TV News: Helen's Tutorial

TV News: Helen's Tutorial

 

Today we had our tutorial with Helen, we explained where we were up to with our idea, what our locations and contacts were and she gave her feedback. 

This feedback session was very useful but also very stress inducing. Bellow is a summary of what Helen had to say, and what we have done to act upon it. 

CHANNEL NAME: " CAROLOGY"

Helen Liked this name she said it was informative and does its job.

PACKAGE/ANGLE - Are electric cars VIABLE - e.g distance/charging etc. 

Helen asked what's new about this idea? hasn't stuff like this been done before, surely you should be asking a different question, one that directly compares two different types of car.

-I feel this is where our idea was heading anyway, we just needed to make a clearer shift in our angel. With our package we were more comparing the cost of running both and what the advantages/disadvantages were for each.

But I feel we could shift our idea even further to fit with our brand, and talk about high tech developments in the car industry in general. 

Follow up ariel footage/electric car race lead.

-Helen had a contact who recently shot some footage comparing an old electric car and a modern one. I have since been in contact with him to find out if we can borrow some of his footage to use to support our package, and am waiting on a response.

CONTEXT? What do already know about electric cars and viability etc?

-Helen said we need to establish what we already know (be that through our research or by listing the facts in our piece) after that we can begin to see what we don't know and seek to answer those questions.

This is easy enough to implement and will be informed through our research, I will then adapt our script/questions to ask the key questions. 

LIVE - interview with electric car "nut" - worked with the big dealers and organised events - SUSTAINABILITY? will it last 2'00". RAC???

-Helen liked that we had got in contact with an electric car expert/nut. But expressed her concerns about weather the interview could fill 2 minutes and she was worried our project could begin to be biased. She suggested we find a neutral or apposing party and contrast them.

I completely understand her position and upon her suggestion we phoned some people from the RAC as well as local mechanics to get there opinions on the topic. 

To act on this We conducted a phone interview (transcript bellow) and slimier to our other phone interviewee they expressed opinions that could contradict some of the positive remarks we have been making about electric cars.

However Helen ideally wanted us to get them together. Trouble is firstly the people we have been speaking to live in completely different parts of the country. And it is proving hard enough as it is to find an apposing or at least neutral party who is willing to be interviewed, let alone get them to travel (since AJ our other interviewee has stated he can not travel due to recent surgery).

Never the less I will try to find a work around. Perhaps reworking our script/running order and then rewording questions so that both sides of the story can be heard. We are doing our best to try and find another interviewee but at such short notice with shooting starting on Monday I am sceptical that we will be able to find someone, so it might just be that we quote them instead of showing them (which if done in the right way I believe can work). 

CONSIDER YOUR TREATMENT OF THE IDEAS. CREATE A TONE FOR BOTH ITEMS.

Following Helens advice I think I can rework our package to have a more negative spin on the idea of electric cars, showing that petrol may be more cost effective. I will edit the script ASAP.

I will also alter the questions we plan to use when interviewing AJ so that they allow for more balanced answers. 

Phoning Non Biased Parties

CONTRIBUTORS - smart; RAC ???

-Following Helen's advice we immediately started ringing around the RAC and local mechanics and finally found someone willing to answer a few questions for our research. His name was Nigel and he had this to say to our questions (summarized). 

Q. Do you get many calls from electric car owners who have run out of power on a journey?

A. No that is quite rare as most people have the sense to know how far they can go, or carefully plan where they will charge. Most calls come from owners who can't start their cars once parked or before embarking on a journey due to an electrical fault.

Q. Does the developments in car tech make them harder to work on?

A. Not really, your always learning on the job so if a fancy new car comes in you will soon figure out the problem and quickly develop new skills to fix them with. When referring to electric cars specifically, working on the engines is easier since they are much simpler. But working on the electrics can be a nightmare since they are far more intricate than petrol cars and it can be harder to find the fault. 

It can also be dangerous to work with them due to the high voltage and they must be kept in a separate room to petrol cars when under service to reduce risk of fire.

Q. Do electric cars suffer from batteries degrading over time like phone batteries, reducing their charging capacity.  

A. Short answer yes, they do, although it is over a much longer period of time to can still be expensive to replace.

Q. Do you think the industry has reached a point where electric cars can be considered a viable replacement for petrol and would you yourself consider owning one. 

A. Simply put no. I don't think electric cars have the range yet even with recent developments and im sure they are working on that. But the problem is the government want to phase out petrol in a few years but haven't made any preparations for it. Say for example 50% of cars are electric by 2030, there simply wont be enough charging ports to handle the demand. 

I also don't think electric cars are that enjoyable to drive which is pushing away car enthusiasts. 

This were some great answers which im sure can be put to good use in our news package/live piece, and act on what Helen asked us to do.

REPORTER - Alex ;

This was fine by her but we are yet to work out who would be best in the studio (she agreed we should film it and decide later if it worked).

Note-Andrew once again was very lacking in input, he was not outspoken in any part of our tutorial and is struggling to commit to the shoot despite us clearly marking out every date, time and place for him in advance.