Friday, 13 January 2012
Production Diary Week 11
On the 11th of January, everyone had a practice or two for their live news show. We set up during the day and then started filming later on in the afternoon. Every group got to have at least one practice filming which went successfully. When it came to our turn, I was the director, but I didn't have time to print off 3 camera scripts for the camera men, so they didn't know what shots to offer, which made the job more difficult for me as a director. There were a few things that everybody forgot about, such as the autocue, shadows behind guests and mainly the cameras being too high which gave a looking down look. The ways we can improve for next Wednesday are simply to lower the camera heights so they are eye level with the guests and presenter, to use the auto cue so the presenter doesn't have to read the script off a piece of paper, which will give it a more professional aspect and finally to move the seats further away from the walls, so it will decrease the shadows.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
My Performance
I am pleased with the work me and my colleagues have created and the effort we have put in, we have had a few moments of crisis, but overall I think we did a good news package that was straight to the point, informative, interesting and professional. As this was our first time creating a news package with our own ideas and styles there was no doubt mistakes we made and areas we could have all improved on, such as the lower third, but the work we all put in and the teamwork we all gave was overall a huge aspect to the final product and without this we could have simply not achieved the same result we have done.
The grade i would give myself and my colleagues would be a high C/ low B. This is simply because we put a lot of effort in and worked well as a team. I believe our news package is unique compared to others but has hints of varied news packages that we researched along the way of creating our own. Although our news package can be improved I believe a B/C is a reasonable grade.
The grade i would give myself and my colleagues would be a high C/ low B. This is simply because we put a lot of effort in and worked well as a team. I believe our news package is unique compared to others but has hints of varied news packages that we researched along the way of creating our own. Although our news package can be improved I believe a B/C is a reasonable grade.
Camera Risk Assessment
RISK ASSESSMENT
Company Name- The Manchester College | |
Production Title- Alcohol Awareness Campaign | Production Date- 5th December 2011 |
Producer- Imogen Howkins | Director- Kassem Berraies |
Date of Risk Assessment- 5th December 2011 | Risk Assessment conducted by Kassem Berraies, Mikael Hasanzad, Luke Talbot, Imogen Howkins |
Hazard | Persons who may be harmed | Property which may be damaged | Risk controls already in place | Risk Assessment (Low, Moderate, High, Extreme) | Further action required to control risk |
Bad weather (rain, snow) | n/a | Camera | Weather was checked online on the bbc weather website | Low | Camera protection will be taken |
Car accident | Crew + public | Camera | Drive safely at all times and wear seatbelts | Moderate | Open windows if driver feels tired |
Liquids near camera | n/a | Camera | No bottled drinks or can drinks near the camera | Low | n/a |
Building works | Crew | Camera | Stay away from any building works that may have falling objects | Low | n/a |
Evaluation
When we got given our assignment to create a news package with our group that consisted of me, Imogen, Luke and Mikael, most of us hadn't had much experience in doing things like this and prior to the course, we hadn't had any experience before. We put a lot of effort in to make the news package the best we could, for this we had to communicate through our group and offer suggestions when we thought different etc. I am pleased with the communication me and my colleagues made, we all had a very good understanding on what we wanted and what had to be done to create a better news package. I don't feel like I had any problems speaking to my colleagues about how i felt or what i wanted to put in the package. I believe we could have improved on everyone having each others number, so we could communicate outside of the course, where as only some of us had each others number or another source on communication. This would have helped a lot as there where times where some of the group wasn't in, and we could have informed one another before hand to let us know.
When it came to the camera work, we all knew Mikael had the best experience in this section as he had filmed many other things in the past. Although we all took part in filming and shared majority of the jobs. Again, we all shared our ideas when it came to filming and what we thought were good shots, how to improve them shots and how long they were lasting. I think we could have improved on the stability of some shots as we didn't use the tripods for every shot. For example, the " I <3 Vodka" that was on a wall in student based area, we shot that without a tripod and seemed a bit unstable as we was pull focusing in.
When it came to the editing, I took a big role in this, as it was mainly me and Mikael who helped, although we took a lot of opinions from the rest of the group when we was editing. I think we did fairly well on the editing part. We lost our first draft of editing, which meant we had to start over again which made us a couple of weeks behind on editing. I think we could have improved on the lower third especially as it didn't look very professional on the final draft, where as the first draft we lost, we created a lower third, that looked very professional but we didn't have enough time to create another lower third from scratch.
The graphics worked well, we didn't have much trouble when it came to creating the graphics for the project. The main trouble we had, was that the logo we created was on a white background and wouldn't have fit in well with the title sequence as it was a black background. We changed the logo so that it would have a black background, then decided to scrap that logo and create a whole new one that would look more professional. This was the only problem we had with the graphics. I think we could have improved on the title sequence as it lasts around 5-10 seconds, but doesn't have any backing music to it. This makes these 5-10 seconds boring and not as interesting to the viewer.
Overall I believe me and my group did well in the news package project. There are some areas we could have improved for various reasons, for example, to make the package more interesting and stand out or simply to make it look more professional. Such as, a better lower third and backing music to the title sequence to make it more professional. Where as we could have improved on script work, we could have informed the viewers with more facts about alcohol to make it more interesting and informative at the same time.
When it came to the camera work, we all knew Mikael had the best experience in this section as he had filmed many other things in the past. Although we all took part in filming and shared majority of the jobs. Again, we all shared our ideas when it came to filming and what we thought were good shots, how to improve them shots and how long they were lasting. I think we could have improved on the stability of some shots as we didn't use the tripods for every shot. For example, the " I <3 Vodka" that was on a wall in student based area, we shot that without a tripod and seemed a bit unstable as we was pull focusing in.
When it came to the editing, I took a big role in this, as it was mainly me and Mikael who helped, although we took a lot of opinions from the rest of the group when we was editing. I think we did fairly well on the editing part. We lost our first draft of editing, which meant we had to start over again which made us a couple of weeks behind on editing. I think we could have improved on the lower third especially as it didn't look very professional on the final draft, where as the first draft we lost, we created a lower third, that looked very professional but we didn't have enough time to create another lower third from scratch.
The graphics worked well, we didn't have much trouble when it came to creating the graphics for the project. The main trouble we had, was that the logo we created was on a white background and wouldn't have fit in well with the title sequence as it was a black background. We changed the logo so that it would have a black background, then decided to scrap that logo and create a whole new one that would look more professional. This was the only problem we had with the graphics. I think we could have improved on the title sequence as it lasts around 5-10 seconds, but doesn't have any backing music to it. This makes these 5-10 seconds boring and not as interesting to the viewer.
Overall I believe me and my group did well in the news package project. There are some areas we could have improved for various reasons, for example, to make the package more interesting and stand out or simply to make it look more professional. Such as, a better lower third and backing music to the title sequence to make it more professional. Where as we could have improved on script work, we could have informed the viewers with more facts about alcohol to make it more interesting and informative at the same time.
Content &Style of the News Package
The content of our production is based on Alcohol and its effects, such as binge drinking, health issues, money issues and the lives of these students that is being based on alcohol. We will be interviewing students whether they know the risks, how much they spend, how they started etc. So we can get a view on how they see alcohol and whether they see it as a problem or not. Throughout the package we will use various GV's of students, signs promoting drinking, student accommodation and students walking in and out of the halls.
The main logo we will be using is the college logo as it has to tie in with the college somehow and the other logo will be the one we create for our production. We have come up with a name for it, which will be MILK productions. The logo will have a black background and will be in white writing to represent the look of milk, and a hint of red shadowing. The reason for the red shadowing is because we will be using a live font on Motion for the title sequence, so it matches up with that.
These are the two logo's we came up with. The one on the left was the first one that didn't fit in with the title sequence so we decided to create another, that would fit in with the title sequence and that looked more professional.
We are going to use red as a main colour throughout the project, from the logo, title sequence and through out the news project with the lower third being in a red colour too. Red is a strong colour which is why we chose to use it. We will be using a lot of white writing too, mainly because its the general colour for scrolling credits, but also to tie in with the whole milk part which is our production name.
The main logo we will be using is the college logo as it has to tie in with the college somehow and the other logo will be the one we create for our production. We have come up with a name for it, which will be MILK productions. The logo will have a black background and will be in white writing to represent the look of milk, and a hint of red shadowing. The reason for the red shadowing is because we will be using a live font on Motion for the title sequence, so it matches up with that.
These are the two logo's we came up with. The one on the left was the first one that didn't fit in with the title sequence so we decided to create another, that would fit in with the title sequence and that looked more professional.
We are going to use red as a main colour throughout the project, from the logo, title sequence and through out the news project with the lower third being in a red colour too. Red is a strong colour which is why we chose to use it. We will be using a lot of white writing too, mainly because its the general colour for scrolling credits, but also to tie in with the whole milk part which is our production name.
News Package Research
I have been looking at different news packages to get an insight on how they are structured and set up and i came across a Charlie Brooker mock of how to create a news package.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI
Even though its a mock and not really too serious, he is right about how they layout each part of the package and how the facts and statistics are laid out. It has been very useful in how we are going to set out our new package, for example, walking towards the camera when nearing the end of a certain speech and ending with a question. We have thought about setting our news package out with this sort of layout but it wouldn't be as effective with the content of our news package.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY6we7pTykk&feature=related
This is a BBC News package on the World War one anniversary. The first scene you get is a still frame of a man talking about his views on the anniversary which then cuts to a GV that relates to the news package. This is how we will set ours out, which will start off with the interviewee telling answering a few questions and then it to cut to a GV that relates to alcohol. After the GV on this BBC news package, it cuts back to the other guest who then tells his views on the WWI anniversary. Again, this is how we will look to set our news package out with still frame shots of the interviewee. There are parts in this BBC new package where the voice of the guest plays over the GV which is a good and effective idea, which i think we could benefit from if we looked to use this technique too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u42_Bpv_JSA
This is a sky news package based on a football topic. I noticed straight away that they mainly use voice overs whilst showing GV's. This is a way we want to go, as we intend to have a couple of GV's over a voice over informing the viewer on facts of alcohol. When it comes to interviewing fans in this package, they focus just on the one guest. You don't hear the interviewee ask any questions but this isn't the type of interview we are looking to do, we want the viewers to hear the questions so they can follow what is going on during the interview.
All of these news packages have a varied target audience, where as our primary target audience for our news package is based on the student age, so from 18-24. Although our news package will target a younger target audience too. This is our secondary target audience which is around 16+. We believe our news package can also target a whole wider target audience, such as parents, who may be worried about their children getting in to the "social norm" of binge drinking when a student.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI
Even though its a mock and not really too serious, he is right about how they layout each part of the package and how the facts and statistics are laid out. It has been very useful in how we are going to set out our new package, for example, walking towards the camera when nearing the end of a certain speech and ending with a question. We have thought about setting our news package out with this sort of layout but it wouldn't be as effective with the content of our news package.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY6we7pTykk&feature=related
This is a BBC News package on the World War one anniversary. The first scene you get is a still frame of a man talking about his views on the anniversary which then cuts to a GV that relates to the news package. This is how we will set ours out, which will start off with the interviewee telling answering a few questions and then it to cut to a GV that relates to alcohol. After the GV on this BBC news package, it cuts back to the other guest who then tells his views on the WWI anniversary. Again, this is how we will look to set our news package out with still frame shots of the interviewee. There are parts in this BBC new package where the voice of the guest plays over the GV which is a good and effective idea, which i think we could benefit from if we looked to use this technique too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u42_Bpv_JSA
This is a sky news package based on a football topic. I noticed straight away that they mainly use voice overs whilst showing GV's. This is a way we want to go, as we intend to have a couple of GV's over a voice over informing the viewer on facts of alcohol. When it comes to interviewing fans in this package, they focus just on the one guest. You don't hear the interviewee ask any questions but this isn't the type of interview we are looking to do, we want the viewers to hear the questions so they can follow what is going on during the interview.
All of these news packages have a varied target audience, where as our primary target audience for our news package is based on the student age, so from 18-24. Although our news package will target a younger target audience too. This is our secondary target audience which is around 16+. We believe our news package can also target a whole wider target audience, such as parents, who may be worried about their children getting in to the "social norm" of binge drinking when a student.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Production Roles in News package
During my production project on alcohol and how it effects students lives, the main roles i was in charge of was:
The news package needed a script for the introduction and the questions, Me, Mikael and Imogen all took part in this role to come up with the best script we possibly could. We also came up with questions for the guest, such as, do you drink? How much do you spend weekly? and many others. I think that the script me and my colleagues came up with was effective as it stated what we were working on clearly, and the questions were straight forward and wasn't hard to follow.
I only worked as a camera operator for the news package a little bit, I filmed a couple of GV's but mainly instructed Mikael and others what shots I thought was good, and also got feedback and views off them to shoot the best possible shots we could. I think the shots we did was very effective, as they weren't plain regular shots, we took some over he shoulder shots, close ups, pull focus shots etc. We did a lot of panning and tilting when filming students walking or tilting when we were filming student accommodations.
Once we had filmed our news package and got all the necessary shots we needed, we realized we will need a title sequence at the beginning, so I offered to create the title sequence on Motion. The title sequence had to last around 5-10 seconds, so it didn't seem too difficult. Whilst i was creating the title sequence, Imogen was creating the production logo for the production name we made up "MILK Productions". The title sequence was a black background with a red live font writing that was already pre made on the program but i entered my own writing. I then entered the logo for our production to the title sequence. I believe the work me and Imogen was rather effective as it's the first thing the viewer sees so it had to stay short, informative and had to get straight to the point.
The editing was mainly Mikael and Luke and my job, but majorly Mikael's job. We edited the voice over, interview, GV's and a bit of the title sequence. We all chipped in ideas on how we think we can improve the package, but most of the hands on work was done by Mikael. I think that the work we did and the help I gave to Mikael was effective and helped with the final project.
- Graphics
- Editing
- Reporting
- Script writing, and
- Camera operator
The news package needed a script for the introduction and the questions, Me, Mikael and Imogen all took part in this role to come up with the best script we possibly could. We also came up with questions for the guest, such as, do you drink? How much do you spend weekly? and many others. I think that the script me and my colleagues came up with was effective as it stated what we were working on clearly, and the questions were straight forward and wasn't hard to follow.
I only worked as a camera operator for the news package a little bit, I filmed a couple of GV's but mainly instructed Mikael and others what shots I thought was good, and also got feedback and views off them to shoot the best possible shots we could. I think the shots we did was very effective, as they weren't plain regular shots, we took some over he shoulder shots, close ups, pull focus shots etc. We did a lot of panning and tilting when filming students walking or tilting when we were filming student accommodations.
Once we had filmed our news package and got all the necessary shots we needed, we realized we will need a title sequence at the beginning, so I offered to create the title sequence on Motion. The title sequence had to last around 5-10 seconds, so it didn't seem too difficult. Whilst i was creating the title sequence, Imogen was creating the production logo for the production name we made up "MILK Productions". The title sequence was a black background with a red live font writing that was already pre made on the program but i entered my own writing. I then entered the logo for our production to the title sequence. I believe the work me and Imogen was rather effective as it's the first thing the viewer sees so it had to stay short, informative and had to get straight to the point.
The editing was mainly Mikael and Luke and my job, but majorly Mikael's job. We edited the voice over, interview, GV's and a bit of the title sequence. We all chipped in ideas on how we think we can improve the package, but most of the hands on work was done by Mikael. I think that the work we did and the help I gave to Mikael was effective and helped with the final project.
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