Jessica Searle

[jesmedia-blog]

Experimental Selfie

Photos can be deceiving. Everyone creates preconceptions about images they see online, when sometimes they do not see the full picture. From around 2009, taking a selfie has become a very popular trend. A selfie is a self-portrait photograph typically taken from a phone, or selfie stick. They are often shared on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Many people try to look flattering and appear casual, however since snap chat was introduced, more unattractive selfies have become a humorous trend. Most selfie’s are took at arm’s length, however I took mine close up to my face in an open frame, to show the emotion in my eyes which can be perceived in many different ways. Many people take selfies, revealing half of their face, which gave me the idea to get extra close, making the photo more personal. I also put a filter of black and white on the photo, to add more space for people to make their own judgements about my eye colour, making my eye easier to focus on, as a lot of colours can be distracting. There is a saying that “the eyes are the window to the soul” (Bancarz, 2015), which is why I chose my selfie to be a close up of one eye, which shows I am guarded, in order to not reveal too much about myself. Black and white photographs show a lot of power, and facial expressions would be emotionless without the use of someone’s eyes. Black and white keeps you focused on the actual composition and texture of the photo. It allows you to focus on shapes, light and shadows, lines and perspective (The Power of Black and White Photography, 2012). I feel like an eye selfie should be the next trend, where people focus solely on the eyes, emphasising the emotion they are trying to get across. My selfie is an example of a shot which tightly frames a person, in an effective way in order to capture their emotions.

References  

Bancarz, S.  (2015). Retrieved from Spirit Science and Metaphysics:  http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/scientists-discover-that-eyes-are-windows-to-the-soul/

The Power of  Black and White Photography. (2012, August 28). Retrieved from  http://blog.pho.to/the-power-of-black-and-white-photography/

[jesmedia-blog]

Comparative analysis on Gender Performance

In my comparative analysis, I will be looking at the presentation of women in the following 3 music videos; “Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift, “Run the World” by Beyoncé and “Worth It” by Fifth Harmony. Gender is a phenomenon that has been reproduced over time. Some would argue that we are born with a biological identity, however the culture we inhabit determines how we ‘perform’ gender. The media is a powerful element in the construction of gender roles in most societies, and these videos in particular all stand up for feminism and women empowerment. Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood music video talks about the empowerment of women; they can be soldiers and play with weapons as well, it doesn’t just have to be men as that is a cultural stereotype. Beyoncé’s music video sends an unapologetically aggressive message promoting female empowerment and gives women strength to be confident in themselves. An example of this, is the use of the lyrics "smart enough to make these millions, strong enough to bear the children, then get back to business," which indicate that women are intelligent and deserve a good education in order to show our strength and independence. In Fifth Harmony’s video, all of the female singers play a high class role, and in one occasion one of the girls is sitting on a table at her desk, with a male counterpart acting as her personal assistant in the background, which is normally stereotyped to be the female role. However in this case, they have reversed the typical roles of male and female, showing again that women are entitled to be in charge.

These videos also explore the idea of following our dreams, believing in ourselves and not letting gender get in the way of our true potential. Beyoncé’s video is loud and proud in its relentless message, which is shown when she is clearly rallying the troops to her side, indicating that women are capable of leading and men do not always have to be in charge. In Taylor’s video, the character she and many other women play varies from the role of a soldier, boxer, a spy, a robot, killers, as well as riding motorbikes. This represents them as strong, fierce, clever and brave women, doing activities that men would stereotypically be assigned to do, but who says women can’t do these things too? Similar to Beyoncé’s video, Taylor has many females by her side and acts as the head officer as she too leads her troops against the enemy. They are walking through the visual effects of fire, which shows that these women are indestructible and nothing will stop them. In Fifth Harmony’s video, one of the girls sing “If you don’t have a clue, I’ll tell you what to do,” which shows her authority and confidence within herself. The girls are staged in a group formation, coming together to show their dominance as women. Instead of the stereotype of women fighting or becoming bitchy with one another, the video encourages women to empower and support one another.

The three videos bring up a lot of stereotypes about gender. The role of women is stereotyped by society as being quiet, innocent or fragile, and to typically wear dresses, cook and do the housework, be submissive, look after babies, not being as strong or as smart as men and not being in charge. Most of the time, these videos show women doing the exact opposite to the typical female stereotypes. However in Beyoncé’s video clip they are fulfilling the stereotype of women as flirts, when she sings “my persuasion can build a nation” and her flirtatious behaviour is supported through costume such as her cut out black dress or the lingerie she wears. In Taylor’s video the costumes that are used are very revealing with tight clothing which shows their feminine features even though they are playing the role of males. This video also fulfils the stereotype of women as always looking pretty and presentable, as all of the characters have perfect hair and makeup. This is also reflected in Fifth Harmony’s video where every member is done up with flawless hair and makeup, as well as their cleavage showing through their outfits. The stereotype that women love to sing and dance is specifically shown as the girls have a choreographed dance routine throughout this music video.

Together, these videos inspire the audience to dare to live our dreams— be want we want to be, despite gender stereotypes. They show us that women are smart enough and strong enough to break any stereotypes, no matter what obstacles that get in our way. Gender determinants can change and we play a vital role as future explorers and inventors.

Links to the videos can be found below:

“Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo

“Run the World” by Beyoncé - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmMU_iwe6U  

“Worth It” by Fifth Harmony - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBHQbu5rbdQ

[jesmedia-blog]

Copyright Wars

Creative commons (CC) is an organisation that brought in a copyright to stop problems such as digital privacy. I will argue the fact that CC is a way for us to move forward, creating a future where people’s creativity is recognised and acknowledged. Creative commons is an effective, smart and reliable system that should be advertised more, as several people are not even aware of it, and how important full copyright is. Illegal downloading has an effect on many people in the music industry, so sites such as YouTube have encouraged CC to their users, so that they are given legal rights over their material and also prevents it from being stolen. CC licenses allow for information and creations to be used and remixed with the permission of the creator. Many people around the world are using creative commons such as websites online that hold materials with creative commons licenses, which all New Zealanders can access. Flickr allows photographers all around the world to share their photos, helping to spark creativity (Who uses CC? - Creative Commons, 2015). Soundcloud is a music sharing community that allows artists to upload its works under the full suite of CC licenses. Its set of tools integrate nicely across the web, with adoptions from well-known artists and labels (Creative Commons Music, 2015). Creative Commons have a vision – realising the full potential of the internet, to drive a new era of growth, development and productivity.

We need creativity in this world, in order to keep changing, improving and being the best we can be. Sharing our work allows others to enjoy and appreciate each other’s creativity, and Creative Commons has the ability to put stolen creativity behind us. In order to keep up with the advancement of technology, we need to come together and share our ideas.

References  

Creative Commons  Music. (2015). Retrieved from Creative Commons:  http://creativecommons.org/music-communities

Who uses CC? -  Creative Commons. (2015). Retrieved from Creative Commons:  http://creativecommons.org/who-uses-cc

[jesmedia-blog]

Media Device Footprint

Devices are very useful and beneficial parts of our lives. Even though electronics entertain us and allow us to connect with anyone around the world, their components are toxic to our environment. The media device I have chosen is an Apple IPhone, as 2 out of 3 people in the world own a phone, and I want to focus on Apple’s efficient environmental footprint. Ideally, we should be repairing our IPhones until they cannot be fixed, which will then allow us to recycle them, however this is not happening. Cerium is a substance used to polish our phones in order to make them shiny, but we have to mine in order to get it. Tree Hugger (Treacy, 2015) states that “for every million cell phones recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium could be recovered.” The alternative of manufacturing new smartphones, is to reuse the metals, instead of having to mine for new supplies, which can prevent further air and water pollution from the processes used to harvest the metals. Many of these are rare earth metals, which are in limited supply so it is vital to recycle them.

 Firstly, we should be trying to use our smartphones for as long as possible, by taking good care of them and not taking them for granted. There are many organisations where you can donate your used phone to, such as Apple, and some may even offer you cash or store credit in return such as Amazon. Apple has a very big profile, so they are under a lot of pressure to have environmentally sustainable products. They have developed a reuse and recycle program, where customers can bring in their old IPhone’s in exchange for credit towards a new model. Apple provides free shipping on e-waste returns, organises collection events and ongoing take-back programs with governments and universities.

 The extent of e-waste is truly astonishing and in the ‘Greening the Media’ reading (Maxwell & Miller, 2012) they talk about the ethical challenge towards media, encouraging them to do something in order to stop causing damage to our earth. The impact an IPhone has on the environment is huge, as it only lasts between 12-18 months, therefore there is a constant waste of IPhones. Apple has in fact worked with e-waste experts to calculate how their recycling programs could break down into raw materials. They discovered that certain materials like aluminium, steel, copper, gold, silver and palladium need to be mined from the earth and processed, which requires extensive land use and generates greenhouse gases and other emissions (Environment - Finite Resources - Apple (NZ), 2015). I think this source is convincing, as they provide us with examples (on their website) of how many materials they have managed to save from recycling.

 New Zealand recycles waste to other countries such as China or India, which is a huge problem in this industry. Apple, however, makes sure that all electronic waste collected worldwide is processed in the region where it’s collected — nothing is shipped overseas for disposal. The majority of their recycling is handled in-region, so they are able to ensure our recycled materials aren’t being dumped unsafely in developing countries. I am not sure whether this is true or not, as New Zealand does not yet have the recycling plants available to properly reuse plastics and other materials.

References

Environment -  Finite Resources - Apple (NZ). (2015). Retrieved from Apple:  http://www.apple.com/nz/environment/finite-resources/

Maxwell, R.,  & Miller, T. (2012). Greening The Media. Retrieved from  http://elearn.waikato.ac.nz/pluginfile.php/766873/mod_resource/content/1/MaxwellMiller.Intro.pdf

Treacy, M. (2015,  February 23). Retrieved from Tree Hugger:  http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/true-impact-not-recycling-your-old-electronics.html

[jesmedia-blog]

Analysis of other scenes

I have written a comparative analysis on 3 scenes, and determined whether those who created them, have used similar techniques and camera angles to what I used in my film. I will also look at whether the scene can be identified to the original movie, and what software was used to film each scene.

The first scene I analysed was retrieved from http://thatmediabuzz.tumblr.com/. This student created a scene from the popular teen movie “Easy A”. She used similar techniques to my video such as close ups and mid shot camera angles. She also recreated the scene very similar to the original one, so that I was able to identify the movie straight away. Unlike my film, you could tell this scene was shot from a camera instead of an IPhone, which meant her scene was higher quality and could be seen across the whole screen. Her film transitioned from shot to shot very smoothly, making it look very professional.

The second scene I analysed was retrieved from http://mjc84.tumblr.com/. This student created a scene from the popular family movie “Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone”. He used a continuous close up camera angle in the entire scene, which is different from the original scene, as I used a variety of different camera angles when filming my scene. The shots between characters did not transition smoothly, as it seemed to be edited with jump cuts, which made the scene look rushed and disjointed. In my scene I used two different actors, however he used glasses to distinguish the difference between characters. However, I was able to identify the scene with the original movie, as I know Harry Potter movies well, and the dialogue in this scene reveals that Harry is a wizard, so it is very popular. This scene is similar to mine as it is low budget, as it is shot from an IPhone, in a landscape format.

The third scene I analysed was retrieved from http://baileyrobertsonblog.tumblr.com/. This student created a scene from the popular action movie “Taken”. He filmed the scene in one long shot, using two different camera angles to keep the audience engaged. Having one continuous low camera angle shows how serious the scene is, and keeps the audience focused on the actor rather than having multiple shots, which is what I used when filming my scene. By zooming in on the actor, allowed us to feel the tension that was building up in the scene, along with the dark lighting that made the audience feel on edge, and in suspense waiting to see what was going to happen. The voice over at the end of the film, was exactly the same sound used from the original movie, which enabled the audience to identify the scene straight away. This scene was filmed using an IPad, which gave it low quality (similar to mine), which was quite rough, but at the same time gave it a more realistic and genuine vibe.

The first scene was more professional, and filmed with higher quality software and a variety of film techniques. It was also much clearer and easier to hear, than the other scenes I watched. The last two scenes were low quality, with not a lot of camera angles. However, I felt each scene I analysed was easy to identify with the original movie, and had at least some techniques that were similar to what I used when filming my scene.

Links:

Scene 1: http://thatmediabuzz.tumblr.com/post/126898521950/audience-response-was-easy-a-easily-identified

Scene 2: http://mjc84.tumblr.com/post/126366136801/i-chose-to-re-create-a-section-of-the-scene-from

Scene 3: http://baileyrobertsonblog.tumblr.com/tagged/taken-SMST102-bailey-recreate

[jesmedia-blog]

Responses to The Blindside video

I managed to get responses from a broader audience, so that I was able to gain constructive and honest criticism from anonymous sources, as well as from identified sources that were more positive and less critical. I made sure my responses came from active audience members that had all watched The Blindside and would therefore have positive connotations about the scene I filmed. The main pattern I got from my responses was how similar the reenactment of the original scene was. “Straight away I identified that this scene was from the blind side.” One of my anonymous responses said “The video was easily recognised as The Blindside due to the use of similar mise en scène and effective use of casting and accents.” Another responded with useful criticism as they said “videos filmed on a phone should always be filmed in landscape as it allows the use of a whole screen during playback”. 

My identified responses were also helpful, as I was able to recognise what I did well whilst filming my video. One of my responses distinguished the video by saying “there were smooth transitions between camera shots, which made it clear and easy to watch.” I was happy with this feedback as I spent a lot of time focusing on certain camera angles, and trying to make the transition from shot to shot as smooth as possible. Another identified response was from an audience member who could receive or decode the messages in a number of different ways, as they had a negotiated reading due the acknowledgement of the scene but with modifications reflecting of their past experiences. “I like how the close ups captured the emotion behind the powerful story from the movie, as the closed frame forced me to use my imagination as to what the character was thinking.” They also liked my use of techniques, by saying “The silence and lack of dialogue gave the film a more dramatic effect, which made me feel the emotion/tension between characters.” I was able to come to a conclusion that next time I was to film a video on my phone, I would use the landscape format, so that when the video is displayed on other media, it can fill up the whole screen. I also found that using specific film techniques enables your video to be more effective to your audience.

[jesmedia-blog]

I chose to recreate a scene from The Blind Side using a free application on my phone called VStudio. This specific scene is very emotional and it shows the reality of how underprivileged a lot of children are in the world. The movie is based on a true story, and I thought this scene in particular was inspiring; a rich women being charitable to a poor homeless boy, welcoming him into her home with open arms, and treating him like family. You cannot help but feel empathy for him, and feel inspired to help others who are less fortunate. I thought this scene represented the main theme of the film - giving the blind side a chance.

The techniques I used consisted of a variety of camera angles; including close ups when I wanted to focus on the powerful facial expressions of the actors, mid shots when the content was not as personal, as well as a tracking shot to show a bit of action. I made sure that the actors involved were using an indirect address, so that the audience were looking into the scene as outsiders, almost like a fourth wall. I also made sure that the background was silent, to put emphasis on the characters’ dialogue and make the film more dramatic.

I think the parts of my video that were successful was that I got the main message across from the original scene, and managed to get the same kind of camera angles that were used in the film. Looking back now, I realised I should have filmed my video in a landscape layout, but at least I was consistent in using portrait the whole time, and the film flowed quite nicely.