Week 12: Documentary

Lost Friday

29/12/2011

The story of “the Lost Friday”, In which the whole country of Samoa will leap forward 24 hours in to the future, when the country puts its head to rest on Thursday 29^th of December 2011 they will wake up a full day a head on Saturday the 31^st of December 2011.

The entire nation has deciding to shift across the International Date Line so it is in line with key trading partners such as Australia and New Zealand, which are a full day ahead of Samoa.

 The decision to keep the country behind a day has been left for one hundred and nineteen years,  Samoa is currently 21 hours behind Sydney but come new years eve, it will be 3 hours ahead, and being one of the first to celebrate 2012 instead of the last.

My ideas for a documentary, in which we show what happened when an island leaps 24 hours in to the future, and speak to people who have a birthday or anniversary that simply vanished.  The documentary will take place over a 48 hour period the day before and the day after the shift in the IDL.

Week 11: Working with Children

My New family

12/12/11

It is nearly 6 years since Gay men and women can have children we follow the new family dynamic of parenthood, whether the child is biologically related to one of the parents, or if they have adopted the child from any age, does it make a difference how the child is raised, or is it all genetics? The program will check in with the two families at various over various parts of the year (Christmas, birthdays, school events)

The program will follow two children:

Name: Toby

Age: 5

Parent’s status: Civil partnership (Tim and Tom)

Brief: Toby is biologically related to one of the gay couple, but neither of the two men knows who the father really is. Toby goes to school and is a normal 5 year old boy, but what does he think of his?

The second family we will follow is

Name: Sarah

Age: 13

Parent’s status: Civil Partnership (Julie and Jane)

Brief: Sarah was adopted at age 8 by Julie and Jane, they chose adoption instead of artificial insemination because they didn’t want it only being part of on the mothers, and how does her family dynamic affect her school? 

Week 10: Ethics and Casting

ASBO to Olympics

04/12/11

Summary:

ASBO to Olympics is a show in which a group of young outcasts, who have been neglected by the schooling system and come from a rough background, are put up for one month and trained as athletes at Millfields. While they do their studies, they use the discipline that they will be getting out on the track and apply in the class room.

Casting:

The ‘Students’ will be between the ages of 15 to 18 each of the ‘students’ will be given a physical psychiatric evaluation and a councillor before the filming will start. The guardians/parents of the students will be informed of what the show is about and what the end result of the program will be; being that hopefully they will come out more well rounded and better behaved members of society, and have a chance to take part in specialist events at the Olympic stadium. Filming the events in the school will be challenging to both the crew and cast with some of these children showing very much unpredictable behaviour (giving the show a jeopardy factor), a conversation that the parents/guardians will have is that anything that is said on camera maybe used in the right context.

The ‘Teachers’ who have trained the ‘students’ will be the best athletes that Great Britain has to offer, while not putting the ‘teachers’ in danger they will be told that the students will be unpredictable and at times badly behaved, a team of security and councillors will be on hand to help the teachers. Unlike the ‘students’ they can leave the set at any point if they feel that they cannot do their task.

Week 9

Jamie’s Dream School

27/11/11

Jamie Oliver has renovated a school in which he has invited 20 students from a lower class working back ground who have no GCSE’s and self discipline and paired them with 18 people who have passion and the  intelligence get them to where they are today, the documentary is really heart warming and emotional at times, I related to some of these characters in the documentary as I am from their back ground and have had a tough time in my personal life that has meant I haven’t done as well as I could have.

One issue I found all of these young people had been the lack of self discipline to make them want to learn, and in all fairness so do I, so an idea for a show is where a group of young outcast who have been neglected by the schooling system, put them up for six weeks and have them train as Olympic athletes, while they do their studies with a more creative subjects, like Music and Art in which ever form they like, but with the basics of English and Maths, and use the discipline that they will be getting out on the track and apply that to the lessons they have.

Week 8: Changing the World

21/11/11

Summary:

Lady Meacher chair of the All Party parliament group on Drug Policy Reform has spoken out saying “We need to look at the evidence; we have a lot of evidence from a lot of different countries about what works rather better than what we do in the UK” appropriated regulation of drugs can help cut crime, countries like Czech Republic and Portugal have a lower levels of use of drugs among younger people.

Treatment:

My idea for a program that will change the world is a Comedy Drama called Midnight Munch; it is a late night channel mockumentry staring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who have their own restaurant which is failing; they stumble upon a new synthetic drug which makes everything “amazing” after they experiment with the new drug they start to use it in their recipes and become overnight stars when a food critic accidently consumes this new drug, the restaurant starts to attracts celebrities from across the world wanting to try their cuisine.  The camera follows the pair as they struggle hide the secret with their new found fame. After they make more of the synthetic substance a drug dealer wants in on this new high. 

Week 7: Magazine Show

Woman’s Hour

11/11/11

1 – Celebrity glamorising sex

                Down the interview Jennifer Hayashi Danns, Author of “the bare reality of lap dancing”  to see what reality of a lap dancer are like and do celebrities glamorise the sex industry?

2 – Children and drugs

                Talk to a mother of a child who has a problem with drugs and social workers and councillors about the issue.

3 – Remembrance day

                Talk to a 90 year old woman who was born on Armistice Day whose husband was in ww2 and also talks to a Husband whose wife is fighting in a war now. 

4 – Greenpeace

                Meet Michael Eavis on the Greenpeace Rainbow as it sets sail with Michael’s Daughter and Glastonbury co-organiser Emily and about all the work they are doing and about the ship and what it stands for.

5 – Wuthering Heights

                Critics discuss remake of an adaptation of the classic novel by Emily Bronte and talk to the Director Andrea Arnold.

I have used the woman’s hour on the 11/11/11 as a template for an idea of the running order I have decided to keep the Arts piece to last as I thinks it’s always to end a show on a light entertaining article and the heaver issues in the beginning, the Remembrance Day feature I have decided to keep in the middle of the show as it’s a topical piece that people will stay tuned for.

Week 6 :Telling the Truth

When Peace turns to Violence

07/11/11

Panorama investigates the Occupy movement currently sweeping the globe, in particular the peace protest in Oakland, California, and what made them turn to violence so easily.  The program will reflect on previous peaceful protest such as the G8 summit and more recent the student protest in January this year. What factors occur to turn these protests from peace to violence? 

I have started to investigate the “Occupy Movement” which started in Wall Street, New York, and many more have sprang up overnight all over the world, outside St’ Pauls Cathedral, I will interview people involved in the movement to get their opinion on the situation in Oakland, but also ask previous Activist that have been caught up in riots, students that was caught in the riots between Police and protesters in January 2011 and who is to blame, someone once was quoted “to understand who is looking for a riot, look who has dressed for a riot”. To hear both sides id interview an officer in the Police force and is tear gas and rubber bullets necessary when it’s a peaceful protest? As Police in Oakland have yet to comment on the beating of Kayvan Sabehgi, it would be important to relay the events.

Week 5

The Psuedo Word Game

29/10/11

Last summer a pilot test was launched where six year olds were asked to read aloud 40 words half read half made up, this has caused some disagreement between ministers and experts, the government says the test will strengthen phonics in schools, experts says “the government has miss interpreted the test and will bring down reading standards across the board.

My idea for a feature on The Chris Moyle’s Show is called “Psuedo word” game, in which Chris, Comedy Dave, Dom and Tina have 40 words and have to read out, pronounce the words and then guess which words are real and which are fake.

The feature will follow the 8:30 news, this is a perfect time for the feature as it will be on as the school run is on and create the right amount of laughter and banter between the team.

Week 4

Week 4

 Death of Gadaffi coverage on BBC Radio

Gadaffi former leader of Libya was captured alive on Thursday the 20^th of October 2011 after an eight month uprising that ended his 42 year dictatorship. The tyrant was cut off from escaping the town of Siert by Nato airstrikes, and was later found hiding in a storm drain where rebels lead him through the streets before executing him.

I listened to three different BBC radio stations on the day after his capture and execution, and each had a different approach to this news article. 

Radio 1 Newsbeat covered the main headlines of the story in a 15 minuet timeslot in which it told us a brief summary of what had happened the day before and focused on the joy of the Libyan people since the death of the dictator.

Radio 5 Live Drive was more informative news coverage of the story as it evolved across three hour news with interviews from people in Libya who witnessed the capture of Gadaffi, and a discussion with correspondence about country now he is gone.

BBC radio Sussex only has a brief on the hour every hour news bulletin about the situation in Libyan which it gave brief news summery of the events.  

Inheritance Tracks

The song passed down to me inadvertently through my parents is “The Boo Radleys” “Wake Up Boo!” I remember from early child hood it was a song I would hear all the time in the morning, on the radio and in the car on the way to school, or on TV. It was the song that made me wake up every morning with a smile on my face.  When I hear this song it takes be back to the age of four or five and watching Mr Motivator on TV before school and my family trying to do the stretches and exercise he did. 

The song I’d like to pass on to my children one day is “Coldplay” and “Fix You”. The message in this song is that you can try for anything you wish and ill support you; if you get hurt emotionally or physically I will be the one to pick you up, that no matter where you go or what you do, I will be there for you.  “Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you”. Whenever I feel lost on what I am doing I listen to this song.

The song passed down to me inadvertently through my parents is “The Boo Radleys” “Wake Up Boo!” I remember from early child hood it was a song I would hear all the time in the morning, on the radio and in the car on the way to school, or on TV. It was the song that made me wake up every morning with a smile on my face.  When I hear this song it takes be back to the age of four or five and watching Mr Motivator on TV before school and my family trying to do the stretches and exercise he did. 

The song I’d like to pass on to my children one day is “Coldplay” and “Fix You”. The message in this song is that you can try for anything you wish and ill support you; if you get hurt emotionally or physically I will be the one to pick you up, that no matter where you go or what you do, I will be there for you.  “Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you”. Whenever I feel lost on what I am doing I listen to this song.

I've Never Seen Star Wars

I have been asked to review a radio show from the past week, something I’ve never listened too before.  Trawling through the BBC iPlayer I see one of my favourite comedians at the moment, and my mums, Sarah Millican on I’ve Never Seen Star Wars on BBC Radio 4. It is hosted by Marcus Brigstocke and has a simple concept of having a personality on the show in front of a live studio audience to talk about things they have never seen or done before. In the case of Sarah Millican, eaten dim-sum, read the “Joy of Sex”, watched “Some like it hot” or visited the Natural History Museum (all of which I have never done), to which each Sarah Millican uses her comedic talents to share and explore her new experiences with Marcus Brigstock. I found the half hour broadcast enjoyable, funny and entertaining.

I find these types of shows can only be made where the guests are either comedians, or a public figure which everyone know and has something halfway interesting to say on the topic.

This is the types of radio broadcasts that I hope one day to write or produce. It’s well worth a listen.

Adam x

About Me.

What can I say about myself?

Am I Happy?

Am I Grumpy?

Am I Bashful?

Am I Dopey?

Am I one of the seven dwarfs?

No, I’m Adam. I am a twenty-something student with a devil may care view on life. I speak my mind and it sometimes leads me in to trouble, and has a random compulsion to make everything dirty and make jokes at the worst time. I find it hard to write something about myself in a light and positive way, I let my personality shine through to show what a kind, hyper active, charming man I am. Some people may hate me by the end of the first semester; other will love me for who I am and I’m never shy to be who I am. This Blog has been set as a project over the next year to help me find some creative outlet while I study a place I can note my thoughts and journal my ideas and views on what I have seen and heard over the days to come.

So come and join me in my crazy world, and meet all the crazy people I will meet along the way.

Adam x