Winol Week 4- Halloween Trends 2010

Our feature made it to the Winol's bulletin this week! That's rather exciting. This week's feature was about Halloween's Trends 2010. Halloween is just round the corner, it is the time to party, wear costumes, and revert back to your childhood. The feature is supposed to help those who struggle to find their perfect costume this year.

Producing the video was rather fun, finding male and a female model was surprisingly easy. We were going to rent some costumes from the costume shop in Winchester but unfortunately that couldn't happen because the closest costume lending shop is in Southampton. Therefore we asked people who were willing to lend us their treasured costumes and we found lots of scary/ sexy/ sweet costumes for our models to wear on the day of filming.

We decided that the theme and the format of the feature will be different backgrounds for the same outfit, which was different to the last fashion show made in the studio. For example, we had a witch sweeping the floor outside a house and in the next shot we had a witch flying by the moon. I thought it was quite a good way to express the idea of each costume.

The costumes we had:

For the girl we had a cat suit, a devil, a witch Alice in Wonderland and Pocahontas. Whereas the boy wore a batman outfit, a vampire, a pirate and a devil costume. We also had lots of masks that we took close ups of.

Thanks to Google images we found many interesting backgrounds that went well with the costumes, such as a dark forest, a ship for the pirate, etc.

While editing, we mixed all the different backgrounds and costumes together adding music that puts into a Halloween mood.
I definitely enjoyed doing this week’s project. It was quick, interesting, easy to edit. There was only one setting, no audio. We didn’t have as many problems with putting it all into one good piece like we did last week. Last week’s feature was much more complicated and it involved many different scenes, setting and lots of talking. It was nice to do something simple but very effective this week.

Here is the feature, Enjoy!

HCJ week5- Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was a well known as a founder of psychoanalysis, who believed that self-conscious emotions and childhood experiences- mostly those sexual in nature- have an effect on what we become.
Freud thought that our self love as a race was a barrier to science in three ways:
1. It stopped us accepting that the Earth wasn’t the centre of the universe.
2. Darwin’s theory of revolution
3. The conscious brain was not in charge.
The key point in Freud’s theory is unconsciousness.

Freud wasn’t the inventor of the conscious/ unconscious idea but he was the one who made it well known and popular. The conscious mind is when a person is aware of what’s happening in the particular moment, their thoughts, fantasies, etc. There was a theory that Freud called preconscious, which is also known as ‘available memory’. Freud found this theory by working closely with the conscious mind. His patients were aware that anything could be made conscious.

Unconscious is the biggest part. This is when people are not aware of what’s happening in the particular situation. It also includes things such as drives and instincts because they are not available to awareness.

Freud’s theory of human nature presents a division of mind into 3 parts:
Id- it’s got animal instincts, people grow up with the aim to fit in the society.
Ego- it’s responsible for adjusting our internal urges to the demands and limits of the environment.
Superego- tells us what’s right and what’s wrong- The Police In Your Head.
Ego and Superego help us survive adopt to the social environment.


The battle between the Superego, Ego and id can result in Repression. It includes:
Sublimation, which means turning sexual energy into something else, like art or sport.
Displacement, which involves shameful thoughts that turn you into something/ someone else.
Projection, which sends feelings onto someone else.
Rationalisation- more socially acceptable explanation.
Regression- returning to earlier stage of development.

Nietzsche- Thus Spoken Zarathustra

Nietzsche is a German philosopher. He was most recognized for his criticism about religion and the role he played in society and mortality. What makes Fredrick controversial by even today’s principles is so many people see him as a mad man while others see him as a mad genius. One thing can be said about him- he was a man always seeking the truth. He was very anti- religious and rejected any kind of religion. In his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra he said ‘God is dead. And we killed him’, which means that the society stopped being influenced by God.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra touched problems that are most central to modern civilization such as the advancement of technology and its effects on human’s spirit. Nietzsche plays with biblical elements throughout the book; however, the ideas in the book oppose the ideas in The Bible. For example, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the evil. He felt pain and hunger, while Zarathustra spent 10 years on a mountaintop being happily isolated from the rest of the world.
The main theme of the book is Ubermensch, which is a person with great powers and abilities.
‘Could you create a God? Then do not speak to me of any gods. But you could create an overman’ It seems like he almost desires to have a dictator who would have the will to power- It’s life’s next step for mankind because God is outdated.

An Overman as described by Zarathustra, is the one who is willing to risk all for the sake of improvement of humanity. In contrary to the last man whose sole desire is his own comfort and is incapable of creating anything beyond oneself in any form. This should suggest that an overman is someone who can establish his own values as the world in which others live their lives. This means an overman can affect and influence the lives of others. In other words, an overman has his own values, independent of others, which affects and dominates others lives that may not have predetermined values but only herd instinct.

An overman should be able to affect history. He will keep reentering the world through other people’s minds and affect their thoughts and values. Napolean who is highly admired by Nietzsche may be seen as an example here since he changed and created orders in Europe. What he did effects greatly in how Europe is today. This idea agrees with another of his most significant idea, the idea of the will-to-power.

Studen Survival- My 2nd feature!

In one of my recent posts I mentioned making my second feature that was based on how to survive a week as a student on a £20 food budget. Well, after days of filming, hours of editing and stressing over the audio levels, it is finally up on youtube! Yay! It has been such a difficult project. Hana and I put so much effort and heart into it.

We were very excited to begin with. Our plan looked just amazing! I was very looking forward to an upcoming week. I was definitely ready to take the challenge, even if I knew it comprised having to eat cheap, unhealthy and tasteless food for the whole 7 days. No one in the Finance Department was able to tell us how much roughly students spend on food weekly. The only way to find out was to ask them! From vox pops we worked out that the usual number spent on food weekly is about £20. That’s how much I decided to limit myself to. We decided to start the week off with empting my cupboards. Now that they were clear, the next step was to go food shopping. We rang Tesco Express Winchester to ask for permission to film in there, which we happily got.

The shopping bit so much fun. Running around and about the store trying to find the cheapest food/ basic values was actually quite difficult. We found some really good deals though.
From that day on, I filmed myself every day having a breakfast in the morning and dinner in the afternoon. Breakfast looked the same every day- coffee, toast with butter. That’s why we put only one shot of that in the actual piece. I tended to have lunches in the canteen, which was pricey. I’d usually come home but never had the camera to film it which was a shame! I tried to fill the audience in with what happened on the day by making a few video diaries where I talked about what I did/ ate.

To be totally honest, I wasn’t very happy with the final result. I imagined it would look much better than it does. My ambitions and expectations were much higher. We had so many technical problems during editing. We spent 11 hours at the university trying to put all the pieces together. When everything looked quite tasteful, it was highly disappointing to see the audio levels being very low. We couldn’t hear anything. The reason for it? We are still very unprofessional (even though, I believe we are getting there :-) ), instead of using radio mics, we were using only a microphone on the camera. We got the audio levels up somehow but it was hard work. It was still better than having to redo they whole piece again which we were advised to do.

The things I have learned from doing this project are:

1. Never, ever say the brands names while filming in the shop just in case it’ll end up looking as if you were promoting/ advertising the certain product. It unfortunately happened in our work and we had to get rid of it. It’s better not to stand near the signs promoting some products, just because you will have to get rid of it too.

2. Always- I mean ALWAYS use a radio microphone while filming a feature that includes walking and talking, or even talking in a distance. They camera microphone or even a gun mic will not pick up the sound very well. You will end up having to redo the whole speaking bit.

3. Eating cheap ready meals is not the best way to go. Just to warn you- They are tasteless.

4. Spending the rest of my money on alcohol and then filming myself while quite tipsy was quite amusing but left me with no money for the rest of the challenge. If you end up going to the pub with your friends while being tight on budget, either spend your money if it makes you happy OR just stick to soda water- it’s much cheaper!

I have written an article for www.Winol.co.uk and I will post it very soon.

For now- here my and Hana’s SECOND feature!

Remember not to be too critical because we really are still learning and I promise that our next features will be OUTSTANDING.

Enjoy!

Modern life creates a modern disease-Cancer.

Cancer is a worldwide killer. Scientists have found out that it is a man- made disease caused by the excesses of modern life, such as pollution as well as poor diet and a lack of exercise. The disease is so big that people warn about it openly on boxes of cigarettes. In today’s Daily Telegraph we could read about Prof Rosalie David and Prof Michael Zimmerman’s research about Egyptian Mummies whose death was hardly ever caused by Cancer. In fact there was only a few that suffered from something that now kills one in three people, which proves that cancer was extremely rare in antiquity. According to the researchers, the disease rates have risen massively since the Industrial Revolution, in particular childhood cancer – proving that the rise is not simply due to people living longer.

David and Zimmerman also analysed ancient literature from Egypt and Greece for indications of cancer, as well as medical studies of human and animal remains going back to the age of dinosaurs. They suggested that the evidence of cancer in animal fossils, non-human primates and early humans was rare, with a few uncertain examples. As they analyzed ancient literature, they did not find descriptions of operations for breast and other cancers until the 17th century. The first reports in the scientific literature of distinctive lumps have only occurred in the past 200 years, such as scrotal cancer in chimney sweepers in 1775, nasal cancer in snuff users in 1761 and Hodgkin's disease in 1832.

One possible reason cancers might have been comparatively rare in antiquity is that the short life span of individuals back then precluded the development of the disease. Still, the researchers did note some people in ancient Egypt and Greece did live long enough to develop all different types of serious diseases.

Well, if we know what causes such a nasty disease we can surely avoid getting it. Scientists say that a healthy diet, regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight could prevent a third of the most common cancers. Therefore, our life will not be in such a big risk of getting killed by the disease.

Freshers Fashion Feature

My first ever feature is so totally published on the internet! Yay. Hana and I worked so hard on it. It was definitely worth it. Watching something we both created and something that actually looks good and quite professional gives such a good feeling. Of course it was difficult to get all the shots and ideas to put together, but editing was killing us. Slow computers, constantly freezing Final Cut Pro was a nightmare. We got through it all though smoothly, which I am very proud of. I never thought that finding people to pose for us and talk us through their outfits would be so difficult. If someone asked me to do something like that, I would run without even thinking about it. It’s supposed to be fun! Many people were embarrassed and shy to be our models. Thankfully, we found some chatty and bubbly people who were happy to pose for us. I am just getting into fashion, as I know nothing about it. For me, clothes are clothes. There isn’t a ‘deep meaning’ in an outfit, expect for those colourful ones I wear which express my constant happiness. Therefore, I definitely had so much fun producing that piece, just because I have learned quite a lot from it.
I also love presenting. I feel good in front of the camera, it makes me happy. It’s a shame I have an accent, otherwise maybe I would have been going for the Winol presenter next semester :)

Here is our feature. Watch it, enjoy it, and leave comments!



This week, Hana and I decided to do something bigger. It’s a feature in a form of a diary. I set myself a challenge to try to live off a food budget of £20 this week. It’s great fun so far. We will see if I will be able to do it :) I will definitely write the results when we finish.

Till next time!

Modernism- The Age of Analysis

Each movement was played out until the progression of another began. A constant quest for uniqueness and originality emerged and the world of Modernism took off. How would the world ever be able to move forward if there was such a strong connection to the past? The answer was, it couldn"tmt. No one really knew at the time where this was all leading to, but they were definitely willing to find out. Artists at this point were pushing previously set boundaries and experimenting with things were never even heard of.

Modernism had an effect in many aspects, especially in Architecture, Music, Art and Science.
Modernism came after Romaticism and it means to religion, less Christianity, more individualism against democracy.

Modernist architecture emphasizes function. It attempts to provide for specific needs rather than imitate nature. The roots of Modernism may be found in the work of Berthold Luberkin (1901-1990), a Russian architect who settled in London and founded a group called Tecton. The Tecton architects believed in applying scientific, analytical methods to design. Their stark buildings ran counter to expectations and often seemed to defy gravity.

Another very important person that brightened the age of Modernism was Maria Sklodowska Curie, who was a Polish physicist and chemist, one of the most ingenious scientists of the 20th Century, and indeed of all time. She worked in a partnership with her husband Pierre Curie, whom she met in Paris. She is generally known for her discovery of the radioactivity of polonium and radium in 1898. Her scientific achievements led her to receive many honours and medals, most notably the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903 and for chemistry eight years later. Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win two Nobel awards. She was also the first female to lecture at the Sorbonne University in Paris. After her death of leukemia caused by overexposure to radiation, her ashes were enshrined in the Pantheon, a monument to France's national heroes. No woman before her had received such an honour.

HCJ Week 1, Year 2. WilliamHearst, the birth of Popular Journalism and Tabloid Nation

William Randolph Hearst was born on April 29, 1863 in San Francisco, California. He was born into a family wealthy from his father's discovery of and involvement in some of the greatest mines in United States history (including the Anaconda mine, the Homestake mine, and the Comstock load). After attending primary schooling, young Hearst was off to Harvard, studying in journalism. He worked on the Harvard Lampoon and was even an apprentice under Joseph Pulitzer while there.

Frontier Thesis- America began to grow and expand. It gained a sense of adventure. The more west you went the more adventures and American you became
George Hearst was one of ten thousands of men lured to California by the promise of gold. This was known as the Gold Rush.

There were two types of early American Newspapers. Both of them were Penny Papers. One of them was political and the other was commercial. The political papers were financed by political parties- George Hearst wanted the Examiner to be a cheerleader for his campaign.

William Hearst took over the Examiner in 1887 and transformed it. The old Examiner had a front page filled with dozen of stories- a wall of text. He reduced the stories and doubled the size of the headlines and eliminated the advertisements, above the masthead he put endorsements and circulation figures. He also included illustrations- ‘they attract the eye and stimulate the imagination of the power classes and materially add comprehension’. He thought that pictures in a newspaper would help sell the paper as even people who can’t read would understand it. The writing became more focused and more urgent.
The Examiner was pro labour (democrats) anti-capital and railroad. It supported the unions but was occasionally guilty of virulent racism.

Yellow Kid

In 1896 Hearst poached the Yellow Kid from Pulitzer,
‘Yellow journalism, or “yellow press”, refers to an unethical, irresponsible brand of journalism given to hoaxes, altered photographs, screaming headlines, “scoops”, frauds, and endless promotions of the newspapers themselves’
This term was first used in the 1890’s to describe the competition between two rival New York City newspapers, the World, and the Journal. Hearst poached the yellow kid from Pulitzer in 1896. Pulitzer tried to stay in the game and got a cartoonist to copy the yellow kid. At the time there were to papers with the yellow kid and they soon began to be described as the yellow papers- YELLOW JOURNALISM.
Crime

The journal and the world even battled to solve crimes. The amount of awards that was suggested for anyone who had a crime with any evidence in terms to solve them was unbelievable. All the newspapers were desperate to publish the story first.

Tabloid Nation
The book is based on the rise and fall of the Mirror newspaper, which remains such an integral part of 20th century British popular culture. Harold Harmsworth, who is the main character of the book, was born in Dublin 1865. He was an indifferent scholar he was educated at St John's Wood, a small, private day school in London. He developed an interest in journalism when he began editing the school magazine.
The book also mentions The Daily Mail which was the first newspaper in Britain that catered for a new reading public that needed something simpler, shorter and more readable than those that had previously been available. One new innovation was the banner headline that went right across the page. Considerable space was given to sport and human interest stories. It was also the first newspaper to include a woman's section that dealt with issues such as fashions and cookery.

Reformation of Daily Mail from ‘a newspaper written by and for gentle woman’ to a normal daily newspaper was needed. Harmsworth wanted a change because as he said ‘women can’t write and don’t want to read’. Instead of writing about society he rather wanted the newspaper to be about something interesting and sufficiently simple.

University Style

The first week back at uni is the most exciting one. Despite the nervous feeling about the incoming year and the amount of already given work, it is still great to see friends that I haven’t seen all summer. While catching up with them and visiting old pubs and clubs you feel like you never left Winchester.
The only thing that has changed is seeing new faces while walking down to lectures. It’s impossible not to look at what the freshers are wearing. Their outfits say everything about them. You can play a game of guessing what they are like. Are they fashionable? Are they rich? Geeks perhaps?

This year it is modesty that took over female freshers fashion, whereas male freshers went for more of a stylish and modern style. The most seen shoes worn by girls are uggs- grey, brown or black colour. They are such stylish, school girl like, comfy footwear. They go well with skinny jeans, leggings, and even skirts. Flat shoes are definitely all you need this year- especially in a very hilly Winchester.

Brown big belts, jeans and t-shirts remind of Wild West. It’s quite a usual outfit that girls wear around campus. This could never be out of fashion. Another essential accessory is a bag. Of course, big bags still dominate in this year’s girls fresher’s fashion. What else does a female student need than a big bag that will carry all the important notebooks, lecture books and reading, pens, make up (of course), an ipod etc. We need all these things!

The most popular clothes shops in the student’s world are New Look, H&M, Next for girls. Burtons, Top Shop for guys. However, Primark, is of course the most chosen clothes store. Not only because of low prices but also because of the variety of different outfits, as well as costumes, you can make from Primark’s bits and pieces.


It's been interesting to find out all these information. The begnning of the year is looking promising :)

Passion about fashion?

Fashion hasn’t been my cup of tea for a long time. I used to dream of being a magazine writer. Being in the world of glamour was all I wanted to do. Then I stepped off that track a little and desired to be a presenter or a correspondent between countries. Writing about shoes and scarves couldn’t be more unexciting. Politics, Science, serious subjects are what’s pulling me, for sure. Boring? I don’t think so.

Now, after I started working for Winol Winchester News Online I became a feature writer as well as being a member of the Production Team. My first feature is aimed at Freshers Fashion. I must say it has been so enjoyable. Researching ‘what’s in’ this term and meeting new students has been more fun than I expected. Some of the outfits were unbelievably interesting. Some of them were crazy, quite colourful, well coordinated and some were just grey and modest- however- very stylish. I can’t believe I have never paid attention to other people’s styles. This project definitely changed my opinion on fashion. I realised that there is more to it than just a shoe. An outfit can tell you everything about the personality and the mood people are in. It might be a beginning of my new passion.

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." Coco Chanel