Showing posts with label Dave Gee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dave Gee. Show all posts
Friday, 13 January 2012
Personal Performance
To evaluate myself on the performance I gave throughout the project, I have no problem in saying that without the effort and contributions I made to the package, we would not have ended up with such an original piece. On the flip side of the coin, I have no doubt that without all 3 other members of my team, we would not have had the same result.
All my fellow project workers put in equal efforts throughout, and the combinations of skills we possessed meant that we could individually excel at the areas that others were lacking in, meaning that we had all aspects of production could be covered by one or more members of the team. I found that one of the areas I was able to greatly contribute to was positive attitude and direction. I feel that encouraging your peers is always crucial in a team activity, and work is no different.
A constant positive attitude and willing to succeed will boost the confidence of your group and others around you. In reference to direction, I felt I was always encouraging the other members of my group to go to the next level with their idea. If one of them came up with an idea, I would either try and directly build upon it, or ask them related questions to see if I could help find deeper meaning to the idea at hand. This sort of exercise helps to greatly develop ideas as well as getting the group all on the same page. I believe this to be a key skill, and one of the reasons I would grade myself highly on the content, styles and techniques of the package. To evaluate my progress, I learnt to take initial ideas to the next stage of the process, where I was able to develop potential stories and “run with them” as I believe a good story sells itself, so finding a good story is crucial to the success of your broadcast.
There were a few moments in the project, mainly towards the later stages, in which I noticed that everyone was starting to have the same visions and discussions on content and style would become more intense as we were all able to visualise each other’s ideas.
Content and Style
Originally, we were planning for our show to follow forms and conventions already established in the industry, following a very traditional news package style. This idea changed when we got together and spoke about our target audience. We highlighted the 16 – 25 age range as our primary audience, with prospective students of the college in mind. With our secondary audience being fairly large, we decided to try and focus heavily on our primary audience, and have made adjustments accordingly. We decided that a fast, music filled VT would appeal to the younger audiences.
The common trait associated with younger generations, in reference to television, is that their attention span is considerably shorter than that of previous generations. This (mis-)conception of teenagers forced television to change, as directors and producers believed that editing had to be fast and choppy to attract the younger audiences, which in turn forced youth programming to contain none other than fast edits. This change in editing styles has caused the younger generation to recognise the fast edits as a show that appeals to them, so on this basis, we decided to include that in our piece to attract our primary market.
Before and after the VT is shown, we will be using a design style that is designed to attract both our audiences. We are planning to litter our studio with equipment used in both areas of the courses, music and media. This move from traditional setting to music studio/ production house was made to engage the younger audience by using a fairly messy, unorganised set design, a common characteristic (stereotype) associated with 16-25 year olds.
In addition to this, we will be using a font that goes against industry standards. The BBC shows us a very professional, sans serif font as this is most commonly associated with broadcast media but we are taking a slightly different approach. Our package consists of backstage filming, interviews and music performances. Knowing this, it is appropriate for our font to be slightly different as the content in our piece is slightly different and more unique to that seen on some of the larger broadcasting stations. We chose a blue, bold, capital font in which the letters are contained within a line of sheet music. As well as it looking good, it is also relevant to our piece and adds a bit of originality to our package.
Production Roles
In order for a package to be successful, there are many different aspects of the production that have to be sorted. This process is often impossible without splitting the production team up into different roles as the varying degree and difficulty of jobs makes it hard for one person to do alone. There are many different roles in the production of news packages, those similar to that of any kind of media-related product, but in our group we find that dividing ourselves up into roles would create difficulties and boundaries as many of the production roles share the same jobs. We decided that if we all partake in many different aspects, we can learn more about the process and help ourselves to understand which roles we excel in and which roles we need help in.
We all took part in the brainstorms and the initial ideas were developed using teamwork in regular meetings. As we didn’t set any definitive production roles, it is hard to assess where each individual in the group performed best. I believe my strengths were in developing potential ideas and finding an angle for us that is unique to our group, giving ourselves a selling point.
I found the group really worked well together, for example, some of the members would sit back and give the fellow students opportunities to take the project and run with it, then would step back into the limelight after letting the ideas develop, and continue to take the lead while the previous group leaders sat back. The dynamic worked very well and as a result, I feel my involvement in the project was crucial to the success of our package.
Research on News Packages
The first question that needs to be addressed when being asked to make a news package is about audience as, after all, where there is no interest; there is no product. Although there was no physical work that I produced during the first few days of the project, from the moment I was assigned the project, I started looking at forms and conventions of any short VT packages that popped up on the television. There are so many different types of news packages that are broadcast all day, every day, on a range of different television channels. With so much variation, it makes it hard to pinpoint many of the different forms and conventions, but as with all types of media, with a certain type of programme/broadcast, comes a certain expectation of what that package will contain.
The most watched news transmissions are those on terrestrial television so, on the basis that the majority of the country are very familiar with these formats, I decided to look at forms and conventions that BBC and how other large broadcasters present their news packages.
Looking at this excerpt from a BBC news package, I was able to deconstruct and analyse the way in which this package was put together. This news story was aired on the 7th August 2011; the package was mostly filmed and edited on the 7th August as well, the morning after the London riots last summer. The package I am looking at is at the top of the show (0:00 – 2:32):
The broadcast begins with the BBC news ident, which is run from the start of the show and lasts 10 seconds exactly. An ident is a crucial part to each news broadcast, because not only does it serve a practical role by giving the presenter a chance to ready themselves while graphics cover the screen, it actually helps the audience to associate with the programme that they are watching and can create a bond between the audience and the channel, helping the audience to associate with something that they see on a regular basis. Often, something as simple as a 10second intro graphic can help the audience to automatically identify with the show appearing on their screens.
As the intro finished, the Anchor is given 20 seconds to introduce herself and the top story. She gives a brief outline of what today’s top story is (at the top of the show) and continues to give key information and various facts about the VT they are about to cut into. This introduction helps introduce the VT, which in turn prompts the audience to prick up their ears and pay slightly more attention - if this is a story they have moderate interest in.
Often, many of the audience can effectively “switch off” physically, or mentally, if the content of the story bears no personal relevance to themselves. This is just an example of why it is crucial to not only have a good, well scripted introduction to the VT, but to (MORE IMPORTANTLY) choose a subject/story that appeals to the wider audience, as television channels can lose large rating if they we’re to consistently produce news stories that are irrelevant to todays culture.
The report starts with a downwards tilt of a burning building being extinguished by a fire crew. The reporter, using a voice over, is describing the scene that is taking place before her. This is very common in broadcast news as it is the simplest way of using audio and visuals to convey a point. The camera cuts, and focuses on her standing behind a police van, on location in Tottenham where the aforementioned fire was previously taking place. As she is still introducing the story, describing the scene during what is commonly known as a piece to camera, the report shows cutaways of the surrounding area, showing crowds gathering. After 3 of these cutaways, the report mentions local residents having their homes destroyed as the camera begins to show a separate interview with a local resident. Again, the reporter and the camera is in sync; as she describes using words what the camera describes using images. This editing technique can be known as “pacing and leading”. This interview lasts 15 seconds and talks about his personal experience, which is not uncommon on street interviews. This is preceded by another street interview with a local resident. It is often important to involve locals in interviews, as it makes yet another connection between the audience and the news report, helping members of the public associate with those on camera. BBC have their own branding for names in interviews. They constantly use the same font, style, graphics and logo to continually remind the audience of the channel/show that they are watching. Their graphics are also a running theme throughout the programmes. This makes it easier for both production roles and audience alike.
During the interview, cutaways are shown of the damage that ensued the London Riots as the editor cuts between shots of the interview and damage. The report continues to switch between shots of different types of criminal damage while simultaneously describing what is being shown on tape. Shots of high street chains are shown, helping the audience to identify with the report. After much evidence of the damage, the editor shows footage of police officers on the beat as the voice over mentions statistics on how many/to what extent police were used to handle the situation. After 3 shots of police, the VT comes to an end and fades back into the studio. This is a 2 minute long VT in which the reporter was able to easily convey their point across using a combination of audio and visual hints. It can be common for BBC to use graphics to convey their point, often showing statistic/graphs/key points.
I decided to look at SKY’s report of this incident the next day to see how the two channels compare in a hope of seeing how the two approaches the same story and see how their broadcasts differ. This is the package sky put out on the 9th August:
After much analysis, I found it hard to pick many differences out between the two VT reports. The main differences were the lack of a reporter on location (a piece to camera), the addition of a phone interview (you can tell by the quality of sound) and the lack of institutional information given by SKY. Despite these minor differences, the package remains very similar. Again, the majority of the package uses the “pace and lead” technique which the BBC used, and the content is very similar, contrasting facts of the story along with opinions of local residents. This exercise has proved to me that the different channels are still using the same codes and conventions I set out earlier. This shows that despite people’s preferences on broadcaster, generally they are viewing the same images using the news medium that has worked for many decades, and does not look to change in the near future. This is why we will be successful if we follow the forms and conventions already laid out by established media.
Initial Ideas
For our 'News and Current Affairs' package, we are required to write and produce a News package as our first group-based television project.
There are only a few requirements:
- The assignment has to be an informative package that is relevant to The Manchester College
- Has to follow some of the rules and conventions that are used in contemporary news packages
- The sequence must be between 30seconds and 1 minute
We responded to the brief by sitting in our group and discussing possible angles that we could approach this assignment from. We brainstormed our ideas using knowledge that we already had of The Manchester College to see if our combined knowledge could create a unique, interesting and informative news story.
As we have only just started the course, collectively we have a fairly limited knowledge of the college so some research into its history needed to be done. The best way for us to acquire some knowledge of the college would be to talk to some of the more seasoned staff members to see if they had any insider knowledge. I responded by quizzing the reception and library staff on the merger that happened between the two colleges. The librarian went on her computer for a few minutes and responded by handing me a piece of paper with this website written on it: “www.themanchestercollege.ac.uk/about/history”
She told me that all the information I needed to know about the merger could be found on the website she had given me. This, although was very helpful of her, it created a problem for me as when I checked the website, I found all the information I needed to know to create a news package. This meant that if I were to produce news package on the history of the college, it would lack uniqueness and originality as I would just be pulling information from an alternative source and reproducing it, and the aims of a journalist is to research, probe and find out new information worthy of a report. Although this technique of reproducing information to create a news package is still very present in the industry, it was not what I was looking for in an original and personal news package.
Our brainstorm continued, and we looked at fairly broad and general topics in the hope that we could find a new angle on an already covered story. Some of the ideas we came up with were quite generic and felt that those areas had already been explored, and would not produce any new and exclusive information.
An extremely half-hearted mind map shows our initial discussions- (or the lack of it). It turned out that we, as a group, were better at communicating on a verbal level and that not much pen was put to paper during that first group discussion. Although the information on the mind map is almost useless to assess from an educational standpoint, what it does represent is that start of us working together, a wall that has to be broken down when starting any new course.
As is evident, we didn't really find anything of descent quality. One of the 'unique' ideas that we looked into was regarding the headmaster of The Manchester College. As 1st years at the college, we are yet to meet the head teacher of our institution. I looked into, and developed an innovative take on a very classic situation, giving it a twist.
As the Manchester College is split up into 17 different campuses/sites - the odds of bumping into the Principal of the whole college are very low. We looked at this unusual "phenomenon" as none of the members of our group had met the Principal - let alone knew his name. I thought this was odd for a college, as all of the educational institutes I had attended before had provided a figure of institution, whereas The Manchester College had not provided any information about the controller of the Higher Education establishment, which I thought was odd. After a brief information gathering/fact finding session, we found a page of information on the college website about the Principal - which provided even more of an enigma, as there was little information about the person in question.
Here is a link to the page on the college website: http://www.themanchestercollege.ac.uk/about/welcome
As is apparent from this page - there is little to no information on the character himself and therefore nothing we could use to get a good angle if we were to per sue it as a news package, so we decided, despite it being an interesting concept, it wasn't really the right direction for our assignment, and in all honesty, a slightly silly idea we had run away with. Although we pursued this no further, it still benefitted us as it showed us our boundaries and helped us to move on to better and more focused ideas.
Whilst browsing the news archives on the Manchester College looking for a "scoop", I came across an article talking about one of the students attending the Manchester College. Her name is Emily Rawlins. Further research into the student revealed a possible story/angle for me to pursue.
I decided to look further into this person as the base of a very possible and credible news article to persue. The news package would be about an aspect of The Manchester College that is, now more than ever, relevant in current news/affairs and a key talking point throughout the country.
The Olympics have obviously had a large impact on the UK since 6th July 2005. This decision, made by the IOC, has had a great effect on London and the entire country throughout the past 6 years. As soon as the London 2012 BID, backed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, was announced, there was an influx of individuals and companies trying to get involved/prepare for the waves of foreign supporters that will inevitably flood the UK and exhaust every resource available here. This planning/preparation for the heavy flow of travellers has given a large chunk of the population a 'stake' in next year's Olympics, which means that there is usually a fairly huge interest in all news related to the event. Currently, almost all large companies based/selling in the UK have released advertising campaigns related to sport and more importantly, the London Olympics 2012.
Here are some examples of advertising campaigns that are using the international event to promote their company/product:
This is an advert, produced in association with the London 2012 Games, promoting the company British Telecom with their BT INFINITY promotion, an advertising campaign promoting faster broadband speeds. Here is a great example of how the Olympics are being used by a company to promote their product, and gives us evidence that there is natural interest from companies as well as the general public, which is why there would be the same level of interest in the story that I would be producing about Emily’s possible inclusion in the 2012 games.
This is another example of how the Olympics are being shamelessly used and related to certain products in order to gain higher volume of sales and to give the company a better image, suggesting that their involvement in the games is crucial to the success of London’s triumph. . . whether this statement is true is not something that cannot be proved. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJeLGj3o54Q
I can do nothing but to speculate as to whether more energy will help people run round a track faster, but nonetheless, these companies feel that the Olympics are so prominent in today’s media that it can only be beneficial for the large companies to be involved, which is why a news package related to it would gather interest from large potential audiences. The vast majority of my audience in the UK would have some sort of stake in the Olympics, whether it be business related or just national pride.
Here is the article I found on Emily Rawlins, a Manchester College student who is attempting to qualify for the 2012 Paralympics:
This article, regarding Emily Rawlins’ possible inclusion in next year's Paralympics, gave me an idea into the possible new direction I could take my group. This was the article that helped me to develop my idea from what, is essentially a story about a Paralympics hopeful, into a story that could potentially promote The Manchester College and the facilities they provide for their students.
I looked at another article about The Manchester College’s inclusion in the Olympics, in which students from the college were given the opportunity to help make repairs and improvements to TeamGB’s bobsleighs – which are to be used in the 2014 Winter Olympics. This brought forward another string to the already strong bow of the college’s relationship with the Olympic teams. I would be able to developed this idea and manipulate it in such a way that it would be beneficial to the College, with the broadcast giving a positive image to not only the skill of the students at the college, but the college’s inclusion in international events. This would create a symbiotic relationship with the college, in which both parties are benefiting.
This is the article relating to TeamGB’s involvement with The Manchester College:
Emily Rawlins, like all other professional athletes, is looking for funding and sponsorship which would add yet another layer of interest to this already mutually beneficial relationship between regular people and broadcast media
Unfortunately, we decided to drop my lead of a story when communications with Emily Rawlins broke down and appeared uninterested in appearing in our news package. As is the same with all journalism, you can’t always produce the stories that appear to be very interesting. As it stood, before collapse in communication, there was potentially a very good story that involved The Manchester College and would be extremely relevant to current events, but without there being a possibility of an interview with Emily Rawlins, our news package wouldn’t contain enough substance and would lose the personal touch that it would’ve had, were the interview to have taken place.
Pitch
Our news package is based on the relationship between students of different courses in the Manchester College. The idea came about when we started working with music students from another campus of The Manchester College. Organised by our tutors, media and music students we’re asked to work together, having the music students perform for the media students to record. What I found unique about the relationship was the skills it was able to provide for both courses.
Here is why I think our package will work. After speaking to some of the musicians, I realised how it would give the students on both courses an opportunity to recreate a situation that is very common in both the music and media industry. It is crucial for music and television to work together and create a symbiotic relationship, as the finished product can be mutually beneficial. The students on the music course were noting how they felt under pressure whilst performing in front of camera; and the media students felt under equal, but different, pressures when they had to act professional in front of the performers. These pressures force a steep learning curve on both sides of the production and shows how students from different courses can get together and learn, despite working on separate projects - which I think should be encouraged across students of all walks of life, not only in the Manchester College. I think our idea will be unique in the way that it is self documentation, and shows how the work we do in class can be taken to the next step by taking great interest in college projects, wanting to learn more about the assignments we have been set.
Our aim is to record both sets of students working together, seeing how they reacted to working in a foreign environment, what problems they faced and the lessons they learnt from the whole experience. Aside from the work we have to do filming the musicians performing as part of our course, we will aim to film both sets of students preparing for the collaboration, during the performance, and their reactions after the experiences. We will splice this footage together and use it in 2 short VTs, where we cut between the two courses working together and interviews of the performers and crew. These VTs will be run in the middle of our live broadcast, in which we will have further interviews of the students and the possibility of a live performance by the musicians, to give an example of how we worked together throughout the process.
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