Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Added (LOs mentioned)

Comparisons of a physical to a digital portfolio.

LO2
(M2)



There are many reasons why someone may choose to create a physical portfolio or a digital one as that there advantages and disadvantages to each a few examples of these would be the cost of having a physical portfolio. From my table it can be seen that there is a lot of different equipment required in creating a physical media profile if it is to look professional. One example of this would be how I would have to print out all of the pages of my magazine (Which is one of the pieces of media  I plan to use in my profile) which would be both time consuming and costly as that to get a piece of work like this printed in a way that it suitable for it to be shown to a client (On glossy paper) I would either have to invest in a printer, paper and Ink for the task or order copies from a printing company. It would be much easier to show my journalism work as that I would only have to print that on regular paper but my trailer would again be problematic as that I would have to invest in either a blank DVD disk which I can then upload the film to or a USB drive or Hard drive with enough memory to support the file which would be in a High definition MP4 format. This seems to be a long way around presenting the work to a potentioal interviewer as that I could just upload all of these pieces to the internet (the Magazine pages as high quality JPEGs, the Journalism documents as PDFs and the trailer as an MP4) perhaps using my own website as have some of the examples form my LO1 research have. As well as this there is also the cost of a folder to keep all of this work inside of and the potential of losing a physical portfolio.
On the other hand there are advantages to having a physical portfolio especially when it comes to having paper copies of work such as the magazine pages and journalism work. This is simply because it may give a more professional appearance if brought into an interview due to the high quality of the printed pages. As  well as this a website can be challenging for some as that not everybody is a digital native and may struggle to use the internet to find my work.


LO3 p4


Piece one: Forge Magazine:

I created this product using a multitude of different pieces of software such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and light room. This software was very useful in creating the magazine as that it is layer based editing software that is used professionally to create industry standard magazine designs. however, design software is not ideal for uploading to the internet as that it is so large and requires the user to have the software installed on their device which most people will not. For this reason I repurposed the magazine pages by exporting them all as the highest quality of JPEG file (which while lossey is very high definition) I could access which allowed it to be of a smaller size and therefore unloadable and viewable by anyone who wanted to see it. The best quality file type I could have used for the pages of the magazines would have been TIFF (Tagged image file format) as that it is lossless. This however means that it takes up far more space of a computer and would not be supported by Blogger or Wix I used to create my profile.

Piece two: Journalism work.

Repurposing a word document is a very easy decision to make. As that word file cannot be uploaded to the internet my only real option was to export the documents as PDF files whixh mean that my writing stays the same and keeps its formatting and it is read only meaning that nobody visiting my website could change my work or delete it.

Piece three: The White Room Trailer:

Repurposing this work for upload was difficult due to the fact that there were several options open to me. TO start with the most simple way to keep a hold of the final trailer which I had created was in exporting it from premiere where it was created as an MP4 then uploading it t YouTube as an MP4 file and then linking the video to my website so that a user can easily view the video in a way that will be familiar to them as that YouTube is an extremely popular and accessible platform. As well as this Wix contained the option of simply uploading the video as an MP4 straight onto the webpage which was my initial plan but could not be achieved due to the upload size cap on the website which was smaller than the size of the file which I had created. There are very few lossless video formats which would be available to me for use and even if they were it would be impossible for me to feature them on my website.






LO3
(M2)

Each of the pieces of work I have created that will be used in this portfolio have several issues linked to them. Below I have discussed these issues (legal and ethical) and how I have overcome them so that there is no risk for my portfolio going against any requirements.

1) Magazine pages.

There are many different issues that I encountered when creating this magazine. The first is the use of my model "Abbigail Holland" who was on several of the pages. As to avoid any legal trouble I made sure that I took all of the pictures for these pages myself and did not use any that anyone else has created as that they may then have the right to sue me for violating the Copyright Designs and Patents act which would give them permission over their photos. As well as making sure that no other media companies threatened legal action I ensured the Holland could not sue me for her portrayal in my magazine by having her sign a release and consent form, a legally binding document which handed complete authority of the pictures and interview taken with her to me in order to create the magazine. I have inserted this document below:

In the creation of a magazine it is not only legal issues that need to be catered for however. I took great care to avoid the use of any offensive (Racist, sexist, etc.) messages, terms or symbols in the creation of my magazine as to make sure that nobody would feel that they were being targeted in a negative way by Forge magazine.


2) Journalism work.

Journalism is a vastly regulated sector of media for good reason, a misrepresentation of a person or organization can potentially have catastrophic consequences. It is for this reason that I had to make sure that when I was writing my piece I made absolutely no implication that just because there was no memorial event planned as of yet that there was some malicious intent behind that. This is because doing this could come under Libel which could have landed me in serious legal trouble. As well as this I had to ensure that my article did not contain any content that could be seen as offensive of discriminatory to any group in society or political ideology. I feel like I have handled these requirements well as well as making sure that all of the work I have created myself and the sources that I have quoted are referenced in a  way that is professional and in line with the industry.


3) "The White Room" Trailer.

when creating the trailer for the film the white room there were many challenges both legal and ethical which we had to overcome. Firstly we needed to make sure that it would be legal for us to circulate the names and likenesses of the people who appear in the film as that we planned to disrobute the trailer online once it was completed. THis meant again making all of the major characters who starred in the trailer sign a release and consent form in order to give up any legal control they have over the use of their talent for "The White Room" project. THese are featured below:




As can be seen here all of these forms are signed meaning that we had the right to use the scenes with our four major actors in them. The legality of our product was still in jeopardy however as that we wanted to use a ticking sound effect to pace the trailer. This meant that we had to find a website which would contain such a sound, have it available for download a well as being completely royalty free. We found this site in the form of www.Freesound.co.uk which features thousands of noises, sounds and pieces of music completely royalty free. This meant that we could download our noises from this website and therefore use it for free in the trailer that we were producing.

Finally it was very important to us to make sure that we created a piece that did not convey any harmful or discriminatory attitudes toward any group of people in society. this meant making sure that the casting processes were kept open to people of all backgrounds in order to ensure that it was equal. In ethical issues for creating a trailer we also had to ensure that the film itself in its narrative and messages did not convey any stereotypes of messages of intolerance as that this was never our intention.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

LO3 - Final Website

To create my personal profile I used a web design service titled "Wix" over the course of a few hours I created a website which I felt fitted the codes and conventions of the websites which I studies in LO1. I made sure that it looked creative and gave a reader a lot of information for me.

For the majority omg the work I have uploaded to the website I have used the file types which I stated that I would for LO2 however for the section devoted to my film trailer I had to attach a youtube link as that the MP4 file was too large to be on the website.
Each of the pieces of work that I have stated would be on the website have their own pages and the title page has a general introduction to me as a person and some of my contact details. I have tried to make the homepage look as much like my visualisation diagram as possible.


Below I have placed several screenshots of the website as well as a link to it.

This is the visualisation diagram I created for my website. 
https://11mcleanf.wixsite.com/personalshowcase






The programme (WIX) ustilises a fairly simplistic drag and drop approach in creating the site which made it possible to create what I have above with ease. The only change I had to make was the film trailer. I had originally planned to insert the video to the website as an MP4 file but WIX has an upload limit which the trailer surpassed significantly. this meant that I either had to sacrifice the quality of the video or find another say to include it.
In order to upload the clip I inserted the youtube link to the trailer so that the viewer could simply go to youtube and watch the piece there.




LO3 - Justification.

Piece one: Magazine pages. 

I have chosen to use this piece of work as that I feel that it shows off my ability to create a visually pleasing piece of print media as well as my ability to target an audience which is contrasted well by the audience I was aiming at with the audience for unit 7s WW2 article. As well as this the use of indesign, photoshop and Lightroom shows my wide range of expertise in different media programmes which will go further to convince someone that I am capable of working in a university environment where new information must be absorbed quickly.
For this piece of work I will upload it to the website as a collection of high quality JPEG files. This is because they can be high quality but they are also very accessible meaning that the website will still be accessible to anyone who wants to view it. I will also include explanations for each page that I upload so that a viewer can understand why I have chosen them and what purpose they served towards my final product. 

Piece two: Unit 7 Article: 


The reason that I have chose to upload this piece of work is because I feel that it is logical to include examples of journalistic work on my website as that I would be going for an interview in ajounalism course. This article shows how I can research a particular topic and write out my findings in a way which is well structured and interesting to read.
I plan on uploading this piece of work as a PDF file as that it is a read only file which can be uploaded in high quality and not be edited by people online. For this reason I would feel comfortable uploading it for potential interviewers to see. 

Piece three: Unit 7 article analysis 

As well as being able to write articles it is also important that an undergraduate student studying the subject would be able to understand the codes and conventions of a news article. Being able to properly iunderstand who an article is being targeted towards through its tone, mode of address, coding, political bias etc is of vital importance. These are the skills that I feel that I have shown I understand within this piece of work.
Again this work would be uploaded as an PDF file. 


Piece four: Unit 15 film trailer

While it is very important to show that I have a keen understanding of journalism I feel that I also want to show some of the other work that I have completed as part of media qualification as to show a viewer a more clear image of myself as a person. This piece of work I feel does this perfectly as that it shows how I'm capable of filming a project and working with a team in order to create a product. As well as this understanding how much work goes into creating media products such as this one is very important for the interviewer so that they can see how much work I am prepared to do for their course. 
I plan to upload this piece as an MP4 file as that it is a high quality format. However, I feel that it may be necessary for me to contain only a youtube link to the project due to the fact that an MP4 may be too large to be contained on the website. 

LO3 - Legal and ethical considerations for each piece of work.

Unit 3: legal and ethical considerations and Risk assessments

Obscene Publications Act:



The publication of any material that will negatively impact the reader base that you are attempting to reach. (promotion of alcoholism or drugs for example.) For my magazine it is important that i do not put to much emphasis on the "rock and roll lifestyle" (That being an over-indulgence of alcohol and drugs.) As that this could effect my young target audience as that they may feel a need to mimic people they look up to and therefore have this lifestyle themselves. I should make sure to put emphasis on the music itself and not on the stigma surrounding it while writing Forge. 

As a part of this it can be seen below that when writing the questions for the interview i will be conducting with "Glass Hearts" that i have been careful not to include anything that could be considered offensives

I will also ensure use little to no foul language (swearing etc.) unless it is in the interview as that i want that to be a fair representation of the persona of the band. I do not feel the need to completely censor profanity as that i am targeting a 16+ target audience but i will use partial censorship (s**t, f**k) if a piece of obscene language is used. 

I will also ensure that i will use an equal representation of models (that meaning a equal distribution of ethnic and gender groups. 

Libel Law:


Libel law refers to publication of untrue (or unproven) information hat could be Harmful to a persons character.
To avoid any breach of this law i would always use the term "Allegedly" when a piece of language that could be considered libel 
I will also ensure to show all of the members of the band i am interviewing my article about them before I publish it and sign a release and consent form which will give the rights of use of all created media to the producers of the magazine.   


Copyright:


Copyright law gives the rights of use of a product (that being Literary, dramatic, artistic, Musical, Typographical arrangement of published editions, sound recordings, and film.) 

If work is copyright protected then you are by law not allowed to: 
Copy the work.
Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public.
Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.
Adapt the work. 

This affects my work in that I will be featuring places which have established brands and therefore I must gain the copyright holder's consent (on a written form) before i can feature them in my work.

Laws of contempt:


Laws of contempt protect those facing legal action as that an audience can be easily swayed against one side of a legal dispute by the way in which they are informed about it. 
In order to avoid violating this i would ensure to avoid reporting on ongoing legal disputes and if i must i would present it from a very impartial point of view as not to agitate anyone involved in the case.
In terms of my magazine court cases could include those of local venues being sued due to noise complaints and other disputes of this nature.


Ethical issues:


Forge magazine is a publication that attempts to encapsulate a whole city and therefore must be extremely diverse in terms of representation (Ethnicity and Gender) within photo shoots. This will stop anybody being offended or feeling as if they are unwelcome within the magazines community as that i would not like the magazine to be accused or prejudice.



















Unit 7: legal and ethical considerations and Risk assessments:

For this unit I did extensive research on news values as well as following the regulations which I had set myself for unit 3.

Everything that is of importance to the public should be reported with all sides of a political discourse having their ideals and opinions fairly represented therefore no body should ever be stopped from sharing their views on a story or be forced out of a debate as that it is up to the public to make up their own minds about issues and formulate a response. If everyone is allowed to speak then unpopular opinions will not be as widely held as that they could be properly condemned.
Some topics are seen as more important than others do to the amount of potentially revenue that they can bring into a publication instead of the amount of people it may affect.
  • Frequency
How often something is in the news.
A good example of a large amount of frequency would be that of Donald Trump's presidency. For months as of march 2017 Trump has occupied the news every day for months and importantly not always regarding his presidency or politics.
Below is an example of a news article not regarding Trumps politics but building of of the audiences pre-established interest of him:

  • Threshold
The amount of superlatives or clear hyperbole of statement
Hyperbole refers to an exudation made to capture attention
This generally appears on the front pages of newspapers that use sensationalist methods to attract audiences.


  • Unambiguity
The exact facts that make up the story (A MAN AGED 26 HAS SHOT 3 DEFENCELESS ELDERS!)
Complete unambiguity can be seen in this article:

Drones are seen as an increasingly popular method for smuggling drugs and mobile phones into prisons, but having prison staff bring in contraband is also an effective route for prisoners.
A conversation with a prison inmate about football led James Almond to break the law himself.
The then prison worker was chatting about his favourite team Manchester United, when the prisoner he was speaking to suddenly asked him to bring in mobile phones, which are banned behind bars.
"He kept asking daily, and become aggressive with things he'd say," Almond says.
This was in 2014 when he was employed at Stocken Prison in Rutland.
The 33-year-old eventually agreed to bring phones in, and did so for a number of weeks before being caught, ending up in jail himself.

As can be seen here all of the facts are laid out explicitly straight away in the first few lines of the story.
  • Meaningfully and newsworthiness

This article certainly appeals to a ABC1 Audience who is politically aware.
I found it interesting due to the volatile nature of relations between Left wing Germany and Right wing America in the past few months.



  • Consonance
Agreement of ideology
This means that people are most likely to consume news from sources that they agree with.
For example when consuming news about the proposed second Scottish Independence referendum (which i disagree with) i would be likely to read an article that has the same outlook as me on the topic rather than one which would force me to question my own beliefs and challenge myself as that the first offers comfortable reassurance.
  • unexpectedness
unexpectedness refers to headlines and stories that are so out of the ordinary that they warrant the time that they take to read about them. For example the election or this story from the telegraph website:
  • Reference to elites
This refers to:

Politicians
The royal families
Musicians
Actors
Reality TV stars
Local celebrates
sporting personalities
local government officials

  • Personalisation
If one values personalisation then that means that a journalist tries the link the article to the audience through the use of techniques such as
Emotive language
Rhetorical questions.

  • Negativity.
People find negative news much more valuable than the positive.

















Unit 15: Legal and ethical issues: 

Legal considerations:

There are several legal issues that must be avoided when making a trailer for a film. The six that are of most relevance are below. 
  • Copyright, designs and patents act 1988:
This law protects the creations of people within the market place. It means that we are not allowed to take music which we have no claim to, or permission to use and other people are not allowed to steal scenes from our film and put them in their own products. 
For our product, we will need to gain copyright permission from the owners of the music which we plan to feature in our short film.    
  • Data protection act:
This law means that we have to be very careful to protect the contact information of the people who we have contacted for this film. It also means that we have to have our actors sign release and consent agreements so that they can appear in our film. This will include the actors in our film such as Joe Facer. 

Ethical considerations: 

  • Discrimination:
Discrimination refers to the hiring policy of our film. We must ensure that the policy of the film does not exclude anyone because of their ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation as well as this we must do everything in our power to make sure that our product is diverse.        

  • Representation:
Our film risks being accused of misrepresentation due to the protagonists being portrayed as middle class while the antagonists are to be working class (and are shown in the script to be struggling financially) To this end we will ensure that our characters are portrayed in a grounded and realistic manner which could not be considered offensive. 

BBFC AND OFcom: 

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is responsible for the classification and censorship of films released in the United Kingdom. The promo for The White Room would receive a "12" rating from the BBFC as it would feature a moderate amount of threat and violence with little to no explicit language. We will adhere to the BBFC guidelines by not using an excessive amount of explicit language or any graphic violence.


OFCOM is the UK regulatory authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. OFCOM are relevant to the trailer for The White Room as it is being distributed online. This means that it must abide by OFCOM's regulations if it is to be advertised online on websites such as YouTube. There are rules set by OFCOM (section 3 of the broadcasting code) that state they must prohibit material that is likely to incite crime or disorder. Although our film does show part of a kidnapping taking place; it is not overly graphic and I believe it does not incite violence.

5.) Based on your promo – how could people/ places be MISREPRESENTED? Give examples and state how you avoid/ prevent this.


The cafe that we use in the trailer could be misrepresented as there is a kidnapping the takes place outside of it. Obviously, there aren't kidnappings at the cafe (that I am aware of) so this could be a misrepresentation as the cafe as well as the surrounding area. Young men could also be misrepresented as they are shown to be kidnappers, however, we also use other young men in the story who are portrayed as kind and one of them is the person who gets kidnapped. This can help to counter the argument that we are creating a stereotype for young men.


6.) Based on your promo – where would you need to seek copyright permission – give examples. Be clear about how you would seek permission.


If we have a scene that features a recognisable brand we would need to ensure that we seek permission from the owner for use of the product. We will also need to get rights to the music that we use (if any) or any sounds as we are intending to use ticking noises in our trailer to create suspense. However, we are planning to use copyright free noises and if we do use any other noises we will try to ensure that they are copyright free. To gain permission for our noises we can find the website/owner and email them for permission to use the content.

 7) Based on your promo – which assets would need royalties for the intellectual property – Give examples. Be clear about how you would go about this.

We intend on having a ticking clock noise going over the video to build suspense, to avoid requiring to purchasing the royalties we will use royalty free audio track courtesy of creative commons, but may be required to give credit to the artist, this would depend on the terms and conditions of the provider, this must be checked before using the sound track. 


8) Value orientated frameworks – based on the purpose of your promo ( inform/ educate/ entertain/ promote/ advertise) – give  3 ways that you plan for your product to meet that purpose. How will this attract/ appeal to your audience?
  • The trailer will entertain the audience by build suspense up into the climax of the trailer where is gives a great indication towards the style and narrative of the product.
  • The video will promote the film by using title graphics to show the release dates and title of the product to build a brand identity and inform the audience on when they can access the product.
  • this will advertise the media product "The White Room" a short film about a kidnapped victim through giving an indication of style to the audience to target the demographic.