Documentary reflexion
Overall I’m rather pleased with the outcome of our documentary. I always felt that we had a very intresting character which perhaps made the edit easier. It also however made the edit harder as there was so much that had to be left out in order to make it just 3 minutes long. I do really like editing and I had the role of editing the final piece.
There were a few things which could have been improved. When filming we could of perhaps of filmed more cut away shots which would have made the editing easier. I did have a few problems and ended up using images taken on our first visit to Mr. Lackey’s home. This did turn out better than originally anitcipated as there were some good shots of the world record which were easily keyframed.
The original feedback that I got after the first showing of the draft edit was rather good. People did like what we did and the shots that were used. Framing however was a key issue that was presented to me and in the final edit I had to wireframe the video in order to make it appear more aesthiclly pleasing. This took away some of the image qualiy but not as much as you would notice unless you really looked.
The audio was clear and concise, and that I feel is the most important part to making a documentary. With bad sound it takes away what the story is about and would make viewers not want to watch it. If anything the sound could of been perhaps a little louder but overall I felt the sound was good.
The message that we were trying to put across I felt worked quite well. I wanted to show him as the nice guy that he is. I felt that I should go with the view that he was doing it for a good cause and the emotion he puts into it which showed towards the end of the documentary and shows his continuing ambition to wing walk to help others which leaves you feeling warm inside. I also wanted to portray that wing walking is great fun and he shows by what he says with the enthusiasm and proudness he gives that is great fun to do.
I have learnt alot whilst making this documentary and more so I have really enjoyed making it. Perhaps some things wern’t as good as I liked such as the burnt out back of head of Tom Lackey, the framing and what is in the shot. These were things that I noticed would need to improve and would be something I would work hard in the next time I do a sit down interview.
I now hope for a good apraisal on our documentary when showing, otherwise I would have felt I failed where I thought I had succeeded.
Rough Cut of our documentary
Here is a rough cut of our documentary. As it stands I am not entirely happy with the edit and several things need to be changed in order to make it more appealing and enjoyable.
Please note: This does not represent our final edit and expect the final version to be different.
Editing our documentary.
On tuesday I managed to get hold of the footage that we filmed. From this we thought it would be best if we all did our own edit of the documentary and from this we would decide on the best of the three and either pick one or integrate parts of each others documentary into one final film.
On seeing the footage since we filmed, I like the camera angle and the sound. I did think however with there being a picture of his granddaughter in the shot kinds of draws your eyes away from Tom Lackey. This didn’t really cross my mind when shooting the film but on reflexion perhaps either a picture of him wing walking or a model plane would have suited better and made it more relevant.
Tom Lackey whilst being interviewed.
As you can see the photo is quite prominent from this shot from the interview. Hopefully it won’t distract the viewers from Mr Lackey himself as he has some interesting things to say.
The footage we got was over 30 minutes. We wanted to be thorough and get everything we wanted. Whittling down the footage to just 3minutes wont prove particularly easy but I have to say that I do like editing and trying to give everything a nice crisp feel to it. I have to say cut away shots do need to be included to help fuse the footage together but will do everything I can to make everything relevant.
Filming our documentary
On Friday 18th February 2011 we went to Shirley, Birmingham to film 90 year old Tom Lackey for our documentary. As he was when we first met him he was polite and patient. Obviously there were a few problems we can came across when filming him. His hearing was something that wasn’t great and did prove a bit of a liability when asking him questions. I was stood behind the camera whilst interviewing mr lackey and did have to ask the questions sometimes two or three times and sometimes i really had to shout. This also lead to him moving from his position and therefore would make the edit less aesthetically pleasing. We also had to remind him not to look into the camera but sadly he continued to do so.
Of course there were also huge positives to take when filming. We managed to get a huge insight into his life and on his wing walking experiences. He talked about what it was like to get on top of a plane and fly around. He told us his reasons for doing wing walking and the records he broke. We also asked him about the his role he played in WWII and how he served in Norway with the Commandos.
After the interview we did various cut away shots and we politely kept talking and kept the conversation going. We found out that he was based in Lincolnshire before he got shipped off to Norway. With myself being from Lincoln i then found out that we had far more in common than originally thought. It wasn’t until we left where I thought it was a shame that this conversation wasn’t captured on film. He had many more stories to tell and one particular one which he didn’t tell us until I noticed that something wasn’t quite right. Being from Lincoln I know that a huge majority of regiments in the area went to Africa and I didn’t understand how he went to Norway. It turned out that he himself thought he was going to Africa. He got given all the clothing you would expect to get when going to Africa even the training was desert warfare-esque. It wasn’t until he was sailing north that he was told that he was going to Norway. The regiments didn’t know and the MoD used this as a tactical ploy to confuse the Nazi’s but it confused Mr. Lackey a hell of a lot more.
The footage is now in the editing stage and will piece together the footage to make a nice fluent and enjoyable documentary.
Meeting Tom Lackey
Today Michael Abley, Sophie Lees and myself (Dicken Richards) met Tom Lackey for the first time and I just have to say the guy is a truly amazing man. He is a family man, a WWII veteran, ran his own business for many years and now a wing walker which he didn’t start until he was 81 years of age. Lackey is over 90 years old and is a true gentleman. Today we found out about his life and who he really is. You would think at being 90 years old his days are past him and his stories have been told but we found out that he plans to cross the English Channel once more whilst wing walking in May 2011.
His life was so full of stories and the best thing about it was that it wasn’t just the traditional old people rambling. Perhaps I feel a little bad about just concentrating on such a small portion of his life but sadly only have 3 minutes in which to fit it into.
Tom Lackey
Tom Lackey had always wanted to be a pilot but during WWII he had no option but to become a commando. His older brother also wanted to be a pilot and was given the unsavoury task of flying a bomber during the Battle of Britain. Tom had the option to join him but his brother sadly lost his life before they could work together.
After the War Tom Lackey became a fully qualified pilot however, it wasn’t until he was 81 when a friend won the chance to do some plane aerobatics. Tom was offered the place instead as his friend was too scared to carry out the stunts. The adrenaline rush he got from doing such stunts as barrel rolls and loop-the-loops was a great experience for him with the stunt pilot rather impressed and this lead to the stunt pilot to suggest wing walking.
Like many people Lackey didn’t know much if anything about wing walking but was very intrigued by the idea. So at the age of 81 Tom Lackey took to the skies as a wing walker. Since doing these stunts he has met many people such as Vera Lynn and Pauline Quirke.
His home is just littered with rewards, recognitions and without doubt the best aviation picture I have ever seen, People playing tennis on the wings of a plane in flight.
Tom Lackey was more than happy to let us film a documentary about his wing walking escapades. After we figure out quite how to film everything we will contact Mr Lackey, hopefully within the next few days to arrange to film him.
Tom Lackey – Oldest Wing Walker
For our documentary we managed to get hold of Tom Lackey, who holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest ever wing walker. At the age of 90 years and 5 months he flew himself into the record books by beating his own world record set a year or so prior to his latest wing walk.
Tom Lackey
Tom lackey
Born – May 22nd 1920
Lives – Shirley, Solihull.
Wing Walks – 20+
Did first wing walk in his 80’s
2005 – Became oldest man to do a loop the loop whilst on top of an aircraft.
2009 – Became oldest man to wing walk across the English Channel as part of centenary celebrations of the 1st flight across the Channel by Louis Bleriot.
2011 – Became oldest man to wing walk at 90 years 5 months.
Money raised to date – £1.25million
Tom Lackey - Flying himself into the record books.
Worlds Best Rapper
Poem
Standing flush on the mountain floor.
Where predators rush and predators soar.
Snowy peaks and desert sand.
The place is sleek, I know of a land.
For those who strike, for those who pounce.
This is the site where it really counts.
The bang goes once, the second one in.
Where did these animals get their sin?
A soldierly blow, a soldierly strike.
Which one of these animals is here to fight?
The ground turns grey, the ground turns black.
For thats when they turn defence into attack.
The solemn hunter, he’s been there for years.
They come on four feet without their headgear.
They lead from the front, they lead with their teeth.
No need to look behind them, not even beneath.
A killer blow, an easy confirm.
For the one that’s down, not even a squirm.
So which one is which, I really don’t know.
Both in the same country, just ones in the snow.
They fight for their food, they fight for their freedom.
But I very much doubt that they fight there in tandem.
Documentary treatment.
At first when I was going to do my documentary about the life of an army troop I thought I would go on the aspect of how bad it is to be in the army. Things like missing Christmas and being in the middle of a war zone with your life constantly on the line. I then realised that my subject loves the army and everything about it. I’ve never heard a single bad thing mentioned about it. He seems to love every aspect of army life.
Second on the right.
Speaking to him about whats happening in Egypt with the riots and the turmoils thats there. He wanted to be apart of it, get in the thick of the trouble and show what he could do. He loves the action, he loves the conflict and he is the perfect soldier for any regiment to have.
So the angle in which I would approach this would be to ask him what he loves about being in the army. It would be all positive almost perceived as propaganda, but is just one man’s view on how he loves his job.
Documentary Idea
To get a good story and character across you have to pick just the right person. I was thinking on doing my documentary about soldiers in Afghanistan. The have plenty of stories and opinions which makes for an interesting watch. I know a soldier in the Army who is currently in Afghan. The documentary will highlight daily life and how much of a struggle things like temperature and hygiene are. It will also highlight the fun parts of being over there and the perks such as respect from everyone over here.
Margaret Baker – A War Biography
Margaret Baker aged 20
Margaret Baker was born on the 8th May 1924 at the Royal Free Hospital, London, to A Barry and Agatha Baker. She had no brothers and sisters as she was an only child. Her young life was not too dissimilar to that of any other girl middle class girl of that time. She attended St. Pancreas New Church Every Sunday, where she was Christened, at the age of 12 joined the church choir, she went to Camden’s School for Girls and went on to study Botany at Regent’s College London. She graduated in summer 1943 and didn’t let the War faze her in getting her qualification.
She lived at 8 Albert Terrace in Camden, London, with her parents. Her house overviewed Regent’s Park, a place which she adored, especially during the summer months. The house was a fairly big one for just three people, which showed her father’s wealth and power.
Margaret was a lady with both traditional values and feminist views. She was a polite young lady and barely ever spoke out of place; she enjoyed the music of the time from such people as Dame Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields. The growth of the film industry also saw her grow affection for both Rita Hayworth and Vivien Leigh.
Someone who Margaret admired very much - Viven Leigh
She also loved to read both novels and short stories with her favorite book being Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin aswell as loving the Beatrix Potter books. She also loved animals perhaps because of the Peter Rabbit books. She never owned any but loved going to the park and seeing the wildlife and London Zoo was just a short walk away. Margaret also loved the poetry of T.S. Eliot and John Donne and would read countless amounts poetry in Regent’s park on a sunny day. She also liked red wine and had a guilty food pleasure of eating pickles.
Jemima Puddle Duck - Margaret loved the Beatrix Potter Books
Margaret loved flowers and was fascinated by everything to do with them. Her love started when she was just a small child when her mum used to wake her up by putting fresh flowers in her room. Marge always loved how she didn’t know which flowers they would be from one week to the next. Over the years her fascination grew and she had her own greenhouse built at the bottom of the garden. She would spend countless hours making sure that everything was beautiful and perfect. She would get flowers from far and wide which lead to her affinity of the customs of the Far East. She would collect anything that caught her eye from elephant figurines to model boats. Like everyone she had a favorite flower and it simply was a tulip as they came in many different colours and they brightened the winter months for her.
Tulips - Margaret's favorite flower
Margaret first met John Fraser at church when she was just 15 and John was 17 whilst reaching for the same song book in order to sing All Things Bright and Beautiful in the summer of 1939, just before the War started. John was a working class man and knew her father would disapprove, but this did not deter Margaret and their loved flourished over the next year. Margaret and John attended the church choir together and John courted Margaret at any opportunity he had. After what happened in Dunkirk, John was determined to help the war effort and made plans to join the army as soon as he turned 18. Margaret completely understood and gave him backing all the way and in the summer of 1940 John took Margaret for a picnic on a typical beautiful summer’s day where they had a lovely time and when the timing was perfect John asked Margaret to marry him. The answer was a big yes and John promised to marry her as soon as the war was over.
Regents Park - A lovely place to relax
In September 1939 War broke out all over Europe. Like many people Marge was anxious about the war and felt helpless to do anything. She helped her father build a bunker in their back garden and spent many nights in there during the Blitzkrieg. In the Bunker she kept numerous books to try and keep her mind off what was happening outside. Bombs fell all around her however she was fortunate not to get bombed but buildings not far away did. Marge did ‘her bit’ for the war effort despite still being a student. She never wasted her food and donated pots and pans to help make new armaments. Marge never appeared worried about the hard times that they had to endure, she was a strong, confident young lady and never showed weakness.
As soon as Margaret gained her qualification she wanted to help the war effort in some way and mainly due to propaganda saying that women were wanted to work in the factories, she landed a job at Enfield Small Arms Factory. Her father refused to let her work there as he knew the conditions were poor and were under constant risk of being attacked, but Margaret being as strong and as determined she is was adamant in working there. After a short time her father agreed but only if she had a TB vaccination, she agreed and started in late August 1943.
She got paid 30 shillings a week for working 50 hours. The days were long and hard but Margaret never complained, she was far too proud to say so and she also knew that the armed forces had it much worse. She didn’t understand how men and women were not treated the same and how men got paid more for doing the same work and wanted equal treatment.
Margaret had always considered herself a pacifist, but in extreme circumstances and her love for her country made her want to help as much as possibly even though it went against her morals.
In May 1945 Margaret saw John for what was going to be the last time. John was waiting to get shipped off to France in the D-Day landings and knew he wouldn’t be coming home until after the war. They spent a beautiful and almost perfect weekend together in each other’s company around Regent’s Park. John had to leave on the Monday before Margaret would wake, he left a small note simply saying, “I Love you,” and left it on the dining room table. Margaret woke and soon saw the note. Marge cried for she knew it could be the last time that they would be together. Marge was strong and managed to wipe away those tears as she had no time to be sad as she had to be at the factory that very morning for work. The next week Marge was very quiet and always appeared calm and contempt. Inside she felt distraught as John was always back a few times a month on leave. John had never experience real combat before June 1944 and Marge was worried by this, despite thousands of men also being in the same situation.
St. Pancras New Church - Where Margaret and John first met.
John would also write to her constantly, perhaps two or three times a week, however Marge didn’t receive any mail until early August despite Marge herself writing constantly to him. The communication lines had been broken and mail wasn’t received due to the war. During those five or six weeks Marge constantly checked the newspapers to check if her husband to be was killed. She worried lots and her mother knew this but knew she was too proud to say it or admit it.
Marge got on with her everyday life of travelling via the underground to the munitions factory and kept herself busy. She was professional at her job and didn’t let her social life get in the way of work. TB was running through the factory and Marge soon began to come ill. She would be sick almost constantly and wouldn’t eat properly. She reluctantly took a week off work and her father took had a doctor come round. She didn’t have TB, she was pregnant.
She was very happy with the news; however her father disapproved since she wasn’t married but he understood the circumstances. She straight away wrote a letter to John and told him about the news. Despite being pregnant, this did not deter her from her work and went back to work on the following Monday. Her rations were soon increased, which she enjoyed very much, and was looking forward to seeing John in the New Year as he said that the war would be over by Christmas. She stopped checking the papers for John’s name and was really looking towards the future.
The good times however didn’t last, during Operation Market Garden John was shot dead during battle in Holland on 20th September 1944. Marge was informed by John’s mother who was waiting for her as she came home from work. Marge knew straight away what had happened and broke down in tears in an almost belligerent way. Marge had never lashed out before and her anger was aimed towards God and her faith. A memorial was held in his honor on 27th September 1944 and would be the last time Margaret would attend church for several months.
After hearing about the loss of John and of Operation Market Garden, she lost faith in both the war and religion. She still kept her job and she still worked. All the way until Christmas 1944, she didn’t really understand why she was still working, but she slowly started to believe in the war effort once again and her spirits rose. She didn’t want her child to be born during war time and she believed that making these weapons would help the war end sooner. At this point she was almost 7 months pregnant.
By the end of January 1945, Marge was heavily pregnant at almost 8months and decided to stop working as she felt she did all that she could do. She however didn’t get any maternity pay but did have money and help from her parents.
The baby was born Jack Baker on 2nd March 1945 at the Royal Free Hospital, London. She soon regained her faith after the birth of her son and had Jack Christened a few days after. The war was coming to a close and she didn’t return back to work as she looked after her son full time.
Victory for Britain and the whole of Europe was on the horizon, summer was coming and her new born son was growing well and healthily. Margaret’s 21st birthday was on the 8th May 1945 and this was a special celebration for more than one reason, it was also the day that war came to an end in Europe and the parties began.
Margaret Baker – Presentation Reflexion
Our group presented what we have done and our characters life during the Second World War. It was done the standard way with a powerpoint presentation and a script to support it. Our group was the first group to do our presentation which I felt gave us a huge advantage as we would have most peoples ears and peoples attention would not stray.
Unfortunately not all our group members turned up on time and therefore missed the presentation. We still had a script and altered it slightly to the dismay of most of us as we originally picked the parts we ourselves associated with best.
I felt the script was delivered rather well and received positive feedback from it especially the beginning part where I made a summary of what was going to be said as it was written in the past tense. Also people liked how it was aimed at just one part of her life which gave us more time to consider the finer things. Also people really seemed to like the places where she went such as her church, her school and where she lived were all real places which made her feel more alive and real.
Part of our book - Rita Hayworth pictured
The book that we put together was sent around for the rest of the students to look at as we thought by going through the book as the presentation would bore people and almost take away the realism the character has been given. This also showed our process of how we came up with everything and what we presented was the finished character. By keeping our processes out of the presentation it was told in a way where the story could be real and get people involved.
Our book shows the Propaganda that would've influenced her and the weapons she would have made.
I felt I played a critical role in the presentation. I wrote a script which everybody was happy with and produced a powerpoint with collaboration of someone else doing one. My idea of dressing someone up to play the role of Margaret was one that I really wanted us to do as I felt it would be more enjoyable and more likely to get everyones attention. This however did not happen as no1 was willing to play the role. Sadly however I felt that the presentation would have been almost exactly the same should I have presented it by myself and would have perhaps liked something different in the presentation to show a more team effort.
Margaret Baker – John Fraser
The Catalyst
We decided that Margaret lead a quiet, peaceful and normal middle-class life during the 1930’s. We therefore needed something that would make her life seem interesting to others. We already decided that she would be engaged to somebody and that they would go off to War and leave her behind. We wanted more than that. We needed something else that would raise a few eyebrows.
We came up with a young man called John Fraser. We wanted a traditional love story however which so many people admire and want for themselves. We wanted their love to be each others first love and traditionally we choose a religious place, a church. The church chosen was one that again would be non-ficticous to help add to the realism and chose one nearby called St. Pancras New Church. The story would go that they met reaching for the same hymn book whilst singing the lovely song All things bright and beautiful.
We wanted the love to start before the war to give the characters less of a reason to like each other because of hard times and looking for comfort and wanting John to leave during the War to fight over on mainland Europe.
The parent’s would be disapproving however due to John being working class and feeling that Margaret would be too good for him. So a good way that they could see each other would be having them both on the church choir and would therefore see each other twice a week without any implications.
We needed a reason for John to join the army and made his age suitable for the time so that he would be 18 and would want to do his bit. By making his 18th birthday in August 1940 we wanted to give him a bigger incentive than just his age. The events at Dunkirk during May/June 1940 would be a huge incentive as it would make him feel that he needs to do his bit to defeat the Nazis.
This would lead to a speedy engagement as quite alot of couples did during the war and John leaving Margaret. With not alot of troops landing in France etc during this time, John would have leave from his training so then meeting up wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
The marriage would not happen until after the war due to the disapproving parents and John wanting Margaret’s parents to like him and know him better, which we decided was going to be hard and therefore no marriage only a secret engagement.
The death of the poor fellow.
To help make Margaret’s life to have more drama we decided that we should kill off the boyfriend and also make her pregnant. The D-Day landings would be the reason for John to leave and never come back and also a good reason for the two of them to have some pre-maritals just before he left. We wanted John to also know that he would be the father so his death would have to come a few months after D-Day. Operation Market Garden in September of 1944 would be the end of John. A real event which had many casualties. This would give John enough time to receive the letter and also give himself hope as just like real life people saw that victory during Operation Market Garden would ensure the war to be over by Christmas.
With John being killed and a baby on the way out of wed lock with disapproving parents we felt that we had a strong character in which people can start to sympathise and really get to know.
Character Bio
Born: 3rd August 1922
Heigh: 5ft 9
Looks: Brunette, Dark Brown eyes. Dashing.
Background: Working class
Occupation: Soldier
He knew he was joining the army hence the speedy engagement.
Margaret Baker – A Character is born
Book
We Got a book to help us with the development of Margaret Baker. Within this book would be everything you need to know about her early life in the 1940’s. The start of the book would consist of the items that we first got and how they were integrated into our character. Over the weeks the book would be added to to develop Margaret and her life further.
A place to live
On choosing a place to live we decided upon London. Mainly due to wanting Margaret to have a job during the war and a lot of munitions were assembled there. As not being from London and not living near there, I don’t know to much about the geographical side of it. The only place that I knew that made munitions was in Woolwich on due to Woolwich Arsenal FC. This was therefore the starting place to where she would live and work.
Woolwich is situated south of the River Thames and nearby is Greenwich, A rather posh part of London. We decided that our character would be of an upper-middle class family and would be an ideal place in which to live. This however did also raise questions as being near the Kings Docks which took substantial bombing during the war, the place where she either lived or worked would be quite likely bombed during the Blitzkrieg. Family life would therefore be rather complicated and hard so we had to look elsewhere north of the river.
After searching for munition factories I stumbled across one called the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, North London. Although far from the city centre it was a rather straight forward underground ride from Camden. Camden has lovely places to live and that spot was chosen. I then went looking for a certain address for her to live at. I wanted it to be a real place in order to give Margaret a true sense of existence. I settled on Albert Terrace, Camden. A lovely Victorian semi-detached house which overlooked Regent’s Park.
Albert Terrace - Where Margaret grew up
Family and Early Life
We decided that margaret would be an only child and her parents would be called Barry and Agatha. The only child scenario would mainly be due to making it easier when deciding her childhood. We felt that brothers and sisters would be complicated as Margaret would then have to have a history with perhaps two or three other people which could lead to all sorts of snags and mix ups. We decided that her early life would be relatively quiet and normal with the big part of her life coming in the 1940’s and would concentrate our attention more during this time. She would be a regular church goer as so many more people were back then and would be a member of the church choir to give her life a slightly more defining touch. This would also be the basis for how her life became a more interesting spectacle. Her mother and father were always about and where slightly snoody about their class. This meant that family life was very traditional with Margaret attending an all girls school to be raised ‘proper.’
Despite making Margaret a feminist she did still enjoy many of ladies traditional past times. We gave her a love for flowers and wanting her to be educated sent her to Regent’s College to become a botanist. Regent’s College is a well respected establishment and was only down the road from where she lived. We had a greenhouse put in the back garden to help aid her love for flowers and had her father make it to help show his loving side to his daughter.
All of this helped shape her into becoming a woman in which she felt she would love to become however the War changed her life completely for both the good and the bad.
Margaret Baker – Concept to Creation
Concept
A fictional character had to be made for our Media Production course. This lead to many questions. Who would this person be? What would they be like? Where would they live? Many more questions were asked and we had to come up with answers. We were put into groups and our group members were:
Sammie Prior
Sarah Wildash
Sophie Ely
Tom Hill
Sophie Lees
Dicken Richards
Feminism
Ideas were thrown forward, and landed on the idea of our character being a lady. This was done primarily due to people in in our group being feminists. Feminist ideologies were quite frequent in our first discussion and I felt that by making the character a past figure rather than a present one would give the feminist ideologies a stronger meaning. During World War II feminism really began to take a huge stronghold and we decided to set our character during this time.
Items
We now had a basic idea of where our character was going, we then decided to put random items that we had on us to help further our development. A ring, a watch, lipstick, a necklace, a pen, an ipod and a love note. The ring was a simple idea to represent engagement. The lipstick and necklace was easily put together to represent glamour and the stars of the late 1930’s and 40’s. This also lead to the ipod to becoming music she loved of the time and the good lives they lead. The love note was a simple one as her fiance would have been at war and are letters from when he was away in the way.
The name
Like most made up names it was simply just picking a random name. This proved harder than we anticipated, we then started thinking of our grandparents names and old people’s names. Margaret is known these days as an old lady’s name so we went with that name from a list of several such as Agatha and Gladys. We decided that Margaret would live in a city and instantly thought of London and Baker Street and thus Margaret Baker was born.
Narrow World
I support our troops. Perhaps more so because of their media attention?
Cabinet of Curiosities
The origin of cabinets of curiosities can date back many of hundreds of years to when Europeans started travelling and exploring the unknown world. Ancient Egyptian artifacts, fascinating art and stuffed mammals filled these cabinets (or rooms) amongst many other items. Anything you wanted could be added to the cabinet, and was filled with anything that stimulated the mind, items you could either see, touch or smell or even a combination of all three. Items were added that you found to your likes or dislikes, and even things you had little or no understanding of, all where there to broaden your horizons and possibly give a better understanding of the world in which we live in.
The basis of the cabinet of curiosities was not only there to help you in your desire to understand the world, but were also there to show other people what influences you and what you have chosen. They showed your peers about your life and were also there to impress and be the envy of everyone around you. Each Item told a story and was a huge talking point and you appear more interesting and also helped emphasize your wealth.
Today in a highly media orientated world as well as a hugely global economy peoples cabinets of curiosities have somewhat narrowed in time. In the past the majority of the demographic was determined by class and gender, as only wealthy men had the ideologies to produce a huge array of items and was very different from cabinet to cabinet due to less globalization and a huge lack of media influences. Whereas today, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, language, race and religion seem to have little impact in the way of today’s society. Age seems to be the biggest diversity in people’s cabinets today. The 16-25 age group tends to have surprisingly similar cabinets, i.e. Hollywood movies and the music (current, top 40) which help influence our lives. The only surprising thing that i found out about many other peoples cabinets was that they were all so very similar. And is the media orientated world the primary reason for all this?
My own Cabinet of curiosities consist of the universe and the science around it. The Universe has such big meaning, from the creation of time to the evolution of life on this planet and maybe others. Scientists have been plagued for centuries in how the universe works and it intrigues me that we know so little about our role within it. Stephen Hawkins wanted to prove the theory of everything within his life time and feels he will fail if he does not achieve this life long ambition. I am amazed by using simple formulae you can find out how many extra solar planets there are around a certain star and how we know so much about the creation and destruction of stars. What gets to me is after knowing all this we are not even scratching the surface of what science and physics within the universe can possibly be. What I love about the universe is that if it is infact infinite then within all possibility an infinate amount of other universes may exist or that another me is writing these very same words aeons away.
A Neutron Star - Marvelling wonder?
Earth - Are we really that important?
M31 Galaxy - Is there life in there?
Music has come to dominate so many peoples lives over the years due to advances in technology and the media. My outlook on music is generally if its on the radio or on it a night club I will listen to it. So the music I listen to is highly orientated by the media of today. I have perhaps only a dozen CDs stretching maybe 8 bands/artists. The Killers, The Who, Elton John and R.E.M. are perhaps the band I listen to the most and are ones that I could quite happily at this moment listen to for the rest of my life. There is little sentiment in why I listen to them other than the music that hits my ears. I have little collaboration with these bands, I don’t know all the members of every band and couldn’t really tell you much about them other than I like listening to them. It is more dominant in the majority of my age group, but I don’t listen to it all that much but what I do listen to has an influence in my life and the curiosity is more to the reason of why I am not in the majority
Brandon Flowers - An entertainer and a role model?
Elton John - He just loves what he does? But wasn't he depressed?
History has always fascinated me from the rise of the Third Reich to the demise of the Inca from Machu Picchu. I’ve always wanted to know more about the past than I do of today and could easily spend hours trying to learn more about everything. I enjoy watching war time movies and getting there aspect on things. There is a difference in documentaries and films but I like to get the analytical point on things, for instance the battle of Stirling was fought on a bridge whereas in Braveheart (1995) the battle was fought within a big field. Easier to direct and appear more entertaining or just ignorance on the production team? Photojournalism and its rise from the 19th century through to today has also been one to catch my eye, Robert Capa on the beaches of Normandy was one that inspired me most amongst many others. Again photojournalism isn’t one that features highly amongst my age group but I feel that it inspires and teaches you more about the world that we once lived in.
Robert Capa - D-Day 1944 and primary weapon is a camera. By any means?
The World At War - The most comprehensive documentary series of all time?
Movies, television, internet, the global media. These are what affects the majority of us (including myself) and how we live our lives. My life is plagued by sitting in front of the television and watching endless hours of junk but also junk that influences my daily life. Adverts and lifestyle shown on the tele and the internet have shown me how to dress and what is morally right and wrong more so than my parents. Peer pressure has come from the rise in the media and what people are shown. would I be wearing what I am now or talking how I talk if it wasn’t for the globalisation of the media world? Perhaps media has ruined my life but I enjoy it all the same and I’m sure so does almost everybody else. Out of the stacks of DVDs that I own I doubt that many people would fail not to have any notion of any of them and my playstation and the games that I play are influenced by everything around me. The promotion that many of the items that they get is probably more money than I’ll ever spend in my life and yet that doesn’t matter when I walk into a shop and buy a DVD or when I sit on my laptop or in front of the tele. I like to be entertained and I love that the media world has shown me these things. Would I perhaps have a more diverse understanding of film and tv if I had no clue in what i was watching? The answer is almost a certain yes. They’ve influenced my life and giving me sporting heros and made me laugh and keep me entertained. My love for football may not have flourished if it wasn’t for football being ‘everywhere’ and how much I watch Friends is also influenced by how much it is shown on the tele. These things have influenced my life and made me more curious than ever to help me open my mind due to how narrow I am because of the media.
1966 - England's World Cup Triumph. Made bigger by colour TV and the press that it has been given?
Friends - Would you be watching it if it didn't have such a high acclaim and being on constantly on tv?
These are just a selection of my cabinet of curiosities and I hope to add to my cabinet and stretch my mind over the years to come.
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