The Media's Representaion.

Previously, I analysed the documentary Supersize Me. Within my analysis, I looked at narrative and representation. For representation, I looked closely at how Americans are represented in the documentary and in the media. From this, I decided to look at the media's portrayal of black youth. I also focused on how British media coverage portrays young black people especially males and even provided an example involving Mark Duggan. In the last slide, I also acknowledge and write about what black and ethnic minority news groups portray people from their own background. I felt that this has helped me to understand how people can be presented through media and how I can personally represent the people in my short film.

Supersize Me Analysis.

Here, I analysed the documentary film 'Supersize me'. I decided to analyse this film which is different to my current ideas. I feel that looking at different types of documentaries will broaden my knowledge of them and will thus give me more ideas. The documentary uses a range of visuals such as graphs, interviews and animations which gives the audience a better understanding of what is going on. This may also add humour to the documentary depending on the subject and how it's done. Since I am focusing on a social issue, I thought that an animated graph to portray statistics and figures would be a good factor to incorporate into my short film. Overall, I am glad that I analysed Supersize me as it has given me many different ideas. Also, by analysing the narrative and representation helped me to understand how I am able to emphasise them in my own production. Finally, I also looked at the representation of different demographics and Americans as a whole. Because of this, I will research on the media's representation of young people in the media.

Thomas Bennett.

Here is a short presentation I made looking at the short film produced by Nathan Honnold titled, 'Thomas Bennett'. The short film gave me some more ideas rooting from the street photography. I also looked at the narrative and representation in detail. By watching and analysing this short film, it helped me to think of my own production in terms of camera angles and shot types for emphasis. Thomas Bennett also sent the same message I wish to convey in my film, which is not to be judgemental. It also had a long lasting impression on me which is what I also aim to do.

First Idea.

 Outside of school, I have hobbies such as street photography. I often capture pictures of homeless people as they make such a powerful statement especially in photography. Below are some of the pictures I've taken before this project which also lead me to inspiration for my documentary film. Before I take pictures of them, I talk to them and buy them hot food. Getting to know them is interesting because most people would expect that they all have the same life story and that they aren't doing anything to make a change. This gave me the idea to do a documentary film on a specific homeless person and get in insight on their life. I felt that this would be a powerful documentary that changes people perspectives on the homeless. With a lot of thought and days of research on homeless people and documentaries on them, I was unsure if I should still carry this short film out. Planning film dates would be difficult as the person I wish to interview did not have a phone. I would also have to provide transport money along with other things. If this person did not show up at an arranged date or time that would jeopardise my whole project. So finally, I decided not to go through with this idea. However it still inspired me to document another social issue.  

Plans for my film.

Here, I have a small mood board on a few ideas I have for my documentary. I decided to do a documentary in the first place as nobody else in my class is working on one which already makes my idea different. Also, I have been interested in documentaries from a very young age and I took this chance to create my own. Deciding on what to do was quite difficult as a documentary can cover a whole load of topics. So I decided to document something that was easily accessible and that would have a long lasting impression on my audience. The mood board I created below shows the topics I wanted to cover. These topics include: homelessness, crime involving both older and young people. Not implying that these issues would be easy to cover, but I find them interesting. I concluded that if I film something of my interest, I could make it a lot more creative with it. I also aim to turn the idea of something ugly into a work of art. For example homeless people is a burden in societies eyes, however by going into depth and finding more about an individual may change a persons' view on homelessness.

 

 

Welcome.

                                                                       Welcome

Hello! Welcome to my A2 Media Studies blog. This year I will be working on a short film for my final production along with 2 other tasks. I will be documenting all the steps I take in order to complete the film along with current media related news and ideas. I have decided that I will be working on a 5 minute documentary film and I will be showing you how and why I decided to follow that path. I will also be featuring videos, presentaions such as slide shows and many more ways of showing my ideas and notes to bring more life to my blog! I hope you enjoy.