Package Script

Start

Insert: Audio montage – Braveheart (27s under audio)

Presenter: Over the last 25 years Scotland has produced memorable films that will live with people for generations, including Braveheart, Sunshine on Leith, Trainspotting and it’s sequel which premiered in Edinburgh this January, other films like Word War Z, The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus have also been filmed in Scotland. Earlier this year Marvel’s upcoming blockbuster Avengers Infinity War took over the center of Edinburgh to film for over six weeks, productions took place on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and in sections of Waverly Train Station. Marvel also had to rent a large warehouse on Edinburgh’s waterfront, this was due to Scotland’s lack of studio spaces. Over the last few years, there have been discussion and plans for the building of various major film studios in Scotland. We spoke to Philip John who is a director that has worked all over the UK including working on Downton Abbey and multi-million dollar series Outlander, he shared his thoughts on the lack of major studio spaces in Scotland and how this has led to Scotland losing out on major productions. (55s)

Insert: Philip John (13s)

“It’s inconceivable to me….

                                                                           ….so they went to Northern Ireland”

Presenter: With Scotland having a history of losing productions to other countries due to the facilities available, I asked Philip how he thought Scotland compares to other places that he had worked in, such as Wales. (9s)

Insert: Philip John (37s)

“I don’t think it’s as advance…

                                                                           …any other major film studio”

Presenter: At the beginning of last month, Scottish Ministers overturned a recommendation from a government reporter to decline a proposed film studio on the outskirts of Edinburgh, this proposed £250 million pound studio is planned to have six sound stages along with two Hollywood-style backlots. I spoke to Green Party MSP Andy Wightman about his party’s thoughts on this proposed film studio. (21s)

Insert: Andy Wightman (30s)

“Yeah, we believe…

                                                                           … is one with Scottish ministers”

Presenter: The project has been hugely controversial and has resulted in a large amount of protest from the local community. Mr. Wightman also expressed his concerns about the proposed location. (9s)

Insert: Andy Wightman (35s)

“Well, one of the issues…

                                                                           …we think this is the wrong site”

Presenter: With the community split on the development of this studio, I asked both Mr Wightman and Philip John how they think this studio would impact the Scottish Film Industry. (8s)

Insert: Andy Wightman (17s)

“A film studio rather than the…

                                                                           …positive impact on the Scottish Economy”

Insert: Philip John (22s)

“A film studio outside of…

                                                                           … should’ve been put there 10 years ago”

Presenter: With the general consensus that Scotland will benefit from a major film studio, but potentially not in this location, I spoke to the president of Guardhouse studios, Surya Iacono, who is currently working on gaining planning permission to build a major film studio at Heriot-Watt University, I asked her why she believes Scotland is a good location for her planned film studio. (18s)

Insert: Surya Iacono (73s)

“So Scotland is an interesting story…

                                                                           …it was an easy sell”

Presenter: Surya went on to talk about studio spaces around the world and why she believes Scotland needs a major studio (5s)

Insert: Surya Iacono (50s)

“Toronto has a 4-year wait list…

                                                                           …to do all the post production”

Presenter: I asked Surya about her thoughts on the other studio project that has been giving approval by the Scottish Ministers and if Scotland would benefit from both studios being built. (7s)

Insert: Surya Iacono (25s)

“I personally think Scotland would benefit…

                                                                           …looking at something no one else has done here”

Presenter: With film industry craving more major studios spaces and the proposed developments looking like they are closer and closer to taking place, film studios may very well be popping up all over the country in the close future, this makes the future look bright for the Scottish Film Industry. (13s)

Package Length: 7min 52s

Use of Social Media

Social media is a very important thing when it comes to any type of media, it can be a gateway to help a production succeed, or even hinder a production with bad use of social media.

There is a massive amount of social media platforms that radio stations use to promote their content and get in touch with the stations audience. The main three social media platforms that radio stations use are, Facebook, Twitter and more recently Snapchat. Stations use these platforms to keep audiences up to date to current events and what is going on/coming up on the radio stations or online. For example BBC Radio Scotland’s Facebook page is extremely active, keeping audiences up to date on the latest news, as well at uploading short fun things like spoof comedy shorts linked from various parks of the BBC, they also share snippets from BBC One television shows and various BBC Radio Scotland shows. All of these help towards increasing BBC’s overall social media presence and allowing them to share content with a wide audiance.

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How I would use Social Media;

As social media is extremely important in the current media landscape it would be very foolish to not use it to promote our one hour magazine show.

I believe using Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram for quick personal updates (that would be retweeted or reposted by BBC Radio Scotland) would be an fantastic way to get people interested, for example as my topic is continually developing I would be tweeting and expecting the BBC Radio Scotland social media pages to be posting about the various news updates and developments within the story. As I am producing the documentary I plan on using Twitter/Snapchat to post whenever I interview or speak to someone in person, this keeps audiences up to date with the production and gets them excited for the package as a whole. I would also use a specific hashtag such as #ScottishFuture, this hashtag could be used by our entire group to promote each individual package and get interest in the one hour show.

I would use Facebook more towards the end of my production, closer to the actual broadcasting date, as well as using it after the finished broadcast to attract people to the BBC iPlayer version of the show which would be uploaded. I would take short snippets from the documentary such as a interviewee or presenter speech that might entice someone on social media to click onto the iPlayer and listen to either the full documentary or the entire one hour show. We could also use the Facebook Live feature to promote the magazine show shortly before it is live, this could drive audience toward the show as it is happening.

BBC website; The BBC website is a great tool for BBC productions and can be used to promote various things. The documentary/BBC could be posted on the BBC Newsbeat website along side news related to each individual documentary or the overall magazine show. The website could also link to the magazine show when there is new news about any of the topics covered, allowing the magazine show to have a longer shelf time than just a one off live production. An idea is also to produce content that can relate to each documentary, such as montages of;

• Jordan’s documentary – Famous Scottish footballing highlights to bring back memories of better footballing days in Scotland.
• Megan’s documentary – Footage of live shows and gigs in Edinburgh and Scotland to highlight the future of live events.
• Stevie’s documentary – Footage of the 2014 Scottish Refrendum to build anticipation for the potential next referendum.
• My documentary – Famous footage from Scottish based film/television productions that show off Scotland such as, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Outlander and many more.

These would all finish with a link to each individual documentary and the overall magazine show, they would also all have #ScottishFuture watermarked in a corner of the videos. I believe this would get people interested in the topics with familiar footage and nostalgia. These could be uploaded onto the BBC website, various BBC social media outlets such as BBCRadioScotland Facebook and Twitter, and even onto YouTube to try and catch an international audience that may be interested in Scottish culture, but not necessarily live in Scotland or Britain.

Idea Selection, Research and Justification

Idea Selection & Justification

• After our first group meeting I have officially decided that my package will follow my idea about looking into the Future of the Scottish Film Industry. I believe this topic is a good fit for our chosen Radio Station: BBC Radio Scotland, I believe this topic will match the station and target audience of BBC Radio Scotland perfectly as the main target audience for BBC Radio Scotland is programs about the life, culture and affairs of Scotland. I also plan for my package to be completely speech based with the potential on some SFX such as small audio clips from iconic films filmed and based  in Scotland such as T2 Trainspotting, or Sunshine on Leith. As I stated in my initial ideas the Scottish Film Industry is an extremely hot topic within Scotland at the moment with the filming on Marvel’s Avengers Infinity War taking pace in Edinburgh as I type this. There is also continuing news about developments of a new studios on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Research

• I have done extensive research into the Scottish Film Industry visiting various websites and reading lots of articles about the filming of Avengers Infinity War along with previous and future productions that have/will be filmed in Scotland. I have created a list of useful links that will help me in the production of this package, this list has useful articles, along with companies and contacts that will be useful for my package, the list of my research links can be found here.

Group Meeting #1 21/02/17

On the 21st of February we  were placed into our groups, my group consists of, Jordan Banks, Megan Lloyd, Stevie Shillinglaw and myself. On this day we also had our first group meeting in which we decided various things about the 1 hour show at the end of the project, and gave our ideas into our own Packages. Above is our notes that we produced during our first meeting.

We decided as a group that we would like to make a speech based magazine program so we decided that our radio station style would be BBC Radio Scotland as it would best fit our plan for an speech based program. We decided that the angle for our one hour magazine show would be “What does the future hold of Scotland?” and this will also be what each individual package will have to fall into. During this meeting we also got some basic ideas into what topics each person in our group would like to focus on, we broke our initial ideas into nine different areas that we could individually pick and finalize our ideas for each package that would go into the magazine program, these nine topics were: Politics, Sport, Traditions, Technology, Society, Economy, Film + Media, Culture, and the Fringe. As a group we decided which areas we would like to look into, and these were:

• Myself – Film/Technology/Sport
• Stevie – Politics/Society
• Jordan – Culture/Traditions
• Megan – Society

We also got a rough idea into a live guest that we would like, and decided that an influential Scottish personality would be the best for our Radio Station and angle, we decided that an MSP would probably be the best idea for a guest, but we also noted that an actor or cultural figures would also be a good idea for a live guest. Stevie gave us the idea that MSP Ross Greer might be a good idea for someone to bring in as he is the youngest ever MSP, and would give an interesting insight into the future of Scotland.

As the meeting went on and we all thought about our ideas and topics we’d like to cover myself and Stevie came to quick conclusions about what our topics would be, after my initial ideas I decided that one of my first ideas about The Future of the Scottish Film Industry would be a great fit for our radio station style and our angle. Stevie decided to focus on a package about Child Migrants who settled within Scotland and now it has impacted their lives. Megan and Jordan were undecided on what they’re final ideas were but both had good ideas on which topics they would like to focus upon, Megan was very much set on doing an documentary on Society/culture of Scotland, and Jordan was still unsure, we decided to give ourselves a week to decide and confirm what our individual documentaries are going to be.

This concluded our first meeting, which I felt went very well and was very productive. I believe our chosen station and angle are a perfect match, and that mine and Stevie’s packages already fit perfect into the idea. Jordan and Megan didn’t have as solid ideas about what packages they would like to produce but are in a good place to go away and research the topics they liked the ideas of. We will have another meeting in a few weeks and get confirmation on Megan and Jordan’s packages.

Graded Unit – Analysis of the Brief

Show Requirements:

Package – My individual package will require to be 6 to 8 minute long, and will be inserted into an hour long magazine type radio program. This package will include a minimum of three interviews and have a presenter. It will have to be between 6 to 8 minutes long, no shorter and no longer. The package will have to be edited using effects and sfx. I will have to research a chosen topic within a group decided topic such as technology, that matches the overall group theme. I will then have to pitch my package to my executive producer.

Group/Magazine Program – I will be placed into a group, as a group we will decide a overall topic for our hour long magazine program based upon a chosen radio station. This hour long show will include all of our own individual packages. We will also have weekly meetings to discuss individual progress and how our show will come together. If there is a problem with a group members work, such as they have fallen behind or might not finish in time for the magazine show, a plan B will have to be made for the magazine show, that does not include their package but still fills the show for the full hour. Our show will have to be be scripted to include all ins and outs including timings and all presenter links for both the package and the hour long show. A live guest will also be required within the show.

Group Radio Station/Target Audience – As a group we will chose a specific radio station style, and emulate this station. For example if my group decides to chose Radio One, our packages and hour long show should match the target audience of Radio One. This Target Audience would be represented by 15-29 year old’s, who are extremely technologically literate, and they are used to a world with the internet, mobile phones and credit cards, they also will be very active on lots of social media platforms. Radio One targets both males and females. This station choice will influence the choice of each individual members packages as they will have to  match the style of the station and the target audience of that specific of that station.

Our submission dates are as followed:

Graded unit pitches: 13/03/17

Planning Stage hand in: 18/04/17

Hour long show production: 16/05/17

Evaluation: 23/05/17

Costings/Projected Budget:

I will require equipment and facilities to record and produce my documentary. The cost of the equipment and facilities are estimated as followed (Microphone/Mixing desk etc will be included within Studio Hire):

• Studio Hire – £20 per hour
• Engineer – Self Engineer – £0
• Voice Artist Hire – £125 per hour minimum
• High End Editing Computer – £1000 (One off payment)
• Editing Software (Pro Tools) – £481 (paid annually)
• Handheld Recorder (Zoom H4n) – £200 (One off payment)
• Sound Effects Budget – £20
• Travel Budget – £50