Breaking News Report

 Our brief was to produce a breaking news report at Chestnut Grove Academy. My group’s news report was about a teacher who took revenge on a student whilst playing football in a physical educational lesson. As part of a news report we asked a variety of questions to the people involved such as the attacked student, the teacher and witnesses. We asked the teacher questions such as ' why do you hate the student?' and ‘why did you take revenge on this student?’ The student was asked questions such as 'did you provoke the teacher?' and 'what exactly happened whilst you were playing football?' When we shot the scenes for the vox pops we asked witnesses such as other students who happened to witness the incident. We asked those questions such as ‘did you think that it was a revenge attack? And 'what did you see?' The reason why we asked these challenging questions and less simplistic questions was to get in-depth responses that added more to the storyline.  The filming took place at Chestnut grove academy in various locations such as outside the football pitch and outdoor parts of the school. The key skills that we were focussing on were production skills, media skills and management skills. The purpose of the task was to complete our first full production and develop an understanding of how to create a media production.

During my production I faced different challenges in the three different stages of production.  In the pre production stage this included planning the news report, organising the news report and finding locations to film. The challenges I faced with the pre-production task was mainly the setting of the news report. Finding a suitable and realistic setting was not a major challenge however, it required deep thought and planning as the setting had to relate to the plot of the news report. The production stage included filming, participants and equipment. I generally faced difficulties and challenges in this stage due to the fact that I had not previously used the specific hardware provided such as the camera and tripod. Due to having no experience of using the equipment I was observant on how to operate the camera and tripod for future use whilst on this media course.  I did not find it challenging to work with my group members. I co-operated well with people during group work. I made sure I communicated properly with my group in order to complete this task. When we asked members of chestnut grove to participate in our vox pops they were more than willing to join in. We thoroughly explained the plot of our project and asked them if they could be part of our production. In order for the questions to be answered correctly when asked we assisted them with appropriate answer suggestions. Filming the shots was slightly complicated as the camera occasionally stopped working. For example the camera occasionally was blurry and there was minor problems operating the zooming technique, the group not understanding how to muse manual focus and a locked memory card. The postproduction included editing and time management, which was mostly concluded in class. Editing was the most difficult due to the fact that I have never edited a film production on IMovie. During the editing process I was also learning how to operate an apple Mac as well as IMovie, which tested my time management skills.

Throughout the task I developed a variety of skills despite the difficulties. My production skills developed as I used new technology such as the video camera. Editing my film on IMovie was also a skill I developed because it was my first time using the editing programme so I had to learn as I produced my production. Using and setting up the tripod was also a skill I developed so that damages didn’t occur to that particular equipment. The media skills I personally developed were particular angle shots to capture the scenes such as medium shots and close ups on the interviewees. Preparing our participants only required instructions and tips on what to say in response to any questions. We informed people participating in our production what the plot was and how they prefer to answer the questions in order to make our production interesting and enthusiastic. Management skills within the group involved time management and meeting the deadline.  As a member of my group decisions were made equally. Meeting the deadlines for this task could have been improved as to producing the production on time. Because of this I am going improve on my time management and organisational skills.

I have learnt how to use a camera and a tripod as well as the editing programme IMovie. I have learnt different techniques in how to start and end any future productions that I am working on and to also include different transitioning techniques such as fades and cutaways. From this task I learnt to always take the camera off the tripod and closing the tripod and holding it before moving to another location. This is to prevent any damages to the equipment used for the production.