Evaluation question 1

1. In what way does the media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We generally followed the conventions of a real media production, we tried to make our media production realistic in the news story we were telling and in continuity, we aimed to deliver a news programme that would allow a audience of all ages to sit down and enjoy without having to pay full attention to each word said. Our aim was to appeal to a local area and give them a variety of news, both light hearted and national affairs. To give our news programme a local feel we used shots in our title sequence of local monuments and buildings, we felt this was using the conventions of a news programme because BBC and ITV do similar things on their regional news programmes, another thing we also did was include our news 6 logo throughout our media product to give it a professional touch.


(BBC regional news title sequence)
We see that the BBC have also used shots of a local area in their opening sequence.

(First 20-25 seconds is our title sequence)

Whilst filming our news programme we knew we didn't want to make it look amateur so we discussed the variety of shots we could use. In our product we have a variation of different shot, we used tilts and panning shots when establishing bulidings or locations, we always established a location before going into an interview, we didnt want their to be sharp transitions that seemed too fast or obrubt. We also watched other news programmes reporters so we had something to aim for when we were reporting our news storeys, we wanted it to be as realistic as possible and to make the viewer feel combfortable watching it.


(Example of a news report)

There are elements of our news programme that would not be in the usual conventions of a news programme, we have storeys that are light hearted and relaxed, our music story is a interview in a relaxed enviroment, this is want we aimed for because we wanted to do a regional news programme. However we do include national storeys but we put a local twist on them by showing the effects it has on the regional area. We thought by using local people as our target we would entice the majority of people in the area because most of the news is happening around them and will concern them or their children. Our interview with the lead singer of a local band would be good because everyone loves a local success story and this is what we aimed for.


Our main aims when we decided to do a news programme was to make it appeal to our target audience and to make it look professional. we belive we have achieved this through our variation of shots and editting. We also got possitive feedback from people about our title sequence, we included many establishing shots and music that would be under the genre of news programme, it gave the opening of our news programme a good professional feel.
(the first 25 seconds of the above video shows our music ^)

Evaluation question 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main media product and the ancillary texts?
Whilst making our news programme our aim was to create a news programme that had light hearted local news stories but at the same time showed global and national affairs too. We believed their was a gap in the market for young people and news. After our audience feedback we aimed to make news that would appeal to all ages in the local area and we wanted this to be as appealing and exciting as possible. We found out that people would prefer a more relaxed feel so we took this into account we also had a variety of shots including local monuments and buildings which would be familiar to the viewer, we put all these shots together in our title sequence because we knew it would be the first thing the viewer saw and we wanted to capture their attention straight away, BBC's look north also do this. We decided that with a combination of local light hearted news storeys and national news storeys, but with the national news storeys we would show the effects it has on the local area for example the recession is one story we have covered. We believe that this style of news is more personal and would encourage someone in the local area to watch the news.


As a group we decided to do a radio trailer for our news programme. Again we tried to give this a local spin by using the regional accent. Using an accent gave our trailer comic value and it also got across that we were doing light hearted news with a relaxed atmosphere. However we did say we were including national news to try and appeal to everyone. Using Local accents in our radio trailer was something people in the region could relate to.


(Our radio trailer)

Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When we decided to produce a news programme we also decided to ask our target audience their preferences on news programmes. We set up a handheld camera and asked random samples about what they would like in a news programme, what they would like to see more of or less of, and just general opinions on improving news. We took this into account when making our news programme.

(The research on our audience)

After researching our audience we got fairly similar feedback, people generally watch the news when they have spare time, they say it is something they put on when they get back from work or college. The younger generation preferred a more informal news programme with people sat on sofas rather than at a desk reading the news. We took this into account when producing our news programme. Our research influenced our decision to decide that it would be on around 6ish when most people would be watching, we even named our news programme news6 to indicate the time of the news, we also decided to do a more informal news with trivial sports and music storeys, we also decided to wear smart shirts and ties without a suit jacket to give the programme a more relaxed feel.

The stories we chose to do were a story on the recession, a sports storey and one about music. while doing these storeys we always kept the audience feedback in mind. Our main aim was to create a news programme that appealed to the younger generation but also kept them up to date with the latest local news and international news. I believe we achieved our initial aims, we had news that appealed to all generations appealing to people in the local area. Mid-way through we asked people what they thought so far, the people we asked were those that fit in to our target audience. We took into account their positive and negative feedback and applied as much as what they wanted or tried to improve what they didn't like. Using audience feedback and research was a great help, it allowed us to know what people outside our group wanted in a news programme.
We inserted text along the bottom when information was being read out so both visual and auditory learners were satisfied, we originally did not insert text when reading out facts about recession but after one person who viewed our work said "when the facts about the recession are on it is difficult to take them all in, I think it would be easier if their was a voice over too".

Audience feedback

I posted the youtube link onto facebook and asked a few friends if they wouldn't mind giving me their feedback on our final piece. We hope the feedback would show us what things we could improve or what things people thought were good and worked well.


I sent the link to three of my friends, unfortunately this is the only one someone gave feedback to.

The feedback goes as follows:

Jess Mills:Very good work, loved the title sequence and wide range of shots! Good local news, was factual and informitive. The studio set looked realistic and reporters were confident.

Evaluation question 4

4.How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During my studies of media I have used a variety of software to aid me in creating film and audio.


After we were given our brief we chose to create the first 5 minutes of a news programme. We knew we first had to some research on other news programmes to see what style of camera shots they used and to get a general feel of what a news programme should look like. Our first method of research was to browse the Internet and watch online videos to get the knowledge and data we needed to start our project. We used Apple iMac computers to access the Internet and store the data and research we had found. Our second method of research was asking our target audience what they would like in to see in a news programme, what time they usually would watch news and other general questions to give us a an idea of what we would like to achieve in our production. We used a hand held camera to film their answers and uploaded them on to our blog.


In order to show and store all the research and data we used blogger.com. Blogger.com is a website we used in our AS year also, on this website we were able to create posts and keep updating our progress. Having access to the Internet and blogger.com was a huge help with our project, it allowed us to organise our project and significantly helped with time management, we found our work easy to access and organised. We also used blogger.com to upload out script, shooting script and photo story bored, by uploading these we knew what shots we had to do in which order and which location.


Another major website we used was youtube, youtube was greatly helpful for research, we were able to embed videos onto our blog for examples and ideas. A Sony HDV 1000 was our camera of choice, using a high definition camera gave us good quality images for our news programme. It also gave us a crsip finish to our title sequences, we were able to get the shots we originally wanted, it was far better than the camera we had previously used, it maximised our potential for creating a good quality news programme, we were also able to connect a microphone on a lead and attach this to the camera which gave us better audio when interviewing or reporting on a story.
We recorded our footage on to a tape, we then were able to convert the footage from the tape onto the iMac's by using a Sony GIV D1000
this made it very easy to transfer footage. Once the footage was on the iMac we were able to edit and pick the bits we wanted to use thanks to Final Cut. Final Cut is an editting software installed on the iMac's. Final cut made it wasy to organise the footage and allowed us to insert transitions to our work, wire frame and smooth out sounds. Final cut made our news programme appear to be much more professional.

Finally we created a radio trailer, we used the garageband software to develop this and mix noises and sounds together to get a construction site atmosphere. We recorded the sounds on a zoom recorder and then uploaded them to the iMac and used garageband to edit it all together.

Audience feedback, news 6

Radio Trailer

Radio Advertisment Idea

Two men at work are talking at work about 6 news.

1st man: "Ohh yeah, I can't believe that".

2nd man: "I know you get all the latest".

A third man walks over.

3rd man: "What's this?"

1st man: "Oh we're talking about 6 news".

3rd man: "6news?"

2nd man: "Yeah 6 news, you get all the latest on sport politics and all local news stories.

1st man: "Yep, me and the wife watch it every night, keeps you right up to date!"

6 news jingle then end of advert.

News programme-use of music

This is the stereotyped kind of music you would expect in a title sequence of a news programme. It grabs the audience because the music is intense and exciting, it puts you in a serious mood and prepares you to listen.
Channels like the BBC and ITV have infamous music for when their news come on, it is instantly recognised by the viewr and judt by the music you know what channel it is. other than the music in the opening sequence their isn't usually much music in the news, we often have however the chiming of big ben or a noise to grab you attention.

In our news production we have chosen a similar kind of music. We wanted the music to be recognised as music that would be on the news, we wanted people to hear it and instntly know what is coming on. I feel we have achieved this

Opening sequence of a news programme

This is a link that shows you a clip of BBC news' opening sequence, it's a simple design for an opening sequence, the music is instantly recognisable and would make the viewers aware that it is news that's coming on straight away. The clip lasts around 30 seconds and has a different range of things happening, e.g. skateboarding, rugby, business people in a city. This simple opening allows the audience to know that it is the news coming on.
ITV news is fairly similar but it does have its differences.The first 40 seconds of this clip are the opening sequence. ITV open with an image and a voice over , it gives you a glimpse of what is to come on the show, after this the well recognised music of ITV news kicks in and different images are shown to us, pictures of present news and past, then the camera goes into the news room where we see the presenter preparing to deliver news

Why we have chosen 6 news

Our news programme is called 6 news because it will be aired at 6 o'clock, we chose this time because after our research of our audience we found that most people were likely to watch the news at this time. People get home from work and turn on the news or have it on in the background while making dinner. We thought about doing a morning news programme like This Morning or Day Break but wanted to do more formal news. We also wanted a simple name that people could remember. The simple name allowed us to create an ideallogo fora news programme.

behind the scenes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MQ7RvtKDzI

Above is a link to a video showing behind the scenses on the set of the studio. the presenters are preparing there lines and work also lighting is being set up and sound, aswell as the studio set and props.

Script- Opening of the 6News programme

INT. News Room.
Camera zooms on News Readers:

Oliver: Hello and welcome to 6news with Jake Bretton and Oliver Neilson.

Jake: Good evening, on tonight's show there will be... story's of the Barnsley college rugby team and how they ave help the sporting reputation of the college, could they be as successful as there previous year?

Oliver: In further news we will be seeing how a band is trying to be signed by a music label, we've got a interview with the lead singer tom lodge.

Jake: But first, how the recession has hit Barnsley, we're going over to Josh Woolhouse who is interviewing local traders and their view on the situation.

Josh Woolhouse (voice over): The queues at the job centre are longer than ever before, unemployment rates are at an all time high, 64% in some areas, 14% of the working population are claiming incapacity benefits, over 25% of the working population live in council housing this is above the national average. Barnsley's average income is £24,000 per household which is well below the national average, 5,349 are eligible for free school dinners.

EXT. Outside.
Goes to live feed.
Josh Woolhouse: Hi, here I am outside one of Barnsley's many banks that has been hit by the recession and closed down. We're going to be finding out how the recession has hit local people in the South Yorkshire area and how its affected Yorkshire overall. Now let's go over to local tradeswoman Deborah in her shop.

INT. INSIDE SHOP.
DEBORAH GIVES HER EXPERIENCES OF HOW SHE IS AFFECTED.
EXT. BACK TO JOSH OUTSIDE.

Josh: That was Deborah, on of Barnsley's many shop owners who has seen a loss in profits. It's been like this for many people in South Yorkshire, many wondering when we are going to get out of it, if ever we are.

INT. BACK TO STUDIO.

Oliver: Well these are difficult times and we can only hope things get better soon.

Jake: We can indeed, lots of people we know are struggling. Now for some more up-beat news.

Oliver: Yes! we're going over to the head coach of the Barnsley college Rugby team where he is hopeful that this season will be as successful as their last.

Over to reporter.

Reporter: You've had a lot of success last year winning the northeast cup, were you pleased with your teams performance through the stages?

Tom Bridges answers. (unscripted)

Reporter: We've come into a second season with his successful rugby team, what do you want to achieve this season?

Tom Bridges answers. (unscripted)

Reporter: Thank you very much for your time and best of luck for the forthcoming season.

Back to studio

INT. Studio.

Oliver: Brilliant, let's hope they achieve just that. Still to come, we have an interview with the lead singer of the Crossfires Thomas Lodge, and young gold sensation Dennis Powers has won his first tournament after turning pro.

(Graphic logo appears on screen)

Jake: Let's go live over to Jeremy Bishop who is interviewing the lead singer of The Crossfires Thomas Lodge.

EXT. Over to Jeremy in live interview.

Jeremy: I'm here with lead singer Thomas Lodge, nice to finally meet you Tom.

(Tom responds)

Jeremy: Congratulations on recent success, and I understand you have announced your tour dates?!

(tom responds)

Jeremy: How do you feel about being thrusted into the spotlight, I know you've been a local celebrity for quite sometime but your going nationwide now.

(Tom talks)

Jeremy: Well I wish you all the best.

INT. Back to studio.

Oliver: Brilliant, are you going to be supporting them on iTunes?

Jake: Yes, I think so.

Oliver: Good stuff, alright stay with us, after the ad break we have much more coming up.

Photos

Research on costume

Presenters
In our news programme we have chosen to dress our Presenters in smart clothing, like shirt and tie. We chose this because we obviously wanted the presenters to look smart but we didn't want them to look formal. Similar programmes like this morning use smartly dressed presenter rather that the like of formal John Snow or Trevor McDonald.

Reporters
We thought the reporters should have a similar appearance to the Presenters. The reporters are wearing trousers, and because they're outside and the wintery conditions they also have a coat on with a shirt underneath. Other reporters costume depends on the situation, for example, in wintery conditions the reporters clothing will change into winter clothes like coats and wooley hats and scarf. Other times the costume could be just in a shirt if its an indoor interview.

Character profiles - Reporters

John Selby
John Selby has been a member of the news at 6 team since 2006, his first challenging news story was Crufts in 2007, he made a name for his self and from then on has done nothing less than excel in reporting top news stories. John Selby originally wanted to report sporting news as he was a big tennis player himself but later found his passion for mainstream stories, and is successfully reporting them to date.

Josh Woolhouse
Josh is the newest member of the news team but has always had a passion for reporting news. He studied journalism at Leeds university and after his three years of study he got straight into the field of reporting news.

Oliver Neilson
Oliver is one of the top reporters, he started out behind the camera but soon showed potential to report news himself, he studied journalism at Manchester university and went straight into a news team, he started at BBC before moving to the news at 6 team to report news in front of the camera.

Research: video interviews: link to url

Here is a short video of our initial audience research.

We used a structured questioning system to find out relevant information from a range of ages and genders.