Short Review of the first episode of Tomorrow People

Tomorrow People is a US remake of the popular TV series that was made in the UK and aired between 1973-1979, it's about a group of teenagers who have special powers, which include telepathic abilities and teleportation. I have not seen the original series, so I cant say at this point as to whether they have more abilities, but I know it's going to get interesting. 

The first episode aired in the UK last week, I watched it live at 10pm on E4 - my only huge issue with the show, is that the main character, Stephen, is played by Robbie Amell, who is 25 - and who looks 25. This isn't good when he's playing a character around 18 years old. He's a good actor and he does play the part well, but I cant stop seeing him as an adult, because he's playing a teenager.

The first episode was a good series debut,it was gripping and it kept your attention, but at the same time I think it gave away too much. The leader of the big bad guys of the series is Stephens uncle, his father is a possibly dead leader of the rebellious 'Tomorrow People' and Stephen goes to work for his uncle in the big bad company to find out about his father whilst being a double agent for the Tomorrow People - communicating with them though telepathy.

The episode seemed a bit too full for my liking, they basically gave you the entire back story of Stephen squeezed into a 40 minute episode, whilst trying to explain two different organizations.

I'm going to continue to watch this series, but if each episode is as cluttered as the first, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep with it. Also unless Robbie Amell astounds me with his acting, I don't think I'm going to be able to get past his so obvious not 18-ness.

As I said, short review, not really much of a review, but it shows my opinions on the episode. I give it a 7/10 stars.

03/06/2013 - Acoustic Enviroments

Indoor Acoustics:

Live Room:

A Live room is a studio room where a singular musician or band records. The rooms bounce the music around the room that pleasing to the ears. These rooms are more commonly known as a recording studio. The live rooms are so named because they are supposed to sound 'Alive' - it's supposed to be a natural thing, and be natural sounding.  

The video to the right of the screen is of a live room event, unfortunately none of the browsers on this computer will run youtube due to them needing an update that only an administrator can provide, so I haven't been able to watch this video myself.

(X)

Dead Room:

Dead rooms are rooms that have little (to no) echo or reverberation, it's considered a dead room, because it's an unnatural state of quiet. Ultimate dead rooms are called Anechoic Chambers, which is a room made in a certain way so that it creates no echo at all, these rooms are used more commonly for scientific and measurement purposes rather than to record music. If you're in a dead room, you can hear yourself breathing and everything sounds unnatural, and when recorded, it sounds flat.

[SORRY!] Once again, I'd like to point out that I do not know what the quality or content of this video is, I hope it's useful, as soon as I'm on a different computer I will be checking the video's out. [SORRY!]

(X)

Outdoor acoustics: 

Outdoor Recordings:

Recording outdoors may be a fun thing to do, but unless nature and man kind is what you want to hear, it doesn't always work in your favor. There's way too much reverberation to record something of class. Although there are things to stop this, such as wind shields, or dead cats. Dead cats keep out a lot of background noise so they are prime when trying to record outside.

Simulated acoustics:

-LJ

3/06/2013 - The Presentation Styles and Techniques Of Presenters.

Presenters have to be professional at what they do, but they all also need to have a personality that matches their topic. they need to fir their role and appeal to the target audience. 

Roles:
News Presenter:

News presenters have to learn how to carry themselves with confidence and professionalism, they cant afford to use slang or mispronounce something, because it could cost them their job if they insult somebody. They always have to stay authoritative over the audience, otherwise they wouldn't be taken seriously.

This Also applies to the way they dress, they have to be presentable, because if they showed up in a clowN outfit, nobody would take what they have to say seriously, no matter if they had done everything else right.

Continuity Announcer:

Continuity Announcers are the voice you recognize, the female or male who begin to speak just as a show begins or right after it ends, they're always there, and if you watch enough TV you learn to recognize certain voices and you know if you want to listen. These people are never usually seen, but I'm sure once or twice in the past they probably have been.

They have to sound convincing, they really have to put their heart into whatever they're trying to make you do, and if they're trying to make you stay to watch another show and they just said "Stay tuned for the next show", you wouldn't be very interested, because you'd have no idea what they're talking about, so they have to sound happy and really sell the show, making you stay and watch.
 
They have to reach the audience in any way possible, continuity announcers that have been around for a long time are genuinely funny, and those are the voices people recognize, the ones that have previously brought a smile to their face or made them laugh, people will stay to listen to that person if they start speaking. 

The announces try to sound like a friend, usually starting with "How good was that!" or something that relates to show, and it makes you feel like you weren't alone whilst watching it.

Broadcast Journalist:

Broadcast Journalists are around to appear knowledgeable and the topic at hand. They must research the topics at hand, or get somebody to do it for them. They mustn't go wrong or they could be fires, along with whoever got their information, especially if it was live.

Their image and voice must reinforce the fact that they know what they're doing, and know what they're talking about.

Magazine Program Presenter:

 Magazine presenters are much like broadcast journalists in the way that they have to seem knowledgeable about what they're talking about, except they have to be more knowledgeable and have that knowledge stretch over a wide range of subjects, though this is never to a deep level.

They have to have a similar approach to what they do to that of paper magazine. They must also remain in control of what they're doing, and make sure they link all of their material together so nothing looks wrong. 

They will also be expected to conduct interviews and have decent techniques and know the correct way to address the person they're interviewing, and know the correct questions to ask to get the biggest response. 

Lifestyle Program Presenter:

Lifestyle show presenters usually have a very specific audience, and the presents are usually picked to relate to that audience, and nobody else, and the presents usually have a good amount of control as to what they say, but the producers do have an input.

Documentary Presenter:

Documentary presenters don't have to be in shot when they present the show, like David Attenborough, they can just be a voice over for the entire show. These presents, like lifestyle ones, have a lot of control as to what they say, although they have to know what they're talking about, because a documentary cant have incorrect facts.

 

 DJ:

 DJ (Disc Jockey) are people on the radios, they're usually a personality voice that people can relate to. Unlike others, they don't really have to have knowledge of the music they're playing; they just need to be able to connect with the audience.

They have to sound like the listeners, be happy and act like a friend, they wouldn't talk like a news presenter, and instead they would use slang and buzzwords, make jokes and keep in touch with what's currently the main interest.

Chat Show Host:

 Chat show hosts also have a lot of control about what they do, especially late night chat shows, almost nothing is scripted because to connect with he audience that is viewing they need to be original and sounds like they know everything, they also need to keep a relaxed atmosphere to make guests and the audience feel comfortable. 

Chat show hosts become the stars of their own shows, no matter who the guest is, they're always the main event; everything has to be about them, so everything is. After all the show is usually their name, and people tune in every week because of them. it gives them a very large ego, and people like Graham Norton begin to stop caring about what they say, because the show is named after them, and without them the show stops. it basically gives them immunity to being cut, especially if they bring in large numbers of viewers to the station weekly.

Game Show Host:

 Game show hosts are definitely more organized than chat show hosts, although the shows have a very similar premise, game shows are often filled with bad jokes and people trying to be funny - that's because it's mostly scripted. You will find that a lot of the time the only funny things that are mentioned are actually non-scripted.

They always have to appear as if they are in control of every situation, otherwise they cant maintain the right appearance of superiority. Along with this they have to be lively and entertaining, going back to what I just said, this is usually all scripted. 

Contestants have to feel relaxed around them, in the game show host makes them uncomfortable or nervous, it makes out for a very awkward episode; this also ties into thinking quickly. They have to be very fats on their feet, so if any situation of uncomfortableness or nervousness should arise, they can calm the situation down. 

-LJ

16/05/2013 - The Sci-Fi And/Or Steampunk Look.

The Sci-Fi look is so much like the futuristic look, but it also leans towards steampunk. It's the glorification of technology and hot clothes to make a fashion that's perfect for the situations at hand. In this blog post I'm going to explore the less futuristic and more rustic look of the Sci-Fi world.

I'm going to be starting with a few TV shows and move onto movies.

Warehouse 13, 2009 TV series 

Warehouse 13 is a TV show that first aired in 2009, it's about a warehouse, the 13th warehouse in a chain of warehouses that have been around since anybody can remember. It's main objective is to find and catalog historical items that cause hiccups in the worlds society by disturbing the peace. For instance anybody that looked through the binoculars of the captain of the Enola Gay aircraft, the aircraft that held the bomb 'Little boy' which hit Hiroshima, it's said that the pilot of the aircraft looked through the binoculars and saw the explosion, therefore anybody somebody looked at through those binoculars would turn to ash.

The theme and ordinary outfits of those in warehouse 13 are ordinary to say the least, but their guns and the outfits they use to monitor artifacts and to work around the warehouse are pretty much the definition of steampunk. For instance, the guns they use are 'Tesla Guns', small modernized weapons to do with the Tesla device made by Nikola Tesla, it only stuns people and knocks them out for a short period of time.


Another steampunk theme to the look of the show is the goggles, they're mostly worn by the character Claudia Donovan,  the picture I have used to show these goggles is not the best, but it was the only decent one I could find without having to watch the episodes and hope she wears them to get a good screencap. Goggles are a big part of the female steampunk look.

Last thing I'm going to mention on the topic of Warehouse 13 is their communication devices. They use Farnsworths', which are a callout to the television pioneer Philo Farnsworth. they use them to communicate. It's a nice change from the ipads and iphones' skype system that most tv shows use nowadays. The picture to the left is Claudia's farnsworth (to the right), and she has customized hers which gives it the more steampunk feel. 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132290/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth

Doctor Who, 2005 TV series

Doctor Who is a TV series created in the UK about an alien that travels through time with A human female companion, but everybody knows that so I'm not going to go into it too much. Because I'm focusing on the steampunk aspect of Sci-Fi, I will be focusing on three of the most recent episodes: The Snowmen, The Rings of Akhenaten and The Crimson Horror. All of which have the common steampunk themes.

The Steampunk themes in The Snowmen are subtle to anybody that views because the outfits seem to fit the era, but the regality of those outfits were high above any of which a barmaid/governess would wear, The Doctor is cut back in this category because he probably has the crown jewels from the future in his collection. The contraptions in the episode also fit the steampunk theme, as they are very amateur, especially the globe of snow that contained The Great Intelligence.

The Rings Of Akhenaten hasn't got many nods to steampunk, it's set in a sci-fi scene on a planet, the main steampunky part of the episode is the guard people trying to get the queen back to do the ceremony to the gods. Their faces and outfits are the items that really fit the bill. The buttons on the coats and the goggle-like eyes.

 The Crimson Horror is also set in a time when the outfits are quite ordinarily like that. Except the machinery once again is more of the steampunk theme, i'm starting to think that the budget for Doctor Who is getting lower and lower due to the fact everything seems to be getting more amateur spare parts sort of things, it's plausible, or the set dressers just really love steampunk.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436992/

Lemon Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events

This movie literally is narrated by the writer, it's a very steampunk setting from scene one, where the writer is using a typewriter and living in a clock tower. Everything is very steampunk. Their clothing and the furniture, almost everything has the clockwork old theme. For someone like me that loves the steampunk look and would literally live with everything around them in that style it if they had enough money, the look is very appealing.
 
There's no sci-fi themes in this movie but I wanted to go through it purely for the steampunk styles, it's less of the techno futuristic look and more of the classic look. The girls outfit highlight the steampunk theme more than Claus (he young boy's), although Count Olafs fits the theme.  


Another shoutout to steampunk is Claus' spyglass, it's very simple but little trinkets such as that are used in Oder steampunk roleplays, men are often seen carrying one.

The house on stilts in the ocean of leeches which belonged to the kids aunt fits the themes also, it's unique and its the the style of a steampunk residence with its fenced roof, rounded windows, brick steps and wooden beams. It's very gypsy-esque which also plays on many steampunk fantasies.

Steampunk has and always will be a mix of the gotihic Victorian styles, so Count Olafs house with borderlines creepy also fits into this criteria with its roof, windows, and general setting.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339291/  

NEXT BLOG POST:
Sanctuary, 2008 TV series  
The League Of Extraordinary Gentleman, 2003 Movie
Van Helsing, 2004 Movie

-LJ

13/05/2013 - The Future Look

For a more 'Fantasy' themed article on the topic of looks, visit Rains' blog here: http://rainhmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/its-all-about-look.html

For years we've been playing with movie magic and costume making to build up a detailed work up of what a future environment and future clothing may look like. In this blog post I will be exploring movies and television shows, talking about the way they portray the future through look.

A main theme that's constantly played with and seen in most takes of the future is silver or copper, it gives the future a very metal and technological feel to it.

Continuum, 2012 TV series

Continuum is a TV show that was first aired in 2012, it was created by Simon Barry, It's at in present day and future day 2077, where an a future terrorist group named 'Liber8' escape execution by using a device given to their leader by Alec Sadler, the CEO and basic ruler of the new world. What they don't expect is that a young agent sees the pieces of the circular device in the groups hands, and she runs over to them just as they merge the device and get sent back. 

Continuum Promotional Photo.

The look of Continuum is very much what you would expect from people in 2012, although the outfits in 2077 are ordinary, except for the police and the way they work, everything is a technological database and each police officer in the future has a chip in their head and their eyes are modified to see things differently. The general aesthetics of the future does appeal to me, everything seems easier. Kiera Cameron, the main character is seen going to 2012 in this sci-fi getup and gets a lot of strange looks, which causes her to change the color with the color wheel on the outfit so it looked as if she was wearing black jeans and a copper colored jacket. (Picture to the right)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/

Revolution, 2012 TV series

Revolution is a future set show, except it lacks the sci-fi theme, in 2012 the world loses all power, everything turns off, even the things not connected to the electrical grid, like cars and mobiles. All at once everything turned off and never turned back on. It was created by Eric Kripke (Known for Supernatural). Everything basically goes native, they live off of the land. 

It has a very western feel, just because of the fact they have no electricity, uses horses to travel and grow their own food. everybody really had an ordinary way of looking, their clothes are tattered though due to no longer being able to manufacture new ones, but they get through. it's a very civilized new way and more logical way of seeing the future, governments collapsing and a mali`cia rise up to become the new law. everything is very green and overgrown, it's a different future look that I like. 

The world is almost completely covered in plant life, it thrives more now there's noting stopping it. The world of the future seems scary with this, everyone is fending for themselves and is willing to kill for food. The look of the world is very well done, although i think if only 15 years had passed there wouldn't be as much foliage as there is.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070791/

The Host, 2013 Movie

The Host is a movie set in the future, it's an adaptation of a book written by Stephanie Meyer (Twilight) although the screenplay was written by Andrew Niccol. I can't recall if there was a year mentioned that the movie was set, but it's clearly the future. Humans have been taken over by an alien race, their bodies became a vessel that is hosted by worms/souls. The main character is Wanderer "Wanda", a soul who moves into a live girls body - Melanie Stryder, who convinces Wanderer to get her body back to her family.

How the Souls arrive

Ringed blue eyes

The way to distinguish humans and the Hosts are the yes, the worms create a blue ring around the eyes of the bodies they inhabit. It's very futuristic, apart from the clothing of civilians, that's very suburban 60s. The Seekers (people that rule over the rest of the Souls) drive mirrored vehicles and live in tall skyscrapers. It's very sci-fi, with the huge grids where the souls come down to earth in. the seekers seem very elegant, they always wear white and keep clean, especially their vehicles, which obviously have to be clean as they're mirrored.  
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517260/

-LJ

18/04/2013 - Ethical

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“The BBC exists to serve the public interest”

The BBC have to remain objective and ethical with everything they do, this means they must cater to all different Cultures, religions and sexual orientations, if they falter or insult any of these, or speak in bad tastes and insult the social acceptability of any person; or if anything is perceived incorrectly they could lose a portion on their viewership and also suffer from complaints sent of OFCOM or the Editorial Standards Committee. This could make the producers suffer with trust issues and be accused of failing to serve the correct interest to the public, which can lead to job cuts to either the producers of presenters/writers. 

The news must also cater to Events, say like recently the bombings in Boston, it would be in bad tastes and immoral for them to discuss how bombs can go to good use in mines and such without giving a warning that it could be triggering or without mentioning the bombings in Bristol or Birmingham recently.

They have to be careful with what they say, use of profanity is absolutely prohibited before the water shed and if it is said on something live and unable to be dumped or bleeped out in time it could provide serious repercussions, especially if it's in morning shows or at times when the main viewership is young children or older people.

Here's some of my bullet point notes on the subject:

·       Cultures

·      Social acceptability

·      Events

·      Morality

·      Is it correctly perceived

·      Tastes

·      Thin line – you’re either on it or you’re not.

·      The water shed/safe profanity use

·      Radio has no water shed

·      Violence and gore has a big audience

·      Imagination could be worse

·      VFX is better now so it’s worse, but better.

·      Media producers always from doing some work on ethical presentation of matters in relationship to regulatory bodies and codes of conduct as these should always be considered and some of them change over time

·      The moral principles that define how a person or group acts

Issues that affect TV producers:

·      Trust

·      Impartiality

·      Truth

·      Privacy

·      Serving the public interests

·      + more

Complaints:

·      OFCOM

·      Editorial Standards Committee

The BBC also have a whole website where you can read about their editorial guidelines. So if you think they did something wrong you can check there first before complaining, also if your complaint is false they will probably use this to say 'no, this is in the guidelines', so the editorial guidelines literally cover everything.  You can see them yourself right here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/

-LJ

17/04/2013 - VV Diary 1

So in recent classes we've been sorting out our plans for the viral video assignment, at a slightly rapid pace we're getting the logbook completed and next week (when Rain is back) we're going to find people to be the cast in the advertisement.

Today I completed the locations work by visiting each location and doing a risk assessment for each place, fulfilling my task of being in charge of health & safety. Next week I plan to write up a contract with rain so each of the people can sign to legally agree to be in our advertisement. 

I will also be handling emails and contacting everyone I need to contact to get permission to film in each location in a fortnight.

-LJ