Weekly update 12 (Rainna Saunders)

This week we finished out documentary and uploaded it onto youtube. We finalised all our anxillary tasks and checked through the blog thoroughly and our personal blogs.

Lastly to finish off we have been completing out evaluations by answering 4 questions which included the audience feedback and talking about the documentary as a whole

Education Treadmill Final Product

1st Draft of the Script (Rainna Saunders)

Script[1]

Voiceover (Temenuzhka Petrakova, Rainna Saunders, Gareth Hawkes and Thibaut Nyemba)

The Voiceover

Weekly Update 11 (Rainna Saunders)

This week we worked on our radio trailers and focused on completing the last tasks that were needed including the voiceover and script.
We askedAndy powell to record our voiceover and our radio trailers.
After finaling the documentary by adding the voiceover, we added the last few touches ready for completion.

Weekly Update 10 (Rainna Saunders)

This week we focused on our newspaper advertisements and editing the documentary.

Results for Questionnaire ( Rainna Saunders)

Call Sheet (Rainna Saunders)

Weekly Update 9 (Rainna Saunders)

After gathering together all the footage and necessesary components for the documentary we continued to edit the film in order to portray a balanced arguement, we also continued to do any work that needed to be finished on the blog.

Actor Release Form (Gareth Hawkes)

Interviewee Profiles (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

Interviewee Profiles

Weekly update 8 (Rainna Saunders)

This week were suppose to film an interview with Sarah Wellum, however she was unavailable but we were able to interview Colin Seabrook as he is also an apprenticeship employer. We had to film the interview three times before it was correctly framed. We also were able to capture many cutaways of pupils on  motor and electrical apprenticeshipees in action.

Also on Wednesday 10th November, we attended the Demolition protest. We planned to meet at 9am but actually left at 10am, when we arrived at UCL University we realised that we forgot the tape , so we had to take the bus to Tottenham Court Road to buy a tape. After searching for a shop to buy a tape, we were running out and time and when we finally found a tape, we decided that is would be wiser to make our way to Embankment where the protest where the protest was starting rather than going back to UCL.

On arrival the we saw thousands of students and the spirits was high. We then took many photos and filmed from a high angles. We were able to capture the most crucial aspects of the protest including the incident at Millbank.

Also this week we interviewed Courtney George who is a post graduate student and we were unable to interview the education officer due to mis-communication for hiring out the camera.

Theories on the Documentary Genre (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

Theories on the Documentary Genre

Rece Pictures (Rainna Saunders)

Weekly Update 7 (Rainna Saunders)

This week we've organised an interview with an education officer on Thursday 11th November  and an interview with Courtney George who is a post-graduate for Wednesday 10th November, we also rescheduled another interview with Sarah Wellum for Tuesday 9th November. We also plan to go and film at the Demolition Protest 10.11.10., where it will enable us to capture excellent cutaways.
Also this week we have done alot of work on the blog including the storyboard, further research into the subject matter and research on theorists.

Location Pictures (Rainna Saunders)

Further research into subject matter - Demolition Protest 20.11.10 (Rainna Saunders)

On Wednesday 10th November 2010, thousands of students, lecturers and communities, marched the streets of London in response to Lord Brown's review of the university funding and student finance.

The NUS and UCU (University and college union) planned a mass demonstration protest in Central London.The event protest against the government is called 'Fund our Future', as unions say this will threaten the future of colleges and universities.

This mass demostration illustrates and relates to our documentary topic as it questions the government decisions. As students and as the tution fees are planned to rise to £9,000+ per academic year, it is going to become harder and from some impossible to engage in higher education, students want to go university but are not going to be able to afford it.

The question is now, is university worth it or is alternative routes such as apprenticeships the way forward?

Our visit at Parliament (Rainna Saunders)

As our documentary is partly about university, we decided to visit parliament alongside Andrew Rosindel who is the MP for Romford, as this is where the central laws and legislations are made.

On arrival we met a police officer who guarded the Houses of Parliament alongside many others, and discovered  the grand entrances to the central hall.

As the tour began with Andrew Rosindell, he was able to illustrate to us many historical statues, plates and rooms. We were also able to visit the House Of Commons and House Of Lords where the laws are delegated.

Lastly in this room, we were presented with certificates by Andrew Rosindell for visiting.

This visit enabled us to get into a deeper and more personal insight into the central lawmaking, as this is where the laws for university are made, it was a very useful and educational visit, where we were able to get exclusive pictures and cutaways.

    



Rough Layout (Thibaut Nyemba)

• Non Diegetic music plays 
• Cutaways of universities  
• Montage of interviewees  
• Voice over Introducing the documentary subject 
• First interview starts to talk about the subject matter 
• Cutaway of Houses Of Parliament
• Newspaper articles of Student debt
• Second interviewee 
• More cutaways of universities
• Third interviewee
• Information on apprenticeships
• Apprenticeship cutaways
• Fourth Interviewee
• Statistics
• Fifth and final Interviewee

Weekly Update 6 ( Rainna Saunders)

This week was half term. We all continued to work on our pre-production work and we filmed an interview with Chirag Patel, who is the second year Brunel University student and Starbuck Coleman at Westminister.

Our Documentary Name (Rainna Saunders)

 The name of our documentary name is called ' The Education Treadmill', I chose this title because it demonstrates our topic. Its does this by illustrating the journey to university, some people are able to stay on road to university but the others that are not able,  fall into other routes such as apprenticeships. I used the illusion of a treadmill as a metaphor to relate to the educational journey.

Analysis of Another Documentary About University (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

Possible Broadcaster (Thibaut Nyemba)

The broadcasters who would air my documentary would be Channel 4 on dispatches. Channel 4 airs many documentaries and is well suited for my documentary as similar documentaries to my own are shown. Also Channel 4 allows its viewers to watch over 500 documentaries online on its website 4OD (Channel 4 on demand). I think it would attract my target audience who uses internet sites such as Youtube. Youtube is associated with Channel 4 and allows their viewers to watch series online which is convenient for my target audience who regularly access the site.  Below is a screenshot of the Channel 4's channel on youtube. In the picture below there is a list of videos you can watch and is divided in to different sections such as Comedy, Drama, Docs, Entertainment etc. In this screenshot the tab is presently on "Docs".

Weekly Update 5 (Rainna Saunders)

This week we did a lot of work on the blog and uploaded many posts as well as changing the background of the blog.
We also visited  Westminster, where we were able to capture alot of cutaways of the Houses of Parliament, location pictures and pictures of us on our journey. 
Next we were taken on a tour in the Houses of Parliament as we were invited by Andrew Rosindell. He showed us the House and Commons and the House of Lords, the gallery and other various rooms. At the end he presented us with a certificate and we took a picture with him. We were suppose to interview him but due to unforeseen circumstances we were not able to. Andrew is travelling to Afghanistan and Canada over the next two weeks so we will try and get an interview when he returns. In the meantime we plan to look for alternative MPs and other interviewees.


As it is half term next week, we plan to continue working on the blog and film interviews with the university Graduate - Courtney George and the Second year Brunel Student - Chirag Patel.

Software (Gareth Hawkes)

The software that we have been using for our documentary, is SoundCloud, FinalCutPro, Bubbl.us, Blogger, Scribd and Slide. Each of these are used for different things, and have helped us carry out our blog for a high set of marks. Within the below explanation, I will be talking about each piece of software separately.

The use of blogger, is how we began starting our documentary, and how we managed to sort out our plans for our pre-production. Blogger is a great way to create a blog from scratch, and we used it especially for our coursework. This was really helpful, and I used blogger last year in my group, to help create my film, so it is really helpful to use.

Scribd is a whole lot of use as well, because the written work that we have done for the pre-production, or anything like that, they make it look neater. You don't have to use it if you don't want to, but we were told to use it by Pianki, so that we could fit more onto our blog. And this is a great help if you want to make your blog presentable. The same thing as above, we used this last year as well in media.

Bubbl.us is a great way to make your brainstorms, productions, presentations, flow charts and mind maps presentable, because it is the typical facility that helps you create them from scratch. This was really helpful last year, and it has been really helpful this year. Because of this piece of software, we are able to make our work neat and easy to read. A good brainstorm would be used considerably to help complete tasks.

SoundCloud is a great way to quickly find songs and upload them onto the software, because it is quick and easy to do. The only weird thing, is that the songs are set in sound waves, instead of normal pictures and words. The sound person in our documentary, a.k.a me, had to use this software to find and upload sounds that we could use for our documentary. In the documentary, you will find out what type music we used.

FinalCutPro, is the type of software you would only be able to get on a mac, and this would be really useful for you, in your first year at college for Media Studies A/S, as you use this software to edit your finished product. My A/S Media Studies was based upon a short film, maximum two minutes, with a small percentage of tolerance. My A2 Media Studies is based on a documentary, which we are using finalcutpro to edit as well.



We also used a type of software called Slide, which I have never heard of before. It was used to create a slide show for our documentary, and create a sort of story for what we did in London. This type software is really cool, as you could also use it to make a storyboard. That's one idea I like, and it would fit together to create a perfect storyboard for a film, television programme or a documentary.

List Of Possible Cut-Aways (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

List of Possible Cut

Our Documentary modes (Rainna Saunders)

Our Documentary Modes

As our documentary is discussing the issue on university vs Apprenticeships we will be using  a variety of different modes.


We will be using the Expository mode where we will illustrate a clear argument and we will be addressing out target audience directly about their opinion and discussing social issues to produce a factual argument.


The reflexive mode will also be used where we will deal with realism and representaion as our documentary is about universities and apprenticeships which are current on going topics. Viewer  presentation is also be acknowledged.


Lastly we will use the participatory mode as our documentary involves a lot of interviews which involves the director asking questions.

Possible Soundtracks Score Notes (Gareth Hawkes)

    11 Audio Track by Gareth Hawkes

This track below that I have chosen from the weirdsville cd, is quite happy and calming, and it fits in with our documentary about university. Usually calming music calms you down when you are stressed and frustrated about something, and it also helps you focus on the task, well, it helps me focus.

 12 Audio Track by Gareth Hawkes

The next track above is a good track to listen to, and it also fits with our documentary because it relaxes you, like it should be for studying. this is also from the weirdsville cd, and is progressive. the breathing sound at the beginning and the end, is very cool.



 4 Audio Track by Gareth Hawkes

The above track here is quite a cheeky tune at parts, and also fits with our documentary. This is the kind of tune that would make you laugh and cheer you up, which fits with education if you're having a really bad time. This music would stop you from feeling bad, and would help you continue studying. This one is also from the weirdsville cd.

Andy Popperwell Voiceover (Thibaut Nyemba)

This is Andy Popperwell who will be doing our voiceover for our documentary. His voice is professional, sophisticated and easy to follow. He can be compared to a BBC style presenter,  suitable enough to present the news as his dialect is well suited for this role . He has been used for many student documentaries in the past. Below is an example of his voice in a radio trailer last year by group with a similar topic to our own, he is second to speak.

Radio Trailer by alkiline
This radio trailer sounds professional thanks to Andy Popperwell's voice and delivery. We our aiming to take this narration approach in our documentary and our individual radio trailers.

The BBFC Classification (Gareth Hawkes)

The BBFC

Documentary Classification (Thibaut Nyemba)

The classification in which I would classify my documentary would be "U" as it is universal in which any one can watch. The British Broadcasting of Certification would rate this the same certification as it ticks all the boxes. In a "U" rated film there are many restriction as its normally made for young children from the age of four and most of the time has a happy ending. There must be very mild language, no references and misuse of illegal drugs, mild violence etc. If there are any references to drugs there must be an anti drug message that follows suit. The topic of our documentary does not contain such themes as drug use, violence which overall it fits the "U" classification.

Research on interviews (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

Research on Interviews

As we went out and filmed several interviews unsucsesfully I decided to research the way an interview is done and take notes of any tips that we could use to improve. Thus these guidelines will be extremely useful to us and if we follow them carefully we should be able to  produce footage of an interview effortlessly and successfully.

Research into subject matter (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

Research into subject matter

The Rule Of Thirds (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

This technique is a solid foundation for composition. It works like this:

Imaginary lines are drawn dividing the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically. You place important elements of your composition where these lines intersect.

Using the Rule of Thirds helps

 produce nicely balanced easy on the eye pictures but the more experienced you get the more you break out from the conventions of this shot.

Actor Release Form (Gareth Hawkes)

This is the actor release form that we give to each of our interviewees in order to obtain their consent for releasing the footage we have taken of them.  This particular one is signed by Andrew Rosindell. 

Week 4 update (Rainna Saunders)

This week we viewed our footage from the interviews from, Kadipo ( The Apprenticipee) Andrew Rosindell and Sarah Wellam, only to find out that we framed the interview with Andrew Rosindell and Sarah Wellum inccorrectly and the sound was not perfect in the interview with Sarah Wellum either. In the interview with Kaeipo, no sound was heard. We are currently in the process of rescheduling all interviews. Also whilst at the interview with Andrew Rosindell , we met a man called Starbucks who worked with Andrew and knew alot about university so we scheduled an interview with him and whilst in the process Andrew invited us to the House of Parliament, where he would take us on a tour where we could film cutaways.
Due to our inccorrect framing, in class we practiced how to frame correctly with the camera and printed out a picture of a perfect framed interview.

Last week we went to King College University, where we filmed out cutaways inside and  outside the building, whilst filming our cutaways we approached a student called Zak Beller who we interviewed. We also visited LSE university but it was late and the buliding was not worth filming.

Newspaper Articles on our topic (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

Here are a few personally made photos of recent newspa- pers that have included articles on University tuition fees. This is an important piece as it will be used as a source of evidence that will support the information we will be presenting in the duration of our documentary. There are only four out of ten newspapers that have published articles on university on the Monday of 4th October 2010, these were The Financial Times, The Independent, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph. 

While taking the pictures the objective was to emphasise the titles of the articles via either the composition, the lighting or the angle from which the picture was taken.

Questions for our interviewees (Rainna Saunders)

Interviewee 1: MP for Romford: Andrew Rosindell

• Taking in consideration the application process and clearings, do you think it is harder for students to go to university?

• What is your opinion on the current student fees?

• Every year the fee seems to be increasing. What impact do you think this has on students? (e.g. is the proportion of students going to university higher or lower and why)

• Many graduates complain that there is a lack of employment opportunities after graduation. What is your opinion on this?

• On average, how does the income of a graduated differ to that of someone who hasn’t done a degree?

• How do you think the upcoming change in the economy has already affected and will affect further those going to university but also how would it affect the university as a whole?

• Already a few universities have planned for closure and clearances have been significantly reduced. Do you think that as it is getting harder to get into university more and more students will be searching for alternatives such as apprenticeships?

• Do you think there is prejudice against apprenticeship?

• Personally, what is your opinion on apprenticeships and do you think that it is a better pathway?

Interviewee 2: Apprenticeship Adviser, Sarah Wellum

• What are the entry requirements to do an apprenticeship?
• What kind of fields can you do an apprenticeship in?
• Do you think students that do an apprenticeship are less academic and less able than university students?
• Are students successful and do they get garenteed employment?
• Do you think it's a good route to take and are students happy on the courses they take
• How do the pay work and how much do they get paid?

Interviewee 3: University researcher: Starbucks

•      Do you think the university as an institution has changed in the last decade? If YES in what way?
•   Would you say society’s view towards university has changed too? (e.g. the idea of  ‘ The University Dream’
• Do you think universities today still hold the prestige that they ones did?
•  In your opinion, to what extent does university guaranty employment for its graduates?
• How do you think the upcoming changes in the economy will affect universities?
• Do you think that with the rise in tuition fees universities will become a place mainly for students from elite backgrounds, as the government is likely to encourage universities to accept mainly the students that are likely to repay their debt?
•  Would this make vocational studies such as apprenticeship more appealing to students?

Interviewee 4: A Post Graduate : Courtney George

• How would you describe your university experience?
• Has your degree been useful?
• How much were your tuition fees?
• How are you handling paying off your debts?
• Did your find a job straight after graduation, how hard or easy was it?
• Do you have any regrets about deciding to go to university and would you change anything?
• What advice would you give to potential university students?
• Do you think university is worth it?
  

Interviewee 5 : A second year Brunel university student: Chirag Patel

• What are your first experiences of university?
• Why did you decide to go to university?
• What are you studying and how much is you course?
• How are you handling he workload/ teaching style along with living arrangements and your social life?
• How are you managing your student loan, in terms of tuition fees, accommodation. food and other requirements?
• How do you intend to use your degree after graduation?
• So far has your experience of university been what you expected?
• Why did you choose the university route and not an alternative route such as an apprenticeship?
• What advice would you give to potential university student?

Interviewee 6: A current apprenticeship undertaker:

• What apprenticeship are you doing and how does it work?
• Why did you decide to take the apprenticeship route?
• What are you experiences of your apprenticeship?
• Do your skills that your leant come in useful in everyday life?
• What stage are you at and how does it work?
• How do you apply and what is the process to do an apprenticeship?
• Are you garenteed immediate employment after?
• Do you get paid, whilst doing your apprenticeship?
• Would you recommend undertaking an apprenticeship?

Brainstorm (Temenuzhka Petrakova and Rainna Sainders)

Planning

The Cinematography of our Documentary (Temenuzhka Petrakova)

The Cinematography in Our Doc

Target Audience (Thibaut Nyemba)

Our target audience would be students in the age range of 16 and over. Reason being, this being the age which students start to think about university choices and what is available to them. Also we are targeting students who are already attending university at the moment and graduate students finishing university. The gender of our audience is not restricted to one just as university does not restrict what gender you are or what background you come from. Although sometimes the socio-economic background decides what education you get. An example is Eton College is considered a high prestige school and was attended by nineteen prime minister including David Cameron. These are some of our target audience which would be interested in our
blog.

Name: Hanna Robertson
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Status: Student
Hobbies & Interests: Reading and going out with friends
Likes: Hanna likes to join in with her debate team in college and also likes to play chess with her friends.
Dislikes: She dislikes the increasing tuition fees of universities.

Name: Andrew Moore
Gender: Male 
Age: 20
Hobbies & Interests: Playing video games and reading manga comic books
Likes: Watching films and playing music with his band 
Dislikes: Starting to pay off his university debts