Sunday, March 13, 2011

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Magazine Double Page Spread


Yes it's hard to read the text, but if you go to the post below it shows you exactly what it says!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Magazine Review

FIRST PAGE:
There is no hiding from serious issues this week with a documentary about body issues, mainly anorexia. Documentaries do all seem to be about teenagers nowadays, but it’s educating for parents, teachers, younger children and obviously teenagers themselves. Concentrating mainly of 15 year old Lucy Smith, this documentary educates through the use of statistics, stand up comedians, interviews, anorexia tv awareness adverts and lots more. This documentary concentrates mainly on the female side of anorexia but still talks to boys that are not confident with their bodies.

A review from Tom Palmer, 18, said ‘I was actually very apprehensive before watching this because I think the whole subject around anorexia is very graphic and emotional but throughout the documentary I was totally engrossed by the way that it approached the subject.’


No one is supposed to ‘enjoy’ this documentary because a serious illness, like anorexia is not supposed to be enjoyed. But just because it won’t be enjoyed, why should you not watch it? You’re showing interest and support in the subject. This means a lot to people. It’s good to have a little cry at TV, yes it can be embarrassing but atleast this isn’t crying and some drama that isn’t real. This is a real life documentary that is supposed to attract your attention, concern you and educate you.

Will you give it a go, learn something? Or are you going to carry on ignoring serious issues in the world?


Three interesting facts about
anorexia:
1. Some anorexics wear a red bracelet to help other anorexics identify them, sort of like how people will wear a certain color a certain day
2.Anorexics personify their disorder, calling it 'Ana'. This style means they can talk while in public minus sounding suspicious.
3.Anorexics grow lanuga, a furlike covering, on their body which help store heat that they lose.

How is it identified?
Body weight is maintained at least 15% below that expected for a person's height. It is self-induced weight loss caused by avoiding fattening foods and may involve taking excessive exercise, using laxatives or self-induced vomiting. Those suffering from anorexia pursue a very low 'ideal' weight.

SECOND PAGE:

As was mentioned earlier, Lucy Smith, 16, is the person that is mostly concentrated on in this documentary. As the documentay was filmed a year ago now, we have interviewed Lucy again to see how she is doing now.
Are you happy that you will be starring on TV?
Yes I am, because I can look back at it and feel proud that I am now better. Also, I might be famous! Ha!
You said you’re proud of yourself. Do you think all your friends and family are also proud?
Well I do hope so, it took me long enough to get better! But I am sure they are, it would be  weird if they weren’t because I can’t imagine anyone wanting somebody to be anorexia, it’s a horrible thing to wish on somebody.
Is there anything you feel uncomfortable about being shown on the documentary?
Yes! I hate the picture that they show (not going to spoil anything!) I look so ill, I’m glad I’m not like that anymore. I guess it will hopefully raise awareness to people as it is so shocking!
Would you advise people to watch the documentary?
Of course I would. It will really educate people, and it will be good to have more people educated on the illness because it will help people understand what it is like for anorexics.
What are you doing now? What are your future plans?
I have recently started sixth form, I am retaking a few of my GCSE’s and then I plan to do Alevels. I hope to go to university in a few years time.
Are you worried about the illness coming back and distracting you from your education again?
Yes of course I am worried because it is a mental disorder that could reoccur at any time. But I have so much support and I am trying to leave it in the past. So fingers crossed, I hope it doesm’t as I want to get on with my life and have a good career!

Extract

Just to confirm to you all that the documentary that I have created is the opening extract to a documentary. To make sure people know that this is true I have added a Channel 4 logo in at the end to show that it is about to go to advert break. The reason I did this was to make sure it was clear to people that it had finished and I hadn't ran out of things to do. Posting my extract onto Facebook made me aware that it is important to finish it off with an advert break because many of the criticisms were that it didn't finish with a conclusion or it finished to sudden. Me saying that it is an extract to people still makes them think it finished to sudden, this is therefore why I added in the Channel 4 logo to also confirm the ending of my extract.

Audience Feedback from Facebook

I created an event on Facebook that asked people to give me feedback about what they thought of my documentary. I thought that this would be a good idea because I am asking lots of different people about what they think and it also gives me an idea of what things need to be improved. Here are the responses that I recieved:

Stevie Chambers - "I like the visual effects that you use and that you spoke to young people, as well as displaying the popular media influence that is almost unavoidable to us in western society.
The facts and figures at the start were quite hard to keep up with.
The interview with the young lady who had suffered anorexia was very good and brought all the facts to life.
Overall I thought it was clear, thought provoking and interesting."

Paige Phillips - "just watched the video, it was really good... i didn't realise that it effected more girls then boys which is quite interesting! but yeah was really good, well done :) xx"

Dan Knights - "Great it's an excellent idea to get audience response.
On a hole the video is good, well done. As I have said before I liked the intro and getting the statistics out there at the start and a vox pop, will certainly affect the audience in the way you would want.Ther are two points where the background music builds up, before the two interviews and it suddenly stops. Maybe having a fade out into the next shot or fade out before the next shot would help this."

Alice Bowen - "hello i just watched your documentary! i think it was pretty good! i love the fact you interviewed people and asked what they thought, i love how you included parts from tv shows i would be happy to sit and watch this on tv :) x"

Sam Smith - "Heyy watched your video, is gooood :) I never did media or anything...but thought that upside down writing thing was sick! dunno why, maybe cos it's ironic cos you're talking about perfection. Only thing I thought could be a bit better is the interview with that girl, seemed a bit like the girl was reading off a script..which she probably was but didn't seem that genuine. But then the other interview is better. Other than that it looks pretty professional :) and song choices are sweeet. Hope it helpss...xx"

Lee Cooper - "Its good, my only criticism is the harsh cuts you have used to go from one clip to the next. I would recommend some very short fade transitions in between some of the clips as this would make it run smoother. other that that it is a very good documentary which is easy to watch and very informative. I like the use of different TV clips to show how the modern world sees/responds diet problems."

Luke Roper - "i thought it was very good the little Britain part was a bit weird though rest was very well done"

Esther Squires - "well done ,very informative,tv clips were good,music brilliant,there was only one thing and that was a song near the end drowned out the voice of the narrator but nothing major,very impressive lydia.x"

Stacey Boast - "lydia i have watched your documentry and thought it is very good ! your interviewing was very good as you interviewed a range of people from the person suffering to people who look on as friends and people who can help deal with the illness. also the huge presure that the media put on young girls to look skinny . i was really skinny when i was young and everyone use to tease me but now its suppose to be ok to look skinny. its not healthy and dosent look nice! hope this helps and good luck xxx"

Shannon North - "I thought it was really good; professional, informative. The only thing I would say is that it could have done with a conclusion to wrap it all up, like what you thought was the cause of anorexia? If you think it would get better/worse? Is there enough help offered for people with it? ect. But other than that it was really good :) xxx"

Georgia Ray - "kate nash, skeleton song (i think it is?) is abit load compared to the narrative."

Amy Patterson - "Its really good.. would just recommend lowering the volume of one of the songs, and maybe smooth things out a little bit. but really good and very interesting to learn about :)"

David Bunn - "Not bad, good variation of clips, sound possibly needs a tune up but my speakers on the laptop are bad"

Melissa Bartram - "i found your use of technique really clever and the subject was interesting for me as a young person, but there was a lot of facts and not as many opinions as i would have liked to have seen, other than that well done! :)"

Sarah Durey - "wow its really gud.very clever and creative way of doing it. and you got all the information into it that it needed whilst using nowaday clips off tv from lil brit and ricky gervais.well done babe xx ur uncle david was very impressed and can not believe how gud tht is"

Sharna Wright - "Hey lydia, really liked your documentary :) espec the way you wrote/laid out words on paper. Also liked your use of tv clips and the music really suited the film. All I would say is i thought there may too many percentage facts in a row to take them all in. Also, the girl who had anorexia answers sounded a little over-rehearsed, the psychiatrists sounded more natural although it’s probably down to her being older and more relaxed, but overall I thought it was creative and informative. Hope this has helped a tad!"

Danielle Gosling - "It was good Lyd! :) but I found it a bit jumpy at the start of the 'beautiful' bit. Not sure if it was my laptop or not though. Also at the beginning I think you can see you picking up a pen lid or something?"

Sandra Jamieson - "it was very good"

Elaine Humpleby - "hi lydia - i think that there is evidence of a huge amount of work here, you manage the balance between interviews and fact well and the accompanying soundtrack work well at communicating emotion to the audience. some bits are original/fantastic including the innovative use of cut-out letter, handwriting and paper tearing - it will really appeal to the TA. the weakest but is the very end - we can talk about sorting that in the lesson on thursday - but have a think about strong conventional/unconventional ways to end 
the film"

Surria Harley - "Hi Lydia..watched yr documentary, great job. Good interview questions and facts. Also good choice of clips and music. Only thing i would add, might be nice to finish with a summary/conclusion, maybe with yourself on camera explaining what yr views are and how you found the experience? Just a thought but other than that well done.."