Hits - The History of Pop

Blog Diary

Starting

By researching my chosen decade (The 90's) I have made a script I think is suitable for my piece. I am still debating on whether I should use an Acting student to narrate for me, as I feel like they would present my piece much more better than me. I will get in contact with an acting friend (either Dominique or Rosa) over the weekend.

Whoever presents my piece will be sitting at a desk, it will be in the center of shot, while the green screen will show a possible white background. I will use a fair amount of cutaways of the different subjects the presenter will be talking about, and also both mid shots and close ups of my presenter for a little more balance.

I have fully finished a storyboard, explaining each shot I would like to use in the documentary. It is fairly simple. I have not made an intro to my documentary yet, but I believe this will also contain not much complexity, mainly because I am not skilled at the tools needed to create such things. I will be finding the clips I would like to show cutaways from over the weekend, this should be a simple task.

Progress

I have found clips I would like to use, and my presenter (Sam) has been filmed reading the script, the presenting all went great, sound levels, lighting, all good. Sam was wearing a dark green coat at the time which I did not notice, but during an edit test it seemed that the clips were fine to work with. I have found a music piece for background sound which suits the atmosphere. I have placed all the clips in order and things seem good, the clips I am using are low quality, but i feel that I should keep these like that, as it gives off the gritty, 90's vibe which I was hoping to go for. 

I have yet to complete a title sequence, I am not sure how to make them, I have been searching for tutorials online but I'm not sure where to start, since I have been focused on everything else.

End Result

 

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=history+of+pop+90s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_in_music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_hip_hop

http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/31405/music/pop_music_remember_the_90s.html

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/90smusic.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDFeO7w7JJQ

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/may/02/popandrock#90s

http://top40.about.com/od/hitsofthe90s/tp/top1001990s.-CSM.htm

Unit 31: Social Action & Community Media Production

This blog will document my progress on this production, and also the groups progress to completing the brief. It will cover research and ideas that I come up with. This research will be added to my assignment folder.

Habit - An Anti-Smoking Video

Basic Ideas

The Audience will be for teens, specifically those who may be going through a hard time with exams or tests and think that smoking will help through stress/anxiety/mood ect. It will hopefully also effect children who have not started smoking yet, and convice them it isnt wise.

I will hopefully cover the mental health side of smoking.

I will need to research how smoking effects the brain, nerves, and anything that may help. I am currently adding pages of facts to my folder. Also making a mindmap on my basic ideas.

It would also be important to make sure everything I research is up-to-date information.





Pitch Complete

I have completed a pitch, ready for presentation. The idea will cover a girls journey as she takes up smoking to 'cure' her stress and anxiety. Multiple narrators will explain the negatives smoking has on the brain, as this is happening, the girl is gradually becoming more stressed ect. I will show this by using places like college to get more of a vibe of what typical teen life is like. As the short goes on, the saturation of the clips will slowly degrade into grey scale. I would like to reuse some of my locations from the PMP since they would suit the grunge/suburban type style.








Script and Proposal Complete

Habit is an anti-smoking video witch focuses on an place which smoking affects, and where a lot of teens look to smoking for help with it; the mind.

The piece will be informative, and hopefully hit hard with teens who believe smoking can help anxiety, stress, depression, and such. I think a unique selling point will be that the theme of the video will be a bit creepy and eerie.

A proposal has been made, as well a script which I have time checked and will cover roughly 2 minutes. I am very eager to pitch my idea, as I think it is a good contender.

Pitch Accepted!

Pitch presentations went very well, Habit got praise for being a unique idea, and the tackling on mental health was its unique selling point.

Neil said that it would be beneficial if I made the audience less broad; Habits main audience will be aimed at 17-18 college students. Also representation wise, it might be beneficial to research facts and statistics on the male to female ratio on smoking - who smokes more? Do they have different reasons?

I think that Habits audience should be for all genders, as the point I want to make in this video is about stress and anxiety due to smoking, and stress isnt restricted to just one gender. I can put more things into the script which suggest the video is aimed at all college students, not just female. One thing would be to mention at the start that Maisy (main character of the video) is a college student, who is stressed from things like college, social problems, ect.

Hyperlinks to useful websites
http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/best-videos-quit-smoking
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nicotine.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/about/index.html
http://www.tobaccofreeca.com/ads/videos/
http://www.cutfilms.org/

Effects of smoking links
http://www.healthline.com/health/smoking/effects-on-body
http://www.webmd.boots.com/smoking-cessation/smoking-what-will-happen-to-my-body

Father Of Lies - Blog Diary

Filming started on the 13th of April, Monday. After a difficulty with arriving to the location, we all managed to meet at Hartlepool a little behind schedule. We started filming almost straight away, managing to get around half a scene done, before our SD card in the camera ran out of memory. We will be filming both on the 14th and 15th, almost all day.

More scenes were completed on the second day, we were happy with the progress. I also suggested we use tilted shots more, to have more effect on the horror genre, the tilted angles make mid shots and close ups seem more creepy and eerie. These shots were influenced by the ones used on American Horror Story. Sam has said she wants to recreate an opening credits scene which also related to American Horror, by using cutaways lasting 1-2 seconds long and twist them about, making them fast, slow, cutting frames out, ect.

The third day of filming went great. All scenes are now complete, as well as our cutaways for the opening scene, and a photoshoot which we think went well. Actors were happy with the progress. I had to stop a few shots from happening as a risk was posed on the actress Amber. In one scene, the desperate Dallas tries to escape Abraxas, leaping out of her chained chair and making a break for the steps of the cellar. Abraxas pushes her back into the chair with demontic force, Dallas flying back without control. We tried it once, the chair flew back when Amber pushed herself onto it, the chair itself being incredibly unstable. Even though she said she was alright with another shot, I did not want her to injure herself by breaking the chair and falling. Apart from that, things seemed to go well.

Music is next. I have a lot of cuts from Habit, which are all from royalty free music websites. We will try to look for things like humming, laughing, and anything else that seems like it fits the eerie genre.


Amber worked incredibly well on the set of Father of Lies. She was enthusiastic, and pushed her abilities. She helped out with things that Sam asked.

Leo loved the subject of genre. With guidance, he achieved what Sam wanted.


All three shooting days are finished, now we move onto editing. Sam is taking lead, and I will assist in any way I can. Sam has already made an animated title for Father of Lies, and we are now working on opening credits, involving fast paced closeups of creepy things in the cellar, Leo and Amber also appear breifly, hiding their faces so to not give much away.

Editing is going well, it's mostly experimenting with what we can do. I've given Sam around 50 sound effects that I used from Habit. Placed over one another, it should create a creepy ambience that mactches Father of Lies. Sam is making incredible progress.

We will also have interviews with the actors, for something to add to her film, and possibly a blooper reel too.

Unit 58: DVD Menu Design & Authoring

A DVD (Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital storage disc, which can be played in DVD Players.

Conventions of DVD's (Task One)

1. +R  (DVD+R) are record-able only once. They have a storage capacity of 4.7GB. DVD+R is more reliable than DVD-R because it will be much less likely to receive interference.
2. +RW (DVD+RW) are rewritable; meaning you can use it to record multiple times. They also have a storage capacity of 4.7GB, like the +R
3. -R and -RW (DVD-R and -RW) have a much quicker write speed. Apart from this, they share similarities with DVD+R and +RW.

1. Dual Layer - An upgraded disc with higher storage capacity within the DVD. It's storage can come up to 8.5GB per disc, almost double the amount on a standard disc. However this has a slower write time.
2. Writing Speed - The speed that data is burned onto a disc. This could be for instance DVD, CD, or Blue-Ray.
3. Audio - Can be in many different formats, with the more popular being Mono (1.0), Stereo (2.1) or Surround Sound (5.1). Mono is routed through one channel while stereo is routed through two.
4. Video - DVD Video format discs are primarily used in Asia, North America, Australia and Europe.
5. Menus - Almost all DVD's have a menu, giving the options to either play the movie, select a certain scene, use subtitles, find behind the scenes, ect. They are created on software such as Encore and After Effects.

Additional Features of DVD's (Task One)

Subtitles  - are available on DVD's for the hard of hearing, or to help someone who doesnt know the language of your film.
Different Languages - are options which allow the audio to be heard in a different language, as apposed to visual subtitiles. This can be useful for the visually impared, or those who do not understand the main language of a film.
Easter Eggs - are hidden messages inside the film for the viewer to discover by clicking on them. These can be in the main menu, and will often be hard to find. For example, a small button which is not highlighted may lead to a behind the scenes talk with an actor.

DTS (Digital Theatre System) - are more commonly known as surround sound. This was created to create cinema-like quality sound within viewers home. This is usually made up of 6 speakers - one central speaker, one sub-woofer and four surrounding speakers.
Dolby - the technology used to create the quality of sound, which is used in surround systems.
Printable Disks - are DVD's that can be printed on using a certain kind of 'ink jet' printer. These disks are printed on the non-recordable.

Regional Codes - are used to control distribution of films. There are 6 regions in the world, each with a regional code.
Copyright Protection - these are installed onto a DVD disk, in order to make the disk hard to copy and distribute illegally.
Parental Controls - are in place to prevent underage viewers from watching films above the rated age of the film

Case Study (Task One)

A case study is a form of quantitative descriptive research. My case study will be of Disk 1 and 2 of Pan's Labyrinth, detailing ways which the designer has tried to make a useful menu, the functions and elements, additional features, structure, and why the producers have chosen to design the menus the way they did. My case study will be printed out.

Designing a DVD Menu (Task Two)

Sketches, moodboards, navigation charts and notes have been made in preperation for my DVD Menu. I am confident with this planning, to be able to go ahead and try to make them using adobe software, with a little help from video tutorials.

Producing a DVD Menu (Task Three)

I have scheduled, produced, and tested and almost completed my production of my DVD. The only thing left to do is to put it onto my ready made disk and test it.

Evaluation (Task Four)

Software I used through this was Adobe Photoshop, Encore, After Effects, and Premier Pro.

After Effects - 

 

Creating a composition was first, I needed to make sure my Preset was in NTSC D1 Widescreen Square Pixel to create my design (though I exported it in Widescreen mode). The duration of this Menu Screen was 15 seconds.

 

I worked with creating solids at first, with dark pastel colors that matched Courier, I then masked these solids to create gradients, these were preparation for my buttons, so they could be seen easily. I then created my title, Courier, which was in the font 1974 Report. I then added buttons, 'Play', 'Scene Select' and 'Extras'.

 

I was then ready to add my footage I wanted to use for the menu. My footage was of Clover and Boe starting off-scene and then appearing, walking into the distance. As they got further into the distance, I wanted the screen to flash, pause, and fade in buttons and title. I needed to cut re-position my footage to make sure it was in the right place. I then tried to find the frame where I wanted my buttons and title to appear, then used the Layer 'Time Remap', which makes anything past my chosen frame to be paused.

 

After tweaking the color of my footage to match couriers saturation, and create a couple more gradients and color bars to make sure buttons and title were visible, I created a solid which I added where my footage pauses, to create a quick flash before it pauses, and when the menu actually starts.

 

I then made a new composition, this time in NTSC DV Widescreen, and dragged my main menu into this comp. I added audio that faded in and back out. 

Adding this to my render queue, I made sure my format was in MPEG 2 DVD.

Encore

I made a new project in Adobe Encore, dropping my main menu video and audio, and making sure the aspect ratio was 17:9.

 

I then began to create buttons by using Adobe Photoshop. By creating colored rectangles and placed then where I wanted buttons to be. These showed up in Adobe encore. In Encore I can duplicate these buttons, and matched them to the correct timeline footage. It was important to make Back Buttons too, to let viewers head back to previous menus.

 

Other Menus

I needed to create my Scene Select and Extras menu the same way as I created my Main Menu. These menus were not animated, they had still pictures from some of Courier's photoshoot's.

I then linked everything to where they needed to go. Previewing my menu's showed I have a couple 'Orphan' timelines which need to be sorted out, but apart from that, there were no issues.

 

Finished Evaluation

Watching Video Copilots tutorial on how to create a Menu, I feel like I have learned an incredible amount of valuable infomation about Encore and After Effects. I am more confident in using this kind of software. I am very pleased with the aesthetic of Couriers menus, and the accuracy of them to my sketches.

I was able to experiment and test out different layouts and styles of my menus, I feel like I have made great progress toward learning about Adobe software, I am confident enough to make more.

Courier - PMP Blog Diary

Two misfit teenage scavengers are challenged with the job of a courier; delivering  an important message across a dystopian grassland.

Crew:

Samantha - Script Supervisor, Boom Operator, Assistant Director

 Courier is my main PMP idea. It's a drama short film that should reach around 10 minutes. I hope to find a good location which sets a vibe of dystopia. I want to also work with cinematography to make sure each shot looks visually pleasing,

My short film idea was looked at by friends/family and I was told it related to a film called The Postman, I think that being able to look at this film and picking/sorting out differences will be valuable, plus since my piece will be a short film, i will be making sure the plot isn't too drastic or big, but still keep things interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MXp9qzewXU  - The Postman Trailer

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119925/ - IMDB (The Postman)

For me, fantasy has always been an interest. Books focused around the post apocalypse, games that push you into worlds ruined by nuclear war, and television shows and films with characters surviving disaster. These kind of things motivated Courier. Making this film was because of my love for the post-apocalyptic genre.

My origin of ideas was developed around the use of letters being sent delivered by an underground operation, the members were known as Couriers. The two main characters, Clover and Boe, had to deal with finding this organization, helping them, and in return were set up by Lisa and her corrupt organization. This idea was slowly whittled down until it became fitting for a short film. This was done by mood boards, many script drafts, and asking family and friends what their thoughts were.

During this time, I was keen to find areas to film, even before my story ideas were set in stone. The main area which I thought was fitting for Courier was in Norton, a large area used mainly by dog walkers, the area had trees, fields, and abandoned walkways, which fit Couriers ‘post-apocalyptic’ genre.

 

Character breakdowns have been made of each character, ready for actors to read and figure out who they would like to audition for. My treatment and proposal have also been completed, the pitch went well with tutors, agreeing that the visuals of Courier will be the most important thing, hopefully I can impress them.

Audience

Courier is a film that has all the attributes that I try to look for in films and TV shows that I myself watch. I feel that Couriers audience would be teens 14-18 who are interested in post-apocalyptic genres. Examples of shows that relate to Courier would be The Walking Dead which relates to the costume, setting, and atmosphere, with one major unrelated thing being zombies, and the lack of them in Courier. Courier would be classed as a Drama piece, since the plot becomes very full of mystery, violence, tragedy, ect.

I will need to carry out surveys on what people enjoy in films such as this, ect.

Auditions

A lot more than expected showed for auditions, since some of the first year acting didn't sign up for any roles, they were took into the green room to audition. Samantha and I held our auditions in the same room, since many who were interested in auditioning for Samantha's 'Father of Lies' were also interested in Courier. After around half an hour, auditions were complete. The character Lisa was already given to Emily Wynne, having worked with her previously I thought she would fit the part very well.

Clover was given to Chloe Malcolm, having the most enthusiasm about the film altogether, and showing the most ambition. Boe was originally going to be for Sam Brown, but since he was taking part in around three other student films, I decided to give him a break, and give someone else a chance to be a main part of the film. Boe was given to John Tyrer, who originally didn't audition for anything, so Kelly had him audition for both Father of Lies and Courier. His voice and personality suited the character, and he was given a chance.

Preperation

Today I have made a calendar of things I hope to achieve over the three months of this task. The calendar isnt set in stone, but this week I have chose to work on the script. Today I will also be visiting the first year actors to explain my idea, and see if any are interested in auditioning.

My timetable is complete for my first week of filming. I visited the makeup team before deciding which days to do, and they said they were available on the mornings, which was perfect for my schedule. I decided I wanted to get makeup done at college early, and then head down to Norton with everyone - cast and crew - by bus.

Although it went through some changes, this was the final result of our timetable. Next week's timetable would be decided on Friday when we figure out how many scenes we have to complete. Emily had work and rehearsals on the week I first wanted to shoot on, we had to cancel until the next week.

John had to be recast. In the week before filming, most of the communication from me to cast and crew was done by Facebook, messages sent about schedules/plans/ect were being read by John but not replied to, or sometimes not read for a day or so. We later found out by other actors that he didn't have access to Facebook at home, nor had a phone, which he didn't point out during audition.

John's character Boe was given to Reece Durham, someone in audition who showed interest but slight unpreparedness. I met up with him in college to explain the situation, and that filming was only two days away. He understood and was happy to receive the part. The next morning I received a message from John explaining that he wanted the part badly and that he was sorry. I explained that the part was already given away, and that the best I could offer him was a dead character in one scene; Marco. He agreed to be a part of Courier.

First Filming Day

Thursday 30th was our first film day. Actors arrived at college on time, and went down to the makeup room. This was the first time we could see them in their costumes, which were all excellent. The makeup took a little longer than expected, lasting around an hour and a half. The scars and cuts applied with makeup were very large, and it wasn't what we intentionally asked for (very minor scars). These gashes contained quite a lot of blood, actors also suffered from the prosthetic's slowly falling from their faces.

We arrived by bus to Norton - crew and cast met up at my house for a short script read-through, and until the rain stopped. Once it did, we head out to our set. We completed two scenes; 9 and 4. Scene 9 was the longest scene, and therefor took up the most time. We suffered from wind, and also clouds blocking sunshine, making some shots appear different from the others. Scene 4 went much smoother, instead of being in an open field, we were sheltered in pine trees. Cast and crew were more comfortable. Once the scene was complete, we traveled together back to my house, left filming equipment there ready for tomorrow morning, and each of them set off home by bus.

Second Filming Day

The second day (Friday) was the final day of Lisa (Emily's) time filming with us. Our makeup was done at the same time at 9:30, and took slightly less time than yesterday because of the familiarity with makeup used. This was also Johns filming day, he turned up on time and enthusiastic. No makeup was applied to his character. I helped pay for the bus fair for some actors. We completed all of Emily's scenes, including Scene 1, 3 and 10.

After those scenes, we took a couple stills of Lisa posing in grass. Emily left around 1, we then completed John's scene (7) and once he left, scene 6 with Reece and Chloe.

Third Filming Day

One major problem with planning on the the third day was Makeup. On our first week the makeup team said they would be available next Thursday and Friday. Sadly they were busy for personal reasons, and no one else from the first year of makeup was interested in helping. Kelly spoke to Nina about it, they then both asked the group, and one of our original makeup team said she would be available for around an hour in the morning, which is all we needed.

Makeup finished quickly, since Emily was not needed on the third day. We arrived in Norton by taxi which I payed for. We then walked to our location and began immediately with all the other scenes. The weather was great, no rain, it wasn't too bright as to over-light shots. We finished around 3 and head back home. Sam and I want to meet back up at college next week to decide what questions to ask cast and crew about the film, which will be something to add to our DVD menus.

We had to redo scene 6, as I had a new idea for the set layout, and since scene 6 and 8 take place in the same area, we had to do both. They turned out well, and I was happy with the mise-en-scene.

We also filmed a short clip of Clover and Boe walking on a eerie looking path, I would like this to be the background of my DVD menu.

Editing

As expected, my only visable problem with editing will be the changes in light. I am enjoying editing, and being able to turn down the saturation of shots and increase the contrast to create aesthetically pleasing scenes. All the stills we took have been added to Courier's facebook page, and the makeup team were also given pictures for their portfolios.

Apart from the lighting, I believe that I have all the shots I need to edit each scene together.

I am capturing the footage of our third day of filming, around 4 and a half scenes have been completed, I will need to search for a couple atmos tracks, birds chirping, leaves and trees, ect.

I have also created a blooper reel which has had positive reviews by the people who watched. The reel lasts around 9 minutes, which could probably be cut down a little. I also have the problem with swearing, although since Courier is a 15, I think I will leave the swear words in. My choices would be either take them out completely, censor the swears, or leave them. Emily said that she would like to receive a blooper reel where she does not swear, this wont be a problem.

DVD Authoring

Today will be focused around DVD authoring. I will complete paper/outline designs, such as what I want my menu, label and sleeve to look like. On our third day, I took a shot of Clover and Boe walking down an eerie path, this will be the animated background for my DVD menu. Dark, somber music will be playing in the background, with the addition of trees rustling and wind atmosphere.

I forgot to bring my hard drive today, so I will not be able to work on producing a copyright statement which would appear when audience first watch Courier on a disk. Nor would I be able to make an animated logo, but I will watch tutorials on how to do it.

I have completed a sketch of both DVD menu and Disk, which will be able to be put to work once I find out a few tricks on After Effects from Sam. I also took a look at some tutorials online, which helped too.

Last week of Editing

Thursday 21st is our Films deadline. Things such as DVD authoring will be handed in next month. If I am not needed to film for our Working to a Brief, I may be able to finish my edit today (there's around 3/4 left) after that, Credits will need to be made, as well as a non-animated DVD menu, since I probably wont have time to work on an animated one before the film deadline.

Monday was spent on scene 3 and 5. I had to cut parts out of scene 3 to make the edit smoother, but it works anyway.

 

Production Management

Samantha was my Assistant Director, Script Supervisor, and Boom Operator. She was a great help, working on her project 'Father of Lies' I felt that I worked very well with her. I and her share inspirations and ideas, we both have artistic goals for our films.

She kept track of our time managment and made sure the script was completed to each and every word. Sam was also a great confidence boost, kept the morale up with our team, and turned up every day on time. She had many ideas for my folder, adding research ideas, such as pinterest,  IMDB, ect.

 

Samantha was an important member of my team and Courier has benefit much with her help.

Courier could of been improved during Pre-Production. My time management was a weakness, and I did not think I worked quick enough. Problems with cast and crew members also stuggling with time was also a setback - Actors busy with lessons, makeup crew not being given enough time to prepare, ect.

 

Habit - Evaluation

As Director, it was my job to overall job to manage the film. I oversaw both Camera Man and Boom Operator in their jobs. I was also script supervisor, having wrote the script myself I thought it was the best thing to do. In pre-production, I handled making a Facebook page and communicating with our makeup team and actors to ensure everyone was up to date with plan. Since we had a mixup with our first actor, it was imperrative everyone was aware of changes. We had to decline any more help from our makeup team because of the short deadline and changed actors. I also researched all infomation about our project to add to the script, and made sure everything was truthful. During production I was the one to find the locations and choose where to shoot. I communicated with cameraman in deciding which places to put the camera.

The voice actors were excellent, it was incredibly fun to make with them, and it meant that we got to know some of the first year actors a little bit more.


Video Completion

Our video came out fantastic, I and the team were happy with our end result. Even though our actors were switched, we still managed to keep track of things and come out with a nice end result. Though continuity was shown in the editing - probably from our un-leniar filming, we pulled together to create an excellent edit. The music both Ryan and Richard found from free royalty music websites worked incredibly well with our film.


The video itself was very unique, as the point we wanted to get across was the damage smoking can do to the mind, especially with youth. Our voice overs added an eeirie effect to our film. Combined with saturation dimming and darkening shots, the film managed to portray a creepy vibe which I hope adds more impact to our films' morale.

On the editing side, technical expertise of the film is good, though slightly experimental. A few places have shots a little longer than they should be, and the voiceovers clips only produced sound in the left side, meaning altering caused them to because more quiet, but we worked with what we had.

I feel like altough I myself am not a smoker, I felt like the researched I found out while adding to the script had an impact on me, I didnt know much about the harms of smoking but I knew a lot of my friends found that they took up smoking because of stress. For instance, the substance that causes calm in nicotene is called Dopamine; which effects wear off in a short amount of time, causing the smoker to go back to their stressful habit. I feel like this film will take an impact on those who have the same ideals as my friends. The horror style helps out, making sure the film is remembered.

As for the Cut Films criteria, I think that we managed to make sure that the film ticked their boxes. Research about the subject is clearly heard from the voiceovers in the film. Storyboards and shotlists are a clear indication of our well-organised planning.

Feedback

The first thing we did was to make sure a completed version on the film was online. We added the film to youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QNBl-kPQ18

After that, a survey on SurveyMonkey was created: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6Q9FM82

The survey recieved 12 responces.

All 12 were male, aged 13-20+. 11 of the participants were non-smokers, 7/12 knew the basics of how smoking can effect a person mentally. 11/12 thought that the videos morale was shown clearly and effectively.

In Conclusion

I am incredibly happy with our results. Since we had a few mishaps along the way, I thought the film would've turned out hastily made, but I am greatful each member of the team - both crew and cast - pulled together to create an impacting anti-smoking video.

Unit 31: Social Action and Community Media

 

Task One

Introduction - Social Action

In general, Social Action is a creative tool which helps to increase public knowledge and awareness on a certain subject, hopefully causing the public to take action toward these problems. Usually non-profit, Social Action uses media like videos on Youtube, or adverts on TV to promote their cause, in hopes to persuade audience. Common subjects for social action are smoking, drug addiction, polotics, racism, and much more. Social Media makes their videos seem like the extremities of the topic, for instance, someone facing their death as a result of drinking too much; not all alcoholics die because of their habit, though showing the worst case scenario sparks more interest in the audience. As part of the assignment, I am directing an Anti-Smoking video, aimed at teenagers who are dealing with stress and/or anxiety.

Impact

Impact on Social Action pieces is debatable, varying on opinions of the public. For instance, Greenpeace activists were arrested in Russa, after protesting against Arctic drilling. After this incident, masses of social action films hit to YouTube, calling for the release of the protesters. After the long and difficult process, it had been announced in 2013 that these protesters would be released. It is assumed that the social action media that occured during this incident played a part in their release. [1]

Examples

One major social action subject is smoking and the many drawbacks, with one example being throat cancer. The TV ad below "Tips From Former Smokers" is a campaign which features three people who now have stomas as a result of smoking. They provide tips on how to live with this condition.

This clip provides how much impact can be made in 30 seconds. It is a hard hitting reality, a glipse into lives which have been destroyed by cigarettes.

Another Social Action movement is the WWF. Their work has evolved from saving speces and landscapres to addressing the larger global threats and forces that impact them. The WWF use petitions that the public can engage in, signing petetions to stop things.

Introduction - Community Media

Community media, however, is used inside a community, which aims at a smaller problem within a community, and to hopefully bring a local change, working within the community by making public events, ect. Radio Shows specifically for their community are an example of this. A few of non-profit radio stations have been set up with the intention of providing to their local community. Radio stations like this often participate in the production of shows, to discuss their opinions relating to the area.

Butterwick Hospice works mainly in the North of England, with three hospices which offer 'better quiality of life through pain and symptom control, soothing and beneficial therapies, helpful family support and ongoing bereavement counselling.' One such hospice is in Stockton.

"It is Butterwick Hospice's mission to care for as many people as possible of all ages who are living with a progressive life limiting illness. All of our services are provided free of charge to those diagnosed and to their loved ones. Butterwick Hospice Care is a Registered Charity No: 1044816 which relies on donations to help fund its many services."

Butterwick offers many events which the public can join. They are dependant on the communities donations. [2] Butterwick is slowly become a larger cause. Their reach to the public is huge, due to the amount of events they offer.

 

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Arctic_Sunrise
[2] http://www.butterwick.org.uk/ourhospices/butterwickhospicestockton/

Task 2

Team Name: Plan C
Production Title: Habit
Team: Ryan, Richard, and Jamie

Director: Jamie

Camera: Richard

Sound: Ryan



After discussing eachothers primary ideas, we decided to go with Habit, the story was stable and locations had already been found.

Habit focuses on the affects smoking has on the mind. We follow Maisy, a college student who has taken up smoking to due stress. Narrators will explain what effects this has on stress and anxiety, and how it does not help in the long term.

Both Richard and Ryan started by gathering primary research, and heading outside of college to ask smokers a couple questions:

• Why start smoking?
• Cause of smoking?
• How long have you smoked for?
• Ever tried to stop?

Since not many smokers were around, they decided to make a survey with the questions in, which was spread around Facebook. Almost all answers were stress related.

I started to develop my script into its third and hopefully final draft, which is now shortened and will easily fit into 2 minutes. The team was happy with the changes.

I began to work on storyboards, while Ryan and Richard printed off some secondary research about stress and smoking. When the Storyboards were complete, Richard made a shot list using them as a template. I moved on to making adverts for the Actress needed, as well as the Voice Actors.

Second Week

We have gained a makeup team, though they cannot show up to one day of filming due to work. They are currently trying to find others to take their place. I have also spoke to the first years about joining up, I have five actors who would like to join in Voice acting. Also an actress from second year who i knew from school, she is eager to work.

A facebook group has been made for Habit, which will be full of pictures of locations and actors, as well as the process that we make.

We made a timetable which we feel confident in carrying out. Thursday will be for the classroom scene. Ryan is off that day, so Richard and me will be filming. We will be filming in the morning.

Friday is voiceover day. All the actors are confident that they can turn up at the right time (10:00am) and are familiar with the script.

Monday will hopefully be used for the filming of outdoor scenes in Norton, if the weather doesnt stop us. Chloe has been told and is in agreement with the times.

Tuesday is the filming day for internal shots (Bedroom) which will be in my house. This day can also be a pickup for Monday, if we haven't shot all the externals yet. These filming days will be short, as the scenes are, too.

Ryan is currently booking a room for Thursday so we can use it for filming. I have yet to find out which makeup artists will be helping us on Thursday, but I am confident we will find out by the end of today.

First Film Day

Our actress turned up and we managed to get our classroom scene complete. It took much longer than expected due to the team messing around. Chloe did well and is eager to work on the next shoots. Friday was more difficult, as we wanted to make voice overs in the Green Room at 10 but the only person who has the key was in college at 11. I met up with the actors and went through their lines until we were all comfortable. It was good to know that they we're considerate of our time problems, and that all of them were still interested and friendly.

The voice overs had to be recorded onto a camera, as Ryan couldn't figure out how to fix the voice over equipment. Once they were finished, they were placed onto my hard drive. It seems that they were also only recorded on the left side of the earphone, which was not said at the time by the sound operator. This can be fixed while editing, but it will be another setback to our film.

We will begin filming the bedroom and outdoor scene all in one day - Tuesday. These scenes are short, and if the crew doesn't mess around, we should be able to get all scenes complete within three hours.

Filming complete

Changes were made to Habit. Because of Chloe's unpredictable nature, she once again has not shown up for a days filming because of a hospital appointment. Because of this, and the short deadline we have, I asked Leo, a member of the first year acting team, to fill in for her. We completed the classroom scene again, then headed to Norton and completed both the External shots and Internal shots in the bedroom all in one day. Makeup was not needed, though for the final product I will still be giving a copy of our production to the makeup girls who participated.

 

 

Editing went well, I took charge in piecing it together, Ryan gave me a rough first draft of the edit, and I managed to produce the final product. We got feedback and everything was fine.

Today is the last handin date. I am busy with Task 1, and I will need to head home to pick up our research folder. After that, we will put Habit up onto youtube, and give a copy to the film crew, Leo, and the makeup team. Possibly the voice actors too.