Pitches and Decisions

In media, we worked as a group to discuss the different ideas we should do for our campaign project. We have first dicussed the topic we would be performing to the pupils. After the visit from the school, we gathered some information about what the pupils like and their different concerns. The main one were bullying, strangers and racism. We felt that bullying was often presented to the pupils too much so we decided to doo something different. Racism was a very sensitive issue to perform to children at that age. Stranger Danger was something different that concerns both pupil and parents so we decided to go with it.
When in partners, we came up with different ideas that would backup our performance for the campaign. Faduma and I came up with:
· Posters/leaflets – it is always there to remind them and with a central character that’s easily recognisable to the pupils.
· Badges – they can carry it around with them to remind them, which also create awareness to the general public about what we are campaigning against. With the badges, it would avert potential dangers of being approached by strangers.
· Storybooks – after we read storybooks to the pupils, they really enjoyed them and after asking them questions about the books it really stuck to their mind so I feels that it would remain with them if we present a storybook to them.
We all had a chance to present each of our pitch. The final idea were to create badges, posters/leaflets and storybooks. I was assigned to work with Faduma for the storybook and the leaflet. Hopefully it would be completed in time for the performance.

Audience Research

Before we do the performance, we created a table to see:

• What we knew.
• What we didn't know.
• What we had to find out.

We already knew that we were to perform to Year3 pupils about an issue that goes with our campaign project. But we needed to find out the amount of space provided for us to do our performance, the size of the audience and the topic we would perform to the pupils. We wrote down the different ways we would get these information from.

To know the amout of space provided for us and the size of the audience, we would have to visit the school. To pick a topic for our performance, we would have to interview the pupils in the school to know the different things that may concern them so we can perform this to them and help guide them.

For us to understand more about our campaign topic, we watched different adverts to see how they targeted their audiences. There was one called Charlie Says, which specifically targets really young children with an animated cat that tells the boy not to do all the bad things that approaches him. This is a good way to warn the younger children not to do certain things.

There was also watched a knife crime advert that targets teenagers - warning them not to carry knives in the streets or they would face the consequences. There was an advert for boys doing things that they enjoyed; and in contrast to that, there was the girl's advert where they were being stereotyped but they did what they enjoyed anyway.

Cliff Hall Visit

On May 4th, Cliff Hall, the VCCP of the successful car insurance/meerkat advert, 'Compare the Meerkat,' 'Compare the Market,' gave us a presentation about the world of advertising.
He first started off by explainig the general process they have to go through when wanting to create an advert. They first had to make a pitch for their clients. At this point, they would be at competition with other advertising company to please their clients. The clients would then decide who to go with.
After that he went to explain about the intense competition that advertising agencies go through. It is an all or nothing win - which could result to making these companies lose hundredths of pounds. Sometimes it can result with other companies stealing ideas.
Then he went on to explain about their most successful advert, 'Compare the Meerkat.' This advert focuses on the fictional character, Alexander Orlov, a millionaire meerkat that runs its own company, Compare the Meerkat'. This was designed to make people remember Compare the Market as the name was often forgotten due to previous failed adverts.
This presentation was very useful to us as we are studying the topic campaign and the different methods you use to bring your point across. This also helped us with understanding how different jobs in the media industry operate.

Trip to Sunnyhill

In Media Studies, there were lots of things we had to find out about the pupils. We already knew we would be performing to pupils in Yr3 in Sunny Hill. What we didn't know was the size of the classroom, the space provided for us to perform and the sort of things that concerns children at that age - so we decided to visit the school.
When we were there we have designed a questionnaire for the pupils and the teachers to gather some of the informations that were needed. We split ourselves in other to work with different groups with the children. We asked them questions like: what they like/dislike, and things that concerns them in their own personal view. Most of the replies we had were bullying, strangers and racism. This information was able to help us with what issue we should choose to perform to the children.
After our interview with the pupils, there was a storybook session. This helped us acknoledge the pupils concentration level so we could bear it in mind when we decide on our performance.

Visit to the Human Rights Screening

Today we visited the Ritzy cinema to view some Human Rights screening. Most of these were short documentaries, created by young film makers, raising awareness of global issues. We viewed 10 screenings - picked from amongst hundreds - which we showed in Boston, London and other cities. This was an opportunity for young people to bring their views across through visual movements.
Most of these films are about cultural, stereotypical problems or simply the creator's experience in life. Films like, In my Shoe, talks about the creator's experience whilst being homeless. The other film, Thoughts in an Hijab, tells us about an Iranian girl's of wearing the hijab in the western world and how she feels.
Others like, Aquafito, tells us about someone's personal view on bottled water and how she thinks it goes against The Human Right because she feels like not everyone can have access to buying bottled waters. This topic can definitely be argued since there's more than one views. I think that bottled water should be sold because it's just like any other product that not everyone can afford. Also it's useful to carry around when people are and about; even though she can argue that people can carry reusable bottles filled with tap water.
At the end of the viewing, there was a Q&A session with the film maker of Manana Santop and Not a Normal Day. There were questions asked on if their films made a change in other's lives; or how their films affected some of the people that was showed; or if they were able to achieve their goals for creating their films. They gave interesting feedbacks and inspired me to create a film of issues that I feel strongly about, and educated me to progress in the CM course.