It's a Woman's World'.

Islamophobia

Directed and produced by: Tanya Loi and Naziya Ali

Starring : Naziya Ali

Documentary, 2007, 8M 34S

www.i-islamophobia.blogspot.com

Have you been unjustly treated due to your religious beliefs? Have you or your culture been labelled as religious fanatics?

Enigmatically named Islamophobia is a controversial documentary exploring why there is such an irrational fear towards Islam, and the way Muslims are being victimised and misrepresented in our society, such as in the Media. The documentary informs and educates the audience but at the same time puts forward an argument for example against Media institutions that help initiate Islamophobic feeling. Islamophobia follows, through the use of a hand held camera, a young British Muslim- Naziya Ali who investigates a number of intriguing factors like the origins of Islamophobia through the uses of archive footage, captivating interviews, attention grabbing vox pops and Montage Sequences.

The use of contrapuntal and parallel music, editing, and the range of cinematography consisting from Pans and tilts to close ups gives Islamophobia a real sense of sophistication and at the same time engages the audience to the argument pursued by the everyman persona Naziya Ali.

Islamophobia challenges Todorov’s theory, by not having a new equilibrium which reflects that Islamophobia is an on going theme in the media today .The last emotive speech by Naziya Ali, leaves the audience feeling genuinely empowered.

Interesting Facts !!!

One of the most annoying things that happened to us was when our laptop crashed, this was when we nearly completed the whole of Islamophobia, and this meant that there was a possibility that all our work had got deleted. As a result we had to start the editing process all over again. Luckily though the Laptop got fixed and our work was still saved. What a relief!

Xx By Tanya xX

Director: Naziya Ali and Tanya Loi
Starring: Naziya Ali

Documentary, 8 mintutes and 34 seconds

XxNaziyaXx

Interesting Facts! XxNaziyaXx

While editing Islamophobia, we had edited 8 minutes worth of the documentary we were almost finished as the deadline was 2 weeks away. The next thing I know is that the laptop had crashed on us! We then started to edit in school, and were panicking that we would not get it done on time. However, my laptop came home safely and all of our work was on there! So I would advice you people to save your work on a hard drive as a back up copy.

While filming outside the Mosque, me and Tanya had got ambushed by a load of people, we must have had 20 people all around us! It was really scary at the time but when I think about it know it is quiet funny.

My overview!! XxNaziyaXx

Ever wondered why Muslims are being demonized in today’s society? Do you think Muslims should be blamed for the terrorist attacks that have occurred? Well watch Islamaphobia and find out the true identity of Muslims.

Islamophobia is a controversial documentary that depicts the life of the protagonist (Naziya Ali) living her life as a young British Muslim Asian. By using various types of camera shots from high angle shots to close ups we portray the emotions of the protagonist, in order for the target audience to identify with.

Moreover, by using a catchy montage at the beginning of the documentary with Parallel music at the back, it grabs the attention of the target audience and makes them focus on what they are watching. Also we had used a black screen in our documentary, the reason for this being is because we wanted to create enigma for the audience, this is following Bathes enigma theory. We had decided to have myself as the voiceover, as the narrative is from my point of view, we had thought we would do something very similar to Michael Moore, like he had done in Bowling for Columbine, as he had starred in the documentary. The use of having my voiceover was so that it manipulates the audience, and that makes the audience identify with the protagonist.

Overall, Islamophobia is a very confrontive issue that challenges people’s stereotype. It educates and informs the target audience. So get ready to see and hear the truth about the real identity of Muslims.

Practical Production Evaluation- ‘Islamophobia’ Naziya


For my practical production, myself and Tanya produced a controversial documentary called ‘Islamophobia’. I feel it is a very educating and informing documentary which depicts a life of a young Asian British Muslim aged 17 that lives her life in Britain with two racial identities embedded within herself, British Muslim. We both felt that the perfect name for this documentary should be called ‘Islamophobia’; the reason why we have named it controversial is due to the negative portrayal of Muslims within the media. The title fits well with both our primary and secondary audience and shows how Muslims are demonised in today’ society through differential mediums of media such as film, T.V, and so on.

Furthermore we decide to work as a team, and thus collaborate with each other. We thought this would be the best idea, as we both will have an equal chance in seeing each other’s strength and weaknesses, and we would counteract with each other. During the filming procedure, I had the camera, which therefore provided me the chance to explore, and be creative with the camera; I had also improvised some of the shots as I went along, it was useful to me, as I gave Tanya the feedback, some shots were 360 shots and tilt shot.

One of our main strength was the filming, the reason for being this is because we had used many techniques during our vox pop, such as close up shots, and we had also used the tripod very steadily and we were very creative with it. close ups were effective as it gave an insight into the public thought and a clearer facial expression. However the editing process was really stressful for us both, as we were editing at my house, it would be really hard for Tanya to come to my house due to renovation , and at many point Tanya would not co-operate with me. In addition to this, we struggled a little with our narrative in the beginning, eventually we got there at the end. My contribution to the production was equal to Tanya, as it remained the same and I was on track at all times.

Our documentary begins with a catchy montage sequence that shows the well influential people in the world, for example George Bush, Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair and so on. We anchored the montage sequence with continuous additive dissolve in order to make it look dramatic and eye catching to the target audience. Nevertheless, to make the montage sequence look effective we added in Scott Mathewes dream song, which was contrapuntal, and later the music faded in, and had dissolved in to dramatic and emotional pictures, such as twin towers collapsing, July 7th and Muslim women crying. The women in the end was placed there to show the effects upon the dominant males had on the passive and oppressed females, she is the end product of their needs.

In our production, we used many shots, in order to make our documentary as creative as possible, and also to convey messages across to the audience. And example being the shot of the mosque, is a tilt shot, coming down from the sky, the ideology behind this is that it shows the audience that god is above us, also it is seen as a high angle shot which conveys that god is superior and it makes the audience look up. Also we used ‘cinema verite’ footage in order to make out documentary look authentic and realistic as possible. While filming the public and asking them how they would define ‘Islamophobia’, we had asked a range of ethnicity and different ages. The whole point of this was to make sure that we are not being biased and making our documentary appealing to everyone. While filming or vox pop, we got a range of people from different locations such as Southall, Greenford and Uxbridge, and one vox pop was done in Urdu, in order to appeal to people. When it came to editing I had added in the sub-titles, as Tanya does not speak Urdu. Again the ideology behind this show that we are getting various views, and that today we are living in a multi cultural society, especially in London.

In Module 2, we studied ‘Bowling for Columbine’, which was a great benefit for both of us, as we had based our narrative similar to Michael Moore. The way Moore was seen in his documentary, we had done the same where I was seen in the documentary as the main protagonist, living my life in Britain. Again we should realism here, as I was seen in the documentary throughout, and my views were getting seen to, which again shows us being authentic and give a sense of realism, towards the audience. We also used non-diegetic and parallel music in our documentary, for example I was the narrator of the documentary, therefore audience, could identify with me, as well as adhering to Michael Moore’s documentary. Adding on to this, we went for the similar idea to Michael Moore using the sound track ‘What a wonderful world’ to conclude his documentary, we used the music Boluevard of Broken dreams, ‘ I walk the lonely roads’ to conclude the documentary and I’m walking off. This can be seen as ironic, as when that song is playing, you can see a lot of public near me, and therefore this shows that you may have a lot of people near you, yet be alone and have no friends. Hence, Islam could be a metaphor for this, despite being a growing religion in Britain, we are isolated and demonised.

In order to make our documentary realistic, and having Michael Moore’s style of narrative in mind, during the vox pop, I was seen in many of the shots, similar to Moore was depicted in ‘Bowling for Columbine’, the aim of this was so that we do not make our documentary looking biased, and that my views are getting cross to the audience.

During the montage, we added in an archive image of the twin towers collapsing, and a shot of the CNN news, and the shot was quiet shaky. Over here we can say that it shows realism and we are following Moore’s style. During the montage we added in Chris Cornell’s music If you take a life do you know what you would give’? We believe that this music assimilated well, as in the montage all what is being seen is the past drastic incidents that have taken place.

Islamophobia, will be shown on channel 4. The reason for showing it on channel 4 is because, it informs, educates and entertains the audience, and Islamophobia will hopefully do this, and challenge people’s stereotype.

Tanya Loi 12C
Practical Production Evaluation-‘Islamophobia’
For my practical production, I worked in a pair to produce a short documentary on ‘Islamophobia’. As the title suggests we explored what Islamophobia is, why there is such an irrational fear towards Islam, and the way Muslims are being misrepresented in our society, such as in the Media. We decided to call our documentary ‘Islamophobia’ as it creates enigma (Barthes) amongst our primary and secondary audience since this is a new term used in society today. This conveys that our documentary is dealing with current affairs, as ‘Islamophobia’ is consistently on the news. This ensures a larger audience, as ‘Islamophobia’ is attempting to ‘put forward an argument’ (Cook, 1985).

Prior to starting our practical production, we decided both group members would share the roles and responsibilities as this would be fairer and it would allow both group members to experience the different components that produce a documentary. This was unrealistic as we decided that Naziya Ali would be starring in the documentary as an everyman persona, to give a personal response like ‘Michael Moore’ in “Bowling For Columbine” (2002) and “Fahrenheit 9/11” (2004). Consequently I ended up doing more of the filming than expected. I contributed substantially to the group as I discussed my ideas, I made sure we were consistently on target, I did a great deal of editing and logging and I made sure that I kept meeting up at Naziyah’s house to edit, as she had the equipment. Additionally it was difficult meeting up with Naziya as she lived quite far, and there were other commitments she had.

Whilst editing we had a serious problem because our laptop crashed, which meant there was a possibility that our work got deleted. Therefore we restarted the editing process at school, as we didn’t save a back up copy of our production. Luckily, the lap top was repaired and our work was still on there, therefore we could continue the editing. But we learnt our lesson as after this incident we persistently saved our work on a removable hard drive.

The opening of ‘Islamophobia’ is made to look realistic as possible by using the ‘Channel 4’ ident. We broadcasted ‘Islamophobia’ on this terrestrial channel as it attracts a multicultural audience and its aim is to entertain and inform the public. During the ident there is a female voiceover, introducing ‘Islamophobia’ which would have traditionally been a Male. This illustrates that ‘Islamophobia’ is moving away from the patriarchal society; this can also be seen by the use of a female voiceover, a female protagonist and a female expert. We used similar conventions to “Fahrenheit 9/11” (2004) where the documentary begins and then the title comes up a short while later. ‘The enigma Code’ (Barthes) has been used in the opening, due to the use of a visual, mathematical like equation which allows for audience interpretation, this conveys ‘Islamophobia’ is challenging ‘The Hypodermic Needle Theory’. The opening equation also illustrates ‘visual juxtapositioning’, which is similar to “Man With A Movie Camera” (1929) which we studied in Module 2. For example ‘George Bush’ is seen as a villain (Props theory) and the woman crying is seen as being innocent, this also illustrates ‘Levi-Strauss’s’ ‘binary oppositions’. These elements can also be seen throughout the documentary to create more meaning. In the opening scene instrumental music by ‘Scott Matthews’ has been used, we have also music by Chris Cornell and Islamic prayers throughout the documentary. This connotes the theme of ‘East meets West’ which attracts a large multi-cultural audience.

We also linked ‘Islamophobia’ to “Man With A Movie Camera” (1929) directed by Dziga Vertov, as when the documentary begins the protagonist is going about her daily routine of reading the Quran and praying. Moreover we have a point of view shot of the Quran, to help the audience identify (The Uses and Gratifications Theory) with her. Furthermore we have parallel music of an Islamic prayer, which connotes that Muslims are not religious fanatics like the Media have portrayed them.

To illustrate the surroundings and to add authenticity of where we were filming, we included establishing pan shots of Greenford and then of Southall that effectively used the diegetic Sound of Asian music which represents the Asian culture and lifestyle that the protagonist lives. The Vox Pops were filmed using a hand-held camera to help convey realism like ‘Cinema Verite’; they were also mediated to show how ignorant the British public were about ‘Islamophobia’. In order to make our argument more believable, we decided to have an Urdu Vox pop to illustrate we are interviewing people from different cultures and backgrounds portraying we’re not biased.

To follow the argument further we decided to do a montage sequence like in “Bowling for Columbine” (2002) to reveal where Islamophobia originated from. To do this we used the expository mode of archive footage. The first scene we see is a news report of September 11th in colour to draw the audience in. The rest of the montage sequence is in Black and White to connote that these events have happened in the past, and so the audience can do something to tackle similar issues in the future. We used Chris Cornell’s song ‘You Know My Name’ that is seen as both parallel music (as the song talks about ‘taking a life’ which relates to the terrorist attacks) and contrapuntal music (as the song talks about people like George Bush and Abu Hamza as the ‘angels falling from the blinding heights’ which is seen as mocking).

We interviewed two experts on ‘Islamophobia’, as they are key characters in establishing facts. However their interviews were heavily mediated, this relates to Grierson, who stated that documentary is ‘The creative treatment of actuality’.

In conclusion Islamophobia does develop the audiences ‘knowledge of at least one situation or character’ (Rabiger) and it challenges the stereotype of Muslims. This can be seen through a range of factors like the ‘Categorical form’ that we’ve used e.g. interviews. We have also included ideological values such as multiculturalism, pro-Muslim values and antiracism. We got to the heart of the matter, in order to keep the interest of our primary target audience of teenagers 16 years onwards. ‘ Islamophobia’ was successful as it used and took into account many of the conventions of a documentary e.g. cinematography e.g. Pans and tilts, sound e.g. diegetic and non-diegetic , the mise-en-scene in Dr. Anshuman Mondal’s interview which makes him look knowledgeable etc. To improve ‘Islamophobia’ I would include a victim whose faced Islamophobic feeling to give a different prospective and I would retake a number of shots such as the interview with Dr Anshuman Mondal as he was slightly cut off the screen.

Word count: 1,113

IM SO HAPPPY!!!!

wow i really can't believe it that me and Tanya were the first ones to complete the production! trust me people ,we were way behind, as my laptop crashed on me. Both me and Tanya are soo happy with the end result! Inshallah we shud get a good grade on it!

such a relief! wohooooooooooooooo

XxNaziyaXx

Thursday 26th April...

Well we've got some really good news, we have FINALLY finished our practical production, what a relief! And we are really proud with the end result, even though it took us months to do, I hope our hard work has paid off :-)

Xx Tanya xX

Progress Report for 20th April...

On Tuesday we showed Mr Bush, the finished version of our practical production . We got some really helpful advice on the areas that need to be improved, changed or cut out as our documentary was approximately 12 minutes long, and therefore needed to be shorten. At the weekend we are hoping to do these improvements and hand in our final version of the production on Monday.

Xx Tanya Xx

Progress Report for 10th April ...

Well during the Easter holidays, I have continuosly been going around to Naziya's house to complete the documentary. The good news is we have finally finished the main bits of the documentary, however there are a couple of things that we still have to add to, for example our Montage sequence and then we're done.

During the Easter we have added things like the voice over, we've edited the two main interviews- so that they get to the point, a range of non-diegetic music has been added throughout the production, the end titles have been completed and we have also done some minor improvements to the documentary so that it flows properly.

Overall we are really happy with the end result, as 'Islamophobia' is both entertaining and informing but at the same time gets to the point, so that it doesn't bore the audience to death!

Next week me and Naziya are hoping to show either the Media Mentors or Mr Bush our final production as they haven't seen the up-to-date version, in order to give us further advice on what needs to be improved.

Xx By Tanya Xx

Progress report for 4ht April..

Tanya came to my house after we had collected the hard drive. We got down to work from 11-5.45! We worked really hard, and the good thing is that all the documentary is done, we just need to add in the voiceover. Me and Tanya also fixed a few bits in our documentary, for example we worked on the montage. Also we added in 2 of our experts.

The documentary looks really wicked now (mashallah), both me and Tanya are really proud of what we have done.

I went to Tanya's house the next day (5th April) and we recorded my voice, hopefully next week, we will add it in.

XxNaziyaXx

Good news...

During my English revision class, my sister gave me a call, and gave me the world's most happiest news, I GOT MY LAPTOP BACK WITH MY DOCUMENTARY ON IT! i was so happy, i told Tanya that there is no point of editing in school, as we have got the latest version at my house.

So tomorrow (wed 4Th April) me and Tanya are going to come in school, collect the hard drive ant finish off the last 3 mins of our documentary.

XxNaziyaXx

Progress Report for 4th April...

Well we have got some really good news as we got the laptop back from 'HP' and our documentary is still on there, so we still only have 3 minutes to do. Thank god we may finish on time after all. This morning I'm going back to Naziyah's house to try and complete the last three minutes of our production.

We've learnt a lesson which is to always save a back up copy!!!!

Also tomorrow 'Thursday', we have decided to re-shoot Reshma again as the victim, as we weren't happy with the filming.

As soon as we've completed the editing, we will start writing up our evaluation!

Xx By Tanya xX

Progress report for 30th March...

Today i came in to school at 9.00am. Me and Tanya decided to capture all of the footage again. As Tanya had to do her Art work, i quickly captured all the footage again. It took me 1 hour and 30 mins. I was pleased with what i had done, and sowas Tanya.

Today 2nd April, me and Tanya started to edit! Things are going ok, not to bad! I just hope we do well, and get our thing done!

XxNaziyaXx

THINGS ARE GOING BAD!...

Last Tuesday, things were going wicked! me and Tanya had all the work going on good. I was just about to save my work on the hard drive to show Mr.Bush it, and when i turned my laptop on, THE SCREEN WAS ALL BLACK AND I COULD HEAR THE ICONS LOADING UP! so my sister rang up HP and they said they will have it fixed within 8-10 days. So i told Tanya that, there is no point waiten for my laptop to come back with the documentary on it, so we deiced to do it all over again.

Xx Naziya Xx

Progress Report for 1st April...

So far as we have to start the editing process again we have captured all the footage and we are now in the process of editing the beginning of the documentary. The good thing about editing the second time around is that we are much quicker than when we did the editing the first time round. For example something that took us 4 hours to do now takes us half the time.

Xx By Tanya xX

Disaster!!!
Last Tuesday we was just about to save our documentary on a hard drive, in order to show Mr Bush and the Media Mentors what we've been up to and then all of a sudden the computer crashed on us. Which may have resulted in us losing our whole documentary. We have sent the lap top off to HP, who have told us that they would take between 8-10days to fix, so we thought that to be on the safe side we should start the editing process all over again. Me and Naziyah were really upset as we only had three minutes left to edit and then we would have finished, and now we have to start all over again!!!

Xx By Tanya xX

Progress report for 24th March...

Today Tanya came to my house at 10.00am. We both were down to work (as usual). I showed her what I had done, because I thought it wouldn't be fare if i don't show her, as we both need to co-operate. However, Tanya was happy with what I had done, and she did make some minor improvements on what I did for example she changed the sub title font size, which i thought was a good idea.

The good news is that both me and Tanya are really happy as we have got half of our documentary done, and we had done the Montage! Alhumdulilah it looks WICKED! Tanya and me worked really hard on the montage. But it never took us that long. We got around 2 mins of our first expert and it looked really good. Overall, we need to add in some more stuff, like other experts! Inshallah i have full faith, we will do good and i know it will be done on time. Inshallah!

XxNaziyaXx

Progress report for 21st March...

Yesterday (20th March) me and Tanya went to the Media mentors to show them a rough copy of our documentary. However, it did not work because I never saved it on a Avi file ( I think that's what it is called). Mr.Baboo then gave me a drive to save our documentary on. I saved it and it was all good. The next day (21st March) i came in school at 8.15 to show Ramneet the footage, it worked at she LOVED the beginning. Mr Bush also saw some of it and thought it was good. Ramneet, then gave me feedback, and i met Tanya that day and I told her about it.

So when we got home, we both were down to work. We added in some more stuff in our documentary like Ramneet had suggested us. After that, Tanya had to go home, however i edited and i was ENJOYING MY SELF. It was FUN, because I was really in to it. I added in some sub titles and i sorted out our first opening.

I was really happy, with the work i had done, and with the work Tanya had also done to. We both were ON THE ROLL!

Xx Naziya Xx

Progress Report for 24th March... Xx By Tanya xX

On Saturday I went around again to Naziya's house to continue our editing. I was quite pleased due to us completing the editing for the 7 minutes of our documentary. However we still got a long way to go as we still have to add the two experts into the documentary and do things such as the final credits etc. Additionally there are still a few areas of the documentary that we've completed that need to be fixed up still.

Therefore we have completed the editing for the beginning of the documentary, the vox pops , the montage sequence and now we are beginning to include our experts.

one of the things that me and Naziya were really proud of was our 'montage sequence' as it has worked out really well , which is better than we thought it would be !

Progress Report for 21nd March... Xx By Tanya xX

Yesterday we met up with the Media Mentors and gave them a rough cut of the editing we have done so far for 'Islamophobia'. They gave us some good feedback which helped us to improve our production further. We took the Mentors advice and improved sections of the documentary for example the vox pops. Today (Thursday) after school we are hoping to meet up again to continue to edit and to improve parts of the documentary.

Progress report for 18th March...

Tanya came to my house like about 10ish. We both got down to work and started to edit immediately. we both were happy that we had done quiet a bit, as we got ALL OF OUR BEST VOX POP in our documentary. We improved our opening sequence a bit such as we added in effects and make a few adjustments. However we still have not edited the rest of our footage, as we will be showing the mentors it tomorrow and getting feedback.

Overall, both me and Tanya are happy with what we have done, as we have got roughly 5 mins done, but we still are worried as to how long we want our documentary to be. As we do not want to bore the audience. Alhumdulilah the opening sequence IS WICKED AND SO ARE MY PICS! :p THAT WHAT I REALLY LIKE ABOUT OUR DOCUMENTARY. It looks really eye catching. Inshallah we should edit this week, and get it done ASAP.

XxNaziyaXx

Self Evaluation

• Attainment- I would say that I'm a very hard working person, as i really enjoy media studies. For this i would rate myself as a 2, as I believe that i work really hard and put in a lot of effort.
• Effort- For this I would give myself a 1. I work really hard in the lessons and at home, and i make sure that i have done all the work to my potential.
• Punctuality- I'm always on time to my lesson, i never come in late and i always come organised. so I would give my self a 1
• Submission and quality of work- I would give myself a 2. I put in a lot of effort in my work, and i make sure that my work looks neat and organised so that the teachers can read it well.
• Quality of writing- For this i would give my self a 2/3. I think my writing is not to bad, its average.
• Organisation of my Media folder- Again i would give myself a 1. I always bring in my folder to every lesson, and I divide my work up, so that it is easy for me to revise from.
• Oral contribution to the class- I'm a bit shy to answer questions in the class, however i do get involved, and listen to what others have to say. I would give my self a 3.
• Quality of coursework- THIS WOULD BE A 1 FOR SURE! I have worked really hard on my coursework, i researched quiet a bit and have looked at different materials.
• Standard of Module 3- Again would b a 1, i worked really hard, and i put in alot of effort.

1. improve my writing skills (the way i write essays)
2. Contribute more in class discussions.
3. look at past papers.

Xx Naziya Xx

Progress Report for Sunday 18th March... Xx By Tanya xX

On Sunday morning I went again to Naziya's house to continue our editing, it took us approximately 4 hours again to get down what we planned to do. However I do feel that we are making good progress, due to the fact that we are getting used to using Adobe and therefore we are editing a bit quicker than we did on our first session .

So far we have sort of perfected the beginning of the documentary with a catchy opening, however there are still minor adjustments we have to make. We also sequenced the best vox pops from Greenford, Southall and Uxbridge together and the shots of Greenford and Southall. However we still have to add some effects to this bit of the documentary to make it run more smoothly. Additionally we put together a few shots of Naziya growing up at the beginning of the documentary, to sort of introduce her to the audience.

Altogether we did about five minutes of the documentary which excludes our experts etc. But me and Naziya are quite worried about this as we think that the documentary is going to be longer than we originally wanted it to be.

We have also decided to meet up today (Monday) after school, to put together our Montage sequence, but also to improve sections of the documentary.

Evaluation...

1. Attainment (1): On the Media course I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge since last September. I have also learnt a great deal more about Documentary since we've began our practical production.

2. Effort (1): I feel that I put a lot of effort into my work whether it's classwork or homework ensuring that what ever task we are given that I do it to the best of my ability.

3. Punctuality (1): I always make sure that I arrive to and attend all my Media lessons whenever I can.

4. Submission and quality of homework (2): I complete my homework on time and ensure that I have done what the tasks ask of me at the best of my ability.

5. Ability to work independently (1): I think that I work well independently for example doing research etc as I know what my individual goals are and so try to work towards them.

6. Quality of writing (2): I feel that since September 2006 my quality of writing has improved slightly, for example when I'm writing essays.

7. Organisation of Media folder (2): I think that my Media folder at home and at school are quite organised as I've split them up in topics for the different things that we are studying . So that my work would be easier to revise from when it comes down to doing our AS exams.

8. Oral contributions in class (3): I could contribute more in class e.g. such as my views etc, by not being so shy.

9. Comments and contributions to the Macguffin Blog (2): Since creating a blog for our practical production, I have been using the blog a great deal more than I ever used to, for example for logging and updating our blog, as well as looking at other blogs produced by students in our year.

10. Contribution to the group practical production (1): I feel that I have contributed a great deal to the practical production in a number of aspects such as researching, doing write ups for the blog and generally making sure that our group is on top of everything for example the editing etc.

Three targets/ areas for improvement over the next half term:

1. To keep up-to-date with the Practical Production.
2. To revise for the Media AS exams.
3. To contribute more in class lessons.

Xx By Tanya xX

Progress Report for 10th March...

Yesterday, Tanya came to my house at EXACTLY 10.30 that was the time we had planned to meet. We got straight down to work, as we knew editing will take long. First we uploaded the footage's from the CD Mr.Baboo put in for us, onto Adobe Premier. It was GREAT fun Editing! (yh right) It took us quite long to edit, as me and Tanya are not to familiar with Adobe. However, we both are very pleased with the editing we have done so far! Alhumdulilah it looks great so far! Inshallah it should turn out all right at the end.

Xx Naziya Xx

Progress Report for 10th March...

Early in the morning I went to Naziya's house to start editing 'Islamophobia'. We started by downloading some of the images/videos that Mr Baboo burnt onto a CD for us and then we up loaded them on to Adobe Premier. Soon after we used these images to help us sequence the beginning of the documentary together. It took us a long time to sequence the first couple of minutes together, as we weren't very familiar with the Adobe programme. Hopefully next week we will continue where we left from.

xX Tanya xX

Progress Report for 3rd March...

Today Tanya came to my house at about 10.00am, i woke up a bit late like about 9.30ish but that is not important! Today me and Tanya captured all of our footage from both the tapes on to Adobe Premier 1.5, it took us roughly about two hours to do, this was because most of out footage's were quiet long.

Overall, we both are very pleased that we captured all of our footage onto Adobe. Moreover, me and Tanya were EXPERIMENTING how to edit footage's it was GREAT FUN! Inshallah next week we will start to edit 'Islamophobia'.

XxNaziyaXx

Progress Report for 3rd March...

Today I went to Naziya's house early in the morning to start the editing process. We captured all of the footage from the camera to Adobe Premier 1.5 , it took us approximately two and a half hours to do. After we completed this we experimented with the different effects and had great fun , just so that we got used to using Adobe Premier.

Hopefully next weekend we will officially start editing 'Islamophobia'.

Xx TanyaXx

Week beginning 26th February... Xx By Tanya xX

This week me and Naziya are hoping to complete downloading some archive footage for 'Islamophobia' for things such as the montage sequence etc. As soon as we have completed downloading videos and images, we are hoping to make a start on the editing process.

Progress Report for week comencing 19th Febraury...

We have been working really hard over the week, we have interviewed both our experts which is a good thing as we have got things out of the way. Also we have completed our log sheets which is great, as it was soo long and i was tired.

Today i filmed some photos of myself, which was great, because half the photos i saw were really amazing, ( I WAS REALLY CUTE WHEN I WAS YOUNG =D)

All the filming is complete, however there is 2 more shots that i need to get,which i could not get over the half term due to some problems.



Overall, now i have interviewed my sister, and ALL I MEAN ALL the filming is now done!n I'm so happy, inshallah this week and over the weekends we will start to edit. At the bottom i have put some images of myself and Tanya filming over the half term.

These pictures were taken out while we were filming! We had a great time overall. Oh yeh and don't Tanya look so cute in a Hijab??

Xx Naziya XX

Progress report week beginning 19th February... Xx By TanyaXx

This week we filmed our main expert Anshuman , (who is in the process of writing a book about young British Muslims) . we also re-took a number of shots for example outside the Mosque, due to the fact that we were unhappy with the shots we took previously and so therefore wanted to improve them. We also visited Uxbridge to do our last set of Vox Pops.

Additionally we went to Naziya's local Mosque and filmed a number of scenes such as children reading the Quran . However we had a bit of trouble due to the scholar not wanting to answer the questions we wrote as it mentioned things such as 'Terrorism'. So instead we decided to ask some of the young teenagers who were being taught the Quran the questions.

Hopefully when we come back me and Naziya will start our editing :-)

Progress report for week beginning 12th February... Xx By Tanya xX

Well last week we started by downloading a range of footage for our montage sequence at school. However we still haven't fully completed this, so therefore me and Naziya have decided that we will complete downloading the footage when we come back after half term. We also have made appointments this week to visit Anshuman and the scholar over half term, to get their views towards 'Islamophobia'.

Tanya

Yeah Anshuman Emailed me...

I'm so happy, Anshuman emailed me back and said he will be happy to be interviewed on Tuesday at 11.00 as he does not be in the office on Mondays! Yes i can't wait to get his view towards Islamophobia! BRAPPP BRAPPPPPPPP

Xx NaziyaXx

I Emailed Anshuman today... (Book Author)

Today i asked my sister to give me Anshumans add, so that i can arrange a time to interview him. I emailed him, saying will Monday be fine. Lets see if he will get back to me or not.

Xx NaziyaXx

Progress Report for week commencing 19th February...

1. Inshallah (hopefully) we will visit Anushuman (author) and Scholar to interview them for our documentary 'Islamophobia'.
2. I (Naziya) have decided NOT to go to East London to interview the Muslim Community as my family suggest that it is a rough area to go to alone. However, I'm going to interview my Muslim friends and relatives, so that our documentary does not look bias.
3. Me and Tanya are planning to go to Ealing on Tuesday to get some more Vox Pox for 'Islamophobia'.

Xx NaziyaXx

Test Screening Feedback

Question 1.

• Media Language= Many people had given us a B
• Conventions= For the conventions people gave us a B
• Creativity= For this part once again people gave us a B
• Attention to detail= B
• Technical Proficiency= B

We had a lot of B's and a few A's here and there, but inshallah (hopefully) we will get there.

Positive Comments

• Cinematography- one of the positive comment people said here, was that we had excellent steady and pan shots! (That's because we used a Tripod) =)
• Mise En Scene- Over here many people said it was a good idea visiting Greenford & Southall, as they were well known places and had suited our purpose.
• Lighting- Many people said that our lighting was BRILLIANT, as we had taken many shots in the daylight and the result was good.
• Sound- The sound here was fine,as many people could here the background music, it was realistic.

XxNaziyaXx

'Blog Comments' XxNaziyaXx

1. What do you think of our blog?
What do you particularly like about it? What's especially impressive?
What could be improved? What's missing or could be added?

2. Based on what you've read on the blog (and maybe seen in test screenings in class) what suggestions do you have regarding what we could do to make our Practical Production really successful?

What other things could we include in the production?
How should we go about filming any remaining scenes or editing the footage during post-production (+ suggestions for music, etc.)?

Test Screening Feedback

Question 3: By Tanya

1. Cinematography- Here are some of the criticisms that we were fed back with for our Cinematography: Some people thought that the shots were zoomed in to much causing people's heads to be cut off on the frame,the camera was seen to be to close to the face and the camera was too shaky.
2. Mise-en-Scene- Here are some of the criticisms that we were fed back for the Mise-en-scene: Some people would like to see us film in a different location ,they would also like to see us film in a larger variety of places,to use a different pan shot of Southall, to film less on streets, to play with framing more often and not to film in locations where there are a lot of cars.
3. Lighting- Here are some of the criticisms that we were fed back for the lighting in our documentary: Apparently there were too many shadows on the faces of the people we were interviewing and we used to much natural lighting in the vox pops.
4. Sound- Here are some of the criticisms that we were fed back for the sound in our documentary:some of the scenes were quite noisy (due to the cars) according to people and therefore they suggested that we add more non-diegetic sound.
5. Conventions? matching audience? - we were suggested to interview a larger number of people that match our target audience, to give more factual information,and to add in our documentary more local areas.

Question 4: By Tanya

1. What else would you(or the target audience)like to see in this production? (Scenes? sequences?). Here are some of the things that people would like to see in our production:

• Archive Footage
• Interviewing a range of people of different genders, race, age and class.
• Shots for a montage sequence
• More from the presenter
• More facts
• Interviews from experts

2. Suggestions for post-production/editing(music?voiceover?cutaways?montage?cross cutting? titles? slo-mo?). Here are some of the suggestions people gave us for the post-production of 'Islamophobia':

• Voice over
• Contrapuntal Sound
• Use a Montage Sequence
• Show Newspaper articles
• Use music
• Interview people who don't speak English and include subtitles in production.

Saturday 10th February...

On Saturday me and Naziya did plan to go to East London to do some filming.However there were delays on many of the lines so we decided not too. Instead of wasting the day we came to a decision that we would continue our filming in Southall and Greenford.

We filmed one of the Mosques that Naziya goes to in Old Southall, Kings Road. But we had a number of problems for example we had soooo many people coming up to us giving us a hard time saying we shouldn't film the mosque etc, but luckily we had permission from the Scholar. As there was so many people interrupting us while we were filming at the Mosque, we had to keep retaking shoots and so it took longer than we expected.

After we filmed the Mosque we went down Southall Broadway to do a few more Vox Pops, but also to retake the shoot of Southall Broadway and too film the last bit of our documentary.

Soon After we went down to Greenford Broadway to do some more Vox Pops asking people whether they were Islamophobic or not, however we didn't really get too many views due to the fact that it was about 4:30pm and so there were not many people shopping.

Then when I got home I filmed the newspaper articles that we had collected from a range of newspapers, which we wanted to include in our documentary.

Xx Tanya xX

Second Day Of Filming...10Th February


WE GOT AMBUSHED...

Today me and Tanya decided rather then doing nothing, why not visit the local Masjid I go to and film the outside of it. So we both met outside school and caught the 120. We reached the masjid at about 12.50, we got permission from the lady scholar to see if it was okay to film, she said it was perfectly fine. Everything was going fine, till a load of people came up to me and Tanya and questioned us what we were up to, and to see if we got permission! God we were scared because there was not only 1 person that had come up to us they were about 10 AND THEY SURROUNDED US LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER!... But Alhumdulilah we got there finally at the end of it! That was really scary...



Here at the bottom are a few pictures of me and Tanya filming in Southall.










AWWW LOOK AT TANYA'S HAND, THEY ARE SO DRY!... THIS CLEARLY SHOW
EVERYONE HOW COLD WE BOTH WERE! Overall, we had a great time interviewing new people in Southall again! YH AND IT WAS GREAT GETTING AMBUSHED... :( :(

XxNaziyaXx

Plan's failed to visit East London and Central London :( :(

You can read it for yourself what happened!...

Live Travel News: PICCADILLY LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to an earlier signalling problem at Heathrow 123.CIRCLE LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to earlier faulty communication equipment.

Luckily i went to the London TFL to see what times we could have gone, and when I saw this i was very Disappointed! So Inshallah we will be visiting Central London and East London next week.. :( :( This is so sad!

XxNaziyaXx

Plan for Week Beginning 12th February...

1. Interview Book Author (Anshuman Mondal)
2. Visit the local Mosque, and interview the Scholar.
3. Film the Newspaper Articles.
4. Write storyboard in detail.
5. Interview my sister (Reshma or Farida) as they are both aware of the topic.

we are hoping to complete the following tasks as soon as possible.Inshallah

XxNaziya & xX TanyaXx

East London

In recent years East London has been on the British as well as the international news for a number of reasons, for example the Muslim riots etc. Furthermore me and Naziya have decided to go to East London because it is a heavily populated Muslim area and therefore we can include some of the views and issues expressed by some of the Muslim public about 'Islamophobia'.

Here are some of the useful links i have found to do with the East London area and the events that have taken place that have involved the Muslim community that live there:

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2327

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=127210

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5040022.stm

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article301015.ece

Xx By TanyaXx

Yh I Emailed Karimah Butt Dorwah...

This is the lady we found in Southall and had interviewed, she is a Art teacher somewhere up London, and has given both me and Tanya the chance to visit her and the mosque. She has already come on Channels before! This was a random person we went up to, and it was Allah's miracle that she was someone well known and familiar with the topic! The good news is that we have now found our third expert interviewer, to be in our Documentary 'Islamophobia'...

Lets hope she emails me back (Inshallah)
XxNaziyaXx

Plan For This Week...

1. We are hoping to go to the Mosque that Naziya usually goes to, in order to do some filming.
2. At the weekend we will possibly do some filming in East London.
3. We will be completing a story board for 'Islamophobia'.
4. Additionally we would have to do some research into the possible Internet sites where we can download archive footage of the Internet.

Xx By Tanya xX

Saturday 3rd February

On Saturday 3rd February me and Naziya decided to go to the local areas of Greenford and Southall to do some 'Vox Pops' for 'Islamophobia'. We had great fun interviewing a range of people from different backgrounds and cultures. But there were many people especially in Southall who were reluctant to be filmed, but me and Naziya bribed them saying that they would be 'famous' if they appeared in our documentary and they actually believed us. Yeah right!

While doing the 'Vox Pops' we made sure that we took into account the Mise-En- Scene and the camera shot (e.g Medium Shot) .We also made sure that we used a hand held camera to convey 'Realism', like that in the documentaries such as "Bowling For Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11".

We found that there were many people while we were doing the "Vox Pops" who had an interest in the actual topic of "Islamophobia" .As many people gave us there contact details, so that we could contact them when we completed 'our production'.

Overall we spent about four hours doing Vox Pops in Southall and Greenford in the freezing cold weather, but we really enjoyed ourselves and at the end we treated ourselves with a 'Paul's Bakers' cake!

Xx Tanya xX

Pictures of Me and Tanya, while interviewing people in Southall and Greenford... Xx Naziya & Tanya Xx

Font ideas for the title of our Documentary 'Islamophobia'...

This is one of the fonts i came across, while examining what font will suit best for our documentary 'Islamophobia', i believe that this font is perfect as it looks like a calligraphy font, that you would find in the holy Masjid (mosque). Furthermore i believe that it fits well with the media language, as by looking at the font it easily connotes 'calligraphy'.

Xx Naziya Xx

Our first day was good (3rd Feb 07) ...

Well, me and Tanya both decided that we would go on saturday and film in Greenford and Southall, as these were the local areas and near to us, to interview people. So today, I woke up at 8, and met Tanya at Greenford at 10.00 am. We got quiet a few people's interview on how they would define ' Islamophobia', both me and Tanya really enjoyed doing this, as the responses we got were interesting. However, it was a bit hard to get people to be in our documentary as half the people were not willing to do it, or where camera shy.

We left Greenford at 11.15 and went to Southall. This was the hardest bit, as half the people we went up to COULD NOT SPEAK ENGLISH! But we did manage to get some people's view, and we found this lady that was wearing the niqab, she was brilliant! she said to us she is willing to be interviewed in our documentary as she has already come on the channels before, she is a Art teacher, somewhere up London, so hopefully were going to meet her sometime next week (inshallah), i got her email add so I'm going to email her tonight and arrange a time to interview her personally.

Overall, it was a very long day today, but both me and Tanya enjoyed ourselves, it was really entertaining interviewing random people. But we still have to do loads in our documentary. one of the comments that we got from nearly all those people that we interviewed was ' wow, that's a really interesting topic you are focusing on. That's all from me...

Xx NaziyaXx

Plan for the next few days...

1. We are hopefully going to Download some images for our montage sequence.
   
2. Do Vox pops in Southall, Greenford and Ealing
   
3. Take pictures of the places that we've been to for our Blog.
   
4. Start processing some of the sequences/scenes for our documentary such as "Efforts Against Islamophobia".
   

XxNaziya & TanyaXx

Bowling For Columbine- trailer Xx Naziya & TanyaXx



Bowling for Columbine is a documentary film directed by and starring Michael Moore. It won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Features, the César Award for Best Foreign Film.[1] It received extreme criticism as well as praise for its genre and claims. The film opened on October 11, 2002, and it brought Moore international attention.

The film explores what Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the background and environment in which the massacre took place, and some common public opinions and assumptions about related issues. The film looks into the nature of violence in the United States, focusing on guns as a symbol of both American freedom and its self-destruction.

In Moore's discussions with various people, including South Park co-creator Matt Stone, the National Rifle Association's then-president Charlton Heston, and musician Marilyn Manson, he seeks to explain why the Columbine massacre occurred and why the United States has higher rates of violent crimes (especially crimes involving guns) than other developed nations.

The reason why both me and Tanya have decided to look at Bowling For Columbine, is because some of the features used in his documentary will help us give ideas in our documentary, and the main reason is because the way Moore focuses on his theme of the documentary is quiet similar to ours.

Analysis of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling For columbine!

Fahrenheit 9/11, was directed and produced by Michael Moore in 2004.
It uses a number of documentary conventions that maybe helpful to us when we are producing our documentary on 'Islamophobia'. The reason why we decided to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 was because it was a very successful documentary in the box office and it covers some of the main ideas in our documentary 'Islamophobia'.

some of the points that we came across while watching Fahrenheit 9/11 included :

1. Archive Footage e.g. the beginning where there was the use of news montage.
2. The name of the documentary was seen a great time after the documentary began.
3. The Mise-en-scene was carefully selected e.g the former FBI had books in the background, which emphasises knowledge.
4. The hand held camera helps convey realism to the audience.
5. The blackout of the screen was seen in the beginning, this engaged the audience, as it made them question themselves, about what was going on.
6. Michael Moore also use experts such as Craig Unger, author of House of Bush and House of Saud.

7. While watching Fahrenheit 9/11 Moore, used a range of interviews in his documentary, and he mainly had women’s in his interview, for example mother of Carol Ashley and she was a victim of 9/11, we see her mainly crying and Moore done did deliberately as the audience can have sympathy for her, it makes them engage with her.
8. Moore uses a great range of shots to portray his views, an example would be the long shot of Muslims praying in Saudi Arabia. Another type of shot he uses is medium shot as well as Long shot, you will find this when Moore does the Vox Pop, the whole ideology behind this is that it shows the audience the clear facial expression on the person he is interviewing.
9. While watching Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore used a excellent range of montage from the news, and different programmes, an example of this would be Fox news and the whole idea of ‘fear tactic’ themes.
10. Moore also used subtitles in his documentary while getting the Afghanistan people’s view, this then helps the audience to understand their views to.
11. Rock music was used in his documentary to make it catchy.
12. Towards the end of the documentary Moore uses a range of Rhetorical question in order to gain the audiences attention and to make them think. For example ‘ who would want to give up their child? Would you?
13. Overall Moore concludes his documentary by dedicating the documentary to all those people that died by the 9/11 attacks.

Xx Tanya & Naziya Xx

Newspapers who have had 'Islamophobic' headlines/opinions :

"Fanatics with a death wish: I was born in Britain but I am a Muslim first".






"Gangsters destroy distilleries in the name of Islamic purity”
"Islamic schools where zealots learn to hate West”
"London to host Islamic ‘celebration’ of Sept 11”
"Islamic extremists join Battle in Britain”

"We can only hope that the courageous refusal of so many prominent politicians, religious leaders and others to sign the Pledge to British Muslims is a turning-point. Tolerance is a two-way street. As Dave Allen used to sign off - goodnight, and may your God go with you"










"U.S. Islamic Schools Teaching Homegrown Hate”
"Muslims in Netherlands Being Recruited for Suicide Missions"
"Husband Arrested in Killing of Wife and Two In-Laws over Islam Belief"
"Warm Words for Bin Laden as Muslim Fundamentalists Gather in Britain"


Xx By Tanya xX