Week 6 (31/10 – 06/11)

During the lead up to the official production week, as a team (which was created in Week 5) we discussed roles and began planning our individual tasks. Over the weekend prior to week 6, I installed the open source version of WordPress to use as The Groove’s website, for myself and Phoebe to slowly set up during the week. I decided to use the open source version opposed to the commercial platform as it allows ‘under the hood’ customisation, which meant themes and pages could be edited in anyway we pleased.

I was also assigned the role of Visual Branding and to allow the Interactive Producer (Phoebe) to create the social media accounts as soon as possible, I started creating the logo. Prior to our meeting during week 6, I made a bunch of mock ups which were then discussed and approved by the editor.

During this week I also took presenters photos for the website and social media outlets. I took a range of photos ranging from studio shots, location shots and against a white back drop. It was decided between the Interactive Producer and Editor that location shots would be the most appropriate for presenters biographies and to use others where appropriate with the exception of the white back drop shots as they were deemed too unappealing.

Production Week 1 (Week 7: 07/11 – 13/11)

I began the week scripting the playlist page, which will allow anyone with editor rights to the WordPress backend to edit the page quick and efficiently without the risk of messing it up completely. I uploaded the existing A list to the page so that once it’s approved it can be published immediately with minimal tweaks from the Head of Music.

After being given a brief by the editor, I began creating the promotional video for The Groove. Using footage from Soul Train and the song Soul Man by Sam & Dave, I used Final Cut Pro X to create a nine-second video, which was then uploaded to YouTube by the Interactive Producer. I also converted the last 4.5 seconds of the video in to a GIF using Photoshop, to be uploaded and used on social media.

Before next week, I will work on a series of designs for the online representation of the competition.

Production Week 2 (Week 8: 14/11 – 20/11)

At the beginning of the week, during our group meeting, Simon pointed out that lack of The Groove’s logo on home page of the website. I went ahead and rectified this issue, in the process I also had to change the header image to make sure the logo didn’t disappear in to the background.

After our second group meeting of the week, I proceeded to make around six GIFs using Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Photoshop to be used on Social Media over the forthcoming weeks.

Clare and Callum are live! Fancy picking this week's Rare Groove, if so let us know now! pic.twitter.com/xZVzomRJwA

— The Groove Radio (@TheGrooveLDN) November 17, 2016

After creating the GIFs, I finalised the design for the online representation of the competition that I started over the weekend. After Phoebe and Eliza’s approval, I uploaded it to the site ready to be published Friday Morning.

As part of the plan Phoebe and I devised to build up our social media content, I filmed Clare during a link promoting next week’s Soul Train and encouraging the audience to get involved.

Set The Tone by Nate James, ends this week’s Soul Train and starts the next. What songs should follow it? Tweet us! #soultrain pic.twitter.com/VOiJWuXR5Z

— The Groove Radio (@TheGrooveLDN) November 17, 2016

Friday morning was the launch of our hypothetical competition, although the website post automatically published, I had to share the post manually on social media to ensure that the Facebook Preview and Twitter Card generated correctly.

Production Week 3 (Week 9: 21/11 – 27/11)

During our weekly meeting on the Monday, I provided the news team (Abbi and Ellen) with logins to enable them to upload the stories they wrote over the weekend, on to the website.

Following Matthew’s feedback email to the group, to help clarify the Groove’s link to Mi-Soul, I added the Groove and Mi-Soul’s logo to the Facebook and Twitter cover photo and added links from the Groove website to the Mi-Soul website.

Due to most of the interactive work already being done, I assisted the branding team by making a trail for the Mi-Soul breakfast show. I clipped up some links from a Mi-Breakfast show on the Mi-Soul Mixcloud, which I then incorporated in to the trail. I managed to finish making the trail in time for the group’s practice run of the show.

Similar to last week, I recorded Callum during a link promoting next week’s Soul Train. I also recorded a video of Natalie promoting the upcoming OB, which will be published to social media on Tuesday.

Pilot Week (Week 10: 28/11 – 04/12)

After our weekly meeting on Monday, I did a few tweaks to the Mi-Breakfast trail and made sure the levels were to a good standard.

On Tuesday, I published the promotional video of Natalie to The Groove’s social media platforms.

Find out who is joining Natalie in this week's Funk Factory pic.twitter.com/KGhziuzdzr

— The Groove Radio (@TheGrooveLDN) November 29, 2016

The morning of the pilot show, I pre-recorded a video of the presenters, which was then sent to Phoebe, to upload to social media during the broadcast, as myself and the Interactive Producer (Phoebe) would be in the OB location.

During the pilot show, I was responsible for operating the OB desk, which required me to be in constant communication with the team in the studio which was achieved through Facebook Messenger and Natalie in the OB room which was achieved using a autocue-style system.

Final Week (Week 11: 05/11 – 11/12)

Over the weekend, I used Final Cut Pro X to sync the visuals from the camera in the OB location and the audio recorded in the main studio to upload the OB session to YouTube. On arrival to uni on the Monday, I then uploaded the videos to YouTube due to a more stable upload connection.

On Tuesday, when Natalie arranged the OB guest, I filmed a video of her promoting the OB to upload to social media.

Find out who's joining Natalie in the Funk Factory! #funkfactory pic.twitter.com/2UqEPXze7U

— The Groove Radio (@TheGrooveLDN) December 6, 2016

The morning of the final show, I amended the ‘interactive schedule’ I made last week to fit in with the new clocks. From 1 PM, I was in the OB room helping Natalie set up, testing the talk-back and setting up the cameras. During the show, I was in studio 4 operating the desk, which meant I was in frequent communication with the main studio and listening to the feed constantly.

Due to a mistakes during filming, on Friday I assembled an audience to film footage to use as cutaways to hide the mistakes in post production.