Week 6 - Project 2 Proposal

Introduction
The concept of the video will be the notion of hyper-surveillance, with a specific focus on the issue of privacy. Other areas of discussion will include references to Legislation, the Bill of Rights, and the current-day similarities to George Orwell's 1984.

Concept
The video podcast will focus on how privacy is infringed upon in many areas of one's daily life and activities. Throughout the course of our research for this podcast, as well as in the presentation of the podcast itself, we intend to answer the following question regarding surveillance and breaches of privacy: How far is too far? Our intention is to convey the concerns and precautions that one must take when it comes to their personal privacy, not only online, but with any technologically related medium. An important issue is that in today's surveillance society, one is constantly being watched, but if we are doing nothing wrong, then should there be a reason to worry? Nearly all of the technologies in today’s society consequently also have methods of surveillance. Cellular phone conversations can be overheard, instant messaging conversations are routinely archived, and built in webcams on personal laptop computers can be controlled remotely. The methods by which our actions can be recorded are endless, and it is our goal through the video podcast to bring attention to these methods.

Also, corporations such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft often take great lengths to obtain our personal information, but what guarantees do we have that this information is dealt with accordingly? It may be possible that Facebook sells our information (such as who we talk to, our relationship status, etc) to advertising companies. Google always crawls the web to capture any information it can, but just how powerful are their web crawlers? Microsoft requires personal information for most installations, and with the introduction of ActiveX, are there any more barriers to that information? These topics as well will be covered by our video podcast.

Research Approach
The basis of our research will involve a combination of field research and a variety of conventional research to further support our arguments. We will include live interviews with random subjects and incorporate supporting evidence from scholarly journals and other personal blogs or video podcasts to show opposing views about the issue. Some of the video podcast we will be using will be taken from www.current.com. One of the main articles that we will focus on is “public surveillance functions of private security” (http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles2%284%29/private.pdf) by Alison Wakefield. We would also be looking at different articles on the infringement of privacy involving internet. Lastly, we would also assess different major corporations and their methods of gathering data.

Treatment
The podcast will incorporate a hit television show ‘24’ type theme, where multiple segments of events are happening at once during a specific duration. The camera will play a neutral roll, capturing our interaction with each other. Many shots will be filmed from the shoulder to not only capture dramatics, but also carry good audio quality. The type of atmosphere we are trying to generate would be action pact and adventurous to draw the attention of the audience as well as keeping it formal to come off as factual.

Our footage would contain research that will be placed in dialogue, which is backed up by visual aids. Interviews of individuals as well as other extended metaphors will be placed to further emphasis our story. Much effort will be placed on ‘what makes a good blog’ by including comic relief and emotion.

Week 5

Team name: The A-Team
Team members: Clarianne Asuncion, James Purdy, Mark Shannon, Victoria Wighton

The initial concept for our video podcast is regarding Google and its relation to privacy in the online world. Features such as Google Analytics and Googlebots pry into the darkest corners of a website, and quite possibly, password protected information such as bank accounts and secure web sites.

Also, we will speak about privacy in regard to other applications which have yet to be determined, but may include cell phone conversations and ATMs.

Week 4 - My favourite video blog

Ask A Ninja

Askaninja.com is a comedic video podcast that portrays a man dressed as a ninja who discusses various areas of interest.

Through his video podcast, the ninja goes through a variety of topics each week. There is no specific theme to what he chooses to discuss, however, the way his podcast is filmed is very unique. Instead of one long video clip of himself, a series of short clips are placed together to create a choppy, but well-crafted video segment. Regardless of what the topic of discussion is, the ninja summarizes his thoughts and perceptions of the topics and gets straight to the point of what they are about.

The ninja mainly discusses subjects of a less serious nature, but on occasion will argue topics such as global warming or even net neutrality, however, he spins a comedic twist on them and makes the subjects easier to watch. By using light-hearted subject matter he captivates the audience. Using comedy as a blogging technique, he is able to reach an assortment of viewers. The majority of the content can be considered as fluff, but the use of sarcasm catches the attention of people of all ages. Also, each video is no longer than 3 minutes long, which allows for a more concise summary of his proposed topic, and is appealing to those whose attention spans are not very long.

The short, choppy editing technique catches the attention of the viewer and allows for a more interesting post because there is constantly some sort of action going on, rather than continuous and therefore monotonous dialogue, which can become boring after a while. The whole point of video blogs is to captivate the audience, while conveying a message or some sort of information. The content of the Ask a Ninja's actual videos are often not valuable because of the aim of the blog is to entertain, rather than inform, however, he does open up several topics that would be worth examining further, even on a more serious note.

Week 3 - My Video blog