Theorising Media

The main thing I took from this reading is how it may benefit me in my documentary making process, in finding ideas and choosing to persue them. There is an explanation in this reading about the benefits of voyeurism and looking into minority groups' stories, as you can give a platform for these people to get their message out there. The reason for documentaries with people in less fortunate positions being so necessary and needed is it gives those that wouldn't otherwise be able to speak out, the possibility to do so. Where we mostly see the news manipulate stories on them, we are able to get a truer depiction through voyeurism and looking into them. 

  What is the role of (media) surveillance in assertions of colonial authority? and/or authority more broadly? The idea of surveillance is to watch someone closely, usually when a crime is suspected of being taken place. Just as technology has evolved so has the use of surveillance.  There is a clear link between surveillance and authority, as those that control it and enforce it are always the ones in power. During colonialism there was a use of surveillance where the facts were twisted and misleading to harm or disadvantage certain groups. We can see a similarity with this in todays day and age. We see surveillance and footage in general of individuals be used and manipulated across the media, especially with some news stations, to present a certain message to the general public.  There is no better time to find examples for this then now, especially with what has happened in 2020 with not just COVID-19 but more so the BLM movement. With this we have benefits of media s...

 

  What are the implications and benefits of 'manifestos', lists of limitations or rules for creative practice generally including your own activities? A manifesto is a set of rules set out by an individual or group that have to be followed to be deemed part of that group. A famous film manifesto was the Dogme 95 film manifesto, within this there were rules set out to bring cinema to it's core values i.e focus on performance over special effects. This was a very famous film manifesto and could be deemed successful, but it definitely came with limitations as well as benefits. The main limitation of this manifesto and others similar to it, is it can put you in a box. With 5 - 10 rules all set for you to follow it can be hard to find some uniqueness within that manifesto as there can be little room for maneuver. It can also create an issue with the creatives themselves, as if they are focusing to stay within the criteria of the manifesto, they are not necessarily letting thei...

 

This here is a successful use of a montage sequence with the scene cutting from the boys reaction to two different people. In the first scene we see the women twirling her umbrella and smiling, and from this we see the reaction of the boy look concerned. At this moment we are unaware why his face is like this as there is nothing signifying to the audience that we should be concerned. But with the use of editing, we cut to the image of the limbless man waving, which gives some explanation to the viewer to possibly why he feels uncomfortable to wave. Later on we see the boy is somewhat forced to wave and this begins to create some questions for the viewer.  The most important thing to understand form this is with the use of a montage you have the possibility to lose geographical location and because of this the viewer has to question what the individual is looking at. This is a good tool to use in your work, as it allows for each viewer to have a different view of the scene. It is no...