POP UP STATION

PRODUCTION WEEKS

During the second week I asked to take on the role of Head of News and luckily the rest opf the class were happy with me to have this role. Furthermore during this time I was also asked to do the food news, which I was very happy to do. Over the production weeks, Kate and I decided how we were going to style the news. We decided that we would prioritise (in this order), breaking news, UK news, world news (if important) London news and any random showbiz/sports bits if necessary. During these weeks we also practised our news writing by using the stories that were available and drafted up bulletins as if we were doing it live. Over these weeks there was a lot of back and forth about who was going to voice the news etc.

SHOW ONE

In the lead up to our first show I took on the role as food correspondent for a feature in the music show. This meant that I needed to find out facts about the different foods that Joe and Kaylee would be eating so that I could talk them through it. I gave up my role as presenting the news because it became clear that I could not present the news, do the food news, write/edit etc the actual news and then voice the news as well. Kate took on this role instead.

In preparation for our first show I prepared both the food news (four different stories + the script) and the food tasting segment (questions for J+K to ask and answers/any info I could add). I did both things in preparation because I had realised that from the first two weeks of pilot shows that I could not leave both these things and the news to do before/during the show. Trying to write/create/edit/ensure the audio works for the news whilst also preparing and doing the features has been a difficult task. I feel as though the news has not been how I imagined it because I have taken on so many other things, but I am hoping that I am learning each week how to improve my leadership skills.

NEWS BULLETIN ONE- Was not successful in the slightest and I was not happy to say that I was the editor. The presenter had not edited the pre recorded audio which I had not listened to beforehand and the clips had not gone out on air. I take responsibility for not listening to the bulletin, but I was expecting that after two and a bit years of radio, that the presenter could edit/record everything easily. However I learnt that this was not the case and I would have to thoroughly listen over to each bulletin before it goes out, this is something that comes with the title anyway.

BULLETINS TWO, THREE AND FOUR- These bulletins were slightly more successful, I had the chance to listen over to the third and fourth bulletins before they went out live which was good. However there were lots of pronunciation issues and other mistakes which, due to the time constraint, could not be sorted. We also had issues with how the items were written, I managed to improve 90% of them but a few escaped which definitely did not help. Admittedly I did not foresee this as an issue, but I am finding it easy to get around, however it is a bit annoying

FOOD NEWS/FOOD CORRESPONDENT- These went very successfully, and I was happy with the work I had produced. My presenting is a bit off and I stumbled over a few of my words under pressure but overall, I was happy.

My aims for next week are to get a better hold of the news and ensure that everything is prepared for in advance. I am hoping that the news will sound a lot better with Minnie presenting as she is very very good at it.

SHOW TWO

Overall the news was a lot more successful this week. Despite some stumbling over of words, the bulletins were a lot more put together and sounded better. I put this down to Mary helping me/going over to ensure that the news is grammatically correct and is in the best order. Furthermore, Riya having already done the “Guess the food” segment was also very helpful as it meant that I did not have to worry about the research.

I had done the research for the food news prior to Monday which also made the morning a lot easier.

Each of the news programmes went smoothly and I was proud of them. I wrote 1-3 stories for each, edited them all, sorted out voice overs which needed to be recorded and sorted them into priority.

SHOW THREE

Our third show was another successful show. The only flaw being that we did not have enough time to pre record the news for the first bulletin, so Minnie had to do it live, but Minnie smashed it so it wasn’t the end of the world. Similarly, to the other two shows I edited all the bulletins, wrote 1-3 stories, placed them in order and helped write other stories. Furthermore, I also asked people to voice certain bulletins to have some variety.

I prepared the food news prior to the show and I was very happy with how it turned out again, I have really been enjoying doing the food news. Riya had prepared the information for ‘what the food’ again, which made my life a lot of easier and she got some really interesting facts.

SHOW FOUR

Our fourth and final show was by far the most fun and having the green screen set up was cool and looked great. Recording the show was a little more daunting than usual, since it was all visualised, but I think that my part in it all went well. Prior to the show I found a nice waffle recipe for us to use whilst we were making the waffles and brought my own waffle iron it. On the day, I sorted out a recipe to follow and some cool waffle facts to tell the two presenters. I also curated the food news so that it was not left for on the day. I ensured that there was a mixture of both dessert news and normal food news, especially as “dessert news” isn’t that easy to come by. Both waffle segment and the food news, in my opinion, went really well and I was happy with what I had produced/learnt.

In my opinion the news also went quite well, after Jamie Wareham’s comments about adding some more showbiz into the bulletins, we decided to add a touch bit more in. This was easy as it was a slow news day. Minnie was excellent with all of the bulletins and Mary checked over each one before it went out just to make sure it was perfect. Just like the previous weeks, I edited all the stories, put them into the correct order and wrote 1/-3 items each hour. I also put all the audio together on burli to ensure it was easy for Holly to play live.