Children's Radio Foundation Course and Work

Children's Radio Foundation Course and Work

February 2015 course - Radio Show

Myself and Yasmin spent three days of my 2015 February half term at a Radio Course in Oxford, run by the Children's Radio Foundation. The Children's Radio Foundation are a charity that train young reporters across Africa, giving hem the skills to make their voices heard - as one of Africa's main sources of communication is radio. Radio can help spread awareness of how to cope with HIV and AIDS as well as being a general tool for 'dialogue and change'.

They had a budget to spend on training English youths the ways of radio - one of my Mum's friends works with the Foundation and so once I heard about it I applied, I attended their February sessions.
Some of the activities that we did during those sessions were: youth community mapping - finding what stresses out teenagers and thinking of way to counteract them, e.g. surplus of work and no outlets, maybe more youth hubs should be created; we were also taught the main radio formats and how to conduct them, e.g. interviews, commentaries, audio profiles, audio debates, public and/or personal service announcement (PSA), and vox-pops; and, we were also taught about being on location, live shows, pre-recorded shows, what a show clock is and how to make one, we talked about jingles and music, and leaving buffers in interviews etc. In addition, we were taught how to use a recorder and a logbook. For example, you have to log every single recording you make - even if it went wrong, and when you do so you must write the date, the time of the recording, the length of the recording, the reporter, the format and the track number (the track number appears on the recorder).

We then made a show on our final day and it included most radio formats. The radio show was about whether or not 'Ubuntu' was thought to be present in Oxford. Ubuntu is Zulu word for "I am because you are" and it is about unconditional kindness, equality and unity.

Here is our show clock:

Here is our show, which is linked on the Children's Radio Foundation website: https://soundcloud.com/crf-uk/speak-out-what-do-various-people-in-oxford-say-about-the-legendary-city

Emerge 2015 - Radio Show

This event was  held at Said Business School, University of Oxford. 'Emerge is the UK's leading gathering for those who are focused on redefining the world in which we live. Now in its seventh year, Emerge engages and connects university students and professionals working in public, corporate and media sectors from around the world with current global change-agents leading entrepreneurial ventures, responsible businesses and sector-defying organisations.' The event is a two-day gathering (I went on the second day) and it usually has over 500 participants, and it approaches to address some of the world's most urgent challenges. Many charities participate in this event, which includes; lectures, meetings, and radio shows occur at this event.

The Emerge 2015 schedule included; Conversation/Interactive lectures, Masterclasses, Workshops, Debates, Meetings, and Social Greetings.

I attended the Masterclass/lecture on 'Gender and technology: the new frontier for women's rights', given by Hera Hussein from the charity CHAYN, and Claire Sibthorpe, from GSMA, Connected Women. Afterwards I performed a few vox pops with the assistance of one of my radio trainers, Henri-Pierre. I then gave a short commentary on the lecture I had just been part of.

Here are the recorded and finished radio formats from that day, which is also linked to the Foudnation's website: https://soundcloud.com/crf-uk/sets/crf-young-reporters-at-emerge-2015-oxford-uk

Sony

Sony

Sony Music Entertainment - major record label - and LAB Records - independent record label

A case-study on Sony Music Entertainment and LAB Records 

Main Task Audience Research

Main Task Audience Research

Horror films are meant to scare and excite people - therefore none of them are suitable for young children. A horror will be at least a PG (Parental Guidance) but will most probably be either a 12A, 12, 15 or 18.

Our horror film will be rated as a 12. We are aware that only creating the opening sequence for a film means that our piece will not necessarily contain all of the elements that make it the rating that it is, however it will introduce the themes that we will have to rate, therefore, we will choose a rating for the whole film and not just the opening.

The bbfc (British Board of Film Classification) states: 'Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child.' We have decided that our film will not be suitable for any children under the age of twelve.

The elements of film that will not be suitable for children under twelve years of age are: the murder scenes - which will contain some graphic images, blood and violence; and emphasised psychological horror elements will also be included.

The types of horror that people above the age of twelve seem to, on the whole, like are films with psychological elements which you make you jump both at the screen and at shadows - they make you afraid of what you can't yet see; it's 'the fear of the unknown'. 

Some stereotypical horror film features are: a victim - stereotypically a female; a non-believer who is usually the first to be killed or believes by the end of the film; a hero/heroine - (stereotypically a male); an evil character/being; a young child who either almost dies, dies or is dead; a creepy house; a forgotten ghost/creature which becomes furious at something a human does and so seeks it's revenge; and a streak of mysterious deaths.We want to do something quite different and unusual with our film that will still leave people frightened, therefore, we will be using these themes in our opening sequence; a female protagonist who is both the victim and the heroine-type character, a mysterious and lonely setting, a series of strange deaths, and a tragic/horrific event that starts the evil occurrences.

BFI (British Film Institute) Trip, and an introduction to film opening sequences

BFI (British Film Institute) Trip, and an introduction to film opening sequences

We had many lectures throughout the day - Tom Woodcock introduced us to BFI Southbank along with Mark Reid, and then Mr Woodcock introduced us to our timetable. Our first session covered the 'Conventions of Film Openings', and our second session covered the 'Anatomy of the Titles and Student Tasks'. This meant looking at and judging some opening sequences of films to see of we could guess their genre and decide whether they decided to introduce their genre, narrative (plot), characters, themes or atmosphere more in the first few minutes of film. We did this for a few films including 'The Wedding Singer'.

After this we reported back from a 'Student Task Exercise' that we performed over lunch. During this task we had to decide on possible ideas for our opening sequence to our film, e.g. genre, plot thoughts, possible cast and crew, and settings etc. Myself and Yasmin came up with: Saskia Lyons (Yasmin's older sister)as our protagonist, and Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson to be other star credits; and we would then put both of our names as the producers, directors and executive producers wheres Lily Collins would be our director of photography and some people we made up would be our other crew members, e.g. 'Alicia Cinna' as our Costume Designer. the genre of our film would be horror but we hadn't decided what the story-line would be - however, it would be partly inspired by 'The Conjuring' and 'The Woman in Black'.

This was followed by a session that included a 'Question and Answer' section, with Corin Hardy. Corin's first feature film came out in cinemas on Friday the thirteenth, it's called 'The Hallow' - we saw the first five minutes of it to give us inspiration for our own film opening sequences. My verdict is that it was very good; it was creepy and it grabbed my attention from the start. Corin's film is about a man who moves to Ireland with his wife and baby boy, Fin. he man has to chop down certain trees in the wood - however, there are fairy-folk that have lived there for centuries who are not willing to let their home be destroyed so they come after the man and his family - terrible events then happen that we were told we had to go and see the film for to find out what they were/are! At the end of Corin's session he took some pictures with everyone and put them on twitter to gain publicity...and because it was a funny thing to do!

The final session was then a session on how to make your own films; this session was with Tom Woodcock again - this session was really helpful and interesting. The link to all of his presentations is: http://www.titledesignproject.blogspot.co.uk/.

Research of Film Opening Sequences

Research of Film Opening Sequences 

A feature film of 'The Forbidden Room' was voted the best title sequence on 'Art of the Title' of 2015. The film genre seems to be horror, this links in well with our my film opening sequence as our genre is also horror.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/top-10-title-sequences-of-2015/#

The film includes: a sinister score that resembles a scratchy old music box, record player or radio that is switching between songs and tunes, or is simply broken; camera treatments that age and distort the images on screen; a good use of colour - the colour seem to be bright and then they flash and wobble and change to a dimmer and more dismal shade - as though the images and slides have aged, or are underwater, or are being burnt; and the titles appear almost like slides or and are done like the old title sequences used to be when done at the beginning of a piece. In between all of these slides/images that are rippling and changing there are quick images of almost undetectable things - at one point there were the waves of the sea and the what looked like a submarine, and at another point a pair of eyes that could symbolise the devil's or evil because the face was treated red, and the eyes seemed to be looking right at the camera - breaking the fourth wall. In addition, at one point the red eyes were superimpsoed over the crashing waves of the sea. Moreover, right at the end of the title sequence an old man, in his dressing gown, starts talking to the camera - as though he is filming a tutorial of something - this was very odd, bewildering and a bit creepy. All of these things made the title sequence frightening, confusing, mysterious and threatening.

Another film opening sequence that I researched was; 'Signs'. The genre of this film is also horror - however it is a twelve and so does not include things that are too sinister. This title sequence was plain but effective. The music became louder, faster and more tense by the end of the sequence and so the titles of were zooming out from behind the camera and into focus on each beat - they would then disappear before the next lot came on. The font was large and quite formal but interesting. moreover, the colour scheme was good - the background was continuous - it was light blue and the font was a navy blue. Around the edges of where the lettering would appear there was a circular glow that made anything not in it's glow dim - this was almost like torchlight, it also lit up whenever there were words on screen  but faded when the music did and when there was nothing to read on screen. (Sometimes the screen also went completely black). This made the screen seem alive when there was something to read - this drew attention to the titles.

I understand that it is important to have; a good score, appropriate font, effective camera treatments, excellent timing, and interesting colours and shades to interest the audience, when making a film - therefore, myself and Yasmin will try do these things in our own film opening sequence.