The last session before Easter had us really making sure that the event would work out. There were a lot of loose ends to tie and we needed to go over our proposed plans with a fine-toothed comb.
Unfortunately Chris and Balve weren’t able to make the meeting but Balve did email me the questionnaire he was supposed to do. This questionnaire is to be given to the visiting students at the end of the event as a way of evaluating the experience. The floor plan from Chris was absent but we’re certain that the green screen equipment will be able to fit in Newton G08.
We went through the event blow by blow making sure that everything was covered. Some of the big problems we needed to sort out included things like
- How we were going to split the students into two groups
- We needed to arrange for the CRB ambassadors to meet at a specific time
- Who was going to be present at the icebreaker/introduction
- Who was going to be in charge of creating name badges
- What the running order was for each room/activity
- Which areas we were going to take the students for the tour
- How many groups we would do for the tour and how many students would be in each group
One of the problems we encountered was that Balve and Jake didn’t have any work experience over Easter and so wouldn’t be able to show any profiles in the work experience room. We decided that Balve could talk about his experience at the Jonathan Ross show and Jake could talk about script writing and networking in Hollywood.
We also decided to drop teaching sound in the Green screen room so Chris could help Will set up and teach lighting instead, since there would be two lighting kits now I think this would be appropriate as the job would be too big for one person.
We were also told that we would be provided with Bath Spa polo shirts for the event by Steve May, Head of Creative Studies.
Some of the other tasks we had to do during the day were to arrange for the chairs to be removed from Room G08 during the event. Inform the Uni of the Media event, which was sent out by email (so now everyone with a Bath Spa email account knows my mobile number).
One thing that did cross my mind was that if we had taken this approach to the event from the beginning then it would have probably gone a lot smoother, hopefully people doing this course in the following years might read this and decide to REALLY organise their events and that way make it more successful.
Tuesday 14 April 2009
Saturday 11 April 2009
EVENT: Green Screen Demo
I arranged a Green Screen demo upstairs in the Gatehouse so that we could learn enough about the equipment to be able to teach to others (particularly the the Vision Mixer and Lighting set up). Just before the actual demo Richard informed me that I hadn't booked out a monitor for the vision mixer for the event which was a rookie mistake as I hoped the Vision Mixer would come with some sort of screen. Shows how much I know about modern technology!
Here's the Edirol V-4 Vision Mixer:-
As the team set up the equipment I took notes and made a floor plan so that we could easily replicate the set-up for the event.
Naomi, our technical demonstrator, was very helpful with setting up the green screen explaining things like the importance of making sure the green material was as flat and stretched as possible and that we set up the lighting in a way that eliminated shadows completely. At this point it became clear that we would need to use two lighting kits, one to light the green screen and one to light the subject.
One of the only problems that was encountered was connecting up the vision mixer to the widescreen tv in the gatehouse. at first we didn't have the correct cable but once we realised which cable was needed (S-Video to Component) we were able to get the imagery shown on screen. This caused a bigger problem: The image coming from the laptop was extremely pixelated and no matter how much we manipulated the laptops resolution the images still looked extremely blocky.
The results looked like this:
There is still an obvious green outline around me!
I spoke to Richard who assured me that because the widescreen television was HD the imagery wouldn't be able to match a suitable quality and he expects that the monitor we use for the rehearsal will provide a sharper image output.
I thought that the demo went well apart from the problems with image quality which seemed to get the team down a bit. Hopefully the monitor we use gives a better image.
I will have to type up my notes about lighting for Will and get some photocopies of my (extremely bad) floor plan:
Here's the Edirol V-4 Vision Mixer:-
As the team set up the equipment I took notes and made a floor plan so that we could easily replicate the set-up for the event.
Naomi, our technical demonstrator, was very helpful with setting up the green screen explaining things like the importance of making sure the green material was as flat and stretched as possible and that we set up the lighting in a way that eliminated shadows completely. At this point it became clear that we would need to use two lighting kits, one to light the green screen and one to light the subject.
One of the only problems that was encountered was connecting up the vision mixer to the widescreen tv in the gatehouse. at first we didn't have the correct cable but once we realised which cable was needed (S-Video to Component) we were able to get the imagery shown on screen. This caused a bigger problem: The image coming from the laptop was extremely pixelated and no matter how much we manipulated the laptops resolution the images still looked extremely blocky.
The results looked like this:
There is still an obvious green outline around me!I spoke to Richard who assured me that because the widescreen television was HD the imagery wouldn't be able to match a suitable quality and he expects that the monitor we use for the rehearsal will provide a sharper image output.
I thought that the demo went well apart from the problems with image quality which seemed to get the team down a bit. Hopefully the monitor we use gives a better image.
I will have to type up my notes about lighting for Will and get some photocopies of my (extremely bad) floor plan:
Monday 6 April 2009
WORK: Bath FM - Day 1
When I first got to Bath FM and met Paul Roberts it’s striking how energetic he is, which I think is vital for a 28yr old who is busy running 5 different radio stations; Bath FM, Brunel FM, 3TR FM and 2 other stations both called Quaywest FM.
Paul worked with the previous owners of the stations, Laser, and when the company dissolved this gave him the oppurtunity to make bids for the companies. Since October 2008 he has been managing these stations and attempting to improve on how they were run previously and from what I can tell he’s doing a good job of it.
He gave me a tour of Bath FM, which is a smallish building, but bigger than the previous stations I’ve visited (BBC Bristol and Bath University Radio). The staff consisted of a small Sales team and a few presenters. One of the big changes that Paul pointed out was having more shows throughout the day. Bath FM had previously been mainly automated music with a maximum of two shows per day.
Since Paul was raving to Prodigy live at Cardiff the previous night he was off for his usual morning show from 6:30-10:00, which was filled in by Oliver Head who usually works at Brunel FM in Swindon. After a brief chat with Paul we decided the best thing for me to do was to work shadow him as he does his job, as I have no experience or knowledge of management or business, let alone the management side of Radio. I feel like I’m lucky that Paul’s belief is that business is business. I was glad he wasn’t offended that I’m not primarily interested in radio station management, just management as a whole. I imagine other people being quite sensitive about this and thinkning that taking me on for work experience would be a waste of time.
We spent the day touring two of the five radio stations, Brunel FM and 3TR FM which gave me an oppurtunity to shoot some material for the video profile we need to make.
We arrived at Brunel FM where the front of the building is under construction. The studios were a lot nicer than Bath FM and once again I met a team of great people. The general work atmosphere throughout is great and everyone I met seemed very easy going and positive, it seems like a great environment to work in apart from the construction going on at the front. Paul spent some time sorting out the upcoming Bank Holiday, making sure there were staff and presenters on hand since it seemed to take him by surprise.
We visited 3TR FM next which has the biggest office space out of all three of the stations, the team once again were nice to talk to, one of the things that seemed to crop up at both Brunel and 3TR was the stations’ use of Twitter to post news updates.
A lot of Paul’s day seems to be dealing with problems that crop up, which range from things like dealing with BT after being sent a bill for a phone they don’t use to dealing with the press about a court case that had previously ended. He seems like a compassionate manager who places great importance in his staff and seems to get along with all of them well.
I feel like I’m learning a lot from him about how to effectively run radio stations, as he seems to be saving money, bringing in advertisers, and producing great radio all by keeping a local community-friendly image which the surrounding areas lack from radio.
Paul worked with the previous owners of the stations, Laser, and when the company dissolved this gave him the oppurtunity to make bids for the companies. Since October 2008 he has been managing these stations and attempting to improve on how they were run previously and from what I can tell he’s doing a good job of it.
He gave me a tour of Bath FM, which is a smallish building, but bigger than the previous stations I’ve visited (BBC Bristol and Bath University Radio). The staff consisted of a small Sales team and a few presenters. One of the big changes that Paul pointed out was having more shows throughout the day. Bath FM had previously been mainly automated music with a maximum of two shows per day.
Since Paul was raving to Prodigy live at Cardiff the previous night he was off for his usual morning show from 6:30-10:00, which was filled in by Oliver Head who usually works at Brunel FM in Swindon. After a brief chat with Paul we decided the best thing for me to do was to work shadow him as he does his job, as I have no experience or knowledge of management or business, let alone the management side of Radio. I feel like I’m lucky that Paul’s belief is that business is business. I was glad he wasn’t offended that I’m not primarily interested in radio station management, just management as a whole. I imagine other people being quite sensitive about this and thinkning that taking me on for work experience would be a waste of time.
We spent the day touring two of the five radio stations, Brunel FM and 3TR FM which gave me an oppurtunity to shoot some material for the video profile we need to make.
We arrived at Brunel FM where the front of the building is under construction. The studios were a lot nicer than Bath FM and once again I met a team of great people. The general work atmosphere throughout is great and everyone I met seemed very easy going and positive, it seems like a great environment to work in apart from the construction going on at the front. Paul spent some time sorting out the upcoming Bank Holiday, making sure there were staff and presenters on hand since it seemed to take him by surprise.
We visited 3TR FM next which has the biggest office space out of all three of the stations, the team once again were nice to talk to, one of the things that seemed to crop up at both Brunel and 3TR was the stations’ use of Twitter to post news updates.
A lot of Paul’s day seems to be dealing with problems that crop up, which range from things like dealing with BT after being sent a bill for a phone they don’t use to dealing with the press about a court case that had previously ended. He seems like a compassionate manager who places great importance in his staff and seems to get along with all of them well.
I feel like I’m learning a lot from him about how to effectively run radio stations, as he seems to be saving money, bringing in advertisers, and producing great radio all by keeping a local community-friendly image which the surrounding areas lack from radio.
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