TV News: Project Evaluation

TV News: Project Evaluation

I would like to present the our finished video for the TV News Unit. I give you "Carology News (The Cost Of Motoring)".

This unit has proved to be very insightful. I have learned a lot about the News industry and about myself during this unit. While there were some lows, they were far outnumbered by the highs and I am very pleased with the final product. Lets run through the project as a whole though.

Pre Production And Idea Development

In the beginning of this project we had plenty of ideas floating around, but nailing one down initially proved difficult. Andrew had an idea about the anniversary of the Beatles but he never took it anywhere. Cailan had ideas about Southern Rail and Ryan air, but access proved near impossible. I had a few ideas about charity events e.g. mcmillan coffee morning, Tesco marathon etc. but the dates of these events didn't fit well around the timetable. Alex had an idea about Brands Hatch that we all liked but getting access was a struggle. He did find one contact in Germany but there was a lot that could go wrong with this idea, and a very short space of time to shoot it in. 

So as a group we decided to stay along the lines of motoring and to explore the future/future cost of motoring, and what effect electric cars are having. 

Alex Cailan and myself put out the feelers nice and early, emailing many manufacturers and garages. However upon listening to Jo's advice Alex and I proceeded to phone up several places as well. 

Although slow the early contacting process did appear promissing. Smart of maidstone were happy for us to film in there garage and said they'd try and arange an electric car for us to borrow. 

We ran through our ideas with Jo at this point and she was very supportive. She said an interview with a car manufacturer could be to biassed or un interesting. We should interview an electric car owner or a third party who could offer a less biassed opinion. 

This was where my skills came in useful. I contacted a number of mechanics and put out a plea on social media to find an electric car owner. I was able to get in touch with a friend of my dad's who had been driving electric cars for a number of years. So he would make a great interviewee and could offer expert opinions. 

We began to work on a script over skype and worked well as a team. Everyone had their own section of the script to write, although sometimes there was some confusion as to who was writing what section, but this only helped us improve each others work. 

We went through a few drafts as we met with both Helen and Joe, we focussed our angel to look at the viability of electric cars VS petrol. Things were all on track, but then a few days before shooting two things happened. Firstly Helen was worried we were to biased, then Smart told us they had sold the electric car they were going to lend us. 

This put us in a very difficult situation and lead to a major script re-write and made us change the angle. We re-grouped that same day and discussed changing our angel to adapt to the changing situation. 

We shifted our angel from the viability of electric cars, to "The cost of motoring". We decided to conduct a range test in a petrol car to see how much it would cost to run a car for 15 miles. Then we would look at the facts and compare the cost of this to electric. 

Andrew was very useful here, contacting the Kent film office and helping us scout locations. Cailan got in touch with the council to inform tehm of our plans and check the leagality (which was fine).

Alex and myself were able to find a number of suitible locations to place cameras and PTC shots, with Andrew helping us plan some routes. 

I also prepared some questions to ask my electric car enthusiast.

Everyone had a reasonably equal contribution here although ANdrew missed a few important meetings.

Shooting

We soon moved in to shooting our new script on "The Cost Of Motoring". I was the only one who attended every single shoot day

although most of the time other members had very valid reasons for missing a day. 

Each day was productive in its own way. 

Alex took on the role of the director which annoyed me at first since we hadn't discussed this as a group. However I came to realise it was for the best since he had the most knowledge of motoring, and had a clear vission of the shots he wanted. 

Cailan was head of cinimatography, and although My skills lie in post production I filled in wherever I was needed. Sometimes I was a camera operator/assistant. 

Sometimes I assited in directing but ocasionally got in the way of ALex so tried to back off. I also helped the presenters.

Our time was well manged on each day and we had a plethera of footage with 4/5 cameras at one point. 

I felt we all made a valuable contribution here, Alex was a great director and producer, Cailan was very good on camera, and Andrew was useful. 

The groupe were kind enough to let me use my own judgement and tools to get the best shots and we had a lot of useful angles.

I think we should have left a llittle more time or planned for pick up shots as we had to take an extra day to get some transitioning package shots that we missed. 

Post Production

Post production was where I made most use of my skills and felt i made an incredibly valuable contribution to the team.

I edited almost all of the project (Alex helped once or twice as he had a clear vission of what he wanted and i wanted the best fot those section and let him have a bit of controll over the LIVE). 

Alex was very respectful of my space as an editor and gave me time alone when I asked for it. This meant i didn't feel pressured or that he was watching over my shoulder. 

He respected my decisions a lot of the time. yet we also clashed more than a few times. We both had very strong opinions of what we wanted and weren't always willing to listen to each other. 

It didn't help that I don;t take criticism well and always assumed ALex was saying these things to spite me or beacuse he didn't appriciate me. In reality this was quite different and ALex only wanted the best for the project as I did. I learned to ask for and listen to his opinion more, and we were alaways able to reach a compramise. 

I was pleased with my contribution, not just editing the whole project but also making every singel graphic which Helen really liked.

We took on board what Helen said at each cut viewing and were even able to re -film our Live piece tto make it more interesting. This was mainly me and ALex at this point but Cailan was a huge help by making our channel trailer and website. 

Andrew kept making excuses as to why he couldn't come in and although he provided some sound support it took a lot of discussion before we got anywhere.

I was pleased with the background I made and that I was able to learn a new software in 2 hours. Ideally i would have liked to improve it furhter and have a propper disscussion about it with the group. but due to time restrictions we had to go with the second draft of the backdrop, which to be fair was still very strong.

Once again I felt my contribution to the group was very strong in all areas, especially post production. We were able to re arange the project, cutting down the package and inserting a new LIVE while still keeping the old one. We had time to fix all audio ssues that were mentioned, and colour correct shots.

Our Package and LIVE were a little bit long despite careful planning. While it wasn't ideal that we ran over, cutting it furhter would have reduced the streangth of the piece so we decided it best to leave it as is. 

We were able to act on almost all of Helens advice, re arranging our piece, filming a new Live, obtaining footage from leads she gave us, Interviewing un biassed mechanics over the phone, making graphics to support facts, and referencing all our sources.

Overall we worked well as a team. Alex and myself and Cailan were a tightly knit unit. 

However myself and ALex often had creative differences and would clash opinions, but only because we both wanted the best for the project. However we were always able to reach a compromise and pulled together as a team really well when it mattered. We also learnd to repsect each others space and roles. 

I was happy to be the editor and learned a lot, especially about listening to others. This project taught us even more about team work. It made us think on our feet and taught us the value of being adaptable to change. While planning is important we also found that you have to be willing to change to the situation on the shoot day, due to access, weather etc. 

Key skills i picked up included: GFX (I made all the graphics for this project, and expanded my skills in after effects); Respect and Listening skills (i learned to respect other peoples opinions more); quick thinking (with such fast turn arounds i learned to adapt ideas on the spot).

We have never had such a fast turn around and worked well to come together and make this project the best it could be. I am very pleased with the outcome, and our team work.