Demonstrating 'Demonstration'

He's only gone and done it again! As far as album previews go, Tinie Tempah's preview for 'Demonstation' is visually amazing. And yes, it rather does follow on from his lyric videos for the album. Don't just listen to the new album, you really need to watch this one.

'Demonstration' is pretty different to 'Disc-overy' but both Labrinth and Emeli Sande feature on the album again, along with Paloma Faith this time - a rather interesting choice I thought.

Digital Polish

Over the summer I have been working with Digital Polish as a Digital Marketing Intern. I have been creating blog posts to be published on their website and have also been maintaining the social network sites by posting links interesting and relevant articles from sites like The Drum and The Next Web.

These are the blog posts that I've had published on the Digital Polish blog:

Content Matters! Top 5 apps for content creation
5 Reasons You Should Be on Google Plus
Top 10 Best Vines of the August Bank Holiday
How On-Demand Streaming services are changing the way we watch TV
An Intern’s Insight into the World of Content Creation

I have also been updating the social media platforms for Digital Polish - Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Lyric Videos

Tinie Tempah's got a new album coming out on the 4th November and I can't wait! He's already dropped 2 singles from the album and I wanted to post the lyric videos for each on here. I was really impressed with both of them and event thought that the one for 'Trampoline' was better than the official music video itself. From what I've heard already - 'Trampoline' featuring 2 Chainz and 'Children of the Sun' featuring John Martin - 'Demonstration' is going to be a cracking album and if the standard of these videos stays the same, the Tinie Tempah is going to have an album full of amazing lyric videos as well.

This is it!

So this is it. I'm now in my 3rd and final year of my degree. It's scary to think just how fast these past 2 years have gone and even scarier when you think about how fast this year is going to go. Before I know it the end of my time at university will be up - my course will be over and I'll be graduating! This year I want to do as much as I can - getting involved and gaining experience - and really make the most of my final year of being able to call myself a 'student'.

[Keep reading my blog and you'll find out just how it goes!]

Don't try to make money out of me ITV!

ITV have a new money making scheme and I'm not too impressed with it.

Part of the fun of watching a series where episodes are split into more than one part is the wait for the next episode. Well now you don't have to wait a week any more. I was watching the first episode of the new series of Whitechapel when I got to the end of it and ITV informed me that I could now pay to watch the next episode online! Safe to say I wasn't too happy about that.

ITV are making money out of people who are just too impatient to wait for the next episode to be aired on TV. How long is it before other channels start to follow suit?

Blakeway North

During August, I spent 3 weeks on work experience as a Research Assistant at a TV production company called Blakeway North, based in Manchester.

As a Research Assistant my main job was to look into different programme ideas. As the company worked with factuals, this was the genre that I was working towards. I had to research possible contributors and locations for filming at (along with useful contact details) for ideas that they were already working on ready to pitch to commissioners as well as trying to find interesting stories that could potentially be made into factual programmes.

In order to carry out this research I spent a lot of time on Google but also got to use a site called Lexis Nexis which is an archive of newspaper reports from all over the world. I also spent a day going through the national newspapers to try and find new stories.

Another site I got to use was Broadcast Greenlight. This is a database that lists all of the programmes on UK TV channels that have been approved by commissioners, therefore, given the green light. The basis of many programmes are re-used years later and repackaged into something new, maybe for a different channel. I was using Broadcast to go through all of the programmes that have been shown over the past few years to see if there was anything that I thought Blakeway North could repackage or take ideas from. This site is updated daily so you can see what has just been commissioned long before it goes out on TV.

One of Blakeway North's biggest programmes is Benidorm ER (Channel 5) and they were just coming back from filming and getting ready to go back out for another series when I was there. All of the interviews that they filmed had to be transcribed so that it was easier to work with the clips in the edit. I spent a few days transcribing some of these interviews - 2 with Spanish doctors and one with a German doctor. It was quite a painstaking task and it did take a while but it gave me a chance to see what goes on with the raw footage before it gets into the edit and it made me more aware of just how essential the task was.

When pitching to commissioners you have to create a document that explains exactly how your programme is going to play out. Blakeway North make programmes for the Perspectives strand on ITV1 so I was able to read through a pitch for one of these as I was asked to proof read it. I also helped to put one of these documents together as I had to write a short synopsis about each of the contributors.

This was the first time that I had really spent any time in Manchester and in my last week I was brave enough to venture into the city in my lunch breaks. I've decided that Manchester isn't so bad after all and I kind of like it now.

There was also a cupcake shop just round the corner from the office (which is dangerous for me) and I'd managed to be really good and avoid going in there over my 3 weeks. But on my last day, the girls in the office bought me a cupcake to say 'thank you'. Lucky me!

Blogging for Digital Polish

At the moment I am on an internship with Liverpool based company Digital Polish as a Digital Marketing Intern. Over the duration of the internship, part of my job is to write posts for the blog. This week I wrote my first blog post and now it's been published to their website!

Content Matter! Top 5 apps for content creation

Impressed!

It's been a while since I did a general blog post about something that interested me that didn't involve an event or uni, so here's a little one.

Tonight I saw the new advert for The X Factor on ITV for the first time and I can safely say that I was pretty impressed with it. So to whoever created the mash-up - well done! Whether you like The X Factor or not, the full video is definitely worth checking out!

The Murder Trial (Channel 4)

Being a television first, I thought this would be an interesting watch as a media student. On the other hand, it's a subject that I'm interested in.

I thought it was a really good idea to be able to see into a court with a real-life case as it's an experience that many people don't get (thankfully) and the only insight we do have is usually through TV dramas. These fictional events are obviously based on the real procedure but they are often exaggerated for the purpose of the story, and they're scripted.

Having read the article about the programme beforehand in the Radio Times, I was a bit wary of what it was going to be like but was surprised to find just how much I was able to get into it and I really enjoyed it. The case really drew you in and made you evaluate the evidence for yourself and keeping asking "did he or didn't he" throughout. I came to the conclusion that he was guilty but was still surprised that the jury came to this conclusion as well since I thought they wouldn't have a verdict either way. I also thought that the farmer knew more than he was letting on but the interviews with him conducted after the court case, where he had the benefit of hindsight, told another story about him and we were shown a side to him that suggested he was innocent.

I think Channel 4 done really well by not having a narrator to tell the story but letting it guide itself through the the way in which they edited it together. By having interviews with the accused daughter outside of the court proceedings, the programme felt more balanced and took into account the human side of this story.

It was really nice to be able to see the barristers in between sessions as this took the tension away from proceedings and meant that the audience got a break and chance to relax with them. They were able to make light of their work and you got an insight into the real person instead of just the profession.

This is something that I would definitely like to see more on TV and think that Channel 4 would suit this well as a platform. The issues surrounding having cameras in court is one that I think could be eradicated in time. Some held the views that people would play up to the cameras but if this became the norm so that every case was filmed regardless of whether it was destined for TV or not would sort this out. Surely having cameras in a court room can only help - safety, education purposes.

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 - Interviews

As mentioned in the previous post about my trip to Sheffield Doc/Fest, I have since finished editing together the series of short interviews that I filmed with the Festival Director, the organisers and some of the industry delegates that were attending the festival this year. This in itself has turned into a short documentary now, I think!