Fiction Adaptation: DEXTER BOOK V NOVEL

Fiction Adaptation: GENRE?!

I want to do some research into genres and what codes and conventions are used. I believe this will help me know the features of the genre and what should go into it, such as music and the style of shots. I've decided I will research a few overall and then look more into my defined genre.

I began first by looking at the romance genre as my film involves a couple - however they aren't directly together in the film.
-Normally contains emotional feelings such due to someone dying.
-'Boy meets girl' is a typical thing to happen in a romance.
-Hints given throughout the film about a happy ending and two people being right for each other.
-Contains feelings/emotions/pain/love/failure/victory/flashback/past story
-Prompts such as : flowers/ hearts/ wedding wells very commonly seen

An example of a romance: JUST LIKE HEAVEN.

Thinking about the shots in my film and who is going to be featured, i'm not sure my film is a direct romance as we don't actually see the couple together throughout the poem, it's just small hints that they are together through her locket of him, flashes of him appearing with her and towards the end of the film where we see Nancy looking back at photos of him.

I then thought I should look at the Drama genre as it is more emotive and serious which parts of my film will have.
In drama films they use a lot of codes and conventions such as:
-Using code up shots to provoke emotions to both the viewer and the character
-Use enigma to build up story lines to keep the story interesting for the audience
-Character development throughout the story usually with some sort of climax of both the character and story.
-The audience can often relate to the characters in the film.
-Low lighting is used to set moods in the film and create suspense

An example of a drama: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Looking at the different genres of film, I definitely believe my film will come under the Drama category with maybe romance? I'm unsure for definite if it is a romantic film as theirs not any direct romance between two characters - just symbolic. My film is going to use music to pull out emotions from the audience and use a lot of long and still shots to really capture the emotions of the audience.

Digital News Production: SUMMATIVE DEADLINE - PRESENTING

Today it was the summative deadline for our Digital News Projects. We had to show what we had so far, including the footage and any social media sites we had.

However, as we hadn't yet got our contributor, we had nothing to show...
We was disappointed as we really wanted feedback to work from, but there was nothing we could do. Instead, myself and Vic presented where we was up to vocally to the class and Helen.

Helen encouraged us to make more of a story than what we had for Kent Life as she was worried it would just be little kids messing about on a farm, I knew this wasn't the case as I'd done research into the club and what they do. However, we did agree we needed more of a story so it wasn't just a promotional piece. I'm going to research farming figures over the years to see if I can find proof that there is a decline in farmers and farming so we can create a more in-depth story and relate back to Kent Life encouraging youngsters into the farming industry which will keep the farming trade alive.

Helen also mentioned for Lodge Hill we should research more into petitioners and people who are against the site being built on so that we will have someone to interview. Helen told us she had sent our group (Charlie) emails of links, however we handn't received any of these which meant we was behind. Helen after wards emailed me the links so we could research it.

Digital News Production: LOCATION SCOUT + TEST SHOTS

Today Charlie and I went to Lodge Hill to see the general area and take test shots of Lodge Hill. When we arrived I was quite disappointed as I thought Lodge Hill was actually going to have something to show for itself such as birds or at least a place for us to look round, but I was wrong it was just a basic forrest. However we decided it would be okay and we'd film our interview here with some pre shot material in the piece.

Here are some photographs I took of inside the forrest.

Fiction Adaptation: RECORDING THE NARRATIVE

During each filming day I recorded the narrative with both the Nancy actors (Heather and Jennifer). I unfortunately didn't have the boom or clip mic with me as I wasn't planning on filming the sound (on screen) but had a change of heart and decided I wanted both voices in the clips and blend them together at the end as I feel it will make the film more interesting and add more depth.

This meant I needed to record the audio from the canon. I knew this wouldn't be the best of quality however I thought I'd at least give it a go and see what I can do with it.

When listening back to it on final cut I realised it sounded quite echoey and like it was recorded from far away - even though I was close to the actor.

This made me realise I'd made a huge mistake! However I did manage to turn it round on Final Cut Pro and made it sound better and more crisp however I aren't 100% pleased with it at all and I wish i'd re shot it. 

Filming the narration itself however was pretty straight forward, I asked both actors to read the poem fully as then I had a much larger variety of who I wanted to speak which parts. Both actors was always a pleasure to work with on the camera and behind the camera and didn't mind recording the narration a few times. They spoke it how I wanted however I realised that there voices aren't exactly the same accent as the younger Nancy has a more well spoken accent than the older version, however once again I have learnt that if I did it again I would need to make sure I tell both actress' the accent to speak in - or show them the recording of the other version of themselves so they can reference each others voices.

All in all i've learnt from my mistakes and realised I should of just re booked another day to film the narration so the sound would of been perfect.

Fiction Adaptation: MASTERS - BOOK v NOVEL

Today I looked online for the season scripts of the TV show I am looking at - Masters of Sex.
First I began thinking about major parts in Season 1 that I could analyse and compare if it had stayed true to the text or been added in completely.

The scene in the TV show features Dr. Bill Masters presenting the work he has been studying for the past year,
I found that during the scene in the film, the script is extremely descriptive towards the women and
notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk6PcDt28Lk
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/07/11/showtime-collaborates-with-director-tatia-pilieva-for-social-experiment-undress-me-inspired-by-masters-of-sex/282148/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKZa-Kb4Nng


another adaptation of masters of sex:

sea1 ep 1 pilot

http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=masters-of-sex&episode=s01e01

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQy6fyy5LgU

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/books/26book.html?ref=books

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/books/excerpt-masters-of-sex.html?ref=review

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/books/review/Nehring-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Digital News Production: FREMLIN WALK REPORT FINISHED

Fremlin Walk Report!

https://vimeo.com/109234816

Digital News Production: EDITING FREMLIN WALK REPORT

Today myself and Vic decided to edit the footage as we'd finished filming over 2 days. 

To begin with we looked at the script and laid out all the clips we wanted in the correct order - apart from the interviews. I then went over them and cut and crop parts of the footage we didn't need. For the interviews we wanted to have them in an order where Vic is stood at the left third, then on the next interview he's on the right third so the footage doesn't look weird. 

I also stabilised the still footage that we shot on the tripod as the wind rocked it a little however it wasn't too bad.

We also had to colour correct and colour match some footage as during the two shooting days it went sunny then cloudy and so on. So on the clip below I opened the colour match and matched it to a clip which wasn't too bright or dull, I then opened the colour balance and further edited the clip so that it wasn't too contrasted or had any random purple or pink hues to it.

BEFORE

AFTER

We decided we wanted music over some clips throughout the video so we decided to find some royalty free music and visited www.incompetech.com 

I looked for 'bouncy' music and it came up with a variety of sounds that I tested out. After discussing with Vic we came to the conclusion that the sound ''Carefree'' was perfect for our video. It was very exciting and wasn't too much and over the top for our video as it was a small promotional piece.

Overall the editing process was quite straight forward as the script guided us through how long each shot should be and the order we needed it to be in.

Digital News Production: AUDITIONS DAY 1

Today Vic, Charlie and I had planned to audition actors for the role of the presenter and reporter. We decided we wanted to film our audition's so we could look back on them together and decide which actors we could use for our film. To begin with we decided to print off some consent forms so that we could use the footage we filmed. We also made sure we had the script handy and the schedule so we knew who was coming, and what they would be saying. Our plan was to first ask the auditionee's some questions and get to know them to try make them feel more at ease. After that we gave them the presenter script to audition, and then the same with the reporter script. We was going to judge the audition on how they presented themselves, the tone they spoke in and if we felt they fit the role.

Our first actor was 25 year old Samantha Scott at 11:00am Friday 17th October.

Samantha was a great first candidate as she had all the things we was looking for in the presenter role or reporter role for the Hugh Lowe Farm package. Samantha was extremely confident on and off camera and had a very swift conversational tone. Firstly, Samantha had experience with presenting and wanted to get into it, which was extremely lucky for us as our tutor Helen had advised us not to use actors as they don't have the necessary experience. Samantha also pointed out she can make the piece more lighthearted and personal instead of being serious - which is what we wanted for the package news report as it's more of a promotional piece. She also had experience working in a large zoo and had also spoken to the public (around 500 people watching) so is very skilled in presenting. Samantha had a very appealing and smart look to herself which I think will fit the role of the calm and peaceful 'Kent Nature' theme. After asking her questions I spoke with Samantha about her role, how we want her to act on camera and what the stories are about so she would have more of a feel about what she's taking part in. I also double checked she was available to film and she confirmed she didn't have any other projects that would interfere. After asking Samantha the questions I had a chat with her and she seemed really friendly and enthusiastic about the role and asked me questions about my course and the studios. She also has a very warming and friendly manner which will attract the audience and entice them into watching our show and hopefully keep glued into watching. After watching Samantha perform the two scripts I was very impressed with how she spoke, and acted towards the camera - she spoke very informally and spoke in a way which kept the story flowing and feel very natural. Samantha hadn't received the script the previous days as the email hadn't sent properly on Casting Call so we was really impressed with how well she read out the script even though it was the first time she'd seen it.
Overall, I really enjoyed Samantha's audition and feel she is perfect for the light hearted Hugh Lowe Farm piece or the presenter role. We all discussed about what we thought to her and agree'd we should definitely keep in touch with her.

 Our second actor was Harry Boyd.

Later on we interviewed 24 year old Harry Boyd. We started off by asking Harry to sign a consent form so we could film him and use the footage. Harry was extremely eager from the start and talked a lot about why he was interested in news reporting and presenting and explained he wanted to put himself in that position to try out presenting. Harry hasn't any direct experience with reporting or presenting but has had read pieces which are similar to a news report. Harry is also is very people friendly and get's along with new people quickly - which is very handy for if he would be interviewing people in our ''live'' and package news pieces. Harry has a lot of experience in acting which means he will be confident on camera and won't feel 'stiff' or 'wooden'. Harry confirmed he's not undergoing any other projects that would interfere apart from being away for a week on November 6th. We then asked Harry to read out the scripts for the presenter role and the reporter role. I felt like Harry's style was too serious for the presenter role and didn't entice me into watching it as I feel the presenter should be more bubbly and smiley. However, I really thought that Harry would be perfect for the reporter role for the Knighting gale story (our ''live'' news report) as it's a more serious topic regarding wildlife homes being torn down to build new houses for citizens in Medway.

Overall I think if we dressed Harry smartly he would work well for the role of the reporter for the ''live'' shoot, because of the serious tone and style of his presenting and reporting skills. 

Looking back on the auditions, I think todays been really insightful and encouraged us as a group to feel more excited about filming as we really enjoyed both auditions. It also helped us as a group to work on interviewing skills and become more prepared when sorting out interviews and audition schedules.

Digital News Production: FREMLIN WALK FILMING DAY 2

Digital News Production: AUDITION QUESTIONS.

Vic and I have created some audition questions for the current auditionee's we have scheduled.

We've decided to ask some questions to get to know the actors more and also allow them to feel more comfortable and relaxed before audition.

Audition Questions for Digital News

Digital News Production: AFTER EFFECTS WORKSHOP

Today we had an After Effects workshop to learn more about the programme and how to use green screening and key framing.

With an example piece of footage available for us to use, we imported it into After Effects and began green screening.

We went to effects and found the Keylight effect that helps you remove a colour from the background of an image. We used the eye drop colour tool to click the shade of green we wanted to remove. Luckily the green screen was lit well so it wasn't too difficult to get rid of the background.

Here is the woman without the green behind her.

When then used the tools on the Keylight to turn the view of the screen to 'Status' so we could see a clearer look at if the green screen has actually disappeared fully - if not when we import a background it will become fuzzy when we play it back.

When then opened the 'Screen Matte' button and turned up the 'Clip White' button so that the woman turned fully white. This guaranteed that the background would have disappeared.
We then added in a background and saw the final product of our green screen which I was quite happy with.

Here is another example of the green screening we did today.

We then moved on to editing green screen footage instead of still images.

This time we played around with scaling the image to make the guy smaller and fit in the scene, it was fun to do and we got to try it a lot of times.

Later on in the day, we moved onto learning about tracking. Tracking is the idea that when you write or add something onto footage that's moving (for example writing onto a poster) the writing will track along with the poster and move along with it.

We created a new tracking composition and began tracking. Heres screen shots of what we did below.

We began by finding a good track point to focus on, something solid and clear that the programme will be able to follow.

We then zoomed into the tracking point and made sure the + was in the middle of the point we wanted to track. After doing this we clicked the play button at the far bottom right in the tracking box. The video then followed the tracking spot through and rendered it up.

Here is some tutorials that I looked at afterwards which can help with after effects. videocopilot.net/tutorials

In conclusion, I really enjoyed the after effects tutorial today as although it was a lot to take in, I made sure I took notes and screen shots so that I knew what was happening and could keep up. I learnt a lot about green screening and keying and how to track which may not only be helpful in my digital news production but also in my fiction adaptation unit. I could of improved today by trying out more effects and tracking an actual object however I am still happy with the outcome from today.

Digital News Production: GREEN SCREEN RESEARCH

I decided to research into green screen to get more of an idea of how it works and how it's set up in different situations so when it comes to green screening I won't be as nervous and worried about the outcome.

I watched this video below which shows green screen in movies, I can't believe how much green screen is actually used, especially for the street scenes in Ugly Betty.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clnozSXyF4k

Film Riot is a really helpful channel on Youtube which creates videos for film creators and gives lots of helpful videos and tutorials. It also gives helpful DIY videos so if you can't get hold of expensive equipment you can do it yourself at a much lower budget.

I found a video in which they talk about how to green screen. He used tungsten lighting and florescent lighting as he said tungsten give a warmer glow and florescent give off a cooler glow, in turn this balances out the colours of the actor and the background and gives a contrast making it easier to key the green screen out.

Lighting:

I decided to look into three point lighting as it's the most effective and simple way to light someone when you are creating a basic green screen. 

Three point lighting is pretty straight forward, it uses three lights to effectively light the actor and background creating a 3 diminutional image.

The first light is called the Key Light. The key light is the main light that lights the subject and is usually in front of her towards the side- usually at a 45 degree angle from where the camera is set up so it adds definition to the face. 

The second light is the Fill Light. This fills out all the shadows on the subject to create a glow in her face which makes the subject look a lot better. This is also placed at 45 degree angel from the camera,  but also 45 degrees away from the key light. The fill light needs to be less powerful than the key light or you will just end up having a bright white face on the subject. 

The third light is the Back Light. The backlight acts as a way to allow the subject to pop out of the green screen and make them look less flat and more 3d or they will just look flat and part of the background image. The backlight is placed just at an angle behind the subject and should just spill light onto the back of her - with a low intensity. 

After watching the video below I found it quite simple to know what each of the lights do and feel confident in creating our green screen. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcMX1RcNRYA

Digital News Production: LIVE INTERVIEW + GREENSCREEN WORKSHOP

Live Interview.

Today in a class we was split into groups and had a task of creating a live interview. We all had to assign ourselves roles and I took up the lighting role and also being the interviewee.
The production seemed pretty straight forward however when we came to actually sorting it out and filming it, it was quite a huge task to undertake.
As there is a lot of us it's very intense team work as it's hard talking to everyone planning it out.
However as a team we came to find that using the roles properly, it wasn't too hard to do.
If Kate (director) wanted to tell us something - she would need to tell Sei Kai (floor manager) so that we wasn't all talking to each other and shouting - we could communicate easier. However, I feel as an interviewee it was hard sitting back not knowing fully what was going on as the director wasn't telling us much and we couldn't communicate back easily to her as she didn't have headphones on (able to hear us through the clip mic)

Myself, Charlie and Sei Kai had double roles therefore we was also the lighting crew.
We looked at a floor plan and worked out together where the lights should go, we decided to place the main light in front of myself and charlie, and light just off the back of me and a key light at the side of Charlie. We found this worked well and we was both lit correctly.

I think our group worked well together however it was annoying when us assigned lighting team did all the lights correctly, and then the director moved them around as we hadn't agreed to it.

In conclusion, I found the live interview was quite stressful to film, communication wasn't too good at the beginning but got better afterwards. If I had to do it again I think we should all discuss more as a group beforehand what each of us are going to do as some people looked a bit lost and we wasn't all on the same page.

Greenscreen workshop.

Throughout the rest of the day we had a workshop on green screen and we once again worked as a team. I found that only a few of us actually contributed though, the rest of the class sat down which was a bit annoying and distracting as input would of been helpful.

Fergus taught us about how to light a green screen when someone is walking and you can see their whole body. 

As a group we needed to figure out where to put the lights, we eventually found the right lighting, however I felt at one point we had WAY to many lights which was creating loads of shadows. 

In conclusion, I think the main thing when doing green screen is to make sure you use three point lighting as if you have too many lights it will cause shadows. I really enjoyed the day but think a point we could improve is if we communicate more as a team. 

Digital News Production: AUDITION SCHEDULE

Fiction Adaptation: WHO'S THE CREW?

So I decided I needed to make sure I had my crew prepared for my film so I could let everyone know what was happening and when.
I decided to break down each role and see if I actually needed/wanted anyone on camera etc.

I definitely wanted to be on camera myself as I really like doing camera and I also think I will be able to get the shots myself, I know if I ask someone else I will be constantly trying to stop myself walking over every 2 seconds to check if the shot looks okay. However, for hand held shots which I'm not tall enough for I've chosen Vittorio Falcucci to do these shots for me as I trust him on camera.

As I don't need sound theres no one else I really need in my crew therefore I decided to ask for a production assistant.

I decided to choose Vittorio Falcucci as he's helping me out with the camera, so he might as well do both roles. He's also very reliable and on previous occasions has helped me at last minute by going out to the shops to get extra props whilst I am with my actors.

I am obviously going to be the director in my film as I know what I want and will be able to direct my actors easily. I feel nervous to film as I know I will feel under pressure when filming as I feel like i'm always making my actors wait especially if I change my mind on a shot and i'm stood there for a few seconds deciding what to shoot instead. Hopefully I will be able to feel less nervous as I've already met my actors at their auditions and we've kept in touch so they are really easy to talk to and friendly which helps.

Digital News Production: REPLIES FROM ACTORS

Recently we have been getting a lo of replies from actors regarding the email we sent out inviting them for an audition at the Television Studios. 

I only received a few replies from applicants I had emailed back, however we had a good amount of people wanting to come audition.

I wrote down all the audition dates so that we wouldn't accidentally double book two people for the same time. I emailed some people back through Casting Call and some through direct email as this is what they preferred. I arranged times and dates with them which they would be able to attend, and also told them that we will be asking them questions on the day and that i've attached 2 scripts for them to look over (highlighted sections). 

Examples of interviews in person that have been arranged.

Video Interviews.

I also had people that wasn't able to attend the interview but decided they would send a video interview. I sent them all the necessary information shown on the picture below and now I'm just waiting for them to send the video to my email. 

So far the process was quite straight forward messaging people scheduling dates for the auditions and hopefully everyone will turn up! 

The next thing we need to do is create an audition schedule for all the applicants so far!

Currently we have 2 people coming on Friday 17th and 2 people coming on Monday 20th, and then 3 people are sending a video audition. 

Digital News Production: AUDITION INVITATION

After waiting a week and receiving 12 applications for the role of our presenter and reporter, we decided to send out an email to the applicants inviting them to an audition. 

We gave them all the necessary information such as the dates, times the address and where they will need to wait. We also gave them a phone number to contact us on incase they have any further questions or are arriving late.

Here is the message we sent out to the applicants.

Digital News Production: FREMLIN WALK FILMING DAY 1

Digital News Production: FREMLIN WALK CONTACT INFO

To make sure we was allowed to film in Fremlin Walk, we had to contact Fremlin Walk firstly, and ask them for permission to film. We decided to ring them up instead of emailing as it will receive a quicker response. 

Here is the contact information below which we used.

After contacting Fremlin Walk, we had to travel down to Maidstone town centre and go to the security department to let them know we are filming. After a long process of going to security man to security man, we was finally given the all clear and allowed to carry on filming.

Digital News Production: Workshop 2: FREMLIN WALK SCRIPT

Today our class was given a task to create a short 1 minute 30 news report on Maidstone and why it attracts tourists and businessmen. In our short news report we could include graphics, pieces to camera, walky talkies and interviews.

We came up with the idea that we would focus our short film on Fremlin Walk, a shopping centre in Maidstone. We looked thoroughly through Google and the Fremlin Walk website to find facts and figures that we could feature in our report. We found out that Fremlin Walk has over 50 shops and is the style capital of Kent. After a lot of research into the shops and food places there is we began writing our script.

We decided we wanted to interview the public in the street and find out what the big attraction was to the centre, including finding out what attracts the public to the centre, how often they visit, and what other shops they visit apart from the typical clothes stores.

Myself and Vic really wanted to create an enthusiastic promotional piece and decided we could use a voice over at the beginning of the report whilst showing various fashion and food places in still shots.

To sign off, we decided we would create an interactive, cheesy end to the piece. We hoped that the public would talk about other shops such as Costa and decided we would end our report with the reporter at Costa drinking the coffee and reading a news paper. If people didn't mention Costa we would do the same concept however in a different location.

We decided to lay out our script in a table with Visual description in one column, Dialogue in the other and Time in seconds in the 3rd one. We wanted to add as much visual description we could in the script so we would be extremely prepared for our filming day. To make it clear we thought we could write the shot names in red so it's easy to find straight away.

Fremlin Walk Script by Vic and Ruby

Fiction Adaptation: ESSAY Research - POSTMODERN TERMS IN MASTERS OF SEX

Today we had a lecture with Kath Abiker who discussed postmodernism terms such as HYPER REALITY, INTERTEXUALITY,  IRONIC PLAYFULNESS and NOSTALGIA. These are all features of a postmodern text and help the audience distinguish if we are watching a postmodern tv show/film/piece of art.

In my previous post I discussed what postmodernism is and how we can recognise a postmodern text. In this post I am going to discuss how those features are used in my chosen essay tv show-Masters of Sex.

I wanted to look at how the TV show uses hyper reality effectively in the costume designs - allowing the audience to still feel like they are watching of the 50's era yet the show ever so slightly emphasises the costumes to create a new, fresh change.

Looking at the video below; Masters of Sex Season 2: Behind the Scenes - Dressing the Part
I found that the costume designer decided to concentrate on the 50s style, however create a hyper real version of the clothes to make them more stylish and fit the characters personalities.
She says ''The colour palette of real 50's clothes were chrome, red, yellow and blue. But that's not the tone of the show'' ''We've created this palette which is very much insular to this world, that may not have existed in the 50's, but I think it's sort of hyper reality''
I like the idea that the costume designer has kept true to the 50s style as if she didn't, what would be the point in the period drama style? However, she has emphasised the style of the 50's and slightly modernised it to fit with the tone and style of the show.

  

This leads me onto my next focus, nostalgia in the TV show.

Although the 50's fashion is slightly emphasised, I still believe that the older audience will be able to feel nostalgic on the 50's and the late 50's, especially because the 

The TV show also uses a hybrid of genres - which is a cross between a variety of genres in a film to make it appeal to a wider audience instead of having a defined genre, only appealing to a niche audience. Masters of Sex discusses the science of sex throughout the programme which could be seen as science fiction - however it's not fiction. The main genres which are used are drama and romance. We see a continuous romance growing between Masters and Johnson which will entice a large audience as romantic TV shows are highly popular. The second genre which is featured throughout is drama - the show touches on very sensitive topics and cultural issues throughout such as the fact one of the characters is homosexual. Throughout the first season we see him struggle to come to terms with the fact he's gay and even try to find a 'cure' as during the 50's being homosexual was looked on as being a 'disease' and embarrassing. The show has done well to keep to the truth of what it was like back then for homosexuals, and the audience may feel a lack of nostalgia to this part of the show as for some people it was a really hard and distressing time dealing with being gay. A sensitive topic the show deals with is the idea that Doctor Masters was abused by his father as a child which further creates a more emotional and dramatic piece of tv. Another major cultural issue the show deals with is sexism and women being taken seriously. A female character in the programme is battling advanced cancer whilst trying to have raise awareness of pap smears and the importance of them, however as she's a female doctor people aren't taking her seriously, ignoring what she has to say. This subject brings up the fact that the show also uses ironic playfulness in parts of the show - for example us as an audience know that the doctor is right about the pap smears and should be taken seriously - although this isn't humorous it's ironic as the audience know that she is right and will feel more involved in the show.

The show also uses a postmodern term called temporal distortion. This is a technique that uses a non linear timeline, the author jumps back/forwards in time. We see an example of this in the first season when randomly we see Doctor Masters back when he is a young doctor talking to his boss, he suddenly is less confident and nervous. At first we as an audience are confused about what's happening but then soon click and realised we're back in time.

Below, I looked into a 'behind the scenes' video of how the hair and makeup transformation is done in the show. I really like how they have stayed true to the 50's hairstyles and created a look which was 'typical' back in the 50's with curly short hair which is extremely neat and styled. I like how in the video they talk about how the character doesn't have tattoo's so they have covered up the actress' tattoo's with foundation to stay true to the fact that as a high maintanance women, Libby (character) doesn't have tattoo's. 

Sources:
http://www.longislandpress.com/2014/07/19/showtimes-masters-of-sex-adapted-from-newsday-reporters-book/

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/sep/30/masters-of-sexs-second-season-is-uneven-but-enthralling

Fiction Adaptation: ESSAY Research - WHAT IS POSTMODERNISM?

Postmodernism cannot be defined as we are currently living through the postmodern age - however we can recognise postmodern features in a text such as hyper reality, bricolage, intertexuality, temporary distortion and nostalgia.
We do know that the postmodern era began after WW2 and was even more emphasised when the generation gap occured - teenagers began rebelling against religion, science and the government and began having their individual beliefs and views after being influenced through huge bands such as The Beatles - therefore the audience became saturated in the media and began being passive audiences, absorbing media and being influenced by propaganda.

This leads me onto The Hypodermic Needle Theory.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory implied that the mass media had a DIRECT and powerful effect on the audiences and the way they behaved. Theorists believed that the media could 'inject' ideas into the audiences and shape the opinions they have on things. Theorist Michael Choukas said ‘’Propaganda offers ready-made opinions for the unthinking herd’’ (Choukas, 1965:15) I highly agree with this as Michael is basically saying that the passive audience no longer need to use their brain and THINK, when there is ‘ready-made opinions’ out there for them. People would just look at propaganda posers and send themselves or their sons out to war without a thought of whether they even wanted to. An example of the Hypodermic Needle theory is the Nazi Germany in the 1930’s leading up to the Second World War. Germany released powerful films such as ‘Triumph of the Will’ which used propaganda methods to inject ideas promoting the Nazi cause into German audience. 

Simulacrum
Jean Baudrillard believes that there is no longer originality in the world and no one real truth. He says that everything is a copy of a copy and the media is more real than reality itself. An example of this is during the 9/11 crash. Jean said that people where referring the crash to 'like a movie'. This leads us on to 'The Death of The Author' this is when all meaning behind a text is gone, everything is subjective and the audience create meanings themselves of what something is. This becomes a problem when stories are adapted from novels into film. The audience become so entangled in their imagination and the book that when the film is released they can become disappointed as they have built something up in their head.

Another post modern term is Hyper Reality. Hyper reality is used in films to over exaggerate styles or parts of the film to make it more exciting for the audience. It can also be used to exaggerate a period drama to modernise it slightly or to add more depth to the original world. An example of this is in the film 'The Wolf of Wall Street' they exaggerate the world he lives in to make it more interesting for the viewer. Moreover, period dramas often over change slightly or exaggerate costumes to make it more of an adaptation and interesting for the viewers - an example of this is in the Tv series 'Masters of Sex' I watched a video on YouTube where the costume designer admits its a 'hyper real version of the 50's.' clothes wise.

Temporal distortion is often used as a postmodern feature in films to create a non linear timeline. Usually stories consist of a beginning, middle and end. However, sometimes characters have flashbacks or they talk directly to the audience which is what temporal distortion means - when there is a time in the film which interrupts the story or doesn't follow a normal narrative structure.

Nostalgia is when there is a longing feeling from the audience to be back to an earlier period in their life - due to a film/text they have read/watched. Period dramas often create nostalgia for the audience as if there was a huge event that happened when they was younger and they are watching a period drama it might make them miss being young or it could do the opposite effect, cause distress for the audience if that time in their life won't so good.

All the above features and more enable us as an audience to recognise a postmodern text and engage more with the story from use such as nostalgia and temporal distortion. Researching into postmodernism has allowed me to recognise what features are used so I am able to find them in the tv texts I will be looking at in my essay.

Digital News Production: INFLUENTIAL NEWS PROGRAMMES!

For our News channel, our group decided we wanted to create a programme that wasn't too formal yet give out the necessary information for the audience.

I began looking at news channels and found that the BBC's style of narrative could fit what we're looking for. They are a non biased news channel that has a catchy theme tune and branding that suits there themes and is easily recognisable.

Here is the BBC news intro.

The introduction is really simple yet we can easily identify that we're watching the BBC news even if we're not paying attention to the screen.

The BBC has a clear logo that stands out and is extremely eye catching

This is the sort of logo we want for our nature channel, for it to be very simple, yet have a strong identity. 

We decided we're going to go for typical autumn themed colours on our logo such as dark browns and greens. 

I think the logo and colour theme is extremely important when creating a news channel as it's what the audience identifies you and remembers you by so it's important that it stands out and is easily recognisable.

Fiction Adaptation: CHARACTER PROFILES

I've decided I'm going to create character profiles for each of my characters as I believe this will help them to come alive more and have a personality which the actors will be able to portray.

NANCY: (Young)
Nancy is a 20 year old female. She is extremely bubbly, fun and caring woman. Her family and friends are put before anything and she has an extremely passionate relationship with her fiancé Jack and is devoted to him. Nancy has a soft voice with a 'proper' accent. Nancy has dark brown hair which is often styled with a marcel wave and tight curls. Nancy is a writer and is extremely creative. - typical 1920's voice. We can see the sensitive and caring side of Nancy as she carries a necklace around her neck with a small photo frame in it of Jack.

NANCY: (OLD)Nancy is frail but still has her personality even though she is now older. Nancy is still friendly and caring woman. Nancy is aged 70-80. Older Nancy is frail and still caring although has lost the love of her life. Nancy feels quite isolated and alone as she hasn't been able to move on from the traumas and loss of Jack even though it's been 50 years.

EVE/JANE/JENNY.
The friends of Nancy are all well spoken and in the ages of 20-25. They are the more confident friends of Nancy and lean on Nancy for her caring and friendly attitude. They are all upper class just like Nancy however are more snobby and ignorant.

JACK:
Jack is a 25-30 year old male that is battling in the war away from his beloved wife. Jack is always trying to protect not only himself, but his best friend Harry whom he met during WW1 and formed a strong bond with. (this is how Jack dies- by saving Harry) Jack is passionate about the work he does but misses his fiancé dearly. Jack is tall and has dark brown hair.

Fiction Adaptation: 1900-1920's Research

Carrying on from my previous blog I want to further elaborate on the idea I had for the woman ONLY in my film to be dressed in a 1920's style.

I decided to research into the fashion and hair styles from the 1920's period so I would be able to have a thorough understanding of what the women looked like so my film looks realistic and not a parody of the 1920's.

HAIRSTYLES.

I looked into what hair styles where big in the 1910-1920's and found that the Marcel Wave was highly popular.


What is The Marcel Wave?

The Marcel Wave was invented by Francois Marcel in 1872, however it only became popular doing the early 19th Century to women. Originally it was known as the ''Undulation Marcel'' or ''Marcelling'' but soon after became known as 'The Marcel Wave''. In 1924 women could use electric waving irons to create the waves. The hairstyle creates tight waves throughout the hair and usually has a side part to it.

Source: http://www.1920-30.com/fashion/hairstyles/marcel-wave.html

I really like the hair style and want to begin practicing on myself so when creating my fiction adaptation piece I am able to adapt the look onto my actress.

I've decided to look at a few youtube videos to show how to create the style.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRK4yTXWt8s

FASHION.

Woman in the 20's styles used a lot of florals and ruffles and wore long dresses. Their dresses where usually around knee length as any higher would be classed as inappropriate. Colours they wore ranged from pastels such as blues and pinks to dark colours like black and navvy blue. The clothes where very formal during the day and I haven't yet found any woman wearing trousers - this could be as they are meant to be seen as very feminine and lady like back in the 20's so trousers wasn't worn much. Woman of an upper class often wore daring Flapper dresses at evening parties which made them look more glamorous than the usual 'typical housewife'. A big thing during the 20's was white beads/pearls around their necks and on their wrists - this is a huge part of the twenties and I don't think any out fit is complete without them. The shoes the woman wore was small simple heels usually with a little thin strap on them. t think the ruffles in the dresses and simple clothing is really effective and is easy recognisable that we are looking at a 20's text. I want to make sure I find the right clothing for my characters so I create a realistic 20's story and not make it look tacky or unrealistic.

Digital News Production: ''Live'' script DRAFT 1

Throughout today Charlie, Vic and I met up to carry on with our drafts. On my previous post I showed our second draft of our package script, however today we have finished our first draft for our ''live'' news story: The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

So far, we're all happy with the draft as we've included much more information and facts on our ''live'' piece, and have tried to make it more serious than the other script (as the other is more lighthearted). We've decided to use 2 second delays to emphasise that the show is ''live''. We have decided to shoot on Lodge Hill and show how beautiful the environment is with the nature and wildlife and then discuss that soon it may no longer be there if the houses get built. We've decided we want interaction in the news piece to make it more interesting to the viewers and entice them into staying tuned in. To do this we decided to use vox pops and interviews with local residents and campaigners stating their opinions on the change. 

We still need to finish the end of the script adding 'back to the studio' and signing off, however we are all pleased with the first draft so far.

Bird Script Draft 1

Digital News Production: Package script DRAFT 2

Vic, Charlie and I have all been doing individual research on the package story: Hugh Lowe Farms

We have all met up again to write the script and have created a 2nd draft of our script below.

We have all put in ideas to create the structure of the script, and tried to add as much detail as we can regarding visual discription and dialogue. However, we're not sure if to have the ''live'' news piece first as it's the most important or have our lighthearted news at the beginning, but it might be better to end on a lighter note.

We've decided we're going to interview the Regan family as they have a LOT to say about what activities, events, charity events, and job promotions they have going on on the farm including a barn dance every year and events for red nose day. They can also talk about how the farm has been running for over a century and they are the 5th generation family. They also won a Taste of Kent Award for their soft fruit and strawberry jubilee variety. We may also interview the cherry picker and managing director if we have time in the poly tunnels.

Another point we wanted to mention in the interview is the fact the farm nearly was shut down in 2011 after petitioners said it was 'damaging to the environment' and 'a waste of water'. however the farm luckily was able to keep the farm running as the environmentalists said that it wasn't a danger at all. We're not sure werther to mention this or not as it's old news and we want to focus on the good events that the farm does.

The script below is our 2nd draft and we are still working on it but so far we're happy with what we've got.

Hugh Lowe Farm Package Draft 2

Fiction Adaptation: CHOSEN POEM + RESEARCH

After consideration of each poem I decided to further elaborate on the poem 'Summer in England, 1914' by Alice Meynell.

 

I felt like this was the best poem to adapt as I loved the contrast of the mood throughout the poem and how Alice talks about 'the calm before the storm' meaning at the beginning of the poem Alice discusses what the environment is like during summer and how it's calm and peaceful.
The poem's name stood out to me from the very start - the title: Summer in England. It immediately sounds odd as Alice sarcastically makes the war sound quite casual within the title as it's obvious that a 'typical' summer doesn't consist of a war.

I was straight away drawn to the style of the poem Alice has taken on. I really like how she discusses that while the world looks beautiful and the natural cycle of the climate carries on the war is also taking place and she doesn't ignore it with the random outbursts of 'death' that is mentioned throughout the poem. For example Alice says ''and when this chaste young silver sun went up softly, a thousand shattered men, one went corruption, heaped the plain, after a league - long throb of pain.'' we can see that she used a juxtaposed contrast of whilst the sun is rising beautifully, men are falling painfully which is quite a sad way of looking at the deaths.

Alice says in the first paragraph ''Most happy year!'' to show that the war wasn't expected, people where happy generally and the summer was gracefully turning into autumn. However towards the beginning of the 3rd paragraph everything begins to go down hill, she comments on soldiers being 'shot through the eyes' and it is such a contrast as a few lines ago she was talking about apples and berries being beautiful.

I really liked the contrasting throughout the poem of good and bad and thought the style could be adapted to the screen in many different ways and genres. To get more of an in-depth into the poem I decided to do some background research on the poem and look at who Alice Meynell was.

Alice Meynell, born in England in 1874 was extremely passionate and influenced by religion, this is why it's heavily referenced throughout her poems. Alice was a poet and campaigner for women's suffrage. She has written many poems however they are all extremely under rated although after I looked at them they all seem extremely passionate and in depth whilst referencing religion a lot. 

I found that when reading the poem, Alice focused a lot on contrasting between two things back and forth. She would speak of flowers and berries, and then suddenly talk about how soldiers are getting shot through the eyes. I liked the contrast as I believe I can convey a contrast between beautiful things and disgusting things in my film. Alice also focus' on the seasonal changes and cycles from summer to autumn which once again is a contrast. I took from the poem that Alice is trying to show normal life continuing and seasons continuing, however whilst all this is happening and flowers are blossoming, men at war are dying and for them it's not as beautiful as everything looks from the outside.

I also found that in the poem religion is heavily used at the end, I feel like Alice is using religion as  way to to cover up the soldiers death. Alice says in her poem, ''the soldier dying, dies upon a kiss, the very kiss of christ''. This makes the death sound like it has been rewarded in some way by christ and that it's okay that he died as he died in a 'christian death' as it was in place of his friend and they now have received the 'kiss of christ' reward. I think this is a way to cover up the real emotions going on inside Alice as she doesn't want to hear the truth that actually, it wasn't such a beautiful and peaceful death and that he didn't deserve to die at all as this is too much to handle.

After looking into the background of Alice a little and the poem, I feel like I know more about the poem and what exactly was going on when she wrote what she did, and wrote strange contrasts. I think religion plays a huge part in what she says and the reasons behind everything - which allows the poem to have a more sweet ending.