Weird and Wonderful website.

This is a link to my final design for my website:

http://www.wix.com/luke_cutts/weird-and-wonderful#!cvcvvg|mainPage

Overall, i’m happy with my final website. It’s taken a while to do, i’ve started it over once or twice, but i’ve reached a place where i’m happy with how it looks. I designed it so that it would be relatable to the show, which is why the main colour throughout the website is blue, which the set was. The other main colour in the site is dark blue, which the performance area was like.  I also copied the same style of the set, with the uniformed panels of the set being similar to the layout of the website. I put a picture of our actual set as the background so that people would recognise this, and would know that the TV show and the website were related.

The pages that I put in the website are a homepage, the show, the team, vote, videos and get involved. When I was researching TV show websites, I found that these were the types of pages that were included, and that audiences wanted to see. They also offer a lot of interactivity for the audience, as well as keeping with the theme of the show, especially the videos page, where videos from previous episodes can be seen.

Social media is also incorporated throughout the site, keeping up with the type of audience that the show is attracting, and their interests. Every teenager is either of Facebook or twitter or both, so with them being the target audience of our show, I thought it would make sense to have that sort of thing featured heavily throughout the website.

Another aspect of the website that I thought was pretty crucial to include was behind the scenes stuff. The main reason that people would be visiting this website is so that they could either find out what is happening in the next show, with previews etc, and to find out more information about the show, the stuff that you don’t see when you’re simply watching the show. The inclusion of the behind the scenes stuff makes the audience feel more included, and more of a part of the show as a whole.

I’m pleased with my website, I think that it looks good, and relates to the show and the audience of the show would like it too. It fits with the theme of the show, and fits with the conventions of TV show websites.

Assessed post 4: Evaluation

This module has been one of the most enjoyable for me, despite initial trepidation with the idea of it being based around TV production. It’s definitely given me a new perspective on what I enjoy producing the most, and what I might want to go into for a future career. When I first started this course, I was solely focused on producing short films and the like, but now i’m definitely considering a career in TV production.

I think the majority of the reason as to why this module was so good was the fact that I, and I think I speak for the rest of my group, had a really good group that worked well together, got on together and didn’t argue. Sure some people didn’t turn up until the end, but at least they pulled their finger out when they arrived.

We had a lot of practise sessions throughout this module, which I think helped us all to feel more confident with the show, and with our individual roles. The theme that we were given, weird and wonderful, at first seemed really daunting to us, and we did at first struggle to think of any topics that we could put into the show, but we all looked on the internet and found ideas which we could use. As a group, everyone did help with their own input, no one was really just there, taking up space. Everyone had a part to play. On a personal level, I have felt that this module has helped to improve my confidence in operating the equipment, and in my own creative input.

The only problem that we had throughout this module was people not turning up, but like I said earlier, at least they turned up for the actual day of filming, and did all 3 of them, work hard to make the show as good as we could make it. I think the less input from the lecturers did make everyone feel more involved and more like this was something that we had put a lot of work into on a more personal level, rather than it being another piece of coursework.

Overall, I have definitely enjoyed this module, it’s probably been one of the best that we’ve had in our first year as Media Production students.

Assessed post 3: Professional development.

This module hasn’t been like anything I’ve ever done before, on this course and outside of it. In sixth form, we mainly focused on design, such as designing magazines or CD covers, but to actually produce a 10 minute TV show isn’t something that I have ever had experience with. This whole year has taught me a lot of things that have helped me develop my skill set, but the TV show module has probably been the one that has made me have a more positive outlook on myself as a media producer.

The Tv module has been mainly left up to us to sort out, very little outside help was given, meaning that the shows were our personal creations. I think that this fact in itself has led to me becoming more developed, because I have had to gain more confidence in my abilities so that I could do well for the group, where as before it hasn’t been as critical that I have to look after myself in a module, and be in charge of my own station. The fact that I have had to look after a camera, make sure it was working, sort any problems it had out and operate it to a good level has meant that I have had to trust myself that I can do it, and that i’m not going to break it or ruin the whole thing by going all in and trying to take control of something straight away. I’d say that this has definitely given me a more confident outlook and also helped develop technical skills.

I’d also say that the production of the TV show has made me more confident in sharing my ideas with a group. Throughout the production of the TV show, i’ve definitely contributed more to the team than other projects, again I think because of the lack of outside input driving us in a certain direction.

Basically, the TV show module has helped me to develop both professionally and in confidence, in both myself and my abilities as a media producer. The module has also made me look at working in TV in a new light. Before, I was only really interested in working in film, whereas now I know that TV production is just as interesting to do, and that I’ve enjoyed producing them both pretty equally.

Assessed post 2: Media Forms

This module is very much a two peer module, one part being the creation of the TV show, and the other, the individually created website that ties in with the show. The purpose of the website is to act as an aid to the show itself, as any programme today would do. It is there to give extra information to the audience, and to make them feel more of a part of the overall show, as well as being a further source of information about the show.

A website is the most obvious form of media that would fit alongside a TV show, especially one like the one we created, where a lot of the content has been found of the internet, and the audience is asked to participate in the show by sharing their own talents through Facebook and twitter. Every show has it’s own website, it’s own social media, it’s own email address. They are places where the audience of the show can get involved, see what’s coming up in the next show or to catch up on what they’ve missed. The website in particular features as an extra for the audience who want to learn more about the show, as well as making the actual show more engaging, with the add ons of Facebook and twitter interactions. As well as ways for the audience to get involved, different media forms can also help to advertise the show, possibly using advertisements on social media, or simply by word of mouth. One person posting a link to the show could potentially get 100/200 new viewers, simply by one person sharing the show on their Facebook or twitter.

Different media forms are crucial to the overall success of a TV show. without them, the show would have to fight to find an audience in a world where everyone is online, but less and less people are actually tuning in to watch new programmes. People hear about new shows on the internet, in these different media forms, so their relevance can’t really be seen as anything but positive. The transmedia effect of these different media forms means that even when the show isn’t airing, the audience can still keep up to date with the show in real time, see behind the scenes and to get involved whenever they wanted to. This means that the show isn’t just relevant in one slot on a channel for 10 minutes, but it can be repeated and is relevant for a lot longer for a bigger audience than it would be without these different media forms.

Assessed post 1: Engagement with the creative process.

For this module, we have had to come up with a 10 minute TV show based around a pre conceived idea, my groups being weird and wonderful. We had to produce the TV show ourselves, as well as fill all the roles with different members of the group. We also had to individually make a website based around the show.

For the TV show, I was assigned the role of operating camera 1, meaning I was part of the team that was going to actually be filming the TV show, and following the ideas that the director wanted for our show. Operating a camera also gave me the chance to be able to suggest some of my own camera shots, or to try certain shots or compositions that I thought would look good, but hadn’t already been thought of by the director. My own ideas are really applied to the final performance that we had for our TV show, of a guitarist. Because we were aiming for a typical, chat show type of performance, where everything is really close up on the artist as well as doing a bit of tracking along their instrument or the rest of their band, I chose certain areas of our guest to focus on, such as his hands playing the guitar, and following them along the guitar, ending in a slow zoom out.

I also came up with the idea for some of the graphics that we have used, such as the leader board showing the scores after the presenters challenges, and the logo for our TV show. I decided to have a quick go at designing some possible graphics one day, since I knew that we would be needing them, and they have been used in both the TV show and the weird and wonderful Facebook page.

In terms of my website, I decided to follow on from the colour scheme that we had decided on for our TV set, so that the two elements would blend together and seem to be two parts of a whole. I also have designed the website in blocks, similar to that of our set, which was done again so that the two would blend in together.

Because our TV show mentions our twitter and facebok pages a lot, I decided to incorporate them into the website a lot. On each page, there is a section where the user can click through to our Facebook page and twitter page, as well as using a Facebook comment section so that they can vote on which challenge they would like to see the presenters do in the next edition of WWTV. Social networking is such a big part of not just TV, but our lives as a whole, that I thought it would be extremely important to have it featured throughout the website, just as it was heavily featured in the TV show.

I think that I engaged well with the creative process of this module, I always helped out with anything that needed doing, and gave an input into things like the set design, and as stated above, camera angles.

Filming the TV show.

On Tuesday, the time had come to film our TV show. Our slot was between 1 and 3, so we had to get everything set up as quickly as we could so that we could start filming with enough time to get a couple of tries at it. Once we got into the studio, we started putting the set up that we had made the previous week. We’d already practised putting it up so we knew that a) it looked good and b) we could put it up relatively quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The set didn’t take very long to put up, we already knew what we were doing so we started focusing on our own jobs and roles that we had been given. I’d had many, many goes at setting up my camera, so I got this done pretty quickly and was ready to go. Luckily, everyone has had a lot of practise doing their jobs so we were all ready to go pretty quickly, after waiting for some last minute VT’s to render.

We’d had some problems with finding a guest to interview, but our Producer Emily found someone in her halls who played for the Coventry University Women’s Football team, which fitted pretty well with the theme of our show, of weird and wonderful talents. We got her to talk about what made her want to play football, and what types of talents she or her team mates had. We’d already found a performer, one of the camera man’s roommates, so we had had a lot of time to practise with him, getting different shots that felt typically TV show like, in the vein of Graham Norton, who has performers on regularly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The actual filming of the show went a lot better than I personally expected. I knew that we had a good show, and that we were all capable of doing the roles we had been given, but the show just came out better than it had in any rehearsals that we had done before. The first take wasn’t as good as we wanted, the presenters missed their cue on the auto cue a couple of times, but that wasn’t really their fault, the auto cue hadn’t been scrolled at the time. The second take was a lot better, almost perfect, the presenters worked well with each other, the cues worked well and the editing was clean and professional. I think personally that we’ve done a really good job producing our TV show, it’s something that I think none of us were particularly looking forward to seeing as how much work it seemed to entail, but I definitely had a good time making it, I’d say one of the best modules we’ve had in our first year .

Tv studio progress.

The final filming of our TV show is next tuesday, so this week we’ve been in the studio pretty much everyday just rehearsing it so that it’s good enough for tuesday. The main thing that we’ve been focusing on is the timing of the presenters, sometimes there’s a few seconds left at the end of one of their sections before a VT, so that really needs to be sorted out so that the whole programme runs more smoothly, with no breaks.

Today, most of us met up to make the set, which is different screenshots of YouTube videos, taken from the idea that we’re an internet show, and that we’re going to focus on videos, such as the shoe nice segment. There’s going to be a border of blue ribbon just to make it look a bit neater and a bi more interesting, seeing as the pictures are in black and white. It’ll also match the blue screen that is already in the studio, so if by accident the blue screen makes it into a shot, it won’t matter as much, and won’t be as noticeable seeing as it’s already being used in the proper set. We also bought a silver curtain style thing made of silver paper strips, as an entrance for the interviewer to come out of. We thought this would be a good idea because it fits with what’s expected of a TV show, but is also a bit weird so that it fits with our particular style of show.

Being a cameraman is going fine, it’s interesting being able to pick what shots would look good and which angles, so that the show looks it’s best. It’s a good role to have, and i’m glad that i’ve done it for this, if anything it’s just made me more comfortable being in control of that sort of equipment.

We’ve not really faced any problems, apart from struggling to find a guest to interview, but the performance is sorted. Everything is coming along nicely, the show is starting to take shape, due to the people that have turned up. We’ve found that the people who turn up, turn up to everything, but there are about 3 people who hardly come to anything, and when they do come they basically ignore the role they’ve been given.

Hopefully the filming of the show on tuesday goes well, and that we end up with a decent 10  minute show!

website research

For this module, we have to each design a website using Wix that advertises our TV shows. I haven’t had any experience in making websites, so the first thing that I did was to do some research into similar TV show websites, such as This Morning and Rude Tube . These shows all have similar styles to our own, they are magazine style shows that have a continuous host and that feature segments on different topics.

Each website reflects the type of audience that the program is expected to get, such as the This Morning site is more focused on attracting a female audience, seeing as the majority of people who watch it are women, who would be more typically interested in what the programme features, such as cooking, soaps, real life problems etc. The colour scheme of the website reflects this, more feminine colours to attract a female audience to their site.

The things that are mainly featured on the site is what’s coming up in that days show, with the main topics being featured at the top of the site, so people can see them easily. There is also sections for Twitter and Facebook, so people can like the Facebook page for This Morning and get in touch through twitter easily. There are also features of what has been on previous shows, such as recipes and interviews, so people can catch up with something if they have missed it. The website seems to fit well with the target audience, but could also attract people who haven’t really watched the show and just want to see one specific piece of news that was featured on the show.

The website for Rude Tube is similarly set out to the This Morning one, but the colour scheme is more focused on a male audience, with darker colours, more black and blue. The site also has a section for Facebook and Twitter, as well as a section where people can comment on the actual website, and send in there own videos that they have found that they think might be good for the show. There is also a section where you can watch episodes on 4oD, as well as to go to Rude Tube’s YouTube page, and watch clips there.

Because the main focus of Rude Tube is internet clips, this website has more focus on areas of the internet than the This Morning one does, in that it has sections for Facebook, comments, catch up etc, that takes up pretty much the whole page. Rude Tube as a programme doesn’t offer things for the audience to look at later, like recipes etc, so the site focuses more on watching full episodes instead of just one section of the show.

 

The Set of the TV show.

The main thinking behind the set of our TV show is to make it different enough so that it can be recognised with our show, and not confused with a different one or to blend in to peoples ideas of other sets, but not to be too out there and weird, so that people would be paying attention to what the set was doing instead of what is going on with the actual show.

Amy Wilkinson did a mock up of what we were all thinking of for the set;

The main idea with this set is that it’s easily movable, so if we need to reposition the presenters during the recording, say whilst a VT was running, someone could move that around easily and quickly. We also took inspiration from the Rude Tube logo, which is sort of where the inspiration for the whole show came from, in the using internet videos. The panels of the Rude Tube logo is something that we thought would be good to represent in the set of our show. The main thing we’ll have to do whilst making the set is make sure the pictures on the set are visible enough so the audience can see what they are, but also to make them not distracting, by not having them to bright or to colourful. Like in the above picture, I think we’re going to make them black and white so they don’t stand out to much.

The Hunger Games Review.

The Hunger Games was a fairly new thing for me. The first time i’d heard of it was when the film was coming out, and I watched the first trailer. I was impressed by the trailer, it seemed to be an interesting film with an interesting idea, but even then it still wasn’t something that I HAD to see. Since then, The Hunger Games has blown up, being considered as the new Harry Potter, even the new Twilight, which in my opinion can only hinder the success of the film. The fandom of this film is a more hardcore version of the Twihards, they want to see some violence in this film.

So entering the cinema, I had a pretty open mind towards the film, only hearing from seemingly ever reviewer in the world that the film was amazing. The hip eon this film is pretty big, probably only close to that of Harry Potter and unfortunately Twilight.

The film centres around a girl, Katniss Everdeen, who is one of the inhabitants of District 12, one of the Districts in a dystopian world called PanEm. In this world, there is an event called The Hunger Games, where two tributes from each of the 12 districts must compete against each other, until only one is left standing. Katniss’s sister gets picked for the games, but in an act of selflessness, Katniss volunteers in her place.

The idea behind the film is a brilliant one, something that everyone can relate to in the idea of reality tv gone mad, but also different enough that people can recognise the fact that this is a different time and culture to our own.  Jennifer Lawrence is simply perfect as Katniss. Having never read the books, I didn’t have a previous idea of what Katniss should look like, but after seeing this film, I wouldn’t want anyone else to play her. Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, the other tribute from District 12, is also very good, if not a bit too angsty for my liking, but that’s fair enough really considering what he is about to go through. The supporting cast all work well, but Woody Harrelson is perhaps a bit miscast as the trainer of the District 12 tributes.

The film had to have 7 seconds cut out of it so that it could be rated as a 12 rather than a 15, but this film still packs one hell of a punch. The lack of blood in the film doesn’t really register, and the kills once The Hunger Games  start  look and feel very violent. There is definite tension when Katniss is about to go up to enter The Hunger Games, I personally felt scared for her as she arrived in the killing field where all the tributes start The Hunger Games.

The director, Gary Ross, does well with the film, but I think that maybe he uses a few to many close ups of characters and too much handheld. There were points in the film where I felt that I didn’t know what I was looking at, particularly when the killing started. I couldn’t tell who was being killed and who wasn’t. But overall, I think he did a good job with the film, the setting worked well and the whole film in general was very good.

I don’t think that this film can be compared to Twilight, the romance in this film between the two district 12 tributes feels necessary, not just there and the focus of the whole thing like Twilight is. I found myself wanting the two tributes to get together, instead of wishing one would kill the other. The emotions that the film makes you feel are also where the film differs from Twilight. When one of the tributes is killed, everyone in my showing was staring at the screen open mouthed and visibly saddened. My friend even started crying at this point, and she had no idea what The Hunger Games was about before we entered.

The Hunger Games is one of the best films i’ve seen this year, although my initial reaction after seeing the film was that it was a bit underwhelming. The around the film is so big that I was expecting some amazing, world changing masterpiece, but instead the film is simply an excellent blockbuster. It’s not going to win any oscars, but the box office is going to pile up. Just like Harry Potter.

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