Production Week One:

This week we were allocated our groups and sat together to discuss potential roles.

At this time I was keen on being editor for this group and Simon thought I should give it a shot – this was before our groups were allocated but when put into our groups we realised we didn’t have many ‘techy’ people and so I decided that it may be best for me to stand in as tech-op instead. I was a bit on edge about being tech-op but knew that I would benefit from trying something new.

We then had to create a 15 minute show, this wasn’t the type of show that we’d be creating for the final piece and I think some of us found it slightly too news-y rather than topical due to the fact we only had a couple hours and burli to work with.

In this session we didn’t finalise everybody’s roles but most new what they would like to do and would think about it over the coming week to finalise in production week two.

Production Week Two:

This week we didn’t have much production to do as we had a guest speaker in to talk to us about producing shows. This however was helpful in the way of giving us ideas on how to edit shows down, removing content, changing it around etc. if need be.

Production Week Three:

This week we were able to sit as a group and begin discussing our shows and the content which we would want to produce for it. We were also given our show demographic which was ages 15-45 (which we all found to be a huge leap between age) and London-based. The task of creating a 15 minute show based on our demographic was then set to us.

We sat discussing possible ideas for a little while and then Lucy allocated stories to each of us. We unfortunately didn’t get to record the show as live, which, as tech-op, I would’ve liked to do, but due to time restrictions and people needing to leave it was instead edited together on Adobe Audition to create the 15 minute show.

Production Week Four:

Unfortunately this week was a full day of theory which meant that we didn’t meet as a group to discuss our shows. However I did find the legal theory very interesting and the case studies made it easier to understand what not to do when creating our shows.

Although we didn’t meet during class time we have all been very active with coming up with ideas and guests etc. for the actual show via Facebook Messenger.

Production Week Five:

This week was another brainstorming week. We successfully came up with 8 stories and were beginning to think of what treatment we could give each one and possible OB stories and locations too. Although in theory we have good ideas, I felt that ideally by now we need to have been creating packages etc. as we don’t have long until our show. And after two weeks of no group work it feels a little unnerving.

Production Week Six:

This week David wasn’t here and so Matthew took our class today. And although the talk about modules for next year was compulsory I felt that all of us were itching to sit together with our groups and discuss the shows as we have a little less than a month until the final show.

I was still feeling a little worried that we hadn’t begun producing our packages and no one knew which package they were going to be doing. However we had time in the afternoon to discuss our roles and the stories and then had a group meeting with Matthew who gave us some constructive criticism and general feedback about the stories we were thinking of doing.

After the lecture I wrote some possible solutions to our stories using the feedback from Matthew and put them up onto our shared Google Drive.

Production Week Seven:

This week was a bit crazy. Following Wednesday’s attack in Westminster, David decided that we should create a 15 minute programme centred on that topic that would fit our target audience.  Although this was a great task that gave us an insight on what we may have to do in the ‘real world’  I think it would’ve been more productive to work on our own stories instead.

Saying that, I was happy that I was finally able to get into the studio with Simon and begin driving the desk as well as including the OB from Westminster Bridge. I think the show went pretty well and ran smoothly, the only problem being that it was 2 minutes short but our group always seems to be at least 1 person short each week so if we were to have at least one more story it may have filled that gap.

Production Week Eight:

This week was the first week we had the full day to work on our show and its content. We were set the task of creating a full 30 minute show, most of us still hadn’t created our packages and so were focused on doing that. As I’m more so needed on the day I’m not doing a solo package but I’m co-creating one with Eliza about the London Marathon and also helping Bernice with hers when she needs it eg. finding interviewees. as this week was all about doing a full show we were able to fake some interviewees. So I voiced a piece for Abbi about film remakes.

We also attempted another OB but it did not work so I had to compromise and sort out getting Bernice on the phone instead of over the Tieline and had to make sure Simon was in the loop. Unfortunately Bernice was unable to hear Simon very clearly over the phone and so the answers she gave were sometimes very vague. We later found out that the OB did not work due to the fact Adam had not put the aerial into the Tieline.

Production Week Nine:

PILOT SHOW!

This week’s pilot show was a bit of a shambles to say the least.

We all felt as if we could’ve done a lot better. We were short on time all throughout the afternoon and with two big packages still not completed we knew we’d be down on time. There also didn’t seem to be any team spirit (in the cheesiest way possible) a couple people seemed very distant.

During the week before I had been working on branding and was tweaking the beds and stings for the first couple hours and was keeping an eye on breaking news just in case there was anything relevant to our show that needed to be included.

When it came to the show I got into the studio twenty minutes before so that I could set everything up and make sure our OB team were ready too as we have had problems in the past. I messaged Adam and he said he was connected so began talking to him via TB on the desk – he kept repeating the question ‘I can hear you, cna you hear me?’ over and over despite him responding to my questions that I was asking him. He was also saying how it sounded weird but due to the monitors in the studio being up it will sound slightly distorted. All of this was covered when we were first taught about the Tieline with Max weeks ago… I figured that the Tieline was all working and then it disconnected. By this point we had five minutes until we went live so Lucy phoned Adam and tried to figure out what was going on.

At this point I had to inform Simon that we wouldn’t be going to Bernice during the menu so he would need to edit the script whihc he is fully capable of doing and I know Simon and I are very good at using the talkback button during shows.

As the show started with a bit of rough patch I feel that this transferred to the rest of the show in a sort of domino effect style. I felt a bit jolted as we were trying to sort out the OB whilst still trying to run the show as smoothly as possible. And about five minutes before the OB was due to begin we discovered that Adam had packed the Tieline away for some unknown reason. This meant we had to once again compromise with a phone in from Bernice instead.

Despite being short of two packages we managed to have the show run to 29 minutes, not 30 but I think we will be fine for the final show timewise.

For myself, I need to make sure I ride the faders when Abbi and Simon (and guest next week) are in the booth so that it is not echoing and make sure I can have the OB sorted slightly earlier than twenty minutes before if possible. I also need to make sure I read over the script in full with Simon prior to the show so I know what is coming up and when and what clips are being played so perhaps we need to do some run throughs during the week and talk throughs on Thursday before our show goes live at 4pm.