I now have a new blog for the second year of uni and a band interview section check it out on
One of the many wonders in coventry…
I got slightly bored and decided to have play with the new photoshop… Im sure there will be so many more of these to come over the summer enjoy the imagination of my brain 
This is a very short post on how well the final recording went, the process up un till now has been a very long but productive process. I have found as a group obviously we could of worked on a lot of the concepts to do with the set and the minor details that make a huge difference in the final recording. A big difference could of been made up through the sounds, set, timing of segments and some of the script. I guess you could say that its a student production and we are supposed to make mistakes and have a slightly low budget and production style to the show. But I’m a bit of a perfectionist, since I’m the producer it feels like everything falls upon my head and I wanted the final performance/ recording to be perfect.
On the day most things ran smoothly, the nerves were high and everyone wanted a brilliant outcome so the professionalism came out in everyone, which was brilliant. The team worked very well as one and I thank them for that and the smooth run through on the day.
I feel there are so many points I could bring up that could of been changed on the day and I could of pushed the team harder in some ways to make the set better by using attention to detail but I don’t think the outcome would of been the same. I feel if I pushed elements harder in one way then the As live performance would not of ran as smoothly as it did. I am so proud of what we produced and of course if I did it again I would change some aspects to some degree. But then again I have had great response about the ideas and concepts of the show that I could possibly consider carrying on such a fun element to the course as a media production student, continuing the show. Man up !
Celebration Photos !
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51072622@N08/sets/72157624116958747/show/
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Why are studios used to make programmes when tape is so cheap and available?
I believe that studios are used purely because they are in a controlled atmosphere, nothing can go drastically wrong and most circumstances can be controlled within reason. Within a studio, depending on the size and shape of the studio most things are possible to be captured in this area, it is a nice environment away from the world where the director, producer and their crew can work very hard throughout at a high standard with little to no distractions. These controlled conditions can only be controlled by the people who are in them, no one can just walk on set and wave at the camera and no one can publicly run onto set and ruin things. I feel it’s more of a safe environment people can rely on, the doors can be locked and nothing can change to the set.
Since the people in charge of the set and whoever oversees the job have the capability to make the set as they please, if you was to film your show outside then you will find things can change; weather, backdrop and your open to the element of the world and other humans. If you have made the set then you can create the weather type yourself, you can adjust the lighting, you can even use blue screen to set the location and atmosphere. The set designer, producer and director have overall control in the studio, what they say goes and beyond that it’s up to the camera operators and editors. Also the set can be manipulated in so many ways in order to give the audience a certain feeling and it can be changed in the same room, whereas on location filming has to be changed every time there is a different location.
Sound can be major issue on the outside whereas if you’re inside the studio, all the sound can come through to one desk, there is no wind or other issues to contend with. The sounds operator can adjust and re-adjust the levels throughout the shoot and play a bed of music over the top of the footage to give ambient sound.
I feel that in a studio it is a controlled area, there are no real-time limits, the light in the day wont run out and every decision is up to one or two people and nothing like the example below cannot happen during onsite shoot.
40 seconds in
What are magazine programmes? Why do audiences like them?
Magazine programs are made up of articles on subjects that have been chosen to appeal to the shows target audience. The items will inform and suit to the audience, they will also include performances and outside broadcasts, these are called VT’s. A magazine program will be informative, fun, family orientated, different, and for selected audiences. They select a certain target audience so they are not too similar to the next magazine show.
They include items such as:
- · Mix of studio chat, news, gossip and interviews
· Two presenters (making it more fun)
· Blue Peter styled demos and performances.
· Interesting segments tat change daily
· Film and play reviews
· Outdoor activities
· Cooking
But nowadays there are a fair few that are similar such as ‘This Morning’ and ‘The One Show’ both bring information in a fun and informative manner but are both completely different to a show such as ‘Top Gear’.
Top Gear is a specialist magazine show and they include things such as:
- · A studio show based on one subject with the use of VT’s throughout the show
· This style of show gives a big variety in each show/season
· A specialist show will have three presenters I.E The Gadget Show and Top Gear are the biggest in Britain.
· These types of shows bring a great deal of entertainment for all audiences and are normally at peak time during the T.V scheduled week.
· A lot of money is spent on these types of shows.
All magazine based shows are their to grab the audiences whether they are specialist or general shows, both very different but at the same time they are there to draw in audiences. The presenters are used as anchors to bring in the audiences. Normally the presenters will be famous or become very famous through their show, they have to show passion and personality to fit in with their target audiences. Producers of these shows will find fun, exciting and smart presenters that know what they are doing, this way they can be great proactive thinkers in bad situations. Shows like ‘This Morning’ is the type of show that contains a bit of everything for the viewer , because there is such a mixture of content the show has so much to offer; a variety of people and a wider audience. The content may not be the best material in the world and the most entertaining but it works, audiences really do watch the shows daily, this is because of the easy-going content and this makes it easy viewing for people at home. Their target audience is aimed at mums, housewives, grandparents and people who are off work and they meet this target audience so well with content that you can relax just by watching. Audiences love a good presenter and this sometimes is the main reason why the audience watch the show, to feel involved with their favourite presenter.
What are the limitations of magazine shows? How can they be improved to ensure they continue?
Magazine shows are limited to what the world brings upon them, there could be new styled shows that can overcome this ‘old fashioned’ styled show some would say. The internet is the biggest threat at the moment that could dent viewings and new forms of media can push these types of shows to one side. But shows like magazine shows are being replayed through TV channels such as ‘Dave’ and now they stream live through the internet and you can re-watch online. So they are merging into the internet and eventually there will be a balance of the two or in some cases the TV is now apart of the internet.
Some of the current magazine shows are not always aired at the right times for certain audiences, but again are for some other audience members and this is where the watch again feature is used on the internet, but this is only a recent thing so we could be slightly behind in the technology era. I feel we have a new wave of ‘Jeremy Kyle’ and ‘Trisha’ styled shows are starting to take over day time television and this is possibly a threat to magazine shows purely because people enjoy real life drama. This could be bad for a magazine styled show unless it is a prime time TV show like ‘Top Gear’ or ‘The One Show’, the slightly more specialized shows seem to appeal to a wider audience at the moment to people who are in work and children at school.
Since the viewers can find the information possibly quicker than the magazine show itself since everything is being leaked over the internet daily they need to have a more user friendly service with a little update, say on twitter and have clips of the information before the show is aired. The shows could get the viewers more involved and they have input on what happens on the show. This sort of idea should generate better quality material directed straight to the viewer; this would make the show personal and a better experience for the viewer. This kind of interactive show would mean it challenges other media to compete with it, if they can generate a show that beats other shows by giving the audience a chance to decide what happens next then it becomes a personal thing and other shows cannot beat that until they have your attention. This experience would mean that every time you logged in to watch your show then the audience would be challenged every time and you will find your self creating something new, in a way I imagine this show to be on the computer like your homepage of your internet, adjustable with widgets that bring in certain news feeds and live feeds from sites such as the news networks; facebook, twitter and many live sites. Even if the show ran as live as they do now and people can talk in a forum as the show is aired this is a slight step forward. I believe that something like this idea can be made into an app that you have total adaptability to and you can rearrange rewind and create your own content that gets fed back to the show, this kind of response and interactive interface has a great opportunity to become part of our TV viewing experience.
Other than other shows or the TV station removing the show from the air, I feel that magazine shows are not too limited, if they have good producers, directors and decent script writers then the show can be based around a number of things it just needs to be presented and scripted well, appealing to that particular audiences. The show falls down to its production levels, if the shows production levels are not high then the show will go down hill from the start.
Consider other sources of distribution for magazines type shows?
Other sources of distribution for magazine shows would be ideas like I have spoken about before such as the internet, the internet is such a widely available source to so many people its unreal. The internet is so easy to access anyone can use it to do as they please, there is so much content on the internet I don’t think you even need a TV license anymore - times are changing and so is the content it is all moving online. The TV shows use there shows to be streamed on the internet now and you can re watch a weeks worth of TV shows on BBCi players website, ITV1 and channel four’s 4OD. There is so much available online that you can watch all your shows from one folder on an internet site. I know that suggesting the internet has already happening and they already stream their show live but this experience can only get better, the web is become such a huge and unstoppable force that there is not going to be much content that you cannot find on the internet. Soon the experience would be so good you will be able to watch it through your phone in the street, it just keeps on going.
I don’t feel like there is that many other options for shows to be broadcasted through, because you cannot put daily content into a magazine itself and this kind of format is not possible to put on DVD since the shows are daily or weekly. So this format of a show is a hard one to put to other formats, if the shows re runs were put to a DVD that would be fine but this can’t be done for a daily live show. The content is being produced daily be the team that the production of anything else than a stream to your TV, Computer or mobile device would take way to long for the show to be burnt to say DVD and posted to you, it would have to be done a week in advance and this is not up to date enough.
I guess you could suggest that now the iPhone and iPad are such a main stream item to own that there could be an application that works and runs along side the show on a daily basis, maybe it breaks the show up and allows you to watch just certain segments, just to watch the live act or se one particular guest it really does depend on how well the APP would work in comparison to just watching the show live. The only advancement I can see in technology is that TVs are becoming 3D and that just changes the viewing experience apart from that I can not see a better way of viewing the show other than a bigger TV.
All our group arrangements went on facebook and obviously in person when we met up. Myself, Dave and Shaun were the Admin’s of the group so we could put up information and discussions on the discussion boards. With the use of facebook it allowed us to integrate photos and video inspiration throughout the term. This application was a massively valuable contact database; everyone had facebook and this was a live feed and allowed us to be in touch with each other outside of our weekly studio sessions.
With the use of facebook we were able to share script ideas, photos, drawings and important areas like set design and the whole group can comment and suggest more ideas on where to go next with the original idea. After a studio session and a group discussion, we allowed time for people to analyse the idea we had suggested in the meeting and once they had thought further for a few hours, a few discussions would come up on our Facebook group and a lot of good, productive ideas would come out from a big discussion on facebook.
The group roles are as followed:
I would like to make a note on how well everyone preformed as a group and I’m very proud of what we have produced. As a group I feel we had one of the closest tight knitted groups out of the year. I went from hardly knowing a lot of the people in the group to knowing all of them very well and I feel this is why we worked well as a group; we had a good bond. We were very sociable and found that we could talk openly as a group about ideas and this made the process straight to the point and well directed on everyone’s behalf.
As a producer I felt I needed this kind of connection between each member so I could talk to them as a member of the group and understand what we both want out of the process, whether myself or somebody else were doing anything wrong, it all depended on the person but I felt I got on with everyone in the group. I hope they felt they could talk to me about anything and how they felt as that particular group member. This method must of worked with the group because I found people coming to me first to ask about most things and if we should or should not carry on this task. The group reacted very well to me as their producer. I was not the loudest and most demanding producer I have to admit but I did things in a very calm and collective manner, adjusting things as they went on. I liked the way the group could create an idea and produce the best possible work with as little as possible, we all chipped in and made what we have very good and in some ways, professional looking. The show itself was not the most serious show on TV but we felt like it needed a change and what we did was fantastic. Below are a small segment of photos of what our facebook group and discussion pages looked like since it is a private group between the green group members.
Photos of the process of filming in the studio
Myself arranging groups for the VT film shoots
This is just a quick point on the illusive man points, these points are made up they symbolise how manly someone can by doing something. A good example would be in Uni life, when you go out drinking if you get told to down your drink or do something silly, if you don’t do it straight away or hesitate, firstly you will be told to man up! although this is stupid and childish no matter how stupid the challenge is you still mange to do it, when you r about to do the task I.E down all of your drink in one your friend will say il give you 10 man points if you do it. It’s almost like a bet and if you’re getting serious man points you obviously become better than your friends, although none of these points are actually scored on a league table. So some would say it is a pointless exercise but myself and the group find it quite fun and amusing to do and we took this inspiration into our show in order to put a university student twist to the show.
So you may not be able to actually have these man points but it is again another competition between the presenters causing banter and better presenting skills. These man points inspire sections throughout our show such as the man up challenge and they re gain there lost points to Nat after eating hot, hot chilies !
Man up for Man Points ….
