Research For Spirituality

We asked a range of students what spirituality meant to them. The most popular responses included these phrases: 

• Rest for your mind
• Time to think things through.
• Values and morals.
• Inner self
• Mind and soul
• Sense of freedom and expression.
• Religious beliefs and having faith in something
• Ghosts
• Afterlife

We are going to represent 4 types of characters to incorporate everyone’s different opinions on what spirituality is. The 4 types of character we wish to use are:

• Religious Spiritual
• New-Era Spiritual
• Non Spiritual
• Supernatural Spiritual

We are going to incorporate spirituality into our documentary in the way of free expression as well as methods with religious and supernatural connotations. Also, we look to include a character that leads a lifestyle that includes no set spiritual beliefs or values. By using characters that are so different in terms of spiritual beliefs and lifestyle there is an opportunity for character development and creating driven narrative that has drama. It also helps in highlighting the attributes of each individual character due to their differences in their general domineer, the conflict it creates between them and the dissimilarities of their decisions.

New-Era Spiritualty

One character we look to create is one that finds spirituality through free expression rather than other methods. Also, we have found that religious and spiritual aspects aren’t always interesting to a student audience from our survey. Also, we don’t generally find religious or spiritual discussions in shows such as TOWIE and Made in Chelsea that target this audience. We can show this view due to the broadened definition of the term spirituality in the modern western world where religion doesn’t go hand in hand with it. This method of showing spirituality is referred to as post-traditional spirituality. Phillip Sheldrake said that Modern spirituality is centred on the deepest values and meanings by which people live. It embraces the idea of an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality. By taking this idea it creates a documentary that is intriguing as it is a binary opposite to the materialistic views of TOWIE and Made in Chelsea. By creating this character that holds these core values of finding inner peace and satisfaction through freedom of expression and immaterial lifestyle it gives many routes for possible narrative structures.

Religious Spirituality

Another character we look to include is a religious one. We aim to show the religious aspects of spirituality through the means of this character. There are many angles that can be taken on this, but we have chosen to focus on the Christian lifestyle. We feel that this will be the easiest to convey and understand due to the fact that the majority of people in Coventry are of Christian faith  (53.7%) http://www.facts-about-coventry.com/uploaded/documents/Census 2011 Briefing – Religion.pdf (2011 consensus). By applying core values and beliefs of Christian spirituality we will develop the character and a narrative about how they react to outside stimulus. This reaction will also contribute to how we create generic conventions of the Structured reality genre. This is due to the fact that these types of documentaries are structured around drama and conflict. These conflicts will exist between the outside stimulus, other’s values and this character’s values.

No Set Spirituality

This character will exist for a few reasons. Firstly, he exists to create conflict. This is done through discussions with people with beliefs. These discussions also exist to show other character’s beliefs through due to the additional character’s dictations towards him/her. Also, he exists to represent a large view in Coventry, as the second largest religious view in the consensus is no religious belief. Furthermore, in the consensus states that people of the student age in Coventry are more likely to have no religious beliefs than the average person so it is even more important to represent this group.

72 Hour Documentary Beginning

Today we were given our 72 hour documentary project. Whilst we feel it will be difficult to create a text of a high standard in such a small time frame, we look to relish the challenge and create something that both fits the brief and exceeds our expectations of what we can create as media producers. After our success in winning best Baby documentary in our home group, we have confidence that we can function well in our group, have good ideas and produce a documentary to a good quality. With more time and better equipment, we feel that we can only improve.

For our project we received the theme of spirituality, the target audience of students, the location of Hillfields and the documentary type of structured reality. This is not an ideal situation and it will be difficult to piece these items together to make a coherent and entertaining documentary. However, since we are targeting a structured reality at a student audience, we feel this can  be done as we understand the student audience and structured realities well.

We think that spirituality is a very difficult theme to tackle. In modern media, spirituality and religion is often not discussed or portrayed due to the fact that it is difficult to without causing offence. So, we look to portray characters with different spiritual beliefs in an attempt to show all the different sides of the spectrum. With the use of outside stimulus, we can show others spiritual views whilst still adhering to the structured reality documentary type.

Types of Documentary

Documentary’s represented reality at the start of film making in the late 1800’s. Actuality was used to describe these types of films. But, documentary is a contested term. It is not easy to define. Even these early films were constructed. All details in these films were made upon decisions; nothing is neutral, no matter how natural it looks. This is very interesting to look at things in this manner. No matter how natural something looked, you have to look deeper into the reasoning why they chose to film that instead of something else and what this means.

Nanook of the North in the 1920’s showed things, which weren’t factually correct. He used equipment and clothes, which weren’t generally used by the protagonists (intuits) in the documentary. He made his own interpretation and staged the actions to make a point of the changing culture. This shows how documentaries are not impartial and can differ due to a variety of factors. When analysing documentaries we should watch them with this in mind. We have to think what interpretations the creator had and how they are being shown to us.

John Griesrson is a key theorist and documentary maker. He defined a documentary as “the creative treatment of actuality”. This shows us that he viewed it as not a journalistic approach and more of a narrative approach. It is more of a narrative due to the fact that they are only showing certain views of reality rather than all of it and voicing opinion on it.

John Corner characters the relationship between TV and film documentary.

• Evidential Mode 1: Reactive Observationalism 
• Evidential Mode 2: Proactive Observationalism
• Evidential Mode 3: Illustrative
• Associative Mode

Modes of Speech:

• Overheard Exchange
• Testimony
• Expositional Mode

Bill Nichols identified there was 6 types of documentaries including genres and sub genres:

• Poetic –(dreamy, lacks structure, inner truth)
• Expository –(informative, factual, assumes a right and proper answer, objective)
• Participative –(filmmaker is part of the documentary)
• Observational –(a witness of events, attempt to capture reality without intervention)
• Reflexive -(acknowledges the constructive nature of the documentary and flaunts it, not the truth but a truth.)
• Performative -(emphasises the subjective nature of the documentary maker)

We could argue there is another type of documentary: Staged reality. Fly on the wall perspective.

Coventry City Documentary

Our documentary focuses on diversity in Coventry city centre, we also decided to film and edit our documentary in a poetic style, this is made clear to the viewer through certain generic conventions, which we have used.

Firstly, camera movement; We used point of view shots to give a first person view of Coventry, this helped give the illusion that the viewer was walking through the city centre, it also allowed us to focus completely on shops and stalls when needed in a fashion that appeared as it would if someone was actually in the city.

We decided that we wanted the audience to make their own opinion of Coventry, to do this we had no clear narrative, which fits into the poetic documentary style. As well as not having a clear narrative we also had very simple opening titles are also very simplistic, only giving the information which was vital, again allowing the audience to draw their own meaning from it.

The iconography featured in our documentary is similar to that in any documentary; we filmed real people and real places, therefore documenting reality. There is also iconography which makes the documentary identifiable as a poetic documentary, for example, we only used images, no dialogue (so the audience do not have their opinions influenced too much) , this had a very stylised and unusual effect, this not only suggested it was a poetic style documentary but also shows that images are more powerful than words. Finally a lot of footage was used and condensed into a small amount of footage, this also suggests the documentary was poetic.

The music used was a simple, calm acoustic song, it gives off a positive vibe which backs up the positive representation we were trying to give. We wanted the documentary to look as natural and realistic as possible therefore we used natural lighting, real people, no costumes and few special effects, the only effects used was to speed the footage up to symbolise how you can rush through life but you should take the time to notice the things around you.

Representation of Gypsies

Representation is a critical concept: “The use of language to say something meaningful or to represent the world meaningfully to other people.” Stuart Hall came up with the circuit of representation through five areas: identity, production, consumption, regulation and representation. The media uses this to get the messages across to their target audience.

Sometimes the media can be misleading, making the viewer think that what they hear and being told are all true. When you hear the word “Gypsy” what’s the first thing that comes into your mind?  Travellers?  Thieves? Do you know who they are exactly? Where they come from or what they do?

In this session we looked at how gypsies are represented, for example in the TV show called “My big fat gypsy wedding” the characters in this show aren’t “Gypsies” they’re actually Irish travellers and unless if you know enough about gypsies you wouldn’t know that what you been told isn’t true.

Stereotypes have leaded us to see gypsies in this way:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/real-life/celebrity-palm-reader-eva-petulengro-1097782

The name came from a group of travellers from India who came to Europe, mainly Spain and this is where the “Flamenco” music came from.  During the war, Hitler persecuted many of them so there isn’t many gypsies left hanging around.

We looked at a famous artist called “Camaron” who can sing and play guitar. A religious gypsy who managed to get into the industry and make himself seen in the light by a lot of fans, he was seen as a hero. As a gypsy he was well represented, with his admirers carrying him on his coffin with the gypsy flag.

Narrative: The Hero’s Journey

Joseph Campbell (1907-1987) was an American mythologist whose core belief he stated as:

“All cultures have grown out of myths. They are founded on myths. What these myths have given has been inspiration for aspiration. The economic interpretation of history is for the birds. Economics is itself a function of aspiration. It’s what people aspire to that creates the field in which economics works”

Campbell believed that the hero’s journey was always the same no matter what the story was. He also believed that there was only one ‘myth’, which he called a monomyth, and all heroes followed this template.

The 17 stages of “The heroes Journey” are:
Departure:

1. The call to adventure – The point in a person’s life where something important happens, sending the person in a new direction.
2. Refusal of the call – The individual may refuse to follow their call to adventure, they may feel afraid, not be able to leave responsibilities, or they may not feel strong enough to begin the adventure.
3. Supernatural act – Once the person starts their adventure, a magical helper or guide to provide the person with help. (The helper does not have to be human)
4. Crossing of the first Threshold – This is the point when the individual begins their adventure properly, the hero leaves their familiar surroundings and their normal life and heads into unknown and possibly dangerous places where the rules are not known.
5. Belly of the whale – At this stage the individual is between worlds, for many heroes at this point they may feel very frightened and alone as they become aware of the challenges ahead of them and the responsibility they have.

Initiation:

6.   Road of trials – the hero endures a series of tests, tasks or ordeals that the person must undergo to become a ‘hero’.
7.   Meeting the mentor – After surviving the road of tasks and trials, the hero may experience feeling of love, this can be romantic love or love for friends and family, this helps the hero gain strength and wonderful feelings of well being from the experience.
8.   Temptation – The hero will become tempted to quit the journey and go home.
9.   Atonement – This is the main point of the journey, all previous steps have be leading towards this, all events to follow will come from this moment.
11.  Apotheosis – After surviving the pervious event the hero may have an experience of the oneness and beauty of the universe, this is a period  of rest and reflection.
12.  The ultimate boon – The achievement of the goal of the quest.

Return:

12. Refusal of the return – When the adventure has been a glorious/satisfying one the hero may refuse to come back to normal life, the hero may not want to return because they fear their message will not be heard.
13.  The magical flight – the hero must steal the boon (something helpful/beneficial) and make a daring escape, this may be as adventurous as beginning the adventure.
14.  Rescue from without – The hero may need a magical guide or helper to return from the adventure.
15. Crossing of the return threshold – The hero crosses a threshold to return to normal life, the hero must remember what was learnt during the adventure and use it to make life better for themselves and others.
16. Master of the two worlds – The hero has learned how to be comfortable with the world, they are ready to be a guide for someone else.
17. Freedom to live – Once a person has survived a great adventure, they learn to accept him/herself and become free from the fear of death.

The heroes journey can be applied to the majority of stories, “Harry Potter” can be used as an example:

1. The call to adventure – Harry receives his Hogwarts letter
2. Refusal of the call – Harry’s uncle does not let him open his letters and does not wish for him to go to Hogwarts
3. Supernatural act – Hagrid visits Harry to personally deliver the letter and the help Harry escape his uncle and Aunt and go to Hogwarts
4. Crossing the threshold – Harry visit diagonally with Hagrid and begins to learn more about the wizard world
5. Belly of the whale – Harry learns about who he really is, why he has a scar on his forehead and who voldermort is
6. Road of trials –Harry faces many trials during his time at Hogwarts, for example in “Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone” Harry faces a series of challenges when trying to fine the philosopher’s stone
7. Meeting the mentor – Harry feels a love for his friends and some of his teachers and Hagrid because of all the help they have given him along his journey
8. Temptation – Harry is usually agar to take on challenges however he often tries to prevent his friends from joining him worrying that the tasks he will face are too dangerous.
9. Atonement – each book/film has a series of tasks that must be completed to achieve a certain goal
10. Apotheosis – this occurs at the end of each film
11. The ultimate boon – For example in the first film Harry retrieves the philosopher’s stone.
12. Refusal of the return – Harry prefers to be at Hogwarts than living with his uncle and aunt
13. The magical flight – the return home is usually magical but not always dangerous
14. Rescue from without – The magical Hogwarts train returns Harry home
15. Crossing of the return threshold – Harry must learn to not use magic while he is not at Hogwarts
16. Master of two worlds – Harry becomes comfortable being a wizard living in the muggle world
17. Freedom to live – After his first year at Hogwarts, Harry’s life becomes more comfortable as he learns to stand up to his uncle and aunt and moves out of the cupboard under the stairs.

Representation

We are going to be creating what we believe represents the ideal man or woman, when doing this we must look at the contexts surrounding our chosen gender’s sexuality.  We had to construct an image which we think fits the image of the person that we are trying to represent

In our blog, we had placed images of female celebrities that we think are good looking and it would be parts of each of these pictures that would create our ideal woman. I believe that we have made our person in this way because this is what the media represents as what a good women look like. They do this through the use of different media techniques. We are shown these women that are good looking and are shown that this is the way that women should look like. They are represented like this across the world and due to this and we as media users also believe that this is how women should look like. So, our ideal women must also be represented in the same light.

When thinking about our person, I feel that we have looked at it with a male point of view when getting these images. We didn’t think about their lifestyle or what they would act like, we mainly focused on their looks. This shows the way that many media makes males sexualise their ideal woman as we have focused on physical features.

We have used very stereotypical images of what women should look like due media represent celebrities. Media has also created the stereotype that all these women are flawless. When looking at the images that we have gotten, it is hard to argue with that statement because of the fact that the women in our pictures do look fla

wless due to editing of the images. But, the issue that comes with this is that these aren’t fair representations of what real life is like. Not every women looks like this, and the fact that the media use representations like this, we start to truly believe that this is what beauty is. You can tell that by the way we have represented our ideal female, we have followed the way that the media constructs what a good looking woman is.

Audience in the Media

In media we split people into groups due to what they like to watch or do, this is also known as demographics.

It can be sorted into numbers, charts and graphs to show the amount of views on a TV programme. For example we can look at The only way is Essex and compare it to other shows.

There is a key to communicating with the audience. To do this, the audience are being stereotyped and split into different classes. The system works in a “flow” starting from “WHO” and continuing to ask the questions “SAYS WHAT”,  “TO WHOM”,  “BY WHAT MEANS” and “WITH WHAT EFFECT”.

The word “WHO” is important as only some audiences may find the content that’s being delivered to them enjoyable and believable.

The “SAYS WHAT” is crucial  for a presenter, celebrity or character within the show as they have to sell  their role and be convincing so that the audience shows interest in the product. If this source is not accepted by the audience then they would ignore the message and the flow would be thrown out of the window because they show no interest to subject whatsoever.

“BY WHAT MEANS” is how the message is being sent across to reach the target audience; this can be in newspapers, TV, radio, online etc.  People use different resources, either one or more of these stated above. Radio stations such as BBC Radio 4 target the older audience as it expresses  interest in history, comedy, politics, readings, art and so forth in a light hearted way. The younger generations may listen to the radio for music, topics about stars and the red carpet so will be attracted to other stations for that reason.

“BY WHAT EFFECT” – this is perceived differently by the individual. Therefore, the same message sent across will be interpreted differently by different people because their interests are different.

One very good example would be “Gangnam Style”. It was meant to be aimed for Koreans, because the song is Korean and it’s about Korea. But, those who don’t understand the language don’t know that. The song was a big hit due to the comedy genre of the music video and dance. This in turn  created a viral effect and thus got viewers from all over the world interested. You can compare this song to “Everyday I’m Shuffling” by LMFAO which also has a catchy tune and dance.

Encoding and Decoding

The encoder is the person who creates it and decoder is the person who interprets it. This model explains how the audience interprets meanings through cultural symbols. The process goes through production, circulation, use and reproduction.

As time goes by, the things that are being perceived change. For example, in the documentary The Man with a Movie Camera, the relationship between media and audience in that society and media structure for that text will be different from how it would be now.

“At the start I didn’t enjoy it because I wasn’t sure what it was trying to say. But, on the media side it got me interested in the way the used the camera and how the film was developed without a narrative. The images itself allowed us, the audience to create assumptions.” Ting Ting Zhang

“From a personal standpoint, I wasn’t very interested in this style of documentary. It didn’t appeal to me on a personal level due to the fact I have never experienced or studied soviet Russia. However, from a Media standpoint, I found it interesting and revolutionary due to how he used short shots to give a message without a set narrative.” Aidan Reilly

Active audiences – They are called active audiences because they give both sides of a viewpoint whether it’s negative or positive. For example, there is a trend on Twitter and Facebook with the “hashtag” sign, it’s become acceptable and now everyone uses it on the internet.

Hypodermic needle model – This implied the media had a massive direct influence on the audience. In the 1940-50’s the changes of media happened so quickly with the rise of popularity of radio and TV, advertising, propaganda and Hitler’s monopolisation of media during WWII. The beliefs, attitudes and ideas have been injected into their minds and the audience doesn’t try to make their own assumptions instead they follow the media. Whilst this theory can be applicable it also assumes a passive audience who can’t make up their own minds.

Two step flow – The two step flow is where the media text is watched and then the text is discussed by groups of people.

Man With a Movie Camera

“Man with a movie camera” is an experimental silent documentary by Dziga Vertov. Throughout the film Vertov experiments with different filming techniques, which were both new and impressive in the 1920s. These techniques include; jump cuts, Dutch angles, split screens and superimposing the camera man into other shots. However, the documentary was created with no intention of having a plot, the narrative was made up of completely random shots which were then edited by Vertov’s wife Elizaveta Svilova.

When watching the film, it is clear that this is not the style of film we would expect to see in the 21^st century, this is because audiences are changing and modern audiences now want to see something different. Laswell’s model can be applied to “Man with a movie camera” and to both the audiences then and now.

Then (1929):

Who? – Dziga Vertov, a revolutionary film maker who experimented with new techniques changing the way films were made.

Says what? – Vertov wanted the working class to see how important their work was and promote communism in soviet Russia.

To Whom? – The working class.

By what means? – An experimental propaganda film show in cinemas and on an agitprop Train (A train that travelled around Russia showing the film)

With what effect? To make the working class of soviet Russia feel proud about their work and to create a sense of a patriotic society.

Now (2013):

Who? – Dziga Vertov, a revolutionary film maker who experimented with new techniques changing the way films were made. (This has not changed)

Says what? – Vertov wanted the working class to see how important their work was and promote communism in soviet Russia. (This also has not changed)

To whom? – Media students, historians, anthropologists

By what means? – Youtube/internet, DVD, TV

With what effect? – gaining historical context, influencing film makers

Genre in Film

Why do we use Genre?

1. Using genre helps fulfil the audience due to the system of expectation. We use genre in films to fulfil the need of the audience to continue to make products in that genre. If we see something that we enjoy, we will continue to search for similar films. Thus, if we create these films we are gratifying the audiences expectations and giving them the pleasure of fulfilment.
2. It helps in justifying the unique purchase of the film. In general, we all purchase a product after knowing all the information about it to ensure we are making an intelligent purchase. However, with films we pay before knowing the full quality of the product. By knowing what the genre is and assuming the conventions of that genre we can justify the decision to purchase or not to purchase. By making these assumptions we can figure out if we are the target audience for that film.
3. Pleasure of difference/familiarity. By finding out what genre a film is we can establish whether we want to see it. One could decide whether they would want to see a genre which is familiar to what they usually enjoy or something that is more out of their comfort zone.
4. Guaranteed Audience. By using a genre in a film then they are ensuring that they get an audience for the production. As these genres are established, there will always be an audience which are willing to watch the product. If you create a new genre then you are taking massive risks as there is no audience which are guaranteed.

GENERIC CONVENTIONS 

• Plot – The plot line of the film is a large part in what makes up the genre.  It determines the main stories within the film. For example, in Dracula the fact that he bites a person on the neck helps define the Vampire genre.
• Characters – General things such as age, race, social class and religion of a character can help contribute towards a genre. For example Italian people will better for showing a mafia genre film.
• Body Language – Body language helps in determining the actions of characters in a film which can in turn help define the genre. For example, when someone shows they’re afraid it can help show it is a horror genre.
• Dress – The costumes which the characters wear contribute to the identification of the genre. This can be quite obvious like in Superhero films and Western films. Or, it can be more subtle like in Teen movies when people are wearing hoodies.
• Dialogue – The way in which the characters speak can help show the genre. For example in Ali G they use gangster like dialogue which creates humour due to the the juxtaposition between that and the general demeanour of the characters. This contributes to showing it is a comedy genre. It can show the type of audience they are aiming at as often these characters are representations of the target audience by the fact they use similar dialogue.
• Historical Setting – The environment in which the film is made can help define the genre. For example, a roman colosseum can show that it is a war film.
• Location – The location of the film can contribute in identifying the genre. This can be seen in films such as Shank; because it is filmed in London it helps add to the gang nature of the film.
• Iconography – Symbols in films help add to the genre. In films such as Spiderman and Batman the insignia adds to Superhero genre.
• Themes – Themes such as love can help contribute to the film’s genre such as Romantic. This theme can be shown in multiple ways such as plot-lines.
• Locomotion – Types of transport can help define a genre. For example; horses can be used to show it is a Wild West film and police cars can show it is a Crime genre.
• Stars – Sometimes a genre can be recognised by a certain actor which is predominant in that genre. This can be seen from actors such Arnold Schwarzenegger in Action films.

Parodies such as Scary Movie can make genres such as Horror become weaker as the audience don’t take the conventions and signs as seriously. By poking fun at these obvious signs it ruins the affect of them in the serious genre. This can create sub-genres with slightly different signs and conventions so they are taking seriously once again but still retain the same audience.