The Leader of the Gang

In today's session we continued discussing ideas for our media event. It is incredibly vital for there to be a structure to our team and it made sense to appoint a leader. In light of this, we started discussing the qualities a leader should have, citing leaders through history. Good and bad.

We decided that in some form or another, all of these leaders had qualities in common, being, strong beliefs, a good speaker and communicator, authoritative and a good delegator.

Some leaders do not possess the following qualities. However, these are what we decided a good leader should probably have:

• Honesty
• Sincerity
• Fairness
• Integrity
• Inspiring
• Clever
• Good listener

In light of this discussion about leadership and roles within a filming team we were divided into small groups once more and given a short task. As part of a hypothetical independent TV company we had to select 4 crew members for a documentary called 'Plight of the Polar Bears'. We were given a list of potential crew, each specifying their skills and any issues that we had to be aware of.

From the list, we chose the following crew:

• Richard Hastie - Camera man and Wildlife Photographer. A bit of a loner but we figured he would be able to get on with the job at hand.
• Brian McCormack - A producer and director. He is fit and used to organising people and keeping up morale within the group which would be good for 'loner' Hastie.
• Sven - He is a native Inuit but doesn't speak any English, only Icelandic. He will be great for health and safety, survival and knowledge of the area.
• Ingrid Gunsten - She is a researcher but also fluent in Icelandic so would be able to interpret for Sven

We would have appointed McCormack as the leader of the group because of his production and directorial experience. Also he is good at keeping up morale so will be good for delegation.

It was interesting to hear the different choices from different groups as each production would have taken a completely different approach.

We then decided to, as a class, decide on our leader for our team. We did this by casting votes. The 3 members of our class who received the most nominations were Brad, Chloe and Esther. As the votes were too close to call we decided the fairest thing to do was to have another vote between those 3. The eventual appointed leader was Miss Chloe Sibthorp, whom I think will be an excellent leader as she is very good at communicating and being diplomatic.

The big plan

For our next assessment we are required to create and organise a media event. This event is to be aimed at 16-18 year olds who are on the BTEC media course at Bath College. Bearing that in mind, we need to workshop with them, things that will be fun and of interest to them. Also doing things that they perhaps have not done before and also showing what the university can offer them.

We also need to consider attracting media attention to the event. A number of options arose from this. Could we perhaps get a celebrity to attend and talk to the students? Or make it a fund-raising event? Both of these things would attract some kind of media attention.

Also we are aware of the fact that some college students are reluctant to get involved in this kind of thing. Probably not because they don't want to but because they are shy. So we need to consider ways that we can get them all involved without putting too much pressure on them. An even bigger matter we will have to consider is health & safety.

We have been put into small groups to bounce off ideas for the event. I am with Rachel, Brad, Ross and Leonie. Together we considered our options regarding the facilities we could use and what would be fun. Here are the ideas we came up with:

1. Green Screen. Although we have only just started to learn about it, it is a fun aspect of the media which we have access to in Newton 101. We could give the students the opportunity to see a typical set-up for an interview or weather broadcast perhaps.
2. Multi-camera band shoot. Maybe have an acoustic band playing which the students could film. We could also show them how to set up sound for the band using microphones and the mixing desk.
3. Voiceover booth. We could show good and bad examples of using voiceover and also let the students have a go themselves.
4. Stop-motion animation. Brad had an excellent idea of getting a huge piece of card or paper and having each group of students draw a picture which would be photographed during the drawing process. The end result would then be played through Final Cut Pro where it would appear that the picture is creating itself.

We then had a listen to the rest of the classes ideas. Some of which included making an advert, a news feature, a Red Nose Day style fund-raising event and a radio debate.

We then decided to work out a schedule for the day. We knew we had a time slot of 9.30am-2pm so had to bear that in mind. We would also need to consider lunch breaks and whether we should split the class into smaller groups and also whether the the uni would be able to provide the necessary equipment.

We decided to focus on 3 workshops and have the class split into 3 groups of around 6 or 7 students. This way each student would get to try every activity we have on offer because if we allowed them to have a choice they may end up missing out on something that they could have potentially been very good at or enjoyed. The schedule we came up with was as follows:

• 9.30-10am Briefing to the entire class of what to expect throughout the day
• 10-11am Activity 1
• 11-12pm Activity 2
• 12-12.30pm Lunch
  
• 12.30-1.30pm Activity 3
• 1.30-2pm Debrief & possible talk with a guest

We figured that the workshops would act on rotation with each group starting with a different activity.

We also decided on possible locations for the activities. Stop-Motion, weather depending, outside the Gatehouse in the courtyard. If bad weather then inside the Gatehouse as there is access to computers there. The Green screen workshop could be in Newton 101 because they are already set up with a green screen there. And finally the acoustic set could be in the Newton Annex. Although the sound won't be great it will still give the students a feel for what to look for when filming a band.

Here is a video I found on stop-motion animation which may be of interest for the students. We will obviously not be able to work to such a large scale but it may be worth showing them the kind of lengths you can go to using it.



I also found this great little video about using green screen and how creative you can be with it. I think this would be very interesting for them because it is used in so many aspects of the media. Like the interviews, the weather and also Hollywood movies like The Matrix and Gladiator.



For the acoustic set I think this video shows just how powerful one person and a guitar can be. This will be a great opportunity for the students to work on the cameras but also to have a play with sound. The university has a state of the art mixing desk that I'm sure we would be able to get hold of, and also hoping that Rich Wood may be on hand to help out because he is the master craftsman!



Thinking back when I was in college I do feel that these workshops would interest me and I am hoping that the rest of the class will be on board.

The other obvious thing to appeal to students was the idea of a celebrity or someone in the industry. A group mentioned Greg from Bath Life magazine may be willing to give a talk which would be great. Also, when we filmed our Behind the Scenes documentary on the Unchosen film festival we were lucky enough to meet film director, Ken Loach, who said he would be keen to give a lecture at some point at our university. This means he may be willing to give a talk to the Bath College students at our event.

We also thought of any celebrities that live in Bath that may appeal to 16-18 year olds and remembered there is a member of the cast from Skins who lives here. I also had the idea of Tina Malone from Shameless who is good friends with my cousin, which may be a bit of a shot in the dark, but may also work.

The date for the event has been set for Friday 8th April.