Hey! So just to say I have began a new blog for my second year as a Media Production student, why not take a peek?
https://grantsnaithyr2blog.wordpress.com
UNITED STATES – CIRCA 1950s: Woman with surprised look. (Photo by George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images)
As part of Coventry Universities amazing international experience programme, I was granted the opportunity to travel to the city of Istanbul in Turkey to engage in the culture and explore the world.
First of all id like to stress how much I am grateful to Coventry University for their commitment to ensuring students are given the chance to indulge in international travel on a professional level, it was honestly one of the deciding factors for me when I was considering which university to attend and it has exceeded my expectations. We were offered trips to New York and Amsterdam in addition to Istanbul which I heard from other students went equally well.
Okay so Istanbul, the only city in the world to be a part of both Europe and Asia, straddling the Bosphorus way and I have never been to another city like it. You can immediately see the impacts of various cultures and civilisations colliding together. Underground Roman cisterns such as the Basilica Cistern to the remnants of the Southern Wall of the Byzantine Hippodrome, all of this placed in a bustling city of 14 million. The Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace were particularly beautiful to walk around, their sheer size and intricately detailed paintings just took the breath away. The history of how the Sultans lived with their harem and councils, as a person interested in historical sites, was particularly interesting.
Ive lived a relatively sheltered life when it comes to indulging in culture, usually being the kind of person who prefers what I know but I decided to throw myself out of my comfort zone and thoroughly enjoyed it. I got to sample the food and drinks and found I enjoyed a lot of it, we had a regular eating spot round the corner from our hotel. The owner, Martin, became very good friends with us and as the night oil burned on we would sit at a table with him and just fire questions at him about life in Istanbul. Questions like why are there so many homeless on the streets, what are they typical niceties of social engagement here and just why are there so many carpet sellers here? He was a well of knowledge and taught us so much and served us great food at discount price.
The other lovely people in this picture are my classmates Karen and Brandon. Now I had spoken to them before going on this trip and even worked with them on projects but what I found whilst out in Istanbul was we developed a much stronger bond, and to me thats the most important thing about life in University is developing these bonds and contacts so that in the future as we all look to enter the big world of media we can call upon one another and help each other along.
Together we explored the beautiful mosques, the majestic historical sites, but we also had chance to see the less travelled routes of Istanbul. We walked some rather unkept streets and saw many homeless clutching young and begging for money. We were later informed that some of these are victims of Syria fleeing into the country whilst the other half are simply making a living from begging. One particularly harrowing moment on our trip was when we witnessed a child of no older than 2 running down a street hand outstretched to this group of gentlemen for money. She strayed far out of her mothers sight and just moved from crowd to crowd, refusing to leave till she’d been handed money. It was quite sad to think that this girl at such a young age knew only how to beg and hadn’t got to enjoy the life we had.
Here are a number of stills captured during our experience working on 160MC T2 People 2 People. During my time working on this I have learnt invaluable skills of communication, understanding and compassion across all of society and walks of life. I found that everyone has a story to tell no matter how mundane they may think themselves to be and as Media practitioners it is important to capture these stories and share them through the globally understand cinematic language. I also learnt that the world of Media can open so many doors to so many different walks of life that it is essentially a passport to everything, I never could have imagined the sheer quantity of opportunities that a Media Production course at Coventry University could open up for me and only within my first year. A big thanks to everyone in these pictures: Jarno Kilstrom, Chuck Weber, Dominic Flynn, Simil Gurung, Craig Thompson and Maurice Shakespeare as well as my amazing team Karen Jensen-Clark, Michael Moser and Chris Caswell.
Barack Obama, a personality that needs no introduction, is one of the most educated politicians in the world. He was born on 4th August 1961 i
n Honolulu, Hawaii. Obama studied in Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. He was selected as an editor of the ‘Harvard Law Review’ at the end of his first year. Barack Obama was also made the President of the same journal in his second year. Obama, known for his aptitude was voted to be the 44th President of the United States of America and his remained there for six years.
Vladimir Putin is the President of Russia. He has been in office since 7th May, 2012. Putin has served as the Prime Minister of Russia during the time period of 1999 to 2000 an
d then from 2008 to 2012. Between this period, he served as Russian President from 2000 to 2008. Putin as a young boy was rowdy and unruly but as he grew up, he became more sincere. He showed keen interest in sports and academics. He graduated from the International Law branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975. While at the University he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and remained a member until the party was dissolved in December 1991.
David Cameron is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Brasenose College, Oxford, gaining a first-class honours degree in 1988. He was described by his tutor as “one of the ‘ablest’ students he has ever taught, with ‘moderate and sensible Conservative’ political views”. He then joined the Conservative Research Department and became Special Adviser to Norman Lamont, and then to Michael Howard. David Cameron was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years.
Tony Abbott is the incumbent Prime Minister of Australia. He has been in office since 2013. Abbott happens to be the 28th PM of Australia. Tony Abbott was born in London, England o
n 4th November, 1957. Prior to entering Parliament, Abbott studied law and economics. He attained Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney. After graduation he went on to pursue Master of Arts in Philosophy. He also took up politics and completed Masters in Politics and Economics as a Rhodes Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford. Tony Abbott was an excellent scholar and a high achiever during his time at University.
Ma Ying-Jeou is the President of Taiwan (Republic of China). He earned his LL.B. from National Taiwan University in 1972. He pursued advanced studies in the United States, first earning an LL.M. from New York University Law School in 1976 and then an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1981. After receiving his LL.M., Ma worked as an associate for a Wall Street law firm in New York and as a legal consultant for a major bank in Massachusetts in the US before completing his doctoral studies. Ma Ying Jeou too was a brilliant scholar who had a natural aptitude for Law.
Xi Jinping was born in June 1953 and is the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the President of the People’s Republic of China, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. As Xi holds the top offices of the party, state, and military, he is sometimes informally referred to as China’s “paramount leader”. When Xi was 10, his father was purged and sent to work in a factory. In May 1966, Xi’s secondary education was cut short by the Cultural Revolution, when all secondary classes were halted for students to criticise and 
fight their teachers. Xi was 15 when his father was jailed in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. Without the protection of his father, Xi went to work in Yanchuan County, Shaanxi, in 1969 in Mao Zedong’s Down to the Countryside Movement. He later became the Party branch secretary of the production team. From 1975 to 1979, Xi studied chemical engineering at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University. From 1998 to 2002, he studied Marxist philosophy and ideological education in a postgraduate programme at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, again at Tsinghua University.
This is a documentary about Lars Von Trier challenges his friend and mentor Jørgen Leth to remake one of his previous short films ‘The Perfect Human’ (1967) in five different ways each time with a new set of obstructions.
1st Obstruction – Leth must remake the film in Cuba, without a set, and with no shot lasting longer than 12 frames, and he must answer the questions posed in the original film; Leth successfully completes this task despite finding it difficult to do. 2nd Obstruction – Leth must remake the film in the worst place in the world but not show that place onscreen; additionally, Leth must himself play the role of “the man”. The meal must be included, but the woman is not to be included. Leth remakes the film in the red light district of Bombay, only partially obscuring it behind a translucent screen. Lars is a little disappointed. 3rd Obstruction – Because Leth failed to complete task 2 perfectly, Trier punishes him, telling him to either remake the film in any way he chooses, or else to repeat it again with obstruction 2 in Bombay. Leth decides to go with the first option presented to him and remakes the film in Brussels, using split-screen effects. 4th Obstruction – Leth must remake the film as a cartoon. He does so with the aid of Bob Sabiston, a specialist in rotoscoping, who creates animated versions of shots from the previous films. As such the final product is technically an animation but not a cartoon. Nevertheless, Trier considers the task to be completed successfully. 5th Obstruction – Trier has already made the fifth version, but it must be credited as Leth’s, and Leth must read a voice-over narration, ostensibly from his own perspective but in fact one written by Trier.
This documentary really works well to show the directors behind everything as humanised as they jest amongst one another. You get a real sense of the frustration suffered by Jorgen in the process and as a filmmaker myself I can relate to the stress created by barriers presented to you, as is the case currently in my university years. However, it is really interesting to see the student challenge the mentor and in doing so reinvigorate Jorgen’s imagination thus making this project a educational one much as my university course is for me as well. Reflecting on the actual pieces created by Jorgen I would say that the piece created in Brussel’s was my favourite. I like the use of split-screen to create an interesting look to the film and present events simultaneously to one another that together tells a story to the audience. In addition to this many of the shots were taken just perfectly in my eye. My second favourite would be his first piece shot in Cuba, again this piece had some interesting shots. I think this was almost forced upon Jorgen as he could only have a shot last 12 frames, thus forcing him to really pick his shots carefully and in the process allowing him to pick brief shots that were framed well.
As part of our new module 161MC Creating Impact in Media Production we were asked to stop and analyse what is called our digital footprint, our presence in the open expanse of the word wide web and whether this presents a coherent message to consumers. I am currently active on Facebook, WordPress, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo however I am new to Twitter and have yet to really do anything but follow others.
Taking a look at my footprint across the other media sites it is clear that I have a passion for film and the moving image. My last few posts on Facebook have been film related and my only contributions to Vimeo and YouTube so far have been my own short films. Since starting my university course, one thing I have began to realise is that I am already a media professional. Actions I have taken to present myself as such have been on my Facebook page where I changed my profile picture and cover photo to more career oriented images whilst keeping a slight amount of casualness and fluid creativity. I also did the same with my YouTube and Vimeo channel as I realised that these are the kind of sights that potential employers would be looking upon and they would have to sell me to them in the future.
Areas I could improve on are apparent. My Facebook page has been littered with various status’ throughout the years that have been unprofessional in style, I have been debating restarting fresh or starting a second page so that professional and social could be separated somewhat (although as was illustrated in todays lectures, that is never truly possible). What I do know is that I am still a true media professional who is learning and adapting at an astonishing rate.
I’ve realised that my blog posts some to have become few and far between and I assure you, there is good reason for that. At the moment I am deep in the throws of writing my first University paper for the end of module 105MC. Me and my group are producing a collaborative book, comprised of our own individual chapters and a bibliography, I have taken it upon myself to write the introduction to this book, perhaps the most important piece as should this not capture the reader then the rest will not get to unfold. So far, i’ve covered a lot of theory and analysis in my piece, but have failed to address the very aspects of ‘introduction’, to discuss and open up the book itself and vaguely cover what our beliefs are on the key concepts.
My blog posts will be picking up once again after this Friday when this has been handed in and my Character Concepts presentation has been delivered. Its been a very long week, with sleepless nights and headache mornings, but I will get through this, and then onwards to christmas!
Hey guys! So i’ve been given a new 160MC project and it is to create a realistic Character, from head to toe, its design must be flawless. Part of this is to document the process of character creation and I have decided to do this through a new blog named ‘Character Concepts – 160MC’ (http://characterconcepts160mc.wordpress.com). I will be running both blogs at the same time but where as this is a permanent blog charting my time through university, the Character Concepts blog will be a limited time thing so catch it whilst you can, thank you!
In this post I am going to be analysing and reflecting upon my experiences of my first Coventry University Media Production project, to create a short 3 minute film in a group. Our film is titled ‘Conflicted Mind’ and is centred around a character called Lydia who suffers with schizophrenia and hears voices in her head, she is attended to by a house calling nurse named Jenny. Firstly, i’d like to apologise for the fact that this video is on YouTube and not Vimeo, the file was too large and I will be sorting this issue out and putting it on Vimeo shortly.
Pre-production
Working on the early stages of this short film took far too long, and in all honest stretched right the way through into production itself which I think effected the final piece quite a lot as I’m sure is apparent to the viewers. The issue stemmed from the inefficiency of our group to work as a team instead of a bunch of individuals fighting for our own independence, we were all guilty of pride. Myself and our cinematographer Michael were especially guilty of this, as made apparent in my earlier blog post ‘Clash of Kings’. Though we all had a unified idea of our films basic plot, me and Michael found thirteen points of confrontation, in which we contested the particular artistic style of showing certain aspects of the film, the little details are always the most important. In the end, I think I compromised more than he did, it would have been interesting to produce two versions and see which was preferred, but there just wasn’t time. Maybe one day i’ll revisit this project with the old footage and edit my cut and share the outcome. Many members of our group became sheep early on in the pre-production phase as well. “Im happy with whatever you decide” became a motto. I think I personally could have been more organised by arranging strict meetings and schedules to meet to and recording meeting minutes so as to document our ideas more clearly. In addition to this, I took on the role of location scout and really found my biggest challenge in this department. I contacted several hospitals in search of a medical room to film as a mental hospital for our Lydia but had no success. In one particular day I called 6 separate people including one who was in a medical conference in Turkey, and travelled up and down six flights of stairs in the Graham Sutherland building to try and secure a medical mock room in the health faculty building of the university, and still got nothing. This lead to us altering the narrative slightly to Jenny being a house visiting nurse, which I think actually helped us out in the end as it presented us with more interesting shots and also put additional props at easy reach which we might not have brought along had we been filming elsewhere. One thing I found I did rather well in this stage was to propose questions to the group and coax ideas out of individuals by making them think. I felt confident in my role as a director/producer and despite it being a roller coaster of ups and downs, enjoyed the overall experience.
Production
I found Production the most enjoyable part of the entire project, when film day rolled around I was like a giddy school child! I believe I posted about this previously, the day was so much fun. We had a good team put together both from the Media Production course and personal contacts that I knew from outside. However, once again the lack of co-existence of my group reared its ugly head as me and Michael encountered issues over our thirteen points that we hadn’t fully hashed out beforehand. The result was that we mostly filmed Michael’s ideas, however we did include some of my input so in the end I was reasonably happy. I think as a director/producer I should have put my foot down more and stood my ground about my artistic vision, I feel my version would have actually been a vast improvement. On the plus side however, the group functioned technically together on the day of shooting, we captured some brilliant shots and sounds and had everything recorded in note pad form to aid in the final stage.
Post-Production
I had very limited input to the Post-Production side of the project which I think ultimately was the nail in the coffin for this project. The excessive amount of time we had dedicated to Pre-Production had meant that by the time we had finished filming we had two days to finish editing before hand in day. Unfortunately, during this time I became ill and was unable to attend the editing process, but stayed in communication wight he group during it as best I could. Without my hand to keep the peace the group seemed to turn in on itself when I received an agitated text from one member of the group about another member who had been unable to attend the film day and was unhappy with the footage and the actors. I tried my best to keep the peace from a far but lost my cool with the other member and spoke my mind too bluntly, and lived on to regret it. Whilst I wasn’t there our cinematographer took the editing under his wing and implemented his vision as best as he could whilst still keeping in some of my input. The final product can be seen above. Im not entirely sure what happened to our soundscape, something that had previously been praised as the strongest in the class, as it seemed to become twisted into a choppy and unclean version during editing, I think it had been tampered with to fit the films timeline but in the process had been warped into a lesser form. I was however very impressed with some of the visual work produced by Michael during the editing process and I think he ordered the scenes very well to match what we wanted to show. We had wanted to darken the scenes where the ‘Shadowy Figure’ emerged into the film to give an inner mind like experience however as we ran out of time we had to abandon this idea, however we did chase down our technical skills instructor to find out how we could have gone about this so that we were in the know for next time.
Response
The hand in day rolled around so quick and sudden and having only seen the finished product once I felt less the confident about how our film would fair against the rest of the class. However, as I sat and watched other groups works I discovered that most of them had encountered similar problems of extended pre-production and last minute editing and sketchy soundscapes. Whats more the lecturers mock results were coming in between 50 -60, which is pretty good considering below a 40 is a fail. Ours got a 51 from one lecturer and a 60 from another. It was the most ‘dividing’ of films out of the groups as non other had been given such a difference in marks than ours. We were told it had the most intriguing of introductions out of all the films, that our beginning was solid, our camera work was technically good and that they had enjoyed the acting work of our Lydia played by Natasha Cleverley who was also one of our make-up artists. Points to improve on included better script work, a more complex look at the character of Jenny and a lack of experimentation with effects in the editing process. In conclusion it was a real roller coaster of emotions that ultimately lead us to a happy place. I feel that this is a strong entry for my first Media Production film that can be used as a spring board to bigger and better things.
Special Thanks
I’d like to make special thanks to all of those who helped to make this project possible, our actors (Jamie, Natasha and Abbie) did a brilliant job despite the nerves and really helped us out when others dropped out at the last minute, you guys are like heroes. The donor of the suit and trousers for the Shadowy Figure (Stevan) I am so sorry about the button! Our make-up artists (Kirsty and Natasha) did an excellent job in such a limited time to make our Shadowy Figure look menacing and our Lydia look haunted, we are only sorry that we could not apply the final special effects in time to truly breathe life into your creations. To our sound recordist (Chris) who brought his technical know how and brilliant mind into play more than once, really don’t know what we would have done without you. To my mum and nan who kindly let us turn the house into a bomb site so we could make this project happen when I had spent so long on the hunt for a location to no prevail. And last but by no means least, to you the viewers, for taking the time to watch our film whether you loved it or hated it.
Really can’t believe my luck! I was on my way back from university today after staying over till 6 to get some work done including my previous blog (check it out!). Sitting on the bus has brought moments of inspiration for me when accompanied by music in the past; indeed my idea for the Last Dance was born there, but this was something different! I was eavesdropping on two lads a few seats back from me, the one was discussing a short film he was heading out to shoot somewhere towards Blackpool at an abandoned theme park and asking the other one to join him. His friend departed and all went silent in the bus, for ages I was debating with myself, should I say something or should I keep quiet? The silence of the bus was so intimidating! But then I thought, university is a new me, the line I had told myself so many times before I started. But still I was nervous! So in a rather stalker-like fashion I stay on the bus, past my stop, past my street, past my town, till the gentleman got off. I then proceeded to explain myself to him, and asked if I could come along just to experience to workings of a short film set. He said to me”better yet, why don’t you come and shoot some footage?” I couldn’t believe it! I’ve just landed myself some camera work on a short film that is going to be shown off at a short film competition somewhere in Scotland! So whats the motto of today? Being a nosey stalker can sometimes have its advantages. I am literally buzzing about this, bring it on!
The Journey Begins 