Production week 1, 2 and 3 (14/02/2021)

The first week we made three presentations on three different topics (Culture & lifestyle in lockdown, Astrology and Y2K generation). The objective was to be able to choose the topic about which our show would revolve around. The latter was chosen and immediately after that we discussed the roles each member was going to play. I chose the role of website and digital producer, assisting Paola, who was the head of social media.

We gave ‘Y2K Reloaded’ as a name for our radio station which is a student pop-up station with Y2K (1995-2005) generation as target. Our mission statement is to reload the best of the millennium in a fun new way over four shows every Monday from the 1^st to 22^nd March. Each Monday four different topics will be discussed (Fashion, Entertainment, Music and Culture).

As part of my website and digital producer role I had to create the website for the radio station from the scratch, which included the following things: home, schedule, podcasts, playlist, competition, quizzes & articles and about the team. In addition, the week’s Spotify playlist and the week’s top five track will be added on the main page weekly as well as links to the main social media profiles.

In collaboration with my classmate Hannah (branding producer) we agreed to attribute each of the topics a group of colours, which will be displayed weekly on the show, changing according to the topic. i.e., Fashion will have pink, Entertainment will have purple and green, Music week will have a mix of colours like baby blue, pink and purple and finally, Culture week will have dark blue, red and white.

 

Besides, Charlie, Hannah, Paola and I decided that there will be a competition section. The prize will be a Spice Girls signed print. I was in charge of writing the script for the website, including the terms and conditions for the competition. Additionally, I created a frame to promote the autograph.

I also created some content for the fashion, entertainment and culture for the ‘Chatz Show’ presented by my  classmate Lauren. i.e., for the fashion show I created content so as to encourage people to dress like millennial celebrities. I also got a guest for the entertainment week: Devorah Cutler (director, producer, writer in the film industry), who will tell us about how it was like working in the film industry at the time. Regarding the culture week I got a guest named Yael Shagar (Y2K researcher and journalist), who will introduce us into the conspiracy theories typical of those years. She wrote articles like Y2K and the Apocalypse: The Potential for Terrorism. I also thought it could be a good idea to talk about historical events of that period such as 9/11 etc.

Finally, in my supporting role for social media branding I contributed creating memes on fashion and entertainment for the social media platforms. Additionally, I created the website promotion cover for the ‘Chatz Show’ with Lauren.

 

PRE-PRODUCTION (WEEK 3):

The previous week, I updated the website including articles, information about the competition terms and conditions, quizzes , website playlist (people can find the songs list that will be played during the 5v5 show on the website) and I uploaded my classmate’s audio pieces (podcast episodes, interviews…). Besides, I have been helping Lauren to write the script for the Top 5 package that she releases on her ‘chatz’ show in which I participate. Additionally, I have been working on writing the specific questions for the interview with Devo (one of the contributors for the entertainment week).

PRODUCTION WEEK 4 (1^ST PILOT) – 22nd February (2021):

This is the week we realised our first pilot (February 22). Before starting the radio show, between 10 am to 12 pm I verified that the button ‘Listen now’ worked well to listen to the complete show. In addition, I checked that all the fashion articles were well written (although I have to finish one of them).

On the other hand, I proven that the songs that my classmates were going to play during the hour and half show were the correct ones for the website’s playlist (however, minutes before the show, Marlyse and Charlie decided to change some songs, so I had to update the new songs on the website after the pilot). Additionally, I published the first podcast episode produced by Hannah and Paola and verified that people could listen to it perfectly.

Our show started from 13pm to 15pm. During the whole show, we had some technical issues that we need to improve for the first show (March 1). During this week, with the Simon’s help on Thursday, our team will have a zoom meeting to practice the two-hours show as a second pilot.

During the show, we had some technical problems such as the clocks (we didn’t start at 13:00, we started later so that changed the whole running order). In addition, some ‘stops’ appeared at the first hour of the show (as we are not in a real radio studio, everything is much more difficult to control) and finally, we got some troubles related to audio levels (the same reason than before. We are not in a studio, so we don’t have proper microphones, etc).

In general, we need to practice more with the radio.co website, which is the virtual platform where we will produce all the shows and get more confident when it comes to audio levels.

After the show, we had a meeting about Matthew and Simon’s feedbacks. Both of them agreed and told us that we have to improve not only the technical problems I mentioned above but also, some changes related to timing and content such as: podcast episode should be longer (maybe 10 minutes more), to add a box pop for the chatz show, to mention the fashion articles during the chatz show (in this case, Paola and I will write a script to create a small package for these articles) and to edit some stuff like beds, censor the harmful language of songs and finally to create or edit a variety of idents for the 5v5 show presented by Charlie and Marlyse.

On the other hand, Matthew congratulated us about the produced content, the website, competition speech and social media stuff. During the real show on 1^st of March, everyone has to work in something the whole time. In my case, I will have to upload every song on the main page of the website (Last Songs Played section) as well as I will help Paola with social media in case, she needs me. Besides this, at the weekend (27^th and 28^th February) everything should be done. I will make sure that before Thursday night all the website stuff is completed including features, schedule, playlist, interviews etc. Further, I am helping Paola with some meme’s pictures for her socials, and I have asked my friends to participate in our competition for some social media content like the lip sync video on TikTok. Finally, I’m meeting Paola to write the script for her small package about the fashion articles this Wednesday which will be played on the chatz show.

Overall, the pilot went well. We were able to identify what could have gone differently and figure out the specific problems in order to improve our show. We have decided that we will check everyone’s stuff on Wednesday at 2pm, in addition, we will produce a ‘second pilot’ on Thursday at 1:30pm to check out all the technical matters and finally we will assist to two zoom meetings on Saturday and Sunday to talk about the entertainment week, which will be the next two-hour show after the fashion one.

 

Production week 5 (FASHION SHOW – 1ST MARCH 2021)

On 28^th February (Sunday), we decided to have the last group meeting in order to check that all the stuff that was going to be on air the next day (first show – 1^st March 2020) was fine and ‘controlled’.

 

Fashion Week

Although we had everything ready for an hour and a half show, we got some technical and narrative problems.

1. We’re going to start the show at 12:30 pm and finish at 15:00 pm but due to a technical problem we started at 12:35 pm, so we had to re-schedule the hour and a half show and instead of finishing at 15:03 pm, we needed to find a solution to finish at time (15:00 pm). To solve this issue, we decided to delete a 3-minute song.

2. From my point of view, we should take care about extra sounds that people can hear when they’re listening to the show. I got some impressions about extra noises that we heard during the show…like leaving the microphone open or something related to that.

3. It is fact that the group didn’t really mention the website, or the content made by me enough. I think this was a pity because there was lots good content such as different articles about fashion, a very good variety of quizzes and activities as well as listeners and users could listen to the podcast hosted by Paola and Hannah, besides, specific interviews like Aicha’s, the Top 5 package produced by Lauren and me or even people could play Y2K’s Spotify playlist but unfortunately this wasn’t managed more deeply.

 Progress for the first show-Fashion week:

Website:

I was able to create lots of content for the website. I wrote three articles, and one was written by Paola. I have also created the cover pictures for all the articles. The titles are the following:

– All About Dressing Like a Millennial Girl

 – Collection of the 10 Scandalous Outfits showed off by the Celebrities in the Y2K Era

-E-Girl vs It-Girl

-6 Times the Most Iconic Y2K Moments were Revived by your Favourite Celebrities Today! (Paola Massimo)

Apart from the articles, I published 10 different quizzes (5 – Paola) related to the four topics we’re producing for four weeks every Monday: Fashion, Entertainment, Music and Culture. Some examples are the following:

–Can You Remember All Of These 2000s Memories?

– Can you Recognise the Most Notable Events of the Millennium Era?

 -Test your Knowledge on these Retro Video Games from 1995 to 2005!

– Which of these Top Iconic Moments is your favourite?

 Additionally, I am the person who is in charge of creating the covers of the competition.

About the website front page, I have to improve the visibility:

• All content that can be promoted on the website from the output should be in the front page. (Interview, Top 5 Section, Playlist etc.)
• The top navigation should be improved in order to make it more accessible for users. That means that the top line of the front page, the articles and quizzes should be out of the feature folder, so people can see them in a faster way. Besides, change the word ‘win’ for competition (it sounds much clearer).
• Presenters and shows should be the first ‘image’ that users may see at the front page. In addition, I thought that it could be a good idea to add a small ‘box’ that says, ‘Listen Live’ (picture of the show or podcast that is on air).

Website content:

• Previously, check the narrative of the articles before they’re published.
• It is important to be accurate at the time to write proper questions for the quizzes.

Homework for the 2^nd Show: (Entertainment week)

Prior to this week, I have refreshed the website format and design for Entertainment Week. Some changes made were: colours, the top line of the main page, this week’s spotify playlist, this week’s top five tracks as well as I added ‘listen live’ box and finally I have added another section named ‘latest entertainment activities’. All these modifications have been done in order to make it more accessible and satisfy users’ needs at the same time.

Apart from this, I recorded a really interesting interview with Devorah Cutler Rubenstein for our entertainment week. She talks about her experience working in the entertainment production industry. This interview was taken for 10 minutes approx.

Additionally, this week the presenter for the website package is Hannah. I’ve helped her to write the script and I gave some ideas such as mentioning the names of the articles, the top 5, interviews etc. Once the audio was recorded by her, I edited it.

People can find the previous articles related to fashion topic on our website section called ‘articles’. For this week, there are four new articles. I decided to write three and Paola another one. One of them was made by both of us. I feel really proud of myself because I have written 6 articles in total in just two shows.

Before publishing all the articles, Hannah has been in charge of checking them. In addition, I created the covers design for all of them as well as I made new quizzes related to entertainment topic such as:

-Which Pokemón Are You?🧐

 -How Well Do You Remember These 2000s TV Series?😋

-Real Millennials Should Have No Problem Doing Well On This 2000s Reality TV Shows Trivia Quiz

-How Much Do You Know About These Films? Guess The Names, Released Date and much more!

Finally, related to social media stuff, I’ve asked some of my friends to participate in the competition by recording a lip sync video on TikTok because this will also help us to promote the competition on other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

 

Production week 6 (ENTERTAINMENT SHOW – 8TH MARCH 2021)

Taking into account the experience of the first show (Fashion Week), obviously, we identified what we had to improve for the second one (Entertainment Week). In general terms, the last has been much better, not only about technical and broadcast quality, but also in relation to the planning, narrative structure, creativity in terms of online content and ideas for the hour and a half show.

One of the matters in what we have to progress is the one concerning to interview. For this second show, we should have work harder at the time of writing the scripts and to prepare more the questions, mainly for the Chatz Show. In addition, we need to improve the flow of music as a good background at the time of speaking and make sure artist or songs are properly identified.

It is important to guarantee that all of us need to make an effort to get friends in order to connect them to the social media platforms and website since we have enough and good material to be shared.

Website:

It is a fact that the website has been very successful for this second week. The website has now a better navigation bar and the content has been reordered on the home page. I have re-designed all the website format including colours, activities, listen live box, ‘this week’s Spotify playlist’, ‘this week’s top five tracks’, competition picture, articles cover etc.

The feedback has been really good and the only suggestion for the next week show (Music week) is the one about doing a slogan underneath the banner, one line that explains what Y2K Reloaded is.

It is clearly identified that the website content and articles mostly need to be conveyed on air.

WHAT TO DO FOR NEXT WEEK (MUSIC SHOW):

• Think about the design of the website for the music week.
• Create content in terms of articles, quizzes, slogan, songs for the ‘this week’s Spotify playlist’, articles cover…
• Write the script for the website promotion on air.
• Create the main picture for the Marlyse & Charlie’s TakeOver Chatz Show and explain the statement of the show.
• Think about articles and quizzes for Culture Week as well.
• Create memes about cultural events for social media platforms (Culture week).
• Write and record the script for the top 5 package. (Iconic music videos).

 

Production week 7 ( MUSIC AND CULTURE SHOWS – 15th AND 22nd MARCH 2021)

The shows of this third week (Music) have been good, specially the Takeover Chatz show hosted by Marlyse and Charlie. However, the podcast could have been improved. In this sense, the content should have been deeper, and the contributor should have been changed.  In addition, I found a technological incident on the website, related to the Internet coverage, so I need to be careful during the next show.

Work that I have done during this week:

1. I have helped Paola and Hannah in order to research new ideas for their podcast. Some of the examples that I suggested are related to climate change, feminism and pop culture.

2. I had to record and edit Ana’s interview (the winner of the competition).

3. I wrote my top 5 script (beauty: make-up and hairstyle) and recorded it.

4. I have also written the website promo script with Hannah.

5. Finally, I have helped Paola with her social media stuff. I created the pictures related to the new top 5 (Favourite Millennials Must) as well as two posts related to What does Y2K mean to me?

Website:

• Things that I should improve for the last show:

1. Any specific content such as interviews or top 5 that are on air, they should immediately appear on the website.
2. Create a Listen Again section in order to facilitate user’s way to listen to previous interviews or tops 5.
3. Link the schedule chart with each show.

• Things that I have to do for the last show (Entertainment): Re-design website!

It is a fact that the website has been very successful during the last few weeks. The format of the website has been re-designed: colours, activities, listen live box, ‘this week’s Spotify playlist’, ‘this week’s top five tracks’, competition picture, articles cover, schedule chart, etc.

I have written 3 articles:

1. 11 Major Moments from The Late 90’s And Early ‘00s That Have Shaped the Y2K Era

2. Top Science Breakthroughs

 3. Tech Nostalgia!

I have designed 3 quizzes:

1. Quiz: Which Natural Phenomenon Defines You the Most?

2. How Well Do You Know the History of The Early 2000s?

3. Science Knowledge Quiz: If You Are A True Millennial, You Will Remember Milestones from Space Science Between 1995 To 2005

 

Some of the content that I have created: