Week 1: ( 9th Feb)

We were put in our groups this week, group c. One concern i had when we were placed in our group was that nobody really wanted to step up to have a role with lots of responsibility. I said i would be happy to be editor and oversee the project if everyone else was happy. A few members of the team said they would of liked me to present the show but i felt i was needed more as editor. A few other roles were suggested for the rest of the group but the only role that was definitely decided was my own.

We were set our listening tasks for the following week which were a BFBS talk show to be confirmed by David later and Nikki Campbell on 5Live. I aim to do lots of additional listening on top of those set each week as its not something that i normally listen to and will help me a lot towards all aspects of my work for this module.

Week 2: (16th Feb)

This week we had a speaker in Dave from the Today show, who gave us an overview of his role. What i found most interesting was when he spoke about the decisions he has to make while structuring the show and the thought process he goes through in order to make them. We recapped over some of the things we had learnt already and then reviewed the pieces of audio we had been told to listen to the previous week. Sitrep is a show i will definitely listen to again as i liked the general structure and is in a format similar to the one we have been asked to create for our assignment.

Week 3: (23rd Feb)

Overall i found this week challenging but i learnt a lot. After having a class discussion about the weekly listening, we were put into our groups and told to pick topics that we would cover in a 15 minute show. I have found being the editor that a number of members of the group are difficult to manage. In particular Matt and Adam both needed to me to sit by them the whole time they were working and if i didn’t they got distracted by others or their phones. In the end i was overall happy with the short show that we produced the other members of my team worked hard, Simon and Bernice especially worked hard staying till the very end making sure it was done and submitted.

weekly listening- The surgery on BBC Radio 1 and The sports bar on TALKSport

Week 4:(2nd March)

This week was heavily based on theory which made it very interesting. I enjoyed having in depth discussions with the group and learning about case studies. We focused heavily on the law and regulations that must be followed when producing our show but also when we produce any kind of show. The book that was referred to on many of the slides McNae’s essential law for journalists is something i will look into purchasing as i would be interested into learning more in depth about media law as well as it helping towards my future career.

Weekly listening- Iain Lee on TALKRadio  and PM on BBC radio 4

Week 5: (9th March)

This week we started off by discussing this weeks listening. We had a guest speaker from TALKSport come in and discuss his role and then go on to explain the upcoming OB he was doing for the station in Germany. It was very interesting to learn about how he makes decisions while producing and how he plans to carry out the upcoming OB.

We were then put in our groups to discuss story ideas for our shows. Molly and Eliza were both absent this week but the rest of the group brainstormed some ideas. I feel that all of the group apart from Matt focused on the task, came up with some good ideas and really bounced off each other when developing features. Bernice set up a google drive for us to place all of our documents on. By the end of the day we had 8 story ideas that we were happy with.

Weekly Listening: The Urbanist on Monocle 24 and Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4

Week 6: (16th March)

This week Matthew was covering the days session. The morning was taken up by mainly theory, helping us plan our essay questions and then later on explaining what our options are for modules next year. Just before lunch we were placed into our groups and told to develop our ideas that we were to pitch to Matthew later on in the afternoon.

Matt, Molly and Eliza where absent for this session but the rest of the group worked hard developing our ideas. We focused mainly on how we were going to structure them and what kind of people we would want to get in to interview. We had time towards the end so came up with a couple more stories that we might run depending on the feedback we receive.

I asked Bernice to take notes on the feedback given by Matthew during our meeting with him while I explained our ideas. The overall feedback from Matthew was positive but he did give us a few improvements that we could make, we plan to implement these in order to improve our final show.

Weekly Listening: Hawksbee an Jacobs on TALKSport and Jane Garvey and Peter Allen on BBC Radio 5 LIVE

Week 7: (23rd March)

This week i found to be very productive and really enjoyed it. We started off by going over all the groups ideas and treatments we plan to carry out for our shows. The general feedback we received was overall positive which gave our team a confidence boost. Due to the terror attack being carried out yesterday we were given the task of making a fifteen minute show based around the coverage of recent events.

Bernice and Molly were both absent which made the rest of team work harder but i think overall we coped well. I first had a brainstorm of what i thought we should cover during the show and my team agreed with my rough outline. I then assigned each member with a part of the show i would like them to script and structure. This worked well and i went between everyone helping them with scripts and finalising ideas.

When it came to out time to broadcast there was a technical error with the tie-line that couldn’t be helped but once max sorted this issue the show went smoothly. We ran two minutes under the 15 Min set time which was unfortunate, however Matt put the clips in the wrong place and if these had played out then we would have met our time. Overall i was happy with the quality of the OB. However i feel that Adam still needs a lot of help getting to know the equipment better so he is totally confident on the day.

After the show was finished i got all of the team to sit down and discuss what packages and features they want to be responsible for during our finial assessed show. Bernice was reluctant to take responsibility for any of the stories so i suggested her doing the stress feature as that was the least complex of the packages. We have arranged to meet on Tuesday to discuss the progress everyone is making.

Week 8: (30th March)

This week was busy but I feel that the whole team learnt a lot. We had a team briefing in the morning and the team filled me in on any progress they had made with their contacts and recording audio. The only member who had really made any kind of progress with the features was Simon, other member seemed to have sent emailed but not properly chased people for content. I assigned the team stories to focus on for the day for our 30 minute practice show. Matt had not got any content yet from the day but then discovered that there was a tour at 2:30 so got a Marantz out and prepared some questions for the tour guide, I read through the questions and helped develop them slightly before he left.

Eliza was absent for todays session, we tried to ask why and get into contact but received no communication from her. Molly was present for the morning but after I assigned her work she left and went home without telling anybody which was very frustrating and meant that the team had to work at twice the rate in order to do the work that she had not.

Throughout the day I went around my group helping when they needed me to, I was very pleased with all of the group members that were present. The show ran to time and I feel that myself and clare coped well when the OB broadcast failed and we ran the OB of a phone.

After the overall feedback from David I briefed my team on what I expect from them next week and the targets that we need to meet. I have planned to meet my group on Tuesday all afternoon so we can spend the time working and developing stories with the audio that my team will have hopefully collected by then. Matt returned at the end of the day and said he had managed to record some actuality from the tour and got an interview with the tour guide. I’m frustrated how laid back some members of the team are about the upcoming deadline but I think now they are finally getting into gear.

Adam had managed to arrange a phone interview with the creator of the Cheeaster egg for this evening. So I stayed late with him to help with the technical side of things and make sure it ran smoothly. Asked the lady after if she would be available on the day as a live guest and she said yes, I feel it is also good that we have the phone interview recorded as a back up on the day.

Week 9: (6th March)

I arranged a group meeting on the Tuesday to make sure everyone was up to date. Everyone attended apart from Matt and molly. A few of the features were causing me some concerns including the marathon piece, Globe and exam stress. Eliza seemed to be making slow progress luckily but Bernice had only made one reach on social media for guests to interview. I encouraged the group that still needed interviews to go and call them instead of sending emails as it takes far too long. Adam told me he had emailed the egg factory for the ob but they said they were unable to accommodate us. I made the decision to change the OB to the garden bridge as i felt it is easy to access the site and is still very much topical. I told Adam to go look for guests either activists or those supporting the bridge to interview live at the bridge site. I made sure the group were aware that things must be done for pilot before ending the meeting.

Pilot show day:

Annoyingly many members arrived late on the day of the pilot and it seemed they had not made progress since our last meeting. no editing had been done on the Westminster tour, no guests had been booked for the OB or the exam stress feature. During the meeting i told the group that i was dissapointed and they really needed to up their game and get things done asap. Due to this we were 3 stories short for the pilot which made my job very difficult when creating a running order. I was annoyed by the end of the day as the team were slow moving and as a result the show didn’t fill the full half an hour.

I was also aware that some serious work needed to be done on the OB. The script felt very stale, i didn’t feel as if i was there and Adam needed to listen more to my instructions in order to be more patient with the tie-line.

Week 10: (13 March)

Tuesday: I arranged another meeting with the group, i found many members couldn’t be trusted to get work done independently so the only way to progress was with me watching over and encouraging them. I told Matt to make sure that all his editing was done and submitted before he could leave, which was the incentive he needed. Bernice had not contacted any  psychologists even after both me and Simon had provided her with numbers and emails, so i started ringing as many as i could just to get the job done. I managed to get hold of someone from the psychological institute who said she was happy to chat to Bernice later that day. Simon was busy developing scripts so i sat with him to help and guide the flow of the programme. Eliza was out interviewing contributors so i made sure she kept messaging to tell me ow the packages were coming along.

Wednesday: The OB team were the only ones that attended today, i wanted OB scripts and guests finalised. yet again no progress made on guests nobody had been contacted. I told Bernice to put something out on twitter and she managed to get an activist against the bridge. I wanted to practice the technical side of the OB so asked James to come in and stand with Adam while he set up while i sat in the studio, we successfully connected four times so once Adam was comfortable i told him to then go back to writing the scripts. Bernice payed me the interview that she carried out last night and i felt it was very weak content wise and the overall package seemed very rushed. I told Bernice to scrap the package and focus on the OB, as i knew that with the other packages we had enough content to fill the half an hour.

Due to the stress package being scrapped we needed to have a disco in the show. I thought it would be good to get someone for the bridge to add texture. Bernice from the social media drive had successfully got an activist to be a live guest. I contacted the garden bridge trust who were very reluctant to talk, i was sending emails to their head of communications and after ringing 4 times to ask they agreed to an interview early Thursday morning which i was very happy about after so many hours of trying.

Thursday:

I came into uni early to check the phones were working and get everything set up. i had asked Simon to come in early to so i could brief him before it got noisy. He offered to conduct the interview so i rang had a chat with the executive of the trust and once she was comfortable put her through to the desk. It was very successful a lot of very interesting points were made. By the time it was done mot of the group had arrived. I had made a timetable for the day and specific times i wanted things done by so the group stayed driven. I asked Abbi to edit the bridge interview while Simon edited scripts. Eliza worked on finishing off her packages, OB team were polishing their scripts and i decided on a finalised running order and where to place things.

I then had a meeting with john which was very helpful, he was happy with what i already had just suggested maybe making a shorter version of the professor interview, as it was based at the end of the show and it was 3mins 30. So i asked abbi to make a two minute version just in case we needed it.

I realised i need to decide which story to cut as we were still over, i listened to everyone’s packages, gave them pointers then decided that Eliza’s globe package was the weakest; it sounded very drive and did’t attract interest like some of the others. With globe scrapped i got everyone to upload all audio and scripts to Burli and myriad by 2pm. We then used studio 6 and had 2 full run throughs before going into studio 6 at 3:30.

I rang Adam to make sure he was ready for a test, which went well. we then decided to try once more after mic levels had been done but the tie-line wasn’t coming through. The show was about to start so gave my phone to Eliza and asked if she could monitor while i concentrate on the show output.

LIVE SHOW:

The show started exactly on time and i felt sounded very relaxed. Adam wasn’t listening to Eliza so i took the phone back and told him to move and listen to her so they could find a better signal. Thankfully it worked and we were ready, so i told them not to move just stay connected until the OB.

The only other drama was the live studio guest was running late, i told Clare not to tell Simon unless she definitely wasn’t coming in as i didn’t want the stress in the studio to come across in the output. I rang and she text back saying she was just entering finally. I told Clare to swap stories and go straight to 5 second rule, moving egg to last. The guest arrived i gave her a quick brief then took her in while the package was playing giving Clare enough time to check levels. We were running bang on time, there was slight worry when Simon asked and extra question but he controlled the guest well and finished as the outro bed kicked in. We finished exactly on time and i was very happy with the team, we coped well with the problems that came up during the show and was happy with the general programme output and timings.