Where do you stand?
Thursday, 20 June 2019
Introduction to the news
I watched the 1:30pm London News on the 19th of June 2019. The first story broadcasted was the rising number of people sleeping rough in the last year. Knife crime was the next story that came up - referring to the recent stabbings in London. Next the presenter introduced us to the confrontation that Boris Johnson has received over whether he would allow another run way to be built at Heath row airport. After this she mentioned the current strikes on the train line and the current problems that train riders are facing due to this. Quickly she moves on to the struggles of highsteets in which an influence is paid to shop and advertise the positive around certain shops own brands - in this footage she shops in M&S. Lastly she refers the broadcast to another presenter who then explains the high weather warnings and rain fall. In the starting sequence the bright red colors and beeping sound effects represent the emergency that the news they are about to tell us it. It intrigues us to know what is going on because of how important it sounds. 
The opening story focuses on the rising numbers of homelessness in the last year. As the presenter begins the story she seems genuinely upset and extremely serious about the issue making us truly feel for these people. as she continues we move on to footage from a local soup kitchen followed by an interview with a volunteer chef. this moves on to a full screen image where the statistics are presented largely. Next a reporter takes their time to sit with two homeless people as they eat to hear their side of the story. We then close on another member of the church soup kitchen that wants to help and more shots of the kitchen. The two homeless people are presented as victims of quick judgment from the public. It gives us a chance to hear the backstory and find out how hard it actually is to keep yourself going without somewhere to live and someone to turn to. It portrays them as genuine people. The way they are represented in this footage makes us feel sorry for the homeless. Many people are quick to judge them and feel disgusted by them however the reporter and presenter both show genuine concern for the rising number and show support for the soup kitchen and those sleeping rough. The story is narrativised throughout to help us understand what is going on and to piece together the fast paced cut through and edited footage. The reporter in my chosen documentry was a middle aged women that displayed clear interested and feeling towards the stories that she introduced. She wore formal clothing which is typical for a news report especially around the London area probably because they want to look smart and confident when addressing their large audiences. By using a single woman for this short news reading it makes me feel like this quick update is not as important as a long broadcast in the evening which typically features both a man and a woman. perhaps this is to show that the lunchtime report is typically just an update.
News readers or presenters as they are more commonly called are the first people we see when the news is broadcasted. they are given the roll of explaining the story and piecing together what is going on, ready to report to those at home. They describe the job as a swan. When you see them in the studio they seem calm and in control - allowing information to pass through calmly and clearly but behind the scenes they can hear many people giving instructions through ear pieces much like how a swan seems calm but under the water its legs are working really hard to keep it afloat. As a presenter you must be able to think quickly when under pressure. The broadcast must keep to a strict time frame so the presenter must do their best to quickly and smoothly deliver the information to the audience. Many people are involved in the production of the story. firstly, the news editor will find the story and send out a crew including a field reporter and camera operator out to shoot the footage. From there the reporter will explain the story on site and gather the primary information that they need to feedback to the news room to be broadcasted. The camera operator must carefully collect a series of footage and images that can be easily pieced together. Finally after the footage has been edited it can be introduced during a live broadcast by the presenter who must explain the when, where and why of the footage to the audience. Other key job rolls in the news industry include:
Director: this person is in charge of instructing the presenter before and during a live broadcast; instructs when pre-recorded clips and sounds are to be played; and is in general control of the technicians and personnel in the studio.
Craft editor: the craft editor is in charge of piecing together the pre-recorded footage taken by the reporter; they must create a professional and clear finished report; and must add in any complex or graphical additions to the footage such as text and objects which will make the documentary more accurate, clear and informative.
Programme producer: this person is in charge of the schedule that the broadcast must keep to so they do not run over or jump ahead; they help to draw up the prospects list the night before; and they order the stories in terms of length, impact, subject and audience.
The term 'news ordering' is given to the process of ordering which of the news articles that will be broadcasting considering the importance, length and appeal of the story. For example, they usually begin with a subject that will affect a wide audience to draw in more viewers. This story could either be targeted at money issues or a heart wrenching story. The list of stories that will likely appear in the broadcast are more professionally called a 'prospects list. This list includes a mix of stories targeting different subject areas and acts as a sort of schedule. It suggests which order they will run in and which stories will be aired, however it is subject to change due to issues such us availability of the story and other more important breaking news. The ability to think and act quickly is extremely important to the news throughout many job rolls because stories and interviews can come and go. A reporter may be on site and see someone important to the story so they would have to quickly stop them or a story may not be ready to be broadcasted or filmed so another story may have to be found at short notice. A slow news day is when there are very little or no stories going on so they tend to broadcast trivial stories to fill the gap. 'And Finally' is the name given to the often light hearted and friendly story at the end of a news report that leaves the viewer much happier after some of the stories that they have heard earlier. Also it creates a nice conclusion and ending for the report so it does not end abruptly. 'News Values' is a term given to the importance of a particular story by a media outlet. Galtung and Ruge came up with seven news values to make news content much more accurate and worthwhile. For example, one of these news values is currency. These stories have been in the public eye for a whole, this could be something like a reoccurring crime investigation that keeps the audience updated. Another is 'simplicity' which refers to stories that are easy to read and understand without any confusing debates or conflicts like there would be in a political report. A third news value could be 'exclusivity'. This refers to which broadcaster got to the story first and whether they are the only broadcaster to report the incident or the agenda. Actuality footage shows real places, events and people so the viewer becomes more engaged with the story whereas stock footage could consist of archived images and footage that have been or can be used in other productions to piece together and give the audience a better understanding of the story.
- Add visual examples throughout – particularly for the title sequence analysis but also for the new story analysis
- Who was the presenter in your broadcast and why was she used?
Friday, 14 June 2019
Documentry mini-task
Documentary ‘mini-task’
A documentary is a factual moving image that is designed to inform and educate its viewers in some way. There are many different kinds of documentaries presented in different ways however they are all used in some way to express the truth behind the subject matter. These different documentary modes and formats were identified by Bill Nicholls - a documentary theorist. The characteristics of each documentary format can overlap and are not defined by one title.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_mode
Expository Documentary
This classic form of documentary uses a 'disembodied and authoritative' voice-over to explain to the viewers exactly what is happening in the documentary. They provide factual information and arguments that are complimented with footage and still images. This form of documentary is used to directly represent the subject matter in a short sequence. However in 'Night Mail' by Herbert Smith a series of shots is used to show a simple process but this would have been filmed over time and would most likely not have been for the same process. This can affect how truthful the documentary is. 'Night Mail', overall, is a great example of an expository documentary with Stuart Legg and John Grierson providing strong authoritative narrations.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Mail
Observational Documentary
This basic form of documentary shows us 'a slice of life'. The film makers are not present in the footage - completely 'hidden' from the audience - which allows the viewers to focus on what is happening within the documentary and decide on their own what the documentary portrays.. This interesting format does not contain footage such as interviews and is most often neutral and non-judgmental. In 2010, Janus Metz directed the documentary 'Armadillo' which follows around Danish soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. This is clearly an example of an observational documentary as there are no narrations or interviews throughout and the film maker does not interact at any point.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_(2010_film)
Interactive Documentary
In an interactive documentary you will see the filmmaker in person. They make act as an interviewer and will gather primary information on screen - often arguments - about a certain agenda. This may also target the audience through opinions as well as direct questions. This particular format is often accused of misrepresenting and manipulating the footage to appeal to a certain audience or to represent the factual information in a different way. 'Super Size Me' is a brilliant example of an interactive documentary. The main focus is on the film maker himself as he puts his body to the test, eating McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a whole month. For follow director Morgan Spurlock on his battle with food which attempted and succeeded in shining a new light upon obesity and fast food. The documentary includes interviews, factual information and an entertaining and un-biased presenter making it the perfect example for an Interactive documentary.
Reflexive documentary
In this format, the film maker will take a series of shots that portray 'everyday life'. It works as an attempt to expose the codes and conventions of a documentary to the viewers as well as to experiment with the typical documentary style. In 1929 director Dziga Verlov produced the experimental documentary 'Man with a Movie Camera'. This Cinematic documentary follows urban life in soviet Russia but features no actors and displays techniques such as fast and slow motion, freeze frames, multiple exposure and extreme close ups. The creative style makes 'Man with a Movie Camera' a perfect example of a Reflexive documentary.
Performative documentary
A Performative documentary focuses on 'presentation rather than the content' of the documentary. This could be through re-enactments and intriguing soundtracks. Many crime or mystery documentaries take on this form in order to involve the audience and to explain what had happened that led to the investigation. The stylised representation makes the documentary feel more film-like at moments. 'Night and Fog' is a French documentary filmed in 1956. It highlights the lives of those trapped in German concentration camps Auschwitz and Majdanek. The documentary features a soundtrack created by Hanns Eisler and is scripted and narrated making it a prime example of a Performative documentary. The stock footage used in the documentary is graphic but portrays the truth and horror of the camps only ten years after the holocaust.
Conclusion
I feel that a documentary is designed to show factual information and represent the truth. However I do feel that there will always be an element of manipulation. Even the most basic of documentaries portray only what they want you to see. Some may be filmed over a long period of time but they must condense the footage down. They may present the best and most accurate footage but overall any documentary is not 100% true 'everyday footage. I don't think that there is an agreed contract with the viewer to present them with the truth. If I were to watch a documentary I would expect to be presented with factual information and to be educated. Whether the way it is presented to me is manipulated or not as long as what they are telling me is factual then it is to be expected. I feel that an observational documentary portrays more of the truth than the others. It is taken from everyday life and allows the viewer to decide what it is about and what it is representing. Although you could argue that the film maker only allows us to see chosen footage it is un-biased and no arguments or opinions are used to manipulate the audience in any way which is why I feel that this is the most honest and reliable format.
Wednesday, 29 May 2019
3 minute wonder research
During weekdays, Channel 4 offered a three minute slot during prime-time to encourage budding directors to preview their work. Screening times began at 7.55pm; these quick yet effective documentaries were given the name 3 minute wonders. The scheme was opened to anyone that had a unique and intriguing story and anyone chosen was given a fixed budget of £4000 per episode and the support of Channel 4.
I really love this 3 minute wonder. I feel that it captures a sad and touchy subject perfectly. It features a 17 year old girl called Gemma who is undergoing chemotherapy to fight her cancer. I love how the director captures her making jokes about the hospital food and how she laughs and jokes with the other patients. It shows that she is a very strong individual. I feel that this gives hope to everyone suffering from the illness. If this 17 year old can be so positive and insert herself into a whole new world of people, so can anyone.
The director uses sped up footage to show the journey through the city to the teenage cancer ward. I really love how this is done and feel that it shows how everyone can just get on with their day when some are at a complete stand still. The music is light heated and makes the documentary much more positive than it seems.
Karl Pilkington has created this documentary focusing on his own thoughts as he walks around the natural history museum in London. His thoughts come across quite comically as he truthfully reflects on history. I like this documentary because I find it to be funny. The thoughts make me laugh but I can also relate to them. By watching this 3 minute wonder i have actually found that I agree with his point of view. He comments on how there is too much of one thing in the museum, such as the dinosaurs, which makes it less impressive. Also how animals are going extinct but nobody ever cares about animals such as the dodo so why is it any different now. I feel that this documentary is quite effective and makes you think deeply about certain things.
This 3 minute wonder follows the world record holder for laughing as he tries to cheer up Great Britain. He expresses his own troubles when he lost his business but from, that point decided to live on laughter. From this footage you can see how much happier he is as a person and how easily one man can make a whole shop, pub or street collapse with laughter. It truly expresses the point that laughter is contagious which is why I like this documentary. It shows that there is hope in the unhappiest places, we just need to let go and relax a little bit more to realise that life isn’t all bad.
On Thursday the 6th of June 18 different factual programmes were aired on Channel 4 during the course of the day including Grand Designs, The News and 999:whats your emergency. Almost 55% of the programmes shown on this day were factual programmes making it the most popular and showed genre on Channel 4. Again on the 18th of June 16 different factual programmes were aired on channel 4. This is almost 49% of channels aired this day. Going by the average of these values an estimate of 52% of programmes shown on channel 4 are factual. On the 18th of June, BBC One presented 27 different programmes, 21 of these were factual based programmes, this is a staggering 77% of programmes on this day and 42% of these factual programmes were the News or weather. In the UK peak time television is roughly 5.30pm until 8pm. On the 18th of June the BBC broadcasted 4 factual programmes around this time whereas channel 4 broadcasted 2. According to BARB viewing data, Documentaries were the third most viewed genre in April 2019 in taking 14.51% of all television viewers. This is much higher than the 11.39% that it had gained in May 2014. on the 16th of September 2018 channel 4 presented viwers with the great British bake off, in one week the programme had been viewed 7.97 million views. This is almost four times the amount that had watched 'Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls' on the same week.
https://www.channel4.com/tv-guide
TV advertisement evaluation
As a group we were challenged to create an appropriate television advert rebranding a Unilever product. Our particular group chose to focus on Magnum Ice Creams because it had much potential. The current target audience are young women. this is clearly shown through the luxurious colours and styles throughout the adverts. It features many women within the adverts, as a group we chose to switch the genders. We focused on targeting young men with a technology theme. This theme is both new, popular and hasn't been used before by this brand.
We collected our responses that people had given us about our finished advert by sending out a survey. We asked our audience whether they liked the advert and what parts most appealed to them; who they thought our target audience were and whether the advert offered technical quality. Form the responses that we gathered I feel that the main message of our advert is clear. They understood that the advert was mostly directed at young males and through the likes and positive feedback I understood that they enjoyed the technological theme. After viewing this advert half of the responses said that they were likely to buy magnums.
As part of our advert we consistently used the colour green to represent the mint magnum. Half of our responses mentioned the use of the green colour scheme and thought that is brought the whole thing together aesthetically. We used many different shot types to allow the audience to experience the scene from every angle. Also it made the advert more fast paced but the quick cuts made between the shots when editing allowed the footage to flow nicely. Unfortunately, some of our music took longer to work than we planned so it was completely missed out of the first cut which left an awkward silence. However I feel that some of our smaller, clever elements made up for the loss. For example - the sound of a magnum wrapper opening was incorporated into the glitching of the computer much like how the whip is used within the punch effects in Indiana Jones. We chose to use a surreal and humorous style within our advert in order to confuse the audience. the way the magnum appears after the computer crashes is a key part of our surreal style as well as the lack of sound affects that would lift heads if it was played on television.
Our theory was that our quiet advert would make our audience look up and be drawn by the advert because they may potentially think that their TV has turned off. Our digital magnum attempts to show the audience just what they will be getting from the product. In a way it is like we have opened the magnum u for all to see, there is no false advertising or manipulation, so the audience will be more inclined to buy this product due to the truthful and matter of fact manner we have used to present our product. Also we used a young adult male as our protagonist which represented, clearly, who our main target audience was - in our responses we can see that some of our audience noticed this message. We used a male in our advert because these ice creams are usually modeled by a women. We wanted to show our audience that a magnum can be eaten by anyone of any background. I feel that our advert is fit for purpose now that all of the necessary details have been altered including the sound and length. The footage is clear and well-edited so it looks professional and clean. Also, it is fun and the majority of our audience loved the advert in our responses.
The positive feedback that we have been given makes me feel that our advert is ready but it also must comply with the advertising regulations. After researching all aspects of the BCAP code, I have made sure that our advert is ready to go. It does not contain and harmful or graphic material; it does not mislead our audience in anyway as their are no hidden messages, free products or comparisons and we have written permission for our actors face to be used so there are no privacy issues. However, because our product is food related we have had to pay close attention to the Food, Food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims part of the BCAP code which comply with the Food Safety Act 1990, the Food Information Regulations 2014 and Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods (the EU regulation). We have not implied at all that the product is healthy and we have only shown one portion size in our advert. We have reinforced the good dietary behavior that these laws follow.
As part of our advert we consistently used the colour green to represent the mint magnum. Half of our responses mentioned the use of the green colour scheme and thought that is brought the whole thing together aesthetically. We used many different shot types to allow the audience to experience the scene from every angle. Also it made the advert more fast paced but the quick cuts made between the shots when editing allowed the footage to flow nicely. Unfortunately, some of our music took longer to work than we planned so it was completely missed out of the first cut which left an awkward silence. However I feel that some of our smaller, clever elements made up for the loss. For example - the sound of a magnum wrapper opening was incorporated into the glitching of the computer much like how the whip is used within the punch effects in Indiana Jones. We chose to use a surreal and humorous style within our advert in order to confuse the audience. the way the magnum appears after the computer crashes is a key part of our surreal style as well as the lack of sound affects that would lift heads if it was played on television.
Our theory was that our quiet advert would make our audience look up and be drawn by the advert because they may potentially think that their TV has turned off. Our digital magnum attempts to show the audience just what they will be getting from the product. In a way it is like we have opened the magnum u for all to see, there is no false advertising or manipulation, so the audience will be more inclined to buy this product due to the truthful and matter of fact manner we have used to present our product. Also we used a young adult male as our protagonist which represented, clearly, who our main target audience was - in our responses we can see that some of our audience noticed this message. We used a male in our advert because these ice creams are usually modeled by a women. We wanted to show our audience that a magnum can be eaten by anyone of any background. I feel that our advert is fit for purpose now that all of the necessary details have been altered including the sound and length. The footage is clear and well-edited so it looks professional and clean. Also, it is fun and the majority of our audience loved the advert in our responses.
The positive feedback that we have been given makes me feel that our advert is ready but it also must comply with the advertising regulations. After researching all aspects of the BCAP code, I have made sure that our advert is ready to go. It does not contain and harmful or graphic material; it does not mislead our audience in anyway as their are no hidden messages, free products or comparisons and we have written permission for our actors face to be used so there are no privacy issues. However, because our product is food related we have had to pay close attention to the Food, Food supplements and associated health or nutrition claims part of the BCAP code which comply with the Food Safety Act 1990, the Food Information Regulations 2014 and Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods (the EU regulation). We have not implied at all that the product is healthy and we have only shown one portion size in our advert. We have reinforced the good dietary behavior that these laws follow.
Our original intentions showed a clean, well written advert that successfully represented the rebranding of Magnum. By comparing the finished advert to our original storyboards you can see that the technical quality of the advert is almost spot on. The angles, scenery and position match well, I feel this makes for a successful advert. Some elements of the editing process were more difficult than others and the room that we filmed in could only be accessed at certain times. Although we followed our initial production schedule we were often behind or doing something that we hadn't planned. This lead to us using a different ending and slight differences with the digitally created magnum. Overall I am satisfied with the finished advert and my performance however if I could do anything differently I would ensure that my group were doing their best to follow the production schedule so there would be no possibility of missing deadlines or not completing the advert.
Throughout the project I feel that I continued to pull my weight as a team member, taking on my own share of work and some. Unfortunately other Exams were scheduled during the editing period so I missed parts but I feel like I caught up well. I completed a considerable amount of pre-production paperwork and stepped up to keep other members of the group on track during filming.
Friday, 17 May 2019
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