NEWS Project Evaluation

This project has been interesting, having studied news programming in college I was'nt entering blindly in, however I have learned an awful lot about working with different people and with different team members.

during production we had some issues with sound as has been the case in past projects, the response is the same in this instance, have backups of backups. on our shoots we used as many forms of sound capture equipment as possible thus the vast majority of the time we had some usable sound for each shot. a general increase in sound recording competence may be required on my part.

we also had issues with camera balance and handheld shots. my ability to hold the camera perfectly still has deteriorated over the summer and if i had noticed by way of practicing out of shoot time i may have decided to use the tripod more often, allowing for far more usable shots. this is something I just need further experience with in general and my ability will improve enough to use my preferred methodologies once again.

in general I have enjoyed and found this group project stimulating in unexpected ways, navigating a new kind of team dynamic has been eye-opening and has improved my general team related sills immensely.

I believe that I still need to improve in relation to blogging as I still try and develop ideas based upon empirical experience to inform my decision process and my evidence in regard to blogging for project evidence. this is definitely something I must improve upon for the next project.

NEWS - The Edit

in this short post I will describe some of the issues we as a group faced as Laura edited the package, as I only actioned this from a tangental perspective(at the time i was working on the graphics to be integrated at the end of the edit.), this overview will be brief and only the issues that I noticed in particular.

the method that Laura used to edit the project was to edit each element of the package before integrating them together, then integrating the package and the live together with the studio footage.

this method mirrors how a real news broadcast is created, with the individual production teams producing their packages and lives before its editorially cut together throughout the studio live.

Rough Cut
our rough cut had some large faults according to our feedback, according to Helen it lacked a single vision, something I think Laura has fixed for the fine cut. basically we had issues integrating the interviews and story into a coherent whole.

Fine Cut
the fine cut appears to be very well integrated, package, studio and live integrating tightly. again as I've only been tangentially related to this part of the process,(I was creating the Final versions of the graphics and ident), I can only speculate that Laura has definitely made improvements over the Rough cut.

NEWS - review of feedback on rough cut

in this short post, I will outline some of the things I've been asked to change in the context of our team's group project, in particular, my primary individual contribution of the graphics and ident. But I will also talk about how my experience of working in this team has been.

the primary issue in relation to my contribution was in style of the graphics, it was commented that they appeared anachronistic in a negative way, in particular, that they all looked very '80's ' I actioned a fix for this issue immediately. unfortunately I never did find music that fit.

in a wider sense, the feedback made me realise somewhat better how our team has functioned in my eyes, something that has helped the team dynamic somewhat as i now know how we're working, as i didn't before.

I also realised that I hadn't had a clear understanding of the project from a story perspective, I had understood from a conceptual and in a context, just not actually how we were going to connect all the pieces into a coherent story, I hadn't felt the need to interfere in laura's work regarding that, and I think that speaks well of my teammates. Upon reflection, we were compartmentalized in a way that allowed us to work in parallel and in synchronicity and i think this team dynamic has interesting and unique due to this.

NEWS - Pitches

As I wasn't sure whether the 25 word pitch was for just one of the two consepts (one being the initial idea, and the second being the group project), I have decided to dedicate a short post to both possible eventualities.


Initial Idea

Underground News Britain

A web-based news service for Britains counterculture, focusing on event news, anarchal politics, and current events. the target audience is those people who live on the fringes of society.


Group Project

Health Heroes

a health and charity based web news service. focusing on health, donation and health charity news. designed as a useful tool to broadcast improvements in healthcare and donations to charities,

NEWS - Branding experimentation.

BRANDING

in this post I will outline my work regarding the branding and possible visual elements of the group's news piece, this post is a composite of several text documents I used to brainstorm away from the group along with notes I have taken when in talks with the group.

INTITIAL NOTES:

I have been experimenting with different colour schemes and brand styles for the various possible stories in our group, these are representative and appropriate for the various focuses of our stories and are to represent basic features of the possible platforms. examples are in the form of channel idents.

I've chosen static channel ident's as a start point because they traditionally inform the rest of the brand identity.

initially, I will outline some core features of the channel's identities.

Underground
Brown/grey/rust/red/hard/grungy/street/underground/subvirsive/muted colours/traditional fonts/old fonts/dirty not clean/angry/ defaced/vandalised angled, hard corners.

these themes/ideas are informed by both intrinsic knowledge and an understanding of the nature of punk and the British counterculture. generally speaking a dilapidated, vandalised aesthetic is a staple of this world. they're also informed by the visual style of Vice News, who decided to use an almost grafiti-like logo and conversational style in line with modern street speak.

Transport
moterway sign blue/pictograms/British rail yellow/ grey/blue, super clean, rounded corners and angles/maidstone/professional/news ticker/traffic info.

transport visual design is brutalist, and modernist in nature.  Crisp, clear imagery with heavy use of pictograms provide a striking and bold aesthetic that has to be immediately recognizable to be fit for purpose, these features inform the ideas above, possibly borrowing features from well known transport brands such as motorway signage and, the now defunct British Rail visual style. utilising a primarily authoritative tone.

children's charity
white/pastel blue and pink/ soft/curved/clean/modern,clean fonts/ arial/ arial narrow.

informed by way of a general theme, health related organisations often use pastel blues and pinks to soften their image as health worries are often a stress point for individuals, the colours promote positivity and softness, in combination a duty of care. this is informed by a generalized analysis of such organisations' logo and branding designs. a comparably light voice with a calm, slightly happy tone,slightly less authority.

Animal Charity
White/dark blue/green/farm colours/ basic fonts/rounded curves/dogs/caring/clean/cutting edge.

these design ideas were mostly informed by the nature of animal welfare charities and farm branding designs, blues and greens dominate the farming industry. the ont should be conversational and caring to reflect the subject matter.

CONT:

as a team we chose to follow a series of stories relating to charities and donations, during a planning meeting i came up with a "Heartbeat" monitor idea, this was informed by its thematic relevance. however, a name was not finalized until a week or so later, below are some concept sketches and examples of the final branding designs.

the name came out of a general planning meeting, Health heroes was then added to my initial designs and the logo was approved upon exhibition within the group.

when producing the website, the team decided to darken the shade of the design, this was due to how washed out it looked in relation to the white background on the website.



initial logo design

graphics initial design

website designed by team member, note different shades and layout

redesigned logo, note differing layout, fonts and colours


I agreed to produce the visual effects and branding for the project once asked, I believe this may have been because of my heavy use of after effects last year along with my extensive general knowledge of the program, having used it semi-regularly for the last four years.
working off my logo design, I intend to use the theme of a heart monitor for the logo, with three beeps timed to indicate a countdown to the start of the show, each beep will express a feature f the logo, the two lines individually and then the text before fading into the studio.

the watermark and graphics will wipe into existence and exist as a separate layer to the footage below them,

the graphics perform an extremely important part in the news package, providing important information such as contributor names, and sometimes headlines as seen in the 'news tickers' that flow across the bottom of the screen.

the first piece I designed was a basic form of the channel ident, a very short graphic sequence that includes the channel logo and often clips, initially I just provided the final seconds of this section, the logo reveal, however, this was merely a starting point for the sequence.

the channel indent part of the graphics has now been expanded to perform better as a channel indent in general, utilizing a series of clip sections before cutting into the actual indent

designed as a part of an intro sequence

Modifications in response to rough cut feedback.

Our tutor pointed out that the logo looks far too 'eighties' and not current enough, , this feedback required a change in design which I have actioned, making the logo and VFX less angular, and more current.




the animations have however remained similar, see final production for a better look at the graphics.

NEWS - History P3 - Web news

following the widespread adoption of the internet almost all forms of media have moved online, television news being one of them, the internet as a medium allows for news programming to become further diversified and specialised, below are some examples:

TFL
Transport for London runs a youtube channel that produces(among other things), news packages. this is a fantastic example of the depth of specialisation and focus news programming can have in the internet age, an excellent example piece of programming from TFL's channel is rendered below:

This is a fantastic example of the diversification of news codes and codices, its short from, investigative style, the fact its presenting information that is in the public interest points more towards a news-style package rather than a short doc. In my opinion its almost a return to the previously mentioned Newsreel style of news reporting, small, self contained newscasts that are as short and follow the same codices as television news packages.

t

NEWS - History P2 -- Modern News Broadcasting.

introduction
continuing on from my previous post upon the history of the news broadcast, this pice looks at modern news journalism in its intricacy and the rise of the standard style of news broadcasting.

the rise of modern news

modern news broadcasting developed from a mixture of the early Live television news and Newsreels, the prepackaged newsreel format slotted into the live braudcasts as the stye developed, coming into its own in the early nineties.

hard/soft format
British news broadcasts then began to use a hard/soft/hard format to order their packages, using hard-hitting stories early and in the middle of the broadcast, often ending upon a soft story so as to not overly frighten the audience. As news broadcasting became more sensationalist, this format became standardised,. this was likely due to the 'hard format' stores slightly scaring and/or shocking the audiance.

American news is even further sensationalised when compared to the relatively speaking reserved British broadcasts.  american news media is also often heavily biased towards one political party, FOX news and CNN are good examples of this as they each lean in opposition to each other.

over the years since the 'standard' news format developed these tw channels have over sensationalized their broadcasts to the point that american news media appears to be a pastiche of the British equivalent. compare FOX News' broadcast, and the BBC broadcasts regarding  the ebola infection.


FOX News reporting:

Fox news uses deliberately alarmist language, it rarely visualises ts story and doesn't especially write to the screen, preferring to present images almost as if in conversation, it overblows Ebola's dangers and doesn't present the myriad ways in which those involved are identifying and minimising risk.

BBC news reporting:

This braudcast asks the question "is ebola a global emergency?, it then expresses all the risks and safety precautions applied in detail, deliberately calmly and factually, this method helps to avoid panic rather than inciting it.

the reason these examples are important is to show the variances in the format, modern news broadcasts share a format but not a tone, or a style. every news broadcaster has its own variance on the theme.

News as a genre is varied and complex, in my next post I have examined a singular news broadcast so as to gpo into detail about the codes and conventions of news broadcasting.

NEWS - History P1 - Newsreels.

intro

as a part of the NEWS unit I will be having a short look into the history and development of the news format of programme, Television news, like documentary developed from the newsreels of the early 20th century, as a precursor to modern news programming, newsreels are crucial to note in the development of the modern television news package.

early newsreels

the earliest newsreels predate audio recording, however even in these early times, some of the standards of modern news are already visible, images are only used to progress the story, with cuts to titles to enunciate the images, an early form of writing to images.

The next development in the genre is the adoption of sound, this pathe newsreel expresses the power of atomics i the mid 20th century, this newsreel was created during the initial years of atomic development,  note the better use of images and sound, the use of dramatic music sets the tone, this newsreel sits on the border between documentary and news, its short form like a news package however its also dramatised like many documentaries.

it was around the time of the above newsreel that the BBC started broadcasting, and thus the first television news programmes were invented, often using newsreel cameras on location. the editing is clunker than the earlier newsreels, this may be because of the relatively new technology, editing without cutting the film may have been difficult. this shows an early example of the use of a news anchor and studio.

the next example further blurs the line between documentary and newsreel, this example is a short newsreel by the rand corporation, look at life. I'm using this as an example because the rand corporation makes the best use of colour film in their newsreels, something that television news at the time couldn't do, Rand would also sometimes use some of the earliest examples of 'Vox pops', and thus is relevant to the development of modern news programming.

the next section will be upon the later years of the development of the modern news style, it will cover modern news and the methods by which it keeps the viewer entertained, informed and educated.

NEWS - Review of shoots

NEWS - Review of Shoots

in this post I will review the shoots and my thoughts/feelings upon them.

TESCO

the Tesco shoot in Sittingbourne, in the end was smaller than i had originally expected, we weren't allowed to really shoot in the store itself, focusing primarily upon the meeting room where we were based for the shoot. we shot the interview first and then shot a couple of set-up shots in a little used part of the store to set up the two interviewees.

in my opinion the shot went really well, thankfully the location was close to the railway station as during this shoot it was my responsibility to look after the camera equipment.

Kent Sheds

the kent sheds shoot was in gravesend a fair distance from the railway station, around the back of a cafe on the promenade, Gravesend is a willowy town and the views from the promenade of the huge power station have stayed with me. the shoot itself was fairly standard excepting for its location, that being a low-headroom workshop space, we didn't shoot much more at Kent sheds than the interview, however this shoot has stayed with me due to the bleak beauty of the location.

Demelza

the demelza shoot went very well in my opinion, the location was picturesque allowing for a large number of GV's as well as the two interviews we had planned. the location was not easy to get t, requiring a 20 minute drive from the station to the location however this issue was mitigated by the availability of a team member's family member who provided transport to us.

we started by looking around the location with a chaperone to find two good places for our interviews, we ended up doing one in the admin offices, and the other near to the location of Demalza's sensory garden-building site. we interviewed their press officer and an assistant gardener who works i the development of the new garden.

STUDIO

our studio shoots went generally well, on our first attempt we neglected using in-camera sound, preferring a handheld Zoom field recorder, this however resulted in extremely poor sound quality.
our second attempt went particularly well, with no sound or vision isses thanks to our use of a clip radio microphone.

we lit a white wall using a mixture of tungsten and LED lighting equipment, this provided a clinical and appropriate background for our presenter, (Laura), while lighting her using a single LED light-box, this resulted in what Fergus referred to as "hollywood" lighting, the method by which you light the background and subject separately.

NEWS - article for website

this is evidence of work regarding the project website, we, as a team wrote an article each to be emplaced within the website of our channel. this is my article, rewritten from:MIND.CO.UK - PCS HIGH STRESS LEVELS

Mind Charity piece.

recent research produced by Mind seems to indicate that the stress levels of our doctors are dangerously high when compared to the wider uk workforce. in nine of ten(88%) cases PCW(primary care workers) find their life is stressful, significantly higher than the uk average of 56%.

the research was carried out in the form of a poll f over 1000 NHS workers in primary care. including GP's, practice nurses, managers and colleagues. the research also showed that work related stress was the primary cause.

Dr Maureen Baker, Chair of the RCGP, said: “The current state of general practice is pushing GPs to their limit, and these results show it is having a serious impact on their physical and mental health. It goes without saying that a service that relies on sick and fatigued GPs is not good for patient safety.

the impact of work related stress for PCW is significant, with 17% of the polled personnel saying that they had been prescribed medication for a mental health problem. with 8% having considered suicide. PCW's also admitted to using unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as smoking(8%) and drinking semi-regularly(42%).

a major problem, the poll found, was the fear of PCW's to disclose their workplace stress, one in three felt that disclosing that they are stressed would lead to being perceived as being less capable when compared to their colleagues.
Thankfully, the government has pledged to help. Following BMA lobbying a new service for GP's suffering from burnout and/or stress has been planned, wether the government follows though, or wether this service is expanded to include all PCW's could seriously improve and effect the quality of the service provided by the NHS, increasing patient safety and possibly increasing job satisfaction among PCW's.

NEWS - Green screen workshop

Green Screen workshop

We were assembled as a class in studio two to take part in a workshop regarding green screen, or Chroma-Keying, or Keying, for short. in this workshop we were given the opportunity to set up and work with two different methods, traditional green screen, and retro-reflective.

previous to this workshop I had worked with traditional blue and green screen chromakey, in one instance using traditional, non-digital methodologies, quite literally cutting the red waveform from a colour video signal using an old fashioned video mixing device. more prevalent in my experience has gbeen the use of chromakey blue, and green screens, with the colour information removed in post-production, often using a (then) plugin for premier pro and Final Cut called 'Keylight'. this experience included lighting the subject for minimal shadow.

the elements covered in  the workshop for which I had no previous experience in were binary,

A, setting up the specific equipment available from this course's store,

 and B, Retro-reflective chromakey.
in retro-reflective chromakey, instead of using a green screen, you use an especially treated screen, designed to reflect light only from certain angles, those angles being that of the camera lens.
a green-light casting, halo-shaped emitter is fitted to surround the camera lens, this produces light that is reflected by the screen, back into the lens. The  effect of specific reflection allows only the camera to pick up the green light, and with the proper application of white balance, allows the subject to be lit separately, and not be tinged green.

I prefer traditional chromakey as to my mind its less fussy about at what angle the screen is at in relation to the subject. I am also used to the workflow of traditional chromakey and this may play a part in my opinion. another downside is that you have to be careful how you light the subject using redheads, errant reflections upon the screen can be disadvantageous to the process of chromakey.

NEWS - examination of Evening News

BBC NEWS


'The news' is a fairly general term, so when approaching working on a news project it pays to understand how such things are presented, to do this I will be examining the core features of a news package, in this case, I will be using BBC news as an example.

BBC NEWS at 10 - 26th of October 2016

The program had eight news packages, each announced in the studio, each signed off by the presenter, by doing so the program clarifies the packages and recenters the audience after each story, below are the topics expanded upon.

Calais jungle eviction
the first package was regarding the Calais jungle and its demolition, positioned here, in my view as its the strongest as far as public interest goes, people want to know what's going on there at the moment and the story is exceptionally current, the BBC shies away from informality so this package didn't allow for much audience empathy with the refugees, to maintain unbiased reporting, the BBC used three different perspectives, cut from interviews taken in Calais. the three perspectives were those of a french official, a refugee, and an aid worker specializing in vulnerable people.
one notable thing that happened was, after cutting back to the studio, a live feed from the journalist is picked up, providing an update on the situation.

Iraqi military ops
this package was again, reasonably current. the reporter was walking in the remains of a village previously held by IS fighters, tonally this package seemed to be designed to make the audience emote with the villagers, who had previously been used as human shields against Iraqi artillery, the reporter's voice seems far more emotional when compared to the previous story. In this package, there is a lot of translated speech from Iraqi military officers who are leading the production crew around the location. following the package is a brief update regarding the situation in Iraq, talking about the possible destruction of a school.

Politics - UKIP debacle
the programme then moves on to UKIP news, talking about the recent allegations regarding the striking of an individual, this package is primarily GV's of the location of the possible assault, instead of interviews this package appears to use primarily statements from party members, and evidence from an internal enquiry. some emphasis is put upon the UKIP official turn of events, visiting the exact location of the possible assault.
this story isn't as current as the previous ones and the way the incident is explored informs the audience of a hint of truth editing on the party's part. the reporting and story appear bland compared to the events pictured in the previous packages.

Non-package italian earthquake
a short, studio-led and spoken cutaway regarding another earthquake in Italy follows the UKIP report. using in equal measures actuality and graphics to express the event visually.

US politcs
 an extremely current and balanced piece, this report is made up[ of a large number of GV's recorded over the course of the presidential race, produced by two embedded reporters, one likely senior to the other. This piece expresses how each party candidate seems to connect with their constituents, noting TRUMP's use of His plane as a prop to aid him in his campaign, this package also notes Hillary's recent use of allies to combat TRUMP's dogmatic approach, the package ends with a series of vox pops regarding trump and his supporter's comments regarding American electoral corruption and whether they'd accept the results. this report may divide the audience depending upon factors regarding their politics, tonally this report is very balanced and to the point, the presenter speaks with authority and appears to be a senior journalist.

money 
a short package regarding an apparent positive change in the economy
this piece, for a money related story, used very few statistics, relying almost solely on government figures when they did use them, simplifying the current state of the economy and almost misleading audiences by not mentioning contributing factors to some of the situations mentioned in the package. politically the package initially appears mute, however, there does seem to be an undercurrent of the ruling party's point of view and a small bias in their favor.

Sport
skipped - irrelevant to general news and uninteresting, of note is the shift in tone, from adversarial during the US package, this story is more generalized and speaks of the most popular sport in the country, football, as well as the most popular team, manchester united. I would say this piece is populist.

Bakeoff
the final package seems to be designed to round off the program with a 'fluffy' story, to round off the show with an emotionally easy, unpolitical piece.

the program follows the standard modern news format, starting with headlines or hard hitting pices before moving onto politics, sport, and financial information. the stories are almost listed both in order of importance (in relation to the perceived audience) and emotional effect, this helps to retain the audience in some ways as it almost shocks them into attention before slowly bringing the alarm back down to base levels.

from a purely mechanical point of view, the program again follows normally accepted tropes from the news genre, introducing packages in a studio, signing off on location, and smaller news updates regarding time critical events or ongoing events.

in relation to our project, this layout can be seen in miniature, starting on our biggest story and then going through to our live.

 news packages have several key mechanical features, without these, a news package doesn't necessarily fit the standard, however, some variance is observable and often preferred. the list below outlines a few of the codices that I believe to be core to making a news package.


Writing to pictures
the bulk f the package is a series of 'general views', or in other words a series of shots that visually tell the story, often the spoken script is written after the filming of most if not all of the footage, thus a wide variance of shots and interviews is key.

Voice over
the voice over tells the story as the footage illustrates it, a key component as the story would be unclear and lacking definition with only interviews and GV's alone

Filler
some evidence of a story is boring to an audience, this is particularly prevalent in the reporting of the recent recession as news reports started using almost overly-well made graphics to illustrate story's that primarily derive their worth from statistics and numbers.

interviews
 two types of interview are observable in news packages, the repeated interview and the 'live' interview
the repeated interview utilizes multiple takes in order to allow for better editing and to allow the interviewee to improve their answers with every take, this type of interview is often planned further in advance and is more often used in documentaries.
Live news interviews are mostly used in live segments, however As-live interviews can be seen in full news packages, one of the reasons for this may be contributor availability, precluding the reporter from staging a full interview.

NEWS - Ideas and concepts Part 2, formal Story Research and story hypothesis

NEWS - Ideas and concepts Part 2

in this post I will explore the changes in my news story since reconvening on Thursday, these changes have been produced in response to input from Helen, Our primary tutor for the year, and input from my team mates.

Changes

the biggest changes occur in relation to the primary focus of my story, broadening and diversifying the possible content and locations. it was made clear that London may be outside of my group's collective travel distance, thus I researched further in an attempt to find evidence and examples of gentrification in the form that London exemplifies-(The removal of lower class/income housing and subversive venues/cultural centers to be replaced by High income/super high income/high-class venues and housing.) in the wider Kent/south-east area. I found several locations in Kent where the process of gentrification is at its midpoint.

Story Core Research

The Great property race
an episode of the BBC series 'inside out' from the BBC's London region, explores the reason behind London's serious housing issues, explores difficulties of first-time buyers in London.

website regarding correct episode:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03tqzqt
viewable version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-jUY8khIoQ

seen in the show is the rate of change in housing prices in the capital, with evewn green belt land going for extremely lucrative sums of money, this trend as seen in the show could spell disaster for the south-east as its accessibility to London is high.
("The Great Property Race, Inside Out London - BBC One")

an effect of London's insane residential property bubble is the movement of anyone without a triple-digit yearly income out of London, this breaks up local cultures as communities of low-income locals, artists, and small business owners migrate into the countryside, their communities broken up and dissolved as people move to different areas of the country.

one part of the UK hit hardest by London's middle and lower class diaspora is, in fact the south-east with areas of Eastborne, Hasitngs, Folkestone, Ramsgate and Margate seeing huge increases in their housing markets and urban renewal not seen by the kent coastline since its origins in the 19th century.  ("Coasting Along: The Kent And Sussex Renaissance - Belfasttelegraph.Co.Uk")

this causes house prices to rise, nothing on the scale of the rises in London, however across the wider country incomes are far behind those of central London, if the towns and cities of the wider country are treated like greater London then where will anyone live? will the local low-income families have to move out of these picturesque towns and cities as their houses are sold to developers? will London repeat across the country? with international money pushing a virtual housing market of empty flats and estates?

in London the process appears to work in stages, a major developer buys residential property, legally pays off the local council to get out of its responsibilities to provide local, affordable housing, then sells it to international clientele.
 ("Planners’ Fury As Firm Axes Affordable Homes At Luxury Development | Camden New Journal")
("113,000 Council Homes Could Be Sold Off, Says Shelter")

as Kent becomes the "poor man's" London, will London's housing market follow? there is some evidence that this process is beginning along the Thames estuary, with areas such as Dartford and Ebbsfleet becoming targets for developers.(Spittles)

My hypothesis, based upon the trends seen in London is that the process through which residential property becomes "shares" or stakes based investments is as follows:

1. area is lower income (E,D,C2)
2. artists/countercultural people move into the area, out of university or from other areas wherein the property market has forced them out. these people are often renting from local landlords.(C1/C2)
3. area is targeted by developers
4. area is advertised as up and coming
5. Middle-class people move into the area, renting and buying from larger firms, often moving into new developments as they spring up.(C1/B)
6. it's by this point the areas is considered renewed, a local culture has sprung up, there is a sense of community, the artists are still there and the lower income people still live on the periphery.
7. by this point the area is shifting from affordable (for mid to upper-middle-class professionals, B/A ) to " to investable property.
8.  the property developers then start to advertise to international investors, developments are less new housing estates and more like the areas within the new Olympic village. modern, new build apartment complexes, privately owned, sold internationally. its at this point that any expression of the local culture has been dissolved, the original low-income residents are all gone, the middle class is suffering due to a lack of wage inflation to match monetary inflation, this causes remortgaging and the selling of the now lucrative property back to the developers. the artists have been moved out as their landlords have also sold to the developers.
9. empty buildings, owned offshore, lack of income from the now missing populace causes local businesses to suffer or close down, cultural loss is complete.

the chain above is a hypothesis, one that started in the central boroughs of London and moved to the old industrial areas, then to the old slum Burroughs, the council estates, and now anywhere inside the M25. now with the high speed link into London, kent is looking more and more appealing to the big city developers, with time, kent may go through the same as London is now.

"113,000 Council Homes Could Be Sold Off, Says Shelter". This is Money. N.p., 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
   .
"Coasting Along: The Kent And Sussex Renaissance - Belfasttelegraph.Co.Uk". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

Perry, John. "John Perry: The Council Housing Sell-Off Disaster". LRB blog. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

"Planners’ Fury As Firm Axes Affordable Homes At Luxury Development | Camden New Journal". Camdennewjournal.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

Spittles, David. "Leafy Retreats: Revitalised Suburbs Are Getting Their Mojo Back". Homes and Property. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

"The Great Property Race, Inside Out London - BBC One". BBC. N.p., 2014. Television. 26 Sept. 2016.


useful links: https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/londons-culture-death-what-the-citys-best-music-venues-look-like-now?utm_source=vicefbuk

NEWS - Ideas regarding story and Ident

STORY AND CHANNEL IDENTITY


In this post, I intend to overview a few of my ideas regarding channel identity and the story which I intend to pitch to my group on Thursday.

The Idea

Broadly speaking my idea centers around the plight of Londoners who are being priced out of their own homes by BtL landlords and the rising tide of international super rich who are a leading cause of this forced gentrification.

to be more specific we'd be looking at the death of london's counterculture and the rise of gentrified "culture" in the capital.

the story germinated through a contact of mine whom I visited Tuesday evening, a long-time member of the counterculture. someone who is sad to see the city he moved to twisted and redesigned to cater to the super rich and upper classes.

the other aspect, the aspect regarding house prices comes from my experiences near to the isle of dogs, now canary wharf. the disparate cultures of bui8sness and slum meet at the excel center's DLR station, dirty, underbudgeted slum housing on one side and the sleek, false corrupt corporate side of the business centers and expo space.

The channel would take on an industrial, cyberpunk feel, uses of large amounts of blacks, rusts and reds in graphics and web presence, the use of lots of dystopian imagery, a political skew away from the institutionalized news companies to provide for the counterculture that simmers beneath the overly advertised, and advertised for 'hipster' pop culture. a deeply cynical political outlook with no real political allegiance.

an example of this idea can be found in the iconography of the festival, Boomtown. an event that exists as a living hypocrisy in the form of an anarchic institution.

more to do with the tone, anexamplee of BTN or the "Boomtown News" is below.

2016 - Y2 Post one

YEAR 2.0

In this Post. I aim to examine what went wrong last year, how I can work past it and some of the plans I've put in place to do so.

timekeeping

my biggest issue last year was in regard to timekeeping and scheduling, this is mostly apparent when reviewing the directions unit wherein admittedly minor extenuating circumstances resulted in a lack of time to finish my work by the hand in, this resulted in the resitting of that unit. to combat that issue plans were  put in place during the final unit, these were thankfully effective.

another example of this issue made manifest is  in regard to punctuality day to day. most of the time I can arrive for a given non-regular event, on time. However my ability to regularly arrive on time regularly has been a problem since my childhood and relates to the following section of the post.

the final issue I had with time keeping was task scheduling, on a given task I'd prefer to work through the night as I am easily distracted during the day without a focus provided by a third party. this interferes with my ability to work individually during the early evening or late afternoon. to try and combat overly late hours I have put into place a task schedule that enforces work attention during the hours in which i focus best. (between 21:00 and 02:00)

people management,

I feel like if I can't offer something physical or tangible to a prospective teammate they either won't turn up or won't want to be involved at all. this feeling comes from experience in secondary school and my time at college. I feel awkward asking things of others outside of a shooting setting, even in a professional environment it's hard for me to ask people to do things, like it's not my place to ask others.

last year this resulted in my extremely small production teams and using unprofessional but trusted friends rather than "untrustworthy professionals" as actors. as stated earlier this comes from some deeper social issues that I'm working through.

Documentary and Commission - Evaluation

intro
in this short evaluation I will evaluate this unit and its accompanying project, reflecting upon my experience of the thing.


overall this unit has been tiring and exasperating, we as a team had so many issues, so many problems and road blocks that I'm somewhat amazed we managed to complete our project. the unit has been challenging, fun, stimulating and entertaining. I've learned a lot from the course of this unit, however the most important thing I've learned is not strictly academic. through their actions recently, my team mates have been amazing, and through their effort I'v developed as a person somewhat. due to teenage traumas I'm not very trusting, the actions of my team mates has helped immensely in regard to some of my anxieties, and my generalized mistrust of people.

from an academic perspective I'v learned a lot, due to my attendance most of it was hard won through experiencing what I should have been present to be taught. our project went from roadblock to roadblock, I'm glad we made it and i'm extremely glad for my team mates.

If I where to change anything about my experiences this unit I would change the fact that we had a massive period of confusion and indecision. this wrecked our original plans completely and is probably why we've been running so behind of our classmates.

Documentary and Commission - Visual reference material

EDIT: this mood board is out of date by two iterations of our project. due to time constraints I did not research visual reference material for the later iterations.

The following visual reference material has been collected to provide some insight into the sorts of shots and content I expect and would prefer to happen if all goes well on the project. they have been collected to inform my imagination as to how I want to represent the Medway river and the primary subjects of the planned documentary.

Documentary and Commission - Risk assessment upload

NOTE:
unfortunately my Scanner is inoperable at the moment, however below are photographs of the risk assessments I produced over the course of this project.

the first was specifically for filming from/on a small pleasure craft, I performed it in preparation for our original planned production. IMG EXAMPLE

the second was for the Medway walk consept and was used during our shoot day on this project

the third was for our final documentary, and was used on our final and main shoot day.

Documentary and Commission - 1st iteration group work file dump

As a piece of further evidence of our team's work efforts, I am uploading a copy of our shared work document wherein we posted important or useful information or responses from possible contributors. this was abandoned during the first iteration of our project and thus is not representative of our communications thereafter.

NOTE: this is a dump file and is here for evidence purposes only.  this is not a formal post.

Becca’s Research Links:

http://www.wildwoodtrust.org/index.html

http://foxproject.org.uk/

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/adder

Niki’s Research links:

MEDWAY VALLEY COUNTRYSIDE PARTNERSHIP

is responsible for maintenance and conservation/biodiversity in the Medway valley area

KMBRC

is responsible for the retrieval and storage of biological and environmental data within Kent and Medway specifically.

Kent County Council - Countryside Management Partnership

Useful map of CMP's in kent.

Environment agency paper: River medway User's guide

"The Environment Agency is the Navigation Authority for the 31kms of inland navigation on the River Medway between Maidstone and Tonbridge. We also have a general recreation duty to promote and facilitate recreation, and enjoyment of water both inland and on the coast."

Wildlife trusts - Medway Eastury Marine consveration zone

a short doc about the medway MCZ

Tourist Guide - Medway eastury

A tourist guide to the Medway estuary(includes my focused area)

Bird & Pest Control Medway & Maidstone, Kent

an organisation dealing with birds and pests in medway- maybe knows about foxes?

Medway Wildlife,Countryside and Open Space Strategy 2008 - 2016

Doc dealing with local development strategy

Medway area Wikipage

Wikipedia article for medway area

Peelports:Medway

website for the owners of Chatham harbor

Port Authority's Act Medway

"An Act to amend the Medway Ports Reorganisation Scheme, 1968; to confer further powers on the Medway Ports Authority; and for other purposes."

"Medway 2"

details on maritime Piloting of the Medway estuary

MCS documents - GOV.UK

document links regarding the marine conservation Zone

RSPCA - Foxes

general information on foxes from the RSPCA

The Fox website - Urban Foxes

the Fox website's pages on Urban foxes

www.medway.gov.uk

Riverside Country Park

wildlife park on the medway Eastury

Medway Boat Chater

Partnership organisation regarding boat and vessel hire within the medway maritime environment.

lists major and minor boat/vessel charter organisations in the area including detailed hire information.

listed below further charter and hire businesses(not listed on MBC):

Boat trips Kent

Allington Belle

Swanning About Charters

Dentex Charters

Riverside Country park - Medway District Council

medway council website: about the riverside Country Park

Leo’s Research Links:

East Kent and West Street Hunt

mfha.org.uk/pack_directory/component/option,com_directory/listing,East Kent with West Street Hunt/page,viewListing/lid,94/Itemid,71/

Independent article on Fox hunting 1

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/anti-hunt-campaigners-say-theyll-work-with-sympathetic-tory-mps-to-stop-david-cameron-legalising-fox-10238156.html

Independent article 2

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/prominent-fox-hunting-supporters-step-up-tory-support-and-expect-repeal-of-ban-in-return-10154990.html

Urban foxes getting Braver in Medway

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/urban-foxes-getting-braver-in-me-a83549/

Requirements for Pitch

• Working title/top line/explanation of story and how its new

(A day on the medway - working title)

25 word pitch? - talk to helen

Niki

• Story synopsis

Niki and Leo and Becca

• Character profiles

Niki and Leo and Becca

• Location recces

Niki and Becca

• Proposed style/narrative

Niki/Becca

Schedule

thurs - Locations

Fri - Lectures and Production Meeting(for 2nd year work)

Sat - working at Niki’s place(all Paperwork)

Sun - Finalising Pitch and anything else to be done

Mon - Pitch

Mon-Fri Script(TBS)

Finalised Idea as it is now:

A day on the Medway

• wildlife along the banks and in the Medway estuary Maritime Protection Zone
• focusing on:
• Urban foxes in chatham/rochester/strood/gillingham - Fox Project(See link in Beccas links)
• Seals in the wider estuary
• Ocean/estuary birds around the riverside park area
• and any other associated wildlife along the bans of the medway

shooting in/near:

Herne Bay(Wildwood Trust),Riverside Country park, Medway estuary and sound, Rochester/chatham riverside areas, Chatham Historic Docks.

questions for helen:(now answered in meeting, prepared question results only at this time, non prepared and follow up questions asked to Helen will be expressed in this document after meeting audio recording is uploaded and transcripted for team blogger distribution or as simply recorded evidence of the meeting.

1st question: maritime shooting- feasibility(we asked helen about the feasibility and possible licensing issues relating to the medway estuary)

Helen’s  answer to this question  was nuanced and thorough, an overview can be found in the section of this document entitled:

“crew and equipment safety and the wider feasibility of shooting from a low draft, Small commercial vessel/pleasure craft, first thoughts into risk preventative measures and actions to be taken in preparation or during maritime shooting.”

2nd question: clarification on requirement for pitch grading requirement listed as a :“Working title/top line/explanation of story and how its new”

the answer Helen gave as i understand it(not actual words, Paraphrased through Niki’s interpretation of her response to the above queary):

a better description of this noted requirement would be something of a merger/powerpoint slide detailing the following information verbally and visually: a Buy line, a Masthead/headline, an expression of how our idea is original and,  a “25 word pitch” style sentence expressing our storyline/narrative(light on info, more detail in synopsis)

“crew and equipment safety and the wider feasibility of shooting from a low draft, Small commercial vessel/pleasure craft, first thoughts into risk preventative measures and actions to be taken in preparation or during maritime shooting.”

in regards to the possibility of filming at all, we will will have to do an in depth risk analysis and risk assessment in relation to our chosen charter craft or private rental, the first steps outlined below are universal, inconsiderate of which Hire/Charter/Private vessel we end up using in our production.

the first assessment of any watercraft to be used in our required way must be an overview of the watercraft’s equipment in relation to safe securement and crew safety gear, an assessment in relation to crew safety and risk management measures upon said watercraft, and an assessment of actionable measures in relation to the  proper securement  of camera and audio equipment to the deck and superstructure of the chosen watercraft.

story idea notes

“A day on the Medway”

from strood bridges to the medway basin, from historic Rochester town to the Darnet and Hoo Forts, we’ll be taking a look at the wildlife, from urban foxes in chatham and rochester, to the Seals and birds of the medway estuary. this is a Day on the Medway.

Angle is the post industrial wasteland slowly becoming a naturalistic paradise

major sections:

Urban Foxes

we’ll look into the urban fox infestation threatening medway, focusing upon the rescue and the packs operating in the area.

Seals

we’ll be looking at the mammalian species that inhabit the medway estuary, focusing on the seal community and other aquatic or marine beings.

Sea/River/Eastury Birds

for our final section we’ll be looking at the local avian population, focusing upon the wetland and ex industrial sites along the medway and their avian residents, we’ll also be looking at the mudbank worm that earned medway its maritime conservation status.

Emails to be sent:

Mark with an X when done.

Niki’s responsibility:

X medway council for the Riverside country park

X jet tours

X hurricane tours

medway coastguard station DO SOON!!!

Becca’s responsibility:

X Rochester Fishing Club

X Rochester cruising club

X Medway yacht club

X The Fox Project

Example E-mail

isle of sheppey bridge/kings ferry bridge

Good Afternoon,

I am a student at University for Creative Arts studying Television Production. I have been given to create a documentary on nature and Wildlife.  

My team and I are focusing on the Medway Estuary and its associated wetland, we are looking to charter a small vessel to facilitate the shooting of some scenes from a watercraft on the Medway. We are willing to pay for this service, however we are students so we do have a fairly low maximum budget.

If you have any members interested in allowing us to use their craft in April, then please get back to us promptly at this email address.

Regards,

E-mail response list

Tour/boat charter organisations

(not yacht, cruiser or fishing clubs)

replies have been received from both tour companies, a group decision will be made tomorrow on which company to use, or to wait for responses from the boat clubs.

Jet Tours’s response was received by Becca, Hurricane tours’ response was received by NIki. a decision will  be made tomorrow on the above issues.

The Fox Project response was recieved by Becca, they have said that they would be happy for us to visit the ICU, however it is unlikely that we would be able to film an actual rescue being held, this is because they cover a 60x70 mile cachment areas and have volunteers spread throughout the territory, they have to have quick responses so we may be unlikely to capture the footage that we are after. They have said that if we would like a day with a duty driver then we can see what comes up on the day, they can try and fit us in.

Feedback from pitch

Stick to one