TV NEWS; WORKSHOP

We had a workshop around scripting and filming, for this we were given a news article and from this we had to create a script with the intention to film. The article we were given was about a conservation project to increase the population of a rare species of butterflies. We created a script that involved a news anchor introducing the story, and then engaging in a live interview with a ranger from the project, engaging in conversations about the project.

We decided to film at 2 different angles, firstly we had our main anchor (Laura) standing up looking directly toward the camera as she read out all of the current headlines for that day. Then as she begins to delve deeper into the information of the main story of the programme, the camera cut to further out as Laura walked to where she was standing up over to a desk, at this point when Laura reached the desk we zoomed in to a close up shot as she started to engage in conversation with Natasha (Aimee) our news ranger).

With the interview we used the same shot for both of them as that is quite a normal classic shot for any news programme, to have the person you're filming in the middle of the screen filming them straight on in a close up. We used split screen because it made it a bit different, as Natasha greeted the news anchor (Laura) we decided to use the split screen effect. However when the actual interview started we cut between the two, because we thought this would engage the audience more. In terms of editing we edited it together and used some special effects that Aimee created. We did the normal tagline on screen to introduce the newsreader and Natasha, and we also had a headlines bar at the bottom, this was because in the script we introduce 3 main headlines of the day so we thought it would be quite a normal convention to put this in.

Feedback - Today we showed our edit of 'Nature One' to Helen and Ferg and received some things to work on

What went well
 - Using words GVs was a good addition because it keeps the audience engaged, people like to see examples of what they hear the news reader talking about and it brings the story alive
- Good direct shot sizes, keeping the newsreader int he middle of the screen
-Good use of creativity using the split screen effect

Improvements
- Don't leave too much headspace, in our shots of Aimee there was quite a bit of headspace and the makes the shot look less balanced
-The titles we used on screen, move them down and make sure they aren't too thick that they cover too much of the screen, only put them on the lower third of the screen
-Always think about timing, make sure that you understand when you're actually filming someone it will take them a lot longer to answer the question when you think.