Having a look around on the net for possible website designs I came across this particular design which I would have really have liked to have implemented with the homepage of my project. Reading a few reviews that suggested that it was quite temperamental and as the exhibition is fast approaching I didn't want to run the risk of my project 'playing up'. C'est la Vie!

JQuery Plugins

Script 2.0

Re-worked script add-ins to original [in previous posts]:

Smith: So yeah, I’ve conducted many an operation for Medicorp… pretty much bullied and lied my way across political life consistently. I’ve done more to lower the tone of political life, even public life than anything else, and that was all of course done with Medicorp’s connivance and authority. Yet I have to bear the ultimate responsibility for it.

Smith: I mean, don’t get me wrong I’m happy to take criticism, I mean I was hired to generate slavish media support for Medicorp. Get a vote of confidence into public voters. The image making department did well. Job done.

Smith: Even now, it’s still all party gamesmanship. Even when the cabinet meet at Medicorp Headquarters it can get pretty heated. Politics is about passionate things, when you bring Media into the equation, well it becomes a tirade of lies, impressions and spin.

Smith: Do I think this is what the British people want?

Smith: Well, what they  wanted was change of some sort, no doubt about that. It wasn’t a bad outcome at first but now I’m thinking it wasn’t the best moves.

Smith: I am the man responsible for what’s changed, they way I conducted my operations, the way I created particular impressions and painted a convincing picture across public life.

Smith: It is a culture that I have created where Medicorp will stop at nothing. I mean these guys are now the guys meant to be keeping our country safe; they are the political establishment. It’s become, simply, way too cosy between the Media and politicians. The way it is though, they’ll always need each other, always.

Smith: I hate what it’s becoming, the relations between the media and politics has become way too close, and now Medicorp have taken over, they’ll forever be intertwined.

Smith: If by spin, people mean communication, then its existed since man because the world revolves around people speaking to each other and communicating their thoughts and ideas and feelings and even passions- that’s kind of what makes the world go around

Smith: I mean since the explosion of social networks, it’s almost like we’re in a global electronic virtual village square where people find that within these networks, with their own sort of people and you know, they talk to each other and they challenge each other and they feed each other information that they are getting from different places, so you can create your own media landscape. Now, that is a scary thought for the communicator because you’re there thinking here’s what I want to say, sell to the public, here’s how I’m going to push it to the public but they’re out there creating their own media landscape and you’ve got to fight your way into it. But once there, yes you’ve got the public in the palm of your hand.

Smith: When you’re the communicator, or the strategist and you’re clear in your own mind what it is you want, what you’re trying to say, what you’re trying to do… What you’re doing is painting a picture over time, you’re not necessarily going to connect with people from day 1, it’s about communicating and connecting over time, so I’m talking about painting a picture over time [one that will get the public on your side] and every time you communicate that little bit more, you’re adding another stroke of paint, you’re getting the desired response you want from the public.

Smith: I could create a landscape from almost saying right here’s what we want to say, here’s how we’re going to say it, here’s the outlets we’re going to go to, which newspapers we want it printed in, go to the broadcasters we need to work on and here’s the speeches we’re going to make, and you can plan it all out, you can plan the impact you make and what impact you want in response.

Smith: I mean the public are much more reasonable than the media, often on a day to day basis, they will regurgitate what’s going on through the media at that time. So we can feed information to the newspapers and broadcasters and the public will believe it and circulate the information we’ve created and plotted into the public domain. I keep to the same approach every time because as soon as decide to keep changing the approach, no one will believe you, no one.

Smith: Don’t tell me what I think, I’m paid to tell the public what they need to think. You have to work at the public, you can’t tell them what to do, you’ve got to make it seem like they’ve come to it themselves [well of course they haven’t, it’s an illusion]. I communicate what the nation needs, what I tell them they need. The common sense checklist goes out of the window.

Smith: I know how the Media operates, I started off as a journalist, building my contacts, networks you know make it a little easier when I made the move into communications and strategy. Once upon a time there was a belief system. My experience, most people go into it, they kind of believe something, they have a strong set of beliefs that draws you in.

Smith: Have to face up to the influences I’ve had upon the way the world works. Giving impressions that always true, using weasel words, or phrases that stretch the truth, I mean one of my operations early on was the Medicorp campaign slogan: ‘Nothing acts faster than Medicorp’. It gave an impression, even though all the parties all operate under the same regulations, so in fact they’re actually acting all the same.

Smith: Many a times, I’ve sat there with 2 phones, in a middle of a mis-managed frenzy.

Smith: Medicorp govern with fear and favour, that’s how it works and how it’s always worked.

Smith: Building communications is what I do, building relationships with the public bases on some truth. Feeding the public, their staple diet of information that they desire and demand.

Smith: I was drawn in by the belief system, once you’re in, it has a fierce grip on you. It’s like a bizarre symbiotic relationship which is difficult to get out of.

Smith: I’m consumed with it taking over my life, I worked, I work so hard for it and for what? You make enemies, you become careless of the views and feelings of others, you become obsessed with getting the public in the palm of your hand, you have to relocate to Medicorp’s employee housing.

Smith: There’s 2 faces of communication. 1, presenting the public with a particular constructed impression. The 2^nd, the other, betrays the actual reality.

Smith: The credibility of the government lies in the hands of the Media, and now they have the control, the power, the ability to do whatever they choose to do.

Smith: I’m a brilliant liar, to do what I have done. Having to have the capacity to look someone in the eye, and just say the opposite is the truth. You become dillusional, brainwashed. Reality just becomes a blur.




Really happy with the extra work I did with the new script as it isn't as obvious, blunt and the term spin-doctor isn't mentioned anywhere, also it still reads like a stylized noir-esque private detective [which was the style of VO I was going for].
 

Director of Communications and PR analysis...

Returning to:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017cd0x/One_to_One_Evan_Davis_with_Steve_Henry/

CASE STUDY 1: Alastair Campbell

KEY NOTES [Cited from http://www.alastaircampbell.org/about/]

• Regards himself as a communicator, writer and strategist
• Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. 
• In his time in Downing Street he was involved in all the major policy issues and international crises. He has said that in ten years in the media, and a decade in politics, he saw his respect for the media fall and his respect for politics rise.

Examples of footage watched:

CASE STUDY 2: Peter Mandelson

How to be Peter Mandelson

The article was quite an interesting read [although jaded] insight into the profile of Mandelson. Specific excerpts from the article read:

1. How to face tough questions – and win

There are three things about interviewing Peter Mandelson that stand out, and the prospective MP could do worse than adopt any of them. First is that he doesn't answer the question. All politicians don't do that, though Mandelson doesn't do it more than most, you might say.

Second, when he tires of evasion, his grip on the arguments and the facts is usually formidable, not an invariable rule in this government. Sometimes you wonder if it's only Mandelson who still has a functioning political mind.

Third, and far more entertaining, is the way an interview with him turns, well, not aggressive precisely, more "assertive". Mandelson is audacious enough to tell his interlocutor what the rules of the game are, what he should or shouldn't be asking, "what your readers/listeners/viewers are REALLY interested in", that sort of thing. Yesterday he boldly told Jim Naughtie on The Today Programme that there just wasn't enough time left in the interview to answer questions about the public finances, a remarkable assertion of control. But those exchanges were relatively well tempered. Much more enjoyable, to the point of becoming collectors' items, are Mandelson's increasingly-acrimonious encounters with Naughtie's co-presenter, Evan Davis. Much to Davis' evident irritation, Mandelson always sets the terms of the interview, the pair of them wasting valuable airtime on whether or not he, Mandelson, should be allowed to discuss the Tories' polices.

4. How to get away with things

What sort of satanic pact he made we may not know even when he publishes his memoirs (and what a read those should be), but Lord Mandelson has acquired the sort of immortality generally confined to Greek mythology and science fiction. Politically, he can no longer be harmed, let alone killed. Like Captain Scarlet, he's indestructible.

He has achieved this reversal of status, having been so vulnerable a decade ago that his second "resignation" was purely on reputation, through several factors, some deliberate and others less so.

First and foremost he is a fighter, not a quitter, and there is nothing so admirable to the British as sticking around. Here, as Alan Bennett said, you need only be 90 and capable of eating a boiled egg, and people think you deserve the Nobel Prize.

We also have a taste for brazen chutzpah (returning to Corfu while George Osborne shivered at home) and self-parodic teasing (a pussycat forsooth!). There an arch self-knowingness about the modern Mandy that echoes Tommy Docherty returning to the after dinner speech circuit after being done for perjury with: "Now I know you're not being to believe a word I say ... " and that's almost impossible to resist.

He knows we know he's a rascal, and couldn't care less. There is a law of diminishing returns with moral outrage, and most people long ago grew bored by what he loftily regards as petit bourgeois moralising over his personal ethics and a hands-off relationship with the literal truth.

On the eve of the Labour conference, he didn't rule out remaining in the limelight even under a Conservative administration. He probably had in mind some special envoy position, or a Washington job that involves first-class travel and plenty of dinners with Henry Kissinger. Of course he wouldn't rule out a public position under the Tories; he wouldn't rule out selling the kidneys of orphan babies if he thought it would further his self-interest. He gets away with saying such things because he makes no pretence. He is brazen.

One more thing, too often overlooked. He happens to be, by several light years, the cleverest and most competent Cabinet minister of his generation. Even those who stubbornly cling to ancient loathings acknowledge this, and in troublesome times any amount of naughtiness will be overlooked if the perpetrator appears to know what he's about.

5. How to manage the media

According to interviewer Bryan Appleyard, who travelled to China with him for a profile in last weekend's The Sunday Times Magazine, Peter Mandelson has "taken the battle" to the media in a manner far more sophisticated than the crude approach deployed by Alastair Campbell.

"Mandelson draws you in because you desperately want to hear what he will say next," says Appleyard. "He always gives you the impression of having enormous amounts of information at his disposal, so you feel you have to be quite nice to him or else you might miss the story."

While Campbell confronted the media like an angry bouncer, the smiling Mandy holds a guest list that hints at access to the inner sanctum. A dichotomy results whereby reader responses to online press articles about the First Secretary of State often express a uniform hatred for the subject – while the articles themselves are invariably approving. "This interview isn't journalism. It's marketing and PR," fumed one angry respondent to a recent piece in The Guardian in which Mandelson defined himself as a "kindly pussycat".

Journalists are charmed by him because he gives good copy. "Has Peter Mandelson taken some sort of vow never to give a dull interview?" gushed James Kirkup, political correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. "Since his return from Brussels, the Business Secretary hasn't opened his mouth without committing news in some way or other." Some readers were horrified. "Most of the intelligent amongst us cannot fathom the media attention given to this childish and vitriolic Machiavelli impersonator," said one.

So image conscious is Mandelson that he corrected The Telegraph's diarist Tim Walker, who falsely associated him with a Louis Vuitton bag which he was standing next to in a photograph. As he well understands, modern political journalism is personality-driven and – as pussycat or Machiavelli – he excites the public sufficiently to generate air-time, column inches and page views. That's why PM for PM is such a good story.

Examples of footage watched:

CASE STUDY 3: Andy Coulson

"It's certainly an interesting move by the Tories who have not had much luck trying to find an equivalent to Alastair Campbell, someone who knows the business and can make the media weather," 

White added.

As I first thought, conducting a search on Andy Coulson just comes up with lots of material relating to the hacking scandal which isn't what I was looking for. What I did manage to track down was this short clip from Question Time:

It became clear to me that the role of Director of Communications involves a past of dabbling in Journalism... This is something I will consider in my project. 

Organising webpage Layouts...

Here's  drawings of a basic layout of the website of how it will look visually:

(Re-posted as images were not working)

Further Reading...

This week has included a further investigation into the roles of PR, spin-teams, spin doctors and their relationships with the Media to create a manipulation and control of public opinion.

McCombs, M et al (2011) The News and Public Opinion: Media Effects in Civic life.

I began this week's theoretical investigation by looking into the phrase- public opinion. What does public opinion mean? How does public opinion situate itself? Who controls or steers public opinion? Public opinion is an opinion of a collective group that ultimately share the same knowledge and understanding of the world around them in order to assert opinions within the so called public sphere (Habermas). [public opinion within a political context and influenced by the news media].

McCombs et al describe public opinion as:- 'public opinion often is narrowly regarded as the responses that people make to pollster's questions about public affairs. The realities of public opinion are much more complex, involving a swirling, ever-changing mix of thoughts, feelings and occasional behaviour. The influences shaping this mix range from our childhood experiences to our most recent conversations. Especially prominent, however, is the steady succession of messages that we receive from the daily news' (2011: 1). This relates back to the research I conducted on Mind and Behaviour in November as McCombs et all go on to iterate: 'the consistent impact over time that the mass media, whatever the medium, have on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that shape public opinion' (2011:5).

I also looked at the work of Louw, E (2010) The Media & Political Process (2nd edition). 

I found Louw's work extremely interesting and useful , especially in defining a public relations democracy, the role of spin-doctoring, media-ization of the political process and the spin industry:

Public Relations Democracy

'Refers to the idea that the politics of Western democracies have become so enmeshed with professionalized communication and a spin industry that democracy itself has become PR-ized' (Louw 2010)

Spin-Doctoring

'Spin-doctor is a term first used with reference to Ronald Reagan's media team in a New York Times editorial of 21 October 1984. Spin-doctors are professional Impression Managers who have become the interface between politicians and journalists. Spin-doctors are experts in 'hype' and the   arts of tele-visualized politics, i.e. they craft the 'faces' of politicians and script, stage and mange their political performances. To be successful requires that spin-doctors know how to use the media to their own advantage. This involves being familiar with journalistic practices and discourses. Ultimately spin-doctors are involved in trying to a) get journalists to see the world from an angle that suits the spin-doctor's  agenda; b) deflect attention away from issues and stories they want to 'bury'; and c) plant and leak stories. Spin-doctors are experts in using the media to 'steer' public opinion'. (2010:216)

Media-ization of the Political Process

'The media-ization has been seen as: the intrusion of public relations, spin-doctoring and hype into the political process. Media-ization is associated with the need that policy elites have to 'manufacture consent' and communicatively 'steer' the masses'. (2010:194)

Spin Industry

'Refers to the way in which spin-doctoring has been routinized in comtemporary Western politics through the widespread employment of a range of specialists who are expert in crafting televisual performances with a view to steering both mass and niche publics. These specialists include spin-doctors, public relations, consultants, minders, advertising consultants, public opinion pollsters, make up artists and speech writers' (Louw 2010).

From reading select chapters within this book it made me consider the role that the media have played in constructing my own knowledge and understanding of the world around me and the political issues and political process within it. 

This book by Dinan and Miller (2007) was extremely useful for understanding the term Public Relations. As they go on to argue: 'Public relations was created to thwart and subvert democratic decision making. It was a means for 'taking the risk' out of democracy. The risk was to the rested interests of those who owned and controlled society before the introduction of voting rights for all adults. Modern PR was founded for this purpose and continues to be at the cutting edge of campaigns to ensure that liberal democratic societies do not respond to the will of the people and that vested interests prevail. PR functions, in other words, as a key element of propaganda managed democracy'. (2007:11)

Going back to the likes of Edward L. Bernays (1928) Propaganda cited in Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy, Bernays shared the same view as the other PR pioneers- that public opinion must be manipulated by 'the relatively small numbers of persons' who understand the masses (2007:12).

Summing up Public Relations

The main charges that can be made against public relations as a discipline are:

1. It is overwhelmingly carried out for vested powerful interests, mainly corporation.
2. It is not open and transparent about its means or even about its clients and the interests it is working for.
3. It characteristically involves deception and manipulation.
4. It does not engage in democratic debate, but rather seeks to subvert it in the interests of its clients.
5. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and other 'ethical' activities are all subordinated to corporate strategy.
6. PR has played a crucial role at the cutting edge of corporate power in the neoliberal revolution.  

(Dinan and Miller 2007:12)

'Living in a society which nearly every moment of human attention is exposed to the game plans of spin-doctors, image managers, pitchmen, communications consultant, public information officers and public relations specialists'. (2007:19)

So despite a small amount of theoretical research I've uncovered that under the umbrella phrase and role of spin-doctor, the following titles are suiting:

• Speech writer
• Policy maker
• Communications Officer [Director of Communications]
• Image Managers (this is my favourite)
• Communications consultant
• Public information officers
• Communication Strategist 

and so on... 

My next step is to watch these guys or 'special advisers' in action [interviews etc]:

• Alastair Campbell
• Peter Mandelson
• Charlie Whelan
• Andy Coulson [although resigned]
• Craig Oliver

SCRIPT REDRAFTING...

So the believability factor isn't there in my previous script so I'm going to redraft it and work with my VO to create audio that resembles natural speech as much as possible. I wanted to develop the script so that they script works towards revealing the protagonist's realization of what he's actually participated in. I'm also going to work on the language used within the script as currently the language is quite blunt. I want to create a scenario where the audience realize that the protagonist is a spin doctor without needing to be completely obvious and state he is one. These will be my next steps to improve the script:

• Watching and taking notes on interviews with director of communications for the government e.g. Alastair Campbell

• Looking at language used such as communications, strategy, speech writer etc

• Rework the script by going through and speaking it

• Work with my VO to read the script naturally 

The script needs to work really well for the whole project to come together. Eventually the audience will learn of the protagonist's main role as director of communications (or as an outsider, the more common title: spin doctor) for Medicorp. The protagonist is Medicorp's enforcer and ensures the public all follow Medicorp guidelines, usually in the form of spin. Through the protagonist, the audience will gain an insider account where the protagonist is taking a step back and looking back in to his actions and purpose e.g. an insider on the outside looking back in. 

Basically, the project will undoubtedly be satirizing the inner workings of British government and its relationship with the Media. 

Batch TESTING in PS

Using the batch action in Photoshop, I was able to record the effects and apply the effects to a set of test images within a click of a button! This is going to save a lot of time, particularly compared to in PS opening individual images and applying the effects that way and also applying the effects in FCP which would add a lot of rendering time!

Here are the BATCH TEST IMAGES:

Treated Images with Effects

Here are examples of images within the motion comic, complete with effects:


The filters used to treat these images are:

• Sharpen
• Fresco
• Poster edges

Character Profile and Analysis

This is an entry analyzing my decisions in;

- Location and Set
- Costume and Appearance
- Developing my project from the initial pilot to the final project

Location and Set

After finishing my pilot, I felt that I was too restricted to using found images [and the added work of chroma key and green screening]. I decided that I would rather have a plethora of images that I took myself and had control over which would enable my project to incorporate different shots within the motion comic as I was running the risk of the motion comic becoming aesthetically boring using the same shot [as in the pilot]. I'm extremely pleased with the photo-shoot shot at a office complex in Cardiff as it created a sense of verisimilitude that would have been quite difficult to create myself.

Costume and Appearance

A lot has changed since the Pilot as I have already mentioned in previous blog posts. Here I will talk about my decisions regarding costume and appearance of the protagonist within the motion comic. Within the Pilot, I felt the costume for the protagonist didn't really suite that of a spin doctor as the costume was quite casual. I decided to do research into a variety of roles within the Media to get a feel for the appropriate clothing:

Media Moguls

Top 10 media moguls of 2011

To look at examples of media moguls dress, I looked at the above link... Below are the images from the website...

Steve Jobs (Apple)

Simon Cowell (SyCO)

Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation)

Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP)

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Mark Thompson (BBC)

Larry Page (Google)

Jeremy Hunt (UK Government)

James Murdoch (News Corporation)

Evan Williams (Twitter)

TV Dramas- In the Thick of It [Malcolm Tucker]

Great influence [dress sense rather than attitude].

As you can see, it's either a turtle neck or suit [work dress]. For my motion comic, I've decided to mix it up with using smart casual dress as I didn't want the protagonist to dress too formal in a full suit as it wasn't fitting to the protagonist's role for him to do so. So from the waist down, it's jeans and shoes, waist up, shirt, tie and jacket for shots in the office. At home, extremely casual with tee , trainers and jeans.

I decided to go with the colour light purple as it is a neutral colour and isn't as aggressive as a deep red or deep blue shirt. It was quite interesting researching into the colours of shirts as subconsciously we semiotically read a person by the colour they are wearing. Here's a few examples of the connotations of the colour purple:

http://www.kmb-designs.com/colors/purple.html

http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html