Unit 6:Task 1

Audience research is always extremely important and that is no exception when it comes to the political campaign. Political parties must understand their audience in order to win them over, discover what their views and ultimately win their votes.

Quantitative research:

Quantitative audience research is information that is gathered from an audience and portrayed as numerical data. Quantitative research is about numbers and what they represent, these numbers can help you learn a lot about your audience. This research may include things like viewership numbers and ratings these facts and figures can be useful to a presidential campaign as the parties can see from previous televised debates how many viewers they get and who the viewers are, meaning they can tailor their questions and answers around the majority of the viewers. 

Quantitative research can be done by turning the audiences opinions into numerical data when asking the audience a particular question the answers can be turned into numbers. For example audiences may be asked to rate a certain statement from 1 to 5 depending on how strongly they agree with that statement, this rating system helps make the research easier to analyse as all the data as turned into and easy to understand set of figures. Political parties can use research like this to see how the general public agrees with their policies and find out what percentage of the average population rates their policies highly.

Qualitative research:

Qualitative audience research is about the content of the research itself and not just the statistical information, what this means is that qualitative research focuses more on the answers that are given to the questions that are presented. This research can be used to find out exactly what an audience wants and what their opinions are on matters, it is less so used to make graphs and present statistics unlike quantitative research. Methods of this type of research include focus groups, questionnaires and interviews.

During the political campaign it is vital that the parties conduct thoroughly both types of research. Qualitative research is important as it allows you to find out exactly what your audience wants on a much more personal bases. Answers are more tailored to the individual who is answering the questionnaire or taking part in the focus group allowing whoever uses the research to get a better understanding of each audiences members wants and needs. In a presidential campaign it is important for the parties to know the wants and needs of their audience in order to capture their votes, they must pander to their audience in order to make sure their support can be guaranteed. 

If the parties conduct their research correctly before events such as political debates they have a much better chance of appealing to their audiences.

Audience Classifications

Grouping audiences into categories can make you have a better understanding of them. For example psychographics is the understanding of audience and their values, including grouping them together based on their personality, interests, opinions and lifestyles. An example of using psychographics would be to group audience members by their lifestyle, putting them into groups based on which socio-economic class they fall into. Audiences can be grouped into; working, middle and upper class. This information can be used to understand common trends between socio-economic groups, for example whether or not there is a correlation between peoples attitudes to politicals ie; which party they are in favour of and their socio-economic background.

Unit 6: Task 2 Part C

Task 2 Part C
of the assignment is an individual evaluation of our thoughts on the media's role and effect on this years presidential election.

Now that the election campaigns are over for both parties I can safely conclude that I think the media played a huge part in the outcome of the election. This years election was probably the most controversial of all time, with two very opinionated candidates who are either loved or hated and we all know that controversy makes for great news stories and television. Because of all this controversy surrounding the candidates they both got a lot more exposure than any other politicians would have, and they say that not all publicity is bad publicity but is that true for Hillary?

Hillary Clinton lost this years election to Donald Trump, a shock victory in most people's eyes, but how much of a part did the media play in this? A large one I believe, Hillary was painted as a villain due to her email scandal which the media jumped on quicker than you can shout 'delete.' Reports of Hilary illegally deleting her emails in order to hide what she had been doing spread like wildfire, the FBI even got involved and Hillary was investigated. Obviously this caused rumours to start, why did she delete those emails? Was she selling weapons to ISIS? Covering up what happened in Benghazi? Nope, nothing was found and the deleted emails were simply very boring. Being innocent as not as interesting as being guilty in the eyes of the media so no one really cared after the FBI cleared her but it was too late, the impression that Hillary was some sort of evil war monger had already been planted in the minds of the Public, leaving many to believe that Donald Trump was the lesser of two evils.

It wasn't only the news on television reporting on the election, but everyone. It was all social media was focused on a good month leading up to the actual election. Mark Zugerburg himself said that facebook can be partly to blame for the result, as the site has little to no monitoring of fake news stories. Apparently an abundance of fake news stories were posted about both candidates on the site slandering their names and users of facebook had no reason to not believe the stories. As well as this Donald Trump gathered a large following on social media, mainly twitter, due to the controversial things he said on there. His tweets gathered so much attention that they actually became a bigger talking point than the debate itself. People clearly liked how opinionated and honest Trumps twitter came across as in garnered a large following and this incredible use of social media may have played a hand in his victory. Trump managed to be so controversial on twitter that he was literally always in the news, whether that be mainstream news outlets or on social media. Always being in the public eye clearly helped him to victory even though he was in there mainly for the wrong reason.

To conclude yes, I believe the media had an eaffect on the presidential race of 2016, Trumps social media domination clearly earned him enough support from people who shared his views. In a rapidly modernising world I think not only the mainstream media but social media too will continue to grow and continue to influence big political events like these, all over the world. We are all connected now and gives politicians a great platform to interact with their intended audiences and I think Trump did this well. Let see what happens next.

Unit 6: My Section of the Report for Task 2

I will be comparing and contrasting 2016 US election and the presidential debates, the audience's view on this and how the media covered the debates and discussing whether or not this coverage was fair and equal and how this may influence the voter. When it comes to the American electoral process media coverage is crucial to candidates from both the major parties. Presidential debates are held in the late electoral cycle when both parties have chosen their candidates. Candidates from the two main parties (Republican and Democrats) meet in front of a live audience and debate the most pressing and controversial issue and pitch their party's policy on how to deal with these. The debates target undecided voters who may want to find out more about each candidate's policy and attitudes towards being president and because of this the debates can be a game changer in the presidential race. Therefore the media coverage that these debates receive is very important.

The first presidential debate of the 2016 election took place on Monday the 26th of September and whilst tickets were extremely limited the media coverage was huge. As long as you had access to a TV or even the internet you could watch it, it was broadcast live on all cable news channels including CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network and MSNBC as well as being live on C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Not only was it on every channel you could think of but it was also broadcast free live on YouTube and twitter.

Each news outlet has a different audience with different views to one another, in order to accommodate these views news outlets may not cover the electoral debates equally meaning that viewers who are on the fence may be influenced by coverage that is not impartial. For example media outlets such as Fox news, the New York post and the New York Observer have all been accused of being ‘pro Trump’ rather than being impartial. Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly who are both presenters on Fox News are known Trump supporters, Trump was endorsed by the New York post back in April of this year and the New York Observer is owned by Donald Trump's son in law. The fact that all of these outlets have an association with Trump may affect their ability to be impartial thus presenting unbalanced information onto their audiences.

Donald Trump is known to have old fashioned far right views that are very conservative in nature, many whom are against Trump have accused him of being out right racist saying things such as ‘They're bringing crime and they're rapists’ when talking about the Mexican people. Fox news’s producers may be aware that certain views will appear more to their audiences because of their demographic. According to Nielsen TV data the average age of a Fox news viewer is 68 which the majority of them being conservative and white. Only 1.1 per cent of Fox viewers are black. This means fox may tailor their political coverage in favour of Trump in order to keep their audience happy, an audience who predominantly share similar views to Trump being far right and conservative.

On the other hand Trump and his views have gained a huge amount of media coverage due to their controversy. Everytime Trump makes a controversial statement the media blows up. Every single outlet covers it because something that is controversial and offensive draws in viewers. Audiences (especially ones who aren’t that interested in politics) engage with stories that are controversial as everyone wants to share their opinion on the subject matters that have been addressed. News sources than are supposedly impartial or even Pro Hillary can end up benefiting Trump's campaign by giving it exposure, they say all publicity is good publicity, and this may be the case for the Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. Trump is so far right and so controversial that he is always in the media's eye and this may actually be a strategy of his. Even if the media are slatting him he is still getting TV time, he is everywhere and viewers are constantly exposed to his views and this may actually sway them in his favour.

Hillary Clinton and her campaign are viewed as less controversial, while Hillarys views may be safer and more PC they do not gain as much media traction due to the fact that she is overshadowed by Donald Trump, with him dominating the headlines Hillary may be in danger of being forgotten about as her views are not getting as much exposure as Trumps. His effects the audiences as it means that voters who are undecided may not be sure on Hillary's policies meaning they are unlikely to vote for her. Although some of Trumps views may be scary he represents change, by playing it safe Hillary Clinton and the Democrats risk losing touch with a large part of America. Trumps target audience is the largest part of America, those with working class lifestyles whom live in southern states around the so called bible belt. By targeting this large unhappy area of America and pandering to their belief system Trump can guarantee that a majority of Americans are on his side even if these Americans are out of the way of the media's eye.

In Conclusion Trumps media domination may be Hillary's downfall, pro Hillary news outlets may actually be helping Trump by giving him so much exposure and the media themselves should be careful about how they present their information in order to stay morally correct they should not try and effect the opinion of the viewer and just present them with information from things such as the debates.

Unit 62: Digital Video Production for Interactive Media (Task 1)

I have been asked to present a report on the applications and technology used in creating a video for the River Tees Rediscovered website and how these things can improve the users interactive experience. The report will include how digital video is used across various platforms, the technology that needs to be considered in the production of digital video and the purpose, uses for digital video in interactive media products and how that enhances the user experience of certain platforms.

Digital video production for interactive media is the process of creating a video that can enhance the users experience of an interactive media platform. A digital media platform is something that displays digital media to an audience. In the example of our brief the platform that we will be creating a digital video for is the River Tees Rediscovered website, this video should aim to give the user a more interactive experience on the website as they will be able to view and share the video. As well as this the user will be more engaged as audiences prefer to watch videos in order to absorb information rather than read long text-based articles, videos help keep the attention of the user and they are therefore more likely to listen to the message that is being foretold.

There are many platforms in which digital media is portrayed on. The applications of digital video can enhance the experience of a website, for example; YouTube is a video sharing website in which users can interact with each other's videos by watching them, sharing them, commenting on them and even leaving a like or dislike rating on them. As well as this users can upload their own user-generated content to the site which can be then interacted with by other users. It allows content creators to make and share their own videos, adverts and even short films. This level of interactivity keeps audiences engaged with the website as there is so much to do. An application is a use of digital video for example digital video can be used to create; short Films, adverts, user generated content, trailers, promotional material and games just to name a few.

User Generated Content: User generated content is huge on websites such as YouTube, pretty much all the content on YouTube is user generated. A huge selection of this content is available without even searching for it as when you go on YouTube popular and recent videos appear on the home screen so that you can easily find and view them. This means that users can upload their own content to the site thus interacting with it, people can also give the videos feedback via comments adding a new level of user interaction. Users can run their own channels on the site where they can upload all of their own user-generated content and even get paid for it. All the content is very different as you can upload whatever you want as long as it does not break any community guidelines. There are many websites that allow the contribution of user generated content including social media like Facebook and twitter though it is not their primary purpose as it is YouTube's. Site' such as blogger allow users to make their own blogs which can be interactive and is also user generated content. This enhances the users experience of the website as it allows them to get involved and create their own products.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ https://www.blogger.com/home

File Formats & Media Players: Digital video is captured and saved into different file formats depending on what it is shot with. There are many different types of file formats, for example: the Sony cameras that we use in college save the raw video files as AVCHD files, this file format is for the digital recording and playback of high-definition video. Developed by Sony and Panasonic, the format was introduced in 2006 primarily for use in high definition consumer camcorders. This file format is good to use as it allows the storage of high-quality video images which can then be imported directly into editing software that supports the file format such as Premier Pro. The disadvantage of having a video file stored in an AVCHD format is that most media players cannot play the format, for a video to be played back your computers media player, which is the system that plays the video, must support the file format of the video that you are trying to play. If it doesn't then the video won't play. This means AVCHD file may have to be converted into another file format in order to be able to watch it, this can be done by putting the AVCHD file into an editing software and exporting as a different file type. The best file types to export HD videos as are MP4 and QuickTime files as popular media players such as Windows Media Player and Quick Time Player can play these files. Another popular file type for HD video is WMV (windows media video) which is a good file time put only for a windows computer as Mac computers cannot play WMV files. This links to user-generated content as it is important for content creators to make sure their video is saved in a format that is compatible with the website that it is being displayed on.

Example
YouTube recommends users uploading their own content to use these file types as these are the ones supported by the website:

• MOV
• MPEG4
• AVI
• WMV
• MPEGPS
• FLV
• 3GPP
• WebM

Resolution: the size of the video, when uploading a video to YouTube it recommends that to perfectly fit the screen the resolution of the videos must be: 

• 2160p: 3840x2160
• 1440p: 2560x1440
• 1080p: 1920x1080
• 720p: 1280x720
• 480p: 854x480
• 360p: 640x360
• 240p: 426x240

If you are uploading a video bigger than 128GB then YouTube recommends that you compress it.

So why does YouTube do this? Well YouTube recommends these file formats as they are common and supported by their website. If they aloud you to upload a file type that was not supported by there site then their would be issues, the site wouldn't know how to play the video and therefore people would not be able to see it. It also recommends these file types as they are known to be off a suitable quality and can easily be streamed which is important as YouTube is a video streaming website after all. YouTube recommends specific resolutions to ensure that the videos uploaded to the site are the right size to fit onto computer screens. Obviously other resolutions can be uploaded but the ones YouTube suggest are standard and guaranteed to be the right size. Also the higher the resolution the better quality the video is, YouTube give guidelines on the sizes of these HD resolutions so that everyone can upload quality content.

Compression: Compression is the act of making a file smaller in order to make it take up less space digitally , the smaller the file the faster it can be copied, moved and even uploaded. The tow types of compression are lossy and lossless, lossy compression is where the original image is turned into a smaller version of itself and there for takes up less space, the issue with lossy compression is that during the process the unnecessary parts of the image are removed in order to compress it down meaning that if the image is enlarged you may notice a reduction in quality. On the other hand lossless compression is the same thing however none of the quality is lost in the process meaning the image will always look smooth and will not be pixilated. When you zoom in on a photo and it becomes pixilated this may be due to lossy compression, generally videos are compressed losslessly and photos are compressed via lossy compression.

The impact this has on filmmakers means that they are limited to what type of files they can upload to YouTube but this also helps content creators as it means that they have to use file types and resolutions that will benefit their content by making it a better quality.

Film Trailers: Found film trailers on websites such as IMDB, when you open the site the first thing that appears on the home screen is a selection of new film trailers. The fact that they re right in front of the viewer and easier to find means they are more likely to be seen. They enhance the experience of the website as it gives the website users a better look at the films that the website meaning they can learn more about them. Its purpose is to get people interested in the films and attract people to the site to watch the latest trailers. The trailers on IMDB also fall under the interactive media category of Promotional Material as they are in turn advertisements for products, the product being the film itself.
Examples: http://www.imdb.com/ http://www.showcasecinemas.co.uk/

Virtual Reality Tours/Games:  GeoGuessr.com is a great example of two kinds of interactive media, the premise of the site is that Google street view is turned into a game. Using Google street view you are dropped into a random street which could be anywhere in the world, you have to navigate through the street and surrounding areas and try and find clues based on real world locations to find out where you are. Then when you think you know where you are you have to place a guess on a map and the closer you get to guessing you start location the more points you get. Its really fun and addictive and turns something that wouldn't normally be exciting into a Virtual Reality Tour based game.
Example: https://www.geoguessr.com/world/play

Short Films: The applications of short films is that they can be uploaded to websites such as YouTube and Vimeo to help get them watched by people all around the world. This helps filmmakers get their products seen as allows audiences to interact with the products themselves. This is good for young and up & coming or indie filmmakers who may want to distribute their short films in a manor that allows people to see them for free. It may even help get their work noticed. https://www.youtube.com/

Advertising/Promotional Material: Advertising can also be used on digital media platforms. Some websites are funded solely by other companies placing adverts on their website when someone clicks on the advert on the website it earns that website money via ad revenue advertisers will also pay the website to host their adverts, by doing this on popular sites such as facebook, YouTube and twitter advertisers guarantee that people see their adverts. As a content creator on YouTube you can actually earn money by having certain companies adverts play before someone watches your video, this is known as ad revenue and allows content creators to get paid for providing people with free content. As well as this, advertisers may use video hosting sites and social media platforms such as YoutTube and Facebook to launch marketing stunts. Promotional material are advertisements created with the intention of drawing the attention of the customer for example; promotional material for films may include, brand tie-ins, movie posters, merchandise and TV adverts. Usually, films have huge expensive promotional campaigns for example; the movie Skyfall is estimated to have a £93 million promotional campaign which include things like brand tie-ins with huge companies such as Heineken, Omega Seamaster and Sony laptops.

Documentary: Production Vlog

A short recap of what we got up to whilst filming for my documentary at Welham Lake. This video will help me when it comes to writing a voice over script and is purely just for my own convenience. 

Interview Techniques

There are two types of questions you can ask when interviewing people:


Closed questions which are answered with a single word or short phrase, you are not looking for an elaboration. For example questions such as such as 'how old are you?' and 'where do you live?' would be closed questions. A more limited definition would be that closed questions can be answered with a 'yes' or 'no.' The reason for using closed questions is that they give you facts and that they are easy and quick to answer. They can help keep control of an interview so the contributor doesn't go off on a tangent.


Closed questions can be used to break the ice, they make it easier for the other person to answer. Also used to test the understanding of the subject this is also a great way to break into a long ramble. For example 'So you want to move into our flat?' Can also set up a desired positive or negative frame of mind in the subject, for example 'would you like to find a better supplier?' For seeking the definitive answer to the big question.


You can turn any opinion into a closed question by adding tag questions for example; 'It's a  nice day today, isn't it?' this is you forcing a closed opinion. The first word of the question sets up the dynamic of the closed question, signalling the easy answer ahead. Note how these are world like: do, would, are , will, if.


Open Questions on the other hand are more likely to receive a long answer, allows the person you are talking to too elaborate on their points. Open questions are designed with a longer answer in mind. Open questions have he following characteristics: They ask the respondent to think and reflect, They will give you opinions and feelings, They hand control of the conversation to the respondent. Actively listen to the respondents answer.


Open questions can be used to follow on a closed questions in order to develop the conversation. They can be used to find out more about a person for example what they; need, want do.
Can be done to make the person get to realise the extent of their problems or the extent of their work, makes the respondent thing about themselves. This can often be a trigger point.

Documentary Parody Task

As part of a class task we were asked to group up and create a parody factual piece in order to help us practice our filmmaking and interviewing techniques for our upcoming documentaries. We chose Louis Theroux as our documentary filmmaker to parody and unfortunately I had to play Louis, I've never been on camera before and I'm quite embarrassed so please do not share this post. Our parody factual piece was a Louis Theroux styled documentary on the recent Killer Clown hoax craze. The task helped us develop our filmmaking skills as we conducted interviews and used lighting creatively in order to conceal the identity of one of our contributors. Again the piece is parody and not to be taken seriously as we only made it quickly.

Unit 62: (Client Communication)

On Wednesday the 12th of October I contact Christine Corbett in order to sort out some events that we can film for our River Tees Rediscover project which is part of our assignment. I contacted Christine to make sure that we could film the walk through the woods and get some filming done at the Tees Barrage. We sorted out dates and times for both events and she emailed me the necessary paper work including risk assessments.

 

Unit 27: Task 1

In factual film making there are many key issues and complications that a rise in regards to keeping the project unbiased and fair. As a documentary film maker one has a duty to fairly present their point and not manipulate their footage to show something that may not be true, its hard to be completely unbiased because everyone has an opinion but the documentary filmmaker should not try and use their footage to twist or warp what someone in the documentary has done or said. The truth should always be presented even if the documentary is performative and there is an emphasis of the filmmakers subjective opinion due to an emotional experience of the filmmaker.

Objectivity- Objective documentary filmmaking is where the filmmaker attempts to present in the issue in the most unbiased way possible in order to be non-judgemental and present a fair argument to both sides of what may be a controversial issue. Direct Cinema is a type of objective filmmaking, the idea behind it is that the documentary is made without the intention of manipulating the footage or having a specific direction or agenda to it. This is also sometimes referred to as cinema verite and the idea is that the camera records peoples lives as they unfold in real time, there is no interference from the filmmaker and the audience are suppose to forget the presence of the camera. There is no narration or questions coming from the filmmaker displayed on screen, there are also no interviews and nothing is set up. It is hard to create a truly objective documentary that is also entertaining as audiences prefer to drama and controversy. An example of a factual piece of content that is supposedly objective is BBC  News. BBC News is trusted to be fair and unbiased presenting issues with no opinion on the matter in order to fairly give people a fair view of the world. however when things go through the editing or filming process the opinions of the filmmakers or editors may unknowingly slip into the piece as it is difficult when you have an opinion to not display it in your work. Due to this the news may not always be unbiased and sometimes leaves audience questioning weather they have been manipulated or not. People of sometimes accused BBC news of having an agenda on certain issues leaving us to question weather or not they are biased.

Subjectivity- This is the opposite of Objective filmmaking, this I where the filmmaker may have a certain agenda or opinion that they are trying to put across in their factual piece. They may use their documentary in order to try and change peoples opinions. They may do this by presenting footage in certain way, manipulating clips and interviews and using narration to push their opinion on to the audience. Most documentary's are subjective as it is near impossible to be fully objective. One of the most famously open subjective documentary filmmakers is Michael Moore who created Bowling for columbine and Fahrenheit 911 two controversial documentaries. In Fahrenheit 911 Moore turns his attention to George Bush and his connections to the Saudi government, not only very controversial but also subjective as he is choosing to focus on Bushes so-called inner circle and how they chose to rush into the Iraq war. This gives a message to the audience that Moore is very anti-Bush and he thinks we should be too. He imposes his message in bowling for columbine to, painting America as a fear country of so called gun nuts, referring to guns as Americas main problem when it comes to the cause of mass shootings.

Accuracy- If a documentary or factual piece displays inaccurate facts and figures that are not verified to be true or out of date in someway then this could effect the reputation of the filmmakers. Further more if information that is known to be inaccurate is being presented in order to sway an opinion then this is clearly unethical. Accuracy is so important to the credibility of factual programing such as the news that the BBC has whole guideline section to the concept of accuracy. Again using BBC news as an example without accuracy they wouldn't have the reputation that they do for presenting fair unbiased news. A lack of research may lead to inaccuracy as the facts you are presenting may be out of date or untrue, as a documentary filmmaker you have a duty to carry out as much relevant research as possible so that you do not present inaccurate facts as this would likely tarnish your reputation or unfairly present a situation. ''Accuracy is not simply a matter of getting facts right.  If an issue is controversial, relevant opinions as well as facts may need to be considered.  When necessary, all the relevant facts and information should also be weighed to get at the truth.'' This quote from the BBC guidelines highlights accuracy's importance within the industry.

Balance & Biased- The term balance is defined as 'an even distribution of weight' this relates to factual filmmaking as an even distribution of both sides of one argument should be displayed. This means that the audience gets to see the issue from both sides allowing them to make their own minds up and form their own opinions given the facts that are being presented to them. It is important to be balanced as an unbalanced argument will come across as being biased. Bias is when the film maker has a certain opinion on the subject at there for presents his side of the argument more than the other side of the argument. This relates to subjectivity however it is possible to use your opinion to guide a factual piece without being biased, you would just need to include the points that you disagree with and that go against your side of the argument but this may hard for an opinionated filmmaker. For example in Louis Theroux's latest scientology documentary he clearly has the opinion that scientology is a cult and maybe be dangerous. Despite that this is his opinion Louis tries to be Balanced and Unbiased by showing views from people who were once scientologists themselves and still believe in some of its practices, further more he also states all of the good things scientology claim to have done, giving the audience another view on them. As a documentary filmmaker you must stay as unbiased as possible in order to stay balanced and present all of the correct information to the audience.

Impartiality- This is about having no opinion at all, one can have an opinion and stay unbiased but being impartial means that you have no opinion on the matter at all and therefore cannot sneak any subjectivity into your piece. However it is hard to be totally impartial especially when you are working on what may be a controversial piece.

Representation- This is how a person, group of people and places are represented. In factual pieces it is important to represent contributors and locations in a fair manner. For example asking the contributor to say something that they would not normally say in order to make them look more or less intelligent is unethical as it is not an accurate representation of that person. Footage can also be manipulated to represent someone in a certain way for example interviews from contributors can be cut and taken out of context during the edit, this may make the contributor look like they are saying something that they didn't really say. In the short documentary 'the lift' the residents of the community reflected a poorer lower class type of people. The area itself was also shown as dirty and quite grimy although this may be an accurate representation of the area it does represent the community as maybe unfavourable members of society. During the lift we learn that the members of the community have more to them than just their appearance and representation, we learn about their life's through casual elevator conversation and some of the story's represent the residents in a way which makes the audience feel sorry for them. Therefor representation is important in order to get an audience to feel a certain way about a person or type of people but it should not be manipulated as this can lead to people stereotyping a group of people which poses a major ethical issue.

Privacy- When being a documentary filmmaker it is vital that peoples privacy is respected, harassing people or hounding them for interviews is immoral and unethical. It is important to have all the correct release forms for contributors in your documentary so that they cannot stop it from being aired. When filming on location it is important to respect the privacy of the people near by and the permission from the people that own the location otherwise legal issue may arise that could result in you losing money or having your documentary pulled. Sometimes contributors whom are giving revealing and intimate interviews about controversial subjects or events that they may have been a part of have the right to have their identity concealed if they want to. This may sometimes be for their own safety when talking about things that could leave them vulnerable to public ridicule or criminals seeking an easy target. For example in a documentary I recently viewed on Netflix about pedophiles where they interview a victim, the victim was just a silhouette on the screen in order to conceal their true identity. This helps the contributor feel more comfortable giving information that they may want to share but are embarrassed about being a part of . During the edit it is important to use the correct colour grading, contrasts or pixelation in order to hide someone's identity. If done wrong people may be able to up the contrast on a silhouetted individual and find out the true identity of the contributor.

When it comes to creating my own documentary I must stay aware of these key issues in order to make sure that my piece presents a fair and balanced messaged and upholds no bias. For me I don't think this will be difficult as my documentary is not very controversial and is not trying to put across a certain message. My documentary is more me and the audience learning about the subject rather than trying to find answers to topical questions or try and prove something. I will have to be careful with representation as if I represented my contributors unfairly then they wouldn't be very happy with me and may not want to work with me in the future. Asking the wrong questions may offend or upset them so I must pick these carefully. I will stay impartial to the subject (fishing) as I have no emotional link with the matter, my opinion shouldn't change the way the documentary turns out. If I presenting facts and statisitcs they will need to be fully researched as a huge pitfall of documentary filming is incorrect or out of date stats which may discount the credibility of the factual piece

Unit 27: Working Log (Location)

On Saturday the 15th of October I met again with my step brother Connor, he told me that he knows the owner of Welham lake, one of the lakes we were planning to film at, and that the owner is happy for us to film there. He will not charge me for entry onto the lake as long as we begin filming during this coming half term. He also told me that he is happy for me to stay over night with him as he has a two man 'bivy' which is like a little tent thing. When I researched the list of locations that Connor gave me I found that Welham was the best looking lake and therefor I am happy that we have gotten permission to film there, this means Welham will be my choice of location for this documentary.

Address: Welham Lake, Malton and Norton Golf Club, Malton, North Yorkshire YO17 9QE

Telephone Number: 07817 175516

Unit 27: Location Research

I have met with the subject and main contributor of the documentary (my stepbrother Connor) and have begun to discuss potential locations where we can shoot the fishing part of the documentary. As he is the subject expert I thought it would be best to go to a lake that he is familiarly with and comfortable fishing at, this will ensure that we have the best chance of catching something on the day. So far he has given me 3 potential locations but has said that we may not be able to film at some of them as the lakes are exclusive to members only, despite this I will have to acquire permission at where ever we chose to film for legal reasons. I will now look into the locations conduct some research and meet with Connor again so we can review the research and decide where it is best to go.

 

Welham Lake

The first lake on Connors shortlist is Welham Lake which is the flagship lake for the GH tackle and stands out to me as it is particularly pretty. The lake is said to be stocked heavily and the present carp way around 26lbs, as well as carp the lake hosts other fish, rare eels and is surrounded by a multitude of wildlife from badgers to foxes. The lake is a members only lake but I think that I may be able to get permission to film there as on their website it mentions that fishing shows have been filmed their before and it is also visited by sky sports as part of their tackle coverage. Something I was worried about was how the documentary would look visually if the lake was busy and surrounded by people however this wont be an issue at this lake as it has 10 bookable pegs which are spaced out enough so that you cannot see any other anglers.

The lake spans over 5.5 acres and is ranked as one of the best ticket lakes in the country.





The lake is located in North Yorkshire just off of the A19 near the Malton and Norton area and is around an 1 hour and 20 minutes away from base by car.

Address: Welham Lake, Malton and Norton Golf Club, Malton, North Yorkshire YO17 9QE

Telephone Number: 07817 175516

Research sourced from website: http://www.ghfisheries.com/

 

Raker Lakes

Another area that Connor mentioned was the group of lakes known as the Raker Lakes which is a 28 acre area which contains 5 main lakes know as Acorn, Heron, Highbank, Horseshoe and Kingfisher lake. This gives us a wide variety of areas to choose from if we use this as our location however the website is a lot more vague and doesn't contain as much information about the fish found in the lakes therefor it may not yield as much catch as the Welham Lake.

Address: Greengales Lane, Wheldrake, York YO19 6BW. 01904 448793

Telephone Number: 01904 448793

Rising Sun Lake

The Rising sun fishery has been established since 1999. The main lake is the specimen lake, with mirror carp to 36lb 7oz; there are over 20, 20lb carp in the lake as well as 350 other carp from 6lb to 19lb. This was originally set up as a mixed fishery, but now has a good name for quality carp and silver fishing in summer, with perch fishing becoming very popular in the winter months. It is much smaller than the other two lakes and not as popular, the website is small and doesn't have a lot of information about the lake which makes me sceptical.

Rising sun lake is closer than Welham and Raker but is much smaller and doesn't look like the best choice.

Address: YO61 1TY Adlwark Alne, York

Contact: 01347 838134 or 07971 877280

 



Unit 62: Digital Video

Catfish

Synopsis: Catfish is a documentary about a filmmaker named Nev Schulman who starts receiving art work from a little girl named Abby, his relationship with the little girl grows over time and his brothers whom are also filmmakers start to document his unique friendship with Abby. Nev spends months talking to Abby and her family and gets to know them well even forming an online relationship with Abbys older sister Megan. The filmmakers decide to see if they can meet up with the family but soon discover that the family has some secrets.

Review: Catfish was at times creepy, uncomfortable and shocking but at the same time extremely entertaining. It was full of twists and turns and as an audience member I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation for what direction the events would take the filmmakers in next. The use of music really helped make some parts of the documentary feel creepy all most like a horror movie, I was half expecting a jump scare at times. It felt real too as the viewer was learning more about the family at the same time that Nev and his brothers were, it was journey that the filmmakers and the audience went on together as the filmmakers did not know what was going to happen next, it had an out come that must have surprised both parties. As Nev and his brothers grew more suspicious of the family the documentary became more and more tense.

Style: It was a journey style documentary as the filmmakers and Nev went on a journey and learnt more about the family as the documentary was going on.

Opening Quote: 'If this is your documentary your doing a bad job' Nev says this to the camera at the start of the documentary as he grows frustrated at the fact that the documentary is not set up and organised how he wants it. He tells his brother behind the camera to set up meetings with him but as the documentary go's on the lack of planning helps make the documentary better because the viewer discovers everything at the same time that Nev and his brothers do making it feel very real and that the viewer is taking the same journey as Nev.

Lift

Synopsis: Lift is a short documentary style film in which director Marc Isaacs sits patiently in a lift in a old block of flats for days on end casually filming the people whom enter. Over the film he gets to know the people of the apartment block by questioning them once they are in the lift, it is a very intimate look into a small part of the residents lives.


Review: I enjoyed the film as it was an unusual piece that gave the viewer a different look into the lives of apartment block residents, at times you feel sorry for some of the residents as their quality of life seems poor, some of them mention how mundane and boring their lives are making the audience think about the quality of life living in the block allows them to achieve. Over the piece lots of mini story's are told directly to the camera in the lift, we see people of numerous days and watch their lives unfold. The film was simple and didn't seem to be trying to put across any message, I think its open for interpretation really what the point of the film is, which I like. I think it was filmed in a very clever way in order to portray the stories of the people of the lift, for example one man mentions to the camera that he is going out with his friends for a drink, we see him later that night in the lift drunk bemoaning the fact that he hasn't pulled. We later learn he was drinking to celebrate his new job.


Style: I'd say that this documentary's style is torn between interactive and reflective. Interactive as the director is sometimes asking the people in the lift questions and almost interviewing them to find out more about their life but also reflective as over the piece the director gets to know the members of the block because of his time in the lift and we see him a go on a journey as he gets more friendly with the residents on the block.


Awkwardness: I feel that the proximity of the camera to the people in the lift is awkward but helps with the story, the situation may seem awkward at first but helps break down social norms and gets the members of the lift to open and talk more to each other and the camera. The story feels natural as we see the residents in what is seemingly their own habitat.


Would it be better done differently?: No I don't think so necessary obviously a lot of planning went into it but not as much as would have went into a typical piece from the factual genre, a lot of the content was up to chance. Their was a big reliance on the people of the block to provide the content and it was obviously a gamble that paid of as they were very unique and had lots to offer to the film.

Unit 8: Timeline

In the begging... (1830)
In the old days film was not as we know it today, it started out as a novelty for audiences to be entertained by at events and it did not manifest itself in the same way that we see it today. Originally film started out as just moving pictures. These moving pictures created an illusion of movement, which worked by spinning the pictures in devises known as stroboscope and zoetropes. These inventions where created in the 1830's by William Horner a British man and would entertain audiences via the illusion that the moving still pictures were actually moving images the audiences would look through the holes in the devices to see the moving pictures. This was way before the time of the first film camera.

This is a 1830 styled Zoetrope.

Next in 1867 game the first US patented device that could display animated pictures. The 'zoopraxiscope' Is considered the first movie projector, it would project moving pictures onto a wall for audiences to view, this was an improvement from the zoetrope as more people could view motion pictures at once. The device worked by placing spinning glass disk which contained a sequence of images on it, into the device. It used the same principles as the zoetrope to give the illusions of motion.

Zoopraxiscope from 1867.

If we skip ahead to 1895 Two French brothers, Louis and August Lumiere patent a never before seen movie camera and projector device that is a two in one, capable of projecting an image that can be seen by many people. In Paris, they present the first commercial exhibition of projected motion pictures. Lumiere and his brother were the first to present projected, moving, photographic, pictures to a paying audience of more that one person. At this point film was evolving from pictures to motion picture shot on film reel from the very first cameras. Audiences were stunned when they saw motion picture for the first time.

As technology was very limited films were not as they are like today, they were silent and not very complex usually being quiet short. The camera was very static as they were relatively knew inventions meaning people had not mastered shots containing camera movements the cameras were also very big and heavy so were not moved around much. As well as this editing was different, as everything was shot on film during editing the editors would literally cut parts of the film out and stick it back together. They had to be very careful as to not damage the film whilst they were doing this,

During the early 1900's hand crank cameras were replaced with the first motorised cameras they became smaller as well. 

In 1925 Western Electric and Warner Bros. agree to develop a system for movies with sound. This is when film started to incorporate sound within themselves leading to the first pieces of dialogue in movies. These movies with audio became known as 'talkies'. Two years later in 1930 Paramount becomes the first studio to announce that it will only produce ,talkies'. This leads to the death of silent cinema.

1937 Walt Disney’s first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is released. This creates the birth of a whole new film genre known as animation Walt Disney follow this up by pumping out hundreds of successful animations over the next 10 years such as Dumbo. Disney would later create Dinsey Pixar a whole studio dedicated in producing animated films, Pixar today are the most successful creator of animated giving Dinsey a monopoly over the market. In 1995 Pixar would go on to create the first animated film (Toy Story) that was not a hand drawn cartoon but a computer generated image this meant that animations could be made much quicker, these days all animations are computer made no one makes cartoon drawn animations as it takes far to long to draw out every single frame. This technology lead to competition from other animators such as Dreamworks.

In 1990 DvD's became the new standard for the distribution of film, VHS tapes became no more as they were obsolete compared to the DvD's which could store more data and were more compact.

During 1994 Major American film companies began to create their own independent production companies to produce smaller films. In 1994 Disney purchased Miramax after seeing the success of reservoir dogs. The year after the purchase Pulp fiction was released.

In 2002 Imax cinemas were introduced, these cinemas had huge curved screens creating a better view experience, following this in 2009 films began to be shown in 3D at first this was huge and the 3D film Avatar became the highest grossing movie of all time but eventually 3D became a novelty that most viewers did not want to pay extra for.

Unit 8: Contracts

Contracts in the media industry are different from contracts in most other fields of work, this is because in the film and TV changes occur all of the time meaning that contracts must be flexible.

Freelance
More creative and technical jobs in the media industry such Camera Operators or D.O.P's are freelance. This means that the person is self employed and works on a temporary contract that only lasts a certain amount of time and may not have the same amount of benefits as a full time contract. The reason that freelances are common in the industry is that because once a freelance has finished their work on a production they are no longer needed and can leave, if they were on a full time contract and were no longer needed on shoot but still being payed it would be a waste of the production company's money. This is why contracts must be flexible. Freelances are in charge of finding their own work as they are not attaches to a company, they work for themselves giving them more flexibility between jobs.

Full / Part Time Contracts
Only some lines of employment in the industry are offered full time contracts, these are usually managerial or office based jobs and are usually permanent contracts unlike freelances who have temporary contracts. A full time contract is 39 working hours a week and can offer many benefits such as a pension plan, holiday time and sick pay. If you are on a permanent contract then you are classed as a regular member of the crew appose to freelance's who will come and go jumping between different crews and jobs. A part time contract is similar and offers similar benefits but they may be reduced, like a permanent contract you still have a set amount of hours you are expected to work a week but these hours are less and as a result offer less pay. Part time contracts are often only temporary.

Hours
Due to the fluidity of days on set some shoots may run longer than excepted or into the night. As well as this night shoots are very common as some scenes may need to be shot in the dark, to compensate for this workers paid extra for having 'anti social hours' these are hours were shooting runs over or if the cast or crew have to be on location very early or very late in order to set up or get the shot at the correct time of day. This is very common in the industry workers should expect long and hard days which may have anti social hours. Appose to these 'anti social' or 'irregular' hours crew members who work managerial or financial jobs often work 'office hours' traditionally this is 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. These are common hours for full time managerial contracts.

Live Shows
Crew who work on live shows such as news broadcasts and 24 hour radio stations will work in shifts. This means that they do a certain job for a certain amount of time until their shift is over and someone else comes in to take their job. Shifts can be long or short and may sometimes be night shifts where somebody has to work through the night in order to cover their shift.

Pay
It is very common in the industry to not be paid until the project is completed. This is known as being played on completion and is common as most workers are commissioned to create a certain project, if they do not completed this they are not payed. Simple. You must completed the piece of work to the standard that the contract states and completed for the date that it is due to be completed. If you do not do this you may not get payed. Freelancers with more creative roles are usually paid on completion where as managerial and financial roles tend to be paid on salaries. A salary is a set amount that you are paid annually which is split up and given to you monthly.

Showreel

Unit 8 Task 1: Studio Canal

Studio Canal is a French based production and distribution company who have own the third largest film library in the world giving them access to a huge number of films. Today Studio Canal mainly focus on distribution rather than production and are a division of Canal+ Group who themselves are owned by Vivendi. The company was founded in 1988 by Pierre Lescure Canal TV network. The original idea was to focus on distributing European and French films however strategic deals where made with American Production company's, probably because that's where all the money is. In the past Studio Canal have been involved in some huge productions most notably; Terminator 2, Cliffhanger, JFK, Basic Instinct and the original Stargate film. They have strong links to Universal studios as they were once both owned by the same company hence why Studio Canal co-produce a lot of Universal Studio films. StudioCanal acquired British-Irish distributor Optimum Releasing in 2006 as their 1st expansion into an international market.

Unit 8 Task 1: NBC

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) are owned by NBC Universal who themselves are a subsidiary of Comcast. NBC is an American commercial broadcasting television network based at Comcast headquarters in New York, with smaller offices located all over the States. They own and operate nearly 200 affiliated TV stations throughout the U.S as well as having rights to some stations over seas in countries such as Germany and South Korea. NBC are huge and are one of the 'Big Three' TV networks which are the three traditional commercial broadcasting TV networks that dominated American television from the 1940's all the way up to 1980's. The three big networks (ABC, CBS & NBC) all started out in 1941 originally running small local stations but eventually affiliating with other stations until covered the U.S. In 1986 General Electric purchased NBC until in 2003 when French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE forming NBC Universal. Comcast then purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011 and in 2013 acquired General Electrics reaming stakes.

NBC broadcast a huge amount of television shows all across the United States, but as of recently NBC are moving into creating their own original programming in what they call a 'robust original programing initiative' which they plan to distribute to online streaming site Hulu which is a joint venture between themselves ABC and a few other companies.

Unit 8:Job Flowchart

As part of this unit we had to understand the connection between roles in the film industry, to demonstrate this we created a flowchart showing how all of the Job roles link together. We gathered this information from sites such as Creative Skillset and BECTU. We made these flowcharts in groups and

Unit 26: 'Relationship with Film'

Intro
People interact with films in many different ways, some people view a film to kill time or just enjoy the movie were as others are more active in their viewing and like to interact and perhaps question the films reading. Some films are more ambiguous and leave the audience with an open ending giving them lots of work to do in figuring out what happened after the film. A passive audience member may dislike a film like this as they prefer to sit and absorb information instead of reading or questioning the true meaning behind the film. Some people go the extra mile to represent a film they like, they may have an emotional connection with the film and represent that via buying merchandise and/or cosplaying as their favourite film characters.

Passive & Active viewer-ship
People interact with films in many different ways, some people view a film to kill time or just enjoy the movie were as others are more active in their viewing and like to interact and perhaps question the films reading. Passive viewers are the first kind, they just sit down and enjoy a film without reading into its preferred meaning they watch films purely for entertainment. Some suggest that passive viewers are vulnerable to manipulation as they absorb all of the information a film throws at them without questioning it. A study from Frankfurt School in the 1930's calls Film the opium of the people, referring to it as a drug due to the fact that people may enticed by film into accepting incorrect values without being critical or questioning them. This is also the idea behind propaganda films which aim to influence the viewer and mould their political values to gain an advantage. The passive viewer may accept these values without questioning them. Active viewers may be more involved in the meaning of the film that they are watching. This suggests that all viewers are different and may perceive the text differently having different opinions on the meaning, this conflicts with passive viewers who are said to all share the same perspective on film. Active viewers don't just consume what they are told to watch via marketing but may go out of their way to find films they like. For example Active spectators of the horror genre may go out of their way to find different new or old horror films in order to sample everything that that genre has to offer, the active viewer knows that they like the tropes of a horror film so will seek them out when finding films to watch.

Preferred reading & Oppositional reading
Some films may have a hidden meaning that many audience members may not understand. A preferred reading is when the viewer takes up the films intended message and does not look any deeper than that, this is common of passive viewers as often oppositional readings are only found when the film is looked at and question by an active viewer from another perspective. Many films a have multiple meanings or opening endings leaving the audience to figure out the true meaning behind the film, as well as this some films may be non linear and difficult for some viewers to understand if they are not fully focused on trying to piece the story together. An oppositional reading is when the viewer rejects the films intended response and believes it means something, this may be to do with the films hidden message or how it represents a certain culture or political view.

An example of a popular film that people have preferred and oppositional readings for is Avatar. James Cameron said that the intention behind Avatar is that the Aliens are a primitive species who represent the native American people, they are noble and honourable but their land is destroyed by the invading humans who are said to represent white people when they settled in America. They came over and destroyed the land due to their greedy consuming way of using natural resources. This is the preferred meaning as it is the message that the director is trying to get across however some people have an oppositional reading to this film, that reading is that the Alien people represent the native Americans but are portrayed as savage and primitive and looked at as lesser than the Humans who represent the white people, this was down to the fact that the humans wanted to wipe out the aliens as they believed they were savage and did not want to coexist with them whilst they were using the aliens planet for its natural resources. People read the film this way and were offended as the majority of the cast used for the aliens were African American or of native American decent.



Fandom
Fandom is when a viewer or group of viewers go the extra mile to proclaim them self as a fan of a film. Audience's can be effected by film but also have the ability to effect films, and this applies in both ways to fandom. Fans are a set of people who really enjoy a certain film, series or character from the film. They often use this film or character to express themselves and can relate to them. They will often go the extra mile and make their favourite film their hobby to, they may do this by starting a blog, making videos on their favourite film, attending fan events and conventions, buying merchandise that relates to their favourite film and even dressing up and role playing as their favourite characters from the film. For them fandom is a way of life they love and respect their favourite film and may be considered obsessed with it, this obsession can effect the film itself as some fans turn director and create fan made homages to the film and/or even write their own fan fiction (short story's set in the films universe.) The most poignant example of a fandom is the Star Wars community. The fans of Star was helped turn the film into a cultural phenomenon by obsessing over it, they hold conventions to meet cast and crew whilst cosplaying (dressing up) as their favourite characters from the film. They may do this as they would rather live a life of fantasy than live their own life, it can be seen as a form of escape is from the mundaneness of everyday life. The introduction of social networking sites such as Facebook has given opportunity for many fan groups like this to be created as fans can communicate with other fans around the world online and even set up events.

Online Presence
Many films and film franchises have a strong online presence, this could be through the films website or various social media accounts such as facebook pages and twitter accounts. Films can do this to interact with their audience better helping them gain a better understanding of them which may help them create a better product in the future. Films may also use their online presence to stay relevant and in the public eye for longer gaining more attention. Movies tend have a heavy online presence when it comes to advertising, companys can advertise on websites that their target audience are likely to visit such as youtube and facebook overall having a good online presence may be effective in boosting your audience.