This Week’s Work
This week we are going to build upon the work that Martyn did over the last three weeks around realism and pleasure by looking at narratives of the city and the ways in which experience of ‘the city’ is represented in realist and non-realist texts.
Watch the following clips (sorry: embed tags didn’t work so you will need to click through)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq_ko5jVMBo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2oHTYkYm8s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQZRuBEDFqY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyRqR56aCKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWSpBIt3ZOw
It took me three minutes to get these off YouTube. These are five representations (out of hundreds of thousands) of New York that could be chosen. It is one of the (if not THE) most represented city on earth.
Group 5 – A
Jennifer Bates group A
our film represents a day in Covnetry City and what is happening on its day to day basis. it is expreimental because we have captured the things that happen everyday such as travel etc but we have also captured land marks in the city that dont get noticed as much as other buildings, land marks etc. for example, whilst making the video i told another team member about the ‘peeping Tom’ head and she had never seen it before so i thought that this was a good piece to film as i dont think many people notice it anymore. we mixed stills with live footage to give the film more depth and make it seem more ‘experimental’and used sound from the buses and from the market.
I really like how you guys used sound with still images! I thought that this worked really well! and then still had the walking round as video.
Andrea Howard
The derive illustrates a time passage between old and new coventry and how the two can coincide in one place. The narrative of the piece wasn’t intentional however when the footage was gathered and watched back it became pretty clear that, that is what it showed. The style of the piece is unusal,the edits highlight the time shifts in the piece. The narrative can also suggest a emotional journey from sadness which through nature is brought to happiness. The images in the footage are mainly of the city and nature, and we wished to illustrate what relationship these can have on people. However i believe the overall narrative and effect should be left to be interprated by the viewer.
I like your use of colour on certain things – which is not something that you usually see. I also thought your clips of the phone with noise was really odd. But really good idea!
Tamsin Donalson, Adam Manning, Chris Beal, Tony Hannon, Lory Paetty, April
(I think thats everyone)
Our experimental film began from Spon Street and ended up venturing past the Belgrade Theatre, the Coventry Evening Telegraph and eventually ending up outside the Transport Museum.
Before we went on our derive, the suggestion of using Spon Street and its medieval look sparked a theory of producing a linear narrative that went through time which we decided to undertake. From the old to the new.
Starting off in Spon Street with a sepia effect, and then swiftly walking on in into the coloured version on the modern city connotes the notion of old and new. Yet the choice of music changes the narratives, making the telling of the story of our walk seem ambiguously spooky.
Pleasure can be taken from this text by contextualising the experimental film with its location. We became aware of Coventry’s notorious association with history and it’s ability to rise from the ashes after the devastation of the Blitz in November 1940, and so this brief clip showing two different time periods could well remind the audience of why the old and new is significant to Coventry. If we were to create a realist piece of the same type of topic, then perhaps we would have included conventional visuals of the Cathedral, the statue of Lady Godiva and the modern sights outside the Transport Museum to represent key events in Coventry’s history. A more suitable use of music would also have been used for the realist piece, either a more lively but archaic piece of non diegetic music, or perhaps a mixture of diegetic and non diegetic sound depending on the scene.
The use of zoom in and out was also non realist we thought, as its not something you usually see in a text (it usually cuts between a close up and a long shot).
its a bit of a rubbish quality though because the original file was huge – so i had to compress it
Group 5b Derive
A walk from Ellen Terry to Weatherspoons – Its speed up to symbolise and generate the effect of to much happening around you for you to actually notice everything, then slowed down when something of interest enters frame.
Also slowed down when the ‘mood’ of the environment changes, like crossing the street from underneath the shop overhangs to out in the open.
embed
Justin, Ryan,Jo & Honey – Group 2 Derrive
We found the task a bit challenging because we had no clear guidelines on what to do. However the entire process of creating the piece of media had a positive impact on us. We learned to think outside the box and to question certain theories and systems.
While doing the videos we tried to capture the alienation of contemporary society versus the stability and communal sense of the past, the calls of nature (the wolf sounds/lighting), the discrepancies between modern, standardised companies and systems of thought and the possible freedom, which may come from ourselves.
The most difficult part was getting the message through, and keeping the narrative liniar. We found that there was an increasing individualist trend that manifests in society, with people becoming more atomized and less “human”.
While the realist, traditional media encourages passivity and closes alternative meaning, the derrive does exactly the opposite.
We made two different derrives with two different visions, which we feel complement each other. We were satisfied that everything went smooth, although there was no plan as to what exactly should be on tape.
The first derrive is a bit more absurde and it plays on fears, duality and isolation, showing empty spaces, howling noises and other such features.
The second derrive has an architectural point of view, confronting the past with the impact of modernisation, such as the fast growth of urbanization. It tries to set the stage for a “third way”, but the audience is free to find multiple meanings of this third way.
Overall, the videos were both challenging and fun and we were left with the feeling that we deconstructed urban myths and made people think.
Reflection of 200MC Presentation
Reflecting on our group presentation which involved reporting on the sudden death of Michael Jackson, it was important to gain a balanced level of feedback both positive and negative. As our presentation took place first, I felt that the feedback that we received from the class was to a degree limited. Comments received were generally good, there was a clear view being aired about the design of our tribute page and tabloid, meeting the contemporary expectations of viewers and this was positive. As peers within the class were to a degree focused on their own presentations to come, it is possible that we did not gain the attention of the class, as we would have desired.
Element’s of design became fundamentally important to the class, as the web page and tabloid would have too gain the attention of consumers within an instance. This was the case, due to the vast degree of already existing web tributes and mass media attention.
We felt that colours and images used in the design and production of the tribute site were appropriate for achieving a deeper level of meaning. Our main website image used to greet viewers was of Michael wearing a gold outfit. We felt that the outfit was symbolic; it not only represented him as a musical legend but by being paved in gold would also enforce his status as a royal figure within the music industry and as a modern icon within society.
When it came to the actual structure of our group article it was essential to research existing newspaper articles. Tabloid newspapers such as The Mirror and The Sun were newspaper articles, which the masses were exposed to during this event and aspects of the way, which those newspapers controversially report news featured highly in our sensationalist reporting style.
Emotive language and a particular style of reporting captured a grieving nation and it was vital to appeal to a society that wanted to receive news in this manner. Papers which are more highly regarding such as The Times of the Daily Mail still prescribed to this intense version of reporting as the nation had to a degree felt that music had died, prompting the title of our article. The mass grief, which followed his death, was controversially likened to Princess Diana, who was the last public figure who received this much attention and this degree of media focus.
Although news mentioned within the article could be considered truthful and accurate, it is written from a certain perspective, a perspective that could be considered to be biased, leading and suggestive. Tabloids feed on human emotion to gain commercial success regardless of the event that they are reporting.
Past public episodes such as the death of Lady Diana or the tragic death of children have proven that the public does want to become involved and socially integrate when an event such as these happen. The online forum, which was put forth by the group, would help function as a public outlet. Research had found a vast degree of online, sympathies; millions throughout the world were sharing grief and support. The most prominent way to connect and interact with those around the globe is the Internet, and an online forum facilitates this perfectly using the most powerful media forum that there is.
Overall we as a group felt that we captured the essence of in particular tabloid media reporting. We provided an article that was to a degree accurate but that also would appeal to a public that wanted punchy, direct reporting. We also acknowledged the ever expanding world of the internet and provided a platform were the millions of internet users throughout the world could not only be exposed to our commercial advertising but could also interact with each other on a much greater level then media print can permit.
Although as a group we were already aware of the quality of tabloid articles, it was still interesting to actually turn a quite serious event in something which is consumerable on a mass scale, sensationalism sells.
Second entry to MJs tribute site to follow.
Thank you.
Justin, Ryan, Jo % Honey
Please follow the link or cut and paste the link to browser.. thanks
http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy147/200mcGroup/jack1.jpg
This video is a journey of an unplanned route around Coventry city centre.
the production group was:
Robert Dutton
Lucy Wilson
Juno Junior
Shola Hinch
Bo Wu
Amy Envis
unfortunately due to a few problems with Avid I couldn’t do my original idea of comparing what the route looked like in the sunshine at mid-day and raining at dusk, I feel that idea would’ve been the superior, however this is how the video turned out after the problems, the zoom into coventry was creating using google earth, and the map was created using google maps…
I hope you like the video..
Here is Group 4E’s derive of Coventry Cathedral:
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5P0npKtmyI
showed this in class. heres my groups experimental film
for more info go to
http://futurecho.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/final-derive/
http://www.youtube.com/user/BTOWNSCUM
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