FICTION ADAPTATION - MAIN SHOOT

Shooting complete for now on the main bulk of my Fiction shoot I have left the door open for pick up shots if necessary. Although I have had no contact from the poet I had to go ahead with my shoot regardless. This was one of the biggest issues for me in shooting today was not having the timing that I wanted, I ended up having to read the poem out whilst my actor acted in the scene. However even with this slight hindrance I have managed to produce some really interesting and hopefully different imagery for my project, this is after what I always set out to do.

The whole set up took quite along time it included the jib, track and dolly, 2 projectors, 4 C-stands, lighting kit, props, 2 tripods and a laptop. It really shows that even on a small student shoot like this with 2 crew and an actor there is still a huge amount to get right and set up before even pressing record. This was our basic starting point to our set up:

Set up to start with testing different lighting techniques

Once we had the basic set up I had envisioned it was time to work on the jib and dolly to create the shots required. The jib use was really an experiment and I think I can say it failed with its consistency, we managed to get the right shots however the tripod holding the weight of the jib + sandbag on numerous occasions buckled under the weight. We did get the shots needed from the jib despite this issue.

Set up + jib

I had the whole shot planned out on a storyboard, but being me I decided there was some need for improvisation which I have so far seemed to do on all my shoots. Then again I can't believe that all films are made exactly to their storyboards. I like to change things according to how the look is on the day and how the lighting has worked out, I am not one for elaborate pre-planned shot lists.

Projector

Use of the projector was an aspect I have developed through research prior to shooting. It turned out to be an inspired move as the pictures so far have shown some great results with how I lit the shoot combined with the use of projection. I used the projector already in the lecture room to begin with to depict the exterior of the phone box however the rest of it was using the portable projector from the equipment store. I found it a really good looking expressive and most of all adaptable way of adding something to the image. I mainly used it for the words mentioned throughout the poem and as you can see below it came off quite well:

It really that something extra that I am always striving to find.

So overall a fairly relaxed and interpretive shoot that went along with few issues. I have now got to get the recording of the poem done once hopefully my poet replies to my emails, either that or I make of it what I can. The other things to do are shooting the opening and closing of the poem which will hopefully be shot in the few days or early next week. They should not take very long and will definitely not be as high brow as the shoot today. Then it will be into the edit to colour correct (a lot) and to assemble a successful piece of work. 

FICTION ADAPTATION - PREP

Getting ready and pre planned for my main shoot Tuesday the 24th November. The biggest help for me in preparing has been the storyboard as being a visual person I always associate better with images rather than words. So taking this into the shoot I only took the storyboard and poem for reference. I only did a short storyboard for the aid of this main bulk of my film with lots of annotations and shot plans.

Its only aa really a small amount of shots however they are complex in lighting, camera movement and use of 2 projectors to create the living embodiment of a red phone box.

I also completed the script as this will come in handy for the beginning and ending of the poem which will be shot on separate days in completely different surroundings. I do feel that without the use of script and storyboard I would have struggled to finish my shoot in less that a day.

FICTION ADAPTATION - MONTAGE WORKSHOP FINAL

Finished montage piece which I would describe as under the themes of fear and despair. I have continued to progress with 2.5D doing a good number of them working to try and make them better and more effective. They have been a very good way of adding depth and movement to a still image making it almost deceptively like camera footage. The main thing I had to work on for 2.5D was cutting out the images on Photoshop and then replacing the background by painting it in. This was by far the most difficult aspect of this workshop. Here are a couple of the more successful 2.5D animations I created using images:



Probably the best one I managed above of this man during the 2011 London Riots.



Really good thing to try and definitely something I will take onto future projects and even my Fiction adaptation. I have already planned to use it for my opening verse.

Here is the final montage clip put together using the famous speech from the 1976 film Network performed by Peter Finch:

FICTION ADAPTATION - TESTING SET-UP

I needed to see how my whole set up would work for the main bulk of my film. I plan to film this in the studios in lecture room 1 where I will have space and control over light. There have been many changes to the set up as planned as I was at one point going to have red curtains behind my actor opening and closing, instead I have gone for the option of having my actor sitting in what would appear to be a red corner (phone box).

Red non-woven fabric making up one side of my corner

The next stage of this was to think about projection. I looked into this with research as shown in previous blogs, and have come to the conclusion that its the right route to go down. It will give me options and allow me to project images when they are cued by the voice over.

Demonstration of the effect possible using the projector

Another example

One half of the full set up

The test was quite successful and only confirmed my suspicions that this can be very effective and if I pull it off I will have a great piece of work to present.

I plan to do another final practise on Monday before shooting on Tuesday.

I will be shooting the beginning and end of the poem in separate locations with the help of Jess and Plamen. Opening in a park with my arc like a pagan ritual and then somehow recreating the sense of being under-water for the final scene.

DIGITAL NEWS CRITICAL ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

News by definition is newly received noteworthy information primarily about recent events. News is important to people as it provides information on current events as a 'window on the world'. It is revealed to us in a transparent form which is meant to be impartial and accurate in accordance with the Broadcasting Act (1997). Without news people would not be able to find out about the constantly changing modern world we live in. Digital news set us the challenge of creating a news channel about a topic of our choice and to make it entertaining, noteworthy and current. I will be critically analysing our news channel FilmHouse News and comparing it with relevant examples of news content including BBC and ArtsJournal News.

CONCEPT/BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Branding is a key component of any company that wishes to be recognised, it is an element of news channels but also for example production companies, food chains, sports teams essentially if you have a company you need a brand. When it comes to branding it is about competition with other companies your logo needs “to stand out unless you literally have no competition” (Alton, 2015). It can be the difference between a profit or a loss for a company, which is why they work tirelessly on the area of branding. A great example of a logo that is recognisable in the news industry is 'The New York Times' with its ornate calligraphy with a stark black and white colour scheme. The black is a symbol of excellence, strength, innovation, elegance and a dynamic attitude. It has a traditional and recognisable look and this coupled with the tagline below it 'Expect the world' immediately tells readers it is a paper that reports on news of the world. It is a testament to the logo that it has become so synonymous with newspapers in general. 

 

Fig 1: New York Times logo (1960's)

The topic of film and cinemas was the basis for our channel, so we developed many ideas of branding which included cameras, cinemas, popcorn and film tickets. Finally ending up with the logo below which immediately tells the viewer what they are about to be told about. The idea here was to use the name to say that we were talking about the places films are shown cinemas, with the use of the word 'House' and we backed this up with the imagery of the logo on the channel website and all the visual content we produced. 

Fig. 2: FilmHouse News logo (2015)

Immediately comparing the two there is a clear difference in that our logo is highly cluttered for lack of a better word. Your eye gets taken around the frame and not necessarily straight to the words at the top. Looking back it would have been very beneficial for us to include our tagline on the logo.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

"Each person in (an) audience may have a news service that he or she uses regularly...the people who run news stations know that" (Boyd, 2000) so we as a FilmHouse news had to find the audience who would tune into hear the cinema news. When looking into this we had to look at our themes and subject matter and target an audience to aim at. We would have to be looking at creating a channel that was a kin to the entertainment sections for news channels such as BBC's entertainment section and CNN's entertainment section. With such a niche subject about a small local region such as Kent we had to think that our audience would be small and especially interested in going to cinemas. We had to think of people who might want to know about new cinemas popping up in the region so as they might be able to get better prices and screenings. Our channel would divulge the details on all local cinemas and screenings so that people can have a quickly accessible channel to visit for all their specific needs in cinema. When looking at entertainment and information they "are often held in tension...where news ends entertainment begins is more than a matter of house style...Where that line is drawn will depend on the target audience"(Boyd, 2000). 

Entertainment will always be pushed down the pecking order if for example a terrorist attack has occurred, the arts would go under the same importance as entertainment. However when a news channel is thinking about its ratings it almost certainly needs entertainment and arts to keep it going. If a news channel only puts out broadcasts which only talk about death and destruction there is only a certain amount your average audience member will be able to take. This is why they insert little human interest and entertainment stories 'Duck on a Skateboard' being a classic line as it is something that would intrigue, astonish and entertain. These are the types of stories that keep a news channels audience coming back, especially if these stories are at the end of a broadcast. The torrid truth of the news is that, as Armstrong Williams says "If it bleeds, it leads" which means if their is tragedy and destruction it will be at the top of the bill in a broadcast.

What we created was a channel that specifically caters for the arts with a niche audience and a small range of stories staying in a local area. The channel won't report on tragedy and destruction instead would just go on discussing cinema and film screenings. The channel would go under the title of special local interest as it is focussing on small region and therefore talk about job opportunities involved with the cinemas popping up around the area. National news programs would very unlikely report on stories such as these. "Audience loyalty is built when a station is seen to be providing a truly local news service" (Boyd, 2000) our channel aimed it locally by focussing on the 2 stories 1 in Maidstone and the other in Sittingbourne, both fairly close to each other in Kent. It is necessary to state that we did originally film an interview concerning the London Film Festival however it was decided that the channel would be more suited to a local audience.    

PLATFORM RESEARCH

News is distributed in many forms, but primarily today on computer and phone. Today news companies produce news for newspaper, website, phone app and Youtube channels. Ever since the first television news broadcast in 1930 and then the increase in influence of World Wide Web in the 1990's news has been changed into something entirely different. As demonstrated by Reuters 2015 Digital news report a large proportion of people now use Computers (83%), Smartphones (66%), Tablet (57%) proportion checking the news weekly (global). Looking alternatively at daily newspaper sales in the UK which dropped by half a million in a year, so where last year the figure was 7.6million a day it was recorded at 7million a day this year. The Guardian reported a large drop with a 9.5% decrease in daily sales from March 2014 to March 2015. These figures back up the case that newspapers are an increasingly  disregarded form of getting news to people. This is in large part to do with the meteoric rise of social media.

 News companies are continually having to adapt to the way in which we receive news. In this modern environment it could be argued that "the growth of social media has made us all into citizen journalists" (Greenslade, 2015). Social media has played a big part in how news is spread to people around the world. It is a tool that is being used by news channels now not out of choice, but out of necessity to continue to keep their audience and compete in the competitive world of digital news.

When you look at how news channels have gone down the social media route to get the word around, our news channel FilmHouse News has done a similar thing in terms of platforms. For our channel we created a website, Youtube Channel, Twitter, Facebook and even Snapchat page to make sure our channel was on the right platforms for todays modern environment. With this combination we have a Youtube channel and website to present content and social media to take people to the content as well as get the brand out there.

Case Study: Secret Cinema 

This is not so much a specific news article, but instead a cinema that uses techniques such as social media to make people aware of what is happening. The Cinema is as the name suggests completely secret, the company make great use of social media to put out cryptic messages which keep people guessing what films will be screened. The Evening Standard has reported on the most recent date announcements and ticket prices which have been extremely high especially for an unknown film. In the past the company have shown such films as Back to the Future (1985) and Casablanca (1940). Whats evident here is that social media is key because all news companies can report on is the price and location prior to the event, the real power is with social media where they post their secret messages. In a way this can be linked to our channel in that we are making people aware of cinemas that may not have necessarily got the attention before through the power of social media.

NEWS GENRE RESEARCH

The genre of news is a category of media in itself that is arguably a hugely necessary part of the way we go about our daily lives. To talk about the genre as a concept it is first important to talk about what constitutes news. News may come in many forms from town cryers to Twitter news has been reaching us throughout history. The question to ask here is What constitutes news? Certain criteria should be looked at: Is it new, Is it unusual, Is it interesting or significant, Is it about people? These are the criteria journalists will have to address before putting out news to people. The information has to be new first and foremost, if you are reporting on a natural disaster that happened a month ago it is not news, unless there is cause to return to the incident for new information. What news channels present varies from channel to channel and can is altered by the "beliefs within a news organisation" Creeber (2001). There are always altering views even within one company so to be completely impartial is a thankless task especially for a corporation like the BBC.

Case Study: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) - Article - Impartiality: the impossible battle that the BBC cannot win

The BBC is a large company which not only dominates viewing in the UK, but also operates globally with the world service and BBC worldwide. It is a company which has been going for 93 years with views and opinions changing throughout its history. In a recent article by Peter Preston for the Guardian he talks about the impossible battle the BBC faces to stay impartial. Preston says in the article "Impartiality...silence and/or discreet boredom" whilst talking about our current monarch who we have "praised for never saying anything interesting or remotely controversial" (Preston, 2015). He is basically saying that to be completely impartial we the BBC would not be able to broadcast news. Preston's article comes off the back of an inquest into sexism and ageism at the BBC, after 'House of Cards' (Novel, 1989) author Michael Dobbs brought up the topic. What Preston is arguing in the article though is that the BBC would have to become like the Queen to be completely impartial as she hasn't some out with comments for people to disagree with during her reign. The other factor for the BBC is that it is a public service broadcast which means anything they do that is controversial can bring out complaints from the paying customers.
   

NEWS STORY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

When looking into stories for our channel we stayed local as this would be more accessible to us. We found stories on Sittingbourne's New Century cinema through word of mouth and then going to the cinema to see first hand which we did 2 times prior to the interview. In this way we had time to prepare which may not be the case with a fully fledged incredibly busy news channel which has to put out news every day. 

For our other story on the Maidstone film society I personally went to the cinema to attend a screening and to see the set up. Our second trip involved meeting with Michael Caine the chairman and agreeing on a date to talk. So again we had multiple weeks and plenty of time to do our research, we could even tell our interviewees what they might be talking about weeks before their interviews. Compare this with a large channel like BBC who will find out about a story and within the hour have to have someone on the scene all be it a reporter close to the incident. 

SCRIPTING AND STORYTELLING

When it comes to scripting and storytelling in the news it ultimately comes down to decisions made by people such as the news editor. He/She makes decisions on which stories to put out and where on a news broadcast. Scripting on a channel is about ordering things and choosing length in terms of the running time of the broadcast, these all depend on certain aspects in the short time they will have there will be items that will miss out due to items deemed more important. This however is where the term agenda-setting comes into play. The term first arose in 1968 with the Chapel Hill study by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, the two of them began to suggest this agenda-setting theory. It was during the Humphrey/Nixon election in 68' where they wrote about how the media was being controlled in certain ways from the behind the scenes. 

On our news channel we used a few separate examples of cinemas and screenings to talk about, but as we made channel about such a niche subject it is difficult to create an agenda. An extreme example for our channel would be to only focus on 1 cinema, but as shown we varied our cinemas and screenings. 

CRITICAL REFLECTIONS & CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion the channel FilmHouse News is a channel that should well and truly sit under the heading of arts & culture. It is still appropriate to adhere to the rules of news broadcasting even if it is a cultural program. In the grand scheme of a news channel it can’t be denied that FilmHouse would be pushed down the pecking order to natural disasters and famous deaths, but it is still an important part of the news. Arts and culture are important for a news channel to keep its audience coming back so they can find out about the pressing issues at the top of the news. 

In reflection I would say that our channel lacked the real cutting edge story that we needed to grip an audience. We had positives to look at in the aesthetics and branding to an extent, and we knew which direction we wanted to go with channel. However as I mentioned the stories were what prevented us from taking our channel to the next step. We did make a recognisable news channel with a wide variety of platforms and a topic for locals and film lovers to be informed as well as entertained. 

Bibliography: 

Alton, Larry (2015) 4 Distributors that made superior branding their competitive edge, Entrepreneur Magazine 

Boyd, Andrew (2008 edition, originally published 2000) Broadcast Journalism, Focal Press

Creeber, Glen (2nd edition, 2008, originally published 2001) The Television Genre Book, London: Palgrave Macmillan 

Greenslade, Roy (2012) Local News Crisis: why newspapers remain so important to the public, The Guardian  

Jackson, Jasper (2015) National daily newspaper sales fall by half a million in a year, The Guardian

Newman, Nic (Research associate) (2015) Executive Summary and key findings of the 2015 report, Reuters Institute

Preston, Peter (2015) Impartiality: the impossible battle that the BBC cannot win, The Guardian

Illustrations:

Figure. 1

Benguiat, Ed

The New York Times Newspaper Logo

(1960's)

http://www.andrewmuthlaw.com/

(Accessed on 8.12.15)

Figure. 2

FilmHouse News Logo

(2015)

FICTION ADAPTATION: MONTAGE WORKSHOP/EXPERIMENTING

So Fergus introduced us to 2.5D animation and I have spent the week attempting to crack it. After about 3 separate attempts on photoshop to cut an image and then use after effects to move it in a 3D space. The original clip we were shown was this one from the creators project, which may I add made it look very easy.



However I discovered that this didn't really tell me enough, so I had to find a more in depth tutorial on how to do it. This more lengthy clip was very helpful and has pretty much taught me everything I need.



So after almost a week I have managed to get a first result of what resembles this effect. Although the issues for me were the cutting around the subject in photoshop which I failed at miserably although if I can get it right next time I will be in a very good place to create something very professional.

Heres my first attempt:



Using Photoshop to cut out the subject:

Then taking it into a 3D space in after effects:

Really pleased with the first outcome and will probably look to use this in my montage workshop piece and then even possibly further into my Fiction project.

FICTION ADAPDATION: VERSE BY VERSE

Trying to break down the poem so that I can write a script from it. Also need to give the poem content in it rather than just a bunch of mismatched ideas floating around.

VERSE 1

Between Haywards Heath and Gatwick, 
there's a trackside clearing deep in scrub 
where thirty red phone boxes stand in an arc.
Their positioning, deliberate and deep in woods,
makes a Pagan ritual: red hoods, torches, prayers
to bygone England, a sacrifice of rabbit.

I'd like to start by going deep into the woods possibly using a time lapse moving forward. Setting early evening when just turning dark. To create the arc of red phone boxes I have looked to recreate the pagan ritual description. I want to have 30 hooded figures in an arc holding flames (torch or candle?). To create this I have looked back in my memory to when I attempted to create long exposure photography by myself during my time on the foundation course at Epsom. 

Use of a lighter and glowsticks

Not particularly safe option, but using a can of deodorant and a lighter
(I can attest to that as I was burned)

 This is obviously the efforts of an amateur and inexperienced photographer, I have really taken inspiration from such shots as these below call it a mood board of imagery:

 This image (above) is eerily similar to what I had imagined even before I had seen this.

These photos are testament to what is possible with photography which is a great source of imagery. However I want to take it a step further and try and do a similar kind of thing with moving image, using a static camera on a tripod.

FICTION ADAPTATION: PROPS & SET

My main location will need some setting up into the way I want it to look. I have already looked heavily into getting large bits of red fabric for the background, the idea being to use the stands to set up a box shape around my actor who will be sitting on a chair holding an old style phone.

I have already managed to get hold of a phone which looks great:

Replica 1929 telephone

The other thing for me is probably getting a projector if I am not going to use the lecture room, as this will now make up a large part of whats on screen.

DEVELOPMENT

Lightbulb moment came today when I saw a set of red curtains in town. I thought this could work well as the back wall to my phone box allowing me to draw them back to make better use of the projector on a different colour wall. I would still have the sides red, in fact I have already ordered red fabric for the sides which should be here on Thursday.

FICTION ADAPTATION: PLANNING, FINDING A VOICE AND LOCATION

I have narrowed down my choices for a voice I began with different ideas for a voice type, but have now settled on the voice that will suit and be most interesting. I have based these choices from the type of recordings they have on their voices pro pages.

The choices:

• Robert Blythe: voice similar to Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins, traditional English. 
• Jeremy Greenaway: More presenter type for radio and tv 
• Terence Pickering: the voice I will probably use if I can get him of course, he does a perfect Herbert Asquith WWI announcement much like the radio of the time which I think will be an interesting voice for my project. 

I think with my poem its about contrasts between the traditional British phone box and the changing environment surrounding it. So I think the use of a projector in my red room will be quite effective. The idea brought me back to the Jaguar adverts released in the last couple of years.

If I can pull it off I can see it being successful and also be a way for me to show the other images in the poem on the background or on the actor, much like they do in the adverts. Definitely not going for same kind of suave style shown in these ads although I would love to, my poem has a different type of story.

Location

For my location the most important thing is space and time to be able to pull off something like this. I have looked into 2 options:

• Barming Parish Hall where Michael Hoad filmed his fiction a year ago which I was a part of. It would cost me something, but is a a really nice open space to play with also with plug sockets

• Cheaper option would be lecture room 2 in our base room. As it already has a projector in it and could be easily transformed into the red box I need. Less space in the room however would possibly prevent versatility.

This would be the main location and then I would have to film other parts separately like street markets, trucks, graffiti, maybe Lewes road itself. I could use the trip to Brighton for Plamen's film (on which I will be DoP) as an opportunity to film some things to be projected on the background (Plamen being my DoP).