Reflect

19/07/14 – First year at BOA

Around a year ago now, I received a letter through the post informing me that I had in fact earned a place on the Broadcast course at Birmingham Ormiston Academy. At the time I was obviously over the moon but I never realised how great this opportunity actually was until now, when I look back at everything I’ve achieved and learnt over just one year of being there.

Before attending BOA I heard a few people saying ‘The BOA experience is what you make of it”, which is 100% true! The course itself is just like any other course teaching TV and Radio, even though some Universities teach a rather similar course to BOA’s. It’s the additional effort you put in that makes BOA unique (If that makes sense).

Work at BOA

The units I’ve currently completed are:

• Unit 24 – Writing for TV and Video – Merit
• Unit 30 – Advertising production for TV – Merit
• Unit 44 – Music based programming – Distinction
• Unit 45 – Commercial production for Radio – Distinction
• Unit 62 – Digital Video production for Interactive Media – Merit

I intend to redo the units where I have achieved a Merit to reach a distinction as my overall target is triple Distinction*. The first unit I completed at BOA was Unit 30 (Advertising production for TV) and it couldn’t have gone worse if we’d tried… All the work towards this unit can be seen here: https://kerrylhatfield.wordpress.com/boa-coursework/boa-tv-units/advertising/make-up-advert/

It took forever to come up with an idea and then once we had an idea we decided to change it half way through pre-production. Once it came to filming everyone was so unorganised it was silly. At points no one was operating the camera because of some people having to leave early and others forgetting their costume. And then the edit took far too long. Generally just because of the amount of footage which was just … meh. The final product is something that will be burned and destroyed as soon as it is re-filmed but for now I’ll just hang my head in shame and hope I never make anything as bad as that again!

When it came to creating our radio adverts I was in the same team as before so straight away I knew that the process would be… complicated. The work can be viewed here: https://kerrylhatfield.wordpress.com/boa-coursework/boa-radio-units/radio-commercials/jamaican-me-crazy/

We again went through different ideas but they all seemed too cliche or un-original. We settled with advertising a Ben and Jerry’s sorbet which went quite well. Im happy with our final product and this piece of work is something that I wouldn’t mind people actually listening to! We then created a retro advert for the same product, which was great fun to create! Our radio teacher did the male voice and Abigail Palmer did the female voice. The advert itself still makes me laugh so again I’m very happy with how this product came out. The only thing I’d change is voice at the end because there isn’t much enthusiasm, but apart from that – the advert is again something I’m proud of.

Script writing is something I’ve never really been very good at so when it came to creating our own script I was not the most excited student to say the least… My idea and work for this unit can be seen here: https://kerrylhatfield.wordpress.com/boa-coursework/boa-tv-units/script-writing/my-short-film-ideas/

I think my idea was good but I wasn’t very good at writing it down and making it interesting from the start up to the end. Being an aspiring Director I did think that this could be a potential problem in the future but after working on ‘Floor Number Six’ with my team I’ve realised that I can edit scripts by adding and subtracting parts meaning in the future as long as I have a team to work with I’ll still be able to produce scripts of a good quality.

Favourite Project

Recently I’ve been staying behind at BOA until 6/7 to film ‘Floor Number Six’ – Our short film, (written by Saima Malik). Before completing this project I’d heard teachers and older students warning us that when we are doing this project many people will fall out and argue, however our team was completely the opposite! Well there were a few arguments, but not many!

You can view some of the work here (Most of the pre-production has been completed in a folder): https://kerrylhatfield.wordpress.com/boa-coursework/boa-tv-units/unit-22-single-camera-drama/

My team for SCD was:

• Saima – Director
• Abby – Production Assistant
• Tara – Production Manager
• Kerry – Assistant Director
• Scott – Post-production
• Ashley Haycock – Sound

We all got along really well, sharing all the work equally. Me and Saima created a YouTube and Twitter page to share our progress. We upload production diaries to YouTube as it is a more interactive platform than just writing our progress down. When it came to auditioning the cast, Tara and Saima were in charge. The auditions were recorded and we all agreed on everyones roles. When it came to filming we realised some of the actors were more used to stage acting then being filmed so some of the acting is very melodramatic to say the least. However I couldn’t of asked for a better team – everyone was reliable and (for the most part) they didn’t complain about staying behind late and filming the same thing over and over again. I need to give recognition to Ashley as well as he wasn’t part of our team until we realised none of us knew a fat lot about sound. *Cue emotional music* He stayed behind whenever we needed him on short notice even when he needed to get home at a certain time – so thanks man!

The footage is currently being edited, and I’ve only seen sneak peaks but what I have seen has made me so excited to see the final product! Once it has been completed we are going to have a premiere and all the cast and crew will eat pizza and watch the movie in the lecture theatre in BOA. I’m also editing a Behind the Scenes which is very cheesy and well ‘Overly Edited’ – On purpose though. This unit has been really fun to work through and I can’t wait to be doing this kind of thing as a job in the future.

Opportunities

B2 Radio

For a whole year I’ve been involved with B2 Radio – BOA’s student station. I presented, planned and drove a show called ‘The Update Hour’ which discussed the latest celebrity gossip, with Abigail Palmer, Saima Malik and Laura Reeves. Despite having days with minimal stories we all played an equal role of gathering the newest information and gossip. At one point we were told that we had quite a few listeners (probably all our mom’s). We took it in turn to drive and I learnt how to use Myriad – something I didn’t think I’d have access to until I went to University. Even though I am more focussed on TV, the opportunity to have this radio show meant loads to me and it took me a while to get used to the thought of giving it up. I could tell that the passion for the show was slowly deteriorating through the team, and I knew that I should be focusing more on BOA TV then B2 Radio so we all decided that leaving the show was for the best. I had never even thought about the radio industry before attending BOA and I’m so glad that I can confidently say that I know how to plan, produce and drive a show.

I also co-hosted a christmas show with Calum Wilkes, and I can’t even begin to describe how happy I was with this opportunity. Even though it might not seem like a huge thing, at the time I was asking myself why I’d been chosen and not someone from the radio group. I was actually really nervous when it came to doing the show, but it was such a great experience and it was nice to do a show with Calum Wilkes since he basically built B2 radio up from the ground with Dan Guest. This show actually led to Dan and Mr. Mac asking if I wanted to host the Breakfast show next year, but I had to turn it down to focus on TV.

BOA Live

I remember Jay Beech approaching me and a couple of other people asking if we wanted to film something called BOA Live, which is basically a show where people from BOA sing. I jumped on the idea, and I remember everyone getting ready to record and it hit me. Where on earth was the record button… I felt so stupid asking but now I know how to actually use the camera’s so at least I learnt! I tried to be so creative with my shots, zooming in and out and focusing on different things, trying to impress people with my amazing camera skills! I also helped out with the Christmas special which actually fell on the same day as the christmas radio show so I had to quickly record the radio show and then run downstairs to film BOA Live.

After the christmas show me and Laura Reeves were in charge of organising the Valentines special. It was quite stressful since it was our first time organising anything like this, but I learnt so much from the experience and would do loads different if I am to organise anything like this again.

BOA TV

So BOA TV has a long way to go, in my opinion. I think BOA TV should be like a TV channel with a new show everyday, whether that would be factual or entertainment, and weekly shows of a longer duration. Without being rude to the BOA TV team I feel that we could all put more effort in to get more content out weekly, and I think the team would agree with me saying so.

Despite this, we have created bits and bobs, and next year I will be producing a show called Refresh! It will be a weekly news show with a performance and interview from a different band each week. I think this show could be really good if we do it correctly and I’m really looking forward to creating it.

There are loads more opportunities that I have been involved with; Wireless, Motion house, Ace dance & Music interviews, Rich List promotional video. I have learnt so much from all of these which will better my skills as a director. With wireless we didn’t have access to a microphone as it was in someone else’s bag so as the director I had to think on my feet and quickly think of what we could do that didn’t require a microphone. The Rich List promotional video showed me how I have to be more confident when being a director, by finding shots, interviewing people, and telling the camera man what to film and do. Other opportunities just taught me more about how to use the equipment, and I found out more about the course by talking to older students.

Equipment

BOA itself has great equipment! A fully kitted out TV studio and production gallery along with an industry standard radio studio that runs Myriad, and the latest editing software (Premiere pro/ Avid). At first I thought we’d have multiple lessons teaching us how to use the equipment but something I learnt very quickly is that it’s up to you to learn how to use everything – don’t get me wrong I was guided and all my questions were answered but in my spare time I’d mess around with cameras and create projects to help me learn how to use the equipment. I’ve even brought different cameras home to mess about with and learn.

• I’ve learnt Premiere Pro CS5.5 – I prefer Final cut to Premiere Pro but I hate the newest version of Final Cut therefore I use premiere pro a lot more than final cut.
• I’ve learnt how to effectively use a DSLR – I am still learning this but I can now shoot in Manual mode and not be as confused as anything.
• I can operate the Auto cue and will continue using this to produce ‘Refresh’.
• I can do basic operations on the JVC 100’s such as setting the white balance, focusing and zooming, changing the iris and checking all the menu functions are correct.
• I understand how to use Myriad to drive a radio show, along with how to present and plan one.

(There’s probably loads that I’m missing but this is just what comes to mind at the moment).

Plans for next year

I want next year to be as productive as this year. (Even if that means spending half of it looking for Craig). I’m planning Refresh which will be released weekly and I want to produce more short films, which will hopefully be as fun to produce as ‘Floor number 6’ was. It’s scary to think that this time next year I’ll be set to go to University, but I’m really excited to produce bigger and better things when I’m there.

I’ve met some really great people and teachers at BOA. Teachers that actually know what they’re on about and are in fact happy to be there and support you. It still means the world to me that I managed to get a place at BOA and I’ve had some amazing reports proving to me that I can achieve this dream of becoming a director. So far I think I’ve done everything I can to use BOA to it’s full potential and I can’t wait for next year! Bring on the FMP.