Radio show DONE!

Harry and I came in today, (Monday 7th), to tweak some of the audio and add the tracks to the final piece, good times!

We decided on three tracks, all from Josh aka 'Grafix;'
-One conditon
-Panorama and
-Outro

We were going to use one of the tracks but none of them were long enough for the whole programme, so decided to switch it up and blend a couple of different tracks together. We arrived at the Gatehouse at about midday and USB'D it finally at about 5pm. We had some slight difficulty with the automation, but got it done.

Our previous 'final piece' was about 7 minutes long, so had to cut it down.. we managed to get it down to about 5min 30.. and struggled but shaved off 30 seconds, luckily, to stay within the brief.

I'm really pleased with our final programme and think it fulfilled the idea we wanted to show in the beginning. I believe it's a good, natural insight of this years student's freshers week and what the new students have to look forward to.

Radio ACTION!

December 1st- Mon 7th:

Action Points:

The deadline seems to be looming so we really need to get editing and structure the programme to the max!
Harry and I came in on Wednesday 2nd, (1-6pm), and began editing the Vox pops. Harry also presented some music, which we played back and listened to, to try and pick some good tunes to mesh with our show well. As copyright is a serious offence, Harry charmed his housemate Josh Jackson in letting us use some of his own work; know as 'Grafix.'

The night before I wrote a script out for our narration in the piece. I tried to include an introduction in general, (for new students and the show in all), introductions to each question/ interviewer and a conclusion. I thought Annie should record her voice for the presenter as I thought she had a nice, clear voice.

All four of us agreed to meet today, (Thursday 3rd December). I re-wrote the script a little bit and gave it to Annie to record- Ross helped with the recording. As they recorded Harry and I went over to the SU to interview the Vice President Dan Jones for his answer.
When we returned we wanted to get it onto logic and fit it in with the already edited voices as soon as possible. Annie and Ross had finished also so was good timing to put all the audio together.

I also squeezed in an interview with Mike, as we thought having a teacher's perspective would be effective in our programme. Freshers will mainly be wanting to find out about the night life and he social side to the week, but we thought it would be good to get an idea of what 'your' course would have to offer in the first week.

We asked Ross and Annie if they wanted a go at editing, because we didn't want to feel we were doing everything- But Annie seemed reluctant to do so as she had missed the Logic Demo. We appreciated that they both live in Bristol also so was a bit of a pain to get down here, so they went home, and we carried on.

Bit of panic!

I can't believe how quick the time goes! I missed a Tuesdays session and so decided to hire out an edirol and get cracking with the Vox Pops to catch up.

In all, I recorded about 10/11 students all four questions ready to be edited, and the next time we met as a group Harry went home and recorded some more interviews so we definitely had enough material to work with.

I also received an email back from the SU.. and found out We'll be interviewing the Vice President of the Student's Union- Head of Activities and Participation. He seemed very happy with working with us and even asked if they could have a copy- to possibly use it for the SU website for next years students- result!

Radio Show Progress!

We've decided on some questions we want to ask for the Vox Pops;
1) What was your favourite night and why?
2)Was there anything that wasn't at fresher's that you would like to see?
3)What was the silliest thing you did during fresher's week?
4)What advice would you give to future fresher's?

Interviewing students will be good for our project as they match the target audience, so we want it to sound relatable and interesting for them. I thought it would create a different dynamic to the piece if we tried to get in touch with the SU president to perhaps hear what he has to say about the week; I'd ask him;

5) How do you think fresher's week went and what are you going to do differently next year?

My action point was therefore to email the President to ask him if we could bother him for 5 minutes while we record his response.

FRESHERS radio cont...

Tuesday 10th November:

We're getting more of an idea of what message we want to give for this show.. In order to think about structure we recorded everything our fresher's week had to offer for us as a starting point..

Freshers Week '09:
sat/sun: Welcome Parties, (day BBQ on sun)
mon: Karaoke
tues: Matthew Thorne DJ Guest
wed: Flirt (weekly night held by SU.. this week- Beach Party)
thurs: Comedy Night
fri: Fresher's ball
sat: Pirate Night
sun: Curry night/ Quiz

We all agreed to start recording some Vox Pops for our programme, so we can get editing early.
We're also aiming to get some natural sounds of the SU, either night or day time, to co-incide with the music and to let the listeners hear what's in store for them next year.

Radio Show Proposal

I'm working in a group with Harry, Annie and Ross.

Our aim was to produce a 4-5 minute radio programme with a topic of our choice. We decided we liked the idea of doing something useful and informative for freshers in general.


As we researched and brain stormed further into the idea, we agreed to focus purely on next years freshers. We wanted to create something that next years students could listen to and get a feel of Bath Spa University.

We want to include vox pops, interviews and presenter narration- and a good choice of music. Our target audience, being students, means we'd have to make our radio show imformative, chatty and laid back; to attract their attention and engage them to listen through to the end.

I'm excited to get started and see how our ideas progress.

Montage Take 2

Untitled from Rachel Sowden on Vimeo.

This is my second attempt of editing together video onto a track called "America's waiting." My first montage was simply images as my video didn't upload in time which was disappointing, so I was excited to edit some actual footage. I found it quite challenging as there was a lot to choose from and because it was old footage, it tended to skip slightly I put it all together.

Overall though I thought it was good practice and will be uploading some of my own footage edited as some point.

Good Morning Soundscape!

Our assignment was to create a 3-4 minute soundscape of one topic of our choice using natural sounds and different locations. I decided on the idea of my every day morning.

I began quite slow and quiet as I wanted the sounds to relate to how you're feeling when you first wake up. As the 'scape goes on it quickens and distorts, mixing sounds together to create a "busier" atmosphere.

I think my soundscape was effective as the mixed sounds are all around the house; if you listen carefully you will hear the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and finally, (as the sounds separate), outside. I think the random sounds merge well together and enjoyed making it.

to view my finished edit please click here

Atmosphere Slideshow

We were asked to take Photos relating to atmosphere and make it into a quick slideshow. It just so happens that I was attending my great aunt's 80th birthday that weekend and thought it would be perfect for a fun, family feel atmosphere and I think the overall outcome was successful.

I tried to use a combination of angles, OH/ POV shots and a variety of CU images to get detail and the "feel" of the party.

I had trouble uploading the slideshow onto blogger, however, so I've set a link up so you can check it out..


Pictures by RAC781 - Photobucket

3 Russians know Montage!

Montage is an effective technique of filming we all still like to use today, and we have some russians to thank for the development of this!

Firstly, there tends to be two types of main montage to use when thinking of creating a piece; "Hollywood" and "Soviet."

Hollywood tends to be what we use today- compressed stills. say if we were filming a rom-com and wanted to show produce a montage in the middle of the film over a song to show how "in love" they were; for example quick shots of each day- characters doing different things/ happy/ etc etc. The audience interpret that time is passing without it dragging in the film.
(Another example would possibly be after a live match of Rugby on TV- at the end credits they would show a montage of the highlights as the music fades out for the audience).

Soviet was an early development of montage which was a very effective way of filming and showing pace, panic and anything the director wanted to portray.

A revolutionary film director- "Sergie Eisenstein," (1898-1948). He was a young director, famous for his silent films, and who came originally from the theatre. He believed that editing could be used for more than just expanding a scene or moment through a series of images.
He liked to collide his images into one another, manipulating the audience to feel what he wanted to get accross through his film metaphors. He wanted to add fire and contrast to everything he created- using quick cuts and fast paced shots.

His most successful film would have been the 1925 silent film "Battleship Potemkin," a scene on the "Odessa steps," being the most effective and creative sequence. There were a lot of quick cuts back and forth- showing the narrative- closely followed by the reactions of the characters. He aimed to edit in such a way that the audience would follow his vision of panic and sympathy.


"Vertov" was very different if compared to Eisenstein. Eisenstein was more interested in the script and story colliding together; whereas Vertov wanted to create something different and away from the idea of theatre and scripts. He wanted to convert filming to natural performance- and became the root of our now "Documentaral" style of filming. He combined realistic events and stylised them by using cinematic devices through editing.

And lastly, "Kuleshov," who was a filmmaker in the 1910/20's. He worked with juxtaposition from one shot to another and interacted meaningful images in order to show how editing effects the viewer's way of thinking.

He liked to experiment with the audience's perceptions and reactions and believed he could do this through the use of simple editing. For example- Three shots; First shot: CU of Male character / Second shot: CU of a gun / Third shot: CU of male's face- frightened. This would create anxiety and worry for the character through the audience. However Kuleshov believed you could use the First two shots the same, and by altering the third shot you would create a different reaction- EG Third Shot CU of male smiling- so the viewer would be relieved and at ease.

"One Taker's" were also quite the trend in this era or experimental filming. Where the director would plan out the whole sequence, prepare it and film it in one take- so no editing is required- this would create a flow and natural atmosphere to the piece.
An example of this would be Alexander Sokurov's "Russian Ark"- a sequence that took 7 years to plan and shot all at once in one weekend, based in a museum.

I've found a site called http://www.single-shot.co.uk/ which has good examples of modern day one take pieces. Watch Sean Dower's "Automaton" piece. I chose this as an example as i like how it begins ECU of a light- the audience is unaware at what they're watching- until the camera pans out to reveal the subject. I also like the director's use of CU panning and tracking the drum set for added detail and effect.

Rugby Montage

A Montage is a technique of combining a single composition from various elements and environments; so photographs of stills or video clips blending together from different sources to give the illusion that the elements belonged together originally.

Using an effect such a montage in your work is very beneficial as it's a series of images relating to one another, so manages showing the audience a lot more than if they were looking at a single image.

Movie makers also use this, sometimes as a juxtaposition to superinpose several shots to create one image. It would tend to be at a "action/rushed" part of the film, to show the quick pace of the characters and their surroundings.

I found an awesome Snowbaord Montage on You Tube, where the makers have combined a series of video shots over a track and in some places- some audio, (you can hear them hitting the ice/ shouting etc). I like the way they've used different locations/ Night and day, Fish eye Lens and different angles to create some effective and impressive shots and makes the montage a lot more enjoyable to watch.



Our overall aim was to create a montage with an understanding of relative and combined images, preferbly made up of stills and video recordings. I was happy with my final piece, but disappointed as i could not upload the video recordings i had done earlier in the week.

I chose to take photos when i went to see Bath play Saracens in Bath's Rugby Ground. I shot the stadium when no-one was there as i wanted comparison and the idea of people coming together. I wanted to show the rush, excitement and tension in the game.

My vision was to start the montage slowly and quietly, with shots of the Rugby stadium empty; almost eery, building the music in the background until the beat of the music kicks in and the shots form quicker to the beat. I decided to use "The foals Two steps, Twice" for my piece of music as i thought it went perfectly with the images, rhythm and overall ambience of the piece.

Racheals Montage from Rachel Sowden on Vimeo.

I will be uploading some more footage to this piece as I also want to show how the final product would benefit with video shots in it.

Vox Pops!

Vox Pops comes from the latin word “Vox Populi,” literally meaning “The voice of the people.”

This is a type of interview filmed in a public place. American broadcast journalists tend to call it “Man on the Street, or M.O.T.S,” as it is literally this. The filming is a lot more spontaneous and unpredictable in comparison to planned interviews. Vox pops interviews stop the general public in their tracks to ask for their opinion on a specific topic.

The interviewer is usually instructed to ask a range of different people; from their gender to the age, race and class, and unlike surverying, he will ask the same question to everyone; which will produce diverse and interesting answers and gives the audience a chance to relate to a specific one.

Radio programmes also use Vox Pops in their line up; usually to introduce a person or a certain topic. I like how we the listener would hear a montage of voices, answering the same thing, and not know what they’ve been asked- it keeps us engaged and for us to keep listening and find out.

Points to remember when filming Vox Pops;
-The camera angles tend to be MSU or CU;
-The interviewer doesn’t speak through the duration, unless it’s to get the interviewee to elaborate on the original question;
-Questions are open ended to avoid “one liner” answers.

And finally, because Vox Pops filming is random and quick; the editing tends to be snapshots and cut down quite a lot, to emphasis the variety of characters on screen.



I got an example of Vox Pops from Youtube, but the original website is Vox Pops International, where the general public were asked what the "cool" words of the moment are. I chose this clip as I believe it's edited well- short and snappy- their positioning is correct, (eg the right amount of looking room) and each answer flows together.

Do i really need.... ?

What is an idea?

We were asked to think about what an idea is, and where it stems from, and to come up with an idea of a programme with the outline "Do i really need..."

We were told that when brainstorming, we should put everything on the table, no matter how random or out of context. An idea stems from inspiration, which comes initially from others.. so you could argue that an idea is never original, but you create your own and build on experimenting and branching out the original idea.

For the "Do i really need," i decided on "Music." I don't think anyone could live without music; music brings cultures together, and you experience a piece of their way of life when you listen to their style in music.

I think you learn a lot through music too.. so i think if i created a programme i would test out 'life without music.' The social side of music- festivals, clubs, gigs etc- Music is the key social skill in people and would be interesting to investigate the difference in people when music is taken away from them.

I've also found that music effects the brain in a number of ways. This website describes what happens to our bodies when we connect with music and what effects it has on us. so i would definately want my programme to investigate into the scientific side as well as the social side.

Photo Marathon continued..

After creating my own personal photo marathon, i tried to experiment further with 'iMovie' and combine some of the photos taken by myself and others in the class with the same theme to create a montage. My chosen theme was 'Autumn;'

I came accross a fantastic photographer called Heather McFarland, who specialises in Autumn scenic shots. This link shows some of her photographs and also gives us almost a step by step guide to create a beautiful shot. In each of her shots she writes below what aperture and shutter speed she uses, whether she used a tripod and various other elements to consider such as composition. Her images are stunning and almost abstract as the colours are so bright and colourful.

I then tried to push myself further and work on a soundtrack to play in the background, and put text onto the images describing what Autumn is to me; I did, however, run out of time in the class so would have liked to add further text to the montage, but I'm happy it being my first project and learning some of the basic techniques needed for this year.

Photo Marathon

Our first assignment of the year was to go into the city centre of Bath and take a mini photo marathon; taking 12 themes into account and creating 12 photos, one for each of the themes. We then came back to the Gatehouse and experimented with 'iMovie' to see what different ways we could present it.

This first slideshow is my interpretation on the project. I enjoyed the limitation we had to use for the task, using only one photo per theme and in order, so really helped me concentrate and cut and choose quickly which i think will be essential in the success of this particular course.

I will then upload another version of this photo marathon, using just one of the themes and creating a montage.