12 Dec Critical Explication – Isabella Ehrlicher
For the Critical Explication, I have chosen the YouTube live show of the 17th of October 2019. In that weeks live show I went out with Alessia Sasso to report on the live update on Brexit. In this live show I was also presenting for Group 2s VT on Brexit which I have used for my final VT submission.
I picked this Live show as I think there where some interesting Issues raised for discussion. I am going to focus on three main areas which will be Sound, the live report and the set-up of the studio including lighting.
Our live show is Broadcasted weekly online, which means it is not covered by Ofcom regulations. However, we always try our best to follow these regulations as good as we can.
There were a number of issues with the sound for this live show.
In the beginning of the Show Alessia Sassos microphone has been let on and, in the background, you can hear her talking over the presenters Kika and Julianna.
In the first VT which I was presenting, we had major issues with exporting the final VT package. In future we know to upload the VT not half an hour before the live show when everything is stressful anyway. We learned from this and started uploading our VTs the night before the live show.
Throughout the show there was always whispering in the background and other noises and we learned out of this whenever a person isn’t in front of the camera speaking we need to turn down the volume of their microphones.
In all the uploaded VTs in this live show there where background noises which could have been prevented. This is to blame on the lack of experience as this was our fourth live show and using the equipment wasn’t something we were very used to.
Although the sound was something we struggled a lot in the beginning Myriam’s sound was very good and throughout the weeks we improved a lot with this major issue.
The live reporting was given rather spontaneous to Alessia and me. Since I had my role originally in the radio show I did not have one for the YouTube live show. In the morning Rebecca decided it would be a great idea to have a live reporting from Westminster on the latest update on Brexit to bring a new segment to our live show.
Alessia reported and I was the camera operator and before we left for Westminster, Matt and me tried out if skype worked and after we sorted out major issues with sound we where good to go. We also wrote some short notes for Alessia so she knew what to say in front of the camera.
Alessia and me tried to get into College Green, which is a garden behind Westminster. During major political events, it turns to a broadcasting point for broadcasting companies all over the world.
They would not let us in with our Student press cards and told us to get an email from our editor in chief to confirm that we are journalists. After Vanessa Sent us this email they would still not let us in. This was a shame as it would have been a great location to have the live report.
Apart from the audio which was still on after the live reporting was done, it went really well for our first live report. We could have showed more of what is happening around us as there where many protestors for and against Brexit.
There was also no live interview with a protestor but we consciously decided against this as then we would have had problems with bias. In order to get an interview which would have not been biased we wouldn’t have needed some more planning time.
In the last segment of this critical Explication I will focus on the set up of the studio.
In this live show we decided to sit the presenters with their backs to the Newsroom. Looking back now it looks very unorganised and a bit messy. People are working in the background but the viewer doesn’t really get the purpose of this.
In following shows, we learned from this with adding more decoration like plants and trying out different positions. Although the lighting looks good on Kika and Julianna in the complete picture it looks very unprofessional. This is the same with the lighting for the bulletins and social media presenter.
The screen which the social media presenter is using looks very professional and Arun and Saffron seem calm and very practised.
Miriam’s background is not ideal and some screens are broken in the background. We changed this in later live shows to a green screen which made it look a lot more professional and easier for us to navigate and set up the floor for the live shows.
After this live show our skills in sound and set up of the studio have improved a lot. And although the show wasn’t perfect we took the most out of it and learned from our mistakes in following live shows. Also our planning skills have improved and before every live show we have a dry run where everyone can practice. We also discuss issues and questions in our meetings before the live shows and this organisations has helped a lot in improving our live shows.
In future I would like to see myself in more production roles. I have done a lot of presenting and editorial roles and I am excited for new challenges I will face.
