Digital News Production - Contacting Kent Veg Box

 We contacted Kent Veg Box to see if we could go to look round get some test shots, then a week later film. We sent them this email. They got back to us stating that their season had ended and they won't get growing crops again until next year, due to this we can't film this idea.

Digital News Production - Bonfire Idea Problems

Today we got a reply from the people who organise the bonfire effigy event, they were very supportive and allowed us access to film their event, good news. 

However after Charile had a brief meeting with Helen we fit another wall, as Helen said that we can't change our theme from nature to something else and as the bonfire event had nothing to do with nature she said that filming there was out of the question and we had to find another idea which fit with the same theme of nature and that would fit with the other story of Lodge Hill. This was a bit of a hit back for us as we were again back to stage one and needed to find another story which applies to our theme of nature.

Overall even though this has been a step back, this has helped us to learn how to find new stories and make sure they link to us and not just any random story.

Digital News Production - Nightingale script draft 2

Nightingale Script Draft 2

Digital News Production - Presenter Script Draft 1

Presenter Script Draft 1

Digital News Production - Group meeting 2

Today we had another group meeting, in this meeting we did another draft of the scripts. Charlie and Ruby were looking for new ideas for our package after the Hugh Lowe farm idea flopped. They looked at other farming related stories and bonfire night stories as the night is getting closer. They found a story which was about bonfire night, an orgnaisation who hold a massive bonfire event, full of fire works, bonfires and the burning of a 20 ft effigy of a celebrity or politician who has done something bad in the year, they then burn it as a symbol of good will. This idea was interesting and good for a package as we would have a lot to cover and a good story on why they burn the effigies. We emailed them saying who we are and what we are doing and our interest in their event and us wanting to film their event. We hope that if they get back to us we can have full access to their event and workers for interviews and questioning. 



As they were dong that I was going through the old script drafts and re-writing them, I had to first take away the presenter p[art of the script and put it into a script of it's own, as Helen told us that the presenter part is separate from the package and "Live" part and it has to be separate from their scripts. So I took all the presenter parts form both the scripts and putting them together, I put the first part in and adapted on it to make sure it was a good length and also to make sure that it all the correct information on the Lodge Hill story and didn't sway too much or too little about it to either give away too much of the story or not enough. Also I had to cut out all the information about the Hugh Lowe farm story as we've dropped the idea. I then turned to the Lodge Hill script and took out the presenter part and had to add in an extra 45 seconds in the script. I also added in a statement from Land Securities, who are building on the site, to get their views on the good point of the build. I also sorted out what shots we'd have in what order and who we would interview and box pops.

After we all looked over the scripts and together critiqued it to see if any changes were needed. After making some miner ideas with the spelling and wording, we published the seconds and first drafts for the presenter and Lodge Hill stories. We are happy with the changes made to the scripts, all we need is to find out the people who we will be interviewing and box popping and we can work on a finalised script.

Overall this has been another successful group meeting with a lot done and agreed on. We have to start expanding our ideas and get some test shots done and start looking towards the filming stage of the production.

Digital News Production - Hugh Lowe Farm Problems

Group Meeting

Today we came across a problem with one our stories. Hugh Lowe farm, despise all our attempts to contact them through email and phone, they have yet to get back to us will a solid answer if we could film at the farm. Recently we looked back at their website and saw that in mid October they shop growing all major produce until next summer. This we knew would be a problem as we have yet to hear from them and the end of their season was closing fast. As a result we had a group meeting and discussed what we were going to do about Hugh Lowe farm.

In the group meeting we all thought that it was a shame to not be able to do the story about Hugh Lowe farm as it was a very interesting story and we had already completed a graft scrip and sot list for the story. However we all knew that if we kept on waiting for the farm to get back to us and they didn't or they did too late we wouldn't be able to film and we wouldn't have any other ideas lined us and we'd be back to square one and with not a lot of time to turn around a new story. In the end we decided to cut the story idea out and focus on finding new ideas for our package.

This decision was a hard one as we all loved the idea of the farm but we all know that if we don't start filming soon that we will then we behind and be rushing to finish and with the rushing the production won't be as good and professional as we would want and expect it to be.

Digital News Production - Workshop - Filming Fremlin Walk Day 2

Today Ruby and I decided to finish filming what we couldn't on the first day due to the rain. We again contacted the center and asked for their permission which was granted and on arrival we went to the security building and told them of our arrival. From doing that we when to the center and filmed a walkie talkie of the report walking up the center. This was quite an easy shot to do as it was very short and only consisted of 1 line. We did a couple of takes just to make sure we have a variety and could choose out the best one. We when went onto filming all the still which we needed for the cutaways and sequences. We made sure we got a mass variety for different shots from different angels with different exposures. We got about 20 stills so we were spoiled for choice. I learnt form today that you can never go wrong will multiple shots of scene just in case and having different angels of the same shot, incase that in post one works better than the other, or when you get to post you find that you have an unwanted shadow or its slightly blurred.

Overall another good days filming and we had no hiccups and filmed everything which we came to film. Lessens learnt was to make sure you stock up of the amount of shot you do and angels you do per scene.

Digital News Production - Work shop - Filming Fremlin Walk Day 1

Today was our first day of filming the mini project on what makes Maidstone good. Ruby and I decided to do a report on Fremiln walk and whats makes it good for tourists and the locals. Fremiln walk is a new outdoor shopping center in Maidstone's town center. After getting permission to film in the center, Ruby and I went to the to Fremiln walk. On arriving at the center I thought it would be a good idea to let the security know that we'd arrived to film just so they knew. I approached a security guard who had no knowledge of us coming and told us to go tell the security building just around the corner. We went to the security building and told them we had arrived, they were grateful for the knowledge and allowed us to continue on to film. When started our first shot was of a pancake stall in the middle of the strip, we was going to film the pancake guy making a pancake. However when we went to press record it wouldn't record. This caused us a problem, I tried to look in the menu to find why it wouldn't let us film but nothing, so I looked if the memory card had space and it did, so we had no idea what was wrong. Lucky I had the number to Ferg's office back at the studios, so I called him and asked him what we could do. He quickly told us the solution was that we had to reformat the memory card. So after a while of messing with the menu option we finally successfully reformatted the memory card and was able to record. After that hiccup we went on to film the pancake shot, after which we filming some stills of the stall. We then moved onto vox pops with the public in the center, this was very challenging as many people don't react good when they see someone with a camera and in a shirt approach them. We asked about 50 people and only got 6 interviews, we started with a drunk guy who was a waste of time as he messed about with answering the question and was pulling funny faces at the camera, so we knew even who he answered one question OK, we couldn't use his shots. After that we had a slow patch as people were all in a sudden rush to get away, with only a couple of interviewee we needed more to get more different and personal answers. finally with the break of school the center got crowded with students and with that we got loads more interviews. From doing vox pops I've learnt that when approaching people make sure to tell them all the info they need to know about what it is your doing in 3 seconds before they walk off. Also try and re-ensure them that you are not wanting their charity in any way as this is the biggest put off for people to stop when being approached.


After the vox pops we went to Costa to film the closing scene to the report, in this we were going to film the reporter (me) sat outside in the Costa area drinking a coffee and reading a news paper while concluding the report. We ask inside the shop if they were OK with us filming in the Costa area and they were fine, so we asked them to open up an umbrella outside and asked for a coffee. We set up the shot, we had me in a chair under the umbrella while delivering my line then finishing with a coffee drink and news paper read. Ruby sized up the shot as a mid shot of me in the right third of the screen to get the Costa sign, coffee and newspaper in the back ground so that when I got them they didn't just appear from nowhere.


After the closing scene we went on to filming the opening sequence with the reporter talking about the center. I was played the role of the reporter as Ruby worked the camera, we first had to find a suitable location to film the scene and we thought it had to be in front of a big shop and in a quite area so we didn't film public people without requesting their consent. We decided on filming outside the House of Fraser as it was a big building with a nice big sign, also with it being 4 o'clock the center was getting rather quite so there wasn't many people around the building. After learning my lines and taking repetitive shots to finalise the scene we finally finished filming the opening sequence. With just moments to spear as it then heavily rained, we quickly packed up and called it a day. I learnt from this that learning the lie correctly is important, because if you say a line wrong or rush it or re-word it too much then you loose the original message you were trying to say or it will be hard to understand what was said. So I know for future no to re-word or rush my lines to make them more understandable.

Digital News Production - Contacting the Managing Director of Hugh Lowe Farm

Today was my second attempt to contact Hugh Lowe farms managing director. I called up the farm and was answered by the their receptionist. I told her all our intention of wanting access to go and film in Hugh Lowe and talk to some of the workers and people who run the farm. However both managing directors were out for the day and she had no idea when they would return. This was a big problem as they have yet to answer one of my calls or call me back after the last time when I left a voice message. I asked to if I could speak to anyone else who was in charge or that could help with my quire, however she again told me that there was no one available at the moment. She then gave me the email address for on of the other managing directors. I sent them an email about what we want to do and will hope for a email back, otherwise I will call again. I will call them again in a couple of days.

Overall I've learnt from this that you need to contact places which you want to film way in advance to even get through to someone to get the permission. Other wise keep calling and emailing untill you get a response but be carful not to create a bad rapor with people.

Digital News Production - Contacting Actors for Interviews

Today we contacted all our actors who applied for a role in our production either, presenter or 1 of 2 reporters. We first had to put each candidate into one of 3 categories, suitable, maybe or unsuitable. This meant we could take out people who we thought didn't fit the role. We only placed one candidate into the unsuitable section as he had a Spanish accent and we didn't think people who fully understand what he was saying. All the other candidates we placed a suitable as they were all had English accents. Also as we didn't really know much about them, only from some of their show reals, we thought we'd give them all a chance to see if they have what we are looking for in our roles. Also we wanted to get the chance to meet them all to see how they all individually look and feel towards the roles. So we sent a email to all the suitable candidates, telling them all the available dates and times for auditions and the address for the Maidstone Studios, so they could pick the date and time which suites them.

Digital News Production - Workshop 2 - Fremlin Walk Script

Fremlin Walk Script by Vic and Ruby

Digital News Production - Interview Questions

Audition Questions for Digital News

Digital News Production - Interview Work Shop

Today we had a workshop on how to properly conduct and set up a professional interview. Helen and Rachel (Reporter from the BBC) gave us a press release of a story and we had to make up different people and situation on who we could interview for the story. I worked with Ruby and Charlie and together we filmed a presenter part, acted by Ruby and an interview with Charlie interviewing myself.

With the presenter part the first thing we thought about was the mise en scene and wanted to make sure that it looked and felt like a professional news room. First of we had a backdrop of two curtain put together so that half of the screen was a white background and the other was a black background. We thought that this would add a bit more to the shot and make it more interesting. We then put a table and and chair in front of the curtain, placing the chair in the middle of the divide between the black and white background. We then placed some papers on the table to make it look like a active news table with loads of information. We place the presenter (Ruby) in the chair and started lighting her up. We used the mini portable light and used that to bring some light to Ruby and at the same time bring her out from the background.





After finishing the miss en scene we go the camera and placed it at eye level with Ruby and right in front of her. We sized up the shot to a wide shot of Ruby and the table for the opening shot then a  mid close shot of her for the master shot. We went through the scene a few time to ensure a good shot. I learnt form this that the miss en scene is a very important aspect to filming, especially when doing a news room or set, because if it doesn't look like a news room then the piece won't look like it's meant to be a news show. I will take what I learned from this workshop with me in other projects.















After that scene we went to do the interview scene with Charlie as the interviewer and me as the interviewee. We again looked at the miss en scene and decided to to film the interview on platform seating area to make it an understanding that we were in a different place and a more comfortable place for the interview. Ruby took charge of the camera and did two take of the interview, the first was an over the shoulder shot of me charlie looking at me. The second was a single mid close up shot of charlie asking the question and doing some nobys.

From this part of the workshop I learnt that location is very important when filming a interview as if they are in a location which either doesn't match up with the story or they are in an awkward place where the interviewee doesn't feel comfortable will make the interview not good and feel rushed. Also I learnt that your choice in questions is important, not to ask question that are either too personal or that don't want to be discussed by the interviewee. This helps to make the interview more comfortable for the interviewee and help to create a good rapor with them.

Overall from the work shop I learnt that you need to do interview carefully and make sure that you have a good rapor with the interviewee, make sure your questions are appropriate to the subject matter and don't cross boundaries with the interviewee. Further more when shooting a interview make sure you get the vital three shots; a two shot of the interviewer and interviewee, an over the shoulder shot of the interviewer looking at the interviewee and a single shot of the interviewer asking the question and doing some nobys.  With the shot sizes with interviews I learnt that you need to stay quite tight to both the interviewer and interviewee unless your doing an intro wide shot of both of them. Otherwise you should keep to a mid close up of the interviewee and interviewer when filming then, unless you need to show them either looking at something or someone.

Digital News Production - Work Shop 3 - Live Production and Green Screen

Today we had a workshop for two different things, the first was a practise for the "Live Production".

We all got split into two groups, in my group was Kate, Sei Kai, Hannah, Tim, Sam B, Ruby and Charlie.  In our groups we all chose different allocated role in the production, Kate took charge with the director role, I did the vision mixing, Hannah managed the sound, Sei Kai was the floor manager, Tim and Sam B were the two camera men, Ruby was did the lighting and was the interviewee and Charlie was also worked the lighting and was the interviewer.

 In our tight schedule of a couple of hours we had to create and shoot a "Live" interview scene. We all decided to have Charlie interview Ruby about the course. So we made a small set, we put Charlie and Ruby on Chairs facing 45 degrees of each other, so they weren't fully facing each other but were slightly facing the cameras. In-between them we put some studio boxes and lighting boxes to create a nice background and theme, we also pull a black curtain behind them, leaving a couple of ripples in the curtain to add more affect to the shots.

With my role I had three screens to look at, the first screen was the for the shot previews what the shot looks like before I put it on to the main screen. The second screen was the active screen this showed the shot which was live and what everyone would see on TV. The third screen was the recording screen this showed the active shot and recored when the shot switched and the sequences. I had to look at the two different shots and make sure they were all the same with the white balance, exposure and focused. Also I overlooked the shots and had a say with what I thought the shots should look like and if they needed adjusting. During the pre shoot I took charge over a couple of shots while Kate was busy with other stuff. I decided to change the shot which Sam B was on as I thought the original was too much of a profile shot of Ruby. I got Sam B to move the camera to behind Charlie looking at Ruby, this got a more full view of Ruby and what see looked like when answering the questions. I also helped in arranging the lighting as the first position of a light made Ruby over exposed and didn't mach Charlie's exposure. So I moved one light onto the back curtain to create a depth of field and moved another light on an angle of Ruby and pulled it back and set it to a flood light instead of a spot light. This soften the look of Ruby's shot and made her stand out from the black background. 

With the production side of the workshop, I was a little unhappy with how things went for a coupe of reasons, first a could of my ideas and inputs were overseen and ignored. This was a bit frustrating, however to overcome this problem I decided to just go ahead with my ideas and see how they fit with the production, luckily my ideas went thought ok and didn't cause any annoyance with others. Another reason I wasn't too happy was, when we actually filmed the "Live" production, during the mixing Kate dieted me on when she wanted me to switch the shots, and I thought with a couple of switches she did them far too quick and made the film a little back and forth. However this wasn't a big upset as we had another go at filming and I did some switches when I thought it looked better.

Over all with the "Live" production I learnt a lot about how "Live" production are filmed, from the pre production to actual production. With the pre I learnt that you need to plan everything your doing really carefully and fully and make sure you have every situation covered so nothing can go wrong. I also learnt with the pre that organisation is key, keep things together and know what to do at every point, like with setting up camera shots, it's better to think about what shots you want before getting the camera out, this makes the production more thought out and adds value knowing what your going to do next. Also thinking shots out helps to create a sequence of shots (shot list) so that the camera men know what to do and when to move to the next show, without them doing it too daly or late and it appearing on the main screen.

I also leant that with the vision mixing you need to also know what shows are coming up and in what order, so having a shot list on hand is very important to know what's coming next so you don't change the shot at the wrong time. Further more I learnt that being vision mixed you need a good communication with the directer as you'll be working closely during the production, making sure you both listen to each other and communication is key as you both need to be in the same mind set when working together.

After the "Live" part of the work shop we moved on to green screen, in this work shop we were introduced with a green screen stage and had to as a class, fully light the green screen stage, light up the actress (Kate) and film a sequence which will fit the background scenery chosen.

 In the lighting part of the task, we all found it very hard to properly light up the background without leaving dark patches and then lighting Kate without leaving shadows which wouldn't fit the background chosen. First time round Mike took charge and tried to light up the green screen and Kate correctly, he found this very hard and wasn't quite successful. Then Sam B and I was looking online to try and find a better way in successfully light a green screen. We found a way to do it so we decided to take over and try and see if it works. We moved some of the light and turned others off as we thought that they were too many used, we put too main light of the background to light that up, placed one behind Kate to make her stand out from the background. Placed another in front of her to light her up, however in doing so we created too many shadows behind her and on the floor. So we tried to take some out by shining two light onto the floor, this would hopefully both light up the floor and get rid of some of the shadows. In doing this we saw that with erasing one shadow we created another, this was frustrating. After a while of messing with the lights we were able to remove most of the extra shadows, but still had a couple of shadows which were needed to be removed. However we had ran out of time and had to leave it, to continue with the post production.

What I learn from this was that you need a lot of time to set up green screen, as it is very time consuming and need a lot of work to get right. In our group we want to do a green screen scene, with a presenter in a news room studios. Now what I learnt about setting up the lighting is you don't need too many light as too many create more unwanted shadows. Also lighting up the actor is hard to do and you need to make sure to light them up and bring them out from the background to make the shot not look flat. So when it come to filming our green screen I'll take what i've learnt form the work shop and try to apply it as best as I can to make sure it look as good as possible.

After we'd finish setting up the lighting we did a film sequence, in which we need Kate to do something so that when we added that to the chosen background it would look good and real. During the production I took charge as the directer with the help of Sam B on camera and Sei Kai as floor manager. I directer Kate how I wanted her to enter the screen, what to do while on screen and how to exit the screen. I then help Sam B in sizing up the shot and how to shot the sequence. After that we filmed it throughout twice to get the best performance.

I liked doing this as I got to be the directer which is one of my preferred jobs as I like to be in the place of the directer, taking charge and being involved in everything, the acting, camera sizes and shots and the lighting. I learnt that during a green screen production you need to make sure that the action being after out by the after matches the background and that they don't interfere with each other. Like if the background is a forrest full of trees, I need to make sure that the after doesn't walk into a tree, or if the background had a running dog, i'd need to make sure that the path of the dog and the after don't cross, otherwise it would look unprofessional.

Fiction Adaptation - Tutorial with Helen - Ideas Development and Feedback

Today I had a tutorial with Helen to discuss my ideas to her and to see what she thought about them and what she thought was better for the story line. I started by introducing two ideas to her on what I wanted to do and showed her the pros and cons which I thought I would have for each idea. With the first idea of wanting to do, a soldier in the first world war coming back from war, back to base and thinking that everything is ok and there no harm, then suddenly he gets shot and then all the pain and theme of war come rushing back. With this idea Helen thought that it was a very interesting and good idea. However a big problem that she pointed out was the costume, she told me that it's very hard to get hold of world war 1 costume, unless you have quite a bit of money to rent out the costume. This would be very inconvenient for me as I don't have to budget to fund the costume hire for a couple of days. She went on to show me different companies and programmes which make their own world war 1 costumes, however it would be hard to get hold of them and if I did it would be sure if they would either lend or make me a world war 1 costume. When I heard all that the idea suddenly vanished in my ideas, as it would be far too expensive to pull this off. The only way Helen told me I could pull it off without getting the correct costume is by using very tight close ups of my character and nay use one or very minimal so that it would be easier to get away with the lack of costume. This idea did not attract me as I wanted to show the whole character and more people in costume. So that Idea was out!

With the second idea which was to interoperate world war 1 into a modern day life and have a guy who with a past of crime. He goes on a job and bumps into a mugging and ties to help, in doing this he ends up getting stabbed and bleeding to death. He is rushed to hospital and eventually dies. Helen again lied this idea and said it would be much cheeper to film this idea as I wouldn't need any expensive costume. However the only problem that she said was the story line, she said that it was a bit too typical with the mugging, the good guy hero and him getting hurt. She said I need to do something that makes people go "wow"(different). Helen also said that the the poem has to relate with the entire film, so if I have a paragraph on the screen it needs to rate with the film and make sense.

With these comments, I was no where near to my final idea which is what I wanted to be, however I received a lot of good info on what I need to do to make my story good.  I thought hard about what I could to adapt my story further so I made a check list of what I can do to make the story start to form a shape;

• Character Profiles

• Mind Maps

• Research for Character Appearance 

• Research for Themes

With the character profiles this will help me better understand who my charter is and what they do and build up a little background story for them. This will help me to see if I can find anything interesting with me character and use some of the information about them in the story to make the story more interesting and different from other war adapted stories.

The Mind Maps will help me expand the story into loads of different little categories and adapt them more and break the, up and look into more detail at them and piece them together and change bits that need changing or adding to. Also this will help me with the character and what to do with them and how they will react to the situation according to their own personal profile.

Researching the characters appearance will help a lot with both the profile and mind map, for the profile it will help me decide what kind of person IO want them t look like and from this I can include some stereotypes that people like that normally have, this will help a lot when trying to discover who they are.  With the mod maps this will help as again different people carry different stereotype so I could look into the ones which I want for this story and form that adapt it into a situation which could occur in the film.

This is the same with the theme research, if I knew what kind of mood, scenery and tone I want to portray that will help along with the character profiles and the mind maps and will again help me to further develop the story baed on the tone, mood and scenery which I want to show in the film.

From this feedback I found that I need to adapt my idea further with the methods I explained to more clearly see what my structure will be. I also know that I need to make the "wow" happen in my film, have something different which isn't normally seen in film.

Digital News Production - Work Shop 2 - Contacting Fremlin Walk

We were given a mini report on good attractions in Maidstone, to do in groups, so me and Ruby decided to do a report on Fremlin Walk and what that has to offer for the public, tourists and businesses. We had to contact the gremlin Walk centre to ask for permit ion to film in the centre and the shops. On my phone call they said that it was ok for us to film in the centre for a couple of hours on the day. They did ask me to let them know what we wanted to film, how much film we wanted to do and where it will go. So I told them that I would email them after the filming and editing process to let them know that and where the footage was going. 

Digital News Production - Interviewees and Dates

 Audition Schedule 

Friday 17th October ------------Samantha Scott--------------------11:00 AM

Friday 17th October ------------------Harry Boyd ------------------13:30 PM

Monday 20th October -----------------Paul Dewdney --------------------14:00 PM 

Monday 20th October -----------------Paul Kerry -------------------16:00 or 17:00 PM

Video Audition 

Eirimi Mo 

David Chawner

Vicki Glover

Digital News Production - Interview day 1

Today was our first interview day of the production, we decided to do interviews so we can get a better understanding of what the actors are like in person if they looked the part, but also to see if they fit the part and how they pro form. We wanted to know how they took the script and adapt it to what they think is the right way to read it. We were looking for a few points for the actor, if they had any experience in either presenting or reporting, how they presented the script and how they looked in the part. We had two interviewees attend today Samantha Scott and Harry Boyd. 

       

This is Samantha Scott she's 25 and has no medical conditions which we would need to take extra precaution with them or it could interfere with the filming dates. She has a interest in presenting and reporting as she likes filming documentaries which shows her interest in real stories and reporting on them. Also she wants to get into the news presenter and has a vague experience in presenting, as she worked in one of the largest zoo's in the country, she was the presenter and did all the public talks on the zoo to crowds of up to 500 people, this gave her the set of skills to be both humorous and informative at the same time which are both very good qualities to have for a presenter and to have a balance between them is really good. It's also good as she will have a natural act with presenting and reporting stories. She is very comfortable in front of the camera and this would bring a warm feeling to the show as she will make people feel relaxed when watching her and able to follow her now easily. For the performance part of the interview I felt that she was very good with how she spoke the words and acted in front of the camera, she kept her eye on the camera, she didn't look down too much and spoke clear. With the reporter part again she was very good she put a lot of enthusiasm to the report and was very entertaining to watch with the way she spoke the information, which I think is very important as that will grab hold of the viewers attention and make them watch the report. Overall I was very pleased with this interview and because of her friendly and warm fell I defiantly want to consider her as part of the cast for either the main presenter or the Hugh Lowe farm report, as she will make them interesting and fun to watch.


      

Our second and final interviewee of the day was Harry Boyd, he's 24 and also has no medical conditions. He is very interested in the news and filming news reports, which will make him a good candidate as he will be get more into the role as it's a personal interest. He's also intrigued in the way people present/report the news and he understands that you can't just read or say it normally, theres a way to how to do it. That will add more to his performance and make the show look professional. Also he shares a personal attachment to one of our stories as his dad works n one of the charities that help to preserve the habitat of the nightingales. He is very available all this month but we can only get to him up to the 6th of November as he has another project to attend to. With the script reading part of the interview, I thought that as a presenter he's more serious with the ways that he tells the stories which is good for normal news because they have a lot of serious stories. However for our news channel it's quite light hearted and needs a bit more of a softer and warmer voice. With the performance he stumbled a few time but quickly corrected them. With his eye level he has looking a bit too much at the page then the camera, however with better knowledge of the script that should be avoided. With the Nightingale story, I thought that this story really fit his tone of voice and character, as he has a more serious way of presenting the script and this fits more as the story is more serious and more hard hitting. I could see that if he read ahead and knew the lines he hardly looked down at all which makes the performance much easier to follow. Over all I thought that he was very good for the Nightingale story with him having a more serious an deeper voice it fit better.

Fictional Adaptation - The Death Bed Developing Ideas

I have further developed on the two ideas I had for my adaptation of the poem, I have yet to decide on an idea, so I will further develop both ideas and see which one is more appealing to me. The first idea was to set the film in the war world 2 period with a soldier in the war. The mise en scene will be war time, with soldier in war outfits in a battle field. I want to story to revolve round one soldier who has come back from battle that day surviving the boundaries of death and thinking its all safe now as he returns back to the base camp with the other soldiers. I want the open scene to be all peaceful and show the beautiful environment and people having fun like there no war going on or people have forgotten for a second and when that is all shown and is forgotten I want a dramatic event to happen to bring all the aspects of war and pain back to the soldiers. The event I want to happen will be the soldier who thinks he's in the clear from the war to get shot from a enemy spy. As the soldier falls to the ground I want to show everyone quickly changing back into war mode and all aspects of war come rushing back like a plague. I want to as soon as the soldier hits the floor he enters a different dimension. I want the solider to enter a limbo state of mind and during this state he goes like a riddle on how to get back to the real world and not die. He occasionally returns to a normal state briefly but then goes back to his limbo state. Tormented by death himself he tries to fight him a live but fails and dies.

Looking at the second idea I wanted to apply the same plot and story as the first idea into it but modernise it to a 20th century world. I wanted to show the act of war in everyday life with street gang crime and muggings. I wanted to have the first scene show a guy living a normal life doing his usual things like shopping and jogging. One day on his casual jog as he runs in the street I want to show a cross story of another person shopping and that person gets mugged, as that happens the guy jogging passes by, his first thought is to ignore the situation and move on, then he decides to go help. As he tries to help the muggers turn on him and try and mug him too. They try and take a sentimental valued photo which is in his wallet, so he fights to get it back. The gang beat hit hard and in the end one of them stabs him several times. They run off, but the photo drops out of the wallet as they run off and lands on the floor just out of reach of the man. He reaches out for it but slips into unconsciousness and enters the state of limbo. He fights through the state drifting back and forth form limbo. In the real world he is rushed through hospital and the doctors do everything they can to keep him alive. In the limbo state he is faced with all the wrong he has done throughout his life and tries to fight to say alive. As death torments him he eventually gives in and death takes him away.

With both ideas I am yet to know if I am going to have any dialogue or an over voice.

I like both of the idea which I have suggested and can't yet decide which one to go on with, so I will do a pros and cons with both the ideas and see which one of them is more accessible to film. To see which one I can actually film without hitting massive walls.

For the first idea the pros are;

: Interesting story
: Good characters
: Available access to costume

Cons;

: Too typical
: Hard to find the right location
: Might have a lack of numbers in cast

Second idea pros;

: Stronger story line
: Not a typical war piece
: I can portray a lot of emotion and dramatise it
: Less challenging location scouting
: Less cast needed - more reliable

Cons;

: Typical street gang culture
: Might be difficult getting hospital scenes
: Might be difficult showing the guy getting stabbed without it looking too fake or tacky
: Hard to not unnerve the public with stabbing scene

Fiction Adaptation - Research on Different Ways to Adapt Media Texts

I've been looking at different way in which you ca adapt a media text into film so that I can have a better insight into how I could adapt my poem ("The Death Bed") into film. I've been stuck with ideas on what, how i could adapt the poem into film. I found that director have many different way in adapting different text in film. According to Giannetti, (2002) he describes three different ways in which you can adapt a media text. — “the loose, the faithful, and the literal.” (p. 406).
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rbeach/teachingmedia/module12/2a.htm

The loose adaptation which Giannetti referred to, means that the maker of the film will only pick out one main fact from the original text which stays the same and build around that fact and develop everything else differently from the original text. For example the maker could deiced to take the story idea or a/some characters form the original text so it resembles it, but change everything else. 

The faithful adaptation means that the maker attempts to re-create the story into film and keep the originality as much as possible. This is done by retaining the original story lines and the same characters in the same situations and not straying from the original text at all. 

Finally the literal adaptation technique, is a typical theater production which was taken from an old film, this is also the case with Shakespeare as the plays i.e. Hamlet, was from an old scripture and film and was adapted into plays.  

With these three different methods in adapting a text I can choose a method which I want to use when adapting the poem and that will help me further develop the overall idea and structure of the film. I went on and found more different way that people suggest you can adapt text into film. 

The "Displaced Setting" this method suggests, that the film only changes the time period which it's based in, however it keeps all other aspects of the original texts in the structure. E.g. with Romeo and Juliet (1996) which was set in a more modern time however it kept the language from older periods of time and story line.

Another method is "Acculturated", this suggests that the film keeps all resemblance of the original characters, plot and theme and just shift the use of language and setting into a new context.  

Another method of adaptation is "Politicized", this method commends the idea that the director makes the film contemporary, however it keeping a lot of the original texts in place.  

Finally I can use the method "Hollywood-ized", takes the original text and changes everything to make it more commercialized and appeal more to a vast audience.  

Looking at all these different ways of adapting a text has helped me to understand the different ways and to choose which way I want to adapt my poem. I am very interested in the "Loose" and the "Displaced Setting" Methods as I like the way I can take what I like about the poem, being the plot or characters and change the rest like the time period and place the plot of characters into a more contemporary time. Alternatively I could stay in the same time period as the original text and just change the plot or the characters.

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rbeach/teachingmedia/module12/2a.ht

Digital News Production - Contacting Land Securities

Today at our group meeting we sent out an email to the company planning to build on the Nightingale site in Lodge Hill, to see what their response is to the situation and to hear their views on the future of Lodge Hill.

Charlie emailed them and put;
Hello, my name is Charlie Ansell and I represent a local news production 'Kent Nature'. We were wondering if you were able to give a response towards the dispute on your plans to build on the Nightingale site. We would ideally like to have a filmed interview but if we could gain any response at all from you we would be very grateful. You can contact me via my email.

They responded rather quickly;
Hi Charlie

Thank you for getting in touch. Please see below a comment from Land Securities, which we hope will be useful for your piece on Lodge Hill.

Do get in touch if you have any further queries.

Regards,

Rhian
For and on behalf of Land Securities


A spokesperson for Land Securities, said: “We were delighted when Medway Council approved our Outline Planning Application for Lodge Hill, which will allow for a truly sustainable development to be delivered. We have worked hard over several years to create a masterplan which addresses all potential impacts associated with the regeneration plans and we are grateful for the constructive involvement of Council officers, local residents and other important stakeholder groups.

“Lodge Hill will benefit life and business in Medway by bringing much-needed homes and road improvements and will create approximately 5,000 jobs to secure the Peninsula’s status as a significant economic destination in the region.”

"The proposals for Lodge Hill will create a new community hub on the Hoo Peninsula, that will bring with it benefits and amenities for people living in the area, including a countryside park, sports facilities, health services, a nursing home, three new primary schools and a new secondary school."

This email wasn't really what we wanted to hear, although they give good information about the good side of the planning permission and the benefits it will have, they lack to tell us anything about the bad side and what will happen to all the endangered nightingale in the area.  We hope to follow this up with a phone call for more and better information.