Unit 

" Digital News Production "

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Roles in the production 

Under the development, planning and work of this unit and production, I have been in groups with Nisserin, Josh and Becca (Rebecca). As the project has developed we have all participated in different areas. One of the first things we did was to take on roles, I did sound recording and sound design, Niserrin has been the DOP / cinematographer, Josh has been the editor and presenter and Becca has been the director. We have all helped develop our idea and script, therefore we are all co-producers. Nisserin and Becca wrote the script and Josh has created our graphics. We have had several meetings and group sessions together where we have planned, brainstorm, discussed and created. The time we have had at our disposal has been used to the max, and we have made extremely good use of it. We have truly been structured, organized and efficient. 

Actors / Contributors / Casting

On this unit we decided to use one of our own team members as our main presenter, Josh, as we got a green light for this by Helen. Therefore we did not have to put up any ads on casting call pro or similar sites. We did some research on the year bellow us, and found out that Goerge Wing in the first year would suit our brand as co-presenter really well. Therefore we contacted him and he said yes to be a part of our project. When it comes to our contributor we also found her amongst the first years, Katie Joslin, as she has a youtube channel with about 6500 subscribers - and we knew that she would be a good contributor to our topic, viral videos. We made them sign consent forms and kept it professional. 

Why we chose our story

We chose to create a brand, channel, and product about viral videos as we wanted to target students and we found that online and social media is where our targeted group is the easiest to get to. We also found that viral videos are something students find funny and interesting, as well as we knew that this is something we like and that brightens up our day during our hard days at uni. And that was one of our main points, we wanted to create a product that we ourselves would find interesting, and as we are students ourselves, we knew that we could reach our target group by creating something we like and find cool ourselves.

The goal

The goal with this unit was to develop an own original online news channel and produce content for that channel. Research, develop, create, shoot and edit our own digital news production in response to a defined brief. The goal for the digital news production was to fulfill the criteria to what a news production and channel is, as well as to hit our aimed target group. We wanted to achieve a new, modern, engaging and creative look and production, and to capture content relatable and funny to target - students.

My experiences

I found this unit to become something completely different than what I had thought it would be when I first heard about it. I am not such a big fan of news productions in general, or journalism related stuff as I often feel restricted and that the creative aspect of it quickly disappears. However, this unit has been one of the most fun units at uni so far! I have actually enjoyed this unit so much, thanks to the group I have worked with and our great group dynamics. Everything has gone smoothly, most of the times, only challenges we have had, has been that we had to change location due to rain, a sound issue in one of the mornings of shooting which was solved and fixed very quick and that we almost lost our co-presenter. Other than that it has been a steady ship on a quiet sea, and we have always been very up to date with work, structured, organized and last but not least optimistic. We have had so much fun, laughed so much and I will actually be quite sad that it is now over.

Conclusion

When it comes to if the goal has been reached with this unit and production, I would say it has! I know that our whole group is very pleased with our finished product as well as our amaze group spirit and work. I have learned that a digital news production does not have to be boring uór uncreative at all! It has been a fun, exciting and cool project to work on, and I feel that the criteria for the unit has been reached. I also feel that I have been able to contribute positively to this project, that we all together have been able to reach our goals with the production. We have definitely achieved the look, style and branding we were going for, all in all a product I mean answers the assignment and shows understanding for research, development, teamwork, technique, editing tools, branding as well as writing, sound and camera techniques.