Group Project - Coming up with the Idea

After each individually researching for our documentary project we called another group discussion to brainstorm our ideas. Before coming up with our final idea we had four other suggestions, although once again they were all a little lacklustre as we had to think of feasible options.

The first idea we discussed was one I had researched myself based around the 'Noah's Ark Zoo' in Bristol. My thoughts were that we could have interviews with staff that work around the zoo giving an insight into their daily lives. It could have been interesting to film and we would have had plenty of various areas that we could film for cutaways and montages. It would have also been somewhat enjoyable getting to film all the different kinds of animals, especially with many of them due to give birth within the possible months of filming. That said, we weren't sure how great a hook this would be and felt it wouldn't be too appealing to an audience. As well as this it seemed to be more of a promotional film then that of a documentary and didn't seem too practical to actually set out and film.

Gerald the Giraffe at Noah's Ark Zoo

Our second idea was very different, based around local crime within Weston and making for a very topical film debate. Our target idea was youth crime and teenage violence as this would interest us and also be quite appropriate considering the recent trouble Weston has had with this matter. This was of particular interest with me as a friend of the family had actually been attacked by a group of youngsters within the last year, allowing a personal degree of significance. We also looked at anti-social behaviour on weekend nights as another possible area we could look into. Whilst a reasonable idea and something both the group and our potential audience could be interested in, we found that it wasn't a workable production. We predicted many issues that could occur if we made this project, including contributor reliability, youth consent (parent's permission) and even getting people to feature in our video. Because of all of this we decided that this wasn't a great idea, at least not for a student project.

Youth Crime and Teenage Violence

The other few ideas we had were admittedly a little dire, with one being a film about Weston-Super-Mare FC's local football team and the other a fans view of one of the upcoming games conventions. The first idea could of had a reasonable hook, since the team was battling regulation at the bottom of their league however because of this the team members themselves probably wouldn't be too keen to feature. The idea about the games convention just didn't seem practical at all, it would have meant travelling outside of Somerset for any of them and having to plan and film for it on a date that was out of our college schedule. Other than that, there would have been the good chance that we would have been a little bit distracted around all the game stands.

A Games Convention In Germany

Finally we came to our final idea; something we all agreed would be interesting, practical and local enough for us to work on. This idea was a documentary for World War 2, in which we could feature memories and past-times from people who survived the war. We felt this was good idea as it could appeal to all ages and would definitely have a hook that all people could be interested in. We realised with the available locations and known relatives and neighbours of some of our group that this would be very accessible and would be a lot more feasible to film and complete than our other ideas. With our idea set in motion we were all set to begin developing the idea.

World War 2

Group Project - Introduction

For the second semester of the Broadcast Media FdA we have been required to produce two films for two of our three modules. These modules included ‘BC1005 Introduction to video’ and ‘BC1006 Making a video project’. The first involved making an individual production whereas the latter required a group film and being such a small class the group film existed of just the three of us. The three in our group were me, Dean Smith and Monish Kelly and at the same time we each helped one another for our individual projects too. The following blogs will follow the various steps of each films production, starting right at the beginning.

From Left to right, Me, Dean and Monish, Our group - Minus the Storm Trooper

For the group project we were expected to produce a drama or documentary of our choice with duration of 5-7 minutes. In our first discussion as a group we came up with a brief project schedule and decided our roles in the production. From this we decided that Dean would once again be producer, I would take the role of Director and Monish would be Cinematographer. We would all share paperwork, editing and filming responsibilities although our main roles could possibly overall another group member’s decision.

It would be my turn in the directors seat

I was quite happy being cast as director as it made me feel that I had quite an important role within this production, although at the same time felt a little out of place since I’d not been in a directorial position before. I felt Dean and Monish were rather happy with these roles; however I did get the distinct impression that Monish would have liked more authority within this project. I somewhat agree with this as Dean had already been Producer for the last group project we’d done in the previous semester and that it should probably have gone to Monish but we were all rather content with our positions and after deciding on making a documentary we soon moved on to individually research an idea for our film.

A Group Meeting Before Beginning Research

BC1004 Writing for Broadcast Media - News Item

WOLVERINE CLAWS HIS WAY BACK TO THE TOP

The latest in the X-men film series has been a success at the Box Office despite the entire film being leaked on the internet a month before the film’s release.

'X-men Origins: Wolverine' - In Cinemas Now!!

‘X-men Origins: Wolverine', a spinoff of the previous three X-men movies shot right to the top of the charts after the takings from its first weekend. The film starring Hugh Jackman took 6.7 million pounds in its first day, keeping way ahead ‘Hanna Montana: The Movie’ which was the second biggest release. The Walt Disney film with teen actress Miley Cyrus as her famous television personality only managed 2 million pounds on its debut.

An Angry Wolverine still beat Hannah Montana!!

A month before the film’s release, tragedy struck when an almost finished copy of Wolverine was leaked onto the internet. It was estimated to have been downloaded 100,000 times from file sharing websites like ‘Limewire’ and ‘Pirate Bay’. Film studio 20th Century Fox soon confirmed that the copy had been removed and reported to the FBI. Both the FBI and the Motion Picture Association of America were investigating who might have pirated it and have promised to prosecute the culprit/s, but as of yet nobody has been charged.















"It's a serious crime and there's no doubt its very disappointing – I was heartbroken by it" said Wolverine himself Hugh Jackman when asked about the leak. "Obviously people are seeing an unfinished film. It's like a Ferrari without a paint job."

The man with the claws - Hugh Jackman

The leaked film which lacks most of its special effects and music left fans fighting their temptations and despite several early reviews of the incomplete film appearing online many still flocked to watch it on the big screen.

‘’I stopped myself from watching at home as it just wouldn’t have been the same as seeing it at the cinema’’ said James Geekish, a lifelong X-men fan , ‘’I’m glad I waited too, it may have not been the best of the series but I certainly enjoyed it’’.

The Main Cast of X-men Origins Wolverine

The Movie, which also stars Liev Schreiber and rapper Will.I.Am, still did extremely well in sales and despite not topping the opening weekends of the previous two X-men films a sequel has already been announced. Fox has also confirmed a further three spinoff’s from the X-men franchise, including a spinoff from ‘Wolverine’ featuring the character ‘Deadpool’ as
portrayed in the movie by Ryan Reynolds.

Evaluation of first Semester

Since beginning the course in October, I had always been a little bit wary towards the idea of doing a whole semester of mainly sound related modules. I have always preferred working with video so the fact that we haven't had the chance to touch a camera yet has been a little frustrating for me. That said, whilst not too enthusiastic to begin with I soon started to appreciate doing the various sound assignments and even found it quite interesting learning about different aspects of sound. Too my surprise, the last few month's without a camera have been rather good fun and despite earlier lack's in enthusiasm I actually enjoyed it. With my first semester coming to a close, its time to evaluate the things I am most proud of doing in these first few months as well as the things I believe I could have done better within each module.

Throughout this blog there shall be a selection of links (marked red) that will refer to previous posts looking at separate parts of the course in more detail. These can be considered part of my evaluation and therefore saves me from repeating previous blogs within this one.



BC1001 Introduction to Broadcast Media: Roles and Processes

Out of the three modules we've done since beginning in October, BC1001 was probably my least favourite. Whilst I didn't mind doing the portfolio and particularly liked editing for it, it was in fact doing this blog (or 'reflective learning diary') that I wasn't too keen on. Having been on the BTEC Media Production course before this I already had learnt (and written about) a lot of what the blog seemed to require and whilst a previous knowledge was helpful It was rather tedious researching and typing about it all again. Nevertheless, I could understand why it was needed and tried to refrain from moaning about it, although I am concerned that my lack of enthusiasm may have shown occasionally. I also feel that this could have been because I may have had trouble adjusting to doing written work in this way, having written work in an essay format since being at School.

Usually I am rather organised and on top of thing's, however with the blogs I somehow managed to lose track and they always seemed to be put of until last. With work from the other modules as well as doing stuff outside of college (my job etc.) doing blogs became less of a priority when really it is a lot more important than I had believed it to be. In consideration looking back at all the time I've had I now realise it would have been a lot simpler had I just worked on little bit's after every lesson instead of rushing to get it done in the last few weeks. It has also come to my attention that I'm a bit too much of a perfectionist and when it comes to writing these blogs I tend to write a lot more than originally intended.

A few other things I believe I could do with improving are my vox pops and presentation skills, both in which rely heavily on my confidence. vox pops especially I find particularly hard and have had a fair few troubles over the last few months recording them. When we first started the course one of the first things we were told to do was to collect a selection of vox pops from around the college. I quickly learnt that making contact with people I don't know is something I find very hard to do, and over the course of the few weeks it didn't seem to get a great deal better. My confidence and learning how to approach people (for vox pops etc.) are both thing's i need to work on in the future as I believe they will both be required of me later on in life, especially working within the media industry.

Other than those few problems and the Blog, I did rather enjoy collecting and editing the rest of my research portfolio and feel that it all came together rather nicely in the end. I also believe that whilst it may have been a little rushed, this blog also shaped up pretty well...although I shall leave you to be the judge of that.

BC1002 Introduction to Sound

My Soundscape Evaluation is borrowed (but not completely copied) from my critical commentary.

BC1002 was probably my favourite of all the modules so far, as it involved a great deal of editing and the only bit of paperwork required for it was an 'essay' style critical commentary which i appreciated more as apposed to the blogs in BC1001. I was intrigued in the idea of a soundscape and found it really interesting learning about them, although above all my main interest was in the timed edits (including interviews) that i really had fun working on.

At the beginning of the Soundscape project, I didn’t have a great understanding of what they were and from the information I had gathered in class I wasn’t too convinced that there was a point in them at all. Because of this I didn’t begin my Soundscape with much enthusiasm, and instead chose to research the history behind it in a bid to become more involved in the project.

This definitely sparked my interest in the subject although perhaps all a little too late as I had already chosen my Soundscape’s theme and began recording. This theme was set around a typical bookstore during a busy Christmas time and since I worked in this particular bookstore during the weekends I originally thought that I could be inspired by my own experience of knowing what it sounds like there. I was wrong and I believe fairly lazy in making this decision as it was in fact very dull and gave way for little use of my imagination.

I believe my technical skills throughout the few days I recorded there were fairly adequate. I was able to use the FOSTEX equipment with great ease as I had been using it quite prominently throughout other modules of the course anyway and had grasped the controls and set up procedure quite well by then. I had been quite used to editing sound as well, but due to the many sounds I had recorded throughout the store it was rather complicated trying to arrange them in a way that sounded appealing and noticeable. Whilst quite tricky, I did manage to get it finished and I believe I did rather well in completing the Soundscape I had aimed for.

Admittedly, whilst happy I had accomplished and completed this Soundscape, Its fair to say that I definitely wasn’t satisfied with my efforts. After hearing the Soundscape’s created by some of my friends in class and one in particular which was very clever and rather abstract, I realised the potential of what I could have done myself. I believe that had I put my mind to it, I could have used my imagination a lot more and could therefore have made something that I could have been a lot happier with in the end.

BC1003 Group Audio Project

My Group Project evaluation uses a slightly refined version of the evaluation i handed in with the BC1003 work folder.

For the BC1003 Audio Project we were required to work as a team to create and produce a radio programme. The radio project was required to be 4-5 minutes long and involved assembling a production portfolio as well as a project pitch in front of a panel. The team consisted of the whole class, which consists of me, Dean, Monish and Rich. To begin with I was rather enthusiastic about this project, however whilst I did enjoy working with the other guys on the course its fair to say I was probably a little more involved with the other modules than I was this one. That said, I did want to get good grades within the module and wasn't willing to let the team down.

For the subject of our radio programme we had chosen Deans idea of Christmas which I was happy with, but when it came to narrowing it down into a smaller five minute feature it was rather complicated for us and we couldn’t quite figure out how to do it. It’s fair in saying that whilst I did my fair share of research and had a little creative input, it was the rest of the group and particularly Dean that was the main creative force in the planning stages. We managed to reduce the broad idea of Christmas to a more confined question of ‘how has the current recession affected people at Christmas and will it change their moral beliefs’.

After some deffinate troubles with the team pitch, we realised we still hadn’t allocated any job roles to each other for our project. For the team leader role it seemed obvious that it had to go to Dean, since it was quite clear he had the best idea what the final project should be like. Whilst I was a tad reluctant at first it soon became clear to me also that electing him as producer was the right thing to do and probably the best decision we made whilst doing the project. The rest of us along with Dean decided that we would share the rest of the job roles, and therefore would do most of the paperwork, research, recording and editing together.

To complete our show we needed some interviews and ‘vox-pops’ to accompany the presenters, who by this time had been allocated as Dean and me. Originally, we had planned to use none other than ex Star FM host Ian Downs as our presenter, although unfortunately he became unavailable during the time we were recording and Dean and I opted to do it instead. With the presenters bits firmly in place and edited it was time we got some interviews and vox-pops recorded.

Whilst I attempted to find the business people for our interview, Monish began researching for someone who could provide us with a religious view on Christmas and the Recession. Due to the events of our first pitch and following the advice we were given I had already e-mailed and phoned our local Chamber of Commerce as well as our local council in hope for an in-depth interview with them. Disappointingly the council never replied and the Chamber of Commerce did reply but too late, as we already completed our show. Instead we were forced to use our original idea of some local business in the town centre and due to my work and family connections I managed to get the boss’ of both BHSWH Smiths. Both the interviews seemed to go without a hitch and since I was quite familiar with both the people I was interviewing, my confidence issues weren’t much of a problem. When it came to doing the vox-pops however, I’m ashamed to say I did lack the confidence and more shamefully let my friend Monish do most of the work. It didn’t seem fair but he seemed okay with doing it and thankfully so, we were all very appreciative that he did. and

When it was time to edit, Monish, Rich and me all had a lot of editing to do on other projects where as Dean was quite up to date with all of his work. We agreed that he would begin editing and we would all take it in turns when we were finished with our own projects. After I had completed my editing, Dean had gotten quite far along with the programme and played it out to us. He had done a good job and a lot of editing, although we all agreed it needed a bit of tidying up. Since he'd become rather protective of his work, I assured him I would only ‘tweak’ little bits of his editing although the reality of it was I was actually a little scared to do anything in case I’d ruin it. I powered on however, did my tweaking and added the music and after an hour or so handed the editing duties to Monish.

With the programme finished I was quite proud with the result and as far as I’m aware the rest of the group were too. We had managed to create a five minute programme, an achievement in itself considering half way through the editing process we were coming close to a ten minute programme. It sounded informative, interesting and festive and we’d even unintentionally given it a slightly humorous touch which added some entertainment value (although we seem to be the only one's that find it funny!). Whilst it may not necessarily be what we had on paper at the beginning of the project, it had still achieved its purpose.

My Timed Edits

As part of the 'BC1002 Introduction to Sound' module we were required to do two timed edits that together would amount to half of our final grade. These two timed edits would require our creativity, demonstrating our ability to edit using 'ProTools' and would both be provided with unedited material for us to work with. Both were held under exam conditions and due to the time limit would force us to show our true editing potential, something of which was both an exiting and challenging prospect.

The Pro Tools 'Edit Suite'

The first of these edits was a 3 hour session where we required to create a professional edit of a local news radio programme. We had been provided with unedited material and had to organise and structure it to what we thought best, keeping in careful consideration of presentation and duration. The audio files we were provided with once again featured Ian Downs presenting a fake radio show and included a variety of news stories, links and a weather report. The duration we needed to edit these into needed to be 3 minutes long so it was clear that I would have to select the best stories and further edit them to make it all fit into a the short time span. This was quite tricky considering we had so much audio footage to sort through and had to include the weather at the end. We were also supplied with a selection of jingle Cd's that we had to select our theme and music, something of which I enjoyed personally and probably spent a bit too much time selecting. Nevertheless once I'd chosen my music and selected the parts I wanted to use in my edit, I quickly got started, disposing of any unusable clips and trimming the few I had down to keep within the time duration. I managed to complete it with time to spare and was pretty happy with the results, allowing for a huge sigh of relief.

The second timed edit was done in the space of a week and was probably one of the most enjoyable thing's I have done so far on the course. We were provided with a video clip of the film 'City of God', a rather unique clip that showed the character in it in the middle of a gun fight in the city suddenly transported (in what i presume is an old memory) to a desert setting where he's playing football with friends. The video was silent and required us to add sound and music to it, although this time we were required to find the material for it ourselves. Even before starting the edit I was rather eager to get working on it, the thought of being able to work with video for the first time in the course excited me as I have a huge preference of seeing the work I'm editing. Once we began editing I watched throughout the video and noted all the sounds I would be needing, the most important to me being some form of music, as I believe that music provides the best atmosphere within film. One of the best programs I have the chance to work with on this course is Soundtrack Pro, and any chance I can get I will be on it faster than lightning. At first I wanted to make something with some sort of African beat that would relate to the characters in the film, however
after watching it a few times and looking through the list of instruments on 'Soundtrack' I decided the best option was to go for a synthetic, slightly eerie theme that turned out to work very well with the film's style and narrative structure. It worked perfectly with the change of setting and allowed me to not get too involved adding various other sound effects. The few sound's I did use came from a website called 'sounddogs.com', a very handy website that provided me with anything from a clucking chicken to children cheering. With these in place, I kept their volume to a minimum and tried to reflect the sounds as the character in the clip would be hearing them. I believe I captured this rather well although had this not been a timed edit, I'm sure I would have spent a little bit longer working on it.

City of God 2003, Miramax films

I thoroughly enjoyed the timed edits during this semester, much like I have done editing on other projects throughout the course so far. These one's particularly showed me how much fun it can be to edit and whilst occasionally stressful it proved to me that editing is one of my key interests in media, something of which I would hope to be a part of my future career. For now though edits like these will be satisfying enough and I really can't wait to start working and editing new projects next semester.

Hard at work!!

Interviews with Ian Downs and Tom Cholmondeley

Our interview techniques have definitely been tested this semester, having needed to use them in various assignments and specifically for the 'BC1001 Roles and Processes' module. My interview skills were also required for the 'BC1003' group project, but it's within BC1001 that they were more essential and needed for good grades. As part of this module we were required to create and present a portfolio of research including a PowerPoint presentation, a one minute segment of Vox Pops and 2 two minute interviews. Fortunately our tutor had already acquired two interviewees for us, with our tasks including asking them the questions, recording their answers and editing both their audio into the 2 two minute segments. Both of the people we interviewed came from rather different backgrounds, the first being Radio and ex Star FM presenter Ian Downs and the second being experienced documentary director Tom
Cholmondeley.

Before our first interview none of us seemed too worried about doing it, I personally just thought that it'd be an easy few questions and answers that I would quickly edit, burn on to a disk and that would be the end of it. This theory however was quickly challenged when it came to having to think of questions to ask him and before long this became a bit of a problem for me. I have never been a person with the ability to think on the spot and even though this wasn't particularly challenging, being able to come up with some decent questions was proving difficult for me. I believe this was probably because I had been under the assumption that it all was going to be so easy, that I hadn't really thought thing's through beforehand. Nevertheless, I did eventually manage to come up with three questions (albeit maybe with a little support from the rest of the class) and after some preparation I was ready to go.

Despite the few small problems I had with coming up with questions, the rest of the interview with Ian was pretty simple and easily done. Ian had a great voice for recording and plenty to talk about, his career in the media being quite extensive as well as interesting for us to hear. Whereas I'm not too keen on working in radio, his stories about his constant attempts to get into the business and then literally working his way up from the bottom, were really aspiring and a little daunting considering that's likely what I have to come. He gave us a good amount of long answers and was even up for repeating himself if we were unsure with anything during recording. This was really great as when it came to editing I had plenty of audio to work with and whilst it was hard trying to decide what to use, the fact that we had so much recorded just confirmed that Ian had been a great interviewee. Whilst the interview was particularly good, the battery on our FOSTEX recording device did run out half way through and forced us to switch to the Sony Mini Disk player. Whilst it didn't effect our work too drastically, there is a notable difference in quality between the two players and therefore you can hear a change in sound within my final edit which unfortunately I can't help. Nevertheless the quality of the answers should make up for this and I don't believe I will have to worry.

Ian Downs

The second interview wasn't much different from our first, however there was definitely a contrast in personality between our two interviewees. Whereas Ian was quite lively and had a brilliant voice for recording (that of a radio presenter), Tom was much more reserved and wasn't as used to answering questions. That said he was very interesting and had some great stories to tell, the only problem with that being that it was a lot trickier editing and therefore took me a lot longer. Having worked on shows like 'Horizon' and one off TV documentaries like 'The Riddle of Einsteins Brain' his background is a lot more related to an aspect of media that I would like to be working in the future and because of this, thinking of questions to ask him had been a lot easier to come up with then it had for Ian. The interview itself had a few more gaps and pauses than the last one and since I was in charge of holding the microphone it quickly became rather tiring holding the microphone in place. Furthermore, because of the gaps and pauses it also tested my editing skills a lot more than the previous one had, however I do enjoy editing and didn't mind this so much.

Tom Cholmondeley

I appreciate both Ian and Tom coming in to help us and am glad I got too meet them and learn more about what it's like working within the media industry. I'm reasonably happy with both of my final edits for the interviews and rather enjoyed doing them too. They certainly beat doing vox pops anyway!

Presentation (PowerPoint) Work

My presentation skills have been of great importance in my first semester of the degree, having used them twice in the last few months for both the 'BC1001 Roles and Processes' and the 'BC1003 audio project' modules. I have always been quite accustomed with making PowerPoint's and have become quite used to presenting them, having done quite a lot of them during my BTEC course over the last few years and even doing a good few back in my school days. That said however whilst I believe my presentation skills have always been quite good, it's when I present them that I let myself down. Having the ability to create something nice to look at yet not being able to talk about it obviously comes with it's problems, something of which I have definitely realised during this semester.


In BC1001 roles and processes we had to do a PowerPoint of an aspect of media that we had learnt about on the course so far. This was to be part of a portfolio of research that would account to a final grade in this module and would be presented in front of the class (which in our case wasn't so daunting considering there are only four of us). I wasn't so worried about this presentation considering I'd done a few like it previously in my time as a student, and likewise wasn't too uncomfortable presenting it in front of our small class who most I'd known for a while anyway. My chosen subject to present was 'Job Roles in Broadcast television', which I'm not particularly sure why I chose considering my more explicit interest in film. I believe a trend may have been set as the rest of the class also chose the same subject, luckily however I believe almost all of our presentations involved something different. The research side of things is always tedious and to work on a subject that I wasn't particularly interested in may have meant I wasn't as fussed with it as I could have been. Presenting it to the class wasn't too bad at all, although as per usual my nervous stutter and confidence may have got in the way a little bit as did the paper I was reading my script from. Ironically during feedback after finishing, It wasn't my presenting that was commented on but instead a little negativity towards my PowerPoint, which understandably was due to the lack of information on it for people to read. Whilst I had given out a lot of information personally, the audience had little too keep them occupied in between me presenting and I had just used the PowerPoint as a reminder of what to say. This was also rather daft considering I spent most of the time reading my script off of paper anyway, and barely acknowledged the board behind me during the presentation.


For the BC1003 group project we were required to do a pitch for our radio show in front of a 'Dragons Den' style panel of 'commissioners' (who in this case were three teachers from around the college). This would reflect a large portion of our final grade and whilst we weren't particularly sure we'd do well, we were pretty confident leading up to it. This unfortunately was not the case and to cut a long story short, It's fair to say that our first attempt wasn't particularly great. We were less than confident presenting it, hesitated on questions, had very little paperwork to show and didn't even seem to have a good idea what our own show was actually going to involve. It was obvious that we hadn't prepared well enough for it and had therefore presented a fairly poor pitch, not only wasting the panels time but our own as well. Fortunately the panel did agree on the idea behind the show being rather good and they decided that we could have a second chance at presenting it the following day. After some much needed criticism and advice we all powered on and set to work making sure that it would not happen again the next day. We discussed and decided on various details of the project that we had not previously been sure of, before separating to each work on separate parts of the new improved pitch. My role in this was to create a PowerPoint to display in the background whilst we pitched, as well as doing a few bits of valuable paperwork (e.g. budget etc.). With all our efforts we came back the next day and after a good amount of rehearsing we pitched our radio show for a second time. Luckily, this time it was a lot better received and we were finally given the go ahead to make create our group project.

Dragons Den, BBC Television

Whilst my confidence issues can't necessarily be helped, I shall most certainly be taking all the problems I've had with the presentation work into account for future projects on my degree. I should keep in mind that I do need to prepare for them beforehand, will need to know my research findings well and will most obviously need to know the exact details of what I'm presenting stored in my head beforehand. Its clear that my presentation skills will definitely need working on in the future though and I'm sure there's no doubt that I have plenty of chances to improve on them yet.