Digital News: The Reporter and Presenter - Josh Jones and Laura Draper

We had a discussion as a group about finding a good reporter for the live piece for this unit. We originally considered a friend of Ellen's who works as a journalist and does some reporting as part of his job. However, his busy schedule meant that he was unable to find a gap in his work to film with us. We wanted to work with someone who would be confident and comfortable talking to others. The reporter would also have to be quite professional and be able to follow a script and learn questions. I suggested in the meeting that we ask Josh to be our reporter as he is very comfortable working in front of the camera. He is also very familiar with us and the project and would know what we wanted to achieve for the live piece and how his job role would contribute to the piece. We arranged a day to work on the live piece that would suit Josh and us so we didn't distract him from his own project. I would say in reflection, it was a very good choice. In terms of the presenter for the studio introductions, we also discussed as a group the best possible option. We did think about hiring from outside UCA but for practical reasons we decided to work with someone on the course. As the shoot with Josh as reporter worked successfully with him knowing exactly what he needed to do, we felt like working with another member on the course could also work in our favour. We have decided that Laura from our group will be the presenter. She in well briefed in what to say as her and I wrote the script for the studio section together, it also meant that we wouldn't have to ask a member of another group and distract them from their own work. Deciding to choose a team member also meant that we could take our time with filming to make sure it was how we want it.

Digital News: Sound Equipment (Improvements on Shoot Days)

In the Documentary unit last year we were in groups of three. I worked with Ellen and Laura who I am working with in this unit. An area that we encountered problems with was the sound quality on our shoot days and on the final footage. We struggled to get the right sound levels and it kept dropping in areas, this was evident in our interview with Julie. We also had issues with the sound peaking in this interview which downgraded the quality of the final film. When we decided to work together on this unit we had a discussion about things we wanted to improve on and sound was the biggest thing. We had a chat with Ferg who suggested we always take a zoom on shoot as a backup if the clip mic sound isn't of the best quality. We took this advice on board and have taken a zoom with us on every shoot. On shoot days we have been taking our time with the sound, assessing the levels by asking the interviewee to talk to a crew member whilst listening to what it sounds like and adjusting it. To get a good range of opinion we also got every crew member to listen to the sound and suggest any tweaks before we actually begin filming. Overall, I would say this has improved the sound quality significantly. Taking our time made a huge difference and the quality was so much better when we reviewed the footage. I would also say that the zoom was a great addition to the kit for these shoots as we did experience a loss in connection with the clip mic when we were outside interviewing Alison. When looking at this footage you can hear it cut out. However, we noticed it on the day and addressed it by asking Ellen to hold the clip mic in place whilst remaining out of shot. In the editing of the footage, the sound was ok but we decided to use the audio we had got from the zoom as it was more consistent.

Digital News: Demelza (Shoot Day)

Today we went to the Demelza House in Sittingbourne to film two interviews for the package story. We arrived at 10am as this was the time that was most convenient for the interviewees. We then met with Helen who we had organised the meeting through over email. She took us into her office space which was one of the quieter ones. We had a little scout around for possible interview locations for the one with Alex but decided that this office space would be the quietest and most suitable. Alex applied for the grant for the Tesco 'Bag of Help' scheme in order to receive funding for the sensory garden so we felt an interview with her could be very informative. Alex usually works in an office space so we dressed it a little by turning the radio off and moving a couple of things out of the way for the set up shots. We filmed her sitting at the desk typing and looking at the computer which we will use for her introduction. For the interview itself we instructed Alex to make the answers self contained as we weren't going to use an interviewers voice in the final film. The interview went very successfully with no technical issues - helped by the office location which meant we could really take our time to get the shots right. Alex was very comfortable in front of the camera and was able to give us some very in detail answers which will be great for the news piece.

For the second interview, we met Alison who is the assistant gardener at this Demelza House. She showed us round the area of land which is looking quite neglected at the moment. It is a relatively large space with varying slopes and compartments which will be great with all of the elements that they want to include for the new garden. We thought she would be good to interview as she knows what the plans are and what is going on currently which meant that she could tell us lots about it. She was very friendly and chatty when we spoke to her which was reassuring and made the process very easy going. Again we asked her to answer with self contained responses as we would not be including the voice of the presenter for this interview. She was also very chatty throughout the interview and it seemed successful. However, we had a found sound issues half way through the interview due to a lead connection on the clip mic. This meant that the sound was cutting out occasionally. We managed to resolve this by having Ellen holding the clip mic out of sight of the camera to keep it connected and started again. Despite this, the sound quality seemed fine. After the initial interview, we asked Alison to give us a little tour and tell us about the section the gardeners were currently working on. Lastly we used the last hour of filming to take a few GVs of the location including a metal tree they have on the wall. This was particularly interesting as the leaves all have writing on them which say who bought the leaf and therefore donated to the charity. Hopefully these shots will give the audience some insight into the charity and encourage more donations. Overall, it was a successful shoot day!



Here are the interview questions from today:

Alex
1. Why did you apply for the Tesco 'Bag of Help' scheme?
2. What was the collaboration with Tesco like during the process of the application?
3. What are your plans if you are granted the money?
4. How do you hope that the garden will benefit the children in your care?
5. Are there any other upcoming projects for Demelza?

Alison
1. Are the children able to use the garden in its current state?
2. What are your intentions with the garden?
3. How long do you think the process of renovating the garden will take?
4. How important is this renovation?
5. How was it decided that you would create a sensory garden?

Digital News: Risk Assessments

Here are some of the risk assessments from our shoot days - this one was from the Demelza Hospice shoot day. 

Digital News: Kent Sheds (Live) + Shoot Day

Originally, we were going to use our interview at Tesco for the live piece for this unit, however, after a meeting with Helen, she suggested we find something else. Helen said that there wasn't enough going on with the Tesco piece which would make for an interesting live element in our work. She suggested to find a current event which would show something happening at that moment in time to create a sense of atmosphere. After plenty of research into this, which was quite challenging seeing as it had to be something within the next couple of weeks, we found a stem from Groundwork who are the company which fund several charity events and schemes and have links with Demelza. This provided a great link between our package and the live piece. After looking at their page we decided to give them a call to ask about their 'Kent Sheds' scheme. This is a scheme which has projects all over the UK and aims to provide projects and groups for men as a way of socialising, sharing skills and interests, or just for company. It tends to appeal to men over the age of 55 - some of whom are ex-service men and gives them an exciting new group to socialise in. I spoke to a spokesperson for the company on the phone who told me all about the scheme and some of the local sheds in the area. He suggested a shed in Gravesend. He told me they were currently undergoing a project in boat restoration where the men meet up a few times a week and work in a workshop renewing and repairing old boats. We thought that this sounded like a great scheme as it was a charity based organisation which worked like a support group for older men and gave them a great opportunity to get involved in something with other men in the same position. We felt like this would give us a new angle for the channel as this was focussing on something that was mental health related rather than physical health - something we don't hear enough about. I contacted the organiser for this shed - Ian who said that he would be interested in taking part in an interview with us about the project.
We arranged to meet Ian and the other men at the promenade in Gravesend which is where the shed is located. It is a garage space underneath the promenade cafe and was well out of the way of the public. Inside there were small boats set up on work tops to the left and right. We met with Ian in the cafe and he took us to the garage to meet the other men. He told us the group was 10 in numbers, however, only two men were working on them this morning. In terms of the interview, the space was relatively limited, however, we set up the camera in the corner of one of the sections so that we could have Josh  (reporter) and Ian in the shot with the men working in the background. Josh and Ian ran through the questions briefly beforehand to give Ian some time to think through his answers - we decided to do this so that Ian would feel more at ease with the interview as we knew we could only shoot it once (twice if very necessary). It worked quite successfully. Ian was a very comfortable speaker and felt at ease with the questions, he was very informative too about the scheme which was very important as this will spread awareness for them. Overall the interview went very smoothly and was very successful with no technical issues.

Digital News: Website Development + Amended Logo

As a group we have been setting up the website for our online news channel. We had already decided on colour scheme when composing our logo and initial web ideas and think that we are going to continue to use this scheme for our web design. We have gone for a white background as we felt it was fitting with a medical theme and gave it quite a professional, clean finish. In terms of colours we went for pink and blue as they were quite contrasting with both each other and the background. We decided to use Wixite to create the website as this is a fairly simple template which offers some useful features and guides. Personally, I haven't created a website from scratch so this was totally new for me. We followed the general layout of the website they give you with a title at the top, a side bar and main page. We then decided to add some buttons that would link to other pages so that people can navigate around the website. Making buttons titled 'About Us' which would describe who we are and what our purpose is, a 'Video Gallery',which will allow us to put all of the films on one page to make it easy for people to scroll through them, a 'Get Involved' page where we have put links to the websites of the charities and organisations we have worked with throughout this unit. This should encourage people to donate or get involved in some of the schemes and events they run. We then also created a 'Contact Us' page with all of our personal emails so people can contact us and ask questions about any of our work.  We have made a side bar titled 'Articles' which will have links to the four articles we have written in reference to some recent events - all related to the theme. The website making process was quite simple and easy to do once we had got hang of the tools. 

In terms of the logo for the channel. When Laura and I were working on the colour scheme for the website, we decided that the original colours seemed a little washed out against the background and didn't stand out as much as we would have liked. We used the swatches on the colour wheel to change the tones slightly and go for slightly darker tones. We felt that this gave it not only a slightly more sophisticated feel but also helped to make it a bit more eye catching. We then changed this on the graphic by dropping the colours on photoshop and moving the text around to develop it and make the font look a little more formal which I think works nicely. Overall, I think that the develop has given the website a professional finish which is what we wanted to achieve as the theme is quite serious and formal. 

Digital News: Group Meeting (Development + Progress)

This afternoon we had a group meeting to discuss our planning and time management for the next two weeks. We have just arranged our shoot for the live piece next Tuesday but are just waiting for some confirmation from the leader of the Kent Shed in Gravesend. For the other part of the package we will be filming on Thursday at the Demelza House in Sittingbourne and have arranged that with the people we will be interviewing. In terms of progress with the unit so far I think we have communicated well, using a group message to talk as a group when we are not at Uni. We have tried to give everyone small jobs to do such as writing questions for the interviews and sharing out the boring bits such as filling out risk assessments and writing call sheets for the shoots. I think areas we could improve on would be to organise ourselves a little sooner in the next couple of weeks and really get started on the website so that we can get it to a professional standard and get all of the written work out of the way to focus on our edits before the deadline. One thing we flagged up in the meeting was that we all started with specific roles at the beginning but have decided to go with a more random approach when it comes to distribution of the work. This however, has worked in our favour and has meant that we haven't been restricted to certain things and have all contributed in each aspect such as writing the scripts.
We have also spoken about time management specifically, we aim to spread each task that needs to be done more evenly so that we can get the work done a little more gradually. Plans with filming and editing have all come around at once which has meant that we have been pushed for time with equipment. We agreed we should have spoken to contacts a little sooner so that there wouldn't be such a rush with filming and editing at the end and the process would have felt a little more gradual.