GW: TV NEWS POST PRODUCTION

The post production of the TV News package was basically editing together of all of the elements that I had created and making a few motion graphics elements too. the idea was to execute the script idea but also to make sure that the mood, tone, emotion and feel felt right and authentic. As mentioned earlier TV news is a good vehicle for fast story telling as that is exactly what TV news packages/stories do. So length was important and the piece certainly needed to be no longer than three and a half minutes. The aim was to make it feel 99% right and do a lot of the background exposition and storytelling. The "borrowing" of the BBC logo also added the authenticity and kudos to the piece i desired.

In terms of the structure I followed my initial script to the letter and the structure was the following. I chose the most naturalistic looking talking heads from the reporter and the interviewees first as well as VO from the reporter and built the structure first making sure the narrative flowed. I then had to decide which GV's to use on the interviews and whereto put my created archive footage and photographs. I also recorded the created web-site being used on screen and was short of some book cover shots so quickly mocked some up in photoshop.

With this all in place the news package just needed the graphics to be added.

TV VT headers
These are primarily used when VT's were dropped into the shows but now that these are digital they are not used any-more. However they are something that audiences do not normally see and add a lot of authenticity to the news broadcast VT in my opinion and the BBC logo enhances this being a channel the audience are aware of with a generally good and trustworthy reputation. They also give the audience time to digest other information, dates, VT title, BBC logo etc. An added bonus with the HD clock that I sources online was the tone that kicks in at 20 secs, 10 secs, and 5, 4 and 3 seconds. It creates a little jolt in viewers when it appears and catches them off guard.

To create this I managed to source a clock online and then added the correct text to it exactly as original VT headers do. This was some technical details and a date as well as a title of the piece introducing the word Global Warmning. The date is set to 2/4/2015. The aim for this was for it to be the day after ben Wright appeared which would have been 40 years to the day he disappeared and started blogging again. That date would have been April 1st, April fools day. The font used was Gill Sans exactly the font used by the BBC. I also need to create my own BBC logo using the right font and squares in photoshop which I then imported into the editing software alongside the VT header.

The Lower Thirds

These are a TV convention for allowing characters to be introduced on screen with their names given and details about them. I wanted to use them for exactly this purpose and they also add kudos to the people speaking and eliminate an introduction to be needed from the reporter. I decided early on to use the BBC Look East news programme and in photoshop created the graphics to the exact spec of the original ones that they use. These fade on and off the screen at the start of each person first appearing on screen. As I have mentioned elsewhere the surnames of all of the people in the package are either famous illusionists or behind huge famous hoaxes. Copperfield and Blaine the famous illusionists and one of the men (Santilli) behind the famous hoax alien autopsy video tape. This goes along with Wright and Griffiths the surnames of the girls behind the fake Cottingley fairies hoax who are the surnames of Ben and Joseph who are mentioned elsewhere in the package.