This is my final piece of social media content for this studio, and semester, that tries to answer the question I posed at the start of assignment 2:

Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?

This video ended up being the most different from the ones before it and what I initially envisioned. From the last post to this one there were two main things I wanted to change, the staging and the delivery of information.

Firstly the staging. All the other videos were me either sitting at a desk or standing in front of my wardrobe. I knew I definitely wanted to evolve from sitting behind a desk, standing in front of my wardrobe was an evolution of that, but not a very big one. A benefit of the standing was that it felt more natural than sitting behind a desk. The staging for this video was a mixture of the two, I was standing in some sections, sitting in others and even walking and crouching. Although the physical position I was in whilst addressing the camera may seem trivial, it added to the energy and made a positive contribution overall, making the video feel a lot shorter than what it is. Couple this with the different exterior locations used throughout the shoot which kept viewers engaged and entertained. This made the video feel less typical ‘satirical news show’ like and more of a satirical informational field video, those similar to Jonathan Pie’s videos that were recommended in the class presentation. I definitely think it was my most fun to make and best video of this series. Audience feedback definitely seems to support  this with 1000 views on Facebook in only three hours! (my best performaning video to date). Although YouTube was my main social media network to focus on for this assignment, I also uploaded a photo to Instagram with a link to the full YouTube video, and uploaded the full video to Facebook and to multiple Facebook groups which all helped with distribution.

The second thing I wanted to change was the delivery of information. My previous videos were a lot of short headline one-liners with short sketches to break them up and add more context or in some cases even be a punchline. I wanted to experiment with delving deeper into a single topic rather than focusing on a lot of topics for a short amount of time. I decided for this video to focus on the topic of dogs and create a satirical guide into choosing, buying and raising a dog. I loosely mocked a Better Homes and Gardens segment even getting more in character (and had an excuse to showcase my dog Rocco). This video was also the quickest to write as most of it was reworked jokes I performed for stand up comedy. This reworking of stand up material felt quite natural and allowed for it to be less topical and of the time, meaning people viewing it in weeks, months or years from now will still enjoy it without needing to mentally time travel back to when it was filmed. Also this helps scratch my stand up comedy itch thats been getting worse since quarantine.

I feel as if this format of field pieces with reworked stand up material and focusing on a single topic could work as the next evolution of this satirical news show project with this video being it’s first example. This video definitely felt like something different to the last ones, not even featuring the very basic intro used for them (and slightly revamped intro for the previous video).

To answer the question posed way back at the beginning of assignment 2:

Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?

I believe I can. Having proved it with the previous videos. They were funny, satirical takes on news and current events. However, I think moving forward the question needs to be updated to:

Can I make an informational show that sheds light on a topic in a funny and entertaining way?

And I think I can also do that having proved it with this one…

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrPQqOEiLqM&t=4s