160MC:(“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): Farewell Nicola

Over these last few weeks my group and I have been working on our ‘character’ going missing (fitting in with the brief). This project was challenging in its own way, but also extremely creative. It tested us, not only as a team but also as individuals. As we had to incorporate all of our “Cabinet of Curiosities” into one idea, thus proved to be very interesting. For me this added to the whole idea of creating a ‘character’ as it made sure that all of our ideas were included in the final product, making us come together more. Helping us to further understand our peers and their thought processes through the blend of all our ‘visions’ and interests etc. Upon delivering our final presentation I would say it went well.

For me, we really developed our ‘artifacts’, which we fitted into our group portfolio. This included our case file and our characters diary (which was the main focal point). One of my peers (Liam) spent a lot of time writing the passages for the diary. I really felt he channeled our characters seventeen-year-old self extremely well. This was because he worked extensively on her thought processes, her emotions and of course feelings, in finding out she was adopted. He also added a lot of dark moments within the passages, engaging us even more (upon reading it).

I would say that as a whole team we worked off each other well. I would say that I organized all the group meets and schedules too with my other team member (Jana). This helped us to stay really organized and on time, in order for us to deliver on the day our presentation, the best we could. Furthermore this particular project helped us all to think outside the box as we really thought about the brief in an interesting way. For example we liked the idea of ‘adoption’ but wanted to add more to it. Thus thought of having a diary, whilst presenting out ‘pitch’ in a debrief form (similar to a live investigation). Where we’d compared what we had then and what we have now. Whilst referring to our characters diary at the same time, for our assessors/audience members to look into. Thus in this way involving them the best way we felt fit.

To describe this project in a few words I would have to say: fun, challenging and deeply engaging. I would be lying if I said that I felt we didn’t create a ‘character’ in their true form. As I really feel as a group we did. We did extensive research and added layers upon layers to our character each week. More so, that by the end we felt that our character was going away as we’d spent so much time with them (through the construction of them involving their back story too). Thus on an end note I’d like to finish off by saying thank you to my team for all their hard work and also thank you to all those who watched us today. I hope you understood Nicola’s story through her diary and the other evidence we presented as much as we did.

 

The Aviator: “Your Going to Make A Wonderful Grown Up”.

Director Mark Osborne (known for Kung Fu Panda) returns with his latest offering “The Little Prince”(2015). Based around the beloved French novel, animation merges with youth and love in this visionary masterpiece.

In short, the premise revolves around a young girl who’s growing up too fast, due to pressure from her mum. She is embroiled in a daily routine of study and nothing else. She commands her new house as her mum goes to work. However one encounter opens her imagination, letting her live her life as a child rather than an adult.

See Trailer below:

Having watched the film I found it to be very life affirming and also very tender. Considering that there are many themes underlined within the film. For example there is the theme of family, friendship, education, happiness and of course love. What’s interesting about these themes is that they are connected piece by piece, rather than appearing for a few seconds. For example at the start of the film there is the theme of ‘education’, when the main character goes for an interview. This is followed by the theme of family: when her mum plans out what she needs to do and organizes a full ‘2 week schedule’ revolving around her studying. This in itself represents the mother wanting her to grow up very fast, as she wants her to be an adult so she can be like her (as such). However after the girl has a meeting with her neighbor (The Aviator), she finds herself transcended into her imagination; dreaming beyond herself. Getting in touch not only with her true self but also her emotion too, as she learns to be free.

One line in the film (without giving anymore more of the story away) which I liked was: “Your going to make a wonderful grown up” (said by the neighbor). This line was really touching as it reinstates what its like to be young. Sending out the message to us all (those young) to not grow up so fast, to enjoy their youth as a young child and to embrace there imagination too. For anyone who wants to let their imagine run free, watch this film! Let your inner child be unleashed and most of all never let go of your dreams!

Trailer Review

Billington (2015): “I’m not so sure I want to grow up anymore…” Paramount has released yet another new trailer for the animated movie The Little Prince, based on the beloved story Le Petit Prince which is shown in this using stop-motion.

References

1) Cover Image:

Google Images: http://www.movierulz25.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/the-little-prince.png (accessed November 26th 2015)

2) (Youtube Video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPqgSNLfK8 (courtesy of Movie Clips trailers, published April 21^st 2015): Link accessed November 26^th 2015

3) http://www.firstshowing.net/2015/watch-lovely-full-us-trailer-for-animated-the-little-prince-movie/ (accessed November 26^th 2015). Article by: Alex Billington, November 2015/Source: Youtube

 

160MC:(“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): B’day Card

Today I worked on some ideas for our character’s 17th birthday card, which she receives from her real mum. Upon writing some paragraphs I thought of the following themes: abandonment, trust, loyalty and despair. I also thought about the lecture we had on ‘characters’. This helped me to portray our characters Mum in a more 3 dimensional way, through the use of emotive language and so forth. Thus in this way I tried to get across the themes (listed above) within the message which Nicola receives on her 17th Birthday by her birth mother.

Final Edit:

To my sweet Nicola,

I can’t believe your 17 already! Time has gone by really quickly. I hope one day you’ll understand the decisions I made. I always put you first baby girl, please understand that. Happy Birthday.

Love MUM (always and forever) xoxo

My group then gave me some feedback on my ideas.

• They liked how I formed my ideas in encapsulating a mothers ‘despair’.
• They further liked the tone of language I used for the mum.

 

 

160MC:(“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): Strengths and Weaknesses

Upon evaluating my performance during this project, I’d say my strengths were:

Good time management

Very enthusiastic

Very encouraging to other members of the team

Made sure all were involved in every stage (where possible)

Weaknesses

Nerves tend to get the better of me

Sometimes need to take the back seat in some situations

Team:

Overall:

Communicated well during last couple of weeks

Came together as one in the building of our character

Made sure to voice each of our opinions for us to be heard

To keep in mind next time:

– Assign roles right at the start so that its clear to each individual their purpose within the project.

• Set deadlines for tasks of all members to do and complete by

 

For me personally this project was challenging and very creative. It helped me to develop my team working skills, whilst also testing me in the long run. It further helped me to make myself vocal as I took on the leadership role on some occasions. Thus in this way I had to command the situation in an appropriate and firm manner. I would also like to think I was a good influence on my peers, as I kept them motivated along the way. Making sure that the sessions were creative, whilst necessary (in order for us to get things done). Thus working in a team of 6 with my peers was a very good experience. Some times there was low moral, but this was boosted by a good nights sleep, on many occasions. On an endnote this project was very well though out and extremely intuitive too.

 

 

 

 

 

160MC:(“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): Prepping for Final Presentation

Last nights session included looking over our feedback/organizing roles for our final presentation. For those who were present, we went over budgeting and our plan of action. Our plan of action included setting up our next meet, sorting out the budget for next week and delegating roles for our final final presentation for Thursday.

Although nerves tend to get the better of me in ‘marked assessments’, I’m quite looking forward to bringing our character alive. Now I don’t mean in the sense we are going to bring her in and interview her no. I mean how we are going to construct her diary and recite some of her passages to our peers. In this way they’ll understand our character much more and hopefully be engaged with her too.

Below is a collation of our ideas for our final presentation and the things which we need to get done:

As for progress today I’d say we did well. I made sure I was vocal in where I wanted us to be by next week. Further stating my views on what needs to be wrapped up pronto too. For those present (Liam and Jana), I’d say they were very enthusiastic, engaged and highly committed in today’s session. For myself however I would say I was away with the fairies for a little while (Goal 1= Get more sleep and stay energized). After the session ended I concluded by organizing another meet. For which I made clear on my groups whatsapp group, in order to make sure all could be present. So that we could start rehearsing and prepping for our ‘de-brief’ and ‘news report’ which we’d present to all, not to mention our characters diary too.

To end I’d say to myself for next time: “Be more pro active in order to really bring the session in more”.

 

 

160MC:(“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): Draft Presentation

Today we presented a draft version of our final presentation to our peers. Upon preparing for our pitch, I made sure my group knew what they were doing. This included organizing an agenda for the presentation. For example we decided to introduce our character, we then showed our news report. Next we read out some of our characters diary entries (compiled by Liam). This was followed by us presenting our case file, which was then followed by a Q and A.

Please see feedback sheet at the bottom of this post.

Personally I would say our presentation went well, considering that we received praise but also constructive criticism. Praise was aimed towards our complete idea, involving our characters premise. Whilst criticism was aimed towards our news report, which was very valid. Considering that the sound quality wasn’t very good, as an external mic wasn’t used. Whilst an ediroll also wasn’t used. Thus helped us understand the importance of editing s we’d been given a lecture on it, before hand. Thus my peers who were in charge of the editing knew what they had to do to improve the ‘news report’. Thus made it clear that they’d re-do it for the final presentation after getting sufficient tips from the lecture earlier.

After the session my group decided that in our next meet we’d go over roles for our final presentation, for our ‘brief idea’. We’d also make sure that all our paperwork was intact. By creating individual wallets for each of us, to put our input in. Collecting all the wallets up at the end within a pin button folder in order to keep things tidy and functional.

Other things, which were done today, included the recreation of the case file (by Jana) and also a ‘missing persons’ poster (created by Eddie). Upon seeing the case file and the poster, it made me feel really ‘involved’ in the character we’d created much more of. As I felt that she was coming to life even more, through the case file, posters and of course the diary entries (which my peer and I would be writing up later, including drawing up images for the diary too, with Matt).

Images below: Poster (1st edit, some spelling errors apparent)

Case file sample (By Jana):

 

Above includes our feedback from are draft presentation and our response to it.

 

 

160MC:(“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): Overlooking first edits of diary drafts/talking about draft presentation

In today’s session Liam showed us some of the passages he’d put together for our characters diary (see attached document below).

Nicky Diary Entries

After seeing Liam’s work on the passages I went around the group to assess Liam’s work (image below). This helped us to evaluate his work and to commend it too. Considering he’d put a lot of effort into writing the passages, as he really dwelled deep into our character.

Diary Passages: By Liam Spittle (Group Feedback)

After this I received the character profiles of our characters parents and her close friend from my team member Jana (see attached document below). For this my friend used a ‘name generating site’ to conjure these particular profiles. She then added to them, by editing in traits and so forth. Thus making the characters more realistic and relatable respectively.

Character Profiles CC (By Jana)

The session then concluded by my peers and I discussing our roles for our practice presentation.

Below were the topics we’d go into:

News Bulletin (introduced by Ashish and Jana)- featuring Eddie and Matt (filmed by Dilyan)- 1 minute

Introduce Case File (Created by Ashish)- ALL- 1 minute (bonus)

Diary Passages (by Liam)- Spoken by whole team- 4 minutes

Debrief (all)- 1 minute

Duration= 6 minutes (with a 4 minute Q and A coming in after)

In structuring our practice presentation like this, we felt it would flow better. Considering we’d all have an equal part in presenting, with many of us being present in the Q and A as well. Thus really coming together as a collaborative upon presenting a draft version of our presentation. Giving us that confidence that we’d need for a final presentation, in order to sell our character to our peers. Making it clear to them that someone has gone missing, so forth. One last thing, which was discussed, was that Liam would carry on with the diary passages, Whilst Jana and Matt would aid him in the drawings for the diary. Leaving the rest of us to formulate the brief and to delegate speaking roles (where needed) for it.

 

 

 

160MC:(“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): Further Preparing for Our Draft Presentation

To prepare for our draft presentation I thought it best to assign roles to everyone. For example Jana and me were left in charge of recording voice clips for the case file- to photographing pictures for our character. With Eddie and Matt were left in charge of the news report, with Dilyan on camera. Leaving Liam responsible for drafting up the diary entries for all of us to add to. This worked well as we split the roles up equally. Feed backing to the group when possible, regarding our progress, during our group meetings.

In critiquing my performance whilst working with Jana. I’d say that I was a good listener and very co-operative. Whilst my team member Jana was fully motivated and ready to do the task at hand, making sure we overcame any obstacle. For example upon recording clips for the interviews (i.e our characters parents) using our voices, we stumbled upon a small issue. The issue here being the handheld microphone, as we couldn’t get it to work). Jana quickly searched up the model and went through the instructions till we eventually could use the microphone to the best of our abilities. This proved successful as we managed to record rich audio, which we’d later edit on ‘Adobe Audition’, to change the pitch of the voices.

I also started to finish off the case file I’d been working on for our character, using Adobe Photoshop CC 2015. This was a good experience as I’m quite familiar with using Photoshop.

Case File Template (Google Images):  http://orig12.deviantart.net/f22d/f/2013/338/3/f/short_police_file_oc_reference_template_by_falconbirdex-d6wozdx.png)

I made the template into what I saw a case file too look like, thus used the burn tool where appropriate and also added in text too. To make the case file even more authentic. I then decided that I’d attach pictures to the case file much later.

Finished case file (may be subject to change)- By Ashish Patel

References:

Google Images (Image):

http://orig12.deviantart.net/f22d/f/2013/338/3/f/short_police_file_oc_reference_template_by_falconbirdex-d6wozdx.png (link accessed 17^th of November 2015)

 

Amy (2015)- Review (An Old Soul)

Recently I watched Asif Kapadia’s latest Documentary offering titled Amy(2015). The film documents the late neo blues, temporary jazz singer Amy Winehouse. Winehouse won many awards (includes 5 Grammys, one Ivor Novello and a Brit award) before her death on the 23^rd of July 2011. The film included a lot of archive footage and spoken word interviews throughout, from those closest to Amy (i.e Amy’s Best friend: Juliette Ashby). The film chronicles Amy’s life from the moment she started to write music at the tender age of 18.

For me this documentary was extremely raw and honest in showcasing who Amy was, as she was loved and adored by many due to her spunk and humbleness too. In the documentary there’s a short insert where Amy is asked, “Do you think you’ll ever be famous”? She then replies by saying no as she says fame would ruin her completely. This just really touched me as sadly fame did ruin her as her demons caught up with her at the very last moment. She was a girl who just wanted love and wanted affection. She felt her need of these particular requirements went back as far as her childhood (the very moment where her dad started to have an affair with another woman). Amy describes this moment as a time where her father was the most unavailable. From this point on she looked at this as a chance to drink more to dress in whatever she wanted. Thus I believe that it was really this moment that set everything up for Amy as far as her desire for love and affection goes. Considering she had a lack of this growing up, from a paternal figure, such as her dad.

Her demise occurred in July 2011, due to alcohol poisoning. This was completely heartbreaking, as Amy was getting better, sorting out her inner demons and letting go off alcohol. However she just couldn’t defeat one demon, that being herself, for which she passed away in 2011.

Personally I’d say watch this film as it’s awe inspiring and inspirational. Although a tragic tale of fame destroying a remarkable talent . The film still shines light on what Amy stood for. That being her love for her family and also her desire to work hard and to make meaningful music for all. The fact that her music is still being listened to today and how she still influences many with her late style, shows that Amy still lives in all our hearts and that she will always be remembered.

Trailer:

Further Reading:

Amy (2015)- Review

Asif Kapadia on ‘Amy’

Awards Season- Bio Documentaries

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2yCIwmNuLE (Youtube: A24, May 20th 2015)- Accessed November 15th 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/amy/review/- Written by Robbie Collin, published 2nd of July 2015 (accessed November 15th 2015)

http://www.vogue.com/13279716/amy-winehouse-documentary-director-asif-kapadia/- Written by Julia Felsenthal, published July 7th 2015 (accessed November 15th 2015)

http://variety.com/2015/film/awards/bio-documentaries-awards-race-amy-listen-to-me-marlon-what-happened-miss-simone-1201636868/- Written by Kathy A. Mcdonald, published November 11th 2015 (accessed November 15th 2015)

Cover Picture: http://in.bookmyshow.com/entertainment/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Amy-BLOG-SCROLL.jpg (accessed 17th of November 2015)

160MC: (“Cabinet of Curiosities” Project): Progress Post

So far my group have come together to plan our presentation (practice one). Upon deliberating we opted to create a news bulletin, start on our case file and our characters diary too.
Below are some pictures of this:
Case file created by me (image found on google images, edited on Adobe Photoshop CC 2015).
Diary Images: Jana Soltisik

I then communicated with my group what needed to be done (see list below):
Eddie and Matt: News Bulletin
Liam: Diary entry drafts
Jana and Ashish: Case file and Diary entries (initial designs)
All: Learn whole character profile, to prepare us for Q and A.

One last thing which was decided was that as a group we’d present the investigation brief to our peers for our draft presentation. Thus giving us sufficient time to prepare a live investigation for our final piece. This would also mean that we’d communicate our character in a more direct and informative way. Thus making it clear to our peers and lecturers, what our character is about and why they went missing and so forth.

Making them understand our character for what they really are, rather than be really confused by them.