With the topic: a balanced perspective is the key to understanding the contemporary surveillance society in which we live, I decided to focus primarily on the controversy of surveillance footage in school classrooms to help further children’s development. The particular message I wanted to send is that no matter what, we cannot control the world in which we live. We are constantly being filmed, recorded and tracked not only for safety measures but also to gain data. By interviewing a mum, I wanted to have a discussion and gain real life feedback about whether or not she thinks surveillance should be implemented in classrooms. It was great to gain her perspective which really helped tie into the topic that we do live in a society of technology and that we need to have a balanced perspective in order to keep moving forward.
When deciding how I was going to create my video, I really wanted to be informational but creative at the same time. With the research that I gathered about school surveillance, I came to a conclusion that like most things, there are advantages and disadvantages towards the matter. Certain articles discussed how it can be a breach of privacy for both teachers and students while others discussed the importance of student’s learning and social development.
With this information I thought the best outcome to deliver my desired messaged was through an interview with a real-life mum. I made sure that when it came time to film my video that my main subjects were always in the centre of the screen as they were the main priority and focal point which allows my viewers to be able to really engage with the content. Engaging with the audience was always on the forefront of my mind before I began filming therefore, I decided in the planning stages, to start my video off with myself giving a brief introduction of the topic to really engage with the audience and get them intrigued.
When it came to recording my video and having lots of my ideas to film outside, I was conscious that when filming a lot of background noise can be detected and can result in a poor quality audio.
Therefore, when it was time to edit, I decided to use my outside shots still but mute them in my video and use audio or music above them to create another element to my video. By doing this, I also added the use of overlay to my video which could also be seen at the start where I introduce the title over the video of the people walking across the busy intersection.
Overall, my experience with this assignment was positive and I had lots of fun creating it while also addressing a real-life topic that is present today. I did, however, encounter some challenges along the way that I had to overcome. The first one being, when in an interview with someone and you don’t have a script, it can always run a little longer because people can really get emotionally invested. This happened to me while I was interviewing Penny with the whole duration going for eighteen minutes. This was a struggle for me as I had to cut more than half out. However, I overcame this by focussing on the point made that really addressed the topic.
The second problem that I encountered was that due to me having to cut so much content out, my video now is very staggered and jumps around a bit which is quite noticeable to the viewer. This is not ideal, but I have tried to make it as succinct as possible in my editing and I hope that the content and the setting is enough to keep the viewer engaged.
And finally, the last problem I encountered which was probably the biggest one, was that I originally had a school teacher to interview about the issues at hand but she cancelled the morning of filming because an important matter came up. This was obviously very hard at the time, but I brainstormed and decided what better way to talk to a mum who would have a strong opinion on the matter which will give me a measurable response. It worked out well in the end and allowed me to produce a video that really outlines that a balanced perspective is the key to understanding the contemporary surveillance society in which we live in.
References:
Lyon, D., 2007. Surveillance Studies: An Overview. 1st Edition ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hassrick, E. & Schneider, B., 2009. Parent Surveillance in Schools: A Question of Social Class. Amerian Journal of Education , CXV(2), pp. 195-225.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/595665
Johnson, B., Sullivan, M. A. & Williams, D., 2009. A one-eyed look at classroom life: Using new technologies to enrich classroom-based research. Issues in Education Research , XIX(1), pp. 34-47.
Lyon, D., 2007. Surveillance Studies: An Overview. 1st Edition ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Lyon, D., 1994. The Rise of Surveillance Society. 1st Edition ed. Minneapolis: Polity Press.
Liang, J., 2015. International research and pedagogy. Journal of Education for Teaching , XLI(3), pp. 235-253.
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy-b.deakin.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/02607476.2015.1045314
Music: Pulsing Logo Accent 02 – IMovie
A day in the life of Amanda 