The Big Plan

We were visited by a Bradford councillor the other day who propositioned us with an idea to create a short video formed with Voxpops about Bradford and people's opinions.
He explained that he wanted us to ask the public about their aspirations for the future, record the audio and footage and then that evidence would be used for Bradford council to see if they could change Bradford and adapt it so that the public can benefit from that.
He named it 'The Big Plan', and told us that the council wanted the public's opinion to see how they could change and make these changes beneficial to the district.

As myself and Ruby have not yet started our filming and have completed our paperwork, we were allowed to go into the centre of Bradford yesterday to take notes and photographs of potential areas where we could be stationed to complete these Voxpops.
We found some great places such as outside Kirkgate Market, Centenary Square and the main shopping streets; Darley Street and Bank Street.
All of these places have a very diverse range of age groups, ethnic groups and genders.
There doesn't seem to be a strong sense of one area being better than the other or worse, or even an obvious change in age etc as Bradford is a very diverse city and this is shown in every part.
It will be different to see the diversity when we complete the Voxpops in our own areas as where i live, it is a predominantly white neighbourhood with a good mix of ages but mostly over 50s.

Interaction: Rio Ellis

We have replied to Rio's email explaining which dates she was available and we have decided to attend the taster session for their mediabox day next Friday on the 28th May to get used to seeing everyone etc.

We have also decided to film on the 7th June for a half day and a whole day on the 8th, as things may be slow starting on the Monday.

We're really excited to start filming as it has taken a while to get the meetings sorted and the dates arranged.

Interaction: Corresponding w/ MTG

We had a meeting on the 17th May with Tim the artistic director and Joyce a theatre worker from Mind The Gap .

They seemed very enthusiastic as were we to work together and create this film.

We also had the clear on permissions and copyright of our video as Tim said there would be no problem distributing our video; which was a problem when we first began to converse with MTG through Ben Rothera, the marketing officer, as he shared his concerns about the distribution and we thought we may have been unable to place the video on our show reel for University etc.

We handed out our leaflets that I created and Tim & Joyce received them well as i gathered, as Tim read through it while we had a tour of the studios. We also presented our proposal to them on our slideshow although we did forget to record the conversation on our EdiRoll, although it did seem too informal to do so looking back.

Tim suggested that we contact Rio Ellis, theatre director at MTG, to arrange dates and times as she was more capable in that department.

We then e-mailed Rio when we came back from the meeting and got a reply on the 18th May suggested some dates to us.

However, the proposed filming date she gave us falls in the week beginning 7th June, which could be too late according to our diaries, but we hope to film asap and start our post production editing.

Rio also gave us a date for their taster session of their Create project on the 28th May which myself and Ruby hope to attend and get a feel for the place as well as interacting ourselves with the actors and the staff, to familiarise ourselves with everyone and allow them to become comfortable with us filming and being around them.

Interaction - MTG

I have just received a phone call from Rio who works alongside Ben at Mind The Gap.
She seemed very enthusiastic and we have arranged to meet at Mind The Gap studios on Monday at 1:00.
Myself and Ruby have researched our travel requirements and are ready for the journey to the studios.
We're very excited to finally be meeting our clients and working with them, and also showcasing our proposal to them and asking them on their thoughts.

We have decided to dress smartly as we would in a professional environment and take alongside us our notebooks for questions and the leaflets I have designed so that they can explore our ideas.

Interaction

We hadn't heard from Ben from Mind The Gap for a few days as he was unsure of our goal as to the use of our video for our college work.
Myself and Ruby then began to search for local community groups in Bradford in case Mind The Gap decided to pull out of our proposal.
We needed to make contact fast so we found two groups that we felt would be suitable for our interaction work.
These were: The Parkinsons Society who were holding a fundraiser for the charity and Kirkgate Studios and Workshops, who do a variety of work with parents, children and youths, involving them in art and creative outlets.

Ben then replied to our e-mail and gave us a contact number of one of his colleagues to arrange a meeting and he also requested a permissions form for Mind The Gap to ensure our reliability and authenticity, which we sent.

We rang Rio, Ben's colleague, twice to try arrange a meeting asap. First we passed on a message for her to ring or e-mail us through her colleague as she was in a session, and the second time we left a voicemail explaining who we were, our aim and our contact details for her to get in touch.
Hopefully, we will have arrange a meeting by the end of the week as we are very anxious about timing and production as we need to film asap and produce our video, as we have around 3 weeks left.

Hopefully we should be able to finish on schedule as our ideas are simple and effective enabling us to shoot efficiently.

Robbie Cooper: Immersion

Robbie Cooper's exhibition 'Immersion' exhibits the disengagement society has from real life to video games and films. These virtual realities allow us to escape ordinary life and to immerse ourselves as our alter-egos, allowing us to become someone or something else.

I've been to the National Media Museum to see this exhibition and found it really interesting to see how Cooper has made this images quite harsh and simple. His style of photography reminds me of our Capture unit and the work we create for that, capturing a scene, scenario or person and to depict a story through the use of photography.

Cooper's use of long periods of filming allows the models to forget that they're being photographed and to allow Cooper to capture their natural moments of unguarded behaviour. I'm not sure if he uses photoshop to edit the images but the sharpness and clarity of them really allow his exhibition to stand out at Media Museum's gallery.

His work relates to our capture work; capturing a person or object in a day of their life. Although Cooper doesn't show us a full day of his subject, his photographs can depict a scenario and a sight into the subjects' lives.
For example, Cooper also photographed gamers and their alter-egos on screen in video games.

We can see here that these gamers create these alter-egos to escape reality and to become more powerful, stronger 'people'. These avatars could stand for a representation of the gamer's hidden personality or true feelings. By creating these personas in this way, the gamer's can be transformed into something that they believe they are not. They can have big muscles and longer hair, they can change their height and eye colour, but it's not real. They are simply immersing themselves into a virtual reality.
And it's really interesting to see how many people change their appearance on screen, to become another person.

But why do they do it?

They may feel under pressure to look a certain way, dress a certain way, or they could create these personalities to feel different; to start a fresh and show their true feelings, as many games now allow gamers to talk while playing on screen.

If i was able, i would create a series of photographs influenced by Cooper's work, to allow the photographs to show a person straight on, but then make the audience look deeper into the person behind the photograph, to find the personality and their story.

Tropic Of Cancer - Episode 1. Mexico to the Bahamas

In this new series by the BBC, TV presenter Simon Reeve travels on the Tropic Of Cancer, journeying through troubled countries such as Mexico, Libya and Mauritania.
In this first episode, Reeve travels from Mexico to the Bahamas, encountering difficulties with locals and experiencing what it's like to be part of Lucha Libre.

As we see in this episode, the climate is stiflingly hot and humid, so if we were to choose a career involving the likes of travelling Reeve is doing, then we would have to consider the protection we would need to take with us for the film equipment and ourselves.
We would need to ensure that our cameras, audio and film are able to withstand such temperatures and humidity, so as not to destroy or damage the film.
They would also need to take sufficient energy supplies for the cameras in case the climate causes the battery to run out, and also any back-up equipment we may need. As we see in this first episode, Reeve is travelling with approximately 1 or 2 other people; Reeve carries his own backpack and the camera is shot from a first person perspective, so from what we know there may only be 3 or 4 people included in the crew.

For these people, they would need to carry many tinned items for their food, or small packages to limit the amount of equipment they need to carry along with them. They would also need to carry masses of bottled water, due to the poor facilities in the countries they are visiting. The countries have poor water irrigation systems so taking bottled water would be the first step in trying to keep healthy on this journey. As the crew are travelling abroad to South America and Africa, they would need to ensure that they received their medication and injections before they set off on their journey, to protect themselves from insect bites and diseases.

I would also think that Reeve and his team would possibly have to train before they travelled so that they could cope with the heavy strain of their backpacks on their backs in the heat that they are travelling in. This would also reduce the risk of injury as well while on their journey, as they have prepare beforehand. You can really see the extent of what the crew have to go through even before they set off on their journey, as the facilities of the destinations they are travelling to simply do not cater for hardworking film crews in strange climates.

During the episode, we can also see that even locals are struggling just to live in the places Reeve is visiting. When Reeve visits Baja California resort in Mexico, we can clearly see the juxta positioning of the workers and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The Mexican workers are employed to create beautiful villas for the rich, costing at least $8,000 per night. The workers then go home to their shanty villages just metres from the resort. It's really interesting to see how the workers can live in such conditions when the resort can churn over around hundreds of thousands of dollars a week, yet the workers get hardly any recognition for their work. It's almost exploitation of these workers, allowing them to create such buildings for the rich and famous to 'relax' in, while they then go back to their plywood homes, in fear of hurricanes and rain, as they would simply wash their houses away.

Reeve says that almost 20,000 workers live in the shanty town near the resort, and there are also 150, 000 migrant workers working in this area alone. To add insult to injury, the workers have also suffered much more due to the recession in the US; limiting the work that their companies have for these Mexican workers.

Reeve then travels to mainland Mexico, to find out about the Mexican gang culture.
They're going to the heart of the drug war in Mexico, so before they even set off they would need to consider the health and safety risks. He arrives in Culiacan, dubbed the 'Crown of Drug Trafficking' by his local guide Pepe. The night before Reeve arrived, Pepe explains that there was an assassination attempt against the local police chief. The film crew are constantly surrounded by danger; brought on mostly by the fact that they are foreigners and are easy targets for local thieves and gangs.
Pepe takes Reeve to a local cemetery, and you can clearly see the money that is funded and produced by these gangs, as we see beautiful mausoleums protecting these criminals after death. 90% of the bodies buried in the cemetery are linked to the drug trade and gangs, and we see many posters of young men posing with military style machinery and items linked to gun and drug warfare. The wealth is also seen through the luxury of these crypts and graves; many have air conditioning and furniture, some are as big as houses.
It's also quite strange to see these families brandishing their wealth through the narcotics industry in the cemetery; almost viewing their children who have died as martyrs of the drug trade, almost worthless now because of the wealth they have brought to their families.

As they travel into Mexico, they come across a disagreement in a petrol station with a taxi driver who claims that Reeve needs to pay him for damaging his car.
Reeve and Pepe believe this guy to be in the wrong so they call the local police to deal with the situation.
As they wait, more taxi drivers and their cabs surround them in this station, Reeve becomes nervous.
Pepe tries to calm the drivers down but they won't resist.
I believe that the taxi drivers are trying to scam Reeve and the crew out of money, using their foreign status to mistake them for idiots.
The police arrive and the crew are told to come to an agreement with the drivers; so they pay them and are on their way.
It's really disheartening to see the police act is such a flippant way; maybe they feel as though the public control them, they feel worthless or even as though they have no power. They acted as though this wasn't a big deal and the only way to settle it was by money. It seems as though everything is settled by money, money is what people want and need, money is what makes the narcotics and gun crime circulate, but money is the one thing sparsely seen funded into homing and welfare of the people.

Mexico seems to be controlled by outside powers; Reeve visits a gold mine in the hills of Mexico, and one man fears for his own life after local workers attacked him.
Reeve interacts with the local communities to gain their side of the story and how they have been treated.
He creates this juxta position of the wealthy and the needy, the true workers and the ones who exploit.
The Mexicans also seem to have lost faith in their country and government. There is a Saint that criminals pray to, to ask for protection and guidance while they commit these crimes. Obviously they wouldn't be able to go to church and confess, so they find help within this Saint.
It's almost as though they have their own country, their own set-up and their own policies, as though what they're doing is fine.

Reeve also travels with the local police team; who try and target the drug safe houses.
Reeves would need to seek permission from the Mexican police to allow him to travel with them; but the fact that he did travel with them in this drug trafficking capital shows me that the police seem somewhat really relaxed about protection.

Reeve travels along the tropic to Havana in Cuba. In contrast to Mexico, officials have been impressed by Cuba's healthcare and education system but there is also another development Reeve is interested in.
There has been a regrowth of the community after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Allotments were provided for the villages, previously sites of cement factories etc.
They grow cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and mint, all grown organically. They provide Havana with over 90% of their produce.
It's inspiring to see these communities be part of this regrowth, but such a shame that even though one country is making an effort, others such as Mexico aren't.
The allotments produce over 1 million tonnes of food each year, and have been praised by the WWF for their efforts.

It's an interesting honest documentary and i look forward to watching to rest.