education

TVBRO Week 2 1/10/12-7/10/12

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We held our second meeting this week and decided to go ahead with our plan to film at one of the University’s Preview Days, to look at how the Faculty of Creative & Cultural Industries promotes itself on these more general open days, having been informed of its date after our previous meeting. It lined up well with our show, since the Preview Day was held on the Saturday immediately before, meaning the information would be fresh & we would have the first few days of the week of the show to edit the Insert together.

At this meeting e began to think about presenters in more detail. I was lined up as one, Jo Walker as another and we decided to use Natalie Wilsher (One of the show’s veteran presenters) as our newscaster.

It emerged this week that we were having difficulty getting ahold of Mark Sexton to arrange the interview about Computing & Digital Sound, after we initially reached out to him and received a positive reception his schedule became busier and as a result we weren’t able to arrange a date & time for the interview during the week. We hope to rectify this problem by shooting the interview early next week and starting the edit immediately after it is shot.

With regards to the editing, I noted that the required workflow for CCi Live inserts was slightly more complicated than previous workflows that we had used, since it involved strict offline and online requirements and mandated very specific final export requirements. As a result, I decided it was important that everyone who was going to be involved in the editing process get up to speed on it, which I communicated to them prior to the shoot on saturday.

Between times, I prepared the necessary paperwork for the team filming on Saturday – the release forms, risk assessment, call sheet etc., arranged with the director and his crew when and where to meet etc. and instructed them about the sorts of things they needed to film on the day.

Today (Sunday), I wrote the first draft of the script for the show. I wanted to give the show an appropriately light-hearted tone, so I made sure to include a number of jokes throughout the script to keep the general mood and tone of the show light, without descending into farce. It’s important the jokes not be offensive or even exclusionary. The idea is to make the presenters approachable and likeable, and make the audience feel included in what’s going on.

Similarly, I was careful to make sure that the presenters spent about as much time in the script directly addressing the audience as they did each other. This makes the audience feel they are part of whatever is happening on screen, rather than just watching two people talk, which is important as the audience is the most important consideration for any television show.

Building The Olympics

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The videos produced by Distinct Productions, as part of the University of Portsmouth’s Television & Broadcasting Course for the Module “Video Industry & Television Studies”. Production Credit goes to Daniel Schultz, Reanne Bull, Ellen Sharkey, Lewis Avarillo-Singh & Paul Douglas, who were executive produced by Charlie Watts and Lou Appleby (Within the University) and Dave Batcock from the BBC. This project was created for and screened as part of the BBC Big Screen Project.

TVBRO Week 1 24/9/12-30/9/12

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In our first meeting on Thursday, we began to plan the basics of how we’re going to put our first episode of CCi Live together. I was nominated to be the producer, so I set about organising our various ideas for content. One of the first ideas we had was to look at the open days around the Faculty of Creative & Cultural Industries, but since we don’t yet know when these would be taking place, we shelved the idea for the time being.

Since I know some Students from other Schools & course within the faculty, I suggested a showcase of work from photography or architecture Students (For example). We agreed this would be one of our inserts since it would appeal to a relatively broad section of the CCi Channel audience and I volunteered to get in touch with my contacts to see if the had anything they’d be interested in showcasing.

Our other insert idea is to interview Mark Sexton, the leader of a new course at the Faculty – BSc (Hons) Computing & Digital Sound -about the course, as a way of promoting it and introducing it to the rest of the Faculty’s students.

I also requested to be one of the show’s two presenters as I have experience presenting and am aiming to develop in this role, since it is my chosen career path. I am also presenting on the CCi Live immediately before ours, airing on the 5th of October.

The Final Stretch

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Well today is the very last day of my Easter Holiday away from College. Tomorrow, it’s back to the Sawtry Community College for the home stretch. Three weeks this coming Thursday, I’m onstage wrapping up our official time at Sawtry with the SCC Sixth Form Leavers 2010 Final Assembly. I promise a show like no other. This is going to be one helluva spectacle folks.

A couple of weeks alter, on Friday the 28th of May, at Twenty-Five to One in the afternoon, my last ever lesson at Sawtry ends. After that, all I have there is four exams. The mind boggles that in less than six weeks, it’s all over. Seven years on, as by far the longest-lasting constant in my life outside of my immediate family, my time at SCC comes to an end. Naturally, that means I will have a lot of spare time for some three months. And that in turn means I’ll have more time to spend on doofy crap for this here website.

Then, it’s on to Uni. Which leads me neatly to the other thing which will take up my newfound spare time, the pursuit of money. Yes, it seems I’ll have to pick up at least a few days’ overtime each week as summer rolls around in order to build up a nice lump of spare money to spend on life in Pompey.

Man, writing this all down, it steal feels unreal. I am simultaneously overcome with amazement at how short the time left is and an overwhelming lack of comprehension of that fact.

It’s a weird time of life, you know? Everything’s basically done here but the closing number. We’ve got plans to end it all with a succession of show-stoppers though. The Final Assembly I’m putting together is an extravaganza. It’s a celebration, a variety show, a trip down memory lane, a massive pat on the back and more all crammed into an hour. I’m shooting for the full range of emotions. They’ll laugh, they’ll cry, they’ll cheer, they’ll be proud, they’ll be embarrassed, they’ll smile, they’ll cry & of course, they’ll smile. This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done. And I assure you, I take it very bloody seriously.

Then, a bunch of us are going to tear it up at a Theme Park for the day. Alton Towers is, I think, again the plan. And then we’ve got the End of Year Ball in early July. We call it a ball, but it’s being deliberately organised to allow us to go to the clubs & bars afterwards, so I’m, not certain “Ball” is the word. But it’s going to be one helluva party. Later that month, in a last hurrah before the exam results day, I’m off back to Disneyland Paris with some mates. Imagine the high spirits!

…And there it is again. I’m writing this partly to try and make it all sink in but…It just seems unreal to me.

Oh well, maybe it’ll sink in tomorrow when I hit the College. I’ve got a surprise for everyone which will be immediately apparent, and I have some unfinished business to take care of. It’s the home stretch, and it all kicks off in less than 15 hours. Here. We. Go.

Son of Rambugh

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So we went to the cinema earlier on a Media Studies Trip. British Cinema was the name of the day (Indeed, that was the theme of the festival they were running…I think anyway, it wasn’t exactly heavily publicised).

The movie? Son of Rambow. Wow. I would never have imagined a film with such an off the wall, bonkers plot could be so hopelessly formulaic. Writer-Director Garth Jennings seemed to have a passable idea, but he singularly failed to deliver on it, never mind turn it into something worthwhile.

Great directors can take a serviceable plot and make a classic (Examples might include Jaws for Spielberg, Star Wars for Lucas and Sleepy Hollow for Burton). Okay directors can take serviceable ideas and make acceptable movies (The Superman Series springs to mind). Awful directors do this.

So apart from being formulaic what’s wrong with Rambow? Well, the whole exercise is simplistic. Jennings seems content to point his camera with all the eye for framing and excitement of his characters – in whose defense, are children. Jennings takes no risks and makes liberal use of filming cliches. It’s pretty bleak.

It doesn’t help that the whole thing seems kind of pointless. It feels like Mr. Jennings is trying to make a touchy-feely piece. But when almost all his characters are male and most of the few whoa re not are either contemptible or asexual, the whole thing comes across as rather odd. Not even gay, which would be somewhat interesting. It’s a movie about friendship…But none of the friendships make much sense.

Why’s that? Leaps of logic. Alfonso Cuaron’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban suffered similar problems, but was at least well made to make up for it. Here, the way the lead is rather blindly lead by his eventual friend makes little sense.

Less sensical is the fact that he befriends the guy in the first place. The two are utterly incompatible. Well, actually, they only start that way. Lee, who starts out as a jerk and a bully, suddenly becomes a victim and a sympathetic figure.

It’s a device used throughout the film – even paradoxically. For example we learn that Lee’s brother is nasty to him. But then we learn that Lee’s mother causes him no end of problems. So that’s two instances of passing the blame.

Jennings manages to paint about 7 characters as villains. Of them, 3 are redeemed with deus ex machina (This is particularly true of the out-of-place French boy Didier – and if you want to know why he’s out of place, it’s not cos he’s French, it’s because he’s a product of the modern era, not the film’s setting). Another 2 villains are minor characters with maybe 4 speaking parts between them.

Ultimately, by the end of the movie, you’ve seen everything coming from the first few moments of exposure to the various characters. It’s a snooze-fest and it doesn’t help that few of the characters are endearing. You like them well enough in some ways, but you won’t come out caring what happens to them after the film.

Nor will you care much about anything the film says or does. Notably, some of the messages the film tries to send are debunkings of old-fashioned ideals which seem ridiculous even by being mentioned, which makes the whole movie seem a trifle pointless.

Son of Rambow has some pretty good jokes in it, but ultimately it falls flat.