New Zealand Looms!

Come the end of the year I am travelling to a country that ever since I was a young boy I have wanted to visit, New Zealand! Come September the 1st I will begin my extremely long flight across the world to reach the lands of Middle Earth, the birth of the bungee jump and the most naturally beautiful country in the world. I’ll be travelling over with my dad and meeting up with my Uncle, who calls this piece of heaven home, whilst over in New Zealand and I fully intend to have a camera to hand for every second of it.

Whilst I will be filming and taking pictures of absolutely  everything and anything to brag about upon my return I feel its important to at least go out there with an idea or two or what footage I will need to be able to cobble together some interesting pieces for my showreel. So during this blog post I’m going to outline a number of options as a sort of check list to myself for the big trip to make sure I capture enough footage to edit with. Later on i’ll be doing an additional post regarding equipment and technical preparation for the journey.

Travel Blog
My aim is to post a short recap blog of each day as I travel around, these will probably be devoid of pictures depending on how much time I find to post these and whether I get chance to sort through the images. This is obviously dependant upon whether I have access to wifi during the trip which is unlikely at times whilst we are on the road.

Maori Culture
I would like to produce a short film of roughly 3 – 4 minutes length focusing on the Maori Culture coupled with imagery of the raw beauty of New Zealand. I would be looking for a piece of music, if possible as under layer to a traditional Maori chant, that has that raw primal feel to it. Images id be looking to capture for this would include Maori performances, mountains with rolling clouds (perhaps in time-lapse style) and a still lake shoreline at sunrise. The reason I want to complete this project is simply because the Maori culture is so fascinating to me as I know so little about its ideals and teachings. On the minute mark the video below there is a beautiful shot of a sunrise bathing a lake, that and a few other shots throughout this video give an idea for the sort of shots I will be looking for.

Father & Son Road-Trip
I have a lot of respect for all of my family and friends as without them I could not be me and so it of course means a lot to me to be joined on this journey by my father. This project is perhaps more of a personal endeavour than a CV bolstering video, but never the less I will still strive to shoot and edit this to a professional standard. For this project I would probably rely mostly or even solely on Go Pro footage shot. I will then edit this to a currently undecided song so that in me and my father can look back at it years later and remember the good times. I have seen some truly brilliant examples of Road-Trip shorts on YouTube but for my this USA Road-Trip really stood out. It is careful not to use clips that last longer than 15 seconds, preventing the audience from getting bored and its edits match the tempo of the music.

Documentary
Though I never imagined myself finding much pleasure in documentary filmmaking, I did rather enjoy the process during my first year at university so I have come up with two ideas for short documentaries that I could shoot whilst out in New Zealand. The first is “Kiwi”, a short documentary that explores what it means to be a Kiwi and what the natives think of their way of living compared to that of the rest of the world. Id be looking to interview locals from different walks of life as to what they think makes New Zealand the greatest country in the world. My second idea for a documentary, that I am for now entitling “Soldier”, would be about my Uncle and his stories from his time in the army which he has written a book about (providing he’s up for it!). He is currently in talks with industry professionals who are working on a script for a film based on his life stories.

Networking
Lets not forget one of the most important aspects of being a student filmmaker, networking. In this industry it is vital to build up strong network systems across the world with other industry professionals. Though it is often overlooked, New Zealand has a rich history of Filmmaking and Television and I am hopeful of building up some networks whilst in the country. For my third year of study I am currently exploring the options of studying or working a year abroad and would like to gage how feasible it would be to do so in New Zealand during this trip. My Uncle is hoping to introduce me to the guy writing his script who has had work within the TV industry of New Zealand and I am also scheduling a visit to the WETA Workshop where various props and effects are built for big feature films where I am hoping to talk to them about the feasibility of internship, apprenticeships or shadowing sometime during my third year.

As you can tell I am immensely excited to be achieving what for me has been a life long ambition at the end of this year and have so many plans and dreams for this trip that no doubt some of it won’t happen, but that doesn’t stop me giving it my all. And if for some strange reason you haven’t already decided you want to go to New Zealand some day, take a look at this insanely good video!

Geek Week Website!

For our recent 161MC we had to develop a TV show and a website to go alongside it. The website had to both fit the feel of our show and function like any other magazine show website. Things we chose to add to our website include: a mini game, a competition for comic con tickets, articles about all things geeky and bios and pictures of our presenter team. Overall, I’m happy with the way our website presents itself, what do you think of it?

http://abbiegailhewitt.wix.com/geek-week-tv

The Flash Has Hit The Ground Running

We are now at the penultimate episode of the hit TV show called The Flash, a part of the CW universe and well what an incredible journey it has been. For us as viewers and for Barry Allen as The Flash.

I can’t say enough good things about this show; it has everything I could possibly ask for in a TV show. It has action, brilliant effects, great choreography, an amazing story throughout the series and right at the centre, the heart of the show. This small group that consists of The Flash and those who help The Flash, we have taken these in as family and we both experience the twists each week together. Through all the fantastic fight scenes and running faster than a speeding bullet, this show thrives off 1 to 1 scenes between main characters.

We also have one of the best villains to grace television in the form of the Reverse Flash who constantly brings plot twists and shocks every week. Another plus for this show is the fact it’s in a shared universe with the other popular DC show, Arrow. You get constant references to those over in Starling City and quite a few cameo’s too. One of which led to an awesome crossover episode where the Flash went up against Arrow.

I have to say my personal favourite episode would be ‘Out Of Time’ because the events of the episode felt enough to be a season finale, all thrown together with a twist at the end.
Overall this show is nothing short of phenomenal, the amount The Flash has crammed into its first season is just impressive and I think any other show wouldn’t have been able to handle it; But the Flash has done it all so perfectly to leave us with simply brilliant episodes week in week out. It has sped its way right to the top as one of my favourite TV shows and I cannot wait for Season 2. Props to all involved in the making of this show as they have all done a stunning job, I can’t recommend this enough, 10 out of 10 for the Scarlet Speedster.

By Ben Maddison

TV Studio Reflection

TV studio session – Tuesday 5th May

Our show was named The Geek Week and was designed as a topic a week show that would cover a specific area of Geek culture. This particular show concentrated on cosplay, its history and growing presence in modern western society. Our lengthy research into things Geek really paid off during the design and concept of our set which looked really good on camera with various items of Geekyness on display with a colourful couch and posters lining the walls. In hindsight I would have like to have the walls filled with a little more colour but the majority of our shots were tight and prevented the cameras from seeing the wider less populated set. Our VT’s were suitable to our project: one showing a trip our presenters took to MCM Birmingham Comic Con shortly after we had decided what topic to cover in our show and the international VT being of a trip to a large comic book store there and exploring the influences on the cosplay community. I feel these met the required criteria for our project however one of them seemed to be far too lengthy and I worried it would loose the interest of the audience. My role within the television team was Camera 2 operator, a role I hadn’t had the opportunity to prepare for as I had missed a few practice sessions due to international trips and the team deciding that my role should b changed, however, I found the process of camera operation simple and easy to pick up on the day. Essentially it relied heavily on floor manager and director working well together. Unfortunately, our director didn’t seem to take the project very seriously and acted rather unprofessional and as such communication between him and the floor manager were strained. I think the project would have benefited from a stronger director who could communicate clearly back and forth with the floor manager. Our director not only demonstrated a lack of professionalism in communication to the studio from the gallery but he also forgot to bring in the VT creating a large problem for us during the shoot even though we were allowed to add the VT after shoot. This meant our timing had to be really tight as we didn’t have the VT in front of us to make sure we could add it easily later. I was largely disappointed with our director in general and felt that we should have had someone else at the helm. Inside the gallery, early on in our shoot it seemed disorganised and argumentative which was a direct issue from lacking a strong central figure present. However, once we had began rolling and resolved our technical issues they co-ordinated themselves well. The auto-que scrolled a little too slowly the first run through but this was rectified for our following shoots. Our major problem on set was the audio, we hadn’t prepared sufficiently for recording audio in the two sections of our set which we discovered after our first take. This is something that we should have highlighted during practice but without our demonstration able to make practice we should have pretended that we had to move to a different section of the set. We remedied this by moving our mics so that one was positioned to pick up audio from the makeup tutorial even whilst not on screen and tilted the other slightly to accommodate for the interviewee. Our camera operators were organised and very aware of the schedule and timing of the show, especially camera operator one who also had the added job of operating the on set TV screen after positioning his camera into a suitable shot for the next segment of the show. We had four cameras in total, one unmanned aimed as a close up on the make up demonstration to give a constant view during the show. The Floor Manager also did a successful job of queuing the cameras and the Presenters were aware of which cameras they needed to look at during which part of the show. We had a duo of presenters who both dressed up in costume to fit with the theme of cosplay our show was following. They made for a good group but sometimes felt too scripted and seemed to be a little nervous. During one of our takes we found a gap of six seconds that needed filling and the presenters did a good job of filling this section with dialogue between presenter and make up artist. Myself and the floor manager also dressed in costume to add to the theme of the show and create a calming atmosphere which I think helped and showed commitment to the show. Other members of crew chose to wear Geek related items of clothing as well which showed a unison amongst the team. Reflecting upon my own performance, I feel I did so quite successfully considering I missed two rehearsals due to being away in Istanbul and had my job role changed from Presenter, to Floor Manager to Camera Operator in the last week. I would have liked to have been more aware of the blocking of the set beforehand and perhaps should have requested an image the set sent to me whilst I was aware to help prepare. With more time I also would have studied the operation of the cameras a little more in depth and was fortunate to have the assistance of the other camera operators in setting it up. I would have spoken out against the choice of director from the beginning to try and persuade the group to pick someone more capable of the role and also would have spent more time familiarising myself with all the roles in the studio and the equipment as then I would have been better prepared for a switch in set role. My feelings towards working in TV has not changed since this experience and it is still an area of Media that I would prefer to avoid. It feels far too regimented and structured and lacking in creativity and freedom to be a career I would enjoy pursuing.

What to do about Jeremy Clarkson?

On the 25th March Jeremy Clarkson, long time presenter of the TV show Top Gear, was sacked after he reportedly verbally and physically assaulted a Producer of the show in London during shoot. Following these events a question hung on everyones mind, what would become of Top Gear?

The BBC’s approach to the news of Jeremy’s sacking was careful, a statement was produced on their site clearly defining their course of action and their reasoning behind the decision that had been made. An ongoing investigation began on the 4th March, the results of which were made public since the issue was being followed very closely by the world. The reasoning behind the sacking of Clarkson is all reasonable and justified outlining that “There cannot be one rule for one and one rule for another dictated by either rank, or public relations and commercial considerations.” They continue to state how much of a talent Clarkson is and praise him for the time he has devoted to the show whilst insisting that everything will be aimed at a new series of Top Gear to be released in 2016.  ://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2015/03/25/bbc-releases-statement-on-clarkson/

If I had to put myself in the shoes of the Channel Controller of BBC2 and making the decision on how to react to the incident, I think that I too would have let Jeremy go. It is common knowledge that he had had a history of being problematic and controversial amongst crew of the show and the public at large and that he had been allowed to get away with this relatively untouched. Laws pertain that physical harm inflicted upon another is not acceptable and if Clarkson had been allowed to get away with this simply because of his status and standing in society then this would have been discrimination against the producer who was harmed.

Would Top Gear be harmed by the loss of Jeremy Clarkson? Yes, definitely. There is no avoiding it, he has built up such a large fan base from the show that many audience members would feel that the show had lost its charm upon his departure. His departure also saw the rest of the presenter troupe leave, James May and Richard Hammond. James May stated that he would not return to a ‘lame’ version of the show with a ‘surrogate Jeremy’. In the passing weeks the BBC lost millions of viewers following the sacking. Interestingly however the remarks from Tymon Oisin suggest that he would have been willing to resume work on Top Gear alongside Clarkson and felt that he could resume a working relationship with him but did not want the truth to go unknown. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/08/top-gear-jeremy-clarkson-james-may-richard-hammond-itv-bbc

The Do’s and Don’t’s of the TV Studio

The TV studio has numerous hazards to be aware of and assess in order to allow crew members and presenters to operate safely and effectively. Here are a few highlighted hazards to be aware of:
– Trailing Wires: Tape wires down in place or highlight them with small LED’s. Also a floor manager should ensure that nobody crosses over wires when possible.
– Heavy Equipment: Two people should always move objects that are heavy to avoid injuries. The correct method of lifting should always be applied to heavy objects.
– Numerous Moving People: A Floor Manager should co-ordinate the movement of his/her team and prevent collisions when possible.
– Electrical Appliances: Items of food and drink should never be taken into the studio or gallery as this could be dangerous around electricity and can cause damage to studio equipment.

California State University offers this free helpful pdf about safety procedures whilst operating in the TV studio that should be adhered to (http://class.csueastbay.edu/tvstudio/safety_guide.pdf).
The best action to take when establishing the safety hazards of a TV studio is to assess the dangers with a Risk Assessment sheet. Using this you work out what dangers exist, their level of threat and how to correct that danger.

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.

Live Broadcast Ideas

Today we met as a group to discuss what direction we wanted to take our project in, luckily we all agreed relatively quickly that exploring the world of cosplay was a unique and interesting concept that offered many realistic channels to pursue for VT’s and demonstrations. However, during our seminar with our lecturer a few cracks in this appeared in that if we were supposedly making a series, could cosplay really have enough content to be a weekly episode. So we began to explore the concept of covering all things geek with aims at keeping it centred around fandoms. I began to research into the possibilities for our show:

– Video Gaming: Largely accepted in modern day society on a variety of platforms: playstation, xbox, pc, mobile phones and so on. Because of this there is no end of options for interviewees, even opening up the possibility of interviews in the streets. In addition, the game industry is forever growing and there is new news related to it all the time meaning our story can be relevant to the present day. Luckily, there is the UK’s biggest gaming festival taking place in Coventry itself named Insomnia 54. http://insomniagamingfestival.com

– Conventions: Here is a list of numerous conventions taking place across the UK http://teamneko.co.uk/list-of-uk-conventions-events-and-expos/. Conventions offer the unique opportunity of a number of like minded people collected in one area all more than willing to share their opinions and stories. The challenge is not to get swept up by all that is going on around you and to make sure your questions are focused and precise to get across the information that is needed in the answers of the interviewee. Fortunately, there is a convention called MCM Comic Con taking place later this month in Birmingham.

– Cosplay: The act of dressing up as your favourite character from films, tv or comics has been around for years, finally being named Cosplay in the 80’s. This ties in closely to the above mentioned conventions where a lot of people dress up for the occasion. It would be interesting to explore the reasons behind cosplay and the steps taken to make their costumes for example a live make-up demonstration could be shot or a parade of costumed characters could happen on the show. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay

– Pen and Paper Role-play: Sometimes referred to as Tabletop role-playing, this was made popular by the invention of Dungeons and Dragons, Pen and Paper Role-play is where a group of people create characters and roll dice whilst progressing through  some form of narrative. I have a small group of friends who I do this with on a regular basis and there is also a society based at the university that holds such games. It could be interesting to look at why people enjoy this style of game and what they get out of this. To shine some light on an area that society mostly judges and looks down on.

– LARP: Live Action Role Playing is what this stands for and this is the next step up from Tabletop roleplaying where by people head out and physically reenact a fantasy or sci fi based role-play. This also incorporates elements of cosplay as you dress up and act as your characters. Finding LARP players could be a little harder, however there are a number of organised events and internet resources that could aid in this. http://www.larpevents.co.uk For this to work I think it would have to be a pre-recorded VT with maybe a guest in to talk a bit about LARP.

– Fantasy Genred Music: This one might be a bit of a long stretch but certain bands tend to define their music alongside a specific geek genre such as fantasy, sci fi, horror or in this instance steampunk. I can think of three possible sources of information for steampunk music; the band Abney Park (widely considered the top dogs of this genre), Professor Elemental and Mr B the Gentlemen Rhymer. All three of these acts are successful but from experience are not afraid to mingle with their audiences making the possibility of an interview high. Whats more Abney Park are coming to London later this year https://www.songkick.com/artists/99754-abney-park and Mr B and the Professor are both performing in Sudbury https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/mr-b-the-gentleman-rhymer

I think also began thinking about the set and what it should be made up of as this was a major concern of our group. I think what will really sell this set will be the small details as opposed to the overall look. Some bright colours coupled with dotted geeky memorabilia like posters, game consolers, films, board games etc. Here is a small example of what I think a good set would look like for this project.

This Morning Analysis

For our new 161MC project we are going to be creating a magazine style live broadcast show and as such we had to look at examples of these styles of show. I chose to watch and take notes throughout watching This Morning:

– article preview at the beginning with a layout in terms time wise like a menu
– promotes interaction with the audience via Email and Twitter
– camera angles are shot like an interview so that it appears they are talking just to the right or left of the camera whilst making the audience aware they are talking to an interviewer, the presenter
– presenters do their best not to talk over the interviewee
– cameras are static during the interview shooting 3-4 different shots; interviewee wide shot, interviewee close up, interview wide shot, interview close up. In the event that there are two presenters or interviewees then the close up camera swaps to whichever one is talking at the time
– text header across the bottom of the screen telling the audience what the current article is about “Is 11 too young to learn about rape?”
– caps off each article asking for peoples opinions by offering phone in and emails that have a chance of being read out later on
– a reminder of whats to come before the ad breaks

The Broadcast Project

Six groups (BBC Academy College of Production) Floor manager Ed Sharpe
– Producer: The final decision maker
– Director: Sound and Vision

Group 2 with Ross
11:30 – 12:30 in TV studio (ETG06) and then 1:00 – 2:00 (ETB04)

The brief is to make a studio based “magazine programme”. This is similar to a glossy magazine, comprised of items each made to fit the tone, style and subject matter for the intended audience. We have to make these items to add in. Examples of these types of show: This Morning, The One Show, The View, Good Morning, Lorraine, Loose Women, Top Gear, The Gadget Show. We must watch as many of these types of shows as possible to get an idea for what we are creating and analyse it.

We are recording live, no editing is allowed. You can do as many takes as you like and the final piece should be 10 minutes long. You can choose a title and theme for your programme and the content of which should include a mix of researched clips and your own VTs. You must interact with your audience via social media. You will audition for studio and VT roles but work as a team. At least 2 clips found from the internet that fits your theme that is copyright approved. At least 2 VTs one of which must be international/produced outside UK. A studio based interview. A demonstration item or a performance, an audience participation item using social media. Try to go see a studio recording. Peer marking that reflects on your contribution of the final piece, this will have an impact on your final grade.

Technical talk/lingo (Talkback):
– Crab left/right, tilt up/down, track out, zoom in, pan left, throw focus, thats a wrap. Be decisive and clear.
ABC – Accurate, Brief and Clear