What is Media, and Why am I suited to a BTEC in Media?

The field of Media is colossal, and covers multiple sectors and channels, including the Film Sector, Television, Radio and Podcasting, Music Production, Digital Media such as the Web, Apps and Video Gaming, UX Design and Photography. 

Key to all media communications and production is narrative, and the telling of a ‘story’.  All media communicates, both intentionally and unintentionally, be that to inform, educate, advise, entertain, move, persuade or even negatively control (for example, through propaganda); the job of media communications is to make an impact on the audience, viewer, listener or player.  Often media is used to ‘call to action’, whereby the audience or recipient is persuaded to take the next move, for example, in entrepreneurship, business website creation and advocacy or charity work.  This links directly to the fields of UX Design, user experience and usability testing and consulting.

At some level, we all need to understand how media works, and be capable in media communications and production.

The vast field of media, and the many industries, professions and specialisms in this field, involve the study and expertise of, amongst others:  art, design and aesthetics, photography and videography, technology and technical operations, research, sales and marketing, business practice, consumer psychology, ethics, law, journalism, copywriting and editing, historical awareness, statistical analysis, user experience, project and team management, directing and production.

Theming, branding, overall narrative and specific ‘calls to action’ all drive media and a media project’s success.  The bottom line is that effective media impacts.  It grabs attention  It influences, interacts with, inspires and changes the psychology, mood and intentions of the consumer, viewer or listener. Effective media communicates in ways the creator intends, and sometimes even in ways the creator does not intend. The overall impact of truly successful media and campaigns is such that the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, as with the concept of Gestaltism.

My Media Immersion & Experience:

I have been immersed in several forms of media from a young age, and it was from toddlerhood that my fascination with this field began.

I grew up watching endless movies and television shows, and playing a myriad of video games, my earliest experiences being with WildWork’s Animal Jam - in conjunction with National Geographic, Activision’s Skylanders, and Mojang Studio’s Minecraft. As a child, I was especially gripped by the Harry Potter movies, diving into every YouTube video I could get my hands on that explored topics from behind-the-scenes special effects, wardrobe decisions and overall theming, through to the direction and production processes.

In more recent years, my interests have expanded further, including into other areas of media, especially in the web, UX Design, usability consulting, video - particularly music video production, film, and digital games.

At the heart of my passion for these fields is the art of dynamically telling and receiving a story, user immersion and user experience, even if this relates to a brand itself.  The communication of a narrative to be experienced grips my fascination.

UX Design, Usability Consulting & the Web:

Whilst media of course often involves entertainment, it is also a major communications platform in the world of business, sales and marketing. For example, website based UX Design (User Experience) and usability consulting involves the practice and ‘art’ of making websites intuitive and enjoyable to use, always with the end goal in mind.  This end goal, especially in business, is usually a Call-to-Action, for example, persuading the user to sign up to an email newsletter, send a request for further information, or to make a sale.

I have trained in multiple UX fields, completing courses certified by industry leader Uxcel (uxcel.com).  I have many course certifications, having so far completed 12 courses, including:  UX Design Foundations, Design Terminology, UX Writing, Mobile Design, Color Psychology, Design Workshop Facilitation, Design Accessibility, UX Research, and Typography.  Click here to view my certifications: https://theocrowther.com/certifications/ux-certifications The next two modules that I will be working on are Design Composition and Wireframing.

I also work as a freelancer for NerveCentral Limited - a digital marketing consultancy, specialising in sales conversions and UX Design - as a Web Pages Developer and Junior UX Design/Usability Consulting Trainee.  In addition, in the last year or so, I co-developed with my father a new NerveCentral product and company called Polar Bear Pages, selling landing page designs and development as an in-a-box product package, to SMEs (small to medium enterprises).  Please see Polar Bear Pages here: https://polarbearpages.com/ , and click here https://theyconvert.com/ to see examples of the web pages that I have put together for our clients.

Merchandise, Product Design & Sales - Ckrispy T-shirts:

I am the creator and business owner of Ckrispy T-shirt Designs. To launch the Ckrispy t-shirt design project, just over two years ago, I researched several t-shirt selling platforms, three of which I have since used to promote and sell many different contemporary designed 'pop' t-shirts.  I currently have 269 t-shirt designs listed, and have so far sold 70 t-shirts, across the platforms that I sell and distribute through.

My designs include several that appeal to theme park enthusiasts - ‘The Theme Park Collection’ -, many popular and on-trend slogans and memes for all genders, comedic designs, and multiple t-shirts listed under my collection,‘The British Collection’, which I put together with the American market in mind. (There is a sector of the American market that finds British merchandise, symbols and sayings appealing!)  As part of this venture I have to keep an eye on t-shirt designs that tend to sell well and trend, including which of my own designs sell the most, to further drive up sales going forwards. I also have to choose key search terms and tag words that best promote each of my designs.

The platforms I use to currently market and sell my t-shirts, under the Ckrispy brand, are: https://www.teepublic.com/user/ckrispy, https://partner.spreadshirt.co.uk/showroom and   https://www.threadless.com/@Ckrispy.  And I use Canva to create each of my designs, primarily using Open source assets. My customers are global, but my main market demographic is in the UK and the USA, and my average customer is a twenty-something year old male.

I am charged between USD 3 - 5 commission by the online retailers, and my strategy is to continue uploading a minimum of five designs every week, with my first goal being to have 500 different t-shirt designs listed for sale.  The t-shirt e-commerce sites’ algorithms favour those sellers who list new products regularly and who are succeeding in making sales. By uploading five new designs weekly, I should see an increase in my sale rate going forwards.

Video:

In my early to mid-teens, I was a regular video creator and uploader on YouTube, focusing on comedic and game-play video production. I shot and edited my own footage, incorporating graphics and sound FX. I have also experimented with making amateur videos in the last couple of years that I have not published.  These include, for example, a short fantasy movie that I co-created with a small team of students, at the Young Film Academy's visual media creation Filmmaking course. I also solely created and produced a short documentary-style video, shot at the New Forest, Hampshire theme park Paultons Park, entitled 'The Power Of Immersion: Why Theming Matters'; I shot this short film informally, by using my smartphone, and went on to edit the video with a voice-over narration, using Flixer.

A keen fan of watching video content through YouTube, Vimeo and other social media platforms, I have also spent 14 years learning especially about the theme park sector, industry ride manufacturers, engineering, design, experiential theming and profit-related considerations, from creator experts and uploads. I am equally drawn to educational videos on particular movies and movie genres, and I enjoy learning especially about the film production process and special effects, the music industry (with a keen focus on music video production, in the rock and alternative rock genres).  I have also enjoyed informative videos on varied topics from wildlife through to business, self-development, and science (for example, Tom Scott’s science and engineering documentary channel at https://www.youtube.com/@TomScottGo and Steven Bartlett’s business and self-improvement channel at https://www.youtube.com/@TheDiaryOfACEO).

Film:

Film and movies have played a prominent role in my life, from a relatively young age.  Enjoying movies, both in the cinema and streaming at home, I have a particular passion for 80’s retro action films, comedic action movies, and fantasy productions, with my favourite films being The Rush Hour Series, The Shining and the Harry Potter film adaptations. 

I am also interested in movie merchandise theming, and how product creation and sales can heighten the user's sense of immersion, as well as drive-up profits for the production companies; increased profits result from both direct product sales and increased sales in cinema and streaming orders, due to the promotion through merchandise exposure.

It was my passion for film that prompted me to attend the Young Film Academy's visual media creation Filmmaking course in 2021. With a small team of five students, we collectively wrote a short fantasy film, agreed upon the various acting/filming/directing/special effects and production roles within the group, and created and shot a short movie from concept through to completion.  Overall, I found the team management and cooperation requirements for this project the most rewarding; because we had a tight timeline to work to, we had to quickly resolve disagreements.

Other certifications and experience in film include having completed Futurelearn’s course, Film Distribution.

Video Gaming:

Along with movies, playing and engaging with digital video games has arguably been my top passion, and is a media type with which I have had an enormous amount of experience.  In addition to actually playing, I have watched countless videos, on the likes of YouTube and other social media, on industry trends, special effects and the making of game creation and development, game-plays and community commentary.  My interest in video games, once again, revolves around immersion in narratives, characters, and the overall user experience of that narrative. For instance, I have always enjoyed playing story games, observing closely how the in-game world and characters have been developed and managed, and how the developers have managed to bring the entire immersive experience to life.

With regards to gaming genres, I especially enjoy playing role-play games, indie games and Multiplayer games.

Over the years, I have additionally gained a great deal of experience managing various game servers, using Discord, and have hosted multiplayer games.  Whilst this is an activity I enjoy for its own sake, it has also given me useful experience in managing teams, organising projects, moderating comments and chat, and resolving conflicts between the various server members.  Gaming community members often become impassioned and heated, during highly competitive games, and I have discovered that this tends to require calming leadership, so that the team can focus on strategising collaboratively, in order to win.

I have completed several courses in the video games field of media, and have certifications including Futurelearn’s Video Game Design and Development: Character Design, Introduction to Indie Games, and I attended BFI's 2023 An Introduction to the Video Game Development Process online presentation. In my early teens, I also completed Youth Digital’s Minecraft MOD1 Coding and Programming certified course, over several months. Click here to view my FutureLearn certifications.

Overview of Video Games Experience:

• Futurelearn (course and certification): Video Game Design and Development: Video Game Character Design

• Futurelearn (course and certification): Introduction to Indie Games Course.

• Discord Server Management (Gaming team facilitation and communications):  20+ gaming members 

• Team Management - 5 People CSGO, Overwatch.

• Multiplayer Games - including CSGO, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, Dead By Daylight, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2.

• Narrative Games - including Nier Automata, Hogwarts Legacy, Half-Life Series, Elden Ring, Resident Evil Series.

• Indie Games - including FnaF Series, Undertale, Cuphead, Terraria.

• Youth Digital course - Minecraft MOD1 Coding and Programming.

• eSports - CSGO and Overwatch.

• Manga character creation, through sketching and shading, using graphite pencil.

• BFI Film Festival 2023 - attended presentation online: An Introduction to the Video Game Development Process

Social Media, Podcasting, Music Production & Theming at Theme Parks:

I have interest and experience in several other media channels, types and media-related concepts, such as immersion in the theming and media of the theme park sector, a keen interest in Music video Production, regular social media usage and I have dabbled in amateur podcasting.

Immersion & Inversions Podcast, for example, is a pilot podcast episode I experimented with creating, where I discuss and present on the topics of the UK theme park industry, interviewed by a friend. To develop this podcast, we recorded our discussion using standard Mac audio recording software and a Blue Yeti microphone, I created a bespoke introduction jingle using FL Studio, and I edited the podcast using Flixier. Besides trialling the creation of a podcast pilot myself, although not yet published, I regularly listen to podcasts on the theme park sector, including CoasterBotRambles by CoasterBot and TheLaunch by JackSilkstone.

With regards to theme park media and user experience, both on-ride but also with respect to theme park promotional media, I find the media, design and thematic choices that theme park professionals make truly fascinating.  Theme parks in the UK are especially successful in this respect, but in the USA, the King of the theme park sector, Disney, is very well-regarded when it comes to theming, branding and immersion: Disney not only offers multiple rides - Disney offers a captivating experience, which stimulates several senses simultaneously, to maximise the user experience.  The company’s aim is for customer users to come back to its parks again and again, as a result of the immersive impact.  In the same way, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Universal Orlando Resort succeeds similarly. Furthermore, both theme worlds have greater outreach and increased profitability due to the overall success of the Disney and Harry Potter brands, with their additional market and media channels in film, live broadcast TV, streaming services, video games, books, podcasts, and products / merchandise.

I am also a regular consumer of videos from the music industry, where a relatively recent interest has been the production of music videos, especially that of ‘concept albums’, for example, American Idiot by Green Day (2004) and The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance (2006),  Once again, the narrative, the meaning behind the narrative, how the narrative is expressed, and the overarching story that unfolds, all grip me.  Concept albums are especially unique in this respect, because the entire album tells an unfolding story, across the tracks on the album.  Not only do the artists work hard to convey their story and its meaning through the music, but they usually do so through their video development too.  These musical videos are an artistic and moving medium themselves, but also, the narrative process yet again links directly back to the field of Media, communications and media production in general.

Social Media, another ubiquitous form of digital media, is a near-daily part of my life, which I use not only to communicate with friends, but also to research my favourite industries and trends in film, gaming, theme parks and UX Design.  I am a regular user of Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Areas of Interest in Media for Further Development & Exploration:

These are the areas of Media creative production and communications that I am keen to explore further, to better understand and to develop some expertise in:

• Film, Video (and Television): (1) Camera operation and filming techniques; (2) the various professions, careers, processes and specialist techniques that make up this sector and medium, along with learning more about (3) the overall production processes.

• Digital Gaming: (1) Industry developments, how the various specialist teams work together, including research, design, coding, music, testing, production and marketing teams, to ensure that a game is a market success.  (2) I also have a specific interest in developing my knowledge and experience in gaming design and music choices, as part of the overall theming and UX direction in the development process.

• UX Design & User Experience:  Especially with regards to the web, but potentially with regards to digital apps too, I am keen to progress my learning in user-analytics, and how analytics results can be used to create an improved interface and media experience, hand-in-hand with the results of user-testing (such as live user-testing, and A/B split testing).  Additionally, I intend to progress my understanding and future expertise in UX Design, to offer my services in this field to various SMEs.