Assignment Short Drama
3 character designs
- The enthusiastic type
His name is Lucas Samuels and he is 17 years old. His personality is like a falcon as he is really fast and if you make him angry he will attack.
This character has no definition of the word give up. He is a happy go getting person who always likes to help out. He is also a little hyper so he can be crazy too.
He loves to run around and is really athletic but often he can be quite competitive because he doesn’t always like to lose to some people.
But he can be self centred and smug which means he may be tough to talk to. Because he sometimes only thinks about himself, thinking he is the greatest, thinking that he is better than everyone means that his friends may not like him that much and other people may avoid him.
Being so athletic means that he isn’t quite intelligent and fails tests easily but he is never too nervous to ask for help from his friends who are always willing to help him out in his time of knowledge.
But he can also be inpatient which means he always leaps before he looks.
He also gets angry really easily because he can’t really take a joke and that can leave him into a lot of trouble with teachers and sometimes parents.
But he can have a way with words which is why some people respect him.
2. The comedy type
His name is Larry Simons and he is 17 years old. His personality is like a monkey as he always smiles and is often clumsy and would let his imagination take over him.
He has a goofy personality and always tries to help his friends by making them laugh if they were feeling down.
He often likes to help out and really doesn’t think of himself as a leader because he really doesn’t know what he is doing. He is more of a comedy sidekick character like JD (Zach Braff) from the comedy Drama show Scrubs, Larry also has a big fear of many things as he is a huge coward.
He enjoys sleeping but loves a competitive video game against one of his friends; he also is a hard worker despite his lazy attitude.
But sometimes he can be too harsh with his jokes and sometimes may offend some people around him, which can often leave him in deep trouble. He also can be really hard to deal with unless there is something for him in return.
But his worst aspect is that when someone is talking to him he often wanders into his own world and would sometimes talk to himself and say loads of random stuff and some people find that really annoying and find it hard to deal with him.
Plus whenever there is a fight he usually sets in at the wrong time and tries to fix it when in the end he always seems to make it worse and ends up the one getting hurt.
3. The Calm and Gentle type
His name is Lance Stevenson, a 17-year-old dude who is an all-round nice guy with a heart of pure gold. With his gentle voice and extremely cool attitude he can deal with any situation that gets in his way and he never resorts to fight or any kind of violence but only when it is desperately needed.
He has a sort of hippie personality, as he likes nature as it brings peace to him. His hobbies are climbing trees and he loves reading. Due to all his reading he is really intelligent and gets some of the best grades in his school. Some say he is a ladies man and the girls think of him as mysterious and sometimes they crowd around him asking for dates and he always tries to stay out of it.
But he is always willing to help his friends when they are troubled whether it is something athletic of homework. He also enjoys art and loves to draw things for his amusement. Since he is so popular the kids always like to hang out with him as he sets an example to them, but there is one thing he cannot tolerate and that’s a bully picking on the little kids but he never hesitates to rush in and help them even if it is usually the cost of his life. So in ways he can be extremely reckless and often thinks outside the box when it comes to a decision when he is under pressure.
Research notes for characters:
Lucas Samuels
| Word or inspiration for character |
Info or definition |
| Athlete |
A person who is really into physical hobbies and training in strength, agility, and endurance that for participating in sports.
Rescore:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/athlete |
| Enthusiasm |
Great excitement and confidence to participate in a sport or for a cause to do something.
Rescore:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/enthusiam |
| Smug |
Exhibiting or feeling great or offensive satisfaction with oneself or with one’s situation; self-righteously complacent: “the smug look of a toad breakfasting on fat marsh flies” (William Pearson).
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/smug |
| Black Star |
A character from the amine show
Soul Eater…
He is a character who only thinks of him-self and always likes to be the centre of attention. |
Larry Simons
| Word or inspiration for character |
Info or definition |
| Scrubs 2001/2010 |
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Created by Bill Lawrence
Storyline
In the unreal world of Sacred Heart Hospital, intern John “J.D” Dorian learns the ways of medicine, friendship and life.
Rescore:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285403/ |
| Coward |
One who afraid of everything when in the face of danger or pain.
Reference:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Coward |
| Comedy |
A genre that makes people laugh as it is full of humour which is often offensive and is shown in many different ways like sketches, stand up, and often TV shows.
Rescore:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/comedy |
| Comedian |
A person who stands up to the audience (Stand up comic) to perform comedy based jokes and stories to entertain through the use of humour.
Reference:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/comedian |
| Sidekick |
An assistant, helper, friend, comrade or companion to help the main hero fight evil forces or to go on adventures.
Batman and “Robin”
Sonic and “Tails”
Dastardly and “muttley”
Reference:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sidekick |
`Lance Stevenson
| Word or inspiration for character |
Info or definition |
| Nature |
The natural world and the life it contains such as…
- Wild life
- Plants and trees
- Landscapes
Resources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nature |
| Hippie |
A person who thinks only for the positive things in life and rejecting many political and government related standards.
This person thinks about the environment, music and all the things positive about the world and how other people can make it better.
Resources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hippie |
| Artist |
A person who uses colours and many painting materials to draw, paint or even sculpture what he or she feels or sees in this world or maybe sometimes how they feel.
Their work is men to inspire people to look and feel how they must of felt when doing that drawing or painting.
Reference:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/artist |
| Mysterious |
A phrase meaning mystery meaning it is not easy to figure out but you want to find out.
Reference:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mysterious |
Task 1: The explanations of Intellectual Property and Ageism
Intellectual Property (IP):
“Intellectual Property results from the expression of an idea”
IPO-Online)
The Supreme Court Act 1981, s. 72(5) describes the legal rights that exist in products of human creativity: literary and artistic works inventions, designs, databases and brands.
Identifying your IP assets such as products, designs, and processes is a valuable thing to do.
Your IP may include things such as patents or trademarks or copyrights, various aspects of your brand – from Trade Secrets, brand names and logos to your company reputation in general. IP can be bought and sold as well as owned and the Intellectual Property Office in the UK which is part of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills assists with making sure you get the right sort of protection for your ideas. IP often deals with the intangible in other words; you would be dealing with concepts, unlike laws regarding actual property or things.
Some aspects of IP are automatically protected by copyright such as original books and new music; many new designs are protected by design right and so on. But in many cases intellectual property is not automatic and you will have to use stronger forms of existing laws e.g. to protect your invention you could use patent law; or register your trademark.
Example:
An employee develops an invention for a company and so the company owns the patentbecause the employee was working on the problem as a natural development of his employment with the company. The intellectual property remains with the company and not the man who invented it.
References:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
http://www.lawdonut.co.uk/law/intellectual-property
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=intellectual%20property
http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yp_Xj6YshM
http://hubpages.com/hub/intellectualpropertyexamples
Ageism:
Ageism is discrimination of anyone as a result of their age. In my opinion it is often based on stereotypes such as ‘old people are forgetful as they get older’ or that older people can’t work full time as they get tired quicker’.
“Employers must show that they make decisions based on peoples’ abilities and not on their age. This affects every area of employment relations, from recruitment and retirement policy to promotion and training decisions”.
(Acas.org.uk)
Like other forms of discrimination, ageism can be extremely hurtful and cruel e.g. If a GP refused to refer you to a consultant because he considered you too old to be helped. Age discrimination has been unlawful in employment, training and education since October 2006 but The Equality Bill law in 2012 will make ageism unlawful regarding access to the provision of services and products where it has negative or harmful consequences such as my example above.
At work the law says you have the right not to suffer a disadvantage at your job because of your age. This means you should not have less favourable terms and conditions than younger colleagues because of your age unless your employer can justify this or it is covered by explanation.
In the last few years there have been some high profile women angry at what they feel is blatant ageism in the broadcasting media e.g. after axing Strictly Come Dancing (BBC, 2004- )judge Arlene Phillips (aged 65) in favour of Alesha Dixon (aged 30) which left 3 male judges with an age range of 44-65 remaining in post for the new season.
Your employer should not take your age into account when making decisions about promotion unless they can justify this or it is covered by explanation such as being a genuine occupational requirement for the position.
References:
www.acas.org.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/strictlycomedancing/2010/09/vintage-strictly-video—serie.shtml
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=ageism
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/work-and-learning/discrimination-and-rights/what-is-ageism/
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ageism.htm
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/work-and-learning/discrimination-and-rights/age-discrimination-law/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yp_Xj6YshM
Task 2
What is the Stig?
The Stig was the name given to a mysterious racing car driver on the popular British car show, Top Gear.
The Stig was presented as a mystery driver because the edge with his character was to be kept a secret so no one could know of his true identity.
His job on Top Gear is to test run lots of different cars around the top gear test track and set times on each car so that they know what cars have been tested.
Also what was unique about the Stig was the funny rumours and myths that were made up about him. Some of the best rumours were said on a BBC America website:
Some say… that he’s banned from the town of Chichester
Some say… that he appears on high-value stamps in Sweden
Some say… that he sucks the moisture from ducks
Some say… that his breathe smells of magnesium
Some say… that his genitals are on upside-down
Some say… that he invented the pickle
Some say… that his voice can only be heard by cats
Some say… that his first name really is “The”
Some say… that he has a full-size tattoo of his face… on his face
Some say… that he knows two facts about ducks. And both of them are wrong.
On Top Gear there was more than one Stig, the first Stig was Perry McCarthy who wore a black helmet and black overalls and he started in Top Gear in 2002. In 2003 he was apparently killed off by driving a custom made Jaguar car off of HMS Invincible. That was shown at the end of the first episode on season 3.
Many people were concerned about this but the truth was out, that he had been fired as the Stig because he had revealed himself in his book Flat Out, Flat Broke, published in 2002.
But according to a source I found there were apparently eight Stigs, two of them were not named, but in the Daily Mail’s article, reportedly one of the Stigs gave some of the names of the other Stigs.
- F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen
- F1 driver Julian Bailey
- Former GT world championship driver Chris Goodwin
- Stunt driver Terry Grant
- Stunt driver Russ Swift
- Swede Dan Lang who preformed a snow mobile jump in the show’s winter Olympic special.
The Stig’s name and character is an icon in Top Gear and his character has made and sold lots of merchandise.
According to Express.co.uk, from October 2010, the Stig’s merchandising alone is estimated to be worth £8 million.
Ben Collins, who is one of the Stigs, by contrast, makes no profit from merchandising.
In my opinion being the Stig must be a really big and stressful job because not only are you not supposed to give away your identity but you must be incredibly skilled in a car.
But all in all I think the Stig is a great character and Top Gear is a great show to watch.
References:
Bird and Bird: British Broadcasting Corporation v HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Ben Collins and Collins Autosport Limited [2010] EWHC 2424 (Ch). http://www.twobirds.com/English/NEWS/ARTICLES/Pages/British_Broadcasting_Corporation_v_HarperCollins.Aspx
http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/feature-stig-rumors.jsp
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/news/article5670007.ece
http://www.worldcarfans.com/109012816568/there-are-eight-stigs—the-story-that-wont-go-away
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20Stig
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/208244/The-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedyThe-stig-How-dare-Clarkson-call-me-greedy
The difference of age range between male and female presenters on BBC TV
Using the link below I was able to show age differences between male and female BBC presenters found on the BBC News Website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8603994.stm
Female presenter’s average ages since 1950:
- 1950: 32 years seven months
- 1960: 37 years
- 1970: 32 years eight months
- 1980: 42 years one month
- 1990: 34 years six months
- 2000: 37 years 11 months
- 2010: 40 years two months
Male presenter’s ages since 1950:
- 1950: 46 years nine months
- 1960: 38 years 11 months
- 1970: 44 years two months
- 1980: 44 years one month
- 1990: 45 years 11 months
- 2000: 44 years seven months
- 2010: 46 years nine months
Based on a survey conducted in 1998 by Age Concern they found that
“…older men” far outnumbered older women on BBC screens (72 per cent versus 28 per cent female), and noted “older women were considerably under-represented in spite of the fact that older women in the real world outnumber men”.
The BBC 12 years ago on receipt of that information said that it had “a sense of responsibility…as a public service broadcaster, to right this anomaly”.
However, it seems to me, that based on my sources so far most female presenters start their presenting career at a younger age and yet they seem to leave earlier (usually in their forties), but the males start and leave at an older age than the women.
From my research, I came to the conclusion that I agree with the 47 year old actress, Amanda Donohoe, who said that there was ”a longstanding culture that holds that once a woman gets to 40 she’s no longer at any interest, which is ludicrous”.
From what I have read throughout this and other sources, I think all male and female BBC presenters should all be treated as equals.
Retaining 65 year old male judges but removing a 65 year old female judge (Strictly Come Dancing (BBC, 2004- ) seems unfair and does appear like discrimination. Also why are old men such as Bruce Forsythe at 81years still regarded as entertaining, with all his wrinkles an obvious elderly appearance.
According to Skillset, an industry body, Only 1 in 10 women working in television is over 50 and recently the BBC has come under renewed attack after a study showed that only one in five of BBC One’s presenters are over 50, compared to one in four for ITV1.
All in all if the men can keep a BBC presenter’s career at an older age, why can’t women as well?
References:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8603994.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/11/countryfile-miriam-oreilly-tribunal
www.skillset.org/uploads/pdf/asset_11941.pdf?2
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7888372/Selina-Scott-Why-I-believe-the-BBC-is-guilty-of-blatant-ageism-and-sexism.html
Task 3
The BBC’s legal argument regarding blocking the release of the book, revealing who is the Stig and their legal argument regarding the dismissal of Miriam O’Reilly
The Ben Collins Case
The Stig is anonymous, he does not speak and no clue is given as to his identity. There is speculation in the programme as to who, or what The Stig might be, and this is left unresolved on the show. (Bird and Bird 2010)
The BBC applied for an injunction ‘British Broadcasting Corporation v HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Ben Collins and Collins Autosport Limited [2010]’ to prevent the publication of Ben Collins autobiography “The Man in the White Suit” by the publisher HyperCollins. In 2009 Collins had decided to write the autobiography and in July 2010 had spoken to the producer of Top Gear that he was thinking of leaving the show and his intentions for the book. The BBC took action to obtain an interim injunction preventing the publication of the autobiography (Thakray Williams, 2010) and decided to take action against Ben Collins.
The BBCs main legal argument was based on the following
- That publication of the autobiography would involve a breach of the duties owed by Mr Collins to the BBC under contract and in equity.
- Ben Collins, was therefore in breach of his confidentiality agreement with them
- A possible breach of the law of Intellectual Property under ‘Trade Secrets’ suggesting that Top Gear actually owns the idea of the Stig.
The BBC argued that Ben Collins was subject to an ‘equitable duty of confidence’ (Law Gazette 2010) and therefore had broken his Top Gear contract. Collins knew from the start of his work with BBC Top Gear, that whoever is the Stig, they must keep it as a secret; he also knew that the previous Stig had been fired for revealing his identity. Contracts existed between the BBC and a third party ‘Collins Auto Sport Ltd’ who managed the business affairs of Ben Collins and clauses existed in regard to confidentiality of the Stig such as “you will not reveal your identity”. Because of this, the BBC argued that therefore the confidentiality clause applied to Ben Collins directly because of those clauses.
The Employment Tribunal, Ms M O’Reilly against the British Broadcasting Corporation and Bristol Magazines Ltd: case 2200423/2010:
Miriam O’ Reilly had worked on Countryfile (BBC TV) but when it was going to be moved to a moved to prime time slot on a Sunday evenings in 2008, she was told “…sadly she would not be going forward to the prime time slot as they wanted to ‘refresh’ the line up” (O’ Reilly 2011). Later, three other journalists in their 40s and 50s were dropped from the programme Countryfile (Michaela Strachan, Charlotte Smith and Juliet Morris). New younger presenters Julia Bradbury and Katie Knapman were taken on.
Press articles had also started to appear and Miriam found her work within the BBC including her work on Radio 4, drying up (Davey-Attlee, 2010)
The BBC’s wanted to appeal to younger viewers and believed this was a legitimate aim regarding their decision to remove her from the line up (Stallard, 2010). They also believed she had not got sufficient experience in a prime time slot and whilst this is not a legal viewpoint-they believed it would support their reason for her removal.
She in turn commenced legal action against the BBC for
- Ageism, believing that because of her age (51) she had lost her job on Countryfile
- Sex discrimination, because she believed a man would not have been removed in the same circumstances
- Victimisation; because an article from her in the Countryfile magazine was dropped as well being dropped from Radio 4 programmes: She believed that this was deliberate based on suspicion at the BBC, that she had leaked her views on ageism to the press.
In response to O’Reilly’s claim that on the combined characteristics of ‘sex and age’ the BBC had discriminated against her and broken the law. The BBC then used the legal argument that the law that existed before the new Equality Act 2010, would not allow her to bring a case on the combined grounds. This was rejected and the Tribunal confirmed its view that protection from discrimination on the grounds of “combined characteristics” is
“…available under the “old law” because it is not necessary for any one protected characteristic to be the sole, or even the principle reason, for dismissal”.
(Stallard, 2010)
Task 4
A critical evaluation of the Judge’s ruling from both cases.
On 4 October 2010 Mr Justice Morgan gave his judgment in the case of ‘British Broadcasting Corporation v HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Ben Collins and Collins Autosport Limited [2010].
He deduced that it was not reasonable for the BBC to have presumed or taken for granted that the confidentiality clause was meant to be binding to Ben Collins as well as Collins Autosport. The BBC had contracted with Ben Collins management company to provide Ben for the role of Stig and not Mr Collins himself, even though Collins had signed on behalf of his company. So it was Collins Autosport that had the duty of confidence to the BBC.
Collins however, was still bound by the equitable duty of confidentiality that meant he should not reveal The Stig’s identity and that this would have applied when the BBC went to trial if the information about the Stig was still confidential and secret. Unfortunately, the press had been writing articles that named Collins as the Stig and the judge said that anyone with even a little interest in Stig and Top Gear would already know the identity now and so it was no longer confidential and Collins could not be prosecuted for revealing it as it was already known.
In my opinion the BBC could have prevented this by making their contract
- Conditional-and made sure that Ben fully understood what was expected of him under Intellectual Property
- Specific-that he was responsible for keeping the Stigs identity a secret and for how long
- Making sure any other party who might manage the individual-had the same clauses regarding secrecy and how long that should be kept
The high court of London would not grant the BBC an injunction blocking the release of Ben Collins autobiography “The Man in the White Suit” by the publisher HyperCollins as the defence was able to prove that the ‘Stig’ had entered the ‘public domain’ because of the press coverage regarding Stig’s true identity.
Miriam O’ Reilly won her case against the BBC on age discrimination, on the basis that the Employment Tribunal (ET) thought she would have been considered seriously as a presenter when the programme moved to an evening slot, had she been 15 years younger. Although making a programme appeal to a younger audience was a valid aim, the fact that they chose only younger people in order to make that happen was seen by the judge as wrong. To get rid of older presenters to simply appeal to the
“…assumed prejudice of some younger viewers”
(Bird and Bird)
And therefore was not the right way to go about things or ‘a proportionate means of achieving the aim’.
She won her claim for victimisation as it was proven that she was not communicated with appropriately and that emails showed deliberate malice about her being dropped from her radio 4 show and that it was proven she was not leaking articles to the press.
She lost on sex discrimination, because the ET didn’t think an older man would have been treated better.
In my opinion, the ruling was fair in some points. It was a good thing that she won the ageism case as based on the evidence I have read ageism does appear to feature against women more strongly in the BBC at this time. I am not sure if I agree with the ruling on sex discrimination as based on the ratio of older men to women in the BBC, I still think if she had been a man she would have had a better chance at retaining her job.
It is only when you read the case summary details closely, that you realise the decision is based more on the new structure of the presenter line up for Countryfile. The judge felt that with that in mind, a man would not have had an advantage.
Assignment Task 5
Conclusions, highlighting what I feel the legal decisions should have been and what if any consequences there could be for the TV industry.
I think it was a shame that there did not appear to be much said about any breaches of Intellectual Property. At the time that Ben Collins was planning on leaving the show and was writing his book, he was talking about a concept and idea that had been part of Top Gear since 2002, although he had not been the Stig for all that time. By revealing secrets about his work he is spoiling the mystery for lots of people; the shows presenter Jeremy Clarkson believes the Stig, belongs to them and that no one else should earn any money from talking about him and benefiting from his unique kind of trade mark. I do agree with this point and if I was planning a show with something unique in it I would want to make sure the IP aspect was very well protected, I do not think this aspect was addressed well by the judge.
However, the case did have something to do with the right for Ben Collins to talk about his working life and this was supported by the Human Rights Act 1998 (section 12(3). I read that BBC used what is public money from our licence fee to fight a case that I do not think was very strong (now that I have read the facts) and that seems wasteful. It makes me think that the legal team at the BBC may not have communicated very well nor had sufficient experience in this matter and this should be looked into, it made them look foolish in my opinion. Legal and contract law needs to be reviewed within the BBC.
I also found it interesting that the media interest in the secret identity of the Stig, in the end prevented the BBC from obtaining the injunction they could have won-if only the articles in the papers had not been published.
The consequences for the BBC regarding the age discrimination
Even if the BBC felt that Miriam O’Reilly did not have the profile necessary to take Countryfile to prime-time TV it can only be right to use that argument based on looks and age if it done to both sexes. An article by Allison Pearson states that the BBCs Mark Mardell the correspondent for Washington is not particularly attractive and somewhat overweight and yet he is still employed! Why should older women not have the same right to work when they gain a little weight and get wrinkles?
Age discrimination is against the law and the BBC need to be seen to do the right thing.
It was also intriguing that the role of the newspapers played a part in her case as well. Newspaper articles in O’Reilly’s case were the reason that she was victimised by her senior management. They thought (wrongly) that she had been talking to the press about her concerns at the BBC.
The press have in both cases caused extra difficulties in law (BBC v Collins) and in fact may have directly contributed to O’Reilly losing her job.
In my opinion, Miriam O’Reilly was not treated well, the BBC could have keen kinder, talked with her and offered her other appropriate work. Asking her to deliver a radio show on ‘Environmental costs of aging’ when she was upset about being ‘side-lined’ because of her age was really rude and insensitive.
If the BBC is to really represent women today fairly, they need to show real equal opportunity in their recruitment and in their staff management. They should make sure that their producers have a detailed understanding of current discrimination laws and show a greater representation of male to females over 50 on the TV based on their skills for the job and not their looks alone.
References:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11151777
http://www.dmhstallard.com/site/library/legalnews/OReilly_British_Broadcasting_Corporation_BBC_another
http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2010/10/06/the-stig-revealed-why-and-does-it-matter/
http://www.microscope.co.uk/blogs/businessman/2011/01/some-say-hes-the-stig.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7975346/Top-Gear-court-case-The-Stig-revealed-as-racing-driver-Ben-Collins.html
http://www.thackraywilliams.com/The%20stig.aspx
www.lawgazette.co.uk/inpractice/lawreports/intellectual-property
Bird and Bird: British Broadcasting Corporation v HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Ben Collins and Collins Autosport Limited [2010] EWHC 2424 (Ch). http://www.twobirds.com/English/NEWS/ARTICLES/Pages/British_Broadcasting_Corporation_v_HarperCollins.Aspx
The Miriam O’Reilly Case
O’ Reilly, M. (2011) Good Housekeeping. The National magazine Company Ltd: April 2011 pp65-67
http://florencedaveyattlee.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/the-case-of-miriam-o%E2%80%99reilly-vs-bbc-should-presenters-be-judged-on-their-looks/
http://www.headoflegal.com/2011/01/11/employment-tribunal-ruling-oreilly-v-bbc/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7888372/Selina-Scott-Why-I-believe-the-BBC-is-guilty-of-blatant-ageism-and-sexism.html
The purpose of the research for my ad:
My ad was promoting the Cybermen from Doctor Who. I chose to do a toy ad for my product and I checked out other Doctor Who toy ads from YouTube to see what they were like. In other words I was checking out the competition.
What I saw was that there were always children in the ads with happy Doctor Who music in the background with an over enthusiastic voice over. Seeing the ads helped me think of other ways of showing my ad. So now I did my research I thought of ways to present Doctor Who in a new way.
I was trying to think of a new edge from the Doctor Who commercials, something more mature, funny, yet simple.
Planning:
Then it hit me, when I saw the Cybermen I thought of metal, not the material, but the genre of music. Then I thought of stereo types for my ad, like a sort of rock n’ metal type of people, who wear black, wear sharp metal jewellery, and of course listen to heavy metal music.
Luckily I had 3 best friends who were into that sort of thing and so I asked if they could help and they said yes. I had to make them sign public release forms so I knew they agreed to be in my ad.
Obtaining the correct permissions:
I chose the Mid Kent College’s TV Studio as my location for filming and I did a risk assessment and reviewed the location.
Next I talked to one of the main tutors at the College’s Media department, Ronan Mc Nelly. I asked him if I could have permission to have the TV Studio as a part of my filming, he said yes so then I asked him to sign a filming agreement so he knew that he had agreed to my location for filming and also the date and time.
The Problems with this assignment:
I found it hard with all the deadlines, with the paper work and the time it took to film was hard because for one thing it was the lighting in the studio, sure they where the right brightness and the lighting was perfect for filming but it was the act of positioning them in the right way for filming.
Also the some of the paper work was so confusing because of some of the filling in parts; I did not know what to write down.
How I dealt with it:
How I coped with it was to easily ask for help especially the paper work and not so much with the filming.
Equipment handling:
The equipment was not hard to use at all because we were using simple cameras and lights to capture the sound and footage of the advertisement.
Production:
The production itself was hard because I had to do the ending shots first and then do the first shots so basically I had to film in reverse. I had to do the ending shots because there were to hardest to do and I wanted to get the most effort shots over with so I could do the easier shots later to quickly finish the filming. I really didn’t like doing but it worked out all the same.
I do have to say the actors looked like they were having fun and so was I since I was in it as well so in a way I knew how they were feeling.
Editing:
The edit was fun because I got to use the experiences I learned from Ronan when using Final Cut Pro and put them to the test, which in my opinion worked out pretty well.
I liked how the projection of the Cybermen worked on the green screen because I used a picture from the Internet, and faded it so it looked like a projection on the wall.
I also like the ending when you see me and my friends head banging in the background, that part always made me laugh no matter how many times I watched it. The music was “Before I Forget by Slipknot” which I thought worked really well in the background of the head banging.
I also like how the lighting smoothed down for the scary part of the ad, I thought it worked quite well.
I didn’t really like the time limit because it had to be 30 seconds and I could have made that better because there were a lot of jumps like after when Simon says “Dude they’re practically invincible” it jumps to laughing and I wanted that to be smoother but that would mean I would have to go over the time limit which would suck since the ad had to be 30 seconds, no more, no less.
How I started to edit:
After filming I took hold of a Mac and went onto the Mac side for Final Cut Pro. When it loaded I made a folder in the Mac0s folder (Mac0s, Student, Movies.) and made a folder for my project so I knew where to save my project in FCP.
Next I went into Final Cut Pro and went to File, System Settings, and I set the capture scratch and the project folder I made in the Mac0s Folder.
Then I went to File, Log and Transfer and inserted my SD Card into the Mac so it could pick up the filming I did for the ad. I then selected the clips I needed and inserted them into my project to start editing.
Logging:
I liked using FCP for logging the information because I didn’t have to write the editing notes down by hand and paper, thanks to Final Cut I could do it all by computer and filling in the notes wasn’t that hard to do.
Setting up your machine
- To set up the Apple Mac there is a button on the bottom left which you press to start it up.
- You then wait till you see a screen with two operating systems, Windows, and of course Mac.
- Editing wise you should go onto the Mac side and wait till it loads up.
- The next screen you see will say the two options; Student is the option to choose to instantly go onto the main Mac page to start your work.
- When you need to save your work in Final Cut Pro you need to click on File at the top left of the Mac browser.
- Then click ‘save project as’ then select the file where you wish to save at and then hit save.
Capturing
In Final Cut Pro, to capture your shots you must first insert your SD Card into one of your Mac’s USB ports.
Then while your in Final Cut Pro, to get your footage of off your SD card you must click…
Next a window will appear in FCP and it will show that it has located you SD card and is capturing the footage and transferring them onto your computer.
Once you see your video footage files appear you can select the ones you want to put onto you FCP project. You click the ones you want and they will go onto a loading screen below were your video file will be put onto the FCP project browser so they can start to be edited.
What is a Rough Cut?
Basically it is a first print of a movie after preliminary editing.
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Editing
For the editing, I used the “B” button to activate the blade tool which can cut a curtain part of your video clip. You first select the part you want to cut and then use the blade tool and click to cut that part of the clip.
Now to move your clips through the time line you need to click the “A” button which activates the arrow head tool so you can select and move you clips though the timeline at will.
Transitions:
I had no transitions in my production. If I did however this is what you do.
- First click the effects button which is at the right hand button of your project browser.
- Then in effects click the arrow where is says video transitions.
- Next click away and try out many transitions for your video project.
- When you found the one you want, make sure you have the arrow head tool on, and drag the name of the transition onto you timeline of where you want the transition to kick in.
- Make sure it goes in between the two clips or an end of a clip to get the best out of your transition.
Effects/Changing Colour/Changing Speed:
I never used any of the above in my advertisement. If I did I would have used text and this is how I could have done it:
- Just as with transitions you first click effects next to your project browser and then click video generators.
- Next click Text
- Then click the choice “Text” again and then a window should appear saying, “Sample Text”.
- To type out what you want to put in your video click Controls and the next window should let you type what you want your text to say.
If you want to change colour to your text:
- First you can drag the controls button off of the browser and place it somewhere so that you can see both the control window and the video window so you should see the sample text and the controls windows all at the same time.
- Next in controls double click the white square and a window should appear showing which colour you can change you text to.
- When you have selected your colour click the ok button to change your text colour, so now if you look at your video window the text should have changed to the colour you have chosen.
To change the speed in a clip you have chosen this is what you should do:
- Select your clip by RIGHT clicking the clip and select “Change Speed”.
- Now a window should appear saying duration and rate.
- To make you clip faster and slower you must focus on the duration.
- In duration, to make a clip faster you need to lower the numbers, to make it faster you need to make the numbers higher, so basically the higher it goes the slower it goes and the lower it goes the faster it goes.
Making a project into a final movie:
- First click file at the top of the screen but make sure you are in Final Cut Pro.
- Then go to export.
- Next click where it says “QUICKTIME MOVIE”.
- Now a window should appear saying Save as, click the square with the arrow pointing down next to the save as bar.
- Find your file that you saved your capture scratch and saved project.
- Once you’ve found it, name you final movie and hit save.
- Once it has saved click file and “HIDE FINAL CUT PRO”
- Next go back into MAC0S and find your folder that you saved your final project to.
- Once you have found your file QuickTime movie drag it onto the desktop.
- Now you have to compress your movie so it works properly, now your movie is on the desktop, drag it into a folder which says, Compress Video(640×480).app.
- A window should now appear called “Droplet”.
- Where it says destination, click the arrows where it says documents and select desktop.
- Next click submit…
- Another window should appear where you can just type in the name of your compressed movie and then hit the submit button and then wait till your movie is compressed.
- The final part is when your movie is finally compressed, put it in your folder with your project and what not, and just watch and enjoy your finished masterpiece.
Conclusion:
I have learned at lot from using Final Cut Pro like:
- How to insert a picture into the project and put it anywhere on a clip of my choice.
- How to change speeds to clips.
- How to increase volumes on clips.
- Also how to use different effects and how they work.
- I also know how to animate the text and other effects by inserting key frames at certain points to make pictures, clips and other things move around and do all sorts of things in the clips.
I loved my experience with FCP and I plan to use this experience for the future.
I loved my finished Advertisement and I immediately showed it to my family and they loved and it said they wanted to watch it again and again and that really made me feel proud and happy to know I am using my best strength in life to make people happy, which is what I want to do.
