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."
[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.
