Monday 28 May 2012

Second spread - Gonzo travel piece


First spread - Confessional interview


Land - finished version






 Critical reflection - Land 

 Will and I decided to produce our film in national parks, particularly the New Forest . We decided that it would only be him and myself in our group for two reasons – we knew from previous experience that we work very well together and we also felt that we did not need anyone else. 

We had three main areas of focus: bluebells, horses and oak trees. We also tried as much as we could to film only places that didn't show any sign of human activity. The filming techniques were defined from the start – we would keep the camera still, on a tripod. We decided not to do any zoom in/out, pan, as it can very easily look a bit clumsy if it's not done properly. Given the equipment, we thought it was best to keep the camera still. The main technique we used was to play with the focus, and I think we managed that successfully. The film is mainly composed of close-ups - we really tried to avoid mid-shots - or on the contrary very wide shots. We would always compose the picture carefully, be weary of the colours, movement etc. 

We started filming in the forest in Micheldever where there are several outstanding patches of bluebells. We went back to the same location five times, in order to follow the evolution. We started filming during the winter when the bluebells were not out yet, and finished at the end of April, where the forest's ground was a magnificent blue carpet of bluebells. To start with we thought about filming only on nice and sunny days. It is true that it made our lives easier, not having to worry about the rain. But as most of April was cold, rainy and windy, we did not have much choice but to film in the rain. And it turned out that it was the right thing to do, since rain is great material for pictures and sound. Also it would have been unrealistic to produce a film based in the UK that would only show sunny places. 

The two tracks we have used in the audio have been produced by Dave Champion. We also used bird songs and we recorded the sound of the stream in the New Forest. 

 We took inspiration from Jean Renoir's film, A Day In The Country (1936). This movie features many beautiful landscapes of the French countryside, and we tried to have similar shots in our piece – ie: the clouds, the rain in the lake and the river. We used the clouds to show the transition between seasons/ different times of the year. 

The film could have been better if we had managed to film on a very rainy day. The natural sound would have been incredible with the noise of the rain falling on the leaves or in the stream. Unfortunately one thing we could not plan was the weather, and it never rain hard enough while we were filming to produce these dramatic effects.

Sunday 27 November 2011

Law: contempt of court - case study

Chandlers case:

A contempt of court action has been launched against Sky News as it is alleged they breached a court order. It is said they reported the liberation of the Chandlers (couple who was held hostages by Somalian pirates for 13 months) before they reached a safe place. A safe place in this case would have been outside Somalia, and Sky reported the news while they were still in the country. If found guilty, Sky will be fined.

Christopher Jefferies case:

The Daily Mirror was fined £50 000 and the Sun £18 000 for contempt of court, “vilifying” Christopher Jefferies in the Jo Yeates trial. Jefferies was arrested on suspicions of murder, was kept in custody for three days and was then released without charge. Both papers asserted that Jefferies was linked to some paedophile offences and a 1974 murder case, which is certainly one of the most defamatory statements you could ever publish. It was also suggested that during his career as a teacher he sometimes acted inappropriately with students. All these allegations and statements were untrue.

Jefferies accepted a public apology from eight newspapers, as well as "substantial damages".

If Jefferies had been tried, all these allegations would have prevented him from getting a fair trial.

This could be the first time a paper is sued for contempt of court when the suspect doesn't end up being tried.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Plan modification - demo coverage


THE DEADLINE FOR NEWS PACKAGES IS MONDAY 12:00 pm.

LOCATION CHANGE: We will be broadcasting from Southampton, in a union office on the Avenue (I'll confirm the exact address ASAP). This will allow us to get studio guests in, which would not be possible if we were based at University because of the picket lines. I am not very familiar with the production details, but I know that we will be using the Tricaster to broadcast the programme. We will go to the location on Tuesday AFTERNOON (around 4 pm) to set up the room, bring all the equipment and if we're lucky do a rehearsal. We will have to check that the Internet connection is working properly and that we can use their printer for the script.

We will have a rehearsal on Friday afternoon at 1 pm. The whole production team MUST be there.

ON-THE-DAY ROLE SWAP: Some of you have been assigned a new role. Apologies to those who were getting prepared for their previous role, but remember, this has been decided for the best of the programme!

OB TEAM: Aimee Pickering, Claire Lomas and Katie Rowles

Aimee: You will be the OB editor. You will be the link between the OB reporters and the editorial team (Will, Dom and myself). You will have to look at how long it takes to film, upload the footage on youtube, download it from youtube and get it ready for broadcast in order to establish a realistic plan. You will also have to be in contact with London Met Uni, Buckingham and Manchester as they will do OBs as well. Your job on the day will be to constantly be communicating with the OB reporters, download their footage from youtube, edit it if it needs to be, and bring it to the production team. You will have to keep the gallery informed of all the details, (location, duration, name of reporters etc) and keep them updated of the approximate time of the next OB. (I know this sounds obvious, but I am just writing EVERYTHING down tonight, I don't want to miss anything)

Katie and Claire: you will assist Aimee in this task while she's communicating with the gallery and the OB reporters.

STUDIO GUESTS: Lou O'Brien and Jake Gable

Lou: you will not go to Southampton on Wednesday. Instead, you will be our guest "getter" - you need to contact as many people as you can to get them in the studio - unions, councils workers, angry people, labour, tories, lib dem, anyone. Please do this ASAP - sorry for the short notice. Please tell all the guests you've already contacted about the new location. Allocate them a time slot as well. I know this is a hard task, but I chose you because I know you have created good contacts with the local councils/unions. Try to get SU presidents as well, anyone who could be involved in this strike.

Jake: Sorry Jake, you're not presenting anymore. It was decided today that 4 presenters was too much, therefore we only have two now. Instead, you will be our guest "chaperon". You will have to "warm them up", brief them on what's going on, make them feel comfortable. You're a chatty guy, you should feel comfortable in this role!

SCRIPT: Gareth Messenger and Graham Marshall

Gareth and Graham: you will be writing the script, helped by Angus. There will also be one of the presenters there to help you (Cara or Hana), so the script writing should go smoothly.

_________________________

Southampton coverage: Ali will now be reporting with MA student Aarran Summers.

Basingstoke coverage: Lee and Sam will be reporting from Basingstoke.

BREAKING NEWS TEAM: Dael Gornall, Henry Lewin Titt and Ewan Kennerell

You all will be monitoring the news, checking Twitter, BBC and local news website for breaking news. As the breaking news happen, you will have to write a script for George Berridge, who will be our studio breaking news reporter.

REPORTERS: book all your equipment in advance, you won't be able to get to uni on Wednesday morning.


BEHIND THE SCENES: Becky Davies and Zoe-Louise Anderson

You will be filming the team in action on the day. This day needs to be in the WINOL records!!

Monday 21 November 2011

National demo coverage - Content

Packages

Here are some general guidelines on what I want you to get, please take these into consideration as I have actually put a lot of thought into this!

To everyone who's going to do interviews: FRAME YOUR INTERVIEWS PROPERLY! As I said, this is not rocket science, everyone on this course knows how to do it, there is no excuse. It doesn't take more time to frame the interview properly. Zoom in, don't be scared to shove the camera in their faces! Brian said that about a billion times since the beginning of the year, and yet some interviews from the previous weeks looked - sorry but it's true - awful. If you keep doing the same thing/set up at every interviews, the end result will be the same. You have been warned...

Ali: Occupy London
This is a good opportunity to get beautiful GVs of London, don't miss this one. You should be able to do a 4 minute package. (You will have to reversion it to a two minute one) Get long interviews with the occupiers, and maybe get vox pops from passers by etc. Get as much content as you can.

Mikey: Uni round up
Get interviews with the SU presidents in Southampton uni, Southampton solent and Winchester University. Phone Bournemouth and Portsmouth as well. Vox pop students, as I think it would be interesting to find out if they know what the strike is about. Southampton uni is visually interesting, so you can get some good shots there - Solent is very dull in comparison. Your package should be 4 minute long, and same thing for you, you will have to reversion it.


Dave: Schools
This could be a difficult one, not going to lie. Teachers usually aren't really keen to talk to the press. Try to get head teachers in school in Winchester and Southampton. I would encourage you to try as many schools as you can, you might get lucky. Also - but I'm sure you already know this - don't film kids, even outside the school. Even if we can't identify them on the footage, people might complain that you were filming in the first place. Try to interview parents, how the strike is going to affect them, if they'll have to take a day off work to look after their kids...

George: Libraries cuts
Get interviews with librarians, and library users (I know, quite obvious isn't it?) get interviews with the council as well. GVs of books (exciting...) how locals are going to be affected etc...

Sam: Police
Get in touch with London Met police - they probably have released (or soon will) a statement on how many officers will be there on the day, what means (bats, tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, kalashnikovs...) they will use if things escalate. You can get archive footage from the demo a year ago. Get an interview with Hampshire police - I want Southampton and Winchester police.

Jake: Bin men
Go to Southampton and Winchester, interview them - it would be good if you could get some shots of them working. Interview/ vox pops local residents on how the recent industrial actions affected them (only in Southampton)

Cara: Transport
Find out if trains/buses/TFL will go on strikes, get interviews, GVs of trains/buses, interview users who are going to be affected.

Hana: Youth
Look into all the cuts that have been made to "youth services" Tuition fees that went up, grants, scholarship etc that have been cut. Find young people who have been affected. Look into apprenticeships, if fundings have been cut (I genuinely don't know about this, so look it up)

Daniel: Unions packages
What we want here is an expo piece on the main unions - TUC, UCU, Unison, Unite etc... get relevant archive footage from Lou and I for interviews with Union reps. Have graphics to explain what the unions do, which group of workers they support etc.


Uldduz: Pensions
recap what is going to happen to pensions (people retiring at 67 instead of 65) try to get interviews with people who are concerned by this issue. We need a lot of details on this as it is one of the main reasons why people are going to demonstrate on Wednesday. Find people in their late 50s/early 60s who are going to be affected soon.

Tom: Case study

Flick: Case study - social workers

Content from other universities

London Met: one package and 3 Skype updates

Salford: One package

Buckingham: One package

Leeds: TBC

Newcastle: TBC

Monday 14 November 2011

Wednesday 30 November - coverage of national demonstration

On November the 30th the WINOL team will be running a 6 hour programme covering LIVE the national demonstration in the South – delivering breaking news as they happen on the day.

This is to give everyone a vague idea of what is going to happen on the day, but I'm sure there will be many changes in the schedule. If you want to get involved in producing content please do, anything will be extremely helpful. We need to have A LOT of content in the hard drive in case the Outside Broadcast don't work, which is very likely to happen. If you're not happy with your job, please come to me and we'll try to sort it out. I will shortly give individual deadlines to anyone producing content.

Gathering content

Hana Keegan: Studio guests – Seb Miell, Mick Jardin, Tommy Geddes, Martin Tod

Becky Gray: on the day – coverage of London

Felicity Houston: on the day – coverage of London

Lou O'Brien: Interview with Patrick Davies (Winchester Labour) George Beckett (Winchester city council leader) Royston Smith (Southampton City Council leader)

On the day - coverage of Southampton

Ali Al-Jamri: On the day - coverage of Southampton

Michael Connolly: on the day - coverage of Winchester

Uldduz Sohrabi Larki: on the day – coverage of Winchester

Gareth Messenger: on the day - coverage of Basingstoke

Lee Jarvis: interview with Basingstoke city council leader / on the day – coverage of Basingstoke

Tom Morgan: Interview with Jeremy Moulton (Southampton city council)

Mikey Smith: pre-package: interviews with every SU presidents in the area – Southampton, Winchester and Southampton Solent, students vox pops.

London Met, Manchester and Buckingham universities will deliver news packages as well.

Production

Gallery

Production Editor: Domonique Jenkins

Director: Justina Chlad

Sound: Claire Lomas

Vision Mixing: Katie Rowles

Jack Courtez

Studio

Becky Davies

Graham Marshall

Daniel Mackrell

Ewan Kennerell

Poppy Murray

Zoe Louise Anderson

Presenters: Hana Keegan, Cara Laithwaite, Aimee Pickering and Jake Gable and/or David Champion

Newsroom

Charlotte Clarke: Graphics

George Berridge: 2 way in newsroom – national overview of the demo

Sam Ashton, Dael Gornall and Henry Lewin-Titt: taking content from youtube (uploaded earlier during the day by reporters) and editing it.