‘The Now’ Performance

I attended a dance performance on the 11.05.10 called ‘The Now’ which consisted of contemporary dance.

It is an autobiographical piece of work that is drawn from one of the artistic directors in relation to her culture and her adaption to the life in England. It was interesting to watch as a lot of the movements were quite repetitive and Evelyn began to speak the language of her home land throughout, ‘Astonia’. As I was watching the piece, I was also focusing on the media student filming it to see what methods he was using in order to capture the good shots. There was only one-third year student who used a PDX10 and headphones to film the performance handheld which I was quite surprised at as I thought the dance department would have asked several media students to film it at different angles in order to give the editors a variety of choice.  This then gave me confidence in being able to do something like this by myself as I have the skills needed to operate such equipment. As I was walking down the corridor of the Ellen Terry building, I saw an advertisement for media students to help film the ‘Moonlight Dance companies’ performance so I added them on Facebook and asked them for more information on it which I still am currently waiting for. I think that this would be a create experience and opportunity to put my skills to the test.

‘Isabella’ by Pang Ho- Cheung

The introduction to this film with a screening of the interview held with the actor Chapman To by the CEAFS students was a great touch to lead into the film. It allowed everyone to get to know the actor a bit more considering that not many people in England had heard of him before.

The film was released in Hong Kong in 2006 and is directed by Pang Ho-Cheung who has also directed many other films such as ‘Fulltime Killer’ and ‘Undercover Blues’. It stars Isabella Leong and the great Chapman To.

The story of this film is that when Shing was a young boy, he fell in love with a woman named Jia but he soon left her without the knowledge that she had actually been pregnant. Jia stayed a single mother and raised her daughter Yan.  After the death of Yans mother, she was left to fend for herself and make her own money through selling her own body. Yan was further pressurized to find money after her landlord had threatened to kick her out along with her dog ‘Isabella’. This led to Yan in search of her dad and when she finds him, he isn’t to keen on having her around. After a couple of returns made by Yan, Shing gives in and allows her to live with him which is when he finds out a lot more than he had bargained for. As Shing is a lady’s man, he regularly has different women visiting him (not just for a cup of tea!) but Yan soon deals with this by stating the lie that she is now his new girlfriend. As they begin to spend time together, the film allows you to see how he begins to accept her into his life along with many emotions throughout the journey from tears to laughter.

I could only describe the film as beautiful with some great camera shots used to convey the mood of the characters. The story is in separate pieces to begin with but as the film comes to an end, the narrative all fits together and makes sense. I think the way in which Pang Ho-Cheung has done this is very clever and he has truly captured the love between a father and his daughter. I would definitely recommend this film to those who love a slight romantic comedy with a bit of mystery.

Here’s the trailer if your interested!

My first Vlog! – Quick thoughts on my first year

It was scary but fun to do!

‘Autistic Driving School’

This programme is based on autistic people within the public who want to learn to drive. They show the journey from when they were in the process of learning to drive up to several of them passing which I think is a great way to show their achievement. It also conveys the struggle that autistic people have with everyday life and how these challenges affect them.

I think that for the media to do this allows the opportunity for people to gain a better understanding of what autistism consists of and how being autistic affects the person themselves. Disabled people used to be outcasted hugely by the nation several years ago. I was talking to my granddad about this and he said that there used to even be a separate school and a bus for children who were disabled which completely pushed them out from the public. It would make the people who were considered to be ‘normal’ look down on the people with disabilities. I think that this has now changed completely as people with disabilities are offered a variety of support and facilities such as extra lifts in buildings or carers to help them out with day-to-day life. I think that the under-represented groups within the media is now beginning to become more represented in films and programmes for example. The public seem to accept the people who aren’t considered the ‘norm’ and are a lot more helpful. I would say that there isn’t a huge amount of films out in the media industry that have included actors/actresses with disabilities but this is something that will hopefully change in years to come.

Vlogging

I’ve only recently discovered the new craze of ‘vlogging’. I had never heard of it before until I had visited my friends Facebook to see a link to it and with this leading me to be curious, I decided to have a look.

I was amazing by the amount of vlogging she had done. It’s similar to a blog but instead of posting comments, you post videos of what you want to say which in this case was her daily life. She talks to the camera whilst walking to the bus stop for example which she was very embarrassed of to begin with but now has the full confidence to do it out in the public. I think that this is a great idea as it physically shows your personal development and you can watch yourself grow up  as you continue it over the years. I am quite persuaded to carry one out as an evaluation of my first year so look out for posts to come!

The Shut Up and Shoot Guide

I have found the book ‘The Shut Up and Shoot, Documentary Guide- by Anthony Q. Artis to easily understandable as well as enjoyable.

It gives tips and information on production work as well as camera work.

One of the points mentioned that I would have never thought of was food for the crew. The quality of food affects the morale of the team and I think that this is such an obvious point and yet probably rarely thought of.

Another handy tip they gave was to visit the location before actually filming in order to get a good idea of what the sound will be like as well as socialize with some of the people around the area to get to know the locals a bit more. They also advised to maybe have a local participate in the filming as they will be able to guide you through areas and help you out. Although talking to the locals sounds a bit scary for my liking, I think that this is a brilliant idea as you will get to learn about the culture of the area and understand it better which will show in the process of the filming as well as the outcome I think.

I have been watching the DVD attached to the book and it emphasizes how important sound is in comparison to the visual footage itself. It has given five steps to take when handling sound which I have noted down and took on board for future projects.

I am very keen to learn as much as possible about the production world in order to prepare myself for the media industry. I am going to have to publish my work that I do in order for it to be noticed and gain credit for it. I am very optimistic about learning at the moment and I have suddenly over the last couple of days (as I have had the days off)  have had the drive to learn. I’m not usually the type of person to read books but as it’s media related I have been writing down notes and memorizing vital parts of information.

A lot of what I have found is going to help me with the production of my 113 MC module as it has talked about camera work and lighting for example which is knowledge that I am going to be able to use. I have been gaining inspiration from books such as ‘How to .. write for television’ by William Smethurst which I have found extremely helpful. Currently no one in our group wants to carry out the job of producer so I have been preparing myself of the types of things to include in a script.

Inspiration for the ‘Broadcasting Media’ module

I am currently carrying out the broadcasting module which I am thoroughly enjoying and finding it to be a great experience. This is the side of the media industry that I am aiming to get into therefore allowing me to be as experimental as I can with this module in order to find out more specifically what I would like to do in the further future.

My suggestion of doing a children’s programme has successfully been taken into consideration which I am delighted about. I gained my inspiration from the ‘Art Attack’ show as I used to love the programme as a child. As I have also liked art all my life alongside media, I thought that this would be a great opportunity to combine the both in a more creative and adventurous way. Programmes such as ‘Smart’ that has the character Morph as a type of mascot has also given me idea to possibly include some sort of mascot in our show for children to relate to and recognize the programme whenever this character is seen.

I will be using inspiration and gaining ideas for some fantastic art makes through using the ‘Art Attack’ website which I will share with the group and the chosen presenters. I will ensure that these arty makes are straight forward but yet creative and fun (I think that the presenters will end up having more fun than the kids!).

For the set design of our show I have gain inspiration from Dean Holbrook as he has created a really artistic splat painting which I think would be great for a kids show.

Source: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/splat-dean-holbrook.html

I have the idea of investing in a big white sheet which we would then lay onto the ground and use coloured paints to get the whole group to do hand prints and splats onto the sheet to use as the background.

I will be watching children’s programmes (yay) to help me to gain even more inspiration and ideas of sets, presenter styles, content and also arty makes.