Monday 21 June 2010

Interaction- the day of filming

On the day of production we ran straight into a problem. Me and two other members of the group were going to meet up at Bradford College to collect the filming equipment but we ended being a man down which meant me and another member of my group had to carry the equipment between us. The equipment included, a professional hdv camera, a tripod, a smaller mini dv camera and the digital audio equipment.

As before we took the train and met up with the member of our group who lived close to the centre. We then got a taxi up to the centre just like before. We arrived at the centre 15 minutes before the children were expected to arrive so we could set up the equipment and make sure everything was ok.

When we got their we weren't sure whether if any of the children were going to bring back the parental consent forms so we could film them. If not many of them did bring back the forms we had plan. We were going to take still shots of the children who didn't bring back the forms. To take the still shots we were going to use the smaller mini DV camera.

When children started to come into the centre we were surprised by the number of the number of children that showed up. At first we expected about 5 children would turn up but when it came to the filming day there was definitely over ten. As it turned out only a couple of the children brought back their parental consent forms. So with the the children who brought back the forms we were going to interview them after they had created their poster.

As they came in we told the children what we here for and told them what we would like them to do. I was surprised about how the children just dived straight into creating the posters. With the digital audio equipment we decided to record an audio version of the session. So that none of the children would step on it or mess with it we put it in a safe place.

After one of the children who had brought back their consent forms had finished their poster we decided to interview them. We asked the child questions about the poster that they had created and asked what the child what would want to do in the as a career. After the interview the session had finished and we packed all the equipment away and checked we hadn't forgotten anything. We decided to separate the equipment between the three of us so we had at least one piece of equipment to carry.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Interaction- first meeting with Angie Stack

With our proposal ready a member of our group contacted Angie Stack who is the events orgainser at Hainworth Wood Community Centre. A member of my group sent her an e-mail to try and organise a meeting with her so we could tell her our idea on what we want to do at the community centre.

To keep a record of the meeting we used the digital audio equipment to record the people's voices who attended the meeting. Me and another of the group took the train to meet up with an other member of our group who lived close by to the community centre. From the train station we took a taxu up to the community centre and went straight into the meeting with Angie Stack.

At the start of the meeting our group talked about what we wanted to do at the comunity centre. After we had talked to her about it she agreed to let us film people at the community centre. She also gave us low down on what needed sorting out before we could actually do the filming. She told us about how she will have to create parent consent forms for the children so that went it comes to filming the children will have to bring back the forms signed by their parents. She did warn us that it may be short notice and not many chidlren may bring back the forms but we took the chance.

Also during the meeting we talked about times and dates of the filming. We settled on a date and discussed what else needed doing and we told Angie Stacjk we would send her a poster advertising the event at the centre and also othe rinformation that could be sent to the parents such as, what we are using the video for.

After that was setteled the meeting ended and we stopped the recording and went home.

Interaction- final idea (proposal)

The overall idea is to create a video piece that will raise awareness of a new play area in Keighley. We would like to raise awareness of road safety issues in an area of Keighley. Our group, thumbs up productions are going to co-organise a workshop with a local community centre called Hainworth Wood Community Centre. There are concerns in the neighbourhood that drivers are are taking no notice of roadside signs and this would leave the children in the area in constant danger of being hit by a careless driver. In the workshops we would have the children creating posters and drawings to get across their view on road safety.

The genre of the video piece will be a Children and Family-Orientated film. Also the purpose of our final idea is to raise awareness to local families about the local play area and we also want to teach the children about respecting the play area. We also want to advertise Hainworth Wood Community Centre and also improve their website as well.

The target audience of our group's project is local parents and also children around the ages of 7 to 10. We also want to target the unemployed to show them the benefits of working in the local community. As a group we have conducted alot of research. So far, I have looked at different news articles from a local newspaper called, Keighley news. Also I have looked at diffeerent leaflets and flyers that promote and advertise different community centres and nursing homes. In our first meeting with Angie Stack who is the events organiser at Hainworth Wood Community Centre we discussed with her the different groups of children who go to the community centre and we also discussed the different opening times of the community centre. I am going to conduct more research on the local area of Keighley by looking at local newspapers and looking at different leaflets that I find. I am also going to research ways in which we can communicate with people in the community.

It will be delivered as a 5 minute edited video piece.

Thursday 27 May 2010

Interaction- pitching presentation redo

The first time we pitched our 4 ideas in didn't go to plan as some improvements needed to be made. I kept reading from my notes and I didn't look at the audience which is what I should of done. Also my body language wasn't good either because as the other members of my group were talking I was leaning against the wall and looking like I wasn't bothered. We were lucky because since we did our presentation first it meant we could re do it again so this time round I memorised what I was going to say so I could look at the audience.

Our second go at pitching our ideas actually went alot better as I didn't look at my notes as much and the only time I did was when I got slightly lost but it was fine. Also I made sure I looked at the audience and not mostly at my notes and I also used hand gestures as well which made it seem more professional. I also made sure that I didn't lean against the wall again and while the others were talking I just stood up straight with my hands behind my back.

I have had the same sort of problems in the past when pitching presentations. The first time I pitched a presentation I had a problem with looking at the audience and it was a problem in the interaction presentation as well. I think in the future I need to be a bit more confident when pitching presentations, especially if I am applying for a job and they want me to pitch a presentation. Also I believe I need to memorise what I am going to say before pitching the presentation and my body language need to seem more professional.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Interaction- pitching presentation

In our group I was the first person to pitch my idea to the class and the course tutor. I didn't go well because it didn't look up enough at look at the class I was to busy going between my cue cards and looking at the screen and also my body language was bad as I kept leaning against the wall.

It didn't go well for 2 other members of my group either as they did the same as me as one of them kept referring to his notes and not looking up and the other member of the groups presentation wasn't really good enough but he still manage to look at the class as he was talking which made it better. The other member of our group, Libby actually did rather well but the only thing wrong with her pitch was that she just read from a sheet and didn't look at the class either but it was still a good presentation as she addressed all the points needed to pass the presentation.

I think next time I will have to memorise what information is on the cue cards and that way I won't have to keep looking at the cue cards and that will mean I can look at the class more. I will also have to make sure that I stand up straight and not lean against the wall and make myself seem more professional.

Interaction- preparing presentation for our final 4 ideas

At the end our investigative report essays we had to choose 1 of our interaction reports to do some more research on. After we had done the investigative report essay we had to put the 4 ideas into one presentation and present it to the class and the course tutor. We each went away and did a small presentation on the idea we picked and after we had done we would send it to one of the members of our group and from there we could merge all the presentations together.

From my investigative reports I chose the physically disabled community but more specifically the Whetley Hill Resource Centre as my idea for the presentation. I first decided to think about what information I was going to put into the presentation and I came up with about 7 slides for my idea. In the slides I included what the centre offers and what facilities the centre has such as, IT suites, rehabilitation kitchens, exercise rooms, etc. I also included a slide on why I chose that community group for the interaction project and also another slide on the location of Whetley Hill Resource Centre and also contact details as well.

After we had created our small presentations we had to another two slide presentation each on our video productions ideas. Basically how we would film our idea. We had to include two tv shows our any clip to our idea and explain what similarities there will be between your work and the tv show or clip you have chosen. For my production ideas I compared mine to 'Top Gear' and also the show 'Traffic cops'. I wanted to compare mine to 'Top Gear' because in their shows when they test a car there is a entertaining narration over the top of it and that is what I want to do for mine have a narration in an entertaining style not in a documentary style. I also wanted to compare mine to the show 'Traffic Cops' because in the show they follow around a police force and see what they do on a day to day basis and for my idea I would follow around people at the centre and see what they do on a day to day basis.

To make sure I knew exactly what I was going to say when pitching the presentation I decided to create cue cards so if I got lost then I could just refer to the cue cards.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Interaction- Investigative report essay

For our folders we had to have a copy of each member of our groups investigative reports, so we had to have 16 investigative reports in our folder. With these 16 investigative reports we had to collate all the findings in the reports and put it all into one huge essay.

To start off with I talked about the task we were set to do and also how went about tackling the task. I talked about what we had to do for the investigative reports and also I talked about what we did to help us do the reports. I wrote about how we drew up a mind map to identify the different community groups that live within the Bradford area and also how we chose from the mind map 4 particular community groups.

I then typed up my findings from my own investigative reports. Basically I wrote in full sentences, what the community group is, oragnisations and charities that work with that particular community, the problems that we will face when making contact with that group and what legal and ethical issues we need to consider as well.

After I had typed all of my findings from my investigative reports I went on to type the other members of my group's investigative reports. When typing up that information sometimes I found it difficult because some information was missing and sometimes there wasn't enough so To solve that problem I asked the member in my group who wrote the investigative report about it and they gave me some more information so it was ok.

To conclude the investigative essay our group had to pick 1 investigative report from our own 4 and choose to one to do some further research on. I chose the physically disabled community from my 4 and the other ones that were picked were, the Buddhist community, the polish community and the autistic community. At the end of the essay we had to write which ones we chose and why the groups were chosen.

This essay is probably the longest one I have ever done as I ended up doing 8 pages.