The One Show in a Nutshell

BBC One at 7pm, our television are graced by the topical hit magazine programme known as The One Show. Currently being hosted by presenters Alex Jones, Chris Evans and Matt Baker. It aims to come across as a colourful, vibrant and almost casual show that allows its audience to feel like they know their presenters on a friend based levels and the same with guest stars. This is apparent from the set design and opening graphics choice of colours.

The show focuses on interesting stories throughout the week with a number of special guests on to talk about things such as upcoming films, TV shows, books and events that the general public would be interested to hear about. An example of this can be seen here with the highlights and opening of The One Show when actor James Parsons came on the show.

Stills from 160MC T2

Here are a number of stills captured during our experience working on 160MC T2 People 2 People. During my time working on this I have learnt invaluable skills of communication, understanding and compassion across all of society and walks of life. I found that everyone has a story to tell no matter how mundane they may think themselves to be and as Media practitioners it is important to capture these stories and share them through the globally understand cinematic language. I also learnt that the world of Media can open so many doors to so many different walks of life that it is essentially a passport to everything, I never could have imagined the sheer quantity of opportunities that a Media Production course at Coventry University could open up for me and only within my first year. A big thanks to everyone in these pictures: Jarno Kilstrom, Chuck Weber, Dominic Flynn, Simil Gurung, Craig Thompson and Maurice Shakespeare as well as my amazing team Karen Jensen-Clark, Michael Moser and Chris Caswell.

Production Roles and Storyboards

It is imperative to any well organised documentary production team to have clear and defined production roles these can include; Director, Editor, Camera Person, Audio Technician and Interviewer. After a discussion in todays meeting we arrived at defined production roles for one another and we briefed one another on exactly what that role meant to them and the team as a whole and what was ultimately their responsibility. Our production roles currently stand as follows:

Michael Moser – Director
Karen Jensen-Clark – Audio Technician
Chris Caswell – Interviewer
Grant Snaith – Camera Person

My role as Camera Person is to operate the camera on the day of shoot, in order to do this there are a number of factors I must master beforehand. I will have looked into the storyboards in depth and prepared a visual for each shot in my mind so that when commanded to do so by the director I can assume the necessary shot without having to double check the storyboard again. I must also learn to utilise the camera and it settings and the other various equipment associated with it (Shoulder mount, Tripod etc). This is imperative as time cannot be wasted in messing around with settings, the settings should already have been pre-determined before shoot to reach the optimal appearance for our choice of visual style and then only need slight tweaking to adjust to light levels on scene. In addition to this I should take the time to hone my camera movement skills as this is an area I have previously highlighted as a trouble zone for myself. I will be doing so by booking at a camera and shoulder mount/tripod every other day and practicing tracking, zooming, panning and other styles of movements.

1) What are we trying to say about our character?
Maurice is a fascinating person to talk to who simply has so many stories to tell that we could have honestly chosen from a hundred different subjects related to him, however the most interesting aspect is his history as a war evacuee. Our documentaries ultimate goal is to tell our audience just what it was like for Maurice at this tender age to be taken away from his parents to a strangers home who’s only motivation for doing so was money from the government. It should also be made apparent just how mentally strong Maurice was during this time in his life and how he has overcome such trying times to live a happy life thereafter. In some respects we think this is relatable to modern day society and the debate about people having children to receive funding from the government without adequate means of looking after them.
2) How will you gather and order your research information?
We are currently in the stages of research into our subject Maurice and his past as an evacuee during the Second World War. We decided that the first and best place to start was a group meeting with him without cameras and just a simple mic to capture the conversation. This took place on Monday and went really well. Not only did this help to put Maurice at ease and familiarise him with the group but we also all got a better sense of our story and we each got a better visual for the story at hand. Advancing on that we have decided to further research into other stories and the historical facts behind the Second World War evacuees and will be posting our research onto our blogs. We think this is imperative to our success as a better understanding of the subject at hand can only help us to better tailor our questions to manipulate our interviewee into an emotionally provocative answer. Our final piece of research will be to take a day trip out to Coalville and the countryside that Maurice was evacuated to during the war. We intend to take Maurice back here during our filming and so this would be essentially location scouting better allowing us to storyboard this section of the documentary.
3) What is the editorial hook or angel on your subject?
The emotion of this story is a key factor that we have decided to really focus on during our documentary. During our meeting with Maurice off camera there were several moments picked up on by our group and on audio recording where it was apparent that the memories were close to bringing him to tears. It was these little moments that we realised we must capitalise upon to evoke an emotional connection from the audience. We would like our audience to have watched the film and ask themselves ‘What would it have been like if this had happened to me?”. In order to do this we really want to emphasis the separation from his parents at an early age and the need to learn street smarts in order to survive.
4) Decide on a visual style for your film?
When we went to visit Maurice we all took note of how the natural light from the large windows created a warm and yet soft lighting to the visuals and we all agreed that this would be an ideal visual style for our piece. We feel that the warm colouring creates a more personal feel to the story and since Maurice is quite elderly a cold colour could create a more lonely and isolated feel.
5) What is the heart of the story that can be told in three minutes?
The nucleus of our story is the separation of child and family as Maurice was taken out to Coalville, Leicestershire during the Second World War to avoid the bombing runs. We would begin our story from the moment of evacuation to his first place of residence and the difficulties he encountered here with poor heating and little food and then follow him to his second accommodation and conclude with his return to his parents. Each act of the story will take roughly a minute of the three minute long documentary.
6) How are you organised as a production team?
See Above
7) Why would this appeal to our intended audience?
Our story is a timeless tale of the hardships of youth in the trying times of the Second World War. It is an area that many British people are aware of but rarely stop to consider the effects of and as such our documentary is centred around the principal of revealing this. We would class our intended audience in the stereotype of Middle Class parents and grandparents of an age range from 50 to 90. We theorise that younger parents would tend to be disinterested in subjects such as the World War where as 50 to 90 would encompass those who were alive during the war and had similar experiences who might wish to reminisce about the past. 

Presenting our early storyboards: %5bUntitled%5d (1) %5bUntitled%5d

Critical Analysis Within 160MC T2

Having reached an important stage in the 160MC T2 process I decided now would be a good time to view myself and my groups progress so far as a whole. My group is comprised of myself, Michael Moser, Karen Jensen-Clark and Chris Caswell. I consider it a blessing to be working with such a group as they all have a key attribute that I value highly: desire. We may not all be the most successful or skilled individuals but there are none others who desire this more than us. They are devoted and eager and that has made for an extremely pleasant working environment of like minded individuals. In terms of areas to improve upon I would say we could do with more regular meeting times whether that be in person or via Skype and constant book keeping of the meeting minutes so that we can reflect back on that and work a little more efficiently.
As an individual I would say I have flourished within this group as more than just someone with the desire to be a director but also as someone willing and hungry to get hands on and involved. Karen is exceptional at explaining and demonstrating the use of technology that otherwise escapes me and it is because of this I have been able to experiment more.

At the beginning of our project we went out as a group and met with as many people as we could and captured footage to edit into a one minute documentary ‘clip’ that summarised each character. From this was born the idea of ‘The Midlanders’ which can be seen in one of my previous post, which all of the group is committed to. I think by getting footage captured from an early stage was a strategically key moment, this allowed us to view our characters on screen and see what we missed visually and what could be done better, this also helped to get our subjects used to being on camera and trusting in us. Before we would roll out the equipment on each subject we would have a genuine conversation with the people we were about to interview. We didn’t want them to feel uneasy or worried, or at least as much as possible. We interviewed the following people:

Simil Gurung – The subject I presented for my individual piece was Simil Gurung, a young man from Nepal who had dreams to become a famous chef. He told us his story of hardships in the youth culture of Nepal and his path to his chosen career goals. (See Meeting Simil post)
Jarno Kilstrom – Jarno is a Finish pilot who teaches people how to fly from his school at Coventry Airport. He told us stories about his first flight, his passion for flying and some of the more harrowing tales of his time in the air. We chose him to be an interesting subject for The Midlanders and will be one of six subjects in the first series.
Craig – Craig was a young man who was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type III at the age of 27 and he talked to us about the hardships of him coming to terms with the fact he would be struck to a wheelchair for most of his life. It was a moving story and he was also chosen to take part in the Midlanders.
Maurice Shakespeare – Maurice was a lovely man who was the grandfather of Chris’s wife who we had the pleasure to meet. He told us how during the Second World War he was evacuated out to the countryside. He was Michael’s individual piece for the presentation and ultimately our group was approved on the premise that we do our final People to People piece on Maurice. Since then we have gone back to meet with him as a group just for a chat without cameras and equipment to get to know him a bit more. Maurice will also feature on The Midlanders, most likely as the opening piece because of his strong ties to the area and the history of the region.
Chuck Weber – We also had the amazing opportunity to have an interview with the recently appointed Head Coach of the Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey team and spend a few days filming their practice sessions. This was a real treat and one we simply stumbled upon whilst walking around looking for opportunities. This presented some great prospects for visuals and will probably feature as the finishing piece of The Midlanders.

Chasing the Story

Its term 2 of 160MC module and the wind is beneath my wings as myself and my group; Michael Moser, Karen Jensen-Clark and Chris Caswell, began our project by heading out into the streets of Coventry in search of a story. What ensued was a series of meetings and greetings that have opened more doors than I could have possibly hoped for. As an individual piece I chose my subject and with the help of the group set out to capture what would become my one minute pitch video.

Meeting Simil

During my time of lost hope, when I had given up on my pursuit of a media career, I had the pleasure of working side by side with many interesting people and one of them was a young chap named Simil Gurung. He came from Nepal at about the age of 20 years old. During his time there he would tell me stories about his youth in Nepal and always say to me that if I ever made a movie he would want to star in it. Before he left for the greener pastures of London to pursue a career as a chef, we shook hands and agreed that I had the exclusive rights to a film about his life story. It was all fun and games back then because I had no intention of picking up my own career goals back then. Fast forward a year or two to the classroom of 160MC term 2 and a light bulb went off in my head.

My vision for this piece was to tell an almost rags to riches story but based more around career success than wealth or finance or emotion. It occurred to me however that the restraints of three minutes might make this problematic. Visually I imagined shots of Simil working in a kitchen with some slow mo shots of flames blazing and food being tossed in a pan. Perhaps some close up slicing whilst the voice over was talking about the rough upbringing in Nepal youth society.

I arranged to meet with Simil on Monday afternoon with the group to shoot what would become my one minute pitch. We met in a pub restaurant named The Cedar tree. We found a nice large bay window to let in natural sunlight which also highlighted the unique fabric of the seats that created a warming glow. The difficulties came from the fact our subject would be shown in front of the window, creating heavy shadows on the face (something we attempted to correct using iPhone flash lights) and the loud noises of the locale which we couldn’t do much about. The interview lasted about ten minutes during which time I relived the stories I had been told those many years ago and discovered new things that had been occurring in his life since. It was an extremely productive day and I’m confident about my one minute pitch.