We had a run through on Friday with all the set and costumes. We also filmed the puppet VT. I think it went well and I have a better feel of the script. This week I am going to work on learning the script off by heart as it is easy to pick up. After this run through, everyone is feeling a lot more confident. We had everything that we would use on the real show today so it gave us a good picture of what the final thing would look like. The set looked good and we just needed another white sheet to put over one of the boards because the picture was coming through. We worked well as a team to prepare everything and when we finished, we knew what worked and what needed to be changed. The sheet on the floor needed to be secured tightly because for the resersal it was quite ruffled. We also need to iron the sheets because the creases are causing shadows on the background. I took pictures and uploaded them onto our facebook group. Here are a few pictures.
From the beginning of the 113 MC module, research has been an important part of creating our children’s show. We have all had to research various parts of the show to ensure that we get it looking professional with correct facts. I researched my role as presenter by watching various children TV shows to see how they acted in front of the camera and how they interacted with the children. Our research has to be incorporated into the script. When we were thinking about what puppet show to do, it was my idea to do the Hare and the Tortoise. I thought that this would be fitting for the program and has a good moral story. I watched various children’s programs to see their set and various art programs to see how they explained it to children. I researched how to make a kite but this easier version was found by Yasmin so we used this. I helped Bash learn to make the kites for the show.
For the debate, I had to research why it is better to go and play outside rather than stay in and watch TV. These are the facts i found;
Kids play for shorter periods when TV is on in the background.
Thirty-two percent of kids 6 and under live in homes where the TV is on all or most of the time.
Seventy-four percent of all infants and toddlers watch TV before their second birthday.
In 1970, the average age at which kids started watching TV was 4; today it is 4 months.
Forty-three percent of children under age 2 watch TV every day, and 18 percent watch videos or DVDs every day.
Kids are slower to start a task they see on-screen vs. live.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV before age 2 — and no more than 2 hours after.”American children and adolescents spend 22 to 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV.”
– The Kaiser Family Foundation
electricity
healthy happy heart
strengthens muscles
more sociable
releases endorphins which are feel good hormones which makes you feel happy, puts you in a good mood.
I will use some of these facts on the show. When we did the sandwich making, I researched various other foods that we could make but we decided to stick to traffic light sandwiches. I found this website that had quite a few good ideas for children. I researched extinction so that it is clearer to the children that the T-Rex is not in existence.
For this task, we had to create a video explaining our role. Bash and I decided to explain our role in presenting very casually. We kept it simple and edited it on Final Cut. Here it is!
It was fun to make this and was even more fun watching it back and editing it. It was weird being in front of a handheld camera actually recording us rather than the big studio cameras. When we had completed the editing process, we decided to practice making kites! We made different shaped kites and will have them in the background of the kite making part of the show.
On Saturday 15th June, we created 2 of our VT’s at Yasmin’s flat in Trinity point. We had two children helpers, Iona and Cameron, who were so good! We made traffic light sandwiches and taught the children how to make them too. This was successful and the children made their sandwiches well! I was told to improvise when making the sandwiches and I think it went rather well. I only made one mistake and that was right at the end of the second take when I called my fellow presenter Bash, instead of his show name, Joe. We did another shot at the end of me saying Joe instead of Bash, so we can use that instead. We intend to speed up the part where I am buttering the bread and we set it up so there will be a ‘POP’ and the kids will appear in their seats. The other VT was of me and the children flying the kites we made. The children were genuinely enjoying themselves and when we had finished filming, Iona asked if she could carry on so her and Cameron flew the kites for quite a while! Cameron ended up taking his home so he could improve. He was very fun and kept shouting ‘fly my pretty fly!’ They are very good kids For the show, we had to think about my clothing. We decided that bright colours would look best for the show, so I wore my red jeans and a multi coloured finger print top.
Myself and a few of the girls in my group went shopping for set on the Friday before filming. £10 was collected of everybody and off we went. We spent the majority of the money and brought everything we thought we would need. For the set we had decided to do splats with our handprints in, which would be where we would put the pictures from competition time. We have one sheet that has handprints and splodges everywhere. This kind of happened by accident but it turned out really good! We were going to have another colour sheet but we are now going to use this instead. It was loads of fun doing handprints on the sheet and we were prepared with wet wipes when we were finished! Me and Chris had the job of drawing and cutting out big paintbrushes to put on our set. For this we used a Stanley knife, scissors and cardboard. We secured the cut outs by sticking BBQ skewers on the flimsy bits with masking tape. This worked effectively and Yasmin made a base for them so they would stand up.Overal it was a very fulfilling day!
Before I started at Coventry University, I received an email asking if I wanted to join the university Coventry cougars cheerleading team, shortly followed by a team based in Coventry containing mostly Coventry University students called the Rock Star. The leaders of both teams use to be in the Coventry university team ‘the angels’, but this changed when ideas and opinions clashed. Coventry Cougars was aiming to get a brand new team and did not mind if you had no experience. Cheerleading is a mix of gymnastics, dance and stunting. I did gymnastics roughly from the age of 5 til 13, followed by 4 years of trampolining and dance.
I decided to go along to the open day for Coventry Cougars new members where we learnt to do a simple lift. I enjoying it and carried on going for the first term. Cheerleading is a lot harder than many peoples stereotypical opinion and I was always coming back to my flat covered in cuts and bruises with lots of aches. I am a base, which is the one who works with a partner to lift the flyer into a certain stunt. In the second term, I stopped going because they were training for the competition that I could not make, but I went back last week and still have a cut on my arm and finger from it!! Cheer leading has helped me gain friendships quickly and helped me work well in a group of new people. There has to be good trust because once you throw the flyer in the air, it is your responsibility to catch her. It helped me in my gymnastics and I did my first ever back flip in the first term. I have now started to attend a weekly gymnastics session with a friend I met through cheerleading to improve on my skills.
In the media industry, working as a team is very important to the overall production and is a key skill needed. This links to cheerleading in a way that I would not have guessed. My little cousin has followed my lead and taken up cheerleading and media! She is like a mini-me, we also look similar.
One of my inspirations to get into media, is a show called ‘The Lion Man’. It is about a man who set up a wildlife park called Zion Gardens for big cats. Although this is not a normal wildlife park because the man on the show, Craig Busch, is like a dad to some of the big cats. It is amazing to watch the relationship between the man and the huge animals. The animals are so trusting of Craig that when they give birth, they let him handle their cubs! This is the first part of season one, episode one and explains all about the park.
It’s so interesting to watch and fascinating to see the bond they have. Craig addressed himself as ‘dad’ to the big cats and in the episode above, it is mentioned that the lions think Craig is his dad. There has recently been problems because one of Craig Busch’s workers, Dalu Mncube, was killed by one of Craig’s hand reared tigers, Abu. He was fired and his mum took over the park. They are stuck in a law suit to try to get Craig back in. I agree with this, he said in an interview; ‘The Lion Man believes safety standards have slipped and claims under his rules it’s unlikely Mncube would have been in the cage with Abu.’ I believe that Craig has a right to be in the park because of how he is with the animals. If you watch the show, you can see the authority he has and although it can be risky, he is a trained animal handler and knows what he is doing. This show inspired me to study media production so that I could one day create documentaries about animals. This program raises awareness of the dangers of the big cats numbers dropping and shows a man who is trying to make a difference. I aim to do this one day.
There are many other programs simular to this that have inspired me to aim to create documentaries about animals or nature. The BBC one show, Lost Land Of The Volcano was about a group of people went to explore Mount Bosavi in New Guinea. Here they found many new species of both plants and animals. The views were stunning and the landscape lay untouched. Whereas the programs such as Animal Park also inspire me. I have visited Longlette Safari park, which is where Animal Park is filmed, and enjoyed seeing what i had seen on TV in real life. Watching documentaries such as this drives me to work hard for what i want.
For the show, we had to think about my clothing. We decided that bright colours would look best for the show, so I wore my red jeans and a multi coloured finger print top.
