The Power of the Written Word

After about 3 years I remembered I had a blog and decided I'm going to start using it again because the written word of our thoughts makes others think who read it.

Have you ever read something and not thought about it? Personally I don't care if anyone reads what I right because I just want a place to express my thoughts and feelings if anyone wanted to know them and start thinking about their own life's and how they lead them.

My moto in life is "nothing in life that's worth having comes easy" so reach for the stars because we are all capable of anything.

Innovation production schedule

Production schedule
Friday 19th October
Casting sessions for characters for film. Treatment,
ideas for folder, researching etc should be done.

monday 22nd
Beginning location preparation for sceens with
actors in them.

tuesday 30th October
finalising storyboard for shots needed. (includes
location of shots, actors in shots and cinematography
used in shots.)

friday 2nd November
begin filming. Preferably scenes for the soap opera side
but incorporated in the scenes will be the interviews and
documentary production taking place at the same time.

monday 5th November
filming continues. Hopefully get through most in this day
to relieve stress as the project continues. Prodominantly
want to work on soap opera side of production.

tuesday 6th November
group meeting to discuss project and if there's no class
on this day we can continue to film, possibly working on the
making of documentary because it may be a burden on our actors
to come in for to days in a row.

9-16th November
hope to have finished filming completely. This would give us three
weeks of editing.

Between these days we have a short meeting to discuss whether anymore
needs to be done with the filming prodominantly that must be done
before editing.

19th Nov-7th Dec
Editing should be our main focus, sharing time for the soap and 'making
of' documentary.

Essay Plan

Essay plan

Q: a comparison of two films/programmes/games with respect to one the following: narrative structure, mise-en-scene, camera, editing, acting/stars, sound, interactivity.


Films: Gladiator (2000, director Ridley Scott) and The Last Samurai (2003, director Edward Zwick)

Mise-en-scene
Gladiator is set during the time of the Roman Empire whereas The Last Samurai is set during the 1780s in Japan.
The landscaping is vital to both films because they are set in specific periods in time so they have to appear accurate in what is involved in the scenes.
Gladiator does this using many computer-generated scenes of buildings such as the Colosseum, and the other grand architecture of the time.
Last Samurai produces landscaping of fields, traditional Japanese homes and authentic casting.
Costumes are vital in both films where the clothes really do make the man. Both films are based on war and set a lot on battlefields. Both films use iconography in the props and costumes with samurai warrior armour and Roman armour, the swords they use and how they use them are key to the films’ authenticity.
Remember, setting is always constructed.

Key words:
Cathartic pleasures, sadistic pleasures, binary opposition (good vs. evil, East vs. West etc), patriarchal society, phallic symbolism, theory of ‘the other’, iconography, traditional values, cinematography, conventional props.

Similar films to relate to: Braveheart (1995), Troy (2004), Startacus (1960), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Kingdom of Heaven (2005).

References:
§ D. Bordwell: On the History of Film Style; Harvard University Press; 1998
§ Thompson and Bordwell: Film History: An Introduction, London: McGraw Hill, 1994 James Monaco, How to read a film (pp.315-325) 1977 (for mise-en-scene)

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/heath/Aristotle%20on%20aesthetic%20pleasure.pdf cathatic pleasures

http://www.answers.com/catharsis

http://filmplus.org/mise.html mise-en-scene

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073535060/410534/Bordwell_Ch01.pdf

Essay plan

How is identity psychoanalytically constructed and formed in society? What effects have these processes had upon your own identity?

Identity is something everyone feels they need in order to seperate themselves from the rest of society to be consider original or different. However the process of creating an identity is one that is quite dominantly influenced by the media and thus making certain aspects of ones identity, possibly affecting the way they live their lives.

Oxford dictionary definition- identity- the quality or condition of being a specific person or thing.
Oxford dictionary definition- psychoanalysis- a therapeutic method of treating mental disorders by investigating and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind.

• News reports that repeatedly mention the positives and negatives of a community affects the way individuals from those communities construct their identites perhaps because it seems like the ways they in particularly should be living their lives.
• Stereotyping in society can affect you as an individual to thnm start living up to those stereotypes because it is what people think of you. (sometimes whether they are positive or negative)
• Historic events that affect the mental state of a society and its communites. E.g. personal effects as a young, black man when thiking of descrimination against my family generation before that include my parents and grangparents.
• Clothing that we where can represent our identities. My wearing baggy clothing, trainers, rocawear etc illustrate the hip-hop genre that is culturally consider a black genre of music. I as many others in my demographic chose to wear these things as a sence of belonging and show a particular aspect to our own identity, or atleast what we want other people to think.
• Rap music and the ways it can appeal and identify with one using anecdotal evidence and experiences.
• Identity affects the way people think in terms of the way they think. With different identities comes varied perspectives to situations, politics and so on. By having an idnetity creates barriers sometimes between people and sometimes segrgates.
• Politics- the political parties we follow label our beliefs and prejugde as the kind of person we are, affecting our identities in the eyes of others.
• Where you may have grown up all add to the generalisations of who we are. (location)
• The use of passports and driver's licences is the governments way of keeping track of people's identities and enforces this lw or the rest of society as a way of confirming to others too. In a sense they are restrictive to basic information such as: name, DOB and and a photo. They don't say the personality someone has or what they stand for etc. Basically we are numbers on a system.

References:

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4545657.stm

Moral panics- Stanley Cohen

Essential Word Dictionary-AS/ A-level Media Sudies, (2005)

Robert Frank's Work

Robert Frank

http://americanart.si.edu/images/1974/1974.31.2_1b.jpg

http://www.yale.edu/amstud/r66/fr1.html

http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue2/images/frank_sickofgoodbyes.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue2/sixreflectionsfrank.htm&h=323&w=222&sz=39&tbnid=ILI9x2SdEtRoPM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=81&prev=/images?q=robert+frank&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2


http://zingmagazine.com/zing3/reviews/043_frank.html

http://www.yale.edu/amstud/r66/fr4.html

Essay Plan

Question: using examples from film or television or photography, discuss how authenticity is constructed in the media in relation to one or more historical events.
(2000 word essay)

key words: archieve footage, reconstructions, dates and places, selection, multimedia texts, reporters,

• The idea of authenticity is the idea that something is real and true to what someone or something has represented or 're-presented'.
• Many people in a post modern society have learnt to not believe everything they hear within the media and challenge it. However many things can seem very authentic when it has been encorporated in us for a number of years, slowly manipulating us to believe certain ideologies over a period of time that we eventually don't challenge it anymore.
• The construction of television, film and even in photographs all have hidden messages and in a way sabliminal messages that connote meanings.
• Reality television is one major influence in constructing the idea of authenticity because it is supposidly in real time and unscripted. However debates against reality television is vast with ex-Big Brother contestants claiming they had been unfairly misrepresented, the idea of editing in a reality programme, selective highlights chosen when the majority of people tuned in to watch, the 24hr surveillence that that tunes out the audio when something is being said that they wouldn't like them to. All of these debates on reality t.v alone.
• In cinema, films made about real people are constructed to show highlights of their lives that are famous or 'worht' noting. Normally films on people or historical events that had great influences on the world that many people have been affected by. Films such as: Ray (2004), Malcolm X (1992), Ali (2002), JFK (1990), Troy (2004) etc.
• Over a period of time certain programmes are made to make out they were done in real time in order to appeal to the mindset of their audiences who want to believe they are authentic.
• Famous photographs from wars or magazines are probably the most authentic piece of medium the media can use as they are to be viewed in stills where the viewer would have to assume what has happened and by not being told on many occasions what is going on in the photo it seems more authentic because nothing else is clouding their observations but their own trail of thought.

Television and film texts:

• I'm a Celebrity
• Big Brother
• Crimewatch
• A History of Britain (other documentary programmes)

In relation to historical events, film, television and photography are key to the media constructing the idea of authenticity. It is impossible to make anything authentic because we can never see the full picture from every side, every opinion and every medium. However the ways they use what they have to construct the idea is a long thought out process to appeal to a core audience. Films take months to make, telvision programmes gather information that is vital to the cause and regularly come on to show developments like on news channels. And photographs show history in an iconic way; when we hear about the student shootings at Kent State University during the Vietnam War we see the image of the girl screaming by the dead person to suggest a range of opinions about what the feelings about the war were at that time it was going on.

Historical events to focus on:

• Vietnam War
• Iraq War
• 9/11
• World War 2
• Civil Rights Movement
• Minors Strike
  

References:
http://www.sinomania.com/china_image_archive/photo_albums/china_2000-/2004homepage_nextlevel_pix_kent-state.htm