Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Second week

Today we met up for a few hours to discuss what to do next, and between us we came up with some really interesting ideas. Susie's thoughts on the beginning, opening with scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds were great, and got us talking about lots of other ideas, maybe having various newspaper headlines along with it, and saying something like "In 1965, the biggest threat to the world was birds. In 2006, that threat has returned, but in a more deadly way." Well, you get the idea. There was also the idea to finish with white text on a black background, maybe with some music playing, saying things like "since the start of making this film, xxx people have died as a result of the H5N1 virus," and maybe "xxx people have died as a result of yyy." Also, Peter's suggestion that we maybe could look at the media aspect of this topic, such as how as certain newspaper (to remain unnamed!) has influenced the publics perception of the events around bird 'flu.

Ooh, and we also looked at titles, such as "Playing chicken with disease" - cool, huh? :)

Notes:
Solid science followed by panic/media aspect - is it scaremongering?
Incubation period

Agh, what else?!? So much happened! We said we should examine scientific literature to use as evidence about what is factually correct, something certain papers don't do!

We also want to get thinking about some graphics that we may want to use, and are looking out for diagrams that could be adapted into some kind of Flash animation type thing, involving DNA/virus cells. Maybe there would be something on a news piece or documentary. Also, microscope images of viruses could make a good bit of footage.

Footage we want to film:
  • Airport
  • Migrating birds
  • Flocking birds
  • Pigeons
  • Chickens
  • Farm
Footage we want to pinch:
  • 1918 'flu
  • Pictures of virus
  • The Birds
I'm still waiting for the Department of Health to release the new pandemic 'flu contingency plans, to examine the changes over the past 7 months; apparently this is due to happen on. According to the BBC, this is happening on Wednesday.

In the upcoming week, we are all going to look at different newspapers for the various perspectives on the same issues.

Susie - The Guardian and The Sun
Anna - The Telegraph and The Daily Mail
Lorina - The Independent and The Mirror
Carol - The Times and The Express

We also need to get the readership numbers for the most widely read papers/source of news in the UK.

We also decided that this week we would each do some research on a particular area to discuss as a group next week.

Susie - Biology
Anna - Timeline and blog information
Lorina - Psychology of panic
Carol - DNA, possible use of graphics

We want to in the beginning MSU sessions get some practice at handling the camera, and possibly record some interviews with each other to get some sense of using different angles, lighting and sound... type... things.

Right, think that's about it from this weeks meetings, though can't be quite sure because my memory is like Swiss cheese.

Oh yeah, here's the graphic from the BBC News website showing the migratory routes of various birds.

posted by Anna @ 05:54

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