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'The Lost Generation'-  A2 (OCR) media studies documentary about youth culture.

This is a youth culture documentary produced by another A level student called 'The Lost Generation'.

I liked this docmentary because the its shot in the same sort of way i want to shoot my documentary. Obviously the subject is different as theirs was on youth culture and how youths are viewed by older people in society and mine is about cyber bullying. But the shots used in their docuementary are similar to the ones i want to use. They make the interviews more interesting by using clips of youths over the interview so you arent just watching the subject speak. an example of this is at 1:58. This documentary has given me more ideas and has made me think more about how i am going to shoot and edit my documentary so i am getting the right feeling across to the audience.

Production desicions- interviews

I need to make a few final decisions about wheather to interview people at home or at school, whether to use a male or female, young or old narrartor, and what questions will be good to ask as a Vox pop around school.

Interviews
When interviewing people about their experiences with cyber bullying i need to make sure they are comfortable to openly talk, most people would be most comfortable being interviewed at home where they feel safe and secure and are more likely to talk openly about their experiences. Also the interview being shot at home makes the story more personal and the audience will feel more in touch with the story. On the other hand if i interviewed people in the school environment it will help the audience to understand the age of the subject and their innocence. Although people will be less open in school and may not cover all the issues of cyber bullying that they may have done at home. This is a link to a website with documentary interview tips.

In conclusion i think that it will depend on the depth of the interview to determine whether i interview at school or at home. Becuause if its just a short interview where a student is talking about a friends experience or a small personal experience then i think it will look better and it will take a lot less organising rather than if i did every interview at the subjects homes. Also having the short interviews at school will emphasise the importance of the more personal interviews where a subject talks about a very personal experience that may be quite a sensitive subject in their home where they are safe and secure and can talk openly.

Production decisions- Vox pop questions

Questions????

I need to decide on what questions would be best to ask people in a vox pop round school about cyber bullying. They need to be questions that you can get quick answers from. they need to be easily answered so everyone knows what your talking about and wont struggle to answer the questions.

Production decisions- narrator

Narrator

As i am making a docuemtary the narrator plays a huge role in getting the audience interested in whats on screen, i need to find someone that has good communication skills e.g clear voice, good language someone that the audeince can relate to e.g young but im not sure whether i should have a teenager do it or maybe someone older that the audience will pay more attention to? The sex of the narrator i think should be male, i think this becuase bullying is mainly done by boys, and i think if you have a boy talking about it and saying how its not good then maybe others will listen. If i had the choice of a celebrity i would use a young modern role model for young people that teenagers know and like and who they would listen to and trust. Someone like joey essex (only way is essex star) would be good as hes a teenage icon that is huge at the moment, so if he started talking about cyber bullying and how its wrong i think teenagers would take in the information much more, but obviously i cant use him. This is a link to a website where it tells you 'how to make a great documentary narration'

Exploring national identity

What is a British film?

I think it’s a film that is made in Britain, with British actors and funded by British money, it would also be made by a British director and it would show links to British culture in the films.

 Definition: British film

According to the department of media culture and sport (DCMS) and the UK film council (UKFC) the official definition of a BF (British film) is based on where the funding came from, who supplied production money, how many British cast and crew are employed.

British films in 2012

 

·         Sky fall (James bond)

·         The Sweeney

·         The woman in black

·         Wrath of the titans

·         The hobbit

·         The pirates: band of misfits

Second life- a virtual reality world

History of Second life

Second life, where you can choose your own avatar, build your own house and buy and sell clothing, is still the best-known virtual world in this country. Launch in 2003, it claims up to 20 million registered users, although only about 1.4 million have been active in the past 60 days.

Time line

In 1999, Philip Rosedale formed Linden Lab. He made Second Life, developing computer hardware allowing people to immerse in a virtual world.

In 2005 and 2006 Second Life began to receive a lot of media traction, including a cover story on Business Week magazine featuring the virtual world and Second Life avatar Anshe Chung. By that time Anshe Chung had become Second Life's poster child and symbol for the economic opportunities that the virtual world offers to its residents.

On December 11, 2007, Cory Ondrejka, who helped program Second Life, was forced to resign as chief technology officer.

In January 2008, residents spent a total of 28,274,505 hours "inworld", and, on average, 38,000 residents were logged in at any particular moment. The maximum concurrency (number of avatars inworld) recorded is 88,200 in the 1st qtr. 2009

In 2008, Second Life was honoured at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the development of online sites with user-generated content. Rosedale accepted the award.

In May 2009 concurrent users averaged about 62,000. As of May 2010 concurrent users averaged about 54,000. The perceived decline in concurrent users over this time correlates precisely with new policies implemented by Linden Lab reducing the number of bots and campers.

In June 2010, Linden Lab announced layoffs of 30% of its workforce.

In November 2010, 21.3 million accounts were registered, although the company has not made public figures for actual long-term consistent usage.

What are the conventions?

Avatars

On second life you get to create your own avatar to represent you in the virtual world. You can be a real animal, mineral, vegetable, fictional animal e.g dragon, or human, you can even make your avatar look exactly like you!

 

 

Economy

In second life there is a virtual economy, people trade in the currency linden dollar. There is a currency exchange so you can pay real money for linden dollars on second life, also you can exchange linden dollars for real money but it takes a lot of linden dollars to get much real money.

Distribution

It is distributed through the internet. This means literally anyone that wants to play it can, as long as they have internet connection. You can pay for a membership which gives you more freedom but most users just play for free as you are still able to do lots without a membership.

Audience

As second life is distributed over the internet it means that the potential audience is massive. It is aimed at people aged 16 and over but because it’s such a vast virtual world there is something for all ages to do which means some younger people use it.

Second life web 2.0 convergence

Second life users can use social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and twitter to keep in contact with virtual reality friends when they are not on second life.  Also companies can advertise their merchandise on the virtual world and even have pixelated products for sale.

Change in media

In our lesson with miss griffiths, we looked the history of the media industry and how it has changed massively over the years, especially in the past decade.CLICK HERE to see my presentation on changing media, and a timeline of the media industry. This is a brain storm from my presentation, its a brain storm on all the different ways media has changed and developed. Looking at film, mobiles, social networks, newspapers, physical products, music players and of corse TV.