Introduction:
As we start this unit, I learnt about the roles of a television broadcast. There are three people (the director, the PA and the vision-mixer) that work in the control room. These people need good communication for the film to go well. In the studio floor, there are three camera operators who control the cameras depending on the shot. There is also a floor manager who gives a countdown of when the broadcast will go live. All of these roles need lots of communication and trust because it's all about the correct timing. For example, the floor manager will tell the people on the scene to get ready. Once the floor manager is almost finished the countdown, the cameras start rolling and the scene is currently live. There are also other assistants for quickly preparing for the next scene. They have to change scenes quickly as there is a time limit for the next scene to take place.
Glossary:
Channel Fragmentation: An increase in the number of mass media outlets over the last few decades.
Audience Fragmentation: The division of audiences into smaller groups as a result of variety of media outlets (Channel Fragmentation)
Time Shifting & Place Shifting: New technologies have allowed audiences to choose when and where they consume television content. This refers to television 'on-demand'. So, rather than the whole family tuning in to watch the X-Factor at 8:00pm on a Saturday night, they may choose to watch the next day and whilst on the bus. Television is no longer experienced communally. However, social media allows for a shared experience still.
Secondary Research: Secondary research involves using information that others have gathered through primary research.
Digital Natives: A demographic group comprising individuals who are born or brought up during the age of digital technology and are therefore familiar with computers and the internet from an early age.
Spreadable media: Spreadable media is media which travels across media platforms at least in part because the people take it in their own hands and share it with their social networks.
360 Degree Commissioning: Television programmes are now designed for multi-platform delivery whilst retaining high quality content and output. 360 means programmes are not just on our TV screens, but online and on mobile.
Primary Research & Secondary Research
Primary Research is more complex than Secondary research. Secondary research has a broad understanding of the film whilst primary research has a in-depth exploration. Primary Research also has a one-to-one talk with active industry players & observers. In a Secondary research, the information is obtained from public sources. Finally, the primary research is focused on prospect companies and secondary research is a preparation for primary research. The research can be broken down to internal secondary data or external secondary data. The good thing about secondary research is that the information is readily available and it already exists. However, here are limitations in secondary research, such as the information lacks on specific areas or does not exactly address the question or concern. Some sources may be outdated.
How to use secondary research: 1. Identifying the subject domain and where to acquire the information; 2. Gathering existing data; 3. Comparing data from different sources, if necessary and is feasible; 4. Analysing the data.
Convergence vs Synergy
- Newspapers and books - typeset with hot metal
- Films shots & editied on celluloid film
- Music recorded onto vinyl discs or magnetic tape
In the video "the Machine is Us/ing Us" I learnt that we all connect to each other in the web rather that the times without technology. The video also explains how we can gather information from the web easily unlike researching from a book. Web 2.0 is the new gateway to find the information we need.
Consumers to Multipliers
Participatory culture are characterised by relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one's creations, and some type of information mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. - Henry Jenkins.
Taste-Makers (elite) --> Media Produces
Audience --> largely passive then (Now --> Past produces/part consumer --> Co-creators --> Multipliers) one-direction --> Producers --> Artefact --> Audience
"A partnership with Walk Free that engaged over 400,000 fans and resulted in Warner Bros. changing the sourcing of their Harry Potter chocolate to be 100% UTZ or Fairtrade" This achievement shows that Harry Potter's chocolate are more fair-trade meaning it's more fresh and supportive to the people in west Africa undergoing fair trade.
TV Production Assessment
In this TV production assessment, I was assigned to one of the groups in my media class known as "BBC Two" and I've been given the role of being a lighting director. My group's TV production is based on easter and the content of the show is a DIY of how to make easter egg baskets.
Research for being a lighting director: Lighting directors is a senior role where they have to work with the director, set designer and sound mixer to create the lighting atmosphere. Lighting directors need to have technical skills to match with the overall design and style of the shoot. Below is a video clip of what a lighting director does in the studio of ITV News.
Lighting Plans: Depending on what the set looks like, I thought it would be great if two of the lights are behind the cameras facing down towards the set. One light facing towards the side of the presenter and one light on the floor behind the presenter. The lights at the side and the back are medium sized lights whilst the two back lights are large-sized.
Below here is a button linking the script that we made for the cameras, cue titles and the stand by VT.
Below are two buttons linking to what we've done in the process of making the TV Production video. The TV Production Video shows the product we produced and the Behind The Scenes video shows how we managed to make the product as a team.
Reflection: What I've learnt and what I've done:
After successfully finishing the TV production, being a Lighting Director isn't as hard as I thought, all I had to do is to position the lighting into the correct position to make the set more perfect with the help of our group's set design. As I set the lights into a much better position, at some point, I ran out of things to do once the lights were put into their positions. During the TV production, I was called in to control the second autocue as no one was using it. I have been taught of how to use the autocue, slightly similar to operating a TV remote control. I had some practises of operating the autocue before starting the TV production trials to make sure everything works fine. When the TV production was "On Air", I was already used to it. For the first bit, I had to play and pause the script for the presenter to present. Once Camera 3 is in action, I put the autocue into the right script for the presenter to read. Once we finished some takes in the production show. We checked on what went well and what can be improved. So for our last final take, we need to fix the mistakes from the previous takes to make the last our best take. In the last take, we did very well but despite a few drawbacks. We managed to produce a successful film. I learnt about how to operate the autocue for the presenter to read and how to perfectly position the lights for the set. Overall, we thought our group's production was quite successful as we produced a great TV show which is watchable. Although there were a few rough edges to our film such as the unexpected sound problem during the film, we have managed to achieve a success to our film.