Final Piece

Here's a link to our final piece on youtube. Enjoy :D

'They Are Watching'

Finished! :D

We finished the editing of our film today and it looked great. However, we were very confused when it came to saving our work to disk with other elements of the portfolio and we didn't feel that it was explained clearly enough what had to be included on the disk. In the end we pretty much just put everything on including unused images. better safe than sorry.

Photoshop clone tool

Today I edited some photos on photoshop of my eyes to add to the end of the film.

I used the clone stamp tool to trace the iris' of my eyes and add it to the black and white image. I also used batch to make all the images black and white.

Finished Poem

This could potentially be used as a voice over for the beginning of our film, to give the piece a sense of purpose and to inform the viewer of the meaning.




They Are Watching


A family with the wrong members in control;

That, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase,

Perhaps it is most fitting to describe it’s leaders in these current days.

Rather than its people, who work to earn an honest living,

We judge and rule according to those that are sinning.

The faceless spies that gain our trust,

In fact have no judgment over what is just.

And just as we adhere to them,

Their lack of blood flow strikes again.

And in their surveillance the venerable go undetected,

Whilst tapes of mundane commuters are never rejected. 
They are watching.


By Emma Crampton
08.12.10

A Poem For George

George Orwell was one of the primary inspirations for the narrative of our film. I am working on a poem or a piece of text surrounding his quote: 

"A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase."

I think this is an interesting angle on the government and social setup of our politics. Like a family, all coinciding, all covering for each other to stand as a united front, perhaps leaving little manoeuvre for change and new ideas.  

Presentation Slides

We used our power point presentation as more of a background accompaniment to our script, with the slides providing visual aids with hyperlinks to our blogs and the chosen soundtrack. 

Presentation Highs

Just finished my presentation with Steph, it went really well. Maria even made an example of us. A bit embarrassing but also very pleasing. 


Here's the script for our presentation, just working on uploading the presentation also.

(slide 1)


Steph

The idea that we live in a society that is under constant surveillance and scrutiny is usually a factor in our day-to-day lives that goes unnoticed and forgotten about. It has become the norm for CCTV cameras to capture our every move; in fact, if there were to be a lack of CCTV cameras in any establishment, many of us would feel that our safety would be in jeopardy, and we would question it.

Emma

Since the 1973 Post Office Tower attack and the IRA’s London bombing campaign throughout the early 70s, CCTV has been increasingly used to protect citizens and prevent crime. There are now over 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK with 10,000 in London alone, so why does it remain the case that 80% of crime on the streets goes unsolved? If the cameras’ function of protecting the public is ineffective, are they not an unnecessary and excessive invasion of our privacy?

Steph

Under mass surveillance, we are all ‘tarred with the same brush’ when it comes to trying to identify the potential criminals. So are we all suspects?

Emma

The tampering with a CCTV device or obstructing its view is considered to be a crime, but where is the choice for those who live by the law to not be filmed?

Steph

We have been taught to believe that they are there for our safety, to live peacefully under their surveillance and not to question their purpose.

Emma

The purpose of our film is to remind the viewer that Big Brother is watching.

Steph

Our ideas first began when we started to think about types of filming. CCTV seemed an appropriate option and subject, as London much more heavily surveyed than other parts of the country.

Emma

We focused upon the ideas of George Orwell, who’s theories of an ‘Orwellian Society’ suggest that we are ruled and governed by a system of control, which is dependant on surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth and manipulation of the past.

Steph

Our short film will be shot in the style of CCTV camera footage, from the point of view of Big Brother himself. The narrative will reflect the relationship between Big Brother and the citizens he surveys, identifying suspects, targets, and what it is exactly that makes your actions plausible to surveillance.

(slide 2)

Emma

The scenario in our film sees an ordinary man being the victim of heavy surveillance and constant suspicion from the law. When a girl drops her purse on the underground, the camera depicts him potentially stealing the purse. However, what the camera does not display are his good intentions to hand the purse in to the police station. This proves that here, the CCTV captures no crime; simply a man going about his daily life, and that the cameras were only invading his privacy, not showing him as a criminal.

Steph

The film identifies that CCTV cameras do not distinguish between innocent civilians and the criminals they are trying to catch. As members of the public we are never given the opportunity to object to being on camera and having our movements tracked, yet we are expected to obey a faceless security system.

(slide 3)

Emma

CCTV style images are key, as the entire film is shot from the point of view of the CCTV camera or Big Brother himself.  This acts almost as a personification of the cameras as they represent the government and their surveillance.

(slide 4)

Steph

As every member of the public is exposed to excessive CCTV surveillance, our audience can be anyone, but it especially applies to adolescents, as they are often subject to suspicion from security guards, policeman and other members of the public.

(slide 5)

Emma

We have used Adobe Flash to edit our film and shot in stop-motion animation. It is made up of a sequence of photos combined to create different scenes in different settings.

We will incorporate many different cinematic techniques to derive meaning, including high and low angle shots, as well as zooming and attempting to impersonate the style of a CCTV camera.

Steph

We have cross cut between mine and Emma’s cameras to create multiple angles of the same scene to give the film a more professional look. We have also decided to include a soundtrack to add to the mood and atmosphere of the film. (Listen to small sample of track). We chose it because it has an even temp throughout, yet has a sense of enigma.

(slide 6)

Emma

We both made trips to London, together and separately to get the perfect shots for our film. But we have also had our individual roles in terms of developing the project.

Steph

For example, Emma has been focusing on the research and documentation of the project such as writing the project proposal, researching music for the film and preparing the presentation. She has also been developing ideas for the opening sequence and the beginning section where the narrative begins.

Emma

Steph has been particularly good at taking the time to edit all of our pictures and attending PALs classes every week to help her refine her skills and provide us with tips, which proved very helpful whilst filming. She has also been working on the middle and end sections of the film.

And of course we have been keeping track of all of our progress and work on our blogs, with regular updates about inspirations, experimentation and new ideas.

(Show Blogs)

Steph

Thank you for listening to our film presentation. Were there any Questions?

Project Presentation

I am currently working on the presentation for me and steph's group project to be presented on tuesday. I have compiled a powerpoint to accompany our speech.

Stylistic Research

telefonoadrian | December 27, 2006 | 22 likes, 1 dislikes

G.Orwell wrote in 1949 about a future siciety where thought and information would be dominated by the minority (1984). People would live in apparent freedom but they would always be coerced by the vigilance camera. 

It is not far from reality. London 2007, a cosmopolitan city, a prime example of the cultural integration. However inmigration is the base upon wich the minority develop their empire. They watch through the CCTV camera to check everything is in order.

These little cameras continual peering on me, they become in coercer elements instead of in elements for the good living together.

Music Research

I've sampled some of the music from Doug Liman's 'The Bourne Identity'. The score for this film was composed by John Powell. We decided to use a track from this film because the mood, setting and ambience of the film is similar to the look we are trying to achieve. 

Track Choice 1 - The Bourne Identity OST Mood Build

Track Choice 2 - The Bourne Identity OST - Jason's Theme

Track Choice 3 - The Bourne Identity OST - Bourne On Land

Track Choice 4 - The Bourne Identity OST - Hotel Regina

Track Choice 5 - The Bourne Identity OST - Jason Phones It In

Final Photos

This weekend we went to London and took the final photos for our film. Photo examples to follow.

Police tester shots

We took some tester shots of the police station using stop motion. We even managed to get a policeman to participate

Weather issues

due to the weather last weekend i was unable to go into London and take the pictures, however me and Steph are heading in this weekend to take our final pictures

10.11.2010

This saturday I plan on heading into London to take more photographs. These ones will be more of London surroundings, skylines, examples of CCTV etc.

I also learned today that the photographs MUST be in landscape form. Thank god for PALS. Shame I work on Wednesdays.

Project Proposal

The idea that we live in a society that is under constant surveillance and scrutiny is usually a factor in our day-to-day lives that goes unnoticed and forgotten about. It has become the norm for CCTV cameras to capture our every move; in fact, if there were to be a lack of CCTV cameras in any establishment, many of us would feel that our safety would be in jeopardy, and we would question it.

Since the 1973 Post Office Tower attack and the IRA’s London bombing campaign throughout the early 70s, CCTV has been increasingly used to protect citizens and prevent crime. There are now over 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK with 10,000 in London alone, so why does it remain the case that 80% of crime on the streets goes unsolved? If the cameras’ function of protecting the public is ineffective, are they not an unnecessary and excessive invasion of our privacy?

We have been taught to believe that they are there for our safety, to live peacefully under their surveillance and not to question their purpose. The purpose of our product is to remind the viewer that Big Brother is watching.

Our short film will be shot in the style of CCTV camera footage, from the point of view of Big Brother himself. The narrative will reflect the relationship between Big Brother and the citizens he surveys, identifying suspects, targets, and what it is exactly that makes your actions plausible to surveillance.

CCTV does not identify a definition or difference between the criminals it is attempting to catch and the innocent bystander. Therefore we all come under the surveillance whether we like it or not. We are all ‘tarred with the same brush’ when it comes to trying to identify the potential criminals. So are we all suspects? The tampering with a CCTV device or obstructing its view is considered to be a crime, but where is the choice for those who live by the law to not be filmed? Is it not a crime to invade privacy? Our narrative will follow a potential target or suspect as he or she engages in a ‘suspicious’ act, only to discover that she or he is completely innocent and just going about their life; proving that the CCTV is unnecessary and essentially invading the privacy of the subject.

Our target audience will be mainly focused upon young adults as in the last 10 years; robberies involving young people has steadily risen, usually in accordance with more and more people carrying expensive personal belongings such as mobile phones, iPods and Mp3s. Whilst domestic crimes still involve young people, the percentage is much lower in comparison to crimes committed on the street. Our film will challenge and question the stereotype that young people have to deal with, as they often find themselves as subjects of suspicion when it comes to dealing with theft, robbery, street violence and anti social behaviour.

To complete our project we will use Adobe Flash to create the film. Our narrative involves just one character (discounting Big Brother as the point of view) as we follow their movements throughout the film, but we may include a voice over to add meaning and to compel the viewer, this will inevitably depend on the strength of our plot and narrative.

We will incorporate many different cinematic techniques to derive meaning, including high and low angle shots, as well as zooming and attempting to impersonate the style of a CCTV camera. The aim to create tension will come potentially form the use of music and a voice-over.

The idea of using the concept of a Big Brother society is both current and relevant to recent news revelations. This includes the recent News of the World scandal involving David Cameron’s media advisor as he reportedly ‘intercepted the voicemail messages of public figures’ [Nick Davies, The Guardian 3.10.10] And the film will remind of how our privacy is a sacred thing and is under threat from the 'Big Brother' nation.

Timeline

28th September- initial ideas of conspiracy and revealing a hidden truth to the audience.

5th October- Inspired by the theme of Britain being heavily watched under CCTV. We researched into articles posted on BBC news for further inspiration.

21st October- Research into other media texts that focus on surveillance, such as ‘The Bourne Identity’, ‘Surveillance’ and ‘1984’ (written by George Orwell.) This will allow us to develop ideas in this field and understand typical forms and conventions used throughout this genre.

26th October- Come up with a rough storyboard.

28th October- Take various pictures in Central London of different angles, representing the subjective view of the CCTV cameras, including extreme close ups.

2nd November- Alter/Finish the storyboard.

4th November- Film a chosen actor around London to create the narrative of the storyboard.

9th November- Use Flash to cut down and edit the footage along side Photoshop cs3.

9th November + Continue editing and add audio.

My Hat Animation

Here is a super quick animation that I made on flash

Storyboard 1

Here we have started to compile a storyboard for our short film. We decided to go with 'Idea 2' because the simplicity of the narrative leaves a lot of room for creativity with editing.

Practice shots

Here are some practice shots for our short film.

Here we experimented with style, colouring and angles.

It was also interesting to see how people reacted to Steph taking the photographs. More than once we were approached and told that we were "not allowed to photograph their security systems." It frustrated us that they were freely allowed to view us on film but were reluctant for us to document their movements.