As Live Production: Pitch Development 22/1/18

As Live Production: Pitch Development 22/1/18

Today Danny and I met at the studios to finalize the details of our pitch. The main thing I wanted to focus on was the look and branding of our show. I had prepared a set design for the show which i will get in to shortly, but I also know it was important to have at least some level of branding. In order to achieve this i had prepared a number of logos which I was keen to get Danny's opinion on.

Above are the two initial designs I had prepared. I chose deliberately contrasting colors so that our logo would be eye catching, and according to business insider “Red is the color of power, yellow is also a powerful colour. They get people’s attention and it holds it”. (insider, 2013)

Danny liked the idea but suggested that it didn't quite match our branding. He showed me some example logos of shows that target a similar demographic to ours and pointed out that they were less linear. As such I designed a new logo with a more creative design, and with Danny's help I removed the stripes and replaced the text colour with one that was more appropriate to the set design and branding I had prepared. The final design can be seen here.

As I mentioned earlier in order to make our pitch stand out from others I had prepared a full set design in some software I learned to use in the TV News unit. Bellow are a few images of my design.

I used the rough floor plan, that Danny had drawn up early on in the project, as the basis for this set. I colours like yellow and orange (for reasons I explained earlier). I wanted to give the set a bit of life and a more realistic feel than I had seen in other students work, so that it would stand out (while still being realistically achievable with our budget).

We had a chair for the presenter and a sofa for the guests. With a table in  the middle and a TV that could be used for watching VT. The other props are mainly there to fill out the set and make it feel more real. This two angel set up and three wall/sectioned set would allow for effective freedom of camera movement. We could have two cameras at different angles for close ups and a taller camera to provide a wide shot (as you can see on the floor plan bellow).

E-Draw describes one advantage of a floor plan in the following way “Floor plan turns your ideas into visuals, so that you will be clear on what needs to be done and how it will come out in the end”. (E-Draw, 2018)

My Floor Plan (As seen above) provides a 5 camera set up which is visualized in my set design. With a 5 camera set up we could cover a variety if angles and still have room for a graphics feed. The Dolly camera would be designed to pan as the presenter introduces and closes the show, helping create movement both physically and in the pacing of the show. The crane could be used as filler to generate unique angles that might excite audiences (as seen on shows like "Miranda does Christmas" and "This Time Next Year"). It could also be swiveled around to focus on audiences when we take questions from the studio floor. I planned it so we could fit as many people in as possible while allowing for a safe zone around the edge for cables and emergency exits etc.

According to the BBC Academy “Understanding how lighting can change the look and feel of a production is important whether filming in studio or on location”. (Academy, 2016) Which is why I also prepared a basic lighting plan for our shows pitch. It features 2 key lights for presenter/guests. 3 Fill/back lights for the set, and 2 flood lights to see the audience. 

There are a few other slides we made to give as much additional detail as possible (they can be viewed on the link that I will post tomorrow), but the main thing is i think we are incredibly well prepared for our pitch. We have a detailed running order with 2 clear halves, a clear audience, brand, channel etc. We have a detailed set and floor plan and are prepared to answer any questions. We have made adjustments and developments along the way and are backed up by statistics that support our USP.

Bibliography

Academy, B., 2016. Lighting. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/television/lighting
[Accessed 22 January 2017].

E-Draw, 2018. Top 10 benefits to Use Floor Plan. [Online]
Available at: https://www.edrawsoft.com/floorplan-benefits.php
[Accessed 15 January 2018].

insider, B., 2013. 10 Colors That Increase Sales, and Why. [Online]
Available at: https://www.business2community.com/marketing/10-colors-that-increase-sales-and-why-0366997
[Accessed 15 January 2018].