Tuesday 25th October

Today in Contemporary Media Issues I researched upon and read part of a book 'The Medium is The Massage' written by Marshall Mcluhan that we have to create a Wiki on for our module.

As there is only one of these books in the library, and there are two groups having to study it (mine being one of them) I only had chance to read over it breifly as the other group have it at the moment, but were swapping around soon. 

I found it a very strange book, what with it being written in the 60's the language used in it is slightly hard to follow. However, once I'd read over a few pages it seemed to be settling in more. Mcluhan uses a lot of pictures in the book, its very experimental, some pictures of hands some of toe nails...and also, one page is written in the context of 'mirrorwriting' meaning its all spelt back to front making the reader use a mirror to read it. 

Mcluhan basically talks about how the media has affected man and everything we do. his experimental and visual aspect to the book makes it more accessible to a wider readership, through also the spare text.

Next week I will read the whole book and write up on how or what his message is, I'l also research Marshall Mcluhan in the mean time...

1. WE ALSO had some information from our course leaders about a man named Stelarc whom is simililar to MCluhan in the way he thinks and does things, however after watching his video's on youtube, I felt a little uncomfortable, this guy hangs from hooks with his own skin AND has surgically had an implant created on his forearm...oh and also had a prosthetic third arm created...WIERD but defiantly worth a watch trust me....

JUST TO ADD, I WALKED HOME FROM UNI TODAY FOR THE FIRST TIME, WHICH IM VERY PROUD OF =] 

Thursday 20th October - MoFilm

Today, we had a short presentation from one of the directors at the multi million production company MoFilm.....

Here, we were told all about the website, how that if we upload a short video, advert, or film we can get professional feedback from one of the team members. MoFilm also do lots of video contests so its worth to defiantly keep an eye out.

We were told to then get into groups of 5, and produce an advert for the Hindustand Times newspaper in India, and in doing this, if we wanted to, we can upload our finished piece onto the MoFilm website to be in line of winning a grand prize of a trip to Kathmandu in Nepal. We had to download the brief from the Mofilm website and get to work, they wanted this ideally finished around 4pm, today.

Hindustan Times believe that it is time to stop doing things the way we have been, that its time to pause, think and change. the brand wanted us to make 15 - 25 seconds worth of video encouraging young people to sit back and take notice, then using the visual of getting a gentle 'whack' on the head with the Hindustan Times newspaper.

I found this a rather challenging aspect to the day, but i personally love the buzz and as i have done many production work, filming and some editing before, i couldn't wait to get started.

My group decided upon using the idea of 'wasting food' as the advert. we used this idea as many young people (not just students) waste a hell of a lot of food, everyday without realising, so we wanted to raise this issue....

We began filming at 12:30pm and had all of our shots by 2pm. As we had to use what we had around us, we decided to go to the canteen, buy a sandwich and have someone take a bite out of it, make a face meaning they don't like it, throw it away only just opened and hardly eat, then another person see this, shake their head in disgust at the person wasting food then whack that person over the head with the news paper.

When it came to the edit, luckily myself and another team mate are already trained on Final Cut Pro to an extent so we managed to have a finished product by 4 pm.

I found today slightly challenging, but once we stuck as closely as we could to the schedule everything ran so much more smoother than having nothing set in place.

Digital Tools Tuesday 18th october

Today in Digital Tools, we began our first assignment which is to produce a website. All of our work now that we produce goes towards our final portfolio.

Similar to as we have done previously in production practice where we had to tell a shot story in 20 – 25 photos, we had to do the same but in using only 5 photos.  We had to tell a story. We were given 40 minutes to think of a short story and take the photos therefore we had to use what we could in the university building. My group’s idea was to use a leaf on a ‘journey’. We told this story by taking 5 photos of the leaf falling from a tree, being blown in the wind to wards the floor in a pond. A nice little story I thought.

Next week, we will upload these pictures and begin to edit them using photoshop.

ANTICHRIST!

Today in Film Languege, we were screened a film named Antichrist.
Now, I'd been told a few horror stories about how disturbing this film is, so I decided to do some research online before I was to watch it, as to see if it really does live up to my expectations...
Oh my goodness.
As I was aware of what was going to happen in the film, I guess I was quite apprehensive but I was also rather exited as the film had won awards at the Cannes Film Festival for its cinematography, hence the reason for us watching it.
Anitchrist opens with a very slow paced, dramatic 10 minute long sex scene, and the death of a child, with operatic lyrics throughout, very moving lyrics but also very powerful. This whole scene is in black and white and sets the scene for most of the film to be honest. Black, slow moving, dramatic and explicit. The mother of the child who fell out of the window whilst having sex with her husband, is now bedevilled by guilt, so both parents (who are named 'him' and 'her' though out the film) retreat to a cabin in the woods. Pretty much from here things go from bad to a hell of a lot worse..
At this point in the film, not much really goes on for I'd say about and hour. More uncomfortable sex scenes is about it. Gainsbourg however, is clearly going more and more insane. Defoe, acts as her helper. her therapist. listens to what she says and does what she says (by this I mean constantly sleeping with her, even though she is in no fit state mentally or physically)
Anyway, the ending is where it hits you, hard. 'She' hacks at her own genitals with a pair of scissors and squashes 'his' with a boulder whilst then drills a hold through his leg. By this point I felt very nauseas and 3 girls left the screening who never came back. The entire class was shrieking and cringing in sheer despair.
There is then a chase through the woods where Defoe tries to escape her as she is out to find him and kill him, then it all ends where he strangles her to death, burns her and hobbles out of the woods with his demolished leg.

So what with its explicit sex and female mutliation, I found the film extremely disturbing BUT I also found that with its slow paced camera shots, almost dream like in some aspects, shocking storyline and twist, Antichrist won it awards fair and square. Its a film that I will never forget, all maybe for the wrong reasons and am still cringing at how messed up it really is.
I doubt I'l be watching it again...

Monday 3rd October....STORYBOARD =D

Today in Production Practice we have been assigned to, in our groups, come up with an idea, any idea along as it has a narrative, beginning, middle and end for a short story....
We are to then storyboard this using 20 - 25 shots....

Are story is about a stalker who uses Facebook to stalk his victim. We felt in using Facebook, it is a good way to portray the fact that social networking is not always used in a good way and can be extremely malicious.....

FACESTALK is it's name.... Here's a taster...

Tuesday 4th October....Prezi

Today's task was to bring in an object that is 'close to you', something that signifies a particular meaning in your life, or jogs memory every time you look at it...

Mine was a thumb ring

I chose this object as it makes me smile every time I look at it. It was a present from my mum on my 20th birthday. She knows me more than anyone, and knew I'd love it. I suppose I like to always wear it as a little reminder of her, but also because now having moved away from home to live here in liverpool, it signifies to me, the fact she's not too far away and that I can always ring her when I need her advice =]

As the whole class was to also do this, we were placed into groups of 4/5 people and chat amongst each other about our 'special object'. I think this was good for everyone to be honest, it kind of broke the ice between us all considering at this point, we hadn't really talked to other people yet...

We then were given the task or creating a short online presentation on Prezi, which I found very easy to use once gotten the hang of and also found it's very clear too. Baring in mind, it was the first time I'd used it..
So, once we'd discussed our important objects, we had to then conjure up reasons as to how they connect to each other. Objects such as other pieces of jewellery e.g, rings, teddy bears and bracelets were what my group had brought in, therefore we decided to go for the idea of 'family' connections.

I found this exercise useful as it made me look into things into more depth. Even though its a personal belonging, you don't realise just how personal it actually is....