9th December. Radio Package. With regard to subject matter for my radio package I took a long time think of an idea. I had trouble finding a story which I thought I could represent well through the medium of radio. I had several ideas for stories which I gathered information for and set up preliminary interviews for but these all seemed to fall through. My last option was something of a miracle which was suggested to me by Laurence. He had had a fantastic idea for a story but hadn’t followed it through, he was going to talk to Mark Coreth, a sculptor who was to carve a polar bear in ice in Trafalgar Square to represent the effects of global warming. I decided that it was such a fantastic story that it would be a waste to let it go. I contacted Mark Coreth and he was more than happy to do an interview with myself. He talked in depth about the inspiration behind his project and his time in the Artic, I had ample material to use for my package and to be honest I found it very hard to cut down to 1’40”. I decided that although he was an ideal subject for a Radio 4 audience, I wanted to accompany the feature with Moby’s Porcelain, as I just thought it really brought out the atmosphere of the Arctic and Mr. Coreth’s inspirational artistic characteristics.

8th December. Assessed Radio Day (South Coast Radio). Once again our team met up the day before our assessment so that we were prepared for the assessed news day. I found this really helpful as there was slightly more involved with the South Coast radio news day, in that we had to do a live two-way and a lunch time court story. Once again I offered to present as I felt that I had had ample practise and we all wanted a role that we felt comfortable doing. This was by far our most successful radio news day as we managed to gather all of our headline stories and produce them with plenty of time for rehearsals. Once again I thoroughly enjoyed the day and thought that we all very much earned our first!

1st December. Assessed Radio Day (Talbot FM). Following the practise radio days I felt confident that our assessed news day would go well. I was really happy with our group, I think that we were all able to work together well and each offered our own preferred skill to the team. Lucy and I chose to work together sharing the responsibility of presenter. She opted to present in the first bulletin and I did the second. We each read through each other’s stories and the finished script to make sure that it read fluently. I was really impressed with all of our stories for this day and also the way in which we built upon them in the second bulletin. My only criticism would be that we didn’t leave quite enough time for ample rehearsals. However, this didn’t impact too greatly on the finished bulletin. I was very happy working as part of a radio news team and felt that we worked very professionally together, I much prefer radio news days to the television ones, I personally feel much more relaxed presenting for radio.

Thursday 5th. Documentary filming. During the last couple of weeks Laura and I had decided upon a subject for the documentary and had managed to set up a series of meetings and interviews with our subjects. I was very happy with our choice, using the comedians, Jim Cross and Dan Gaine and their production of ‘Mother and Dad’ gave us alot of room to get our creative juices flowing! The subject matter was very interesting and we could adapt a really good angle with the use of shots in and around the Little Theatre and layer their amusing banter over the top. I think both Laura and I had the same sort of vision when it came to how the final piece would look so we took it upon ourselves to sort of direct the whole piece. As a group we filmed over 3 days and nights whilst the performance of Mother and Dad was taking place and gathered absolutely tonnes of footage which meant that we were spoilt for choice when it came to editing. Whilst editing I personally wanted to get a real feel for what it felt like to be a performer and I think we really managed to capture the essence of nervousness and tension that an actor feels before going onstage. I also believe that our documentary leaves the viewer with a sense of wanting to know more...as the boys used our work for a promotional piece for their website I think they thought the same!

Tuesday 3rd. Newsday. Having been assigned the role of presenter again I felt very prepared for our newsday this time around and a little less nervous. We all arrived first thing to gather appropriate headlines for the day and were able to make a selection of oovs for our opening sequence. I was very impressed with Jenny and Allana’s graphics skills and thought that our opening and ending credits were very suited to the nature of our show. I think that this week our style was much more appropriate for that of a serious news show and was happy with the running order of our stories. Was slightly disappointed when I glanced into the studio whilst another group was doing their youth news show and saw how creative they had been. I feel that we were a little conservative with ours and it was far too serious!

Tuesday 27th. Newsday. We had already decided who was playing each role and had all of our material ready to send to studio and put into tricaster. We left ourselves plenty of time for rehearsals and run throughs which allowed us to cut our package down to the right time. (5m32secs). I think we all worked very productively as a team and co-operated to ensure that our package ran smoothly. As presenter I was nervous, I didn’t want to let the team down in the live show as we all worked very hard on our individual packages, oovs etc. Need to remember to smile! Thought that the only criticisms were that it was a little formal for a youth news show but our content was good.

Monday 26th. Editing of the carnage package and creating scripts and running orders for the broadcast next day. In order to prepare for our first news day we all decided to meet up a day early to discuss our roles for the youth news day. I was assigned role of presenter which I was incredibly pleased about as I believe myself to be something of a technical flop so assigning me to autocue or vision mixer would not have been a good idea!

PRODUCTION ANALYSIS BLOG

Sunday 25th, evening. 9.30pm. Laura and I board a bus heading into Bournemouth town centre. Carnage has descended upon the town, in the form of the UK's largest pub crawl and we have been nominated to film this little event. We find ourselves to be the only people that are lacking a carnage t-shirt and wearing more than next to nothing! As we not so subtly take to the streets armed with camera, tripod and microphone we are greeted by thousands of students all very willing to take part in our TV project.

We managed to gather some amazing shots of students dressed in the strangest of attire, adapting the theme of dirty doctors and naughty nurses in their unique ways! We got several good interviews with keen volunteers eager to tell us how good carnage is. However, when we approached anyone with any responsibility and authority linked with the running of the event, they refused to speak to us. Stewards and ambulance personnel informed us that they had been pre-warned by organisers not to speak to any press. Despite this we had a very successful night of filming.

INTRODUCING "POWER-POP".

Hello 80’s revival 2009!

If you hadn’t already noticed (frankly, you must’ve had your head under a rock for the past few months-which, incidentally, I’m not condemning) but, you really should be aware that this year’s music scene is set to be re-liberated by the psychedelic harmonies and ‘synthy’ undertones of the late 70’s/early 80’s. (Cue sigh; I know, I know- Trust me, I did first time I heard this little remark, however…) Welcome an evolution of kraut rock and electro-pop with open arms. Bathe in the delights of artists such as La Roux, Bat for Lashes, Florence and the Machine, Little Boots, VV Brown, Coco Rosie and Lykee Li. (It’s actually not, contrary to popular opinion, a genre purely for those who deem themselves to be radically ‘out-there’ in the realms of contemporary culture. You don’t have to have smoked heroin to join this club.) Fusing something quaintly old-skool with the most futuristic sounds we’ve heard since Kraftwerk’s hit with ‘Autobahn’ in 1975, so called ‘power-pop’ promises to cause a fucking scene. POW!

Leading the crusade this month is the chart rocking, electro-duo Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid aka the formidable, La Roux. This outlandishly sexy pair from South London have hit the ‘big-time’ with their new release ‘In For The Kill’, following their equally successful debut, ‘Quicksand’. Currently preparing to support Lilly Allen on her UK tour, La Roux have attracted undeniably positive attention from a soiree of critics and have already had their latest single remixed by fellow artist and fan, Skream. It is this heavily poisonous dub-step tune that is sending shockwaves through the current club-scene, receiving particularly colossal praise from Radio1 DJ and underground clubland extraordinaire, Annie Mac.
The duo is fronted with Jackson’s hauntingly beautiful vocals (not to mention androgynously attractive appearance) and underpinned with voluptuous synths and bassy beats. Despite being just 21, and therefore (technically) barely old enough to remember the 80’s at all, the Brixton singer has managed to capture the essence of the era down to the minute detail of her wavy quiff. (Good effort!) She has somehow avoided a complete commercial duplication of said 80’s music yet it is treacherously easy to see where her influences come from…

Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, The Knife, Justice, Eurythmics, Sebastien Tellier, Tears for Fears, The Faint, Blondie, CLOR, Postal Service, Human League, Chaka Khan, Depeche Mode, Kitsune, Gary Numan, Hot Chip, The Cure, Mr Oizo, Blancmange, SebastiAn, Talk Talk, Doris Troy, Tom Vek, CSS, George Michael, YAZOO, Boys NOize, Joni Mitchell, Madonna (early).TEPR, Heaven 17.

(To name but a few!)

This (I assure you, in the most unobtrusive way) is an innovative and exciting breed of pop (at its very best) and with La Roux tipped to be more than just an interesting hairdo we await their next single with baited breath (or eager anticipation-whichever you prefer; I couldn’t decide!)

In the meantime check out these venues and dates:

30th April, Thekla, ‘Brizzle’
14th May, Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
15th May, Honey Club, Brighton
19th May, KoKo, London.

STUDENT SAFETY

More than 3,000 students in Bournemouth are living in halls, for many it is their first time away from home and with no parental guidance it is their first taste of independent living. Learning to cook and clean for themselves in itself can be a challenge, but how many of them are taking into consideration their personal safety?


Following the fatal attack of first year student Luke Campell, students have admitted to being complacent, Adelaide Allen, Vice president of the students union, encourages students to always be alert. “I was shocked the other day when a student said to me that she feels like she’s on holiday when she’s at university and so isn’t that careful. When living away from home I think you need to be more vigilant and aware of your surroundings. Students need to ensure someone knows where they are and if possible stay in groups late at night. I don’t think because of the murder students need to be worried but just be sensible and realise that their personal safety should be a high priority.”
Bournemouth is considered a relatively safe area to live but Miss Allen would still recommend that students carry a personal attack alarm. Presently they are not available from the University or Student Shop however; the Executive Committee are working on purchasing some to be available from the Students’ Union reception. “I think having an attack alarm can only help protect you when you’re out and about and I think both males and females should see the worth in buying one.”
First year student Elizabeth Stevenson, 19, from Bristol said “I wouldn’t buy one (personal attack alarm) as I think that there are better ways to stay safe. Personally I always make sure that I walk home in a group after a night out anyway.”
If students need any advice regarding anything mentioned in this article they are advised to pay Jane Devekey a visit. She has had extensive training with the Personal Safety Trust so that she is able to sort out any problems you might find yourself confronted with. She can be contacted by going to the Students Union above Dylan’s or alternatively via email, jdevekey @bournemouth.ac.uk.

Fatalities after Toxic Spillage

An elderly couple have been killed after a highly toxic poison spilled into the water at Poole Harbour. This happened at the scene of a major collision between Sandbanks Passenger Ferry and an El Taurus Cargo Ferry earlier this morning.
The couple, who have not been identified, are thought to have been in their 80’s and it is feared that it was Lindane poisoning that caused their deaths.
A spokesman for the Coastguard said the bodies were found half a mile from the initial incident by a Danish Lifeboat crew.
So far more than 70 people have been admitted to hospital following the accident.
There is great concern for passengers from the Sandbanks Ferry who jumped overboard following the collision. The poison, Lindane, has been reported as potentially life threatening by Torben Lee, Pollution Consultant. In a press conference with the Environmental Agency it has been advised that everyone who has come into contact with the water to seek medical assistance immediately. Lindane is still being considered a great risk. There is to be a 48 hour exclusion zone between Sandbanks and Bournemouth Pier, where it has been advised that no swimming, dog walking, cycling or walking should take place until further notice. All lifeboat personnel have been asked to wear chemical protection gear and any coastal area south east of Sandbanks to Hengist Bury Head is to be avoided for the time being.
It is thought that the Lindane spillage was caused when one of the trucks on the El Taurus cargo ship came loose and was damaged during the collision with the Sandbanks Passenger Ferry. “Lindane will spread at an incredible rate” said Mr.Lee, but, chemical boons have been constructed to avoid any further contamination.
At 9.10 this morning passengers from the Sandbanks Ferry jumped into areas of water where strong currents have carried them out to sea along with tonnes of Lindane. Remaining Passengers are currently being evacuated. The Police and the
Coastguards are concerned for those who remain in the water for fear of the freezing temperatures as well as the Lindane, helicopters are currently rescuing all passengers stranded.
Nick Gosney, 72, Chief Loader, for Sandbank’s Ferries, witnessed the entire event from Poole Harbour. “It was pretty nasty”. He said. The unknown blue and white cargo ferry has “smashed” into the side of the Sandbanks chain ferry causing both boats to stop moving. The cargo ship was taking in a lot of water and sinking, it is thought that all cargo will be lost. Bridget Verdun. Owner of Torbay Seaways said she is “very sad for what has happened”. The vessel, on its first voyage, was scheduled to carry trucks to Cherbourg, France. It is unsure exactly how the two ships collided but the damage is horrifically clear. Most passengers that were onboard the Sandbanks Ferry have been accounted for as have the crew onboard the El Taurus, escaping with minor cuts and bruises.