M&C Saatchi
Today our lesson was very special because a member of M&C Saatchi came to visit and ran a workshop with us. As this was all day we didn't have our normal creative media lessons. The mans name was Rob and he talked about what was going to happen throughout the day. He started off by showing us a few adverts that we might recognise, for example the 'know your limits' advert.We were then asked to tell him a few of our favourite adverts. One of them was the Coca Cola advert, which shows the inside of a vending machine. When our group discussion was complete we looked at a few other ways of presenting an advert e.g. posters. The one that I really liked would have to be the apple poster because its simple yet effective. Rob then told us about the brief. The brief was to come up with an advert idea for TFL (Transport For London.) To be more specific for teenagers who get run over when crossing the road. When everyone was clear about what we were going to do, we were assigned into groups of 4 or 5. We began to jot down our firsts thoughts. Our group consisted of Emine, Ebony. Corey, Rianna, Kubra and myself. We came up with many ideas but we knew which one we were going to use. This took up the whole two periods. After break we would narrowed down and expanded on our chosen idea. After about 20 minutes everyone was back and rearing to go. We then quickly discussed about what makes a good advert? So again we watched a few more adverts e.g. the cadburys gorilla advert. We then talked about what a gorilla had to do with cadburys chocolate which most of us didn't know but we thought that cadburys is about being happy.Also we looked at a few posters that were good examples of getting a message across, forexample the 'Chupa Chups' lollipop poster with the ants going around it because its sugar free.We chose one idea which was about a group of girls and a group of boys on opposite sides of a street. One of the boys really likes one of the girls and is about to cross over to talk to her, when suddenly a flash forward of what life is going to be like with this girl. At this moment the car crashes into him and the scenery changes and all you can hear is sirens. At the end the life line machine spells out "Don't die before you've lived" and the line becomes straight and beeps. From our chosen idea we had to create a poster or some sort of presentation telling everyone where and what else you could advertise for this advert. We were allowed to use computers but our group chose not to. My role for our presentation was to write out the tiltles and the slogans also to design the colouring of the lettering. After returning from lunch we talked about what we were going to say to the class, this is what we came up with:
Every thing would be in black and white except for one girl, one boy and the car
Where we could advertise these posters e.g. Electronic billboards, underground and buses et
The slogans We were hen told we were going to present our information to the class in front of a camera. I was not nervous this time as I am getting use to being in front of people. Our group was second and we done a fantastic job, this was because we were well organised and spoke with clear projected voices. After watching everyone elses presentations, we had a bit of feedback about what groups we liked. I thought Kitty, Marley and Alex's one was really good because their idea was unique. When we were finished it was time to interview Rob about his jod at M&C Saatchi . Kitty was the interviewer, Emine was the director. Rianna was the sound technician and I was the camera man. We setup using the skills we learned in media and began filming. The questions we asked Rob were:
What do/don't you most enjoy about your job?
Whats the salary range?
How did you end up at M&C Saatchi?
Everything went extremely well and it was a great experience to have someone from such a big company come and help us out with our creative media course. We learnt many things like the meaning behind advertising and what skills are needed to make a great advert.

BBC Visit

On the 11th September the students taking the Ceative Media Diploma visited the BBC 21cc studios in White City as part of the course.When we first arrived we were introduced to a man called Sav who explained some of the things we wre going to do throughout the day. We started off with a short activity about the different camera angles for example close ups, medium shots and extra close ups.We then watched a short clip of Eastenders and had to say "cut" every time we thought there was a cut in the scene. This was good because it got us aware of the different ways a film or advert could be cut to make it more interesting. Soon after we were introduced to the equipment and got familiar to what did what. The microphone played a very important part in our film because without it there would be no sound.There were two very key elements of the microphone, the first was the button that showed you the distance that the microphone would pick up. 90 would pick up in front of you and 120 would not only pick up your voice but also the surroundings. The second element was that someone in your group had to bend down and point the microphone up in the direction of the speech, without being seen on camera. Then we placed the remaining equipment in position and were asigned into groups of 4 to 5 and recorded a short interview of any topisc of our choice, just to get the hang of it.When that was complete we watched over our interviews ans discussed what needed to be improved on and what different camera angles we could use.
Shortly after we were given a piece of paper with 5 or 6 titles. We had to chose one as a gide line for our short films. The one we chose was "The women who spoke too much." We had to write ideas of where each scene would take place and the story line. Then we all departed and went are seperate ways to begin filming. We decided to record our first scene in the womens toilet showing a conversation going on between two friends, using the over shoulder camera angle which reflected off the mirror. Our next scence was at an outside seating area and this time we used the medium shot. After completing our recording we were assigned to computers and began editing with the help of Sav .We began by importing the footage. This is when we started to learn the different techniques of editing for example fading clips in and out, adding text and also seperating the sound from the footage. The day at the BBC was great fun and a very enjoyable experience which will come in very handy in the creative Media Diploma and later on in life.

Creative Media Trip to the Barbican

On the 23rd of October our Creative Media class went on a trip to the Barbican. We went to see a production called " Complicite A Disappearing Number." I really enjoyed the new experience because I don't really go to the theatre that often. The play was about a Mathematician and his life, But I found it confusing as it kept changing from past to present. The thing I enjoyed the most about this performance was the use of different medias, for example there was a black board that flipped whenever someone came on or off stage. They also used Dance and visual devices such as, videos and music. Over all it was a great evening out and I really enjoyed being with my Creative Media class.

Visit 2 - to the BBC

On the Thursday 13th November our Creative Media class went to visit the BBC for the second time. This time when we arrived we were introduced to a man called Rob. Rob is a new member of 21cc studios and has many skills that help him accomplish his job. He first began by showing us a few short films that he had cut in a certain way. We then went onto the pacific detail of action shots and camera angles. To make your film as best as possible you need to know what and where you are going to film. This is why you make a 'shot list.' For example we had to show the audience that we were at the BBC, so we took shots of the BBC logo and building. This helped by setting the scene. So after completing our shot list we had to get into our groups and go and get the shots that we needed, which included interviewing the employees of the BBC about their jobs. We had the questions ready so we didn't get stuck whilst in the middle of an interview. We had a group discussion at the beggining and decided to start by filming Kitty (the interviewer) walking into the BBC, using different camera angles that we learned about. It was very hard to find someone to interview as erveyone was very busy or late for a meeting! But as Kitty is very good with people we ended up with about 6 interviews. This included:
The head of BBC iplayer
The head of BBC History
A security Guard
A women working for Children In Need
And two men on the elevator!

Art Review of the TATE BRITAIN

On Tuesday 18th November our Creative Meida class went on a visit to the Tate Britain. When we arrived we were greeted by an employee and then went to put our coats and jackets in the cloak room, remembering to bring our sketch books and pencils, so we could draw during the exhibition. Firstly we went to the Turner Prize 2008. This included 4 main artists: Cathy Wilkes, Runa Islam, Goshka Macuga and Mark Leckey.Cathy Wilkes creates sculptures using every day objects and materials, for example fronm the supermarket which evolves continuously with each new work. Her installations have been described as confessional, weaving together with ideas of birth, loss and transformation.The densely layered films of Runa Islam reward a close attention of their compositional detail. The film images reveal isolated elements of its constrictions. These are carefully reconstructed as an exploration into modes of representation. She also uses Cinematography and old projectors to show her work. Goshka Macuga's work examines the conventions of arciving exhibitions making a museum display. Her sculpture installations often plays host to unexpected displays of other artists. I really liked Cathy Wilkes because she combined art with photograph and used unusual objects to present her message. After about half an hour we went into a little room just before the exit were we voted for who we liked best and left some comments. Next we headed of to the Francis Bacon exhibition. We had to also sketch a few of his works to draw, so I chose Crucifixion 1965 oil on canvas because I liked the colours and the mix of culture and religion. His work was spread out over 10 rooms each showing a different theme and part of his life e.g. Animal, Zone, Apprehension, Crucifixion, Crisis, Archive, Portrait, Memorial, Epic and Late. The room I liked the most would have to be the memorial room because he based it on his friend George Dyer who committed suicide. I really enjoyed the day as we had a chance to see the different styles of art and observing what we saw and trying to explain it. These skills will come in good hand for this unit 'Identity for Portrait'