Top Gear editing

Monday’s are generally a nice day regarding editing.

I simply have pull out show footage up from Top Gear; put an endboard and BBC DOG (digital on-screen graphic) on the clip. Then, having exported the clip to the correct specifications I publish it with iBroadcast; the way in which the BBC now uploads clips.

Most of the time I have to play the waiting game as every clip has to be signed off, or complied…like in Flight of the Navigator…. “compliance”.

There’s no rest for the wicked though…

While working on the Top Gear website, I was also working on Eastenders, editing together some montages which are always great; especially when you put some upbeat music on them!

Click here to see one of the Peggy montages.

It seems that my new gel keyboard cover is getting quite the workout at the moment. Come September though, it’ll be getting even more action…ohhhhhhhhhh

Stay tuned!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are that of my own and not my employer.

Eurovision 2010 Final vlog

During the Eurovision 2010 Final, I kept a short vlog about what goes in to making a website for a live show.

And here it is……..

The views and opinions expressed in this article and video are that of my own and not my employer.




Audience Insights

This week I shall be filming an in-house BBC auidence insight event.

The day will consist of following four teams who are taking part in a flash mob in different locations. There are four crews following the four flash mob teams. After a morning of observational filming, we’ll be at a question and answer session with some big names in BBC.

The first bit of filming will be done with a z5 and monopod.

I always tend to use a monopod to counteract the camera. I know there’s other better devices for such a deed but for me, the monopod technique works really well and I always stand by the idea of maknig equpiment work for you. That’s why it’s invented after all!

I’ve been working closely with the event organiser and the afternoon session will be filmed by three static cameras and one roaming; a lot like a stage show such as stand up or theatre productions.

It’ll be a good day, allowing me to use the Z5 again. I have also put my alarm on to remind me to TAKE PICTURES!

Eurovision; First Semi-Finals

It has finally arrived. The first of the Eurovision 2010 Semi-Finals takes place tonight at the Telenor Stadium in Oslo, Norway and is broadcast on BBC Three.

Tonight, I shall be in the office editing together a video diary that our man in the field, Paul Condon, has been filming. You can follow him on the official BBC Eurovision Twitter feed.

I shall also be updating the news pieces and the website itself for all those who aren’t on Facebook or Twitter.

It’s great getting to use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, iBroadcast and FTP again. I thought I would have forgotten a lot of the process but I think Last Man Standing drilled it into my subconscious.

And I promise, after this week is over I shall start to blog about the world of media, as opposed to just Eurovision. Honestly!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are that of my own and not my employer.

Eurovision has taken over my life!

Well, the official countdown to the Eurovision has begun. This time next week we’ll know who the 25 finalists are.

On Wednesday morning we filmed a brief challenge with Josh Dubovie during his rehearsals. He had to guess whether the songs he heard were winners or whether they scored nil points.

You can see how well he did on the Eurovision website.

Meanwhile, the linear team set off for Oslo on Thursday afternoon. Travelling by coach and ferry to avoid any disruption from strikes or ash clouds, they will arrive at their destination in the early hours of Saturday morning.

With the Senior Content Producer heading out to Oslo on Sunday with BA (hopefully!), it’ll mean I have a week of looking after the website. I’m really excited as it means I can get stuck into a bit of HTML, photoshop and publishing again.

Whenever I do anything like that, it reminds me of being in a spy film. You know those scenes I’m talking about. When the character is typing furiously on their laptops to ‘hack’ into a system of somekind. What can I say, it helps make the day go quicker.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are that of my own and not my employer.

Scriptwriting Frenzy

With just 4 days left to go until the deadline for Scriptwriting Frenzy, my fingers have been creating smoke and sparks this weekend!

If you haven’t already guessed, with my blog topics over the past month, Scriptwriting Frenzy has been taking up a lot of my time.

On Thursday morning I heard an argument on the tube between two people who worked together at a local catering company. Person A; we’ll call her Lucy had ignored Person B; we’ll call him Jack.

Lucy had prepared a fruit salad, NOT a leafy salad!

Needless to say it went straight in to my script when I had chance to get a pen and paper out. I changed the topic slightly though. I’m not sure a salad argument would work as well in a Car Showroom.

On Friday it was a bizarre conversation with a colleague at work that really helped me past a stumbling block I’ve had in episode two. She was talking about how someone in her block of flats keeps stealing the post. (it’s delivered to a communal place). One of her flatmates found £500 missing from her bank after a new debit card came for her and a neighbour managed to find it first! Eek!

As she was telling me I began to think, that is exactly something that Mickey would do. It’s strange how the characters in my script are becoming more like actual people.

Anyway, another 16 pages to write. Then its just a case of uploading it to the website……

The views and opinions expressed in this article are that of my own and not my employer.

Blogging, Scripting, Filming and Birthdays!

It’s now very apparent that I can’t blog AND script at the same time!

I started out quite well with my Scriptwriting Frenzy, but then lost a few days because of filming and celebrating birthdays. This has meant that I am now writing around 4.5 pages a day in order to keep up with the schedule.

It could be worse…it could be a case of writing something from scratch with just a week and a half to go!

I have also been filming with Josh Dubovie, our hopeful for Eurovision 2010.

I filmed behind the scenes on Wednesday and Thursday, following Josh during his rehearsals.

Then I planned an interview on the Friday morning so that he could talk about the rehearsals and the footage that I had already shot could be used as ‘paints’ to illustrate what Josh spoke about.

I then needed to edit the package together and comply it on Friday afternoon so it could be published.

(Needless to say that the interview was rescheduled for the Thursday afternoon instead. Great as it gave me more time to edit the package. But it meant I had less time to think about the questions.)

Shooting to edit is a very important technique when you have such a small time frame. For example, with this interview I threw some ideas around on the Wednesday afternoon after the first lot of filming to come up with two ‘safe’ options I could talk to Josh about.

These ‘safe’ options couldn’t give away anything that was taking place with the staging.

I chose to ask Josh about being in TVC and the simple dance routine he had been practising.

This consequently meant I knew exactly what to film during the behind the scenes.

A few more filming dates are coming up in the next few weeks which I will tell you about…

For up to the minute information about what I am doing, you can follow my Twitter account.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are that of my own and not my employer.

Filming for Your Country Needs You … Conclusion

The final of Your Country Needs You was quite the exciting and interesting night!

I was able to hit all my deadlines with speed yet precision and can safely say I am able to shoot and edit videos, with basic colour correction, grading, titles and audio mix, in 45 minutes.

Friday certainly put this to the test and I turned around 3 videos:

And a third video where we interviewed the fans as they came to TVC.

The winner was revealed and Josh will now be taking the UK through to Eurovision 2010 and while many people have already snubbed him, I think we are going to do really well this year.

It’s such a happy and catchy tune, and for all those who say it’s rubbish…well just have another listen to some of the other Eurovision 2010 entries and then get back to me.

The thing I love most about the track are the lyrics. For anyone that knows me, you’ll already be aware that 99% of the time, I like a song for the lyrics and how it ‘speaks’ to me. This is one of those occasions.

So, good luck to Josh! I shall be speaking to him about behind the scenes filming, but in the mean time, I hope he will enjoy all that is coming his way…

The opinions and views expressed in the article above are that of my own and not my employer.

Filming for Your Country Needs You… Update

Filming the 6 finalists went really well yesterday. They gave some really good answers about how they were feeling about the final days of rehearsal.

I managed to edit, sound mix AND colour correct the sequence in 62 minutes which I was quite proud of.

The clip has been complied and will be published this morning.

Today, we have the interviews with members of the public. Let’s see if the weather holds up for filming outside *fingers crossed*…

Filming for Your Country Needs You

 Over the next couple of days I am lucky to be involved with the build up to Your Country Needs You which is on BBC 1, Friday 12th March at 20:30!

Today we are going to grab the 6 finalists as they exit the studio, asking them about how they are getting on.

Back to the office and after a quick edit the clip published on the website later today.

Then tomorrow I am off to interview members of the public as they wait to enter the studio.

There’s quite a following on Twitter and it will be interesting to finally put screen names to faces.

As I edit the audience clips together to publish on the website I shall be sticking around to film an interview with the winner after the live show.

Once again, the winner’s interview will be edited and published before we go home.

Phew!

Let’s just recap my checklist…
Call Sheet…. Done
Filming Permit…. Done
Risk Assessment…. Done
Batteries charged…. Yep
Tape stock…. Plenty

It’ll be a great chance to work to such tight deadlines.

 There’s nothing quite like running round TVC with a film permit, a call sheet, a risk assessment, the equipment, and a song for the nation in your heart…

The views and opinions above are that of my own and not my employer