Fiction Adaptation- The Cenotaph

This is my fiction adaptation film. I believe it has turned out very well from the original idea, I think I managed to create something that matches my script. I think the parade footage is well shot for most of it as it was live.


Although I like the piece there are small things that I could of done to make it better, the character Robert does not seem to have a story arc which is a fault of my own for not creating a story. I think that on the shoot I should have tired to make it less hand held and more try-pod based as this would have helped when it went shaky.

Fiction Adaptation- Final Essay

For this essay I tried to do as much research as possible but I think there was still more to be done, this would have required a larger word count though as to have more theories I would have needed more examples. 

Fiction Adaptation

Fiction Adaptation- Editing

While editing it was hard to keep the continuity for the first two shots. I needed the first shot as it was the establishing shot, the second is a longer shot in which David gets up. But between the first and the second David moved, this made it hard to edit. Lex gave me a good idea to put the credits between the two shots just long enough to make it seem like a natural transition, and that he moved while the titles were on screen. I added the fade in and out to make the cuts less harsh. 

Fiction Adaptation- Sound Editing

During the editing process I found a few problems with my buzz track and some of the sound attached to the clips. 

The clip where David shuts the gate had some sound issues as there is a builder shouting in the back ground of the clip. To fix this I decided to use a audio from a different clip that had the gate shutting but no talking in the background. I had to time it correctly for when he shuts the gate. 

I also had to change the sound for the last post as it came in to loud during the talking of David. I turned it down for that section the back up with key frames, it continues onto the credits. 

During the buzz track of the parade I found I had a couple of conversations that could be clearly heard in the background so I had to chop up the background to make sure that the audience could not hear the conversations and be distracted by them. 

Digital News- Case Study

This is my Digital News Case Study:

Case Study Digital News

With this case study I tried to show a knowledge of the news and how it is created and also why it is presented in certain manners. I only used two sources but every paragraph has a quote present.

Digital News- Film

ARMA News program, this is the piece put together with the two news stories and the anchor. The two news stories are a live and a package. Each have different stories but can be related to a technology news channel. We have made sure that over all, all reporters are casual matching our script in how the news is told. 

I think that overall we managed to create a news program that matches our branding, it is casual but has serious tones in how it is handled. There are some small scripting errors and the trolling story could have had some more creative ideas but we were not best at time management and therefor didn't manage it.

Digital News- Short descriptions

For the digital news we needed to create short descriptions to be used under the video on the website.
These are the descriptions I have come up with so far.

U2

Apple has released a U2 album on iPhones across the world, all iTunes subscribers were given this album on their iCloud. The album Songs of Innocence was transferred to iPhones on the release of the iPhone 6 with U2 present to play a live set. This has not overall had a positive reaction as some iPhone users are left wondering how the album was put onto their devices without their knowledge.

This has lead to a question in whether Apple has crossed the line in breaching their consumers privacy. U2 later apologised for this oversight, they had good intentions that were not best received.

Trolls

This story refers to the new phenomenon affecting a generation that rely on the internet, there has always been an issue of bullying but it has now taken a new form, it has moved on to the internet and anonymity has helped those ‘trolls’ to offend other internet users.

This has become an issue of safety for internet users, as it can be said that they are put in a danger of being cyber-bullied but now also threatened by those that may have never even met them.

The government are now stepping in to update the law in reflection of the world and the times. It can be said that the abuse spreads across the internet if in person was expressed then it would count as verbal assault, this has raised the question for years that ‘trolls’ should be punished in the same way that an verbal assault will be.

We have consulted councillors and online charities that often deal with these issues and have been able to create some simple steps to help keep you safe online.

Fiction Adaptation- Essay

While writing the essay I needed to look at different types of film theory and make sure that the book and television program were easily described.

Agatha Christies Poirot, The Mysterious Affair At Styles was adapted by Clive Exton. Although the book was written in 1920 it was adapted for television in 1990. Clive Exton adapted the first stories in the beginning of the series, he was brought back to direct this episode as it was in the third series but the novel was the first that Agatha Christie had written about Poirot.

To talk about the adaptation I will use the following books;

• Adaptation in Contemporary Culture 
• Media Audiences: Television, Meaning and Emotion 
• Adaptation Revisited: Television and the Classic Novel 
• Adapting Detective Fiction: Crime, Englishness and the TV Detectives 
• Principles of Adaptation for Film and Television 
• Textual Revisions: Reading Literature and Film 
• From Page to Screen: Adaptation of the Classic Novel 
• From Film Adaptation to Post-Celluloid Adaptation 
• Television and Cultural Crisis 
• Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century 
• A Theory of Adaptation
• Audiences 
• The Television Genre Book 

Fiction Adaptation- Feedback

I came into the studios for some editing and while I was here I decided to show Simon my fine cut if my film. The feedback was mainly related to my sound design and how I could be a bit more creative with it. So this has lead me to do more with the sound such as adding the sound of the parade, I have not yet added the sound of the last post but that may also help.

Digital News- Case Study Research

For my case study I decided to do the differences between BBC and Channel 5 on the Thursday 6th November, BBC at 6pm and Channel 5 6:30 pm.

BBC- are more of a formal company, using graphics to illustrate the story and experts to back up the opinions used. During the program the stories were in order of importance decided by producers, their stories were;

1. Banks Under Investigation (Financial)
2.  Labour Leader (Politics)
3. Teenager school threat (Crime)
4. Jimmy Savile (Crime)
5. Belgium Riots (International)
6. Obituary of Guitarist (Human Interest)
7. Syria (International)
8. UK what next? (Political)
9. Murder charges (Law)
10. Bird of Prey (Human Interest)
11. Flanders Fields ( Human Interest) 
12. Rugby (Human Interest/Sport)

Channel 5- lots of graphics in terms of illustration, more inventive use of graphics. The stories in order were;

1. Petrol Prices (Money)
2. Labour Leader (Politics)
3. 7 year old injured (Law)
4. Bank Investigation (Financial) 
5. Uniform Issues (Education)
6. Gang Warning (Crime)
7. Remembrance (Human Interest)
8. Protests in Belgium (International)
9. Fall in Sales (Money)
10. House of Lords (Politics)
11. Pippa Middleton (Human Interest)

I have decided which compartment of the news the stories has come under buy Google-ing the stories and seeing what subsection they are under. 

BBC focus more on Hard news (crime and law) then on soft (human interest). Channel 5 focus on what  the producer will think their target audience want whereas BBC need to focus on more as they are reaching to a wider audience due to them being a public service broadcaster.

The books I have used to look into these broadcasters are; 

• The Television Genre Books 
• Broadcast Journalism

In these books I looked into;

• Organisations
• Audiences
• Ideologies
• Producing the news
• Hard and Soft news
• Competition between broadcasters 
• Ownership 
• Public Service Broadcasting 

While looking into the theories I decided that my order would be;

• Intro
• What is News?
• Ideologies and Experts 
• Audience 
• Running Order
• Organisations
• Style 

Fiction Adaptation- Workshop

During the workshop with Alex we did a short about loss/confusion, involving losing signal on the persons phone when they need to call someone. I worked in a group with Lex, Andy, Mark and Sophie.

Digital News- Social Media

With this project we decided to use social media to advertise our news channel, but to keep the social media unto date I have been finding news articles to be published/re-tweeted. I mainly looked at technology stories that our target audience would be interested in.
For Facebook I used;
I used BBC news;

ITV news; 

And the Telegraph; 

On Twitter I looked at many different stories and by different news publications/broadcasters. 

Using social media I am keeping our channel up to date with the current technology news. 

Fiction Adaptation- Feedback from Alex

Alex Boorman was running workshops with us for our fiction adaptation so I decided to show him a rough edit; in which he told me that it was good for a rough but I needed to have a look at the footage and edit it more correctly. I had a gap of 17 seconds at the end which is of silence in which I have a chance to do a small sound scape. Alex suggested using the last post.

Digital News- Further Research

While looking at trolling stories and how they were told I came across some interesting perspectives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23519337

This is BBC's news night debate about what should be done about internet abusers. July 31st 2013. 

The latest update from the BBC was in October in a form of an article. 

While looking at the trolling story I decided while finishing off the script to look into what is happening at the moment in the news;

I found there to be many current stories about people being trolled. 

While looking into these stories I believe I have come up with some images that can be used in our news production mainly with the idea of 'don't tell me, show me'. 

Fiction Adaptation- David

After filming with David he asked me what the best way to advertise him self though the university would be, this lead me to have a conversation with Laura Taylor, Laura is able to advertise David though the course for him.

I had given Laura Davids email and he soon told me that she would help. 

This is what Laura was able to do for David; 

This was posted though out my course and all students can see this and therefore he can get more work within the UCA. 

Fiction Adaptation- Test Shots

This short piece is of the shots that went wrong and some test shots of inside the house. The first few shots that went wrong are those that were when the camera was not configured correctly. They are very pixilated but after we realised Andrei fixed it.

Fiction Adaptation- Shorts

As part of our Workshop with Alex Boorman we need to make a few basic shorts, Happy, sad and Angry. I was in a group of three with Sophie and Aimee. We all came up with ideas and then shot them. Angry was of road rage in which Aimee was acting and Sophie was on camera. Happy was the one I was director and camera man, Sophie was my actor. Aimee did the shots for sad. Aimee edited the pieces together.

I think if we had worked together on the edit it would have been smoother and the over-all working together was a good experience as we all added something to the ideas.

Fiction Adaptation- Essay Feedback

We recently received feedback from the essay draft that we have produced. After receiving the feed back I decided to improve my work by trying to look into more research and improve all the points that Kath has given me.

Digital News- Final Script

As the filming is now finished and we are in the editing stage of the project I have decided to update the final script. 

Script for Digital News

Fiction Adaptation- Script Feedback

After handing in the script last week today we received our feedback today in which we were able to see what we can improve in the script.
The feedback goes along the lines that;

• A well presented and carefully thought out script with some nice shot and action description. 
• Character is well established at the top and the memorial service is nicely paced. 
• My only issue is that the ending feels a bit of an anti-climax - the narrative of the old man's story doesn't seem to go anywhere - this is a shame.
• Would like to see some sort of development and arc to his story - otherwise he is not really adding anything - go back to basics - what does he represent? Make sure this comes through in his story and character. 
•  Otherwise it is tightly scripted piece with a lot of potential - simple but effective. 

My character in the film represents some one who is morning through the years but is not doing so in an open and dramatic way he is playing it down as he is a military man and has been trained for this. I feel like his story is going somewhere but is better seen in the film in the way he changes his clothes in respect and puts the poppy on proudly. 

Fiction Adaptation- Call Sheet House

For the scenes at the house I had toy dress the living room and kitchen, so I had to be there to set up before Mike and David. I had Mike turn up before David as to discuss location, shots and what I needed in the day, Mike was able to provide ideas on how to light and what shots would work. David arrived with a selection of costumes making it easy to change and to make the story. 

Call Sheet 17.11.14

Fiction Adaptation- Shoot 2

The house shoot was in my own house that is rented with three other people. I had asked Andrei Allen to be camera operator but the day before he informed me he was not able to help, this lead me to contact Mike Hoad who was more then happy to help.

The shoot time was 12:00, but as I live there I decided to dress the set and have some test shots before Mike and the actor (David) arrived. I was able to do a few test shots that were able to establish that I needed much light in the living room as well as a cover for the window. With the extra time I gave myself I was able to set up the first room, the kitchen and have a test shot. Mike arrived at 12 in which I went through the script and the shot list of what we needed, Mike was able to give me the shots I needed as he was easily directed and was able to help me if he did not think the shot would work. David arrived at 12:30, soon after he arrived we were able to start filming, most shots were more then one take but I believe the coverage was good. Filming finished around 2:30 but all shots were achieved.

Coverage could have been better in the living room but I did not realise this until I came to the edit but a good idea off Lex helped me to make it look natural.

Fiction Adaptation- Workshop

In this workshop we were allowed to experiment with the cameras (Canon 5D), we were looking at slow motion. I worked with Mike, Lex and Sophie.

Fiction Adaptation- Set

For the final shoot I decided to make the set look like my idea as much as possible, I added books, letters, tablets, vases and a light to the living room to make it into my characters living room. 

In the kitchen I removed all personal items and only left the appliances that I thought my character would use. I cleaned the kitchen to make it seem unused and empty. 

I left the television in the living room but removed the Wii and dvd's from around it. 

I also grabbed some junk mail and put it next to the chair of our main character. I put a letter addressed to him on the top, this is in hand writing as it was a letter from his brother for his birthday which was the 10.11.14. 

I believe that I have made some really good decisions in the way of my set, it portrays an older persons home, including the isolation of Robert.

Fiction Adaptation- Actor

While recording the voice over for my fiction adaptation film, the actor that is being in the film and being the voice over wanted to read the poem and make notes. He made many notes on my poem that I had a look after and it made me think that he was definitely the right person as he was very passionate about the work and about the subject matter.

I should have copied the work on to the blank document so that he would have more room to make notes and so that during filming he would not need to turn the page. 

Fiction Adaptation- Final Script

This is the final script that I used for the filming. 

The Cenotaph

Digital News- Theory Workshop

During the workshop on Thursday 13th November we were asked to look at news stories that were pre-recorded and see the news values and news worthiness.
I was in a group with Sophie and Tim, we looked at ITV and Channel 5 on the 11.11.14.

ITV-22:30- 30 mins

• Remembrance Day- News worthy due to the audience want to see about the day (current). Ideologies of remembering people that are lost. Pictures from across Britain and France. 100 year anniversary of the start of WW1 and the poppies at tower bridge. Veteran interview (Iraq)
• David Cameron on Benefit claimers- Following Folk Devils, putting a cap on those who can access benefits, EU court case. Rochester by-election. 
• Home Office- Investigation into suspicions. Cover up? People are interested to see if the government are part of the issue in sex offenders. 
• Banks investigation- Banks to receive fine. They are trusted with most of the publics money therefore have a close proximity and effect on the audience. 
• Mass Sterilisation- India paying women to be sterilised causing deaths. Controlling the population. Going against norms and conventions in English society therefore is shocking by interesting for an audience. 
• Science- Landing on a comet. touch and go mission. 
• Papers- Tomorrows headlines 
• Remembrance- Money that has been raised through poppies (money that the public raised), Poem reading and Art exhibit. 

Channel 5-17:00- 24 mins 

• Remembrance- Poppies, trying to make it global, Canada, Belgium and France included. Veterans interviewed, from recent wars (Afghanistan). Interview with the person who designed the poppies at Tower Hill.
• Home Office- Investigation. No evidence for it to go further. Interview with David Cameron. 
• Pay Day Loans- Relevant to an audience that may be in debt. Explaining the changes in simple terms. Interview with some effected. 
• Terrorist Trial- Jury Dismissed. Ploy to kill Tony Blair and wife.
• Age- Second part of series. Talking about age. Reaching to an older audience. 
• Remembrance- 'bring people together'. Poem lines read by the public. 

ITV and channel 5 had different news programs but some of the same news. From this comparison it looks like ITV are more looking towards Hard news and Channel 5 soft news. They are owned by different companies making their news values different and can mean they are looking at different audiences. ITV can be compared to The Guardian and Channel 5 The Mirror, in the styles of reporting. 

Due to there being a range of choices in the media in what someone can watch and where they can get there information it has made news programs have to try harder to reach their audiences and made it more of a competition but they have to keep the same type of news telling. "The people who run the news stations know that, and they, as much as a new comer to the newsroom, need to know that person and what he expects, what he needs and what he wants", this quote by Boyd, Stewart and Alexander, gives the reasoning that the audience want to put on the news and see what they expect to see. Therefore the stories run are those that the audience want to know and hopefully what they need to know. Sometimes it does not always work that way as some news may put across a certain story without all the information but the audience is seen as a entity that will not go out and seek the truth for them selves therefore sometimes news broadcasters can get away with not portraying all the information. 

Fiction Adaptation- Script

While trying to do my script I needed to remind myself of certain formatting as I need pauses in my scripts to help with the flow, I feel I may be adding to many pauses, but I would like it to be slow and carefully said.

These pauses will help me get a feel of when I would like the pause to come, but without having a reading I feel like I can not know what they will sound like. I have added description to the script but they are not flowing, therefore they lack something. The  other issue is that I have made the script but not added (V/O) in the correct places which is all  of the poem except the title. 

I had many issues writing the script as I had forgotten the basic lay out of the script and even after handing it in did I realise I didn't put if it was an INT. or a EXT. I left it all under the same INT.Home even though the script goes outside many times. 

The Cenotaph 0.3

Fiction Adaptation- Call Sheet Voice Over

For the voice over I decided to do it at Maidstone Studios as to make sure that I was able to get all the sound equipment I needed. After a few room changed the Voice Over was recorded with David Watson.

Call Sheet 10.11.14

Fiction Adaptation- Editing

Today I recorded the voice over, for my project and added into my time line along with the images I recorded on Sunday 9th November, I have created gaps in the audio on the natural pauses. I have tried to get the images in the correct order but will not be able to be prefect until I get the next images from the next shoot. 

Fiction Adaptation- Casting

After meeting the applicant for my film I decided I would like him to be in the film as well as do the voice over for my work. He is happy to do both and we will now be keeping in contact through email instead of on StarNow.

David has a good strong voice that would make a good atmosphere for my film, he also is able to put emotion into the piece that will help me with making the film into a story. 

Fiction Adaptation- Call Sheet Rochester

On the shoot for the parade in Rochester I had Andrei Allen on Camera and Mark Cooper as a runner/sound. They helped with getting all the shots and sound needed on the day. 

Call Sheet Parade

Fiction Adaptation- Remembrance Parade Rochester

Sunday 9th November 2014- Remembrance Sunday, I did a shoot today in Rochester filming the parade, my contact in the British Legion (Tony) found me at the end of the parade and we had a small chat in which I stated that I would put some clips together and send it to him, I have created a 3 min version of the parade with what I deme the best shots, I have exported them from final cut and will upload on YouTube to then send the link to Tony. I shortened the overall day as I wanted most of the best shots to be involved.

I received a reply from Tony, about the video in which he said; "that is really quite emotional. Thank you." I have replied to him that if he would like I will also send him the final piece. Although this edit is rough I still find there are small improvements that I could have spotted in the edit.

Fiction Adaptation- Shoot 1

I had a remembrance parade shoot in Rochester, 9.11.14, I was able to be there due to the permission given by the British Legion. At the shoot I had Andrei Allen present as Camera operator and Mark Cooper there for general support. Andrei was a good choice for camera as he was able to take direction easily and after looking at the footage it is easy to see that he was well involved in running around the location giving a range of shots.

We arrived at the location at 9:45 to set up and take a series of short shots for testing. The crowds starting arriving after 10:30 giving some time for people shots just before the parade began. We were able to get a good location behind a barrier after have a small chat with an organiser, this gave us uninttriupted  views of the Cathedral and all that was happening in the street as well as in front of the Cathedral. We left the location around 12:30, but with stopping to get more crowd shots and shots of the poppies being admired.

I believe that I chose the correct location as well as the correct camera operator. I do think however that I should have entered the Cathedral, even though the film does not need a shot of inside during the service I think the option would have been helpful.

Fiction Adaptation- Music Video

In todays workshop we were looking at music videos and adapting them into something of an original idea. Mine is the song Zombie by the Cranberries with YouTube footage of military action.

Digital News- Channel 5

My comparison to BBC news will be Channel 5 news, it was a bit harder to navigate their website to find the information I needed.

Channel 5 have a few different channels and each is different. 

   

Channel 5's branding is, a network bought by Viacom with franchises such as neighbours being shown daily. 

The website has a link to the ownership section to talk about the owners, in which Viacom are a international media network. They own many brands of networks such as MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. 

"Our audience"- they provide figures to explain how they are accessed buy the country through different television mediums. 

ITN provide Channel 5 news, 'covering the key events of the day with a boldness often lead on different stories to other news programs and put people at the heart its news reports"

Digital News- BBC News

While working on the research for the upcoming essay I decided it may be a good idea to look into the BBC and how they work and why. I need to be able to have as much information about them as possible. 

History of the BBC- The Logo Story, "Branding and identity has almost become a science. It was not always this way, and for broadcasters in the UK, building a brand around a TV channel was almost unknown until the early 1980s with the arrival of Channel 4. The BBC Television Service started thinking about on screen identity a few years before its monopoly was threatened, with the arrival of the first ITV company in 1955. From this moment on, the BBC started to understand the power of its on-air look, and by the 1990s it was successfully associating its TV channels with the wider BBC brand. In the months to come we will be adding to these pages with more insights and previously unseen material" This is the wording from the website in which I am looking at the history. 

The BBC has a BBC Trust in which it can be seen to be the BBC providing information for everyone that pays towards the television licence. They are showing what they are doing to help the public get the best out of the BBC. 

BBC Trust- talking about their audience and how they can understand them, including how they listen to their audience to know what the public want to get out out of the BBC. 

This is part of the News room of BBC and where they get their news from. It is sources mainly Reuters, most of their stories come from the main BBC news room. 

BBC have their own set of values and their 'mission'. Mission "To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain. 

Fiction Adaptation- Character development

While going through peoples work on Tuesday 4th November I realised I did not have a character profile for my main character in the fiction adaptation film.
I decided I needed to create a character that would hopefully reflect the ideas of the Cenotaph as remembrance.
I needed to do research on the age range I am thinking of and what wars they would have been involved in and when. The age of my character is 65 there fore I needed to think of the theory of what age he would have been when he joined and when he would of joined why.

Robert Smith
10.11.1959
Family; The family home was located in Bedford
Martha Smith-Mother- House wife
Arthur Smith- Father- Writer (unsuccessful)
Alfred Smith-Brother- Royal Marines- died at 24- Battle of Goose Green
Harry Smith- Brother- Teacher (Maths)-67- retirement home

Robert Smith had a string of unsuccessful career attempts he turned 22 and decided he needed to something with his life so he joined the Royal Air Force. After a family christmas he saw his older brother Alfred talking about his training and all the people he had met, Robert had seen these stories as glamorous and decided to join in January 1981 he was 21, he went into the military as a Junior Technician. As a junior technician when his time came to be deployed in May 1982 into the Falklands   he was to stay with the base, he was only there as a technician. His brother how ever as part of the Royal Marines was involved in the battle of Goose Green. Many lives were lost in the battle but the war was over within a month of British troops arriving. Alfred Smith was one of those lives that were lost in the battle and upon coming home Robert learnt that his brother had perished. He soon became guilty that he was not on the ground with his brother. He developed survivors guilt, this lead him to lead on lonely life that ended up with him retiring at 60 from the Royal Air Force at the rank of Chief Technician in 2009. Robert lived in Aylesbury in the RAF Halton quarters until he retired in that time he then moved into his own house in Aylesbury.

This is a time line that could be relevant in case of when and where Robert Smith may have served.