Location Visit

Location Visit.

We split our trip into two separate sections. The first half we took stills and videos for our title sequence and our news production. The shots we took tried to represent the west midlands as a whole not just Birmingham as we were not able to travel around the whole west midlands. We all took turns in taking shots in different locations. The second half of the trip we visited the BBC Midlands Today set and base. we had a tour of the whole base where we were able to experience the environment of the set and the work set up. We also were able to see how the equipment worked from the cameras to the sound and visuals. This visit allowed me to gain knowledge about the conventions of how a studio set up looked which I wold be able to use in my production.

Trip Planning and Risk Assessment

Before the trip we analysed what could go wrong and we planned out the day as we need to use our time efficiently to get the best shots and the most amount of shots we could get. Getting a vast amount of stills and videos allows us to choose the right shot necessary for fit our title sequence or production. We took many shots around the city center where a lot could go wrong, so knowing the precautions would aid our safety and the equipment's safety.

Filming.

We walked around Birmingham Town centre to gain images and footage of the environment which we will use in our title sequence and news production. We went to Birmingham as it has the most diverse scenery and environments from the country to bust city. While filming we came across some issues such as we were not able to use the tripod while by the bull ring shopping centre - this caused us to have to take images and filming while holding the camera so it would be shaking and may not be in focus. We were able to take more images as we had our own camera along with a camera we were given. 

The first footage is the urban aspects of town and the building sites showing the changes of modernisation. This shows the different sides of the west midlands as it is a busy show and there are lots going on at once. I took this as a wide angle shot to try capture the maximum effects it gives off.



This shot shows the older buildings in the west midlands showing the variety of environments and the variety in architecture.. We split off with the other groups and went to Victoria Square which we used as a graphic in our news production.



We then moved to grand central to get another film but we had issues with the angles, compositions, lighting and the perfect shots which all count as a factor when filming. This shot we tried to get one of many forms of transport showing how busy it is and how different cultures are able to gather together.

Stills.

After the first half we visited the BBC News Midlands Today which was located in the Mail Box. The tour allowed us to gain knowledge of how it all worked and came together to make a professional and clear news production.

These two shots was taken in the control room at BBC Midlands Today, this is where all the editing takes place such as the transitions, soundtracks, audio, camera angles etc.. There were many buttons which was controlled by three different people; they all operate on the same screen. The clock is a very important aspect to very news program and institute. This is because they need to be on time otherwise their viewers screens at home would be blank for a few minutes which would push a bad impression about the institute.

This was the BBC News set which was the first thing we saw on the tour. The room was set up for the breakfast show. There were four cameras in the room all for the different angles which are required for the show. The cameras showed their scripts on the lens so they were able to read while looking directly in to the cameras. The presenters had to make up their own opening lines before the show started instead of the journalist put it in for them. The set up allowed us to know how we should set up our production from what is going to be filmed to the lighting and the cameras.

Overview.

It was a very successful as  it gave us a chance to take various shots for us to include in our title sequences and news production. We took more videos than pictures as it would look much better on the title sequence but also we could easily capture an image off the video where we could have missed that particular image just taking pictures. We also learnt a  lot more about the course with our trip to the BBC Midlands Today set as we were able to get a first person grasp of how it all works and then we could implement them elements with in our production and work.