Show Un!

First Show

Making the VT's for the first show was really fun, I particularly enjoyed visiting safe house, it was such a lovely place, I also had a short interview with the co-owner.
Before the first show I was feeling very confident, I am not sure why but I felt considerably prepared and ready for the show, until about half an hour before when I realised that we hadn't had a run through and we were unprepared. The show overall went ok, there was times when people in the gallery were very off putting that my co-presenter and I were thrown off track. The was a situation where I continued to read the auto cue when I was supposed to stop, I am unsure if it is the job of the auto cue operator to stop rolling the AQ when it is supposed to stop. I however should have known where to stop and should not have read on even thought the AQ was still rolling. 
The presenter challenge did not go as well as I would have hoped, because it was ad-libbed it was difficult to stretch the material for as long as the producer would have liked, this made it seem as if it was being stretched for too long and it was also very awkward for the audience to watch as they knew this. 
When watching back myself on this programme I realised that I was often slouched and looked slightly unhappy, so therefore this was a lesson that I was going to learn for the next show, look very happy and interested at all times! (when appropriate) 

VT Work + Producers

VT Work and Communicating with Producers.

When It came to choosing which shows to present for I thought about what I had learnt about from the practices, such as knowing enough information about the subjects being covered. I chose which shows I thought were good for me to take part in. I chose Liam Conde's show which was about Age Cymru, and as this was a running feature around Exposure TV I thought it would be good to take part in, it was also about a newly opened hostel and the music scene in Cardiff, I thought that I would enjoy these topics. I also chose a show that Tom was producing as it was based around disability, similarly so was Sams. 

After choosing which shows I was doing I spoke to some of my producers to get more of an overview of their shows, I wish I could've have done this with all my producers as I feel as if I do not know enough about some shows. I would have liked to know all the VT's they were doing so I could take part in them too, as I only took part in some of their VT's. 

Studio Time

Practising in the studio

Before the weeks of exposure I have been practising in the studio for exposure. I have done some presenting before it was slightly familiar to me, however there were some added distractions this time. We were given ear pieces so we could hear the production team in the gallery. This was a distraction as so much was going on and people were communicating with each other, so therefore it was important that I channelled the relevant information. It was off putting and when people were talking to me I wanted to stop to listen so it was difficult to carry on and listen at the same time. 
I realised that it is important to talk at your own speed and not rush as this causes you to confuse words and stumble, it is important to be clear and understandable. I saw that it is important to consider what clothes you are wearing as colours such as white glare and wash out on the screen, and close stripes look slightly animated on camera. 

Some things I found difficult when I was presenting were:
1. The cameras numbering is backwards to me, camera one is on the right and three is on the left, so this confuses me as it is not the normal way you read numbers, so therefore I had to really think about which camera I was looking at. 
2. It was difficult not to talk over people when doing the interview, more preparation and synchronization with the guest and co-presenter needed to be found. I think I could have done this by speaking with the co-presenter and guest beforehand and having a 'mock' interview, this would have probably made the interviewee more comfortable as well. 
3. Making sure I know enough information about topics before going on air. Some of the practises were subjected about things that I did not know about - therefore I was unable to have the correct responces to the discussions. 

London

   London 

During my time in London I learnt a lot about the journalism industry, the types of people who will achieve the jobs that are available, the hard work and determination that goes into being successful and working as a team, the safety and the consideration for other people that you need to think about. Seeing the ITN Studios and finding out about how they run and manage themselves is interesting, the comparisons that each news channel/company has for each other is even more interesting to me. I learnt that sky are the quickest to get headlines out there but they do not necessarily have depth, that ITV are quicker than BBC and have slight more depth than Sky, and BBC are the slowest  but have to most informational depth than the other two. This proved to me that in a way even though they are competitors they still have their strengths and weaknesses that are all different. 

Sweets and Elephants

Assignment two and studio practice 

For the second assignment we had to make a 30 second presenter trial of ourselves. I wanted to make something different to reflect my personality. However I spent a long time thinking about how I wanted to do this and ended up not really thinking of anything, wasting my time. I decided to take the plunge and just go out and film something just so I had something to work with, fortunately for me it was a sunny day so I was able to get some nice shots in the park. I wanted to spell out my name by using my fingers as letters but this was not working because you could not see my hands very well so I just decided to write the letters on paper. This looked pretty in the location that I was in but as it was so bright unfortunately you were unable to see the letters, and when I came to edit this I had to think of something to get around the problem, so therefore I made titles and placed them over the letters in order to see the letters, this works but it does look a little odd, especially as I move the paper so the titles I put on look odd, however it looks better than just the letters on the paper. 

Assignment 1

Assignment One.

The first assignment for Tv Presenting was to make a 20 second piece to camera. 

For my piece to camera I decided to go to 'Steak of the Art' in Cardiff. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do my piece to camera on as I wanted the location to be relevant because I feel like the location is an important factor. This is because it has to back up what you are going to say. 

I chose 'Steak of the Art' because it is a new and interesting restaurant in Cardiff that many people will want to know more about. I am sure many people would walk past it and think to themselves 'what is this new place?' 

I also wanted to know more about it myself. 

I scripted what I was going to say to avoid repetition of words, and not knowing what I was going to say when I arrived at the location. 

I found out some information and practised what I was going to say to check that it sounded professional and informative. 

Once I arrived at the location I made sure I asked permission to record outside of the restaurant, as picked the best place to set the camera. The problem we faced was that the restaurant was still being put together on the outside so it meant that there were workmen fixing up the front, so lots of noise and big objects. I decided it would be nice to fit the menu in the shot in order for the viewers to be able to see what was on offer there. In reflection I think the shot would have been better if it was wider as it was not particularly flattering angle for my face. There was also emblems on the window with the logo on and it would have been nice to have fitted these in also. 

It was more difficult than I imagined to record it and it took a lot longer than I thought. This was because it was in the city centre and lots of noises were going on around us. There were traffic lights, buses and other vehicles, workmen, pedestrians, dogs and other pets, as well as people with suitcases going to the hotel next door. 

In order for all of these things to be silent was a near possible thing to get, so I had to compromise and make the best of the situation. 

It was also very cold so it was uncomfortable for me to stand in one static place.

If I was to do this again I would ask the management if it was possible to go inside to film as I feel that this would look more effective and be more comfortable for me, and of course there would be less noises if we were positioned in the right place.  

I also looked very miserable in the shot, for unknown reasons so that is another thing for me to consider when doing my next piece to camera.