Chapter 2 - Context
Project Background
What is it that makes me do my project?
To reiterate From My Proposal: The concept might change through out the whole Final Major Project, but I am going to create a campaign video for the local elections in the 2nd May for the Southport Conservatives. I will be filming each candidate from each ward with some local residents queries and concerns and what the candidates plans are going to be for each ward. I will also be bringing up on-going campaigns; for example, Save the Pier campaign and reinstating the Children’s A&E at Southport Hospital.
The main reason why I am doing a campaign video is because I feel as if their is a gap in the local political scene for this sort of thing, So I think creating something like this would be an election boost for the candidates and would be something different that nobody has seen before on a local scale. With the new real life deadline set for before the 2nd May 2024, and of course the permissions granted from the local association I am very certain I can produce something compelling and persuasive video for the locals of Southport who want to see change.
A disclaimer, my project proposal might change due to candidate expenditure and electoral law. I will be looking into all of the possibilities and if things change I will be writing it all done in Chapter 6 of Problem Solving.
What are your first hand experiences that influence your choices (idea for the project, my role in the project, how it relates to my future career)
My role in the project will be the director, meaning I will be coming up with the plans for the project, I will also be filming the project too. For me it has always been hard to answer the question of how it is going to relate to my future career because at this stage I don’t know; All I can say is that I am going to University in September because I want to further my education as much as I can and the end goal is a degree in my chosen field which will be Film Making & Television Production. As of currently I am being offered jobs at the Conservative Campaign Headquarters because of my campaigning and consultation process for the Southport Town Deal and that has shown volumes in how much feedback I got from that which was 8,000 responses. So you could say that creating this campaign video is opening doors into a future employment with CCHQ.
What do I Seek to achieve?
As this is going to be a real campaign video which the public of Southport is going to see, I want to be able to make a good compelling video which will get people talking. Creating this campaign video would also give me the opportunity to bring this issue to the public as it isn’t very well known by many people and if it is, then it would be up to me to bring it up to the attention to them as a matter of importance with it might be becoming an issues to motorists and businesses.
Who Am I
A Little Bit About My Me!
Hi My name is Owen. Born 22nd January 2005. I currently study Creative Media Production & Photography at Level 3 at Southport College.
I have achieved many things over the past few years or more. My Southport article that was published on Stand Up For Southport by Andrew Brown, reached many people across Southport and got recognition. I was named the role model for my generation to encourage young people to give ideas for the Southport Town Deal.
Southport teenager reveals his vision for the future of resort - Stand Up For Southport
The Member of Parliament for Southport - Damien Moore has congratulated me on success with a letter. I also got recognition for building Southport in a game called Minecraft.
I got a prime spot in a video funded by Sefton Council for Schools. I was encouraging school children of all ages to put forward ideas for the Town Deal. I was also asked to be included in another video funded by the council and it was called "Sandgrounders Help Launch The Town Deal". Same as the last video I was asked to showcase my build of Southport in Minecraft and inspire young people to submit ideas for the Southport Town Deal.
More then six months later I was approached by Andrew Brown again to interview me over my Minecraft build of Southport. He interviewed me and had it published in the Southport Visiter local newspaper and on Stand Up For Southport.
Personal Statement
From a young age I have always been into creating films and videos, this started off in high school when I got my first gaming computer with a capture card to record gameplay off an Xbox. Then, I would use Windows Movie Maker to drag and cut clips together to make a simple video which would gather probably about 40 to 50 views per video, at the time I thought that was amazing. This was where I first found my passion in the creative media process.
During my time in high school, I dipped my toe into many things but most notably local politics. At the age of 15, I wrote an article for Stand Up for Southport talking about what the town could spend the £25 million government grant on. This sparked huge debate in Sefton Council, Southport Town Deal, and the Southport BID. As a result, this put me front and centre of the Town Deal with some help from my Headmaster at Meols Cop High School. During this time, I had to utilise and develop my leadership skills in order to create change within my community.
To promote the Town Deal the Council funded a video to introduce the Town Deal and during the creation of the video; this made me fall back in love with video editing and filming. There was a video that was sent around local schools with me at the forefront encouraging younger people to submit ideas into the Town Deal. All the campaigning and promoting caused a landslide of ideas, and this also gave me the opportunity to influence the younger generations which was inspiring.
As a result of falling back in love with Creative Media, I enrolled on a course at Southport College to start studying whether it was photography or film making in 2021. My interests tailored towards film making and this became apparent when working on other projects. As I started to focus more on filmmaking, I’d always push myself to improve every time whether it was on the editing side using Premier Pro or using a dedicated DSLR video camera with a gimbal. I would also self-reflect on my work and talk about the mistakes and having good time management for hitting deadlines is very important as there will be many in the future and adapting to this early on is very vital and important to me.
I feel as though going to university would be massively beneficial decision for myself since realising that I could extend my educational career and I can develop as a person as well as my knowledge. I also want to learn a lot more things part of the film making world but on a bigger scale. There are many units I have enjoyed at college, but the one I mostly enjoyed was the TV Commercial Production where I photographed my car from different angles and then put it together in a moving image format using post-production lighting techniques.
Throughout the past couple of years whether it is at college studying Creative Media or local politics; the passion for each of these things have been high, the willingness to learn is always a key factor.
What Inspired me to do my Project?
I’ve always had a huge interest in the local area and the history of it, Even right down to the rise and fall of Southport. This has what has got be interested in local politics and to get me more involved in it to help support the town as much as I can. I never intended to get into it as a career or to work my way up the ladder into Westminster politics. I have a keen interest in film making and website design and being able to incorporate this into my local politics especially with the experience I have with gained from campaigning when I was part of the Southport Town Deal for the state of the art Events Centre on the Promenade. I gained over 8,000 consultations alone from the public and school/college students. Being able to direct and create videos is what I am good at down to even knowing how to encourage the younger generation is what primarily what my job was as I know exactly how they think and what they want which is what would encourage them. It even comes down to being offered jobs in the Conservative Campaign Headquarters because their crying out for people to run campaigns in different constituencies in the country.
My Portfolio:
Photography
Film Making
Interactive Website Development
My Research Plan
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FMP - RESEARCH PLAN (OUTLINE) |
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Interest/Topic/Theme |
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My theme for my Final Major Project
is going to be a campaign video for the Local Southport Conservatives for the
local elections in the 2nd May. As campaign videos is a too narrow
field to research into, I will be researching into the history of party-political
broadcasts and how this relates to how campaign videos are made. This will be
secondary research. I will also be writing up about Local and National
campaigns and the local campaign is really close to
my heart as it is Save Southport Pier campaign. |
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Why is it
important? |
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To reiterate from the project background
section of Chapter 2, I’ve always
had a huge interest in the local area and its history. Even right down to the
rise and fall of Southport. This is what has got my interest in local politics
and get more involved in it to help and support my town as much as I can. To
be able to incorporate my keen interest in filmography and local politics especially
with the experience I have gained from campaigning when I was part of the
Southport Town Deal. I gained over 8,000 consultations alone from the public
and college/school students. And for this to be as important as it is, this
is going to be the younger generations future and to be able to encourage
that will be what I really want to be able to do. |
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My research
question(s) |
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What am I trying to find out? I want to be able to engage and
persuade the audience with a good campaign video. With it being a real one
meaning it will be used for the existing campaign, the stakes are high
because it needs to be really good. |
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Research
Design (methodology) |
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Subject I am going to research
is party political broadcasts and examples of local and national campaigns.
Campaign videos generally specifically look at compelling and persuasive material
and of course I want to be able to link this with my interest with my keen
interest of filmography; meaning I will link this with producing good camera
angles and shot types in the process. Target audience – 18 – 65 years
old. Skills and techniques to be
used – practice and watching and analysing existing campaign videos. Production research – Looking into
how to produce a compelling and persuasive videos. |
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Literature
(Proposed Sources – Harvard Format) |
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/broadcastersliaisongroup/political-broadcast-history/ https://www.southportconservatives.org/campaigns/save-southport-pier |
