Top Line - News unit

"So sit back, relax, push your coursework aside and tune into News Grad'.


We came up with this toppling as its quick, simple and straight to the point. This topple has a list of key words:


"So sit back, relax, push your coursework aside and tune into News Grad'.


The highlighted words are 'trigger' words. They stand out to the others because they are points of interest for students. So 'relax' and 'coursework' are both relatable phrases, especially the word 'coursework'. With "tune in" the audience will instantly know its a visual medium. The BBC says on their website: "The top line is the first sentence someone sees and could be the difference between them reading on or going to another story." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/19819214).

Evaluation - News Unit

News Production has been a challenging unit for me, however i have found that our finalised project does make me feel proud to be a part of the process that made it. In this Unit we had to make our own News Channel (News Grad) and not only create its first episode but also create a full channel, promotional trailer and website.


Pre-Production is a challenging but exciting process. By the time of our first meeting we had already shared thoughts between ourselves and pretty much established that our Youtube channel would be aimed at a student audience. After our first meeting we all agreed to set off and research our ideas to see if they were feasible. We also had the idea of budgeting at uni so we explored that in terms of food shopping etc (which later evolved into our top five tips, which after our fine cut viewing we cut all together). Researching these two ideas we were able to gather a lot of useful information that we could apply, however we were only able to attain a large field of data and not the specified section were were hoping to focus on, so we adapted the topic slightly.

After having a practice live news story (Johns Campaign) with Ferg and Helen in studio 1,we received some feedback from the rest of the class and it became apparent that we needed to change up our camera shots a bit more. It was a good start with the walk in, but the rest was stationary and got tedious. We learned for this in our actual live shoot with the student nurses, by varying the camera angles, including wides and medium close ups.




On the day of production we came across another issue; Emma our student nurse was available to film for only 20 minutes (as that is all she was allocated for her lunch) and her friend could not go on lunch at the same time as her because the ward was short staffed. This was fair enough as her job is her biggest priority, and we respected that. However, that did put us in an awkward position as our filming time was limited. Lucky we recce'd the location and so were able to get to where we needed to go and park the car relatively quickly. Another setback that occurred on the day of filming was the fact that Gavin was unavailable for filming and Simon because of traffic was held up until literally the second we started filming. We managed to sort of merge the script from the original two nurse script into the most important questions for just the one nurse. I was on camera however i had never picked one of those cameras up before and just did what i had done with the others before. White balance, zoom, focus, zoom back out and start rolling. Unfortunately it seems that when we looked back at the footage her white uniform did look over exposed however this is something i will remember for next time.

The day before our pre-recorded pieces were due to be filmed our key presenter Tom told us he could no longer help us with our project as he had just been accepted to a London Drama school and they requested his presence. This was unfortunate however we understood that it was a big opportunity for him. Given that i had been "playin his role" as such in Georges rehearsals i said that i would fill in for Tom.

The entire production process has been a great learning curve for me, as so much hadn't gone to plan but it was really all about the recovery. We realised when watching in post production that when using the green screen, Jack was presenting and moving his arms a lot and unfortunately at times half his arms would escape the green screen board which means in post production, half his arm would go missing. This was beyond recover and meant re-filming. Though inconvenient to us it was for the better as this didn't look professional. Also, when re-filming Jack had had some experience presenting and came across even better, our lighting was mastered so its aesthetic look was significantly better than what it was previously. This matched the rest of the quality of out News Grad episode. This just goes to show the importance of team work; we didn't let the issues we had get in the way and certainly didn't give up. We worked well together to overcome our mistakes, and stayed positive throughout.






When we reached pre-production, it was now our chance to fix any issues we had when filming, and put together all our hard work filming to see it all come together. The first big issue I wanted to work on was the live production; as mentioned earlier it wasn't our strongest point but that didn't mean I couldn't at lest try and fix it.

We showed Sam Creamer our rough cut and he gave us some feedback and said that the entire piece should be the quality it is for the second half as it gets a lot better. We agreed with Sam in this as we have a fair few decent scenes included like Georges graduation photo shoot introduction scene. We made some of the changes Sam suggested and went to see Helen the following day for a fine cut viewing. As it turned out we received a lot more constructive feedback than we initially thought! We knew our piece was missing something and at times seemed tedious with its limited camera positioning, and lengthy pieces to camera. Our option was to cut this down and have quicker cuts, as Helen suggested the high energy is lost with the lengthy PTCs with one shot. After receiving this feedback we decided to cut the 'top five tips' package and just up the quality of everything else and reshuffle the order. This was a big jump to make and meant re-filming some sequences again which was a huge setback for us, but we agreed with Helens feedback and all knew inside it was the right thing to do. Yes, we need up throwing away a lot of our footage we worked hard on planning, filming and editing but Helen was right; it was our of place and needed to be a lot faster paced in order to keep up with the energy throughout the rest of the episode. We re-filmed some sequences and re-shuffled the edit and made it flow a lot better. I'm pleased with the changes we made and feel it also acts on what Sam said about the quality being on the same high-level throughout.




This News Production unit has been a great experience and something I've taken a lot from. After analysing all the ups and downs I'm pleased to say that despite our setbacks, i feel we've all learned key factors to success when constructing a project like this, and most importantly worked together as a team and not given up at the first hurdle.

Post feedback re-shoot

After our feedback from Helen in todays fine cut viewing, we replanned our running order and what we needed/didn't need and what we wanted to re-film in order for its sequence to make sense. Our new running order is now:



Introduction- George having a photoshoot for my graduation going into PTC (Piece To Camera) to introduce. This was originally just for the tech section but it works well as an opening in general and is really well shot.


Tech Section- Reviewing shower bluetooth speaker and LED light- Party skit


DIY Tech- Introduction to DIY tech


Building DIY tech, then demonstration


Leads onto Outro DIY into...


Me introducing Student Nursing- Live interview




After myself and the rest of the group agreeing on this running order, we decided it was time to re-film some introductions to the new order, and ways to link to make it work. Helen said in her feedback that we needed to link everything together rather than have it more in separate blocks so the audience know where they stand. So we re-wrote the dialogue for the presenting and did something we didn't previously have; me and Jack in the studio together. After doing this it automatically felt more like 'News Grad' was a close nit group, producing content for like-minded students.

Shot list and scripting - News Unit

In our group we decided that shot lists weren't necessary for us to carry out the filming we did as there were no complicated scenes or different characters with different cues. Almost all the shots were a single presenter doing a piece to camera or stationary whilst talking. Also a lot of it was green screen which means very little movement (mostly just hand gestures).

As far as scripting goes, Gavin wrote the script however when the whole group reviewed it there were a few changes made just to improve the fluidity of the speech as we the presenters found a few phrases slightly jarring to say to camera. Some lines were improvised (not intentionally) however sounded better when watched. The only problem with this is if you needed to re-shoot, synch sound from a dub over or anything that regards sticking to script or being able to repeat what was said.

Location Recce- Live broadcast

Today George and I visited the area outside the Medway Maritime Hospital in order to assess any risks or hazards that would present themselves at the time of filming. A problem we came across upon observation was the noise of the traffic. We didn’t have the equipment on us at the time to see how we could change this through the camera/ sound equipment but will try and put some measures in place for the final shoot. This could include using clip mics which although wouldn’t cancel the background noise out completely, could help reduce it significantly. Another problem that we noticed when we arrived was the parking, there was a large queue to the hospital car park and the parking in the hospital grounds was quite expensive. Not only this but we deemed it to be morally questionable to take up a parking space that someone who genuinely needed medical attention may have needed.  Considering this we drove around to see if we could find any closer parking near the filming location. To our surprise there was some right next to it, however it was permit holders only. There was a place we could park further down which was a 10 minute walk away from where we were filming so we will just have to count for that time on the shoot day (Monday 16th October). It was only £1.00 parking which is worth saving the money for the walk, we can now accommodate it time wise, especially if we only have 20 minutes to do the interview.

Another problem we noted was the general public. Local residents and staff from the hospital seemed to have adopted the area in front of the Medway Hospital sign that will be our back-drop. We would therefore have to make it clear we are filming with a sheet of proof, risk assessment and high visibility jackets. The high visibility jackets are also important to have when filming next to a road of traffic so our presence is prominent.



I believe it was very beneficial for George and I to go and recce the location as it meant we could plan well in advance so we aren’t late and don’t waste any time on the actual day of shooting. We came across some issues we may have with the location on the day but those are dependable variables that can be prevented by planning parking, information and equipment. All being well the live broadcast shoot should be successful.

NOTE: POST SHOOT

Unfortunately we did not factor in the traffic on the journey to the hospital. Though we were not late, it left us with very little if not any time to set up for the interview and by the time we had walked to the shoot location from the car, the student nurse was already there. Due to this fact and the fact that she only had 20 minutes of lunch we did not have time to set up the clip mics and adjust the sound levels accordingly. Therefore we had to rely solely on the boom mic, which proved a struggle when busses would pull up alongside us with their loud deep sounding engines. 

Location - news unit

Our location for the live news section was the Medway Maritime Hospital. At first Gavin had tried to contact them but to no avail, so i decided that as the date for filming was getting closer that i would try. I googled "Medway hospital Press Office" and their website came up, once i clicked on that there were lots of sections for different things but right at the bottom there was a section called media, so i clicked on that. Once on there it gave you a number to called as well as an informational paragraph.
I phoned the number and a gentleman answered so i asked who i needed to speak to regarding filming on the hospital grounds, to which he replied that it was himself and asked what it was i needed. He introduced himself as Micheal Adley and i told him that we were planning an interview with a student nurse and having the hospital sign at the entrance would be a great backdrop.

He was very helpful and explained that if we were to film on the grounds then we would need a chaperone at all times, which unfortunately they could not provide on the day we were filming. However he did recommend a spot on the boundary of the grounds that is for public use in which the BBC do most of their filming for hospital coverage as there is a big sign there also. With this information i thanked him and ended the call. He had told me that it was on the corner of windmill road so i looked on google maps and we decided to go and do a recce before filming.

25 Word Pitch

"Student life isn't cheap but here at News Grad we can show you how to save money and live the lifestyle you crave, with insightful news."

With this short but sweet 25 word pitch we start with a punchy problem " Student life isn't cheap" to attract attention of any reader or listeners, but then lead with the solution to that problem. "we can show you how to save money", great right? everyone wants to have a spare bit of change in their pocket. But there's more! you can "live the lifestyle you crave"! So hopefully by this time you're hooked, and to top it off we let you know that there will also be "insightful news".

visual references - News unit

Our story for our live news section is the effects of the bursary cuts that have recently happened to student nurses. This happened in early 2017 and we already have a BBC report that we can use as secondary data. As well as this we though because in effect the wound is still fresh as it were, that people would would want to come forth and speak about it. Not only this but because it happened relatively recently it can still be treated as "current affairs" as such.



Now that our story had been confirmed we just needed to construct a website and youtube channel around this story that would fit with the theme and topic of the live section. Originally there were a few ideas thrown around for example a news outlet that concentrates specifically on medical staff etc for example the strike by the junior doctors not too long ago. However we found that that would be too specific and would be hard to find constant current news for. Also the target audience would be job specific which in the real world would jeopardise viewing numbers by excluding anyone who isn't involved in a medical field of work.


That is when we thought of the idea of a student channel which would have several sections in it, but student news being one of them (where the student nurse bursary cut comes in). The next challenge was to decide what to put in the youtube episode that would meet all the criteria. George came up

with the idea of a cheap tech review along the lines of what lots of popular youtubers do however instead of the latest iphones it would be tech and gadgets that students on a budget can afford. There was some debate between which would be better to review, wireless headphones or a bluetooth speaker that you could stick to any surface for the shower. The decision fell on the speaker as we all decided that we could do a lot more with comedic effect and the "cool factor" with the speaker than we could with the headphones. Initial ideas were george in the shower with a shower cap, a rubber duck and graphics being written in the condensation on the shower door.  Next was the other tech section which would be a weekly DIY section. This week it was a home made projector for your smartphone.


George did some research online for fun do it yourself projects that we knew students would like and most likely use, and a projector from a shoe box seemed both quirky and useful. So we made note of the steps needed to make it and decided that it was simple enough to be able to do ourselves as well
as film. We attempted to make one first however that didn't quite work as well as we had hoped, so further on down the line we tried again but this time with a narrower, more compact shoebox, and it worked!

Project Research - News unit

The following links are some of the key sources/ reports that we looked into when considering this story. It seemed like the cuts were relitivley well covered by mainstream media which meant that we would have a fair amount of material to use in our story. The linked material below also houses some useful statistics such as "the NHS is already struggling to fill 40,000 vacant nursing posts." Not only this but we could use statements as secondary data such as when Anne Corin, the Head of Education at The Royal College of Nursing told the BBC “With 24,000 vacancies in the NHS, it has never been more crucial to attract people into the nursing profession. However, the removal of bursaries is already acting as a significant deterrent, and applications are down by 20 percent.

(The Telegraph) Steep decline in number of student nurses following bursary cuts -http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/07/13/steep-decline-number-student-nurses-following-bursary-cuts/

(The Guardian) Nursing degree applications slump after NHS bursaries abolished -https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/feb/02/nursing-degree-applications-slump-after-nhs-bursaries-abolished

(The Guardian) 'My bursary was essential': readers on ending healthcare training bursaries -https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/01/my-bursary-was-essential-readers-on-ending-healthcare-training-bursaries