Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Short Documentary

This week Lucy and I have been working on a short documentary, and some of the footage we'll use in our actual documentary but back to the point, we'll get the last of the footage for it tomorrow probably period two so i should be able to have it up by the end of break. Once its up on Youtube I'll embed it on here.

Friday, 25 September 2015

Definate outline/Plan for the Documentary

Over the course of this documentary Lucy and I are going to record our every day lives at school as well as important or interesting events both inside and outside of school in order to document how we change over this school year.

Thursday, 24 September 2015

research - the Galapagos islands specifically Isle Isabela


Form:
sound/music:
black and white or coloured?:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_Islands

http://www.galapagosisland.net/galapagos_islands/map.html

The Galapagos island is a group of islands off the coast of south America that lies on both sides of the equator(see below).

Information about Island Isabela







The biggest of the islands is Isle Isabela. Isle Isabela  is the youngest of the islands and is approximately 1 million years old, it was formed by the merging of 6 shield volcanoes ( a shield volcano is a type of volcano that is usually made up of almost entirely fluid magma. they are named shield volcanoes because of their size and low profile which makes them look like a shield when layed on the ground), all but one of those volcanoes are active which makes this one of the most volcanically active places on the planet. the volcanoes are named: Alcedo, Cerro Azul, Darwin, Ecuador, Sierra Negro and Wolf - Ecuador is the only inactive one.

 Isle Isabela has two settlements on it, they are Puerto Villamil and Santo Thomas - both were founded in 1893. the islands has a population of 2,200 the majority of which live in Puerto Villamil. the government there have been trying to move people away from traditional jobs like fishing and towards jobs like tourism over the years, because of this there was an incident in 2000 were a group of fishermen kidnapped baby tortoises (presumably from the tortoise breeding center) so that the government would extend their fishing limits.


Tortoises on Island Isabela

Island Isabela is home to five of the Galapagos subspecies, these include:

  • An Abingdon hybrid tortoise (the Abingdon tortoise has been presumed extinct), the hybrid was discovered in 2007 which suggests that there is at least one Abingdon tortoise left in the wild. however the last known Abingdon tortoise named Lonely George died in 2012. one of the reasons that the Abingdon tortoise went extinct is that it was depleted by whalers and fisherman as well as the destruction of vegetation by goats that were introduced in 1958.
     Lonely George (his shell is a saddle back shell)

  • Volcan Wolf Tortoise there are roughly 1,139 in the wild, they make there home on the northern parts of the island as well as the northern and western slopes of Volcano Wolf. there are two different types of Wolf tortoises, one is a saddle back and the other is a domed - research suggests that this variation is caused by a hybrid species of native Isabela tortoise with about 40 descendants of Floreana tortoises that people have believed to be extinct since the 1850's. right now their conservation status is Vulnerable




  • Sierra Negra Tortoise there are 694 members of this species that live on the island by the Sierra Negra Volcano after which they are named. There are also two other groups, one in the east and another that live on the southern and western slopes. Out of all the Galapagos sub species that live on the island it is the most threatened, in 1998 20 adults were taken into captivity for a breeding program because of the threat of volcanic eruption from the nearby Cerro Azul volcano. The subspecies is shaped between a domed and saddle back with a distinctive 'tabletop' appearance, the differences in the form and structure are put down to geological differences. Its conservation status is endangered.





  • Volcan Darwin Tortoise there are 818 of these tortoises on Isabela Island, they are spread out across the southern and western slopes of Volcano Darwin. They were heavily exploited in the  19th Century by Whaling vessels, but recovered. their conservation status is threatened.





  • Iguana Cove Tortoise there are roughly 2,574 that live on Cerro Azul Volcano. this subspecies population was depleted by sea men in the last two centuries, it was also extensively slaughtered by cattle owners in the 1950's and 1960's. Before the eradication programs its nests and hatchlings were destroyed by wild pigs, dogs, cats and black rats. its conservation status is threatened. There are differences in the shells between the males and females of this species unlike the other sub species that live on the island, the males are larger and more their shells are saddled back whereas the females have more domed shells.






Other Animals on Isle Isabela

Other species of animals that live on this island are Penguins, Cormorants, Marine Iguanas, the blue footed booby, pelicans, Sally Light Foot crabs, Galapagos land iguanas, Darwin Finches, Galapagos hawkes and Galapagos doves

The Galapagos Penguin



The Galapagos penguin is the second smallest type of Penguin in the world and is native to the Galapagos and is the only penguin that lives north of the equator. It is 49 cm (19 inches) high and 2.5 kilograms (5.5 lbs) in weight
It is one of four living species of branded penguins, all branded penguins are part of the Spheniscus genus, All four species of branded penguins have similar colouring. the other species of branded penguins are Megellanic penguins, Humboldt penguins and African Penguins.
It can survive living above the equator because of the Humboldt current and the cool waters that are brought up from the depths by the Cromwell Current.
The juveniles are fluffier, are grey on the side and chin and have no brand stripe across their chests. The only difference between the males and females appearances is the fact that  the females are smaller than the males.
While 90% of the penguins live on the west coast of Isabela and the western part Fernandina island smaller populations of the Galapagos penguins also live on Floreana, Santa Cruz, Santiago and  Bartolome.
Typically the temperature of the islands is between 15 - 28 degrees C apart from the El Nino season. El Nino season is an anomaly that heats the surface of the sea. El Nino is defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) as a 3 month average warming period of at least 0.5 degrees C in a specific area of the east Pacific Ocean. It is defined slightly differently by other organisations however it can last between seven months and two years and takes place at irregular times - it can occur every two - seven years. On average it takes place every five years. if it lasts between 7-9 months it is called the El Nino condition if it lasts longer it is called the El Nino episode.
Because of the heat they have developed three different behavioral adaptations to cool off because of their time on land, the first is going into the water, the second is panting - they use evaporation to cool off their throats and airways, the last adaptation they have is the ability to lose heat through their flippers by hunching forward and shading their flippers from the sun.
According to a survey by the Charles Darwin Research Station in 2004 there was an estimated population of 1,500. Currently their conservation status is endangered.

The Flightless Cormorant

Flightless cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi) -Isabela.jpg


The cormorant has webbed feet and strong legs that it uses to propel itself through the water when hunting for eels, fish, small octopuses and other small sea creatures. It will rarely venture father than one kilometer from breeding grounds and only swims in shallow coastal waters this includes straights and bays. It is the biggest member of the Phalacrocoracidae family, it can grow to be between 89-100cm (35-40 inches) and can weigh between 2.5-5.0kg (5.5-11 lbs). Because it is flightless its wings have become 1/3rd of  the size they would require to fly. In 1983 50% of the population died due to the El Nino, its population fell from 800 to 400, however by 1999 the population had recovered to an estimated 900. Before the islands were discovered by man, the cormorant had no predators so it no longer needed the ability to fly, therefore it lost the ability to. However since then cats, dogs and pigs have been introduced so they are now no longer free of predators, though they remain unafraid of people and can in fact be approached and picked up.
Before 2011 this animal was listed as endangered, however due to resent research it has been decided that these birds are not as rare as they were believed to be and that the population has stabilized, in fact in 2011 it was estimated that there were 1,679 in total  - they live on both Isabela and Fernandina - as a result they were down graded to vulnerable. these birds are native to the Galapagos.
Their ability to recover quickly from natural disasters e.g. the El Nino of 1883, is due to the females ability to breed three times a year, each time she will lay three eggs but usually only one will survive.

Marine Iguanas



There are six different types of sub - species of marine iguanas that live on the Galapagos islands, they are:
A . c . albemarinesis - Isabela Island
A . c . cristatus - Fernandina Island
A . c . hassi - Santa Cruz Island
A  . c . mertensi - San Christobal and San Santiago Islands
A . c . nanus - Genovesa Island
A . c . sielmanni - Pinta Island

The Blue Footed Booby

Blue-footed-booby.jpg


Brown Pelicans

Brown Pelican21K.jpg



Sally Light Foot Crabs

Zayapa (Grapsus grapsus), Las Bachas, isla Baltra, islas Galápagos, Ecuador, 2015-07-23, DD 30.JPG



Galapagos Land Iguanas

Galápagos land iguana.jpg




Darwin's Finches

Darwin's finches by Gould.jpg



Galapagos Hawkes

Galapagos hawk.jpg





Galapagos Doves

Galapagos-dove.jpg


A documentary film : The Bizarre World of Ancient Greece




Form
Music/Sound
Black and White or Coloured

Ancient Greece was one of the first civilisations of the world and many other civilisations and empires have been based off of it. Greece was the birth place of many things including Democracy, Literature, Philosophy, Art, Drama/Theater, Architecture, Sport, the Olympics,Wine and Culture and Medicine.
They were some of the greatest warriors the world has ever seen, the only people that became better warriors than them were the Romans, but even their civilisation was based on the Greeks, in fact the romans ancestors that founded the city that the family of Romes founders Romulus and Remus lived in were descendants of the survivors of Troy after it fell.

The Trojan War

The Trojan War was started when the Trojan prince Paris went to Sparta, where he fell in love with king Menelaus wife Helena, who was famous for her beauty. When Paris left Sparta to return to Troy Helena went with him. The reason that the whole of Greece went to war with Troy to get her back was because before he father chose who she would marry she had had scores of suitors, so Odysseus (a famous Hero and Prince of Ithica) came up with the idea that all the suitors would have to honor and defend Helena's marriage no matter who he chose to which they all swore they would. Also Menelaus's Brother Agamemnon married Helena's sister Clytemnestra and became king of Mycenae - Menelaus had humbly sent his brother to petition Helena's father for her hand in marriage.
Menelaus went to his brother and asked him to summon all the lords that had sworn an oath to defend Helena's marriage no matter who she chose. in short they all had to honor their oaths, went to war with troy - it lasted ten years - and won and burnt troy to the ground. used the Trojan horse to get inside the city - it was a great wooden horse that people hid in that was taken inside the city by the Trojans because they thought it was a gift for Poseidon, his temple was inside of the city.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War#Origins_of_the_war

Undoubtabley the Spartans were the greatest warriors in Greece. Boys were trained from the age of seven till they were fifteen to be warriors, this is referred to as the upbringing. Despite not going through the upbringing girls were trained in a similar way, they were trained to be the perfect mother and were taught things like wrestling.

Even though growing up in Greece, especially Sparta was dangerous you had to survive infancy first. In fact you death sentence could have been signed minutes after you were born, over the whole of Greece if a child was born ill or a family couldn't afford another child you would be left in the wilderness to die, especially if you were a girl. However Sparta was the only one of the Greek states where it was the city elders not the parents that decided if a child was week or not, regardless of gender and whether the family could afford it if a child was deemed to be strong enough to live the mother had to raise it. However there was a loop hole to this (for everywhere but Sparta), if a family left there child in the wilderness but they know a couple who were childless but for whatever reason had no children they could tell them where the child was left and they would retrieve that child and raise it as there own.

The five strongest city states were:
Athens
Sparta
Megara
Argos
Corinth

Sparta and Athens are the two best known states of Greece. Sparta was renowned for its military power and Athens was known for its superior navy, whereas now days its known as the birthplace of philosophy and democracy.




The Greeks had a lot of different values and ideas of what was acceptable in society and what wasn't. One of these things was homosexual relationships between young boys and older men, they were actually encouraged and accepted to an extent but there were strict rules about how they should be conducted and how long they should/could last.
however 



Another thing the Ancient Greeks were known for is their gods. Like the Ancient Romans and the Ancient Egyptians they had multiple diates, however there were 13 main ones, 12 lived on mount Olympus and the thirteenth Hades lived in the underworld.

The Greeks


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patroclus

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Practical Idea - A Short Documentary

So this week Lucy and I are going  to make a short documentary about our week in school, we may only film on a few days or we may film through the whole week. We'll be filming anything interesting that happens whether its in the editing suite/ drama room or during our lessons, We'll probably be filming during break and/or lunch as well.

Monday, 21 September 2015

Filming and Editing

So Lucy and I will be filming again third period so i might be able to upload and edit it fourth and put a rough cut up but it depends on if we are in the editing suite or not , if we aren't then i can do it tomorrow

Friday, 18 September 2015

filming

So we're actually going to start filming today, it's just going to be an introduction and we may do a couple of takes so if we manage to find the card reader it can be up by the end of  today if not i can put it up Monday.

okay scratch that i'll put it up Monday because i don't have the lead for my camera.

but on the plus side me and Lucy have actually done some filming today so it's all f
good. We've filmed an introduction and some stuff about us and just i doing what we normally do.

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

update - what happened?/what do i do with my life????!!!!

So the only thing that has happened this week is that I have been updating my animals and historical documentaries post so it now has more information and images. Nothing much has happened school wise either - the only thing that has happened at school besides getting homework is that we had to sign up for clubs. the choices were homework, sport, arts or debate so obviously being the argumentative person I am I signed up for debate but its only for the first term because then I'm going to help with the key stage 3 performance.
the only other thing is that all of my year have been told that we have to get a careers appointment, so I've ended up having to email the career adviser and ask for one because when I went to their office they weren't in.
Apart from that the only thing worth mentioning is that i still have no idea what i want to do at university because i know i'm probably going to end up doing something in law enforcement because its just what my family does - I'm just not sure if I want to study criminal law at university when I'm already studying law at a-level and this year for A2 we study criminal law e.g murder and voluntary/involuntary manslaughter. OR do i study forensics? but I'm not sure if I need to have studied science at A-level for that because even though I've only looked at forensics at Coventry and I don't need to of studied science at a-level to do forensics there. OR do I study criminology and try and go into profiling?
At the start of the year I knew that I wanted to study law but didn't know if I was going to do a joint degree in law and criminology or law and drama. whereas now I don't know if I want to do a joint degree in law and forensics or law and criminology or criminology and forensics or major in one and minor in another. but now I think I might see if I can do a joint sandwich degree but I don't think I can in which case I've got to find out what I can do.

Monday, 14 September 2015

Thursday, 10 September 2015

FOCUS ON FILM FORM, STYLE AND TECHNIQES

form of the different documentaries? what do I like about that form of documentary?
form - camera style - was it hand held? etc
music
is it black and white or coloured


http://www.screenonline.org.uk/



animal and historical documentaries


the first part of the documentary focuses mostly on sea creatures it talks about both sea creatures from now days as well as prehistoric ones. The second part looks a lot at sharks - it talks about the different types of sharks and their prehistoric ancestors as well as how they signify the health of a reef. this documentary also looks at the sea and land animals that live on a small group of islands called Pitcairn, Oeno, Henderson (which used to be inhabited and Ducie - they are off the coast of New Zealand. It also briefly talks about the small community that live on Pitcairn island. they are all descendant from the mutineers of the HMS Bounty, the community has lived their for 2 centuries.
Form of this documentary is mostly hand held but they also use water cameras and a deep sea camera.
music - the only music used in this documentary is the mood music. the only other sound is narration
is it black and white or coloured? Coloured



form - camera style - was it hand held? etc: steady, most likely hand held but doesn't shake
music - 
is it black and white or coloured? Coloured? :  coloured
This documentary focuses on the fastest animals in the sky, sea and on land - while it focuses on speed it also looks at what they compromise for their speed and how successful and vulnerable they are. for example one of the animals looked at in this documentary is the cheater, while its one of the fastest animals in its environment its also one of the most vulnerable as its speed its one power of attack and defence - this means it will always flee when threatened - their young can even be prey to birds, the cubs aren't safe from birds even if the mothers hide them if they have to leave them alone to hunt. Hunting can be dangerous because their internal temperature rises to 41 degrees when they are at top speed. this means they can only use their speed when there is a high chance of success and as a short burst. The documentary then goes on to talk about the horned animals of the plain, it also briefly talks about tall grass fires and stalks.


Form - camera style - was it hand held? etc
music/sound: narration and some mood music
is it black and white or coloured?: coloured



form - camera style - was it hand held? etc: archive footage
music/sound - narration and mood music
is it black and white or coloured - archive footage, some is still black and white while some has been colourised

while there are a lot of different types of documentaries, lifestyle documentaries are the most popular and are in a lot of ways less informative as they only inform you about a specific person/people. On the other hand historic and animal documentaries are more informative. For example one season of documentaries could cover one big subject but focus on a different specific thing each episode. So one season of a historic documentary might look at WW1 but each episode might look at a different battle each episode.
in fact some documentary topics are so popular that a channel might have a day(s) or a week dedicated to documentaries about that subject. an example of this would be Shark Week, which was started by discover channel - which is an american channel - they started shark week on July 17th 1988.

http://documentaryaddict.com/shark+week+discovery+collection-1185-doc.html



The point of shark week is to educate viewers/the general public about sharks, however some of the documentaries encourage a lot of myths and misconceptions about sharks.
I mean yes they kill a lot but that's because that's their primal survival instinct, but that's the same for all carnivorous animals and there is actually a lot more to sharks then people realise. Scientist's have done experiments and found out that sharks are like other animals, for the sack of argument imgoing to use dogs as an example, they are actually very intelligent and social creatures. they can teach each other things and some have a preferred 'buddy' to swim with. And yes i suppose you could look at them teaching each other things as them just finding and teaching each other faster and better ways to hunt but by the same standards a lot of wild canines do that and the only reason dogs don't is because they are domesticated and therefore don't have to hunt for food.
And yes they are deadly creatures but they are also very curious and social creatures as well.

An example of a myth about sharks is that they will attack people for no reason. this is not necessarily true, because while they do attack people the majority if not all of the people they attack are surfers. this is important because one of the main sources of food for sharks is seals and sharks have very weak eyesight and rely on more strongly on their over senses like smell and their ability to sense electromagnetic pulses and changes in pressure as well as vibrations. Because of this they cannot distinguish between seals and surfers due to their weak eyesight, which is why they attack surfers. The only other way sharks are going to attack you is if your bleeding and even then that's because the scent of blood will attract them and send them into a feeding frenzy no matter where the blood is coming from, the only other reason is if you provock them.
another myth is that all sharks are man eaters - when in actuality some sharks like the basking shark  don't even eat fish at all, neither does the whale shark or the mega-mouth shark all eat plankton. Another type of harmless shark is the nurse shark.



http://www.sharksider.com/nurse-shark/

Whale Shark



http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/whale-shark/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark

Mega-mouth Shark


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megamouth_shark

Basking Shark
Cetorhinus maximus by greg skomal.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basking_shark


In conclusion while Shark week does teach the general public a lot about sharks it also forgets to tell them a lot of important things and instead portrays them at there worst.



http://newsmaine.net/19049-modern-sharks-not-prehistoric-ancestor
form - studio camera so it wouldn't be handheld and will be on something.
coloured
music/sound?: no sound just the hosts talking/debating sharks.


One of the biggest debates about shark week is the megalodon - its believed to be extinct but there is a lot of opposition to this statement, people who oppose this statement argue that because we have only actually explored 20% of the worlds oceans, its actually possible that the Megalodon still exists  - the other unexplored 80% is simply to deep for us or any of our technology to withstand the pressure. some animals and fossils have only been found because they have been washed up or caught accidentally. an example of this would be the blob fish or the cyclops shark.
The argument that supports the statement that any reported sightings are actually submarine sharks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon



The blog fish lives between 2,000 and 3,900 ft - the pressure is between 60 times to 120 times more than at sea level.The blob fish's jelly like body has a density less than water which allows it to float. This is not actually a problem for the blob fish because it only eats whatever swims in front of its mouth.




The cyclops shark isn't actually a separate species of shark even though they are extremely rare. they are born form normal sharks they just haven't developed properly in the womb. In fact there have been very few times that cyclops sharks have been observed at all and all of those times where when they were in the womb, this suggests that they don't usually survive long after they are born. In fact the one observed and photographed earlier this year,  the first time a cyclops shark was observed outside the womb, was because its mother was caught accidentally.

Some example of other creatures that live in the deep are:

Marine Hatchet Fish



Goblin Sharks

Giant Squid

Frilled Shark

Common Fangtooth

Stop Light Loose Jaw


http://www.sparknotes.com/mindhut/2014/12/08/the-10-most-terrifying-deep-sea-creatures/slide/6




so seeing as me and Lucy will be making a documentary about our year (I'm not sure when we'll start filming/photographing things) we're pretty likely to end up talking about uni, as well as other things, so I figured I could keep track of important things that happen during my school week/day. like today I have three hours of self study and right now as well as doing this I'm looking up possible universitys because I've only really looked at Bangor University. its in Wales and if I go there I want to do a BA in Law and Criminology - if I study it full time it'll take three years, BUT I would need 280 points to go there and I don't think I can get that
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/M1M9-Law-with-Criminology



Anyway right now i'm looking at Coventry university and they have a really god forensics course, if i do forensics here i don't have to of done science at a-level but i need an a-level average of bbc and 5 gcse's at a*- c which - if you include my public services btec I have, so i might be able to go there.
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/course-structure/2015/faculty-of-health-and-life-sciences/undergraduate/forensic-investigations-bsc-hons/
they also have a really good criminology course, which is also a sandwich - (this means i'll do a year in the industry) full time course
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/course-structure/2015/faculty-of-health-and-life-sciences/undergraduate/criminology-ba-hons/
coventry would cost £8,331 a year




http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/ug/entry
Greenwich would cost £9,000


http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/courses/undergraduate/applied-criminology.aspx
If i do criminology full time (over 3 years) it will cost £9,000 a year. Whereas if I do it part time (over 4 years) it will cost £4,500 a year.

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

summer 2

so here are some of my favourite photos that i have taken over the summer. the big one in the corner and the one in the top right hand corner were taken when we went to parc pier brun for the day. the one in the bottom corner was taken in my grandparents kitchen one day because i thought jack looked really cute sat next to Trixie. the one of Jack and Charlie in the car was taken on the way back from the resturant that we went to for jacks birthday lunch :)
the fist summer collage of me, charlie and my adorable baby brother jack :)
MY PHOTO'S WILL NOT UPLOAD! THE SITE WONT PUT THEM UP! So I'm going to have to do something to them first :(