Wednesday 11 May 2011

Assessment Television Package – Evaluation

The Beginning of the Three Year Transition into the NGTC Cars

“The 2011 British Touring Car Championship marks the beginning of the three year transition into turbo-charged engines, saloon cars.” Being such a significant change within the championships regulations, it was important to grab as much footage of the new, Next Generation Turbo-Charged (NGTC) cars up against the original standard S2000’s.

Firstly, after choosing a relevant and interesting angle, establishing the target audience was important in producing the news package - Motorsport fans along with British Touring Car Championship supporters. The information included should be recognised by the audience in which they will be able to understand the information included such as the next Generation Turbo-Charged engines.

A strong piece-to-camera (P2C) opens the package; both introducing the story angle, and mentioning a specific point of interest. Sophie Williamson walks towards the camera and whilst introducing the package and then briefly stops to continue and finish the line. The piece-to-camera mentions and highlights the main issues and shows enthusiasm with use of hand gestures and as it is a positive story, concludes with a friendly smile. Sophie continues to walk on out of the shot. As the piece-to-camera wasn’t filmed at the locations where the footage was taken, to make sure it relates to the subject area and still grabs the audience, the piece-to-camera is filmed next to a motor vehicle and if on my way to the Donington race event.

The next objective was to get some good fast-pace footage with a voiceover, taken from the second championship round at Donington Park. Sophie Williamson creates a voiceover, which has then been edited to fit across the footage in the correct order. Each change in subject area results in the change of footage. Some clips are takes from library footage, which have a relevant connection with the story.

It was at times difficult to find and download relevant footage needed for certain areas of the package. So resolve this problem, the use of still shots worked effectively to substitute for missing video footage and also gave a great opportunity to add captions to authoritative sources, for example the Matt Neal victory image.

In regards to sound, when editing various clips of footage, the important decision was made to cut the original sound and replace it with the voiceover. This improved the quality of the video and made it much clearer and easier to understand. In some cases the original (often engine/tyre) sounds were untouched and included with the image, giving the package more sense of reality and excitement. Similar to this, in video clips which gives the audience an insight into the past of the British Touring Car Championship, and how it compares and links with today’s championship regulations.

To enhance the detail of the package and to reflect the speed and excitement of motorsport throughout the majority of the package, fast-pace editing along with a range of close-ups, mid-shots and wide-shots are used, with various filming techniques, such as; driving out of vision, towards the camera and away from the camera; pan of the camera; changes in camera angles; in car cam shots and blaring engine sounds. This made the package more interesting to watch and also made clear each point that is being made.

At times it was important to make sure each clip flowed nicely into the next, without any noticeable glitches. This was difficult at times in regards to a few dominant sounds which make up some of video clips, for example the on track racing footage. To resolve this, re-thinking the order of the package worked well, so that each clip is situated in a relevant spot, flowing nicely, whilst still linking to the next clip. The library footage of the British Touring Car Championship during its early stages from 1991 onwards, includes the original commentary from that time it was filmed. This gives the package a real sense of history and background, for the audience to relate to and remember.

Overall the package worked well as whole. A range of both library and raw footage edited to a fast, ‘sporty’ pace matches the story subject well. If I was to improve the package, I would include at least two VOX POPS from championship driver, Jason Plato and another source, so the audience could see the statement being given from an accredited source. In regards to the story angle being the NGTC engines, to enhance the package, I would include footage of the new engines being worked on or on show, because at the moment there is no specific footage linking to the engines. Finally, as the piece-to-camera was not shot on location, if I was to change this, I would film it on location next to an interesting car or team pit area. All in all, the package is clear, to the point and targets the chosen audience.

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