TV News: Project Update 02/10/17

TV News: Project Update 02/10/17

Today we once again commenced a skype call to finalise the things I posted on my "Things We Still Need To Do List". After much grinding we finally managed to sort out the important details for our project.

The Brand                                                            

“Carology” since were initially thinking of basing our news channel on new technology developments, but then wanted to focus on electric cars; we decided the best thing to do moving forward was to combine the two. This saw the birth of “carology” a news channel dedicated to new technological developments in the car industry.

We then set about creating this brand, we considered a number of names before “carology” but they were all copyrighted. The next step was to create a basic house style that we could use in all social media and upcoming broadcasts.

We decided that light blue and white worked the best for several reasons. Firstly they complimented each other, colours like blue and white are also commonly associated with modern/futuristic technology so this helps to clarify our brand. We also thought these were rather unique as most broadcast companies use either red, or dark blue, so we have a nice niche.

After a couple of drafts Alex then helped us to produce the above logo.

Target Audience

After building up the brand we then had to confirm who we would be targeting it towards.

Initially we thought it would be better if we had as wide an audience as possible so that we got plenty of story exposure. However this changed after talking with Jo, we begun to understand that if we keep things to broad we risk loosing the interest of enthusiasts. After all a niche story can do just as well within a community if it has a passionate following. She also brought up the fact that electric cars are expensive so not everyone will be able to afford one, therefore may lack interest since they are not really being pushed in the mass media currently.

So we decided to aim at a niche audience, targeting car enthusiasts aged 25-60, aiming directly for the “mid market” since they will not only be the most interested, but also the most financially stable.

Running Order

The next thing on my to do list was to finalize the running order of our news piece. Bellow details the final order we decided on. 

1. Start with an OOV (car tech montage, shots from London and other places) with 2/3 lines of dialogue e.g. "coming up on today’s programme". We may include a studio piece depending on how much time we have.

Package

2. Cut to Alex introducing Piece on location.

Alex will be our presenter, he will begin the package by stating a few facts about electric cars. This is his chance to introduce our angle on the topic, (how do electric cars compare to petrol cars, how efficient are they and can they be considered a replacement). After this he will then introduce the main content of our package.

3. Electric vs petrol journey test.

This is the content that will form the main bulk of our package. In this section we seek to explore some of the questions created by our angle. Alex will be the lead presenter for this report. We will set a journey to undertake in a standard petrol car, mixing and matching a montage of shots of this with some VT and OOV.

Along this journey Alex will discuss some of the key differences between petrol and electric cars and discuss the associated costs.

4. Shots in Smart comparing their electric model to a petrol. After the above segment is completed we then hope to transition to a local car dealership (Smart Maidstone) where we can show off one of their electric models and hopefully discuss with an expert there about how petrol and electric compare and how electric might be cheaper. This would be a good time to insert some of the info we’ve gained from other sources.

5. Live interview

After the package is completed it will probably be best to transition in to the studio where we can have an anchor summarise/recap on some of the point made. We can then discuss this a little bit perhaps inserting additional quotes or facts from sources. But being sure to identifying some un answered questions giving us a reason to transition to Alex once again, who is live on location with the electric car expert that I contacted.

We would taylor the questions towards him but have Alex bring up specific points to try and maintain a balanced view point. This interview could use a multi camera set up allowing the room for potential VT if content is bland.

Locations

We had already mapped out some locations to shoot as part of our package using vehicles. However it is highly likely that we will need a fair amount of other content to use as VT, OOV etc. So we trawled online for a few  modern looking places in London (to match our brand). These included:

-          London City Airport (Not at the airport but close to see the planes flying in)

-          Cardinal Place

-          Canary Wharf

-          Battersea Power Station

-          Buildings near "Bank" Lloyds building/Gherkin

-          Stratford and surrounding buildings

-          Ontario Tower and the o2

-          Technology Stores

-          Timelapsing of cars moving

 

With all these aspects sorted we covered almost everything on my “To Do” list, and anything else will be featured in an upcoming post. This was a very productive session and it was necessary for these things to be established before we could realistically continue.