London – Is It As Good As It Thinks??

So London is our nations capital and a place good enough to host Olympics and hopefully World Cups. A place of culture, fun, nights out and shopping. So what did I think? I had not been there as a tourist since I was a child of maybe 9 or 10 and my last time to the capital was to watch a gig at Brixton Academy about 5-6yrs ago.

Was I impressed??? Well not completely! Everytime I talk to people from London or the south, they talk about how much they love London, how nothing else compares to it. Well I will prob give the city of London 6 out of 10 and that is because I was there for a few days and in that time I had no chance to experience the complete London lifestyle, but I could see there was definitely lots to do and see.

So why not a perfect 10 score? Well I will start with the London Eye.

An attraction that allows you to see the City of London from a great viewpoint. Sounds great, however, there’s not much to see whilst you are up there! The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, MI5, St Paul’s Cathedral, The BT Tower and the Gherkin Building (I have no idea what the building is used for!).

Maybe I was being naive but I expected Central London to have more eye-catching architectural buildings. However the views were great from the London Eye but I will rate the attraction with a 2.5 out of 5 and that’s mainly for the 15-20 mins of my time it takes up and the fact it looks like a theme park ride without the speed!! However I have to say the 4D London Eye experience is better then the real thing and it even shows you buildings that were not visible from the London Eye view point.

As a tourist it is essential to visit Buckingham Palace and I was surprised how much a tourist was able to do on a Sunday.

Unfortunately for a Sunday, it was a little too late to do the tours of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. I also took a picture of City Hall where I believe the Mayor of London works from.

Travel in the City is surprisingly fast and efficient despite London still improving its travel links in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. An Oyster card is essential for anyone wishing to travel through London as getting anywhere is very expensive. Looking back, I spent most of my travel time underground!!!

So, overall London is full of amusements to keep everyone entertained but in the few days I spent there, I only completed a small part of the tourist “holiday”, there was other things that I would have liked to have done and still would like to do like Madame Tussaud’s, London Dungeons, Sea Life, Leicester Square and shopping, the West End, visiting Kerrang Radio London etc etc etc. London is so big that I would need to live there for a month to fully appreciate what London has to offer……..plus I may need a loan!!

122mc – Media & Cultural Fields (Group 7) – Task 4

Task 4 – Popular Film – Using film grammar and ideology

The brief was to show a woman meeting a man. She then kills him and leaves the scene rapidly. Her actions have been witnessed.

We created a story about two electorial candidates (very appropriate at time of filming) who are competing for the peoples vote. One candidate goes to the extreme of hiring a professional to kill his rival. And to make sure she does the job correctly, he also witnesses her commiting the crime.

Team Members – Jason Kurmoo, Chris Thornton, Nic Urmston, Rares Stoica, Sabina Pasaniuc, Danielle Cook, Baker Mbelizi

122mc – Media & Cultural Fields (Group 7) – Task 2

Task 2 – Political film – Trailer

We decided to follow the codes and conventions of the parody and made a trailer that used key elements of this genre. Within the boundaries of the trailer codes and conventions, we explained a story that clearly identifies the hero and what he must do. We also slipped in some in-jokes that relate to Propps idea of characters within a film.

Team Members – Jason Kurmoo, Chris Thornton, Nic Urmston, Rares Stoica, Sabina Pasaniuc, Danielle Cook, Baker Mbelizi

122mc – Media & Cultural Fields (Group 7) – Task 3

Task 3 – Artistic text

We decided to change the norm of the traditional poem and read the poem backwards. This at first sounds strange to the audience but helps them to concentrate more on the words being spoken rather then on the music or visuals.

Team Members – Jason Kurmoo, Chris Thornton, Nic Urmston, Rares Stoica, Sabina Pasaniuc, Danielle Cook, Baker Mbelizi

122mc – Media & Cultural Fields (Group 7) – Task 1

finished radio advert

Task 1 – Create a radio commercial

Name of Product – Rebound (Deodrant)

Our USP – Includes the “chemical” Sextract

Line of Appeal – Gives you confidence

Connotation – Makes you smell aromatically appealing

Tag Line – Now with added Sextracts

Team Members – Jason Kurmoo, Chris Thornton, Nic Urmston, Rares Stoica, Sabina Pasaniuc, Danielle Cook, Baker Mbelizi

Source Radio

Show 12 of The rock / alternative show.

An ok show with some good talking points.

Performed with Nick from CCM. Some good banter between the 2 of us, however I decided to include a segment where we both performed our radio advert for the 122mc module live on air. Unfortunately this was not a great idea and listening back to it, it did not sound too good.

Other then that, the show went well and I had some slick transistions between links and songs.

My listeners unfortunately only peaked at 13 and so I have lost some of my listeners. I think this may be due to me not doing a regular show over the last few weeks due to a busy uni schedule. 

Keep listening to me 4-6 every monday on www.sourceradio.co.uk

Source Radio

Show 11 of The rock / alternative show.

A very well prepared show with some good stories.

Performed solo, I cut out a lot of the “erms” I had in my last show and the content was a lot more fluent.

Having good entertaining stories helped me keep talking and I was able to stay within my link beds and thus enabling my show to not over run.

I was especially pleased with my ending to the show, where i left myself with around 4minutes to fill. This was achieved with fluidity because I was able to link songs that were just played with contact details for the show, advertising the stations download service and ways to contact the station.

My listeners peaked at 23 and started at 3 at the beginning of the show, averaging around 17 listeners over the course of the show.

Keep listening to me 4-6 every monday on www.sourceradio.co.uk