Video Piece Evaluation

My video project went particularly well I think, as the story was the perfect example of a fresh news story – I only found out about it the day before and was live on the scene of the action, getting interviews (with moderate difficulty) from people who were part of the story, and onlookers who were indirectly involved in the story.  This means that it sticks solidly to the brief, and cannot be criticised for not being newsworthy, as many media institutions were also present at the protest, reporting as I was, with interviews of passers-by and protestors alike.

When editing my video, I encountered only one major problem; a lack of experience in using the software.  Because of this, and restrictions upon which Mac I could use when editing my piece outside of class, one of the files of my interviews became corrupted and would not work on the Mac I was using to upload my video to Youtube.  This meant that I had to cut out an interview, meaning that I had two interviews from University of Westminster and only one from the protest at the Houses of Parliament.  This was not a particularly difficult problem, as the remaining interview from the protest was very detailed and covered a lot of the beliefs of the protesters, as well as the ideologies behind the protest itself.

In comparison to other news blogs, I believe that mine was not the best it could have been, as there could have been more focus upon a theme; my blog as a whole was rather randomly arranged, with .  This may be the weak point of my video piece for my blog – although I think that I edited and produced it to a high standard, it did not fit with how I originally imagined my blog to take shape – as a motoring news blog.  This is not a major problem however, as there is a limit as to how relevant a motoring news story is in comparison to a current affairs story, and also there is a large difference in how easy it is to attain an interview with a motoring professional or someone of importance in a story relating to motoring, yet a current story such as the teachers’ strike and protest was challenging, yet contained people more approachable than a seasoned motoring executive or professional, so I do not believe that developing a theme was as important as gaining a current, thorough story.

I learned a lot through this project, such as the importance of a story being news-worthy to gain publicity, as well as how important it is to prepare for every eventuality when editing  a piece of media.  If I had been able to carry out another one or two interviews at the demonstration, I simply could have selected the two best interviews to use, while keeping the others as backup interviews, in case a situation like this happened.

Audio Piece Evaluation

I believe that my audio project went very well, as I successfully made my podcast as best I could to the original brief.  I secured interviews with most of the people I required to make the podcast and when faced with the fact that one of my planned interviewees was unable to give an interview, I found an alternate, yet just as valid secondary interviewee to give comment on my planned story.

When regarding the brief, I think I could have made my piece a little more news-worthy and current, however, the topic I chose is ever-important in the current affairs sphere, and I believe that highlighting the problems I covered in my podcast is very important, as a lack of knowledge or forethought in such a situation as this could lead to a messy, difficult divorce.  I probably could have made it more current by linking it to a connected story in the media at present, or failing that could have chosen a different, more current concept from the start.  As it stands, however, I believe that should publicity be raised for this, it would become a current news story, as it is apparent to me that the legalities when divorcing someone who is mentally unsafe and unstable get in the way of actually escaping the risk posed by their mental state.  I did not detail this in my podcast as I thought it would be a little impertinent to ask someone who has recently been through such an experience to give explicit and detailed comments on it, so I am happy that I only asked certain questions to avoid the risk of the podcast revealing information that my interviewees would have felt uncomfortable giving.

When it came to editing my podcast, I believe that I coped very well and did not encounter any problems, as I have been using Audacity (the software I used to produce the podcast) for a very long time, so knew it and knew what to do with it to get the results I wanted in my podcast.  Perhaps the most difficult part of my podcast production was selecting the music.  As I detailed in the documentation of my podcast production, most of the royalty-free music I listened to when searching for the right one to put in the background of my podcast was cheap-sounding, or just generally inappropriate, so I had to do a lot of searching before I found the right song.

In relation to other podcasts, I believe that mine was rather successful, as it could be counted as both a current affairs podcast relating to the legalities of divorce, or it could be more of a helpful, feature-piece-like podcast, which people would listen to for advice and preparation for their own divorce, should they be considering it, so it also has a slightly educational purpose amongst its current affairs attributes.

UCU and NUT Strike in Opposition of Pension Changes – News Video Piece

Earlier this week I went to the Houses of Parliament where the NUT and UCU were to hold a demonstration showing their opposition to the government’s plans to raise teachers’ pension age from 65 to 68.  Though many of the demonstrators were unwilling to be interviewed on camera, I did manage to secure an interview with Brian Chapman, 64, a soon-to-be retired teacher from London.

So it would seem that there is a general universal support for the strike and protest, even though many people remain unconvinced that the government will not listen to the demonstrators’ message.  This begs the question that should teachers be obliged to work on until the y are nearly 70 years old, will they be the ones to suffer, or will the students and the standard of education they receive.

Multimedia Review – The Places We Live by Jonas Bendiksen

It starts by stating simple facts: that now more people live in cities than rurally, that over a billion people live in slums now and that they’re the fastest growing human habitat on Earth.  With the soundtrack being the hum of slum life, the introduction sets this piece up as almost a nature show on humans – I half expected David Attenborough to provide a running commentary.  You are then given a choice of slums – each one totally different to the others, yet similar.  You are then offered to experience the day-to-day life of a choice of households, each one telling you their story and the mundane details of their very different life.  Where we may complain that the shower runs cold, they say they don’t mind having to give up food for their children.  The key point to each slum, however, is the households you are offered to enter, the people’s stories you are told and the immersive nature of the 360-degree photo, which makes you feel as if you are sat with the people.  Unlike Comic Relief, you are immersed in these peoples’ stories, rather than having your laughs interrupted by them.  This makes it more than simply a Comic-Relief Appeal Video; this is more educational, less “let’s be cheerful and give money to poor people while we have a good time”.

This piece is not a guilt trip for you to send money for, it is more a lesson in how different people around the world survive, it is clear to see, Bendiksen’s powerful message: “we’re not asking you to send money, we’re asking you to listen”.

Media Filtering – Motoring News.

There has been a hell of a lot happening in the motoring world lately, with new releases, testing and announcements galore.  It has been a bumper week for many of the world’s major car companies, which set the headlines flowing this weekend.

This AutoExpress article on the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake gives a glimpse of what Mercedes’ big coupe-estate will look like when it is released later on this year.  Also gives official statistics and engine line-up details of the niche-busting new model.

Another major headline to feature in this weeks’ motoring news is Autocar’s article on the BMW i8 Spyder, including a detailed, comprehensive analysis of its design from a practical, statistical and aesthetic approach.

A whisper from the world of motorsport has also been gaining momentum this week, as a report from Pistonheads claims the Pikes Peak Challenge reigning champion is set to use the first all-electric racer the challenge has seen.

TopGear recently drove the Mercedes E-Class Hybrid, the BlueTEC.  Includes a thorough review to see if this new competitor has what it takes to match Lexus’ long-standing candidate in this segment, the GS450h.

Finally, CAR Magazine have  published pictures of the 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe, an important car in the budget SUV sector, with a critique the new car’s design and Hyundai’s explanation of their new design language.

Audio Piece – Documentation

The first idea I had for my audio assignment was the same as my final one: a different perspective on the process of divorce.  My initial plan was to talk to recent divorcees to gain a full perspective of the process from more than one person.

Shortly I realised that I did not have the means to talk to several divorcees, and that many would not want to talk about their experiences as it is a very personal subject, so I decided to approach the subject differently, and interviewed different people around one divorce, and seeing as my mother was willing to talk about her divorce (which was different from the stereotypical divorce fallout), I thought of nothing better than to investigate the differences between stereotypical divorce and real-life divorces, with advice on what to expect from a divorce, the experience of the children caught in the middle, and a lawyer’s opinion.  I planned to interview my mum’s divorce lawyer to gauge her opinion on what to really expect when divorcing.

So this made me change my direction slightly, however I was recording all of the audio I needed; interviewing my brother and mum through Skype with good answers which I could use with some editing, however my mum’s solicitor was too busy to give an interview, so I had to improvise and use one of my friends, who incidentally is studying divorce law in another university in London.  When recording all but my law student friend, I had to use Skype to record their audio, as I had heard that the sound booth was not very sound proof, and because my room is not busy or likely to be occupied.

When editing my audio I kept in mind Mark’s comments about one of my previous podcasts being too unnaturally edited – and that there were no gaps in the audio where my interviewee would be speaking, so I left in a few natural-sounding gaps, yet took out a considerable amount of thinking silence.  This ensured the podcast had a fluidity to it to ensure the listener did not lose focus or get bored.

The final step in producing my podcast was finding and adding appropriate music.  The finding part of the music stage was the most difficult, as I found most royalty-free music samples to be ill-fitting, or very cheap sounding, where I wanted my music to be formal and high-quality, yet not miserable.  Eventually I found the right piece for my podcast, and with some editing to convert it into a simple introductory riff, I was finished, after placing the sample between the interviews and at the end of the piece to mark these important places in my podcast.

Video Assignment – Documentation

The first idea I had for my video assignment was to do a small news report on the national portrait gallery’s modern portrait feature which was only to be featured at the gallery for a very short time. Further research into this informed me that I would only be able to film outside of the gallery, so I thought this may defeat the point of the report.

I then changed the plan of my video to be about the recent government budget announcement – for which I would go to the Houses of Parliament and interview passers-by on how they were differently affected by it. This would provide a comprehensive yet random look at how the budget will affect different groups of people. The only difficult part of this plan might be finding people willing to be interviewed.

The night before the day when I would be filming, I found out that there would be no lectures at university the next day, due to a strike over pension ages being increased for teachers. Upon further research, I also found out that there was to be a protest from Charing Cross to the Houses of Parliament – when and where I was due to be filming the next day. Without hesitation, I began planning what I would do when reporting on this topic, as this is the one I was definitely going to be using.

I eventually decided that I would simply wait for the protest to start, then once it was under way I would approach people to interview them, on the chance that they would be willing to. I would also take tracking shots of the protest without a main focal point, to put in front of a “talking heads” situation, so that the audience would not get bored of looking at one protestor’s face while they spoke for a particularly long time. Another of these shots would also be used to provide an image for when I did a voiceover, as a piece to camera would not be very practical when engulfed in a crowd of protestors.

The main difficulty I found on the day of filming was that people were not terribly willing to be interviewed. Many were uncomfortable about being on camera, where others simply didn’t have the time. Many were rather rude, however I did not let this put me off, and found two suitable, willing interviewees who I interviewed successfully. I did not think however, that two interviews would be enough, so I decided to head back to the university and interview students and lecturers on their views of the protest, and this would gain me a comprehensive angle on the protest and strike, from all relevant perspectives on the situation. I successfully attained an interview with Patrick Stoddart (journalism lecturer), and one with a student who preferred not to be named, seeing as the film was to be published on Youtube.

I edited the footage successfully I think, as I spent a lot of time choosing the right pieces to be put together, the right transitions to smooth out any changing clips, and the right audio levels for the sound of the videos, to make sure the video was as professionally produced as it could be. I did not encounter many obstacles, however some problems I encountered were down to my lack of experience with Final Cut Pro, the main one being that I wanted to put the interview captions in a box, so they did not get lost in the background of the video, making them hard to read, but I did not know how to put a box the right shape in, only a large square which the text would not fit into. The most persistent problem, however was when I transferred my work from a Mac in the library, to a Mac in News Room 3. One of my interview video files on the camera became corrupted when I was transferring it, so I had to delete my interview with a young teacher – a fairly important interview which I carried out in the m+idst of the protest, therefore impossible to replace. However this did not affect my final production too much – I still had plenty of interviews to keep the video piece relevant and interesting.

Jimi and Laura Hit The Street on Tuition Fee Rises

Laura Dawson and Jimi Beckwith interviewed two international students on their views of the rise in tuition fees.

HSBC’s Silly Profits.

Along with the news that they are cutting 30,000 jobs worldwide in cost-saving measures, global banking chain HSBC has announced record profits of over £13.8bn.  I, Jimi Beckwith, spoke to Laura Dawson, a HSBC customer, about her thoughts on the record profits and what they mean to her as a customer.

Jimi and Laura by Jimi_Beckwith

Split From Divorce?

Split From Divorce – Jimi Beckwith interviews Lynn Beckwith (recently engaging in divorce proceedings), David Beckwith (in the middle of his parents’ divorce) and Angela Gurung (trainee divorce lawyer) to try and find out if divorce really is as quick, painless and easy as in TV dramas.

Split From Divorce? by Jimi_Beckwith