Mock Test

Today we had a mock test covering what we have learnt during the module. I did make notes on the topics that we have gone through, yesterday. Luckily I got 80% in the mock test! I do think I did well, despite the fact that I did not revise adequately. The mock test comprised of 15 questions and I completed it within 11 minutes. However, at the same I know that I need to revise a lot harder I want to reach those top percentages and as well as that the amounts of questions will be around 40-50. So I have a lot more revision to do!

Starting To Edit...

Today I uploaded my footage onto Adobe Premiere Pro. I have not completely finished my recording as I still need to record the last scene and the voice over. But I thought I'll get a head start on editing! Below are some screen shots from what I have managed to do so far. 

Filming...

Today I did some filming of the section where the news anchor reports. I used my friend as the news anchor. A week ago I did book a study room in the library so that we could use it as a news room for this part of the story. I booked the room for 30 minutes, where we were meant to start recording at 11.30. Unfortunately my friend thought said 12, which resulted in her coming late and this meant we did not have access to the room any more as other students had booked it from 12. When she did come, we were looking for different rooms in the library to use we did not really find anywhere. Some places were too noisy and some areas you had to be really quite. Eventually, we found a hallway in the library and we just made use of that. Apart from some students walking past us, the filming generally went well! Here are some pictures below from the recording.

 

Using Camtasia...

As I mentioned in my last post I said that I will have a go at using the Camtasia software. I used it to record me surfing on Facebook and changing my privacy restrictions. I downloaded the software and found it really easy to use and I also edited what I recorded. I think that it is a really good software and I never knew anything like that existed. Overall it was a really effective software to use for this section of my recording.

Filming (22/11/13)...

Yesterday, I filmed part of my news story. I filmed the section where the reporter asks different individuals for their opinion on the Facebook policy change. The filming was successful, but I decided that the reporter will only ask two individuals for their opinion on the policy change rather than 3, which I included in my script/storyboard. The reason why I changed this is because this task is meant to be between 1-3 minutes and I thought that including another individuals perspective will make my story longer than 3 minutes. Based on the storyboard I estimated that my news story will be around 2:35 and that each individual spoken to will talk for approximately 15 seconds. It turned out that the two individuals that gave their opinions talked for around 30 seconds each. So if I included 3 people's perspective in my story that's like 1:30 already gone. I think two people is enough anyway. But over all the filming went well, the only issue I had was the noise. We filmed on the park area on my university campus. Whilst we were filming there was an individual mowing the grass and it was also quite windy that day. Hopefully, the noise did not affect my recording too much! Below are some pictures from my recording:

21/11/12...

Today I did some filming. I filmed the part that shows someone surfing on Facebook. I needed a bit of assistance with this so I asked my friend to be the Facebook surfer whilst I filmed her. To do this, I recorded my friend signing on to Facebook, which then shows her scrolling through her news feed and then changing her privacy settings. The camera angle here was a point of view so that the viewer can see things from the subject's (who is my friend) perspective. Unfortunately, after all that effort when I uploaded the footage on to Adobe Premiere Pro it was not clear at all, was very blurry and also shaky. One of the reasons for this was because I zoomed in through out the recording and my lecturer said that the quality of the computers is not suitable for the camera. He said if I still wanted to carry out the recording in the following way I would have to either record someone surfing on a Mac computer/laptop or use 'Camtasia'. Camtasia is a software that enables people to record on screen activities. I think that camtasia will more accessible for me to use as I do not have a Mac. So I will download the software and see how it looks!

Storyboards...

Yesterday I submitted my storyboard via Turnitin. It did take me quite a while to complete my storyboard, as I haven't done one in some years. Also, I'm not a good drawer at all so I was a bit apprehensive about doing a storyboard. Even though my lecturer said that it is not a task to see who the best drawer, I was a bit worried that what was happening in the different frames may not be clear because of my drawings. However after finishing the storyboards, I did feel that the ideas I was communicating were clear.

Friday, 15th November 2013

Today I filmed the latter section of my news story. I faced different challenges that day such as getting to university later than expected. I got to uni at around 1.25 PM  and I did not have enough time to film because I had a lecture at 2. As the camera I rented was was out of battery, I did not have enough time to charge it so I just borrowed a Flip camera from the library, which I then used to film. However, I do not think that I will use this footage because only two people were interviewed by the reporter and I needed 3. Secondly, I still intend to use the Sony HD Handycam to film the rest of my news story (which was the camera I initially had in the beginning). So I did not feel it will be a good idea to use two different cameras for my story.

My Script...

Today I finally finished my script, which I submitted via Turnitin. My script is below.

INCREASED DANGER FOR YOUNGSTERS AS FACEBOOK ALLOWS THEM TO SHARE THEIR POSTS PUBLICALLY WITH STRANGERS.

                         WRITTEN BY

  

                 

       BEATRICE FATUSIN

SCENE 1

INT, IN A NEWSROOM, DAY

The first scene is held in a news room type setting, a table and chair are featured. The news anchor is reporting the headlines for today. An MS is used.

NEWS ANCHOR [JESSICA SILVERTON]:

“This is Youth News; I’m Jessica Silverton, this evening’s headlines.”

“Facebook changes privacy restrictions for teenagers, allowing them to share their information with anyone on the site.”

“Two teenagers have died after being hit by a car in Hampshire.”

“Could tuition fees still increase? It’s revealed that some universities are preparing to increase their fees next year.”

[MUSIC PLAYS AND NEWS THEME IS SHOWN ON SCREEN, CUT TO NEWSANCHOR, A WS IS USED].

NEWSANCHOR [JESSICA SILVERTON]:

“Good Evening and welcome to the Youth News at 6!”

“Facebook has now altered teenagers’ privacy restrictions, meaning that all Facebook users could gain access to their profiles. Our correspondent team panel reports.”

SCENE 2:

[CORRESPONDENT SPEAKS; WHILST THEY SPEAK SCREEN WILL SHOW AN INDIVIDUAL SURFING ON FACEBOOK].

“Facebook, founded in February 2004, has a staggering 1.1 billion active users. According to a recent survey 94% of teenagers have a Facebook profile. With the recent policy changes allowing adolescents as young as 13 to make their profiles public, it is feared that they will be more at risk. Clare Davies, Youth News.”

SCENE 3:

[SAME SETTING AS THE FIRST SCENE]

NEWS ANCHOR [JESSICA SILVERTON]:

“We had our reporter, Hannah Odonkor to see what the public’s responses were on this policy change.”

SCENE 4:

EXT, PUBLIC PLACE, IN BARNES, DAY

[CUTS TO REPORTER WITH AN INDIVIDUAL GIVING THEIR OWN POINT OF VIEW ON THE ISSUES, THEN CUTS TO REPORTER WITH SECOND INDIVIDUAL GIVING THEIR OWN POINT OF VIEW, CUTS TO REPORTER WITH THIRD INDIVIDUAL GIVING THEIR OWN POINT OF VIEW]

SCENE 5:

EXT, QUIET STREET, IN BARNES, DAY

[CUTS TO REPORTER ON HER OWN, WALKING ALONG STREET WHILST REPORTING]

REPORTER [HANNAH ODONKOR]:

“The Facebook company have kept their stance that they consider the safety of teens to be significant to them despite altering this policy. However, could this put a number of teenagers at risk of cyber bullying?”

“Hannah Odonkor, Youth News, Barnes.”

END OF NEWS STORY

SETTING IDEAS FOR MY NEWS STORY...

I was thinking of the following locations for my news story:

1. A quiet room in my school library where the news anchor will report the headlines
2. On my university campus but on the green park like area, the reporter can ask individuals for their views on the story
3. The reporter can conclude the story in a quiet street, perhaps near my university

STRUCTURE OF MY NEWS STORY...

My news story will resemble the following structure:

1. News anchor reporting the headlines
2. News anchor briefly talks on the Facebook headline then passes the story onto correspondent panel
3. Correspondent team panel reports further on the Facebook story
4. News anchor introduces audience to reporter
5. Reporter asks different individuals for their opinion on the story
6. Reporter concludes story

Research on News Programmes...

Today I looked at the structure of broadcast news stories. I watched different news programmes from BBC to ITV News. The main one I found useful was one from the BBC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHHryaNEfYw


These were some points that I took note of:

• Type of shots used- medium close up shots, medium shots, medium wide shots
• Kinetic typography (of news story)
• Theme music 
• The type of lines that are used e.g:
• The opening line- "This is the BBC News at 9, I'm...... tonight's headlines"

1. Line after theme music "Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at 9"
2. When the news anchor passes on the story, to be further explained they say- "Our correspondent team panel reports"
3. After the correspondent team panel report, they say their name, name of news programme, place where they are reporting

I also researched the different individuals involved in a television newsroom (seen in the link below):

http://careerplanning.about.com/od/exploringoccupations/tp/tv-news-careers.htm

The individuals that would be applicable for my news story are a:

• News Anchor
• Reporter
• Camera Operator
• News Writer/Editor

In this scenario, the camera operator and news writer/editor will be me. However, the news anchor and reporter roles will feature other individuals.