Copyright permission

For the title sequence we wanted to use ITV News' theme tune. As the music was copyright we needed to gain permission before we used it in our news programme.

'To whom it may concern, We are two Media Studies students who are currently producing our own news programme and we would appreciate it if you would allow us to use a sample of the 'News at 10' theme tune in our title sequence. We would be very grateful with your support in this matter and look forward to hearing from you. Many Thanks Faye Allen & Lauren Mason.'

Here is the email we sent to ITV requesting permission to use their theme tune.

Storyboarding - main content

Today I drew up some storyboards of the shots which we planned to take for the news programme. Doing this allowed me to have a good idea of what the shots may look like once they are done. It also allowed me to see whether anything should be changed in advance rather than wasting time later on in the project.

Here is the first shot which will be taken. Runi will introduce all the stories on the news programme. She will be standing at this point in front of the interactive white board with a backdrop displaying SE1 News' logo and an image of the main story(graffiti). The camera will be on the tripod and kept in the same place throughout the shot.

Here is the second shot which will be taken. After Runi has introduced the top story the title sequence will then play. (I will discuss this later on in the project) Here Runi will introduce the topics which will also be discussed during the programme. She will then introduce Alison's report. Again the camera will be on the tripod again and fixed in one place throughout the shot.

Here is the third shot which will be taken. After Runi has introduced Alison's report this will be the next shot. Alison will talk about graffiti and whether it is art or ASBO? Then she will introduce PC Harding saying that she had an interview with her. The camera will be fixed on the tripod again however this time Alison will be walking along the wall so the camera will pan in the direction that she walks. There will also be several places where the camera will zoom in on Alison.

Here is the next set of shots which will be taken. In the interview the questions which were planned will be asked with the camera being stopped after every question so the shots are easier to edit later on. Alison will introduce the interview and then it will cut to the Donna. After looking at different news programmes in the interviews the person being interviewed is shot in a medium close up. This shows the reaction and emotion on their face as they discuss a topic. As we want our programme to be as professional as possible we used the same interview format used in 'real' news programmes. The camera will again be on the tripod and in a fixed position throughout the interview. After Donna's interview it will then cut back to Alison who will then introduce the next interview.

Here is the next set of shots which will be taken. After Donna's interview is shown it will then cut back to Alison who will introduce the next interview. Again the same questions will be used during the interview. We will use the same set up as the last interview having a medium close up of James showing his reaction and emotion when answering the questions. This will encourage audience involvement allowing them to relate to the topic being discussed. The camera will be fixed on the tripod again in the same position throughout the interview. After the interview shots are shown it will then cut back to Alison. Alison will then end the report and we will be back in the studio with Runi.

Here is the last set of shots which will be taken for the main content of the news programme. After Alison has ended her report Runi will then introduce Charlotte who will do the weather report. Charlotte will be stood in front of the interactive white board where a weather report will be projected behind her. The camera will on the tripod and fixed in one place throughout the shot. The only light in the room will just be on Charlotte so that what is being projected on the board can be seen clearly. Once Charlotte has done her report it will cut back to Runi who will end the news programme.

News Presenter

Here is the script we put together for the news presenter to say.

'Report released today shows 33% rise in anti-social behaviour. Is this what the generation want to spend their time doing, or is it simply because they have nothing to do? Good evening and welcome to SE1 NEWS. Our main stories tonight.... Strong blizzards to hit parts of the UK. A fall in interest rates hits the banking system hard. Our top story tonight, over recent years the younger generation have been portrayed in a bad light, with a break down in relationships within our society, who's to blame? Here is Alison Roddy reporting from Erith...... Thank you Alison some interesting thoughts. Over the past week we have received lots of home videos sent in from you at home showing how your coping with the snow..... Looks like some of us are having fun! Hows the weather looking for the next couple of days Charlotte? Thank you Charlotte well hopefully it will start to brighten up soon! Now thank you from SE1 NEWS centre goodbye'

News reporter

Here is the script we put together for the news reporter to say.

'Graffiti Art or ASBO? To some it's art but to the majority of communities it's vandalism. With a rise of 33% in anti-social behaviour we ask ourselves what can be done? In an interview with PC Donna Harding this is what she had to say. (interview with Donna is shown) It affects all areas from the police force to members of the public. Speaking to a local church youth worker, these were his thoughts. (interview with James is shown) Alison Roddy reporting from Erith. Back to the studio'.

Cast

Now that we are ready to begin filming we set about asking people to be part of our news programme. We needed a news presenter, a weather girl and a news reporter.

For the news presenter we wanted someone who was confident and had the abilities of a presenter. So we decided that we would ask Runi to be our news presenter.

Name: Fahmina (Runi) Ali

News Reporter
Costume: Smart business wear/ suit/ blouse

For the weather girl again we needed someone who was confident and 'bubbly'. Weather reports are quite relaxed and we wanted to put this trate in our report. So we decided to ask Charlotte to be our weather girl.

Name: Charlotte Myers

Weather Girl

Costume: Smart clothes/ dress/ suit jacket/ heels

Finally for the news reporter we wanted someone who was assertive who had a serious tone. So we decided to ask Alison Roddy to be our news reporter.

Name: Alison Roddy

News Reporter

Costume: Smart clothes/ suit/ shirt

Here are some of the female news presenters at ITV.

Mary Nightingale

Katie Derham

Faye Barker

As you can see from all the pictures above all the women are wearing smart business like clothes when presenting ITV News. This gives the programme a professional look and if the women look serious this aids the serious topics they discuss during the programme.

Planning for the scripts

After planning what footage we needed for the news programme we began to plan the script. When filming the news centre we needed the news presenter to get straight to the point in introducing the top story. Each word needs to be selected carefully so that they sound dramatic adding to the seriousness of the subject to be discussed. To get more of an idea of what we will get the news presenter to say when introducing the ASBO story I will analyse the clip below.




















Here is the clip which I looked at to help us decide on a script to give to our chosen news presenter.

'The ultimate sacrifice of a soldier who saved countless lives. Killed by a Taliban bomb days before he was due to see his wife and his son'.

The presenter gets straight to the point using abrupt sentences to show the meaning of the stories and the importance of each topic. The words 'Ultimate' and 'Sacrifice' are harsh words showing the in depth meaning of the story to come. It also covers how life is not fair as he saved 'Countless lives' with an emotional aspect at the end of the quote 'before he was due to see his wife and his son'. This short but effective sentence is what we would like to use at the beginning of our news programme. It draws the viewer in and shows the seriousness and the reality of what is happening around the world which most people are naive about.


We need to careful put together a short quote for our news presenter to say to encourage audience involvement and introduce a serious issue.

Location continued

After contacting James and Donna they both agreed to do the interviews. As our news programme was going to feature news in the south east the interviews would be done in this region. The interviews will both be filmed inside the place of work.

Donna would be filmed at Belvadere Police Station which is a well known area and fits into the culture of our programme. PC Harding will know Belvadere and the surrounding areas well, providing us with a good source of information in answering the interview questions.

Also we would film James where he worked. Again he will provide us with a good source of information for our questions as he works with trouble teenagers in Howbury Community Centre in Erith which is in the south east again applying to the culture of the programme. Shooting the footage in these places will give the news programme a professional look and also resemble a real programme.

The last part of the footage on the main story involves a news presenter walking along by some graffiti so we needed to find possible locations. Lauren found a park near her house which had great amount of graffiti which would look great in our news programme. The graffiti is brightly coloured and eye catching which we wanted in the shot so that Alison stood out against the background. To get a good representation of anti-social behaviour we decided to film the graffiti there in the same sort of area where the interviews would take place. This would also make what was said in the interviews more 'real' as what they are saying can be seen through the shots of the graffiti. As our news programme focused on stories in the south east doing all the filming in these areas applied to the culture of the programme and make the content seem more realistic.

Deciding on the Location

Today we started to discuss where we could actually film all of the content for our news programme. We needed to find a good location for our news studio where we would film our news presenter. The room where we would film needed to be reasonably spacious so we had a good filming area and there also would need to be a desk near the board. It also needed to have an interactive white board or over head projector so we could display a backdrop for the news presenter to sit in front of. Together we decided that we would film the news centre somewhere at school. Here is the list of possible rooms we came up with:



1) G13 room number 1

The room is very spacious and has an interactive white board. The only problem with this room is that there are no blinds so the light may not be able to be controlled to exactly how we want it. There is a desk which can be moved infront of the white board creating that news studio look. The room is freqently used for lessons so we would need to carefully plan when the room is free and when we are free to film.


2) F2 Media room

The room is very spacious and has an over head projector so we can project any features that we need on the board. The room also has a desk which can easily be moved to where we want it to be placed. The only issue is that when the over head projector projects something on the wall it is not lined up correctly so it does not look very professional. We want our programme to be as realistic as possible and this would be a huge problem which cannot be solved.

3) The learning Centre

The building is very spacious and has an interactive white board. There are no obstacles blocking the board and the over head projector is lined up correctly. There is a desk but unfortunately it cannot be moved, however half of the desk is in front of the interactive board. The lighting in the room can also be altered so we can easily control the light reflecting on the board to make the shots look as professional as possible.

After looking at possible locations for the 'news centre' we decided that filming in G13 would be the best option. The room has all the features that we need for our programme and resemble a real news room which is what we want.