Progress Update

Re-filmed Tim brannens interiew due to the first being too long for the 5 minute segment. Booked and filmed in the foundation room.

Acillary Task - Advert second draft

Call Sheets

Advert Pictures - Ancillary

Treatment

Production Pictures

These are the photos taken of us filming the first part of our documentary on Boston Castle, it involved shooting scenes for the introduction and location shots that will be used later on in the documentary.

Teacher Feedback So Far..

Boston Tea Party - Randomly came accross this by accident.

BBC News Report on Boston Castle

Progression Assessment

Contacted FOBCAP about possible interviews and locations.

Been given permission to gain access to the college tower roof to film an interview.

Great grand daughter of Henry Albiston, and her brother and a representative of the Hartely family interviews arranged.

Cameras Booked for half term for filming of main task.

Storyboards completed and presentation went well.

Script finished and call sheet is well on its way.

Presentation

Script

Storyboard

Production Schedule

Progression of Ideas

Progression Assessment
Took location shots
Established proposed idea and what to film
Have presenters organised
Planning underway
Treatment draft one is done
Production scheudles are done

First Draft Treatment

Progression of Ideas

Finished Storyboard = our storyboard has been completed using photoshop, importing photos onto the storyboard.

Commenced script = we have started writing our script today, should be completed within the next few days.

Location shots = taking progression shots of the development of Boston Castle

Shot Types

Production Schedule

2nd Audience feedback graph

This graph also shows the results of our class poll in a different format. With Idea 3 being the most popular with 12 votes, compared to Idea 1 with 4 and Idea 2 with 2.

Audience Feedback Graph

This graph shows the collated results of the poll our group gave to the class to fill out about which idea they preferred. From the graph it is clear that Idea 3 (the reconstruction idea) is the most popular, with Idea 1 the most basic idea a distant 2nd, and Idea 2 (the interviewing past residents idea) a close third. We will bear this information in mind when choosing our final idea, allthough Idea 3 would be very difficult with the limited resources we have.

Location Shots

Time Team – A typical historical documentary. Series 15 | Episode 5 - Bodies in the Dunes, Outer Hebrides

A historical documentary literally documents the past in a believable and truthful way. They often seek to persuade and inform so a great deal of representation could be involved and mediation although a documentaries aim is to document reality.

This documentary is Time Team, one of a long list of episodes that has been in the interest of the public for decades, therefore there must be something about this programme that still appeals to audiences. One of the conventions of a good documentary is that it contains a good story or narrative. The narrator on time team is Tony Robinson, a well known actor and narrator. This gives the audience a familiar face to which they would believe the facts he talks about. The use of a narrator behind the camera to anchor and link presentation together fits in with Barthes Theory Of Anchorage. His dress is outdoor gear which is functionality rather than presentational dress. It makes him match the rest of the archaeologists and so the audience automatically assumes his similar knowledge.

"Michael Rabiger (1998) suggests a list of criteria that a documentary must fulfil:
· Tells a good story.
· Cannot be value neutral.
· Aim to convey a personal, critical perspective on some aspect of the human condition
· Interesting characters who are trying to achieve something.
· Include contextual information (not too much/not too early).
· Contain dramatic suspense via situations that intrigue the audience and make them
Judge, anticipate.
· Develop the audience’s knowledge of at least one situation or character.
· There should be a confrontation between opposing forces which reaches a climax
And is then resolved. "



Most of these are evident in this episode for example past narratives are displayed as sketches and reconstructions which composes the element of it having to be a good story. Interesting characters could be the archaeologists as each one has a unique personality and these same characters appear in every episode with special guests to keep it less predictable.

Must include contextual information, this episode is jam packed with information about the items and people they excavate; all is relevant and interesting to the audience. Dramatic suspense is conveyed via the digging up of bodies in this episode and the enigma of how they got there, who they were and how they died. All of which are revealed in the episode.
The audience develops knowledge of the time period and some of the bodies living lives, this also follows Michael Rabiger’s theory.

The opposing forces in this piece could be the living and the dead with the dead trying to bury their secrets and the living trying to unravel the mysteries. All these criteria ensure a good viewing experience.

The producers have used real locations, real people, real events and real artefacts and equipment. They use cameras to document the excavations as they occur in real time. The camera is crudely walked about to give the audience a sense of being there in the trench, this is often to increase reality. They are often hand held cameras. Audience sympathy is increased by close ups of faces of reconstructions and also the skulls so a great deal of empathy is put upon the audience when for example the mode of death is discussed. Some documentaries also use the style of cinéma-vérité, which originated in the 1950’s. The Cinéma-vérité include followings a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. This is used as the camera man often has to run with the narrator Tony Robinson as new discoveries are found and time is of the essence.

Christopher Beevers, Wayne Miller, Christopher Saxby

Research on the friends of boston castle...

Boston Castle

The Friends of Boston Castle and Parkland was formed in July 2002 to support Rotherham MBC in their bid for Heritage Lottery Funding which would be used to restore Boston Castle and regenerate the parkland.

The group includes representatives from local communities and special interest groups. The aims and objective of the group are:


* To improve and work towards the restoration, management and maintenance of Boston Park as decided by the membership.

* To improve facilities within the park as described by the membership, subject to finance being available.

* To promote safe urban use of the parks and create an inviting environment.

* To promote an Urban Park Ranger operation within the parks.

* To act as the community advisory body for the park in liaison with Rotherham MBC.

* To raise the profile of the park and castle within the local community and further afield through means of events and newsletters.

* To help interpret the history of the park and castle.


Boston Castle was built, as a shooting lodge, by Thomas 3rd Earl of Effingham in 1776.
The Earl, being a nobleman with liberal ideals, approved of the American Colonists’ rights for their independence. As deputy Earl Marshall of England and a commissioned officer in the army, the Earl of Effingham was expected to fight for George III against the rebelling American colonists.

When a controversial tax on tea was levied on the colonists by the British, they angrily resisted by dumping 342 chests of tea into the harbour at Griffin’s Wharf. This act. which was known as the Boston Tea Party ultimately triggered off the American war of Independence.

Rather than fight in a war which he considered to be unjust, the Earl resigned his commission. In an impassioned speech in the House of Lords, the Earl spoke of the injustice of the proposed taxation to be levied upon tea, stating that Britain had no right to exercise this power

So strong was his opposition to the events in the Americas that he decided to name his new shooting lodge Boston Castle. The castle was the scene of many parties but “tea that obnoxious beverage” was barred.

Source: http://www.fobcap.org.uk/

Saving Britain’s Past – The Country House. Textual Analysis

All representations in TV productions are mediated by the producer. As Stuart Hall (1980) suggests, the audience can be positioned to accept a dominant, preferred representation of many aspects about society.


This documentary follows the plight and decline of Britain’s country houses and stately homes with a single narrator who describes and explains on screen and also interviews people of interest. As this is a modern piece about modern time’s producers have created a modern feel with all aspects of its making and editing which keeps audiences happy. The narrative in this segment follows the owners of houses and how they have to generate extra income just to upkeep the costs of owning the house.



Tom Dyckhoff is the narrator and unlike Culloden is actually seen and talks to the camera. The mode of address is informal as he casually reels off information to the audience and interviews owners. Laura mulveys theory of male gaze does not fit in here as the narrator is a man which would suggest the documentary is aimed more at women than men.

The technical side of this documentary is very modern compared to Culloden as it is supposed to be filmed in modern times. There are a wide range of camera angles including establishing shots to show the house in question along with big panning shots to show the grounds and to extenuate the magnitude of these buildings. These have been mediated to show the magnificence of some of these houses, which supports Stuart Hall’s theory of producers encoding messages into their media. Two shots have been used to record interviews which are basic compared to some conversation camerawork, also where the narrator walks through a door no action match shots are used, which could be down to a low budget.

This clip follows the rules of continuity editing. Simple cuts link the shots together to form a smooth fluent piece, no action matches or anything fancy are used as this clip does not contain action scenes and the camera work is mainly there to enable the audience to observe what the narrators talking about. It would appear that only one camera man was present during filming as only one point of view is covered with the camera.

Sound in this documentary is there for an opposite effect compared to Culloden, where in Culloden suspense battlefield drumming, screaming and battle sounds can be heard to create an accurately acted out reconstruction, here the music has a calming effect and reflects the nature of this documentary, orchestra music plays which has connotations of relaxation and helps the camerawork flow with the flowing music. The narrator speaks with a calm confident voice whereas Culloden had nervous actors to reflect the fear. Few sound effects are present in this documentary due to little or no need for them; the ones heard are real and not dubbed in. On screen graphics are present in this piece only to introduce the narrator, in Culloden graphics aren’t present and the title scene is a filmed board with the name printed on.

The mode of address of this documentary in my opinion is peer to peer as the narrator appears friendly and informed. This is common in many documentaries as this reassures and informs the audience without them feeling they are being taught endless facts; it brings entertainment to educational shows.

Culloden Textual Analysis

Culloden (0.00-5.00) - A BBC Historical Documentary about the battle of Culloden
All representations in TV productions are mediated by the producer. As Stuart Hall (1980) suggests, the audience can be positioned to accept a dominant, preferred representation of many aspects about society. In the documentary Culloden it could be suggested that a certain amount of biased might be put upon the documentary to persuade the audience into believing the mediated view of the producers. In this clip the biased is quite clear; the British soldiers are the barbaric “butchers” whereas the clan fighters are just simple human beings being used as rent
.

The documentary follows the battle of Culloden, in ancient times and shows reconstructions of the battle and the lives of some of the men who fought. The narrative at this point shows in detail the lives and the ranks of the men on one side of the battle who fought. For example naming Tax man, Subtenant of a Taxman, Subtenant of a Subtenant.. Etc Names and a list of possessions are narrated to give the audience an in-depth understanding of the characters on the screen. A great deal of empathy is then put on the audience as not only are the soldiers seen as fighters, but are now seen as human beings, just like the audience.

Human Rent is repeated to drill into the audience the harsh realities of slavery and debt towards other men. Human rent has connotations of men being dispensable and used as a form of currency. All denote the harsh times of the war. The voice of the narrative is a stereotypical pre-war voice which has the same feeling of past times on the documentary. Coupled with the black and white images it makes the diegisis believable. The whole aim of this narrative is to set the scene and to set the diegisis and the character profiles.

The battle and pre-battle plus after battle are portrayed with black and white wobbly film which makes the verisimilitude of the diegisis become more imaginable to the audience yet clearly the audience knows cameras were not invented in the time in question. The camera shots are used as follows, wide angle and panning shots to show the scene and used as establishing shots. Tracking shots to follow the people in the film while the narrator tells the audience about them, and along with extreme close up of emotion-telling features such as eyes and mouths this enforces the empathy onto the audience. Medium Close-ups are used also to show expressions and the wobbly movement of the camera along with the actors looking into the character give an overall feeling that the audience is soldier, like those on screen.

No shot reverse shot structures are used as none of the onscreen actors make any interaction with each other, unlike many documentaries where interviews would be common. The camera work overall is very basic to in keep with the time of the battle on which the documentary is on, for example having technical transitions such as dissolves and swipe across would ruin the diegesis onscreen. Zoom in’s to extreme close ups are used to put names to faces, for the audience.

Mise en scene is very important in this documentary as the producers have tried to recreate the battle to the highest of verisimilitude. Battle dress, costumes, and the background all is in keeping with the types of that time. Props such as the weapons are of the period which is important to create an accurate reconstruction, for example no modern weapons appear in this.
Sound is also used to create an atmosphere of battle and war, a lone bagpiper plays amongst the soldiers and also drums which would have been present during battles can also be heard. Battle cries and screaming is a constant background noise giving the audience a sense of action and unrest.

The mode of address in this clip is different to most documentaries as it appears that the audience is interviewing these men who are about to fight as actors address the camera with eye contact and respond to narrative questions. This make the audience feel involved and so a more interesting documentary is made.

Started the A2 Year,

Semiotically analyse at least two documentaries (five-minute segment) texts...

Video Task

Screenplay

Storyboard

Storyboard

Lesson objective 23/06/2009

My aim for the lesson is to finish the editing of the footage and to get it uploaded onto this blog.

Lesson objective 22/06/2009

My lesson objective for today is to edit the footage i shot last week in order to fulfil assesment objective 3.

Shot types

Shot Types


Establishing shot of college > sets the scene

Master Shot of two people walking towards eachother. > Shows characters

Panning on Person A and shows wallet fall on ground.

Eye eye line match of two characters shows Person B notice Person A and dropped wallet.

Insert Shot of wallet on floor makes it clear to audience what the object is

Hand appears in insert shot with extreme closeup. Hand hesitates then picks up wallet.

Tracking up Person B's arm to medium close up to show identity of Person B.

Two shot to show reactions of both partys.

Shot reverse shot to show "thanks" and "your welcome".

Introduction to Unit G324 : Advanced Portfolio - Lesson Objectives

1. Complete a screenplay for my introduction to Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio Video Task

2. Complete a storyboard for my introduction to Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio Video Task

Introduction to G324: Advanced Portfolio - Assessment

The purpose of this unit is firstly to assess your ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills (AO3); secondly to assess your ability to apply knowledge and understanding in evaluating your own work, showing how meanings and responses are created (AO2); and finally to assess your ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research (AO4).

The unit requires you to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving you the opportunity to develop your own skills in these technologies. It also enables you to develop the skills of presentation that are required for further study at higher levels and in the workplace.

Evaluation 7

.

Evaluation

My music magazine follows many generic elements and conventions of a mainstream music magazine; this will enhance the verisimilitude of my music magazine and create a music magazine that is instantly recognisable on a rack in a store. Generic conventions sell and advertise magazines from a distance which is why I stuck to them.

The generic conventions of a mainstream magazine include;

A large masthead which draws the reader to the magazine, it distinguishes the magazine from other genres and magazines. The masthead includes the magazine name or an abbreviated version which is the same with all editions of the magazine. My magazine is called Music For The People and so to stick with my style model which is a magazine such as NME I abbreviated it to MFTP, just like new musical express is abbreviated to NME. Red and white is a typical colour duo in many music magazines, and so I used these in the form of a red background with white drop shadowed text. These colours show contrast between each other which once again makes the magazine noticeable at a distance. The five white lines on the background image of the masthead represent the lines of a score of music which is a semiotic.

I took many photos intended for my magazines cover image although some turned out to be not suitable for a front cover, I took inspiration from a cover of NME where band made up of males were arranged in a tiered format with one slightly behind the other. I arranged my models for the front cover image in a similar but not identical pose to preserve the generic conventions but to keep a unique feel to my magazine. Many mainstream music magazines such as NME have smaller pictures of bands or solo artists with their name on as a caption to invite the reader to read more about the artists featured. I arranged my pictures in a way that simulated how they would look if they were dropped onto the page loosely, whereas NME just has their pictures wonky.

NME and other mainstream magazines have mini adverts for freebies such as band posters and so I incorporated this onto my front cover image with a Free Poster advert along with Free MP3 Downloads.

A controversial pull quote is what draws readers into reading more of the magazine. In my magazine I used KINGS OF LEON with them quoting “MUSIC JUST ISNT MUSIC ANYMORE”. I made the pull quote bold and white so it would stand out on the black clothes of the cover band.

For the contents page I followed a style model of Kerrang with photos arranged on the left side and the small page numbers area on the right with a ratio of around 3/5 Pictures 2/5. The similar gold and black colours are common within music magazines and so I incorporated this too. Each picture had a small intro into the person featured underneath the picture so I also used this. The fonts I used were boulder for the front cover and trebuchet for the double page spread. I also produced two other front covers to be shrunk down into an advert to persuade readers to subscribe to MFTP.

My double page spread includes many generic forms and conventions of a music magazine splash article for example, a main picture that encroaches onto the second page. Drop capitals are used to further enhance the look of a professional article. A large pull quote is another generic form of a music magazines double page spread and so I used “I love my life now” to invite the reader to read on and find out why. An advert for the new album was used as the double page spread was all about “The Unwanted” and I believe this should be a feature in future music magazines. As this would promote new music groups such as The Unwanted.

All media products are mediated to represent a certain social class or meaning that is encoded by the producer, as Stuart Hall 1980 said, as MFTP is not a gender specific magazine, all the images in my magazine have been mediated to represent ideal self’s, or ideal partners. The people featured in my magazine represent the rich and famous or at least the new to be rich and famous. The type of pose that is found in such a magazine such as NME is a very serious stern look that connotes power and which some readers may find attractive, whereas a rock magazine such as Kerrang has their cover pictures featuring long haired hair rockers with a look of anger or rage. The type of pose determines what the magazines music featured is going to be and so I went for a serious look for the front cover to draw readers in, and to represent the music. Laura Mulveys theory of male gaze could be reversed in my magazines images as it could be said that women lust over the men on the front cover, and her theory could also be supported with the images of women in the rest of the magazine as the poses I have mediated connote attractiveness. The ideology that artists worship their fans support should have been reinforced in my magazine as this would keep up the fans faith and ultimately sell more magazines in the future. I didn’t reinforce this to the reader I could have improved with this with a section in the article.

In the world of the magazine industry there are two key publishers of magazines, and each has a major music magazine. Bauer is conglomerate which owns many magazines with some mainstream and some niche genres but mainly it owns NME New Music Express. Another conglomerate with similar status is IPC Media which owns Kerrang. Both these companies have the size to widely distribute my magazine although with Bauer already owning one Mainstream music magazine I believe it would be beneficial to get it published and distributed with IPC media to create competition which could boost sales although this would be a risk. The circulation would be large, and I would aim to get copies of MFTP in all newsagents across the country and I would aim for the readership to also be large as the magazine is mainstream and not a niche subject which can lessen not only circulation but also readership. Cross media ownership would work well with MFTP is TV adverts could be used to promote the magazine of music channels owned by the conglomerates, and even radio stations such as IPC media owning Kerrang radio station and the Kerrang tour. Sites on the internet such as MySpace and Facebook could be used to advertise and promote the magazine which would increase circulation.

The Masthead title is MFTP = Music For The People, this instantly has connotations of no specific gender and signifies that as long as you are a member of “The People” which everybody is, then this is the music magazine for you. My target audience for MFTP would be around 60% Male and 40% Female due to the lack of female centred mediation of the magazine, women’s magazines usually have pink colours and delicate design with features on gossip whereas MFTP has more semiotically in common with a males magazine with the colours and layout and content although the magazine is still not gender specific. The types of readers will depend on the genre of music they listen to and this will influence whether they will buy the magazine. The age of my readers I would expect to be around teenage age towards last twenties early thirties as this would entirely follow with music taste which tends to differ with age.

Atm the beginning of the task to make two magazines I only had experience of one of the two main software’s used which was Photoshop. During the prelim tasks I expanded my knowledge of Photoshop and applied it into my project, using it to make my front cover and contents page on the prelim. For my main project of the music magazine I was introduced to Quark Express which I hadn’t even used before but as the lessons progressed I became productive at using this software and applied it to make my contents page and double page spread for my music magazine. I used most of Photoshop’s features and tools to complete the task including arranging layers and using the selection brush to cut out people from the backgrounds. As for Quark the features are less than Photoshop but I used most such as the picture box tool and the text box tool, and also applying drop capitals too he start of my article to overall make my music magazine seem of a professional standard.

Objective Met

Finished questions 1-5 .. :)

Lesson Objective

To finish question 1+2 of the Evaluation :)

Front Cover

Please Comment on my designs

Contents Page

Double Page Spread