October 26, 2017 – Have You Heard The News- The Year In Review

October 26, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Using a live audience

Within most similar programmes to our intend one such as ‘The News Quiz on Radio 4’, ‘Fighting talk’ on 5 live , Mock the Week and Have I got News For You (read about them here) all use a live studio audience so that there is reaction from the people in the audience to the jokes that were being said by those on the panel and it means that you have laughter in the background rather than using ‘stock’ clapping sounds. It also allows for audience reaction such as a comedian who is a guest on Have I Got news for you laughing at someone in the audience or in fighting talks case make use of the audience to send in questions or to vote on items. However due to us not having the budget to rent the nearest theatre or venue of similar nature for example the Engine Shed we wouldn’t be able to. Alongside this there would be a huge increase in staffing and equipment hire costs as we would need to hire in security and many more staff unless the venue had a flat booking fee that included this. Another thing for consideration is that we don’t have the experience or the infrastructure to physically ticket an event and pack it out.

This ultimately means that we wouldn’t be able to make use of a ‘stage’ option for our actual project due to the lack of money we have and the fact that we would be very unlikely to get that many people who were seriously interested enough to come and watch the piece be created. Another issue that we would have faced if we were to do it like this would have been that we wouldn’t have ‘big enough’ contributors to actually encourage people to come and watch/listen to the programme being recorded. Instead of using an actual theatre or similar type of location

However, if we were, in fact, doing the project for real on radio 4 it would be recorded in a theatre with an audience to allow us to exploit that audience interaction possibility that we wouldn’t otherwise have resulting in more potential content alongside just generally sounding better as there would be actual laughter meaning that you can gauge whether the audience actually enjoyed what was being said rather than what we are going to have to which is do it by what we find funny, making the editing process a lot slower and more complicated.

October 26, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Competition

This section will outline programmes that are similar to ours, both on TV and radio.

The News Quiz – BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b098ns2s

The news quiz makes use of a very ‘official’ sounding brass intro, along with a very short introduction as it announces whos on the programme but then doesn’tt explain what they’re job roles are e.g If one of the contributors is a comedian or the editor of the Times etc, this is done so that timing is not such an issue. However, another downside of this is that can also be hard in the 30 minutes to work out whos who due to the lack of introduction. One thing that the news quiz does do well is the scripted outros of topics that they have been talking about, they are heavily scripted and this something that we should consider doing ourselves,

Fighting Talk – BBC Radio 5 Live http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0070hvs

Fighting talk is a 5 man panel where the panel discusses sports news and sports-related topics, it makes use of significant music beds and at times a live theatre audience with them being able to participate in the show by asking questions or submitting answers. The answers range from serious to completely false due to it being opinion based rather than it being based on what someone says or does. The format is also different as it lasts an hour rather than the 30 minutes of the news quiz, it does, however, make use of asking people questions individually and points system due to it being a ‘game show’. What i personally will take from this is the use of ad lib on the hosts part and short snappy stings that accompany items such as sound effects or music beds, as I feel that we could easily create these.

The Guardian UK: Politics Weekly – The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/politics/series/politicsweekly

Politics weekly is a weekly podcast that discusses two to three topics that have occurred in the news that week, with the one I listened to being about Tax evasion. This podcast despite not being at all humour based was still relevant due to its content and political talking. What I took from it was the relative simplicity of the questions that were being asked that prompted a discussion from, meaning that we do not need to do much in our own podcast to prompt this. I also found the hosts ability to drag people into the conversation quite useful as I will need to make sure that James does this himself and makes people that aren’t contributing contribute.

We Need to Talk About – Spotify (Produced by Whistledown Productions) https://open.spotify.com/show/50XWI8h417xGuMQ5Vp4lpI

We Need to Talk about is a weekly podcast roughly 45 minutes in length and is similar to what our idea is. It is a 4 person panel (including the presenter) show that discusses three topics that have occurred within that week, hence the name we need to talk about, in terms of the makeup of the panel it includes at least 1 journalist, 1 comedian and one highbrow political name, with recent bookings being: Alistair Campbell, David Lammy and Russel Kane. It makes use of clips in the intended manner we want to do ourselves by playing the clips in then asking for comment around this. It also struck me that the panel are all very opinionated characters that vary in their beliefs and the discussion can at times become quite controversial, again we need to do this ourselves, the final thing of note was how they made use of music segues to effectively transition from topics.

The Adam Buxton Podcast- Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1amnggjPO42W9l9R5xXodQ

The Adam Buxton is Adam Buxton’s own podcast with him talking to people about their lives and other ramblings. It is entirely conversation based with him talking to guests about anything varying from serious issues that the person has faced to funny elements, yet whilst this is being talked about is also relatable and we must remember that our own podcast should be relatable to the audience that we’re targeting. Again Buxton utilises simple but effective questions which make an interesting and listenable conversation. On top of this it is also rather funny with the conversation doing most of the work to make it so funny. Despite it not being for our target audience there is still a lot of elements that we can take from this.

No Such Thing as a Fish- Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4pqW0HTIeZcx7vqHpwzmZj

No Such Thing as a Fish is a podcast based on weird news stories and random facts which the panel then have a conversation around this topic. It is panel based on a 4 person panel with no official mediator. The conversation is then based on this fact with the other panel members stating related facts. At times it does feel very random and spontaneous but this is what makes it funny and easy to listen to and this what we should be hoping to achieve with our podcast,

The Late Night Alternative with Ian Lee – Talk Radio http://talkradio.co.uk/late-night-alternative-iain-lee

The Late Night Alternative is a more traditional podcast that is not a stand-alone item, instead, it is the best bits of Lee’s previous show meaning its subjects can vary hugely from episode to episode with items such as the discussing the news and newspaper headlines, random games that can involve the listeners via them calling in, or listeners contributing to a discussion by speaking about their own experiences. The programme as a whole is not afraid to be opinionated and controversial with Lee voicing his own opinions. Ultimately what we should be taking from this is that they aren’t scared to be opinionated and we should be encouraging this within our own podcast.

Chris Moyles- Radio X http://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/shows-presenters/chris-moyles/highlights/the-chris-moyles-show-on-radio-x-podcast

Chris Moyles podcast is similar to that of Ian Lee’s with it being an adaptation of his original show with other bits included. Moyle’s style is team based on the whole team being involved in the podcast meaning that there is a plethora of voices and in-jokes between the team that produces Chris Moyle’s programme. The programme makes use of both stupid jokes and reoccurring themes from others. It is also very easy to relate to what is being discussed meaning that when stupid topics are discussed it makes it very easy to laugh. Ultimately this is a different style from what we want to do however what can be taken from this is the way in which there are a plethora of voices however they don’t jump in over one another and its easily relatable style.

October 26, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Week 5 Tutorial

This week we again met with Dylan to discuss any progress that had been made on the project. Unfortunately this week I hadn’t personally done that much in regards to the project whereas James had done a lot more in the sourcing of the content and was near to completing this. The one thing that I had done was starting to make contact with potential people who would be interested such as those in the comedy society seeing as they do there own radio show on siren and would be the right type of people to approach(https://lincolnsu.com/activities/comedy). I did also have a brief thought about those who I work with and if any of these journalists would be at all interested in being involved.

Within the tutorial one point that was made was that we needed to expand ourselves outwards in terms of ages as if we were to only be using students then we would most likely never get it commissioned for radio 4 due to radio 4 not basing its commissions around demographics to the extent that radio 1 does. This then lead us to think about how anyone who would be interested that was in an ‘older generation’ than say what we were and at the same time stop everyone who was on the programme being a white man to ensure the programme fitted within the BBC’s diversity rules.

Another thing was discussed was the budget and how we go about doing this as I couldn’t understand the principle of how this worked, after some discussion I understood that the budget was just for this one project and what we were supposed to list in this budget and to what level of detail we were supposed to go into.