With less than a month to go.

I am finished filming! I now have some great footage from shooting with 7 local actors.

Easiest way to update the world is to make a list, so here goes:

In the past few weeks I have:
-Finished my script...but I'm still working with it
-Designed a website
-Decided against using a "Wall Site" installation space**

**meaning my project will not have an interactive computer space. I decided that having a website physically available is not necessary to let people know there is a website. Instead, I will have tvs available in 4 locations around the school and there will be postcards with all website information on them.

-Bought Medianoia.com!!!! Don't check it out yet...
-Collected many more video files to add as clips in the overall video
-Edited together the worst and roughest cut of the project yet...this will be rectified in the next week.
-Layed out a ton of After Effects "News Layouts"

To be continued...

Trudging Through

An update finally...as I slowly catch my breath.

In the last two weeks I have:

• Finished filming with 5 actors! Wahoo!
• Cast 3 more actors
• Finished putting together my tentative script and sent a copy to each of my advisors
• Gathered most of the real news content and started to edit together my video clips (They aren't keyed out with nice news backgrounds yet but I'm really just trying to make the different phrases work with each other.)
• And today I picked up a desk for my installation space. It isn't the exact desk I wanted but I suppose it will work. It's very simple so aside from not being glass top, I'll try it.
  

Half Way Point

After briefly shutting down to deal with a computer melt down problem, I am back working hard on the project.

This coming week, my final documentation is due for my research paper and for my project outline. I am also going to try to have a very very VERY rough cut of the project together for my documentary class on Wednesday. So, for the next few days, I am all about digging through transcripts, organizing script lines for my actors, and trying to piece the project together in a fashion that will start to make sense and deliver the right message. I am also in the process of finding higher quality video files of more notable media and political personalities for the final piece.

I will probably take a few days over my upcoming break to relax and then use the rest of the time to get as much work a possible done.

Midterm Spring Project Update

The project has grown in various ways.

The script is now comprised of various snipits taken from news that aired between December 2009 and February 2010. That includes a variety of different topics that help illustrate my main thesis...which again is "The media is owned by for-profit and therefore serves the interests of shareholders and not the citizens of this democracy." ...so I'm trying to find stories that reflect on the idea of ownership. I've also come across stories about inaccuracies, media harshness and many quotes from America citizens complaining that their voices haven't been heard.

My next step is to write these story quotes on notecards, and start arranging them into sentences that illustrate my main point. The final piece will be a video collage/montage that splices my self created news segments with real news segments to encourage people to really question what they see on tv. I'm looking around for various places to find my video segements including: youtube, fox, nbc, archive.org and vimeo.

The finalized style is now complete and can be viewed here:

Medianoia Style - Youtube

I currently have five actors for my project, which I have already filmed and given roles to two. Both filming sessions took about 4 hours to complete (2 to set up and 2 to film). I'm hoping I can get a little quicker with set up and take down by the next shoot.

Project Update

I'm trucking along at a snails pace at this point.

I've been desperately digging through news transcripts, online articles and documentaries trying to find a very solid idea to cling to. Though I haven't come up with one all encompassing idea yet, I have come across numerous others that will add the the over all intention of my work.

I need to play up the flash and gloss of the news. This is a very important aspect of news that is corporate owned...more important than I first imagined it would be. News stations have no money to invest in journalism because they invest so much money into doppler radar, flashy graphics generators and sky cams...all tools that are flashy and impressive, but fail to deliver the same message that simple, clean, low-budget news could accomplish.

The main function of the news is not to look beautiful, it is to inform the citizens of a democracy!

Documentaries watched this week:
Control Room
War Made Easy

Searching for the Right Audience

I am about to embark on the second semester of my senior thesis project, Medianoia, and have decided that now would be as good a time as any to start blogging my thought process. If this generates feedback from the community then excellent, but if not, then that is alright as well. This is really just an online location for me to sort ideas and formulate a plan.

My initial goal for today is to rethink my chosen audience for the project.

At first, I decided that it would be logical to make my audience "those who trust the media most" in an attempt to make them question news content. According to one source, Can you trust the Media? by Adrian Monck, that group contains younger, lower class Americans with a poor education (ages: 16-24). Though that data sounds plausible, I had yet to find another source that supports the fact that teens and young adults are most likely to trust the news...let alone watch it.

A few things I have found out that aid in determining an audience:
-Republicans overwhelmingly distrust the news. This is because they believe that the news has a strong liberal bias.
-The television news is most frequently watched by viewers around ages 50-65.
The above information was gathered from the PEW Research Center.

New Valuable Internet Resources:
linktv.org - broadcasts programs that engage, educate and activate viewers to become involved in the world
newstrust.net - promotes quality journalism, to help people make more informed decisions as citizens
NewsTrust.net Educational Resources