Final Project, The Movie

It's done and ready to be viewed. What a relief

Final Project, Final Stretch

So it comes to this, my last piece of work due for Internet Studies. And while it certainly isn’t a thirty page philosophy behemoth; it’s no slouch of an assignment either. So what does the final project entail? Well basically, a 1500-2000 word essay with a specific theme and question with which to answer; and secondly, a 3-5 minute movie (made with windows movie maker or the like) which is supposed to illustrate some aspect of the more public aspect to life in Durban.

For the essay, I will stick close to the topic. And as this essay asks a question to which is looking for a specific (in a sense) answer, that is, every student got the same topic for which to write their essay; I will make sure I maintain a decent structure and composition. This will hopefully increase the strength of that of the essay’s argument and conclusion, and even more so, it will help in guiding my idea for the movie. Because while most are basing their essays upon their movies, I am basing my movie more upon the themes highlighted in the essay.

In order to write the essay, I concentrated on the duties to the filling of rights such that a state of equality is achieved for all citizens. So by concentrating on our Constitutional Bill of Rights, as well as the Mamphela Ramphele, I have attempted to bring up many of the rights and roles of citizens of South Africa. This is then compared to the role of a movie maker, and by extension my role; however, this does not completely answer the question at hand. So, by including my movie ideas and structure, a comparison is made between my movie and that of the general movie maker.

For the movie, I have chosen the topic/theme of the clear disparity in services, wealth and infrastructure. I will do this by creating a driven comparison between multiple circumstances and scenarios of disparity in the lives of Durbanites. And more than that, the failings of the government. Such as pressure as applied by large population increases.

So in the process of making the movie, I took pictures and located online images that would compliment by comparison. Such that the images would draw comparisons between the extremes in the cases of: housing, business and services etc. Then by means of subtle and hard cues, containing specific connotative questions, I aim to deliver my point behind the essay. The point being that the government elect needs to equalise the situation, but more than that, needs to focus on the less fortunate on a much more serious way.

Third Article’s the Charm

Third article, new theme; in choosing to stray from our usual Early Morning Market theme, I hope to add a bit of variety to the mix. Ok, so some aspects of our article writing process have remained a constant. Firstly, and as expected, I have retained the job of writer and article devisor. The other group members, as usual, prefer to take a less constructive approach to the article. And so that they may contribute in some way, I have assigned them to the pain staking task of taking pictures.

In the pursuit of insightful tactics, I decided to remain within close proximity to our last article themes. Not so much the Early Morning Market, but more than that, the people being affected by the changes of the FIFA World Cup. And while I’m not one to milk a theme for all that it’s worth; the theme of the World Cup, as far as our group sees it, will remain relevant up until and soon after the World Cup has occurred. Moreover, owing to the simple fact that this article is of course for a Durban centred news portal; we had to stick to something within the limits of Durban. What we chose, well what I chose in fact, was a brief story on the Moses Mabhida Stadium. The stadium is currently being built in Durban; its job is to accommodate the Durban stages of the World Cup, as well as, any future events that might require its size and nature. Especially since it is meant to replace the ABSA Stadium.

The article is simple in essence, and even simpler in research. We decided to concentrate on the stadium and its beauty as, unfortunately, compared to its cost. Its cost shouldn’t be that important, but once you consider the facts and put 2 and 2 together, you see it as it is; and it is most definitely not the lesser of two evils. The facts being: the money comes largely from taxes, this prevents funding from reaching other important projects, and will probably not produce enough of a profit (at least in the short run) to completely repay the exorbitant expenses. So we had found our angle, and I was able to write an article which complimented the pictures the group had collected. It is in my opinion a pretty decent article. So the only thing left is to post it.

Article 2, and Half Way Home

Progress report, so what about the second article? Well for the second article, with regards to essence and theme, we had decided to achieve a close similarity with that of our first article. This was an easy choice to make, as it played into one of my preferred writing styles. With a little bit of reasoning and my previous sentence, you have almost assuredly guessed what my role in the article was. That’s right; I’ve been promoted to writing duty again. A self promotion I must confess, but I felt it to be both necessary and logical to take such a position. Not only am I the most capable writer of the group (no offense to my fellow group members), but I’m not exactly the greatest choice for picture sourcing. It worked out well for everyone, so let’s move on to a brief discussion of the article.

What does the article entail exactly? Like I previously mentioned, we had decided to stick with the Early Morning Market. But more than that, we expanded to the area surrounding the market; we did this in order to discuss the renovations of Warwick Junction’s infrastructure. Being the writer, I compared the pros and cons that may be experienced by the loss of the Early Morning Market over the (supposed) newly planned mall. To fully grasp this concept, I read a short analysis on the successful placing of malls. And by choosing to focus primarily on the Early Morning Market and the effects it might face, while managing to maintain a more broad scope throughout this article. It tried to illuminate the very real possibility that the FIFA World Cup world cause more loss than gain. However, I did make an attempt in presenting both sides of the story; this was only to a limited degree, owing to the short nature of the article.

In the end, we managed to churn out a half-decent article that I am in no way displeased about. I have to admit to doing a majority of the work, moreover, I don’t see that changing for the next article. But there is a silver lining to this cloud. At least I get to completely control my mark, which is what I wanted in the first place.

Internet Sanctions, Boundaries where there were None Before

After a lecture on the filtering of the internet, as practiced mostly by authoritarian or totalitarian countries; I began to consider the virtual sanctions (internet filters) that government and their appointed agents enforce or place over national internet access points. I realised that our governments, constitution and policies on the freedom of an individual in both the public and private spheres is extremely accommodating. I am in no way condoning the approach to which this country is run; for then we must necessarily consider service delivery and cost, policy guidance, and promise achievement. And in this regard, our government not only hangs by the way side, but is on a steady decline to failure. This is a digression however, for the simple reason that this post was not created for the purpose of slandering and criticising the government. But instead, was created for the purpose of demonstrating my point, to the effect that we live in a country of comparatively and relative freedom. If this was not the case, this post would not exist.

Case and Point :

1. China
2. Iran