Power

This is where I will store all my research and things that inspired me in power.

For my power project I wanted to start by looking into obsolete laws that should have been out in the 18 century but for some reason they still exist today.

Obsolete laws

These are laws that are not relevant today but were relevant at some point in the history of Briton. I have found a few that our quite humors and are not relevant today. They were recently displayed at the Law Society exhibition:

Don’t wear armour to Parliament (Royal Prerogative 1279)
Don’t fire a cannon close to a dwelling house (Met Police Act 1839)
Don’t bet or gamble in the library reading room (Library Offences Act 1898)
Don’t use any slide upon ice or snow (Town Police Clauses Act 1847)
Don’t drive cattle through the streets of London (Metropolitan Streets Act 1867)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4619942.stm

(website last updated: Tuesday 17 January 2006 12:12)

These are all still part of our law  however are not used in today’s society. The Government recently announced a crack down on these type of laws be clearly they haven’t all  been turned out yet.

There is one particular law like this that I want to look at. It was the law about pregnant women in London being able to pee in a policeman’s helmet. On recent inspection I have found out that this is not only true but the law is actually that a pregnant woman can relieve herself anywhere in public due to her condition. I thought that that was interesting and I wanted to put it in because I think that it could be a starting up point for a great idea in which I do a documentary into Britons most ridiculous by laws.

For more ridiculous laws Click here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1568475/Ten-stupidest-laws-are-named.html (Last Updated: 2:39AM GMT 07 Nov 2007)

Other websites visited when doing this research:

http://www.policespecials.com/forum/index.php?s=0dc302ff0457f424bc11615f263b8eb8&showtopic=82278&pid=1446900&st=0&#entry1446900

(website visited: 15 November 2008 11:22)

http://www.policespecials.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=80315&hl=peeing+helmet

(website visited:  15 November 2008 11:23)

Power Idea 1

I was thinking about doing some form of voxpop around the laws and then maybe converting it into a section on a show much like a panel show. Maybe for radio, or television. I was thinking that I could go out into the streets of Coventry and ask the people if the know about the by laws. I think that this could be quite comical to tell the world about these by laws. A little bit like the documentaries of Michael Moore when he goes round the city telling people about laws that George W Bush has passed without the people of the US even knowing.

Work so far

I wanted to write about what I have come up with so far. I have found power the hardest one to come up with things to do.  I think this is affecting the way I look at things.  I would like to do another photography piece but I know I have already done this and I need some inspiration for the next idea. To inspire some new ideas I did a google image search of the word power and here is what I came up with.

When I typed in power there was a lot of stuff that came up about green power. I don’t think Coventry has any green power plans but it mite be worth investigating to see if its an idea or not.

I could make a documentary into the green power plans in Coventry and see how they are getting along and also see if there is any conspiracy around any of the subjects.  And even if there is not any green power plans in Coventry why there aren’t any.  Green power in and around Coventry could a very interesting idea and I think local people would want to find out about that kind of thing.

Picture from: http://www.midstateelectric.coop/ProductsAndServices/PSResidential/GreenPower/default.aspx (website visited 19th November 2008)

I was quite interested as well in religious pictures because I think that religion is a very powerful thing. So when I typed in strength as another form of power I was surprised when the next picture came up. I think that this represent the power that religion has over people even today. Maybe I could do some voxpops again about religion and how many people go to church. Go out into the city centre and talk to some people about religion and how it effects them.

Picture from: http://www.freespiritart.com/weistling-refuge-strength.php (website visited 19th November 2008)

Idea 2

I would go out into the streets of Coventry and ask people about there religious views. Find out whether or not they go to church or any other religious Ceremony. I would want to get a mix of people and a mix of age to compare them. I would also like to ask people what they think about church and what exactly there religious views are as I think this could be a very interesting subject.

I think that this could be a very interesting way of getting to the bottom of the power that religion has over people. I would also like to look at some of the old laws and see how these laws were effected by religion.

Power in songs

The word power is often used in songs so I wanted to look at some of these songs to see if they inspire me. I Started by looking at the video call the power of love by Huey Lewis which can be seen below:

(video added: 06 Febuary 2007)

I really like this song and the film that its in. But the song is about the power of love. I wanted to understand what power love has over ordinary people. So I wanted to look into silly things that people have done to win back the other half after people have been dumped.

Idea 3

I would go into and around Coventry and ask people if they have ever done anything silly to please there other half. I think that this would demonstrate the power that love has over people. I also think that this will clearly demonstrate the power that people have over other people. I tried to find some examples of this but could only find one which was featured on the News quiz last week, about a man who strapped a firework to his check lit it and then decided he didn’t want go through with it took it off and ended up burning his girlfriends house down.

Power of the media

I wanted to look at the power that the media has over us. I also wanted to look at viral videos and see how they can be used as powerful tools for advertising and marketing. There are many adverts that use viral as there main source and without getting passed from person to person they would not make it and become seen. On the times website they did a review of the best and most effective viral adverts for this article see here:http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2138718.ece (last updated: 25th July 2007.) My favourite ad and the only one that I think that I have seen out of all of these was the Quicksilver Dynamite Surfing ad. This was a viral ad sent from person to person via email of facebook. This advert can be seen below.

(Video added:2nd February 2007)

Viral videos are not just for advertising though, the most popular videos on you tube is the evolution of dance which was created by a comedian and then put up on you tube. This video has had over 100,000,000 hits and is still popular to this day. This just serves to demonstrate how much ordinary people love to see ordinary people making fools of themselves. Charlie bit my finger is another form of video on you tube that has done well because people like seeing a view into everyday life. both of these videos can be seen below. I will use these videos as inspiration for my next idea.

(Video Added: 6th April 2006)

(Video added: 22 May 2007)

Idea 4

My fourth idea is to create a viral video, the project would not be about the video itself but would be about how many hits I can get on it. I will upload the video and send the link from it to all my friends and then get them to send it to there friends. I would this way see how many link that I could get on it in approximately 3 days.

Research for this project

I thought seeing as I am going to do my last idea that it would be better for me to do some research into this idea and see where the first viral Video came from. One of the first Viral videos recently one an award for getting alot of viewings on you tube. see: http://www.dvguru.com/2006/12/12/first-viral-video-maker-gets-an-award/ ( Last updated: 12th December 2006.)  Viral video only really took off when you tube became popular. Although the site was launched in 2005 it didn’t really take off until 2006 when users were watching over 100 million videos a day. see: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube-views_x.htm (item posted: 16/7/2006) Shortly after it began to take off it was purchased by google. When it got taken over by google it became an Internet phenomenon. Here are some facts about the current rate that you tube is growing

Youtube facts and stats

YouTube hosts over six million videos, growing at about 20 percent every month.
The videos take up 45 terabytes of storage — about 5,000 home computers’ worth.
The total time spent watching YouTube videos since it started last year is 9,305 years!
The content requires several million dollars’ worth of bandwidth a month to transmit.
The most popular items get an especially large percentage of the traffic.
The words “dance,” “love,” “music” and “girl” are all exceedingly popular in video titles.

(facts from: http://www.gadgetizer.com/2006/08/31/youtube-statistics-phenomenal/)(Website update:31st August 2006)

These statics are from 2006 there are currently some from 2008 which is far more up to date and show some amazing results:

Total videos uploaded as of March 17th 2008: 78.3 Million
Videos uploaded per day: over 200,000
(statistics from: http://ksudigg.wetpaint.com/page/YouTube+Statistics?t=anon)(Last updated 17th March 2008)

It now gets over 100 million videos hits a day.

(Stats from: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube-views_x.htm posted: Posted 7/16/2006 9:56 PM ET)

This is the equivalant of every video hosted on youtube getting at least one hit each day.

Comparing the results from 2006 to 2008 shows how much the website has really taken off. At the begging of 2006 there were just over 6 Million videos on you tube now there are just over 78 Million videos. This also has an affect on how many of these viral videos have been seen. You tube is an amazing resources that means that everything from scientific videos to home videos can be seen on the web and responded to. The most watched video the Evolution of Dance (above) was uploaded in April 2006 and has had more viewings then any other you tube video to date. These videos mostly get spread by word of mouth and by email. The idea is that if you like it you pass it along and so on until alot of people have seen it and you are getting more and more hits every day.

Final Project

I decided to do my final project on viral media and the power to get video’s spread by email and by social networking sites like facebook. I found that by making a video that gives a look into everyday life I could use the power of viral media to see how many hits I could get on it. I started by creating a funny video which I got from a session we did in the studio when we were making Lisa-Marie power video. I used these outtakes to create a funny video that I thought people would like to watch and then spread around. I the put it up as my facebook status and emailed people about it to see how many hits I could get on it. The video can be seen below

(Video added 27th November 2008)

I think that doing this has taught me that I can do simple things that have a great affect on the people that watch them. I think that what speaks for Viral media most is the fact that the most watched video on you tube is something that is funny and is not there for any other reason then to make people laugh. Most o the videos on video hosting sites such as you tube are not there to help people. Anything can go up on you tube and become popular. As evidence by the above video’s.

When I looked at the video this morning it already had 14 hits without me even sending out any messages. This surprised me as my other video about me getting mugged only had 14 hits and that went up 3 weeks ago. I think that the less serious it is the more likely it is to be watch by lots of people. I think that the comments made by people are also important. It gives the people a chance to have there own say on the video and how good or bad they thought it was. I want to see how many hits I can get on it in the next few weeks so I will keep my blog updated as to how many hits it has:

28/11/08 11.44: 15 Hits

30/11/08 17.46: 64 Hits

09/12/08 14:31: 94 Hits

I will try and keep it updated as the amount of hits go up.

Viral media is increasingly used by advertising companies and this to me is why it is so affective today. Advertising companies used to advertise, and the videos that they use usually aren’t shown anywhere else. For example the surfing ad that can be seen above. The importance of reaching a younger audience through there own media devices can also be seen as why the industry of viral media has grown.  I chose to do viral media because I believe that it has great power to affect the way that consumers particularly young consumers buy. I think that in the future viral media is going to become increasingly more important in the age of new media.  On the left hand side is a picture of the email that I sent to my friends to get the word spread around about my video.