MED326 Blog

19/10/2016 - Potential Location

So we have spent most of the past week trying to find a good location for the majority of the shoot. Whilst there are forest areas around Sunderland, they are not particularly large or dense enough. Ben in our group however, lives in Hexham and therefore knows good forest areas near his house very well and has helped us all decide on a potential location. We hope to visit it in the next week or so

27/10/2016 - Visiting the Forest

Today we finally got round to visiting the forest. It wasn't quite as ideal for me as I had been up at the RVI in Newcastle for a hospital appointment around the time we were meant to be heading there. After this I drove back to Sunderland to pick up Emma before finally driving up to Hexham to check out the wood. At this point, we met up with Carlton and Ben and had a walk through the woodland which looked particularly nice. I was spectical doing so however as I was still very pushed for time, being due to start work at 5PM; it was around 4:15PM by the time we were in the middle of the forest, about 10 minutes walk from the car. Eventually, once I felt I had seen enough to back to the car to try and get to work, although with rush hour traffic on the Newcastle Central Motorway, I still ended up being around 25 minutes late, although I was able to just make this owed time up at the start of another shift. Whilst we were at the forest, Carlton had taken location photos on his DSLR which he then uploaded to our Dissertation Facebook group.

09/11/2016 - Meeting With Ian

Today oversaw our first group meeting with Ian McPake regarding our film where we presented to him our ideas such as a potential script, the location etc. During this meeting, we were told that the forest maybe wasn't the best location in mind for filming, especially as we were planning on possibly staying and filming in tents. With this in mind, we set ourselves on finding a new location. Carlton had a Barn/Bunkhouse in mind which he thought would be perfect for the film and despite looking largely nice on the online photos, cost over £1000 and was all the way in Cumbria although we would have more than enough cars to take people down. Leanne, our producer, is planning to ring up the owner to possibly discuss a lower price.

14/12/2016 - First Casting Call

This afternoon we had our first Casting Call for the film

02/12/2016 - Kickstarter

To help with the expenses of catering for the actors, petrol and funding the barn itself, we spent today filming a kickstarter video to try and raise funds. The set up for it was not great; we used Carlton's DSLR to film it however we only used an onboard mic so the sound was quite distant. It probably would have been more effective if we had used clip on mics or detached the onboard mic and moved it closer. After a few takes we finally had something we were somewhat happy with.

08/12/2016 - The Pitch

Today was the day of the pitch for the film, it actually went much better than we all previously thought it did; I personally did not find it overly nerve-racking or anything and both Ian and Darren seemed happy with the overall pitch. 

18/12/2016 - The Barn Booking

Over the past few days, Lianne managed to negotiate a price with Freddy, the owner of the barn and managed to knock it down to around £130 each for 4 nights, working out at around just over £700, or an extra £20 each for a fifth night if we feel we will need the Friday too. As well as a £200 refundable deposit.

31/01/2017

Filming finally started today bright and early. We started off by filming at Lianne's house in the morning for the scenes of Casey packing. I ended up having a cameo role in this as her brother knocking on the door to tell her that Dan and Clarissa were outside. We then filmed the scenes of the car driving off. At this point, I had to leave filming to present Spark's Drivetime show while they filmed the scenes of Clarissa leaving at a friend's house.

02/02/2017

The second day of filming took place today at Ryan's granddads house where we filmed one of the dream sequences before moving back to my house where we filmed two of the dream sequences: one with Scarlett's dad and one with Scarlett's brother. Both of these scenes were filmed quickly and we were able to wrap up easily.

06/03/2017 - The Barn - Day 1

So today has been the first day down at the barn and it has actually gone quite well. 

To begin with, the barn is just as nice as it was displayed on the photos, and in terms of actual filming, pretty much everything was kept to schedule and we did not run behind. The only slight problem we had was that we couldn’t film one of the outdoor scenes as it began to rain in the evening.

The only issue we do have is that the nearest town to the barn is Penrith which is over a 20 minute drive away, not quite ideal if you’re planning on rush to the shops in a hurry.

07/03/2017 - Day 2

We started off the day by filming the breakfast scene where Amy was missing, whilst this scene went alright. After this however, we then started filming the outdoor football scenes which were originally going to be filmed on Monday. 

We had a few issues here as the Tascam ran out of batteries which meant we had to run to the shop which took around 40 minutes. We also had issues with the Walkie Talkies that we bought for the shoot running out of batteries. Despite a shaky start, we managed to get all the scenes filmed that we wanted to on the day.

08/03/2017 - Day 3

Unlike a few issues yesterday, filming overall went really well today meaning we only have a small number of scenes remaining to film tomorrow. We finished the day off by filming the campfire scenes and after doing so, relaxed by the fire for a bit reflecting on what we needed to film tomorrow whilst also roasting a few remaining marshmallows. We are having an early night tonight however as we need to be up early for the big Scarlett scene tomorrow.

09/03/2017 - Day 4
Today was the last day of filming, (for the barn at least). Getting up at 7AM to film the early morning scene on the hill wasn't actually as bad as expected, partly because because regularly presenting the breakfast shows on Spark meant I was used to early mornings, further when everyone is also waking up at the same time it tends to be a lot easier than. Filming on the hill was a bit cold but not terrible. Once the equipment had been set up the scene actually went really well during the first take and Scarlet's acting was very good, being able to even cry for the scene. Unfortunately due to some audio issues due to both myself and Lianne we had to film the scene again. The second time went much better and the acting was just as good. 

Following on from this we then sat around for a few hours where some of the actors and a couple of members of crew had a nap. Down the road from the barn, there was a disused petrol station which we thought looked very effective and as a result we decided to add a scene of Scarlett lost walking past the petrol station, this scene was much simpler to film as we only needed one camera. As a result, only myself, Ollie, Ben and Scarlett went to film this scene. As simpler and as short as the scene was however, it did take longer than thought to film as cars kept driving past during the scenes.

We then filmed the final few scenes with Scarlett waking up in the middle of the night and having a heart to heart with Clarissa, meaning we had successfully wrapped up filming on the night, which took a lot of pressure off the final day as we could just get up and go.

31/03/2017
Today has (hopefully) been the last day of filming. After some discussion, we decided to change the ending from the pub scene with all the friends to a scene of Scarlett being knocked over by a car whilst getting lost in the woods. There several reasons for this. Firstly, we were having issues finding time when we could get all the cast together to film at the same time due to other commitments whereas this new ending, only featured Scarlett. We also felt that the original ending was a bit boring and that the new ending would have more of a dramatic effect on the audience.

To begin with, we had Scarlett come into University to record the dialogue for the scene where she was lying on the road. Although we booked out the recording studio for this, we found it was much simpler to use the Spark off air studio as the recording quality was the same and everything was much simpler to use. Headphones were also available in the radio studio. We recorded the dialogue several times with no issues as well as some screaming sounds that we may use for when she gets hit by the car. As it was around 4PM when we finished, I then drove Scarlett back to her house as we felt it was unnecessary to have her wait around all day as we weren't going to be filming till around 9PM. Ryan and Carlton also came so we could scout a location for where she was going to be hit by the car.

For the actual shoot in the evening, we decided it was better to only take a few members of crew for this scene as Leanne was back home and Ollie was rather busy on the evening. Myself, Ben, Carlton and Scarlett headed out to Scarlett's house in Durham around 8.30 in the evening, however upon arriving we discovered that the camera had not been charged and therefore we had to give the camera to Scarlett to charge for around 20 minutes whilst we scouted for an appropriate location as we felt the one we had originally decided on wasn't great. We then picked up Scarlett and the camera and went to film. Unfortunately when we set up the shot, the camera then ran out of batteries so we had to drop it back off at Scarletts. We went to McDonalds to get food and came back around 30-40 minutes later to resume filming. After the disastrous start, we finally managed to film the scene successfully in several takes, although it was around 11:30PM by the time we had finished, much later than expected. We are hopefully that this should be the last day of filming, provided we do not require any reshoots at the barn.

04/05/2017 - Website Live
Today, the website has finally been completed, meaning we now have a strong multi-platform presence, the various behind the scenes content, such as photographs and vlogs, as well as trailer for the film, which Emma and Lianne edited together a few weeks back. When the final cut of the film has been handed in, it will be uploaded to the website. 

08/05/2017
Today we have exported and handed in the final cut of the film, although we had to export it twice as the first version was both poor quality and dropping frames. Apart from this, everything went well.

MED327 Blog

MED327 Radio Broadcasting

Z100

The first station I analysed was Z100. They are a 'hit music station', which broadcasts to the area of New York City, USA and are owned by the infamous iHeartRadio group. As the Head of Production at Spark, I often use a service called Reelworld, which provides audio and some templates to create imaging, they work closely with iHeartRadio and subsequently, many of the imaging templates have 'examples', using content and VOs from Z100, which was one of the reasons that inspired me to look at this station.

In terms of format and style, this station is in many ways, the equivalent to Capital in the UK, in fact it has been said many times in the past that Capital is 'modelled' on the iHeart hit music network, for many reasons of which will come apparent in this blog post. The music is very rhythmic, with remixes of slow songs sometimes being introduced, in fact, many of the songs that were remixed, such as the SeeB remix of Coldplay's 'Hymn For The Weekend', are also played on Capital. The station is very much music focused, with the apparent aim to 'cram' as many songs in a slot before an ad break in comparison with other stations in the area.

In terms of presenter style, in general daytime hours, the links are very short and slick, with some links only lasting around 20 seconds. There is less content and links are generally more about the artists on the station, a website or social media tease, or a competition, something which is persistent on the station. The only exception to this during daytime is breakfast and drive. Another way they are very similar to Capital, or rather Capital is very similar to them, is their summer and winter concerts, known as Z100's Summer Ball and Jingle Bell, (likewise – Capital's Summertime Ball & Jingle Bell Ball). Some other points are Z100's Cash Giveaway, where the listener is required to give a keyword, (Capital's Cash Call – listeners give a 'phrase that pays') and TOHs featuring, 'Z100 – an iHeartRadio Station', (Capital's TOHs featuring 'This is Capital – from Global'). Speaking of which, it is apparent iHeart want be known by the station's listeners, not only by the on air branding, but also by the website being z100.iheart.com and rather than having a dedicated app for the station, listeners can download an iHeart app which will allow them to listen to Z100 as well as other stations owned by the network, such as Kiis in Los Angeles.

Looking at the Z100 website, it is clear that the website is very much also focused on the artists, (with the majority of the front page being artist news), as well as contests, the playlist and an on air schedule page.

Radio Flaixbac

The next station I listened to was Radio Flaixbac, (pronounced 'Flash Back'). Flaixbac is a Spanish commercial regional station, which broadcasts to Catalonia and Andorra, and is based in Barcelona. It's main music format is chart, focusing on European and US hits. The first thing that is clear is that the music is a mix of both english speaking music, as well as other languages including, unsurprisingly, Spanish. The show I listened to was 'Formula Flaixbac' with presenter Andreu Presas. Taking the last 4 songs played, Spanish band Blaumat are currently playing as I write this. Further more, this band is in fact from Catalonia, technically making it a local track. Prior to this however, Clean Bandit & Jess Glynne's 'Rather Be' was played, as well as Shawn Mendes' 'Holding Me Back', Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of You' and Neiked's 'Sexual'. Whilst the final three of these artists have featured in the UK chart, Ed Sheeran is English, Shawn Mendes is Canadian whilst Neiked is Spanish.

Whilst it is difficult to work out exactly what the presenter style is, (due to the Spanish speaking presenters), it is clear that there remains a focus on the musical artists, with the names of artists being heard in links regularly, whether they have just been played or not. The majority of links heard were generally also less than a minute each, with music dominating the majority of the time spent listening. Heading over to their social media pages also told a similar story. Looking at their Twitter page, there wasn't a great deal of actual content from the station, rather mostly artist and showbiz news, with the most recent tweet being “Ja és aquí el nou tema de ‪@ShawnMendes”, and an article about his latest single, 'There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back'. While were no official statics available, it would seem that the target demographic would be something of around 18-35, Klear, an online demographic service states that the average listener age is 29, and that their engagment level is 'Very High'.

Ne1fm

The next station I listened to was Ne1fm, a community station based in Newcastle. The station launched in 2007, with a community license extended till 2022 and is run entirely by volunteers. The first point of interest is that the entire format of the station is a lot less tight compared with commercial radio. When I first tuned in, it was around 1.30PM and the station was in fact in automation till 2PM, (with the breakfast show finishing at 10AM), this is quite a large period of time to be in automation, especially when compared with a station like Spark. I then tuned in after 2PM however there was still no presenter on air, suggesting either the schedule was out of date or the presenter had not turned up.

Although it sounds bad to say, but you can tell almost straight away from listening that you are not listening to the highest budget radio station in the world. There was a severe lack of imaging on the station for starters, with the majority of music being segued without any sweepers/IDs inbetween. The only imaging I did actually hear was a quick 'Ne1fm' stab after the adverts. There were also no promos and no news at the top of the hour. Eventually I did hear some promos, the first one was just local voices saying the name whilst the second one was a promo for the Saturday Sports Show, this promo sounded butterly produced. A third promo followed this for Tuesday Afternoons, the amount of promos in a row also suggested a community rather than an Ne1fm stab, which actually sounded as though it had a professional voiceover on it. An interesting point I also picked up on was that unlike many community stations, Ne1fm actually ran adverts. Some of these were clearly locally produced, such as the one for Newcastle Volunteering Centre which came across as poorly produced, however there was also some national adverts being ran, such as an FSCS advert which I have also heard on commercial stations such as Capital and Heart.

In terms of music, there seemed to be no set format with a mixture of top 40, new and old. The most recent song I heard was played was 'Who Let The Dogs Out'. Everything combined suggested that there may not have been any set target age range, but rather a range of musical audiences both mainstream and niche.

Bibliography

Albarran, Alan B. Media Management And Economics Research In A Transmedia Environment. 1st ed. Print.

Fogg, ally, Phil Korbel, and Cathy Brooks. Community Radio Toolkit. 1st ed. Manchester: Radio Regen, 2005. Print.

Shuker, Roy. Understanding Popular Music. 1st ed. London [u.a.]: Routledge, 2005. Print.

Radio Module: Week 7

This week was the live show! We were due on air at 3PM and in the meantime sat in the room with the other groups and listened to the other shows on Spark which were playing out on the PC in the room. The Zetta log was also displayed on the projector. Straight after SR News, (rather than IRN), we hit next and started the hourtop straight into Wiz Khalifa/Charlie Puth - See You Again. The whole show ran very well with the only blunder being with a voxpop playing out on the same fader as the music bed making it difficult to hear. For some reason the talk time hit 00:00 earlier than planned as Zetta thought there was an extra song before the half hour Local Music track. The Local Music track was also Sigma - Nobody To Love for some reason. Overall we were happy with the show and our feedback from Richard in studio 5.

Radio Module: Week 6

This week we had a proper run through of the show. We logged into Zetta and cued the music log and did the show exactly how we would do if it was the live show and tried to hit the timing bang on. We also recorded the show into Adobe Audition so we could listen to it back and see how much talk time we used roughly.

Radio Module: Week 5

Last week, we attended a meeting with Richard to describe roughly how the show was going to work. After Emma failed to turn up to this meeting and knowing she was away for the rest of the week, we decided it was better to replace Alex as the other presenter. We sent Emma and Liam away to try and get some voxpops of Tinder stories while myself, Alex and Ellie cracked on with rehearsing the show.

Radio Module: Week 4

Fresh from the Easter Holidays, this week we decided upon a name for our show, it would be called 'Swipe Right', based on Tinder. We also decided that the show would be based on trying to get a match on Tinder and whether or not meeting people on Tinder can be successful.

Radio Module: Week 3

This week we went into more detail about the show and how it would be structured. This week I also introduced Emma and Ellie properly to the radio playout system, Zetta and taught them the basics of playing the next item on the log, (usually a song). Inserting stop markers after songs (to allow the presenter to talk before the next song) and the basics of the faders.