The Last Few days.

Okay, so I've only been able to film a few days at the farm due to the lack of electricity to charge my gopro. Additionally, I've had seldom times to go down away from the farm because the workers there had to look out for me for any dangers that lurked, as well as do their job, so some activities I had to do was not filmed. Difficulties had risen as well due to some activities such as cooking at night by fire meant that footage was too dark and dim to even watch, and most activities like hunting would occur during night time when animals were asleep or resting. Nevertheless, I filmed a scene when 3 children were playing with spiders, because they did not have any toys to play with.

However I've acquired what seems to be adequate footage to see what it's like to live in a farm.

My next plan is too interview the employees of those in the farm and ask them about their hardships throughout their lives before being under the care of my uncle.

So I'm midway through my holiday and I have experienced what life would be like if I were a farmer's son. Firstly the term "farmer" comes under the umbrella term for "server", and it seems that all those that would be working in the farm, would be working to serve in the owners household. Fortunately, the owners are my dad and uncles. Secondly, the workers who would not stay in the farm, but stay in the household would have to do much work, which I've experienced first hand.

Everyday for the past two weeks, I would climb the forest and look for wild game such as the white-eared brown dove or also known as the "alimukon" to the workers. Or monitor lizards and wild chicken having learned how to make traps especially for them. Lastly, my uncle sends us to look for wild orchids which grow only on trees six meters and up. We would climb different peaks and summits of the forest and usually the ascent would take two-to-three hours and the descent, depending on the gradient, can range from one-to-three hours too.


Additionally, upon my arrival to the "House of Rustling Leaves" (the house of my uncle, he named it that because of its sheer size and magnitude surrounded by the forest reserve we would climb),  and already I learned how to slaughter a goat and a chicken; it was interesting.

The Longest Week

I arrived on the 15th of July, and the first thing I noticed was the heat and the humidity, what we call summer (23 degrees) in the UK was the temperature of the air conditioning in the car, whilst outside was averaging 33-37 degrees. Not only that, the second day of my dad and I's arrival, there was a power cut which left the whole neighborhood without electricity. So every night for 5 days, we would do every thing  with the aid of candle light at temperatures reaching 37 degrees. 

The lack of electricity meant the lack of wi-fi which I needed to update my blog, however my uncle who had shared the same experiences of poverty in the farm with my dad, further explained the hardships the locals went through. An example would be that, one can of sardines would be split between a family of six once every week, and the locals would scavenge for vegetables or anything edible among the shrubbery as a substitute. Additionally, my auntie had explained that the farmers would start their work at 3am in the morning and not stop till 12 noon for a break, and then resume work at 2pm and continue till 8pm to rest in preparation for the next day.

The information provided is a good example of primary research.

1 Week til Philippines

This the complete final plan I have made for my time in the Philippines. I haven't blogged in a while due to the completion of this plan as well as the PPR and the questionnaire I plan to ask my dad as well as the locals which actually work in the farm. I also have ordered the GOPRO!!So excited. I have also contemplated some things such as I don't plan on using iMovie maker to edit my video as GoPro have actually made a similar program called "GoPro Studios" which is free, as opposed to the iMovie which isn't, aprox £3. Moreover, GoPro studio offers more features such as speeding or slowing down video clips and has better frame resolution than iMovie. However, the only drawback to acquiring GoPro studio is that it requires a PC or a Mac, which I do not have the luxury of, especially if I am to live on the farm. iMovie on the other hand, can be downloaded on a handheld device such as an iPad, which I'm planning taking with me. Practical wise, iMovie is more suitable for the environment I am going to be in.


I am also on my way to complete a record of sources, all of which are secondary, for now. I haven't been able to interview my one primary resource, my dad, as he has been very busy as of late. Nevertheless, the upcoming week should give me ample time to get what I need out of him. All the sources have been useful and I have yet to encounter any that are not, and they are also reliable as I have used the learning resources such as Jstor and Jiscc, which contain many Oxford and Cambridge published documents, which are well renowned universities.

WORK MISSED

I have not been able to blog for awhile due to the open days and amount of homework I've been doing for my other subjects; leaving me exhausted, however I have managed to complete a plan and have managed to edit it and change different things as different problems have come up.
I have started the documentary research to see what kind of scenes that can be captured in urban Philippines which I can maybe show the difference in rural and urban life and culture, though I don't expect much difference.I have also started watching tutorials from a man called Mic Bergsma, a GoPro enthusiast. He seems to have many tips and tricks on how to capture different angles of films, and how to soften or dampen the jittery movement of shooting a POV camera. Additionally, watching other videos such as video maker (a youtube channel with around 90,000 subscribers and averaging 40,000 to 300,000 views per video) show that a scene where high angles offer a great perspective over crowds whereas lower angles "are the opposite, imparting feelings of dynamic engagement" with the scene being shot.
Different camera movements:
The dolly, where the camera is zooming out while the track with the camera on it is simultaneously moving in, creating a "woozy" effect; the handheld shot, where the camera is handheld without accessory to provide a jerky film to the scene. One I will be able to take advantage of as my GoPro is a handheld device anyway. High angle and low angle shots, aforementioned above, to depict the scenic views of the whole environment as well as showing a much more personal view of the characters to make the audience more involved.
http://revision4gcses.wordpress.com/media-studies/camera-anglesmovementshots/

I have not been able to buy a GoPro as of late, due to the lack of pay my job has provided, nevertheless I will hope to acquire a loan from my dad in the means to pay him back after the trip to Philippines.
Additionally, I've researched different terms that I may use in editing but never actually knew the names of e.g. "Splice - put a piece of video/audio in between two other pieces of video.
Overwrite - put a piece of video/audio over the top of an existing piece of video.
B roll – a video/audio insert which will help fill out your article/story.e.g., in a story about McDonalds, B roll would be a few seconds of footage, sound, etc, of the McD sign, chips frying, someone ordering a meal...basically everything around the main story and the main quotes.
Flash frame – a single frame from another clip accidentally left behind during editing. May not be visible, as it lasts a spilt second, but you might think something strange was up.
Jump cut - when a subject in your report suddenly switches locations with no explanation"http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/Vjing_MM18.html

Post 2nd Lesson

The title seemed far too vague again and Ann and I had a foundation for my title as "Day in the life of a farmer" to which my dad had developed to "A day in the life of a farmer's son". Nevertheless it still is a work in progress. Though I was wondering if I could incorporate the title as a question e.g. "How do farmers in the Philippines survive when they live way below the poverty threshold?" "To better understand the hardship of a farmer in poverty, I've decided to live like a farmer in poverty".

Ann also had mentioned questions I would ask the locals on how they survive with just being farmers for example "what are your aspirations for your kids? Would you want them to go to school, would you want them to live out of poverty and escape the trials you yourself had to endure? If you had to work harder than you are now to let your child(ren) go to school, would you? If you had enough money what would your aspiration for yourself be? How much do you earn, at best, per month? How would you go about spending what minimum income you have for your family? At what age did you learn the skills you need to be a farmer? What happens if you don't have enough income in the month?" etc..

I hope to interview my dad, as he himself was living a life of poverty until he was in his mid to late twenties so that information would prove most valuable as primary research.

I've began a plan for the duration of the EPQ in tom's planner and it was set out as a Gantt chart, but since it was quite new to me it was quite difficult to use. My main focus today would probably be to fill in that plan as much as possible as well as fill in the PPR which is required of me. 

Additionally, I've began watching  video tutorials on how to edit films from a GoPro camera using iMovie for Ipad: "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odZPLxd8-go",  "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APQhVuQXiuM" and "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZcfLjecyCc". The way iMovie works is quite simple but editing two weeks of video into a twenty minute clip may be harder than it looks. I also hope to gain some knowledge on how to film from a friend who takes media and film studies so I would like to hope he can give me some tips and tricks on filming with a GoPro.

For my documentary idea to portray my life as a farmer's son, I need to develop a screenplay as a foundation of what I will be filming in the farm from: harvesting crops to chopping wood to fetching water and to even preparing what meals are available. I've started to research on how documentaries and films are made and a few websites seem to have a lot in common; a screenplay or script. This is to show all the possible filmable scenes I will or might encounter during my time at the farm.

First EPQ Lesson

The first EPQ lesson was a real eye-opener. To put it bluntly; great ideas, but extremely vague. I need to focus on what part of poverty I am showing in the Philippines and somehow extract an appealing title/question from it. Harder than it seems. Nevertheless, I have received the main template of the course from which I need to complete in the next 24 hours. Though the lesson provided a brief insight on how the overall course runs which gave a scary yet exciting feeling of independence.

The skills I need are still far from average and therefore will need research e.g angles at which I need to shoot, how to capture a video that is equal in light and dark and make sure any background noises are muffled or better, erased.
However I am still quite unsure how good of a video a GoPro Hero 3 camera will be able to take but the different reviews and Youtube clips have showed its capabilities as above average. Additionally, as it is also a hand held device I would need to take into account how I can make the video smooth and not "shaky". Apparently some sort of tape or rubber from an inner tube can "dampen the vibrations" which affect the camera's smoothness said "http://gopro.com/support/articles/how-to-prevent-waves-distortions-videos".
I plan to learn few tips on how to record videos from a friend who takes media and film studies and hope that his expertise would prove useful if not beneficial in my learning of shooting videos.