Plan for Diwali on the Square

12pm- Meet up at Edgware Station take the Northern Line to Leicester Square staion.
12:50pm- Arrive at Leicester Square station, walk to Trafalgar Square.
1:10pm- Arrive at Trafalgar Square.
1:15pm- Start filming.
2pm- Stop filming for lunch.
3pm- Start filming until the official opening ceremony starts.
3:15pm- Opening ceremony starts. (Film Deputy Mayor speech.)
3:35pm- Film some performances. (Dances, live music.)
We used this website to find out about the programme and what was going to happen.
http://www.diwaliinlondon.com/

#KH

Jeremy Hunt

Background information about Jeremy Hunt. (extract taken from website)

'Jeremy was born on 1 November 1966 and grew up in Surrey, where his parents still live. He went to Charterhouse school in Godalming, a town where two different generations of his family have lived for nearly 60 years.

After leaving school, Jeremy studied at Oxford University, where he graduated with a first class honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He then went on to work for a management consultancy firm before going to Japan for two years where he taught English and learnt Japanese.

On his return to the UK, Jeremy set up his own educational publishing business, Hotcourses. The company, which employs over 200 people, has become the UK's largest publisher of guides and websites to help people find the right course or college (http://www.hotcourses.com). He also set up a charity to help AIDS orphans in Africa in which he continues to play an active role (www.hotcoursesfoundation.org).

Jeremy was re-elected as Member of Parliament for South West Surrey in May 2010, increasing the Conservative majority from 5711 to 16,318. On first becoming an MP in 2005 he increased the Conservative majority from 861 to 5711. He is well-known locally for his supermarket surgeries and has campaigned actively on local issues including overdevelopment and local NHS services. He was closely involved in the successful fights to prevent the closure of the Royal Surrey and Milford Hospitals.

In December 2005 he was appointed Shadow Minister for Disabled People, where he successfully campaigned for the BBC to increase the amount of subtitling on its programmes. He also campaigned strongly for simplification of the benefits system for disabled people and individual social care budgets. In July 2007 he was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport where he has campaigned for more philanthropy for the arts, local TV, superfast broadband, a schools Olympics and a strengthened domestic tourism industry.


In May 2010 Jeremy was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport in the new Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition.

Jeremy divides his time between Westminster and his constituency home in Farnham. He married his wife Lucia in July 2009 and they have one son.'

Source: http://www.jeremyhunt.org/text.aspx?id=109

Music for news title sequence

As we see many news opening sequences, they usually last for approximately 25-35seconds, in which this meant we needed something short but effective - having that 'news feel' as it starts. We focused on the build up of the strings and synth, which then led to a sharp finish; opening up our news story.

We tried to visualise having the background moving along with the music, so that everything fitted to how we wanted it to be. As examples, we had a listen to the BBC and ITV London news openings. They inspired us to film in central London, as it showed its focus in London and stayed local within the area. We hope to get some footage of the London Eye to add to our title sequence!

#ZT

Uploading footage

After filming at Trafalgar Square, we are now uploading the footage onto the computer. However, having used another camera- we are having a bit of problem being able to transfer the clips into the desktop. It is slowly loading and we hope that the footage can be seen clearly.

We are only having this problem because of using a better camera(HD), in which we attempted to get more clarity in our filming so that it gives a realistic news impression. We are using the program: Adobe Premiere Elements to edit our footage.

Follow us on twitter @ www.twitter.com/ICUNews247

#ZT #AK

Diwali on the Square Visit

A fruitful visit to Trafalgar Square on the 16th October helped to give useful knowledge on the Diwali celebration. On the day, we experienced the handing out of free sarees, but only a special few were given the traditional clothing. It then led to a speech from the host, who invited everyone to come and celebrate with them- using the words 'PAR-TY'. The celebration continued with a 3 hour long party, filled with different performances which he called 'items'. The performances consisted of the traditional dance, drum playing and influential speeches. Many people attended, making the place very crowded and busy- there was hardly any space.

We managed to get footage and photographs of the place, in which would appear in our news package once all the footage of other festivals is taken and edited.

#AK #NB #KH #ZT

Plan for our news package

We have planned the order of where everything should go in our news package.
1. Title sequence.
2. New Years Eve by the London Olymics stadium in Stratford, before the fireworks.
3. Recap- Diwali, Winter Wonderland, Christmas decorations, Chanukah.
4. Voxpox of people's views on the events.
5. Facts and statistics.
6. New Years Eve once the countdown starts and the fireworks.

#KH

Camera Useage

We are going to use a SONY HD camera instead of A DV camera. This is so we can get the best quality footage. Using this camera we be no hassle for us because we have all the connections needed to upload the footage. That consists of the fire-wire connection and the USB connection.

#AK

Festival Visit on Sunday 16th October at Trafalgar Sq.

We have arranged to go to Diwali on the Square on Sunday 16th October at 2pm-7pm. We have planned to film the main parts of the celebration- including dances, story telling, food and interviews from people.

If you have any free time, please come down to the event! They are giving away free sarees!

#ZT #AK

Filming equipment- Clip microphone

Today, we have tested the new clip microphone that will be used for our filming when we have interviews and speeches. The sound has more clarity and detail and catches the voice of the speaker. However, the clip microphone we are using stil captures some noise in the background, which is a disadvantage- but the sound is more clearer.

#ZT

Title Sequence- The Airport

For our news package title sequence we have planned to take a few shots which give an over view about the multicultural environment of London. In our group we have discussed various ideas and places for us to film these shots. One of which is the 'Airport'.

Since today I will be seeing off my sister at Heathrow Airport, I have taken up the task to then film some of the shots at the airport.

Therefore, one of the group Members #KH wrote me a list of shots and inboxed me via facebook

#KH :

Hey here's the list of shots that you can try to get, film each shot for like 1 minute, then we'll speed them up when we're editing them. BUT... make sure it's a still shot and you don't move the camera (on a tripod).
-Escalator shot (preferably two next to each other, one going up and one going down.)
-Just outside the airport, people getting on and off cabs
-Somewhere you can see the airport and little planes flying off
-People arriving from the gates (people holding name signs, greeting each other)
also try to get more international people/foreigners



This is indeed going to help me today and i hope to take as many of these shots as possible.

#NB

Durga Puja

Throughout this week there has been a huge Hindu festival called Navratri going on. Navratri is a auspicious time of the year where fellow Hindu's get together to dance, sing, socialise and enjoy. I, Myself am a Hindu Bengali and was born in the city of Kolkata in India, where, at the time of Navratri, a celebration of the goddess 'Ma Durga' is very hugely celebrated in a major scale. Thus, this celebration is still enjoyed by the small Bengali communities in London and is mainly celebrated in hired halls. Obviously it is not celebrated in the big fancy way like they do in Kolkata but, we still try to make the most of it. This event goes on for five days and includes a priest leading the 'pujas' (prayers), we also come to socialize, listen to music, eat food and sometimes dances and various other acts are performed too.

On the 3rd, 4th and 5th of October I attended my local 'Durga Puja' event and also was able to film some good footage. I will now need to show my team mates of 'NAKZ' to see whether or not we could use some of this footage in our news package.

#NB

Conventions of a News Package (Youtube Video)

The video that we have uploaded has helped us to notice and identify the various conventions of a news package, including the variety of shots needed, VOX POPS, voice overs, interviews, and many more characteristics of a news package. We will explain in detail next about how we go about it and engage with the audience.

#ZT

Follow us @ www.twitter.com/icunews247

A message from the Mayor about Diwali on the Square

GREETINGS FROM THE MAYOR

"Diwali is a wonderful festival and offers an inspiration to all communities with its underlying themes of peace, renewal and co-operation.

The dynamism and contribution of the Indian community to London’s economic, social and cultural life and their commitment to this city never fails to impress me. It is with this in mind that I am calling on all Indian communities to get involved in volunteering during the 2012 Games as well as becoming mentors to work with young people, especially in uniformed groups such as the Scouts and Cadets.


I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous Diwali."

Boris Johnson

Mayor of London

www.london.gov.uk

Visiting Diwali Festival (Filming at Trafalgar Sq.)

Hey! Today after some research of upcoming festivals, we have decided to visit Trafalgar Square for the celebration of Diwali- a Hindu 'festival of Light'. Neha: a practicing Hindu has helped to give us insight on this special occasion. We aim to get footage of the many things that happen, including: bollywood dance, music, food and various stalls. There will also be key guests attending, such as the deputy Mayor and we hope to film his speech or get interviews from him and many memebers of the public, including the organisers and professionals.

Interested? Come down to Trafalgar Sq. on the 16th October from 2pm-7pm and hopefully you may spot us filming! Take care!

#NB #ZT

News Title Sequence

After just a day of thinking how our logo would look like, how it would move onto the screen and deciding on the various colour schemes and patterns we would follow- we have finished designing the logo for ICUNews!

So firstly, you may be wondering how the name came about?  The name sprung to mind as we were thinking of famous Landmarks or tourist attractions that has caught the eye of many people to go and visit and we have seen some news companies use the 'Houses of Parliament or Big Ben' as their background or logo and we wanted something similar, but something that has never been done before. The 'I' stands for the London Eye as a pun on words instead of 'eye' and also represents 'I myself looking somewhere'. 'C' is also a play on words for 'see', in which it would be seen as this: 'I See You News.' We decided to shortform everything so that it is easier to remember, for example- ITV news or BBC news do not address their full name.

After figuring out the News channel's name, we needed to sort out what colour theme we would have for the background, the sub titles and the various other components that will take part in the news package. With inspiration from 'SKY news' and 'BBC news', we targeted at simple but effective colours that will capture the audience's attention and something that looked 'news-like'. This meant we needed formal and clean colours. We decided to go for red, black and white as our main colour scheme. We had a play around with many colours to go with our logo, but these 3 colours suited it best. We then chose the font and edited the London Eye to go round the letter 'I' representing that this is a British London news channel.

Keep updated as we will post a picture of our logo soon! Thanks. #ZT

Follow us @ www.twitter.com/ICUNews247

Beginning Research- where to start?

As a group, we started to plan the topic that we will produce for our news package. After making several spider diagrams and analysing its strengths and weaknesses- we managed to come to a decision. We chose to focus on the area of 'culture in London', because of the diversity that this country has. The idea came from looking back at past events that have happened (religious and non-religious), for example: Christmas, Divali and Rosh Hashanah and also other celebratory events such as Nottingham carnival and music festivals.

Next, we have been researching when and where this festivals will be taking place and will hope to get footage of some events over the next couple of weeks, so that we have an array of the festivals to show and talk about in our news package. Some events start at different times, so we will focus on events that are happening soon so that there is plenty of time to edit the footage. We have also managed to produce a rough storyboard of how our news package layout will be like, and will draw another one again once finished to show the contrast of how we portrayed it to be at the beginning. Remember to keep updated to our posts on making this news package!

Thanks #ZT

Follow us @ www.twitter.com/ICUNews247

Zun-En

Hello there. My name is Zun-En and I am the Director of our news pacakage, in which the contribution to photography, music and scripting is what I manage. I am very fortunate to have this role as of having a passion to photography; capturing every bit of detail for the audience to grab. I want the audience to view something from different angles and perspectives, so that they keep up with the flow of our news as it runs. In addition, with having played piano for a few years now- it has taught me rhythm and dynamics when I play, and most of all- being specific to genres so that the music fits the footage and style, e.g. A thriller opening sequence would involve tense music, being built up to a climax with an upbeat rhythm of the drums or synth. The team that I am working with are very supportive and we value each others' opinions and thoughts on what we want to portray- so that it is of a team effort. Keep viewing our blog for updates. Thanks!

#ZT

Kanako

Hi, I'm Kanako and I am the producer and cinematographer of ICU News. I will be taking care of what goes on behind the camera; planning the shots and setting the location, also overlooking how the footage is edited and presented. I will be using my own knowledge and experience of filming from previous projects to deliver a successful news package.

#KH