News: Evaluation

Directing:

What I learned about directing during this project was that it is important to assert authority and know what you want to film, almost like dictating the crew, but only if their respect is earned (Bamford, 2012:79). Therefore, there is a fine line. The crew still have views and are an essential part of the film since it is a collaborative process. However, I think we didn't get as much potential out of our stories as we could have done since I didn't push enough for the contributors and locations I thought we needed.

Because of this, I also learned that the director and producer are a team, therefore I had to get used to trusting the producer and not being in control of obtaining contributors and locations for the first time. Nevertheless, our producer and I were always in communication which helped to build this trust and also gain some of the contributors and locations we needed. There are things the director can't control, since they are the producer's job, and time made it difficult for our producer to get everything because of the amount of contributors I wanted.

Yet, we did make good use out of what we were able to get access to. For example, our psychologist contributor didn't know as much about gaming as we thought, so whilst interviewing we had to listen to what he said and then I had to follow-up with a question to try and get him to say something relevant to gaming. This did work in the end because we still managed to get some sound bites which we could use.

As a team, we learned that making mistakes and then admitting them can be a good thing, because they can help us all to improve.

For example, during our interview with the psychologist I crossed the line. The medium shots showed the psychologist on the right and the interviewer on the left, but the wide and non-sync wide reversed these directions. However, I watched the footage back on the set and realised this so we were able to reshoot the wide before the contributor left, and since it was blurry we flipped the non-sync wide (these didn't get cut into the final film anyway).

Crossing the line

Reshooting so the line is not crossed -- screen direction for each subject is constant

I also crossed the line whilst cutting together some of the shots during the sequence which led into our live. This taught me it is better to think about the 180 degree rule as making sure each subject is always on the same side of the frame, as otherwise the shot becomes a 'reverse angle'(see fig.1) and everything flips, confusing the viewer (Ferrari, 2017).

Fig.1 180 Degree Rule (2017)

Therefore, this shot behind the gamers can't be cut together with the one showing the front of them, since everything reverses, even though all four walls are not seen, which is how I had previously been thinking about the rule.

This shot of the gamers can't be cut together with this one:

There is a jump as a reverse angle is created, confusing the audience

This shot is needed between them so that the movement can be seen

Still, this reinforced the fact that I should focus on doing one job, rather than being spread too thin trying to do too many things at once. For example, during our first live shoot, I was directing, holding a light, and grabbing the microphone from the presenter while trying to time the duration as the camera operator and I followed the presenter through a narrow corridor. This segment was therefore too long and very static.

For this reason, we re-filmed the live and I only directed and set up the lights before the camera started rolling. This made everything much more controlled, and also more interesting to watch as we filmed more action and cut some jargon from the script.

However, before going on a shoot, we need to ensure to check the equipment in the bag, since the long microphone cable was missing meaning we couldn't give gamers the mic when we were shooting vox pops. Because of this, we cut them from the film as their opinions couldn't be heard over the machines and music in the background. We also needed batteries for the Tascam and tape for one of the lights, since a crew member was wasted holding the batteries together instead. This could have been solved by thinking ahead, checking what was in the bag, and then making a list of things we could potentially need on set, so even if we didn't use them we still had them as back-up just in case.

The microphone cable is also visible in some of the live shots of the presenter and on the psychologist. It isn't as visible on the psychologist as he is wearing black, but our presenter is wearing white. This can be solved by checking for it next time, and briefing the subjects on how they should clip the microphones on more effectively.

Writing:

The stories we decided on were relevant and held impact for our audience since they were current and covered some important ongoing debates which are at the forefront of the conversation surrounding gaming. However, they were quite complicated stories, which I underestimated, especially while writing the scripts. 

For example, I included a lot of jargon such as 'prosocial behaviour', which could have been changed for a more understandable term such as 'positive behaviour' (this was changed for the live reshoot). This could have been solved by making time to get feedback from the group, since I wrote in a bit of a vacuum so wasn't detached. I wasn't thinking about the audience and assuming that they had zero knowledge.

I learnt that news scripts should be:

• Clear: use familiar terms, not jargon, and words which are short instead of long
• Concise: not overloading the audience with too much information at once, and just sticking to the basic information they need to know to understand and get the message of the story
• Correct: remember spelling, punctation and grammar, and cite sources (BBC Academy, 2017).

Therefore, the solution would be to go through the scripts, maybe even with someone who isn't involved in the project and has no knowledge about the subject, to get rid of anything that isn't essential to telling the story, especially jargon.

For me, it would have been simpler to get feedback from the group face-to-face rather than over message or on the phone. This is because of the amount of information we had to go through which was hard to convey without pointing at things in the scripts.
An example of this is that when writing some of the earlier scripts I thought we would have some of the contributors, but they then didn't show up during the filming. The plans therefore had to keep changing quickly. I found a good solution for this to be to have multiple back-up plans, but next time I need to make sure the back-up plans are as good as the original plan. The first live shoot was a back-up plan, and had less action which is why we had to reshoot.
The main things which I need to develop with scriptwriting in non-fiction is structure. We had some structural problems with our documentary too.
The structure of a news report should be similar to:

1. Showing footage which conveys the main point of the story, e.g. a crowd for a speech if the story is focused on an important person delivering a speech to a large crowd which we want to be the focus of the report
2. The first sentence should be the story's main point; if the story had to be told in one sentence this should be it
3. Background information then comes next to add context to this opening statement; this should be only one or two sentences of key points
4. Back to the pictures to add more context, and show the audience what is happening with the story as you tell them; pictures back up words
5. Expand on what the picture is showing -- going back to the crowd example, you could tell the audience the number of people who showed up, and just how far they came to get to where the speech is
6. Close the story with solid information, such as what will happen in the story next, or a fact which reiterates the main point of the story (Halbrooks, 2018).

Our stories could have benefited with a simple structure like this, since some of the lines the presenters delivered were large chunks of information which came all at once. Therefore, some information is lost to the audience, which makes these already quite complicated stories even harder to understand.

This could be solved by adding more pictures to break up the information. We got a lot of cutaways at the gaming centre, however, some other GVs which were relevant would have helped, as well as a set-up sequence to introduce our psychologist contributor, and even the owner of the gaming centre, to add context for the audience. Some of the cutaways we did film could have been more relevant to the subject as well, such as getting shots of two controllers rather than one, since the story was about multiplayer gaming.

To also make the structure better studio links were needed in the scripts so the stories flowed into one another. We solved this somewhat by recording an extra voiceover for our package, but it would have been simpler if we planned ahead. This also could have solved the duration problems we had where the segments were too short or too long, as it would have been clearer where one story ended and the other began, even though the voiceover did resolve this in the end.

Overall, we worked well as a group. We all stuck to our allocated roles and learnt about our jobs which helped us develop new skills. For example, the lighting in the shoot for the package was better than it had been in the green screen workshop. This was because we researched how to make it better and discussed this on set, doing things like turning only one light on at once so we could see how the subject was being illuminated by it before turning them all on, and putting some tape on the floor as a marker for the presenter so they didn't move out of the light, making it uneven.

Next time I think I need to work more on the writing, especially if covering a technical story like the ones we decided to report, since there is certain information which has to made simpler so the audience can understand. This could be done with a better structure instead of overloading the audience with information.
And with directing, I need to remember that in order to not cross the line the subjects have to each stay on the same side of the frame -- if they are on the right they stay on the right the whole time, unless the movement is shown.

List of illustrations:

Figure. 1180 Degree Rule (2017) [Diagram] At: https://indiefilmhustle.com/180-degree-rule/ (Accessed on 1 November 2018).

Bibliography:

Bamford, N. (2012) Directing Television: A Professional Survival Guide. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

BBC Academy. (2017) Writing News with Huw Edwards, BBC newsreader: key points. At: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/academy/academyfiles/Huw_Edwards_Writing_News_KEY_POINTS.pdf (Accessed on 1 November 2018).

Ferarri, A. 180 Degree Rule - Understand the "Line" or DIE! At: https://indiefilmhustle.com/180-degree-rule/ (Accessed on 1 November 2018).

Halbrooks, G. (2018) How to Write a News Script for TV News. At: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-write-a-news-script-for-tv-news-2315281 (Accessed on 1 November 2018).