Internet Safety/Support - Organizations

-Worthy of our trust - Is the organization worthy of the trust we wish to give them. Will they care for our children and will they inform us of every bit of information regarding the children. With so many incidents reported on the news with abductions and attacks, are they safe?
-Individuals and their problems! - When dealing with these individuals, are the problems able to be solved and does the behaviour of the children affect family's and the relationships between the parent's and child.
- Points to complete:
* Strong awareness of the children.
*Understand the impacts of their behaviour.
*Healthy boundaries.
*Excellent communication skills.
*A high level of personal integrity.

-Most people are More likely to protect ourselves, rather than opening up and solving the problem.

Internet Safety/Support - Emotional Safety

-Stay Calm - When around children, You must be care full of what you say. Little things that may mean nothing to an adult can be greatly magnified in a child's mind. Children have the ability to overhear everything that is said as the parents do not believe they will understand, let alone care about what is being said... Well.... They do.
-Voice - When speaking to a child, there is a few techniques that that give the child a positive message. The easiest way to to keep a child calm is to move down to their level, lower your voice so they do not get scared and make direct eye contact.
-Explanation - Explanation is key. Explain in details that are understandable to children. This involves mot using outrageous terminology and pronouncing your words correct. You MUST NOT raise your voice at any moment in time. Make sure what you are saying is correct and try not to babble on to much as they will not listen and will also not understand.

Internet Safety/Support - Help

Where is the safety, where is the help!

-Cell Phone - When travelling, it is always best to carry a mobile phone around with you. This can be used in case emergency assistance is needed. These phones can be programmed to contact the local police. This allows for a quicker response as it is not the general emergency number.
-Planning - When travelling, it is always best to plan when you are going, how your getting there, and any routes out of the area if there is a problem.
-Public Assistance - The best way to gain the attention of the public is to make the biggest scene you possibly can, do not think this will be inappropriate because it could me the difference between life and death. Be ready to to make someone feel bad by offending, embarrass, inconvenience to protect your well-being.
-Boundaries - Be prepared to make your Friends and family know where they stand, tell them what makes you uncomfortable and may possibly make you feel offended. You want to trust your Friends, not be betrayed by them.

Internet Safety/Support - Disabilities and Special Needs

Self Protection - Disabilities

- Personal Safety and Disabilities - There is speculation to suggest main causes of helplessness in disabled people is to worry. This engages there mind to think that there is no possible way that they can defend themselves.
- Different - If your disability is different to others but is more visible to the eye, it is proven that you are more likely to be the victim of an attack.
- 3 Ways to work around this - Aware, Calm, and Confident.
* One of the best ways to make people aware that you are not easily venerable is to bring a strong sense of confidence around with you, it is said that raising your head higher then most will bring the enjoyment you wish to have. It also brings comfort to your mind as well as easing the mind from thoughts of attacks.
* This method is shown to prevent attackers from making you there victim but instead wanting to engage in friendly chit chat with you. No matter how afraid or challenged you may find the task, it will always be your move that counts.

Internet Safety/Support - Children and Youths

Adult Leadership: - (Information obtained by studies in United States)

- Personal Safety: Children and youths are very venerable to attacks from outside Internet sources. Adult Supervision should be used to watch over a child's actions whilst on any Internet sites.
- Violence against young people: A study was done to attain information into how many Adults feel there children are venerable to cyber attacks. These results show us that over 60% of children were either venerable or have already been part of an attack in just 2009 alone.
- Friend or Foe: Universities and scientists alike have gathered remarkable amounts of data that show that a worrying amount of these attacks are not from strangers but people that the children and youths know.
- Trusting your enemy: Results also show us that molesters act in a way that allows a family, Friends or children to trust them by working within there company for over a year. After this period of time they usually work out any vulnerabilities that exist whilst in the company of there targets.
- Information that needs to be said: Children need to be informed of the dangers that exist. Once this has been said by a parent, the children suddenly become anxious and more wary of the people they talk to.
- Adult supervision: The adults MUST keep an eye on there children and always listen to what they are saying no matter how boring it may be.

Celtx exploration con't

-OK so I'm going to talk about importing and exporting a celtx document. So, to import a script, first work your way over to the script button on the top left on the screen. You will be presented with 2 options at the very top. They both work in similar contexts. They both present a box when clicked on which practically guides you through the importing and exporting process.

-At any point when writing, you can change the script into a different template by going into the script button again. Follow this up by clicking on the Adapt to button and selecting the correct template. You also have the option to check your spelling. This will make sure the script is correct and the terminology is accurate.

-At the bottom right of the screen, you will notice there are slightly small bits of text which show shortcuts. These will help when it comes to creating your Celtx document. Also to the left of them is an entire row of headings. These are used to insert title pages, notes and reports into your document.

-On the right of the screen is a tab called Breakdown. This can be used to show what part of the team is to use a certain part of a script. This helps when a script needs to be learnt as well as directions that need to be taken. Media is used to place soundtracks onto the script. This does not mean the crew hear a soundtrack when they open the script, instead it just shows them what song will need to be played when that part of the script is being used.

Celtx - Guide on uses - Exploring the programme!

When starting Celtx, a welcome box will appear which asks for you to select from project templates/sample templates. Once you have selected a template, the project screen will open. At this stage you can start writing up your script. You should make sure you can upload the script by creating an account for it to be placed, make sure to use information relevant to the computer you are using it on.

Such as a college password and user name, so that it is easy to remember. To save the file, all you have to do is go into the file button on the top left corner and press save. Make sure there is sufficient space in the storage area. To delete the file, just go into the area which the file is saved into and delete it from there.

Royalty Payments

When an artist or creator has created a piece of work, every time that work is shown or played (a TV programme, a song), a payment must be sent to them by the company that chooses to play/use it. Sometimes DVDs of TV shows have to be edited as they don’t have enough money or the permission to pay for certain material.

Libel

Saying something that cannot be backed up by evidence, which causes defamation of character. It is a heavy legal issue, and many celebrities sue for libel. Kate Winslet always sues (images of her have been photo shopped or airbrush, Daily Mail lied about her exercise regime and she got £25,000 from the newspaper and an apology – cheek!).

Censorship

This is a prevention of images that are harmful to the public, production companies and casting crew / Actors. Certain companies have the rights to edit screenplays or to pixalate images that are harmful to the viewer. They must gain permissions from the original creator of the picture before they can edit or change the image.

A recent example will be such films as " The Human Centipede 2 ". This film was very inappropriate and had to be shortened by 2 minutes for it to be appropriate to be viewed and distributed.

Task 2 - Initial Research Subject

 

Gloria Swanson
( Gloria Josephine Mae Swanson )
( AKA – Gloria Mae )

Birth – Death – Hometown

ž  She was born in 1897

ž  She was from Chicago – In a place called Illinois.

ž  She died on April 4^Th 1983

Film

ž  She began filming on 1913 in Chicago.

ž  She progressed from silent film to sound movies.

ž  She played in a film called Airport 75 where she starred herself.

ž  She won an Oscar in the film The Trespasser.

ž  In 1920 she became a megastar.

ž  She retired from film in 1934.

Lifestyle outside of film

ž  Was designed coats and jackets by Sonia Delainey.

ž  She was married to her co-player Wallace Berry in 1916.

ž  They went to Hollywood together and starred in a run of Mack Sennett romantic comedies.

Lifestyle outside of film – Cont.

ž  She later switched to Paramount and starred in Cecil B. Demilles adult screwball comedies.

ž  In 1927, her banker ( Lover ), Joseph Kennedy backed her as a producer – Leading to the Oscar.

ž  “I am big, it’s the pictures that got small”.

ž  “I’m ready for my close-up Mr DeM,ille”.

Task 1 - Presentation and communication skills

-          To discuss the do’s + do not’s in presentations and communications.

-          To create a presentable debate/discussion.

-          To learn about the different questions types.

-          To type- up notes on your blogs and continue looking at children’s drama.

Do	Don’t
Have good eye contact.	Don’t mumble.
Speak loud and clear.	Don’t speak to quickly.
Use appropriate language.	Don’t have inappropriate/bad resources.
Get the audience to ask you questions.	Don’t read it word for word from the PowerPoint.
Relevant images and information.	Don’t do long pauses.
Check grammar, spell check, punctuation.	Don’t go off topic or put your back to the audience.
Be prepared.	Do not speak to the ground or to the air.

QUESTION TYPES
Description	“Tell me about…”
Definition	“What do you understand by…?”
Explanation	“Why do you find ‘X’ interesting?”
Exemplification	“Can you give me an example of…?”
Comparison	“What differences do you see between ‘X’ and ‘Y’?”
Opinions	“What do you think about…?”
Merits/Pitfalls	“What are the advantages/disadvantages of…?”

Why, What, Where, When, Who, How?

Synopsis

Synopsis

“Furry Friends”

For our children’s drama, we are introducing a child by the name of ABBY into the world of bullying. She will be put into a scenario where 3 older girls will be bullying her. There will be animal subjects by the names of BARNEY and SMOKEY. This short film will be set in more than one location, for example, Meridon’s house, outside a school and on a public road. 

ABBY is a standalone girl who does not have any friends. She has two animals which start to resemble human figures in her mind; they later turn into her friends and give her advice on certain problems and how to sort them out. (Pranks will be carried out, justice will be made!)

Stage 1 – Abby walking to school by herself.

Abby introduces herself through a voice over. She explains her life, age, the school and what year she is in. There are 2 actions in this stage. 1 is a school bell ringing in the distance and the 2^ND is Abby running off into school as well as the teacher’s voice being heard in the distance. Abby say’s she will see you soon.

Stage 2 – Abby leaving school, making her journey home, and reading her favourite book.

The first part of this scene is Abby giggling at her book as she reading it on her way home, the accidentally walking into an older girl. 2 other girls appear at this point, the scene continues to show signs of aggression.

There are quite a few actions in this scene, covering from, Abby clenching her book into her arms, girls with evil expressions on their faces, the book being snatched and then thrown into bushes. Abby is forced into getting down onto her hands and knees at this point to look for the book. The girls do not stick around but do laugh while running off into the distance.

Stage 3 – Abby’s dinning room.

There are 2 animals present at the dinning room table. Abby explains that it has happened again. This shows that the bullying has happened before. She is told to cheer up by her animals and that she is better than the bully’s.

There is 2 know actions present here. 1 is Abby crying into her arms, she stops crying and looks at her two animal friends. The shot then fades out while all three of them talk.

Stage 4 – Abby’s dinning room.

This is just a short scene where the animals and Abby are going through the cupboards, looking for items to use. They have a check list which Smokey the cat is ticking off as they go.

Stage 5 – Road to school.

The two animals in this scene are hiding in a bush and Abby is hiding under her mum’s car. Rosie, one of the bullies, is then seen walking down stairs listening to music. She opens a door and a bucket of flour falls. At this stage in the scene, Rosie is looking rather confused as to why a bucket of flour was placed there.  She questions how put the flour there. Abby is lying under the car and looks at Barney (dog) and Smokey (cat) with a very disappointed expression on her face.

At a later stage, Sophie is walking down the street by herself when an egg goes flying past her. She also questions who did that? Where did that come from? Worried, she runs off. Abby then say’s “one left, let’s do this one”.

Stage 6 – Outside Emily’s house.

 All three are hiding from Emily with water balloons at hand.

Abby then announces that she is coming. Emily then walks out from her house and Abby launches 3 water balloons at Emily. Emily is standing there in a pool of water crying. She say’s “Please, please stop” and then runs back into her house. Abby then smiles at Smokey and Barney.

Stage 7 – Abby is walking to school.

The three girls begin to walk towards her. Abby has a scared expression on her face. The three girls continue to walk straight past Abby, Leaving a smile on her face. She then carries on with her trip home whilst Barney and Smokey wait patiently for her. They all walk off into the distance and barney turns and say’s “I don’t think they will be bothering you anymore”.

Task 3

TASK 3: Single Camera Formats

1.    a relevant code of practice  #codesofpractice[1.1]

Introduction: To start off with, I will be choosing 3 of the most relevant codes of practice that I believe are most important. Then I will continue to write brief explanations on a few extra codes of practice that may be relevant but not completely necessary.

The first choice I have made is:

-       Health and safety in a workplace whilst on and off a set. There must be safety procedures in place to prevent any unwanted/unneeded accidents from happening to cast and crew members.

My second choice would have been:

-       There must be no lawbreaking or illegal activity in any children’s drama production. This can cause discrepancies with the parents of children, but most of all, children are liable to learn. Things children see, they like to re-act which can cause major problems for a company if such a thing were to go wrong and someone was to get hurt.

My third most important choice would be:

-       Scenes of a sexual nature. These are prohibited before 9 o’clock for watershed reasons. It is important to control/filter the amount of un-censored images, video clips and information that passes through television before 9 o’clock. All nudity and bad language, is usually shown after 9 o’clock as this is the most common time for children to be removed from the room and sent to bed, commonly known as “Adult time”.

There are more choices to choice from, but I believe these three are the most important. Here are a few more that are just as important but do not meet the maximum requirement.

-       Racism and sexism – These matters are taken very seriously and will hardly ever be an issue in any programme. When it comes to films, there may be scenes which have mild racism or sexism features. The box in which the film was contained would say what features are in the film on the back.

-       Flashing lights and load noise – These 2 features can be bad for viewers with epilepsy. The film has this almost 100% of the time and gives the viewers the best possible warning about flashing lights as soon as possible. TV programmes will give a commentary on just before the programme is about to start.

-       Violence – Violence is only tolerated in high age restricted films, on TV however, it is a completely different story. TV will not broadcast any violence until it meets the watershed hours.

Task 2 - Children's Drama

2. Report on the narrative and characterization used in an episode of a children’s drama of your choice #narrative [22.1]

Introduction

: The children’s drama I have chosen to do is My Parents Are Aliens. For this particular series, I have chosen just 1 episode, titled “Neighbours from hell”. In the report to follow, I will explain how this episode/series was made to be aimed at children and how it would appeal to them, what children's reactions may be to the episode, and what about the programme in general shows it has been made for children.

Narrative and Characterisation

: This particular programme is an appeal to children as it demonstrates many family and home life features. Also there is separate appeal such as, mischief (Shown primarily through the 2 males in the programme. Josh (Alex Kew) - Brother, and Brain Johnson (Tony Gardner) - Dad). There is also a vast amount of alien features presented in the programme which draw attention to youngsters.

We know that this programme is made for children just by referring/looking at the diegesis of the programme. The world that is created in the series is very fast moving home life, with a mix of events as there are alien parents with different lifestyles to the 3 adopted children.

We know this from watching the opening sequence to the programme. It clearly shows a spaceship with 2 alien species on board that have crash landed onto planet earth. The spaceship then follows on to transform/morph into a house, and the 2 aliens then transform/morph into clear looking human beings. Just this affect on its own could be appealing but would be hard to notice. Then to boost appeal, a soundtrack is introduced to the intro scene which suddenly makes the programme more interesting and child friendly.

The use of animation also shows that the programme may be more suited for children. We know this from watching cartoons and animated films. When watching the programme, I expected to see happy family life, alien technology being used and weirdly overdressed people/house. Although there was a family life within the household, only a couple of the female members, Lucy (Charlotte Francis) – Younger sister, and Sophie (Carla Mendonca) – Mother, were shown as being bubbly and happy most of the way through the episode.

The use of alien technology was set to a minimum in this particular episode. On the other hand, the amount of strange/weird clothing that is being worn was at a high. Brian and Sophie were both dressed in military uniforms. The reason behind this is to promote the war they have started with the new next door neighbours.

When I looked at the verisimilitude of the episode, it was believable. As a child, you can watch this programme and believe the story involved. The reason for this is because children can relate to the weird, out of pace, uncontrolled family life in which the episode is believed to run. The point of the programmes are not to make children act like the actors do but to allow the children to see and understand what their lifestyle is like in their homes. The twist in the programme in general is that the parents are aliens. I personally believe that the programme uses an unrestricted narrative range as it informs viewers of what’s happening, why it’s happening and how they are going to accomplish the task.

Now moving on, I am going to talk about the location where the programme was set. In this particular episode there were 3 locations. The main location as with most episodes was the house the characters live in. The second location was the school. There was a total of 2 scenes at the school, both of these scenes involved Lucy and the Young male that had moved in next door. The third location was at the neighbour’s house. This one was a particularly short scene, which had the mother and father of the young male and Lucy.

Reviewing the character's

·         Sophie – Sophie is tall, has red hair, she wears bright cloths with very outstanding colours. She acts very dumb.

·         Brian – Brian is also tall, he has brown hair, and He wears plain coloured shirts and often changes into some weird costumes. He also acts very dumb, but comes up with great ideas.

·         Josh – Josh is young but acts like the mature male adult of the family. He is short and has red hair. He likes to make conversations short and simple, and usually has an answer for everything.

·         Lucy – Lucy is very short but carries the brains in the family. She comes up with all the ideas but can be very quite when it comes to boys and school work. (She gets things done). Lucy has brown hair and is commonly seen in a school uniform more than casual clothing.

: There are 2 other characters present in the show but because they are new, I have chosen not to put them into the assignment.

The particular programme would be classed as having an episodic narrative. I know this because a single event happens which then turn into a multitude of other events. One event leading off to several others. For example, in this episode, Brian takes the roses; the neighbour comes around looking for them. From this point a war is set in motion and the neighbour is looking for the culprit. Brian then decides it’s his job to take down the neighbour. This then involves a canon in the attic and Sophie looking through trash for clues.

I will now go on to talk about the narrative depth within the series. I think subjective character identification would be the correct narrative depth for this programme we are seeing what the characters see and do. It would not come under objective character identification because we do not see the characters dreams, fantasies and memories.

Here I am going to explain what the three theories have in place with the programme.

The first one is Vladimir Propps theory. Vladimir uses the classifications of character’s to define their roles and functions.

In this case I would make the list something like this:

-          The Hero – Brian – He seeks war/revenge on his neighbour.

-          The Villain – The neighbour – Seeks war/revenge on Brian.

-          The Donor – Sophie – Seeks to help Brian in his plans for war/revenge.

-          The Helper – Sophie – Seeks to help Brian in his plans for war/revenge.

I believe that only these four are in the programme.

That leaves the princess, the dispatcher and the false hero to be uncategorized.

In the next theory, I will be covering Tzvetan Todorov’s theory. He believes that most, if not all narratives start with a state of normality which is soon to be disrupted (Equilibrium).

In this case it would run something like the following:

-          Story starts with Brian removing the roses from the new neighbour’s garden.

-          The neighbour knocks on the door wondering if anyone knows where they may be disappearing to.

-          Brian then makes the comment which changes the normality of the scenario. (equilibrium changes)

-          Brian the wages war and spies on the neighbour’s.

-          Cuts scene and the neighbour are once again knocking on Brian’s door. Josh answers and the neighbour charges in to find his roses scattered in Brian’s front room while Brian is sitting there amongst them.

-          Anger is once again shown on the neighbour’s face and Brian is threatened with a call to the police for theft of private property.

-          Lucy later resolves the problem by speaking to the neighbours and striking a deal. (Equilibrium is resolved).

With the third and final theory, I shall explain the 4 narratives that Allan Cameron came up with. I will describe all four and how they are used below but will point out which one is used with the chosen programme. The first one is:

-          Anachronic – Anachronic narratives are used when flashbacks and flash-forwards are required, this is without the use of any clear dominant narratives. One possible example could be the Final Destination Film Collection.

The next is:

-          Forking-Path – This narrative is used when there are alternative versions of a story, these versions can head into any direction and the outcome could lead into minor changes in single or group events.

The next narrative on the list is episodic. This is the narrative that is used when referring to my report.

-          Episodic – This narrative is used when a single event is turned into multiple events, one event leading off to several others.

Finally the last narrative is split screen.

-          This narrative is used to divide a film into 2 or more scenes that happen at the same period of time, but in different moments/time.

Task 1 - Children's Drama

TASK 1: Single Camera Formats           [1.1, 2.1, 22.1]

Collect background material on Children’s drama series.

1.    a report on the conventions of the genre (form and content) #conventions [1.1, 22.1]

Introduction

: I am going to write a report on codes and conventions of the genre: Children’s drama. This will cover what this particular children’s drama has to stick to, the things I expect to happen, the things I expect to see, and the rules which must be followed when creating a children’s drama.

First I am going to cover the rules that you must follow.

-          The set must be safe at all times. You cannot allow children onto a set knowing that there are dangerous objects in the immediate area. If anything was to happen, the drama could be jeopardised and there may be claims made against the company responsible. This is very bad for any company as costs will rise and members of the cast will be lost.

-          Leading of from the first point, you will require having a license to support children coming onto the set. Having this license will also permit children to be on set for a period of time. This period is designated by the creator of the license.

There is health and safety, safe working practices but I will cover this more in task 3. For the moment I will give a short brief into what is to follow.

Health and safety

Smoking, Drinking and drug use

Violence

Sexual scenes

….. And much more!

This Drama series has to stick to the children’s drama genre. It has to appeal to children and entertain them for further viewing purposes. It will show children a mirror image of what they or someone else may be like, Showing happiness, sadness, joy, activities e.g. sports day at school.

When watching a children’s drama, I visualise a scene either in a house or school with children running around in a playground, or young lads play fighting in a bedroom or house. I expect to see colourful images and sets with games and clothing smothered everywhere. I expect children to be wearing school clothes and different emotions for different characters/roles.

I expect to hear and see a loud environment with quick movement and a fair share of laughter and joy amongst the children. In some cases, there may be slight cases of comedy but mostly entertainment on a level that children can appreciate and understand. In some cases there may be magical enchantment, aliens or even explosions which entertain the young mind even more.

Course Introduction

This course is a combination of practical and theoretical work which will appeal to those who wish to learn to use the latest technology, producing a range of media including film and video, print-based work, multi-media, radio and animation.