I blog, you blog, we all blog!!

I had a chat with one of my media lecturers from college, Jon Randle today, and we were discussing how to promote myself, my radio show and making wider contacts in the media industry.

Jon made some good suggestions, like promoting myself on Twitter. Having created an account only 2 days ago (but not yet got my page up and running), I decided to start using this social networking site more productively and have now added some useful media contacts and interests onto my “friends” list. Having used Myspace for my music contacts and Facebook for general friend finding and getting information out to a wider audience quickly, i believe Twitter is the next step forward to finding and following media people and industries and hopefully getting myself known.

Jon also suggested coming to “Shooting People”  meetings. This is where other like minded people in the movie making industry like directors, producers, camera operators, script writers, muscians and actors etc meet and network with each other. It would be an opportunity for me to ask for advice and offer my services to other people and possibly get a helping hand to where i want to be.

I spoke to Jo Gaffney who also works at Henley College. She has a group of college students who are looking to get involved with the university radio station at Coventry University. I offered to help out as much as I can by allowing small groups of 4 students to come on my show and experience what it is like in the studio. I would also show them how to use the mixing desk and help show them how to prepare for a radio show. Looking to the future, Henley College are also looking at creating a radio station and I have also offered to help train the students how to use the equipment and control a show.

My next immediate steps are to begin creating a demo of my best bits of my radio shows so far and possibly making a podcast that could be used on the Coventry University podcasts.

Check out Jon Randle’s site at www.mindriotproductions.co.uk

Keep listening to me on source radio every monday 4-6pm with the Rock / Alternative show on www.sourceradio.co.uk

Filed under: Media Interests, Personal Development | No Comments »

Show 9 of The rock / alternative show.

A good prepared show with some good talking points.

Performed with Leon and Nick from CCM. Some good banter between the 3 of us in the newly decorated studio. Only down points were that on 4 links we talked for too long and my beds ran out (1 problem with having so many guests but i can resolve this with future shows by having a 2nd bed lined up to take over when bed 1 finishes or alternatively limit what my guests say).

My listeners peaked at 27 and i kept those 27 listeners all show. They may have been fans of the previous show who stayed listening to mine but if that was true then at least i kept them listening to mine. Or they may even have all been fans of my show which is even better!!

Keep listening to me 4-6 every monday on www.sourceradio.co.uk

Filed under: Source Radio | No Comments »

My first mention in the university newspaper

Keep listening to me on Source Radio every Monday 4- 6pm on www.sourceradio.co.uk

Filed under: Media Interests, Personal Development, Source Radio | No Comments »

The Task

Create a singular press advert centred around the images of Disability vision that communicates the Clarks shoes proposition “Enjoy expressing your own sense of style through fashionable shoes that are comfortable enough to wear everyday”.

Demonstrate how disability can be incorporated into creative work in a way that enhances the brand and is a positive portrayal of disabled people.

This is what my group produced. We were trying to show MENTAL disability, tag line – Mad About Shoes!

Group members – Me, Rav Rakkar, Nic Urmston, Aivaras Zujus, David Csoka, Sabina Pasaniuc, Chris

Big thanks to Sabina who did a great job with PhotoShop.

Filed under: 1st yr group project, Personal Development, Under-represented groups in the Media | No Comments »

Talk from Steve Brookes

 In preparation for our Activity Task, we had a guest speaker, Steve Brookes open our eyes to some facts about disabilities.

He pointed out that disabled people were excluded from mainstream advertising products and asked us if we could think of any recent adverts where a disabled person has been used.

We could think of none. Although i do not agree with the advertising agencies for choosing not to use a disabled person in their adverts, i can also understand why it is not common. After all, the majority of advertisements use somebody glamourous and “perfect” to try and sell the consumer their product. We are always made to believe we could be that good, If we spray Lynx on us, then women will love us, if we drink Red Bull then we can fly, if we drink Pepsi Max then what we want, we will get!

Of course none of these things are true. They are unique selling points that make these adverts stand out from the rest……and of course they sell.

Steve Brookes then proceeded to give us facts:
1. 11million people from England’s 60million population are disabled.
2. 2.2% of that 11million are wheelchair disabled
3. £50billion a year is spent on the disabled

I was surprised about this, but on reflection it was not that big a shock. I have never been in a group where i have been outnumbered by people who are disabled and yet at the same time i have been in school, college, university and work where there has been at least 1 – 3 people that i know of who are disabled. And again, when we think of someone who is disabled, our first thoughts are “wheelchair” but as Steve said, this only accounts for 2.2% of the disabled population. There are many disabilities that go under the radar of a non disabled person as we only notice someone is different when there is a difference in appearance.

This advert above does a great job of showing disability in a fun way without offending, yet getting the point across how to understand disability.

This Addidas advert does a good job with it’s tag line “Impossible is Nothing” proving that even a disability can not stand in your way to do what you enjoy.

Filed under: Coventry Conversations, Personal Development, Under-represented groups in the Media | No Comments »

Photo shop

My knowledge of Photo shop is very basic, having only used it in college previously for a small project. However this refresher was extremely helpful in getting me reacquainted with the tools and functions required to change a standard picture into something new.

With this picture i have merged 2 pictures together and added a slight blurring effect on the bottom layer picture of the water lilies.

I have used the same picture twice here, the bottom picture is the un-edited picture and the top picture the amended version with a motion blur effect. I wanted to make a type of mosaic, like the famous Andy Warhol paintings. With a little more time and a better choice of picture, i think this could have been achieved and would have shown the full effects of Photo shop.

Filed under: Personal Development, Workshop | No Comments »

Under – Represented Groups in the Media

 In our small group of 5 we discussed our media texts that we all brought in.

Person No 1. Showed us a YouTube video of  Deaf people trying new procedures to be able to hear and learn how to talk and pursue their job ambitions. It was interesting as she was correct to say that this type of programme is not hyped up and broadcast for the masses. Person No 1 had a special interest in this programme herself as she is partially deaf and wanted to find something she could relate to.

I think she was the intended audience and the programme attempted to inspire other people with disabilities to keep trying to pursue their dream job. The programme was a documentary which educated non disabled people too and gave them an insight into not only the problems and frustrations a deaf person may encounter but also the pleasures they can obviously still feel.

As we discussed this point further, we found that a lot of people when seeing a person in a wheelchair will tend to talk to the person pushing them and make little eye contact with the disabled person. Is the person being intentionally rude? Or are they just not used to be around someone with a disability? and therefore are just trying to be polite by showing interest without staring.

Under represented group = Deaf people

Jason . I provided the movie magazine, Empire. I identified the obvious that it was a magazine for movie enthusiasts and i felt it was for both sexes. However after discussion with the group (who were all female) my thinking was changed as they felt it was a men’s magazine. I could understand why, as I’m a regular buyer of the magazine and i know their covers are always good looking action men or on very rare occasions when they do use a female on the cover, the female will be a sexually provocative figure (think Lara Croft). Another good indicator that would have swayed me to the thinking that it is a predominantly male audience would be to look at the advertisements inside – shaving products, pcs, games, aftershave.

Under represented group = Females

Sabina . Showed us the Metro newspaper. She felt that the paper appealed to everyone, sport for men, fashion and entertainment for women, news for all. However when we identified the advertisements more closely, it suggested that most of them were aimed at men.

Under represented group = Children

Person No 3.Showed us a women’s fashion magazine. She identified that all the models were size 6s and not the national norm of a size 12+ and also a lot of the pictures were airbrushed and therefore superficial.

Under represented group = Real women, size 12+

Person No 4.Showed us fashion magazine, Company. She identified that women of ethnic origin were used to show ugliness in a column.

Under represented group = Ethnic women

Filed under: Personal Development, Under-represented groups in the Media | No Comments »

Critical Dialogic Reflection

What is in Reflection?

1. Thinking about the bigger picture

2. Considering what could have been done differently

3. Judgement & Analysis

4. Personal Observation

5. Different ways of looking at things

What is in Critical Dialogic Reflection?

1. Analyse the situation & see if it can be improved

2. Look at situation from different points of view

3. Learn from mistakes

4. Evaluate

5. Introspection

6. Improve yourself

7. Alternative solutions

8. Use theory, facts & ideas

Grading Reflection

1. Descriptive Writing: What happened

2. Descriptive Reflection: Thoughts & feelings

3. Dialogic Reflection: Alternative explanations of events, weighs competing claims and viewpoints and then explores alternative solutions

4. Critical Reflection: Dialogic plus contextual awareness & theory

Provided by Hatton and Smith 1995

Filed under: Personal Development | No Comments »

Writing a Critical Review

Having attempted to write a few critical film reviews already this year (East Asian Films) and thinking I had done a reasonable job, I have found that reviewing is too personal.

Looking back at the reviews I have already done, I realise I have made the common mistake of reviewing a film with a very detailed synopsis including very strong personal opinions on the film. I should have a taken a step back and reviewed the film for what it is and not to include my own personal opinion that “it was good” or “it was bad” as at the end of the day, does the person reading my review really care if I enjoyed the film? After all they will make their own minds up and decide if they want to watch the film or not, I know that’s what I would do anyway.

Overall Im not too disheartened with my earlier efforts because I do feel that I have made attempts to try to contextualise different texts together to back up a statement or add substance to an argument and therefore have tried looking for theory and facts to try to show the reader that I have knowledge in the subject I am talking about.

Going forward, I need to remember to keep the synopsis separate from the actual review and as I critically review the film or music etc I need to look at other aspects of the text and analyse those further, whether that be noting that the special effects is similar to other films that a particular director has made or any issues that occur in the film that are relevant in today’s world perhaps.

Filed under: Personal Development | No Comments »

Show 8 of The rock / alternative show.

A slightly rush planned show due to a busy uni schedule.

Performed with Chris who last sat in with me on show 5.

Received feedback from him and he said i have improved with my links and how i talk since he was last on.

Also after finding out how to keep track of listeners last week - i found i peaked at 10 and averaged around 9 listeners. My fan base is expanding!!!

Keep listening to me 4-6 every monday on www.sourceradio.co.uk

Filed under: Source Radio | No Comments »