Welcome to my blog November 28, 2008

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

This is my research blog that I have tried to update as reguarly as possible. I have researched things that interest me and things that I find entertaining. I have tried to focus on things that have inspired me. I have also made reflections on things that I have learned.

To find out more about a specific topic and to see a piece that I have made about Spectacle, Memory or Power click on the specific button at the top of the screen. To specify a category and show only the blogs relevant to that category use the category buttons on the menu at the side of the screen. To find out more about me and to have a look at my Qualifications and CV click on the CV page. You can also find out more about my summer research then click the summer research page. Hope that you have find surfing through my blog.

Happy Surfing!

I have created a new blog for my final project which can be found at :

www.beckymerriman.wordpress.com

Old Harrys game March 2, 2009

Old Harry’s game is a radio show written by Andy Hamilton. I wanted to write about this because it is shows like this that really inspire me to make a radio programme. They also mean that I like radio shows a lot more then I like television shows.

Old Harry’s Game is a story about the devil and all the goings on in hell. a series usually involves several different story lines. They all involve saten and his doings in hell. This is a BBC radio 4 comedy and the sort of thing that inspire me to enjoy radio.  It involves the devil going about his buisness in hell. It also involves humans and there activities in Hell.

The News Quiz February 1, 2009

The News quiz is hosted by Sandi Toksvig on a friday night and come under the friday night comedy section of BBC Radio 4. I really enjoy listening to this quiz and it ispired me to do radio.

The comedy part of radio 4 is often my favourite part of radio. I really enjoy the quiz panel show idea as well. I would love to involve an element of this in my final project. This programme also use and element of new media in that it gets the people listening to send in the news stories that they read out. All of which have funny undertones.

The programme has several regular panalist, and a number that appear occasionally on shows. The website is a useful resources where people can leave there news clippings and fine out more about the quiz itself.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/newsquiz.shtml site visited: 01/02/09 16:36)

The Elevator Pitch January 13, 2009

This is a short video about how to do a pitch in 2 minutes or less.  It explains how to get through a pitch in an elevator. You must keep it precise and to the point otherwise you run out of time and your idea will not be accepted.

This  video will be useful when pitching for my final project as I only have 5 minutes to pitch in and 5 minutes for questions. Therefore my idea will have to explained precisely and clearly. I think I will find it hard to explain my idea in such a short amount of time.

Pause December 3, 2008

This is an event that was recently put on by the student union and the christian union as an evangelical event. I thought I would right about it because it is not the normal sort of thing that usually happens in the student union.

Pause is put on by a charity called acts 29 who go into universities and put on these events. They use all kinds of mediums to get there point across. The use Rap, rock, singing, poetry and drama along with video exhibitions and art exhibitions. The piece started of with a pile of Tellies in the middle of the room. This pile of tellies displays a videos that eventually build up into a rumble of noise. The piece the goes onto show a bigger video on big screens.

It all build up so your are looking around the room at the different things going on in this room. It is very entertaining and received from very good feedback from the people that went to see it. I think that it is important to put this in because I wanted to talk about the way that I think this influences my work. I love this kind of thing and it is very important to me that this kind of thing makes a good impression on people that aren’t christian. I think that this kind of art exhibition has a place in the future. It was a very enjoyable experience for me and my friends. I think that i could use an idea like this in my final piece.

(Video added: 14th June 2007)

E-On F-off November 28, 2008

We have been set another task this week of creating a piece of work in our number groups. The idea was put to us from the fact that thursday and friday this week there are going to be protest up and down the country about the new Coal powered power station. We started by brain storming ideas in the lecture these ideas can be seen on the main university blog http://kpnmstudio.co.uk/310mc/?p=191 (blog added: Thursday 27th November 2008 ) We then went through the ideas in some detail in our groups and decided what we are going to do. We then have to come up with a title.

The title of the project that we are going to do is called Coal or Cold. We decided to do several things within this title. We are going to get some pictures of the protest and doctor the banners so that some of them say things like Go Eon Go and other things that may seem similarly controversial. we re also going to make an advert for Eon which when it has been done will go up on you tube and then I Will display it below. This work is to help us get inspired and get creative using different things and events as our inspiration. We have decided to do other things as well and I will keep this blog updated showing what work we have done and how the work is going.

To find out more about Eon F-off go to: http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk/ (website Viewed: 12:57 28/11/08 )

We have now bugun to develop this idea, we created an advert which can be seen below. We also went out and got people to sign the t-shirts about whether they were for or agaisnt Coal fired power station. Some pictures of which can also be seen below.  We also had a few people go to the march and take some pictures of the banners, we then doctored these pictures so we had some pictures which were for and some pictures which are agaisnt.

(Video added: 06 Dec 2008 )

A Vision of Students Today November 22, 2008

(Video added: 12th October 2007)

I wanted to write about this video because I think that it shows an accurate representation of how You Tube can be used to voice the opinions of those people who wouldn’t normally get a say. I think that it can be seen as a powerful tool used to spread things that have some relevance and other things that have no relevance at all.

I think that this fits into my power project because it is a vision of viral media. It is students using the Internet and broadcasting platforms like you tube to make the voice and there vision heard. I think platforms like this are very powerful tools in voicing your own opinions and if you search very carefully through you tube you can find all sorts of videos a lot like A vision of students today.

Unravelling- Kuldip Powar November 19, 2008

We went to see unravelling at the Herbert art gallery this week. I thought that this piece was a really thought provoking piece with the pictures of the grave stones and the poetry that went over the top of it. The piece was based around Memory, War and Loss. I think that the way it portrayed Memories was really interesting. It used alot of smoke to make the picture hazy and to take away from what was the real and what was not.

I think that this piece used alot of interesting camera angles and interesting lighting which added to the effect that the piece had. I also think that having no character to recognise as well made it interesting although the poetry being read gave you and idea of who the character’s were. It used alot of archive footage which was also interesting because although it was about the people who had fought there it was more specifically about Kuldip Powar asking his grandfather about the memories he had of the war. I also like the ending when the person walks down the steps into darkness. I think that this represents the way that he tells us he feels about those memories that they need to be locked away somewhere where he doesn’t have to think about them. I also like the way that he made all his shots in either a hazy blue or a dark red. I think that these showed the darkness and coldness of the war and the amount of blood spilt.

U also think that the music is a great story teller, and that there would not be a narrative without it. It has a narrative because it originally is the man doesn’t want to talk about his memories to his grandson and then he does talk about it and then he remembers something particularly bad and he moves on and a new equilibrium is established where the Grandson knows a bit about whats happened but not all of it. I also like the way that this piece is based on the memories of someone that the person that made it knew this makes it personal to the writer and really interesting to listen to because there is genuine feeling in it. It makes you feel sad but you also want to keep watching.

I really enjoyed watching this piece and it would be something that I would like to be involved in although it had a massive crew. This piece really inspired me to see what I can do with my final project in my final year of university.

X Factor November 16, 2008

So I decided that I wanted to write about X Factor. Mostly because I have never been into it till this series and I wanted to investigate what makes it such a watchable programme. I also wanted to look at the viewing figures between that and other programmes like it. For example Fame Academy and reality TV shows like big brother.

X-factor competes for the highest rating on a Saturday night with strictly come dancing. Both shows involve the public getting involved and voting for the favourite act to stay in the next week and they both have a separate results show. In these result shows they do similar things where they use the public vote down to the last 2 contestants and from there they have to perform again and the judges decide which one stays and which one goes.

This programme gets more viewers the Strictly Come dancing does and is therefor more popular then strictly come dancing (based on the figures from the week begging 2/11/2008. (see: http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?report=weeklyterrestrial&requesttimeout=500)(wesite visited 15th November 2008 23:52)) It also means that it is likely to get more votes. I think that the way that these type of programmes make you want to watch them and make you really feel that if you don’t vote you will really feel like your contestant will really be kicked out is crucial to the amount of people that watch them. I think that X-factor is more likely to make you feel like if you don’t watch you and vote your favorite person will be kicked out. Especially after last week when one of the favourite to win the contest got kicked out.  (See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7718192.stm (website last updated Saturday 8th November 2008 23:42) and also http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/11/ofcom_may_investigate_lauras_x_factor_eviction.html (last updated: 14th November 2008 13:13))

X factor and other programmes like it our famous for being most controversial when the public get involved then thing usually start to go badly. There have been a lot of voting scandals before so this would be no new thing if ofcom did decided to investigate it. It does make me think about the media’s effect on the X factor rating after it got into bad press last week. Footage of the vote of can be seen below and you can see the bad reaction that the audience has to Laura being voted off. I think that this was generally the view of most of the audience. There was a massive petition to get Laura reinstated and this is why Ofcom may decide to investigate.

I would also like to like this to my power section as I think that this whole thing could have been a ploy to get people to vote more. What a way to get more votes to the show the next week by getting rid of one of the most popular acts in the show and then warning people that if they didn’t vote the same thing could have happened again. I think that this demonstrated the huge power the media have over us to effect what we do. I know that watching this weeks episode that I wanted to vote because I didn’t want my favourite act to go out.

(video added:09 November 2008 )

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) November 15, 2008

I wanted to right about this in relation to my power section. This feature length documentary was made by michael more and was relesed 3 years after the events of 9/11 shook the world. Michael Moore wanted to try and get to the truth behind the events of that day.  There have been lots of conspiracy theories come out over that day and this was Michael Moores attempt to voice his concerns. I think that this documentary doesn’t get to the bottom of anything but it does tell you some interesting things about that 9/11. I wanted to put this in because I think it is a great documentary that shows how the government and the powers that be control us and can control what we think by putting being restrictive on what they tell us.

Michael Moore also uses this documentary to expose how the Bush administration pushed the war in Iraq and Afganisian on us by using 9/11 as an excuse. I think that this documentary is designed to get the American people to think about their Government and how they control the people. The interesting thing is that it did better in the US then it did abroad. I would have thought that this would have been the other way round as I wouldn’t have thought  that the American people would have wanted to see a film that spoke out against the Government. This shows how angry the American people were at the government when they did all these things.

Box office figures from: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=fahrenheit911.htm (lasted update: 28 October 2004)

Information on Fahernheit 9/11 from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361596/ (website visited 15th November 2008 11:51)

(Video Added: 19th September 2006)