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