Our 1st Day of filming

Today was our first offical step to filming our A2 production. Myself Tobore, Mariana and Victoria all went down to Trafalgar Square and Carnaby Street as this is the beginning of the documentary,and also at doing a couple interviews.
(The two photographers for that day. A smile to start a windy day= Staying positive)



(Where we filmed- Trafalgar Square)


Victoria and Tobore Starting off our first couple shots







( Victoria and Tobore using the camera)


(Mariana and Tobore)



(Filming the national Gallery)



The group filming in the middle of Trafalgar Square)


( The big Ben shot)


( Filming from the National Gallery)


Me filming from the National Art Gallery)

Shop names that we spotted that had Slang/ Taboo Language

(This was a clothes shop that Tobore spotted on Carnaby Street)


( A shop that was labelled Sk:n --> instead of SKIN!

Our Roles

Whilst filming we all participated in using the camera, Mariana and I took photos, Tobore was the main director, Victoria filmed her part as the interviewer and I went out to look for interviewees that would be willing to answer our questions; explaining to them what our production was about.

Preparation for our first day of filming

So as tomorrow will be our first day of filming. As a group we are planning to start our documentary filming process by filming at Carnaby Street in Central London.
Here we intend to ask the public questions about their views and opinions about the topic of slang.

A Kick Start

To start things I came up with these four questions to ask the public and they are

1.) Is slang a Habit?
2.) Do you use slang in your everyday speech even in formal situations.? E.g. Innit
3.) Do you think the use of slang is due to technology or the influence of the media?
4.) What is your favourite slang word.

With these four questions I specifically trailed away from asking any questions school related as our population is more likely to be a range of people and the questions need to be the same. So to make our sample population equal the interviewees need to be treated the same and asked the same exact questions each time on approach.

This is just an Idea and it may not be final. I have asked about using these questions; tomorrow I will be able to find out if the group is OK with these questions or if they need changing.

Statistics and Research on Slang

Slanguage

This BBC news article is where the name "Slanguage" derived from. This newspaper article debating on Slang that was published on the 8th of December 2009

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8388545.stm

Here I have also found another article from the Guardian. Concerning a Descriptivist approach on the use of Slang. This is an atricle that goes against the introduction of a Slang dictionary. And this is something that we can look into and consider when looking at our Research and Statistics.

Published on: Friday 26th June 2006 ----> Already This is one of the key features I found interesting as this shows that the popularity on slang has been an issue for an ongoing period of time (2006). Only recently it has become more wide spread and a huge concern.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/23/books.usa

It has been said that 87,000 slang words were put together in this Slang dictionary and this is just in America along; ommiting North Carolina.


This website embaraces the use of Slang and looks at it as part of a British Clulture; which could be looked at as a Prescriptivist approach meaning they belive that there is no need for change.



Here is another website containing British Slang words. In our documentary we could use this definition of the words that we use. As it reflects Standard English rather than us as a group simplifying what the word may mean.


http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/

THE OBSERVER NEWSPAPER

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/03/the-debate-slang-make-stupid

THE TELEGRAPH

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3320069/Low-marks-for-pupils-who-use-soap-opera-slang-in-their-exams.html


(This newspaper aticle is titled--> Low marks for pupils who use soap opera slang in their exams) This was published on the 12th October 2003


I have highlighted statistics and important facts regarding slang " which is something that could be used in my documentary when including facts and statistics.

Our allocated Roles

To keep order within our group we then decided to allocate ourselves with roles, we did this to help us organise our filming strategy better.

Camera Operation- Is something that would be done by each member in the group; this must be done in order for each member to display their technical abilities and skills; this include operating the camera correctly and taking out learning skills a step further as A level students.

Costume and Props.

As one of the presenters for the documentary I have taken into consideration a Prop that I could use to fit in with with "Presenter theme" I have chosen a distinctive short trench coat as the main costume convention

Why do we talk Documentary.

In my English lesson we watched a documentary from the BBC abut why we talk.
What i found extremely interesting and gained knowledge from was the use of shots,and camera angles, and non-diagetic sound


This is part one.

• Useful Tips from documentary: An idea was to have an extreme close-up of the lips when the people that we use in our documentary are saying slang words. This is the inspiration that we got this idea from.

• Sound- The sound changes when there is a voiceover and the audience are questions. This is important to note as sound relays an important message in a documentary.

• Why sound is needed: It draws the audiences attention back to the purpose of the documentary and the focus of what the documentary aims to investigate

At. 1.58 mins to 2.00 mins

Part 2



The first 15 seconds of this documentary is vital as it shows close-ups of lips as the interviewee says a word; the shot then cuts to fasts paste cuts of people talking.

This could be a feature done to keep the audience interested. This is something I would like to incorporate and discuss with my group as to something we could include in our documentary.

New Plan, shot list and storyboard

Today we got some feedback from the work that we done.This was to improve our storyboard and shot list as it was too simplistic. This was the work that we did and got the feedback on

Short Term Planning and Shot List

Today this was our main tasks to sort out as we needed to organize when our next filming can be as half term is approaching.




Shot List

Location

Today my group and I discussed what our potential filming location would be and here are the ideas we came up with:

TRAFALGAR SQAURE: Central London

And lastly at school. However before al this we did have a couple of idea but these are now changed they were
Harrow shopping centre

Evaluation of past powerpoints

In today's lesson we recieved our grades for our previous tasks that we did.

The grade i recieved for my individual powerpoint was a C+ These were the comments I recieved





This was the feedback from our 2nd group presentation



Here is what our peers thought of our second presentation

1st Draft of Introduction to documentary

This is some information that we are planning to use in our documentary.

Convent of Jesus and Mary. Exterior Day

Hello and welcome to JMTV My name is Jamilla Joseph and in this documentary I will be exploring the use and popularity of SLANG.

Main Entrance of Building. Interior Day

This documentary we will focus on and explore the use of slang.Slang has become such a diverse and rich element in English language That it has now shaped and forms part of our everyday speech.

In this episode we will be exploring the use of Slang within Schools and as an everyday concept.

Extra Research for Research and Planing

VIDEOS

Only the first 0.45 seconds of this video is important. It pointed out to me the directions where to look for theories which is that second task of my resrach.

Here is an example of a Chanel 4 news feed about the topic of slang




One of the main things i learnt from this is that there are different views about slang. Here is a screen shot of a headteacher when she was being interviewed.


I thought that the interview technique that was used here was very effective as we had one individual say their point of few and the interviewee asked questions directly to the person. So this allows the audience to hear exactly what the interviewee has asked.

What I also likede was the fact that at the beginning of the clip there was reference to some of the factors that could contribute to the popularity of slang.

THEORIST:

William Labov- An American sociolinguist. He looked at the way in which people speak; and the different forms and ways that english comes across. He identifies the use of informal language and standard English.

2nd Group Task

For our second group task we had to tighten our research on Research and Planning.

Our task was to do extra research on the following

• General Information

• Articles

• Video Clips

• Images

• Interviews

• Expert Opinions/quotes/interviews

• Theories

To make this project musch easaier what we did was we divided the tasks amongst ourselves and the colour code is highlighted above.

Tobore - Mariana - Jamilla - Victoria


Off to research I go...

1st Draft of Presentation..






This is our 2nd Draft of the group presentation.

Tv and Film Documentary Group Work

As a group task we were told to make a powerpoint presentation on one film and one TV documentary that inspired us.

Here is Mariana's and Mines's

Watching more documentaries

Today I did some more research on documentaries I watched one TV documentary and then I listened to an auditory documentary on Black British culture and the impact on slang from BBC 1xtra.

This is the extract from BBC 1xtra that helped me get other peoples view points about their view on slang. Which takes place at 16 mins into the documentary.



Not only was this documentary useful to me for slang but the general knowledge that I got from it is also something i found quite inspiring.

http://www.linktv.org/programs/future-express-india

This is the second documentary that I watched.

From watching these two documentaries it has given me ideas and it has also jogged my memory on the types of shots that I learnt about it AS. And hopefully this Will allow me to develop this further and insert this into my A2 media production.

Here is another Documentary that I watched called My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding -On channel 4
Broad casted on Thursday 18th February 2010

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-big-fat-gypsy-wedding/4od#3053944

To help me with the fist five minutes of my documentary I watched the opening of this documentary to get some ideas for my groups own documentary.

At the beginning of the documentary there were close up shots of dresses, alongisde a voice over introducing what the documentary will be about.



Here is a second Shot of the many shots that are shown within the first 30 seconds of the documentary.

This is a two shot where it introduces to
viwers some of the things that the people in this documentary will be talking about.

Withn the first miute of the documentary there is a voice over of this lady who is the main person who gives the viewers information about what the Gypsy Culture contains.

The techniques that I learnt through watching Documentaries

In watching the various documentaries here are a few tips that I managed to pick up from them...

1.) MUSIC IN DOCUMENTARIES- Always ensure that the music correlates to the topic of the documentary. E.g: If the documentary is about a more funny and sociable topic there might be a drum and bass sound. Where as in comparison to the documentary being a serious topic the music will more likely be low drum roll or low brass instrumental sounds..





The music that is used in this documentary displays the seriousness of the theme and information that is about to be distributed in this documentary.




Whereas in comparison to this documentary the music is very upbeat and uptempo. This could be due to the subject topic of the documentary but it gives the documentary a warm and welcoming feeling.

Another example again to display the type of music used..




2) The target audience of a Documentary- has to be clear. One way of doing this is by giving the title of the documentary a name that indicates straight away who it is aimed at.

E.g- BBC Three Documentary- on Underage and Pregnant- And this is mainly aimed at teenage girls.

Channel 4 documentary- Sex lessons- This is aimed at a more wider audience. 16+

BBC One documentary- Panorama mainly aimed at an older audience due to the topics that it covers e.g Expenses taxes, and crime.


3) The use of Transitions- From the majority of documentaries that I watch the transitions that were used were quick fades. And this was used when there was reference to something that an individual had commented on earlier in the show. I believe this is definitely something that I would like to include and use in my documentary as a convention I developed.

4) Voiceovers- is a commonly used aspect of voiceovers usually the music underlays the voice overs as they tell the audience what is happening and also gives them knowledge of what the documentary is about.


5) Statistics and Facts from Research- This is important to include as this indicates that the information the is being fed to the viewers are not based on a biased account but are actually facts. (In this video the statistcs given are wriiten as oppsed to it being a voiceover)



6) Tiltes- Tiltles in the documentary are used to introduce the interviwee or the person chairing the documentary itself. This is valuable as it gives the audience a welcoming intorduction to the programme. Also what is commonly done is alongide the person's name there is then the logo of the insitution or company that is showing the documentary


Here is an example at 5- 10 sces into this documentary the way the repoters name and the name of the documentary is done refelcts a secret agent sort of theme. Straight away indicating that this documentary has a meaning and purpose behind it.



As i mentioned before the title that is used to intorduce the interviewee an example is shown here at 0.45 seconds of the documentary. From this what I also noticed is that what some docuemtaries tend to do is that they would let the person talk for a few second then introduces their name status and occupation 5-10 seconds after.

7) TYPES OF SHOTS- In documentary the type of shots that are used are a Pan. Close up an extremem close up,( to show seriousness of presenter) Long shots two shot sand Establishing shots of location.

Censorship

In the second half of our media lesson we have been looking at censorship in the media and this is mainly where i got my main idea from about censorship in music videos.

As a task we were then asked to put together a presentation on adverts we found offensive and adverts that we would potentially complain about.





This is an advert that was banned in Thailand for displaying discrimination against the black population.

Through my research on censorship I also found that some videos had their html code removed by you tube as they were very offense (mainly once portraying domestic violence.)




This was another adverts that i looked at that was banned in china as it's portrayal of women was so degrading and child like. And this is one of the adverts i also found pretty offended by not not harshly offended by.




This was a British banned advert i found this very offensive as the representation of British parents was displayed poorly through a car advert.

Our first Group Meeting...

Victoria's 1st Presentation that we used our ideas from!