News Package Pre Production

For this task we were asked to produce a 3-4 minute news segment for a local audience. I chose to do mine about the current financial crisis, specifically it's effect on small businesses.

Upon reflection I am really quite happy with the pre-production work which I have done for this task. I have produced a treatment, interview call sheets, shooting schedule, interview site risk assessments, interview questions, and release forms for my interviewees. I have conducted multiple interview site visits to assess any potential hazards, as well as to discuss the questions with my interviewees. I have arranged the equipment I’ll need for conducting the interviews on 14/10/08. I have had an angle for this story since the task was set and have a clear idea for my news package.

Unfortunately, I saw a news segment on the 6 o’clock news which had the exact same angle on the financial crisis I was going for (even using some of the same money cut-aways I had planned….creepy). It was on BBC1 and consisted of a reporter, in a fish market.
He concluded that if a global recession is on the way then the cost of living may fall, but unemployment will rise.
I may be forced to change my angle to discussing how the recession is going to increase unemployment.

Our First Task - Code Of Conduct

For our first task of the year we were each given a week to individually produce a one-minute news report to camera, with help from others in our group of four. This report was regarding the new “Code of Conduct” which has been introduced by the college. I thought about which angle to take on this story and decided to focus mainly on the changes from last years’ college rules and how these new college codes are to be enforced. We were initially sent out to gather relevant Vox-pops (Voice-of-the-people) of college students to use as part of our news report. We then had a chance to gather Vox-pops from people in our class, as well as being given the chance to conduct an interview with someone in our group, using recently learned techniques. Later in the week we were sent out and about collecting relevant footage to use as cut-aways in our final news piece during our voice-overs. After Recording a brief piece to camera as well as a voice over we were given a day to edit our piece together to meet a deadline, which I met comfortably.