Weird Media

While producing the student union election video in groups, we were all included in the planning process. This included the types of angles we were going to shoot and the order in which we were going to ask and conduct the interview, this allowed us to manage our production time effectively and ensure that we are able to film what we need to so we can produce the best election video we can without missing any key shots.

During the editing process I had to follow a specific beginning and end sequence which has to be included in the election video. Due to this demand I had a lot more time to focus on the context and shots that I can use in the video, this provided the group the ability to stage the interview video in the style and way we want giving us a sense of freedom. As each election video had to include subtitles I had to choose carefully what answers I wanted to include to give the candidates the best chance at winning their chair in the election.

I gained inspiration for how I structured the election video by watching past videos that have been produced for the previous three years of election videos that have been produced in the past. This gave me the inspiration to edit and structure my student union film to follow a similar structure of a professional structure that will inspire and encourage the viewers to vote for the candidate that I helped produce the video for.

For the instagram story task I was placed into a group with three other people and we had to create, produce and edit a story idea that was between 50-60 seconds long that could be featured on an instagram story post.

As a group we decided to base our story on hobbies and interest as the overall topic and agreed as a group that we would produce the story on cheerleading as one of out group members is involved with the cheerleading society. During the planning process we decided that we would open it with introducing the main person who would be speaking throughout the video and who would be providing us with an insight of the sport and who could also provide us with footage of the routines that they have performed in competitions. Due to this person also being part of our group we were able to gain footage from the recent competitions that they have been entered in, providing us with more material to include in our production. 

I was given the role of sound and camera for this task, giving me the responsibility of ensuring that all mics we used were recording and set up correctly and wouldn’t stop us from losing audio. I also had to ensure that the camera was set up properly and that the footage was captured and didn’t look over exposed with the lighting, this would require me to adjust the lighting in the room by changing the natural lighting that was coming through the windows.

When we finished filming and was preparing to edit the footage we decided that we would base the structure of the production like an interview with on of the cheerleaders with several parts being voice overs while we have the footage of the routines being performed, some during the competitions and some being just her showing the routines that they have performed and practised since the year began. We gained inspiration for the story structure based of several promotion stories that are being shown on instagram as paid advertisements.

 

Forced perspective

Frame in a frame

Long exposure

Shallow depth of field

Silhouette

Reflection

For the photography task, I had to produce six specific pictures that were listed in the assignment brief and use photoshop to modify or enhance the images to show knowledge of using the software. I decided that I would focus on nature as the main setting for the photos as this provides me with a wider range of subjects that I could photograph as part of the task.

I planned to go to the Museum Gardens as that would be the base of my shots, providing me with different types of natural surroundings that I could use to gain a different perspective on each photo. While finding a spot for the forced perspective photo I decided I would enlist the help of a course mate to pose for against a tree, creating the illusion of size comparison between the course mate and the tree, this would still class as nature as the surrounding area and main focus of the picture is the nature of the gardens compared to the stature of an average sized man.

I decided to have nature as my main theme after doing some research into the topic, using “The Complete Guide to Nature Photography: Professional Techniques for capturing Digital images of nature and wildlife” By Sean Arbabi. This helped me in planning my reflective and long exposure shot, allowing me to focus all the attention on the centered image.

I gained inspiration for the reflection, frame in a frame and shallow depths of field by searching for nature pictures online and searching through previous photographs I had taken to help navigate and focus my attention on certain aspects of the framing. I gained inspiration for the forced perspective shot from many famous landmarks where people have performed the same illusion, with the most famous being the leaning tower of Pisa where people would pose to make it seem they are pushing the tower to make it tilt on its side.

For the 72 hour challenge, we had to produce a short film of any kind that includes a specific scene provided by the university. This allowed us to decide on the style and genre of the production and how we wanted to structure the production and story line. We were inspired to create a crime thriller from the film Catch Me if You Can, we wanted to create a similar story but focusing on the conman with his final scheme and how it can all fall apart within a matter of minutes. This gave us the base line for our plot that allowed us to expand our combined ideas.

In the planning stage we were able to create a schedule and filming all shots within a previously planned time that allowed us to use our filming time productively. We decided in a group to film in the Grand hotel due to someone in our team having connections with the hotel management team who agreed to let us use one of their conference rooms to allow us to film our short film in. This gave us the ability to structure the story in a more professional and upper class manner. We were also able to use the exterior of the hotel to get an establishing shot of the location, this helped back up the thought of the film being based in an upper class hotel.

When it came to editing the work we all worked together to structure the story on how we all planned and agreed it should look, however we did have creative differences when it came to some of the shots order and flashback sequence which we had to discuss in depth. We all had to make compromises on certain shots and the order they would be placed in as we all had different ideas on how we wanted it to look but after several hours we were able to come to an agreement and create the finished product within the allotted time.

Within the group we all had different roles within the production with some of us having several different roles and tasks to complete. We had to learn to work together to achieve the end product, although there were several times throughout the filming and editing process as certain members of the group would frequently disregard any suggestions made by other group members. This caused a lot of strife within the team and made filming very difficult as there was tension within the crew. However we were still able to work together and create the finished product of good quality.

 

 

 

I am going to be discussing the Baedeker raids that occurred over York in the early morning on April 29 1942. These raids caused catastrophic damage across all of Britain, with York being one of the most affected places within the UK. The Baedeker raids were predicted and expected by the army and government of the UK after the British air force had bombed several landmarks across Nazi Germany, this caused the Nazi party to retaliate and bomb all landmarks across the UK that have a three star rating to try and lower the moral within Britain. They used the Baedeker visitor book that was published with lists of landmarks in Great Britain to target the most popular and inspirational buildings.

Several days before Germany attacked and bombed York they attacked two cathedrals in Bath and Norwich. This caused a ripple across the country of sadness and discouragement due to the collapse and loss of these two British landmarks. In the early hours in the morning of the York raids the Luftwaffe flew over the city where they split off into squadrons to target the most important buildings that will affect the country the most. I was talking to Laura Yeoman who is a curator in the York archives who informed me that they dropped “two types of bombs, the incendiary and the shrapnel bomb.” Many of these bombs were left unexploded and were removed shortly after the war ended. There was a large amount of bombs that were dropped first hitting residential houses and streets, this forced a lot of families that survived were forced to move to local church halls and schools that had enough housing space to provide to the community.

One of the Luftwaffe squadrons was tasked with bombing and demolishing the York minster in the centre of York town. As they flew over the minster they dropped five bombs in total with all them missing the minster by as few as several meters. This resulted in the bombing of several buildings around the minster which caused large amounts of damage to nearby buildings. One bomb that hit its target destroyed a church which was located just under 100 feet from the minster.

With the minster still standing, the building stood as a message of hope to Britain and their troops fighting in Germany that the country shouldn’t give up and that with the minster still standing showing that anything is possible and that we can win the war as long as we all stand together and supporting one another.

It was 6:30PM on the 25^th of march, the air was cold and the night was dark. The air was quiet despite the thousands of people packed into the arena, as a hush came over the crowd a beam of light appeared in the distance, it’s what we were all waiting for. Panic! At the Disco had finally come on stage and the whole arena roared with screams of excitement, love and pure happiness as they started to play. This was going to be a night to remember, and we all knew it.

 

There was me and my girlfriend Rhiannon who went that night and we both agreed it was the greatest night of our life. As the band started playing silver lining, I could tell that the cost of the tickets are already worth every penny. As Brendan Uri and the rest of the band was rocking out, everyone single person in that crowd rocked out ten times hard to show them our dedication and love to their perfect sound. I went to the bar towards the end of their third song, while speaking to the bartender I asked him “do you ever get tired of hearing the same songs and bands three nights in a row?” and Sean, which was his name, looks me straight in the eye and says “I’ve listened to these songs about eight times this week and they get better every time.”At that point I realised he was the lucky one, he got to hear one of the best bands on the planet three times and he’s getting paid for it, that’s definitely a great job he’s got there.

 

After two hours of Panic! At the Disco playing without a break and continued to play with all their heart and soul while the entire arena was eye wide with jaw dropping fascination that they can go all this time with no breaks, they are out of this world. The atmosphere had not lowered at all, it kept increasing with every word and note that was blasted out of the speakers. Everyone in that concert was thinking the exact same thing: please don’t let this end! The adrenaline was surging through my body, every beat that shook the floor was like an electric to the heart that fuelled the energy surging through my brain, heart and body and every word was a trance that kept me hypnotised on everything they did. That was one trance I never wanted to break and even though we all thought it, none of us could have predicted what came next.

 

Panic! At the Disco had just finished playing Emperor’s New Clothes they did something they hadn’t done throughout the full four hours, they stopped playing. Brendan Uri wipes his face with a towel, picks up his microphone and says “thank you for being a great audience, good night!” Even though we all understood that he was playing all night, we couldn’t let him go just yet, we needed more and we had to let him know. We all knew what we had to do and we had to act fast. As Brendan and the others started to head towards the exit the whole audience exploded with cheers and people including me and Rhiannon calling for encores, practically begging for more of his music. These roars continued for five minutes with the crowd getting louder and louder every second they weren’t on stage, then when we thought that all hope was lost we saw him emerging from the darkness into the light. There was an uproar of cheers as Brendan silences the crowd, he approaches the microphone stand as we all hang on to hear what he’s going to say or sing.

 

A moment of silence and hush expands of the audience, you could hear the drop of a pin or the pouring of a drink as we all eagerly await for the encore of a life time. What seems like hours pass, then all of a sudden the speakers erupt with the sound we had all been waiting for, the starting beat of a three song encore. A night that was meant to only last three hours went on to almost five and just like the rest of the fans I was not complaining.

 

As we all started flooding out the doors you could hear everyone talking about it and already reminiscing about the time they saw Panic! At the Disco. “Greatest night of my life”, “I’m already excited for their next tour” and “I can’t believe how close I was to him” were just some of the phrase you would hear after that concert, I remember hearing one person saying “I didn’t think I’d like it but this has changed my thought 100%” I can already say with confidence that I will be at his next concert and if it’s anything like this one then I would happily pay a lot more for what was the greatest experience of my life.