Local Newspapers

A newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. A local newspaper refers to news coverage of events in a local context which would not normally be of interest to those of other localities, or otherwise be of national or international scope.

The two newspapers that i have looked closer at is the Diss Express and The Lowestoft Journal, both of them feature the places that they are writing for in the title. There are some similarities and differences with the papers which allow me to complete a textual analysis on them. The front cover of each of the newspapers have stories which are relevant to them areas, perhaps as a coincidence both front covers are centred around problems with housing. The Diss express has a picture centred on the front cover and the story to go along side it was wheelie bins and hedges being set on fire resulting on some homes have to be evacuated. The Lowestoft Journal has a front cover which would draw people in immediately, telling readers an amazing 11,000 new homes are proposed to be built. This would certainly attract peoples attention and even if they wouldn't normally buy this local newspaper then they might on this occasion to read the story and check on this piece of local news, which could effect them.

The Diss Express has decided to use some housing advertisement on the front cover to draw people in and let them no that there is a high possibility of more to come inside. Another striking away that they try to attract people is by having a picture of a poster that you can claim for free. If a family were in the newsagents and a small child say that you could have this then they would probably be able to convince there parents to buy it so that they could then claim their free England poster.

The Lowestoft Journal is slightly different as it devotes a lot more of its space to companies to advertise their companies on. I would say that just over half of the front cover is taken up by the front cover story and the rest has a title, and the covering story. You could presume that this is the way that the newspaper is mainly funded as they do not get enough from sales alone. I think this is extremely important but in some cases is either the making or breaking of a successful, long term newspaper.

I had a look at the Diss Express website http://www.dissexpress.co.uk/w.dissexpress.co.uk/) which i found to be very useful and if you have access to it, then a lot more informing. The website also included the most up to date information for the area. whereas the information that is in the newspaper is only as up to date as when it was printed and published.

After you navigated to another section of the website then it then meant i found it pretty hard to be able to get back to the home page. I initially thought that you had to click on the home button, this only took me to the home of that part of the website, i had to press the back button numerous times to get back to where i wanted to. I was very impressed with the website as it is such a small local newspaper compared to something more national like the EDP or others that they are competing with. Whenever i clicked on links that navigated me away using a new window then it seemed to take a long time, and some pages didn't even load, and came back saying that they were not going to be loaded.

I am currently in the process of contacting the Diss Express to find out some of their views and opinions form an editors point of view.

Does the thought of creating a music video excite you?

The role of the commissioner

• over seeing every aspect of a music video, to make sure the interests of the artists and record company match.

Video budget

• the amount of air time
• the budget is decided by the record labels and producers
• the success determines how much money is spent on the next video

Selecting a director

• someone that has quite a good previous history
• able to work to a budget
• a treatment that really works with the song

The artist - commissioner relationship

• relationship with he artist is key to make sure it runs smoothly
• although they employ other workers they still work closely
• budget depends on how famous they are

The responsibilities of the director

• bringing an idea to the table
• describing a video well to make sure that the idea is put across well
• instructing people that you work with

conceptualizing the video & writing the treatment

• they need to bring the film to life using the treatment

After looking at both music videos and print newspapers in depth i think that i am going to create my project on local newspapers. I am more interested in this area as it is more suited to me and my creative skills are more channelled towards this specific area. I have got that much prior knowledge of making any short or music videos. So in response to my intial question i don't think creating a music video excites me enough to do it. Creating a local newspaper will be easier to cater for more peoples needs and will not limit me as much. Although it is impossible to please eveyone, however i believe that it will be a lot harder to widely please a large audience through a short film or music video.

What's a music video?

A music video can be comprised of lots of different elements. Usually after a artist has written and produced a song they can choose to make a video to go with it. A video gives visual aid to watchers and listeners to help them realise the meaning behind the song and in basic terms to find out what the song is about. Most songs are written for no other reason than to make money, whereas in the past there was a lot more meaning behind each of the songs. For example Michael Jackson often produced music videos that cost several millions to produce, and once they were released it then sent him into a lot of debt. The video Michael made called scream was proved to be the most expensive music video that has ever been made costing a massive 7 million, this was produced in 1995. I have managed to find a list of the top 30 most expensive videos and 5 of michaels songs feature in it. Sometimes people don't get the meaning to the song and need some help to realise what it is about. The main purposes of a music video is to sell a song, if it has a music video with it it seems to sell it a lot more and give the singer a lot more profit in the long run. The second reasons that a music video is good is it remind you of the song and helps you remember it a lot easier. For example a memorable music video is OK Go - Here It Goes Again, this was created by a band who danced and used treadmills as their video. It was not necessarily the song that people can remember but the video that went along with it now means that everyone knows it and it made them very famous very quickly because of it.

Movie evaluation

The last movie i went to see was Dance flick, which recently came out. Before i went i imagined it to be along the lines of step up 1 & 2, get served, stomp the yard etc, which is quite serious but a very likable and gripping story line. It was not like i imagined, as the story line was based around other dance films that have been released over the last couple of years. Dance flick took the mick out of previous films and showed them in different ways and everything was made a lot more dramatic. For example there is a car crash and instead of people rushing to help her, they all rush to steel her engine so they can catch petrol from the over turned leaking tanker.

In real life this would never happen, as this did not happen in the film like this either in the original film it was left to the imagination, with just the viewers knowing that the character had unfortunately died from a car crash.

The film was split between being shot during the day and night however there seemed to be more night scenes. This meant that it was often night times and there was a lot of artificial light used which were all bright colours however it still seemed to be quite dark and dull a lot of the time. Diagetic and non diagetic music was used a lot as it was centered around dancing there needed to be music. Even when there were not dance scenes, music was still projected in the back ground and played a big part in creating tension.

Overall i enjoyed the film, although i may have felt a bit of disappointed as it had not been what i expected however it made up for it in humour as i sat there laughing throughout the film. But it would have been my fault as i did not find out about it before going to see it i just went off of the name and new it was a dance film so assumed it would be good. I would recommend people to go watch it as i think they would find it extremely funny, but to go there with an open mind. It may also help if you have seen the films that are featured within it, because then you realise the purpose behind it. Although it is not necessary but it enabled me to grasp onto the point a lot quicker.