Digital News Production Unit- Package Rough Cut- Andy's Parts

Recently Andrei has sent the members of  ARMA the footage of Andy for our package piece on internet trolls, which will be used in our digital news piece.

Personally I really like this footage. Andy has managed to capture a more informal style of presenting, which very much mirrors my own style of presenting. This is a good thing, as this means viewer's watching the entire news piece will not be put off by two very different styles of presenting.
The next step will be for us to collect cut-away shots to match some of the subjects Andy is talking about.
We have given this careful discussion and one of the main pieces of film we have decided on capturing is screenshots and screen-captured footage of people creating and using fake accounts, as well as some symbolic footage of a shady character using a computer to symbolise an "internet troll."

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Choosing a Kitchen Set.

Today I decided to investigate whether or not my kitchen would be a suitable area to film the indoor scenes for my adaptation of "An Anthem for a Doomed Youth". I did this simply by taking  afew photos with my phone camera and visualizing whether or not it looked good or not.

Obviously this isn't the best kind of way I could have tested this idea, as a phone camera is quite poor quality and will never emulate the quality of the DSLR I plan to use, but I feel that the snaps I took gave me a good idea of what I want the room to look like.

Here are the photos I took:

I actually really like the way the room looks, and the fact that only one of the kitchen lights were on creates a very dingy look, which is what I am going for with my film. The table also makes the scene look almost like an interrogation room.

Once I had the photos of the room, I decided to do a quick photoshop edit to lower the saturation and add a colour filter, which I plan to do with the final film. This would allow me to visualize the finished film even further. The edited photo is here:

As you can see, the edit is very subtle, but it adds a certain something. The colours look quite washed-out, but this is a result of the image being taken on a phone camera. 

As for the set itself, I am happy with the way it looks. The tiling above the cooker and the walls and flooring in particular look quite unkept- something I visualized when deciding on what kind of set I wanted.

One problem I discovered with this set however is that there are irremovable fire hazard signs in the kitchen which are written in English. If you remember, my character is Russian- living in Russia. Therefore it will be necessary for me to either cover this sign somehow, or do my best to not have it in shot when I film.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Final Script (Minus Inserted Poem)

I have recently completed my Fiction Adaptation script and have finalized a date for filming. I have chosen to film this coming Monday (1st of December 2014). The reason for this is that it gives me plenty of time to edit my film before the project submission which is the 12th of December, and it also gives me time to  re-shoot any scenes, should I need to due to mistakes etc.
In the past it has been necessary for me to do re-shoots because of the fact that there have been problems with the footage (members of the public in the background, non-suitable weather etc) which have caused problems during editing. Filming this early allows me plenty of time to quickly collect more footage if necessary.

The finished script for my film can be seen here:

Anthem for a Doomed Youth Script

You may notice that I have neglected to insert the lines of the poem; Anthem for a Doomed Youth into the script. This is intentional, and personally makes my job a lot easier. I feel like inserting the narrated lines of the poem into the film is something that would be a lot easier to just do during editing, as I don't have the ability to visualize where the lines will be spoken simply by looking at the script.
Once I have access to the edited footage however, I will know what kind of tone I want the lines spoken in, and also at what point I would like them to appear in the film.

I am however certain of where I want two of the poem's lines to appear in this poem though, and these are the lines "Only the monstrous anger of the guns" and "And each slow dusk, a drawing down of blinds" which will be spoken when the kettle clicks off knocking the character into a flash-forward, and when the bin lid closes slowly on the camera at the film's end respectively.
I think these are very effective uses of the poem's lines, but of course I will only know this for certain once I have the footage in front of me to edit.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Inspirational Director Work and Editing

I have recently taken it upon myself to investigate the work of some directors which might be inspirational for when I film my Fiction Adaptation film. I did this by first looking at some stills of war movies and other kinds of war footage, and then choosing some that seemed interesting to investigate further.
One film I was particularly interested in checking out was the war film "Saving Private Ryan." I have heard a lot about this film, but unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to actually sit down and watch it. After a quick google search, I came across this search result:

Something that became immediately obvious to me was the very particular colour scheme that the director; Steven Spielberg had chosen for this film. It seems to all be very much brown and grey, which suits the idea of war perfectly due to the fact that war often incorporates such visual elements as dirt and smoke, both of which are these colours.
This was something I had considered in the past, and I did plan on using a very saturated colour palette in my film, so I haven't particularly learned anything new from this quick investigation, but it has reinforced my previous idea to use said colour scheme, as if it worked in a highly successful, critically acclaimed film like Saving Private Ryan, it should work in my film too if I pull it off correctly.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Why Russia?

As I have been developing my main character's persona and drafting up ideas for the kinds of settings I want to use in my fiction adaptation film, I have become increasingly aware that some people may be confused as to why I have decided to set my film in Russia, and why my main character; Viktor is Russian.
The reasoning behind this is- in my mind at least- sound.

The popular portrayal of modern-day Russia in the Western world, is that of a very grey, cold, dull, environment, with minimal technology and a government which has an iron grip on the way the people of Russia live. Although this couldn't be further from the truth, as Russia is home to some of the most fantastic architecture and large rural areas, it is still portrayed this way in some films and television programs.
Something I noticed while researching some of the more Urban areas of Russia was that some of the streets and such look a lot like the area in which I am currently living in Rochester. Rochester is a very diverse place in terms of the kinds of buildings there, with some buildings looking futuristic and modern, and others looking quite run-down and old. If filmed in a correct way, I believe I could have it pass off as Russia if I were to make sure not to catch any English writing in my film or any landmarks that clearly show the film as being shot in England.

So, why Russia in particular and not somewhere else in the world?
Well, aside from some parts of Russia looking like certain parts of Rochester, I found it hard to picture a war taking place in England. The streets of England, and the busy Urban vibe I am used to make it difficult for me to imagine what it would be like for a war to take place on the streets which are usually chaotic, but chaotic in a different way to the one war provides.
However, I have seen multiple online videos of riots and bombings happening in Russia, and the country has appeared multiple times in media due to involvements in hostile take-overs of land and potential wars as of late.
Therefore the possibility of wars taking place on the streets of Russia is something I don't find especially hard to imagine, and there are plenty of online resources for me to collect and investigate which I could relate to this project.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Script Feedback and proposed improvements.

Today I received my script for my Fiction Adaptation Unit from Helen. I found the feedback to be incredibly useful, and it made me aware of certain issues that I hadn't considered previously. For example, Helen didn't seem to get the symbolism of the handgun replacing the mobile phone at the end of the script. This isn't down to a lack of understanding of symbolism, but down to the way in which I wrote the script. This issue made me aware that perhaps in this draft I haven't been careful enough when differentiating between what is happening in the character's mind, and what is actually happening in reality.
As a writer who understood exactly what I was getting at, this wasn't a problem for me, but the fact that someone on the outside looking in didn't understand what was happening from my script is perhaps a suggestion that I need to go back over these areas and make it clear that what is happening is purely symbolic, and not happening in reality.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Essay Feedback

I recently received the feedback for my Fiction Adaptation Unit, and found the experience to be very useful. The major point of the feedback I received was that I had mentioned Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King a little too much in certain areas of my essay. 

This is something I have already outlined myself in a previous blog where I stated that my essay was in danger of turning into a piece of writing whose subject was purely on those two people. This is a simple fix however, and I will improve this part of my essay by going back and removing some of the parts that are less relevant and making sure that whatever is left relates directly to Question 1 which I am answering.

Some other suggestions that were made were that I should focus on putting most of my efforts into researching Adaptation itself, and use a notable book to define what an adaptation is, as opposed to using a dictionary to define the meaning. This is something I should be able to accomplish quite simply as long as the books I need are available. A problem I had before was that the books on adaptation I wanted to use to find the meaning of adaptation were taken from the library, and as such weren't available to me. I will have to make sure that I am better prepared in the future, and possibly buy the books I need myself.

In terms of things I got praised for in my essay- the formatting and my use of Harvard referencing were apparently perfect and needed no change, which was good to know. I was also told that I had a good style of writing, and explained my points correctly, however- there were one or two areas were my writing started to deviate into a more informal style of writing, which is generally frowned upon in essay writing. I will be sure to return to these areas and try to make the same points, but with a much more focused style of writing and wording.

Something I learnt from my tutorial was that I am able to effectively "break the 4th wall" in my essay. This was something I was unsure of, and I didn't know whether or not I was able to make such statements as "this document will be a discussion of..." or "in this essay the following will be evaluated" etc. This point, although small was something I was quite unsure of, but now I know certain points in writing this essay and future ones should be a lot easier for me.

Digital News Production Unit- Analyzing BBC News

I order to improve our News Network, and also in order for me to get a better understanding of News setups, I have decided to investigate BBC News in order to analyze their presenting style, and how they operate in terms of how they present a story, how it leads in to following stories, and whether or not the order in which stories are shown have an impact.
I began my investigation by simply watching an episode of BBC News. This episode in fact:


Something I found interesting was the way in which the episode started. As with most reports, the show started with a teaser of the stories that would be shown on the episode. I found it quite interesting that the stories that were shown mostly involved quite violent and edgy current events, discussing terrorism and overpopulation.
This- I think would be enough to attract an audience in passing, as these two subjects alone garner a lot of interest from the general public. The teaser then ends with a light-hearted story on Comic Relief in which there is a celebration of a 25 year milestone of the charity event raising money.
I think this is an important factor when creating a news teaser, as most of the stories advertised were quite depressing or "voyeuristic", suggesting that only bad things are happening in the world. This could unintentionally leave the viewer feeling quite bad, and as such adding the comic relief story at the end is a really good way for the BBC to end on a high-note and something positive.

The first story discussed was the case of alleged terrorist threats, in which a package was shown. This package contained the use of videos which suggested terrorists had uploaded to the internet, while a narrator voiced over. The piece also contained a piece to camera by the narrator appearing on a busy street. I believe this setting was intentionally chosen, as terrorists often choose to attack places which are busy. Subliminally, this may be suggesting that "attacks could happen here", and can leave a lasting effect on the viewer next time they are in the same kind of area.
This package also contained an interview with Anjem Choudary, somebody who is often assosiated with terrorist threats and pro-extremist muslim views. In this interview, Choudhury defends himself against allegations that he was responsible for somebody becoming an extremist muslim.
Several graphics are shown of the people involved, (due to the fact they couldn't be there in person) while the same narrator voiced over.

This report has shown me the effectiveness that showing stories in a certain order can have, and also taught me the basics of how to properly transition from a studio segment to a package and also how a studio presenter would introduce a package etc.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Character Development

Based on feedback received from Helen and the rest of my class from when I pitched the idea for my Fiction Adaptation film, I have decided to do some development with the main character of my film. Our hero finally has a name!

After finding out generic names for Russian people online, I decided to name my character; "Viktor Vitalya". The reason for this is that it sounds very Russian, so people will know his nationality as soon as they hear his name. The story behind Viktor is that his parents died while he was very young, and he grew up in a poor part of Russia having to fend for himself. I will be able to show this by the environment in which Viktor lives, and the way he acts and dresses.

Although Viktor lives in a poor area and hasn't had much help from his country in terms of helping him live, he is incredibly patriotic.

This is mostly down to the fact that Russia is the only place he has ever truly known, and he doesn't fully understand that there are nicer places to live. As such, Viktor feels an obligation to fight for his country in the "New War", but doesn't want to die. 

This inner-conflict will be the main focus of this film.

Here are the notes I made on Viktor's character:

Digital News Production Unit- investigating News-worthiness

Today in our workshop we were investigating what makes a news item "news-worthy". What this means is how important is the news story, and at what point in the entire news production should the news item be shown. In order to investigate this, we decided to split up into groups and watch several half hour long news shows and makes notes on the ways they were different or the same.
My group consisted of myself, Andy and Lex.

We decided to choose two news programs that would contrast greatly, and these were the BBC news and Channel 5 news. It was actually quite astounding how similar the reports actually were, although there were one or two small differences. For example, the BBC news report was one consistent report all the way through, with no ad breaks (due to the BBC TV Licensing agreement) while channel 5's news report actually had an ad break. I felt this took the viewer out of the news story and by the time the ad had finished and returned to the news reporting, the viewer could have lost interest.

In terms of the stories that were shown, both began with a report on Remembrance Sunday, and the poppy set-up at London Tower. This makes sense, as it is a massive current event which is taking place. Although this may not have had much relevance with the rest of the world, who may not understand why poppies have so much importance to us as British people, British people would appreciate this kind of news story being shown first in the report.
Both news programs chose a different approach to ending their remembrance reports however. BBC News decided to make comparisons to the soldiers fighting in Syria, and Channel 5 News decided to make comparisons to soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.

Something I learnt from this experience is that current events play a massive part in deciding what order a news story should be played in during a report, and also that a lot of news programs may report on the same stories, but may have a different approach to tackling said stories, depending on their stance on certain subjects. This is mostly down to who owns the news station and whether the corporate sponsors of the stations are biased in any way.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Experimenting with photo rendering and editing.

I have briefly experimented with ways I can manipulate photographs for my flash-forward sequences for my fiction adaptation film.

I began my experiment with a stock photograph of a war zone. This warzone in fact:

Next I chose a subject to insert into the image. In this case, a stock photograph I took of my friend Cameron in front of a green screen several years ago:

Once I had my subject, I opened the photograph up in Photoshop and "Rendered" the image. This involves taking the pen tool and effectively cutting out the person in the photograph. When I was done, I had this:

And from here it was simply a case of inserting the subject into the original image and editing it in such a way that it fits in. For example, blurring the image if it is far back in the photograph, and changing the colours and lighting to fit the environment.

When I was done I had this:

Now, admittedly this is a very rushed, sloppy job, but it gets across the idea I had in mind and shows that I can accomplish what I originally wanted to if done correctly.

Somethings I learnt from this experience are:

• I will need to be very careful what perspectives I photograph subjects from, otherwise they may not appear correctly in the photograph and will look odd.
• Lighting is another important factor. When I photograph the original subject, I will have to try and keep the lighting as similar to the lighting of the environment it will be placed in so that it does not look out of place.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Contacting music composers and cover artists.

For my fiction adaptation film, I have recently begun the process of contacting music composers online and seeing if there is anybody that would be willing to create music for my film. I have also been checking out some open source music which I would be able to use free of charge.
One piece of music I have recently been addicted to listening to is "An Ending" by Brian Eno:


Now, Brian Eno is a very famous music composer, and this particular piece of music has appeared in mainstream media many times, including the film "28 days later" and an advert promoting donations to a charity specializing in providing aid to starving children in Africa. Obviously this means the music is not free to use, and as such, I wouldn't risk using it in my film in case I would received copyright strikes from youtube, or possibly even some kind of court action.

As such, I decided to contact a cover artist on Youtube who created this instrumental cover of the song:


I contacted this person through the youtube comments system, and to be honest I didn't expect a reply. However, I got one. Below is the comment string that we sent to each other:

Comments on youtube.

Now, of course I will have to thoroughly research the laws of using a cover version of an instrumentals to avoid any potential copyright strikes or action from Brian Enos production company, but this could be done easily online. As long as I also make sure to credit everyone who was involved in the creation of the cover (Brian Eno for the composition and Mitch Wiseman for the actual recording) I should be able to claim that I used the track under fair use.

So, why did I choose this music in particular?
Well, as I previously mentioned, the music have been used in 28 days later, a movie about zombies and death, and an advert providing foreign aid. This seems quite strange, as the music itself is very somber and calm, and zombie movies and 3rd world countries are generally seen as being anything but calm.
But this is the whole point that this music was chosen for. The dark imagery of decaying buildings being bombed, dead bodies littering the streets, and people being mown down in gunfire is something that contrasts greatly with this music. I hope to use this imagery in conjunction with this music to make the viewer feel extremely uncomfortable and generate a sense of confusing and anxiousness.

All in all, I really hope copyright laws allow me to use this music for my film, but if not, this STYLE of music is something I would like to play in my film.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Change of Idea and Script Draft

I mentioned in a previous blog that I'd pitched my story idea for my fiction adaptation film to my class. Unfortunately, I didn't believe the story I had come up with was strong enough, and a lot of my class-mates had the same idea to use PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) as part of the story and to incorporate flashbacks and stuff into their films in the same way that I intended to. As a result, my film would probably not look too much different to everybody elses, and would probably be lost in the shuffle. This got me thinking about ways that I could make my film more unique story-wise, and so it was back to the drawing board.
I have no idea where it came from, but a brand new story idea came to me. Everybody else seems to be focusing on characters that have definitely chosen to be involved with a certain war, whether it be a real war or fictional. This got me thinking about creating a character that would be indecisive about whether or not they really wanted to take part in the war effort. This would cause a conflict in the viewer's mind. Of course it's understandable that someone would be hesitant to put their life on the line at war, but it also shows a slight sign of cowardice and an unwillingness to be heroic. This gives the character a different edge, and also takes a new approach to the idea of someone in the war- an approach that I don't think many other people will consider.
My story this time will feature "flash-forwards" which are basically the main character debating whether or not they want to join the war through them thinking about all the things that could go wrong, and the many different ways they could lose their life.
I think story-wise this will help separate my film from everybody elses, who seem quite fixated on making the PTSD part of their stories character a major thing.

Here is my script so far. As you can see, there isn't much other than stage directions and a basic description of the settings, and this is down to the fact that I haven't decided where each line of the
poem will be spoken yet.

Anthem for a Doomed Youth Script

Digital News Production Unit- Anchor Greenscreen retake

Today we decided to hire a greenscreen, camera and lighting equipment so that we could retake ren Ball's anchor scenes for our digital news production unit. The reason for this was that after the initial showing of our rough cut to our course leader, the feedback we received was that it looked quite out of place compared to my piece to camera. Therefore, the only reasonable solution we had was to reshoot Ren's scenes in a more informal style, which would hopefully suit our overall production more.
here are some photos from the shoot:

From this experience and through talking to our technician, Fergus, I feel like I have learnt the importance of having a correct lighting and camera set-up. This will aid greatly when it comes to post-production work.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Sound and Clips Workshop

We began today with a workshop designed to help us understand how to set a certain mood and atmosphere by using music in conjuction with video clips. I immediately remembered a piece of music I'd heard by an Artist called Brian Eno in the film "28 days later."
The music is a very calm piece, and in the 28 days later film the music is used with big landscape shots as the characters travel from one area to another. With this in mind, I decided to take this idea and create my own version of it.
I began by collecting video clips of big landscape shots of the planet earth. These included outer-space shots, but also shots of huge cliffs and epic desert scenery. I felt that these clips suited the music perfectly and generated a very calm, soothing atmosphere.
Creatively I think this short piece was well designed too, as it starts with an outer space shot, introducing the planet earth. It then moves onto shots of huge glaciers and ice flows, before moving on to shots which contrast completely in the form of baron desert wastelands and sandstorms.
I end the film with a time-lapse shot of the sky going from day to night and finally a shot of planet earth once again.
This was to signify the vastly different climates our planet has, and the fact that these two supremely contrasting types of atmosphere can both exist on the same planet.
The video can be viewed here:



From this entire experience, I learnt that it is quite difficult to think of video clips to go with a piece of music, and instead I feel that it would have been a lot simpler to do it the other way around and start with video clips and instead find a piece of music that would suit them.
I have also learnt the importance of selecting appropriate music for a certain scene. For example, long shots with not a lot going on would be more suited to having slow, calm music and fast paced videos with a lot of action would require fast paced music.

However, there are some instances where music that contrasts is acceptable for ironic reasons, which can sometimes create amazing effects and develop emotion.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Pitching My Film Idea

Today I pitched my idea for my fiction adaptation film to the class. I feel that I did a good job of presenting my idea to the class, and I chose to do so in a very informal way which I thought would get my idea across to the class in a more relaxed, conversational style.
I made sure to show the example video (posted in an earlier blog) to the class so that they could see exactly what I meant when I said I wanted the flashback sequences of my film to be comprised of photographs.
The feedback I received was mostly related to my created character. I was told to really go in depth with the character's development and to really do my best to present him in a believable way which I feel I will be able to do if I make sure the mise en scene makes sense that I insert into my film and that the character's mannerisms reflect the mood and personality I want him to portray.
Whether I will be able to pull off all of my ideas remains to be seen, but I personally believe I can pull it off and that my finished product will live up to everybodies expectations.

Fiction Adaptation Unit- Storyboarding

Today I began storyboarding my film. I have recently decided on the story, which is a character replaying the events of a traumatic event at war in their mind.
I want my film to be very experimental with the shots and editing, and as a result, my storyboards might be slightly difficult for someone on the outside looking in to understand. I understand them completely though and I am very confident I will be able to pull these shots off when it comes to going and filming.

I have left several parts of the storyboard blank, as it is not complete yet. I will work out the duration and sounds that appear in each shot once I have finished every storyboard piece and I will know how much time I have to work with.