We made another a social action video this time around the theme of democracy. Because of the 2017 UK general election we have designed a short video as part of Ufilms productions in order to make sure young people remember use their voice and vote in the general election. The video is a short piece to camera where we explain the importance of using your vote, as well as this we went around the college and got some vox pops and peoples reactions to the upcoming election with the message being that all people (especially young people) should get out and vote. Myself, Kane, Danniella and Matthew worked on the project. Matthew wrote the script and we all stared in it, as well as this myself and Kane operated the camera and Matthew was on Boom while Danniella directed those on screen. After we record the video messages in our studio we went out into the college to get the vox pops. Later that day I then edited the video and uploaded it straight to our YouTube just in time for the general election the next day. The following day the students were invited to watch the video along with a Q and A with Stockton South Labour candidate DR. Paul Williams. Everyone enjoyed the video and I think it motivate everyone to vote especially those in the audience who would have been first time voters. Here at Ufilms we believe in the British values of democracy and think everyone should take advantage of this great system our ancestors died for by using their vote.
Thursday, 15 June 2017
Wednesday, 14 June 2017
Unit 6: Critical Approaches (Debate Notes)
I don't think the news effects the way people behave because in the recent general election the news papers Tory propaganda failed to help Theresa May retain her majority. During the election campaign many news papers rallied against the labour party and Jeremy Corbin in order to protect their best interests, spewing out garbage headlines that had no truth to them and taking many things Corbin has done out of context and twisting his words to help make the Tory's look stronger. The Sun has been one of these news papers but unfortunately for them their audience isn't as passive as they thought. The hypodermic needle theory suggest that mass media could influence a very large group of people directly by 'injecting' them with messages designed to trigger a response, in the past news papers would have been peoples only source of information so they would not know to question what the news papers are saying. People aren't listening to the papers and are seeing the oppositional reading. However these days audiences are more active than ever and no longer take everything that is said by the news papers for granted, because of the internet anyone can get any source of information at anytime giving them the ability to question the views of the news papers. The hypodermic needle theory may have proven to be outdated as the news papers have failed to brainwash the nation with their Tory propaganda. Despite all the hate campaigns against Jeremy Corbin readers challenged the views of the news papers and didn't just accept everything they said, we can see this because Corbin's labour party gained the most seats during the election and Theresa May lost her majority .
I believe that the news doesn't influence the way people behave however people do. Reception theory is how people understand things not from the media it's self but from the audiences reception of it. In this scenario people may be less influenced by the news but more influenced by people and we can see this from labours domination of social media in order to win the youth vote. A record number of young voters came out to vote in this years general election and the majority of them voted labour, this may be because they have been influenced on social media, everyone I follow online weather being into politics or not has had their say on who to vote for and if you trust someone you follow then you would be likely to listen to their viewers. This means people are listening less to the news and more to individuals.
I believe that the news doesn't influence the way people behave however people do. Reception theory is how people understand things not from the media it's self but from the audiences reception of it. In this scenario people may be less influenced by the news but more influenced by people and we can see this from labours domination of social media in order to win the youth vote. A record number of young voters came out to vote in this years general election and the majority of them voted labour, this may be because they have been influenced on social media, everyone I follow online weather being into politics or not has had their say on who to vote for and if you trust someone you follow then you would be likely to listen to their viewers. This means people are listening less to the news and more to individuals.
Tuesday, 13 June 2017
Unit 31 (Task 4): Whoever controls the media controls the mind
Evaluation
Today we presented our social action and community media video 'Educating Granddad' to four people from the college who had come to judge it for the equality and diversity competition. At first I was worried about what their reaction to the video was, I didn't know If we had covered enough points however the judges loved the video. They were really impressed with the quality of the video and the points that it covered, they praised the way we had written about and addressed really sensitive topics. After seeing the video they expressed a great deal of interest in showing the video around college and using it for equality and diversity competitions, obviously this made myself and the team very proud as the college had recognised all the hard work we put into the video. As well as this we uploaded the video to YouTube and shared it on all of our social media platforms to try and reach as many people as we could with it. The feedback from the college, tutor, peers and people online has been overwhelmingly positive about this project and I think people believe the video can help insight a change in peoples mind sets about mutual respect and tolerance in and around the college and hopefully further students understandings of British values. As well as the college wanting to use our video to help educate other students we also won the 1st place prize in the equality and diversity competition winning £150 for the group.I think that the project went well and while there were a few hiccups in the process the finished video was a great success. In the pre production process things got off to a slow start, at first we struggled to come up with a unique idea for a video that could explain all of the points we needed to cover but also be entertaining. As a full class before we were assigned our individual jobs we sat around and brainstormed many ideas for what our video could be, in the end we came up with a sit-com styled conversation around a table. The story we came up with is that there is a family enjoying a quiet day in with their Granddad when all of a sudden he airs some politically incorrect views, the family then educate granddad (hence the name) on why his views are wrong and how he should be more tolerant and understanding towards people of different; races, cultures, sexuality's and ethnicity's. I was project manager and during the pre production process this meant I had to assign jobs for everyone one to do, I put Kane and Chloe in charge of writing the script for our idea, as well as this Jess and Matty helped edit the final draft of the script. The first issue we had with writing this was that it came across too serious and we felt the viewers would not retain much interest in it, over time we eventually came up with a script that was more light hearted and that handled the subjects in a friendlier way. A bigger issue we had was getting cast, we knew we would need a racially diverse cast to improve the credibility of the video. Unfortunately for us the acting class that we usually use as our pool of talent there is not many people of different ethnicity's, this became an issue as it meant we did not have a lot of people to choose from. In the end we got around our casting issue and managed to find someone who would fit the part. Another issue we had was that we put Adam in charge of location, this wasn't a problem at first as he managed to get us his girlfriends house for us to film in however 1 day before the shoot Adam told us he had an exam at the time we were scheduled in. Obviously this annoyed everyone as at first as it meant we might not be able to use the house and we already had everything schedule in but luckily Adams girlfriend was okay with us coming round with out him.
During the pre production process I think that I did a good job project managing my team and making sure that everything got done. As a PM my duty was to over see the production process so I delegated jobs and managed my team making sure that everything was in place before filming, I did research and over saw the writing of the script before putting together a team to work on the production process, I assigned myself as director, Matty as DOP, Jess as AD and Ben as boom.
Shooting went well, we got all the footage that we needed and our only main issue was that we ran over a little. The team worked very well together on set and everyone pitched in with ideas. Myself and Matty worked closely and collaborated on what shots we wanted and how we wanted to shoot everything. Being critical I would say that we could have worked a little faster and we may have spent to much time coming up with shots which may have slowed us down. In the end after our many discussions about shots and which shots would be best we finally got finished.
Unit 31 (Task 1): Whoever controls the media controls the mind
Here is the link to the presentation that myself and Jess made for task 1 as this assignment. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Vox55NZSiFhEYW2Q7a0mnS0uVoeNDrzYPv4kTFDM6gQ/edit?usp=sharing
Wednesday, 7 June 2017
Unit 6: Critical Approaches: Downton Abey
There are many ways we see the difference in class between the character's in this extract of Downton Abey.
When the show opens we see the maids in the maids quarters, right from the off set we can see that the maids are of the lower class. There are many things that point this out to us, one of them being that the lighting is very grey and dull, everything looks washed out and miserable reflecting upon the tedious life's of the maids. As well as this the shots themselves contain lots of camera movement this helps to show the audience how busy everything is, making it feel like the audience is rushing around with the workers. coinciding with the moving shots is frequent cuts, lots of cuts between different shots also gives the feel that everybody is rushing around and in a very busy and stressful work environment. To back this up the use of lots of background noise makes the scene sound even busier, the audience can hear everything that is going on around the characters as they talk and speaking of the dialogue everything the lower class workers say is rushed and said in an accent that compared to the rest of the accents is clearly more common. The Mise En Scene in the areas on screen surrounding the maids and the maids quarters was very different to the rest of the house, for example the maids quarters weren't as furnished as the rest of the house, they had very basic décor and everything was grey and dull. It looked dirty and sad and was clearly, in terms of status, below the rest of the house. The difference between the colour and lighting from the main house to the maids quarters is our biggest indicator in the gulf in class, the main house is elegant and looks incredibly detailed with expensive furnishings and has large open spaces with bright and orange lighting painting the picture of a welcoming home where as the maids quarters are small, cramped and had grey lighting and was in general very dark with people rushing around everywhere.
As well as all of these visual and audible clues we can also get information about the characters class based upon the narrative. For example there is a line of dialogue between two maids about the use of electricity. One of the maids tells the other that they are 'daredent' use the electricity as they are sceptical of it. This shows us that the maid is that poor that she has never used electricity giving us an insight into her social class and her life before she became a maid, this sets how different the life's of those who live in the house and those who work in the house are. The codes and conventions of the genre can also tell us a lot about the characters before we even hear them speak, for example the character's costumes are those that you would expect to find in a period drama with lots of Victorian styled dress with the lower class maids and servants wearing blacks and greys and the upper class residents wearing suits and elegant dress's.
At the start of the extract there is a tracking shot from the maids quarters up to the main house, as the maid walks from the quarters to the house we see the lighting change from grey to orange, we see the décor change from basic to detailed and elegant, we no longer see small cramped rooms and see larger open spaces with huge windows and lots of light. This is our first clue on how different the life's of the maids are to the life's of the residents. As well as this the pace of the show slows down dramatically when were with the upper class character's, when we are with the lower class character's there is a lot more cuts and everything feels much busier.
There is a huge difference between the style of the scenes in the maids quarters and the style of the scenes in the main house, in the main house the shots are more static with fewer cuts and more drawn out scenes this helps build tension and drama among the character's. As well as this the colour is completely different in the main house, the colours are vibrant and have a warming orange glow about them. The way the upper class characters speak and deliver lines tell us just how important they are. They enunciate every word and speak with a powerful town of voice, they talk down to the maids and servants and this shows us that they are a class above them. As well as this there seems to be a hierarchy structure within the house, the lord sits at the top as he has the greatest status, the other residents of the house and the lady's come next, after that it is the people whom are in charger of the servants and the butlers and personal assistants, then at the bottom of the food chain there are the maids and servants. This status system is evident as the characters lower down the hierarchy system are spoken down to by those above them and it soon becomes apparent who those who sit at the top are.
Scenes in the main house often feature wider angles, so that we can see the extent of the huge house, this gives the scene an awe of importance as we can see how elegant everything is. The elegance of the house then reflects upon the residents of the house, telling us they are important upper class people. When the lord is shown on screen for the first time some very gracious piano music is played as he walks down the stairs, this indicates his importance to the audience before we even hear him speak.
When the show opens we see the maids in the maids quarters, right from the off set we can see that the maids are of the lower class. There are many things that point this out to us, one of them being that the lighting is very grey and dull, everything looks washed out and miserable reflecting upon the tedious life's of the maids. As well as this the shots themselves contain lots of camera movement this helps to show the audience how busy everything is, making it feel like the audience is rushing around with the workers. coinciding with the moving shots is frequent cuts, lots of cuts between different shots also gives the feel that everybody is rushing around and in a very busy and stressful work environment. To back this up the use of lots of background noise makes the scene sound even busier, the audience can hear everything that is going on around the characters as they talk and speaking of the dialogue everything the lower class workers say is rushed and said in an accent that compared to the rest of the accents is clearly more common. The Mise En Scene in the areas on screen surrounding the maids and the maids quarters was very different to the rest of the house, for example the maids quarters weren't as furnished as the rest of the house, they had very basic décor and everything was grey and dull. It looked dirty and sad and was clearly, in terms of status, below the rest of the house. The difference between the colour and lighting from the main house to the maids quarters is our biggest indicator in the gulf in class, the main house is elegant and looks incredibly detailed with expensive furnishings and has large open spaces with bright and orange lighting painting the picture of a welcoming home where as the maids quarters are small, cramped and had grey lighting and was in general very dark with people rushing around everywhere.
As well as all of these visual and audible clues we can also get information about the characters class based upon the narrative. For example there is a line of dialogue between two maids about the use of electricity. One of the maids tells the other that they are 'daredent' use the electricity as they are sceptical of it. This shows us that the maid is that poor that she has never used electricity giving us an insight into her social class and her life before she became a maid, this sets how different the life's of those who live in the house and those who work in the house are. The codes and conventions of the genre can also tell us a lot about the characters before we even hear them speak, for example the character's costumes are those that you would expect to find in a period drama with lots of Victorian styled dress with the lower class maids and servants wearing blacks and greys and the upper class residents wearing suits and elegant dress's.
At the start of the extract there is a tracking shot from the maids quarters up to the main house, as the maid walks from the quarters to the house we see the lighting change from grey to orange, we see the décor change from basic to detailed and elegant, we no longer see small cramped rooms and see larger open spaces with huge windows and lots of light. This is our first clue on how different the life's of the maids are to the life's of the residents. As well as this the pace of the show slows down dramatically when were with the upper class character's, when we are with the lower class character's there is a lot more cuts and everything feels much busier.
There is a huge difference between the style of the scenes in the maids quarters and the style of the scenes in the main house, in the main house the shots are more static with fewer cuts and more drawn out scenes this helps build tension and drama among the character's. As well as this the colour is completely different in the main house, the colours are vibrant and have a warming orange glow about them. The way the upper class characters speak and deliver lines tell us just how important they are. They enunciate every word and speak with a powerful town of voice, they talk down to the maids and servants and this shows us that they are a class above them. As well as this there seems to be a hierarchy structure within the house, the lord sits at the top as he has the greatest status, the other residents of the house and the lady's come next, after that it is the people whom are in charger of the servants and the butlers and personal assistants, then at the bottom of the food chain there are the maids and servants. This status system is evident as the characters lower down the hierarchy system are spoken down to by those above them and it soon becomes apparent who those who sit at the top are.
Scenes in the main house often feature wider angles, so that we can see the extent of the huge house, this gives the scene an awe of importance as we can see how elegant everything is. The elegance of the house then reflects upon the residents of the house, telling us they are important upper class people. When the lord is shown on screen for the first time some very gracious piano music is played as he walks down the stairs, this indicates his importance to the audience before we even hear him speak.
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)