Wednesday, 10 January 2018

As Live Production: Idea Development 10/1/18

As Live Production: Idea Development 10/1/18

Yesterday I sat down with Danny to discuss the feedback we had received from teh group. As well as continue to exchange and discuss some of the other ideas that we had.Once we had done this we met with Helen to get her feedback so that we could continue to refine the ideas.

After some thought and discussing each of the previously listed 
ideas in detail we Narrowed our list down tot eh 2/3 best ideas. 

They are as follows:

Image result for miranda does christmasImage result for the tonight show

1. "Couple Clash"- A chat/game show; although we initially wanted to keep it as just a chat show we were concerend that we would struggle to fill 30min with just talking. I was reminded of programes like "The Tonight Show" and "Miranda Does Christmas", in which they are primerilly a talk show but also get there guests engaged in games and activities. To maintain a solid audince atention I thought we could do something similar with our studio production. The way we would make it unique would be to have the guests as couples who are dating and the interaction between each of tehm and the host would provide entertainment. Then we could have VT's to help provide aditional information about them and games to help fill the time slot. 

Feedback From Helen
A show called "Mr and Mrs" did something similar a few years back so be caerful not to "step on its toes" too much. -We intend to break away from this by having the different couples face each otehr in games e.g. nerf gun war.

Image result for mr and mrs show

What channel will this theoretically air on, what time and what day? As the answer to this question will decide the nature of the show e.g. how tame or mature it is. -We are thinking around 5PM, ITV2 on a saturday (as its a little more tame than friday) so people can have a laugh while they prepare for dinner.

What will you use VT's for? If they are to inform will they provide information that we wouldn't otherwise have known? -At the moment this area is in need of work, we thought we could share some thoughts or gossip from the couples before the show, or maye get their familly to reveal some of their thoughts; but each of these presents its own problem. 

Our host would need to be very charasmatic and able to hold a conversation well.

Image result for question time

2. "As Yet Untitled"- A chat show based around local news and politics but from a students point of view. My insperation for this comes from shows like "Question Time". We thought we ould create a more light hearted vibe and get an original angle by having two or more guests with apposing ideas. E.g. soemoe who voted to leave the EU and someoen who voted to stay. 
Danny had the great idea of shaking things up even further by subverting the audiences epectations for example by going against the suggested demographics and having a young person who voted to leave the EU and an older person who voted to stay. This way we could generate more interesting conversation to help fill time. 
My idea was to have a "virtual wheel" of different catagories that our guests could discuss. Every time we move on to a new catagory we could have a VT that gives us some basic information about the topic to help both guests and audiences.

Feedback From Helen
What Channel, Day and Time Slot would your show fill? -The show feels quite BBC at the moment and would probably suite a week night shwing at around 6/7 O'clock.

Who would your guests be as they need to be well infromed but it could be dificult ot get any actual polititions on board (no matter how small their role)-I thought we could use someone like a youth councillor or a student representative form a university as one guest. Since they would be a confident speaker and confident in theor well formed opinions. The other guest could be a passionate campaigner or someome who has been effected by a local event, I'll admit this are needs more thought put in to it. 

Image result for wheel of fortune

The "virtual wheel" feels more like something that would fill up a segamnt but not carry the show. -This is a valid point and since the metting I discussed with Danny, and we thought that this could be cut down to form a "Qucik-Fire Round" and we could fill up the rest of the time with more generalisd topics or perhaps local news stories. 

Will you open the topics up to the audience at any point? -Yes, we imitially planned to have the topics given by our "virtual wheel" to be thrown out to the audience once the guests had finnished making their points. Now we may move it so that it is it's own section, or keep a similar concept and just discuss witht the audience each topic we bring up.
Danny suggested that we could poll our studio audiece to see how much they agree/disagree with our guests, which is soemthing we can look in to.  
One segment I though of was to look at what social media had to say on certain topics, by putting out a poll or a question before the show airs and reveling their responses on the show.

Image result for being human showImage result for mrs browns boys

3."As Yet Untitled" - A Horror Comedy/Sitcom- Danny's idea revolved around a show that followed a similar style to "Mrs Brown's Boys" and "Being Human". Except his unique spin is that it would have a Horror theme. It would be a scripted show so that it would easilly fit to the 30 min time slot, we haven't figured out where VT would feature however.

Feedback From Helen
This show would rely heavilly on its script, it would have to be written qucikly but written well, and a draft would need to be seen before it could be given the "green light" -Danny will start working on a rough script.

What Channel, day and time slot would this air on? -At the mement we think it has BBC3 potential it would likely be 7PM onwards showing likely on a Friday but exact details haven't been decided upon.

How would you incourperate VT? -At the mement we are unsure how we would do so but there is certainly potential.


After some more discussion we planeed out a little more what kind of set up we might use for two of teh shows, we had a look at the studio floor plan to see how much space we had available and checked with Ferg to see how many camera feeds we had available. This helped us see what was realistically possible with our set, and what we would need to re-think/work around e.g. could we change set pieces durign VT?, could we have one camera dedicated to the audience etc.

Following this chat we have a claerer idea of what is acheivable and what needs to be done. Danny and I agreed to use the two chat shows as our focus for the time being, until we decide which one is better; while keeping the sitcom idea as more of a backup. 

I will continue to develop the political/news chat show, and Danny will work on "Couple Clash", we will report back to each other on Thursday to see what progress we have made. 

As Live Production: Initial Ideas

As Live Production: Initial Ideas

For the first part of this unit our brief was as follows:
In pairs develop a detailed pitch for a 30 min Pilot show to be recorded LIVE in the studios.

Following this I brainstormed a few ideas durign the christmas break and sent them over to Danny who will be my partner for this brief. These are my ideas as seen in the screenshots below.  









Some of the insperation I had stemed from otehr shows that I had seen. These shows included:
Image result for the tonight show









Live At The Apollo
Miachle Mcintyre's Big Show
Later With Jools Holland
The Tonight Show
The Graham Norton Show
Saturday Kitchen
Little Big Shots

Image result for live at the apolloImage result for little big shots dawn french

I thought a stand up comedy show was quite an original idea for this unit and had some VT potential. It would however rely heavilly on the talant, we would need to be able to source people who are genuiley funny and experienced.

Something that would require a little less scouting would be a music show like Jools Holland. This could be a mix of general chat and performances and could be blended with VT's quite well to easilly fill the time slot. The trouble would be copyright. If the artists were to perform covers we could face copyright claims, and if they performed their own songs we would need tehm to sign over teh rights which could be a hassel. 

I think a more generalised chat show could work well, with plenty of room for guests, games, VT etc. The only problem would be comming up with an original idea, and finding interesting guests.

A really original and cool idea could be a cooking show (aimed at a specific audience e.g. students to give it a new angle). It could easilly fill the 30 min time slot and maintain audiemce atention. However there are all sorts of health and safety issues to consider.

My final idea was a talent show similar to Britains got talent but on a smaller scale. There is room for VT and we could easilly entertain an audience for the 30 min time slot. The trouble with this would be finding an original angle. There are so many talent shows out there that it is difficult to find a new angle, as well as interesting contestants. 


Later today we were asked to present one of our ideas to the group as a whole so that we could generate some initial thoughts and feedback. 
I put foward my idea of a chat show, I explained where my insperation had come from and how i thought I could develop it. The main concern that we had with this was originality and angle. I was asked to think carefully about what my idea could do differently to these other shows, what channel and time slot would it fill, who our primary audience would be etc.

I will continue to work with Danny and others to develop this idea so that it is more foccussed and refined.


As Live Production: Briefing

As Live Production: Briefing
Image result for live production

Today we had our full briefing for our next unit (As Live Production).



We started the day by reflecting on what went well on previous work and what we want to improve on in this unit.

We then looked at the aims of this unit and some of the deadlines and scheduled events were reminded.

The marks for this unit are split between practical work and critical reflection in blog (70%) and a written report (30%).

The best pitch will be given the green light and we will come together as a group to create a 30min live programme.

The idea should be new and challenging, but also achievable.

There are a variety of advantages to studio production, as well as some disadvantages.


Advantages of using a studio: Visual- you have the advantage of using a built set with manual lighting etc.

Sound- Working in a controlled environment such as this means you have greater control over your environment and can reduce external noise. You have a variety of sound recording options available to you and can monitor sound as it is being recorded to check for interference.

Equipment- With a studio environment you can hire out and utilise a variety of equipment to get the best result possible e.g. dolly’s, jib's, track etc.

Supervision/Communication- When working in a studio you can constantly monitor and stay in contact with your team, be that through radio or by watching every camera from the gallery. 

 
Image result for live production
 

Control- Overall you have way more control over camera angles, lighting, sound, set and your team in a close studio environment. 



There are some challenges associated with studio production as well however. These can include: Communication- If you do not communicate effectively with your team then they wont know what you want to achieve and the results may not be as you anticipated.

Technical issues: In a studio you will have more cameras, lights, mics etc. than you would on a regular shoot, as a result there are a lot more things that can go wrong e.g. sound interference, video loss, graphics, set hazards etc.

Budget- Studio hire, set construction, equipment and actors all cost money. As a result depending on your budget you may not be able to achieve the exact look you had in mind.

Time constraints: When shooting live (or as live) you need to make sure you don’t under or over run your time slot. This can be difficult especially if you are interviewing guests or haven't had much of a rehearsal.

Health and safety hazards: Just like any shoot there will be health and safety hazards. Possibly more than usual since you have far more electronic equipment, cables, set pieces etc than on any other shoot.