13 Dec Craig Fergus – Critical Explication
I have chosen the YouTube live show broadcast on November 15th, 2019 as the subject for my critical explication. I helped to produce a VT package for this programme, and also presented the social media segment of the show. I chose this particular live show because I feel I had more involvement in its making, as opposed to other Journalism London programmes. I am going to discuss two areas of the show – the social media segment I presented, and the VT package my group created.
I presented the social media segment of the live show, with just myself in the frame; in previous broadcasts, the social media editor stood alongside the presenter on camera, however as a team we agreed it looked more professional if the presenter was the sole person on screen. Instead, the social media editor switched between websites from behind the scenes. Due to the Journalism London show being aimed at London students, we researched material for the segment on the morning of the programme – this is so that the content I talk about is relevant to the day. I gathered my stories from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The news editor gave me a time-slot of one minute thirty seconds, so I chose three stories and aimed to give them thirty seconds each.
Besides stuttering a few times in my segment, I do believe that I did a great job overall. The topics chosen by the social media editor and I were relevant and appropriate, as they were the top trending stories on social media that day. As Journalism London covers soft and hard news, we felt it was important to include both in our piece – the three stories we chose were Taylor Swift’s legal issues with Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, the school shooting in Southern California, and the JLS reunion. These stories are relevant to our target audience as they involved celebrity gossip, which many students are interested in, and tragic news regarding other students across the globe.
I rehearsed several times, both on my own and in front of the camera. Although a script had been written, I decided against using it in the actual live show – this is because I wanted it my part to be more natural and engaging, and didn’t believe that would be the outcome had I been reading from paper. Whilst I don’t regret my decision, this caused me to stumble upon my words several times, which could be seen as unprofessional. This could be down to my lack of self confidence when in front of the camera; I need to improve my comfortability by accepting more presenting roles in class, and speak slower, so my voice is easier to understand. As I was nervous, the team agreed it would be better if I was to sit on the bench throughout my segment, which would stop me from pacing around the set – a trait I tend to do when under pressure. Despite the fact that I was four seconds short of the time I was given, I was still pleased that I had almost filled the whole slot.
For this week’s VT package, myself and our presenter Georgina headed to the Rio Cinema in Dalston, in order to cover the opening night of ‘Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest’. ‘Fringe!’ is a festival based solely in East London, dedicated to showcasing projects produced by members of the LGBTQ+ community. Since the festival is seen as a safe-space and inclusive for everyone, we ensured that anyone featured on camera was comfortable being filmed.
I felt that our VT was a success, and flowed smoothly because we visualised what we wanted it to look like before we filmed it. Having a firm plan helped us when we arrived at the venue, as we didn’t waste time getting shots we wouldn’t use in the final cut. We also thought of problems we could face, and how they could be fixed – for instance, we knew going to an evening event would result in dark footage, so we used the light which connects to the camera in outdoor shots. Another issue we resolved before facing it was having a wide range of different shots to use as GV’s for the voiceover, in order to keep our audience engaged.
Our expert interview came from the Head of Programme at ‘Fringe!’, Muffin Hicks. The interview was very balanced and informative, and delved predominantly into the opening night gala, which Georgina and I attended. Although it was a great interview, we should have used the attachable light that we used for the piece to camera at the end. The room was rather dim, and the light would have made it look more professional.
However, a mistake we made in our television package was that in the final sentence, we informed the audience that they could find more information on the festival via their website. Due to this error of judgement, it causes our VT to appear as a promotional video – we learned in our feedback session that broadcasters usually don’t do this, because it looks like they’re endorsing the festival. Therefore in future packages, we know not to include information that takes the audience to other sources.
There are a few technical issues I would fix if I was to recreate the VT package. For example, although our vox pops were intriguing and framed correctly (alternating left to right in different shots), I felt it would have been better had we spoke to younger attendees of the festival. I believe it would have been great to have gotten the opinions of young adults – specifically students, who the target audience can relate to more, speaking about why the festival is important to them.
Another mistake in the vox pops is that the portable microphone is fully visible in each one; it was a very busy and loud venue, and if we had held it any further away from the interviewees the sound would have been hard to hear. To resolve this error in the future, we could experiment with a lavalier microphone, which attaches to a person’s shirt-collar or jacket.
To conclude, producing both live and pre-recorded television segments has taught me that planning is the key to success. Extensive timekeeping for the social media segment allowed me to fill up almost my entire slot, and pre-planning the full VT package meant we knew what we were doing as soon as we began filming. Although I need to work on my confidence in front of the camera, the more opportunities I take to present will help build up the skill.
