101 MC…

To see my PDP blog posts within the 101 MC module click on the catagory list at the top right of my blog page.

Thank You.

Under-Represented Groups within the Media.

Soldiers in Afghanistan!

Even though we are constantly bombarded within the media about the chaotic War in Afghanistan, reporters never truly reveal the ins and outs of what is going on out there. For 9 years soldiers are being shipped out to this War zone and the number of deaths and major injuries are dramatically rising every day, without us at home even realising it. We see many films being created about this War such as Jarhead and Hurt Locker however, our questions still are not being answered as these films only show the main characters defeating the villains and ultimately ending the War, however, in reality this is far from true, maybe to protect society from the horrific truth of the Afghanistan War, yet we still have the right to know.

Nonetheless, there is one show that manages to provide this source of information we all desperately seek… Ross Kemp in Afghanistan. So excellently created we see the true aspects of the War on TV and how bad it is effecting the soldiers out there, not only physically but mentally, as these terrifying images we watch safely in the comfort of our own home, they are bombarded with every minute of every day.

271 British soldier deaths so far and 1062 soldiers wounded in action. Makes me wonder if all these deaths are worth the overall victory. Not only do we see this large number of physical damage, but also mental conditions brought about by the horendous days these soldiers must go through. Almost 4000 staff are diagnosed with a mental condition every year yet only 115 personnel have been compensated over the past 3 years. We are very rarely exposed to the truth of how many soldiers actually become phycologically disturbed from the War which creates a huge problem in the future for these men and women.

Overall, society maybe constantly reminded that the War is out there, but we are never truly shown what these soldiers go through every day with such a low wage that certainly does not cover the dreadful objectives of their job. Here is a preview of the documentary Ross Kemp in Afghanistan to emphasise my point that the media should be exactly like this:

My Inspiration.

Throughout the past year I have been inspired by a number of people/media artifacts, yet if I were to compress that number to just 3 main inspirations, it would have to be director James Cameron, my father Chris Soane  as well as seeing something beautiful.

1. James Cameron.

Director of 2 massive, blockbuster smashing, Oscar-winning movies Titanic and his most recent Avatar I find myself inspired by his amazing creations of these memorable films. Not only is his attention to detail fascinating as he uses high quality equipment to make the standard animation seem so human like that it adds to the feeling of reality throughout Avatar. Furthermore, by spending several years alone to research this specific equipment to create this effect emphasises Cameron’s sheer determination to make this masterpiece. In terms of my modules, we see that James Cameron’s influence has a great effect upon the module Researching The Media as we had to create a documentary based on the research we found along with numerous debates held throughout the term, whereby our arguments needed to be backed up by sufficient facts. Additionally, similar to Cameron’s determination into researching the perfect equipment for his ideal Avatar movie, at the moment I am currently creating a studio based show whereby I am also researching the different types of equipment as they are all new to me.

2. My Father.

My whole life he has helped me with homework, projects and my own personal hobbies and his creative imagination exceeds every time. Therefore, I find that these skills inspire me to do better and have a more artistic look on the media. For example, I use this when filming as I try to create a variety of different yet visually interesting shots. Furthermore, photography is a big part of media production, especially when capturing the production process, nonetheless, I find photography is quite a passionate hobby of mine. My father has always had an interest in photography and the images which he has captured interest me as they may be standard family shots on holiday, special occasions etc but the way in which he composes his images truly define the moment. He is an inspiration to me because I hope that one day my imagination and work will be considered to be creative, just like the way I consider my fathers.

3. Beautiful Scenery

When you see something beautiful, you have to capture that single moment, so you know it’s always there. Maybe because of my hobby being photography, I often find myself longing for gorgeous landscapes that shape the Earth’s beauty and give me a stunning image. In terms of my course however, by setting a scene on a magnificent landscape, it will always create that ‘wow’ factor among the audience. Furthermore, I find that seeing a landscape so stunning, makes me want to create the same effect within my film making, especially during college as my photography course issued a landscape module which I jumped at as I love to capture the perfect scenery. However, I have not yet had the opportunity to use this inspiration within these modules due to studio-based and documentary work not fitting the style of landscape work. Next year on the other hand, will bring a lot more opportunities.

Extra-curricular and my course.

Over the past first year of University I have found that my interest in extra-curricular activities has plummeted quite far, compared against the vast amount of sports and subjects I have shown an interest in through out high school and college. However, the sport teams I played for have no relevance to my current course, yet during college I began to pick up a new-found love for photography. Thus far, I still enjoy capturing beautiful scenery, emotions and rare moments with my camera, which I have now updated to a Nikon D3000 SLR, enabling me to capture these images in better quality and professionalism. These images I upload onto my Flickr account and soon hope to create another blog whereby I will post the images I take and hope for the public’s feedback on their quality.

I first began an interest in photography during my last year of high school as my father, grand father and uncle are all photographers and have a great passion in the hobby, therefore, almost like a genetic ‘hand-me-down’, I too have shown enthusiasm for photography. Taking the subject at A-level had then heightened my curiosity as I got an insight into both the theory and the printing of films within a dark room, which I found extremely interesting. However, I regret not using a better camera during those 2 years, even though I used a film based SLR, it required a lot of time-consuming work as well as money, so I relied mostly on my compact digital camera, which did not take decent, quality photos that the DSLR I now own, does. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot and so improved both my knowledge and skills towards taking a good photo.

In terms of its relevance towards my course Media Production, photography plays a huge role within its success and is one of the main cogs within the media. I use photography during the production process to document what we are doing as a group and also as evidence of job roles and allocations. Furthermore, I also enjoy to take my camera whenever I go somewhere different and capture images everywhere, using my knowledge of good photo composition to create a professional and successful image. Therefore, we see how my passion for photography has disciplined my dedication towards our projects within Media Production as the passion is also there.

Response to Letter to Self.

Dear Past Sam,

Sorry it took me so long to reply, these past 8 months have been a blur and it’s not just University that has made it fly, but I’ll get on to that later. For the moment, you’ll be happy to know that you couldn’t have been more right about University life as I have enjoyed every second of it. Well done with choosing media production by the way, it has been so fascinating to learn about the ins and outs of film making along with every other aspect of the media and its creation. Hats off to you, a fine choice.

My social life couldn’t be better either as I have a fantastic group of friends who have made these past 8 months a blast. It feels like I have known them forever! You would think that living together and constantly being under each others feet would be incredibly irritating and lead to plenty of arguments. Yet that never happened, not once have we argued (touch wood), that’s how well we get on. Along with my close group of friends, freshers week was a gem for socializing, I met so many interesting and fun people who I am now still good friends with.

Other than the partying, drinking and socializing side of University, it’s not all a piece of cake. The work has been difficult, challenging and very time-consuming, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I thrive on learning new things and aspects of a new possible career path that I know I will love. If you’re nervous about the grades and assessments, don’t panic, you did alright. I don’t mean to gloat but on average, the assessments are around the 60-70% mark. Congratulations, looks like you passed your first year before technically taking it seen as your still stuck in 2009.

Yes, still stuck in that crappy job at Taybarns Restaurant. To answer your question, I did get a job, in fact, I got 2! I work at Alton Towers in the shops and also in a small but delicious mexican & tapas restaurant called Hector Garcia’s back home. The pay is great and is slowly but surely getting me out of that huge debt whole I dug myself during the first 6 months of crucial University spending. So after handing my CV into (what felt like) every single bar, restaurant and shop in Coventry and Stoke-On-Trent, I eventually got myself 2 interviews which proved successful, too bad it took them 6 months to reply. Just like a bus, you wait for hours for one, then two come at the same time.

Nevertheless, a pretty damn good first year Sam I wouldn’t take anything back and hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Next year is full of new equipment, devices and technical jargon that  I cannot wait to begin and sink my teeth into. One step closer to our dream.

Yours Truly,

Future Sam.

Alice In Wonderland.

A classic tale from the author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson about a curious, young girl who simply falls down a rabbit whole into a world of imaginative and down-right-insane characters. Director Tim Burton took on this influential storyline and made it his own in the latest Alice In Wonderland blockbuster whereby we see Alice as a 20 year old woman stuck between the decision of marriage and conform to her families strict Victorian ways, or stay as the miscreant Alice we all know and love as a child.

With it being a Tim Burton movie, the dark and gothic style was expected when compared to his previous movies The Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd. Furthermore, the fact that Johnny Depp stars within Burton’s movie was obvious after playing the lead within most of Burton’s previous films, as well as his role as the mad hatter being even more obvious. Nonetheless, my expectations of Depp’s acting skills were more than reached, infact, he has now created a league of his own, in my opinion.

Many other big actors were seen throughout this movie, Stephen Fry as the mischevious and unsettling Cheshire Cat along with the kind and beautiful White Queen played by Anne Hathaway. The evil villian however, the Red Queen, played by Burton’s wife ironically enough, Helena Bonham Carter who created a real sense of fear and power among the audience.

This morbid yet extrordinarily fantastic Burton movie truly captures the heart of Charles Dodgson’s unusual ideas and what it means to be surrounded by these peculiar creatures. However, behind this weird front, there are often hints that humanity still exists within the Wonderland, not only through the obvious fact that Alice is the only sane thing there, but the mad hatter clearly has a soft spot for Alice and often shows compassion towards her, so we know that he hasn’t completely lost it.

Overall, a frightening yet funny, insane yet emotional movie. Tim Burton is a true genius and his sequel to the classic Alice in Wonderland is a perfect example of what he is capable of.

Jana Bennett – “My Vision for the BBC”

Jana Bennett is the director of BBC Vision and quite possibly one of the most powerful women within British television. Bennett goes on to describe each avenue of the BBC and its effect towards its audiences, from CBeebies to the main BBC 1, as well as how the BBC is constantly growing into a much better company for both its audience and the talent it produces.

In terms of the audience, Bennett explained how each channel has its own values that reach the different expectations for its own audience. To do this, the company itself, must find talent that will bring unique ideas as well as keeping the audience interested. A great example of this is how the programme Doctor Who is constantly changing yet these different actors and talent still enable to keep its audiences intact through allowing them to watch this time-lord change throughout the time of the show as well as real-time.

Bennet then went on to describe each BBC channel and how it will change in the future. Firstly, BBC 1 is the nations favourite channel with its wide variety from live shows to fictional as well as the BBC news which is the spine of the channel, giving broadcasts throughout the day along with dominating the main website. BBC 2 however, focuses more on passions and hobbies, with shows that cover cars (Top Gear), science, gardening and cooking. As they build into the future, BBC 2 hopes to attract more drama based shows to bring in that new flavour and a fresh batch of talent. Furthermore, BBC 2 also hopes to become the home of a lot more british films.

A younger channel however, BBC 3 aimed at the 16-30 age group holds a variety of fiction and non-fiction shows, yet they both open new doors to things we as a blind society, never knew existed. For instance, BBC 3 holds a number of documentaries on health issues that grab the attention of its younger age range and show the effects of what they consider as ‘fun’. Additionally, BBC 3 also produced the now very successful comedy shows Gavin and Stacey and Little Britain as well as the drama of Being Human that emphasises to its audience that british drama is just as successful as the american dramas.

As society and technology improves, we see that the Internet has become more useful and alot easier, therefore, society would now rather watch a programme and shop using the Internet. Consequently, BBC has taken this on board and created the BBC iPlayer enabling its audience to catch up on shows they have missed. In terms of the future, it creates a multi-platform that not only allows the public to watch their favourite shows, but also has a role as a stage for new, upcoming comedians that can bring new talent to the BBC.

In my own opinion, BBC is the most highly recognisable channel in terms of British TV and therefore, the most watched so I feel that Bennett’s ideas towards the future of the BBC will more than likely be succeeded and improve its values towards the audience.

“Run Papa Run” Review.

Run Papa Run follows the complicated life of Triad Chief Lee Tin-Yun, telling the story of his change from a violent, boisterous teenager to a family orientated man who is determined to become a better man for his daughter. Though the genre is clearly a gangster style, a lot of the typical conventions of this genre are overshadowed by the much more powerful genre that is love and the bond between father and daughter. Yet there is still a sense of comedy that thrives throughout the movie, especially when we see how Tin-Yun is clearly dominated by the female gender through the character of his daughter as we see the massive effect she has on his life-style. Yet other female characters such as his mother, does not have quite the same effect after we see how she attempts to get his life back on track time and time again, but this wild boy refuses to leave his dominant role as the Triad Chief.

Nevertheless, after Tin-Yun captures the heart of career-driven Mabel and soon gets her pregnant, we begin to see 2 very different men, one that yearns to keep his job as a triad chief and the other who focuses only on the welfare of his daughter. However, this loving father soon dominates as we see how he begins the change of his company to more legal acts and even changes his religion so his daughter can attend a better school.

Yet Tin-Yun tried everything to protect his daughter from his true identity and revolves his whole life around her, he does have a cheating and violent side that keeps drawing him back into the mobster world, making death the only option to become free.

Overall, Run Papa Run has a very light-hearted, comical look on gangs that is soon over-powered by the heart-warming and lovable story between a father and his insanely cute daughter.

Task 3: Walkersgreen Rd – Coventry University

For task 3, I have decided to do a journey from my home in Newcastle-Under-Lyme to Coventry University via the train. During this task, I will capture images of any specific places that link to me as well as some videos and then embed them onto my google map. Here are the images I will be using on my google map:

As well as a Video I captured whilst on my journey of simply the beautiful landscapes I saw:

Stone

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Overall I found this task interesting as I have never understood how to create a Google Map so the variation of options on how to create your map intrigued me. However, I feel that I did not give myself enough time to create this task, so if I were to re-do my Google Map, I would include more videos and personalise these videos to suit me. Nonetheless, I have embedded my Google Map onto my blog:

View Larger Map

Ubiquitous Internet.

Ubiquity = Everywhere/Common

Scientist Mark Weiser coined this term ubiquitous computer as he felt that computing should have a calming effect and should be an extension of the human consciousness as a quiet servant. Nonetheless, we see that the Web 2.0 does follow this theory as we as the users are still the producers and editors of the Web, therefore, keeping us in control, yet the Web is a window for the information we send to other users, so still emphasises Weiser’s theory as the quiet servant. Furthermore, through the vastly growing technology of the Web, we also see his theory on the calming effect as many web-based systems now have integrated technology that will do certain things for you, enabling society to sit back and relax. For instance, at the moment we see the basic integrated technology on the web such as remembering your password for you as well as remembering web pages that you have recently looked at. Yet this technology is constantly growing and we begin to see more intelligent technology such as iris scans to allow access into a building and personalized advertising whereby they use your name to grab attention. Even though this is not yet introduced into society, we see that sci-fi movies are constantly using this vast technology to show what our future will be like, shown especially within the following clip from Minority Report:

In terms of our task on the Google Maps, we see how this integrated technology is being used through the Street View that will find the exact location and allow you to see it as if you were there. Furthermore, Google Maps remembers the maps that I have already created along with certain places I often view through creating an account on Google that allows the Web to access and remember my information.