GRAND THEFT AUTO V review

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When it seems that the current generation of consoles is slowing down ,and while the same companies seem to be throwing their weight towards the generation that follows, leaving the old consoles on autopilot –  everybody is getting excited by PS4, XBOXONE and even STREAMBOX (future 2014 consoles-that will set the direction of the industry in the following 10 years). It’s this console generation’s last hurrah. Rockstar,a multinational video game developer and publisher, made a big surprise, releasing Grand Theft Auto V (5) in this generation.
GTA (Grand Theft Auto V) uses its own custom physics engine -it is a sandbox game played from a third point view.

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My student experience! A busy semester at University of Nicosia

Fall 2013,  lessons started on the 30th of October.

I was very excited about my new start since it is my 2nd year! The courses that I have selected this semester are Video Production and Multimedia which are practical courses, Newswriting , Film and Public Relations Methods which are theoretical courses. Lets not forget Mediazone Lab Assistant Training!

The first 2 weeks, professors gave us an introduction about the subjects, showed us the themes, the equipment and actually what is going to follow this semester. At the end of October we had our first midterm. The material that the teacher examined us on was based on understanding the first steps of the introduction, which was easy. At the same time, we had to submit 2 essays in one week (2 different lessons). Continue reading

Vines? What’s up with them?

If you have a Facebook account, or a Twitter, or  if you have just logged into any social network site in the last five months I’m quite sure that you’ve seen one of those Vines videos.

If you haven’t,  just log again into your social network account and I guarantee you that in your news feed there will be more than one vine for you.

Vines are humoristic short videos (mostly 3 to 7 seconds) that anyone can post on the internet, and may be the laugh of the day for many viewers. Vine is a mobile app owned by Twitter. It can be downloaded to all Android and iOS platforms. In order to create a vine you had to open the application and shoot a vine from your camera. Now vines evolved and they may come from more detailed cameras, and may also be edited.  Vines became popular so quickly that now it’s an everyday hobby for the creators because of their everyday viewers. Also, vines had their television time by Dunkin Donuts who was the first company to use a single Vine as an entire advertisement. Continue reading

How to Achieve a Good Panoramic Photo!

Have you ever asked yourself how the photographers manage to catch beautiful landscapes with  great detail?

But every time you try it, there is something missing. It happens many times to me. Either my photos were overexposed, lacking of details, or in most of the cases  I just couldn’t find the reason for my failure. One day I just sat in front of my computer and started a small research on this topic. What I found was that there are a certain techniques or even “secrets” for a successful panoramic image. I would like to share them with you and save you some extra time surfing the internet. Continue reading

Radiocracy: local radio & democracy

On the 23rd of July I had the chance to visit Northampton (England) to participate in a European youth exchange project named ‘Radiocracy’. This project was aimed at developing radio skills and content from local governments and train young people on how to produce and spread radio content in their localities. The goal of this attempt was to improve youth awareness on how different democratic systems work. The teams consisted of five participants from Cyprus, England and France.

Each group had a ‘leader’ with experience and involvement in radio. The members of my team (Cyprus) were Andreas Rocopos, Evie Hartsioti, Antonia Filippou, Christiana Palaonta and our leader Dr. Mike Hadjimichael. The first part of the project started in France, then continued in Cyprus and finished in England. I only had the chance to participate to the trip in England. On their staying in Cyprus members from the three groups decided to create a song, in French and English language with the help of Med Dred. Continue reading

Why You Should Join The Communications Society! It’s Not Too Late, Join Us Tomorrow!

As a Communications student and a Mediazone Lab Assistant, I have come to realize how many opportunities we can create for ourselves here at the University of Nicosia but for some reason no one is attempting to do so which is why it all changes here!

At the beginning of the semester a fellow student/lab assistant and myself came up with one idea, to bring the Communications Society back to life. Our mission is to create a 5 minute show with announcements, news, updates, reminders and in general entertainment related topics, all to do with the University. Continue reading

The Golden Watch or just a mid Spring day in May?

It was  a mid Spring day in May when I saw the orange painted walls of Mediazone for the first time. Orange painted walls with black drawings like a midnight dream… “tv monitors” for hills, “film” rivers, “microphone” trees, “digital” sea, “battery” bees, “speaker” clouds and floating cities – creativity and imagination like the very water and sunlight needed to grow life; “cheers!”

Reach the top of tape and monitor hills  and E. and I go back into dreams of history . Talking about beta cam video formats, travel and mathematics: I am enthusiastic to learn another way to build my reality, I feel like a child. Walking down the hill I listen through the speakers a lab assistants voice; Nader’s voice and music, something like jazz words came up on my mind: “if it sounds good and feels good, then it is good!” At a  certain point I found Andreas shooting video everywhere.  I thought what interesting eyes! Let’s see. He notices all the details, and that is good to discover a little pleasure of  life too. Imagination and moving things move Hystrian’s hands flying around the blue sky in editing. Sometimes he seems he get lost in the digital world. I like the dreamer that way too.

Little Andreas looking all around tells  me Fabrizio where are we? I don’t know but with time and courage we will find the way to come out of this trip. Meanwhile Giota and Lucia finally find me and argue that they are too busy for play, and me, I stare as a child. But their smiling eyes are too big and full of energy so I understood they were joking with me. Continue reading

What is Kinetic Typography?

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Have you ever watched a whole music video consisting of letters? Literally only words flying around the screen, but made in a such way that it’s actually very cool?

Well this kind of motion graphics is called “kinetic typography”. I got very inspired by this kind of art lately and that’s why I would like to share some helpful information with you. Continue reading

The Distance Learning IT department Proudly Present the Unic Application!

Just like me, you  also may have seen posters around University advertising the new Unic Application. When I first saw it I thought it was a brilliant idea since most of us have learned and have gotten used to having everything we need on our phone. Our phones have become a part of our daily lives and we always have them on us. They are not only our phones but they have become our personal mail man, our entertainment at times of boredom, our computer, basically they’ve become a customized piece of technology  that suits each and everyone’s personal need.

“The Distance Learning IT Unit, in line with IT trends and student needs, has developed the first in-house mobile application for the University. The app, is now available on Windows Store, Google Play and App Store, its aim is to simplify everything you need to know about the University of Nicosia.” Taken from Gregoris Vishnumolakala article for Unic magazine.

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Harlem Shake @ UNic! Student Initiative!

On March 20th 2013, students of the University Of Nicosia

took part in a fun production of a UNic Harlem Shake video at the open amphitheater. It wasn’t something you get to see every day and we definitely stole the interest of other students. Some watched and others participated, it’s positive that we broke the way of the daily routine. Special thanks to MediaZone, Stefan Colton (opening performer) and everyone who was a part of this Harlem Shake! Hopefully students in the future will also be encouraged to take similar initiative. Encourage Creativity !

 

Julia Antoniou –  Tv / Audio MZ Lab Assistant