FINITO!

After a lot of hard work, the project is finally over!!!
I hope you enjoyed following everything I have done.
Now all is left is the exam!!
YAY :D

Evaluation

Website

I decided to create a small website where I could store all of my final pieces of work together more professionally, so they are not all jumbled up on this blog. I have included the website link below:

http://www.wix.com/manousos/mbfgp

I may also use a similar technique in posting my evaluation later with it including some kind of directors commentary running through the documentary itelf. Enjoy!

Finished Documentary

Ancillary Task Two - Double Page Spread

Above is the piece of work that I am submitting as my second ancillary task. This is a double page magazine spread that it used to engage the interest of the audience. 

From my research, generally double page spreads are split into having the text and the title of the product on one side, and having a picture (usually a human) on the other. I have also adopted this style for my ancillary task.

I have used quite strong images, with a strong black and white presence coming from the figure on the right, and also a lot of red has been used to give it more tension. It can be used to symbolised blood and violence which will shock and draw peoples interest. I have also included the Greek flag in the background. This can can provide either a more peaceful balance to the page by providing a hit of blue, but can also be seen as quite menacing due to the patriotic way it is put together.

I have used the same title that I have done in the newspaper advert to provide continuity throughout the project. However, instead of leaving the background behind it blank like I did on the newspaper advert, I have decided to mix in a blend of grey and red again to make it look a lot more sinister.

I have also included the same slogan as was on the newspaper advert at the bottom of this double page spread. I have however put in a plain background for this, 

Ancillary Task One - Newspaper Advertisement

*This advert is designed to be seen down the side of a newspaper as an advert, rather than as a whole page.

Narrative of Documentary

The Idea

I have decided to use completely new narrative form in my documentary to make it more interesting for the viewer to watch. It means loosening the documentary format slightly and making it more like a short film or a movie. However I feel that from my research, there needs to be an element of this to make things more relevant for my younger target audience.

I have taken the ideas show at the beginning and end of 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' and adapted them to my character and piece of work. Dr Giannis at the beginning of the film is shown narrating whilst writing a letter explaining the state of Khephalonia to who we will at the end find out to be Captain Antonio Corelli, one of the heroes of the story.

I want to adapt this to my character to fit my character and his current predicament being situated in the middle of Athens in the present day. He can be writing a letter to someone explaining what is going on in Athens at this time with the documentary material being used as his narrative. 

Dr Giannis talks of the way that Khephalonia is a place that has been ravaged by war and natural disasters and that has no doubt caused problems for society at the time. The same can be implied with my character and the riots, protests and political corruption which are similarly destructive on society and therefore can be related to war and natural disaster.

In terms of the character that is being written to I think that perhaps the character will be known as Alex at the beginning of the documentary. The content of the letter will be the same as the content as the documentary and the same issues and ideas will be discussed, including the death of a young boy near the home of the person who is being written to. At the end of the documentary, the character will write 'Alex since you died things have gone very wrong here..'. The character will be the boy who died before the protests and riots irrupted into madness I think this will be a very powerful and emotional ending to the story and will certainly engage with audience, whether they are young or old. Alex will be seen as the hero of the story, just as Captain Corelli is in the film.

It is likely that I will have to change both the introduction and conclusion of the script to fit these ideas, but only to a minor extent and I think it will drastically improve the quality of my work overall. To be a media studies student you need to take risks and be creative and I think I am proving that new ideas can be incorporated into existing media formats.

Introduction Changes

Original 

'This is Athens. The birthplace of democracy, a popular tourist destination and a place of major historical importance. My name is Manousos. I am 18 years old and am a student. My dream is to one day travel abroad and study at a good University. However, being from Athens that dream is slowly dying and disgruntled people such as myself are taking to the street in protest. Welcome to the world that I call My Big Fat Greek Politics.'

New

'Alex, it is a long time since I last saw you my friend. Greece is still as you remember it. A popular tourist destination, a place of great historical importance and the birthplace of democracy. I am eighteen now and dreaming of one day studying at a good university. But as we both know, thats never going happen whilst still in Athens. People are upset and taking to the streets. Things are becoming chaotic here because of these governments. I have started to call it My Big, Fat, Greek Politics.'

Conclusion Changes

Original

'The Greek riots and protests are a large scale social movement of which people are hoping to find a government that better represents them and their needs. The anger stems from a long line of lies and betrayals that corrupt capitalist governments have given the population over and over again. With such actions taking place is it fair to say that democracy has suffered a painful death in the very same city in which it was born? Should people not be allowed to fight for the change that so desperately need? Should people judge them for fighting in what they believe in? Only one thing is for sure, there will be no peace on the streets of Athens until something drastic is changed.'

New

'It is fair to say Alex, that the protests in Athens have turned into a large scale social movement  where people are hoping to find a government that better represents them and their needs. The anger leads from a long line of lies and betrayals from corrupt capitalist governments and it safe to say that unless something drastically changes then the anger amongst the people will continue. The same is happening in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries across the Mediterranean. I must ask whether it is fair to say that democracy has suffered a painful death in the very same city in which it was born? Should people not be allowed to fight for the change that so desperately need? Should outsiders judge them for fighting for what they believe in? We will always remember you my brother, and your death is now a symbol for what our people are fighting for. RIP my friend. Manousos.'

I may also adjust the section relating to Alex himself, making it less obvious that it is him I am talking about. This will increase the emotional impact on the audience when it is revealed that he was the boy that died towards the end of the documentary.

Original

'December 2008. Things were about to get a whole lot worse. A boy, just sixteen years old named Alex Grigoropoulos was out with some friends in the Athenian suburb of Eksarheia. They were confronted by two men in police uniform. This engagement ended in the shooting dead of Alex in the street and the fleeing of the two men involved. Although rumours have spread blaming the group of friends for initiating the argument, eye witness reports have proved this to be false and it was in fact the boys who were approached and verbally attacked by the police, showing just how dangerous they can be when out of control. Just like in the 70s it was the death of a young person at the hand of someone in the pay of the government that sparked extreme political unrest. The riots had begun.'

New

Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) Final Refined Version

After taking a lot of feedback from others about the general design of the advert, I took what they said into account and re-Photoshopped the advert together. It is roughly the same design, just with the tweaking of a few parts in the picture, the adding of a bit of red here and there to liven up the page and the moving around of the text into different places. Overall I am pretty pleased with the end result.

Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) Audience Feedback

I posted my finished design on facebook and asked people to give me some feedback. I asked what they liked, what they didn't like,  as well as what they thought should be added, removed and changed if anything. I found all the responses very helpful and I will take into account every comment made as I make slight changes to the layout of the advert. I have posted a screenshot of the comments below:

A big thanks to everyone who commented!

Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) Final Product

Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) Development Four

After deciding all of the things discussed in the previous post, it was time to return to Photoshop and put everything together and producing the final advert.

I firstly needed to decide what layout the writing would have in regards to the picture. I could either just leave the picture as it was and have a black box to the right hand side of it with the all the information regarding the programme based in it, or I could try and insert the text into and around the picture in a much more creative way. I decided to go for the second option as I felt the picture would feel a bit blank left the way it was. I put a black box around the picture which would give me space to put in the writing when it needed it.

I decided then that the tagline would look best as a kind of title underneath the police officers feet. That way the audience would look at the picture of the police, wonder what was going on and by reading the words 'It's all Greek to me' they would agree and want to read on wanting to know more. I inserted the paragraph underneath the tagline. This was done for two reasons. The first was that, as already said, I wanted the reader to continue down the page and having the writing directly underneath this would allow them to do so with ease. I also felt that the space on the stairs was too plain to be left with nothing inside it and would make it look boring. As you can see from the picture I have also tilted the paragraph slightly to the left. I felt left straight the direction of the text would line up too much with the lines of the stairs which I felt again would bore the human eye.

The final thing I needed to was to insert the name of the documentary and the time/date it would be viewed on. This is why I left the black spaces above and below the picture. I placed the name underneath the picture in the font chosen earlier. I feel that the white writing on the black background makes it stand out well compared to the rest of the picture, without taking anything away from it. I then added the date and time to the top right of the box of the advert in the same way except smaller and more subtle. Being in the top right means it is not part of the grand scheme of things and does not get in the way of the advert in anyway, but is there so that people know this obviously important piece of information. I also feel that it helps fill some of the black space behind the police which again I felt was blank and boring.

Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) Development Three

The third thing I needed to consider whilst making the newspaper advert for my documentary was what was written on it. From my research I have found that one of the reasons that younger people do not overly enjoy documentaries is that they think they over complicate things. Therefore I do not want to over complicate the advert. I want to use quick but powerful messages to engage their thoughts and interests. This could be by use of emotive language or by saying something contreversial that makes the reader either agree or dissagree. There are two kinds of writing that I want to use to engage the interest of the reader in the advert, one of which being a tagline and the other being a paragraph explaining just enough about the documentary for people to know what its about, but not so much to as to lose the readers curiosity.

Below I have included examples of taglines that I am thinking of using:

"The birthplace of democracy?"

Athens is known to historians to have been 'the birthplace of democracy'. It was the first place in which the right to a free vote was introduced. The questionmark at the end of the statement makes the reader wonder is this really true and if it is, why is it being questioned now. Searching for answers I hope they will want to read on.

"It's all Greek to me.."

Probably one of the most famous statements used to view other cultures. If you cannot understand a foreign language the phrase 'it's all Greek to me' is often used because of the Greek language's complexity. This can be seen in another light too. The actions of the protesters must also seem very foreign to western audiences, making them very 'Greek' and thus you can use the phrase in the same way here.

"Athenian Tragedy"

Drama and Theatrical productions are something that have survived in Greek culture from ancient times all the way into the present day. Tragedies were usually tales with something bad or upsetting happening at the end. This style of playwriting was adopted by Shakespeare who is of course universally known across the UK and abroad and is also someone who is studied by young people during their time at school. This links us in with both a western audience and a young one.

"Don't bow down, rise up!"

This was the phrase chanted by teachers and students at rallies across Greece as recently as this Christmas. It is in protest of the dire cuts being put on the country's education system relatively destroying it. They did not think that bowing down and accepting these cuts was acceptable and urged people to rise up against them.

I have also included below examples that of paragraphs that I could include on the advert:

"There comes a time when people need to rise up and fight for what they believe in. This can be portrayed as a bad thing by the media. Now the truth is revealed.."

"If you lost your job, your home, your education, your healthcare and you are still expected to pay more, you would be in a state of outrage. Why should people from other countries be any different?"

"Lies lead to Unrest. Unrest leads to Protest. Protest leads to Anger. Anger leads to Rioting. Would you be any different should the need arise?"

I believe that all of these are very brief, but powerful statements that would engage a readers interest without giving the game away. They all have deep meanings to them regarding western media views, the state of Greece's affairs, and addressing whether the audience really knows what is going on. I have decided to go with the second tagline and the first paragraph as I believe they are the most powerful and will be the most understood of the options I have chosen by the reader.

Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) Development Two

Continuing from my previous post, I then needed to decide what kind of font would best fit the mood of the advert. It not only needed to be one that fitted in with the younger target audience, but also needed to have some relevence to the themes of the documentary. To begin with I thought that some graffiti style fonts would fit in well with this line of thought:

 

 

However, after searching through many different kinds i decided not to proceed with using this kind of font. This was for two reasons. Firstly, although the fonts did fit with the younger audience feeling, I do not believe that they have as serious a feeling as the documentary would want them too. The second reason I chose to reject these fonts was that I personally found them pretty hard to read sometimes and obviously this may lead to others being put off of the program because of it. I began to look through other fonts after rejecting these to see if I could find any others that would fit in well with both the feeling of the advert and the programme. Below are some of the examples that I found:

 

 

 

I thought that these fonts were much more in line with the feeling that I wanted to put across in the documentary. Because they are all much more blocky fonts than those that are graffiti styled they are much easier to read, although they still have the same modern style which means that they will still fit in well with my young target audience. Out of these fonts I decided to use the second one down for my advert. This is because it is probably the most simple of the fonts although it still has an edge to it. I do not want the font to overtake the image in the advert in it's appeal which I feel some of the more decorative fonts may do. I feel the chosen font will enhance the image rather than take any of the edge away from it.

Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) - Development One

For an advert in a newspaper it is clear that you need to have either one or more very strong images to try and grab people's attention. When searching for such images related to the project, I came across the image below:

I really liked this image because not only was it clear and simple and had room for me to edit it, but it also conveyed a lot of relevence to the documentary and symbolism relating to the riots. At the top you have the authoritarian police standing together with weapons and sheilds drawn, blocking the way of the people below. At the bottom of the picture you can see the single protester, his arms out showing his power. This can be used to symbolise the way that the weak are standing up to the strong in Greek society, although the general public are of greater number.

The first step in editting this photo was to remove the background behind the heads of the police. This was to add more emphasis on the picture itself rather than what was going on in the background. I then decided to make the picture black and white. This, I believe, gives the picture a much more intense feel which can be used to show the tension of the situation. I also feel that this makes the picture feel a lot colder which is ironic with it being in such a hot country!

Thirdly, I decided that I felt the way the stairs were set out on the picture made it feel a bit flat. However this was easily rectified. I wanted to give more of a sense of power to the lone man at the bottom of the picture. To do this I used the smudge tool in Photoshop to draw lines coming away from his body as if there was some kind of powerful force coming out from him, being used to show the power of protest.

I continued this line of thought over the final two steps of editting the picture. As you can see at the bottom of the post, I have done two things to make the protester seem all the more powerful. I have firstly increased the black/white contrast of the police, making their area of the picture seem all the more cold, and it could prehaps even be seen as all the more deadly as the lack of colour could be used to show a lack of human emotions, something related to their thuggish methods and the heartlessness of the government. I have done the exact reverse in view of the protester at the bottom. I have put him back into colour whilst leaving the rest of the picture in black and white. I think this gives his stance a much more emotive/human feel and I also believe that this makes the lines moving away from his body look clearer and again more powerful.

Final Refinements to Script

This is Athens. The birthplace of democracy, a popular tourist destination and a place of major historical importance. My name is Manousos. I am 18 years old and am a student. My dream is to one day travel abroad and study at a good University. However, being from Athens that dream is slowly dying and disgruntled people such as myself are taking to the street in protest. Welcome to the world that I call My Big Fat Greek Politics.

Greece is a country that is filled to the brim with history and it is something that our people never forget. We find here that most of this history is glamorised in the eyes of the west by Hollywood, and even in western news accounts a lot of misinformation is given about the affairs of our country. I can proudly say that we Greeks have always had a spirit of overthrowing oppressive regimes. This is not without reason. There is a strong feeling amongst the population that governments here, past and present, work only for themselves and not for the good of the people. This feeling is not unfounded. During the 1960s and 70s, the country was controlled by this man, George Papadopoulos, who was leader of a fascist military dictatorship. This was a period of authoritarian repression and violence, taking place mostly through use of the armed forces and the police. This soon led to a campaign of protests and uprisings amongst the people, especially amongst the younger generations who believed that things needed to change.

An example of such protests came on 17th November 1973. Unrest had been growing amongst students at the Athens Polytechnic University due to the poor state of national affairs. They locked themselves inside a barricaded area and began what was meant to be a peaceful protest. This government however would tolerate no opposition. The barricades were charged down by tank and twenty four people shot dead at the scene many under the age of 20. This was perhaps where the Greek passion for rioting arose. Outraged people took to the street and protested in a much more violent manner in support of bringing down the regime. By morning, Papadopoulos and his fascist government were gone. It is this same passion is what we can see today now bleeding out on the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki and many other of Greece's main cities.

It is of course well known that the economy of Greece has turned into a worldwide joke, and it is this amongst many other reasons that the population are so upset and anti government at the current time. It seems that many people across the world do not understand why the Greek people have such a problem with the higher taxes that they have to pay in order to balance the books a little. This is where the politics comes in. Over the years following the dictatorship things did improve, but only minimally. The Greek government is now in a similar mould to that of the UK, with two main parties usually fighting for control. The parties are known as PASOK and Nea Democratia. During the 1990s the newly elected PASOK government promised what were called 'new and modern liberal ideas'. Although these ideas were not thoroughly specified at the time, it turned out that they would include the introduction of the country into the Euro zone. This decision proved to be a vital error as the only way this would be possible was to severely cut what national welfare was in place, completely neglect the already ageing healthcare system and introduce the privatisation of many state run businesses. Taxes were raised and wages were cut leaving many unable to afford even food at regulated EU prices. Even this was not enough and more cuts were swiftly to follow, which included the almost complete destruction of education system, all in order to fund entering a new currency. This was merely the starting point on a road towards the riots witnessed on a daily basis today.

Things became so bad that by the millennium over a third of the people in Greece were living at or below the poverty line. Corruption from within the government itself did not help lighten the mood. The British Expenses scandal of 2009 cannot be compared with those that have taken place here over the last few years, with over 50 similar sized scandals taking place since 2004. Ordinary people, such as you or me are on the streets suffering and the people they elect to help them out of the situation are simply pocketing what hard earned money they actually have. The role of the police meanwhile made people all the more angry. Seen as thugs and soldiers of the government, the role of the Greek police force is often brought into question. Are they here to protect the people or to simply keep them in order? Evidence shows the means in which they handle their not always guilty victims, are often brutal and unhumanitarian. Should the Greek police have been in charge of the recent student riots in London then the mayhem caused would have been catastrophic.

December 2008. Things were about to get a whole lot worse. A boy, just sixteen years old named Alex Grigoropoulos was out with some friends in the Athenian suburb of Eksarheia. They were confronted by two men in police uniform. This engagement ended in the shooting dead of Alex in the street and the fleeing of the two men involved. Although rumours have spread blaming the group of friends for initiating the argument, eye witness reports have proved this to be false and it was in fact the boys who were approached and verbally attacked by the police, showing just how dangerous they can be when out of control. Just like in the 70s it was the death of a young person at the hand of someone in the pay of the government that sparked extreme political unrest. The riots had begun.

Both PASOK and Nea Democratia took office during the decade, however neither government had made any real progress in its use of public money. In fact levels of corruption rose throughout the period. More money was taken; none was used for the good of the general public and vast amounts ended up in the back pockets of politicians. By May 2010 things were completely spiralling out of control. Scenes like this were returning to the streets of Greece on a daily basis. The economy was now so bad that austerity measures were being put in place in exchange for a €110bn bailout. The people who had done nothing wrong were now not only facing life with no education, no healthcare, no prospects and unbelievably low pay, but were being forced into accepting further wage cuts, even higher taxes and the likelihood that none of this money would be put back into the country itself. This is proof that western ideas that these riots are mainly due to actions of youths, anarchists and communists are wrong.

The Greek riots and protests are a large scale social movement of which people are hoping to find a government that better represents them and their needs. The anger stems from a long line of lies and betrayals that corrupt capitalist governments have given the population over and over again. With such actions taking place is it fair to say that democracy has suffered a painful death in the very same city in which it was born? Should people not be allowed to fight for the change that so desperately need? Should people judge them for fighting in what they believe in? Only one thing is for sure, there will be no peace on the streets of Athens until something drastic is changed.

*Red = Greek

Narrative

Below I have written two possible ways of structuring my production work.

Narrative A

Serious Documentary:

• Background Information
• Introduction to the Problem
• Causes of the Problem - Video evidence
• Effects of the Problem - Video Evidence
• Opinions of the Character
• Summing up of the Problem addressing the Audience

Narrative B

Mockumentary:

• Introduction to the problem
• Causes of the Problem - Funny Video Evidence
• Effects of the Problem - Funny Video Evidence
• Mock interviews
• Opinions of the Character
• Address the Audience
• Summing up of the Problem

Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov suggested that there are five stages to a narrative. Below I have tried to draw relevant links to his ideas from within my own work.

1. Equilibrium - The scene of Greece being one of a peaceful, beautiful country with a rich and vibrant culture.
2. Disruption of Equilibrium - The scene of Greece in meltdown, with burning buildings, wrecked statues and carnage across the streets after rioting.
3. Realisation of a Disruption - Character/Presenter thinking about what has happened and explaining the impact it has happened on his life.
4. Attempt to repair Damage - Explanation of why this has happened and what the different solutions available may be.
5. Restoration of Equilibrium - As the riots are still in problem there is no real restoration of the equilibrium however there can be some explanation of how life continues despite their common occurrence.

More New Ideas.

I have been considering what me and Miss Brogan talked about in terms of interviews and whether or not they would fit in with the peice of work I am trying to create. Whilst thinking about it I came up with the idea of prehaps turning the documentary into more of a mocumentary, with the underlining message still being the same. It is very difficult to get in touch with Greek people for interviews on the subject so by creating more characters and having them give their opinions on the subject in a very over the top way, whilst still converying the same point. For example having an old Greek woman, cursing the riots but at the same time cursing the government at the same time comaparing them to the Turks, or having an old Greek man who cares about nothing more having his daily morning coffee and is now struggling to afford the coffee due to the current economic climate. Even the idea of one of the rioters coming forward and giving an interview comes to mind, with him actually putting forward a very understandable and reasonable argument for what he is doing comes to mind. Just another thought of moving this project onwards and upwards!

Below I have included two viedeos of mockumentary interviews that in some way relate to what i will be trying to acheive with my own. Like I have already said, the characters will be very over the top, but will also in some way relate to the point of the programme.

Just to Clarify!!

I have been asked by Miss Brogan today to clarify why in my documentary I have decided to cut the idea of including interviews. As I said in an earlier blog post I have decided to get rid of the interviews because my audience research showed that young people would rather be informed of ideas and the reasons behind them, which in my piece of work will be presented historically, then make an informed decision themselves rather than listening to an older generation talking about it in an overly formal and educated way.

Having the character of Manousos, I believe will compensate for the lack of interviews. He will be the voice of what is actually happening in Greece and will get rid of the myths created by the UK media. He will have first hand experience of the events and will tell the young audience his feelings in a way that is relevant to them by linking them to problems here. The audience will then be able to make an informed decision in whether they agree with what he is saying or not, and can personally continue to research the subject if they wish.

The documentary will be more like one of the 3 Minute Wonder programmes shown on Channel 4 than a typical hour long Panorama type programme. It will move more quickly, it will be more quirky and symbolism will be used throughout, as well as real life footage to back up his points. This is why music videos have been more of an inspiration in the creation of the documentary. Re-creating the format of the documentary to fit a younger audience through using techniques they already enjoy more is a huge risk. That is something of which I am well aware of. However if it works well I believe it will be a massive success! 

A New Year, Means New Ideas!

Kαλη χρόνια σε όλους!

As the title of this post suggests, since my last video post I have been thinking of ways to enhance my work. I have decided to make a few changes to the character of Manousos based on how I feel the last video went. Having already spoken about NiVo in an earlier post and told how he is an inspiration to myself and many other young Greek people during these difficult times, I have decided to base Manousos' characteristics, clothing etc much more around him. At the bottom of this post I have posted two more of NiVo's music videos which revolve around government protest and youth culture, in case anyone is interested. I have also decided to make my performance as Manousos lot more aggressive and emotive compared to how he is in the previous video. This is a very stereotypically Greek mannerism and I believe it will add realism and also a sense of passion to the final documentary, which is what I want.

There is also another idea which I have had to with the formatting of the character throughout the documentary. I have decided to dress him firstly in the colour white for the duration of the documentary, with him seeming to be a kind of angelic character attempting to spread his wisdom of the subject to the world through his documentary. I will at the end then change the costume of the character to many much darker shades (as if he were going out to take part in a demonstration) showing that although the character does speak sense, there is also a very dark side to his personality, leaving it up to the audience to decide how they feel about him. I may also use this thinking in the other tasks in this project. The use of the same character either standing back to back is a strong one in my mind as an image for either the double page spread or the newspaper advertisement, for the same reasons as said above.

Kalimera Ellada - Goin' Through

This was NiVo's first protest song and the song that inspired me to proceed in the project in the first place. It features him singing about the poor situation of the country, about it's history and asking the government why it is "raping", "stealing" and "killing" the country, with the harmony of the children who's lives it will effect in the future set behind him.

Den Katalavaino - Goin' Through

This is the boys' latest single and this video was only released yesterday. Nivo again uses scenes of youth culture throughout Greece and keeps flicking back to the view of the Parliament in Athens throughout the video. The main lyric sung throughout the track is 'Den katalavaino ti lene" which translates as "I don't understand what they are saying", referring to the government.