Final Cut The Basics

In Class we were asked to create a presentation on the film editing software Final Cut Pro. My presentation has covered the basic editing techniques which can be used in the program .

My aim of creating the powerpoint was to teach people the basics of editing when using the program. Initially I think the overall presentation went well although some of the screenshots that I have taken havent worked on my pc I thik I have explained the terms clearly.

After I completed my presentation I uploaded it to google docstoc.com (as the google documents site was having some technical problems) so that I could post it onto my blog. Below is my powepoint.


FCP_basics Edem King -

Finished Radio

On Friday the 4th of December my production team completed our radio broadcast on Student Finance, we managed to keep our final piece between four and five minutes respectively.

The song we used throughout  our program was called Cant Tell Me Nothing and it was performed by Kanye West

My thoughts on the project...

Overall listening to our finished project I am filled with joy to think on what my group has acomplished in such a short space of time, whilst I reminise on our efforts and our ability to co-operate as a group I would like to say that every member of our group more or less pulled their weight and although issues and obstacles arose during the course of time my team members were able to proceed and confidently overcome them.

I felt we worked well in

• Organization
• Time Management
• Keeping in touch with one another 
• Fullfilling our Assigned Roles

Although at times I felt our group was mainly a three person group I would like to take this oppotunity to thank my teammates individually for their hard work and effort. In terms of the content I hope our radio show was really informative and has helped the students at the university  who have struggled with the student finance system and who are going through financial problems.

We would like to say a special thanks to Andy Leahy & Sara Phipps Lang from the Welfare department we could not have completed our radio production without your influential presence  and the students of Bath Spa University who kindly aggreed to be interviewed.

Radio Broadcast : Student Finance Research

Every year thousands of young adults and mature students in the United Kingdom, who have completed their A Levels and Access to Higher Education courses leave home and embark upon the journey into university life. There are loans in place to help assist you with the essential materials needed for your course and living.

This year the Student loans Comapny (SLC) was his by maijor problems an estimateof 50,000 students were yet to recieve their loans in time for the start of the academic year and universities all around the country were forced to dish out emergency loans to those who were waiting for their maintenence loans. The student loans company in general suffered a backlog in the system and were still processing loans which had previously been applied for months ago.

Many students who applied for a maintenence loan before the deadline were deeply affected by the overall sittuation some students had to defer a years worth of education due to the late payments. Ralf Seymour-Jackson of the Student Loans Company and the Higher Education Minister David Lammy personally apologised to any students in the United Kingdom who were affected by the overall situation and stated that they were doing everything in their power to make sure that the loans would be processed around the start of the academic term.

Here is a link to an article which was published on the BBC News Education Website on Thursday 17th September 2009 it discribes in deph the problems and the issues in which the educational system was facing at the time.

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Radio Assessment Edit Session 1

As planned Me, Edem and James met up for our first stage of editing our Radio assessment at the Gate House, Bath Spa University. We edited our Vox Pops fairly to make sure that we had a good balanced argument so that it does not come across as bias views. We decided that the track Kanye West - Cant tell me nothing fits really well with our Radio show, but we had to get hold of a instrumental version of this song as we have it playing behind the presenters introduction and the song includes rap which might drain out the presenters voice



This is us editing in the Gate House. Kindly taken by Ross on my iphone.


We are editing our Radio assessment in Logic we all know the basic skills in Logic so we were comfortable using it. We had one problem which took a long time to understand was that the audio was recorded in different kHz so that some of sounds were fast or slow due to the different kHz. We try to get around this by exporting the file into Quick time Pro and changing it in there. We are continuing editing on the 4th of December, we think that we could finish it on this day and then we got a few day before the deadline to tweak it if necessary.

Radio Broadcast Meeting 4

Meeting was held - Tuesday 1st December, Gatehouse, Bath Spa University.


Attendants - Mike, James, Edem and Ed.



Action Points from the last production meeting that have been completed



Planned questions for interview with welfare

Planned Vox Pops

Which me, James and Edem finished last week



Action points from this meeting



Edem to record statement from loan company (To be recorded 1st of December)



Listed to Recording from last week

Agreed to start editing on the 3rd of December at 1.00pm at Gatehouse, Bath Spa University.

Radio Assessment Recording Progress

As planned Me, Edem and James met up at Bath Spa University for our first stage of recording our assessment on the 26th of November 2009, we met at my house for 12.00pm. So from 12.30pm-3pm we performed Vox Pop's, we recorded in the Students Union Bar, outside the library and around halls of residence we got alot of good answers which are relevant to our topic. We also recorded our introduction for our assessment we did this in my shower room! as from many level tests it was the best place to record. The introduction was read by Edem.

Above is James and Edem recording the introduction in my shower room (Image taken from James Blog)


At 3pm-4pm we had a interview booked with Andy Leahy the Student Money and Welfare Adviser at Bath Spa University. The interview went really well and Andy's responses were really good and we have got plenty of material to cover the interview.

Radio Broadcast Meeting 3

Meeting was held - Tuesday 24th November, Gatehouse, Bath Spa University.

 Attendants - Mike, Edem and Ed.

Not Attended - James (Excuses for not present is that he was ill)

 Action Points

• Listened to Ed's edit of news clips

• Read scrip for presenter

• Picked music - "Cant tell me nothing" - Knaye West

•  Agreed that Edam is the presenter as Harry has been absent

• Listened to proposed jingle

• Planned questions for interview with welfare

• Planned Vox Pops

Next meeting is to be held on Friday 1st December at the gate house at Bath Spa.

Cornish Mike's Introduction

Below I have written a script for our presenter Mikes introduction.

There will be a snippet of either an interview, or a vox-pop with a student explaining how and why they have financial problems due to late loan payments.

These are just some of the problems which can occur when students at university, fail to receive their loans in time for the academic year.  In september 2009 the student loans company was hit by a mass number of problems, which resulted in a lot of student's failing to receive their loan payments eventhough they had applied for financial support early.

• Then medley of news broadcasts and jingle. 

Hi im Michael Kelly and your listening to Gatehouse Fm. Like many students who applied for university in 2009, and processed their student loans in time for the start of the academic term, I am yet to recieve my loan payments from the student loans company. But why did these problems occure in the first place?, and what does Bath Spa University do to help it's students who are going through financial prolems. We asked the students of the university, if they had received their student loans and if they had what had they spent their money on.

Radio Broadcast Meeting 2

Meeting was held - Tuesday 17th November, Gatehouse, Bath Spa University.




Attend - Mike, Edem, Ed and James



Action Points



Interview with Welfare has been confirmed and to be held on the Thursday 26th November at Welfare office at Bath Spa University.

Equipment has been booked for the above interview (Edirol R09 Kit).

Vox Pops to be carried out on the morning/lunchtime of Thursday 26th November at Bath Spa Students Union Bar as this will be a prime time that students will be at the Student Union.



Next meeting is to be held on Friday 20th November at DYG01 (Dairy) at Bath Spa University. Below is the next step of what we discuss at the meeting.



Organise making a jingle for the beginning of radio show in Garage Band.

Speak to Harry who has been asked to attend Fridays meeting about presenter of our radio program to share his personal experience with Student Finance.

If Harry is unable to be our presenter anymore then Mike (Me) from the group is happy to take his place using his own experience with some of Harry's put in.



Talk about how much time we have to edit our radio show, we want to leave a minimum of a week to edit our show as problems will arise.

Radio Broadcast Meeting 1

Radio Show Meeting, 10th of November 2009, 2.35pm, Gatehouse, Bath Spa University.




Attendants - Mike, Edem and James.

Not Attended - Ed (Excuses for not present is that he was ill)



Action Points



Reply from Welfare interview at Bath Spa University that they are happy to be interviewed gave us contact details



Harry has agreed to be the presenter of our radio program and share his personal experience with Student Finance.



Phoned Welfare to find out when they are available to be interviewed.



Edem has the music for the radio show (Kanya West - Cant tell me nothing and The Game - Money)

Next steps



Chase Welfare for interview

Speak to Harry for presenter duty's



Organize Vox Pops

Talk about next steps at next meeting which is on Monday the 16th of November.



Agreed roles in the group also discussed at the meeting



Harry = Presenter

Edem = Researcher

James = Editor

Mike =Sound

Ed = Interviewer

Radio Show Proposal

Every year, thousands of people embark on the journey to higher education. The concept is fairly simple, use tools such as UCAS to alert potential Universities of your course choices, attend interviews and hopefully enrol on your desired course. However, there are sometimes glitches in the system.



We propose to create a radio show that is primarily aimed at University students, staff and future University students.

The radio show will cover multiple angles on student life, but especially the main issue of Student Finance. The intention of the programme is to gather the correct evidence in order to create a story that affects most students during their first few months at University.


The main focus on Student Finance would be the late distribution of Student Loans and how this has affected the University and most importantly, the Students.


We will gather information regarding this matter from the Students themselves and how they are coping with the current economic climate and the shortage of disposable income they have.


We would also gather information from the Universities and Student Finance in order to give a different angle on the issue and what they are doing in order to help the Students and anyone else involved in the situation.


The radio station will be produced by Students, but will be aimed at a wide target audience. The target audience will be mainly fellow Students, but also the University staff, Student Finance and friends and families of anyone affected by the issues raised on the programme.


We intend to create a non biased production and to give as wide a view as possible on the issues raised in order to create a balanced and equal argument for both cases.

Radio Programme Structure

Here is the structure which the Gatehouse Fm production team has agreed on for our radio broadcast.

• A medley of news broadcasts/Jingle
• Harry's (presenter) Introduction
• Vox-pops (Have you got your loan through and if so how are you spending it) 
• Harry introduces Welfare 
• Welfare interview
• Student Finance segment
• Harry's conclusion

We will edit our production using the logic 9 softare. We will record the vox-pops using the edirol sound recording device. Snippets of each interview/segement wil be played before harry introduces the overall topic, by doing this hopefully our finished production will sound as auhentic/professional as possible. 

Gatehouse Fm

On the 27th of October we were given our first group assignment. We were sorted into groups and asked to explore ideas for a radio broadcast on a particular subject. My group consists of Mike, Ed and James. We Decided to call our radio station Gatehouse Fm as we felt that this was the most relevant title in terms of originality

Whilst brainstorming ideas on the subject in which our radio programme should be centered around it became apparent which direction in which our broadcast was ideed taking. We all came to a unanimous decision that our radio show should address issues that the students of Bath Spa University could relate to.
In a 4minute radio broadcast our show will be exploring issues in detail relating to student finance. We will be looking at what the university does to help students who are going through financial hardship especially at this time of the year due to loan payments not being received in time for the start for the 09 academic term .  

Our show will feature vox-pops from the students in the university we will be and interviews with people from the welfare department in the university as well as student the finance department.  

Photomontage Remake

For the past few weeks in class, we have been studying the revolutionary Documentary-Film Makers and fathers of Montage Eisenstein, Vertov and Kuleshov.

For our first assessment we were given the task of creating our own peices of history by trying to emulate their efforts and making our own themed montages. After watching the epic film by vertov The Man With The Movie Camera in which vertov documents a whole day in a city  I was inspired to create my own masterpeice with similar editing techniques.

Whilst learning how to use edit the software I learned how much effort goes into just a simple edit, it took me 4 hours to edit and compile roughly around thirteen photos and organise and arrange them in sucession. After my first effort was deemed too basic and lacked any imagination I remade my photomontage and chose a new theme.

My new photomontage is based on Africa as a continent. My video features parts of my hometown Accra  in Ghana where I was born.  I took most of these photos from a holiday, in which I returned back to my country of origin for the first time in thirteen years, some of the other pictures were from the internet.
Below is my remade montage.


Untitled from Edem King on Vimeo.

Soundscape Assignment

We were given the task of creating a soundscape. Our soundscape had to be between three to four minutes long and the sounds within our soundscapes had to be natural material which we had recorded ourselves and appear realistic.

My idea was to create a soundscape, witch would capture and doument the step by step process I take in the morning before going  to university.




Using the Edirol R-1 software I recorded homemade sounds. I edited the sound on Logic 9

During the process of making my soundscape I encountered some problems on the day in which I would address with great detail for future recording purposes.

• The Edirol software which I was using repeatedly switched itself due to the software displaying signs of a low battery I purchased some new batteries and  the editorl still switched itself off whilst I was in the process of recording my sounds

• When I tried to playback some of the sounds which I recorded erlier in the day the software would playback but some of the files would be sound damaged and the playback wasn't in good quality. 

Concerned about my problems which I was facing I raised the issues with our technician Richard Wood who in return tested the sftware and promised to keep an eye on its wellbeing for future use.

If i were to record again to combat these problems i would borrow the software early so if I had any problems they could be checked out early in time so it dosent interrupt me when i am in the process of recording for the future.


to listen to my finished edit please click here

Stop Motion

On the 9th of october in class we looked at Stop Motion Animation.

• But Just What is Stop Motion?

Stop motion animation is a technique in which an object  appears to move on its own Its first appearance in any motion feature was a production called the Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898). The concept of the film was to make a group of toy acrobats and anmials appear to come to life, the film itself was produced by  J. Stuart Blackton & Albert E. Smith . Stop motion works by moving an object individually and recording a frame by each movement each time. When the Stop Motion Animation is played back the object appears to move on its own.

Stop Motion Animation is ever present in childrens cartoons of today.
here are some cartoons which use the stop motion format today.

• Pingu 
• Postman Pat
• Bob the Bulider
• The Magic Roundabout 

below is an example of stop motion notice how the wooden model almost appears to move on its own, but at a close glance when the arm begins to slowly move we can see the framerate in which the movie has been recorded at.  

 


We were then set a mini task of creating our own minture videos I worked with Mike and Katie and we made a video called  disco dancing bins here is our attempt of creating a movie using stop motion animation.

 

Kuleshov...Vertov...Eisenstein...???

Here are three Russian directors who have made an impact on cinema, one way or another through their different styles of editing and techniques.

• Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov was born in 1896. He's main aim was to capture actuallity in films. this paved the way for the cinema verite style of documentary making

His famous films include.

• The Man With The Movie Camera .
• Lullaby
• Kino Pravda

He refferred to the camera lens as a second eye and he viewed the filmaking exploits as propaganda tool in which audiences could connect emotionally and empahize with the images and narative stucture in which the film consisted of.

he believed that the camera lens was far greater than the human eye from a visual perspective and he excersized his theory in his films shooting his films from a detatched perspective.

• Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Esisenstein was born in 1898 and seen as the father of montage. He is a revolutionary film director who's work has influenced many filmakers in the past and present. He stated that montage editing was the essance of cinema. Eisenstein stated that there were four methods of montage

• Metric
• Rhythmic
• Tonal
• Overtonal
• Intellectual

In his films Eisenstein did not use professional actors in any of his productions and often avoided casting star quality.

• Lev Kuleshov

Lev Kuleshov was a soviet filmmaker and also one of the pioneers of the montage theory. He created what was known as the Kuleshov effect, in which he put random images in a sequence, so that his films could emotionally effect the audiences perception. Many directors to this day have studied and applyed this effect in their films.

Radio Documentary

For this task my class were asked to observe a radio documentary and describe the structure of content in order.



I chose to look at this thought provoking 1xtra documentary titled cry rape, which was broadcast on the 21st of august 2008 and presented by Adele Cross. The program itself talks about the issues and hardships that  men who are accused of rape face from their social life, to their professional working life.

• Actual footage of false  emergency call
• Presenters Brief Introduction
  
• Snippets of the story before the interview
• Montage of Interviews and vox-pops over the jingle
• Presenter's detailed introduction and archive footage of new broadcasts
• Ben's story/soundscape of party/presenter brief narration
• Presenter talking about statistics
  
• Presenter introducing Jason's story
• Snippets of the story before the interview
• Presenter introduces Faso (the false allegation support organization)
  
• Director of Faso Margret Gardener talks about allegations of rape
• Snippet of interview
• Presenter Adele Cross introduces Jasons mother again
• Presenter introduces Dave Gee from The Association of Chief Police Officers
• Adele Cross talks the repercussions of being accused of rape/Jason & Ben comment on their experiences since being accused of rape.
  
• Louise an actual rape victim tells her story
• Parts of Dave Gee's interview is played
• Presenter introduces vox-pops/
• Vox-pops 
• Ben talks about why he thinks he's accuser did it
• Margret gardener talks about the compensation in which rape victims receive
  
• Louise gives her view on compensation to rape victims
• Polititan Vernon Coker gives his views
• Dave gee gives his views on people who have been accused of rape
• Louise gives her views on false allegations and how her life has changed
• the presenter talks about Ben's social life since he was accused of rape
• Presenter talks about government policy on rape
• Radio Jingle signals the end of the documentary

I found the documentary very well presented and interesting I particularly liked the way in which three snippets of interviews would play over a certain topic with people giving their views on a certain subject to that the viewer would get a varied perspective on that subject.


To listen to the full documentary click on these links below.

• Part 1 
• Part 2
• Part 3
  

Treatment For Do I Really Need ??

The opening scene of my production, will have catchy music followed by subtitles, which will introduce the topic of the documentary and the production team. I would like to open my documentary with an animated sequence of designer labels and clothes in the stop motion format.

The Broadcast journalist will then say a short introduction of the theme in which this documentary will be dealing with and will go into the history of designer labels in a brief speech

My documentary will feature vox-pops from members of the public who will voice their opinion on what they think about designer labels, or their preference when it comes to shopping for clothes. My documentary will then talk about issues like fairtrade and will interview a spokesperson who works with one of the maijor retailers who is part of the E.T.I.. Archive footage and images of inequality and will appear in my documentary also archive footage from advertisements on fairtrade will also feature in my documentary

My Documentary will conclude with the spokesperson telling the Broadcast Journalist where they see the industry in the future and what can be done to prevent exploitation in the developing countries.


 

VOX-POPS

Vox-Pops are used in media production to generate public opinion and intrest on a particular subject.    Vox-Pops are live unscripted interviews and usually last for a small duration. Television and Radio shows use the Vox-Pop format.  

The word vox-pop originated from the Latin word vox populi which means voice of the people.

Vox-Pops are used to showcase a  range of  public  perspective on topics like social issues current affairs and politics.

• So what nomally happens in a Vox-Pop?

A broadcast journalist would normally approache, an unsuspecting member of the public on the street and calmly interview them on camera, or dictorphone about their opinions concerning the issues in which their programme is centered around.
Vox-Pops are often broadcast out in an open space area and are shot at the medium close up camera angle of the close up angle.

Vox-Pops are a good source of information because

• They allow members of the public to be involed in media produtions 
• They also allow television & radio audiencess to identify with the person being interviewed 
• And they allow the general publics opinion to be represented and broadcast to a wide audience

 

Proposal For Do I Really Need ?

Here is my proposal for my documentary entitled "Do I Really Need?"

Whatever generation or cutural background you are from, fashion has at least once  presented itself  in your lifetime. Through trends and crazes cultures can become submerged in a blanket of desire and craves for the latest fashion items and Designer labels. Many of the designer labels of today are being endorsed by celebritys with iconic status which have crystalised the image of these maijor co-oroperations today


I propose to make a documentary, which will explore the social aspect of fashion, my documentary will also raise awareness of where these clothes are made. My documentary will ask the question "why do we often feel compelled to buy designer labels". Production  will also explore the power in which designer labels have over todays soiety in terms of status. I aim to riase awareness about the underlying issues and within the fashion industry in terms of fairtrade.

I believe that shooting a video production at this curent time, would be the most appropriate due to the growing trends which have corresponded with cultural backgrounds in terms of music and ethnicity.

My video production will be aimed at the youth and young adults of today.  I aim to challenge young minds to be a bit open minded, whilst educating them on important issues like fairtrade and equality throughout the world. 

Using a production team I hope to interview a range of young people on the opinions on desinger labels and why wearing the latest trends will give you status in todays world. I will look at celebrity culture and the endorsements over the years which have incited many of us to purchase particular items.

By the end of this production i hope to inform and educate my target audiene as well as the general public

Do I Really Need....Designer Labels???

The title is very thought provoking and is enough to captivate any audience.

Today in class we were given the sensational task of formulating ideas for our own productions,
which were aimed at attracting and targeting the BBC3 audience of today. After much deliberation and a
brainstorming session in class I was inspired to produce an idea for a documentary.

My documentary would look at the power in which desinger labels have on the youth of today and would
dig deep into the historical and ecconomic aspect of fashion. It struck me that many of the youths and the current generation of shopaholics may be wearing clothes without knowing where these clothes really came from in terms of fairtrade.

I hope that this will inspire a series of docuentaries in general which will challenge the way people think.
Here is a link to the E.T.I. website which stands for ethical trade initiative this organisation deals with fairtrade in the industry and any well known retailers like Gap & Primark are part of this organisation respectively.

Sounscapes ?

When viewing this title, many of you may be thinking the very question "what is a soundscape? ".

According to Dictionary.Com a soundscape is ...
an atmosphere or enviroment created by or with a sound .

Basically soundscapes allow us to capture the essance of an enviroment through sound and its authenticity.
these sounds, can be used to create an artitsic image in your mind through imagination of what an enviroment really looks like. Soundscapes appear in everyday life and can be found in media text such as...
television, film and music.

How can we identify a soundscape?

Soundscapes are the sounds which make up the land, they are sounds of the enviroment. These sounds can be natural. A good place to notice soundscapes are through cartoons like the
Simpsons and Family Guy.

In general wherever you are ,there is a soundscape to suit the enviroment that you are in.
For example if you were in a trainstation you would hear.

• Announcements, (via intercom) Steamtrains, Bells  Footprints  the Clock

Here are some examples of soundscapes.

Self Portrait

In class we were given a small assignment to complete over the weekend. The task would build upon our knowledge of what we have been previously learning ,during the day about images and the power in which they create socailly in terms of  representation. We were asked to take a self portrait photo of things in which we thought would represent us the most and what the image would say about the type of person that we were. Thinking long and hard about the image in particular in which I wanted to portray I decided to take a picture of three things in which I felt meant the most to me in general.

• My tie with the Ghanain flag on it
• My Woolly hat which portrays the Ghanain coat of arms
• My Ghanain football jersey

Being of Ghanain/Brittish origin I felt that it was inportant for my self protrait to portray a reflective view I took a picture of the ghanain memrobilia which I had in my bedroom. I wanted the colours in the picture to say something aout me as well so I made sure that the colour white was the most dominant colour in my photo even in the background, so it could reflect the type of person I am in everyday life. I wanted the color white to relfect that I am a calm well mannered person who tries to see the good in people no matter what race of cultural background in which they are from. Which is why the black Ghana tie is positioned directly to the side of the white tie followed by a dominant black and white theme throughout my image.

For our next assignment my class were given an the task of taking six more photos which would comply with the principles of connotation and denotation. I took these pictures in the hope that my pictures would capture the essance of time.

During the opening week of my course my class and I were asked to pertake in an activity in the city. We went on a photo marathon taking pictres of things that were relevant to our assigned subjects. Here are the pictures from the activity.

Welcome message

Hello everybody welcome to my blog, my name is Edem king and I am in my first year of the Media Production course at Bath Spa University. I setup this blog with the intention of keeping you updated with my progression durig my first year of university. I hope you enjoy my blog, there wil be many intresting pictures and video's that i will be posting throughout the year as well as information in general about how i am adapting to University life and finding lectures. thank you for logging onto my blog and I hope you enjoy it