Senex

Our last day is the busiet day on the week. We arrived the HLC at 8:10, and continues our project. We are very rush because we have to present our project at 12pm. The presentation held at the conference room where is all the work experience students, HLC staff, Mr. Horell (head of Blanche Nevile School), Mr. Yakup (head of I.T), and the head of business studies (we don’t know his name). Rajul was producing second soundtrack for the game by using Apple iMac, Bhavik was checking and editing the game on the mediator and Kamil was also checking and editing the game on mediator on his own. We only have 4 hours to finish the whole thing including the game, fax cover sheet, complainent slip, business card and letter layout..

Our 3rd and 4th day was realllly busy. We had too much work to do in a very limited time! Firstly our company finished off the videos for Level 1 and 2 and fixed up the structure for the game in Mediator 8.

On the 3rd day, Rajul was trained to use a software called Garage Band in the Apple Mac’s. he made some songs for their level 1 and 2 of their game; so I had to create my own one.  At the mean time, Bhavik was trained how to use the Picture In Picture technique in Movie Maker but he found out that it was very slow and it kept crashing so used the Mac’s instead! While they were busy with that, I was making own Talking Head video in Movie Maker but I didn’t have any problems with it.

On the 4th day it was a chaos!!! Everyone was stressing because they had so much work to do but we had not much left to do : -).  We had finished our level 1 and 2 so all we had to was complete the structure of the Game in Mediator 8 and import all the levels we had already made. Then we had to make Level 3 ( the puzzle) in the Mediator file; which was very easy but long! Now all we got to do is add in all the sound effects and we are ready to compete!

On our second at the HCLC Judy was teaching us and that was the first time we saw her. She introduced herself to use and explained our tasks for the day.  We all had to plan our games on a software called OpenMind that we have used in school before.  Each company had to make two games so in our company, Rajul and Bhavik made one game and I made another game.  After we made our plans we were told to export them to MatchWare Mediator 8 using the Export Wizard.

After exporting the plans onto Mediator, we started changing some things around and saved the game structure onto our user area.  Later on that day we started to make the video for level 1.  We used Windows Movie Maker to create this video as it was the easiest software to use (even though it was very slow and it kept crashing)!!  Another reason why we used Movie Maker is because we have this software in school; so we are fimiliar with it and all the skills we learn at the CLC will be helpful for us in further projects.  One of the main techniques that Me, Rajul and Bhavik have learnt using Movie Maker is the Picture In Picture (PIP) technique.  We used this technique in our talking heads videos.  So basically when Rajul and Bhavik was speaking to the camera (for level 2), at the bottom of that video we created a video were you could see another video of them signing what they say.  This was a technique that we have learnt from Judy!  We created these videos in day 3 and 4.

In our first day, we all met outside Tesco’s in Seven Sister at 8.30am to get to work on time. Well obviously some people were late!! When we got there we all just rushed inside and I think we already pissed off Maggie (the conference organiser). We all signed in and met Chris Orme (one of the project developers) in conference Room 1.

We all sat down around the middle table waiting for someone to come in. So after a while Chris came in and introduced him self to us. Two people from our group were very late and they cycled all the way down to Dalston which was about 2 miles away from the centre. So, I had to call them and tell them how to get here. But Chris had to help me!!Before they came, Chris showed us around the centre and told us all the rules we HAD to obey e.g. to be quiet in Maggie’s working area (where the coffee and Chocolate machines are based). That was so hard to do, but I think we did ok. I thought that Maggie is a really nice person as she was being very helpful when we had to sing in and out of the centre.

The main task we had for that day was to create a name and logo for our companies. Our companies (groups) were already decided by our ICT teacher (Mr yakup) and confirmed by Judy (Judith Jakes – Project Developer). I was with the two Blanche Neville kids (Rajul and Bhavik). First of all I wasn’t very happy to be with them because I didn’t know them as well but then I thought I had to as I had no other choice and that this is how work is (you don’t have a choice). Later on in the day I realized that we get on really well together and we were enjoying our time. So our company came up with the name Senex!

For that day before lunch (12 – 1pm), we had a couple of breaks and used the coffee and chocolate machine’s so many times. We found out earlier that the drinks were really cheap! After the break, each company had to create: a Header sheet, a Fax Cover sheet, a ‘With Compliments’ sheet and a Business Card for each person in the company. We Sucessfuly created them before lunch.

At lunch we all split up into our own groups and the group I was with decided to go to ‘Mc. Donalds’. We came back on time and signed in at Maggie’s desk. After lunch we created a plan for them Game using OpenMind. We had to create two games per company so we had to have two Plans.

 When it was time to go home we all left the centre at around 3pm and took the bus home!!