Digital News Production: Style & Location for Filming

TONE/STYLE/LOCATIONS

When I was discussing our ideas with Sam and Kate we decided to talk about an idea for our studios location. We also managed to settle on a general tone for our project.

The Tone of the News channel:

- Clear but concise
- Lighthearted but informative
- Anarchic

Where are we filming: We are using the Maidstone studios to film in and it will be given a very specific setting. This is to make it look like a typical students bedroom.

A stereotypical room of a student.

Location "setting"mise-en-scene:
- Dirty clothes on floor
- Drink bottles lying around
- Trash bags on the floor
- Boxes filled with possessions

Why have we chosen this setting? 
 The reason we've chose this is so that students can relate directly to our program since the typical student tropes we use will relate them to an environment that they're used too. It also allows us to break typical conventions such as the type of stereotypical news rooms you see on the BBC or ITV.

More than anything it gives us a chance to show our identity which is "for students, by students." This allows us to be anarchic and give off an easily relatable attitude for younger audiences. The contrast between our setting which is quite informal compared to other News room studios instantly gives us a look which is recognisable and unique. It allows our audience the chance to feel comfortable with the setting. For the background we could have a background screen that looks intentionally 'tacky' to show that we're self aware. Perhaps we could have the news brands name appear on a white background. (We still need to come up with a title for our brand.)

The classic comedy, 'The Young Ones' represents
 a humorous anarchic, student lifestyle.  

The biggest task to overcome as that we still want to show that we are serious about the news we're reporting regardless of our lighthearted tone. We need to have a line that separates the channel from being seen as a joke. This means that we still need to be serious enough that students won't just view it as a purely humorist news channel.

For the idea to work we need to show that the actions we make in terms of style and setting are seen as deliberate. We need to make a distinction between it being a room belonging to students and just a normal messy room. This can be done by including a laptop, books, scribbled notes etc. The muse-en-scene should also not be too complicated for our audiences. This could hinder the audiences attention away from the news story we are telling. The simplified props we do use should be quite effective though.

We will continue to develop this idea further as it comes closer to fruition. Stay tuned for further updates.