Interview With Photographer Chloe Jones

What did you think of the photography exhibition?

I think the photography exhibition was really successful; I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s photographs together and everyone was really proud of what we had achieved. Everyone seemed to enjoy having a look around the exhibition and seeing how different people captured the idea of multiculturalism. I think the photographs were all very creative and of a high standard.

Talk about your set of images, and why you chose this theme in relation to Multiculturalism.

I took photographs around the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. There was obviously the main parade day and also the day before where bands and dancers performed in Birmingham. I think the music and outfits really stood out in my pictures and that my images worked well in celebrating the Irish culture.
Which was your favourite picture? (from your set)

My favourite picture from my set was probably the man wearing a very vibrant peacock outfit covered in shamrocks and clovers with the words 'Happy St Patrick’s Day'. I think this image really demonstrated the fun aspect of the parade and the colours really stood out.

What did you think about the event in general?
I enjoyed the overall day, I think the workshops were very successful, particularly the martial arts dancing because it got everybody involved and the people running the workshop were very enthusiastic. My family really enjoyed the day as well.

BCUltural Images: The Event

 Here are some images from the event to present some visuals which show how the day panned out:

                                        Preparing for the event: Setting up for the press conference

The press conference kicks off! Filmed by media students

The room devoted to the photography exhibition         One of the rooms as the event was in full swing

 A photography specialist's work

 The photography room presented the work of photography students who wanted to present what multiculturalism was all about through the presentation of their images.

The Capoeira workshop got everyone involved, including me!

St Patrick's Day Parade pictures taken by Chloe Jones

The drum workshop and people having a go!

Multicultural production event set up by Media and Communication students from Birmingham City University at the Rainbow in Digbeth

 Drum demonstrations for people to try out

A nice BBQ in the sunshine!

THE EVENT! Thurs 05-05-2011

The day kicked off with a press conference centred on the question ‘Has multiculturalism failed?’ Amongst the panel included Production Event module leader Matt Grimes, PR lecturer Pete Wilby, a Media student and a speaker from Amnesty International. Matt Grimes said he would ask David Cameron- ‘what experiences have you had of multiculturalism?’ stating he would have had limited experiences as a middle class white man who went to a public school. The press conference involved participation from the audience, stirring up a debate about the topic of multiculturalism to really get people thinking about the theme, which was a great way to set off the event.

Goody bags and magazines were distributed at the entrance, and there were workers from Amnesty International set up at tables to provide more information. There was a room dedicated to the photography exhibition, displaying photos defining multiculturalism and really emphasising the positivity of the theme.

The music workshops got everyone involved- the Capoeira workshop introduced everyone to the Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports and music. The quick yet complex moves included power leg kicks, punches, head-butts and some forms of acrobatics. The drum workshop which followed allowed everyone to get involved.

The cinema room played pieces the television specialists created on a loop; this included the Mockumentary,  which featured media students tackling the subject of multiculturalism in a humorous manner, a music video to Michael Jackson’s ‘Black and White’ and studio style interviews with a guest appearance from Aaron Chawro, performing one of his own songs.

The positive and relaxed mood of the event was reinforced through the BBQ outside whilst the sun was shining.

BCUltural Busking

The busking and cake sale which took place outside Baker Building on Tuesday 3^rd May raised £77 altogether! I was able to go along and support the acts who played, including Aaron Chawro, who played a mix of his own songs and well known ones such as the Oasis classics ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Half The World Away’, and Bruno Mars’ ‘Grenade’ just to name a few. I also helped distribute more posters throughout the area and gave out flyers to passers-by for further promotion.

Our Flyer!

'Whatever Tomorrow Brings' article for music page

My article for the music page focused on a ‘White British’ band called ‘Whatever Tomorrow Brings’. I did my research into the band by getting information from their MySpace and Facebook page, and I also listened to their debut EP which they uploaded to YouTube. I arranged the interview via MSN conversations with the band’s drummer, Andrew Swann. Prior to the interview, I wrote a list of questions down which relate to music and multiculturalism to prepare for it.

ON THE DAY: We originally planned to meet at the bull in the Bullring in Birmingham. Two band members turned up 40 minutes late, claiming the other 2 members were in a Digbeth pub. So plans were scuppered here as we were mean to do the interview on some seats in town then take the photographs at a nearby place that is as well-lit as possible, because unfortunately Chloe did not have a flash with her, and it was getting dark outside. So we ended up taking a 20 minute walk to the ‘Moseley Arms’ where I met the other 2 band members and we began the interview.

Unfortunately the band did not give me enough content for me to be able to construct an interview style piece, so I had to instead opt for a feature style of writing, with a few quotes combined. What this has taught me for any future interviews I conduct is to come up with as many questions as possible and also come up with some more pointers for topics etc that the subject can talk about.

Taking images was difficult without a flash as we had to find the best-lit place as possible, and this was against a wall in a lit corridor.  Preferably I wanted a picture of the group together, but this was not possible due to the limited space we had available in this corridor, and we were unable to take the pictures outside due to the lighting dilemma. The photo-shoot would have been a lot more successful and we’d have been able to be much more creative if we had the external flash, but we worked with these conditions and did the best we could considering these unfortunate limitations.

St. Patrick’s Day parade article

This article was created for the online magazine. I went out with photographer Chloe and I assisted her in what I wanted images of and I made notes on the parade itself, e.g. the walking groups and floats there. I conducted an interview with an Irish woman in the crowd who was going to watch her granddaughter waving a flag in the parade to give my article a human angle, and to make it more personal and interesting.

 Here are some of the (unedited) images Chloe took. These are not the images I ended up using in the article itself but I thought I would present some here to give a taster of the parade day and emphasise the importance of multiculturalism!

For this article, I researched into St. Patrick’s Day on the internet and read past articles on previous St. Patrick’s Day parades in Digbeth (as it is a successful yearly event). This research was useful as it helped aid me in writing my article.

ON THE DAY:

We got the train to town and walked to Digbeth before the parade even began to ensure we got a good position, which we did. We saw all of the walking groups and bands etc before they began walking in the parade, so we managed get some posed images as well as some of the parade itself. By getting there early we managed to establish our position, and we had plenty of time to get lots of photographs and lots of information necessary for my article- overall, it was a successful day.

'Cultures' page for website

Me and my fellow group member Hannah Montgomery created this draft of what we want our ‘Cultures’ page to look like on the website. We envisage the layout to look like this, and we told our web member we would prefer that when you hover over each image, that person’s profile comes up (name and culture) followed by their interview, as demonstrated in the image below.

These photographs were taken by our group’s photographer Chloe Jones.

The interviews weren’t going to be distributed evenly anyway due to the 8 interviews needed between 5 journalists but each journalist group member was supposed to interview at least one person each from different cultures for this page. However this did not end up being the case: Hannah (3 interviews) me (2 interviews) Luke (2 interviews) and Stuart (1 interview). Callum didn’t interview anyone, which is unfortunate in the sense it didn’t go as our group had planned. But Hannah and I sorted it out by making sure we had enough interviewees for the page, with back-ups also.

I set a word count of 200-250 words and provided the structure for each interview, for consistency. However one interview sent via email was far too short (the questions were longer than the answers!), so this group member had to refer back to the interviewee and get more from them to bulk up the word count to an acceptable figure.

These interviews took place over social messaging sites such as Facebook messages, and some took place via face-to-face interviews (such as both of mine).

The finalised culture content was sent to our web group member on Thursday 31^st March, and now we wait for the web team to work their magic before we get to see the finished product on the BCUltural website!

VENUE CONFIRMATION!

Our venue was confirmed on the 23^rd March!

Our BCUltural event will take place at The Rainbow in Digbeth (B12 0LD), and will include:  a photography exhibition, cinema, food, live music, fashion shows, radio broadcasts, a fashion show, a raffle etc. An update from the Production Event lecture on Wednesday 30^th March revealed that the PR group are also organising a press conference for the day, radio members are currently creating some documentaries and the music industries team have secured 9 bands. If for any reason plans fall through, Bar 42 (City North Campus) is the back-up venue for the event.

My Contribution To The Event

I am working in a group as a journalist, with 3 other journalists, a photographer and a web production specialist.

As a group, we will all provide contributions to the main website about the Production Event, specifically the music pages, but also a page based on multiculturalism, where we will select 8 people from different cultures who are from the media course, and get them to talk about their culture and also their role in the Production Event. There will be a picture of each person stood underneath each letter of the word ‘CULTURES’.  This page aims to tell the audience a little bit more about different cultures and also the Production Event itself.

I will also individually contribute an article to the online magazine. This will be based on the St. Patrick’s Day Birmingham Festival & Parade.

Our Event!

This blog has been set up to document the progression of Birmingham City University’s Production Event, which is being organised by first year Media and Communications students. The event is called ‘BCUltural’, with the theme of ‘Multiculturalism’.

This will involve all of us media students setting up a spectacular media event, which provides us with the chance to use our media skills.

Our event aims to create awareness of multiculturalism in Birmingham and targets a fairly wide audience.