Final Videos

These are the links below for the final videos.

Logo Branding Change

The original appearance of the image without enhancement of colours, I think it looks very flat and does not attract the audience.

Enhanced the richness of the colours by adding 'inner shadows' on each country.

The previous colours I experimented with in a previous post conveyed a mixture of messages depending on the audience's location in the world.

The colour blue in the western culture means trust and authority, peace and calming and depression depending on the product's context. Purple means royalty, wealth, fame and spirituality. 

In Africa, focusing on West Africa blue means supreme creator and represents love, purple also symbolises royalty and prosperity.

These meanings worked within the context of my project but then I was given the idea of using skin tones since Africa is home to various brown and black shades of skin tones.

I decided to keep the idea of a colour gradient and placed the lighter and darker brown shades where you would find it in the countries. Brown which is categorised as an earthy tone have positive meanings such as life and growth.

 In context I am conveying the diversity of the people in the Africa, but in Africa also symbolising life and earth.

I have thought about conveying the African theme in my interviews by using native prints as the backdrop in my videos. I think this makes the video stand out and grab the viewers attention.

I have also managed to change the prints as often as possible.

Below is the final appearance 'intro' to each of the interviews.

Below is more experimentation of what font to use in the video. I looked at fonts that were made for the context of Africa but I felt they were cliche and cartoony.

I wanted a font that expressed boldness, confidence and pride.

I chose to use Trajan as the font for the title in the intro video which I personally feel gets the message across.

Below I was experimenting with different font colours, simultaneously keeping in mind the symbolism involved, and I experimented with placing the Africa map in different positions.

Liverpool Slavery Museum

My photos taken at the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, England

I visited the Liverpool's International Slavery museum as part of my research for context of practice 3.
The museum located in Merseyside Maritime Museum, was an insightful visit. I have been to previous slavery museums though their exhibitions were focused on slavery in the Americas, and the exhibitions at Liverpool featured interviews and work focusing on slavery in Britain.

The exhibition that stood out to me was the photography work of Alice Seeley Harris who after visiting Congo as missionaries, saw the brutal treatment of the natives by the King Leopold and his agents, initiating a human rights campaign.

The exhibition is showing from 24 January to 7 June 2015. (http://autograph-abp.co.uk/exhibitions/brutal-exposure)

http://www.thedoublenegative.co.uk/2014/02/exposing-the-congo/

Practical Artefact: Filming Interviews

When it came to filming the interviews for my practical I carried out lighting and camera tests because I had minimal knowledge of filming interviews. In addition I watched YouTube videos and read Representing Reality Issues and Concepts in Documentary by Bill Nichols. Nichols explains thoroughly the different types of documentaries and how these are usually filmed.

It helped me consider how other types of documentaries to know what would best get my messages across.

                       


When filming the practical, I chose locations where there were large rooms that would give me enough space to set up the lights, camera and backdrop stand, like the image below of a location in Norwich I used.

The Garage, Norwich, Norfolk

With each interview I did, I learnt how organise myself to maximise my time and the interviewee's. I calculated that I was able to set up in 30 minutes so when I arranged for times to shoot I could keep the whole interview to 2 hours maximum. This was a positive factor because people had work and other commitments, so being able to give an approximate time frame was helpful. In person and through emails,  contacting and communicating with people from different backgrounds and ages boosted my confidence and networking skills. It introduced me to people working on similar projects and industries so overall I made valuable contacts. 
Technically I studied how to setup DSLR cameras for filming in different environments so that I was prepared. It was not till after a few interviews that I invested in a Lapel microphone as I learnt that it would give me better sound quality as the microphone I attached to the camera was good quality but it also picked up much background noise.
Other lessons I learnt were:

1.     Make sure there is minimal to zero background noise in your environment so your microphone won’t pick it up because in this case, when interviewing someone, their speech needs to be clear as possible.

2.     Make sure the lighting on your set compliments your  subject natural and shadows are minimal unless required. Consider the colour of your background and how that may affect how the lights are set up. Each person depending on their skin tone, makeup and sometimes hair colour, you want to light them according to these factors as that will determine what you need to edit in post-production. 

3.     I learnt that I need to leave at least a ten second gap between each question so that when I edit the videos it is easier to mix and match different clips. I should also not respond with ‘hmm’ and ‘aahhh’ in the video while the subject is talking because it does affect the atmosphere in the interview when you watch it back in the editing process.

Literature Review on Books

These are some of the books that I felt affected the direction of research for my dissertation positively. After reading Bogle and Koven's evaluations on black films and black actors/actresses presence in Hollywood, I realised that I should change my focus to black people in British cinema and television because the research conducted on this topic were carried out in the early 2000s and an updated research would allow me to see if there had been any improvements made.

Jim Pines book featuring interviews by Black British actors, actresses, filmmakers and directors gave an information foundation of research to start looking into British cinema and television history. The primary accounts given by these artists illustrated how the media industry worked from the year 1936.

1. Toms coons mulattoes mammies and bucks by Donald Bogle


This book was the first to inform me of my research topic. It focuses on the history of black presence in American television and movies. The information is very much in depth with facts about the film industry and the actors and actresses working in it. Donald Bogle gives as much historical facts and opinions on how he felt the media industry was treating black people.  It was very helpful because it explained the main character tropes found in early films and still present today but remixed with multiple tropes to disguise the racial traits commonly used back in the day when black stars were hired in entertainment. There are explanations on character tropes such as black brute, the mammy, the coon, the tom and jester types, these tropes were created as a result of post-slavery ideology and view of the Africans. There is information about the rise of independent black films made by black filmmakers which helped portray a different view of the black life in America. The chapters talking about the emergence of black producers and directors is what helped form my research question, it created a curiosity about the amount of present black filmmakers and producers in the media industry today. I was intrigued to find out how over time whether the media industry is keen on producing more diverse content on television or if it follows the old rules from the early 1900s.

2. Blaxploitation films by Mikel J Koven 

I enjoyed reading this book, though it was a smaller review than Donald Bogle’s Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks. The book focuses on films that were released during the Blaxploitation era. He explains this era emerged when white-owned film companies wanted to capitalise on the black genre audience. It did not produce films that improved the black image but played into the stereotypical notions. Films such as Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss, Coffy, Shaft and Superfly became iconic films of that era in black culture.  Koven explains the storylines of each Blaxploitation film and gives his verdict on whether it is well written, constructed film. He showed the common theme between these movies was the style they were shot and made. Most films were shot in a documentary style, as if they were giving an insight into the daily lives of black Americans. The films came with very popular soundtracks that have become classic songs in history. Through this film, white audiences learned of jazz, rock and hip-hop that the black communities would entertain themselves to. Though most films were violent and over sexualized their characters, especially the female characters such as Pam Grier.  Since my research went onto focusing on television and documentary shows, I am not using this book currently as part of my research. However, reading it informed me of what has been researched in the past, and it was an important book to know and understand the history behind the Blaxploitation era, it helped to push me in my current direction of research.

3.  Media & Minorities: The Politics of Race in News and Entertainment by Stephanie Greco Larson


A book I purchased myself, which I found very useful later on. This book is very large with a lot of information and facts. It talks about minority races in America, such as Mexicans, Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans and Asian American.
There are more races identified but that was to outline the main chapters.
I focused on the chapters discussing African Americans on the politics of race in news and entertainment. It is still broad on this topic, Larson talks about stereotyping in entertainment media and how these stereotypes, mostly negative are exercised to justify white control and authority.  Larson discusses how the media plays into the reality of society, repetitive patterns seen in media start to influence and justify our perceptions of reality, this works unconscious and consciously. Though it focuses mostly on African Americans, and minorities in America, it did highlight similar issues that British Africans face and how racism in media occurs.
‘…filmmakers assume that their black character does not need cultural references (other than occasional jokes about race) or a semblance of a black community to anchor her.’ (Larson, Pg. 24, 2005)

This book is useful because the information it holds on African Americans, as I have mentioned is similar to British Africans so this does not render it useless in my bibliography. It does not talk about post colonialism theory however; it talks about racism theory and ideology briefly in the media.


4. African Images: Racism and The End of Anthropology by Peter Rigby

This book raised topics such as scientific racism and the study of race anthropology. Anthropology is the study of humankind, so with this book focusing on racial ideas was very useful as part of my theory research.
The language and style of the book was highly academic so it was hard at first to grasp the context of the chapters.

In the theory of racism, Rigby highlights the connection of racism to capitalism. It states that it is an internal component in the human race.










5. Black and white in colour black people in British television since 1936 by Jim Pines


This interview-written book was very informative since I did not know much about black actors and actresses working in the entertainment and media industry.
It features interviews with black entertainers that went on to work in theatre, shows and televisions.
I found that many of these entertainers originated from the West Indies, after decolonisation, many came to work.
The book is written in a specific timeframe to understand how each actor/actresses presence influenced the new comers and their career paths. Through the fight of trying to get work in theatre and television, organisations were set up by some of these entertainers to provide future people who came from Africa and Asia a place to stay, settle in and find work. Slowly, it made a statement that more Asian and African people should be given more roles regardless of their race and be able to perform in a variety of dramas, instead of mainly comedy genres.
The actors and actresses talked about their lives and how they entered the media industry and most importantly ended with their thoughts on how the industry is currently in the 21^st century.  The focus on Britain and the migration of many Africans has informed me of the post-colonial consequences that Britain faced.
The book is a well written document of the racist encounters some of these performers faced and how directors during that 20^th century treated black artists. This gives me a timeframe to discuss and compare it to today.

 

Interview Questions

These are the questions to ask for the interview, they are subject to change because I still have to check the way it is phrased to make it clear and concise.

Intro Questions

• What is your name?
• Where were you born?
• What is your ethnicity?

Personal Questions

• What are your personal experiences with how people treat you based on TV presentations?

General Questions

•  Is there a stereotype of your race that is false?
•  How do you view yourself in society?
•  Does the media represent you in TV and movies?
•  How do you see yourself culturally and politically?
•  Is there still a preference of light skin over dark skin people?
•  Why do you think these feelings exist towards light skin/dark skin people?

This is the updated version of questions.

What is your name?

Place of birth?

What is your ethnicity?

How do you view yourself in society?

Do you feel your identity, as a person is an important factor when you are represented in the media?

Do you feel this view is common among Africans in the diaspora or generally in African countries?

Do you know the culture of your parents and grandparents?

What stereotypes do you think are associated with black people in the media and society?

Do you think these stereotypes originated from slave trade or pre-slavery?

Are these positive or negative stereotypes?

Is Britain’s black culture heavily influenced by American black culture or has it taken its own form based on Britain’s history?

Do you feel that racism still exists in contemporary media? i.e. television, YouTube

Any positive advances you feel have been made in representing black presence in contemporary media in Britain?

Are you aware of the web-series hosted on YouTube produced by black people with the majority of the cast black?

What do you think of this new creation of web audiences and how does this affect the big media corporations?

Is there still an existing preference of light skin over dark skin people?

Why do you feel this exists?

What changes do you want to see in the media representation of black people?