Beatsystem

For this exercise we were asked to take a series of 10 or more photographs and match them to 60 seconds of music, From a choice of four tracks by beatsystem I chose 23 million, but haven't yet been able to download the music.

Here are some of the pictures I plan to use.

Three Russian Pioneers

During the 1920s, the pioneering Russian film directors Seirge Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Lev Kuleshov demonstrated the effects and potential of using montage in film.

Seirge Eisenstein 19898-1948

Eisenstein was fascinated how an audiences responses could be aroused by film and was convinced you could manipulate time and space in film and so create new meaning. By heavily editing sequences his aim was to create ideas and responses in the audience that go beyond that of images themselves, tertium quid' (third thing) is the name given to the greater whole that arrises from individual parts.

In the film Battleship Potemkin. Eisenstien demonstrates the power of montage in this scene "Odessa Steps".

Dzgia Vertov 1896 - 1954

During the 1920s Vertov and several other film makers created a group called kinocks (kinio-oki meaning camera eyes) they rejected the cinema with their staged plots and props, they believed the cinema of the future should be fact and recordings of real life and everyday experiences.

Vertov began assembling clips without regard for continuity, his focus was upon "film truth"and capturing the world as he saw it. Although Vertov criticized Eisensteins commitment to narrative film, he still used his theory of montage in his films and took the technique beyond that of Eisenstein seen in the film "The man with movie camera"

Lev Kuleshov 1899-1970

kuleshov was known to Russian film makers as the " father of soviet cinema" he was one of the first film theorists who began experimenting with editing techniques and montage.

Famous for The kuleshov effect an experiment where three identical faces were edited together with three different images, a bowl of soup, a women and a coffin, the audience connected the emotional expression of the actor to each of the images and believed that the expression was different for each one.

Kuleshov demonstrated the importance of using montage in cinema and significantly influenced film makers of the time and right up to the present day.

Alfred Hitchcock refers to the effect in this short clip.

Vsevolod Pudovkin a student of kuleshov once wrote "We make films, Kuleshov made cinema."

Radio podcast

For this task I was asked to listen to a radio program or documentary and deconstruct the program in order to understand in greater detail how it was put together.

After listening to various different podcasts I decided to use this from the Blues Journey it is the first of four episodes telling the story of the blues as it travel across africa the Mississippi cotton fields to the streets of Chicargo.

I found the pod cast to be well presented and very informative. With a collection of interviews, blues music and narration the story is told well in only15 minuets.

Presented by Kipp Cornell, Titled ;Got them blues a history;

http://podcast.com/show/27189/Blues-Journey/

The events making up the podcast went as follows;

• Introduction to the title of the story and the presenter,with blues music playing in the background
• music fades in plays for half a minute fades back out into the background
• The presenter describes how the roots of blues music lie in the call and response slavery songs .
• cuts to a spiritual 1890s slave song plays for 20 seconds.
• presenter narrates over the song comparing hiphop and rap to the blues as they are all the voice of the black community.
• blues rift
• Interview with Mr l Hoppikins Texas blues player,describes his time in prison.
• presenter gives a short history about how the blues were said to help deflect the hard times
• Interview with Big Bill Brunsey who speaks of his experience of the blues
• cuts to a relevant blues track.

The format carries on in the same way for the remainder of the podcast, the presenter introduces the subject then a short clip of an interview discussing the same subject is played, cutting to a relative piece of music also telling the same story through song. The podcast goes on to talk about the klu klux clan and interviews migrants who headed north. The pod cast fades out with a blues tune and credits.

Proposal...Do I really need the supermarket.

With 70 percent of the population using supermarkets to do the majority of their shopping. It seems that today people are becoming more and more disconnected with the origins of the food they consume. Not only unaware of the long distances that some food travels but also how the food grows and is manufactured.

I propose to make a program series consisting of six episodes, each one featuring a different family but following the same format every week. A family are deprived of all their supermarket bought food and must live for one month on locally sourced foods, the program will illustrate the difficulties and frustration involved but will focus upon the growth and awareness the family develops and any positive affects that arise from the situation.

The target audience for my production would be families with an age range from children up to adults in their late forties. My program aims be both entertaining and informative, it will tackle issues such as the collapse of communities and local businesses as the amount of new supermarkets builds increase and carbon foot print, how we as consumers can reduce ours by making informed choices when buying food products.

I aim to increase the audiences awareness of their own consumer habits and by witnessing the positive effects upon the families during the series, I hope to impress upon people to think twice about what they purchase and take a more conscious approach towards where they shop and how they shop.

Vox Pops

Vox pop is a latin word short for vox populi meaning voice of the people. Usually comprising of a very short interview from members of the general public expressing an opinion on a particular subject or issue.

Heres an example of voxpops on the subject of religion



Vox pops are normally recorded on the streets and in public places, random members of the public are asked the same question each giving there own point of veiw. The various different replies should represent popular opinion from a cross section of society.

Treatment. Do I really need..

The introduction starts with imagery of people shopping and a voice over explaining how many people today use supermarkets and raise the question, do we now take our food for granted? Introduce the family.

A family of five with both parents working are stripped of all their supermarket bought foods and drinks and for one month they will live by a given set of rules out lining where to shop and how to shop, all food and drink bought and consumed must be from a local source (within seventy miles. They will however be given some basic foods and expected to bake for themselves.

As the family try to adapt to the new rules, difficulties and frustrations begin to arise. They become aware of just how many foods are off limits and how difficult it is to source a variety of food locally,It is proving to be very time consuming. The pressure builds for the already over stretched working couple and tempers begin to fray as the children become increasingly disheartened and bored at the lack of treats sweets and drinks.

A few weeks in and the family begin to settle and adjust to the change, they become more organized and begin to work together as a team, although though there are still strains and stress, a more positive attitude is emerging, the kids enjoy baking and going out shopping which has taken on a whole new meaning. They become increasingly more aware of where their food comes from as in its origins and how far some food travels.

Once the task is complete the family are reunited with their goods and allowed back to the supermarket ,they celebrate with a favourate family dinner and chat about their experience whilst indulging in all that has been forbidden.

The family reflect back as they look over some of the key footage taken over the past month and express what their feelings were and what was going through their minds at the time. They discuss how the experience has had any long lasting effects upon their lives, and how they now do things differently bringing around a more consumer conscious approach towards Shopping.

4002 Voice over correction

In yesterdays lesson we were asked to edit out the mistakes made in a voiceover and make the sound natural using logic pro.
sourced http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/logicpro/
I used the scissor tool to remove any mistakes and unwanted noises taking care when lining up the breaths so the voice flows and sounds natural. Once the process was complete the edit was bounced out as a wav file, then processed through the levelater which normalizes the sound and brings the levels together.

Here are the two voice recordings one before editing and one after.


This was a good exercise to refresh my skills in logic and become more familiar with some of the tools such as the zoom and the loop region, both useful tools when it comes to working in detail.

The most difficult part to this task was to actually find a place on the web to Host the audio clips. I finally decided to use Divshare.com and uploaded both my audio clips but was unable to stream the clips to my blog site. I finally resolved the problem by changing the file format of the audio files to MP3 using itunes and had no further problems using mp3 format.

What is a Soundscape ?

A soundscape is a number of natural, Industrial or urban sounds that when combined together as a series of events creates an ambience and gives the listener an awareness of the environment through sound.

According to Murray Schafer there are three main elements to a soundscape.

• Key Note Sounds, may not always be heard but they give us an idea of the environment, with sounds such as wind, animals, urban sounds.
• Sound signals, foreground sounds that jump out us such as alarms, bells and sirens.
• Soundmark, is a sound that is unique to a location.
  
  
  
  

I liked the idea these guys came up with, it was interesting to see how they gathered their sounds and went on to develop them in their own unique way. This piece of film illustrates the importance of sound and the impact when combined with images.

Do I really need the Supermarket ?

Do I really need .... The Supermarket.

I came up with this idea as I often have that very thought as I race around Tescos trying to do the weekly shopping. I do try where possible to support the local shops in my area and the town markets too and I have managed for periods of time not to use a supermarket. In my experience it is more time consuming and inconvenient way to shop in comparison to supermarket shopping but far more rewarding.

With supermarkets dominating the grocery market it is little surprise that many small businesses are closing as more supermarkets are been built. supermarket inquiry . Should we be supporting local businesses ? With the advent of online shopping people are becoming by far more detached from the food that they consume and from where it originates.

Take an average family of four or five, with both parents in full time employment, with children aged between five and sixteen. For a given period time around two to three weeks they would agree to filmed around the clock and live by a given set of rules. It would make a challenging subject throwing up some interesting issues.

The rules would be as follows.

• On day one all food stuffs bought from a supermarket or have not been sourced locally will be removed from the house. They would however be allowed to keep or be given basic baking ingredients such as Flour, oats yeast in order to bake their own bread or whatever they might choose and be encouraged to do so.
• No Supermarket shopping, restaurants, fast food or takeaways will be allowed.
• All groceries must be bought and sourced locally within a fifty mile radius including dairy products and meat.

It would be interesting to observe how great the impact that living with out a supermarket would have on a family and what difficulties would arise. Also if the experience has any positive effects upon a family, would they become more aware of their consumer habits and change the way they shop and eat. These would be the key issues I would focus upon and would want portray.

The Format

• Intro, how many people today use a supermarket and how will the family cope without one, etcetera.
• All food is removed from the house except what is allowed in the rules
• Family would be followed on their first shopping trip.
• Clips of family challenged by the life style and focus upon the difficulties and stress.

Second Half

• Clips of family enjoying any aspects of the life style.
• Focus on any new changes adopted.
• Family reflecting upon their experience having watched selected footage and if or how they might make any changes because of their experiences.
• Finally, family are reunited with supermarket. The end

Church struggles

For this exercise I was asked to photograph an atmospheric location and create a slide show with six shots, the idea being that we were to say more about the place than just the content of the pictures.

Before I set out on this project I had a clear idea of the location I was going to use and a rough idea of the shots I wanted to take. On arrival at the location I spent some time photographing the outside of the building and then went on to take some shots of the inside, only to find the door was locked. On previous visits I had always found access was not a problem and did not think to check.

I decided to move on to the nearby Pilton church. A truly stunning building in its own right. As the church came into view I realized for the first time just how grand and majestic it stands and certainly atmospheric. Having taken a good look around I decided it would make a good subject for the project.

• In my first shot I have tried to illustrate how the church towers before you as you approach from the front.
• For my second shot I wanted to create a sense of how grand the entrance feels and also to lead the eye up towards the ceiling, connecting to my next shot
• The skull and cross bone, I used this image to signify trouble and warning. The fourth shot of a fallen cross suggests a sense of sadness and neglect.
• As I looked around I got the feeling that all is not well with the church and it seems to have fallen upon difficult times so I chose the fifth image to illustrate that point.
• Finally the last shot of the cross overlooking the village I hoped to sum up the situation of the church looking to its community for help and support.

I found this exercise very rewarding in many ways and learned some valuable lessons. The next time I am planning to shoot in a location, I will check around the place first to ensure that it is going to be possible to collect all the material I need before I begin taking any pictures.

In future I will take more pictures in one session. When it came to sorting through the photographs to create the slideshow I wished I had took more shots of an image from different angles and had experimented a little more with exposure and depth of field.

I found that taking pictures of images that popped out at me and were not necessarily part of my plan actually came in very useful later on, as some of the photographs I used for the slide show were pictures taken randomly without any thought of how they might be used later.

As a result of what I learnt from this exercise I will now go on to do things differently in future projects, hopefully using my resources more efficiently.

Self Portrait

Photo Marathon

Part of our first project was to take a series of photos around the city of Bath. The themes were as follows. Autumn, Activity, Water, Repetition, Musical, Light, Decay, Contrast, Self Portrait, Old and Flash.
I found this project to be quiet rewarding as I quickly overcame my initial shy reaction at taking out the camera and went on to enjoy the task.