Due to the absences of a few group members in this week’s class, a team member and I mainly focused on completing the paperwork for the assignment. We decided that whatever script we have by Friday will be the final script we present in the live taping, meaning no more new bits were to be added into the script.

When doing the graphics on Thursday, I noted some points near the end of the script that could be adjusted in order to set the tone. Prior to this adjustment, the tone throughout the script is largely cynical and sarcastic, therefore, when we do arrive at the end with the call to action, the tonal shift may be too large. Therefore, I made the adjusted before the final call to action to include more reflective and sharp comments to set a serious tone. This makes the shift to the call to action more subtle.

In the studio, we had issues with the EVS footage not displaying properly in midst of the run-through. However, we just kept rolling, whenever an EVS footage was supposed to be displayed, we just cut between two cameras and continued on. Eventually, one of the techs were able to come in and resolve the issue, allowing all the EVS footage from that point on to work as normal. Ruth mentioned that if we were actually live, that would be the best way to resolve it. If a similar issue occurs next week during the live taping, it could result in jokes not landing due to no EVS being displayed for the audience. I think a good way to resolve this would be for us to stop recording when EVS is supposed to play, fix the issue, and then continue from that EVS. This would make it easier to edit together afterwards and would make the audience get the joke.

During class, we discussed the presence of bias in TV. Ruth highlighted that often in Breakfast TV, they would often have debates where both sides have one person advocating for their view. Visually speaking, it appears as if the argument is 50/50, or evenly divided. This becomes counterintuitive when the issue is something where the evidence for and against something is far greater than 50/50. In the John Oliver segment, we see him engage with this concept by creating the “mathematical accuracy” of the ratio of the scientist who supports evidence of climate change. Leading to a room filled with 3 scientists against and 96 scientists for the existence of climate change. I think this visual way of depicting debate based on the public’s or researcher’s consensus is a useful way of educating the public.

Due to our group going last this week, I had time to design more graphics in class. By doing graphics with my team members around me, they tend to provide me with suggestions on how to make something look better. I find this to be more effective when doing graphics, especially since members who wrote a certain joke would have a certain graphical representation of it in mind. By listening to their advice, I could make a joke land better more coherent with the writer of said joke.

During the run-through this week, there were a few things that we learned and will improve next time. Firstly, we chose to use the studio lights pointed towards the curtains as a backdrop. By altering the colour of the light, it would also give a different feel to the show. If nothing better comes along, this background will be used in the final taping. Additionally, there were a few timing issues this week with the EVS and the host. Since the presentor has no way of knowing when the EVS footage ends, it is hard to pick up immediately when it ends; resulting in the presenter starting his lines before it is over. In the future, it would be wise to discuss the length of the clips before taping so that everyone knows when the footage ends.

In class, we spoke about Bassem Youssef who had his own late-night comedy show. In his documentary, it depicts the toll it takes on him and his own family due to him being outspoken against the Egyptian regime. We see how the dictatorship would censor criticisms towards them. This lead me to reflect on our topic of Hong Kong. I realise that us talking about this issue in this format would not be permitted if it was aired in China. Satire can only be performed safely when it is in a country with free speech. I appreciated our position a lot more after seeing the effects it had on Bassem Youssef.

In the studio, we continued to build on the script we had in our prototype shoot. In preparation, I went through the script and created corresponding graphics and any relevant EVS footage. After running through what we have so far, we noticed so issues with the script so far. Due to the 10-12 minutes time constraint we had, we had to be concise with the content. We then worked on the script further. During our discussions, we thought that we should remove parts that do not directly relate to the topic, such as our detour about 50 cent.

We considered how we wanted to close out the segment. Looking at John Oliver, he often ends his segments on a call to action. We also considered using EVS footage as a way of closing. This EVS footage would be a parody of the Mulan trailer that would act as a climax which summarises our coverage of the issue and entertain the viewers at the same time. Moving forward, we want to focus more on the script that will fill up more of the time that focuses more on the issue. At the same time, we will work on how we want to conclude the segment.

The News Is A Joke: Week 4 Reflection

The News Is A Joke: Week 5 Reflection

The News Is A Joke: Week 6 Reflection

The News is A Joke: Prototype Shoot

In total, our prototype shoot is around 5 minutes in length, EVS included. Overall, the shoot went very well, which no doubt is the result of our team’s familiarity with the script, the multiple practices we did before shooting and communication inside the control room and outside it. Since we had the opportunity to come earlier to class, I had plenty of time to set up graphics and place them in sequence, ingest the EVS footage. This eliminated a lot of time which would otherwise be spent doing these things during our time slot.

In our first shoot, we had minor timing issues with the graphics and EVS with the host’s delivery; such as a few beats of silence before EVS is played or graphics being a bit delayed. Apart from this, we had the issue where the graphics were overlayed on top of EVS footage like this:

This was due to the graphics still being keyed into the program feed when switching from camera to the EVS feed. In the first shoot, I had to manually take off the graphics on Xpression Studios. We were able to fix this issue in the second shoot by having the vision switcher press the EVS and graphic key at the same time: doing this enables them to switch to EVS footage whilst taking off the graphics at the same time.

The layout of the set is a host behind a table, however, I think more could be done for the background instead of just a black curtain. The current look we have for the prototype does show a bit of halfheartedness, and more efforts towards set design will improve the overall presentation of our segment. We only used two cameras for our shoot: one from the front which allows for over-the-shoulder graphics and another on the side for emphasis. While these two camera angles do the job, I think a further exploration of the camera could be useful for the future such as the movement of the cameras.

The reading this week by Harrington highlights some features of Australian satirical late-night shows and how they differ from their American counterparts. Personally, this difference was quite noticeable in their respective comedic style. Mad as Hell for example, often dives into the absurd with their props, design or costumes, having guests dressed up as a Kraken or playing an exaggerated version of a media corporation. The American counterparts, in contrast, are more traditional in their delivery. John Oliver rarely hosts other guests or move around in this set, the content is focused on his comments and critiques of the news. In these ways, I agree with Harrington’s view that Australian satirical late-night shows do not conform to the standards of American satire shows.

This week’s practical lesson allowed me to put all my preparation into play. By positioning the graphics in their final positions prior, importing them into Xpression studios was a breeze. Likewise for our EVS footage, with enough time before our session began, we were able to convert the files into the correct file type and ingest them into the server.

During the session, I wanted to operate graphics, since I already have an idea of their timing. However, just in case, I printed a copy of the script and marked up the exact time when a graphic change is needed.

A key question arises after the conclusion of our session. How do we continue with this prototype until the end of the semester? The end of the prototype video is quite abrupt, and perhaps it is best that we kept it as such. Dealing with a developing issue meant that if we complete the script in week 6, it would be outdated by week 12. Additionally, more new content will require more graphics and EVS footage, if these content “expire”, the graphics and EVS footage will also be obsolete. Keeping these in mind, we should include events with a sense of conclusiveness to them, therefore making the final script to not have any redundancy.

This was a forming week for our prototype project as well as how we want the final project to look like. Firstly, the Hong Kong protest segment. Our initial idea was focused on parody, to mock the official coverage of the protests in Hong Kong by China. Along with this mindset, we came up with several gags that were akin to the Eric Andre Show. However, a team member reminded us of the bigger picture, and that our objective should also to provide our own voice, and to do so in parody can distort and/ or make it difficult to understand our message. Therefore, our current plan for the segment is more similar to a late-night show like John Oliver; doing so allows the moments of satire as well as the ability to insert our own voice.

I am tasked with creating graphics and footage for this project. During the Friday lesson, I found out how painstakingly annoying it is to move the graphics onto a template I made. This is very inefficient to do in the time we had before going live. Similarly, with the EVS footage, I initially thought it would be easy to have a background for the footage and then place the footage over the top whilst live. This would be difficult to do as well.

For the over-the-shoulder graphics, I prepared them beforehand in Photoshop so that they are already in the right position and can be placed directly onto the screen without any adjustments in Xpression studios.

Likewise, the videos were rendered with the background already included, so that playing the video is all that is required when live. However, one uncertainty I have is with the format of the videos. Ruth mentioned that they have to be in the .mxf format when I converted them in media encoder, the file size became 400% larger than their .mp4 counterpart. This makes me wonder whether they will work on the EVS machine.

The issue we want to cover is the recent protest in Hong Kong. We wish to highlight the absurdities of the police department and the government’s response to the protest so far.

There are a few ways and segments we decided to cover this issue in a satirical way. The first way is through a parody of the State coverage of the issue, in a way that condemns that the protests whilst revealing the government’s own transgressions towards its people. This segment could be used as a fake correspondence or in a sketch format. Some considerations for this segment would be to draw a line that ensures that we do not turn it into a segment that bullies China, but to use the devices of parody to criticise and find humour in them.

Another segment is an interview where we interview a fake Hong Kong policeman about what the protestors are doing. There are various tactics that the protestors employ to protect themselves, therefore seeing the way the police respond to them would demonstrate how extreme the police are dealing with these protestors’ techniques.

However, the main framework of the show would still be in the form of a late-night satirical comedy show which starts with a monologue that summaries the events that have transpired for those uninitiated. Throughout the show, we will incorporate many news clips from both the west, Hong Kong, China and footage from protestors. Most of which will serve as the punchline to jokes or as part of an edit that contrasts. Headlines and quotes from news articles will also be used.

The overall aim of choosing this issue is to raise awareness since most of us in Australia can not directly support the cause in any substantial way. Therefore, we believe that by presenting this issue in a comedic way will help this issue remain in the minds of the audience.