Progress Update

Yesterday, we finished filming the studio scenes. We managed to film the whole section in one day, which will help with continuity as there was no chance of other people moving parts of the studio around. Now we have to film Taylor's reporter scenes, and some shots for the headlines.

We were able to incorporate different shots into our report. We have a wide shot of the presenter and blue screen which will be able to show key details as I talk about them. We also have a close-up of the presenter when I introduce the headlines, and then have used a different angle for the next story to add variation.

We thought about mise-en-scene, and decided the presenter should wear a tie and jacket to reflect the serious nature of the news we are delivering. However, we chose a silver tie with beige jacket as it gives a more modern feel, and will appeal to the younger members of our target audience 'families'. The laptop also reflects how the news we are reporting is relevant and up-to-date, as the Internet is a quicker tool to relay information compared with hard-copy newspapers. We also have tried to make the studio itself look modern and sharp, by incorporating our blue screen as a flat screen television, and using a window as a backdrop.

Blue Screen Test 2

This is our second attempt at the blue screen, and I think this time the results are very good. We have made a new, neater blue screen which means the footage keyed over it looks much clearer. This was filmed with a camera phone so when we film it properly with a video camera the quality will be even better.

Progress Update

Today, we were finally able to start filming. We filmed during the lesson and on into the lunch break  We were able to film the headlines, and the start of the main story. From here on, we should be able to make better progress and get the majority of filming done by the end of next week.

Studio Development

Here is some pictures of the process of putting our studio together:

Building the studio

Our finished studio

The aftermath of the leaking disaster

Building the blue screen frame

News Values

After researching into the type of stories that are reported on in the news, I found the list of news values that Gatlung and Ruge proposed have to be adhered to if the story is to be news worthy:

• Frequency: Events that occur suddenly and fit well with the news organization's schedule are more likely to be reported than those that occur gradually or at inconvenient times of day or night. Long-term trends are not likely to receive much coverage.

• Negativity: Bad news is more newsworthy than good news.

• Unexpectedness: If an event is out of the ordinary it will have a greater effect than something that is an everyday occurrence.

• Unambiguity: Events whose implications are clear make for better copy than those that are open to more than one interpretation, or where any understanding of the implications depends on first understanding the complex background in which the events take place.

• Personalization: Events that can be portrayed as the actions of individuals will be more attractive than one in which there is no such "human interest."

• Meaningfulness: This relates to the sense of identification the audience has with the topic. "Cultural proximity" is a factor here -- stories concerned with people who speak the same language, look the same, and share the preoccupations as the audience receive more coverage than those concerned with people who speak different languages, look different and have different preoccupations.

• Reference to elite nations: Stories concerned with global powers receive more attention than those concerned with less influential nations.

• Reference to elite persons: Stories concerned with the rich, powerful, famous and infamous get more coverage.

• Conflict: Opposition of people or forces resulting in a dramatic effect. Stories with conflict are often quite newsworthy.

• Consonance: Stories that fit with the media's expectations receive more coverage than those that defy them (and for which they are thus unprepared). Note this appears to conflict with unexpectedness above. However, consonance really refers to themedia's readiness to report an item.

• Continuity: A story that is already in the news gathers a kind of inertia. This is partly because the media organizations are already in place to report the story, and partly because previous reportage may have made the story more accessible to the public (making it less ambiguous).

• Composition: Stories must compete with one another for space in the media. For instance, editors may seek to provide a balance of different types of coverage, so that if there is an excess of foreign news for instance, the least important foreign story may have to make way for an item concerned with the domestic news. In this way the prominence given to a story depends not only on its own news values but also on those of competing stories. (Galtung and Ruge, 1965)

• Competition: Commercial or professional competition between media may lead journalists to endorse the news value given to a story by a rival.

• Co-optation: A story that is only marginally newsworthy in its own right may be covered if it is related to a major running story.

• Prefabrication: A story that is marginal in news terms but written and available may be selected ahead of a much more newsworthy story that must be researched and written from the ground up.

• Predictability: An event is more likely to be covered if it has been pre-scheduled. (Bell, 1991)

• Time constraints: Traditional news media such as radio, television and daily newspapers have strict deadlines and a short production cycle, which selects for items that can be researched and covered quickly.

• Logistics: Although eased by the availability of global communications even from remote regions, the ability to deploy and control production and reporting staff, and functionality of technical resources can determine whether a story is covered. (Schlesinger, 1987)

If we cross-reference these with our main headline, the GCSE to English Baccalaureate Certificate changeover, we can see that this story is very relevant.

This story has emerged suddenly and caught most people by surprise so it fits 'frequency', while as it has emerged out of the blue it is also unexpected.

The effects that this change will have are very clear, that there will only be one exam at the end of course, so it is also unambiguous.

We will report on how this change will affect students/teachers/parents, so the story is personalized.

This story will directly affect all members of a family, and as our report is aimed at families, they will identify with the topic. The story also relates to this country, therefore, our report has meaning.

The fact that it was MP Michael Gove who stated this reform, the report has 'reference to elite persons'.

The story originated from the House of Commons, a place expected to reveal newsworthy items, so our report would have had consonance.

Overall, our report seems to fit a number of news values outlined by Gatlung and Ruge, and so, therefore, I think we have made a strong choice and chosen a story that is newsworthy.

Blue Screen Test

Although the blue screen itself is a bit skewed, the clip that we keyed onto the blue has worked very well. This is encouraging as we now know that using this blue card will work. We have now re-fitted a new screen which looks much neater, better aligned, and more professional.

Progress Update

Shot List

In today's lesson, I drew up our shot list. This is in order to make the filming process easier, which we hope to start next week.

Page 1

Page 2

Script for News Production

Yesterday, I was able to finish the script for our news report. Therefore, we plan to commence filming next week, and with the completed script this should be quite straight-forward as we know what we have to do.

Here is a copy of the completed script:

A2 News Production Script - James Henson by

Progress Update

Today is our first lesson back after the Christmas holidays. In terms of planning, we are pretty much finished. We just have to finish tweaking the script and then we can start filming the main segment of our news report, as we have already filmed our opening sequence.