Evaluation of Emma Massey's sessions and work

Evaluation for Emma Massey’s Piece

Whilst visiting our seminars, Emma Massey set a piece of work, which was a treatment for a news story, of which we had two to choose from. I chose to do a piece on non-smoking day, which was underlining issues with underage smokers.

My original set up for this piece was just the treatment without a script or storyboard telling to accompany it. I started to think about how the story would be treated on a programme such as Look North and the approaches that the Journalist would have towards it. Such as would it be covered in a comical way or a more serious manner, would the journalist have Vox pops, or interviews, or would it be something with a piece to camera, or all of the mentioned? I also thought about the running times and the schedule or where it could be placed in a programme.

After submitting the piece in a seminar at the BBC building, I talked through these ideas and gained feedback and further suggestions through other members of the group, and Emma’s professional advice. From this I re-wrote the piece taking on board the feedback, and also adding a script and Storyboard to gain a more insightful projection of my ideas to the group when presenting. I hand sketched these storyboards, and gave copies to all attending people in the group, and in my presentation, discussed the sequence that I would have, and also read out the script with each scene numbered to the storyboard.

Aspects that were changed from the original piece or the orders of some sections to the videos made the piece more interlinked and flowing as a story. Changings aspects such as orders of sections, the affects in the videos, where the piece to camera was, and also adding a script gave the piece more realistic qualities. This gave me more ideas of aspects to change with the sequences, as the words spoken would also have to flow, and irregularities became more apparent when trying to fit writing together along with pictures.

The presentation of the piece I feel went well, the storyboards where a little comical with my artistic impressions of objects, and also the script gave the storyboard meaning, and vice versa. The sequence of the story flowed when reading the script and my ideas, which again I feel was helped by having both words and pictures, as I gained a clearer perspective of what linked within the piece.

Overall the sessions with Emma Massey were extremely beneficial to me, as they helped my understanding of how much operation goes into running a scheduled programme, and helped me to gain a better understanding of basic do’s and don’ts within broadcast Journalism. The task of scripting a news treatment with all the added aspects was the most beneficial part of the sessions, as this is as close to designing something that could be used in Journalism with the feedback of a professional Video Journalist.

Evalution of module

Designing for the User has enabled me to grasp a more adequate and tangible approach to design, understanding different users’ needs and how each individual matters when creating a site. The feedback I had received from a JAWS user helped me understand this more as it was a first-hand discussion on how hard it is for impaired users to enjoy the same things that non impaired users may take for granted. The module has enabled me to learn new skills, in using different software, thinking critically about my decisions, and putting a personal approach into my writing style, which I feel is imperative as a journalist, to be unique or have a particular writing style, so that as a whole, your work is comparable with other writing created. The module has also made me be more aware and critical of bad web designs, and understand why they are not as affective in their design. The module as a whole covered a lot of various aspects that cover not just this area, but can also be applied to other too. This way of critical thinking is something that will continue to develop, and expand throughout looking at other aspects of journalism.

Final Album Art cover

Change of Plan

After looking at my website whilst in the process of creating the structures and pages, I found that I had difficulty in pin pointing particular sports. Such as boxing or sports that are at present in the off-season, I found that news would be difficult to produce, as the whole basis of my site was to produce current, relevant, and main headline news with a more passionate and less formal approach. An example of a stumbling block I came across was when this week Brighton where promoted into the Championship, and I wanted to put this in some of my pages under this week in pictures, and J.R's thoughts. But my problem was, along with main NFL news, and Olympics, and opinions in the J.R's view that may be on worldwide topics, that the promotion of Brighton to the second tier of English football, was actually quite small and irrelevant. This prompted me to re-think the whole basis. Although I do think it would be a fantastic idea to produce a website under my initial proposal plans, but for the purposes of content, relevance to me and what I want to mainly do with my website, which is to be informal, passionate, and connect with the audience on a more approachable level, my ideas would be best suited to a more detailed and focused sport.
So, as my initial layout and plans state, nothing has changed under the structure, ideas for layouts, or any other original ideas, other than that now my site is solely aimed at football. This is still going to be a site which puts across my ethos on sport, passion for the topics, and content that is interesting to the reader, but more narrowed to this one particular area, due to the difficulties and mass content that would have been needed to produce my original idea to a high standard.
My logos, interactiveness through View-Flash, and all other aspects are still going to be in place. I feel that I can now concentrate solely on gaining relevant information, at a crucial stage of the season within this sport, and supply this with a professional and passionate approach.

My Logo, Title for the Website

My website has a simple and common theme running through it with the logo and branding associated with it. The simplistic design used to represent the name of the site is direct and doesn't confuse the commercial message with un-needed jargon or advertising.
I used this typeface to create an affect of conjoinment, as the letters are all joined through the bottom of each individual letter. Although at present, on my website the typeface is in a white colour on a blue background, I may change this, but only after deciding on my final layouts and content being completed.
I am aiming to keep the theme throughout the website of the typeface, here are the examples of what I mean:
If you go on the website, although incomplete, you will notice the title SportsFlash at the top of the page. Also by clicking onto sports, then QuickFlash, yo will notice the same typeface in the same style appears, to represent names with the common theme of Flash, at the end of the page name. This is also the same for ViewFlash.
If you click the link my web page will appear, www.wix.com/russell_1232/SportsFlash