A Touching Point

So my two week placement is over. I have had such a good two weeks. Below is my final document with a list of who I believe to be appropriate Female presenters:

‘Running Wild’
Female Presenters


Ellie Harrison


Harrison grew up in rural Gloucestershire, "living off the land". At various times she worked in Zimbabwe, camped by and canoed on Lake Kariba and visited both Canada and Zimbabwe to observe wildlife before going to university. She has a BA from King's College, London, where she studied Geography and Ecology, graduating in 2000.


Seen on:
The One Show, Michaela’s Wild Challenge, Wild about your Garden, Country Tracks, Daily Planet and Countryfile.


Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbBssTmoMQ
http://www.ellie-harrison.com/showreel/showreel.html




Liz Bonnin


Liz Bonnin is a French presenter who has worked on television in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. She currently works for the BBC.


Seen on:
Bang goes the Theory, Museum of Life, Autumnwatch, Star Gazing Live and Country Tracks


Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfrGd1q_o2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5tL5ReKmZY




Julia Bradbury


Bradbury is an English presenter born to a Greek Mother.


Seen on:
Railway Walks, Rough Guide, Ultimate Briton – Climbing, Kill it Cook it Eat it and Countryfile


Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2CwNKWZYUY&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhWXw3mI1Ks




Kate Humble


Wikipedia says -
Kate Humble (born 12 December 1968) is an English television presenter, mainly for the BBC, specialising in wildlife and science programs. She is also the president of the RSPB.


Seen on:
Amazon Abyss, Animal Park – Wild in Africa, Seawatch, Ultimate Caving and Pacific Abyss amongst many others.


Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_JoOZ0WK64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABbYGF4Xz4c




Female Adventurers


Tori James


- Grew up on a farm
- Completed duke of Edinburgh
- Completed a Geography Degree at Royal Holloway
- Worked for British Schools Exploring Society
- In 2005 she was part of the first every all female team to complete the Polar Challenge
- Was the first Welsh woman to climb Mount Everest
- Was the youngest Briton to Climb Mount Everest




Katharine Tetley


- Degree in African politics
- Worked as Lawyer for three years post training
- Took a gap year and taught in schools in Tanzania
- Travelled in Malawi and Zimbabwe and Lived in Uganda
- Lived in Zambia and managed two camps
- She spent 6 weeks travelling around Mozambique
- Some of her holidays have been spent trekking up to camp 2 on Nanga Parbat, Pakistan, Annapurna and Everest Base Camp treks in Nepal
- Canoeing down the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea and travelling by train from Beijing




Tanya Streeter


- World famous free diver
- Held the world record for ‘no limits free diving’ at 160 meters
- She has featured on many TV shows on Animal Planet and the BBC
- Presented a show on BBC TWO called Shark Therapy




Katie-Jane L'Herpiniere


- Worked as a model for M&S and Alexander McQueen amongst others
- Completed a six moth trek other the Great Wall of China
- She and her Husband became the first people to ever achieve this
- She has cycled through Ethiopia




Tippi Degre


- Grew up in Africa and played with wild animals
- Had a documentary made about her on Discovery
- She is now 21 and studying film in Paris




Tanya Trevor Saunders


Her father worked on ‘Out of Africa’ and ‘Gorillas in the Mist’. He also set up the AEFF (African Environmental Film Foundation). Tanya loved being able to go on the sets, meet the actors and crew and be involved in the filming process. After finishing her A-levels she went back to Africa for two years. Here she did many things including co-writing the narrative for the TV broadcast ‘Keepers of the Kingdom’. Following this she went on to university in Edinburgh, despite being encouraged to go to Oxford or Cambridge, to study Law. She has achieved many things including completing the Safari half marathon at Lewa Downs in Kenya.

It seems a shame to me that I am having to work so much in the evenings at giraffe as well as Touch in the day. I love both jobs but seem to have worn myself out completely doing them both at the same tim…effectively working an 80 hour week! Crazy.


That aside I have learnt a great deal, got to meet some amazing people and achieved my goal of getting through potentially the busiest days of my university life.

Nice To Meet You

Another good day at Touch. Today I took it upon myself to get to know the team better. We had lunch together in the garden outside and they sat politely as I interrogated them. It was very interesting to me to learn each of their stories.

Here is an interview with my closest colleague Alex:

Alex Interview.mp3

Mid Week

The last couple of days I have spent doing research for new shows in the mornings and then working on finishing the correct presenter in the afternoons. Not only this but have done some fairly random tasks as well, such as helping with design problems (as I have much experience with photoshop etc) as well as teaching people how to do things. Here is a tutorial I made for Simon about how to draw a transparent box in order to see text clearer:

Not only this but I have been given the task of researching a new TV show they are working on. It is based around the new popular sport in America ‘Roller Derby’ that is now taking over the UK.

The range of tasks I am being set is keeping me on my toes and im finding it all very interesting.

...another begins

Wow can you believe it, the sun is STILL shining! The photo to the right here is the proof...that is where I had lunch. What a day!
Not only did I meet in my break with my good friend Cornish Mike (mentioned in many previous posts) but I discovered that one of the employees at Touch is in fact a long lost acquaintance from home. Rich Cracknell is someone I knew from around college and was friends with a few of my 'group'. We had a chat today and confessed recognising each other and he offered to show me the room he spends most of his time; the editing suit on site. It was very interesting to see...yet strange to think that some programs that millions of people are watching gets processed and worked on in these offices I am working in...very exciting.

The rest of the day was spent looking more into presenters. The ones i had chosen were too main stream. Touch were looking for someone fresh faced but with experience in the wild and with a new, young, energetic approach...back to the drawing board!

One week ends...

And so my first week at touch has come to a close. With all the bak holidays and such we have only had a four day week. Im not going to say it hasn't been a busy one though. With starting a new job on the sixth of april and now doing this placement at the same time I am very much looking forward to some well deserved rest.

The boys at Touch have informed me that Simon is not around the following week so I have said my goodbyes to him. The last task he set me was to look into a new program that they were about to have commissioned and from there find an appropriate presenter. For the sake of privacy I cannot discuss it on here but the rough idea was to find the next FEMALE Bear Grylls/Steve Backshall. Someone who was not afraid to put herself in dangerous position but someone we could perhaps relate to.

Here are my initial ideas:

Female Presenters:

Ellie Harrison

Info:

Wikipedia says -

Harrison grew up in rural Gloucestershire, "living off the land". At various times she worked in Zimbabwe, camped by and canoed on Lake Kariba and visited both Canada and Zimbabwe to observe wildlife before going to university. She has a BA from King's College, London, where she studied Geography and Ecology, graduating in 2000.

Seen on:

The One Show, Michaela’s Wild Challenge, Wild about your Garden, Country Tracks, Daily Planet and Countryfile.

Clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbBssTmoMQ

http://www.ellie-harrison.com/showreel/showreel.html

Liz Bonnin

Info:

Wikipedia says -

Liz Bonnin is a French presenter who has worked on television in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. She currently works for the BBC.

Seen on:

Bang goes the Theory, Museum of Life, Autumnwatch, Star Gazing Live and Country Tracks

Clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfrGd1q_o2M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5tL5ReKmZY

Julia Bradbury

Info:

Bradbury is an English presenter born to a Greek Mother and a Farther from Derbyshire.

Seen on:

Railway Walks, Rough Guide, Ultimate Briton – Climbing, Kill it Cook it Eat it and Countryfile

Clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2CwNKWZYUY&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhWXw3mI1Ks

Kate Humble

Info:

Wikipedia says -

Kate Humble (born 12 December 1968) is an English television presenter, mainly for the BBC, specialising in wildlife and science programs. She is also the president of the RSPB.

Seen on:

Amazon Abyss, Animal Park – Wild in Africa, Seawatch, Ultimate Caving and Pacific Abyss amongst many others.

Clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_JoOZ0WK64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABbYGF4Xz4c

Touch Take Two

Over the last two days I have been following a similar pattern as on my first day.

I have been getting in every morning at around 9.30 am and being given the news papers by Emily (that or getting them myself on my way in), going through them for a couple of hours jotting down my ideas and anything that caught my eye. Its an interesting approach and im enjoying the challenge.

Sadly I have come in at a very busy time for touch so I haven't been able to spend as much time with the other members of staff as I would like but I am enjoying watching them all work and asking about what they are getting up to.

As the day went on I did some more research on some of the ideas from day one:

The Sleepless Elite-

Sleep helps to repair brains and bodies

Clock gene (dna for less sleep)

Vietnamese man had 33years without sleep (Thai Ngoc)

Father and daughter claim to need only 1-2 hours sleep and still worked two jobs

Morvan’s Fibrillary Chorea – Genetic disorder that stops sleeping

Ive had an idea based around 'Britain’s sleepless street/sleepless office'. This would be where two different groups try to go a week with out sleep. Or compare two families; one that gets too much sleep, one that doesn’t get enough. Feature on Thai Ngoc.

A Touch of the real world...

Today was the first day of my placement at Touch Productions on queens Square in Bath.

What an amazing day to start the two weeks I have there! It has to have been the hottest 

day of the year so far.

The day started with me meeting members of the team, mainly Alex and Simon. They are the leaders of the Development team. I soon learn that this is the department I will be spending most of my time with. After being introduced to the business and who they are and what they do they get me straight to work.

My first task is idea generation. I am given a couple of newspapers and they ask me to look through the articles for any headlines that jump out, any subjects that seem to speak TV.

I spend over an hour doing this task, nervous that everything i'm coming up with is utter rubbish! My inital ideas consist of:

• Briton – time left in power
• To what extent is terrorism justified
• Cancer – curable?
• Crazy obsessions – p11 the sun, collecting horse hair £5000
• Football idols – new celeb culture
• Cleep walking – man drink driving
• Secret dare devils – new york skyscraper p19 sun
• Sand sculptures – unpaid hobbies
• Elephant under a house – p27 sun
• Sarah Fergason – loosing weight
• Life on a submarine
• The Sleepless Elite
• The Press – Life as a photographer/jurnalist
• Diets – prove/disprove diets
• Can you live happily without sex?
• Too Old Too Young – pressures of growing up
• Insomnia

I then collected the ideas and put them into smaller categories that would be easier to discuss:

Crazy Obsessions 

• Collecting Horse Hair 
• Collectors in general 
• Sand Sculptures 
• Unpaid Hobbies 

Football Idols 

• Obsession with Footballers
• New Celeb Culture 
• Past, Present and future of the game 

The Sleepless Elite 

• People that sleep for 4 hours and lead fuller lives 
• Sleep Walking – drink driving 
• Insomnia 

Secret Dare Devils 

• Man Caught in new York Base Jumping 
• Human Spider 

Diets 

• Series of programs testing different diets 
• Celeb Stories (Sarah Ferguson) 

The Press 

• Life as a photographer 
• Waiting days for one photograph 
• The lengths a reporter will go to just to get a story

I then had a meeting with Alex and Simon about my ideas. 

We discussed all ideas, of which 3 or 4 stuck out. I loved the way we bounced the ideas off each other and got them off the ground. We then honed these ideas even further to make them work better as TV shows. 

• The decades of celeb (footballers)
• Sleepless Street (office, or two families) 
• The Press 
• Defying the law for a thrill (secret dare devils) 

I then spent the afternoon working on the shows research, looking into ideas for them and digging deeper.

On finishing the day I found that the decades of celeb wasn’t going to work, they all seemed to inter link from the 50’s onward. I managed to come up with 4 main sections for the last 150 years; Explorers (pre 1900), Inventors (1900 - 1950), Performers (1950 - 2000) and Footballers/Reality (2000 - present). This might work but we'll have to see tomorrow!

All in all it was an interesting and exciting day. Its off to work now, but Im looking forward to tomorrow already!

Thats A Wrap!

And so as the term comes to a close so with it does our event. We finished the Media Event last friday and it has to be said, it was a great success.

The work everyone put in, no matter how small, all came together to produce an almost flawless day.

Being a technical course there is always going to be glitches that are beyond our control...the curse of technology! Our minor problem was with the Green Screen room for the first group. I was the one looking after that group and so had first hand view of what happened. When Ant tried to demonstrate the features if a green screen we were left staring at the spinning beach ball that people dread to see on a Mac. There was a small panic from all involved but we all soon realised the problem, got Ant get it sorted, and talked the students through the rest of the set up instead. We managed to get it working and all was well by the end of the session. Not only this but a lot of the students have said that the green screen was their most interesting activity and so this little glitch is nothing when looking at the big picture.

We received this email from the head of department (Tim):

Chloe,

This is just to let you know that we all had an excellent time at the event that you and your team organised for us on Friday. Please accept our thanks!

The key to success I think was the enthusiasm and good humour of everyone involved. It's great for me to be able to take my students out to places where they can meet new people and ideas in a friendly, energetic

environment.

We also feel very privileged to have been spoken to by your two contrasting speakers - equally informative and inspirational in their different ways.

If it were ever possible to do something for Bath Spa students using what we have here in town, we'd love to return the favour. We have a big studio and a number of very competent and reliable students more than ready to take up positions as part of any production crew.

Keep in touch,

Tim


This is a slideshow of us in action on the day:

And here is the online version of the article the Bath Chronicle printed:

Don't be discouraged rising tuition fees urge students.

All in all the experience was amazing. Not only did we get to learnt how to put on an event like this, but we all got to experience it, learn from our peers and from some experts in the field. I loved working with the students, I found it all very rewarding. I understand how hard it is to get an idea of what you want to do when you are in their position and I hope that we were able to aid them in their journey...where ever it may take them!

More Progress...

I have been in touch with Helen Goldsworthy in regards to the media event to let the university know what we had planned. I phoned her initially, but the rest of the conversation was via email. Below are the messages sent in reverse:

Hi Ed

Thanks for your email.  We will be sending 2 student ambassadors to help with the event Aneesa and Abbey.  Good luck with the event.  Please make sure that it is evaluated and I will need copies of the evaluation forms for our records.

Many thanks

Helen

From: Ed Whicher [mailto:whichered@hotmail.co.uk] 
Sent: 07 April 2011 11:44
To: Helen Goldsworthy
Subject: RE: media event

Hi Helen,

Thanks for your reply. Just want to remind you that the Media Events is going ahead as planned tomorrow.
The students are arriving around 9.20, stopping for lunch in the Students Union at around 12.15 and leaving campus around 3.30 pm.
If you have any concerns or questions please let me know and ill do my best to answer.

Thank you,
Ed

---

From: h.goldsworthy@bathspa.ac.uk
To: whichered@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:43:55 +0100
Subject: media event

Hi Ed

I received your voicemail today.  I am just back from annual leave, but I should be on campus all week if you need to discuss anything.

Kind regards

Helen

Rehearsal...

We dedicated today to practising all the things we planned to do on the actual Event day. Chloe hired out two rooms and we set about practising everything we could. I have now been assigned the role of group rep. This means I will be staying with one group of students and keeping an eye on them, making sure they get to each room on time, making sure they are happy and keeping the day flowing nicely. Because of this however, the rehearsal day was limited for me so I made myself available for others if they needed help...which they did! I spend most of the day setting up cameras and tripods, brainstorming ideas for the multi camera shoot (I came up with the idea of doing it out side if the sun was out like it was that day) and moving lights around. It was great for me to get involved with everyone and get hands on with the equipment. It gave me an insite into exactly what to expect on the day and gave me the knowledge I would need to make sure everything went to plan.

Here are some photos from the day:

The Pitch...

Today Brad, James Chloe and I went to visit the students at the Bath City College. We Spent about half an hour with them and got to meet a few members of staff there including the head of department Tim. We each did a little speech about who we were, why we were studding media, what it had done for us being at uni and where we plan to go next with our skills. We told them a little bit about the media day and what kind of things to expect but we wanted to keep most of the information under wraps. We liked the idea of it being a surprise and keeping it exciting for the students.

The students seemed like a great bunch. They were lively, energetic and sometimes brash! They had lots of questions and seemed to respond well to our pitch. We hope to see all of them turn up on the day.

Chloe Sugar??

We have settled on our idea for the whole day. We plan to have the day set out a little like the hit BBC show: 'The Apprentice'.

Our idea is that the students will have to complete three tasks and try and better each other in doing them. They will work in three teams and rotate their tasks throughout the day. At the end of the day we will be able to watch back what they have done and talk about the ups and downs of the day.

The tasks we have settled on are as follows:

The Big Draw:

For this we are simply going to give the students 30 mins to slowly draw a picture. Every three seconds of so we will photograph it and by the end they can watch it grow!

The Shootout:

With this we plan to do a simple multi camera shoot. We aim to get the students thinking about the camera angles they are using and why. Not only this but it is a great way to give them hands on experience with a camer and other equipment.

The Green Screen:

With the green screen we want to demonstrate the importance of this new technology. Green screen is the best way today to produce high quality special effects. We want them to shoot a weather type program with a twist, add a bit of humor in there and make it fun while they learn.


I am very happy with all these ideas. I think they work well and will be enjoyable for the students...Im secretly hoping to get to help out in the big draw!

Progress...

Plan for the day

We have had a few meetings regarding the event. Everything is going smoothly. During our friday morning lecture we discussed the plan for the day. 

We all decided that we needed and ice breaker at the start and an introduction. Following this we wanted the most exciting part of the day to go on before lunch. Then after lunch, as everyone is winding down we have the more relaxed part of the day with speakers etc.

The heads have given us all a little brief of what they would like us to be getting on with. Mine read like this:

Ed - Could you research how it would be best to contact a local MP (ideally Don Foster) and get them on board if possible, we won't do it yet but then we'll have an idea of the steps we need to take. Also if you can think of any accessible guest speakers we could have come in on the day it'd be brill!

We're all in this together...

We are now in the final half of the year and hence have been given our next big project. We have been challenged to put on an all day Media event for prospective students from Bath College. The aim is to help them understand the benefits of going to university and why it should still be considered despite rising fees.

We started by sitting down as a group and deciding who we wanted as our leader. We all agreed without too much discussion that we wanted the ultra organised Chloe to take the role. She happily did and chose three deputies; Esther Moore, Bradley Bailey and James Harris.

They would now become heads of departement for the three main roles that we needed doing; Marketing, Technical and Organising.

We then followed this by doing a brainstorm on what we wanted the day to hold for the students. We came up with some great ideas...and some not so great! The best being:

The Big Draw, Stop Motion Activity, Green Screen, Multi Camera Shoot and Photo Marathon.

All in all it was looking good!