On my memory video my tutor wrote:

“I thought this was a solid attempt at nailing the brief. The obstruction was to do something you had never done before and, in fact, you managed six new things and this is exactly the right mentality at this stage in your degree – push your personal boundaries.

As a narrative I thought it panned out quite well although a little more thought to the ‘pat’ ending would have elevated it – the subtitles at the end for example could have been dispensed with in favour of something more representational. On the whole I like the subtitles but pay particular attention to the ’script’ in this respect. Less is more with text-driven narrative – an accessible voice-over could have given it even more impact and might have worked in a sleuth/B-movie/tongue-in-cheek style accentuating the ‘exaggerated’ nature of your memory piece.

Do make sure all your research for the effects and theoretical underpinnings of the narrative are in place. Good work.”

I feel really happy with this feedback from my tutor. I’m pleased to see that my efforts have been rewarded with positive feedback. I am also pleased that the negative criticism is nothing bad, just suggestions.  However after the feedback I made it clear why I chose to do subtitle text. To give each video something different. Again the emphasis on the video was visual, and I am pleased that this was noticed. The original obstruction was to create something new without a specific story, and instead of doing one, I attempted six, which was noticed and I am pleased with. I agree totally with the comments said and if I had known what could have been improved I would have done so.

THE NARRATIVE AND IDEOLOGY

Within my ‘Memory’ there are 6 camera tricks or effects with something I have never done before:

1) 2-in-1: Placing two people in the same shot, like a clone or twin. I did it with me as I am 100% the only one of me! I don’t have a twin!

2) Mirror Trick: I wanted to have the reflection in a mirror stay there after the person had left.

3) P.O.V Video Game Style: I have never made a film seem like a video game so this was an effect I wished to try.

4) Chroma Keying: A simple effect that I hadn’t done before so wanted to do it.

5) Creepy Effect: In this clip I wipe my eye off. This was difficult to do but after it was complete I feel I achieved something strange and even creepy.

6) The last video in the sequence was simple C.G.I special effects. I had never put C.G.I into a film before so I wanted to place try it.

The story of my memory piece is something that is an exaggerated from the truth. I was indeed over weight and wanted to change when I was younger, this is one of the strongest memories I have so I felt this would make a good story so I linked it to the videos I had produced to make it into a sort of Lord-Privy-Seal style video. But after the video was complete I feel I made a decent enough video and achieved what I set out to produce.

If I could change anything, I feel I would have perhaps developed the script beforehand then filmed to it, as the final script on the piece was not as good as it could have been and I feel it let down the imagery representing it. Also I perhaps would have gone for voice over narration instead, as the subtitles didn’t work as well as I had hoped. However I am still glad I did text subtitles as my main aim was to have different styles for each video. Spectacle had no info (text or narration), Power had voice over narration and memory had text. This gave each piece a different style and I feel I achieved this as each video is totally different from the last.

As I decided to go with my first idea, I started to write down the types of video effects and shots I had never tried before and wished to. Most of the videos I have written to do are mainly based on visual effects and cinematography so coming up with a narrative to fit these sub-videos will be a challenge, however I have one certain memory that would fit with the video. Here is the scan of the list of sub-videos I came up with.

Here is the list I wrote up. (Click for full size Flickr image)

After I knew exactly what I was doing I decided to work on the narrative to link with the pictures. I decided to use a rather personal memory for the story. When I was younger I was over weight and was unhappy. Although this was true, the narrative I am going to tell within my memory video will be slightly fabricated to accomodate the 6 different sub-videos in the artifact. Here is an image of the narrative I wrote up to work and film with for my memory video.

I decided to use blue screening for the 6th video of the special effect. I took a till image of a powerline then used the “lightning” setting on Premier to create the lightning strike. After this I blue screened a digital explosion on the exact timeline. This effect, though cheesy, worked extremely well. So once this was complete I simply added the sound effects to add to the atmosphere of the piece and to get the overall look. Here is the ‘Special Effects’ sub movie to my video I will produce. This is a picture of the step by step process I went through to create the final special effect sub-video.

The step by step process in making the final special effect sub-video. (Click for full size Flickr image)

Here is the sub-video for the special effect. (The word “Power” appears at the end, this was a typo and I meant to put the word “Memory” so please ignor this.)

Sigmund Freud

Freud believed that memory is basis of developing peoples individual psyche, whether that be in a normal or pathologically unhealthy way, he said  memory is the main element that shapes are personality and develops us into being who we are.

He also believed that people ‘repress’ painful deep into their subconscious mind. He argued that people do not ‘concsiously’  suppress painful and traumatic experiences, meaning people are unaware that they have done so and that these supressed memories continue to function in the unconscious as the repressed motivations of actions, and so they often re-surface in times of stress or if triggered due to other reasons.

Some individuals do not develope in the ‘normal’ stage of the infantile psycho-sexual development (oral, anal, genital) meaning they become fixated or regressive to these neurotic behaviour (fetishes and obsessions).

So..What is Memory?

Well the dictionary puts it as follows:

–noun, plural -ries.

1.	the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences.

2.	this faculty as possessed by a particular individual: to have a good memory.

3.	the act or fact of retaining and recalling impressions, facts, etc.; remembrance; recollection: to draw from memory.

4.	the length of time over which recollection extends: a time within the memory of living persons.

5.	a mental impression retained; a recollection: one’s earliest memories.

6.	the reputation of a person or thing, esp. after death; fame: a ruler of beloved memory.

7.	the state or fact of being remembered.

8.	a person, thing, event, fact, etc., remembered.

9.	commemorative remembrance; commemoration: a monument in memory of Columbus.

10.	the ability of certain materials to return to an original shape after deformation.

11.	Also called computer memory, storage. Computers. a. the capacity of a computer to store information subject to recall. b. the components of the computer in which such information is stored.

12.	Rhetoric. the step in the classical preparation of a speech in which the wording is memorized.

13.	Cards. concentration

This is what you would expect. But psychologically memory is explained in far more detail.

Alexander smith quoted:

“Memory is a function of the brain: the ability to retain information. Memory is much studied by cognitive psychology and neuroscience. There are multiple types of classifications for memory based on duration, nature and retrieval of perceived items. The terms “storage” and “memory” may also refer to the parts of a digital computer that retain physical state (data) for some interval of time, possibly even after electrical power to the computer is turned off. Where both terms are in use, “memory” is generally used for the faster forms, and “storage” for the slower forms.

Memory is a man’s real possession…In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.”

The final part of his quote I feel is the best part. Memory is indeed personal to us all and it is up to us if we share it or not.

I like to feel that memory is there so we recognise mistakes we made once before. But if you think about it, memory isnt just the storage of information. It also has the ability to provoke intrinsic emotions. If you have ever had a loved one sadly pass, the memory of them swells deep happiness and sadness, perhaps even anger that you never got to say the things you meant to. In this sense to a film maker or director, memory can be used as a weapon of creation. If you produce something that provokes these emotions, then you have made a real connection with the audience. One example of this would be the movie “United 93″, 2006, directed by Paul Greengrass. The film is based on the actual events of 9/11. This is a deep memory to thousands of people, and so will undoubtedly stir emotions within the audiences. This will then lead to word of mouth and so the film gains popularity.

Types of Memory

Flashbulb memory: This type of memory is directly linked with emotions and events. Instead of a memory provoking emotions, the term ‘flashbulb memory’ means emotions or specific events provoke the storage of memory. If I said to you “Where were you when you first heard about 9/11?” you would remember exactly where you were at the exact time.

Sensory memory: This means the storage of memory after approx 200 – 500 milliseconds after first perceiving something. The ability to look at an item, and remember what it looked like with just a second of observation.

Short term memory: STM allows recall for a period of several seconds to a minute without pre-thinking. The capacity for STM is very limited, usually with a maximum capacity to recall just 4 – 5 items.

Long term memory: LTM is our main form of remembering. It has the ability to store unlimited amounts for potentially unlimited time. It is said through repatition we remember certain things in order to store them. For example, if we read 11 numbers and try to repeat them, after a few seconds we have already forgotten them, suggesting the storage of what we just read was in the STM. However, if we keep repeating them, the brain knows to store the information within the LTM. An example of this would be a phone number. It is 11 digits long, so we have to keep going over it to remember it, thus placing it into the LTM. I can still remember the house telephone number from my 1st house, which we moved away from over 12 years ago.

Memory Models

Atkinson-Shiffrin ‘Multistore’ model: This is the idea that Sensory and Short Term memory are directly linked with the storage of information to the Long Term memory.

Atkinson and Shiffrin's "Multistore" memory model

Working memory model: This model was proposed as a more detailed alternative to Atkinson and Shiffrons memory model. The working memory model suggested that the storage of memory was linked with more active components.

Baddeley and Hitch's "Working memory" model

01) Making a compilation video with different videos within of things I haven’t done before supported with a narrative.

02) Going around Coventry interviewing people and asking them there best memory to make a video of several voxpops.

03) Creating an animation of one of my best memories.

04) reenacting one of my best memories.

05) Ringing all my family and getting them to say there best memory whilst I record the phone conversation.

06) Go into a public place and secretly film myself or friend doing something outrages, which would be memorable and filming peoples reactions.

07) Making a music video to the song “Memory” by Sugarcult.

08) Blue screen myself talking about my best memories with the video of old footage of specific events from memories playing.

09) Placing myself within a game world style. I would add loads of game style effects. This would link to when I was younger and played with my best friend.

10) Make a horror film. This would link to when I watched “Saw”, 2004, directed by James Wan, and remember what I would have done to improve the film.

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After coming up with these ideas I think that some of them are a little far-fetched to achieve in just 2 weeks, so the realistic option would be to go with idea 1 as this can be easily done. I will think of idea I have not done before that will fit to a story then put them together to make one video.

For my list of top 10 memories I have decided to make a video. In addition I have also listed them on here aswell below the video.

10) Mum and dads devorce.

09) Summer 04.

08) Christmas 96.

07) Passing my driving test.

06) 1st Over the Wall camp.

05) Seeing my nephew for the 1st time.

04) Traveling Thailand 07.

03) Group Holiday in Wales Sept 06.

02) Group holiday in Isle of Wight July 06.

01) College

On my power video my tutor wrote:

“Yes a lot to get into one short documentary film BUT you did this well and I wanted to see more. Make sure you get the information of research and dev on the blog to support all the good work.”

If I am totally honest I felt that my hard work paid off. Some peoples videos seemed sloppy and as if they just couldn’t be bothered. I put a lot of effort and research into mine and so was thrilled to get this feedback. If I could do the piece again I would make it longer and dig deeper into how sex is used as a powerful selling point as I feel I only just scratched the surface on the point. Overall I am extremely pleased and thankful to James Cummins, who provided the talented voice over narration, and Adam Chivers, who provided the recording facilities and edited and tweaked the recorded voice narration. I could not have had such good results without their help. I am very pleased with the outcome as I feel my efforts paid off.

This time I decided to try a new approach, documentary! I know the obstruction of making a video no longer than 1 minute 30 seconds was going to be hard, but I was confident I could do it. And I am pleased with the final result.

THE NARRATIVE AND IDEOLOGY

My chosen idea on how sex is a power within the media really interests me. I decided to go with a more documentary style of video for this piece as I felt the content was more information based. This meant it was more easier to create and edit to. The video is all about how sex is a weapon in the advertisement arsenal. The video shows how people are suckered into buying products, mainly men, because ultimately the subconscious believes that buying said products will result with sex or lusts fulfilled.  Also the video explains how else the subconscious is attacked through subliminal messages. The idea that sex is pumped into the brain without realising sets up the foundations ready to have the adverts trigger them. If you are told about sex from a young age and how good it is, you will want it, so adverts combine sex with their products, meaning you will want their products. The use of voice over narration is merely used to emphasis the visuals in my piece and to help inform people if the visuals are not understandable.

Now I have my finished idea I have written a scene list and script for the voice over.

Here is the scene list. (Click for full size Flickr image)

I feel the idea to go ahead with the idea of the power of sex was a good one as I don’t think many, perhaps no, people will do the same topic. I feel that showing the power of sex will be a really good video as this subject is highly contriversal and has many studies. The main thing I am not looking forward to is trying to keep it under 1 min 30 secs as there is a lot of content to go into. However I am looking forward to getting started and seeing the outcome.