On The First Semester.

At the risk of sounding boring and unimaginative, It's been an interesting first term. It's been nice to have been taught about media, rather than having taught myself, like I've done previously.

As some of you may (or may not) know, this is my second active blog. I've kept blogs before, but they've withered and died after a few weeks. My other blog can be found at danblogs.tumblr.com and I've been updating it daily for about the past 180 days. It's become somewhat of a chore, but I'm determined to keep it going for a year. I was flattered when, in mid-November, I wrote up a report on the Unite Against Fascism protest I attended. Within an hour of the blog going online, I had been contacted by UAF, and they'd uploaded it to their website. This actually led me to get abusive messages from the far-right EDL. But I like provoking moronic racists, so it's OK.

I've edited video and music before, but I've had to learn how to use new programmes. I've attempted to be open and receptive when it's come to lessons. When we started the television module, I was unsure whether I'd enjoy it or not. Turns out, I really do. Once you get over the Welsh twang in my voice, I'd like you to think I'm not a half bad presenter. But that's probably just me being egotistical.

Whilst I hate the sound of my voice, I also enjoyed doing the radio module. It seems like whilst I can't stomach my sound, I'm quite happy for everyone else to hear it. Though it seems simple to the listener at the other end, radio actually is a lot more complicated than I imagined it would be.

Approaching the word count now. Great course so far.

On Presenting.

Well, this is it. My first (finished) piece of Journalism reporting. I didn't venture into a war zone, but I did the next most dangerous thing, and interviewed students on campus.

Please forgive the poor quality camera work, the poor quality sound, and the Welsh twang in my voice.

On Newsround.

As part of my Television lecture, I have to analyse a news programme. To invoke nostalgic memories of watching kids TV, I chose perpetual kids favourite, Newsround. As I write this, there's about an hour to go until the next bulletin, so navigating on the Newsround website, I found a bulletin from this morning.

The first thing I noticed when I watched the bulletin was the time in the top left hand corner. 8.31. I assume they broadcast it at this time because children will be getting ready to go to school, and if this is the last piece of telly they watch, it will be fresh in their minds, and they will be ready to discuss the issues raised in the programme.

As the programme is part of the BBC, the standard is of high quality, though there was a noticeable cut when the newsreader changed from one story to another. The two minute bulletin contained one main story (on the mine collapse in New Zealand), a preview of a special report broadcast later in the day (about kids growing up in a war zone), and a light hearted story at the end (about a Chihuahua joining the Japanese police force as a sniffer dog).

The show was similar in style to 'adult' news, which I suppose makes the transition for children who are going from one news programme to another easier. It included headlines, and a sign off from the presenter at the end of the show. The two stories lasted for about 20 seconds each, and the presenter talked over both of them from the studio. The main substance of the programme was a preview of the war report, which was over half the length of the programme itself.

In conclusion, Newsround hadn't changed much from when I remember watching it. The show doesn't patronise it's audience, unlike many other children's shows, and for this reason I think that it is respected by viewers and within the industry.

On Starting Work With Television.

We started the Television section of our course today. I didn't really know what to expect from it, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

We were introduced to our lecturer, Sean, whose first piece of information was to be on time, and never spell his name wrong. He ran us through the course, telling us what to expect from the three years to come, if we choose to do the television unit. Like all units, we were eased in. He listed off some technical terms, to which none of us knew the answer, and showed us a piece of second year work for us to critique.

I'll be fair, in my opinion, it wasn't very good. Though I understand the students making it only had limited resources and did the best they could with what they had. It would have been stupid of me to expect BBC News standard. The piece itself was a sports piece, and students went out to Twickenham to try and gauge post-match feelings, even though they weren't allowed to film there. To their credit, they managed to snag an interview with former England Rugby captain, Phil Vickerie.

We were split into groups of 3, and tasked with producing a short story relating to today's announcement that Prince William and Kate Middleton were to be married. Though the female of our group was the designated team leader, she had a more relaxed management style and pretty much let me delegate. I'm not taking credit for everything, but I feel I more than pulled my weight.

I wrote down an introduction to our story, which I then read to camera. Nobody in my group wanted to be the first to speak, but I was more than happy to. I managed to get a Vox Pop, and squeeze an answer from someone who didn't know about the announcement. When we couldn't agree on where to film as a team, it was I who made the final decision. I also did my best to encourage the other members of the team, and gave them my honest opinion whether they asked me for it or not.

Though our battery ran out halfway through filming, we managed to get another camera, and made it back to the room with over 15 minutes to spare. We would have got on with editing the piece, but for some reason, whilst the clips would play perfectly fine if we loaded them directly, when putting them into Premier Pro, they only jumped around, not playing very well at all.

We moved to several other computers, and had the same problem with each. In the end though, we had to concede defeat, and finished the lesson with only a few raw video files, and nothing resembling a piece.

What I Did - See the 5th Paragraph
What I Learnt - Many technical terms, including Rushes, B-Roll, and SOC to name three. I also learnt that technology can't be trusted, wheter it be batteries or Mac computers.
What I Could Have Done Better - I could have been aware of battery life in the camera. I could have left more time for us to get back to deal with the problems that arose when trying to edit.

On Farnham Police Station.

We asked members of the public how they felt about the news that Farnham Police Station was to close.

Police station vox by DSmith12

On Protesting.

Wow. What a day. To my shame I've never been to a protest before, but I'll put that down to previously having lived too far away from any major city to get involved. Of course, that's just a cowards answer, and obviously if I cared about a cause that much I should just get involved. I did care, but up until now, I just hadn't done it.


I'll admit, I don't really know what I was expecting from today. I kept updating throughout the day via twitter, posting pictures and generally telling people where the march currently was. Our first setback came when as we approached the tube station nearest to the march site, and was informed by the train announcer that it was closed. We hastily rescheduled our plans, and took a longer route.


I know as a journalism student, I should be impartial. But I abhor racism in all its forms, and would rather give up writing than compromise my stance.


We arrived at Malet Street, bang on midday. Milling around for a bit, my friend and I picked up leaflets, signed petitions and generally got a feel for where we were. There was a great vibe surrounding the whole thing. We bought whistles and hoodies, and were given a protest placard.

With music playing from out the side of a truck, and people dancing, the fun and friendly atmosphere was in full flow. Before long, the music died down and several key figures from Unite Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism came up on stage to talk. When the speeches started, I suddenly became aware of just how many people there were surrounding my friend and me. I also noticed there was a large number of photographers. Now, the EDL have a habit of being rather nasty to photographers, and I can't imagine how their cowardly minds would deal with such a heavy photographer presence.

                                       People milling around before the march.

The march got going, after a lot of stopping and starting. I'd been standing up for a long time, and ever since the Chuck Ragan gig a few weeks ago, my back has really started to play up. Still, I kept smiling and marching. The small police presence that was there when our demonstration was static became much larger once we were mobile. There was also a police helicopter that circled overhead. I felt that this was unnecessary. The majority of us were clearly content with shuffling along, chanting and singing to the delight of many bemused tourists.


Though we started towards the back of the protest, I guess we walked much quicker than most people, and soon ended up toward the front. As I passed through the crowd, it occurred to me that there was so much diversity here. Young and old, black and white, and people of all faiths. The demo itself was backed by the Muslim Council of Britain and the Trades Union Congress. But I saw much more than that. The were banners for the National Union of Teachers and National Union of Students, Unite Union, Socialist Workers Party, and a host of various organisations. This proved to me that there are so many opposed to the EDL and the BNP. It was an amazing realisation. The UAF website said that over 5000 people attended today's march.


A very heart warming thing happened when we passed by the picket line for the NUJ (Nation Union of Journalists). The procession stopped and we cheered, shouted for them, and generally made as much noise as possible in support of them. This especially touched me, as it's likely that I'll be joining this union at some point in the future. There's a picture I've seen that shows an NUJ member swapping a placard with a UAF marcher.

Passing the NUJ picket line

The procession moved past Downing Street and the crowd jeered and booed. Though I felt this detracted from the message of the protest, I couldn't help but agree with the sentiment, and joined in.


We ended up in Parliament Square, where a large Love Music Hate Racism screen was set up waiting for us. People applauded the protesters as we arrived. I didn't stay around much longer than this. I did watch George Galloway's speech, which I admit I was very, very impressed with, even if I can't shake the image of him dressed up as a cat on Celebrity Big Brother from my mind.


Leaving the carnival, looking for a place to sit down, my friend and I ended up in Trafalgar Square, admiring Nelson and his column. I was minding my own business, when a Muslim family came up to me, and told me that they were so proud of me. I almost didn't believe what I heard. They told me how important it was that all members of society came out and fought the menace of fascism. I agreed with them. They moved on, and left me with a big smile on my face.
 
 

                                           Passing the Houses of Parliament.


Like I said, I've never been on a march before, and now, I have no excuse not to go to many, many more in the future.

Update: Within about an hour of me posting this blog, the UAF website was running it as a story. I'm honoured. I'd like to thank again UAF and LMHR for putting on the march.

On Chuck Ragan.

Yes, yes, I'm well aware that I've been neglecting this blog, so I hope this long post makes up for it.

The following is adapted from a post on my other blog, which can be found here: http://danblogs.tumblr.com/post/1373374491/128

The videos and photos below are ones I took at the gig.

-

On Wednesday, I went to see Chuck Ragan, frontman of seminal 90's hardcore punk band Hot Water Music play a show.

Though my friend and I didn’t know where we were going, we managed to stumble our way there, thanks to the maps on my phone, and a bit of guesswork. The Windmill, in Brixton, initially seemed to be a nice little place. I had assumed it would be an actual music venue, but when we got in (though, we had to eat our sandwiches outside), I could see it was essentially a pub.

As we were there an hour early, and I didn’t want to wait outside in the freezing cold, we stayed inside. Some guy came to check we had tickets later, and said there wasn’t a problem with us being inside. When we entered, I could see Chuck soundchecking. The bar was practically empty except for us and the musicians who would be supporting him.

When he finished soundchecking, and walked past where we were sitting, I made sure to catch his eye and smile at him. He said hello to us. I stood up and shook his hand, offering to buy him a drink. I figured since this was probably the only chance I’d get to talk to someone whose music I genuinely love, I’d better make the most of it. Unfortunately, I turned into a babbling schoolgirl, awestruck by the man with a minor cult following standing before me.

But Chuck was a brilliant guy. He was so down to earth, and had the patience to put up with me telling him how great I thought he was. He seemed really flattered when I told him my band used to cover one of his songs (even though we could never do it justice), and eventually, took me up on the offer of a drink. He was only talking to me for about 5 minutes, but that was pretty much all I needed. I was walking on air.

It must seem odd to him. He playing a show is his day job, something he does for a living, but for me, just him taking the time to acknowledge me made my day. Chuck Ragan has supported some of my favourite artists, Alkaline Trio and Frank Turner for example, and he’s currently on tour with The Gaslight Anthem. I would kill just to spend 5 minutes talking to these guys like I did with Chuck.



Naturally, when the music started, I moved to the front and centre. There was no stage to speak of, so I stood in front of the main mic. The support acts were all lovely, the first one closing with a great cover of Social Distortion’s ‘Story Of My Life’. Sam Russo also supported. Russo’s is a name I’ve been vaguely aware of for some time, but never bothered to check out. I really liked the stuff he was playing, and I’m glad I’ve seen him now. Weirdly enough, his friends from Apologies, I Have None were in the audience, though being as big a fan I am of them, I didn’t realise untill after I had left.

When Chuck came on, I had been standing up for so long, my back had already started to hurt, but I didn’t complain, and belted my way through the songs. He didn’t really have a setlist, but just asked the audience to shout out songs for him to play (he played ‘Glory’ when I shouted it out, which is one of my favourite songs by him).  He also played about 5 new songs, from various different projects he was working on. A few were from his next solo album, some were from his split record he is currently writing with Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem. Finally, he also played ‘God Deciding’, probably the best known song by his old outfit, Hot Water Music.

Chuck ended on ‘California Burritos’, and by this time, everyone was dancing and singing along. I can honestly say that this is one of the best gigs that I’ve ever been to. The atmosphere was so warm and friendly, I would have probably jumped up and hugged someone if my legs weren’t on the verge of collapse.

On Harry Potter.

On Test Audio.

This is a test to see if audio will play on the blog.

TheRecruitingSargeant by DSmith12

On Introducing My Blog.

On Radio (and Richard Herring).

I managed to get out of my lecture around half an hour early yesterday, as apparently going to a comedy show aids my journalism degree. Still, I wasn’t complaining, and took a direct train to London Waterloo then took the tube to Oxford Circus. Arriving at broadcasting house 15 minutes later than I was supposed to, my friend and I joined the back of the (very long) queue.

As I am a country bumpkin, the very concept of going to the city excites me. Where I came from before, Hereford, and where I am now, Farnham, are somewhat similar, though Farnham is the prettier town. This means that whenever I go to London, I get scared by people on the tube, and intimidated by all the tall buildings. This is of course, a joke, but not too far from the truth.

Entering Broadcasting House was also an experience. I was somewhat expecting to be frisked upon entry, but I was just sent through a metal detector, and despite the large number of metal objects I had on my person (keys, money, belt, etc) I didn’t set it off. We were seen through to the canteen, which was small, and already cramped due to the number of people being herded inside. Still, prices were reasonable. I was almost expecting to be able to say ‘Look, there’s him off the telly!’, but it struck me later on that I was at Broadcasting House, not Television Centre, and the chances of seeing a person from the television was between slim and none to begin with.

I’ve always loved the BBC as an institution, and Murdoch and co’s attempts to damage and criticize it is only going to end up damaging News Corp. in the long run. Though, BBC’s hospitality to us didn’t really do much to help their reputation.

Eventually, we were sent through to the room where the show would be recorded. It was just like any theatre, though, one with microphones dangling from the ceiling to pick up audience reaction, and I imagine the sound box behind the seats was a bit more professional than the ones used in theatre. On the stage itself were two large microphones, and a wooden contraption with a light on the top. This device, I later learned, was for audio cues, and would flash when it was time for the performer to speak.

The producer introduced the star of the show, Richard Herring, and explained the concept to the audience. The show, titled Richard Herring’s Objective, aimed to take items that had been vilified and reclaim them for society. Last week was the Hitler Moustache, this week, it was the turn of the Hoodie.

Even though the recording lasted an hour, the show itself will be broadcast as a half hour show, sometime in late October on Radio 4. The first 15 minutes was taken up by Herring warming up the audience, and the last 10 or so were filled by re-takes. The show itself culminated in the conclusion that if adults like something, kids won’t. He then produced a Radio 4 branded hoodie, and insisted that everyone over 40 should buy one. Problem solved, hoodies are instantly uncool.

Having seen Richard Herring perform several times before (and have had the pleasure to interview him), It was clear to me that this show was his standard affair. And for me, that’s all it had to be. I’m a massive fan of his, and have seen nearly every piece of work he’s ever done, so naturally, I wish him every success with his radio show.

On Blogs.

My first real lecture was about how to set up a blog. I would have found this substantially more interesting if I hadn’t been writing a blog for nearly the past 100 days now. We were asked to use Blogger, a platform which I haven’t used for years. I first used Blogger when I was new to the concept of the Internet itself, and back then it felt stale.

As it turns out, my blogging prejudices were somewhat unfounded. In the many years since I last used Blogger, it has changed quite drastically, yet still retained the basic layout that I remember ever so faintly, and because the interface had changed, I have been effectively learning to use a new website.

Like when I signed up for Facebook, or Twitter, it was initially daunting, but spending an hour or so exploring all the settings and the workings of the site, I felt accustomed to it. I even managed to set up an RSS feed an link it to my twitter account, so (hopefully) anything I post should appear on my feed. I still prefer Tumblr, naturally, as I am more used to it, and I still feel it is more accessible and customisable than any other blogging website I have seen.

That said, this is my course blog, so I feel obliged to provide it with a regular stream (or a trickle, at least) of content. Though, it won't be as regular as my daily blog, I will attempt to post any work I feel is relevant here.