News Production: Shoot day 4


Today we had an early start at the studios, where we first filmed our DIY tech construction video, which we had previously VO’d the day before. I knew what I had said in the VO as I rehearsed the lines so I was able to accurately go through the building process in order of how I said it. I suggested that we film it in a go pro above the desk so its a birds-eye view. I thought if we had the poles used to hang the green screen, we could attach the GoPro on the pole and use sliders on the Panasonic 4K comer to create a smooth tracking shot. This came out well overall and the projector actually ended up working really well.

We then filmed my introduction to the tech section which which involve dong a ‘mock’ graduation photo shoot and then taking the gown off doing a PTC to the camera. Our first attempt at this wasn’t so successful as we hoped it would be because the lighting was stationary. his mean when I walked towards the camera I would walk past the light and there would be shade on my face; a complete contrast to what it would have otherwise been. The resolution to this was fairly simple; just have Jack hold the LED light and move back as I moved forward so he is tracking me with the light. In the end this worked out well.

Our next shoot was of me introducing the portable, waterproof, bluetooth speaker. This took a few attempts to get it perfect but overall wasn’t too challenging. We did do this with other people in the room which was a problem for noise but was fine when they settled down and got use to us filming what we wanted. While me and Gavin went to de-rig the green screen and all the equipment, Simon went to film in our lecturer’s office one of the top 5 tips. This was to stay in touch with family and friends. We were finally finished using the green screen and could go to my house to film the rest of the top 5 tips and the portable projector in use.

We had a script but when it came to filming each of us had more ideas on how we could make it even better. So for example, with the LED lights to create good ambiance and a party atmosphere I thought it would be cool to do a jump cut so i press the LED remit control and suddenly a party is in action.




One problem we came across was the lighting we used would overheat quite a lot, but as a result of there being dust on the bulb it would burn and produce smoke which seemed like a health and safety hazard so we had t have one of us keeping a close eye on them, and have them on as little as possible (so only when setting up with the camera and doing a final take). They managed to hold up okay in the end and we prevented any accidents from happening by putting these measurements into place.

A problem we came across was we were unable to get hold of a door stop. This was for one of our top 5 tips to stay sociable in our flat by keeping your door open. We thought we could get one on the way to shoot from Tesco as it said online, but when we reached the store they didn’t have any. This turned out to work in our favour as we found a way around it. I suggested we use any relatively heavy objects, so its free and you can prop the door open with pretty much anything. Most students wouldn’t necessarily be bothered to get a door stop so suggesting they use anything is more convenient to them when they get there. For the shoot we used a big box of washing powder which I actually used for this purpose last year. I then made a joke about it on camera by saying “yeah, our budget didn’t quite stretch this far”. This was very fitting to our humour in our news channel.

This final shoot took us to 7:30pm so had been a long day, but we managed to get quite a bit achieved. All we had next was to make a promo video; which we have planned for on Monday. We came across a few obstacles when filming but managed to override them using our own initiative and resourcefulness, which makes this a team effort all in all.



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