WoRk...WoRk....wOrK

I kno every1s got bare work t do...but try to prioritizzzeee media 4 a lil while just while we get da filmin dun...kwl...n also...next week thursdayyy all of us r goin t film..so plss keep it free!! & also memebr dat we'v got 2 free's tom...well me n pardii have got 3,4 n 5 off..so we wer thinkin bout goin t film...(SiMrAn)

Consumer Society (Pardeep)

The text is a documentary named 'The Consumer Society' produced by media students (don't no where from though) and I think the target audience is the same as ours- females mainly- as most commercial target them more, yet also a male audience. The age group is about 16 onwards. This can be seen via the type of adverts used (e.g. the shampoo advert, the drink advert) and although it features a advert for children, I doubt its targeting kids as they don't understand the media and the issue being raised is beyond their understanding. This documentary will probably be shown on the BBC,, as channel 4 is a commercial channel, therefore, it may feel threatened by this and so will the people who want their adverts appearing on channel 4. BBC doesn't advertise, so therefore it will most likely appear on that channel. As this documentary challenges people, the audience it's trying to attract usually watch TV from 8:00 onward- as this is when they come back form work of school etc. Therefore, it will be shown about 9ish. ‘The Consumer Society’ uses fade outs to move from one advert to another and it uses a variety of adverts- from hair shampoo to drinks to chocolate or whatever. It mainly just uses a lot of archive footage and it uses captions to pose questions. A montage is used (cuts are used) to summarise the point at the end and this helps to pull together what the filmmakers are trying to point out. This is then further reinforced by the question which appears on the screen: ‘Are you part of the consumer society?’ I think this is very effective as in a sense it forces the audience to think and become less passive. The sound used in the beginning is rock, which can be seen as parallel, as it helps to reflect society’s attitude toward consumerism, (how everyone is crazily consuming without pausing to think about the consequences). This is used in the beginning and in the end. The rest of the music comes from the adverts. Personally, I don’t think this documentary was that good, as it only uses archive footage and misses out on sooooooo much like: interviews, vox pops, a proper montage etc, (i think that our documentary is gonna be sooooo much better:) However, we will borrow the idea of posing a serious question to make the audience think and question themselves.

TOdAi (30th jan)

ShoPpIn....me pardi..n karina went area huntin todaii...so we cld find a good spot t film apart of our docu...we ended up in hounslow as it is usually busy n full of youths...linkin t our docuuu females..shoppin..n youths (",) we planned alot of our openin sequence and came up with sum reali good ideas...(so team WELL DUN) ha ha...we'v got da full outline of our docu now...BUT have decicded t change our title as its not dat catchy...thinkin along the lines of "Big Spender" sounds bit better...but we are reaadiii t start filming...we'v made alot of progress as a group as we'v realised dat we'v onli got a lil while till we have t start editin..so group well dun again..!!! anyhuuu...biii (SiMrAnxXx)

Today's Work-30th (pardeep)

Today me, Simran and Kareina went to check out the places we are considering to feature in our documentary. It went very well, as we finalised details on our storyboard and have planned the opening scene to the smallest detail. We have a general idea on what we want in the rest of the documentary but we have not planned details yet. Also, we’ve decided today that the main character- the uni student- we would like her to just act natural and real rather than act out to be something she is not (as for example, in Bullicide- although the documentary was very good, at times the main character was being unrealistic and over-dramatic), and we want our documentary to be as realistic as possible. The editing we do will help convey our point and we will construct it to portray her the way we want. We also decided today that out title ’The Lavish Life’ is not appropriate for our documentary as it seems a bit dull :( and we want a more snappier title, so therefore we will be changing it as soon as someone comes up with something :)

camera....

yesterdaiii..(dats mondaii 29th jan) we got our camera's..me and pardi...stood in da que 4 over 45 mins waiting 4 da camera...n we thought it shldv have been a group thing...cuz now me n pardi kno how t use the camera n dips n karina dont!!! we are going out todaii as a group to check out a few of the settings we have alreadii thought about...n as wev got da cameras late...filming needs to be dun quickly so we can have the most time on out editing.....(SiMrAn)

Bowling For Columbine (Pardeep)

The text is a successful documentary- 'Bowling For Columbine' produced by Michael Moore (USA,2002) and although it is about the 2 students who went on a killing spree, it also tackles with issues such as gun crime, the media and how it creates fear resulting in more consumerism, racism and much more. It’s target audience is anyone who is anti- Bush and it also targets people who are generally more left wing (liberal view). This can be seen as Moore promotes his left wing views and also criticise Bush. I think the documentary will be shown on a channel such as Channel 4, as Channel 4 is well known for its documentaries and often deals with controversial topics-compared to the BBC, as Britain supports America so therefore will not show a documentary which portrays it in a negative light. It will be shown at about 9:00 -after the watershed time, as it deals with controversial issues and does feature scenes which can be viewed as violent e.g. when showing American history. It’s about guns etc so its for a older audience. The sound is contrapuntal during this scene and is ironic as the images are brutal and the music is ‘What a Wonderful World’. Also, the fact that some of the clips in this scene are black and white emphasises that it is the history- which is effective. Overall, a variety of shots are used, many cuts are used to move on to the next scene. It uses all the typical conventions of documentaries to convey a point and some of these conventions are: voiceover montages parallel and contrapuntal music different modes: fly on the wall, expository, personal etc cuts, close up’s to show emotion etc. From this documentary, we will borrow the compression technique as we think its used very effectively when showing how easy it is to obtain a gun. Similarly, we will like to use it when showing a bank scene- instead we’ll show how easy it is to get your hands on a credit card. Moreover, we want to show how people were without the credit card, and when it was introduced how people went crazy. For this we’ll use compression as our documentary is only about 10 minutes long. We will also like to use contrapuntal music to shock our audience and to create irony.

soo far...

k...sooo far...as a group we'v linked up around 3 times...which isnt alot..n me n pardi have realised that we need to catch up...we have taken mr bush's absence as a free period kinda ting..so we are behind!!!! HOWEVER..we intend to shape up n hurry up with the progress of our docu...we have prewwtty good ideas that just need to be planned to the tinyest details but the outline on the storyboard is finished..!! therefore we are readi to start filming..bit nervous as we havnt started filmin yet n we'v only got 2 weeks till half term.. :( also we need to learn how to use the equipment..

targets as a group:

1) 4 every1 to attend atleast 1 meeting a week ...
2) post progress or any info on da production..problems wa eva it is...on da regs
3) inform all group memebrs on changes that would like to be made...etc

in the following week we all need to sit down as a whole group and discuss when are where filming will take place...if u miss filming ul b MISSING OUT (BIG TIME) so try n forget bout outside stuff n focus 4 jus 2 weeks... (",) also start keeping track of every lil detail made...

note to all KEEP INDIVIDUAL LOGS...of all work completed cuz den we kno hu's workin n hu's not...also we'l kno if changes need to b made etc...

tke cre all...xXxSiMrAnxXx