Critical Perspectives: Cultural Imperialism and Appropriation.

Exploring the impact of:
-Globalisation- the media is a global marketplace/www.
-Cultural Imperialism- 'exploration' of values through global media
-Cultural appropriation

Global dominance explored:
-Globalisation considers the extent to which certain political economies 'dominate' the world through the process by which global media organisations as 'cultural transmitters'.
-Thus major media organisations on the world stage 'drowned out' smaller regional outlets as they tend to follow this lead and effectively replicate their stance and mode of production.
-In terms of news, accusations that 'US style journalism' is 'homogenising' world news coverage, becoming 'missionaries of corporate capitalism.
-Equally it has the potential to establish a dominant GLOBAL CULTURE.

Globalisation:
-It can be regarded as a positive or a negative phenomena.
-Why has it happened?
-Global media brands and output transmitting and selling formats on a worldwide scale are at least part of the reason.
-An increasingly 'marketed' media landscape on a global scale, chase big revenues and operate as nay other product being sold- dependent on supply and demand. But what affect does that have?

The consequence of 'Cultural Imperialism':
-In general, what we are talking about is the potential for the media to allow one culture to dominate over another.
-What does this mean for storytelling and the coverage of world issues.

Consequence:
-CNN have been accused of stirring up 'compassion fatigue' through their reporting of global suffering.
-Rather than motivation and mobilising change amongst world powers and individuals, its suggests that it has desensitised the audience to major world crises.
-Furthermore, focusing on particular events of 'crises coverage', global tv news coverage ignores many more significant events and there for they are excluded from policy debate.

Globalisation: World News- Whose News?
-When related to news, globalisation is distinct from globalisation in general- which tends to focus upon socioeconomic lines such as the impact of international trading.

Changing News Formats:
-Change the style and presentation of news programming.

-EG British television inherited it’s news formatting model from the US in the mid 1950s, with both ITN and then the BBC taking on generic features such as :
-‘dramatic’ tone, but distinct in form from drama.
- Half an hour in duration of ‘comprehensive’ coverage.
- Generically formatted but still unique to their individual brands.

Truly Global?
-How likely is it that TV news can truly provide 24/7 global ‘breaking news’ -
-More often it can revert to the usual short cuts in storytelling and story seeking as it does on domestic stories? Ie elite voices and establishments dominate.
-Global TV news players emerged throughout the 1990s and beyond
-with the likes of BBC World and Murdoch’s News Corps news brands such as Fox, Sky and Star competing with one another on a world stage for audiences in new markets such as China and India -
-what ideological impact is this likely to have?

TV News & The Global Public Sphere

-Not everyone agrees that global ideological dominance is a consequence of modern TV news operations –
-[global TV news] has the capacity to contribute to democracy ..... Through it’s range of respresentations, genres and information. ...... [but it’s plurality is] compromised by .... Images of consumerism’ (Barker, C : 1997 “ 230)
-I.e. the media can enhance and convey cultural differences, as well as the sort of ‘bad’ news which might reinforce cultural prejudices e.g. conflict or famine in the Third World etc.
-Furthermore meanings are negotiated and filtered through culturally varied ways of understanding therefore less culturally “imperialist” than the ‘Global Dominance’ model suggests.
-‘Although US programmes might lead the world in their transportability across cultural boundaries .... They are rarely the most popular .... Where viewers have a reasonable menu of locally produced programmes to choose from’ (Sinclair et al, 1999 : 176)
-Is this the case?
-What is the affect of social media on re-dressing the balance?

It's a Small World After all
-Can global and social media make the world more ‘interconnected, inder-dependent” (Cottle, 2009, p351)?
-Thus is global television is not something which necessarily causes cultural imperialism, but rather allows us to see the ourselves and each other as facing the same challenges and issues.
-What impact does this have on the potential for both news and fiction adaptation storytelling?

Drama & Cultural Appropriation:
-Equally drama and dramatic adaptations move across cultural ‘boundaries’.
-Consider : implications of taking a Manga-inspired story such as “Ghost in the Shell” and translating that to a US blockbuster? Is it as some have claimed an example of “Hollywood Whitewashing Controversies”:
-The issues of Cultural Appropriation is at the fore in these cases.
-What implications or examples are worth considering in your choice of screen adaptation? They may be less overt but still important to consider.

Global market place Vs Global representation?
-So why is it that, given there is an inherently global marketplace for media (particularly online) and that therefore audiences are inherently diverse, that major film producers should consider it so difficult to be more representative of the original ethnicity of the text itself??
-What is it that motivates ”cultural appropriation” ?

Does any of this matter? Reception Theory:

-The implications for cultural appropriation are not necessarily that we in the audience are “Passive” to the meanings “encoded” in the material they watch.
-Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory (1980) argued that audiences “De-code” what is presented to them and impose their own ideologies onto what they see and hear.
-Dominant Reading (views as intended)
-Negotiated Reading (views with some interpretation) • Oppositional Reading (opposition of intended view)
-Thus it is not necessarily the case that views are always imposed as intended nor even that the intention is always overt in the producer of the piece. is it not true that the media can affect our views and behaviour towards one another?
-Consider the role of the media in making sense of the world and what “matters”...

Post Submission Update:

After a quite distressing response from my group over social, I felt that I had to make a few minor adjustments to some of my blog posts and the final evaluation. This is because my fellow group members reacted extremely negatively to what I had said regarding my experiences working with them.

Upon looking at the original posts, I realised that a lot of the content, while truthful, was written rather aggressively and specific wording made the group appear far worse than was the reality.

Because of this, I felt like I had to change the posts so that they would appear a little more friendly towards my group and my experiences working with them, cutting out a lot of the true concerns I'd had about them and the project. However, upon doing this, I realised that my blog and evaluation were no longer accurate. As our blogs are marked based on the content we write and our truthful opinions of our experiences, I thought it was only right for me to put what I had initially written back in, albeit in a much less aggressive manner, also adding in areas where I admitted that certain problems came down to me and my own short-comings. This made me realise that I couldn't just change the content of my blogs to fit the rest of the group's views until they were happy with it as it wouldn't be an honest representation of how I had personally experienced the project.

I had made a similar post to this one stating that I owed the rest of the group an apology for the aggressive nature of the blog posts and I have apologised to them. The reactions to this from my peers may no doubt have reflected badly upon me as I know that they had tweaked their own blogs in response to the first version of my evaluation. However, I have nothing against them personally and don't wish to paint them in a bad light but I wasn't going to allow my blog posts to be dictated by  their own opinions and points of view instead of mine.

Final Evaluation: News Project

I have finally been able to see the fine cut/ final cut and personally I think that the final project that is being handed in is mostly successful. The final edit is very cohesive as well as looking professional. The edits between the transitions are all mostly smooth (with perhaps a few minor issues with cutting between different locations) and the same can be said with the music.

I feel that both Cailan and I make good studio presenters and we both appear comfortable in our roles. However, I do feel that the generated background behind us does not particularly fit in too well when transitioning to and from both the package and the live segments.

All of the footage looks very professional and mostly blend well with each other with some very good B-Roll that we can cut to to break up the long shots where one specific person is speaking.

I also was finally given the chance to help with the sound editing. I managed to take control of the edit for a short period of time to edit in the music without interference. We then all watched the segments and agreed on my edits with some minor tweaks from Alex. If I had not done this, half of the soundtrack that I have made may not have been included, making this part of my contribution rather redundant. As it is, a lot of the music is very quiet and not very noticeable but this was overall a group choice. Also my Voice-Over is apparently missing for unclear reasons.

Here is the link to the final video uploaded on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWls47PhxPc&feature=youtu.be

The group themselves were mostly pleasant to work with in person, however there were instances where I would not get on so well with them and certain problems started to arise as some of my contributions appear not to be noted by them. However, I managed to work well with them most of the time despite some times where I'd had some trouble coping with some unfair comments I have received from them over social media.

Here is a full list of most of the contributions that I have made towards this project as they are missing in the final submission:

Pre-Production:
-Initial research
-Electric car research
-Branding research (websites and adverts)
-Filming location finding
-Finding contacts
-Finding a wide range of car dealerships that we can contact as well as getting their numbers.
-Finding some quiet back roads for filming Alex in his car
-Contacting the Kent Film Office for several locations
-Getting in touch with various contacts
-Getting in touch which various car dealerships
-Route planning
-Music research
-Script Editing
-Creating every Risk Assessment

Production:
-Secondary camera operator
-Location scouting
-Fig-Rig operator
-Sound operator on certain shoot days.
-Keeping contact with other crew members when in separate locations.
-Initial solo performance as News Anchor
-Re-filming and performing with another News Anchor

Post-Production
-Creation of the entire soundtrack
-Helping to re-film B-Roll
-Giving constructive Feedback to the various editing stages
-Recording of Voice Over
-Sound editing (eventually, when I was given the chance)

It should be noted that, out of the eight primary days of shooting and re-filming, I managed to make it to six of them, only missing two. This is better than some of the others in the group as they have missed more days. I had a clear role on all of these days, whether it be getting some secondary footage of the presenter from different angles, monitoring the sound levels, getting some B-Roll of the subjects being presented and helping to set up and pack away the equipment each day. On the two days where I could not make it, I started work on other aspects of the project such as the soundtrack.

My dedication to the course and this project, although questioned by my peers, has been high. I’ve had to cancel many appointments and family gatherings that had been pre-planned earlier this year to make sure I am available to make it to the shoots whenever I can. I have come in early (perhaps too early) everyday that I have been here for this project to make sure I am there when I am needed.

Overall Positives:
-I had a clear role on every shoot day.
-I was able to fill in the days I had missed with other work to help support the project.
-I presented my own ideas and concepts (even if a lot of them didn't end up being used).
-The footage we captured was all of high quality.
-I am overall quite proud of the soundtrack which I made for this project.
-The final cut looks professional.
-Alex made for a good piece-to-camera and live presenter.
-Cailan and I made for good Anchormen.

Overall Negatives/ Improvements:
-Choosing to film in 4K led to a much longer production and edit time as the footage takes much longer to render due to its quality.
-Sometimes communications could be a bit strained as not everybody was on social media at the same times. Sometimes this led to me not knowing exactly what it was I was supposed to be doing at times.
-I noticed a few times where my group failed to acknowledge some of my contributions, leaving me a little worried how they would react to me in their blogs.
-Towards the end, tensions started to rise and attitudes such as bad language started to appear with some conversations becoming needlessly aggressive and stressful to go through.
-I needed to be able to get in and edit the sound sooner, seeing as I was only given a strict five minute gap by the group before submission.

Overall I feel that the final project is, indeed a success. It has just been a difficult ride getting here. I look forward to the next project as I have chosen Fiction Adaptation. This will be good for me as I can prove myself through my own creativity and work on and develop the project by myself without having to worry about being in a large group.

Finished the Soundtrack

I have successfully finished the soundtrack after some trouble. Here is a list of most of the tracks that I have created as they appear on my 'iTunes'.

The twelfth track appears to be missing due to an error I made when exporting the music to mp3 files. There are only supposed to be thirteen tracks. Also, some of the tracks I had created beforehand had been saved over so most of the ones presented are in their later states.

The tracks which I am most proud of are:

-Track 10: Carology Titles with Strings.
This is the track that would play over the titles. After much feedback, I made several changes to this pice, including creating a beep (much like BBC News) as well as adding some strings and Sound effects.

-Tracks 5 & 6: Electric Car
For when the we show the cars in the showroom, this was the first track that the group actually liked and thus I continued to create and adapt the other tracks in this style. I especially like the bass which comes in after a while as it sounds very powerful against the soft strings and sets the mood nicely.

-Track 14: Final Driving Song
For when Alex is driving his car around, this probably has the best production towards it and was a trac that I had to try and perfect time and time again. It has some resemblance to the type of music that can be found in shows such as Top Gear.

Major Concerns

As I have said in one of my early blog posts towards the start of this project, I do not agree with the idea of looking at each other's blogs as they are our own individual development logs which are fed back to the tutor, though my peers have obviously ignored this repeatedly. However, I got a bit worried after a rather unnecessarily heated argument over social media took place and I decided that I would take a look. I ended up finding the comments on me a bit worrying and often misleading in regards to my contributions to the course through a series of what I can only think of as misunderstandings, if not plain ignorance.

Specifically, I found that my contributions to the course may seem nullified by what has been written by the others in their blogs. I also saw comments about when I wasn't able to make it to certain meetings on just two of the eight days of primary filming despite me letting them know why I couldn't make those days. I feel like I should list a few examples where my reasons for these were perhaps not so clear.

Here are a few times where I was not able to make some of the shoots and reasons why:

- 5th October, After feedback on the script from Helen.
I was unable to stay to consult with the rest of the group on a few matters regarding the feedback due to needing to get home to help with some problems involving the landlord. This had already been promised to the my family but I probably did not communicate this to the group properly.

- 10th October, Filming Day 2
I had to leave filming slightly earlier as I needed to get home as the landlord was visiting and I needed to be there. I had relayed this to by group earlier that day.

- 21st October, Brands Hatch Filming.
After we got feedback for the rough cut, we were told that we needed to get an entirely new live segment with meant that we had to film a load of new footage. It was decided that the live footage would be shot at Brands Hatch on the Saturday. Unfortunately I was unable to make this shoot as I work from 11pm on the Friday night and do not finish until between 7am and 7:30am on the Saturday morning, meaning that I would have been asleep for the majority of the Saturday. As it turned out, I wasn't feeling too well for the short time that I was awake during that day.

- 25th October, Final Editing
Plans had already been made quite a while ago by certain members of my family (who live halfway across England) that they would come down specifically to see me and we would go out for the day for dinner. Unfortunately, I was asked at the very last minute last night if I was able to come in today. I didn't feel that it would have been a good gesture for me to suddenly turn these family members away right at the last minute. However, I do agree and realise that this was not the best time seeing as it is the day before submission and I have apologised profusely for this bad timing. I should have used better foresight in this instance. Though Cailan also had to miss a day for similar reasons but there appeared to be no problems with him doing this.

Other complaints I have had from the group include how I have supposedly not had much input into the editing process. I spent quite a lot of time during the edit time creating the soundtrack, sending them to the rest of the group, getting feedback, adapting the music to this feedback, creating brand new tracks from scratch and rinsing and repeating. This is something that I have been doing non-stop.  There was then a time when the group were happy with the soundtrack as it was so I stopped, leaving it for some time. I then started again as soon as there was some dissatisfaction with some of the material. This has taken up much of the editing process time.

In terms of the edit itself, I have not yet had the chance to properly get in and edit the sound and the music track that I have created. This is partly because a certain group member appeared not to listen to much of the feedback we were giving them and wasn't letting anyone intervene into 'their' edit. My experience with the editing process thus far has mostly involved watching various stages of the edit and trying to give some constructive feedback to what has been accomplished.

There have been these kind of issues all the way through the development, production and post-production of this News project but have mostly kept this out of my blog for fear of having my fellow group members reading it and taking things the wrong way.

A big concern I have is that I may not be properly credited for the full amount of contribution I have given to this course in the final project due to these misunderstandings. If so, I shall make a full list of my contributions in my evaluation of the project.

I hope this blog doesn't sound like I am making a load of excuses and I am not trying to attack my group; they have been pleasant to work with most of the time. I also know that I don't nessecarily get marked based what they say in their own blogs. I have just outlined various problems I have had throughout the duration of this project and I am just worried that certain claims by the others might be misleading as to full contributions I had to this project.

Second Studio Filming

After we had to take the interview with Ajay out of the live segment, the footage of the presenter in the studio which was already recorded at this time had to be reshot. This is because the script itself no longer made sense now that the entire news piece had switched around and new segments had been brought in.

Now we had rewritten the script, it was time to re-film the studio segments. However, we decided to change the set-up a bit and use two anchormen to present in the studio standing side by side. This choice was thankfully a group choice instead of just being down to George and his own preferences The two presenters were myself and Cailan. This made me glad as an earlier post I wrote was partly dedicated to my disappointment of not being the anchorman as I felt that it dampened the overall physically viewable involvement I had for the final news piece. This change allowed this worry to be retracted.

The shoot itself went mostly well. Both me and Cailan had taken a large effort to try and learn the entire script and we were both confident in what we were saying. However, we unfortunately stumbled several times when put on the spotlight (literally) in front of the camera. Though we were confident in what we had to say, we often stumbled trying to remember the lines whilst also trying to concentrate on communicating appropriately towards the camera.

It also didn't help that a certain member of the group was giving some rather patronising comments whenever we messed up. However, when we asked the other two if they would leave the room to see if we would fair better without them in the room. We did. After a few tries, we were able to perfect the part that we were previously having trouble with and even recorded the next segment with ease. Unfortunately, when it came to recording the rest of the script, the others were back in the room and we continued Mohave some trouble. Despite this, we managed to get all of the filming finished, albeit taking a lot longer than it could have taken.

Some other problems included some issues with the lighting casting shadows but this was something that we managed to deal with and thankfully did not effect the green screen effect too much.

We were also given some advice from Ferg who said that we were stood too close to the green screen and the lights would emit a green glow on us. This is something that we will have to keep in mind in the future as we had already finished the filming for our studio segments by this time.

despite these issues, I feel that today was mostly a success and I am happy with the footage.

The Editing Process 3: Nearly Finished/ Justified Concerns

The good news is, everything has been filmed to adjust to the feedback that we got from Helen last week. We have just finished the final pieces with the two anchormen in the studio set and now we have started to work towards the fine cut.

Thankfully, the green screen has proved to be effective so far despite the problems with shadows that the lighting rigs caused. A lot of the existing footage is still prevalent within the edit as well as the additional new footage to allow for the new order of the piece and how it is now being constructed. The actual edits themselves appear to be smoother with better transitions between shots and a more cohesive piece is the ending result of this.

However, unfortunately I still haven't been given much time to look into getting in and editing the music into the piece which I find worrying as we are quite close to the deadline. There was still a feeling of not properly being able to work around the editor as they still appear to be quite controlling over the edit, sometimes getting quite defensive whenever constructive criticisms and feedback was given in regards to the edit. Also some dissatisfaction with certain tracks from the soundtrack I made was voiced. This is fine as I can go and create some new bits but I wish these concerns were fed back to me sooner. I also am a little unclear now as to the style of music and the overall 'vibe' that I need to create seeing as the group has given me mixed feedback whenever I do one type of style or the other. I think the best thing for me to do is to try and find a balance between the two.

I, along with Cailan, had to leave early today as we both live a bit further afield and unlike Alex and George we both have to rely on public transport . Meaning we would not get home until much later and we both wanted to get home for a reasonable time. However, I shall talk to the rest of the group on Facebook and discuss the feedback then.

Hopefully I will try and get my sound edits into the final edit by the time submission day comes around.

New Live Idea: Brands Hatch

We did manage to eventually come up with a new idea for our live piece after we were unfortunately told that we needed to go out and film some new material for the live segment.

This idea involved going to Brands Hatch and filming some B-Roll and getting some interviews with people attending the event this Saturday. I feel that this is a good choice as the area will be very crowded, meaning that there should be plenty of people who could give us their thoughts and take part in the interview.

I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to make it to this particular shoot due to working that night until 7 in the morning, meaning I’ll be asleep for the majority of the day as well as not having any reliable transport available to me during the weekend.

However, there are still some improvements I need to make in regards to the music/ soundtrack so I shall work on that instead.

More B-roll and VO

I came into the studios today, expecting to watch the critical perspectives lecture that was timetabled for the day. However, I apparently didn't get the memo that the rest of the group wanted to get some more B-Roll which included Alex driving out from the location where the package originally started.

After some successful shooting (only taking about 45 minutes) we drove back to the studios where I started to record some Voice Over work talking about a few basic facts and statistics on electric cars.

I found this to be quiet easy, nearly getting it spot on during the very first take. All of the takes afterwards included several stumbles and I didn't manage to get any full run-throughs until my very last take. I also had a few technical issues as the sound of the microphone was being picked up whenever it was moved just slightly. The microphone also picked up some interference from outside when people were talking/

Upon showing this to the rest ion the group and letting them listen to it, they were happy with the end result and ended up using the first take which was my best.

Here is a video of me constantly having to retake after various stumbles:

Rough Cut Feedback from Helen

To begin with, our rough cut viewing with Helen went smoothly. She liked Cailan as the news anchor as well as a lot of the shots we used such as both the interior and exterior shots of Alex in the car with Alex presenting the package. There was also positive feedback on our interviewee, Ajay, who was said to be interesting to listen to.

The main problem was that the live interview itself was far too long, lasting up to six minutes when we needed only two minutes. I personally would have thought that cutting the interview down, using separate footage to cover up the edits, would be the best solution to fixing this problem. However, Helen thought otherwise. She said that for the interview to appear like it was live, then the duration of the interview itself actually had to be two minutes long. Otherwise it would appear fake. It was advised that we put parts of the interview into our package and incorporate it somehow into what is already featured in the package.

This means that we now have to go out and find something else to film which can serve as our live segment. We all left the viewing and overall feedback feeling very disheartened, noting how it is only a week until our final deadline and it is going to be quite hard to find anything that we can film live, let alone actually film something.

We will have to confer with each other and see what we come up with.

CV Guide:

research and Approach:
-Think abut your skills
-look for companies you'd like to work with
-Do your Homework
-Show an interest
-Follow it through

What you have to offer:
Start by asking yourself honestly what skills and experience you already have, this includes:
-The skills developed over the past year on the course.
-Experience you have either from previous employment or from your own interests and hobbies.

Now identify
-Skills you wish to obtain

Remember to:
-Study the job description and research into the company.
-Then make changes accordingly.

Stand out from the competition:
-Personal details
-Career profile
-Education and Qualifications
-Employment/ work experience
-Artistic achievements
-Key Skills
-References

Effective Designs:
-Be expressive and creative
-keep it to 2 pages maximum
-Put your name and email on every page
-Use a professional font.

Relate the design to the industry.

Covering letters:
Who should I dress it to?
It should be addressed to the person who will be dealing with your application, check the company website or phone the company to get a name.

Final points...
If sending your CV and covering letter via email, save and attach your CV as a PDF so that it's easy to read and cannot be edited by a third party.

The follow Up Phone Call:
It is worth make a follow-up phone call a few days later so show enthusiasm.

Interviews- The next hurdle:
-Prepare fr the interview to make sure you are successful at this stage.
-take a copy of the CV with you and refresh your memory of the job description.
-Enter the room confidently and shake hands firmly and introduce yourself with a smile and be polite.

Things you shouldn't do:
-Sit down until the interviewer asks you to.
-Fidget or slouch in the chair or fold your arms.
-Swear-even mildly
-Criticise your past employers
-Interrupt
-Draw attention to your weaknesses.
-Lie or be too enthusiastic- stay calm and stick to the facts.

Commissions Brief:

Key Skills:
Skills taking forwards:
-Time. management
-Research and development of creative content
-Online journal research
-Focus on chosen specialism

New Skills
-report writing/analysis
-Self directed schedule
-Freelance work- client liaison
-development of new industry relevant skills
-Intensive elongated work placement

-20 Hours Scheduled
-100 Hours Independant Activity

Unit option 1: Work Placement
-Students undertake a sustained period (2-4 weeks) of work placement within a media related company, or on a media related production.
-this placement should be with one organisation.

Unit option 2: Commission
-Students undertake a simulated professional project for an external commissioner.
-This an take many forms, but in the past has typically been a video project for a company or organisation.

What you need to think about:
-Reflect on you and your own development.
-Consider the best choice in terms of:
-Your 'Portfolio' development needs.
-Essentially both options offer you a great development opportunities, but clearly they have different expectations.

The Editing Process 2: Getting There/ Minor Concerns

I have thankfully had the chance to take a look at the edited piece in its current state and I am glad to say that it is looking quite good in my opinion. The footage and various shots appear to flow very well and the basic 'plot/storyline' of the piece can be easily understood already, despite its rather disjointed state at this time.

I do have some minor concerns, however. For one, I still have not yet had the chance to properly come in and help edit some of the music. Part of this is my fault as I have had to lead early on a few occasions for the past week. George is very much in control of the edit at this point and feedback doesn't appear to be something that is being given too much consideration. I admit this worries me ever so slightly seeing as the edit should be a group effort.

However, I'm sure that this will subside as the edit becomes more complete and I can eventually get going with this work.

Fiction Adaption Brief:

The Brief:
-This unit demands a developed application of produc;on skills from planning through to completion, using an advanced creative methodology.
-Research, plan and produce a short video for transmission that is a work of adaptation derived from a literary source.

The Literary Source: Sonnet
-Traditionally, the Sonnet is a fourteen-line poem, which employs one of several rhyme schemes and adheres to a slightly structured thematic organisation.

 

The Editing Process 1: The Beginning

The editing process appears to have been put mainly in the hands of George. Not to say that the rest of us are not doing anything to help contribute.

I have mainly been making more music as well as editing and adapting some of the music that I have already made for the project. I have been sending these to the group chat via Facebook and I was able to get constant feedback so I can adapt them further or create some new music if need be. Doing this also allows George to get an idea as to what kind of music shall be featured and where he can fit in the music with the footage that we have shot.

I haven't yet had the chance to actually take a look at the edit as it is so far but hopefully will during the next few days.

Friday Filming: Anchor at the Studios

Yesterday we filmed the segments for the news report which featured the Anchorman in the studio presenting to the camera.

We have all previously worked on the script and have each had some input into what the anchorman should say. This was especially important for me as I was originally intended to be the anchorman; I needed to make sure that what I was saying seemed natural without sounding too scripted.

I had already volunteered to be the anchorman right when we first started this news project and it was agreed that I would be used in the role. However, as the weeks have gone by, there has been some conversation between us and the idea of having Cailan as the Anchorman instead was put forward. To decide, it was suggested that we both do separate takes in the role and the editor would then decide who works best in the role.

The filming itself was quite a task. We first had to make several trips to haul very large equipment from on of our cars to the base room in the Maidstone Studios and then had the difficult task of setting up the equipment. Perhaps most tedious of all was the green screen. We managed to get the frame up easily enough but the actual green cloth itself wouldn't stay on and would often be creased too much one way or the other when we clipped it one. We did eventually managed to find the balance. Then we had the problem of the lighting casting shadows, taking us a further fifteen minutes to try and fix this issue.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have any trouble during the filming of my take on the anchorman. the script had been updated and changed slightly since I last saw and edited it. I found that some of the vocabulary wasn't right at certain points as well as mis-uses of punctuation which caused me to say some sentences in completely the wrong tone. I had too make several changes to the script on the fly and ended up having to put up with some crudely written notes from the others. Also there was a lot of repetition. Due to this, my run had many retakes due to the fact that the script was changing constantly as we were filming and I found it hard to give both a natural performance as well as remember the ever changing script.

Cailan's run went a lot better, however. The script had now been fully updated and he had heard me say it over and over during my take. He was able to remember the script easier and thus was able to give a more natural performance which I did praise him on.

In the end, it came down to who had the least retakes and read from the most updated script. Thus, Cailan's take was chosen for the news report. Though I congratulate Cailan on this, I do feel it is a shame as I felt that, by doing this, it would show more of a physical contribution from me to this news report as I would physically be on screen. Unfortunately this isn't the case. the decision ultimately came down to the editor, George, who had never appeared to be enthusiastic about me being in the role anyway.

Thursday Filming: Live Interview

Today we managed to film our live interview with Ajay, the electric car enthusiast.

It took us about an hour and a half on the motorway to get to Ajay's house but he was very accommodating when we got there. We decided to get straight to the filming which was decided would take place outside in Ajay's front garden. there was a set of table and chairs already propped up in the corner of the garden with a wooden fence and some plants behind it so we thought this would be a nice backdrop for the interview. Ajay also put out a wine bottle and two glasses onto the table to add to the scenery.

There was a lot of time taken up by the preparation of the interview as we wanted to make sure that the cameras were positioned in the best places. I was placed in charge of recording with one of the cameras as well as making sure it stayed at a good angle.

We then spent more time doing test runs of Alex asking Ajay the questions. I did start to get a little worried that Ajay would start to get a little impatient with us as we were taking a long time before we actually started filming the actual interview put thankfully he was fine throughout.

We did one full run-through which was mostly a success. Alex's performance as the presenter was great and felt natural. However, we felt that Ajay's answers were too long and we would find it quite hard to fit all the answers into the time-gap and edit around it. Therefore, we ran through the entire interview again, asking Ajay to give us some shorter answers while Alex gave some subtle prompts that he was going to swiftly move on to the next question.

This proved to be successful as the interview was roughly two minutes shorter than the first take at around four and a half minutes. We will just need to edit around the footage to make sure that it fits within the time-gap we have for our news report.

We also managed to get some footage of his own electric car which we can cut to during the interview, helping us to edit around it.

Overall, I think that today was a great success as we got everything that we had originally intended and we have some footage from a good source.

Wednesday: The Soundtrack

Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the London filming today. Therefore, to make up for my absence, I decided that I would do more work on the soundtrack.

I firstly went back to the original intro music piece which featured the fast bass-line. This time I tried to subdue the bass-line further, making it a little quieter while also fixing a sound problem with the kick-drum. I finally managed to work out how to get rid of the white noise that kept appearing in all of my recordings and thus added this to the piece.

A new piece I recorded was titled 'Driving Around'. This featured a slower bass-line which repeated in a loop as well as a sound of the tapping of a cymbal which went matched the rhythm of the bass-line. It was just this at first but then I felt it needed to be a little more energetic; this was intended as the music that would play as Alex is driving around in his car. I ended up doubling the speed of the cymbal noises and also added the sound of a muted guitar to play alongside it. Some subtle strings were also added in to fill in the silent parts that were left.

After sending this to the group via Facebook, they immediately replied saying that they didn't like it. It was apparently giving off too much of a Top Gear vibe. This was the kind of thing I thought we were looking for as we had already discussed this before ad that was what I was going for. The overall feedback I got was to reduce the amount of bass in the music and make it slower paced.

To do this, I ended up subduing the bass as well as completely getting rid of the muted guitar. I slowed down the cymbal to its original speed and quietened the strings. After sending this version, there was still negative feedback. I did start to get a little discouraged at this point, seeing as each of these normally take about an hour and a half to two hours each for me to create and perfect.

However, after taking a quick break I got back to it and managed to create a piece that the group actually liked. This was intended to be used for when we are displaying the electric cars in the dealership. After taking feedback to use less of a bass-line, I decided to make a pice which mostly used strips and a soft electric piano. A subtle bass then quicks in after a few loops of the track. As stated earlier, the group did like this piece and felt that it was more of the over 'vibe' they had envisioned.

I will continue to work on these and try to incorporate this style into the already existing pieces.

Tuesday Filming: Car Dealerships and B-Roll

the filming on Tuesday 10th October was, again, really successful. Our plan for the day was to get some B-Roll of the electric cars we had spotted and enquired about in the car dealerships in Park Wood, Maidstone.

Thankfully, both the Mercedes Benz/ Smart and the Nissan dealership were happy to let us film in their buildings. I was, again, given the camera fixed onto the fig-rig which meant I was able to get some nice moving shots of the electric car profile. A constant problem I found while filming the car, however, was the fact that I was brand new and shiny, meaning that I could easily be seen in the reflection with the camera. There are indeed some shots that were taken where you can just see the fig-rig but I tried to keep it as hidden as possible while still trying to get the shots that I needed.

Again, there was the problem of re-doing a lot of the shots. I took certain shots and then the others decided that they would go and get the exact same shots about two more times. This started to get a little irritating seeing as it took us an hour to film something that would have only taken us half an hour at most.

Fortunately we did move on to getting some B-Roll of cars driving past on the side of one of the dual carriageways dealing into Maidstone. We also got some shots from outside the Tesla building just down the road from the Maidstone Studios. these shots mostly just featured the Tesla sign and various shots the charging stations near the car park.

Another long B-Roll shot we go was from the window of the 'Costa' cafe the 'Next' shop near Maidstone. This was all fine but we spent about twenty minutes there, taking much more time than was necessary.

Despite these issues, the filming was largely a success and we got plenty of footage.

Monday Filming: Pieces to Camera and Driving Shots

The filming on the 9th October, I thought, was mostly a success. A lot of the time was taken up filming Alex presenting piece-to-camera both inside and outside of his car which he was going to drive. More time was then used to acquire footage of Alex driving past in his car in various locations.

I was given the job of operating a camera on a fig-rig. This was so I could get some extra footage from different angles at the same time as the main camera to break up the sequence of shots. This was mostly used during the segments where Alex is presenting. However it did also serve the purpose of getting several shots of the car driving past as well as one particular shot which features the car pulling to a stop right in front of me and the camera (making sure that both the camera and I were still a safe distance from the car as it stopped).

We travelled to each road location in two cars. George and I scouted ahead in one car to allow us time to set up the cameras to get the right shots while Alex and Cailan followed at a distance behind, eventually driving past us when we gave them the go-ahead via communication by phone.

An unfortunate occurrence happened which set us back a little. Right behind where me and George were sitting in his car, two cars collided with each other and the people from both vehicles were both panicking over their children who were also in the cars. We stayed for roughly twenty minutes to see and make sure that everyone was alright and George gave some details as a witness to what happened. What struck me when this happened was that we were in exactly the same place the two collided literally only a minute before the incident, meaning it could have very easily have been us in the crash. We did move on, however, and managed to get the rest of the filming done for the day.

The only problem I had with this shoot was the fact that we kept retaking every shot when I personally felt we had already nailed the shot on the second or third try without have to retake the shot five more times, therefore making us lose time. However, I suppose it does ensure that we do get the absolute best shot that we can.

Filming Starts Today: 9th October 2017

Today, we start filming footage for our news report. Our plan for the day is to film Alex driving around in various back-road locations. I received the final permission form the Kent Film Office to film in the three separate roads we had hoped to film on. They were very quick to answer the initial email and replies which I gave to help them with their various enquiries into our project.

Below is the permission confirmation email I received from the Kent Film Office:

I am sure that this shoot will go well. The weather appears to be ok for the outdoor shooting we are planning with no indication that it will rain at any time. 

Evidence for Petrol Decline

Over a Skype call, I started to look for evidence to suggest that fuel resources are running out. It turns out many sources estimate that we may run out of fuel within the next fifty to fifty-five years. This will give us a good segment for our news report as we can give some reasoning for looking into alternatives such as electric cars. This was done so it could be included in our script.

http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-50/in-this-issue/general-interest/petroleum-no-1-source-of-abundant-energy.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2015/06/25/how-much-oil-does-the-world-have-left/#12493a9d5b1f

https://enviroliteracy.org/energy/fossil-fuels/are-we-running-out-of-oil/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Feedback on Soundtrack: Opening Jingle

The rest of the group came back to me with their opinions on the opening 'jingle' I had created. The feedback was mostly positive; however, they didn't like the ending where the 'orchestra-hits' came in and they compared it to a 90s disco tune. listening to this version again, I realize this and agree that it sounds a little too much like a pop song opening.

To tackle this comparison, I decided to strip back the entire piece, leaving only the bass-line and the quiet 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' sound intact at the end.

I then recorded a new kick-drum over the bass-line which was now slower as I felt that the rapid kick-drum from the original recording attributed too much to wards the 'pop song' feel of the original.

A filter was put over the bass-line in order to subdue the sound very slightly so it wasn't so loud and bombastic and I also included a quiet cymbal   crash as the end as a replacement for the melody that I had previously had at the end.

Some 'reverb' was also added to the kick-drum to make it sound a little more natural, like it had been played live to a big room. The effect this had meant that the drums didn't over-bear on the rest of the instruments. However, I felt something went a little wrong during my editing as the drums appear to cut a out too soon at time. This is a problem that I shall rectify for the final version of the piece.

To add some extra effects (and to keep in with the theme of cars and motoring in general) I decided to add a sound effect of a car ignition before the music starts which slowly fades out. At this point, a sound effect of an electric car driving past fades in and plays under the music for the rest of the piece.

I am much happier with this version and have already received feedback from the rest of the group in regards to it and it appears to be positive. However, I still have a few problems with it. I feel that the bass-line is too fast, meaning that the drums need to pick up the pace and it makes the music sound a little bit rushed. To tackle this, I will re-record the bass-line to be much slower and then record and add parts from this version onto it.

4th Lecture: Censorship

Examine implications of 'freedom on British Media.

Independent Media:
-Free from political control.
-is anything we read or watch REALLY free from opinion and conjecture?
-Is it REALLY possible, or even DESIRABLE to have a network of media platforms which are 'FREE'?
-And if so, what is the price of FREEDOM and who does that benefit and disadvantage?

Office of Communication- OFCOM

-Ever since the early days of photography and film, people have viewed the visual media as potentially 'dangerous' to viewer's morals.
-the written word also been subject to moral scrutiny- obscenity is, relatively speaking, a modern invention.
-During the industrial revolution in Britain (late 1800's) such notions become particularly widespread- Victorian morality.

-Lady Chatterley's lover was first published in 1928 and almost immediately banned.
-Penguins 1960 re-issue became the first big prosecution.
-Caused outrage because of its graphic descriptions of sex.
-Becae the test case for the 1959 Obscene publications Act. Could avoid conviction if merit of literature was approved.

Mary Whitehouse:
-Became a voice of censorship
-Formed the 'national Viewers and Listeners Association' (now called Media Watch UK) in 1965.
-She had the BBC firmly in her sights.- Doctor Who was see to be too obscene.

What Mediawatch UK do:
-Lobby government and campaign against violent, sexually explicit and obscene material in the media.
-Initiate and simulate debate on the effects of television, video games and the internet.

Therefore- Is controlling 'the media' desirable?
-Implications
-Examples

Media Watch- stated achievements and aims:
-Legislation which made images of child pornography illegal.
-Encourages people to talk and think about effects of violent entertainment and pornography on society.
-Regularly called upon for comment by the media.
-Much of their current focus is online content and they created the website 'safeonline.org.uk' in response to a government consultation.

OFCOM- Regulating the media?
-OFCOM (the Office of Communications) is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.

Censorship and film: Some cinema history:
-In terms of the cinema, The Hollywood Production Code- 1930s is an interesting case study n moving image censorship.

'CONCEPTION VS PERCEPTION'

Meeting With Helen:

Today was our first meeting with Helen in which we would discuss our full plans, including how we wish to produce our package and live interview and see if she has any improvements that we could develop on and overall improve our work.

Before this, however, we decided that we should create a risk assessment  for our shoot next week so that we can take out the equipment as soon as possible. I was bale to create a risk assessment with the full list of the various addresses we are proposing to film in, also listing the many hazards that could occur as well as the amount of equipment we want to borrow from the studios.

We also decided that we should print off our script that we have all worked on various sections of. This was so we could show Helen that we have already completed it and she could give us improvements and we can change sections of it as we are given them.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I wasn't able to print out the risk assessment. We tried converting the file to different file types, each of us trying on our own systems and logins but the printer would not print it out. Thankfully we were able to print off the script before this problem occurred, though we only have one copy of it at the moment.

As for the meeting itself, I felt it went rather well. Helen appeared to think that our idea could work but there were still a few things that she brought up. The first was how we were going to present our package. Our package involves a comparison between an electric and standard petrol car to see which one is better.  The problem is that we do not actually have the scientific knowledge or expertise behind us to give an accurate report on this. it was mentioned that there would be many actual experts in the filed that would immediately contradict what we would have said if this was, indeed, a real news report. It was suggested that we take a lighter approach to this, much like in the non-factual sections of Top Gear where the team would say, personally which car they would prefer to drive and have fun driving them and comparing them. I personally felt that this was the direction that this part would take any but the rest of the group unfortunately appear to disagree, meaning that this package has just suddenly become harder to create and make a concept for.

Another improvement that was brought up was in regards to the live interview. Our plans for the live interview are to talk to our contact, Ajay, who has some expertise in  electric cars, seeing as he states that he has own a few but also driven most (if not all) electric cars that have been manufactured. The suggested improvement involved trying to get an opposing opinion on electric cars, seeing as Ajay already appears to have a positive outlook on the whole idea of electric cars taking over. Meaning that we should have a proposed battle of opinions on the subject.

Other contacts that were proposed to us to get were the RAC breakdown service. They could give us a clear idea of how difficult it might be if an electric car driver was to break down with no feasible supply around to power their cars. This could give us some negative opinions from another source that we could use to battle against Ajay's supposed positive arguments.

Unfortunately, due to some lack of communication on both my part and the rest of the groups, I wasn't able to stay around after the meeting with Helen. I had important business that needed attending to at home and had already made plans to leave at this time to accommodate for this. It wasn't conveyed to me until the very last minute that the group would be staying for another hour to sort out a few more things and I wasn't able to cancel my ride home at the lat minute. I unfortunately feel that this would be taken the wrong way by the rest of the group. I will just have to wait and see.

However, upon looking at their blogs, I have been able to see and catch up with what was discussed. I will develop on this during a future blog post.

Starting Work on News Report Soundtrack:

Due to my not being able to stick around at the studios for the sudden meeting that wasn't conveyed to me beforehand, I decided that I would start on creating the soundtrack for our News Report in order to make sure that I have made some input in the stead of what I had missed.

So far, I have created the first version of the our New Report 'jingle'/ theme which would play at the start of the News Report.
I had started looking at the music featured in various car adverts such as those advertising Tesla vehicles, as well as from car-orientated tv shows such as Top Gear and soundtracks to certain racing video games such as Gran Turismo to see if I can get a wider range of musical styles that have been incorporated into the overall themes of motoring.

For the opening theme, I cited the use of a prominent bass-line in a lot of music featured in motoring shows. The main bass-line features throughout all of the theme in a fast-paced loop with an equally fast-paced kick-drum playing alongside. To round off the short piece, I decided to include a bombastic 'orchestra-hit' tune that emulates the type of tune that might appear on a news report towards the start.

I also included a quiet reference to 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' (keeping in the theme of cars) where I emulated the sound of the engine and put it towards the end of the piece just after the ending jingle.

This is just a temporary version and will await feedback from the rest of the group to see if there is anything that needs changing.

Roads Marked for Kent Film Office

After contacting Kent Film Office in order to get permission for several roads, they replied, asking for a full risk assessment and the exact routes we would want to take a vehicle on the backroads. Here are screenshots of hastily made route plans using google maps and photoshop.

Thankfully, this appeared to be adequate for the film office to use once I'd sent them along with a completed risk assessment and they said they will put it forward to one of their Highway contacts.

Introduction to News Packages:

-Self contained news items.
-The news anchor needs to do more than introduce and finish the news item.
-The presenter must have a tag and location.

-What you shoot should drive what you write, and how you write should drive your editing
-Scripting is therefore important- use the script as a template for structuring and guiding your edit.

Storytelling:
Style
-Storytelling devices and motifs.
How you will introduce the key themes characters and locations.
-Engage the audience.
-don't forget to entertain as well as inform.

Reminders:
-Shoot Action
-Let the action happen
-Always set up the sequence for each interviewee.
-Close-ups are the best
-Remember to hold your shots
-The the subject enter and leave the frame.
-Take your time when setting up.
-think about shots prior to shoot dates.

Stages Of The Edit:
-The Sync Pull
-Rough cut
-Fine cut.

Important considerations:
-ensure your stories are appropriate to your brand and audience.

Idea developments
-Be clear about who you are making your news platform for.
-Ensure you check out othe online news outlets t be clear about what is already out there.
-Check your facts and sources- beware 'fake news'.

Mock News Report (Practice) Screening Feedback:

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dt5hxcIakWlA&h=ATPcX0Pcl0rXzkJVBtvAalFDS6soBStsxhMWxNurIbkRosR7GOwEYaOMPbPxdRFfpjz8AIt0N6HYzXfuJ3iRChHNZRPvH_MMZLfjiWJbFFFWYrSwfXsJOJh1ajGhUOpt337QjhqPwOxFCQ

Feedback given on screening of our Mock News Report:

Positives:

-Presenter is well framed.

-Green screen edit is well executed.

-Background picture blends well with the presenter.

-Good lighting.

Improvements:

-Never dissolve the cut.

-The banner at the bottom needs to be lower as it cuts out the presenter.

-Make the banner slightly translucent.

-The background for the reporter should not be black as it makes the reporter and interviewee look out of place.

-Need more camera movement during the report.

Call from a contact:

We recieved a phone call from a contact that George had acquired called Ajay. He owns an electric car, being an expert on the subject, and we have previously asked him whether we can borrow his electric car to film.

He phoned us to let us know that he will be happy to accommodate our request. We have been able to schedule this for 11am on Thursday 12th October.

This is great as we can now plan and script the news report and shooting dates around this date.

Phone interview with a Mechanic

Today, we have decided to ring several contacts in order to help us map out our script so we know what specific order of events the News Report would form:

We were in contact with a local engineer named Ian at a garage in Basildon. However, we were unable to reach Ian so we went looking elsewhere.

We instead found somebody at a car dealership in Monmothshire named Boe Harper who was happy to answer any questions we had.

Here are the questioned we decided to ask him (plus his answers): 

-Is it harder to maintain an Electric Car?

Health and safety? Physically, No.

-Is it cheaper to MOT?

Theoretically, the only difference would be the lack of an emissions test. Otherwise, it is the same.

-Do you find many issues with electric cars or are they genuinely more reliable?

None really, except for Health and safety issue- Electric batteries are high voltage etc.

-Would you personally own an electric car over a petrol car right now and, if so, why?

No, there are still a few issues to think about- Battery life is still too low. Development needs to go a bit further than it is at this point. Long journeys might be a problem due to the lack of charging ports. Long charging times.

-Would electric cars be cheaper to run?

Depends on prices of charging ports and how much electricity is needed.

These answers would indicate that there isn't too much incentive to convert to electric cars at this time according to his opinions. Meaning that the current state of the electric car industry does not possess any clear advantages at this time.

More Work Done Over Skype (2nd October 2017) : Locations Around London

It was decided that we would do another Skype call later that day. This session consisted of finding potential locations to film in London. The idea is to spend a day in London trying to capture shots of technology and industry and how they have developed. We would use shots of different buildings built in different eras to show the progression in technology over the years. This would link into the theme of technological advancement which is reflected by how vehicle technology has slowly developed over time; starting with the petrol and diesel cars and then developing into the new electric car.

We each started looking into different kinds of landmarks that we could film at. Several notable locations found and proposed included the BT Tower. This is an obvious inclusion as it was built and completed in the 1960s and is a representation of both architecture and the technological advancements for the time.

Another location was Battersea Power Station. This building's completion dates back even further into the 1930s. This would allow us to show an earlier time in the technological and industrial scene. As it was also used for the purpose of providing electric power until 1983, this seems an appropriate location to fit in with the themes of an electrical car.

ArcelorMittal Orbit was a building that I suggested being as it is a relatively new structure. It was built to serve as an observation tower and to mark London's 2012 Olympic games. It is more of an artistic statement than an actual a building used for any sort of industry. However, rather than showing a revolution or development in the industrial or technological scene, it does display a more futuristic vision that reflects on the proposed vision of electric cars for the future and thus I feel that footage of this structure would work well to fit in with these themes.

The only reservation I have for the whole idea of filming in London (and one which I shall put forward to the group) is that this can easily be done with stock footage. I personally feel that it would save us time and also the hassle of having to carry the expensive equipment around busy London.

I'm also not sure if I will be able to make it to this shoot personally due to difficulties with both travel and various things currently occurring at home. I will, however, try to make up for this through a greater contribution in other areas of the project such as creating our news report soundtrack as well as featuring as the news anchor in the studio for the final project itself.

Kent Film Office Application:

I have sent in an application form to the Kent Film Office in order to see if we can use the various backroads that we have looked at over the past couple of weeks.
This is how the responses and answer panned out via email:

Hi Andrew,
Thank you for registering your project.
Can you please supply me with more details of what is involved in your shoot? Does it involve any driving or is it just presenter by side of road talking to camera?
Kind regards

Thank you for your quick reply.
There will be driving involved. Ideally there will be a couple of ‘pieces-to-camera’ from a fixed position inside the car. The driver will not be distracted by this in any way. We also plan to film the car driving past from a safe place behind the aforementioned barriers with no presenter on site. Will be happy to provide any more info if needed.
Thank you

Hi Andrew
Thanks for coming back to me.
For the driving and camera in the car we will need a risk assessment which includes details of how the camera will be secured to the vehicle. Also could you supply us with a google map of driving route and external camera points. Once we have this I can put the request into Highways.
Any questions let me know.

Kind Regards

I have responded to this last request, of which I have put in a future blog.

Work Done Over Skype (2nd October 2017) :

Yesterday, we decided that we would try and get some work done over Skype. The main things we wanted to sort out were to do with our Branding. I was planning to ask about this anyway as I needed to know the name of our News Channel which I am hoping to include in the soundtrack somehow.

We eventually agreed on the name: 'Car-ology'. Though I found that this name has been used before (upon some searching on Google), I feel that it is a good name for the News show seeing as it sounds technical as well as blending 'Car' and 'Technology' together in the name (if a little Haphazardly).

A logo was also devised by the group. The logo consists of a white 'C' on a blue background and car wheel by it's side representing the 'O' as 'Car' and '-Ology' respectively.

We also managed to make a Youtube channel as well as a twitter account in the hopes of generating several updates per week. This will certainly help us to make the News Channel itself look more like a professional site

On top of this we started to form the running order for the News Piece itself, a completed form of which I will publish in a future blog.

Small Problem- Change of Plans

Unfortunately, the plans to test drive an electric car from the Smart department of Mercedes Benz in Chatham fell through as they could not put any mileage on the only electric car they had with them.

Because of this, we have each reached out to several motoring companies that are close to us and we know who deal with Electric Cars.

Here are some that I found:

Enterprise Rent-A-Car
James Street, Chatham ME4 4AH
01634 828222
enterprise.co.uk


JCB Volkswagen Medway
Gillingham Business Park, Bailey Dr, Gillingham ME8 0PZ
01634 649551
thejcbgroup.co.uk

Mercedes-Benz & smart Dartford
Burnham Road, Dartford Kent DA1 5BL
01322 294414
mercedes-benzretailgroup.co.uk


Cooper BMW Tunbridge Wells
Longfield Rd, Tunbridge Wells TN2 3UE
01892 628105
cooperbmw.co.uk

Here is a variation of an email I sent each dealership (This is the Mercedes Benz Variation):

Hello, I am a student at studying at the Maidstone TV Studios and we are currently in the process of making a news report on the future of cars such as with the rise of electric cars. Upon research, I have sited your company as one which deals in Electric transport and the have also site the dealership in Dartford as the nearest to our campus. Would it all be possible for use to either test drive an electric car (under the appropriate conditions) or at least be able to capture some footage of the dealership and the electric cars on show there?

Thank you.

Emergency Email:

This was an email devised by Alex for us all to send to various car dealerships after we received news from the Mercedes Benz Smart dealership that we could not use their electric car:

The Whitewall Centre, Whitewall Rd, Rochester ME2 4DZ

To whom this may concern,

I am writing after being redirected to you regarding our University project. We have been challenged to make a TV News piece about a subject of our choice. We are passionate about the future of cars and we honestly feel electric is the future, hence why we would get in touch with you guys!

The general idea of the project is to show the advantages of electric cars and how they are pushing car technologies, our idea is to compare it to a normal fossil fuel powered car and show that electric can do all that fossil fuels can and do it in a much cleaner way for the environment.

So, we would love to work with you on this idea and ideally if it is possible we could borrow one of your cars for a few hours to get some shots for the film as well as an opportunity to drive it and experience it for ourselves. I am 21 years old, held my license for over 3 years with no accidents or claims and our university has public liability insurance.

I hope this can be something we can work with you on, we'd love to work with the biggest electric car brand on the world. We have to upload to our university youtube channels but ideally I would upload to my personal channel which has 52,000 subscribers and last month had 1,200,000 views, hopefully this can be extra promotion (I assume you don't need it though!)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlexZAfRo

Anyway thank you for reading we really appreciate your kindness over the phone and we hope we can sort something out!

Alex Baldwin