Globalisation - the media in a global marketplace
Cultural imperialism - exportation of values through global media
Cultual appropriation - assumed cultural identities and the implications / effects
Homogenisation
Globalisation
Globalisation / Global dominance - considers the extent to which certain economies 'dominate' the world through the process by which global media organisations as 'cultural transmitters'.
Global media organisations can 'drown out' smaller regional voices - being to follow this lead and effectively replicate their stance and mode of production.
In terms of news, accusations that US Style Journalism is homogenising world news coverage, becoming missionaries of corporate capitalism.
By this process - establish global culture
Global media brands and output transmitting and selling formats on a worldwide scale are part of the reason globalisation happens.
An increasingly marketed media landscape on a global scale, chase big revenues and operate as any other product being sold - dependent on supply and demand.
Media giants dominate not only their country of origin, but increasingly seen worldwide
Cultural Imperialism
The potential for the media to allow one culture to dominate over another
What does this mean for storytelling and the coverage of would issues?
How do these dominant forces cover the multitude of potential stories available on a global scale?
Consequences: CNN accused of stirring up compassion fatigue through their reporting of global human suffering - rather than motivating change, causes desensitisation to the events - focusing on these 'crisis coverage' stories, global tv news ignores many more significant events and therefore they are excluded from policy debate
Globalisation - world news
When related to news, globalisation is distinct from globalisation in general - which tends to focus on socioeconomic lines such as the impact of international trading or the export of capitalist ideals and western culture
Changed the styles and presentation of news programming
EG British TV inherited its news formatting model from the US in the 1950s - dramatic tone. half an hour comprehensive coverage...
Global market place vs global representation
Why is it that major film producers find it difficult to be more representative of the original ethnicity of the text itself? Audiences are inherently diverse.
Essay Workshop
- Values of the channel may be imposed on the adaptation - e.g. BBC presents quite an idealistic view in Pride and Prejudice
- ITV to do adaptation - Producers said the new version would tease out the story’s “darker tones”.
“Pride and Prejudice is actually a very adult book, much less bonnet-y than people assume,” Raine said of the project. “I hope I do justice to Austen’s dark intelligence – sparkling, yes, but sparkling like granite.”
- what evidence is there that globalisation is impacting the adaptation?
Bride and Prejudice - directed by Gurinder Chadha - born in Kenya, raised in London - may bring western values to an adaptation based in India.
'Bollywood-style update of Jane Austen's classic tale, in which Mrs. Bakshi is eager to find suitable husbands for her four unmarried daughters. When the rich single gentlemen Balraj and Darcy come to visit, the Bakshis have high hopes, though circumstance and boorish opinions threaten to get in the way of romance.'
- brings in elements of the Indian culture in a way western cultures will understand - sense of globalisation as western values still present and maybe dominate? Costumes, dances & plots / themes are all typical of the Indian culture but mainly just the common things a western audience would understand - filmed in english language
Produced by British Production company - British understanding on Bollywood
Globalisation within the media has the potential to export cultures, values and ideologies - it can lead to globally dominant media brands
Can break down regional boundaries - interconnected - make world feel smaller - simplify
Friday, 27 October 2017
Wednesday, 25 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: Project Evaluation
The Production Process:
I always find the start of a project very difficult yet exciting. You're starting with a blank page which allows you to come up with any idea you want, however, finding this idea isn't always easy.
The first step was to come up with the idea. To do this, we all sat down as a group and started brainstorming ideas. We looked at what was in the news currently, what events would be coming up and what significant locations were nearby which may trigger an idea. We all worked together on Google Docs to write our ideas down, some that we came up with were: something to do with Dreamland in Margate, Stoptober / Stay Sober and maybe something to do with the rise of Netflix / streaming services. We all decided we liked the idea of looking into something to do with alcohol and hangover cures - putting these to the test and debunking them. This gave us the concept for our brand; debunking myths. After talking with Jo, we had settled on the idea of looking into alcohol / hangover cures and whether e-cigarettes were actually better for you than normal cigarettes. These both fitted within the topic of myths (i.e. do hangover cures work? are e-cigs actually better?)
Following our discussion with Jo, we then went away and researched the different areas of our project. Splitting the research meant we obtained a lot of in depth information surrounding all the areas of our topic. Even though we had a clear idea of the general area we wanted to explore, we were lacking direction and a specific story line. We believed our hangover cures story was quite set in stone - putting different hangover cures we had found through research to the test to see if any of them work. It was just our e cigarette story we struggled to find an angle for. During our next discussion with Jo, she suggested we just get on the phone to potential contributors and see if they could provide any additional information - this would potentially give us more direction and maybe help us find an angle whilst securing someone to interview for our live. We managed to secure a vape lounge as a location with one of the owners being willing to talk to us - we then just had to prepare what exactly we wanted to ask them and what information we were hoping to obtain. It still felt like we didn't really have an angle for this story - so we kept on phoning different companies (e.g. Medway Stop Smoking Service and Kent County Council Public Health sector) in the hope they would provide more information that would give us a clearer angle for our story. After many unsuccessful phone calls, we decided to have a re think about our e cigarette story. This is where we thought of the idea about exploring DIY e-ciagrettes and whether this is safe. This seemed much more relevant as a news story as it is new and interesting. In order to gain more information about this we did some research and again attempted to contact professionals for their opinion on the topic. I managed to get a doctor to look at a list of questions and provide some detailed answers.
However, this story soon got dropped as Helen didn't think it fitted with the fun / comical tone of our production - something we agreed with. Our hangover cures story still fitted with our tone and brand (it just needed refining) but we now needed to come up with a completely new idea for our live section. Helen pointed us in the area of Halloween since it is a relevant subject for this time of year. On my way home I passed a local farm which had banners outside advertising its annual Hauntfest. After pitching this idea to the group, I got in contact with them and they agreed to be interviewed for our live section. We decided the interview would be questions about their horror attraction and how long it had been running. Then, to keep with our brand, we decided to add in a 'myth or fact' quiz. This seemed much more appropriate for the tone of our production as we could quite easily make this fun yet informative.
Once we had nailed both of our ideas, we then had to decided whether to bring in actors to present our production or whether to do this ourselves. We decided to be our own presenters as we would be able to deliver the lines exactly how we wanted them. Alex would be the anchor, I would be the reporter for the live and Jason would present the pre recorded package.
The mock news production we did on #StopTheTrucks really helped us to prepare for our real production. This gave Alex an opportunity to try presenting / opening the show and gave me a chance to interview someone on camera. This, combined with the research into newsroom settings and other news production, enhanced our ideas for our own production. Instead of using a green screen, we decided we wanted to make our own set instead. For this, we made some posters with mad ramblings and conspiracy theories on. We wanted to give the illusion of being in a 'Bunker' to fit with our brand and channel.
The shoot days both went quite well allowing us to achieve everything we wanted to. The first shoot day was very smooth - we rehearsed the interview with John a couple of times before filming it - this allowed us to get the interview in one continuous take. After the interview, we had a lot of access around the location so we went back through the horror attractions and obtained GVs of each - this gave us a lot of footage to use in the edit. The second shoot day took longer than expected but we still managed to get all the footage we needed - this was helped by our shot list - we knew exactly what shots we wanted to get. We also filmed the trailer - we mainly improvised this but we still had a rough idea of what we wanted to capture. We wanted to get Alex listing off many different conspiracy theories from different camera angles and then claim that we have the answers as 'The Bunker'. This went really well and came off great in the edit.
After all shooting was finished, we then got stuck into editing. We decided to split this job between us - I edited the live section, Melissa edited the hangover explanation, Jason edited the hangover cures and Alex edited the trailer, the opening, closing & linking studio shots and did all the finishing touches. We had 2 rough cut viewings and a fine cut viewing - this gave us feedback to implement which helped us to improve the project. We didn't have a lot of time to edit but we are happy with the outcome. We feel that it does appeal to our target audience and it definitely has a fun / comical tone - something we really wanted to achieve in this project.
What worked?
- Our research was very thorough meaning scripting the project was simple. We all split the research so that we could get as much in depth information as possible (e.g. the scientific explanation of the cause of a hangover)
- We got a lot of footage (both at the farm and during the hangover cures package) - this gave us a lot of options when it came to the edit. If we realised one piece of footage didn't fit - there would be another bit which would be appropriate that we could replace it with.
- Our interview with John was pretty much 2'00 on the dot - this was down to our preparation before the shoot and also having a crew member signalling when to move on in the interview. We got a lot of valuable information in this 2'00 and it was kept interesting as John was an interesting character.
- I really like the shots showing Aidan drinking and how these increase in pace as the package goes on. This repetition and quicker pace helps to suggest Aidan getting more and more drunk. This was achievable because of the amount of footage we shot on the shoot days. We filmed more for this than was on the shot list as we knew we wanted a lot of footage of Aidan drinking so we wanted to ensure we had enough when it came to edit.
- Our scheduling and communication was good - we got all the footage we needed to on the shoot days we set. We kept up our communication with our contributors so that we didn't have any last minute drop outs.
- The edit worked really well - we had some quite slow paced / heavy sections (e.g. the hangover explanation) which were really livened up in the edit. The music and sound effects really help to lift the tone of the production and help it to achieve that fun / comical feel we all desired.
- I really like the titles we ended up using in the edit - they resemble the old fashioned labels from a label maker - although it is only subtle, it helps in building our brand
- I also think our trailer works really well to advertise our brand - it's fun and light hearted - suggesting our news production is also of the same tone - I also like how the same sort of clips used in the trailer are used for the introduction sequence of our production - it helps to tie it all together.
- I think our website is effective - although it is quite plain, it does the job of supporting our production. It links to our production through the colours used (reds, whites and blacks) as well as using the same background we use for the production itself (the conspiracy posters). It also has a suggestions section which is interactive and allows the audience to engage - something which is important for an online platform.
What didn't work?
- We had to drop our initial idea of exploring e-ciagrettes as this didn't have a lot of direction and didn't fit with the tone of our production. We carried this idea quite far through the production so when it got dropped we didn't have a lot of time to find a new idea. It would have been better if we realised earlier on that this story wouldn't have worked so that we could have come up with our new idea sooner and maybe found more information around Halloween and myths. That being said, I still feel like our live section was strong and that we achieved a lot in the limited time.
- We had some technical difficulties - on the first shoot day the focus on the camera was playing up - and on the second shoot day, the microphone became unplugged during Alex's PTCs. This meant some time on the shoot days was used up trying to rectify these problems - in future we should always test the kit before getting to the location and making sure it's all set up properly so that we don't waste any valuable time.
- Initially the edit for our pre recorded package was too long - it came to 3'00 (30 seconds over the maximum time limit). This is because we tried to squeeze too much information in at quite a relaxed pace. This was fixed by making the pace of 'the cause of a hangover' quicker and cutting parts out so that it was a very tight package.
- The set for our studio shots is slightly cheap and tacky looking - we wanted it to look like a home made bunker and it does have that look but we feel like the posters should have at least covered the whole wall and that the lighting could have been better. The sound is also a little echoey which we should have noticed during filming. In our feedback, Sam said it looked like we had just stuck a bunch of posters on the wall (which we had) - so maybe a green screen with a more crisp conspiracy poster looking background would have been better.
- The colour correction could have also been better - we would have done this if we hadn't have lost a lot of our edit on the last day - unfortunately this cost us a lot of time which we could have used on the colour correction and sound.
What did I learn?
- I learnt how to contact contributors. Jason and I split the job of calling contributors between us. I've never been very confident during phone calls but I bit the bullet and ended up managing to secure the contributor for our live section. I also managed to get a doctor to answer a list of questions for our e cigarette story before we dropped this. I did face some unsuccessful calls but this hasn't put me off of calling future potential contributors.
- I have become much more confident using the studio equipment - something I set out to achieve in this project. I have always preferred using my own equipment that I am familiar with but I have learnt that using studio equipment will improve the quality of my work even if it means stepping outside my comfort zone.
- I have also learnt how to be a reporter and what sort of questions to ask to get the information the audience want to hear. Although Alex wrote the script, I wrote my own questions for the live interview (and when we realised we had too many questions during the interview - I was selective about which ones I asked) - I chose questions about the attractions as the audience would want to know whether its worth making the trip.
What could I develop?
- Putting more of the workshop skills to use. In the After Effects workshops we learnt how to do moving text in After Effects and I am confident in using this skill. However, when it came to the edit I shied away from using these skills and allowed Alex to do the work on the titles. I was worried about ruining the piece we had all been working hard on - in future I will have confidence in the skills I have learnt and put them into practice in the productions.
Conclusion:
I think our project was very successful considering the time constrictions. We did a lot of research prior to our shoot which allowed us to create simple, easy to follows shot lists and scripts. Even though we changed our idea very close to filming, we all pulled together, did the additional research and scripted this out. Our pre production was very strong which allowed our shoot days to be very smooth and allowed us to get all the necessary footage. The edit also went well as we all pulled together and edited different sections. In future, I would like to contribute more in the editing and not shy away from the technical side of things. I believe we achieved our goal of created a fun channel aimed at debunking myths with the target audience of young adults.
I always find the start of a project very difficult yet exciting. You're starting with a blank page which allows you to come up with any idea you want, however, finding this idea isn't always easy.
The first step was to come up with the idea. To do this, we all sat down as a group and started brainstorming ideas. We looked at what was in the news currently, what events would be coming up and what significant locations were nearby which may trigger an idea. We all worked together on Google Docs to write our ideas down, some that we came up with were: something to do with Dreamland in Margate, Stoptober / Stay Sober and maybe something to do with the rise of Netflix / streaming services. We all decided we liked the idea of looking into something to do with alcohol and hangover cures - putting these to the test and debunking them. This gave us the concept for our brand; debunking myths. After talking with Jo, we had settled on the idea of looking into alcohol / hangover cures and whether e-cigarettes were actually better for you than normal cigarettes. These both fitted within the topic of myths (i.e. do hangover cures work? are e-cigs actually better?)
Following our discussion with Jo, we then went away and researched the different areas of our project. Splitting the research meant we obtained a lot of in depth information surrounding all the areas of our topic. Even though we had a clear idea of the general area we wanted to explore, we were lacking direction and a specific story line. We believed our hangover cures story was quite set in stone - putting different hangover cures we had found through research to the test to see if any of them work. It was just our e cigarette story we struggled to find an angle for. During our next discussion with Jo, she suggested we just get on the phone to potential contributors and see if they could provide any additional information - this would potentially give us more direction and maybe help us find an angle whilst securing someone to interview for our live. We managed to secure a vape lounge as a location with one of the owners being willing to talk to us - we then just had to prepare what exactly we wanted to ask them and what information we were hoping to obtain. It still felt like we didn't really have an angle for this story - so we kept on phoning different companies (e.g. Medway Stop Smoking Service and Kent County Council Public Health sector) in the hope they would provide more information that would give us a clearer angle for our story. After many unsuccessful phone calls, we decided to have a re think about our e cigarette story. This is where we thought of the idea about exploring DIY e-ciagrettes and whether this is safe. This seemed much more relevant as a news story as it is new and interesting. In order to gain more information about this we did some research and again attempted to contact professionals for their opinion on the topic. I managed to get a doctor to look at a list of questions and provide some detailed answers.
However, this story soon got dropped as Helen didn't think it fitted with the fun / comical tone of our production - something we agreed with. Our hangover cures story still fitted with our tone and brand (it just needed refining) but we now needed to come up with a completely new idea for our live section. Helen pointed us in the area of Halloween since it is a relevant subject for this time of year. On my way home I passed a local farm which had banners outside advertising its annual Hauntfest. After pitching this idea to the group, I got in contact with them and they agreed to be interviewed for our live section. We decided the interview would be questions about their horror attraction and how long it had been running. Then, to keep with our brand, we decided to add in a 'myth or fact' quiz. This seemed much more appropriate for the tone of our production as we could quite easily make this fun yet informative.
Once we had nailed both of our ideas, we then had to decided whether to bring in actors to present our production or whether to do this ourselves. We decided to be our own presenters as we would be able to deliver the lines exactly how we wanted them. Alex would be the anchor, I would be the reporter for the live and Jason would present the pre recorded package.
The mock news production we did on #StopTheTrucks really helped us to prepare for our real production. This gave Alex an opportunity to try presenting / opening the show and gave me a chance to interview someone on camera. This, combined with the research into newsroom settings and other news production, enhanced our ideas for our own production. Instead of using a green screen, we decided we wanted to make our own set instead. For this, we made some posters with mad ramblings and conspiracy theories on. We wanted to give the illusion of being in a 'Bunker' to fit with our brand and channel.
The shoot days both went quite well allowing us to achieve everything we wanted to. The first shoot day was very smooth - we rehearsed the interview with John a couple of times before filming it - this allowed us to get the interview in one continuous take. After the interview, we had a lot of access around the location so we went back through the horror attractions and obtained GVs of each - this gave us a lot of footage to use in the edit. The second shoot day took longer than expected but we still managed to get all the footage we needed - this was helped by our shot list - we knew exactly what shots we wanted to get. We also filmed the trailer - we mainly improvised this but we still had a rough idea of what we wanted to capture. We wanted to get Alex listing off many different conspiracy theories from different camera angles and then claim that we have the answers as 'The Bunker'. This went really well and came off great in the edit.
After all shooting was finished, we then got stuck into editing. We decided to split this job between us - I edited the live section, Melissa edited the hangover explanation, Jason edited the hangover cures and Alex edited the trailer, the opening, closing & linking studio shots and did all the finishing touches. We had 2 rough cut viewings and a fine cut viewing - this gave us feedback to implement which helped us to improve the project. We didn't have a lot of time to edit but we are happy with the outcome. We feel that it does appeal to our target audience and it definitely has a fun / comical tone - something we really wanted to achieve in this project.
What worked?
- Our research was very thorough meaning scripting the project was simple. We all split the research so that we could get as much in depth information as possible (e.g. the scientific explanation of the cause of a hangover)
- We got a lot of footage (both at the farm and during the hangover cures package) - this gave us a lot of options when it came to the edit. If we realised one piece of footage didn't fit - there would be another bit which would be appropriate that we could replace it with.
- Our interview with John was pretty much 2'00 on the dot - this was down to our preparation before the shoot and also having a crew member signalling when to move on in the interview. We got a lot of valuable information in this 2'00 and it was kept interesting as John was an interesting character.
- I really like the shots showing Aidan drinking and how these increase in pace as the package goes on. This repetition and quicker pace helps to suggest Aidan getting more and more drunk. This was achievable because of the amount of footage we shot on the shoot days. We filmed more for this than was on the shot list as we knew we wanted a lot of footage of Aidan drinking so we wanted to ensure we had enough when it came to edit.
- Our scheduling and communication was good - we got all the footage we needed to on the shoot days we set. We kept up our communication with our contributors so that we didn't have any last minute drop outs.
- The edit worked really well - we had some quite slow paced / heavy sections (e.g. the hangover explanation) which were really livened up in the edit. The music and sound effects really help to lift the tone of the production and help it to achieve that fun / comical feel we all desired.
- I really like the titles we ended up using in the edit - they resemble the old fashioned labels from a label maker - although it is only subtle, it helps in building our brand
- I also think our trailer works really well to advertise our brand - it's fun and light hearted - suggesting our news production is also of the same tone - I also like how the same sort of clips used in the trailer are used for the introduction sequence of our production - it helps to tie it all together.
- I think our website is effective - although it is quite plain, it does the job of supporting our production. It links to our production through the colours used (reds, whites and blacks) as well as using the same background we use for the production itself (the conspiracy posters). It also has a suggestions section which is interactive and allows the audience to engage - something which is important for an online platform.
What didn't work?
- We had to drop our initial idea of exploring e-ciagrettes as this didn't have a lot of direction and didn't fit with the tone of our production. We carried this idea quite far through the production so when it got dropped we didn't have a lot of time to find a new idea. It would have been better if we realised earlier on that this story wouldn't have worked so that we could have come up with our new idea sooner and maybe found more information around Halloween and myths. That being said, I still feel like our live section was strong and that we achieved a lot in the limited time.
- We had some technical difficulties - on the first shoot day the focus on the camera was playing up - and on the second shoot day, the microphone became unplugged during Alex's PTCs. This meant some time on the shoot days was used up trying to rectify these problems - in future we should always test the kit before getting to the location and making sure it's all set up properly so that we don't waste any valuable time.
- Initially the edit for our pre recorded package was too long - it came to 3'00 (30 seconds over the maximum time limit). This is because we tried to squeeze too much information in at quite a relaxed pace. This was fixed by making the pace of 'the cause of a hangover' quicker and cutting parts out so that it was a very tight package.
- The set for our studio shots is slightly cheap and tacky looking - we wanted it to look like a home made bunker and it does have that look but we feel like the posters should have at least covered the whole wall and that the lighting could have been better. The sound is also a little echoey which we should have noticed during filming. In our feedback, Sam said it looked like we had just stuck a bunch of posters on the wall (which we had) - so maybe a green screen with a more crisp conspiracy poster looking background would have been better.
- The colour correction could have also been better - we would have done this if we hadn't have lost a lot of our edit on the last day - unfortunately this cost us a lot of time which we could have used on the colour correction and sound.
What did I learn?
- I learnt how to contact contributors. Jason and I split the job of calling contributors between us. I've never been very confident during phone calls but I bit the bullet and ended up managing to secure the contributor for our live section. I also managed to get a doctor to answer a list of questions for our e cigarette story before we dropped this. I did face some unsuccessful calls but this hasn't put me off of calling future potential contributors.
- I have become much more confident using the studio equipment - something I set out to achieve in this project. I have always preferred using my own equipment that I am familiar with but I have learnt that using studio equipment will improve the quality of my work even if it means stepping outside my comfort zone.
- I have also learnt how to be a reporter and what sort of questions to ask to get the information the audience want to hear. Although Alex wrote the script, I wrote my own questions for the live interview (and when we realised we had too many questions during the interview - I was selective about which ones I asked) - I chose questions about the attractions as the audience would want to know whether its worth making the trip.
What could I develop?
- Putting more of the workshop skills to use. In the After Effects workshops we learnt how to do moving text in After Effects and I am confident in using this skill. However, when it came to the edit I shied away from using these skills and allowed Alex to do the work on the titles. I was worried about ruining the piece we had all been working hard on - in future I will have confidence in the skills I have learnt and put them into practice in the productions.
Conclusion:
I think our project was very successful considering the time constrictions. We did a lot of research prior to our shoot which allowed us to create simple, easy to follows shot lists and scripts. Even though we changed our idea very close to filming, we all pulled together, did the additional research and scripted this out. Our pre production was very strong which allowed our shoot days to be very smooth and allowed us to get all the necessary footage. The edit also went well as we all pulled together and edited different sections. In future, I would like to contribute more in the editing and not shy away from the technical side of things. I believe we achieved our goal of created a fun channel aimed at debunking myths with the target audience of young adults.
DIGITAL NEWS: The Bunker Final Cut & Trailer
After a week of editing, we have our final cut:
We are happy with how this turned out - the edit really lifted the mood of the production and added to the fun / comical tone.
This is the trailer:
I really like the trailer - it really helps to enhance our fun brand image and advertises our programme well.
We are happy with how this turned out - the edit really lifted the mood of the production and added to the fun / comical tone.
This is the trailer:
I really like the trailer - it really helps to enhance our fun brand image and advertises our programme well.
DIGITAL NEWS: (Post Production) The Edit
We decided to split the edit between the four of us - since this seemed to be the fairest way and we all enjoy editing.
I took the job of editing the live segment together and putting GVs and sequences over the top of the interview. This meant reviewing the footage we took of the attractions and matching this up with the transcription of the interview so that the relevant footage was placed over the top of the interview.
(i.e. when John talks about the haunts having different themes, I placed footage over the top of the different themes within the attractions). This was quite a simple task as I only had to match up the GVs with the transcription and put them over the correct places. I had to do a little bit of colour correction on some of the darker shots (e.g. the spinning vortex - as this was very dark and dimly lit - I increased the highlights and some of the mid tones & also slightly increased the saturation to enhance the colours in the tunnel). A lot of the clips also needed some stabilisation - I didn't add too much stabilisation as we still wanted to clips to look handheld (just not so shaky). I also added some of the sound from the haunts to bring in the atmosphere of the hauntfest. I included some clown / funfair music, some loud suspenseful music and the sound of a child laughing - this all adds to the creepy atmosphere.
Melissa focused on editing together the hangover explanation / visual metaphor for the substances going into the body. For this we had different camera angles and clips so it ended up being quite a complex task. The section starts with Jason talking directly to the camera, this then moves into him pouring m&ms from the shot glasses into the 'body' (another glass) - this was filmed from two different angles, this then moves into Jason closing the explanation as a PTC. This job was made harder by the fact Jason's hands move positions quite a lot, affecting the continuity of the piece, however, we should be able to find shots that fit as we did many takes of this sequence. We decided to leave the main colour correction until the end so that we could ensure the colouring is consistent throughout the production.
Jason focused on editing together the sequences of Aidan drinking and the hangover cures themselves. This was probably the largest chunk of the edit as there are 4 different hangover cures to be edited together. Luckily, we were quite strict with ourselves on the shoot days so the shots / information we need should be very easy to find and sequence together. The trickiest bit will be choosing which shots of Aidan drinking beer to use as we filmed a lot of different shots in different shot types for this. Titles and colour correction will be done at the end when the sequence has been put together (to keep the titles and colour consistent throughout).
Alex focused on editing together his PTCs for the opening, linking, and closing pieces of the production. This was quite a simple task so Alex also took on the responsibility of editing together the trailer (something which he was quite keen to do as it was a lot of fun to film). We wanted the trailer to be fast paced and funny. We did this by cutting together lots of different footage with lots of different myths filmed from lots of different camera angles. We also decided to have most of the trailer in black and white and finally bring in colour when inviting people to come to The Bunker. We are really pleased with the end result.
Alex also took on the task of making the titles and adding in the sound. For the opening title, Alex made a moving title coming from the centre of the screen and ending bottom left. This then zooms out to reveal Alex presenting the opening of the show. Throughout the piece, we use the same font which looks like an old fashioned label from a label maker. This helps to build / enhance our brand. We also use similar music throughout, we wanted upbeat yet slightly mechanical sounding music - we wanted it to be a little edgy to fit with our debunking myths brand. We made sure all the music was the same theme to keep the continuity of our piece.
As we edited the piece together, we changed kept an edit script. This was similar to the shoot script but anything that got changed in the editing would then be changed on the script. We did this so that if any of the edit got lost, we weren't back at square one - we could just look at how we had pieced things together on the edit script and put them back into the timeline.
Unfortunately, on the day before the deadline, we lost a lot of our edit! Luckily we had the edit script to refer back to so that we could edit our piece back together. This was a major set back which meant that we didn't end up getting time to track the titles onto the shot glasses (in the hangover explanation). We are still happy with the edit but losing a lot of it meant that we didn't achieve everything we wanted to.
This is the first copy of the edit script - it was constantly updated during the edit.
What went well:
- because of our detailed script and time codes, we were able to sequence together the production quite easily.
- as we kept an edit script, when we lost some of our edit we were easily able to edit it back together
- the mood is lifted and it has a much more fun tone - perfect for our target audience
- the titles have that old fashioned label maker look to them - adding to our brand
- having a title sequence allows us to establish our brand and make it seem like a reliable and 'proper' news source
- the stories are clear and easy to follow - the audience doesn't have to work hard to follow the edit
What could be improved:
- the colour correction and sound could be slightly improved - as we lost a lot of our edit, this cost us time that we could have been spending on improving these qualities.
- there were a couple of shots where the continuity is slightly off - the towel on Jason's shoulder during his PTC's moves slightly
- the funny link between Jason rubbing a lemon on Aidan's armpit and Alex drinking a glass of water with lemon is lost slightly - we could have made it clearer either through the script or the edit (the idea being that Alex is drinking a drink with some lemon that has been under Aidan's armpit)
I took the job of editing the live segment together and putting GVs and sequences over the top of the interview. This meant reviewing the footage we took of the attractions and matching this up with the transcription of the interview so that the relevant footage was placed over the top of the interview.
(i.e. when John talks about the haunts having different themes, I placed footage over the top of the different themes within the attractions). This was quite a simple task as I only had to match up the GVs with the transcription and put them over the correct places. I had to do a little bit of colour correction on some of the darker shots (e.g. the spinning vortex - as this was very dark and dimly lit - I increased the highlights and some of the mid tones & also slightly increased the saturation to enhance the colours in the tunnel). A lot of the clips also needed some stabilisation - I didn't add too much stabilisation as we still wanted to clips to look handheld (just not so shaky). I also added some of the sound from the haunts to bring in the atmosphere of the hauntfest. I included some clown / funfair music, some loud suspenseful music and the sound of a child laughing - this all adds to the creepy atmosphere.
Melissa focused on editing together the hangover explanation / visual metaphor for the substances going into the body. For this we had different camera angles and clips so it ended up being quite a complex task. The section starts with Jason talking directly to the camera, this then moves into him pouring m&ms from the shot glasses into the 'body' (another glass) - this was filmed from two different angles, this then moves into Jason closing the explanation as a PTC. This job was made harder by the fact Jason's hands move positions quite a lot, affecting the continuity of the piece, however, we should be able to find shots that fit as we did many takes of this sequence. We decided to leave the main colour correction until the end so that we could ensure the colouring is consistent throughout the production.
Jason focused on editing together the sequences of Aidan drinking and the hangover cures themselves. This was probably the largest chunk of the edit as there are 4 different hangover cures to be edited together. Luckily, we were quite strict with ourselves on the shoot days so the shots / information we need should be very easy to find and sequence together. The trickiest bit will be choosing which shots of Aidan drinking beer to use as we filmed a lot of different shots in different shot types for this. Titles and colour correction will be done at the end when the sequence has been put together (to keep the titles and colour consistent throughout).
Alex focused on editing together his PTCs for the opening, linking, and closing pieces of the production. This was quite a simple task so Alex also took on the responsibility of editing together the trailer (something which he was quite keen to do as it was a lot of fun to film). We wanted the trailer to be fast paced and funny. We did this by cutting together lots of different footage with lots of different myths filmed from lots of different camera angles. We also decided to have most of the trailer in black and white and finally bring in colour when inviting people to come to The Bunker. We are really pleased with the end result.
As we edited the piece together, we changed kept an edit script. This was similar to the shoot script but anything that got changed in the editing would then be changed on the script. We did this so that if any of the edit got lost, we weren't back at square one - we could just look at how we had pieced things together on the edit script and put them back into the timeline.
Unfortunately, on the day before the deadline, we lost a lot of our edit! Luckily we had the edit script to refer back to so that we could edit our piece back together. This was a major set back which meant that we didn't end up getting time to track the titles onto the shot glasses (in the hangover explanation). We are still happy with the edit but losing a lot of it meant that we didn't achieve everything we wanted to.
This is the first copy of the edit script - it was constantly updated during the edit.
- because of our detailed script and time codes, we were able to sequence together the production quite easily.
- as we kept an edit script, when we lost some of our edit we were easily able to edit it back together
- the mood is lifted and it has a much more fun tone - perfect for our target audience
- the titles have that old fashioned label maker look to them - adding to our brand
- having a title sequence allows us to establish our brand and make it seem like a reliable and 'proper' news source
- the stories are clear and easy to follow - the audience doesn't have to work hard to follow the edit
What could be improved:
- the colour correction and sound could be slightly improved - as we lost a lot of our edit, this cost us time that we could have been spending on improving these qualities.
- there were a couple of shots where the continuity is slightly off - the towel on Jason's shoulder during his PTC's moves slightly
- the funny link between Jason rubbing a lemon on Aidan's armpit and Alex drinking a glass of water with lemon is lost slightly - we could have made it clearer either through the script or the edit (the idea being that Alex is drinking a drink with some lemon that has been under Aidan's armpit)
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: (Post Production) Fine Cut Feedback from Helen
Feedback from Helen:
- in the intro - when Alex says 'Katie' show a clip of myself at the farm
- during the scientific explanation of the hangover - need more sound to lift the mood - the science is quite heavy so music will help to pick up the mood and quicken the pace
- potentially add sound when the shot glasses (representing different chemicals) appear on the screen, this will again help to lift the mood of the scientific explanation
- the titles over the shot glasses work well and help to simplify the explanation
- make sure there's continuity when going into the sequence - currently, Jason's hand is down in the medium shot and raised in the close shot. This just needs to be edited slightly to ensure continuity.
- would be nice to add a sting between segments - helps to move along the story and transport to different locations - will also help to keep the mood lifted
- maybe include establishing shot of 'The Bunker' so that audience know where location is - not important but may add to the story.
We still need to change the titles included so that they all follow through and keep the continuity of the piece. We are adding black labels behind some of the text to give that old fashioned label look - like this:
We aim to track the titles on the shot glasses when they are being moved around - Alex is going to have a go at this as he is probably the most experienced editor of the group. To figure out how to do this we will watch tutorials on Youtube.
Colour correction still needs to be done so that the colouring is the same in all of the footage - at the moment the colour jumps around as some footage was filmed on a Sony EX and other footage was filmed on a Canon DSLR. This is especially important in the 'results' scenes as the footage is quite flat looking and needs to be brought to life.
We may cut down the beginning of the pre recorded package as it is over the time limit at the moment. The pace of the hangover explanation is quite slow so we are thinking of cutting this down and making this more choppy / faster paced.
- in the intro - when Alex says 'Katie' show a clip of myself at the farm
- during the scientific explanation of the hangover - need more sound to lift the mood - the science is quite heavy so music will help to pick up the mood and quicken the pace
- potentially add sound when the shot glasses (representing different chemicals) appear on the screen, this will again help to lift the mood of the scientific explanation
- the titles over the shot glasses work well and help to simplify the explanation
- make sure there's continuity when going into the sequence - currently, Jason's hand is down in the medium shot and raised in the close shot. This just needs to be edited slightly to ensure continuity.
- would be nice to add a sting between segments - helps to move along the story and transport to different locations - will also help to keep the mood lifted
- maybe include establishing shot of 'The Bunker' so that audience know where location is - not important but may add to the story.
We still need to change the titles included so that they all follow through and keep the continuity of the piece. We are adding black labels behind some of the text to give that old fashioned label look - like this:
We aim to track the titles on the shot glasses when they are being moved around - Alex is going to have a go at this as he is probably the most experienced editor of the group. To figure out how to do this we will watch tutorials on Youtube.
Colour correction still needs to be done so that the colouring is the same in all of the footage - at the moment the colour jumps around as some footage was filmed on a Sony EX and other footage was filmed on a Canon DSLR. This is especially important in the 'results' scenes as the footage is quite flat looking and needs to be brought to life.
We may cut down the beginning of the pre recorded package as it is over the time limit at the moment. The pace of the hangover explanation is quite slow so we are thinking of cutting this down and making this more choppy / faster paced.
Monday, 23 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: (Post Production) Rough Cut Feedback from Sam
Feedback from Sam:
- Sam suggested that we make the blur around the onion a bit stronger or add arrows to clarify which item Jason is talking about in the voice over - this is because Jason says "these beauties" and there is a singular onion - making it a little confusing for the audience
- Potentially add little graphics or emojis along with the text - e.g. the throwing up / ill emoji along with when Aidan is 'throwing up' - brings our work back to our target audience - young people often use emojis so would find these familiar
- When introducing Broadditch Farm in the opening anchor PTC - show a GV of Broadditch Farm to establish the location
- John seemed a little dull (something we disagree with) - maybe add something to liven up his section. E.g. during the myth or fact quiz have a little scoreboard or a timer counting down - we are more keen on having a timer instead of a scoreboard as John only got 1 question right!! So the scoreboard may not add a lot - the timer will work better to make the quiz exciting.
- The noise for the results screen works really well to liven up the piece - it's a nice to have it repeated throughout as well - simple but effective
- Bonus points for the dog
- The GVs in the farm are really good - got a lot of good coverage which gives us a lot of options in the edit
We will take on board all of this advice from Sam and implement it in our edit. We still have a lot we wanted to add anyway but Sam's feedback definitely gives us more direction with the edit.
We will take on board all of this advice from Sam and implement it in our edit. We still have a lot we wanted to add anyway but Sam's feedback definitely gives us more direction with the edit.
Thursday, 19 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: (Post Production) Rough Cut Feedback from Helen
As we only finished filming yesterday, our rough cut was very rough to say the least. We still managed to get some sort of sequence together for Helen to give us feedback on:
Feedback from Helen:
- Titles are definitely needed over the scientific explanation of the hangover (something we had already planned on doing but just hadn't got around to doing yet) - this will help to make a very complex chain of events sound much simpler for the audience
- GVs are needed to establish the bar setting
- During the live interview - would be nice to get some clips of me (the reporter) walking around some of the attractions - will help the audience interact with the interview more
Helen was happy with where we had got to so far - it was difficult to give a lot of feedback as some of the sections were missing and other sequences were very rough. We have another rough cut viewing with Sam on Monday - we will get more of the edit done so that we can get some more feedback that will help shape our work.
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE: Briefing
Although I opted for the Fiction Adaptation Unit, I attended the briefing for the Professional Practice unit. These were the skills that would be used and learnt in the unit.
Skills taking forward:
- time management
- research and development of creative content
- online journal research
- focus on chosen specialism
New skills:
- report writing / analysis
- self directed schedule
- freelance work - client liaison
- development of new industry relevant skills
- intensive / elongated work placement - professional transferable skills
Skills taking forward:
- time management
- research and development of creative content
- online journal research
- focus on chosen specialism
New skills:
- report writing / analysis
- self directed schedule
- freelance work - client liaison
- development of new industry relevant skills
- intensive / elongated work placement - professional transferable skills
DIGITAL NEWS: (Production) The Bunker Website
To fulfil our brief, we had to come up with a website for our brand. Melissa lead this part of the production with us all chipping in our ideas and opinions on the format of the website.
Firstly, we had to decide on the colour scheme. We decided we wanted something bright and bold in order to appeal to our target audience of young adults. For this, we decided to go for red. We also use red in our news production for some of the labels under the titles - this helps to tie the production and the website together.
For font, we decided to go for a simple font - again, this font is similar to the one used in our production - strengthening / adding to our brand.
We wanted to keep the website simple and not overload the audience with information - it just exists to back up our news show - not provide a load of new information. We also wanted to include a section where the audience can send in their own myths to be debunked - making our show interactive & further engaging our audience. We also created a twitter where the audience can also tweet in myths to be debunked or just keep updated with The Bunker.
These online platforms allow the audience to engage with the programme - something that is very important in today's technological world - this helps the audience to feel a part of the programme which will therefore entice them and keep them wanting to come back to The Bunker.
This, however, wasn't how we had originally designed the website. Initially, we chose a slightly lighter colour scheme - however, the peachy colour seemed a little too feminine and may exclude our male audience. It also didn't fit with our channel brand - it wasn't bold and eye catching like we wanted it to be. We also hadn't added in our latest video yet - this is now on the new website.
Here's the original version:
Here's a link to our website: https://melmoore96.wixsite.com/thebunkermyths
Here's the twitter:@thebunkermyths
Firstly, we had to decide on the colour scheme. We decided we wanted something bright and bold in order to appeal to our target audience of young adults. For this, we decided to go for red. We also use red in our news production for some of the labels under the titles - this helps to tie the production and the website together.
For font, we decided to go for a simple font - again, this font is similar to the one used in our production - strengthening / adding to our brand.
We wanted to keep the website simple and not overload the audience with information - it just exists to back up our news show - not provide a load of new information. We also wanted to include a section where the audience can send in their own myths to be debunked - making our show interactive & further engaging our audience. We also created a twitter where the audience can also tweet in myths to be debunked or just keep updated with The Bunker.
This, however, wasn't how we had originally designed the website. Initially, we chose a slightly lighter colour scheme - however, the peachy colour seemed a little too feminine and may exclude our male audience. It also didn't fit with our channel brand - it wasn't bold and eye catching like we wanted it to be. We also hadn't added in our latest video yet - this is now on the new website.
Here's the original version:
Here's a link to our website: https://melmoore96.wixsite.com/thebunkermyths
Here's the twitter:
DIGITAL NEWS: (Production) Recording the VO
In addition to our filming on the shoot days, we had to record some voice over bits. These were for Jason's pre recorded package section - the voice over explains all the hangover cures in detail. We thought we would film these bits directly as voice overs as the quality of the sound would be better than filming them as PTCs in the echoey room we were in.
Wednesday, 18 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: (Post Production) Transcribing the Interviews
To make the edit much more straight forward, we transcribed the interviews (this is so we know which information is present in which part of the video). I transcribed the Broadditch Farm interview and separated the information into the time it occurs in the video.
Although tedious, transcribing this interview went well. It was quite straight forward and simple. As this is a live segment, we will not be cutting anything out so the transcription doesn't serve the purpose of separating out which information to use - instead, the transcription will help us to figure out which GVs to insert over the interview. i.e. when John mentions the different haunts having different themes, show the GVs of the different themed haunts.
The Broadditch Transcription:
Although tedious, transcribing this interview went well. It was quite straight forward and simple. As this is a live segment, we will not be cutting anything out so the transcription doesn't serve the purpose of separating out which information to use - instead, the transcription will help us to figure out which GVs to insert over the interview. i.e. when John mentions the different haunts having different themes, show the GVs of the different themed haunts.
The Broadditch Transcription:
115_0142_01.MP4
00:19 - Thanks Alex, I’m here at Broadditch Farm where they’ve just opened their annual Hauntfest.
00:24 - I’m here with John who is one of the owners of Broadditch Farm
00:27 - John, what exactly is Broadditch Hauntfest?
00:29 - So, hauntfest is our Halloween attractions that we open each year, we’ve got 5 haunts and attractions that we put on for the public, all themed differently,
00:38 - We’ve actually been running since 2001, so we’ve yeah in our 16th year.
00:44 - Yeah, sounds good, and is there anything special happening to any of the attractions this year?
00:49 - Each year we try to change them all, so they’re all going to have modifications, different scares, different interactions for the public to enjoy, umm if it was left the same obviously people wouldn’t want to keep coming back, so we have to up our game in accordance, yeah.
01:03 - And do you have a personal favourite?
01:05 - I actually have two favourites if I’m allowed, first one being the spooky castle which was one of the first haunts we ever started with, the other for this season anyway would certainly be Thirteen The Freaks as it’s very interactive, really full on.
01:22 - Okay, sounds spooky, umm right now I’ve just got a little quiz for you, all you have to do is answer whether you think it’s a myth or a fact.
01:29 - Okay, so the first one is Halloween is the Devil’s Holiday?
01:34 - No that’s a myth, it’s got to be a myth.
01:38 - Yep, it’s a myth, it’s actually derived from celtic and druid ritual which is separate from christianity so has got nothing to do with the devil.
01:44 - Umm, Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926, myth or fact?
01:50 - Oh, probably a myth, going with myth again
01:53 - It’s a fact! There’s an official Houdini seance conducted every year.
01:58 - Well I didn’t know that
01:59 - You should watch out for poisoned sweets whilst trick or treating, myth or fact?
02:04 - I’ll go for fact this time
02:06 - It’s actually a myth, although there were a couple of cases but they were poisoned by their parents.
02:11 - Right, so that’s all, you did very well.
02:13 - Thank you
02:14 - You can get your tickets now for Broadditch Hauntfest at BroadwitchHauntfest.co.uk, back to Alex in the studio.
The interview with Aidan also needed to be transcribed so that we knew what footage to place over and around it.
Aidan Transcription:
The interview with Aidan also needed to be transcribed so that we knew what footage to place over and around it.
Aidan Transcription:
“So Aidan, how are you feeling after that meal?”
“Yeah not too bad, the food wasn’t the best but.” “Good good good, well make sure tonight you’re drinking plenty of water. So, I’m going to see you tomorrow morning.”
“Will do.”
“So Aidan man how are you feeling today?”
“Yeah better than yesterday, think the water helped.”
“Good good good, well today i just want you to keep on drinking as we’re going to put to the test ‘hair of the dog’.”
“So Aidan man, I know you’ve had a rough few days, what’s worked best for you?”
“Yeah I think staying hydrated definitely worked the best but I’m going to stay away from the lemons from now on.”
“Yeah man, well there you have it. Keep hydrated and definitely don’t rub lemons in your armpit. Back to you guys at the studio.”
DIGITAL NEWS: (Production) Shoot Day Two
Today we had the 2nd and final day of our shoot. This involved shooting the studio PTCs and the pre recorded package. This was mainly shot in Alex's sisters' bar and Alex's house.
Our stooge was none other than Aidan, Alex's good friend. We put him to the test with some hangover cures we had found during our research. Due to ethical reasons and time constrictions, we couldn't actually get Aidan drunk for the shoot, so he acted for us instead. We then backed up each of the hangover cures with a scientific explanation as to why it should cure a hangover.
We aimed to meet at 10am, however, we ended up running a little behind schedule and ended up meeting and getting to the location at around 11am. We also had to go out and buy some of the ingredients for the hangovers cures which took up more time than we had anticipated. We ended up starting to film at around 1pm / 2pm.
The whole group was able to make it for this shoot - so we had a full crew. Jason and Alex presented their parts but then were able to jump back behind the scenes when they weren't needed. We also had a lot of equipment to use for this shoot - we had the Sony EX Camera, Canon 700D, sound equipment and soft box lighting. I worked mainly on camera and sound but also did some running. Melissa took her turn on camera, helped the presenters with their lines and also did some running. Alex acted as the presenter, director, camera man and sound man at separate times across the shoot. Jason worked as the presenter and camera man.
We started with filming the visual metaphor sequence with Jason explaining how a hangover works. This took a few takes as pouring the m&m's (which represented different substances) turned out to be harder than anticipated - with some sticking to the shot glasses and others getting spilt.
We then filmed the PTC's of Jason presenting - we did this by getting Jason to remember the first part of his script and then allowing him to read off the script for the rest of it - as his lines were long and we had no auto prompter. The parts where he is reading of the script would be the parts covered by GV's and sequences.
After Jason's lines were delivered, we focused on filming the sequences of beer getting poured and Aidan drinking. This will be used to show Aidan getting 'drunk' to test the hangovers. We filmed the same things in a variety of shots to give the illusion of many beers being poured and drunk. We also ensured we filmed the hangover cure of drinking water as you go at this point - as this is the only other shot needed in the bar.
Once we were satisfied with the number of shots we got of the beer drinking / pouring sequence - we turned our attention to filming the 'studio' shots with Alex presenting.
First, we had to set up the set. Myself and Melissa designed some myth / conspiracy posters to stick up on the wall. These were to give the illusion of mad scribbles trying to work out myths and bust them - which is the theme of our channel. It took a while to set this up as we had to ensure the posters were positioned correctly to work with the camera. We also set up two soft box lights (which were also used for the bar sequences) to light the set. Ideally, we would have liked to have a third light to light up the background, however, we didn't have access to another light.
Once we were all set up, we got stuck into filming the introduction shots. However, we ran into some technical difficulties as, after around 20 minutes of filming and finally getting the shot we liked, we realised the microphone had become unplugged and therefore didn't capture the sound. This meant having to start again but with the microphone plugged in this time!
After we had filmed all the studio shots, we then filmed the trailer. We decided to do an improvised trailer using the same background as we did for the 'studio' shots. For the trailer we decided to ask a lot of questions - some of them being common myths, some being completely ridiculous - we wanted it to sound like the mad ramblings of a theorist. To make this into more of a trailer - we added in "Come to The Bunker..." - to actually advertise the channel.
What went well:
- the visual metaphor for the reactions in the body during a hangover worked really well - with graphics / text this will make the scientific jargon much more understandable for our young target audience
- Aidan was a brilliant stooge. Having worked with him before, we already knew he would be a good character and a natural talker
- We managed to get all the shots we wanted, even though we started late - this was aided by the shot list as we knew exactly what we wanted to film
- The settings on the camera co operated this time, we didn't have any trouble focusing
What could be improved:
- Our time management could definitely have been improved. We could have prepared better by buying food and props needed before the shoot day so we could just crack on with shooting. We also realised that we probably shot things in the wrong order. We filmed the bar scenes in the daylight and the hangover / morning after scenes in the darkness. This is just down to a lack of organisation.
- Although it was great to come up with new ideas on the spot, this took up more time that we didn't necessarily have. There were a few spur of the moment type shots that took a lot longer than anticipated.
- Making sure all the equipment is plugged in and working before shooting a lot of footage. Our microphone became unplugged before shooting our initial 'studio' scenes, meaning all our audio was lost for that. In future, it would be wise to check everything is plugged in and do a quick test before shooting a lot of footage. This ended up costing us more time that we could have been using more effectively.
Our stooge was none other than Aidan, Alex's good friend. We put him to the test with some hangover cures we had found during our research. Due to ethical reasons and time constrictions, we couldn't actually get Aidan drunk for the shoot, so he acted for us instead. We then backed up each of the hangover cures with a scientific explanation as to why it should cure a hangover.
We aimed to meet at 10am, however, we ended up running a little behind schedule and ended up meeting and getting to the location at around 11am. We also had to go out and buy some of the ingredients for the hangovers cures which took up more time than we had anticipated. We ended up starting to film at around 1pm / 2pm.
The whole group was able to make it for this shoot - so we had a full crew. Jason and Alex presented their parts but then were able to jump back behind the scenes when they weren't needed. We also had a lot of equipment to use for this shoot - we had the Sony EX Camera, Canon 700D, sound equipment and soft box lighting. I worked mainly on camera and sound but also did some running. Melissa took her turn on camera, helped the presenters with their lines and also did some running. Alex acted as the presenter, director, camera man and sound man at separate times across the shoot. Jason worked as the presenter and camera man.
We started with filming the visual metaphor sequence with Jason explaining how a hangover works. This took a few takes as pouring the m&m's (which represented different substances) turned out to be harder than anticipated - with some sticking to the shot glasses and others getting spilt.
We then filmed the PTC's of Jason presenting - we did this by getting Jason to remember the first part of his script and then allowing him to read off the script for the rest of it - as his lines were long and we had no auto prompter. The parts where he is reading of the script would be the parts covered by GV's and sequences.
After Jason's lines were delivered, we focused on filming the sequences of beer getting poured and Aidan drinking. This will be used to show Aidan getting 'drunk' to test the hangovers. We filmed the same things in a variety of shots to give the illusion of many beers being poured and drunk. We also ensured we filmed the hangover cure of drinking water as you go at this point - as this is the only other shot needed in the bar.
Once we were satisfied with the number of shots we got of the beer drinking / pouring sequence - we turned our attention to filming the 'studio' shots with Alex presenting.
First, we had to set up the set. Myself and Melissa designed some myth / conspiracy posters to stick up on the wall. These were to give the illusion of mad scribbles trying to work out myths and bust them - which is the theme of our channel. It took a while to set this up as we had to ensure the posters were positioned correctly to work with the camera. We also set up two soft box lights (which were also used for the bar sequences) to light the set. Ideally, we would have liked to have a third light to light up the background, however, we didn't have access to another light.
Once we were all set up, we got stuck into filming the introduction shots. However, we ran into some technical difficulties as, after around 20 minutes of filming and finally getting the shot we liked, we realised the microphone had become unplugged and therefore didn't capture the sound. This meant having to start again but with the microphone plugged in this time!
After we had filmed all the studio shots, we then filmed the trailer. We decided to do an improvised trailer using the same background as we did for the 'studio' shots. For the trailer we decided to ask a lot of questions - some of them being common myths, some being completely ridiculous - we wanted it to sound like the mad ramblings of a theorist. To make this into more of a trailer - we added in "Come to The Bunker..." - to actually advertise the channel.
What went well:
- the visual metaphor for the reactions in the body during a hangover worked really well - with graphics / text this will make the scientific jargon much more understandable for our young target audience
- Aidan was a brilliant stooge. Having worked with him before, we already knew he would be a good character and a natural talker
- We managed to get all the shots we wanted, even though we started late - this was aided by the shot list as we knew exactly what we wanted to film
- The settings on the camera co operated this time, we didn't have any trouble focusing
What could be improved:
- Our time management could definitely have been improved. We could have prepared better by buying food and props needed before the shoot day so we could just crack on with shooting. We also realised that we probably shot things in the wrong order. We filmed the bar scenes in the daylight and the hangover / morning after scenes in the darkness. This is just down to a lack of organisation.
- Although it was great to come up with new ideas on the spot, this took up more time that we didn't necessarily have. There were a few spur of the moment type shots that took a lot longer than anticipated.
- Making sure all the equipment is plugged in and working before shooting a lot of footage. Our microphone became unplugged before shooting our initial 'studio' scenes, meaning all our audio was lost for that. In future, it would be wise to check everything is plugged in and do a quick test before shooting a lot of footage. This ended up costing us more time that we could have been using more effectively.
Monday, 16 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: (Production) Shoot Day One
For the first day of our news production shoot, we went to Broadditch Farm to interview John (one of the owners of the farm) about their annual Hauntfest which had just opened on Friday 13th.
I got in contact with John through email and on the phone last week and secured him as one of our contributors. He agreed to talk to us about the Hauntfest and participate in a fun little 'myth or fact' quiz. We were thrilled to secure John as from our conversations, he seemed like a very natural talker and a good character.
We had already prepared the questions prior to the shoot and created cue cards to prompt the presenter (myself) during the interview. During the couple of rehearsals we realised that we had prepared too many questions - this actually worked to our advantage as it allowed us to practice with John but also keep the interview spontaneous (as we could change the questions we asked him). We also realised that we had prepared too many myths and facts for our quiz, so again we had to cut this down during the interview - this also worked to our advantage as we could again switch up which myths and facts we asked John.
We arrived at the farm at 10am and met John right away. We sat down with him (and a couple of farm dogs) in the office and talked through how the interview would work and what sort of questions to expect. We told him the questions would be about the Hauntfest, when it began and the attractions they had - but we kept the myths and facts for the quiz to ourselves.
Once John was clear about what to expect, he took us on a tour around the attractions so that we could get a feel for the place and also scope out which bits would be good to film for GVs and cutaways. From our recce, we already knew we wanted to film the interview somewhere out on the gravel around the farm land but we weren't completely sure which area we wanted to use. During the tour with John, we found a location that would be ideal for the interview - a spot out on the gravel with a couple of the attractions in the background.
The crew for this shoot was myself, Alex and Melissa. I was the presenter, Alex was on camera (and sound) and Melissa helped with the camera set up and acted as a runner for the shoot.
The equipment used on this shoot was the Sony EX camera, microphone with windshield and headphones. Everything was filmed handheld to give the feeling of being live and to also fit in with our angle and audience - we wanted everything to be very relatable to a younger audience.
We thought we had run into some technical difficulties during the camera set up as the camera didn't seem to want to focus (even though manual focus was on). However, we believe we managed to sort this out, although this will only become clear when we review the clips on a bigger screen.
As mentioned earlier, we also realised we had prepared too many questions, but this was much better and easier to work around than having too little questions. We saved the best questions for the interview and used the others in a couple of rehearsal takes.
The interview went very smoothly, John was an excellent talker and a great character who worked well with the camera.
We realised after the interview that the location didn't work as well as we originally thought it would. The sun had moved around slightly since finding the spot which meant the lighting was a little tricker than it first seemed. We managed to sort this out using the exposure and adding an ND filter, however, ideally it would have been better to find another spot. We had also originally planned to film on the opening night but due to the amount of people attending the event and how busy the staff would be, it wouldn't be safe to do so. Also, due to time constraints, we could not film on another less busy night which would have been more ideal. We also considered asking John to turn the sound off of a nearby attraction, however, we decided against this as it added a bit more atmosphere to our interview and didn't interfere with the sound from the interview.
After the interview with John, we went around the attractions again to film the GVs and cutaways which we had scoped out during our tour. The only issue with taking footage inside the attractions was the low level of light. To compensate for this, we used the torches from our phones to light up certain features we wanted to film. This did actually help to add to the creepy / spooky atmosphere as the low levels of light gave a very ominous feel.
Once we had completely finished all of our filming, we got John to sign the consent form and check with him that it was alright to publish the video on Youtube, UCA and social media - John was happy for this to be done.
Overall, this shoot day was very successful.
What went well:
- organising the shoot was very easy - John was great at responding to us which lead to a very smooth shoot
- the interview itself went very well - Melissa kept good time and signalled after 1'00 when to move onto the quiz and again at 1'40 when to start wrapping up - this lead to us getting our interview to 2'00 on the dot.
- our contributor was a great character and a natural talker - this makes the live segment more interesting as it is all just one long shot - but having a good talker livens it up
- we got a lot of cutaway shots and GVs - these will be placed over the interview to demonstrate to the audience what John is talking about
- we had a lot of access around the location - this allowed us to get an extensive number of GVs
- the sound equipment worked well (which had always been a struggle for me and my projects in the past)
What could be improved:
- we could have found a better location when we realised the sun was interfering - we should have moved round a little more and found some shade where the attractions were still visible in the background.
- it would have been better to film at night when the attractions were open to the public - this would have allowed us to get more clips of people going around the attractions - we also would have been able to get some shots of the actors dressed up
- testing the focus on the camera prior to filming so that this isn't an issue again - this wasted a little bit of time on the shoot day as we had to spend time trying to figure out why the focus wasn't working.
I got in contact with John through email and on the phone last week and secured him as one of our contributors. He agreed to talk to us about the Hauntfest and participate in a fun little 'myth or fact' quiz. We were thrilled to secure John as from our conversations, he seemed like a very natural talker and a good character.
We had already prepared the questions prior to the shoot and created cue cards to prompt the presenter (myself) during the interview. During the couple of rehearsals we realised that we had prepared too many questions - this actually worked to our advantage as it allowed us to practice with John but also keep the interview spontaneous (as we could change the questions we asked him). We also realised that we had prepared too many myths and facts for our quiz, so again we had to cut this down during the interview - this also worked to our advantage as we could again switch up which myths and facts we asked John.
We arrived at the farm at 10am and met John right away. We sat down with him (and a couple of farm dogs) in the office and talked through how the interview would work and what sort of questions to expect. We told him the questions would be about the Hauntfest, when it began and the attractions they had - but we kept the myths and facts for the quiz to ourselves.
Once John was clear about what to expect, he took us on a tour around the attractions so that we could get a feel for the place and also scope out which bits would be good to film for GVs and cutaways. From our recce, we already knew we wanted to film the interview somewhere out on the gravel around the farm land but we weren't completely sure which area we wanted to use. During the tour with John, we found a location that would be ideal for the interview - a spot out on the gravel with a couple of the attractions in the background.
The crew for this shoot was myself, Alex and Melissa. I was the presenter, Alex was on camera (and sound) and Melissa helped with the camera set up and acted as a runner for the shoot.
The equipment used on this shoot was the Sony EX camera, microphone with windshield and headphones. Everything was filmed handheld to give the feeling of being live and to also fit in with our angle and audience - we wanted everything to be very relatable to a younger audience.
We thought we had run into some technical difficulties during the camera set up as the camera didn't seem to want to focus (even though manual focus was on). However, we believe we managed to sort this out, although this will only become clear when we review the clips on a bigger screen.
As mentioned earlier, we also realised we had prepared too many questions, but this was much better and easier to work around than having too little questions. We saved the best questions for the interview and used the others in a couple of rehearsal takes.
The interview went very smoothly, John was an excellent talker and a great character who worked well with the camera.
We realised after the interview that the location didn't work as well as we originally thought it would. The sun had moved around slightly since finding the spot which meant the lighting was a little tricker than it first seemed. We managed to sort this out using the exposure and adding an ND filter, however, ideally it would have been better to find another spot. We had also originally planned to film on the opening night but due to the amount of people attending the event and how busy the staff would be, it wouldn't be safe to do so. Also, due to time constraints, we could not film on another less busy night which would have been more ideal. We also considered asking John to turn the sound off of a nearby attraction, however, we decided against this as it added a bit more atmosphere to our interview and didn't interfere with the sound from the interview.
After the interview with John, we went around the attractions again to film the GVs and cutaways which we had scoped out during our tour. The only issue with taking footage inside the attractions was the low level of light. To compensate for this, we used the torches from our phones to light up certain features we wanted to film. This did actually help to add to the creepy / spooky atmosphere as the low levels of light gave a very ominous feel.
Once we had completely finished all of our filming, we got John to sign the consent form and check with him that it was alright to publish the video on Youtube, UCA and social media - John was happy for this to be done.
Overall, this shoot day was very successful.
What went well:
- organising the shoot was very easy - John was great at responding to us which lead to a very smooth shoot
- the interview itself went very well - Melissa kept good time and signalled after 1'00 when to move onto the quiz and again at 1'40 when to start wrapping up - this lead to us getting our interview to 2'00 on the dot.
- our contributor was a great character and a natural talker - this makes the live segment more interesting as it is all just one long shot - but having a good talker livens it up
- we got a lot of cutaway shots and GVs - these will be placed over the interview to demonstrate to the audience what John is talking about
- we had a lot of access around the location - this allowed us to get an extensive number of GVs
- the sound equipment worked well (which had always been a struggle for me and my projects in the past)
What could be improved:
- we could have found a better location when we realised the sun was interfering - we should have moved round a little more and found some shade where the attractions were still visible in the background.
- it would have been better to film at night when the attractions were open to the public - this would have allowed us to get more clips of people going around the attractions - we also would have been able to get some shots of the actors dressed up
- testing the focus on the camera prior to filming so that this isn't an issue again - this wasted a little bit of time on the shoot day as we had to spend time trying to figure out why the focus wasn't working.
Saturday, 14 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: (Pre Production) Shoot Schedule and Shot List
Our shoot schedule for this unit was very simple as we only had 2 shoot days - this was ambitious but seemed achievable if we kept to our schedule.
On Monday 16th - myself, Alex and Melissa will go to Broadditch Farm to interview John at 10am. We have allowed the whole day for this as we need to film the interview and capture some GVs afterwards. Alex will be on camera and sound, Melissa will act as the runner (keeping time and making sure everything is working) and I will be presenting the piece.
On Wednesday 18th - myself, Alex, Melissa and Jason will film the pre recorded package with Alex's friend Aidan. We will also film Alex's anchor pieces introducing and closing the show (as well as linking the packages). We will also film the trailer after Alex's presenting pieces. For this shoot we all have multiple roles - I will be on camera and sound (sometimes on second camera, sometimes on main camera and sometimes doing sound). Melissa will also be on camera and sound as well as helping keep time (like the Broadditch shoot). Alex will be presenting as well as directing and being on camera and sound while he is not presenting. Jason will be presenting as well as being on camera and sound when not needed on camera.
As well as the shoot schedule, we came up with a shot list to ensure we got all the shots we needed for the production. Each shot is separated out and detailed into the shot type and a further description of the shot. Melissa was in charge of coming up with the shot list.
On Monday 16th - myself, Alex and Melissa will go to Broadditch Farm to interview John at 10am. We have allowed the whole day for this as we need to film the interview and capture some GVs afterwards. Alex will be on camera and sound, Melissa will act as the runner (keeping time and making sure everything is working) and I will be presenting the piece.
On Wednesday 18th - myself, Alex, Melissa and Jason will film the pre recorded package with Alex's friend Aidan. We will also film Alex's anchor pieces introducing and closing the show (as well as linking the packages). We will also film the trailer after Alex's presenting pieces. For this shoot we all have multiple roles - I will be on camera and sound (sometimes on second camera, sometimes on main camera and sometimes doing sound). Melissa will also be on camera and sound as well as helping keep time (like the Broadditch shoot). Alex will be presenting as well as directing and being on camera and sound while he is not presenting. Jason will be presenting as well as being on camera and sound when not needed on camera.
As well as the shoot schedule, we came up with a shot list to ensure we got all the shots we needed for the production. Each shot is separated out and detailed into the shot type and a further description of the shot. Melissa was in charge of coming up with the shot list.
Friday, 13 October 2017
DIGITAL NEWS: (Pre Production) Scripting Our Idea & Cue Cards
Alex was in charge of formatting all of the information and research we had found into a script. We all contributed to the research of the hangover cures - with Melissa finding most of the information about the scientific cause of a hangover. We found many weird and wonderful hangover cures but narrowed it down to the ones which had the most research into them and most 'proof' that they would work (except for the lemon cure - but this had comedy value). I found the majority of the information regarding the Halloween myths and facts and the questions to ask in the interview - however, Alex formatted them into a much more logical order in the script.
As well as planning the visuals and sync, we timed the sections to give ourselves a rough idea of how long each section should take to film - this will keep us on track with our tight schedule. This is our finished shoot script - there are some rough patches and blank spaces that require improvisation on the shoot day e.g. Aidan's replies to Jason & John's replies in the interview. We can not script these as these parts are completely dependent on what our contributors say during their pieces. These will be updated in the edit script.
As well as making a script, we made cue cards for the live interview to prompt the reporter (myself) on the questions that need to be asked during the interview and the 'myth or fact' quiz. These will ensure a smooth live section as there is little chance of forgetting the lines. There are a lot of questions and myths & facts for the quiz - we probably won't have time to ask them all but this gives us room to pick our favourite questions / the questions that will give us the most valuable information.
As well as planning the visuals and sync, we timed the sections to give ourselves a rough idea of how long each section should take to film - this will keep us on track with our tight schedule. This is our finished shoot script - there are some rough patches and blank spaces that require improvisation on the shoot day e.g. Aidan's replies to Jason & John's replies in the interview. We can not script these as these parts are completely dependent on what our contributors say during their pieces. These will be updated in the edit script.
As well as making a script, we made cue cards for the live interview to prompt the reporter (myself) on the questions that need to be asked during the interview and the 'myth or fact' quiz. These will ensure a smooth live section as there is little chance of forgetting the lines. There are a lot of questions and myths & facts for the quiz - we probably won't have time to ask them all but this gives us room to pick our favourite questions / the questions that will give us the most valuable information.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)