Whilst reaching the ending stages of my research period, an exciting opportunity arose involving Snapchat and Cumbria Police. Cumbria Police offered me and some of the students a chance to takeover their newly activated Snapchat account and I jumped at the opportunity. With CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation) Week coming up, we had to produce a script and story that could be portrayed throughout Monday - Friday of that week. The week before CSE week, we conducted a meeting for the story we were going to produce to get an idea of what we were going to create. We had a range of ideas like actually making a professional made short film out of this with real direction and camera techniques. We wanted to keep this project simple and not over complicate it because it didn't need that. All we wanted to do was get a message across in a cool and unique way that would attract a younger or unfamiliar audience. It was definitely the Snapchat element that put that across to me because since the message is generally towards young people, what better location to get that across than using a social network where the majority of it's audience is young people. We wanted to take advantage of the communication aspect of Snapchat and how people form a bond on it especially through stories and even 1-on-1 interactions. We decided then to produce a story about a couple called Brad and Beth (played by Brad Mattinson and Bethany Mason) and it explores the concept of sexting and a crippled relationship. We wanted to take an approach that this wasn't the Snapchat account for Cumbria Cop's, it was a Snapchat account associated with Beth and Brad. That Beth and Brad communicate to the audience in the same way they would in their Snapchat accounts to their audience. We though this would be an interesting and creative way of expressing our message but it would also be a complicated one that'll prove to be hard to get across clearly to the viewer. We spent an afternoon brainstorming ideas and arcs that made the story great and by the next day, we constructed this script: To complete this was pretty challenging. We not only had to complete it for a certain audience but also for a certain story format, the Snapchat stories. It limited us in terms of only being able to record 10 seconds or less per scene so timing and detail were very important in the flow and simplicity of the story and characters. We spent the first two days of the story introducing the characters so the audience can get a glimpse of their life and personality like what a lot of Snapchat stories are intended to do. After the first two days, we would spent half a week evolving the story at hand and creating the conflict and so the primary plot point is truly in affect. We really liked the idea based around interaction as well. The Screenshot Question is a common tool used on Snapchat to engage and survey your audiences opinions and beliefs. We integrated this with the topic of sending nudes. Would you send them? Would you ask? It's interesting to see how people think of these questions not with a description but with a simple Yes or No. We sent to the Cumbria Police Department to see if they are happy and accepting of the script. We originally had the subplot of Brad flirting with Beth's friends but because they didn't want us to divert too much away from the initial purpose of the story, they scrapped that subplot. They also removed the language used so it doesn't give the police too negative of a reputation on social media. I personally saw the swearing as a realistic, mature touch to the story but it wasn't a necessity. We were given the "Go Ahead" by the Police and we started. Throughout the whole process, it went really smoothly. We needed to often be reminded of what Snap to do on what day and time. I offered that I take charge of their Instagram channel. They had created one also for this process but they weren't really massively diligent towards their Instagram account. I suggested the idea that Instagram could be used as a Behind The Scenes platform to add more interactivity and lose some restriction with the whole film. They approved of the idea and I was leading the behind the scenes area for this project which I loved doing. What I loved most was probably the opportunity to have a different interaction with the audience. I thought it would be an exceptional thing to capture what happens behind the Snapchats not only because behind the scenes featurettes are interesting but we rarely see glimpses of how professional Snapchats are taken for their audience. We often forget that there is a camera there and that sometimes, much planning goes into the 10 seconds of information and entertainment. The worst part of the whole thing was organisation. We had a lot of times where we didn't know what snap to do at what hour and we often had to use tricks into thinking Brad and Beth were together when really they couldn't get together to actually do the snaps so we had to improvise. The last was especially stressful because of everyone being at work and it was the final day so the climax had to be right. Callum, our promotional photographer, had to pretend to be Brad's mate in the story who contributed to the sexual acts because we had no one else to do it at the time. We had a lot of organisation with this but it was also definitely the area we were most lacking in. I have to say that I am really happy with the feedback that we all received and the reception we got. It was very positive which I didn't expect on a total scale. The experience was quite rewarding and I can know say I took over the Snapchat account of Cumbria Police and I did it legally. The videos below are of the Short Film of the Snapchat Takeover which I co-wrote and edited and the second video is of the documentary I scarcely took part in.
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Action. This is a word that is thrown round entertainment whether it's related to the director's vocabulary or the genre of a film, whether it's a verbal term or a theoretical term. This word has become a cornerstone in every known piece of cinema. There has been a widely debated topic whether action has being going in a downward spiral of overused storylines, boring characters and the Wilhelm Scream for decades and only a few daring filmmakers have tried to break the genre out of that but no mater how great that attempt may be, an action film comes a long that's the equivalent to Konami's Press Conference at E3 2010 in excited and thrills. If you go to any blog or video stating the "Worst Actions Film Ever" you won't be surprised to find some ripping on only modern day action movies instead of the even worse ones that were made in the "golden" era of films. No matter if it's the killer action year of 1987 that delivered some of the classics that we know and love today or the decade defining year of 2012 which saw the birth and conclusions of some of Cinema's best action films, every year has it's dark sides. Action holds the same conventions in every medium like TV and Video Games so it's no surprise as to why it's so widely debated over. Let's analyse the 3 major nook and cranny's in what makes Action such a deep and cunning genre and why it may be considered one of the hardest genres in cinema. Story It doesn't matter whether it's an action film or United Passions, every film needs a compelling, gripping and in some cases, a realistic narrative. It's the thing that keeps us focused and makes us want to continue watching to know what is going to happen. Is the bomb going to be disarmed? Is that character going to die?! Is there going to be a happy ending...or a sad ending...or an ending at all?! A good story is the quintessential component in keeping your audience engaged but what a lot of action directors do sacrifice story for this... OK, not all of the stories of the films in that compilation suffer at the hands of their action but Transformers 2, it definitely does. I'm not saying that having eye candy explosions and satisfying gunfire in a films means that the story is bad. A good example is John Wick where the action and story go hand in hand to create a masterpiece of a film. However, a lot of action films tend not to care about their plot and only focus on action and this is a mistake that many filmmakers make or in other cases know that they're doing it and just want to make money off what every demonic fantasy loves to experience; Chaos. Just out of control, random Chaos. But that was then. It may of worked in the dawn of special effects where CGI action was becoming a sight to behold but nowadays, CGI has become a casual acquaintance in films with some special effects even getting too good to realize it's even there but more on special effects later. The sad point being that most directors see action as just something to push the film on. They don't spend time making the action something meaningful and actually somethings that is applauded for but because story has suffered in most cases, action has also suffered as well in the hands of people who just worry about money and treating their audience like it's a dumbed down version of the Turing Test. There are stories in Action films that try to be unique and intelligent but there need for a mindless explosion every 2 minutes takes us away from their storytelling and in turn, makes their story in valid to our enjoyment. An overused but perfect example of this is Transformers 2, a story that makes it out to be "The Matrix for a new generation" from Michael Bay himself but the problem with that is 1. it failed and 2. there was another film in works that would put that statement to absolute shambles. Like I talked about before, there is a common theory with the film industry that the audience is dumb and that a complex story would not would fit the demographic of the action audience, a theory that Christopher Nolan ripped to shreds with Inception. Inception is one of those films that comes along which you have a difficult time finding a true flaw in especially when it comes to action. There is no randomness to it, there is no wasted moment. The formula to creating a story that your audience will be fully engaged with and appreciate is that each moment has to push forward the story, not differ away from it and that is THE problem with action in stories. Inception uses each one of it's action sequences to tell the story, unravel the world and develop the characters and it does that in a manor that is complex and may require a few repeated viewings to understand but in a manor that is respected and masterfully crafted. Action and Story should go hand-in-hand, not be the subject of conflict. Character No matter if it's the main character or an extra, every character is important. Stories do weigh heavily on characters. It depends on the character and film but most commonly in action, a lot of characters have to be interesting, motivated and importantly, they have to kick ass. A lot of people believe in the structure that the main character has to be the freak of nature that is insanely badass and unbreakable which isn't a bad thing but there are a lot of examples of main characters who don't have any of them attributes and are scared and weak that have worked. A good example of these features are most commonly in War films. Their stories and characters usually depict the new recruit just coming from home being joined with a group full of war torn, beastly soldiers who bully the recruit and therefore pushing the character development in changing the young, scared, weak recruit into one of their own. I would give an example but this is literally in every War film, pick anyone and what I've just told you will be in it. The basic character arc that some action films face and that War films mostly face with their main characters is the Heroes Journey. The story in which a character grows from being a zero to a hero but with a lot of action main characters, we start their story after their heroes journey, when they are already badass, know how to throw some punches and fire a rifle at accurate proportions. Why is this? Maybe because some people believe that in action films, if the main character isn't already an action hero from the start then the character or story or sequences are boring which is really stupid. Action films like Kingsman: The Secret Service falsify this theory by having a character that is cool, slick and fun and make him into a charismatic badass all without any boring moments. The problem with this theory as well is that not all the action has to come from the main character. Supporting characters to background characters all have to have their taste of action set pieces, that's what makes their characters memorable. The delicate matter with characters in Action films is that they have to obtain every quality in the book that makes a great character but also has to include the action-orientated skill and ability to be memorable . Special Effects vs Practical Effects Ah, this old chestnut. This age old question has been tossed around modern cinema in every action film that has ever been known to man. Which is better? The truth is it all depends on budget and directorial style but no matter how hard you jam that down peoples throats, they still come back with even more and more judgement. With special camera equipment like IMAX and Arri Alexa, capturing these two daredevils of reality has never been so beautiful and awesome but when it comes to which one is better, hardly anyone can seem to be in the neutral zone and appreciate both of them for the massive stepping stones of cinema they are. Special Effects (CGI) breaches the possibilities of reality that allow us to witness true beauty and spectacles that we can only experience in our dreams. Whilst Practical Effects makes us appreciate the inner workings of physics and reality as we behold actual monumental set pieces that leave us scratching our heads in disbelief thinking that what we actually saw is what actually happened in real life without any help from Computer Generated Imagery.
In action movies, both of these effects play major parts in the what makes them visually stunning and a lot of action movies nowadays let's them both be a valuable part in them and and how they can make a film special. Practical is reality whilst Special simulates reality. Most of the majority will choose Practical Effects just because of the shear scale and audaciousness of it but most can be fooled as the most simplest of features such as a car or even a person can hide itself to be real when really it's all CGI. That is the true mystery and awe of cinema, especially in action.
Conclusion Action as a genre is a tricky one. It has built masterpieces and created garbage but lessons can be learned from both. From the very first action film The Great Train Robbery in 1903 to the most recent masterclass in action, John Wick Chapter 2, it is a type of film that has gripped us, shook us, adrenalised us, empowered us, failed us but hopefully entertained us. Action is the white knuckle genre of cinema and will continue to shine that way even through it's darkest days. As to whether it is basic or misunderstood, I would say it's both. It's a genre that is up there with the originals and it's always obtained the same elements that it began with. Many have tried to shower in new innovations and ideas and many have failed but that is a good thing because if this genre was easy to master then it wouldn't have the quality of exceeding expectations and it wouldn't hold the beauty of crafting something new. It is a misunderstood genre that people have immediately disowned but it isn't a dying genre. All it needs is the directors and writers that know how to handle it and obtain it. I believe it's the filmmakers and the industry that have let this genre down and have let it gone down the hole of disappointment but there some few that can bring it back up and produce the classics it once upheld. Darious Britt is an acclaimed filmmaker from North Carolina who has directed, written and starred in a short film, Seafood Tester (Darious Britt, 2012) that has been featured in 4 film festivals including Aspen Shorts Festival to positive reception from critics. He is currently following up from that with a feature film called Unsound which is a feature length adaptation of his short film, Seafood Tester. Although not released publicly yet, it has played at 20 films festivals around the world and has won 7 awards. Darious Britt's filmmaking success has not gone unheard of from his fanbase but along with it, he began to venture into YouTube. He began his journey to YouTube by publishing his channel on August 17, 2013 going under the title, D4Darious. Since then, he has accumulated 122,000 subscribers and garnered 4.4 million views as of the date this blog post was published. He focuses his channel around his filmmaking experiences with tips for young and aspiring filmmakers and analysis videos on directing, scriptwriting, story structure and cinematography. His content has generated mass approval from his audience and whilst his upload schedule can be inconsistent, he delivers with great videos and content that any film buff can enjoy. In today's YouTube community, the amount of analysis channels that are associated with breaking down and exploring films and the industry is growing now more than ever. With big film analysis channels like Every Frame a Painting and Nerdwriter1 taking up reigns of this topic category with both of them accumulating over a million subscribers each, their audience is becoming more invested within their workings and are both their channels along with channels alike them, are generating more of a loyal fanbase, including Darious Britt. Like with Lucas Raycevick, I started my journey with messaging Darious via YouTube. To be honest, I didn't expect any sort of reply. I thought it would just get past over and I would get nothing. I was thinking this guy would be perfect to interview especially because of his 2 focus points, YouTube (which I am progressing into) and Film making/studies (which I am also progressing into) so I was hoping for a reply but not begging. Then I received this after a day of sending the message... It is very (VERY) similar to the email I sent to Lucas but that doesn't take out the truth from it. I just wanted to save some time and create a message that would fit both of them but obviously altered a little. However, on with my quest. I was so excited that he got back to me which again, I really didn't expect. I emailed him through Google and we organised an interview date for next weekend on Saturday 4th February. I followed the formula I used for my previous interview with Lucas. I asked questions about his YouTube channel and lifestyle career in general but since Darious's filmmaking was part of the bigger picture, I wanted to ask him a lot about that to get a feel for both aspects of his career. I also asked Pivot Questions and recorded it using an easy to use software called OBS Studio which I both used in my interview with Lucas Raycevick. So came Saturday and he hadn't replied stating if he was still up for the interview so I asked him on the day, hours before the scheduled interview time at 8:00pm (1:00pm for Darious) and he responded that he was ready to go and so he was... After the interview ended, I left feeling that it went really well. I definitely appreciated and was intrigued by his knowledge of film and the industry. I was so focused by everything he was saying about it and he expressed it very clearly and on a level everyone can get behind. The Pivot Questions worked out really well too. Even though they weren't as efficiently detailed like Lucas's were, I still liked his response and it gave me a great and deeper insight into his personality.
I feel like this interview felt more professional in the sense of his responses and the atmosphere. I didn't feel as relaxed in this interview as I was with Lucas (maybe Darious thinks the same). Maybe it was just me getting nervous because he's known to be more prolific but still, I feel like the responses that he gave were exactly what I wanted. I didn't want both of the interviews to be similar in a sense, I wanted them to have different vibes, personalities, responses, knowledge etc., and I think that's what I got even though they both relate to entertainment but are in different mediums. What I found very informative was his brutal honesty. He expressed how hard it is to even just got on his standard of marketing and success and you wouldn't say it's easier than he stated because he is at that stage. The fact that he has such a unique perspective in the industry with being a Director/Actor in his films, it gives him that expanded range of experience and knowledge that he transmits across well through the interview. When I got to the editing process, I had a very similar style to Lucas's interview in terms of humour. It's just something I like to do that adds a little bit of light humour to it and offers more watchability. It isn't as detailed as Lucas's because Lucas had a lot more references in his interview about other videos and content but I wanted Darious's interview to still have just something other than an interview in it and make it more unique. Overall, I would say I'm really pleased with how the interview with Darious turned out. Even though I think the interview with Lucas was better, I still appreciated and took a lot of knowledge from Darious. I thought his answers were insightful, educational and that offers a cool look at what Darious is like outside of the videos and films. I think he's an awesome and educated guy and I would love to meet and even work with someone that has such passion and enthusiasm as Darious expressed in the interview. With starting a YouTube channel, you're often going to have to branch out into other platforms such as a Facebook page, Instagram, Snapchat etc. These global social networks have grown into the most viewed and active mediums in history with Facebook having 1.18 billion daily users beating it's rival, Twitter out tremendously by 800 million users but what makes them so different and why is Facebook winning by so much?
Why has this happened? Facebook has stayed as a social media platform. What Twitter has done over the years has moved away from Social Media and more towards News. Twitter keeps people updated whilst Facebook builds social relationships. We see this with the fact Twitter doesn't do much about social friendships and only really situates around following certain topics, people and conversations that are relevant or interesting to them but the downfall is the overall engagement period. It is statistically shown that 92% of all activity with Tweets happens within the first hour of the post whilst Facebook status updates can be popular and active for hours and even days upon end. Twitter centres towards reality and real life conversation lengths as apposed the Facebook which is more of a conversation you will "get to eventually". Also another big difference is optimal times for posting and engagement. Studies show that Facebook's optimal time for status updates are 12:00 PM whilst Twitters optimal time for tweets is 5:00 PM. This can also be broken down into days too with Wednesday's being the most popular days for Twitter and Facebook being most active on Saturday's. Just by this, we see the point of difference between the News factor of Twitter and the Entertainment factor of Facebook. We see this with Twitter's news and activity always progressing, altering and changing with what is important and what is happening now. Twitter is a place for constant news whilst Facebook is less focused on timing. In terms of updates and user satisfaction, this is where Facebook triumphs especially in the 2015 update period. In 2012, updates for both Twitter and Facebook were about even in terms of quality. Facebook has a new layout and allowed brand pages to display "Welcome" tabs to encourage likes. Twitter also followed up with an updated layout and advertising the "Hashtag" a lot more as their Unique Selling Point. In 2015, everything changed... Facebook integrated everything with Facebook Live, support on 360 videos, allowing users to label hoax stories as "false" or "misleading", supercharging their own like button to include six emoticons as well and also allowing users easily which pages, trends, friends etc, they want to see in their news feed. Facebook dropped a bomb with satisfactory updates that aloud much more expression and freedom on Facebook. Whilst Twitter did extend the period of searching for past tweets from 7 days to as far back as 2006 which was a good feature, Twitter made a big call where they decided to et rid of their infamous star button and replace it with a heart. May seem like a small change but in the eyes of avid users, this equaled to uproar since many argued that the star button was one of the things that made Twitter different and made them stand out. This was the start of Twitters downfall but something else also came into play. With Social Media growing and being proven to be a big set piece for marketing, advertising and popularity, it led the way for other social media platforms to form and arise. Two of the biggest players that were introduced were Instagram and Snapchat.
In April 2011, Snapchat is formed in a similar fashion to that of Facebook. The app was created by Stanford Graduate Students and grew at a successive rate. It raised almost $150 million (£120 million) in funding and by November 2013, the number of snaps sent to other users grew to 400 million per day. With it's rise, key features are added such as video sharing, Snapchat Stories, and ephemeral text messaging. Snapchat continues to raise funds continuously and grows to overwhelming popularity. Along with this, the app begins to update aggressively with introducing stickers, a chat 2.0 update and upgraded monetizing strategies. This led to Snapchat's daily video view count growing from 2 billion in May 2015 to 6 billion in November 2015 to 10 billion in April 2016. Even though Snapchat has a net worth of $25 billion (£20 billion) that just shies under Instagram, Snapchat still continues to grow quicker and quicker than Instagram and is predicted to become a leading Social Media network within the coming years. These two platforms became especially popular within the business community with Instagram favoring more towards Photographers, Artists, Personal Brands etc., whilst Snapchat favors more towards Entrepreneurs, Authors and Writers, Vloggers etc. when it comes to distributing and gaining popularity within Social Media. Personal Practices With my Final Major Project focusing a lot on personal branding, I decided to venture more with Snapchat. I began in early January with starting talking about motivation, film reviews and daily events in my life through my snap stories. This led to great feedback from my followers which were initially at about 20 - 30 and were made up of friends. After my first story, I decided to experiment with the differences between video stories and image stories and with apps orientating around Snapchat. I found some very cool apps that helped expand the community of Snapchat. The apps that I found the most interesting and had the most potential were Ghostcodes and Snappd. Ghostcodes allows you to upload your Ghostcode (which is the equivalent to a profile picture on Snapchat) and people can download it and scan it to find you and follow you. You don't have to upload anything but that and you get notified on who likes (Kudos) and downloads your snaps. It's a cool way of integrating a new following without spending much time on it. Snappd reshapes stories on Snapchat. Instead of your stories going away after a 24 hours period and sometimes being forgotten, you can upload them to Snappd which allows you to post your stories and keep them on that apps forever for people to view. It's a great way of looking at past snaps from other users and see their development and personality. I liked the concept and ideas these two apps represent. Ghostcodes has grown to be quite a popular app but since Snappd is a very new app, it isn't at an insane popularity figure just yet. I keep updating Snappd though and since it's new and I've uploaded 12 stories as of this post date, I'm already one of the most active users on the site which is pretty cool to admit as a fact. However, I haven't gained as much of a following from Snappd as I have done with Ghostcodes. As of this post date, I have obtained 82 kudos and 22 downloads which is pretty great for me as well. I have gained more followers through it and although Snappd is a great app, I believe it's a lot more cut off from Snapchat at the moment than with other apps like Ghostcodes. I have conceived a growing following on Snapchat and because of my active rate on Snapchat and branching out into other communities and apps, I have gained 30 - 40 new followers within the first month. I have also had amazing opportunities that have grown from this including being apart of a launch team for Kevin Kruse and his upcoming book, Snap Me! Text Me! and being apart of a 30 day positivity challenge set by a big Snapchat user known as StringStory and have gained a following off them both. I have also met other users such as the ones already listed and James K Crawford and SoulPancake. Separate from Snapchat, I have taken part in a new business associated app called Whale which is an app where you can connect and ask questions to leading businessmen, entrepreneurs, experts etc., and get public advice off them through video. I signed up to this and asked questions and got helpful and positive replies off most of them. After a while and a mass growth in confidence and knowledge, I decided to apply for questions and as of this blog post, only have got 2 questions but have answered them with honesty and have got great feedback from them. I believe this could and already is potentially, an app that can branch out to be very popular within multiple communities. Conclusion After going through this whole process of research and practices, I have come out of it having such a better understanding on how to connect with a fan base and grow as a brand. I have also gained some much needed confidence on social media and in real life with the way I talk to people and I have actually become quite a motivator if I do say so myself. I have helped an amazing artist who is my friend eventually distribute her work on social media which I hope will come to great success. Taking part in Snapchat this way has been one of the best decisions o for a while and I hope it continues to further grow. When everyone thinks of Heaven and Hell, the typical thought placement occurs. As Heaven being a bright, blissful, the city above the clouds kind of scenery. Hell is viewed in the opposite fashion of a rotting version of earth with fire and destruction covering everywhere you look. It's rare to not find this sort of vision of the afterlife and whilst there is some that look at it as the reckoning of the end or the heroes motivation to lead a better life on Earth, some tend to take a different approach... One of the main components as to why Heaven and Hell are visioned so much in films and in so many different ways is because their existence is questioned. No one knows if these places beyond death exist because the only way to discover if they are is if you die which is ironic because if Heaven or Hell are places in which you are guided to after you die, doesn't that mean that they can't be real anyway because they aren't witnessed in the midst of reality? More on that later. For now, let's focus on the visual interpretations of the afterlife in multiple entertainment mediums. Origins and Ideas of Heaven In terms of when these two concepts got their origin, every religion has their different beliefs on this. Christianity first believed that the dead would be resurrected after a period of slumber at the Second Coming until the concept of the Kingdom of God arose. In the 1st Century, Christians viewed The Kingdom of Heaven as a divine place that would come to Earth in their lifetimes and thus produce a beautiful picture of Earth in the "near" future. When the Kingdom of God didn't arrive, Christians refined their hopes into this place being a reward after death and put their beliefs into Heaven. Christianity believed Heaven was split into 3 separate layers. One layer being Heaven, the second being Paradise and the third being known as The City. God would distribute the dead into one of these "districts" and live a long and peaceful life in one of them which eventually moulded the concept of Heaven we have today. As in Christianity, they view Heaven as the reward after death whilst other religions like Islam, believe heaven is a place held with happy and immortal life where every wish is immediately fulfilled when asked. Judaism has a much more broader aspect of Heaven with it being a topic that isn't discussed very often within their religion. The belief of life after death is often argued over two ideas among the Jewish faith; one being the resurrection of the dead and the other being the idea of the immortal soul returning to it's creators body. Whilst many faiths have different opinions and beliefs on the vision of Heaven or even the existence of Heaven itself, most religions come to the conclusion that Heaven represents peace after death and that for their righteous ways on Earth, they are rewarded by being awaited in Heaven with the rest of their loved ones and forgotten dreams. Hell is the complete opposite... Origins and Ideas of Hell Almost every religion that believes in the concept of Hell has a similar perception of it even though the concept came much later on in religious history. Hell is conceived as a place that inhabits demons and souls of the dead lives who have sinned and had no forgiveness from God. With Heaven being foreseen as a reward, Hell was foreseen as a punishment. Even though Hell was a common belief, it mainly grew after the creation of a fable folklore known as Allegory of the Long Spoons which is represent in the image on the left. The Allegory of the Long Spoons is an instructive story created by Rabbi Haim of Romshishok representing the difference between Heaven and Hell with Heaven at the top, life on Earth in the middle and Hell at the bottom. In Hell, people are unable eat with the cutlery they possess and are starving whilst Heaven is calm and everyone is seated whilst eating their food in an orderly fashion. The story was originally erected to generate the idea of encouraging kindness and it suggests that people are given the opportunity to use what they are given (the long spoons in the image) to help nourish and provide care for each other and whilst there are many variants of the story, the message is the same. Hell is a fiery and painful depiction that inflicts suffering on the guilty souls that inhabit the land for eternity although a different portrayal of Hell exists in a common religion, Buddhism. The Buddhist tradition portrays Hell as cold. Tibetan Buddhist Descriptions of hell feature equal numbers of hot and cold Hells which is an idea that has also jumped over to Christianity as the infamous Dante's Inferno depicts the circle of Hell being a frozen lake of blood known as Cocytus (shown on the right) and sparked cold playing a dominant part in early Christianity also. Another piece of Hell that relates to cold is the first known image of Satan. Held in the Basilica Sant'Apollinare Nuovo Church in Ravenna, Italy, this mosaic depicts two angels at either side of Jesus Christ with one in red and the other in blue. In todays culture, I think most of us would view the red angel as the depiction of Satan but it is actually the angel dressed in blue that is Satan in the mosaic. In the 6th Century when this mosaic was constructed, blue was globally known as a sinister colour as oppose to red. With Hell being viewed as an image of anarchy and death, it is deceptive to see Hell fool us with it's features of the cold and now-a-days, very bright and blissful colours. Dante's Divine Comedy Consider to be and most likely the greatest works of World Religion Literature in history is Dante's Divine Comedy. It is a representative of the medieval world view in which the poem depicts an imaginative vision of the afterlife. Whilst it is written in the Tuscan Language, the poem contributed to the transformation of the Tuscan Language to the well known Italian Language. The poem is split into three parts which defined our visual and literary outlook of the afterlife we know of today which are:
Purgatory The latest and in my opinion, the most interesting idea of the afterlife is Purgatory. Although the idea of Purgatory was established in the early middle ages, the idea was only embraced by the Catholic Church in 1253. The idea depicts a period between death and Heaven in which a soul is left in an intermediate state where the soul has to go under purification in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter Heaven. You can not got to Hell or remain in Purgatory forever but only those who died in the state of grace (assists from God) but have not yet suffered temporal punishment for their sins can go to Purgatory and wait for their punishments to be fulfilled. Even though Purgatory is a vision of the last stage to Heaven for some people and isn't close to Hell, it still can take on the imagery of Hell with depictions of Purgatory being similar to Hell that it is fiery and dark. Once the fulfilment of a souls sins have been complete, they are guided into Heaven. Depictions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in Entertainment Mediums Due to the argument of whether these places after death exist, it has left many creative minds the opportunity to explore and often exploit these beliefs and have even left room for writers and directors to come up with their own visions as to what life after death looks like. Film like Always (Steven Spielberg, 1989) and Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009) and Video Games such as Dante's Inferno (Electronic Arts, 2010) and Saints Row: Gat out of Hell (Volition, 2015) have played with the concepts of Heaven and Hell being sufficient backgrounds and settings for their platforms but TV has recently taken an amazing frame of depth when it comes to exploring life after death. The couple listed are known for being genius, controversial and talked about a lot to this day about their references San Junipero - Black Mirror (SPOILERS) Translating to Saint Juniper (Saint Junipero Serra), who was a Roman Catholic Spanish Priest and founded the a mission (religious outpost) in Baja, California. This episode of the critically acclaimed Netflix show, Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011 - ) has been talked about and idolised for it's genius and unique portrayal of life after death. Rather than focusing on the afterlife being something magical and mythical to a sense, this episode takes it to a new genre and depicts the afterlife as being a man-made simulation. The episode first starts out at a vibrant, 80's-looking Californian beach resort town called San Junipero. It follows a shy, young women named Yorkie venturing this town and seeing the bright and nostalgic look of the town and she ends up meeting a vivacious young women named Kelly and it the story of the episode just follows them and their relationship as a young, reclusively gay, couple. The most interesting and gripping thing about this whole episode is that the whole setting of San Junipero is a simulation in which elderly citizens can access this by placing a chip onto their temporal bone that connects them to their brain to create this augmented reality. This allows them to travel back through time to when they were young and live out a few days over a period of time in this augmented reality and meet others who have done the same. After they die in reality, they are given an option to either just die and have their life ended or have their brain data activity transferred onto the chip and have it stored away (as seen above) so they can continue living their past life in a virtual simulation whilst meeting new people and literally living forever young. What I love about this so much is the uniqueness of the idea. Rather than go along the route of a natural Heaven and Hell depiction, Charlie Brooker (writer) decided to give Heaven an unnatural appearance and give every dying elderly person a heavy desire, to go back to when they were young and live out their lives that way. Heaven was once known as just Paradise and they give off that exact same image through this episode. It screams the word PARADISE at you and is even referenced in the club that the two main characters meet in. I also find it interesting how they live out their lives as a homosexual couple in a time period (1987) where that was often frowned upon. It almost gives the hint that this isn't a simulation of the past but almost an alternative past where homosexuality is accepted but we always see them express their love for each other in secluded areas where only they matter and no one else can bother them so maybe it is just how it was in the past. Also the music used in this episode is obviously very 1980's but is placed in very smart areas. For example, at the end, when the Yorkie and Kelly are finally together and happy that way, Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle plays which is great symbolism for both paradise (Heaven) and acceptance. This episode proves that you not only can make a depiction of life after death unique but you can also reshape it. You don't have to stick to a certain formula just as long as the narrative makes sense and flows well with the message you're trying to portray. South Park (Trey Parker & Matt Stone, 1997 - ) If you're known as the most controversial cartoon show in TV history, most likely it's going to feature some punches towards religion and the afterlife as a whole. When it comes to depictions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, no one does it more insultingly funny as South Park does. From God's of all religious groups forming a superhero alliance called Super Best Friends to stop evil to having insane backlash from the show NEARLY showing the image of Muhammed in their 201 episode special. From Satan having a homosexual relationship with Saddam Hussein to Heaven being portrayed as a place full of nude women. From identifying Jesus as a ninja assassin to expressing Scientology as a greedy and conspiritual excuse of a religion. It's hard to beat this show when it comes to mocking religion...and also raising important view points on it too. Where some have viewed South Park as a show that's just there for shock value and to insult others "greater" than it, most (even the people that South Park made jokes at) have viewed it as the most important show in TV history. What the creators show in terms of visual humour towards Hell, Heaven and Purgatory, they make up for with the simple use of subtle subtext. Purgatory: Dead Celebrities (Season 13 Episode 8) South Park picture Purgatory as a train full of celebrities waiting to go to Heaven because Michael Jackson (who they are waiting for) has taken the embodiment of Ike, a 5 year old child to fulfil his dream of becoming a kid and winning a pageant. When Michael achieves his dream, they take of to Heaven but instead go to Hell. This episode represents purgatory as the place which the souls of the dead are allowed to roam free on Earth as ghosts since Ike complains about seeing dead celebrities. Since Purgatory is the place before heaven where you have to go through fulfilment of your sins, that's what Michael Jackson and all these celebrities supposedly do not do. In real life, Michael Jackson was accused of harassing children which he continues to do in Purgatory. Billy Mays promotes and advertises his products and he still does that in Purgatory which is represented as a sin. These dead celebrities are still committing their sins that they committed on Earth whilst in Purgatory which leads them to Hell...but I thought you couldn't go from Purgatory to Hell? South Park's take on mis-advertisement of religion and their beliefs. Hell: South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker & Matt Stone, 1999) In the shows attempt at a feature length film, South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut heavily centres around Satan and Hell. After Kenny dies (for good) and steps into Hell, he gets an inside look into Satan's life which isn't what you would suspect unless you're a fan of South Park. Satan is revealed to have a homosexual relationship with Saddam Hussein and revealed to hate living at Hell and expresses how he wants to break out of Hell itself. Hell is symbolised as the prison of your own insecurities and unwilling to express your true self in a society that is filled with hatred and conflict. Even though it is seemed as inappropriate, portraying Satan as a homosexual has a deep message behind it that even happiness and confidence can change evil and if you've seen the film, it's weird how a character like Satan that has been blasted with evil and hatred can be portrayed in such a caring and pitiful way. Heaven: A Ladder to Heaven (Season 6 Episode 12) After the boys are struggling to deal with the loss of their friend Kenny, they decide to build a ladder to Heaven that gets national attention on the news and even gets the attention of the US Military to fund the ladder to Heaven which quickly becomes a replication of the race to the Moon in the 1960's as other nations try to become the first to Heaven. The most important part of this episode is it's take on government greed and seeing religion as a competition. Much like the school system, it portrays religion as a competition to the top of the money and popularity chart which has been debated over and people have been attempting to expose religion as just that. This also gets copied over to the government as they reveal the reason why they funded the Ladder to Heaven was because they believed Saddam Hussein to be holding refuge there to produce weapons of mass destruction similar to the reasoning for the Iraq War. This depicts the governmental conspiracies allegedly hosted by todays military. Conclusion What I've researched and learned from this blog has been extremely helpful. I have been fascinated with the interesting uses of religious beliefs in multiple mediums and their history as a whole. I loved the interesting use of religion and censorship and how subtext can be used to change the outlook of the show. I wouldn't like to use subtext in a comedic way but defiantly contribute it to the work with my visualisation of Upstairs. Lucas Raycevick is a Canadian YouTuber with 40,000 subscribers and has calculated over 930,000 video views in total (as of 27/01/17). He is known for doing in-depth Gaming Analysis videos in which he focuses on the story and pre-production aspects of Video Games in tremendous detail. He started his YouTube channel on 25th April, 2015 (with a channel 10 years prior to his current channel where he uploaded humorous Gaming montages) and kick started his channel with his most popular video to date, How Call of Duty Lost Its Identity. Since then he has uploaded videos on a wide range of topics such as Tutorial sequences, voice acting, soundtracks and the history of video games. He also contributes to a smaller channel, COGconnected. A channel that publishes Video Game reviews and gameplay's where Lucas is featured mostly in reviews, top 10 lists and the history of Halo. With analysis channels generally favouring mediums such as Film and TV, it is uncommon to find a channel devoted to Gaming analysis that is popular or at a high quality. I came across Raycevick and was blown away by how his channel hasn't got more successful. He is still a growing a channel and learning in terms of distribution of his content but the quality of his videos are very impressive. He projects his voice very well and always provides the audience with a great amount of information that is never confusing to the casual gamer. As for an audience outside of gaming, these videos may not be attractive to them but he still manages to create content that can at least be enjoyed if not understood by the general community. I decided to send him a message over YouTube and ask him for an interview about his channel and his growing success. I thought it would be a possible since he isn't a massive channel that I could get an interview with him but I was prepared to get no response until... I was so happy by his response and the fact he responded in less than a day was as pleasing. I had a set list of questions that I was wanting to ask about his channel but I was struggling to find questions that related to him as a person which is where I got recommended Pivot Questions from my tutor, Darren Horne (Pivot Questions are talked about in detail in my previous blog post). These really helped me out in distinguishing the line between questions for research and questions to bring out his personality. I wrote specific questions down that I was confident in him answering. After that, I decided to try and track down a software that would allow me to screen capture the whole interview which I thought would be no challenge. Turns out it was harder than I anticipated. I installed stuff that was either really confusing to work, didn't work or wasn't compatible with my laptop and I was ready to give in and just record it of my iPhone but then I was saved when I came across OBS Studio. OBS Studio is a software mainly designed for live streaming but I decided to check it out and I was very glad that I did because it worked perfectly. As Best Friends do, I tested out these video recording softwares on my friend, Robert and I tested the footage with him over a Skype call (just to see if the software still functions over Skype calls) and it all worked fine and was so happy. Now all I had to do was wait for Sunday, 22nd January at 8pm (12pm in Canada) which arrived sooner than I thought and so began the interview. After the interview ended, I was so grateful and so pleased of the result. What I loved best was the solid and detailed answers that I received from Lucas. With some of the Pivot Questions, I expected answers similar to the ones from the show the questions are from, Inside Actors Studio but I was pleasantly surprised to experience the response I got back from him. They were very descriptive and he actually related a lot of his answers to his own work on YouTube which I found pretty fascinating and also beneficial.
What I gathered a lot from the interview was his talk of pre production of video games and how he likes to focus on that aspect more than narrative or characters depending on the game and topic he is exploring but I loved how he explained it and that you can tell from the interview that he does videos on subjects he is intrigued by. He referenced the soundtrack from Doom a few times which he did a video on and talked a lot about Halo which he does a series on. He talked about what he knew and applied it to the questions necessary for it to give more broadened and stretched answers. It was also kind of pleasing to hear that his structure for videos aren't really fleshed out. He mentioned how his scripts are written on Microsoft Word and theres no real formula to how he shapes his videos when really it's all down to research and knowing what you're talking about. He gave positive light and attention towards smaller YouTube channels that do similar videos to him like The Examined Life (of Gaming). I think that kind of outlook and span of his attention for Analysis channels are pretty awesome and inspiring, in a way. The editing was a lot more detailed than I planned. A LOT MORE! I planned for a morning of editing thinking I just had to cut a few bits out and nothing more when really I went so much more into detail than I thought I would. I ended up placing humour in necessary areas which were inspired by videos I watch, cutting out a lot of "umm's" and awkward pauses and making it just look well presented as a whole. I ended up really liking editing and liking where I placed the footage of his videos which I asked permission for and he was so chill about it. The uploading part of it was pretty stressful and annoying because sometimes in didn't work but I got there in the end, obviously. After all the worrying over an interview with someone I hardly know and that's on an entirely different country, I have to say that I am so pleased I did it because I gained so much confidence and knowledge in doing analysis videos and also gained experience in talking to someone else for work. I'd love to do it again and hopefully it'll go as well as this one did. Sports Analyst, Charles Barkley, said: "I don't think of myself as giving interviews. I just have conversations." We often identify interviews as something different and not a lot of us are prepared for or familiar with but an interview isn't that complex. It's just a ruse. When you break it down, you will always come to the conclusion that an Interview is just a conversation but why do we view it like it isn't. Because it's important? It's for a job? It's going to be put on social media? There's going to be a yes to at least one of them but it becomes the dominate for the word "interview". It's amazing how different you will feel from changing the word "interview" and replacing it with "conversation". Pivot Questions In the late 19th Century, a set of questions were thought of and answered by a French Writer called Marcel Proust. The Proust Questionnaire is a set of random questions that aims to reveal a persons personality, tastes and aspirations. He wrote down these questions in an English literature confession book which was common between english families in that period of time. He titled the manuscript An Album to Record Thoughts and Feelings which was discovered in 1924 and was sold on in 2003 for €102,000. 1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? 2. What is your greatest fear? 3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? 4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? 5. Which living person do you most admire? 6. What is your greatest extravagance? 7. What is your current state of mind? 8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? 9. On what occasion do you lie? 10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? 11. Which living person do you most despise? 12. What is the quality you most like in a man? 13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? 14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? 15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? 16. When and where were you happiest? 17. Which talent would you most like to have? 18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? 19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? 20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? 21. Where would you most like to live? 22. What is your most treasured possession? 23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? 24. What is your favorite occupation? 25. What is your most marked characteristic? 26. What do you most value in your friends? 27. Who are your favorite writers? 28. Who is your hero of fiction? 29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? 30. Who are your heroes in real life? 31. What are your favourite names? 32. What is it that you most dislike? 33. What is your greatest regret? 34. How would you like to die? 35. What is your motto? Bernard Pivot hosted a show that premiered in 1994 called Inside the Actors Studio and it was on this show that he altered the The Proust Questions and narrowed them to 10 that are called Pivot Questions. These are also designed for the same purpose, to reveal the persons inside thoughts and what gives them personality. Whilst asking these questions, interviewers tend to get a deeper insight of the person they are interviewing. 1. What is your favourite word? 2. What is your least favourite word? 3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 4. What turns you off? 5. What is your favourite curse word? 6. What sound or noise do you love? 7. What sound or noise do you hate? 8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? 9. What profession would you not like to do? 10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Bernard asks these questions at the end of each interview which triggers a mindful response from the actors being interviewed and they are always used at the end, never in the middle or at the beginning. Bernard believes that these questions are more impactful if they are asked at the end of the interview. For most of the interview, you and others have asked research related questions that are placed to ask advice or an insight into the industry etc but you very rarely get a response that tells us about their personality or inner thinking and that is what Pivot/Proust Questions are designed to do. The actors have been sitting through and responding to questions that a million others ask but when they get asked theses 10 questions, it shocks them and triggers them to answer more thoughtfully and sincerely. Pivot/Proust Questions is a great and highly effective method and technique that creates a positive atmosphere for an interview and makes you learn so much more about the person opposite you. This is also great to use in day-to-day life which proves this is a sufficient way of creating a positive atmosphere. Neuro-Linguistic Programming - NLP Another technique I'll be applying to my interviews are Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and is a form of physical and psychological communication that forms behavioural patterns learned through experiences. The hypothesis of NLP claims that Neurological processes (meaning the anatomy, functions, and organic disorders of nerves that impact the nervous system) and language are connected and can build solid communication between others that motivate you towards outcomes like achieving certain goals, attaining exceptional life skills and solving problems such as phobias, disorders, depression etc. When I conduct my interviews, I want to use NLP to form a solid and responsive connection between me and the interviewee. I want to do this in two ways:
The second area I want to investigate in my interview which is a more possible theory is Rapport and Replicating Body Language. Whether it is a life long friend or someone you have just met, Rapport is that feeling of trust and confidence that you get off someone you are talking to. What begins to happen almost immediately is that Rapport develops into your bodies and voices matching due to the sensation of feeling that the person you're talking to is of great value and is trustworthy to open to. This replicative communication is known to be a great way of someone gaining the confidence to talk to you confidently and comfortably. This often-quoted study suggests that 7% of communication is the words you speak and that true communication is often brought out within body language. This supports the case of replicative body language being the most efficient way of creating Rapport that is explored in NLP practices. Just by simply copying the opposing persons body language, whether it is hand movements or the tilt of the head, this will psychologically impact the other persons way of thinking into them trusting you and thus becoming more control and less nervous when communicating with you. Though these 2 theories and even Neuro-Linguistic Programming in general are definitely up for debate and not scientifically proven, they are areas which have been proven to work in certain situations if not all the time. It is a different outlook in communicative thinking that I would like to explore and practise when conducting my interviews and hopefully it'll come to be a great use of getting a little deeper into the interviewee's mind and gaining a connection between me and them. |
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