The Land Documentary

Hampshire is well known for its rich history, beautiful countryside, wild life and sleepy villages. It is now occupied by wealthy people, expensive stores and a large number of curious tourists who come to the county every day to get to know the roots of Hampshire’s history. However, it hasn’t always been this way. Places such as Winchester, Southampton, New Forest and Basingstoke have dramatically changed since the rural times. Today they are modern and sophisticated. During rural times they were simple, primitive and overpopulated.

Farming used to play a huge part of Hampshire’s life, influencing the landscape and people’s lives. It was an essential factor to help the economy run, bringing food and other products to sustain life. When the technology started to develop life in Britain became very hard. As new machines were invented, people were no longer needed to do farming jobs so they moved to the cities. The cities became overcrowded. Many people didn’t have a job and were very poor. People stole things to survive. This was seen as a crime which caused masses of people to be transported to Australia.

The land documentary is supposed to show Hampshire and its history; and how it developed after the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial revolution, of course, eventually won the competition with the rural industries and the urbanisation started in the 19th century. Industrial revolution also effected transportation. In the 19th century bicycles, steamships and trains made it easier for people to move further away. In the 20th century, the explosion motor further accelerated this process. An ever-growing part of world population became subdued to market economy. The revolution was something more than just new machines, smoke-belching factories, increased productivity and an increased standard of living.

Initially, as a team of three, we chose to film Hampshire from William Cobbett’s point of view. The view that he included in his Rural Rides. On this theme, his Rural Rides has proved his most enduring work. It is a collection of journals written during his tours on horseback between 1822 and 1826, observing rural conditions and discussing the political perceptions of the agricultural community. William Cobbett was a journalist who didn’t agree with the British government but who believed that reforming Parliament and stopping the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers. He was brought up by his father who owned a farm. This has certainly put countryside to his heart.

The planning stage of the documentary was simple as we knew exactly what we wanted our film to look like. We got together in order to write down all the ideas that came to our heads and pictured everything scene by scene. We decided that we would have two people talking in the whole documentary. One of them would be a historian who tells us the story of Hampshire, and who also talks about William Cobbett, his love for countryside, but also about Industrial Revolution, emigration and overpopulation. In the end, we had to drop that idea and focus on just countryside instead due to an interview we arranged which didn’t go the way we wanted to. The second person talking would be a voice over reading out a poem called ‘The mask of anarchy’ by Shelley, alongside with quiet music in the background- Ralph Vaughan Williams, Tallis Fantasia- that would put the audience watching the documentary into a lovely, nostalgic mood. The historian we chose is a lecturer at Winchester University, Jean, who specialises in William Cobbett and rural history. We also got in touch with Collin Firth’s agent because we thought it would make the documentary look very professional if he read out the poem for us, however he we were unsuccessful and therefore we went for Tony Dean- the Dean of Winchester University. Instead of the historian we asked an English Literature student- Hollie Ward- to be a narrator to a script we wrote about Hampshire’s rural life and our own interpretation of the poem.

We went to Salisbury, to film a beautiful and frosty sun rise as an establishment to the documentary. Salisbury was our starting point because of its rich history and wonderful scenery, such as the cathedral and fields filled with beautiful flowers, horses, sheep and an easy countryside life. It shows how relaxing and simple farm life is now comparing to the one people were leading before the Industrial Revolution.

The next stop was Southampton and Winchester to show the contrast between a country side and a busy city life. We filmed the Southampton gates and the high streets with many shops and people rushing around trying to get to work.  We didn’t use any of the shots in the final edit because we focused on countryside.

In the editing stage we cut the music into shimmers, swells, themes and bed in order to then choose the right pictures and put them in an accurate position matching the music and giving the whole documentary colour. We cut Hollie’s speech and Tony’s poem and put them in the places we thought they fit in. We thought making long pauses in between talking and stings after their speeches would make it sound more affective and be more interesting to watch. We used long pans of the country side and river to emphasis the nature of rural life. Our bit of the overall Land project is 5 minutes 20 seconds long.

Overall, the project was a great experience and a good way to finish the university course. It was more relaxed than any other projects ever done before but at the same time it was highly enjoyable but challenging. 

Magazine Spreads Analysis

Choosing a type of an article for my magazine spreads was quite tricky as initially I had too many ideas. I narrowed them down to a confessional and a review. I started writing a review about a film called ‘The woman in black’. I thought it was be a good choice because people had different views on the film. However, soon after I found a news article about common medicine containing animal products in them. Since most of my family and many friends happen to be vegetarian I decided to write a short feature on that subject. For my second article I decided to do a confessional because I know a person who went through a bad sailing race and he was happy to talk to me about it. While at work I met a woman who told me the story of her life- This being she found her father after 34 years of looking for him. I thought it was a beautiful story. When I asked her for an interview she said she would be more than happy to. Because I thought both confessionals are great and I couldn't choose one I decided to keep both because there wasn't a limit on how many spreads you are allowed to produce.

To write the medicine article I needed to find out more about the subject. I emailed various vegetarian societies across the country and read an article on the BBC website where I found it in the first place. Most vegetarian societies didn't really want to talk to me on the subject when I send them some questions for them to answer. This is because they were working on an article themselves or they just didn't want to comment or they were just too busy. A person working in one of the societies was nice enough to send me a press release that explained the issue. This helped me write a short feature. My main aim was to interview a vegetarian person, but I didn't want to use any of my friends or family. I know a lecturer at Southampton University who is a vegetarian; however she is the mum of the boy who gave me an interview about his sailing experience so I decided not to ask her. Other than that I couldn't find anyone to talk to about this subject because most people weren't aware of this issue. I managed to get an opinion form a lady who works for Vegetarian Society; therefore I think the article is too Vegetarian Society based unfortunately.

Look wise, I made a delicate background for the article. I thought warm colours would go well with a word 'medicine' and the pictures that I chose for the article, which convey colourful pills as well as vegetarian food. I decided to make headline short and snappy. I made the letters 3D and dropped a shadow behind them to make the article look more affective. To me it looked like this is something you would see in a medical magazine.

My second spread is a confessional interview with Oliver who experienced a horrific sailing race back in 2007. He described what happened that weekend with a great detail. Even though they lost a mast which cost a lot of money the whole crew has raced since and still race till today. It's a sad story with a happy ending- I thought it is a perfect article to go to Daily Sailing or sailing magazine, because it's different, it's a real life story that teaches how to stay calm in situations like that. As a background for this story I chose a picture of a boat that belongs to Oliver's dad. I put slight lighting on it to fade it. I chose a standard 'Times New Roman' font and chose colour navy, which reflects the subject of water, sailing and storm. I managed to get pictures of the crew after the race completion and the boat while sailing and almost falling over. I also tried to get a close up picture of the jot after the race, without a mast, but unfortunately no one took a picture of it afterwards because everyone was still in a great shock.

And finally, my third spread is another confessional interview which is just as good. This is a sort of article that would be seen in Pick Me Up, That's Life or Essentials magazines. Meeting someone that had just found one of her parents doesn't happen every day. In fact, this is the first time it has ever happened to me. Ironically enough it was just after the magazine lecture about confessional interviews. I couldn't believe my luck, as I thought I would never find anyone with a real life story to talk to. This is why I decided to keep both of the articles. Sarah seemed very outgoing and friendly, and very chatty as well. I recorded the interview on a Marantz which I rented out from the University. The interview lasted for an hour. Once transcribed it was 4000 words long and it was very detailed and descriptive. I had managed to cut it down to 1987 words at first and couldn't imagine telling such a beautiful and sad story in only 1000 words. I spent a lot of time editing it to make it sound good and impressive after cutting out the descriptive details. Sarah after knowing her dad for 2 years now still hasn't managed to take a single picture with him. After then interview she said she would do it next time she sees him which was a month later, which is just after the deadline. I can add the picture when I get it, but for now all I managed to get are pictures of her and her family.

I didn't choose a specific background for this article for a reason. The background is white and plain, the font black and standard Times New Roman' because I thought the story was good enough to tell itself that way. It doesn't need any colours in be background or special font to make it look good. I thought the pictures and the optimism of the interview add colour to the article.

Overall, the project was very interesting and different to everything I have done so far. I enjoyed talking to people about these life situations that happened to them, writing about them and making spreads in Fireworks, which is now a new software that I can use.

Third magazine spread: Non- veggy medicine

This is my third magazine spread about common medicine that is not suitable for vegetarians.

Second confessional interview: It took me 34 years to find my father

This is my second confessional interview: It took me 34 years to find my father- with Sarah Chearman.

Magazine Spread: Battle Against Nature

My final University project. This is one of the magazine spreads: A confessional interview with Oliver Barlow about his sailing race back in 2007. Hope you enjoy it!

Magazine Journalism- My first Magazine Spread

This is my first ever attempt at magazine spreads. Very amateur, as I am just getting to know Fireworks and I have just learnt the very basics. What a highly enjoyable exercise though!
This semester we said goodbye to WINOL. Our new magazine module teaches us how to make professional spreads (definitely not like the one above) and write articles for specific magazines and target audience.
I never even once in my life thought about a glossy magazine career, but now I am thinking 'why not?'. Lets give it a go. Hope you like my cute little puppy :)

WINOL SPECIAL- November the 30th, National Pension Strikes

We did it! The four hour live coverage on pension strikes on November the 30th was a huge success. Considering that noone really believed that we can do it outside the studio (not even I believed it) and we stayed live for so long, bringing in outside guests and packages from our correspondents that worked in different places on the day, I can comfortably say that I am very proud of our amazing team work and team effort. 

Being outside your comfort zone is extremely stressful because you are stepping into a room where you don't really know what to expect or you don't know how to react in case something goes wrong. This was my and everyone else's opinion about covering the strikes in the Unite the union office in Southampton. Having been and worked in the TV studio for the last year and a half, we all comfortably know everything about it. We know what could possibly go wrong and how to fix it. We also have our two technical heroes- Dave and Corrin who we can run to and ask for help. Being in a strange place with all this TV equipment and broadcasting from there for four hours seemed impossible to us all.

But what I have learnt in the last four years is that impossible is nothing! Neither was the strike coverage from Southampton.

The Unite the union office was huge and bright. That was the first thing that cheered me up. We set up on Tuesday, a day before the strikes and we had a small rehearsal. 

On the day of the strikes we went live at 12.00pm and everything seemed to be going smoothly till Chris realised that the sound on the actual LiveStream was playing up and it was impossible to hear Cara. We tired fixing it for an hour, which was a huge let down. But we fixed it, which proves that we don't really need Dave or Corrin as much as we think. Of course if they were with us, the problem would have been fixed quicker. The next three hours went just so great. 

Our reporters did an amazing job. They were all in different places, such as London, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton. They all continuously interviewed those that striked and tried making packages to send into the studio. Unfortunately the strikes didn't turn into anything big, instead they calmed down so there were no breaking news stories. 

The correspondents from other universities, such as Liverpool and London Met also did incredibly well helping us with the national strikes. Unfortunately, we couldn't hear London Met as well as we planned so their interviewed didn't happen but Liverpool was clear and very helpful.

 

Teamwork is so important. On November the 30th we proved what an amazing team we make. We trust each other and share responsibilities. We are always willing to work together, share the jobs and help each other out. We are all ambitious and we always aim for the same target. We put all the effort we possibly could  into this project. And that is why we succeeded.

Here are the highlights of our record- breaking four hour strike coverage on pension strikes.