In this weeks lesson, we discussed in further detail the running order of newscasts. We studied an ITV News At Ten broadcast for the running order of the news stories as well as the scripts that they use in each of the packages and the images that accompany them. The most important news items come first, and they normally have equally striking pictures to go along with them. How can you tell how important a news piece is? It's normally to do with how widespread the effect of the story is, and how current and up-to-date it is or if it is an on-going news story with recent updates. The sounds of the news reports fit alongside the images at certain points without the need for scripting over them, as they both tell important parts of the news story.
The ITV News report on this particular day didn't have too much "hard" news to go on, and as such some of the stories seemed to be grasping to find some legitimacy in the news report. The audience for this particular news report consists mostly of people who are already watching ITV for shows like I'm a Celebrity... and therefore obviously doesn't have quite as much of an audience as BBC News does. The headlining "bombs" of this news report consisted mainly of the on-going student protests, the situations on British railways, the snow that will soon be hitting England and how it will affect us, and The Ashes.
In the report of the on-going student protests, there were clearly not too many up-to-date visuals to accompany the story, so there is some older archived footage being put to use in this report, but the way they have been "treated" by using effects and slow-motion makes them more interesting to look at. The shots that are new are still interesting, and have good sounds that accompany them, but they don't contain enough action to give a new dimension to the news report that hasn't been covered before. Either way, this is a good example of presenting an on-going news story that has new developments as a leading story.
After studying the news report, we went on to look at how important numbers are in any given news report, but especially when being put up in graphics on a televised news report. Facts, figures, rates, percentages, costs and everything else like that can go a long way towards providing important information in the story that you are doing.
To round off the lesson, we took part in a couple of exercises to put the skills we have been studying to use. The first exercise that we did proved to be very interesting as we were given a set of stories from an actual news report and we had to put them in what we thought was the correct order. For the most part, each of us got a couple of them right, but interestingly enough and for various different reasons, a number of them came up in a different order to what we thought. This exercise proved to be very interesting and will be useful when further studying further news reports.
The second exercise that we put our minds to the test on was being given 10 minutes to write a 15 second voice over of a video clip for a news story. This again proved to be a bit tougher than I had originally expected, as I personally was taking slightly more creative approach to the writing whereas it really should be the most absolutely important information going at the very start of the story, with other information following after that. Overall, I think that these exercises were very eye-opening and interesting to do, and they definitely proved useful in learning more about the functionality of TV News.
Friday, 26 November 2010
My Chemical Romance - "Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys"
My Chemical Romance have been going strong since the day they came together in 2001, and have been gaining a worldwide reputation ever since. Although not always a good reputation, the New Jersey band have never been deterred from doing what they do and love best, which is making music that stands out from the crowd and makes a statement. Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys marks the fifth studio album from My Chemical Romance, and it truly is unlike anything the band have produced before and shows that they are indeed shedding their skin of old and emerging with something literally a lot more bright and colourful.
The previous album from My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade, was the first concept album from the band and was met with a very mixed reception from audiences and critics alike...
To read the rest of this review, and many other great articles, head over to http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - It's better than sitting at home with a cold!
The previous album from My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade, was the first concept album from the band and was met with a very mixed reception from audiences and critics alike...
To read the rest of this review, and many other great articles, head over to http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - It's better than sitting at home with a cold!
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Harry Potter and the Illegal Copyright Violation
The Harry Potter film has made its way back into the main papers of Britain for about the fifth time this week. Except, this time, its not so that the nation can see just how lovely Emma Watson looks with her pixie-crop hair and lacey black skirt (not to say she doesn't, though...).
This time, the latest release in the money-making machine that is the wizarding franchise Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been involved in a violation of Copyright. Though it's been suggested before that many of J.K. Rowling's ideas might be less than original, this time the feature length adventure has fallen afoul of the internet. It was reported today that an entire 36 minute long clip of the latest Warner Brothers film release has mysteriously leaked onto the internet ironically enough only a day before the films general release this Friday. Executives at Warner Brothers are reportedly less than impressed at how the footage managed to wind up being available for download on torrenting sites like BitTorrent.
"This constitutes a serious breach of Copyright Violation," said a Warner Brothers spokesperson. "We are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law."
This would, in fact, make an interesting case to study over our recent Media Law classes on Copyright, and the fact that just because it is on the internet does not mean that it is Copyright-free. It will be interesting to see how the people that leaked this clip are tracked down, and how this will affect future Copyrighting of clips on and off of torrenting sites.
This time, the latest release in the money-making machine that is the wizarding franchise Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been involved in a violation of Copyright. Though it's been suggested before that many of J.K. Rowling's ideas might be less than original, this time the feature length adventure has fallen afoul of the internet. It was reported today that an entire 36 minute long clip of the latest Warner Brothers film release has mysteriously leaked onto the internet ironically enough only a day before the films general release this Friday. Executives at Warner Brothers are reportedly less than impressed at how the footage managed to wind up being available for download on torrenting sites like BitTorrent.
"This constitutes a serious breach of Copyright Violation," said a Warner Brothers spokesperson. "We are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law."
This would, in fact, make an interesting case to study over our recent Media Law classes on Copyright, and the fact that just because it is on the internet does not mean that it is Copyright-free. It will be interesting to see how the people that leaked this clip are tracked down, and how this will affect future Copyrighting of clips on and off of torrenting sites.
Deftones & Coheed And Cambria @ Southampton Guildhall, 15/11/10
The temperature outside the Southampton Guildhall this evening is rapidly dropping to near freezing whilst people are still queuing to get in through the doors. Luckily, the atmosphere on the inside is much less frosty. In fact, it’s positively electric with excitement and anticipation of the show ahead once the crowd starts culminating in the main room. The DJ is spinning tunes for the eager crowd, and to get everyone ready and fired up (and to generate a little heat to the cavernous room as well) Slayer is belted out through the PA system as a level of decibels normally equalled only by the performing bands! It does well to get the crowds warmed up and ready for the proceeding show, though, as when the lights dim at around 7:30 for New Jersey prog-prodigies Coheed And Cambria, the frontline of the crowd bellow out battle cries like there’s no tomorrow.
Coheed And Cambria take to the stage under a camouflage of strobe lights and spacey, atmospheric sound effects reflective of the kind of progressive rock/metal blends and sci-fi fiction that have given them their devoted fan base. When they introduce their set with the equally entrancing In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, it becomes clear that Coheed And Cambria know who they are playing to tonight...
Read the rest of this review, and many more awesome things, at http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - It's officially 100% better than watching paint dry!
Coheed And Cambria take to the stage under a camouflage of strobe lights and spacey, atmospheric sound effects reflective of the kind of progressive rock/metal blends and sci-fi fiction that have given them their devoted fan base. When they introduce their set with the equally entrancing In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, it becomes clear that Coheed And Cambria know who they are playing to tonight...
Read the rest of this review, and many more awesome things, at http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - It's officially 100% better than watching paint dry!
The Gaslight Anthem @ Southampton Guildhall, 22/10/10
In this current economical climate, a lot of people are beginning to struggle for the things they want or need. A lot of people are tightening their budgets and doing more things on the cheap. So it’s pretty reassuring to know that if you’re a music fan, you can still get a fantastic show for what you pay for entry nowadays! Tonight’s show at Southampton Guildhall involves an unlikely audience of all kinds of ages, all kinds of tastes and all kinds of fashions. All to see The Gaslight Anthem, the New Jersey blues-punkers who made it out of their city and have become a sensation over the last couple of years thanks to their own mix of old school sounds mixed with modern song writing and performances.
First up on tonight’s bill, though, is Sharks who appear on stage without any kind of announcement and catch the Guildhall audience a little off guard. Straight away they kick the evening off with an acapella introduction to their grimy, gritty Welsh punk with a good measure snarl to boot...
Read the rest of this review, and many more awesome things, at http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - Or would you rather go outside and play games? Yeah, thought not...
First up on tonight’s bill, though, is Sharks who appear on stage without any kind of announcement and catch the Guildhall audience a little off guard. Straight away they kick the evening off with an acapella introduction to their grimy, gritty Welsh punk with a good measure snarl to boot...
Read the rest of this review, and many more awesome things, at http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - Or would you rather go outside and play games? Yeah, thought not...
Media Law Week 8
Once more without Ian at the helm, we went over the Freedom of Information Act. The main reason we went back over this is because it is such a useful tool for Journalists to have that it helps to know as much about it as possible. Where subjects such as Defamation and Copyright are there to teach us to be careful in what we do and what to look for when undergoing our journalistic duties, the Freedom of Information Act is a useful addition to our various arsenals that we have.
To start with, the Freedom of Information Act works around the basis that we (i.e. the general public) pay taxes which in turn fund the government. Workers for the government are paid to produce documents filled with information and pictures that are useful. So, in effect, we are paying people to make this kind of information that we as journalists might need, readily available should we actually require it. Around 130,000 bodies and authorities are covered by the Act, to which there are over 100,000 information requests per year, which actually costs them around £34 million each year to answer them all!
Depending on who it is you ask, a lot of this number isn't actually journalists. Journalists only total up to 12% of the actual number of requests per year, and the rest tend to be general public (although, it is now thought that perhaps the number is slightly higher since these governing bodies are somewhat reluctant to give information out to journalists who might use it for some story that can have ramifications, and as such the percentage might be closer to around 45% with some journalists only claiming to be general public...).
One example of just how useful the Freedom of Information Act can be is how it was used during the Kingsnorth Climate Protest in August 2008. Because of the Freedom of Information Act, a request was fulfilled and it was found out that the "70" that were injured was actually about 12, and of that number only 4 needed any kind of medical attention (it turns out, one was in fact a particularly nasty bee sting...), which successfully disproved any prior claims made about the actual number of injured public. Politicians have claimed that the Freedom of Information Act has a "chilling effect" on the government because of ramifications that can occur.
The Freedom of Information Act gives you full access (within reason) to request information on anything EXCEPT:
--> When the cost goes over £600 (sometimes £450 for smaller bodies).
--> When the information is exempt, to which there are 2 kinds:
- Absolute, which applies to security services and court records.
- Qualified, which applies to ministerial communication and commercial confidentiality. There are actually 23 different possible exemptions under Qualified Exemption, such as when the information is likely to jeopardise National Security or if the information is intended for future printing.
Either way, the body you have requested information from must respond to you within 20 days, even if it is to say that they are going to take another 40 days to process your request and check that it does not contrast with public security interests. Ultimately, 60 days is the maximum that any authority should take over giving a definite response either way.
So, what happens if they say "No, you can't have the information", even if you think you should? There are various ways you can go about it from there, but the first step would be to have an internal review of the company to see if there are any other ways you can get hold of the information. If that does not work, then you can take your request to the Information Commissioner. After that point, you are entering the realm of going all the way up to the High Court to get hold of the information you need!
After this, we had a go at sending off our own request for information from a governing body that is covered by the Freedom of Information Act. The body that my partner and I decided to investigate was the Highway Council, and we wanted to know how many Speed Cameras were vandalised last year to the point that they had to be replaced. We will soon see if we hear anything back regarding the subject...
For more on this subject and many other Journalism subjects, go to http://www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk
To start with, the Freedom of Information Act works around the basis that we (i.e. the general public) pay taxes which in turn fund the government. Workers for the government are paid to produce documents filled with information and pictures that are useful. So, in effect, we are paying people to make this kind of information that we as journalists might need, readily available should we actually require it. Around 130,000 bodies and authorities are covered by the Act, to which there are over 100,000 information requests per year, which actually costs them around £34 million each year to answer them all!
Depending on who it is you ask, a lot of this number isn't actually journalists. Journalists only total up to 12% of the actual number of requests per year, and the rest tend to be general public (although, it is now thought that perhaps the number is slightly higher since these governing bodies are somewhat reluctant to give information out to journalists who might use it for some story that can have ramifications, and as such the percentage might be closer to around 45% with some journalists only claiming to be general public...).
One example of just how useful the Freedom of Information Act can be is how it was used during the Kingsnorth Climate Protest in August 2008. Because of the Freedom of Information Act, a request was fulfilled and it was found out that the "70" that were injured was actually about 12, and of that number only 4 needed any kind of medical attention (it turns out, one was in fact a particularly nasty bee sting...), which successfully disproved any prior claims made about the actual number of injured public. Politicians have claimed that the Freedom of Information Act has a "chilling effect" on the government because of ramifications that can occur.
The Freedom of Information Act gives you full access (within reason) to request information on anything EXCEPT:
--> When the cost goes over £600 (sometimes £450 for smaller bodies).
--> When the information is exempt, to which there are 2 kinds:
- Absolute, which applies to security services and court records.
- Qualified, which applies to ministerial communication and commercial confidentiality. There are actually 23 different possible exemptions under Qualified Exemption, such as when the information is likely to jeopardise National Security or if the information is intended for future printing.
Either way, the body you have requested information from must respond to you within 20 days, even if it is to say that they are going to take another 40 days to process your request and check that it does not contrast with public security interests. Ultimately, 60 days is the maximum that any authority should take over giving a definite response either way.
So, what happens if they say "No, you can't have the information", even if you think you should? There are various ways you can go about it from there, but the first step would be to have an internal review of the company to see if there are any other ways you can get hold of the information. If that does not work, then you can take your request to the Information Commissioner. After that point, you are entering the realm of going all the way up to the High Court to get hold of the information you need!
After this, we had a go at sending off our own request for information from a governing body that is covered by the Freedom of Information Act. The body that my partner and I decided to investigate was the Highway Council, and we wanted to know how many Speed Cameras were vandalised last year to the point that they had to be replaced. We will soon see if we hear anything back regarding the subject...
For more on this subject and many other Journalism subjects, go to http://www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk
The Social Network (Contains Spoilers)
I think by this point it’s pretty safe to say that David Fincher is a dude who really knows what he’s doing. He may not have as many Oscars as Scorsese, as many classics as Spielberg or as much money as Cameron, but his repertoire shows that he definitely has it together and is more than capable of creating pieces of cinema that are sure to make heads turn. Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac – all of these have been incredibly tense and very intellectually challenging films, and The Social Network is no exception to this. Ironically enough, after seeing The Social Network I honestly couldn’t wait to write a blog about it and express my opinions of it on a public medium!
The Social Network, I personally think, is one of the most intellectually entertaining films not just of this year, but of recent years as well. Pair that with the fact that, at its centre point, it is a piece about one of the most used, talked about and potentially dangerous inventions of recent years and you have a film that is GOING to cause a stir, no matter what! The partly true, partly fictional story of the Harvard University based creators of the social networking site Facebook (which you’d be hard-pressed to find someone NOT on it now!) sees Jesse Eisenberg playing the role of Mark Zuckerberg, the main geek-brained creator of the infamous networking website. Eisenberg does a fantastic job playing Mark as he is able to deliver all his lines with such a straight face and blank attitude that it’s both believable and ironic in equal measures – believable because Eisenberg delivers all the computer jargon with such conviction you’d think he graduated from MIT, and ironic in the way that someone with such a lack of social interaction skills and emotional depth could create the world’s largest and most famous social networking site. But that’s the irony of the situation to begin with, really – the fact that The Social Network starts with a five minute scene of Mark basically ruining a date by gradually insulting his date more and more because his mind obviously operates on different levels from normal humans goes to show just how socially awkward and emotionally blind Eisenberg’s Mark is. Also, as a side note, that first scene of the film where the awkwardly sarcastic Mark and his date Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) are sat around a table was probably the hardest part of the film to write! From this early point, it’s clearly established that Mark is not just socially blind, but more a borderline Asperger’s patient, which is again why it’s ironic he managed to create Facebook.
Whilst Eisenberg does an amazing job as the sarcastically smarter-than-thou Mark, it’s Andrew Garfield who truly shines through as Mark’s roommate and co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin. Garfield is genuinely an amazing actor in The Social Network, providing the other half of the entire story that makes up the script of the film. Saverin is the more socially aware, richer go-getter of the two founders which is what starts to provide Eisenberg’s Mark with the conflicts he faces, as for someone so socially unaware, he’s friends with someone who is more popular, has more money and can intellectually keep up with Mark. The scene where Garfield truly steals the show is at the point where Saverin is given further contracts to sign and realises exactly what his shares in Facebook are after a corporate investment and, even though you don’t feel as much of a connection to this jealous and somewhat spiteful portrayal of Eduardo Saverin, you can’t help but feel bad for how shunned and cast out he gets.
This is not to say that Saverin was the “bad guy” in any of this, and that’s part of the beauty of The Social Network – there are no clearly defined “good” or “bad” characters. Each of the characters is right or wrong about different things in equal measures – at the point where Saverin wants to monetise Facebook through advertising, Eisenberg’s Mark doesn’t want to. He wants to “not stop the party before 11” as the parallel goes. BUT, as it now turns out, Facebook ended up charging for advertising on their spaces and that is now why Facebook is worth so much money, and has made billionaires of Saverin and Zuckerberg. So in the end, neither of them are exactly right or wrong, which is what makes their characters so compelling throughout the entire film.
Justin Timberlake is a bit questionable in the role of Sean Parker, and I’m having a hard time making my mind up about him. On the one hand, I think Timberlake is doing a good job for himself in becoming a legitimate actor as well as singer, and I think the Social Network will work well for him as a stepping stone to further good roles. However, his particular role in this film I found a little hard to accept as it progressed. At the start of the film, Timberlake obviously does a good job of becoming the Napster Mastermind Sean Parker – a cocky rich guy who dropped out of school, managed to screw around in the Music industry and has gotten plenty of fame and fortune because of it. Let’s face it; of course Justin Timberlake would be good at playing that role… But as the film went on, and the character of Sean Parker had to become gradually more genuine and less of a “mogul” type, Timberlake became a little less believable in his character, and that’s where he started to falter. So to begin with, Timberlake’s character works well and drives the storyline, but towards the end he starts to become less of a steering wheel and more of a regular cog in the works. But he still makes for an interesting character, and I think that Timberlake might actually have some kind of possible career in film ahead of him.
One aspect of The Social Network that was interesting, and in fact of many of Fincher’s films, is the way in which the story is told. The Social Network isn’t exactly told in a series of flashbacks as the film actually starts back before Zuckerberg created Facebook or even his first attempt at an internet-wide practical joke of Facemash, but more with cut-aways to the legal proceedings that followed after Facebook became something bigger than any of its creators. At the end of the film, the storylines catch up to each other and come to one, single conclusion as the story of the creation of Facebook meets with the courtroom drama that ensued after it. In this way, the delivery of the information that drives the story is evenly spread out, and in some places even comical with the way that it is cut together to tell the story of certain incidents in Facebook’s creation. What is also interesting about this form of storytelling is that it keeps you guessing as to how they all got to that point – at one part towards the end, you get the sense that Saverin and Zuckerberg are almost at a point of an understanding again before everything gets far worse, but the point is that it keeps you guessing at times, and that’s what gives The Social Network’s story its edge.
I should also say that the film’s soundtrack is worth a mention at this point. The soundtrack to The Social Network has been written and put together entirely by Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor and legendary rock producer Atticus Ross, so it would definitely make for an interesting listen if you know your music history AND enjoy using Facebook as well, considering that two veritable legends of modern rock music have come together to create this soundtrack.
One thing that The Social Network does make very clear is, ironically enough, the dangers of using Facebook. It’s actually quoted in the film “It’s addictive. I’m on it like, 5 times a day!” and about how “the internet isn’t writing in pencil, it’s in pen” and it’s repeatedly referenced at how just using Facebook is all about putting all of your personal details up on a public forum for anyone you know to access. It’s been recently stated by Eric Schmidt, boss of Google.com, about how the dangers of using Facebook and other social networking sites won’t be apparent for a while, but will still be there all the same. Schmidt anticipates that the current generation of Facebook users won’t be worried about identity theft, but more about how to escape the online identity they’ve been creating for themselves all this time. He states “Young people may one day have to change their names in order to escape their previous online activity” and that could end up being very true, and The Social Network does a good job of beginning to subliminally imply this.
Ultimately, there is very little to fault The Social Network on, except for one small part where in one scene they have Prince Albert played by someone who is CLEARLY American and looks nothing like Prince Albert at all. That detail aside, The Social Network is an awesome film with great characters and brilliant casting all round, and I think it has easily made its way into my Top Films of the Year. It will also be interesting to see how Fincher tackles the re-make of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo next year with Rooney Mara from this film becoming Lisbeth Salander. I’m giving The Social Network 8 out of 10 for sheer impressiveness and intelligence, and I think everyone should make an effort to catch it in cinemas!
Read many other awesome articles like this at http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - It's way better than doing nothing at all!
The Social Network, I personally think, is one of the most intellectually entertaining films not just of this year, but of recent years as well. Pair that with the fact that, at its centre point, it is a piece about one of the most used, talked about and potentially dangerous inventions of recent years and you have a film that is GOING to cause a stir, no matter what! The partly true, partly fictional story of the Harvard University based creators of the social networking site Facebook (which you’d be hard-pressed to find someone NOT on it now!) sees Jesse Eisenberg playing the role of Mark Zuckerberg, the main geek-brained creator of the infamous networking website. Eisenberg does a fantastic job playing Mark as he is able to deliver all his lines with such a straight face and blank attitude that it’s both believable and ironic in equal measures – believable because Eisenberg delivers all the computer jargon with such conviction you’d think he graduated from MIT, and ironic in the way that someone with such a lack of social interaction skills and emotional depth could create the world’s largest and most famous social networking site. But that’s the irony of the situation to begin with, really – the fact that The Social Network starts with a five minute scene of Mark basically ruining a date by gradually insulting his date more and more because his mind obviously operates on different levels from normal humans goes to show just how socially awkward and emotionally blind Eisenberg’s Mark is. Also, as a side note, that first scene of the film where the awkwardly sarcastic Mark and his date Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) are sat around a table was probably the hardest part of the film to write! From this early point, it’s clearly established that Mark is not just socially blind, but more a borderline Asperger’s patient, which is again why it’s ironic he managed to create Facebook.
Whilst Eisenberg does an amazing job as the sarcastically smarter-than-thou Mark, it’s Andrew Garfield who truly shines through as Mark’s roommate and co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin. Garfield is genuinely an amazing actor in The Social Network, providing the other half of the entire story that makes up the script of the film. Saverin is the more socially aware, richer go-getter of the two founders which is what starts to provide Eisenberg’s Mark with the conflicts he faces, as for someone so socially unaware, he’s friends with someone who is more popular, has more money and can intellectually keep up with Mark. The scene where Garfield truly steals the show is at the point where Saverin is given further contracts to sign and realises exactly what his shares in Facebook are after a corporate investment and, even though you don’t feel as much of a connection to this jealous and somewhat spiteful portrayal of Eduardo Saverin, you can’t help but feel bad for how shunned and cast out he gets.
This is not to say that Saverin was the “bad guy” in any of this, and that’s part of the beauty of The Social Network – there are no clearly defined “good” or “bad” characters. Each of the characters is right or wrong about different things in equal measures – at the point where Saverin wants to monetise Facebook through advertising, Eisenberg’s Mark doesn’t want to. He wants to “not stop the party before 11” as the parallel goes. BUT, as it now turns out, Facebook ended up charging for advertising on their spaces and that is now why Facebook is worth so much money, and has made billionaires of Saverin and Zuckerberg. So in the end, neither of them are exactly right or wrong, which is what makes their characters so compelling throughout the entire film.
Justin Timberlake is a bit questionable in the role of Sean Parker, and I’m having a hard time making my mind up about him. On the one hand, I think Timberlake is doing a good job for himself in becoming a legitimate actor as well as singer, and I think the Social Network will work well for him as a stepping stone to further good roles. However, his particular role in this film I found a little hard to accept as it progressed. At the start of the film, Timberlake obviously does a good job of becoming the Napster Mastermind Sean Parker – a cocky rich guy who dropped out of school, managed to screw around in the Music industry and has gotten plenty of fame and fortune because of it. Let’s face it; of course Justin Timberlake would be good at playing that role… But as the film went on, and the character of Sean Parker had to become gradually more genuine and less of a “mogul” type, Timberlake became a little less believable in his character, and that’s where he started to falter. So to begin with, Timberlake’s character works well and drives the storyline, but towards the end he starts to become less of a steering wheel and more of a regular cog in the works. But he still makes for an interesting character, and I think that Timberlake might actually have some kind of possible career in film ahead of him.
One aspect of The Social Network that was interesting, and in fact of many of Fincher’s films, is the way in which the story is told. The Social Network isn’t exactly told in a series of flashbacks as the film actually starts back before Zuckerberg created Facebook or even his first attempt at an internet-wide practical joke of Facemash, but more with cut-aways to the legal proceedings that followed after Facebook became something bigger than any of its creators. At the end of the film, the storylines catch up to each other and come to one, single conclusion as the story of the creation of Facebook meets with the courtroom drama that ensued after it. In this way, the delivery of the information that drives the story is evenly spread out, and in some places even comical with the way that it is cut together to tell the story of certain incidents in Facebook’s creation. What is also interesting about this form of storytelling is that it keeps you guessing as to how they all got to that point – at one part towards the end, you get the sense that Saverin and Zuckerberg are almost at a point of an understanding again before everything gets far worse, but the point is that it keeps you guessing at times, and that’s what gives The Social Network’s story its edge.
I should also say that the film’s soundtrack is worth a mention at this point. The soundtrack to The Social Network has been written and put together entirely by Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor and legendary rock producer Atticus Ross, so it would definitely make for an interesting listen if you know your music history AND enjoy using Facebook as well, considering that two veritable legends of modern rock music have come together to create this soundtrack.
One thing that The Social Network does make very clear is, ironically enough, the dangers of using Facebook. It’s actually quoted in the film “It’s addictive. I’m on it like, 5 times a day!” and about how “the internet isn’t writing in pencil, it’s in pen” and it’s repeatedly referenced at how just using Facebook is all about putting all of your personal details up on a public forum for anyone you know to access. It’s been recently stated by Eric Schmidt, boss of Google.com, about how the dangers of using Facebook and other social networking sites won’t be apparent for a while, but will still be there all the same. Schmidt anticipates that the current generation of Facebook users won’t be worried about identity theft, but more about how to escape the online identity they’ve been creating for themselves all this time. He states “Young people may one day have to change their names in order to escape their previous online activity” and that could end up being very true, and The Social Network does a good job of beginning to subliminally imply this.
Ultimately, there is very little to fault The Social Network on, except for one small part where in one scene they have Prince Albert played by someone who is CLEARLY American and looks nothing like Prince Albert at all. That detail aside, The Social Network is an awesome film with great characters and brilliant casting all round, and I think it has easily made its way into my Top Films of the Year. It will also be interesting to see how Fincher tackles the re-make of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo next year with Rooney Mara from this film becoming Lisbeth Salander. I’m giving The Social Network 8 out of 10 for sheer impressiveness and intelligence, and I think everyone should make an effort to catch it in cinemas!
Read many other awesome articles like this at http://mydifferenttake.wordpress.com/ - It's way better than doing nothing at all!
Introduction to Journalism Week 8
This week, we started preparing and going over the specifics for the presentation we are going to do in a matter of weeks. This presentation will be a study into two different publications, comparing and contrasting the ways that they construct and deliver the news and how their demographics differ from one another.
To start with, we are comparing 2 different publications, which can be newspapers and radio stations, and track their outputs on their news agenda and what and how they are writing about. The key is that we are each doing one very upmarket publication and one which isn't so up market. We are to study into how they differ from other outlets and how their news agenda is reflective of their target demographics. Some radio stations are likely to have syndication from other news outlets for their main news headlines from other news outlets, and if this is the case it is best to mention it and study into it more.
The two publications I have been given are The Sun newspaper and BBC Radio York, though this may be likely to a certain amount of change within reason, and so long as it doesn't clash with anyone elses project.
The key is to study the news agenda over one particular day, and specifically why is it constructed in such a way and why they are reporting on specific news stories according to who their demographic is. What is going to be most useful is to find the publications Rate Card, which shows their demographic, their target group index and all other kinds of statistics and information about the publication. Other places to look at are the Audit Bureau of Circulation ("ABC") and the Broadcast Audience Research Bureau ("BARB"). Something else which is useful to remember is that the music bed on the news bulletins helps to define what target demographic the station is trying to reach.
So, essentially, this project will consist of us analysing both of the publications and what or why they print certain stories, get hold of the publications rate card, track the news agendas of the radio station and compare and contrast both of these in a Powerpoint presentation with all facts and figures inclusive.
To start with, we are comparing 2 different publications, which can be newspapers and radio stations, and track their outputs on their news agenda and what and how they are writing about. The key is that we are each doing one very upmarket publication and one which isn't so up market. We are to study into how they differ from other outlets and how their news agenda is reflective of their target demographics. Some radio stations are likely to have syndication from other news outlets for their main news headlines from other news outlets, and if this is the case it is best to mention it and study into it more.
The two publications I have been given are The Sun newspaper and BBC Radio York, though this may be likely to a certain amount of change within reason, and so long as it doesn't clash with anyone elses project.
The key is to study the news agenda over one particular day, and specifically why is it constructed in such a way and why they are reporting on specific news stories according to who their demographic is. What is going to be most useful is to find the publications Rate Card, which shows their demographic, their target group index and all other kinds of statistics and information about the publication. Other places to look at are the Audit Bureau of Circulation ("ABC") and the Broadcast Audience Research Bureau ("BARB"). Something else which is useful to remember is that the music bed on the news bulletins helps to define what target demographic the station is trying to reach.
So, essentially, this project will consist of us analysing both of the publications and what or why they print certain stories, get hold of the publications rate card, track the news agendas of the radio station and compare and contrast both of these in a Powerpoint presentation with all facts and figures inclusive.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Radio Broadcast Week 8
This week we were working on an assessed piece for our overall portfolio by making a full news bulletin from scratch for the days news.
Although this seemed a bit daunting to begin with, the idea of forming a full 2 minute long news bulletin with accompanying audio in a matter of hours, it was actually very straight forward. We decided as a group to write out the news stories we wanted to use and capture and edit the audio we wanted, and instead of forming it all together using Audition software we would instead get some practise using the Radio Suite and record our bulletins in there instead.
So now, the task at hand became very straightforward - gather together enough news stories in your own style to create a news bulletin for any demographic and make it relevant and appealing to that particular demographic.With this in mind, we all set about finding the news stories that would make up our final bulletin.
The stories I chose for my particular bulletin consisted of:
*The engagement announcement from Prince William and Kate Middleton - this was relevant to the entire British nation, and is the main news story of the day throughout most of the papers anyway, so it would not be good to overlook a news story with such coverage. Also, this obviously had to be the first story in the headlines as it is the widest affecting story, so it's pretty safe to say that a lot of people would have covered this story too!
*The amount of students missing out on University places this year - I thought that with the protests in Millbank last week, this would make an interesting story. I also managed to use this story to capture some audio in the form of an interview with Faculty Administrator Lisa Simpkin, so it was useful to have that audio to go along with the story.
*The 18 year old student that has been charged with violence and disorder - again, this is going back to the protests that turned violent last week. This is also a local story, so it's putting a spin on a smaller, local story into something a bit more widespread that was in the news last week.
*The body being discovered in a ditch - another local sotry, this time involving a body discovered in a ditch in the local area of Dunkirk road, with an "unexplained" cause of death.
*A farm in Romsey breeding turkeys - this, I thought, would be a nice twist to end on as it is light hearted but still somewhat informative, as it is about a farm in Romsey letting members of the public in to see the free-range environment they allow their turkeys to live and breed in before the Christmas rush.
After all of the stories had been written up, the hard task proved to be editing the audio to fit within the timescale of your report. When you have a really great interview, but it's way too long to use in its entirity, the hardest part is sometimes "trimming the fat" from it and only getting what you need out of it. As you go along, you realise that you have to be increasingly brutal with what you have to cut out of your interview tape in order to make it fit well into the quick bulletin. Normally, around 20 to 30 seconds is about right for an audio piece for the bulletin, as anything longer than that will eat into the time you have for other stories, but anything too much less than that won't really give enough information to warrant having it as part of the piece. So, getting just the right amount of audio cut and information from it is a tricky technique to grasp sometimes unless you manage to capture something close to exactly what you need on your first try!
The only other task that proved to be a little difficult was reading the script without any mistakes, and at a rate where you remember your phrasing and tone and everything. It's hard to get it right first time, as you are always likely to trip over your words or maybe read it a little quickly, which is why we all took some time to read them to ourselves first and have a couple of takes at recording the script before we got it right.
After everything was recorded and put together correctly, all that was left was to finalise the document and save it, ready for marking! So, with any luck, mine will turn out alright after all the work that has gone into it!
Although this seemed a bit daunting to begin with, the idea of forming a full 2 minute long news bulletin with accompanying audio in a matter of hours, it was actually very straight forward. We decided as a group to write out the news stories we wanted to use and capture and edit the audio we wanted, and instead of forming it all together using Audition software we would instead get some practise using the Radio Suite and record our bulletins in there instead.
So now, the task at hand became very straightforward - gather together enough news stories in your own style to create a news bulletin for any demographic and make it relevant and appealing to that particular demographic.With this in mind, we all set about finding the news stories that would make up our final bulletin.
The stories I chose for my particular bulletin consisted of:
*The engagement announcement from Prince William and Kate Middleton - this was relevant to the entire British nation, and is the main news story of the day throughout most of the papers anyway, so it would not be good to overlook a news story with such coverage. Also, this obviously had to be the first story in the headlines as it is the widest affecting story, so it's pretty safe to say that a lot of people would have covered this story too!
*The amount of students missing out on University places this year - I thought that with the protests in Millbank last week, this would make an interesting story. I also managed to use this story to capture some audio in the form of an interview with Faculty Administrator Lisa Simpkin, so it was useful to have that audio to go along with the story.
*The 18 year old student that has been charged with violence and disorder - again, this is going back to the protests that turned violent last week. This is also a local story, so it's putting a spin on a smaller, local story into something a bit more widespread that was in the news last week.
*The body being discovered in a ditch - another local sotry, this time involving a body discovered in a ditch in the local area of Dunkirk road, with an "unexplained" cause of death.
*A farm in Romsey breeding turkeys - this, I thought, would be a nice twist to end on as it is light hearted but still somewhat informative, as it is about a farm in Romsey letting members of the public in to see the free-range environment they allow their turkeys to live and breed in before the Christmas rush.
After all of the stories had been written up, the hard task proved to be editing the audio to fit within the timescale of your report. When you have a really great interview, but it's way too long to use in its entirity, the hardest part is sometimes "trimming the fat" from it and only getting what you need out of it. As you go along, you realise that you have to be increasingly brutal with what you have to cut out of your interview tape in order to make it fit well into the quick bulletin. Normally, around 20 to 30 seconds is about right for an audio piece for the bulletin, as anything longer than that will eat into the time you have for other stories, but anything too much less than that won't really give enough information to warrant having it as part of the piece. So, getting just the right amount of audio cut and information from it is a tricky technique to grasp sometimes unless you manage to capture something close to exactly what you need on your first try!
The only other task that proved to be a little difficult was reading the script without any mistakes, and at a rate where you remember your phrasing and tone and everything. It's hard to get it right first time, as you are always likely to trip over your words or maybe read it a little quickly, which is why we all took some time to read them to ourselves first and have a couple of takes at recording the script before we got it right.
After everything was recorded and put together correctly, all that was left was to finalise the document and save it, ready for marking! So, with any luck, mine will turn out alright after all the work that has gone into it!
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Introduction to Journalism - Photojournalism Exercise.
The following photos are ones that I have taken from BBC News Online to analyse:
This is obviously a very typical celebrity shot. It's not particularly an action shot, as neither of them are really doing anything other than smiling. However, it is allowing us to easily identify each of them, so it's obviously an identity shot (not particularly a "mug shot" as it's too posed for that).
This would typically be described as a "mug shot". It's not exactly posed, as he seems unaware that the picture is being taken even though he seems to be in a place where there is likely to be a lot of cameras going off. Again, he's not exactly doing anything as he's there making a speech, but since it's less posed but still being used to identify someone, it comes across as being a bit more of a "mug shot".
This is a classic example of more of an "action" shot. She's on stage, she's moving, she's performing and it's taken at a point where she's not whole-heartedly purposefully posing for a camera, but more that it happens to be a good shot at the right time. So this is a great example of an "action" shot.
TV Broadcasting Week 7
To start off this weeks lesson, we showed off the results of our video exploits from last week and how our editing skills were put to use on the projects. After some expected constructive feedback about both of the projects the class had put together, we moved on to study individual news reports and how they are constructed in comparison with our own. We studied a variety of different news packages in order to get a more well-rounded sense of what goes into making a news report.
Firstly, we looked at a Sky News report on Raoul Moat. This particular report used a lot of GVs, each of different landscapes and angles, giving the impression of Surveillance which is reflective of the main focus of the report. The images of the young children talking to the armed police create an incredibly strong image as well, since it is not very often that you will see armed police patrolling the streets of England, so this aspect in itself creates a very strong image. All of the images, being put together, tell a story which is the main aim of any televised news report. The images you use aren't just imformative, they have to create a narrative of your story as well.
The second clip we watched was an ITN report from Afghanistan. It used a lot of interesting shot angles in order to create more interesting views and shot compositions to draw the viewers into the story more. There were a lot of action shots, as you would expect from a news report from a war zone. Actions shots such as bombs being detonated, soldiers trudging through rivers and marshes and treading carefully through land-mine littered fields all create a much more tense tone to the piece. What also helps create a sense of imminent danger is the fact that the reporter is wearing protective clothing throughout the report, giving the impression that anything can happen at anytime. The last shot of the report carries a sense of irony with it when a routine arms search is juxtaposed against a beautiful sunset. The simple twists in the writing add a greater dynamic to how the piece itself is received. Such things as alliteration and an intelligent use of language make a difference to how the audience perceive the piece itself - so rather than just giving a description of what you are seeing, you're using the script you have wisely to create a better feeling of what is actually happening whilst the report was being made. Quick SOTs can also explain just as much as a longer one can - this report in particular had a couple of SOTs from soldiers that were only one sentence long or less, and they still explain just as much as a longer one would in the context of the report. This means that instead of taking up a lot of time using lots of long SOTs, using a couple of short ones means you have more time for other things in the piece. Often, less speech is more when the pictures do the talking for you!
The next news report we studied was the harrowing report from 1984 on the famine in Ethiopia. This particular report is very useful in showing just how powerful television can be, as it was mostly because of this that such things as Live Aid came into existance because it showed a side to tragedy that had never really been seen from news reports before. Whats interesting about this report in particular is that the person conducting the report itself isn't actually in the report at all, in the sense that there are no pieces to camera used throughout. This means that the entire focus of the report is on the subjects 100% of the time. The biblical references in the script make for some powerful referances to the scale of the situation, and the words that are used as part of the script are highly effective when accompanying the shots. But something that is different about this report in particular is the use of sound throughout the piece. Babies crying, religious chantings, screaming - all of these sounds are just as important and effective as any of the visuals are for a piece like this.
Lastly, the final news piece we looked at was a very recent one from a few days ago revolving around the student riots at Millbank. This news piece was a prime example of how putting the most interesting and recent news first in the report is most effective. Once again, the sounds of the riots happening are just as effective as the visuals in this news piece, so its useful to bear that in mind again. This news piece in particular lets the talking be done by the interviews and the footage that has been captured, as there are 4 important interviews as well as a piece to camera throughout the whole of the news piece. Once again, the footage of whats happening sometimes says a lot more about the atmosphere than words can!
Overall, the analysis of these pieces was very useful, as it showed a wide variety of techniques and variations on existing rules for TV Broadcasting that might not be obvious upon first viewing.
For more on this subject, and other Journalism subjects, head over to www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk
Firstly, we looked at a Sky News report on Raoul Moat. This particular report used a lot of GVs, each of different landscapes and angles, giving the impression of Surveillance which is reflective of the main focus of the report. The images of the young children talking to the armed police create an incredibly strong image as well, since it is not very often that you will see armed police patrolling the streets of England, so this aspect in itself creates a very strong image. All of the images, being put together, tell a story which is the main aim of any televised news report. The images you use aren't just imformative, they have to create a narrative of your story as well.
The second clip we watched was an ITN report from Afghanistan. It used a lot of interesting shot angles in order to create more interesting views and shot compositions to draw the viewers into the story more. There were a lot of action shots, as you would expect from a news report from a war zone. Actions shots such as bombs being detonated, soldiers trudging through rivers and marshes and treading carefully through land-mine littered fields all create a much more tense tone to the piece. What also helps create a sense of imminent danger is the fact that the reporter is wearing protective clothing throughout the report, giving the impression that anything can happen at anytime. The last shot of the report carries a sense of irony with it when a routine arms search is juxtaposed against a beautiful sunset. The simple twists in the writing add a greater dynamic to how the piece itself is received. Such things as alliteration and an intelligent use of language make a difference to how the audience perceive the piece itself - so rather than just giving a description of what you are seeing, you're using the script you have wisely to create a better feeling of what is actually happening whilst the report was being made. Quick SOTs can also explain just as much as a longer one can - this report in particular had a couple of SOTs from soldiers that were only one sentence long or less, and they still explain just as much as a longer one would in the context of the report. This means that instead of taking up a lot of time using lots of long SOTs, using a couple of short ones means you have more time for other things in the piece. Often, less speech is more when the pictures do the talking for you!
The next news report we studied was the harrowing report from 1984 on the famine in Ethiopia. This particular report is very useful in showing just how powerful television can be, as it was mostly because of this that such things as Live Aid came into existance because it showed a side to tragedy that had never really been seen from news reports before. Whats interesting about this report in particular is that the person conducting the report itself isn't actually in the report at all, in the sense that there are no pieces to camera used throughout. This means that the entire focus of the report is on the subjects 100% of the time. The biblical references in the script make for some powerful referances to the scale of the situation, and the words that are used as part of the script are highly effective when accompanying the shots. But something that is different about this report in particular is the use of sound throughout the piece. Babies crying, religious chantings, screaming - all of these sounds are just as important and effective as any of the visuals are for a piece like this.
Lastly, the final news piece we looked at was a very recent one from a few days ago revolving around the student riots at Millbank. This news piece was a prime example of how putting the most interesting and recent news first in the report is most effective. Once again, the sounds of the riots happening are just as effective as the visuals in this news piece, so its useful to bear that in mind again. This news piece in particular lets the talking be done by the interviews and the footage that has been captured, as there are 4 important interviews as well as a piece to camera throughout the whole of the news piece. Once again, the footage of whats happening sometimes says a lot more about the atmosphere than words can!
Overall, the analysis of these pieces was very useful, as it showed a wide variety of techniques and variations on existing rules for TV Broadcasting that might not be obvious upon first viewing.
For more on this subject, and other Journalism subjects, head over to www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Media Law Week 7
This week, we looked once again at Copyright, but a bit more in-depth than last week. Copyright is a huge part of the journalism know-how, just as Defamation and Libel are, so it makes sense to cover this subject in depth a bit more.
Copyright is there to protect your intellectual property. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 is used, as McNae states, to protect "the product of Skill, Creativity, Labour and/or Time". It also describes a breach or infringement of copyright as "making beneficial use or exploiting someone else's intellectual work without permission". However, as explained before, you cannot copyright "ideas", until they become a tangible piece of work that you have created yourself.
So what exactly does Copyright protect? Copyright can pretty much protect anything and everything that is the product of original work, but it mostly applies to any works that are in print, film or music as these are creative substances that people are more likely to want to copy in the first place. But anything that can be deemed as original work can be subjected to Copyright. And why should we care about Copyright? Because without Copyright protection, journalism itself would never have flourished as everyone would simply be reprinting the general news over and over again. Copyright itself maintains exclusivity which gives the product value to people. This generally means that if something is Copyrighted, then it is the only kind of whatever it is (or at least, the only version). So, for example, Star Wars is Copyrighted, which means no one else can write a script set in a galaxy far, far away, shoot it and market it under the name Star Wars, which is what makes Star Wars itself so good because there isn't anything copying it. There may be parodies of Star Wars (i.e. The Family Guy Star Wars episodes, or Robot Chicken Star Wars), but they are either a) So far from the original idea that they themselves become an original idea based around an existing one or b) have already paid Lucasarts for likeness rights to their characters and storyline to be used in something that isn't directly copying Star Wars.
This leads me into the issues of who gets paid what. In the case of music downloads, that relates back to copyright and creative control of a product from the artist, which is why many free downloading sites have now been privatised, and the reason that some file sharing sites are still functioning is because the files that are there for sharing have originally been purchased as per normal standards, and are simply being shared to other people that want it without paying for it. Of course, this hardly makes it right, but it does start off with the artist being paid for their work in the normal manner. Though I'm sure eventually these file sharing sites will also be taken down, and the music industry will begin to recover losses from such sites.
So, what happens if you breach Copyright? What can happen? Breaching Copyright will cost you:
--> Money
--> Embarrassment and Stress
--> And above all, your Reputation for Competence.
So overall, its probably not worth it!
Some companies will be likely to charge you for using their archive footage if you are running a piece that requires it, but if it is part of your already (hopefully) extensive library of footage. However, to get round this, what will sometimes happen is production companies will release trailers of a film due for release that can be used by other mediums and companies without Copyright infringement in the weeks leading up to the films release. This way, the companies using it can do so without paying for it and without breaching Copyright laws, and the production companies get further advertising on more mediums than they would otherwise have done. Essentially, Win-Win.
Papers have been "lifting" other papers stories for years, but this is only under the laws of Fair Dealing, which we discussed last week. The usage of material under these fair dealing laws must be:
--> Fair
--> Accurate
--> In Public Interest.
This being in place allows a wider reporting of current stories, criticism and reviews, and even obituaries of actors and filmmakers that have died, so that their best work can be played in memory of them. However, one thing to remember from all of this is that photographs are NOT subject to fair dealings, as it is very difficult to use part of a photograph to portray what you need. These, you have to get on your own!
The danger areas where it is most easy to breach Copyright is through mediums such as Facebook and YouTube, as lifting videos and photos from these would be breaching Copyright. YouTube itself might not hold the laws for Copyright over the videos, as it is mainly a publishing medium, but the people who put the videos up on YouTube DO hold some Copyright leverage as it is their creative property. Though, because this is the Internet, it becomes slightly more difficult to have a tighter grasp over your creative product, so putting it on the Internet in the first place means that you are loosening your grip on your product to a certain extent already.
The best ways to stay safe from Copyright issues is to recognise issues early , so contacting rights holders is always the place you should start, though this does take time. And when in doubt, don't lift any material without referencing to a superior first!
For more information on this subject, and other Journalism subjects, go to www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk
Copyright is there to protect your intellectual property. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 is used, as McNae states, to protect "the product of Skill, Creativity, Labour and/or Time". It also describes a breach or infringement of copyright as "making beneficial use or exploiting someone else's intellectual work without permission". However, as explained before, you cannot copyright "ideas", until they become a tangible piece of work that you have created yourself.
So what exactly does Copyright protect? Copyright can pretty much protect anything and everything that is the product of original work, but it mostly applies to any works that are in print, film or music as these are creative substances that people are more likely to want to copy in the first place. But anything that can be deemed as original work can be subjected to Copyright. And why should we care about Copyright? Because without Copyright protection, journalism itself would never have flourished as everyone would simply be reprinting the general news over and over again. Copyright itself maintains exclusivity which gives the product value to people. This generally means that if something is Copyrighted, then it is the only kind of whatever it is (or at least, the only version). So, for example, Star Wars is Copyrighted, which means no one else can write a script set in a galaxy far, far away, shoot it and market it under the name Star Wars, which is what makes Star Wars itself so good because there isn't anything copying it. There may be parodies of Star Wars (i.e. The Family Guy Star Wars episodes, or Robot Chicken Star Wars), but they are either a) So far from the original idea that they themselves become an original idea based around an existing one or b) have already paid Lucasarts for likeness rights to their characters and storyline to be used in something that isn't directly copying Star Wars.
This leads me into the issues of who gets paid what. In the case of music downloads, that relates back to copyright and creative control of a product from the artist, which is why many free downloading sites have now been privatised, and the reason that some file sharing sites are still functioning is because the files that are there for sharing have originally been purchased as per normal standards, and are simply being shared to other people that want it without paying for it. Of course, this hardly makes it right, but it does start off with the artist being paid for their work in the normal manner. Though I'm sure eventually these file sharing sites will also be taken down, and the music industry will begin to recover losses from such sites.
So, what happens if you breach Copyright? What can happen? Breaching Copyright will cost you:
--> Money
--> Embarrassment and Stress
--> And above all, your Reputation for Competence.
So overall, its probably not worth it!
Some companies will be likely to charge you for using their archive footage if you are running a piece that requires it, but if it is part of your already (hopefully) extensive library of footage. However, to get round this, what will sometimes happen is production companies will release trailers of a film due for release that can be used by other mediums and companies without Copyright infringement in the weeks leading up to the films release. This way, the companies using it can do so without paying for it and without breaching Copyright laws, and the production companies get further advertising on more mediums than they would otherwise have done. Essentially, Win-Win.
Papers have been "lifting" other papers stories for years, but this is only under the laws of Fair Dealing, which we discussed last week. The usage of material under these fair dealing laws must be:
--> Fair
--> Accurate
--> In Public Interest.
This being in place allows a wider reporting of current stories, criticism and reviews, and even obituaries of actors and filmmakers that have died, so that their best work can be played in memory of them. However, one thing to remember from all of this is that photographs are NOT subject to fair dealings, as it is very difficult to use part of a photograph to portray what you need. These, you have to get on your own!
The danger areas where it is most easy to breach Copyright is through mediums such as Facebook and YouTube, as lifting videos and photos from these would be breaching Copyright. YouTube itself might not hold the laws for Copyright over the videos, as it is mainly a publishing medium, but the people who put the videos up on YouTube DO hold some Copyright leverage as it is their creative property. Though, because this is the Internet, it becomes slightly more difficult to have a tighter grasp over your creative product, so putting it on the Internet in the first place means that you are loosening your grip on your product to a certain extent already.
The best ways to stay safe from Copyright issues is to recognise issues early , so contacting rights holders is always the place you should start, though this does take time. And when in doubt, don't lift any material without referencing to a superior first!
For more information on this subject, and other Journalism subjects, go to www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk
Introduction to Journalism Week 7
This week, we started going over the basics of Photojournalism, an integral part of journalism as a whole. More and more, papers and presses are relying on hard-hitting and relevant pictures to accompany news articles to make people pay more attention and affect them even more than normal.
Taking, for example, the story today of the riots at Millbank, there are a lot of things to remember about photojournalism in those instances. Although riots make front-page worthy news, for photojournalists, it can be a very risky business. Firstly, photos taken in these instances can be used as evidence for both the rioter and the police if they do something wrong, so any photographers have to be careful where they take pictures from and what of, as the police can sometimes not be able to take any actions until all photographers are off the scenes. Obviously, any photographers in the immediate vicinity of the action are in danger of being hurt the second anything major kicks off, and as such they can possibly get arrested if any of the police suspect that they are also part of the action taking place since they are so close to what is happening. On top of that, photographers can sometimes get arrested on suspicions of inciting any violence in the first place, as if they are close to the centre of the action and are taking pictures of protesters, someone might make the radical statement to break a window or start a fire for the camera as they know that they will get noticed and get their message out there. In this state, the photographer might well be blamed for inciting the violence as the person has taken to this violence particularly to get noticed by the camera.
All magazines and all papers need photos, and as such they are an important part of the news pieces. There are different styles and categories of pictures. There are both Editorial and Advertising photography, but since we are focusing on the more News-based photojournalism, we won't look at Advertising. Within Editorial photography there is News and Features Photojournalism, which are both very different styles from each other.
News Photos consist of two major types:
--> Action pictures, which depict something happening or in the process of happening, and is proof of actions that you mention in your article.
--> Identification pictures, which are used for identifying people that are in your article, in both positive and negative ways. These can consist of pictures from mug shots to recognisable photos of celebrities.
The things to avoid whilst undertaking photojournalism paths are mostly things like taking what is called "Tourist Pictures", which mostly consist of mid-distance shots of subject that are perfectly squared in the frame. These are not interesting shots of interesting things - they may be an interesting subject, but a dull shot makes the subject itself dull too. However the three rules you SHOULD stick to are:
* GET TO THE ACTION (without getting yourself hurt/killed)
* KEEP TAKING PICTURES (the more you have, the more likely you are to have a winning shot!)
* GET IN CLOSE (but to a safe distance)
Features Photography, on the other hand, is generally guided by the generic type of the feature. So, for example, an Interview feature will have similar style pictures of the person being interviews, an investigative piece will have more candid style shots, etc. Shot of faces are the most useful to use, as the face is the most emotive part of any picture and it is what people will identify with the most. As soon as you see a picture of someone in an article, you will immediately be able to tell what kind of tone the article follows by the emotion expressed on their face, and therefore these shots are the most useful to your piece as they also create a humanising aspect to the article as well. It says a lot about the emotional content of your piece, and how it will affect the audience.
After this, we went on to discuss Content Management Systems, and how useful they are to us and our writing. Content Management Systems are part of the Open Source Movement of websites such as Wikipedia, in which the public can add or change the content of the website through moderators. The website construction server Joomla is what WINOL is built on, and this allows people to be added to the server and add or change the content of the website. What Joomla also does is link other websites you have also built through them together so that it creates a higher amount of traffic so that the various different sites that are linked through the same server direct traffic to each other. This also links back to the Search Engine Optimisation we went over a couple of weeks ago, and is beneficial to that also.
Taking, for example, the story today of the riots at Millbank, there are a lot of things to remember about photojournalism in those instances. Although riots make front-page worthy news, for photojournalists, it can be a very risky business. Firstly, photos taken in these instances can be used as evidence for both the rioter and the police if they do something wrong, so any photographers have to be careful where they take pictures from and what of, as the police can sometimes not be able to take any actions until all photographers are off the scenes. Obviously, any photographers in the immediate vicinity of the action are in danger of being hurt the second anything major kicks off, and as such they can possibly get arrested if any of the police suspect that they are also part of the action taking place since they are so close to what is happening. On top of that, photographers can sometimes get arrested on suspicions of inciting any violence in the first place, as if they are close to the centre of the action and are taking pictures of protesters, someone might make the radical statement to break a window or start a fire for the camera as they know that they will get noticed and get their message out there. In this state, the photographer might well be blamed for inciting the violence as the person has taken to this violence particularly to get noticed by the camera.
All magazines and all papers need photos, and as such they are an important part of the news pieces. There are different styles and categories of pictures. There are both Editorial and Advertising photography, but since we are focusing on the more News-based photojournalism, we won't look at Advertising. Within Editorial photography there is News and Features Photojournalism, which are both very different styles from each other.
News Photos consist of two major types:
--> Action pictures, which depict something happening or in the process of happening, and is proof of actions that you mention in your article.
--> Identification pictures, which are used for identifying people that are in your article, in both positive and negative ways. These can consist of pictures from mug shots to recognisable photos of celebrities.
The things to avoid whilst undertaking photojournalism paths are mostly things like taking what is called "Tourist Pictures", which mostly consist of mid-distance shots of subject that are perfectly squared in the frame. These are not interesting shots of interesting things - they may be an interesting subject, but a dull shot makes the subject itself dull too. However the three rules you SHOULD stick to are:
* GET TO THE ACTION (without getting yourself hurt/killed)
* KEEP TAKING PICTURES (the more you have, the more likely you are to have a winning shot!)
* GET IN CLOSE (but to a safe distance)
Features Photography, on the other hand, is generally guided by the generic type of the feature. So, for example, an Interview feature will have similar style pictures of the person being interviews, an investigative piece will have more candid style shots, etc. Shot of faces are the most useful to use, as the face is the most emotive part of any picture and it is what people will identify with the most. As soon as you see a picture of someone in an article, you will immediately be able to tell what kind of tone the article follows by the emotion expressed on their face, and therefore these shots are the most useful to your piece as they also create a humanising aspect to the article as well. It says a lot about the emotional content of your piece, and how it will affect the audience.
After this, we went on to discuss Content Management Systems, and how useful they are to us and our writing. Content Management Systems are part of the Open Source Movement of websites such as Wikipedia, in which the public can add or change the content of the website through moderators. The website construction server Joomla is what WINOL is built on, and this allows people to be added to the server and add or change the content of the website. What Joomla also does is link other websites you have also built through them together so that it creates a higher amount of traffic so that the various different sites that are linked through the same server direct traffic to each other. This also links back to the Search Engine Optimisation we went over a couple of weeks ago, and is beneficial to that also.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Introduction to Journalism - Features Exercise
The magazine that I have picked up that I wouldn't normally read (or in this case even pick up unless I was pretty much at the end of my boredom tether) is "New!", one of those typically trashy gossipy magazines you normally see people reading while they're waiting for their hair appointment to open up. Much to my surprise, apparently people pay money for these and even read them for fun sometimes. I know, I could hardly believe it myself, but apparently its true! Anyway, from what my primitive, frontal-lobe-only male brain could gather from this magazine (mostly consisting of a lot of pictures of fat chicks hanging out with slutty chicks but all wearing very pretty clothes), this is the contents of the features:
* Chanelle - "I've found it so hard to lose my baby weight" (i.e. Moderately famous woman gets pregnant, becomes a whale, has baby, continues to eat pies whilst everyone watches and feels sorry for her, then decides to lose it all so she can appear in pictures wearing a bikini once again. Everyone feels a bit good for her for a millionth of a second, finds out her secret behind it all (that she stopped eating bloody pies) and moves on with their life.)
* Cheryl Let's Rip - "Cher's Doing My Head In!" (i.e. An entire two/three page feature about the X Factor, to which only people who are still vaguely interested in X Factor will know anything about. For the rest of us that have given up caring, and still have faith that the music community might actually prevail over the glorified karaoke that is X Factor, there's lots of pictures of Cheryl Cole to look at. Good Times. Unfortunately, she does still look like a hooker. Bad Times.)
*Natalie - "I'm back in my size 12 clothes" (i.e. Notoriously heavy Eastenders regular has a few kids, gains some pounds, loses them again all whilst our attention was on X Factor and therefore we missed the whole thing and don't care anymore. Sorry.)
*Jordan freaks out over Essex Girl Amy - "She makes me feel so ugly!" (i.e. I wonder why that would be then...)
And those are just the cover featrues. Aside from those, this mostly celebrity personality led printing relies on a lot of pictures of recognisable female celebs either looking totally and utterly fabulous in their designer clothes that are far too expensive for you to afford, or looking like they just rolled out of bed in their pj's thus verifying the truth that everyone does indeed look like crap sometimes. Ironically enough, theres probably more pictures of women in this than there are in most guys magazines.
Basically, "New!" consists of a lot of Celebrity Gossip features, Celebrity Interviews and True Stories (mostly about weight loss and things like that), which make for ideal light reading until the last person is done with their perm and you can get your hair trimmed back again.
* Chanelle - "I've found it so hard to lose my baby weight" (i.e. Moderately famous woman gets pregnant, becomes a whale, has baby, continues to eat pies whilst everyone watches and feels sorry for her, then decides to lose it all so she can appear in pictures wearing a bikini once again. Everyone feels a bit good for her for a millionth of a second, finds out her secret behind it all (that she stopped eating bloody pies) and moves on with their life.)
* Cheryl Let's Rip - "Cher's Doing My Head In!" (i.e. An entire two/three page feature about the X Factor, to which only people who are still vaguely interested in X Factor will know anything about. For the rest of us that have given up caring, and still have faith that the music community might actually prevail over the glorified karaoke that is X Factor, there's lots of pictures of Cheryl Cole to look at. Good Times. Unfortunately, she does still look like a hooker. Bad Times.)
*Natalie - "I'm back in my size 12 clothes" (i.e. Notoriously heavy Eastenders regular has a few kids, gains some pounds, loses them again all whilst our attention was on X Factor and therefore we missed the whole thing and don't care anymore. Sorry.)
*Jordan freaks out over Essex Girl Amy - "She makes me feel so ugly!" (i.e. I wonder why that would be then...)
And those are just the cover featrues. Aside from those, this mostly celebrity personality led printing relies on a lot of pictures of recognisable female celebs either looking totally and utterly fabulous in their designer clothes that are far too expensive for you to afford, or looking like they just rolled out of bed in their pj's thus verifying the truth that everyone does indeed look like crap sometimes. Ironically enough, theres probably more pictures of women in this than there are in most guys magazines.
Basically, "New!" consists of a lot of Celebrity Gossip features, Celebrity Interviews and True Stories (mostly about weight loss and things like that), which make for ideal light reading until the last person is done with their perm and you can get your hair trimmed back again.
Radio Broadcast Week 7
This week, after listening back to our radio packages from the two weeks prior and receiving some constructive feedback, we discussed the news priority of radio stations and how they differ from the news in print.
To start with, the running order of the news stories depends on the target audience and the reach of the radio station. This means that it makes the most sense for the radio stations to prioritise the news stories that will be affecting their target audience the most. All news bulletins normally start with the most widespread top national or international story before moving on to more locally based stories surrounding the area of the station. It mostly depends on how many people are affected and how widespread the news story is.
We all partook in an interesting exercise in which we had to re-write some news stories into as short a form as possible for broadcasting as part of a radio news bulletin. A lot of this proved difficult, as it is a lot different from the typical structuring of news in print (i.e. the Pyramid system that has been so often spoken of). Instead, the most important part of the story should be the bit that goes first, and then the rest of the details should follow after that. Though I personally might have failed a bit miserably at the exercise, I definitely think that it was an eye-opening one that will help a lot when it comes to doing more radio-based news bulletins later on.
The second part of today was used for working on our voicing and phrasing. Obviously, since Radio has no visuals to accompany it, a lot more of the audiences attention is focussed on your voice and how you speak. As such, there are some very important things to remember abbout the way you accentuate words and what it means if you do.
To start with, the running order of the news stories depends on the target audience and the reach of the radio station. This means that it makes the most sense for the radio stations to prioritise the news stories that will be affecting their target audience the most. All news bulletins normally start with the most widespread top national or international story before moving on to more locally based stories surrounding the area of the station. It mostly depends on how many people are affected and how widespread the news story is.
We all partook in an interesting exercise in which we had to re-write some news stories into as short a form as possible for broadcasting as part of a radio news bulletin. A lot of this proved difficult, as it is a lot different from the typical structuring of news in print (i.e. the Pyramid system that has been so often spoken of). Instead, the most important part of the story should be the bit that goes first, and then the rest of the details should follow after that. Though I personally might have failed a bit miserably at the exercise, I definitely think that it was an eye-opening one that will help a lot when it comes to doing more radio-based news bulletins later on.
The second part of today was used for working on our voicing and phrasing. Obviously, since Radio has no visuals to accompany it, a lot more of the audiences attention is focussed on your voice and how you speak. As such, there are some very important things to remember abbout the way you accentuate words and what it means if you do.
How you say a sentence affects the meaning of the sentence just as much as the content of it!
The points that we were given to remember about how we use our voice on the radio consisted of the six following points, coincidentally enough all beginning with "P":
--> Pace - this should be consistant, but at the same time not monotonous. It should be slightly slower than normal conversation, but not at such a pace that it send the listener to sleep!
--> Pause - well placed pauses arrest the audiences attention. Pause between stories to give the listener time to digest the last bit of information.
--> Phrasing - means grouping words into a sense unit. A sense unit is commonly described as "a mental concept spoken in one breath", for those of you who didn't know... tut tut...
--> Pitch - position of sound on the tone of scale. Variation of the pitch of your voice will give colour and depth to the meaning of what you are reading, which tends to heighten the importance of words.
--> Pronounciation - ironically enough, spoken as "pr-nun-ciation", this is the clarity of your words and how they are said, as well as emphasis on parts of the words. Don't forget that with such words as record, there are different meanings of the same word depending on where your pronounciation emphasis goes (i.e. record and record meaning two different actions).
--> Practise - does, indeed, make perfect!
Media Law Week 6
Once more without Ian this week, we instead briefly went over two different subjects consisting of Copyright Law and the Freedom Of Information Act.
Firstly, Copyright Law applies to intellectual property which is yours until you sell it to someone else. Until that point, Copyright Law protects your intellectual property from being stolen, copied or otherwise used without your prior consent. When you do sell it, you give away your beneficial rights to it, as it is then no longer your property. However, of course, there is no copyrights on ideas. The best examples to use for copyrights is for Film scripts - when you first come up with an idea for a script, there can be no copyright for it because it is not yet a tangible property. However, once you write the script and start putting it into production, you can officially have it copyrighted as your own intellectual property, and will therefore be protected against any kind of copying or theft of your creative brainchild. This is a very common process, especially in the film industry (hence the example) and can usually mean that your productions are legally secure until you give up such beneficiary rights through selling your product. Also, if you are creating something to be used by someone to to be used on something else, the product then becomes property of the person you have been paid to write it for.
Just because something is put up on the internet does not mean that it is available to everyone. The internet may be a free forum, but that does not give people the right to theft. Nowadays, some pictures or downloads have electronic watermarks programmed into them which can then be traced back to you, so when using other peoples documents from the internet its always helpful to purchase them or get permission for their use if you're using them for official journalistic reasons. So the only totally safe way to do it, is to do it yourself.
In cases of fair dealing, some companies agree with each other that they can use a certain amount of each others materials provided that they don't make it available to other people. As an example, say that one TV company might want to use some clips of another companies football match (say BBC News wanted to use clips from a game that was covered by Sky Sports), Sky Sports might be willing to let the BBC use some of their clips provided that they don't show the entire game, credit tghe clips to Sky Sports and that there was a voice over on the clips as well, so its not the original sound. This is a typical example of fair dealing. Another version of this, but slightly changed, is called creative commons - this is when you might have permission to freely use pictures or a certain amount of material in exchange for credits or links to the company. This is most typically used in Reviews, so for instance in the case of Film Reviews a production company such as Paramount or Universal might allow you to use a clip of their latest release as part of the review as long as you provide links to their sites or credit that it is indeed their company releasing the images. This way, the company gains publication, and you gain a well rounded review!
After this, we then went on to discuss the Freedom of Information Act. The FOI Act is a statute that requires any publicly funded body to publish any information asked for on demand. an example of this comes from journalist Matthew Davis who constantly asked hospitals for a league table of the most sued hospitals, which he eventually got and then sold to The Daily Mail for a considerable amount of money to run as a newspiece. Obviously, this mostly applies to information that is allowed to be made public, and restircts the divulgence of information they can't reveal under national security and/or other secrets. As a journalist, you are able to write to the Council or their FOI officer for information you might want/need for an article you are producing, and they have to, by law, answer your request within 60 days. Of course, dependant on the information you are after, the reply after the 60 days might well be a notice to say that your request is still being processed and that you "will be contacted soon, and thank you for your time", but if it is information you know you can get then you can keep requesting them for it.
Some other places you can go for access to certain information is whatdotheyknow.com and the Sunlight Project, which is a project assisting people in gathering information on known criminals. These are incredibly useful places to go to in a pinch.
More on this in next weeks lecture, and at http://www.winchesterjournalism.com/
Firstly, Copyright Law applies to intellectual property which is yours until you sell it to someone else. Until that point, Copyright Law protects your intellectual property from being stolen, copied or otherwise used without your prior consent. When you do sell it, you give away your beneficial rights to it, as it is then no longer your property. However, of course, there is no copyrights on ideas. The best examples to use for copyrights is for Film scripts - when you first come up with an idea for a script, there can be no copyright for it because it is not yet a tangible property. However, once you write the script and start putting it into production, you can officially have it copyrighted as your own intellectual property, and will therefore be protected against any kind of copying or theft of your creative brainchild. This is a very common process, especially in the film industry (hence the example) and can usually mean that your productions are legally secure until you give up such beneficiary rights through selling your product. Also, if you are creating something to be used by someone to to be used on something else, the product then becomes property of the person you have been paid to write it for.
Just because something is put up on the internet does not mean that it is available to everyone. The internet may be a free forum, but that does not give people the right to theft. Nowadays, some pictures or downloads have electronic watermarks programmed into them which can then be traced back to you, so when using other peoples documents from the internet its always helpful to purchase them or get permission for their use if you're using them for official journalistic reasons. So the only totally safe way to do it, is to do it yourself.
In cases of fair dealing, some companies agree with each other that they can use a certain amount of each others materials provided that they don't make it available to other people. As an example, say that one TV company might want to use some clips of another companies football match (say BBC News wanted to use clips from a game that was covered by Sky Sports), Sky Sports might be willing to let the BBC use some of their clips provided that they don't show the entire game, credit tghe clips to Sky Sports and that there was a voice over on the clips as well, so its not the original sound. This is a typical example of fair dealing. Another version of this, but slightly changed, is called creative commons - this is when you might have permission to freely use pictures or a certain amount of material in exchange for credits or links to the company. This is most typically used in Reviews, so for instance in the case of Film Reviews a production company such as Paramount or Universal might allow you to use a clip of their latest release as part of the review as long as you provide links to their sites or credit that it is indeed their company releasing the images. This way, the company gains publication, and you gain a well rounded review!
After this, we then went on to discuss the Freedom of Information Act. The FOI Act is a statute that requires any publicly funded body to publish any information asked for on demand. an example of this comes from journalist Matthew Davis who constantly asked hospitals for a league table of the most sued hospitals, which he eventually got and then sold to The Daily Mail for a considerable amount of money to run as a newspiece. Obviously, this mostly applies to information that is allowed to be made public, and restircts the divulgence of information they can't reveal under national security and/or other secrets. As a journalist, you are able to write to the Council or their FOI officer for information you might want/need for an article you are producing, and they have to, by law, answer your request within 60 days. Of course, dependant on the information you are after, the reply after the 60 days might well be a notice to say that your request is still being processed and that you "will be contacted soon, and thank you for your time", but if it is information you know you can get then you can keep requesting them for it.
Some other places you can go for access to certain information is whatdotheyknow.com and the Sunlight Project, which is a project assisting people in gathering information on known criminals. These are incredibly useful places to go to in a pinch.
More on this in next weeks lecture, and at http://www.winchesterjournalism.com/
Monday, 8 November 2010
TV Broadcasting Week 6
This week we went over the terminology that generally gets used whilst shooting the video of any news piece you are likely to do. A lot of the terms are general terms for the types of shots that you want to get, or the motion that the camera will make during a shot. These terminologies have been explained below.
Shot Sizes:
è Extreme Long Shot – this is mostly used for capturing the environment around a subject without focussing on the subject matter itself. This is used when the environment is very important.
è Very Long Shot – The subject of the shot is about one third of the frame.
è Long Shot – The subject covers a majority of the frame, but you can still see much of the background as well. This is normally used when you are following the subject’s motions or movements, as you can still see their legs moving at this point.
è Medium Long Shot – This cuts the subject off at the knee, and is normally very similar to a Long Shot except that it is not used for any motion shots, as you can no longer see the motions of the legs.
è Mid-Shot – This cuts below the waist, and is normally used to capture upper body activity.
è Medium Close Up – This is normally used for Interviews, as it cuts off just below the shoulder and keeps the focus on the subject and what they are saying.
è Close Up – This cuts off below the chin, and is better for focussing more on the face and eyes.
è Big Close Up – This shot cuts off around the chin for a bigger emphasis on the face and mouth.
è Extreme Close Up – This shot focuses purely on the eyes and their movement. This can either create mystery or comedy depending on their use.
Framing:
è When you shoot at diagonals, you create a better sense of depth and variation than shooting a subject square on. So whenever you can, shoot from an angle as this creates a much more interesting and dynamic shot.
è The positioning of the subject tells the audience a lot about the action of the scene – where they’re looking, where they’re walking, how they’re sat, everything speaks visually about what could be happening next. So, frame your shot according to the action that is taking place, and think about what you want the framing to do for the video.
è The Rule of Thirds is a fantastic rule to follow for framing your shots. Basically, this rule means you split the framing into thirds width ways and lengthways over the shot so that you can get a better composition from the shot. The subject of the shot should be framed within one of these thirds so that it creates a much more dynamic and interesting shot rather than, once again, just shooting something square in the shot.
è Using low angles and high angles creates different impressions of what you want from the shot.
Crossing the Line:
è This is the line that you use for shooting. The “line” exists between two subjects and you have to decide which 180 degrees side you are going to shoot from, as crossing the line creates confusion over the directions of the actions taking place in the shot. So, for example, if you have two people talking to each other on a bench and you go to take over-the-shoulder shots, then crossing the line would make it seem as if one of them is facing away from the other. Crossing the Line is an easy mistake to make, which is why it is all the more important to recognise where your line is when you start shooting so that you do not fall into the trap!
è Having said this, there is one way to get around crossing over the line, and that is to simply capture a tracking shot of the action whilst crossing over the line, so that then when you cut to shots you’ve taken from the other side of the line, the action is no longer confusing.
Movement:
è Tilt – This is an up and down motion of the camera, pivoting on the tripod. When you freeze on the first and last shots as well, this works out as giving you 3 different usable shots.
è Pan – Like a tilt, this is a side to side motion pivoting on the tripod.
è Track – This is actual movement with the camera, so that it makes a natural movement of the eye.
è Zoom – This squeezes the picture and is an unnatural movement to really make, so it should only be used sparingly and when you really need to.
With that, we were divided into groups and went out to capture video. Each group was given a scenario of a news story that wasn’t true but could still be likely to happen, and create a small news package around that story. The scenario the group I was in took was the one about a Tesco’s store being build on the grounds of Winchester University, removing one of the fields there. We went out and captured some general views of the University and a couple of interviews with each other before editing them together into a short package. The results of this will be viewed next week...
Press Release Exercise
Invisible Children Press Release – “Invisible Child Gets His Voice Heard”
Young representative of a largely “invisible” group of children James Voykovich made his presence felt at a children’s rights seminar in Wellington, Australia.
Voykovich, a six-year-old from Auckland, has Down syndrome and represents one of 90,000 disabled children in New Zealand today presented a representative of the Children’s Commissioner, Dr Janis Carroll-Lind, with a copy of ‘Start Strong’, a draft Plan of Action designed to make life better for him and other disabled children.
IHC Director of Advocacy Trish Grant said, “A total of 10% of children in New Zealand have disabilities, but they still seem to be largely invisible to policy makers. Of these children, 25% of them live in benefit-dependant households and 523 children with a disability are under the care of Child Youth and Family. Families are put under increasing pressure; they aren’t connecting with other families in their communities and their children are denied the effective early support that they need.”
The Start Strong seminar is the third in a series – two in Wellington and one in Auckland –this year organised by IHC to focus on these issues and find a way to tackle them. Today, representatives from the Health, Education and Social Development ministries and non-government agencies came together with parents, disability and parents’ organisations for the launch of the draft Plan of Action.
PETA Press Release – “Baby Seal Covered in ‘Blood’ for Protest”
Animal Rights Organisation PETA will put residents of Sudbury, Canada face to face with their cruelty of the Annual Seal Slaughter on Monday at 12 noon.
PETA plans to make a statement to the Canadian residents by staging a protest using signs reading “Stop The Seal Slaughter”, footage of the annual massacre and a “baby seal” (clearly under the circumstances, not a real one) writhing in blood to illustrate the actions of the locals every year.
"The seal slaughter is a bloody stain on Canada's reputation, and we're asking all Canadians to demand that it be stopped," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Canadians deserve to know what the government is doing in their name."
The demonstration is the latest salvo in PETA's campaign to end Canada's annual commercial seal slaughter. Of the nearly 300,000 harp seals that were expected to be killed this year, most of which are babies, nearly three quarters were spared in part because the price of seal fur has drastically fallen due to the international outrage over the subject since the European Union and U.S. have banned seal products and various world leaders have spoken out against the massacre.
OXFAM Press Release – “Dame Helen Mirren makes sparkling donation to Oxfam”
Dame Helen Mirren donated the famous silver jacket she wore in her 1984 film 2010: The Year We Made Contact to Oxfam today in order to help raise money towards the charity’s West Africa Food Crisis Response.
All funds that are raised from the sale of the jacket will be going directly towards helping the 10 million people who have been affected by the food crisis in the countries of West Africa, including Niger, Chad and Mali. Over the past few months, Western Africa has had severe lack of food, which has meant a widespread malnourishment epidemic, to which Oxfam is helping by providing various responses including agricultural tools, livestock and irrigation systems.
Young representative of a largely “invisible” group of children James Voykovich made his presence felt at a children’s rights seminar in Wellington, Australia.
Voykovich, a six-year-old from Auckland, has Down syndrome and represents one of 90,000 disabled children in New Zealand today presented a representative of the Children’s Commissioner, Dr Janis Carroll-Lind, with a copy of ‘Start Strong’, a draft Plan of Action designed to make life better for him and other disabled children.
IHC Director of Advocacy Trish Grant said, “A total of 10% of children in New Zealand have disabilities, but they still seem to be largely invisible to policy makers. Of these children, 25% of them live in benefit-dependant households and 523 children with a disability are under the care of Child Youth and Family. Families are put under increasing pressure; they aren’t connecting with other families in their communities and their children are denied the effective early support that they need.”
The Start Strong seminar is the third in a series – two in Wellington and one in Auckland –this year organised by IHC to focus on these issues and find a way to tackle them. Today, representatives from the Health, Education and Social Development ministries and non-government agencies came together with parents, disability and parents’ organisations for the launch of the draft Plan of Action.
PETA Press Release – “Baby Seal Covered in ‘Blood’ for Protest”
Animal Rights Organisation PETA will put residents of Sudbury, Canada face to face with their cruelty of the Annual Seal Slaughter on Monday at 12 noon.
PETA plans to make a statement to the Canadian residents by staging a protest using signs reading “Stop The Seal Slaughter”, footage of the annual massacre and a “baby seal” (clearly under the circumstances, not a real one) writhing in blood to illustrate the actions of the locals every year.
"The seal slaughter is a bloody stain on Canada's reputation, and we're asking all Canadians to demand that it be stopped," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Canadians deserve to know what the government is doing in their name."
The demonstration is the latest salvo in PETA's campaign to end Canada's annual commercial seal slaughter. Of the nearly 300,000 harp seals that were expected to be killed this year, most of which are babies, nearly three quarters were spared in part because the price of seal fur has drastically fallen due to the international outrage over the subject since the European Union and U.S. have banned seal products and various world leaders have spoken out against the massacre.
OXFAM Press Release – “Dame Helen Mirren makes sparkling donation to Oxfam”
Dame Helen Mirren donated the famous silver jacket she wore in her 1984 film 2010: The Year We Made Contact to Oxfam today in order to help raise money towards the charity’s West Africa Food Crisis Response.
All funds that are raised from the sale of the jacket will be going directly towards helping the 10 million people who have been affected by the food crisis in the countries of West Africa, including Niger, Chad and Mali. Over the past few months, Western Africa has had severe lack of food, which has meant a widespread malnourishment epidemic, to which Oxfam is helping by providing various responses including agricultural tools, livestock and irrigation systems.
“I didn’t think when we were making 2010: The Year We Make Contact that in 2010 it would be possible for 10 million people to go hungry because of lack of action by the international community,” said Helen Mirren, “but in West Africa this year people were forced to eat leaves and berries in order to survive.”
The jacket was worn by the Dame while she played a Russian Astronaut in the film based on the Arthur C Clarke novel 2010: Odyssey 2, which was nominated for 5 Academy Awards in 1985 including Best Costume Design. The space-age style jacket is still embroidered with the badges of the NCA and the USA flag and a large embroidered “2010” on the back. Fans wishing to take part in the lottery for the jacket are asked to put down a £10 bid, and the lottery will run from Monday November 8th to Monday December 1st with the winner being drawn two weeks after closing.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Introduction to Journalism Week 6
After going back over some of the points that were made in last weeks lecture, and coming to the conclusion that for the most part News is about bad things happening to people (as in, not just "things"), we moved on to start studying into Feature Writing.
Almost all of the rules, practices and theories that are used in writing the news which you shouldn't do in the news (i.e. The kinds of writing that is bad for news) are good for features writing. As an example, when conducting interviews for features you would want to get them talking and keep them talking to get as much as possible. The general term for Features writing is "Long Form" Journalism, whereas "Short Form" normally applies to news stories. These Long Form styles include such things as documentaries and factual television, magazine features and online website features. However they cannot be anything like fiction, as it can then no longer be considered news or news worthy.
"Editorials" are are the leading articles of the medium, and are the main inside parts of the publication. Professional features writing consists of going with the format and not with the subject matter. This basically means that when you are doing a featured article, you normally write in accordance with the format of the publication first and then focus on the subject at hand second. However, considering that there are different genres to write for, you should normally write in accordance with the format of the type of feature you're writing.
Featured articles are what normally give the personality to the publication. As such, they are highly important for speaking towards and accessing the demographic of the publication. They set the tone of the paper, magazine or whatever other medium it is you are writing for, and therefore the publication is very much defined by its features. For instance, its likely that The Daily Mail will have featured articles mostly written by C1 class Females writing articles about subjects that other C1 class females would want to read. The same can be said for The Sun, as it is mostly read by C1-D class males, and it therefore written as such.
There are generally two different types (not genres) of features: Editorials and Advertising. Editorials are generally what has already been described, whereas Advertising features will focus more on actual retail products and be be written in a way that appeals to the readers of that medium.
The terms "digesis" and "mimesis" are used a lot in reference to features writing as well. The definition of "digesis" is the direct delivery of the information first and foremost, as is mostly used in the news. "Mimesis" uses a lot more drop-intros in the style of writing, and are normally used for capturing audiences attention at the start and doing its best to hold it through to the end of the article. Films would normally count as a form of "mimesis" as they give the information out slower and in an almost "drip-fed" way to the audience.
Unlike the news, features are completely production-led. For instance, features as they would appear on TV would be such shows as Jonathon Ross, or even Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio. The reason that they are production-led is because they have a strict format to each of them, and normally have a specific run time that they use as well. These kinds of features are formatted in such a way that people are normally more interested in them for the format rather than the content. By this, an example would be that people would watch Jonathon Ross because they enjoy watching the personality of Jonathon Ross, and it doesn't matter quite as much who his guests are because the show centers mostly around him, since its obviously his name in the title!
There are different styles in which features can be written, from Q&A's to essay-length exposés. Pictures are also very essential to features, and in some cases features can even be completely picture-led in their content.
The different types of features that normally occur are:
--> Confessional Interviews - "My True Story..."
--> Featured Interview - These can be done in different styles ranging from the "Gonzo" style of writing (which means being 'part' of the action that is happening), to 'Someone' Meets 'Someone', which is normally more about the interviewer rather than the profile.
--> Profile - purely facts and information about the subject (normally a person or important figure) and very little else.
--> Review - What is it? Is it any good? etc.
-->Investigation - In this instance, the story is initiated by the journalists and not by any means of news story.
--> Observational - The most typical description is "fly-on-the-wall", kind of like "Gonzo" style but you are not part of the subject. As well as this, there is no Mimesis or Digesis.
--> Reader Response - Typically known as the Letters Column, this encourages interactivity and gets the audience contributing towards the press.
There are many ways in which Features are hugely different from News writing, but the key differences are the ones that I have listed below:
NEWS FEATURES
Telling the information A lot more visual
Swift Delivery Very detailed in its information
General Audiences Normally applies to a niché audience
Length varies on importance Length is according to Structure
House style of delivery Various styles and generic types.
So to finalise, feature writing is essentially an entire world apart from writing the news, as there is a lot more space for creativity, imaginitive structuring (as opposed to one specific delivery of information) and generally offers a lot more insight into subjects when compared to the regular kinds of news stories.
Almost all of the rules, practices and theories that are used in writing the news which you shouldn't do in the news (i.e. The kinds of writing that is bad for news) are good for features writing. As an example, when conducting interviews for features you would want to get them talking and keep them talking to get as much as possible. The general term for Features writing is "Long Form" Journalism, whereas "Short Form" normally applies to news stories. These Long Form styles include such things as documentaries and factual television, magazine features and online website features. However they cannot be anything like fiction, as it can then no longer be considered news or news worthy.
"Editorials" are are the leading articles of the medium, and are the main inside parts of the publication. Professional features writing consists of going with the format and not with the subject matter. This basically means that when you are doing a featured article, you normally write in accordance with the format of the publication first and then focus on the subject at hand second. However, considering that there are different genres to write for, you should normally write in accordance with the format of the type of feature you're writing.
Featured articles are what normally give the personality to the publication. As such, they are highly important for speaking towards and accessing the demographic of the publication. They set the tone of the paper, magazine or whatever other medium it is you are writing for, and therefore the publication is very much defined by its features. For instance, its likely that The Daily Mail will have featured articles mostly written by C1 class Females writing articles about subjects that other C1 class females would want to read. The same can be said for The Sun, as it is mostly read by C1-D class males, and it therefore written as such.
There are generally two different types (not genres) of features: Editorials and Advertising. Editorials are generally what has already been described, whereas Advertising features will focus more on actual retail products and be be written in a way that appeals to the readers of that medium.
The terms "digesis" and "mimesis" are used a lot in reference to features writing as well. The definition of "digesis" is the direct delivery of the information first and foremost, as is mostly used in the news. "Mimesis" uses a lot more drop-intros in the style of writing, and are normally used for capturing audiences attention at the start and doing its best to hold it through to the end of the article. Films would normally count as a form of "mimesis" as they give the information out slower and in an almost "drip-fed" way to the audience.
Unlike the news, features are completely production-led. For instance, features as they would appear on TV would be such shows as Jonathon Ross, or even Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio. The reason that they are production-led is because they have a strict format to each of them, and normally have a specific run time that they use as well. These kinds of features are formatted in such a way that people are normally more interested in them for the format rather than the content. By this, an example would be that people would watch Jonathon Ross because they enjoy watching the personality of Jonathon Ross, and it doesn't matter quite as much who his guests are because the show centers mostly around him, since its obviously his name in the title!
There are different styles in which features can be written, from Q&A's to essay-length exposés. Pictures are also very essential to features, and in some cases features can even be completely picture-led in their content.
The different types of features that normally occur are:
--> Confessional Interviews - "My True Story..."
--> Featured Interview - These can be done in different styles ranging from the "Gonzo" style of writing (which means being 'part' of the action that is happening), to 'Someone' Meets 'Someone', which is normally more about the interviewer rather than the profile.
--> Profile - purely facts and information about the subject (normally a person or important figure) and very little else.
--> Review - What is it? Is it any good? etc.
-->Investigation - In this instance, the story is initiated by the journalists and not by any means of news story.
--> Observational - The most typical description is "fly-on-the-wall", kind of like "Gonzo" style but you are not part of the subject. As well as this, there is no Mimesis or Digesis.
--> Reader Response - Typically known as the Letters Column, this encourages interactivity and gets the audience contributing towards the press.
There are many ways in which Features are hugely different from News writing, but the key differences are the ones that I have listed below:
NEWS FEATURES
Telling the information A lot more visual
Swift Delivery Very detailed in its information
General Audiences Normally applies to a niché audience
Length varies on importance Length is according to Structure
House style of delivery Various styles and generic types.
So to finalise, feature writing is essentially an entire world apart from writing the news, as there is a lot more space for creativity, imaginitive structuring (as opposed to one specific delivery of information) and generally offers a lot more insight into subjects when compared to the regular kinds of news stories.
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