HCJ PART 4 (WEEK 4)

My take on 'Wings of Desire' (1987) with Existentialist theory (Part 2)

At the Coffee Bar I

Der Filmstar tells Damiel (still an angel) at a Coffee Bar how great it is to be, to exist, to feel - the simple things in life.

Damiel is dying to feel the things that humans do - particularly love - the love he has developed from watching Marion.

At the bridge

Damiel and Cassiel seem to show the more optimistic side on Existentialism when they talk at a bridge by a river.

Existentialists believe you create your own tale in a never ending story; they long to make their own story: "I want to conquer a history for myself".

"We learned to speak"
Link to Jean-Paul Satre: Why write? It is "the act of freedom".

- DAMIEL TURNS INTO A HUMAN...

As the films nears its end, Damiel truly appears to be at peace when he says: "I'll take her in my arms...she'll take me in her arms".

This is the one passionate commitment that Damiel makes when he becomes human

At the Coffee Bar II

Damiel feels the bliss that Der Filmstar spoke of. He gulps a piping hot coffee but doesn't care - he is so jubilant to feel what humans can.

Circus II

As Marion, the Trapeze Artist, is on the verge of the big time, she still feels full of angst as she constantly thinks to herself. She is superstitious as there is a full moon - the same as when her dreams were last crushed.

Then, in an impossible alignment with Damiel, Marion suddenly seizes life for herself: "It doesn't matter".

She goes on to put up an excellent performance.

Meeting at bar at concert

And finally, in amongst all the suffering on the streets of Berlin, Damiel and Marion eventually meet (see video, above).

In keeping with the whole film, Damiel slowly turns to Marion, it is as if there is nobody else in the world: "there's no better story than ours".

Marion talks of her lack of purpose and confusion in life: "When I was with someone I was often happy, but at the same time it all seemed a coincidence".

"The taxi driver's daughter was my friend, but I might as well have put my arm round a horses neck", she adds.

She feels no doubt for the first time with Damiel. To an Existentialist, what had gone before and what is yet to come is irrelevant, they are in the moment, they are in love.

"From tonight there are no more coincidences".

"We are our destiny".

"Now or never"...

WINOL 2 (WEEK 4 DEBRIEF)

Notes from Chris' Monday morning debrief...

The bulletin was the best and most watched of the semester so far.

It was a lot more professional and slick than previous weeks and the mistakes, as explained below, are becoming smaller and smaller.

Story 1: Council

Joey more or less repeated Stu on the first line of his package, which is good to reiterate the story. He went to the opposition, which enabled us to use the verb 'slammed' for a hard news angle. The interviews were well framed. The second interviewee said some facts that we should have said. Overall, we need better quotes.

Story 2: Stock Exchange Simulator

Again some facts were in the quotes, so we needed more striking soundbites. However, it was technically brilliant with one interviewee looking left and the other looking right. Overall, OFCOM would have said the story was too positive as it didn't introduce any element of doubt (i.e. - it might be a flop).

Story 3: Big Tidy Up (NIB)

There was balance in this one, as it gave the general impression that it was a good UoW initiative but it was a flop. In terms of variety of shots, the best I've seen on WINOL.

Story 4: Fairtrade Week

Sadly, all the good things from the NIB weren't transferred to this package. It seemed like one big advert so there was an absence of balance.

Sport 1: Winchester RFC Finals Day

Grant really showed off his personality with his piece to camera; as an introduction to the highlights, it reminded me of something you would see on the Football League Show. It was called a 'crowded' venue, but the shot didn't empasize this as the shot wasn't tight enough. Although it is difficult with the means at our disposal, we need to try and get tighter in on the action - and get some emotional cutaways.

Sport 2: Graphic

Results well scripted and read.

Story 5: Web Archiving (And Finally)

A real disappointment editorially but needed a bit of balance. As one of the week's main stories surrounded council job cuts, we really could have made more of this (i.e. - crazy web archivists a waste of time and money). Technically very sound though!

OFCOM CODE: 10-MIN TUTORIAL

Chris Horrie's tutorial on the OFCOM code. We will be refreshed and tested on the code this week.

HCJ PART 4 (WEEK 4)

'Wings of Desire' Screening

My take on 'Wings of Desire' (1987) with Existentialist theory (Part 1).

The whole film is spontaneous and enigmatic - two very appealing features to Existentialists.

The film follows two angels, one of whom becomes human and meets his true love, Marion - she is also followed all the way through. The message: passionate love can overcome the constant angst and oppression that plagues your life.

It is filmed from the point of view of an angel, which is reflected in the Existentialist style of slow, floating camera movement.

In an early scene, a man says of his dead parents: "my father was my father, my mother was my mother...no tears, no grief." To him, they were nothing more. This is reminiscent of Meursault in Albert Camus' 'The Outsider' who barely remembers when his mother died. Although this appears unusual, it draws upon the the theory of 'so-called existence' in that we are supposed to love our parents and be devastated at their death. An Existentialist wouldn't see it as abnormal if one didn't mourn over their parents.

We are introduced to the angels Damiel and Cassiel when they are conversating in a car. One of them says: "I wish people could say 'now' 'now'...and salvage all their demons and let them loose." Existentialists say we should let our demons loose, otherwise we will oppress ourselves.

These 'demons' are shown best in the subway scene (see video, above) as the camera pans from person to person exposing what they're thinking about themselves and others.

Circus

We are then introduced to Marion in the early stages of her career as a trapeze artist. She suddenly learns that they can't pay their rent to keep the circus going, so her dream of being a famous trapeze artist is shattered.

She says to herself: "it's the end and I feel nothing...it happens, that's the way it goes." Although it appears strange to talk of disappointment in this way, it epitomises Existentialist's attitude to life.

"Maybe time is the disease."

She also thinks constantly about finding love and appears trapped without it: "[I'm] longing for a wave of love...I need to love."

Homer, the aged poet

The angels occassionally hone in on a disillusioned old man called Homer. He appears reflective of the Existentialist view that people are worn down by their history.

Homer: "What makes the aspiration of peace so unendurable? Shall I give up? Where are my kids? The original, the natural"; children are very important to Existentialists as they are innocent and have no history.

As he journeys through Berlin, Homer (I might be wrong, might be someone else) says: "Today, only the German soul can be conquered". He believes that power is in the hands of "whoever has the right password". In Existentialism, authority is largely rejected as they believe you should be your own authority - it appears these quotes reflect this.

Film set

We are introduced to 'Der Filmstar' on the set of a film that appears to be about the Nazis/concentration camps. He is portrayed as an Existentialist as he is successful and seems to be in control of his own destiny.

He looks over at the extras on set and thinks to himself: "they're just extras, extra humans." This is a bit of a "hell is other people" moment!

Crowd of Children

One of the angels is sat in a crowd of kids and thinks to himself: "He [the child] had a clear picture of paradise...now he can only guess".

In 'Wings of Desire', the loss of the exuberance of youth is a constant theme.

Angels at the River

One angel says to another: "I want to conquer a history for myself...away with the world behind the world".

...And then, like magic, things start to get better...

WINOL 2 (WEEK 4 DEBRIEF)

Great bulletin this week, mainly because of great organisation.

We knew we were on the right track when we were on time with the headlines, leaving time to rehearse for the bulletin.

The council cuts story was put at the top as it was a local view of a national story. It had great structural qualities and was technically decent but it just needed to be rounded off with some facts. How many cuts? Percentage compared to other councils?

The story about the Stock Exchange Simulator was exactly what we want for the gallery. The package was eased in from Stu's link after Jon left a few seconds before his voice-over began. Again, it lacked a bit of flavour as it was a bit saturated with interviews, but a good piece.

Lucy's NIB of 'The Big Tidy Up' was really good. A great variety of shots and generally filmed and edited really well. However, the story about Fairtrade week wasn't quite as strong technically while there was little grasp on the story.

GREAT HANDOVER! FINALLY!!!

The Sports team did equally well this week. Their main Football fixtures were off this week, so they decided to cover a Rugby final between King Edward's and Peter Symonds College. Grant's piece to camera was very professional (slightly too long though) and set the scene before the highlights well. There was also great audio mixing during the highlights.

The Football results were then read out well by Lucy and scripted very well by the Sports team.

The 'And finally' about web page archiving had a lot of potential but we didn't really get to the heart of the story.

Overall, the packages were great and the mistakes are becoming a lot less significant. The professionalism and organisation in the gallery enabled these packages to be shown off while it was presented brilliantly by Stu and Lucy.

WINOL 2 (WEEK 4)

I walked in Monday morning to see that somebody had searched for 'Hampshire County Council meetings' on Google.

"What's the problem?" I hear you cry! Well, it's very annoying seen as I already have a list of council meetings for Hampshire and Winchester.

It was refreshing to see somebody taking notice of my 'forward planning board'. Thanks Claire!

I also got Claire onto a story this week after hers fell through. The story was about the Hampshire County Council's Archiving Department who are recording how the web has developed over time.

It was a good story as news broke this week that 25,000 council jobs could be lost - are these the kind of departments we can do without?

I also spent a long time going through all members of Winchester City Council and writing what department(s) they specialise in. Their contact numbers are all there too so this will hopefully help the news team in getting the right person.

WINOL 2 (WEEK 3 DEBRIEF)

Notes from Chris Horrie's debrief on Monday morning...

The intro and headlines were a lot better this week and Stu read them well to reel in the audience. We just need to match up the headline shots with the corresponding top lines that the presenter reads out.

We have to jazz up our stories as much as possible. For example, "lashed out" in the intro to the first story is the kind of verb we want.

We need to avoid comment in our scripting. We should constantly use the conventinal 'subject, verb, object'. The subject should be the most important person on whatever story it is. In addition, we need to front the story with phrases like: "leading councillor" and not "Joe Bloggs"; if we give their function before their name, it makes more people stay to find out exactly who this story surrounds (better audience reach).

In the top story on the Trinity Centre, we got a good quote from the councillor, but we need to work on hardening them up - get the interviewee to say the most extreme thing as possible.

Hobbs churned out another bread and butter crime story. He protected one of the victims identities and made a point about it in the VT, which was to his credit. I went with Hobbs to film and we got some strong and emotional quotes from her.

The next story was about the ongoing parking problem in Winchester. We drifted into comment, which undermined the newsy element that was so tight in the first two stories. Tommy Geddes was there and we didn't interview; we needed to make more of this.

The scripting in Jon's norovirus story was very strong at the beginning of his package; he used a small amount of 'expo' but it was necessary in explaining what the virus is. However (sorry Chris!) there were too many facts told by the interviewee, such as "we're closing wards" - the WINOL reporters should say things like this.

Hand over from Stu to Lucy was very good - Hooray!

The sport was light again, so the team did well to get what they got. Jason's Rugby highlights were brilliant.

The Mike Marchant interview about upcoming fixtures was a good cover up for the lack of matches. Problems with the sound as the interview spot was very open to the wind. We need to be just as careful with our camera (framing) as choosing a quiet place for sound.

We then had our usual graphic for the local non-league; I thought this was scripted very professionally by the sports team and well read out by Lucy.

We had a strong 'and finally' story this week, which was very well put together by Veronica. She made a lot of the musicians nature as an extrovert while there were noddies and a good variety of shots. I think this package should be used as an example for our news packages in the coming weeks.

Events to look out for

19th April - Studio Discussion chaired by Joy Carter.

May (Date TBA) - WINOL Election Coverage