Photography

Unfortuanly I did not get a response from  River Studios, photography .

As I worked on a fashion shoot with Burbo K’ture, I got the chance to experience photography slightly and I really enjoy it and became more interested, therefore I wish to try and get some experience with a photographer soon. 

Evaluation

When I first read the brief I felt I could not engage with the project easily, and even throughout the project I found it very challenging. However, to try and find a way of connecting, I chose a context that I can relate to a lot, this being media pressures.

Creating puppets was a completely new thing to me and I was not looking forward to that element. However, making them was very fun and I was very pleased at the professional outcome.

Creating the intro and video was something I found less challenging, as I had much practice in this area. But my skills developed slightly through the experimentation in this project.

Even though at the beginning of this project I did not have a positive outlook, I am pleased with the outcome and I feel the video portrays the message of media pressure well, especially with the use of my humorous and parody tone.

If I had more time, I would have created more puppets and scenes, of the waiting room and more interviews of the judges accepting the puppets that look like them and turning others down even. This may have made the message clearer. 

The Only Way Is Puppets - Final Video

This Video is also available as a higher quality on Vimeo. Link Below:
(Ensure the HD option is enabled)

https://vimeo.com/64519066

Baverstock Overall Feedback

Overall I feel I got the general feel of what it’s like to be a teacher, however as I was there on university work experience, the children in higher years didn’t want or rely on my help as much as they did their teacher or they was working more independently.

I found teaching the learn 2 learn lessons more fulfilling and exciting, as I really enjoyed the challenge of being a support to students with learning difficulties and even year 7 as a whole, as they needed the most teacher attention.

Observing teachers in action has played a big part in my experience and options too, and I have gathered the positives and negatives for teaching from this and talking to teachers themselves.

Unfortunately I was a witness to some students having bad behavior and language toward the staff, and can understand how it can cause stress and hurt to them.

I feel the staff at Baverstock and generally all teachers are excellent at what they do and I take my hat off to them, as they have to deal and be patient with difficult students, as well as teaching and getting children ready for the real world.

From the whole of this experience I have decided that being a teacher is something I am not comfortable doing. However, learning support and art therapy is something I wish to look more into as a future career path.

Teacher Training Day

Monday 15^th April was a teacher training day, I felt this would be good experience as not only I would see a usual teaching day but the back work behind it.

The day began by an all staff meeting and then a department meeting.

For the first half of the day, I and the 2 photography staff had to assess the AS projects and give feedback, in which they used a marking guide which was similar to our BA feedback forms. I felt very involved, as I was able to give my thoughts and guidance.

Then we had to create a lesson plan for ‘Stop Day’ which is a day that a GCSE year group does one of their options for a whole day. This stop day was for year 10s, in which they planned to do a planning workshop for their mock final piece, along with starter activities. We designed templates of what they need to include in their planning.

In the afternoon all the art staff came together and moderated all the year 10s identity projects so far, we had to discuss and agree if the grade the class teacher had given was appropriate, some of the works got brought up or down a grade.

Putting It Together

I used the software Adobe After Effects to create the final video. 

A Level - Art and Photography

With both AS and A2 levels in art, they are working through their coursework or getting ready for their final exam.

As the A2 level where near for their final exam which took place after the easter holiday, they was very busy planning and filling up there sketch books with experiments, which meant I didn’t have to help them as much, so in this time I was working with the teacher get things ready for the next lessons.

The AS group needed a bit more support and inspiration, in the sense that they needed help on ensure there amount and quality of work is at an AS level and not GCSE.  At this stage, I felt the art students still think in a GCSE mind, in which at GCSE student are given a lot of information, where I had to encourage them to be a bit more independent on their research. I helped and gave them artists they could look at, and then they had to go out and find out about them and why they would link.

The A level photography students was very much in the prime of their work, and needed very little help. I had time with each student (5 for AS and 6 for A2) and discussed their ideas and what they have done so far and how they was going to develop it. In these discussions I gave feedback and tried to help and inspire the students in their progression.

Year 11

Year 11s are getting ready for their GCSE exam, so they were independently planning and experimenting for the final exam piece. I was able to talk to individual students about their interpretation to the project brief, which was ‘Caged’ and how they are developing there idea into a final piece.

They were all an Exam planning sheet and check list to fill in.

At this stage of school they are all independently learning, and I was just there for when they need some help and guidance on the planning for final piece. 

Year 10

Year 10 had was in the middle of a GCSE project about identity, as they were half way through they were independently working. So I took the chance to see what all the students have done so far. They was looking at typography and using it to create a self-portrait.

(This student was my brother so I was able to take pictures of him)

Year 9 - Art and Graphic

In the year 9 art lessons, in groups they were creating big murals of their favourite films, some of them being Twilight, Avengers and Shrek. These where planned to be displayed in the playground so they were created by waterproof paints.

I found myself not as needed with this year group as they understood what they was doing and got on with it. So therefore I got involved with some of the painting and helped students when needed e.g. help creating a skin colour with paint and correcting lips so they look realistic.

This was also the case when it came to year 9 graphics. They were creating a sporting brand, a logo and products. I spoke to the student about the project and their work and what they planned to do next.

As it was the last lesson of the day, some of the boys started messing around so I sat down with them and helped them calm down and do some work. 

Year 8

Within year 8 art lessons, they were looking at the Fish artwork of Vincent Scarpace. They had to draw a fish in the style of Scarpace, and use different techniques with paint to create patterns and texture. 

When the lesson begun I introduced the project and worked on a quick example in front of the group. Through the rest of the lesson I went from table to table giving support and talking to the student about their work.

Year 7 - Art and Learn 2 Learn

Within the year 7 art classes they was looking at the artist Shauno, and creating a self-portrait in the style of the artist.

Below are images of the project mood board and the Year 7s works in progress. 

Learn 2 learn is extra lessons set up to specially teach Maths and English to children that need extra support, due to learning difficulties and lack of concentration in actual class. Within this lesson tasks are taught slightly different than in a normal lesson, as they engage the children more and explain in simpler forms, the use of art is sometimes involved as visual learning seems to be more successful with the children.

Within my lesson of learn 2 learn, we was looking at converting bar chart information into a pie chart.

The lesson began by a simple starter task of answering questions about results of a bar chart, for example what breakfast was the most popular? (Look for the breakfast with the highest amount on the chart), this task was easy as the answers were all there on the bar chart, however some of the children needed guiding to the answers.

Then we moved onto the main task. They used a bar chart they made in the previous lesson, about separating a pack of Smarties by colour, and tried to transfer the information onto a pie chart. The formula  was discussed as a group a couple of times and then they had to work out their information. Even though the task was explained very clear and a hand out of the formula was given, and they all said they understood, a lot did not know how to go about it or they needed guiding.

With both art and learn 2 learn I work with a small group, which were the same children in both classes. I had to give them support, guidance and motivation to help them complete the work, but it is important to not become too involved as the students need to build on independence. However some of the group would keep asking for more and more help even though they understood, but they just didn’t want to try. 

Baverstock School and Sixth Form

6x 6 hour days (excluding lunch) -  8:30am-3:30pm

Monday 25th March                   (3 days before the easter holidays and 3 days after)

Tuesday 26th March

Wednesday 27th March

Monday 15th April

Wednesday 17th April

Friday 19th April

From  getting the opportunity of working in the art department at Baverstock school , I aim to get the general understanding  of what it is like being an art teachers and get a detailed knowledge of all that’s involved with being in that role, from actual teaching to teachers meetings, lesson planning and moderating etc. 

As a CRB check was not necessary if working under 10 hours, I didn't have to apply for one, but this meant I had to be with a member of staff at all times and escorted to and from each classroom.

To structure all my experience, I have categorized it by each year group. (I had the same groups for a couple of lessons, in which they was still completing the same projects)

Voices

As ‘The Only Way is Puppets’ is based on my home town of Birmingham, I needed the voices to reflect this as well as the characters style.

For example, Abigail  will have a very strong brummie accent to give the impression she is common, whereas the judges will still be brummie but will put on a fake posh voice to give the impression they are higher class.

I was fortunate to be able to use professional radio recording equipment, this created a clear voice over.

Filming

I had help from 3 people to perform the puppet show; I found this quiet a challenging task, getting across how I wanted it to go etc.

As the voices of the puppets are very important at getting across their characters, I decided to record them separately to the filming. 

When I began to film, I noticed that it was hard to capture everything in one set camera angle (like a puppet show). Therefore i decided to use various camera angles, very similar to the filming used in TV shows which included full scene and close up shots of the characters.

Kim's Boobs

When I began to film, the boobs of Kim didn't look right or sit correctly on the arm and as the puppets where behind a table they weren't very clear, so I decided not to use them.

The Set

I decided to use a plain black background for the set as I wanted the emphasis to be on the puppets. However to create the office setting the auditions would be in I included certain props, E.g. a desk, pens, pads and posters.

On most TV auditions shows e.g. X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent, the Judges always seem to have a drink on the desk, usually a can of coke a cola which is also for advertisement. Therefore I will include a cola can. 

Final Story Board

I took the advice from the group crit and developed my story board, creating a bitchier up to date script and adding a humorous climax at the end.