interesting aspects of the three realities. As the topic was very open ended, it allowed for me to explore and create any video I chose as long as I met all the requirements of the topic. From there, I wrote a script, which covered all my talking points, and filmed the video. I chose source material that demonstrated my talking points. For example, when discussing how pilots were using virtual reality to practice flying, I showed a video of them doing so to prove my discussion points. The choice to use source material to overlay my audio was not only to verify topics, however makes the video more interesting overall. I chose not to use music in the video as I wanted to give it a more professional feel and didn’t want the music to take away from what I was discussing.

I learned that sticking to scripts is more difficult than it seems. I now have the utmost respect for actors and actresses who memorise an entire scene for a movie. I tried to memorise full paragraphs for the different realities but quickly learned that this was not going to work. Instead, I re-formatted the script by making sentences smaller, more concise, and memorising them one-by-one and reading them on camera. This proved to be more effective, and allowed me to remove all the fails in post-production. Whilst editing, I was able to make the edit more fast-paced and enjoyable to watch. Fast-paced videos that jump around and have lots of cuts within the edit is an editing style I have adopted and feel comfortable with using. Overall, I took my editing style that I apply to my other content and used it to create this new type of video. I am happy with the outcome, and am excited to explore it further in Assessment 3.

Creating video content is something I’m no stranger to. I launched my first YouTube channel in 2011, and uploaded videos of myself recording my Playstation gameplay with a handheld camera. It was shaky and my voice was as pre-pubescent, however I was having the time of my life. Despite all this, I took those videos down as soon as I could to avoid them being played at my 21^st birthday. Fast-forwarding to 2013, I launched my current channel of ‘Stoitify’, and never looked back. Honestly, 14-year-old Sam chose a better name, because 12-year-old me thought the name ‘SammySlammerJamma’ was a revelation to the world. To this day, I still create videos regularly, and it’s still my passion.

Coming into university I was unsure of what I wanted to study, as school was never a passion of mine. I chose to study Commerce as it’s regarded as ‘the degree to study if you’re not sure what to do’. I found out quickly that Commerce was what I didn’t want to do. After my fallout with the business world, I was stuck with the decision of my next chapter for education. I contemplated Information Technology, Cyber Security, game development and a few other courses. Throughout my struggle of figuring out what career I wanted to have, the love for creating content never diminished, which is why I made the decision to study Digital Media.

To create the video I desired, I had to strategically outline what I was going to say. I wanted to create a video that showed the real me, a snapshot into who I truly am as a person and content creator. Rampersad (2015, p. 17) describes authenticity through your personal brand. “Your brand must be built on your true personality. It should reflect your character, behaviour, values, and vision.” This is the approach I wanted to reflect in my video, and I started by planning a script by listing points of what I wanted to say. From here, I turned those points into sentences and then proceeded to join the sentences together and with some editing, made it cohesive. When creating scripts, I find it easier to read them out loud, as sometimes the way I will speak on camera will differ to how I will type. Now that I had the script, I began to plan what camera shots I needed. I knew that I would record with my setup, as it truly provides a look into where I create my content. I then began filming and putting it all together, with re-takes for any shots I didn’t like or wanted revised.

From this assignment, I learned that I couldn’t be a ‘one-take wonder’. I struggled narrowing what I wanted to say into the required time limit, and placing a hierarchy between what was truly important to the context of the video. It took some time and planning, however I was able to decipher what I wanted to say, and what helped was asking myself the question: “What helps me achieve my goals?”. From this, university, content-creation and taking care of my health both physically and mentally were the main answers, which I made the focal point of the video.

Overall, I had a lot of fun creating this assignment because I was doing something I loved. If I ever have a documentary made about me for some unknown reason, I’ll use this video as the trailer to remember where it all started.

Reference

Rampersad, Hubert K., 2015, Authentic personal brand coaching: entrepreneurial leadership brand coaching for sustainable high performance, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.,

< https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy-b.deakin.edu.au/lib/deakin/reader.action?docID=3433374>

Making a podcast is a weird experience. I mean, I love my own voice and I have a tendency to talk a lot, so how hard could it be? Well, very hard when you’re by yourself. I thought I could just pick up the microphone and talk about my topic for a few minutes, but I was wrong. Creating a podcast takes a lot of preparation. Knowing how to correctly word things and understanding time is quite a crucial skill to learn. After realising that I couldn’t just ‘wing it’, I went back to the drawing board and began to properly plan my podcast. The final product is here if you wanted to check it out.

The difference between video and audio content is that video content is much easier to engage people in. If I’m creating a YouTube video and I lose my thoughts and stop talking, I can zoom up on my face, make a funny face or put some funny text on screen and it still classes as content. If I go silent on a podcast, the listener is playing complete silence – which isn’t very enjoyable unless you’re into that kind of thing.

The podcast I’m writing about addresses the use of digital media as a learning tool, specifically the benefits and limitations.  Personally, I’m definitely in favour of using digital media in the classroom, and highly recommend it. Having completed learning in both a digital media format and a more ‘traditional’ pen, paper and textbook approach, I strongly prefer the digital media integrating learning as I find it more engaging and I found there were more resources readily available. In terms of strategy for how I would structure, I discussed both the benefits and limitations I felt were most prominent, then explained my opinion on the question using personal experience to enhance my arguments.

My research around the podcast came from understanding an educator’s perspective on the matter. I did reference an article that was written around digital media in a child’s development to help strengthen my point of the work being very dependent on the student to complete the work. As a student, it’s an easy decision on what I would prefer, as I’d rather carry around a laptop compared to a notebook and 3 textbooks, and honestly I’m very tech savvy #millenial.

To create my podcast, I used Audacity partnered with my RODE NT-USB microphone that I use for creating YouTube videos. I split the recording into sections to help the flow, recording the intro, adding the creative commons licensed music, then recording the limitations, benefits, the opinionated section and then the conclusion. I found this the easiest to ensure I covered all the topics required, plus made the editing much easier as I didn’t have to cut and change all different parts to have a coherent recording.

I must say I do love podcasting, so much to the point where I recently started my own with two friends called “The Regular Sized Man Podcast” – a pop culture podcast which you can check out here, but it’s also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! I will continue to podcast and also blog in the future, and I’m thankful to Deakin University who have introduced me to this side of content creation.

Whether it’s a potential employer auditing your social media profiles before a job interview, or trying to gain followers to become the next Instagram influencer, online identity has become very prominent in our everyday lives. It’s something that all social media goers should take notice to and address, as having a strong online identity can be very favourable for many reasons, including career, networking and relationships to name a few. In this blog post, I’m going to assess my own online identity. *cue the drum roll*

As a long-time content creator, I have produced video content on both YouTube and more recently, Twitch. Looking at a small section of the Twitch community that I am a part of, some content creators (known as streamers) connect and grow by joining teams, also known as organisations. These organisations contain groups of streamers who interact by playing games, watching and supporting each other. Most of the support is given through the primary social media platform of Twitter. For example, take this tweet I posted today linking to my Twitch stream. A friend in my team named Brandon, replied with “Go check out the homie” followed by an emoji which my laptop didn’t want to copy and paste #iwantarefund. Showing support to each other and messaging both privately and in-group chats builds both a friendship and your reputation within the community.

LIVE with some more of the division 2 🤠 probably will finish the game today!!https://t.co/YC2P8oo7g1

— SAM // STOITIFY (@Stoitify) April 15, 2019

Focusing more on the YouTube side of things now, and discussing the segmentation strategy I have taken. If you read my last blog post, you would have seen the recent changes I have made. If you didn’t, here’s a brief summary. I moved away from only using my alias ‘Stoitify’ on all social medias. I now use ‘Stoitify’ with all my gaming content, however my primary YouTube channel, Twitter and Instagram come under ‘Sam Stoitsis’, and ‘Stoitify’ has the respective accounts also. I did this to establish my alias of ‘Stoitify’ as a gaming entertainer, and ‘Sam Stoitsis’ as a content creator.

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One way I have separated the brands is through the use of profile pictures. On my main YouTube channel, my profile picture is a picture of myself, because my face is my brand as I’m in front of the camera for nearly all the content I produce. For my second YouTube channel however, my profile picture is of my logo. Whilst people watch my content for my personality, the main focus is about the games I’m playing. Furthermore, the reason I have a logo as a profile picture on the Stoitify Instagram is for the same reason, whereas the Stoitify Twitter has a photo of me as a profile picture, because my tweets are more informal and focus on my thoughts and funny things, rather than gaming as the main focus.

Whilst Stoitify has been a huge focus of this blog post, I’d like to discuss how the ‘Sam Stoitsis’ identity relates to all this. Using my real name to form my identity enables me to showcase my journey in life through social media, and my Twitter bio is a testament to that. I clearly establish myself as a ‘content creator’ as that is what I do through all social media platforms. I showcase my avenue of gaming content through the link to my Stoitify Instagram, but also show my personal development through acknowledging my education at Deakin University. I also show my university learning’s through unit related hashtags in tweets:

My main goal to enhance my online presence is to produce more content under my personal brand through Twitter and Instagram. I produce a lot of video content already, however I feel as though my other social medias are lacking at times!#ALM101

— SAM STOITSIS (@SamStoitsis) March 28, 2019

I state my hobby and potential future business venture through the esports organisation I have ownership of, and I mention my girlfriend because well, I love her. This is what is known as a ‘blended identity’, a mix of both a physical and virtual identity. This phenomenon is explored in Reimaging the Avatar Dream: Modeling Social Identity in Digital Media. Essentially, having both the physical identity of my face in front of a camera in the content I produce, and a virtual identity through using logos and created characters in video games I play on my channel, creates a mix of both identities, and creates an overlap, or a blend – hence the name.

Having my real name allows myself to network and connect with the world and the people within. No matter where I go with my career in the future, I will always have my established online identity that I have created over the years to provide an insight to who I am, what I stand for and my ability to create content. I started this journey as ‘Stoitify’, and I will continue it as both ‘Stoitify, and ‘Sam Stoitsis’, for as long as I can.

References:

Harrell, Chong, 2017, ‘Reimagining the Avatar Dream: Modeling Social Identity in Digital Media’, Communications of the ACM, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 50-61.

Blogging is something I have always enjoyed the idea of. People sharing their ideas, insight and opinions on whatever they choose to talk about and share with the world. However, I’ll start my first blog post with a confession – I have never read a blog until starting Deakin University’s social media unit (ALM101). I have never been much of a reader due to laziness most likely. I enjoy watching things, whether it is movies, TV shows or even YouTube videos. I have encountered many vlogs in my time and even made my own vlogs , which I guess you could say is the video form of blogging, but that’s the closest I have gotten to being associated with a blog.

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2019 has definitely been a year of change for me. I started this year as a second year Commerce student, ready to start the year beginning majors in both Marketing and Accounting. I always disliked the course I was doing, and it reflected through my whole university experience in my first year. I was rarely showing up, saving assignments to the last minute, and just hated the idea of being there. My grades were low also, but I honestly didn’t care because I hated the content. Nonetheless, I thought this year would be better, and I decided to stick with it. After walking out of my first week of classes, I hit my breaking point. I didn’t want to be there, and didn’t want to do this. Speaking truthfully, if I had the choice of stepping on Lego every day or doing Commerce for the rest of my life, I probably would have chosen the Lego.

When I decided I was going to drop out of Commerce, and did something I actually loved, which happened to be Digital Media, as it relates to the online content I have been producing for years. I have been making online content on both YouTube and Twitch and after starting it in 2013; my love for it has grown more. I’ve always had a dream to make content as a full-time job, and it wasn’t until late 2018 that I made a push to try and achieve that, which is why I chose to study Digital Media. Why didn’t I choose Digital Media in the first place you may ask? Well, I was scared, but I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because it was so different to the traditional office 9-5 job approach that most people go into, or maybe it was the fact that even though I knew myself that I wanted to be a full time content creator, doing this degree would also show the people around me my true career aspirations.

It wasn’t until 2017 that I was actually comfortable sharing with people about what I did on the internet, and making the switch to this course solidified that and shut any form of self doubt out. I’ll be focusing on what my current online identity looks like in my next blog post, but for now I wanted to finish this one by explaining what I have done thus far.

Since my newfound confidence thanks to university, I have gone ahead and switched my YouTube channel’s name from my online alias ‘Stoitify’ to my real name of Sam Stoitsis. I have decided to keep the ‘Stoitify’ name under my gaming content on Twitch and other YouTube channels, but making this change was such a big step for me because I was able to show myself that I am proud of my work and what I have achieved so far. Posting university related tweets, and using hashtags on Twitter, showcases me stepping out of my comfort zone to help better my online identity.

Summarising the different types of Creative Commons licenses for #ALM101!#IMadeSomeMedia pic.twitter.com/PX4CuVU4hg

— SAM STOITSIS (@SamStoitsis) March 21, 2019

I finally feel free to create what I want. I’m creating content and studying content too, and feel that this change I have made will open up the doors to so many possibilities in the future. My ultimate goal is to be self-employed making my own content, however now my ‘backup plan’ isn’t slaving behind a desk, it’s still creating content but for someone else. University isn’t just a backup plan for me anymore, and my future degree isn’t a piece of paper that I can use to get a job if making content fails. I now love what I study, and I don’t fear failure anymore, because quite frankly, there isn’t really a chance to fail with my career. I’m going to be creating content regardless if it’s for me or someone else, which is what I love to do. I’ll bring out a cheesy quote to end this post, because it seems fitting. “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” – Marc Anthony.