Image Assignment

1. I think that NUT would see this site to has a positive function and image. They are promoting sexual awareness and offer a clear and obvious message about sex.
The Nut are very keen on offering affective and positive sex education to all students. I feel that this informal approach would go down well. Throughout the site safe sex is promoted through the use of condoms?
The graphics of the site have taken youth culture into account when it was designed. It looks as though it could be from a girls magazine. The site is however missing any more personal information for male youths, being that the site is predominantly designed for a female audience (as shown through the use of colour)





2. I think that this image would appeal more towards NUT’s preferences. It takes a more serious approach towards sex education, yet it does not force anything messages upon the reader. It is a pro condom advert that suggests that sex education should be taught to all people. However I feel that the use of language and the style of the add would prevent this advert from being shown to a very young generation. For example the word “clit” probably wouldn’t go down to well in a primary school.





3. For this advert there isn’t to much I can mention with reference to the political views of the nation union of teachers. It is an advert for perfume, showing a naked woman, this would not be allowed in a school (sadly)






4. I feel that this image would be seen by NUT as something that is very thought provoking. (as anyone would) How ever I feel that it does not convey a “nice” thought to young student as they would most likely find it hard to comprehend the significance of the photograph.








5. I feel that NUT would not want this to be affiliated with any schools as it is a film with high levels of adult content (the kind of content we all like).
It should not be something that NUT would have to deal with, as there would be no reason for this to be shown or talked about in school!







6. This Advert would cause a problem for NUT as it features a “hard” penis that could be offence to some (as well as being an image that should not be seen by young children) The advert would more than likely receive negative comments from NUT. However if does promote safe sex, which is a message that NUT is keen to pass though schools.







7. I believe that this image has been circulated thought the world media so much that many children would have seen it at some point. There is nothing NUT could do to prevent this image being used outside of school but I believe that they would more than likely not use it in school. As the internet is a pool for most images such as this I feel that they may try to restrict internet access and prevent the ability for younger students to view images such as these.






8. I feel that this image would cause an uproar within NUT as it could been seen to publicise Myra Hindely. It would more than likley not be used unless required.










9. This image taken from some of Gilbert and George (two collaborative artists) has no real relevance to NUT, you could say that they would more than likely complain or try to prevent the image being used due to the nature and content of the image. However I feel that if the image were relevant then it would be shown to a mature audience.






10. The national Union of Teachers would not use the Imogen sex video in school. It would most likely be inaccessible to students in school due to filtering systems built into the network.

Studio Shoot

The back Story – Tuesday 16th January 2007, We have been set the task or recording an assessed studio production. Our group have decided on a drama about a man speaking with St. Peter at the gates of heaven (Monty Python meets Hollyoaks)

I’m sat at the lighting desk in the TV studio; the set was built last night and I partially lit it. (couldn’t fully light it as the set was being changed all the time), all the cameras have been balanced and the lights have been fine tuned.
.

The studio shoot seemed to go well yesterday considering all the odds.
Last minutes actors, set designer pulling out the night before the shoot!
All we would have needed was a mass technical failure and it would have looked like a sign from good “You must not make this production”.

I was in the studio the day before the shoot to help build the set. After the flats were all up they appeared to have transformed the studio into what looked like a cheap set for a pyramid scheme movie. However as the girls began to throw down the artificial clouds the set was transformed into a heavenly replica.


4 PM - My initial plan was to light the set the night before the shoot so that I wouldn’t be rushed the next day. I began tracing up my Key lights and roughly positioning the others, but due to the ever changing set design I was forced to leave the lighting until the set was totally build and a layout was finalised. So I went home around 7pm.

The day of the shoot – I arrived on set sharply at 9:00am waiting to be let in before the others arrived so that I could again get stuck into my lighting design. No one turned up for at least another thirty minutes.
So I finally got to work, the set looked great (considering) and everyone seemed keen to start shooting. I didn’t really need to adjust many more of my lights as I had lined up most of what I needed the night before. I traced up the remainder of my lights and lit the back drop. Everything seemed to be going well, ever so often I was asked if I could make it “more white” (I couldn’t because I had used all my lights, but I had to explain how I was going to open up the iris’s on the camera to compensate for this)

We began shooting and managed to run through the whole thing at least two or three times before lunch. Everyone seemed quite positive to our progress. Chris was doing a good job directing ( its not easy controlling 15 or so people and knowing that you will be assessed on it)

When we came back after our lunch everyone was keen to start again.
Chris quietly took me to one side and asked that if it were possible could all the lights go red when the guy presses the red “Hell button”.

We carried on shooting until the tape ran out, and then spun it back over the first few takes (they weren’t really that good).

We finally finished shooting around 4pm (I think) and then wrapped the studio in record time.


Fun day, great job everyone.


Looking forward to seeing it this Thursday ☺

What is the National Union of Teachers?

What is the National Union of Teachers?

The National Union of Teachers (NUT for short) is a trade union for teachers established in 1870. The union was founded to protect, serve and act as a governing body for teachers in the United Kingdom.

As a governing body within education the union possesses no external power of censorship. It was initially established to associate and unite people concerned in the service of education, the idea behind the union was that it would regulate the relationships between teachers and their employers and negotiate work conditions on behalf of the members. One topic that has had a lot of focus over the last few years are pay disputes and teacher salaries. It is something that NUT has focused a lot of time and effort on. The most recent action NUT has undertaken has been to produce a teachers “Check-List”, this campaign has been designed to reduce the amount of hours that teachers must work, as well as improving teachers work life by taking away some of the every day pressures of the class room. For example, getting rid of school league tables and the competitiveness that comes with them.


In my opinion I feel that the National Union of Teachers would be adverse to any type of media that undermines the education system and NUT its self as a union body. This is something that is ever present in today’s media, we often see articles in news papers and on television programs how the education system is failing to fulfil its duty, the blame is often pushed onto teachers, rather than the government.
In an article on the BBC News website I found an article talking about underperforming schools in the UK. There is a quote on this site from the schools Minster Jim Knight.

“There should be no hiding place for underperforming and coasting school”

It does not talk about any other possible problems or reasons for this drop in education standards, other than poor school management and bad teachers. There is no accusation that the movement is partially involved in the drop, or even the parents of the children.

For more info on the National Union of Teachers (NUT) take a look at their website and have your say.

http://www.teachers.org.uk/

Secrets & Lies

I'm sorry if i have kept any of my dedicated readers in an unbearable state of suspense but a lot has happen over the passing months have prevented/side tracked my on going blog.

A few days after the birth of my blog I was on location in a very nice little church in Bournemouth shooting our “Secrets & Lies” project.
We were on set from 9am until about 6pm, a very long day but doing something I love. On this particular shoot I had the role of Gaffer (Chief Lighting Technician), It was my job to dress the set with a very atmospheric spread of shadows.

I was taken to location the day before the shoot with the director who showed me what parts of the church we would be using, and what sort of lighting he wanted.
I took some photos and went home and began drawing up a rough lighting map so that when I got on set on actual day of the shoot I would be able to quickly set up my equipment and fine tune my lighting to satisfy the DOP.

We had two very good actors (as far as student films go) who both gave very good performances (for that I credit our director Chris). They were very helpful and professional as well as easy to work with.

I feel that the shoot went well considering the lack of better equipment. In pre production we has spoken about the possibility of getting some grip equipment, such as a small dolly or a jib. The use of a fix lens adaptor was also thrown into the mix. But both ideas were pushed aside due to some people not wanting to use the groups budget for these items.
Initially we had planned for more movement throughout the production, however due to our constraints we decided to use a tripod rather than trying to mimic the actions of a track through hand held. In hindsight this worked out quite well for me as I was able to light the scenes much better than I had anticipated due to the fact that i didn’t have to concentrate on projecting light onto a moving subject.

This shoot allowed to practice some of the lighting techniques I have learnt through my own studies. I found that John Altons Book Painting with light was a very useful starting point to further and progress my understanding of lighting.

I have seen a rough edit of the production which I am pleased with, but I am still to see the final production. I was not really involved with the edit of this project as I digitised, logged and edited the last of our productions.

First of all I would like to welcome you all to the Official Matt Davies PDP Blog. A lot of time an effort has gone into making this blog possible, I would like to start by thanking the I.T team at Bournemouth University for setting up the computer network, also i would like to thank the system administrator for providing me with my username and password, i would also like to thank the builders who constructed the open access department, without there hard work and solid foundations all of this would not have been impossible. Finally I would like to thank everyone else for turning up at the launch party of my PDP Blog, you are the true Heroes! Thanks to your enthusiasm and hard work we have successfully created a medium
that is capable of mass consumption.

On lookers anxiously waiting outside the open access centre for the first post, all eager to digest the intellectual brilliance of Matt Davies
(Photographed by Bill Watson A.C.S)