Digital News: Further Discussion

After speaking to both Danny and Helen today we have moved on further with creating our brand. They both liked the idea of pole dancing and covering it in a different light. The current perception of it is that it is a bit of degrading job for women and a very sexual thing. However its actually a really good way to keep fit and men are also doing it. Helen wanted to know what kind of channel this would work on so we explained about our view of our channel so far being aimed at 16-25 year olds. She asked if maybe it would work on a sports channel. One of the reasons Myself, chris and danny worked together initially was because of our mutual interest in sports. We thought this would work well and maybe we could cover more obscure sports or things that people our age might enjoy, maybe show up and coming talent in this age group. My initial thought was perhaps there was a blind football team and we could have a footballing reporter who was sighted take part in a small game to show how talented these players are and a little bit more about how the sport works and such. I began googling to see if there was a local team in kent who played blind football. I found the Kent FA had a disability football section:

http://www.kentfa.com/players/disability-football

http://kentdl.co.uk

I began thinking that maybe we could find a person aged between 16-25 who played for this league that we could meet with and talk about their experience and perhaps they would have an interesting event coming up we could use as an exclusive story to cover.

We thought this was a good starting point and decided to go away and think about creating a brand of sports channel.

On the bus home i began thinking more about this idea and thought about how our production name is called Tekkers productions. This is based on the word Tekkers meaning skill and often used to describe sports stars who have astonishing skill.



I thought that we could call our channel Tekkers TV as this would work well for the sports brand as people our age who like sport would know what this was and would be a good way to market the channel. I decided to run this passed danny and chris later. From this idea i had the thought about freestyle footballers who are often thought of as having unbelievable Tekkers. I decided to use google to see if there were any freestyle footballers who are local. I found out about a guy called John Farnworth who holds 5 guiness world records including most around the worlds in a minute. This got me thinking about the current challenge by the Charity - Roy Castle lung cancer foundation. Roy Castle used to present record breakers and the charity are currently pushing for people to use the hashtag #Roysrecords to raise money for the charity and challenge their friends to record & beat their record attempt. I thought John could be the perfect person to perhaps have attempt a unofficial record live. I also read that he has been in the local area speaking to children at the Kent school games about the importance of being involved in sport and the benefits it can have on a person. Seeing as John only started doing Freestyle when he was 17 it also is something that can be taken up at a later age so is good for our target audience. I think it will be a story that will appeal to a lot of people. After mentioning both of these ideas to Danny and Chris they really liked them and thought we should push ahead with the freestyle idea and speak to Johns agent about getting him onboard. Danny is going to ring his agent and discuss his involvement.

stay safe,

Helen

Digital News: Class Task Press Release

Today we were set the task of creating a news report from a press release. I paired up with Hannah and we were given the following press release about TB.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/small-decrease-but-tb-rates-remain-unacceptably-high

We began by looking at the press release and highlighting important parts that we felt were of note. After reading through we noticed how depressing the story was and how it was suggesting that immigrants were the main cause for why the TB rates remained high. Obviously we didn't like this aspect of the story as it comes across very racist.

We then started to make notes based on what we knew about TB that could give us a story to use and link back to the statistics involved in the press release.

We then began to use google to find a case study we could use in order to personalise the story rather leave it as faceless.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tuberculosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx
http://www.thetruthabouttb.org/stories/allen

We found this story about a man called Allen which we felt was strong enough to go with the facts we already had. We thought it was also be a good way of showing people that TB isn't something that is in the past and hopefully being some attention to it without fear mongering. We liked the story because it made it more interesting that Allen thought his condition was 'Man Flu' and that his doctors initially didn't think TB because his symptoms also suggested other more common things.

After showing our first draft of our script to Helen she mentioned that we needed to look more at the history of TB and discuss more about how they used to treat it and why it isn't so common today.
We looked at the website below to give us a idea on how TB was treated in the passed. It informed us that Fresh air therapy was often the preferred method and that people were kept in sanatorium wards.
http://crossley.daniel-clark.co.uk
http://crossley.daniel-clark.co.uk/interview.html

Here is the Final Script:

On reflection i think that we created an interesting news topic and it helped me to find something slightly more positive and informative to the general population rather than what could have easily come across as a immigration issue and lack of medical awareness and supplies in other countries. I think that we created a piece that more people could watch as man flu is something that most people will refer to at some point and is a common little joke among partners. I think there are obviously a few things that could be worked upon such as linking the allen story with the facts slightly more - perhaps if we had found a case study on a non-Uk born person this would have flowed better between the 2.

Stay safe,

Helen

Digital News: Roles in the project

Similarly to our last project i will work as the producer and script writer. Danny will direct and chris will edit. Obviously we will all bring things to each aspect but we are each individually in charge of our own sections. This means most of my work will happen before the filming but with the scripting i will have to work with the anchor and reporter to find words and a writing style that suit them as we cant have someone saying something completely out of touch with their personality especially as we will have chosen them for that reason. I am happy that i am scripting as this is something i love doing and want to do in the future, i'm not particularly keen on being the producer but i feel it worked well for the last project and so i think we should stick as we are.

stay safe,

helen

Digital News: Hearing back from Emma

Emma has emailed back and unfortunately due to her pay we are unable to get her onboard but it means we can look at other options and hopefully we will hear back from pole persona and be able to confirm with them a day to film soon. It would have been nice to obviously get someone well known's take on the sport of pole fitness but i think that we can probably get plenty of great answers from the different people who attend the classes so i think that it will be good anyway.

Stay safe,

helen

Digital News: Contacting Psychology today

I sent an email to the author of Psychology today article in the hope of arranging a Skype interview. Here is the email:

Hello,

I'm a University 2nd year student studying Television Production in England and i recently read your article about Pole dancing and found a lot of the points you have brought up to be really interesting especially about how if the stigma is really being removed how come it isn't being introduced into PE Classes. I'm currently making a news channel as part of my course and we are gearing it towards sports for women. One of our segments is about the growing popularity of pole fitness in the UK and worldwide and wanted to look at it from all perspectives including the growing calls for it to become an olympic sport. I wanted to know about the possibility of organising a Skype interview with yourself about this topic and film this interview to use as part of the package. I hope to hear from you soon,

Helen Welsh

Hopefully i will hear back soon,

Stay safe,

Helen

Digital News: Pole Dancing Research

I found an interesting article with a different view on pole dancing and how if people felt it really was great for fitness they would encourage it to be a part of the curriculum along side sports such as netball and football. I think this is a view we should touch on as part of our film and see about getting an interview with someone who possibly shares this view, i may even email the writer of this article, in psychology today, and see about the possibility of getting a Skype interview.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/millennial-media/201310/is-pole-dancing-actually-empowering-women

stay safe,

Helen

Fiction Adaption: Poem Mind Map

I have looked the all the poems and the one that stood out the most and i had an instant connection to was 'The Death Bed' by Siegfried Sassoon (1916)

I have brainstormed some information and thoughts on the poem -

My main idea at the moment is to portray the poem through 2 time periods of a teenagers life. in the past where he is relentlessly bullied and then in the present where he has made the choice to take his life.

This idea came to me while reading the poem through lines such as "how should he die when cruel campaigners win safe through". This made me think about  the saying 'why do bad things happen to good people' and how people don't always think about the consequences of their actions. In my story these campaigners will be the bullies.
I also could visualise torches seating for someone when reading about the lights in the poem. "Light many lamps and gather round his bed"

I am now going to do more research about the death bed and Seigfried Sassoon.

Stay safe,

Helen

Digital News: Contacting Emma Haslam

I sent an email to Emma Haslam who appeared on Britains Got Talent in the hope that we might be able to get another persons opinion on the questions we have about pole dancing and it being a sport and possibly heading to the olympics.

Here is the email i sent:

Hi Emma,

My name is Helen Welsh, Im a 2nd year Television Production Student at Maidstone Studios, Kent. I am Currently working as part of a group to create a Digital News Channel as part of our course. Our Channel, Tekkers TV, is hoping to target females and show them a variety of sports options that they might not have considered and hopefully therefore increase participation. One of our news pieces is on the growing popularity of pole fitness in the UK, the call's for it to be made an Olympic Sport and then the other side of the coin where people are calling it degrading to women. We wanted to know about the possibility of arranging a Skype/ Google Hangout interview with yourself to discuss these points and also your own experience of pole fitness especially as you are a role model and popular figure in the sport. The News Channel will be put onto youtube and hopefully will help to encourage more women into sports and fitness.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind Regards,

Helen Welsh
Producer for Tekkers TV

i hope to hear back from her soon:

Stay safe,

Helen

Digital News: Contacting Pole Persona

After speaking further with my friend from work she said her Pole Fitness instructor was keen to get involved and to Facebook message her about the project. I decided to do this while it was fresh in her mind so that we could arrange a meeting and hopefully plan our script for our story.

Here is the message:

Hopefully i will hear back soon and we can move ahead with this story.

Stay Safe,

Helen

Digital News: Pole Dancing Research

I have been researching more about the olympic pole dancing story and also about Pole Fitness itself.

I found a few interesting articles online that have been helpful to me.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/29/pole-fitness-dancing-pole-fitness-olympics
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-27150055
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/pole-dancing-seeks-olympic-inclusion-1907036.html
http://ny.racked.com/archives/2014/10/01/pole_dancing_body_and_pole.php

What is Pole Fitness:

Pole Fitness is an effective form of exercise as well as an art form. As one of the fastest growing athletic industries, Pole Fitness gives people of all shapes, sizes, and athletic capability the chance to try something new that will improve their health and confidence overall. Pole Fitness combines gymnastics moves, dance styles and strength holds for a full body workout. this sport allows people to start at any level and offers a new and exciting way to work out.

When did Pole Fitness start and where is it heading?

What we know as Pole Fitness today, started in 1994 with the opening of the first ever Pole Studio owned by Fawnia Dietrich. Pole Fitness has evolved greatly since then, with thousands of pole studios across the world and different forms of Pole Fitness being born much like the different styles of Ice Skating. Pole Fitness popularity expanded quickly and in 2010 the International Pole Sports Federation was created to unite pole sports athletes and their countries to take them to the world Games and Olympics. As of July 2011, there were over 180,000 Pole Athletes across the globe and over 1,200 studios in more than 70 countries. In January of 2012 the first ever Pole Dance Fitness and Pole Sport Survey was created by United Pole Artists and Mighty Grip dedicated to gathering quality information that will move Pole Fitness closer to mainstream sports and fitness. The survey is being conducted worldwide for the purpose of gathering information to measure the strength and commercial power of the Pole Dance Sport and Fitness Industry.

What are the health benefits of Pole Fitness?

Like any other sport, Pole Fitness can improve a person’s overall health when done on a regular basis. Because Pole Fitness requires you to lift your own body weight, you use muscles in every part of your body that you may not have used before. Along with the physical changes your body will make, Pole Fitness can improve cardiorespiratory endurance and flexibility, but for some, the greatest benefit from Pole Fitness is a boost to their confidence. Time and again, people will mention how much more confident they are about themselves after taking a Pole Fitness class; that they were able to release an inner power or personality they never knew existed.

Below is a video of the basics of pole fitness:

I will now get in contact with the pole fitness instructor about the possibility of doing a information piece and see if there are any other interesting stories we can use after speaking with her.

Stay safe,

Helen

Digital News: The Idea

The brief for the Digital news is to create a news channel. I am working with Chris and Danny.

Myself and Chris in the lesson today had a chat about the kind of channel we wanted to create, i mentioned that i didn't enjoy the news on TV at the moment and preferred the bcc three style which just covered stories its target audience would find of interest - including stories about celebrities without missing out on the obvious big news of the day. This is done in 60 seconds.

Here is an example:



It features a scrolling news bar with other stories that might be of interest to the viewer but less of a 'big news' feature.

We said that we don't enjoy stories about the war and all the doom and gloom in the world and when we talked to our friends they agreed with us. We decided that we should make our target audience 16-25 as this is the age many young adults don't really enjoy this form of TV but if it was told in a way that was engaging they may enjoy it a lot more and find it of interest. We then discussed things that our age group enjoyed and also things that we are knowledgeable about.

Here is a brainstorm of these ideas:

Chris mentioned that he had been asked to film a promo for a pole dancing fitness centre in rochester and we thought this is the kind of thing people our age would like to see, guys and girls alike. We did a quick google search to find out if there was anything worth reporting news wise about this subject and found out that people were petitioning for it to become an olympic sport. We thought this was a good story and i mentioned that a friend from work attended a pole fit class and i could ask her if her instructor wouldn't mind us talking to her and filming the class as part of a package for our news.

We liked this and decided to speak to Danny about it to see if he felt it was a good story and also to run it by helen and see what she thought. We still needed to think of a brand for our channel but this idea was something we felt could work for our demographic.

Stay Safe,

Helen

Fiction adaption: Cinematographer

I have decided that for this project i would like to work with a cinematographer as i feel that camera and lighting is my weakest area and if i dont have to worry as much on that sort of thing and can bounce ideas of a professional that it will help make the project a success. From my experience from the first year especially on the meeting project i realised how important it is to have someone who undertsands everything about the camera and how to get it working exactly the way you need for a shot. My progress from 1st film to 2nd film was therefore influenced by the fact that chris knows an incredible about about the cameras we have at uni so i thought having him film 'a jounrey through love' would help immensely. For this project im thinking that it would be good to get 2 people on camera's - someone who is a cinematographer to lead the camera side of things and help with the things that i wont know and then chris on 2nd camera as he will still deleiver high quality but also get the opportunity to work with someone who is a professional in this field and they can learn of each other and work as a good team.  I therefore will be posting a casting call when i have a clearer picture of my film and hopefully will get a good response.

Stay safe,

Helen