Have You Heard The News- The Year In Review

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.

October 21, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Overall aim and objectives

Objective:

The project will be an hour-long radio programme that takes a satirical view of current affairs and events that have happened within the year, making use of clips and contributors. It would be intended for a Radio 4 audience and would most likely be aired on a Saturday afternoon.

Project Aims:

To create a half-hour radio programme around current affairs that works well on the Radio 1 network and has the correct treatment for its audience so that it would be aired.

Have a five-person panel that is diverse and varying in terms of their political beliefs as to make the programme interesting, with at least one of these from a journalistic background so that we are able to make the programme have some sort of credibility as to what is being said.

Achieve balance and make sure that the programme abides by this due to it being key within the BBC’s editorial guidelines.

Make sure that the programme is entertaining to the majority rather than a few to make the audience feel that they can relate to what is being said.

Create strong supporting content for the programme e.g Social media assets and videos due to changing nature of the media world and radio’s constant evolution.

October 21, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Personal Objectives

Within this section I will outline my personal objectives and why I have chosen them for this project and how they will benefit me for the workplace.

Too my improve my project management skills: Within any organisation that I work in after university I will be expected to be able to work on a variety of projects with varying goals and help the organisation to achieve them even if this unrelated to what i have studied. This skill also needs to be developed as it itself includes a variety of skills such as teamwork, negotiation and leadership which again are key to any workplace. It is also of particular importance in the broadcast industry due to freelancers meaning that you could be working with someone new every day.

To gain confidence in speaking and approaching contributors to ask them to be involved in projects: With any radio project in industry, you will be expected to find relevant contributors and approach them to see if they would like to be involved in the programme that you are working on. This means that if you are not successful in finding people you are very unlikely to be able to keep the job for a long period of time, making it a key skill. Currently, when I do this I have a stigma surrounding it and I know that this needs to be removed to be successful in the industry.

To develop a more concise knowledge of how pitching to BBC radio networks works. The reason that I need to work on this is that the BBC is making a significant number of its programmes available for tender both from in-house and external teams over the next 10 years under the BBC’s compete or compare strategy (BBC,2015). This means that if I was to work for the BBC or a production company i would be expected to have a knowledge of how pitching to the BBC works and without I would be unlikely to receive a job offer.

To be more experimental in how the final piece sound and at the same time abide by the BBC technical requirements: I belive that my previous work has played it ‘safe’ so I would like to experiment with sound design and microphone placement to make a more exciting piece rather than by simply following the same production process that I have been using in the past.

To develop my multiplatform skills, such as social media and basic video editing: This is a vital skill in the industry due to radio becoming more and more intertwined with other media formats so it is crucial to be able to do basic multimedia related tasks, furthermore, it is also important for me to show an awareness that radio is not simply just ‘radio’ anymore in today’s media network.

My final objective is to have a strong portfolio piece that will help towards having a career. This is a vital thing for me to have as i intend to have a good portfolio as this will make getting a job significantly easier than it would if I didn’t. Alongside this, this piece of work varies dramatically from pieces I have done before as this is my first ever comedy programme and will not contain any music within it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/compete-or-compare-radio

October 18, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Jez Riley French

Today’s lecture was from the sound artist Jez Riley French. He is regularly commissioned for work by exhibitions, performances and instillation’s alongside running workshops and lectures.His work has been displayed at the likes of the Tate Modern (UK), The Whitworth (UK), MoT – Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Japan), Artisphere (USA), Harpa (Iceland), Mengi (Iceland), The Wired Lab (Australia), Mullae Art Space (Korea).

Jez’s website: https://jezrileyfrench.co.uk/

Jez spoke in depth about contact microphones and how to go about using them and the potential sounds that they can unleash, for example putting them outside of buildings to capture the sound of what is going on inside and utilising hydrofoil contact microphones to put in water to capture the sound of the inside of a lake or body of water. He also talked in depth about how duration is a key fact to consider in the world of sound and that you should not rush a recording as you should be patient in getting an exciting sound and not have a preconception of what you are going to hear. Furthermore he stressed that you should be listening to things for over 15 minutes to allow you to get your ears to conceptualise what is going on and fully take in the sound due to our ears being so used to listening to heavily compressed sound that alter the way we hear things due to the smaller frequency ranges. Another element of importance for him was that we should always use the entirety of the space that we are in, for example experimenting with mic placement in the studio rather than saying that it’ll do with what we have currently. Related to this is the element of exploration which he stressed heavily and said that you should always explore new things, for example listening to experimental work that will in turn influence you’re other work, so in this case we should listen to experimental radio.