Tuesday 31 May 2016

News

Part One
The News broadcast that I chose was the BBC One-Minute World News for 26/05/2016. On this particular news broadcast we see three of the key events that are happening around the world within 24 hours.
The first story shown to the audience is the disruption of France due to unions such as oil refineries, nuclear power stations and ports, leading strikes that have caused motor ways and bridges to be blocked. The second story is about four Islamic military people who were suspected of placing a bomb in a bar screening of the world cup football match to be guilty.
Another story that is briefly mentioned is the missing Egyptian plane and have began taking further searches within a 5 kilometer area of the Mediterranean sea to look for the planes transmitter.
The final story that my chosen news broadcast shows is about Amber Heard filing for a divorce with Johnny Depp.
In the starting sequence of the news broadcast we see the opening credits and music come in and we are introduced to the spokeswomen named Lucy Hockings who reads the top headlines for us.
We see a use of visuals to help explain the story better for us as the audience and make it easier for the audience to understand.

Part Two
For my broadcast I only had one main presenter named Lucy Hockings. Lucy is an early forties woman that is from New Zealand originally. She works as a New Zealand journalist within BBC World News and was made to have speech lessons due to the problems her accent caused her on public television.Her role as a newsreader is to inform the audience of the current news as it happens with none of their own opinions coming through to the audience. It is also their role to keep the audiences informed as well as entertained.
The skills needed when becoming a newsreader is researching and guiding, story telling to a medium and the ability to think and adapt as technology changes. An essential skill for news readers to have is to have a tone that makes the stories seem warm and engaging to the audience and not threatening or harsh.

Part Three
A news order or a running order is there to help people know what happened on the programme in an accurate manner. For the news, the editor is the one that makes the final decision about the ordering and makes sure that the entries for the news are at the right place for viewing. For the news, the first thing to be shown is the lead story or the lead, which is longer than all the others due to having the most information provided to the audience as well as being the most essential.
The next stories that are provided to the audience are ones that are ranked on interest and provide a mix of stories to convey different emotions.
Another way the news captures the audience interest is by using a news round-up which provide information on national or international news for the viewers to watch.
There is also the potential use of a sports round up which is good to keep the audience up to date on the essential scores of matches and to provide short interviews with some of the players.
To keep the audience further interested, the news focuses on providing a round up of the weather which is either in the studio or on an outside location.
At the end of the news some studios focus on providing a lighter story at the end by stating, "And finally..."
When it comes to the timings of the running order, the editor ensures that the lead story is the longest piece to provide information to the audience but not too long to make them loose interest. Each story that comes later on in the running order is a lot shorter so must capture the key pieces of information to capture the audiences attention before their time is up.
A key skill that news reporters must be able to do it to adapt to news whenever possible. For example, if the lead was focusing on the benefits of longer education and your editor informs you that a bomb has just gone off in an airport in London, then that is your top lead story. With this in mind the news reporter must adapt by talking about the breaking news that has just occurred and be able to successfully talk on the spot towards the audience that are watching this. Being flexible and prepared to change shows you are able to discuss any matter easily, making you a good reporter.

Sometimes when there is little news to report, we have a slow news day due to having a lack of substantial topics. The final story on the news is usually the lighter story to round off on a good note. The news reporter usually ends it "And finally" before stating the last short story of the day before the news ends completely. It's role is to display a more positive approach within the country and to show that there is a vast variety of news for the audience to know and understand.
The News Values Theory is believed that our perception of what creates the event is currently determined and isn't a natural occurrence. The theory stated that the more an event is accessed by the criteria, the more likely it will be reported to the news.
An example of this is the obsession we have with celebrities and the gossip of our lives. When it came to David Beckham splitting with Victoria we had a front page spread of the story to interest the readers. Yet on the same day, five children were killed in a minibus accident and did not reach the front cover. The news reporters and journalists focus on the most interesting story for the audience and place that as the cover or the lead story.

When it comes to the News Values of Galtung and Ruge (1973) we see there were a number of topics that went with the theory.
Below are the twelve topics and there meanings:
Immediacy: Has it happened recently?
Familiarity: Is is culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: Is is a big even that affects large numbers?
Frequency: Does the event happen often?
Unambiguity: Is it clear and definite?
Predictability: Did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: Is is rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: Has it previously been defined as news?
Elite Nations/People: Big countries or celebrities?
Personalisation: Is is a human interest story?
Negativity: Is is bad news?
Balance: "and finally" fun story to balance bad news...

When it came to looking for my own evidence of these topics I began to search on YouTube for news reports with any of these related to it.
My first short clip I found was called the "EU Referendum: Are you in or out?" which stated a lot of different people and there beliefs towards the EU.
When looking at this I found that it related to the Galtung and Ruge Theory with being Immediacy, Familiarity, Amplitude, Unambiguity, Surprise, Continuity and Elite Nations/People.
This short news broadcast shows us the effects of what will happen to the UK when having to vote an essential choice such as this one. It has happened recently and is very close to the UK citizens with the results of effecting a large number within the country. Not only does it do this but it also shows clear and definite opinions to an unexpected event and has been constantly reviewed on the news for the past upcoming months. It is also based on a big countries such as all that are in the EU and how it will effect our country with theirs.


Another key clip I found was called "2001-09-11 World Trade Center Attacks, BBC + ITV News Opening". This clip shows the gripping scene of the World Trade Center being attacked as well as the Pentagon. This clip portrays to the audience about the extremes that terrorism had reached and was a rare event that occurred, making it Frequency. It was something that no one expected to happen and is still to this day a human interest story due to the dramatic effect it has had on people within the time it happened as well as the following years. It is displayed as bad news due to the tragic display of horror that was sent towards America and resulted in thousands of people to die or be injured due to this awful event.


When it came to the balance of finding a lighter, happier story for the audience to see at the end of the news. For mine I found the short story about a fake penguin providing research to scientists to help conserve the species. This story informs the audience of how the rover was dressed like a penguin chick in order to get close enough to the creatures. With this alone, the scientists were able to see that this did not stress the penguins or increase there heart rate informing the audience a little about the life of the penguins and what makes them stressed. This story is not only factual but is also displayed as humourous due to how the scientists had to work to be able to collect any information, providing a funny, interesting side to the audience.


Part Four
The news isnt always a 100% truthful matter and can sometimes sneak into the news without the audience noticing.
There are various ways that we able to notice the news becoming bais, the first is being bais through selection and omission.
Selection and Omission means that the editor can choose whether or not to tell a specific news story. Within the story, some of the details can be either ignored or given out to allow the audience to provide the audience a different opinion on the matter.
The only way to varify if this particular type of bais behaviour is noticed, is by comparing a wide variety of sources to news reports.
An example of this would be how an editor might believe that an advertiser wants younger readers due to spending more money, so will ignore any news that holds a significant interest towardszs the elderly.

Another key detection is Bais through placement. This is related to the structure of a magazine and how we see the top story on the front page to grab the interest of the audience. The story on the front page is therefore suppose to be a lot more interesting and eye-appealing to the audience than a story somewhere in the middle or the back of the magazine. When it comes to TV and radio broadcastings we see that the top ratings are the first to be spoken of and the less appealing stories are to be told later.
Examples of this are two front covers of Empire magazine and the top announcements of particular films placed on the front to grab the interest of the readers.













The third detection of being bais is by the headline. The headlines are the most read part of a magazine due to its bold letters and interesting font but half the time the story may appear interesting but really isn't when the audience begins to read it. This is therefore a misleading matter and is baised. Here are a few examples below:














Not only is there bais through headlines, but there is also being baised through camera angles, captions and photos. When it comes to the world of photography, we see that a series of shots can get any emotion or thought through to another person all due to how another looks or seems. A photo can make someone look stupid, angry, upset or funny but that might not be the whole story. The paper not only chooses the most factual photo, but also the most interesting to capture the audiences' attention as well as causing a heavy influence on their persepective of that person. Below are a few examples.








Another is bais being baised through the use of names and titles. The news often uses names or titles to describe a place or a person to the audience. An example of this would be how someone referred to as an "ex-con" leaves the audience thinking of someone who has spent a considerable amount of time in prison. Another example of this bais theory would be how a man can be placed as "Lord" and instantly refers the audience  into thinking of a man with a serious amount of money with a very posh voice.

Finally, the last bais theory is the bais through the choice of words. When it comes to watching or listening to the news, people can display a particular connotation due to hearing a negative or postive remark about them. There is also the use of a tone in the newscasters voice which could also help give a directed opinion to the audience making them think what they think about this person or place due to what they have heard.
An example of this is below.








Friday 27 May 2016

Research - Primary and Secondary


Primary Research



For the primary research I focused on doing a survey asking questions to the public about their views and thoughts on 9/11. Throughout this survey I asked particular questions such as "Do you find 9/11 a significant matter?" and "What is your instant reaction when seeing clips of 9/11."
The answers I got from this survey are all different providing me with a great source of detail for my own work. For example, the question asking people what their instant reaction was to the event, I got a mixture of different views. Some people said sadness and horror, whilst a few people said they were interested with why it happened in the first place.

Secondary Research





For my secondary research I found a website that focused on the stories of people across the world and where they were when 9/11 happen. I went through the website and chose a few stories that provide the audience with an emotional response and can actually see how and what the person telling the story felt at this time. Other secondary research ideas are stuff like documentaries, blog posts, magazine articles and newspaper headlines to name but a few. Below are also some examples of what the impact was of 9/11, featured in newspapers and books.







Tuesday 17 May 2016

Proposal

My idea for the three minute documentary is people recalling back on the events that happened on 9/11. Throughout my documentary I would have people discuss where they were when 9/11 happened and what there response was too it. I would also provide real footage of the encounter as well as photos of the event taking place.
My documentary is Observational due to not having the director appear in the documentary and is more centered on the particular topic it is discussing.
It would be a docudrama but also educational due to knowing the emotional and physical impact for people who witnessed this.
My aim for this documentary is to allow people to see how 9/11 is still a significant event that happened many years ago and how so many people are still affected by its results. What I hope to achieve from this is a more dramatic documentary that portrays emotion from the interviewee towards the audience and show that even after time some things arent able to be forgotten.
Dependant on who I would interview I would either remain within the college or ask people that are outside the college grounds.
For the production team I would need someone for the camera and someone to ask the questions to the interviewee whilst filming the piece. We would not need any experts only witnesses that can recall the historical moment that happened in America.
Example questions that would be asked to the interviewee would be: Where were you when 9/11 happen? What can you remember seeing and doing when you heard the news? What were your instant thoughts and reactions to this horrible encounter?
For this production we would need a camera, tripod, microphone and factual footage of the incident of 9/11 occuring. Other things we would need would be a place to interview the person we are talking to and there surroundings that are beside them. All of our equipment that is needed for the documentary is available from the AV room and we would not need to buy anything into the production. The proposed budget would be kept to a minimum as much as possible and would only have costs when it came to travel if we chose to not have the location of the production within the college premises.
To conclude on my proposal, we discussed our ideas as a class to get further ideas and responses to the ideas. Each person discussed what there idea was and what they planned to do before having responses to how they felt about the idea and anything we could add or improve the documentary. After discussing my idea with the class I have decided to focus on the impact the event has had on people and asking where they were when 9/11 happened and how it initially made them feel.



Thursday 12 May 2016

3 Minute Wonder

3 Minute Wonder: Last Supper


The first three minute clip that I enjoyed was called "Last Supper" which focuses on a particular prisoner who tells us his views on his family and being in prison. I like the opening to the documentary due to how it gives a hint of what the documentary is about. We also see the prisoner discuss his views on the last supper and what he would want to eat. His main focus is the effect it will have on his family and the sympathy he has towards them, resulting in the audience having some sympathy towards this.

3 Minute Wonder: Gemma


The second three minute clip is focused on a young girl named Gemma who suffers from cancer. She discusses her views on what is good about being in the hospital and what is bad. For Gemma she finds the hospital food is bad due to them not thinking about the quality, but the quantity; whilst the good side of hospitals is being able to discuss things with people your age that have similar problems as you do and enables her to not feel scared or worried. I like this because she tells her own personnal opinion about it and allows the audience see that it is realistic due to how she states that whatever age you can get cancer.

3 Minute Wonder: Blek Le Rat


The final clip I found focuses on a frenchman who does graffiti. With his graffiti work he uses templates to outline his work and talks about people that do graffiti all over the world. I like this one due to how it shows his process of creating the art work as well as telling the audience his personal view on graffiti in total.

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Documentary "Mini Task" Essay

A documentary is a non fiction movie that focuses on reality and historical contents. It was first originally shot on a film stock due to having a limited amount of devices to shoot on but after time the technology developed to the point where documentaries were filmed on video and digital.
The first historical importance that represented documentaries was a polish poineer named Boleslaw Matuszewski. He wrote two books in the late 1800s named "A Source of History" and "Animated Photography" which are recognised today as the movie manifestos that display a source of historical and documentary value of films.
The first documentary in the late 1800s of surgical operations taking place in Warsaw and Sait Petersburg hospitals. With this in mind, a surgeon named Doyen took around 60 documentaries on surgical operations that have helped guide and assist other surgeons with technical errors that they were not certain of.
Throughout the years we have had film makers focus on historical events of people, places and events that have occurred as well as realistic scenarios that have occurred in that time period.

Expository Documentaries 
An Expository Documentary is where you provide facts and arguments towards the audience, with a clear voice over narrating the piece whilst the images are being shown. Below is my own example of an Expository documentary showing the rise of alcohol prices and peoples views on this. Within this documentary we see a voice over informing us what the documentary is about and how it is related to the images and moving pictures presented to the audience. It provides a lot of evidence focused to the topic and plenty of factual information to make the piece realistic.


Observational Documentaries
Observational documentaries have no presence of the film maker/director and allows the audience to have their own view on the documentary. For my example I found a short clip focusing on hair cuts. Throughout this clip we see close ups and medium shots of a woman having her hair cut short. As the clip continues we see a lot of silent footage we see a lot of particular sounds that we expect to hear when in a hairdressers. The clip has no talk over the process of the hair cut and we are given very little, if not none, about the director/film maker of the documentary. There is also plenty of clips to allow the audience to understand what is going on and allows them to make their own personal choice of the clip.


Interactive Documentary
An Interactive Documentary is slightly different compared to the other documentaries. Compared to an Observational Documentary it shows some elements of a film maker being present with them being a part of the clips. The film maker is shown throughout the clips providing facts and questions towards people he is having in the documentary, to allow the audience to have some knowledge of the required topic the film maker is focusing on.
Due to having the film maker being present in the documentary and seeing him discuss his key topic with guests and other people. Throughout discussing various topics with people, there will be the high tendency of arguments being brought into the discussions. In the documentary I had found we see Louis Theroux inside prison and discussing racial segregation with the prisoners. Throughout the documentary we see Louis learns the basics in safety, and the prisoners views. From this we also see a voice over to narrate the story, as well as the life of prisoners and how some came to be behind bars.


Reflexive Documentary
A reflexive documentary is one that consists of several shots that have been captured on an everyday basis. All of the shots that are placed within the documentary enable the audience to see a vast range of colour, sights, sounds and more with no dialogue throughout. For my example I found a short documentary made by OXFAM portraying the life of people living in Bangledesh. Within this documentary the audience is able to encounter the shocking and horrific disasters that have occured towards these people, and the suffering it has caused also. We also get to see the daily life of people living in that location and how damaging the natural occurances of the world can be.

Performative Documentary
The final key documantary is a performative one which provides a lot of cinematography to seperate from the other ones. Examples of this would be re-enactments, over exaggerated camera shots and the soundtrack also. The aim of these particular documentaries is to show the subject (person) or topic in a particular way. For my example of this type I chose a short performance piece by Lenny D which provides the audience a sense of what a performative documentary is. When looking back at this documentary the audience is able to see a lot of low angles to connote her power of singing and enables us to see that she is good at what she does. With the use of a narrative also, it helps to express what we are seeing and what we expect to happen next.

The dramatisation used in the performative documentary is the use of close ups on her face as well as the low angles of Lenny D performing. The re-enactments that are shown within this is the amount of different shots and angles whilst she is singing the song. This enhances the dramatic effect that the audience feels due to seeing close-ups, long shot and low angles to connote different emotions to the viewers.

Conclusion
To some extent I believe there should be factual information provided in the documentary if you have a particular point that they wish to come across. If the documentary is a reflexive documentary however, then the only factual information provided for the documentary would be the actual footage displayed to the audience. My belief for the documentaries would be that as long as the footage displayed enough realistic actions and guests to discuss the relative topic, then there is no more need for further factual information within the documentary, regardless of its type.

Thursday 21 April 2016

Evaluation for TV Advert




The Brief
The brief for this topic was to create a short advert re-branding a particular product made by Unilever. For the new advert we had the choice of what we wanted to change to the particular product such as target audience, gender, age and use of the product. We set out to make our own Prezi on a product we wanted to change from the Unilever website. For several lessons we focused on getting information about Unilever and working on our Prezi of our product. For ours we focused on re-branding Impulse spray for women and focused making it a feminine spray that men could use as well as just women. When it came to choosing what product to re-brand, we looked at each group members idea and discussed which one would be the most intriguing and interesting advert to promote to a different audience. In the end we selected Impulse due to the fun side of a man working out in a gym and his face being hidden the whole time until the end. We wanted the advert to appear serious at the same time of being funny towards the audience. The advert originally was selected for women of all ages but appealed mainly to young teenagers to adults, but after discussing the brand to the group we chose to focus on selecting a different gender all together to make the advert more interesting.

The Finished Product and Feedback

After we had finished our advert we began to create questions that would be suitable within a survey. For this we had to come up with ten questions to ask people on what they thought of our advert. Examples of this would be your age, your gender and what they thought about the advert as a whole. Once we had completed the questions we sent them to a range of people that we would be able to get feedback from for our evaluation. From looking back at the feedback provided I can see that most of my audience we students and they found the advert to be different to normal spray adverts. The feedback that I received back also stated that the music was catchy and that they would consider buying the product. Most of the feedback was from male students which meant that the advert was a good promotion for a male spray created originally for women.
From looking back at the advert and the feedback altogether I found that a lot of people understood that it was a male working out in a gym with wearing make up on also. I think the advert had an appropriate impact on some people due to how they responded with honest feedback and said they would buy the product.

Camera
Throughout the advert we focused on using different camera angles to get a smooth and successful video. When it came to the beginning of the video we focused on getting a lot of close up shots of particular parts of the actors body to show him working out and to also not show his face. Examples of this would be the actor running on the treadmill with only his feet being shown. As we continued with filming we began to add more different angles towards our piece. When it came to the actor leaving the gym we did a tracking shot to follow him down the stairs and through the doorway before doing a match on shot of him opening the door. This is where you take a long shot of someone opening the door and then use a close up/extreme close up to show the actors hand opening the door. For the rest of the advert we focused on getting close ups to show the spray and a more funny side with showing the actor wearing make up.

Editing
After we had got all of the shots we wanted for the advert we began to take it in turns with members of our group to edit the pieces together. The first task was for us to get all our clips in the right order after we had converted them onto the computer. Whilst one person was editing the scenes together, other members began to look for sound fx as well as music to go over the scenes. Each lesson we changed the person editing the advert and focused on making sure they all connected well together and that the music combined well with the work we did. If there was anything that didn't go well in the advert we would either remove it or re-shoot the part of the advert. To conclude on the editing we all took an equal share of combining, adding and re-shooting towards the group project.

Sound
When it came to adding music into our finished edited advert, we all discussed what we thought would be the best type to have in it. Before we made the advert we knew we wanted no dialogue to be present to the audience just the use of music and sound fx. For the music we had discussed having a motivated and upbeat type of music and chose to go with an old fashioned style to go with the workout. The only sound fx that we decided to have in the advert was a high pitched ding to imply a wink and a boom when the bottle of Impulse hit the bench.

Mise-en-scene
In the beginning of the advert we see a lot of scenes placed in the gym and various equipment being used throughout the scene. We also displayed a picture of a sign saying "Gym members only" at the start of the advert to allow the audience to know where the setting was for the advert. We also allowed the audience to see the actor leave down the stairs and through the hallway when it came to leaving that area and made it an easy transition of the actor moving from one area to the next. When it came near to the end of the advert we focused on making the actor look like he was in a changing room with showing him go into the particular room, put clothing on and spray himself with the product. In conclusion to our advert we focused on using close ups to allow the audience to see why we hid the actors face up, to reveal that he had make up and was expressing his feminine style; before concluding with an extreme close up of the product on the bench with the graphics surrounding it.

The Content and the Overall Purpose

When looking back at the finished advert I found that our product met the specified audience of males due to how we made the title appeal to them as well as portraying a man spraying himself with the product. Throughout our narrative/storyboard we focused on portraying a lot of typical manly stereotypes that most men do when going to the gym. After showing a great deal of detail with the gym scenes we focused on showing a more feminine side to the male with having him use the spray and wearing make up.
One of the key features we had to make the advert more persuasive to the audience was using fast action music to make it seem happy and enjoyable. The use of the music all the way through the advert allows the audience to see it is a positive advert that is selling something to intrigue them to buy it.This stand-alone advert portrays humourous and dramatic scenes that allow the audience to enjoy what they are watching.
This advert is also a sex appealing advert due to how it improves beauty and attraction to one another, due to the change of the product now being a feminine spray for men. The advert focuses mainly on capturing the attention of the audience and with the use of fast sequencing and up beat music it makes the audience more interested compared to other adverts. It is filled with entertainment as well having the sense of temptation of working out and smelling good at the same time.

The ideal message we were trying to portray to the target audience was that it was alright to have a sweet. feminine smelling scent instead of the thick and over the top sprays that a lot of men wear. It was to expand the range of products men had and to make it easier for them to not have a spray that was "too much" for them. To get this message across we focused on showing a lot of working out before showing a more entertaining side which enhanced men to see that you can be manly but be feminine too. We made our male actor work out to show the male representations and then had him wear make up to show this feminine spray could be used for guys as well.
I believe that our advert overall is fit for purpose due to how it looks professionally done with all the editing shots put together well with the help of music and sound fx. Referring back to BCAP I can see that our advert does not present any physical, mental or social harm to anyone under the age of 18 and focuses on not portraying any offense to social, cultural or religious groups. We kept our advert simple and made it humourous in order not to offend anyone or any age.

Personal Reflection

I find that the final advertisement was a lot more better than what the original intentions within the group due to being uncertain of the advert as a whole. When it came to discussing the advert we were uncertain on who would act out the particular piece and what we were adding into the advert. For the first few weeks we focused on doing just the pre-production paperwork and allowed the group member who thought of the idea originally and presented it to the class to think of the shot list and the storyboard. After they had roughly laid out and discussed what would be a good idea for the advert and we began to focus the requirements we would need for the advert. Looking back at the beginning of the course we set out on creating an advert for a Unilever product but made it suite a different target audience. The Unilever presentations helped us to see what each of our groups ideas was and helped us to see which one would be the most successful product to work with. When looking back at the paperwork we did for the Impulse advert we saw that it had met quite a few of our expectations due to being very precise with what we wanted to get shot with the camera. Shooting was our main importance and every scene that we wanted to get down we would write it throroughly within the storyboard and shot list. The editing helped us to focus a lot on appealing to our target audience with making it catchy and a memorable advert due to it being fast paced and up beat. It was also different to a lot of adverts seen on the tele and we wanted to make it recognisable and eye catching due to the serious and entertaining aspects provided.
When it came to reflecting back on the piece we got our tutor and each member of our group to see what could be done to improve it and add to the advert to make it as entertaining and eye catching as we could. For this we focused on a lot of retakes as well making sure that the scenes all flowed nicely together throughout the editing. The whole editing process exceeded our expectations of the advert all together and we were pleased with the overall outcome.
If our group was to do the advery again I think we would make sure all the scenes were focused on the areas we wanted to film and not blurry or had little lighting within the shot. The only thing that I would want to add into the advert would be some dialogue at the end to make it more appealing to the audience and more rememberable like Monkey from PG Tips continuously saying in his adverts to "Keep it Tea".
Overall for my own involvement in the project I believe I had done a fair amount of the work and I was pleased with every part of the work I did. When it came to the paperwork side I focused on the equipment list, the props and costume list as well as doing half of the storyboard with Neve. I also gathered all of the paperwork and scanned it into the computer and sent it to all the members in my group to allow them to write the post regarding the work.
When it came to shooting the piece I helped to provide a range of ideas and helped the actor to understand what we were doing in the shot and how we had to film it. We all were the director of the advert and helped each other to get the correct camera angle that we needed. The only thing I did not have that much involvement in was the editing. When it came to doing the editing I helped to place the correct scenes in order as well as getting any retakes we needed if the scenes did not work with the current advert we already had. If I was to do any of this again I would like to do more editing within the group to be able to learn more when using Adobe Premier Pro CC.