Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Sunday, 22 September 2013
2nd Year - Major Production - Behind the Cape
With my collaborative partner - James Ogden, we were thinking of names for the Super Hero Mockumentary. We have decided to call it 'Behind the Cape'.
It is going to be a 15 minute long piece, featuring two main characters, the hero - Captain Justice - and the currently unnamed villain. We know he is going to be 'Dr' though, its just a matter of what the second part of his name is going to be.
The start will feature 'The Professor' - only briefly. He is the character/person who is making this documentary on the lives of heroes and villains. He will give a brief explanation as to what he is doing at the start, before the title sequences. He will also wrap up the documentary briefly at the end. Throughout, we will give the idea that The Prof. is always present, by having his voice over asking occasional questions to the characters, from 'behind the camera'.
The main elements of the story haven't quite been worked out yet. We know that for the villains segment, an 'evil council' style meeting will be held (though not in the traditional sense), where many villains will gather round to present ideas for the capture and killing of Captain Justice, and even for World Domination.
Other aspects are Captain Justice replacing his tactical Computer 'J.U.S.T.I.C.E.', a talking supercomputer that can hold proper conversations and provides great amounts of intelligence for Captain Justice. He replaces it with Apple's 'Siri' computer on the Iphone 4s/5. This upsets J.U.S.T.I.C.E greatly. The initials below are what J.U.S.T.I.C.E stand for. We must bare in mind that Captain Justice himself is an arrogant, self obsessed, moronic idiot, so the name is a reflection on this, with him trying to make it sound 'cool'.
J ustice's
U ltimate
S uper
T echnological
I ntelligent
C omputer
E xtreme
I should say more about Captain Justice, as he is the main main character of the documentary, and the most developed character so far. Firstly, he is very fit and well built. About 6ft tall, with short brown hair, and really big arms and muscles. As I said above, he is very arrogant - everything he thinks and says is law to him and he won't accept anything anyone else says - he is self obsessed, which is pretty self explanatory, and essentially he is just a bit of an idiot. His 'Super Power' is having a very profound sense of Justice, so even the smallest of things he considers unjust, he will do whatever he can to make it right, even if there is no need to interfere at all. Personalitywise as well, I wanted him kind of loosely based on 2 fantastic animated characters, Captain Hero from "Drawn Together" and Sterling Archer from "Archer".
To help aid in this, I will be watching many different mockumentaries, and even some "Archer" and "Drawn Together" to help formulate Captain Justice's character. Mockumentaries I will watch include "The Thick of It", "The Office" (Uk & US), "Summer Heights High" and many more. Those are just a few examples.
Watch this space for more updates!
It is going to be a 15 minute long piece, featuring two main characters, the hero - Captain Justice - and the currently unnamed villain. We know he is going to be 'Dr' though, its just a matter of what the second part of his name is going to be.
The start will feature 'The Professor' - only briefly. He is the character/person who is making this documentary on the lives of heroes and villains. He will give a brief explanation as to what he is doing at the start, before the title sequences. He will also wrap up the documentary briefly at the end. Throughout, we will give the idea that The Prof. is always present, by having his voice over asking occasional questions to the characters, from 'behind the camera'.
The main elements of the story haven't quite been worked out yet. We know that for the villains segment, an 'evil council' style meeting will be held (though not in the traditional sense), where many villains will gather round to present ideas for the capture and killing of Captain Justice, and even for World Domination.
Other aspects are Captain Justice replacing his tactical Computer 'J.U.S.T.I.C.E.', a talking supercomputer that can hold proper conversations and provides great amounts of intelligence for Captain Justice. He replaces it with Apple's 'Siri' computer on the Iphone 4s/5. This upsets J.U.S.T.I.C.E greatly. The initials below are what J.U.S.T.I.C.E stand for. We must bare in mind that Captain Justice himself is an arrogant, self obsessed, moronic idiot, so the name is a reflection on this, with him trying to make it sound 'cool'.
J ustice's
U ltimate
S uper
T echnological
I ntelligent
C omputer
E xtreme
I should say more about Captain Justice, as he is the main main character of the documentary, and the most developed character so far. Firstly, he is very fit and well built. About 6ft tall, with short brown hair, and really big arms and muscles. As I said above, he is very arrogant - everything he thinks and says is law to him and he won't accept anything anyone else says - he is self obsessed, which is pretty self explanatory, and essentially he is just a bit of an idiot. His 'Super Power' is having a very profound sense of Justice, so even the smallest of things he considers unjust, he will do whatever he can to make it right, even if there is no need to interfere at all. Personalitywise as well, I wanted him kind of loosely based on 2 fantastic animated characters, Captain Hero from "Drawn Together" and Sterling Archer from "Archer".
To help aid in this, I will be watching many different mockumentaries, and even some "Archer" and "Drawn Together" to help formulate Captain Justice's character. Mockumentaries I will watch include "The Thick of It", "The Office" (Uk & US), "Summer Heights High" and many more. Those are just a few examples.
Watch this space for more updates!
Professional Practice - Dissertation Proposal
Having followed on on Thursday and spoken in more depth with Chris during a tutorial, as to how to go about researching it, and what each of my chapters in the proposal should be about.
The first chapter will be based on the History of South Park and other animated shows that may have sparked controversy, such as Simpsons, Family Guy and King of the Hill, and why such shows can get away with what they do (mainly as they are animated, it is easier to get away with being offensive as it is fictional drawn characters doing the talking) but obviously a lot of research will be going into that.
The second chapter, I am going to talk about regression and the concept of it. And also go into detail in the controversies and even the taboos that the shows creators have broken, and how and why they have done this. Also, why they keep pushing the boundaries further and further. Many people have complained that it warps their children's minds if they watch the show (despite it being rated 15/18 so they shouldn't be watching anyway) and one of my favourite quotes regarding this is from South Park co-creator Matt Stone:
"KIDS ARE NOT nice, innocent, flower-loving little rainbow children;
Kids are all little bastards: they don't have any kind of social tact or etiquette, they're just complete little raging bastards."
This was said in response to people complaining about their children and what this new cartoon does to them, which I think is a brilliant response, yet also again, displaying signs of controversy about the show. Is he referring to children in general, or the four 8 year old kids he's created in his show? Or maybe even both?
The third chapter will be a case study, where I focus on a couple of episodes of South Park, and talk about my main subject of controversy and taboo. I have already decided which 2 episodes I will do, being the 2-part 200th episode special, cleverly titled '200' and '201'. In these episodes, Matt and Trey decided they would make fun of every single person they have in the past, mainly celebrities. However they have become known as being the most controversial episodes of all time, having been banned from Public Access and even Cable television in the United States and United Kingdom, only available on either their website, southparkstudios.com or via DVD format. This is because the whole premise of both episodes was about the prophet Mohammed, and how they wanted to show his image, which is obviously not allowed within the Muslim community.
It raised so many questions and controversies, it is by far the best thing to talk about for my case study.
As my research progresses, I shall post up here what I find out.
The first chapter will be based on the History of South Park and other animated shows that may have sparked controversy, such as Simpsons, Family Guy and King of the Hill, and why such shows can get away with what they do (mainly as they are animated, it is easier to get away with being offensive as it is fictional drawn characters doing the talking) but obviously a lot of research will be going into that.
The second chapter, I am going to talk about regression and the concept of it. And also go into detail in the controversies and even the taboos that the shows creators have broken, and how and why they have done this. Also, why they keep pushing the boundaries further and further. Many people have complained that it warps their children's minds if they watch the show (despite it being rated 15/18 so they shouldn't be watching anyway) and one of my favourite quotes regarding this is from South Park co-creator Matt Stone:
"KIDS ARE NOT nice, innocent, flower-loving little rainbow children;
Kids are all little bastards: they don't have any kind of social tact or etiquette, they're just complete little raging bastards."
This was said in response to people complaining about their children and what this new cartoon does to them, which I think is a brilliant response, yet also again, displaying signs of controversy about the show. Is he referring to children in general, or the four 8 year old kids he's created in his show? Or maybe even both?
The third chapter will be a case study, where I focus on a couple of episodes of South Park, and talk about my main subject of controversy and taboo. I have already decided which 2 episodes I will do, being the 2-part 200th episode special, cleverly titled '200' and '201'. In these episodes, Matt and Trey decided they would make fun of every single person they have in the past, mainly celebrities. However they have become known as being the most controversial episodes of all time, having been banned from Public Access and even Cable television in the United States and United Kingdom, only available on either their website, southparkstudios.com or via DVD format. This is because the whole premise of both episodes was about the prophet Mohammed, and how they wanted to show his image, which is obviously not allowed within the Muslim community.
It raised so many questions and controversies, it is by far the best thing to talk about for my case study.
As my research progresses, I shall post up here what I find out.
Professional Practice - Dissertation Proposal
After our initial lecture last week with Chris Hunt, he taught us how to properly research, and helped us come up with ideas for what we could do our dissertation proposals on, so we can then follow through and transfer our proposals into our actual dissertations for when we start our 3rd year next year.
Having had no idea what I wanted to do, it narrowed it down when it was confirmed it needed to be Broadcast related (obviously!)
Chris told us it is good to write about something you are passionate about, but at the same time where a lot of deeper research could go into it then you have ever done before in a particular subject, which is where I came up with my idea.
It hasn't got a distinct name yet, but I wanted to do the Controversies behind the Animated TV Show - South Park.
The creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, are known as too of the most controversial celebrities in the world, having made fun of in their show and in their films, almost every single group in the world, ranging from other celebrities, muslims, jews, rednecks, christians, scientologists - you name it, they've made fun of them!
Despite this as well, and the amount of abuse, death threat letters and the such that they receive, Matt and Trey continue to push the boundaries more and more, having each series, (and the show has ran for 18 years now) more and more offensive and controversial as time goes on.
I feel there is a lot I could write about in regards to this subject, so the research into it begins. Chris told me I should start watching South Park in a different way, taking notes as I go along, so I am going to start doing so whenever my favourite television show goes on :)
Having had no idea what I wanted to do, it narrowed it down when it was confirmed it needed to be Broadcast related (obviously!)
Chris told us it is good to write about something you are passionate about, but at the same time where a lot of deeper research could go into it then you have ever done before in a particular subject, which is where I came up with my idea.
It hasn't got a distinct name yet, but I wanted to do the Controversies behind the Animated TV Show - South Park.
The creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, are known as too of the most controversial celebrities in the world, having made fun of in their show and in their films, almost every single group in the world, ranging from other celebrities, muslims, jews, rednecks, christians, scientologists - you name it, they've made fun of them!
Despite this as well, and the amount of abuse, death threat letters and the such that they receive, Matt and Trey continue to push the boundaries more and more, having each series, (and the show has ran for 18 years now) more and more offensive and controversial as time goes on.
I feel there is a lot I could write about in regards to this subject, so the research into it begins. Chris told me I should start watching South Park in a different way, taking notes as I go along, so I am going to start doing so whenever my favourite television show goes on :)
Professional Practice - Work Commission
While trying to find what to do for my Work Experience or Commission, I had a few leads which could have ended well.
Freemantle Media was a possibility, having been in contact with a lady who works there after working on Take Me Out last year. Sadly this fell through.
However, I was approached by my father's business partner, Arnoud Denooy, who wanted to commission me to come out to Africa, and shoot a promotional video for his Telecommunications company 'Gearholdings'. He also wants me to make a video for a new company his brother and he have set up, 'The Nameless Foundation'. They have gathered together top writers, illustrators, poets and photographers from 12 African Countries, and they wanted a video to get an overall feel of what they are trying to do and achieve as a company.
This works alongside my Professional Practice, and I am now definitely doing it for my work placement/commission project. I am very much looking forward to it, and I shall bring more details as they come, and as I research into each of the companies.
Freemantle Media was a possibility, having been in contact with a lady who works there after working on Take Me Out last year. Sadly this fell through.
However, I was approached by my father's business partner, Arnoud Denooy, who wanted to commission me to come out to Africa, and shoot a promotional video for his Telecommunications company 'Gearholdings'. He also wants me to make a video for a new company his brother and he have set up, 'The Nameless Foundation'. They have gathered together top writers, illustrators, poets and photographers from 12 African Countries, and they wanted a video to get an overall feel of what they are trying to do and achieve as a company.
This works alongside my Professional Practice, and I am now definitely doing it for my work placement/commission project. I am very much looking forward to it, and I shall bring more details as they come, and as I research into each of the companies.
2nd Year - Major Production Ideas
So now we are in the final part of our Foundation degree, in the last semester, we have to start planning and coming up with ideas for our Major Production - a 15 minute long production to be shown online. With this we also have to make a website to go alongside with it, to promote it.
I had 2 ideas: My initial idea was to do a mockumentary on Super Heroes and Villains in the real world, essentially mixing the surreal with the real. However, the idea is that they wouldn't be very well known or good at what they do, and they have atrocious super powers, if not even super powers at all!
The 2nd idea was to create a parody show of reality tv shows, such as Dragons Den, Masterchef etc. One example would be 'Loserchef', in which the contestants have to make the worst meal they possibly can.
After consulting with Helen and my collaborator, James Ogden, who is co-writing and editing for me, we decided to go with the initial idea of the Super Hero mockumentary. One main reason is because it is a lot more original - parody shows have been done all the time, and there is a lot more that I would be able to do with the idea I have now chosen.
I had 2 ideas: My initial idea was to do a mockumentary on Super Heroes and Villains in the real world, essentially mixing the surreal with the real. However, the idea is that they wouldn't be very well known or good at what they do, and they have atrocious super powers, if not even super powers at all!
The 2nd idea was to create a parody show of reality tv shows, such as Dragons Den, Masterchef etc. One example would be 'Loserchef', in which the contestants have to make the worst meal they possibly can.
After consulting with Helen and my collaborator, James Ogden, who is co-writing and editing for me, we decided to go with the initial idea of the Super Hero mockumentary. One main reason is because it is a lot more original - parody shows have been done all the time, and there is a lot more that I would be able to do with the idea I have now chosen.
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