Stephen Fry – should he be on Zing? Yes!

Stephen Fry's presence on Zing has been questioned, but he's staying.

I have had comments on my planning for my TV channel, Zing, questioning the appeal of broadcaster Stephen Fry appearing in front of a target audience of 16-24 year olds.

Personally, I think Stephen Fry appeals to all. Young or old, fat or thin, short or tall, Marcus or Rosie. This can be highlighted by the fact he is the voice of the Harry Potter audiobooks and provides his vocal talents on the PlayStation game LittleBigPlanet.

The chalk and the cheese: Simon Amstell, formerly of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, clearly appeals to the youth of today.

Final Plan

The members of the band have chosen to use my second idea – to film the band playing the song in different locations around Norwich. I am planning to use a variety of different shots, including establishing shots, close ups, iconic shots, mid shots and a side shot. The cast will be wearing casual clothes – jeans, trainers, t-shirt – but will be wearing the band’s signature colours of white and purple. They will be wearing casual clothing, not formal, as I want them to seem more approachable. They will not be wearing any designer labels either, as I do not want them to seem like a stereotypical band, who often wear clothes that are beyond the financial reach of their fans, thus making them more approachable and making them easier for the fans to relate to. Marcus will be wearing a purple t-shirt. Sophie will be wearing a white top with some sort of purple accessory.

Here is a list of locations for the video:

–         Sewell Park

–         Top of Anglia Square car park (panoramic views)

–         Chapelfield Gardens

–         Castle Mall entrance

–         Cathedral

–         Forum

–         Castle Museum

–         The Garage (or some other kind of studio)

–         Gentleman’s Walk

–         Train station

–         ‘Welcome to Norwich’ Sign

–         Norwich Market

–         Riverside

For research, I went to some of these locations and took pictures of the kind of shots I will be filming in those locations.

 

 

This is from the top of Anglia Square car park. This shot will be taken from a different view to this one, as I want to get a panoramic view of the area around Norwich, to establish setting. The shot I will use will be an establishing shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 This is the angle I will take this shot from, through the bars. I think that this will give the video a more ‘homemade’ feel, as I do not want the band to seem commercial or stereotypical to other music videos. A bandstand is the traditional place for a band to perform without charge. Local people will recognise the bandstand; nationally, it may remind people of their own hometowns, as there is a bandstand in most towns. The band will be standing facing the right of the picture, as this will be a side shot.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Forum. It is the central library in Norwich, but also houses the local BBC Radio and TV stations, as well as holding a varied range of exhibitions. The Forum is also a socialising hotspot for young people, around the age of my target audience. I will be taking a few different shots in this location; long shot, mid shot and maybe a close up.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Norwich market. I have chosen to film here as it will be recognisable to anyone who has been to Norwich. I will be filming the band with the market in the background. This will be an establishing shot, and I will also film some other shots at this location, inluding a mid shot.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Castle in Norwich. Again, this is a recognisable building in Norwich. This is an example of the shot I will take. The band will be standing in the entrance gate playing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will film the band playing at the entrance to the Castle Mall.

Zing – my newspaper advert

The brief for my production said that I had to make two ancillary tasks with the main task. One of these ancillary tasks is a newspaper advert that would cover a full page. To date, I have made two drafts of the advert for Zing, the latest one being this:

The second, and latest, draft of the Zing advert. The photograph will be replaced by an image of Marcus and Rosie for the final product.

The main feature of the advert is a photograph of an example of the TV channel’s target audience (16-24 year olds). In the first draft, the image showed just a teenage girl, which may have excluded males from watching. This image has now been replaced by one of a young man and a woman, looking happy and vibrant. I inted to change this to a photo of my classmates Marcus and Rosie for the final version.

Elsewhere on the advert, I list the programmes that are shown on Zing in the channel’s colour scheme of yellow, green and red, alongside the logo. The background of the advert is in the style of a green retro wallpaper. Viewers of the Dave channel, which launched in October 2007, may recognise a similar wallpaper used on their break bumpers.

The advert also features a statement, ‘At last. A channel for people who are to young to be bored with the 9 to 5. Zing has arrived.’ This statement deliberately omits exclamation marks, which some might argue may hold a place in this instance, but I feel this would appear too cheesy and cliched and so I used dismissive, matter-of-fact full stops to make my point. Most new TV channels have a slogan they use when they launch, as well as the one they use permanently. Mine would be ‘Television Just Got Interesting’ to complement my permanent slogan, which would be ‘Life At Full Throttle’.

Plan for filming (including Locations)

Below are the three main ideas I have come up with for a music video. I will now present these to the band and allow them to pick which one I will be creating for my coursework.

One idea for my video is that it would have a narrative. The idea I have is that it would be the two people in the band trying to find each other through Norwich and the surrounding areas and all the problems they have along the way. Interjected between this action would be the band playing in their final destination.

Another idea I had would be to follow both of the band members’ full days,  as soon as they get up.  I think this would be a good idea because it would allow fans of the band to see their favourite band from a new perspective, which they have never seen before. Interjected between this would be shots of the band playing at a gig.  This would help break up the action and would also allow the audience to refer back to their original view of the band.

My third idea is to have an actor mime the words to the song as he/she walks around Norwich.  I think this would be a good idea as it would allow the band more input about what they want to happen in the video. In some of the videos I have watched, which used actors, the videos may be better as they have professional actors whereas band members are not.

We have decided to choose the first option for my video as I believe this is the one I could produce best with the equipment provided.

Location – The East Anglian City of Norwich

 

 This is the top of Anglia Square shopping centre.  We hope to film with one of the band running along the top and the other member running underneath along the bottom. The shot used here would be a long shot, still allowing the audience to see what is happening along the top and bottom of the screen.                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

This is The Forum in the middle of the city. Here we hope to have one person in the foreground, and then another running behind. This provides a little bit of humour to the video as the idea is that they are both looking for each other. There will be two types of shot used here, one would be a close up of Marcus in the foreground, then the other would be Marcus in the foreground again with Sophie running behind him in an establishing shot of The Forum. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Theatre Royal. Here the camera will be based on the other side of the road as the person runs passed. A long shot will be used here to establish the setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is the Norwich Market.  Here we are going to have someone run in between the aisles of the market whilst the camera follows them. A long shot will be used here to shoot someone running through the aisles  and a panning shot may be used to show someone running past the different aisles of the market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the bandstand based in the middle of Chapelfield Gardens. For this we are going to have this shot (seen in the picture) and another shot from inside the bandstand. This then provides a range for me to use when editing the film. Both shots used here will be long shots. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is Norwich Castle from below in the castle gardens. This will be the shot used when someone runs passed. We are using this shot because the audiecne can still clearly see  the castle even when it is not up close.  This provides a good shot for someone running past. The shot used here would be an iconic shot, reflecting the iconic status of the castle and band member.  I have used this shot as the castle is seen a major monument in Norwich and is one that is quickly recognised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is outside City Hall.  The camera will be based on the opposite side of the road (as in the picture) to capture the person running passed. The shot used here will be a long shot as it allows me to get the most out of the shot and to see all the action. 

 

 

– Football Ground

– Castle

– Castle Mall

-Elm Hill

– Sewell Park

– Playhouse

– Theatre Royal

– Chapelfield Gardens

– Riverside

– The Forum

– Cathedral

– The Garage(Performance)

– Train Station

– The Market

– City Hall

– Waterloo Park

-Anglia Square

– The Riverside Bridge

– The Waterfront

Cast

Marcus Wiseman and Sophie Connors aka Crescendo. I have chosen to use the actual band as I believe that they are not known well enough to be replaced by actors.

Sound Track

‘Who’s Who’ by Crescendo

Costumes

Marcus (White Shirt, Black Tie, Jeans, Trainers) Sophie (Black Shirt, Jeans, Converse)

Mise en Scene 

 Guitars, Norwich Monuments

Audience

The target audience for my production would be anyone age 14 – 35 as I think the band’s music would appeal mostly to this age range as it is very modern; however, this does not preclude people outside of this age range.

Representation

I am aiming to produce this band as a band “your mother would be proud of”. This means the band would be a clean-cut,  couldn’t-do-anything-wrong type of band. The aim of this video is also to show that this is a local band from Norwich, which other local bands can look to for inspiration, in a similar way that ‘The Darkness’ were for Lowestoft, a small town about twenty miles from Norwich.

Iconography

 This logo would be present on all band merchandise, posters, promotional videos or anything else concerning the band. This is to create a brand image for the band.

 

Institutions

This video would be played on music TV programmes, i.e. Q music, 4music and magic. I would want my video to be played on these channels as I believe my target audience would watch these channels and also similar bands show their music on these channels. I would also play this video on the internet,  on the band’s own website or on sites like ‘YouTube’ which are now allowed to show music videos on their site after the controversy of last year.

Values 

 As the band are from Norwich, I will try to relate Norwich’s ‘fine city’ status to the band. By doing this I can say that as this band are from Norwich they are fine, responsible people who take their music seriously.

Getting Zing onto Freeview

New channels being added to Freeview is a rarity. The prospective additions to the free digital TV service have to be in constant liaison with the regulator Ofcom for a considerable period of time before they get the all clear. If I was to try and get Zing onto Freeview, I would have to take into account a number of issues:

• First of all, do I want Zing to be an independent channel or part of a network? Personally, I would choose a network. Being part of a network would give the channel some stability (financially) and would give it a degree of trust from the loyal viewers of the other channels run by the network I am joining. UKTV (who operate channels such as G.O.L.D, Dave, Watch and Eden) would be my personal choice. Ofcom would approve of the fact that my channel is reliable and I won’t crash and burn off the air in a matter of months.
• Second, what do I want my channel to be? Do I want it to be a Public Service Broadcaster (PSB)? If I did want it to be a PSB, I would have to adhere to a number of strict regulations such as nationwide coverage (the current target is 98.5% of the population) and local news. A channel such as mine, aimed at young people, would rather there were no restrictions such as this, that it was a channel for them to be free and ‘let their hair down’. So I wouldn’t make it a PSB.

For a channel to be added to Freeview, it has to be awarded a Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) licence. There are only a certain number of these licences, and they are not handed out freely. To be awarded one, a pitch has to be made showcasing the benefits of my channel to the service and it is best to do this when another channel has dropped out.