Our Animatic

Progress Update

Friday, 26th October 2012

In our final lesson before half-term, we wanted to ensure that we were ready to start filming as soon as we came back. So after creating our storyboard, we filmed our animatic which detailed the opening sequence of our news report.

The script that I wrote on Microsoft Word for our animatic

Me working on the animatic script

Charlie putting the animatic together

Our original storyboard

Progress Update

Thursday, 25th October 2012

Our News Corporation Logo

Here is the logo that I created for our group's news report. I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 and some useful guides I found online to create it as I had had some experience with the program in the past. However, I did not know how to create the 3D effect so I looked up a guide.

The red colour scheme and drop shadow creates a bold text that reflects the importance of the news that we will be delivering. The black palm tree contrasts nicely with the red text and illustrates how we are a local news corporation. The palm tree is a symbol of the English Riviera and Torbay area, so the inclusion of it in our logo reflects the way in which we will be reporting on local stories.

Studio Analysis

Website Research

BBC

The BBC website features the instantly recognisable BBC colour scheme - red and white - which allows the viewer to recognise the high production values of the BBC. This encourages the user to use this service as they link the detailed stories from the news broadcast with this website. 

The Home Page also features the top headlines which enables the viewer to easily learn of the most important stories, especially if they are short of time. 

The graphic of the world emphasizes their 'around-the-world' coverage, while still retaining the BBC colour scheme. 

The clean-cut approach to their layout portrays the modern, up-to-date and relevant news stories that they report on. Their modern outlook is also reflected by the incorporation of an online RSS subscription link, allowing regular users to receive regular updates.

ITV

The ITV website does not feature any particular colour scheme, but does use a very clean-cut black and white style. This 

Progress Update

Thursday, 4th October 2012

In today's lesson, I continued my research regarding our news report. Today, I looked at the difference in studios. I decided to look at BBC News, ITV News and Channel 4 News so that I would be able to see the difference methods used by different channels. Next lesson I plan to record myself talking about these differences.

Spotlight Opening Analysis

The opening titles are played with the BBC News theme music playing to show that it's part of the BBC company. The opening uses images and clips from local areas, such as the Eden Project, while local place names are imposed upon the images. The red and white colour scheme link Spotlight to the BBC News empire which gives it credence.

The opening titles finish with the name of the programme, Spotlight, and the BBC News stamp which again provides the local news with credence, while the red and white colour scheme is continued. The BBC News stamp appears in the top corner of every clip to remind the viewer that it is a BBC News broadcast.

 The studio presenters then provide a brief summary of the main headline while a clip from the news story is shown.

 A snippet from an interview, regarding the top headline, is then shown to entice the viewer to continue watching.

The studio presenters then list the other headlines through direct address. A mid shot is used to create a formal, serious atmosphere. In terms of mise-en-scene, the presenters are always dressed smartly and formally in a suit and tie and a smart dress, respectively.

 A clip from the other headlines are then shown while the presenters briefly describe the story - that a local pasty company is asking its staff to accept a pay cut.

A simple wipe is used as the transition between headline clips to neatly link the two segments.

There is a clip for each headline, for example, a dispute over Brittany Ferries.



A slow zoom is used, with a different angle, to add interest for the viewer. The closing part of the soundtrack is then repeated to show that is the end of the headline reel. They then go into more detail regarding the first story while an appropriate graphic appears behind the presenters to illustrate what they're talking about.

An outside reporter then provides full details of the main story while an image of the affected person is shown. Here, it's discovered that this boy was wrongly accused of rape.

Often, there is an interview with someone who is related to the story and/or is affected by the event. For example, here, the boy's grandmother expresses her relief.

A freeze frame is then used while bullet points appear to summarise the key details. The freeze frame is related to the story while sometimes a film clip is paused and then turns monochrome, which the bullet points then appear over.

Finally, the reporter summarises the key details of the story and then signs out with his name, location and 'BBC News'.