Thursday 27 October 2011

HCJ - Lecture 3 - "We hold these truths to be self evident"


During this weeks HCJ lecture we discussed Frege, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. We began with Frege and discussed his notion of logic. Frege believed that individual propositions have no meaning, so the example given in the lecture was that 'Socrates is a man', does not work in Frege's logic, but it would only make sense in respect to other propositions. From what I can make of this confusing subject it is apparent that Frege can only understand a sentence in logic if it contains a sense (a proposition) and a reference (a truth value), or that the proposition only has a meaning in respect to other propositions. So perhaps something that would make sense to Frege would be that 'Socrates is a man, if he is not a woman'.

During the enlightenment period it was a struggle for knowledge and to find out what individual things meant, and there was a constant battle to find out the truths of the World they lived in. So people like Hume and Kant went about there way to find out what things like words meant to us, and they came up with the theory that words only had one meaning and that a sentence could only mean one thing. Moving in the Romantic period, Frege totally dismisses this idea and we can see why by looking at this sentence:

'I thought she was his wife' - As explained in the lecture, we can put different emphasis on different parts of the sentence or on different words to make the sentence seem different. For example: 'I thought SHE was his wife', thinking that his wife was someone else, or. 'I THOUGHT she was his wife' maybe it is not his wife, but perhaps it is his bit-on-the-side?

Subjectivist epistemology - there is no universal truth, only subjective impressions of relative value. This is something that Marx, Nietzsche and Freud would agree with and again rejects the enlightenment beliefs that there is a universal truth. So an objectivist (opposite to subjectivist) would believe that once he is dead, the World would still exist and carry on without them, whereas a subjectivist would believe that the World would no longer be there if they were to die. A subjectivist would need reasoning and logic in order to believe in something and see it as wholly true and that the truth of something depends on you as a person and your perspective. This once again rejects the enlightenment that there is only one truth. So for example if I can see from my perspective that Manchester United are the greatest football team in the World, and from my perspective I believe it to be true, because they have won numerous honours and have the greatest manager of all time, does not mean that someone else may believe Manchester City are the greatest football team of all time because they recently defeated United. In a subjectivist opinion, both would be right, as both have valid perspective, but both opinions mean that there is no universal truth.

'Ruling ideas is every epoch and the ideas of the ruling class' is something that lives on from Marx. This is the notion that everything that we believe in, and the 'norms' of everyday stem from the ruling ideas of the majorities opinion and perspective. So this again ties in with the subjectivist view. For example in some parts of the world it is religion or normal to take part in cannibalism, whereas in most it is seen as 'taboo'. This comes under the term of 'anthropology' which is a theory of Frederick Engles. He believed that all values are different as are the ruling bodies systems of morality. A criticism of Freud is that he lacked anthropological perspective which made him less of a subjectivist. We are shown this in his case study 'Dora' where he does not show that there can be a no connection between sex and reproduction.

During the lecture we were given three sentences and asked to try and explain them and try and understand the sentential logic:

1) The evening star is the same as the morning star
I couldn't think of anything for this one, but after some research it seems as if it has a lot to do with astronomy and that Venus is seen as a morning and evening star as it is the closest 'star' to the Sun. Saying this, in relation to Frege, it seems as though he has some sort of formula to determine what this actually means. So he believes a=a and a=b but you can see with inspection that 'a' in fact equals 'a', whereas a=b has to be examined in respect to what it is we are discussing and what 'a' and 'b' represent. In this case I will say Wayne Rooney (a) = Michael Owen (b). We can not see from simple inspection whether this is true but if we say a=a (Wayne Rooney = Wayne Rooney), we can see from simple inspection that this is true, but it will take a lot more than simple inspection to determine whether or not Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen are the same. In the context of the evening star and the morning star, with the evening star representing 'a', and morning star 'b', it would take some astronomical review to determine if they are in fact the same thing, whereas we can see with simple inspection that the morning star is the same as the morning star.
2) The present King of France is not bald
The first thing that came to mind when this sentence was shown was that there may not be any King of France at the time. So to say that the King of France is bald is neither true nor false as the whole statement is incorrect. So it would be similar to saying The country of 'Manc-land' is the richest in the World, when in fact no such country exists so it can not be true, but in the same respect it may so be that it is the richest, but how would we know if it does not exist? So is the statement true, false or meaningless? It is not true because there is no current King of France so how can he be bald, secondly it can not be false because saying it is false means that he has indeed got hair, which again means there is a King of France, which there is not. So this means that the sentence must therefore be meaningless; but how can the statement be meaningless if it is something we can understand and interpret?
3) There was nobody on the road
From what Chris said in the lecture I can get that what is meant from this sentence is that if nobody was on the road, there had to be someone on the road, for 'nobody' IS 'somebody'. So what would need to be said to understand the sentence or to make the sentence have meaning would be something like: For this given moment, in this given World on any given road there is not anyone on them. Or something along those lines!

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Eastleigh Vs Oxford City and Sam Wilson story- de-brief week 4 (with match report and written story)


This week we took three cameras to Eastleigh to film their F.A Cup clash with Oxford City. After much criticism at recent de-briefs coming in the form of not having enough angles and shots, our task was to get replays and close ups.

Negatives:

> As-live commentary is still not working. We needed this week to try and make it seem like we actually commentated on the game live, and not just the goals afterwards. Chris' advice was to have the live commentary under my voiceover during the build up to the goal, but obviously quieter so they wouldn't drown each other out. So the plan is to quieten the commentary down and once the voiceover finishes, turn have the commentary louder so it comes into effect and actually sounds like we are commentating live.

> One problem I noticed with the package that makes it sound a little wrong is the replays. The replay clips are zoomed in and slowed down, and when slowing down, instead of carrying the 'live' sound under the clip of the replay, I have instead slowed down the audio from the replay shot. I just think it makes it look sloppy, so this week I will aim to carry the sound under from the live action.

> Sam Wilson interview - the framing of the shot is out, it was too central and not tight enough on his head and shoulders. Also the sound is slightly low and needed turning up, so in future hold the mic closer. Although the package was an OOV, it would have been nicer to get some better cut aways of Wilson, as oppose to him training before the match and coming on to the pitch. For example it would have looked better if I got him in actual action, maybe having a shot, or going in for a tackle.

Positives:

> Three cameras! This gave me a better looking package all over, close ups and different views of the players/managers and slow motion action replays. One of my favourite parts of the package is the Oxford penalty from in front of the goal. It was a similar view to the view Sky Sports use.

> The scripting of the piece I have had some good feedback on, more entertaining and statistic based made it more interesting for the viewer.


Match Report:

Eastleigh’s miserable start to the new season has continued, after Oxford City knocked them out of the F.A Cup this weekend.

Eastleigh manager, Iain Baird, has criticised his side for conceding early goals, and it only took twenty minutes until they were a goal down, with City’s Steve Basham lobbing the ball over Eastleigh goalkeeper Gareth Barfoot.

The home side had chances to pull level but were wasteful in front of goal, and were almost made to pay when Andrew White brought down Darren Pond in the box. But for the second home game in a row, Barfoot pulled off a double save to deny the visitors.

The away side’s lead was doubled shortly after half-time, this time Darren Pond unleashing an unstoppable shot, which nestled in to the top corner of Barfoot's net.

Eastleigh were given a chance to get back in to the game shortly afterwards when striker Jamie Slabber scored from a penalty, but it was cancelled out moments later when City midfielder Pond got his second, and Oxford's third of the game, with a strong header.

The game ended 3-1 to Oxford City and they were rewarded with an away tie at Weston-Super-Mare in the next round, meanwhile Eastleigh turn their attention to the league, where up next is second place Welling United.

Sam Wilson:

Sam Wilson has agreed a new two-year contract at Blue Square South strugglers Eastleigh, despite interest from several clubs including Premier League outfit Fulham.

The 17-year-old striker had been on a trial with Fulham in previous weeks, and has impressed the Cottagers after scoring two goals in a 4-1 win over Portsmouth.

Wilson has expressed his joy at signing his new contract, ‘I’m very happy I can finalise being at Eastleigh’.

Wilson scored ten goals in nineteen appearances for Eastleigh reserves last year, and made his debut for the senior team in the Hampshire Senior Cup aged just 16.

Eastleigh fans were presented with Wilson’s contract signing moment just before their F.A Cup clash with Oxford at the weekend, and made an appearance from the bench.

For the highlights visit:

http://winol.co.uk/

OR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFZ464LBokc

Friday 21 October 2011

Manchester United Vs Manchester City preview


If you are a Manchester City fan I would not read on if I were you, you will no doubt experience anger, jealousy and a few tears if you continue to read. But I am more than happy to direct you to SkySports for a more unbiased preview of the Manchester derby!

So this Sunday we will see one of the biggest Manchester derbys of all time, with the noisy neighbours becoming noisier by the day, they currently sit top of the Premier League, two points clear of United, but obviously still lightyears away when it comes to everything else (trophies, history, prestige). With the game being at Old Trafford it will go without saying that United fans, players and staff will expect the three points, whereas City will be content with a draw as it would keep them at the top with United still having to travel to the Etihad Stadium (although United will probably pick up all three there as well). Both sides remain unbeaten in the league this year, and something will most certainly give this weekend.

In recent years United have struggled in the early stages of the new seasons, but The Red Devils have enjoyed a surprisingly good start to their new campaign, picking up notable wins against Arsenal and Chelsea, and equalling the tally for most goals scored in the first six premier league games (21). Although they have had a good start to the season, recent performances have not been up-to-scratch, squeezing out a 1-1 draw at Anfield, and needing two penalties to see off Otelul Galati in the Champions League, but most critics will agree, this is a sign of Champions, not playing well, but grinding out them hard results.

City have had one of their best starts to a Premier League campaign, proving that if you throw money at something it will eventually come good, but they are yet to become too much of a thorn in United's side, and although they have been scoring freely with the likes of Aguero and Dzeko scoring for fun, they haven't posted any notable wins, such as the reigning champions, and have also struggled in the Champions League. United have also not been playing well in Europe but it does beg the question, can City handle the 60+ games a season, that being a 'big club' brings. So far they are managing it just about, but come February/March it remains to be seen if they can hold the pace they are currently setting.

Other than having a stronger squad, Man United have one not so secret weapon that will prove to be the difference this weekend, and that is Sir Alex Ferguson. He has been preparing for this game since last Saturday, resting players against Liverpool and keeping the likes of (Wayne) Rooney, Nani, and (Javier) Hernandez fit. Fergie also knows just what it takes to overcome City rivals in such a high profile game, now i'm not saying Mancini doesn't know what it takes, just that Fergie will be a million times more prepared and he probably already knows how the game will go (to an extent).


Ones to watch:

Man Utd:

Rooney - he will be absolutely itching to get going here, didn't play in the FA Cup loss to City last year due to suspension, and recent events in the England camp and negativity in the press will leave him with a point to prove. For United's sake lets hope he doesn't direct his energy in a negative way. Scored the winner with a tremendous overhead volley last year.

De Gea - he will be tested, been a little hit and miss this year and the occasion may get to him. Hopefully Rio and Vidic will be there to give him the confidence he needed with Rio missing the mid-week game so he could play here and Vidic coming back from injury this week.

Young - Wing play will be the key to creating chances, and the more chalk Ashley Young gets on his boots the better. He has proved to be extremely influential with his contributions this year, and Sunday will be no different. Critical to feeding Rooney and other front players. Can even pop up with a goal of his own at any given time.

Man City:

Joe Hart - he is undoubtedly an amazing goal-keeper. Something tells me he will be the busier of the two keepers on Sunday, and if he has a good game, he may be able to scape his side a point.

Aguero - top goalscorer for City this season and is in prolific form. He will be out to prove a point to City's rivals, but Ferguson would already know this so he will probably be defended out of the game.

My prediction - United 3 - 0 City

Probable line ups:

United:

GK De Gea
RB Smalling CB Rio CB Vidic LB Evra
CM Carrick CM Anderson
RW Nani LW Young
CF Rooney
ST Hernandez (4-2-2-1-1 attacking) (4-5-1 defending)

City:

GK Hart
RB Richards CB Kompany CB Lescott LB Kolarov
RM Milner CM Barry CM Toure LM Silva
ST Dzeko ST Aguero (4-4-2)

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Week 3 - Eastbourne Borough Vs Eastleigh - Critical notes

In week 3 of WINOL I went to film Eastleigh away form home at Eastbourne in the Blue Square South. After the previous weeks match against Cinderford Town, Eastleigh were looking to get some points on the board.

Positives:

The first main positive to take out of my package from last week was that I went above the call of duty, to an away match to keep our dedicated Eastleigh fans/audience in touch with Sportsweek, and to show that we can be their number one source for highlights each week. Secondly, Gareth pointed out that my scripting was better from the previous weeks, so that my voiceover was a bit more interesting to listen to which meant that my package as whole was better to watch.

Negatives:

In regards to my package the main critical points that were made, were in regards again to the lack of camera angles and the fact that we only had the one camera so close-ups and a second view for slow motion replays were not possible. There was a couple of technical issues with this weeks package, the first being that the match was filmed in widescreen, and I was unable to change as I only got to the match minutes before kick-off so didn't want to miss anything due to messing around with the camera settings, or even making it worse. To improve in future weeks it will be beneficial to check all equipment before hand and to try and plan better so I arrive earlier, so if there is anything wrong, I have a decent amount of time to rectify it. There was also something I noticed, probably because of editing and the fact that I was the one filming, but the second goal scored for Eastbourne could have been filmed better, as I had to catch up with play, meaning I missed the build up to the goal, and all the viewer would have seen was the player through on goal and the camera just about catching the shot.


Match Report:

Tuesday 11 October 2011

WINOL/Sportsweek - week 2 - debrief - Critical notes


In the first serious week on WINOL and Sportsweek I went to Eastleigh to film their F.A Cup match against Cinderford Town. I was also asked to present this week, which was slightly nerve-racking, considering I hadn't done anything like this before!

The main issues that I came across this week from a personal point of view was that of sound. Obviously when at a football match the crowd are the main source of noise, and depending on whats happening in the match the atmosphere will be different. As I am moving clip-to-clip, different things are happening, and the crowd noise is different. For example, in one of the clips someone may score, with the last noise of the clip being the crowd celebrating, causing high volume levels which causes two problems: one, the voiceover is drowned out, and two, the next clip where we are building up to the next match event the crowd are much more subdued, so it goes from really loud, to really quiet. Obviously I tried to edit the sound as much as possible, so that we could make it seem realistic (so not make it seem as if no one was there), but also so you could hear the voiceover, and make the clips flow better in terms of volume.

Critical feedback I received from Gareth was that my scripting was a little repetitive and that it seemed a bit boring (Smith scored, and then 10 minutes later he scored again). So in the next package my scripting (hopefully) will be a little better and a bit more lively in order to keep the watchers interested. In Mondays de-brief Brian pointed out the issue with the 'as-live' commentary. Now although it wasn't my voice on the commentary, it was still my package and my responsibility. We were told that this also sounds a little bit dull and that there was no genuine build-up to the possible goal that the 'as-live' commentator is describing.

Although the shots I got were good for the resources possible, we have been told that we could do more in terms of filming. Instead of having just the one camera, we could have 2 or 3. So more Sky Sports style, so maybe if there is a contentious decision, we could have a close up from behind the goal and do action replays. It would make the quality of the package a lot better.


SPORTSWEEK PRESENTING
As mentioned above this was my first week presenting for Sportsweek, and the first presenting role I have ever done. Luckily enough it wasn't filmed live, although it was still very nerving. I was told that it was good enough all though it took me a while to get it right. Looking back on it, it appears to me that I can maybe put emphasis on the wrong words, and that maybe I need to work more on where the emphasis should go. For example: 'Eastleigh hosted Cinderford Town on Saturday, I went down to the Silverlake'. The emphasis would sound best on 3 or 4 of the words, perhaps the team names and maybe the 'I', but I felt I was lacking this in the presentation.


If anyone else has any critical advice they would like to give then feel free, every little helps!

To watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtpTbJqhGIk

Yellow Journalism


William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were the two main men in New York when it came to journalism in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The yellow press or yellow journalism is falsehood, lies or an alteration of the truth done in order to sell more papers and keep the readers that little bit more entertained. Pulitzer and Hearst were extremely reliant on this 'technique' and used it well to their benefits.

Pulitzer and Hearst had rival papers, which competed, in the journalism market; Pulitzer’s paper was called The World, and Hearst’s, The Journal. The papers did make a lot of people angry, but at the same time they were a huge source of entertainment for the mass.

The most important factor I believe that contributed to yellow journalism is firstly the industrial revolution, which meant the invention of the printing press, and then the ever-increasing drive for circulation because of the entertaining stories.

The term ‘yellow’, from what I understand derives from a comic strip of the ‘yellow kid’ that was published in The World, and was published using a new ink form that was non-smearing ink. The comic strip was seen as extremely important at the time and it is for this reason the term ‘yellow’ was formed.


The Spanish-American War

Hearst and Pulitzer were extremely influential in antagonising people before and during the Spanish-American war during the late 1800’s. Some people would even say they were solely to blame. This was because of their stories and photos that they published in their papers.

The war was declared shortly after the sinking of Battleship Maine. The ship was a US war ship, which was docked in Cuba. It came under attack, and was sunk with 44 sailors being killed and many more injured. Once Hearst and Pulitzer got wind of the event, they pretty much had a field day blaming the ‘cowardly Spanish’.

At the time the Cubans were under rule from the Spanish, and Hearst sent reporters to Cuba to report on the state of living there. The reporters found little in the way of proof of any wrongdoing or news worthy stories, but this didn’t matter to Hearst. All he wanted was photos and in his words he would ‘furnish the war’. So in other words, he used his position of power as a top journalist to make it look as if the Spanish were these horrible people, who deserved to be attacked, and that they needed to be stopped, when in actual fact the reporters found no proof of this. Headlines came out such as ‘Spanish Cannibalism’ and ‘Inhumane Torture’.

Monday 3 October 2011

WINOL bulletin - week one (dummy)

My first week on WINOL, was an emotional one, and I can say with a great deal of certainty that I will never forget it! So here is my story/soap opera/drama of what happened when I went out and took up my new role as Eastleigh Correspndent for Winchester News Online.

I went out to cover a fantastic spectacle of a game, I thought I was going to bump in to Andy Townsend or even, if I was really, really lucky Chris Kamara! I was covering the Wessex Premier league clash of the titans Alresford Town Vs Hamworthy United! Unfortunately, I didnt manage to bump in to Kammy, but I did get to see a cracker of a game.

My first hurdle I had to overcome, was a very strange, but ridiculous problem. Chris has actually pointed out in our recent HCJ lecture that you would be foolish to assume every will run smoothly, and when I ran out of petrol two miles from the Winchester services with 40 minutes until kick-off, this was realised! Luckily enough, I was going with another person (namely Chizzle) who had the equipment. With a cab quoting £60 to take me two miles I was lost! I did have a very good friend who lived in Winchester that drove, who managed to come and bring me petrol in my hour of need, but despite his best efforts I was still late, having to send Chizzle in the cab by himself to start without me!

I only arrived 20 miinutes late which was kind of a result considering the circumstances, and luckily enough I had missed no goals or moments of controversy. We were filming from groudn level, so it was very hard to get a great shot, and also, with only one camera, not wanting to miss any action, found myself zoomed out on a lot of the shots.

During the de-brief, Angus picked up on the shots and advised us for future to try and get closer shots as it will look a lot better, and also that we still couldnt get the full shot because of where we set up.

I had the footage, now it was time for the dreaded FINAL CUT PRO! I learned a new phrase whilst editing: 'disco-wheeling'. When the mac/Final Cut decides to destroy your life by freezing, and if you haven't saved your work then it is literally pull your hair out time! This happened to me once. And never again will it happen. I have however taken some new techniques away, courteousy of Mr Editor aka The Sparrow, Mr Gareth Messenger. I have learned to do cut aways, so when the goal is scored, we cut away to the celebration, but keep the sound going on underneath, which makes it look proffesional (and apparently Angus likes this). I have also learned how to manage audio levels so the voiceover is not drowned out. This brings me to my next hurdle.

VOICEOVERS!!!! 6 TIMES! 4 DIFFERENT ROOMS! My first one was so echoey it sounded like i was in a church hall, after trying again, no change. We then discovered that to and from this 'church hall' the reason for the echoes was in fact because I had the gun mic plugged in to the wrong input on the camera! Silly me! Then, we were kicked out of this room by a rather disgruntled and Anne Robinson like character who insisted 'this room is not for journalists!' So onto room number two. Right input, all done, came back, captured the sound, but no sound came out. Something had gone wrong clearly. I think, that I didn't press record, but I don't want to believe that i'm that stupid. Nevertheless, I tried again and again it came back echoey. This time it was becuase of the room. So I tried the next door room, there was a projector on, but didn't think it would come up on the recording. I was wrong. Finally, I managed to get the studio which was perfect, and just as I was about to start recording, the battery on the camera dies. Great stuff. Finally, got it plugged into the mains, and recorded and all up on Final Cut, with the package about 45 minutes later than it should have been, but it made it!

Things to do next time:

1) Get closer shots
2) Make sure the camera can face the whole pitch for a wider shot
3) Once on Final Cut Pro SAVE AT EVERY GIVEN MOMENT
4) Make sure the mic is plugged into the right input and make sure I am in a decent enough room for recording (also make sure i press record)
5)...erm, make sure I fill up with petrol before hand! And expect the unexpected!!