Mr Gardeners lesson at Temple Moor

On the 9th of december at Temple Moor me and the diploma group were shown by Mr Gardener how to use a program called 'Flash', the program is on the computer and you can make annimations on it.
We made a few annimations for christmas. The first annimation was just a tester on when mr gardener was showing use how to use it, we made some dots move to differnt places and change colour, the second picture.

Off- Stage Choices
On Friday the 15th of October me and the creative and media diploma group were invited to the W.Y play house in Leeds for the Off-stage choices workshop.
First we registered at the reception/ Bar area, we then went on into the Quarry Theatre for the Welcome speech.

We where then put into two school groups and had a backstage tour of the W.Y play house. This was really exiting to see what happened backstage and how the costumes were made. 


Our first workshop was the make-up bit, with Jules Greenan, this was really amazing how we could make bruises out of a few colours of make up.  It was really fun.
We then went onto the writing theatre workshop with Jodie Marshall, she does playwriting. This was really fun because we had to improvise a argument for as long as we could, I did it with Imogen Hey who is also in the diploma group.


We then went onto the next workshop which was the Sound technician bit. This was led by martin Pickersgill, head of sound. We first went up into the main sound booth and had a talk about what happens up there, what the job up there is to do. Then finally we had a go at directing the sound and we made our own sounds and looped them which then sounded like Kirkstall market.


The next workshop was marketing the show with Joanna Loveday. We spoke about how you an promote a show and how to get the press involved to get publicity, we split into groups of two I went with Seb Answoth. the groups were different sets of marketing. 


The final workshop was Scene painting with Barney George, designer for Aladdin in the w.Y play house. first he showed us a down to scale model of what the stage will be like for Aladdin, it was Traverse so that the audience sit on either side of the stage. he then gave us two signs to decorate with either lamps or fruit in veg. I made an apple for the fruit sign.

testament beatboxing

4Th of October. This was part of black history month. Teatament is a hip hop artsit with fantastic skills in human beatboxing, singing and rapping. the purpose of the workshop was to teach us about the awareness of racism and how we can try and stop it using song and rap.

First we went into the hall and we met Testament, here we asked him a few questions:1. What type of audience do you appeal to?
a. How do you go about pleasing them?
2. How has technology influenced your work?
a. Have you introduced new ways of advertising in recent years, for example facebook and twitter sites?
3. How do you connect to the different communities within Leeds and beyond?
a. This workshop is free and because of this how do you fund your projects?
4. What creative process is involved in creating one of your projects?
a. How do you decide what its going to involve?
b. How do you decide where and why your projects will be held?
c.How many different people from different agencies would be involved in creating one of your projects?
5. Do you have any merchandise or posters etc... to promote your projects? If not how do you get people involved?
6. How would you arrange a project/ Workshop?
a. Do you have an age limit?
How do you decide what to run a project or workshop on?
b. Do you charge?
c. What is the reason for the no charge/ the price in which you charge?
7. How do you know when a workshop/ project is a success?
a. What do you class as a failed workshop/ project? 

Unfortunately we did not get these answers on paper but we do have video evidence which tells us what he answered. 

After this we then got on with the workshop. He started off telling us about him and his family and how it was considered wrong for his black mum to marry a white man, and he told us that his family called him harmony because he is neither black or white but a bit of both. he then went on telling us about how hip hop came about. He told us it started off with a little boy called Clive in the Bronx area of New York. this little boy became a hip hop legend, he was the first DJ to buy two copy's of the same record and only play the best parts of them. He also added that Jimmy Saville was a big contribution to hip hop as he was the first person to use two turntables. because of hip hop music has evolved into such genres as Dub-step, R&B, Rap and many more. Clive became a hip hop legend called DJ Cool Herc.

Testament then showed us some examples of his cool skills. Like Michael Jacksons Billy Jean, it was really clever how he added his humming voice to the sound made by his lips.

He then taught us how to recreate this melody.

The first sound was like the letter P but exaggerated to recreate a bass drum or bass sound.

The next sound was like the letter K but exaggerated to recreate a snare drum sound.

The final sound was like the letter T but put to the very tip of the tongue to recreate the high hat. 

We then put it in a sequence like this: P-T-K-T

We looped this and did some humming to the back of it, the tricky bit was trying to put the sounds and humming together.

We then spoke to Giles who is part of the co-operative, he told us about how the co-operative is now part of the Brigshaw federation and how the co-operative have funded the workshop for us. We then spoke about democracy, equality and equity and other issues.

At the end of the fun filled day we wrote some raps and we rapped them to the others in the room with some people doing beat-boxing as a backing track

Jess Farmer

On the 12th of October 2010 me the Creative and media group meeted Jess Farmer, the education officer at the west Yorkshire playhouse. She came into to tell us more about Off-stage choices in the West Yorkshire playhouse Friday. she started off by asking our names and our recent experiences of creative theatre or performances. she told us about what we are going to encounter in the Off-stage choices this included backstage tour, sound technician workshop, make-up work shop, set design work shop, marketing workshop and script writing workshop. This all sounded really fun and interesting I cant wait now. We asked her some questions on her creative process and so on:

Do you enjoy your job and what does it entail?

Yes, definitely. Every day is different. Some days I can be visiting schools, I could be in meetings, I could be running workshops/ sessions, I could be at my desk and  I could be planning days like Off Stage Choices. So its very different.
How long have you worked at the Playhouse and what has been your favourite project to date?

I have been working there four and a half years. I started working for myself, and then the offer came up for a job part time, three days a week and so I took it and continued to work for myself until a five day a week position came up. My favourite project would probably be Connections which is involved with the national theatre.

Have you got any upcoming events/ projects?

yeah, There is Aladdin in the summer which is really theatrical and exciting so that should be fun. We also have a young theatre makers project, which pairs with schools and professional theatres.

How do you connect with the different communities?

We have the Arts Development which is split into three groups, these being: Creative education, in schools and universities etc..., Company Performance, who basically go into schools and perform productions and Clubs, these are mainly aimed at the elderly and people with learning disabilities.

How has technology influenced your work?

Massively, in the theatre in general. We also have a website which has Youtube, facebook and twitter links to the website. What creative process do you go through when establishing a new project?

Everybody is involved because everybody is a creative manager. We decide what will work practically and artistically and what will encourage and persuade people to come.

How do you decide what it is going to involve?

Well we have connections with the different productions that are on and they help us decide. We sometimes start from scratch but others we build on an already written plays. Sometimes we get requests from schools and frequent visitors and expand from there. What began your interest into the theatre and what training did you have to go through?

Well Ive always loved creative arts and since I was about 7 years old I was involved in a local amateur dramatics club. I wanted to outreach to young people and I took my A level in Theatre studies. I also took a masters degree and part of this was based 'On Location' in very non traditional production places for example I worked in a prison running workshops and I worked with people with learning disabilities helping them to reach their creativeness, and so on...I was working free lance when the job at the playhouse came about, I took it and they were pleased with my training but I didn't really need the masters degree to get the job but it did look good on my CV. When I got he job I had to have the usual health and safety and child protection training. What merchandise do you sell and how does this affect you income? How do you promote it?

We use lots of different merchandise and I suppose you could count the restaurant and bar as merchandise too as it brings in more money and more visitors. Half our organisation is a charity which is funded by The Arts charity of England. And the other half is about making profit which of course includes the bar and the restaurant as I said before. Other f orms of profit are programs, tee shirts, teddies for the younger audiences, to persuade their parents/carers etc... What type of performance attracts which type of audience?

Well we basically do a balancing act. We have to appeal to all the different audiences in each production we do by making it fun for the children gripping for the adults and acceptable by the critics. Sometimes however this is not possible and we have to focus on one type of audience for each production. You tend to find the more modern a production is the younger the audience usually turns up and the more traditional a production is the older the audience can be. This however does not mean only a certain age range can go. Everyone can go whenever they like!

How do you go about pleasing them?

We cant always please everyone but we try our best. We also try not to do to many of the same thing and we try range our productions and try to expand peoples horizons and come to something they wouldn't usually. We do use safe options sometimes as we have to impress the critic as well. How do you know when a project is successful?

Well, we have financial targets that we have to reach and if we don't reach them, or we go over them then it is pretty self explanatory. We also have critics that view the show and give feedback, and we hand out opinion and comments surveys. Sometimes we may not have a very big audience but we could have amazing reviews from the critics.

What do you class as a failed project?

We never really get a failed project because everything leads to something positive. It is quite upsetting when the audience is low or the reviews are poor but we just learn from whatever we did wrong. What opportunities are there within the playhouse, and are there any you aspire to achieve?

Well I could move away from delivering and start my own projects or more desk and office work but I don't think I could leave my job. I love it so much it would be very hard for me to move to something new.
What do you think the benefits are of days like Offstage choices?

We can encourage more and more people to come to the playhouse for various different reasons, it's also good for us to get more feedback from a different audience. And it gets people involved in experiencing something they maybe never even heard of before. It enhances learning.

Rules Of Blogs

                           Rules Of Blogs !

1. Spell checked and read aloud to yourself
2. Dates Names and Websites.
3. Detail set context, 5xW's ( who, what, where,
4.  when, why )
5. Reference  to Handouts!
6. Write in chronological order ( Time order)
7. Add Quotes
8. Use teacher feedback
9. Correct grammar 
10. Give Examples
11. Evaluation

Leeds Visit

Today we went to Leeds. We filmed many spots around Leeds. But the main reason we went to Leeds was to visit the Leeds Art Gallery and interview Amanda Phillips the Educational person at Leeds Art Gallery: These are the questions and answers we asked her and she answered;

1. what type of audience do you appeal to? well we have many types of audiences, including people who are confident with art, but also frequent visitors and schools and colleges. We also have people who just come to our cafe.
2. How do you go about pleasing them? We aim to inspire them, entertain them and challenge them. But we also hold special events and we change our exhibitions every so often.
3. How has technology influenced how you work at the art gallery? It has its bad sides and good sides, its made communication faster and its easier to collect art and store work.But its made it harder because artists are getting more technical with there work and its more expensive to hold there work.
4. Have you introduced new ways of advertising in recent years, for example Facebook and Twitter sites? yes, we use Twitter but we ave found over the years that word and mouth is much more effective . 
5. How do you connect to different community's within Leeds and beyond? we used to have international relationship but over the years that bond has given up. Now only 30 pieces of art go international a year. But we work with Arts Link to develop audiences.
6. The gallery is free, how do you fund the gallery and its project? We sometimes hire spaces out like the conference rooms, but the council pay the salary's of the workers. We also have a donation box for any money.hat creative process is involved in creating an exhibition? well all of our workers are creative and we all stick together to create projects, but what is creative process?
7. How do you contact the artists? They contact us and there are lots that do want to put there art in our gallery.
8. What space do you decide on for a project? Well it all depends on the size of the room, how important it is,the theme of the project, the practicality of the project and any-other ideas we have.
9. What merchandise do you have and how do you promote it? We don't promote the stuff we have because... well its all down to money.
10. Do you have a age limit? No we let anyone into the workshops old or baby's.
11. How do you know when a exhibition is a success? we never know, we have comments books so that people can say what they liked or disliked about the exhibition.
12. What do you class as a failed exhibition? We don't , we can never tell.

Mr Truscotts lesson

In Mr Truscotts lesson we were looking at examples of copyrighting in media. Then we had to decide whether these examples were legal or illegal. We then went on Ofcom.com and researched the regulations of filming people on the streets. This will help us on our visit to Leeds and the Leeds art gallery.

Discussing Narration

Today we had a lesson on narration in the group with Mrs Woffingdon. these are a list of the things i got down.
Purpose of Narration
-Sets the scene
-introduces character
-Give information
-Creates atmosphere
-Engage the audience and create tension

Examples of Narration
 -David Attenbrough
-Pete versus Life 
-Documentary's 
-Films 


Narration 
-Draw the audience in.
-Comparisons
-Present tense
-Metaphors
-Relaxed voice
-Timing of description
-Builds tension in his voice.

Today we looked at succeeding these objectives:
-Watching some examples of interviews
-Make a check list for a good interview
-Watch and evaluate our own clips
-Set targets and rehearse the new interviews with improvements

So first we watched a interview on you tube of Jonathan Ross interviewing Lady Gaga and a few others. We wrote down some notes about the interview:
-He introduced the guest well and showed respect with a kiss on the cheek and a friendly
-He also said what the audience where thinking, this makes him a good presenter.
-To make it a good interview you must be well informed about the person you are interviewing.
- Jonathan Ross uses humour to open the person up.

We then looked at another interview with Lady Gaga, this time it was on location after a performance at an awards ceremony:
-The presenter used active listening and eye contact so that Lady Gaga would feel more involved and open up more.
-Its always good to know when to finish the interview because the person could get very upset or bored if you drag on a bit with the questions.

We then made a check list for a good interview.
-Introduce the guest
-Compliments-Well informed
-Balance of speech
-Humour
-Good finishing
-Correct Grammar

We then got some targets to improve our clips of our interviews:
-Rehearse more to make the interview flow.
-Use open questions
-Extend answers and questions.

First day at Temple Moor High school

Today was our first day at Temple Moor, at first i was sort of scared but when i got there it was amazing, the building great full of wonderful facilitys. First We went and met Mrs Pawanski who is a media teacher there, we had a tour around the school and she got to know us. We then found out what media is and we tried to list as many mediums as we could. We then went to the IT suite and met Mr Gardner who helped us to learn skills using photo shop on the apple macs. then back to school after a great day in a great school.

performing/arts Mrs woffinden lesson 1

In our first lesson with mrs woffinden we split up in to pairs and went randomly round the school and interviewed each other about our lives ing creative media. later on we did our first film.