Multimedia review – Going to the End of the Line

Going to the End of the Line is an interactive multimedia viewing platform of the New York subway. However, this interactive platform gives readers and local New Yorker’s a taste of the stops they may have never reached on the subway. Going to the End of the Line basically compiles a number of images and videos of each trains last stop, as several New Yorker’s never make it to the last stop on their trains it’s a way for them and others to experience what is at the end of the line. Each cover image is titled with the subway stop and letter of which train route will take them there and as the reader clicks each picture either a series of images will appear or a video. The images or video illustrate what can be found at these mysterious stops in a sense a way of advertising these stops to regular New Yorker’s.

Producers Jon Huang and Alexis Mainland have also created a piece of interactive media similar to Going to the End of the Line with The Waterfront, Covered. The two are similar because yet again they advertise the many undiscovered wonders of New York. The Waterfront, Covered is a photographic diary of how New Yorker’s use their waterfronts from Staten Island, Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. Again I feel their aim is to illustrate the many wonders of New York that everyday New Yorker’s miss or even dismiss by living in such a huge city. It is a way of remembering how diverse their city is and all the possibilities they have around them that they may not have ever experienced before due to their mundane routines.

Both Going to the End of the Line and The Waterfront, Covered give a sense of New York’s diverse communities and culture within different parts of the city. It illustrates how, like London, every stop on the subway/tube is like a different country. Not one stop is similar, not one part of the city is in correlation to the other. Each stop has its own character which Jon Huang and Alexis Mainland  have captured through these interactive posts, demonstrating to us to experience the city and towns we live in. Break the routine and ride the train to the very end of the line and see what you find.

Media Monitoring – Today in hip-hop

With any genre you hear new music being released daily, yet it has become much more than just the music the public are interested in. We find ourselves wanting to keep updated with our favourite artist’s lives and rumours surrounding them. Today I found reports on:

Hitting the headlines on Allhiphop.com are uncle and nephew (through love, not physical blood line)  Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa. It would seem their collaborative film, Mac and Devin go to Highschool, has finally acquired the rights from Anchor Bay Entertainment which will see director Dylan Brown’s film released. No official release date, but is expected around spring.

Today saw the release of Nicki Minaj’s new album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.  XXL Magazine reported on Nicki’s response to critics claiming her new music to be ‘too pop’. Nicki assures the rap game that her sounds reflect where she is in life and that not every song has to have a hard hip-hop beat.

With Earl Sweatshirt returned to Odd Future collective it’s only right that he hits the headlines as The Source reports him to be back in the studio recording with Chuck Inglish. Earl returned to his fellow wolves after long eight months of suddenly disappearing, supposedly to boarding school, so it’s only fair that fans expect Earl to be back in the studio recording as soon as. We’re expecting big things from him this year.

Rihanna has been making the headlines as she claims that she would love to play Whitney Houston in a biopic film. A Whitney Houston biopic has yet to be made an official announcement, Rihanna appears to just be trying to secure a role if there ever was one.

The premiere of new music video from Curren$y featuring Maybach Music’s, Wale has hit headlines all over the world. The track entitled ‘What it look like’ comes from Curren$y’s upcoming album The Stoned Immaculate set to release June 5th.

Diggy Simmons claims he “doesn’t really care” if J.Cole responds to diss track.

Reverend Run’s son, Diggy Simmons leaked a diss track earlier this week targeting J.Cole after he subliminally suggested that he had sexual relations with Vanessa Simmons, Diggy’s older sister. In an interview with 99.1 KGGI California Diggy claimed the song, titled ‘What You Say To Me’ was over a year old and that he “really doesn’t care” if Cole responds. Cole prompted the track with his release of ‘Purple Rain’ which made obvious sexual remarks to Vanessa Simmons, later backed up by the recent release of ’Grew Up Fast’ in which Cole took another dig at Diggy and his family.

Diggy explained that the diss track will not feature on upcoming album ‘Unexpected Arrival’ and that the track was “just me [Diggy] sticking up for my family”. Rev Run was quick to tweet his thoughts and defend his son by posting “J Cole.. Puts out 2 records Dissing family & Diggy & nobody cared.. Some1 leaks a old Diggy record & there’s a problem?”.

With the track gaining momentum online, it leaves us questioning if J Cole will respond but as of yet he is remaining silent with no response.

Video project evaluation

As I began my video project, similar to audio I set myself aims in which I hoped to achieve however I feel there were several aspects of my video project which didn’t coincide with my aims.

My initial idea was to make a news package which gained the opinion of the public who had a personal involvement within the St Paul’s occupation, whether it be simply passing by or those who were actually part of the protests. When I began my video project the Occupy movement had been recently evicted from St Paul’s Cathedral so I decided to ask the public is the point of protest had been replaced with annoyance at the protestors. The protest lasted four months so regular London commuters were well aware of the protests and some even saw the protestors everyday on their way to work etc, these were the people I wanted to interview and gain their opinion. However, as I arrived at St Paul’s no one was willing to give me an interview, I asked within St Paul’s and they redirected me to an office of a man who was a professional on the protests however, when I went to the offices his secretary turned me away as he was in a meeting. I left St Paul’s Cathedral with no interviews from the public so one of my aims, a pivotal aim, was unachievable.

I decided to return to the university campus and interviewed a university lecturer and third year student on their opinion of the occupation. They provided me with the point of view that I aimed for by describing how the protestors became a nuisance rather than a protest they would provide support for. In the end I managed to achieve the interviews I needed for my news package however, I would have preferred a professional opinion or at least one from someone who had firsthand experience of the protests.

In comparison to the brief my news package did not reach the requirements, my final video did not reach the three-minute requirement however, I do feel it did resemble a news broadcast as I included footage from the protests, voice overs, vox pops and a piece to camera introducing the subject in discussion.

Reflecting upon this project I could have done a lot differently, I wish I had got more relevant interviews and more footage to use within my news package. If I were to do this project again I would not have left St Paul’s until I got the interviews I needed, I could not do this whilst I was at St Paul’s as I was on a tight schedule due to other deadlines and commitments. In comparison to news packages from organisations such as the BBC my piece lacked a conclusion and didn’t invite the audience to make a response.

Although I was not entirely impressed with my final piece I do feel that the video project taught me how to record an interview for broadcast journalism and how to create a news package using my own footage.

 

How I developed my video project

As I completed my audio assessment, I swiftly moved onto inspiration for my video project. With my audio project I had a few back up plans, one focused on the Occupy London protests which took place outside St Paul’s Cathedral yet I decided against this idea for audio because I thought it would look better visually so I came to the conclusion that I would base my video assessment on the protests which took place for 4 months.

On the final day of my audio project, 28th February 2012, this was also the day that the protestors outside St Paul’s were evicted by the police. I watched visuals from the eviction both on The Telegraph and The Guardian which demonstrated how the protestors had no intention of being removed from the camp and tried to hold their ground but, the police eventually removed them from the area.

I first began to research what the Occupy movement stood for, what their policies were. I came across the Occupy London website which informed me of what their policies were, how they aimed to put their message across and achieve what they demanded. I furthered my research by watching actual clipping of the protests on YouTube. By watching footage of the protests I got a firsthand understanding of what they were fighting for and how they were fighting for it.

After researching into what the Occupy movement wanted I began to consider the public and their thoughts on the protests. After four months of camping and constant media coverage it dawned on me that surely the public were becoming tired of the protests and beginning to think of them as more of a nuisance than anything.

I therefore decided to base my news package on the voice of the people rather than protestors, I tried to gain the opinions of the public and asked whether the message of the protest was washed away with their tents and litter.