Unit 11: Scriptwriting for media products

For this unit, I was asked by Sheffield Live to produce a 5 minute TV news broadcast script for the weekly news section for "Games Corner". I had to research current games news (new releases/reviews etc.) for the week that I have been assigned (10/04/2015) to help write my script. I gained client feedback for the script that I produced and was required to make amendments based on the feedback that I was given.
The audience that our script and the show is aimed at, tends to include all ages, from young to a much older audience that play video games, not specifically aiming our topics towards one sex or age group as our subjects are varied and diverse, but for the most section of our script, the contents relates to those of an older age range. This is something that Vicky liked about the show.
Star Wars Battlefront 3 is one of the games that we talked about in our script, the game hasn't got a Pegi rating yet, since it doesn't come on sale until December. The previous instalment was a Pegi rated 12+ which indicates that the person playing the game has to be at least 12 years of age to buy or play the game. This shows that we've related our script to our target audience as this section of the show connects to those 12 or over, which is a largest section of our target demographic.
We've tried to aim our content at an range of ages, not only picking one age group or one subject that relates to that age range. this is why we've also talked about Apple Watch apps and E3 as apple watch especially can relate to a young as well as older audience. This is another reason how we've related our script to our target demographic.

Vicky was overall impressed with our script, only pointing out 2-3 errors with our work which is why we was really happy with the result. Vicky thought that we possibly needed to talk about Sheffield and the local gaming scene more, if the gaps in our script allowed us too. The script also needs to be edited to make the interaction between the presenters a bit more strict and less friendly, to make it feel more like a news type of show.
From the feedback we gained from Vicky, the script needs to be more localised and Sheffield orientated for our target audience, and to be more formal and professional instead of informal and relaxed. This is important as we need to follow the conventions of T.V magazine styled scripts and to follow the conventions of the show.

From the feedback we received from Vicky, our main focus was making the script more formal as this were the main, key issue that we needed to improve and change by the time our script was finished.
To change our script, we will first deal the script and the content as Vicky asked us to possibly add in more information about the local gaming scene. This as well as news and rumours about things happening in Sheffield, related to the world of gaming, if our script would allow us room to. To do this we would are going to make our script longer, so we can add in more information about this topic. Also we will relate this content to other work I have done for the same show (Games Corner) where I took part in filming and editing a short video about gaming and animals, all relating to a Sheffield based gaming night at the RSPCA centre. This is important as not only will our script be longer, which gives us more content, but it also adds in a relevant theme of gaming, all being Sheffield based and communist orientated.
Vicky also asked us to make the conversation between herself and Jordan a little more formal, to make the piece look more professional, like a news article. To do this we will re-write the conversation sections between the main articles in the script. We will be able to shorten these sections down because of the added time we will gain through adding the Sheffield gaming based news that we have included. This is important because not only will the script will look and feel more professional, but it will allow Vicky and Jordan to interact and communicate better and more cohesively.

Throughout the duration of writing our script, we made sure that we followed the conventions and guidelines to how a professional script would look. To do this we made sure our script were written in Courier, font size 12, this way the font and font size were set to professional standard. This is a type of guide line, for all scripts in many different types of media to follow. This is also shown in all of my example scripts, which is one of the main sources we followed to make sure that our script was written correctly, especially the T.V news script as its a similar style to our own.
Our script ended up a mix of both formal and informal, as we allowed interaction between the hosts (Vicky and Jordan) as well as keeping the style and content, strict and professional to make the show match the conventions.
The house style of the games corner script is a magazine styled review that follows the conventions of other formal styled, magazine programs, where they will be lots of topics and subjects covered over the duration of the broadcast. The script will have the structure of any other similar styled scripts. Any transitions or effects will be on the left hand side, anything that involves location will be on the right and the text itself, will be in the centre.
All scripts have different layout conventions, our script would fit that of a magazine/T.V show. Regarding our script, on the first page they will be text including the date the script was created, the people taking part in making the script the section and episode, the graphic effects logo, the sound effects intro sound, the general transitions and enhancements, and the introduction to the start of the next page which will be the interaction and cuts between the hosts. this will continue throughout the script until its end.
The mode of address for our script is teacher to pupil, simply because of the way the script is written. Before the script was updated, the mode of address was peer to peer, but P2P tends to be a lot more informal, which isn't the way Vicky wanted the script to look, as its a professional, news styled T.V show, which is usually formal based depending on who its aimed at.
In relation to content, since we received Vicky's feedback, the only content related news we had to add too (if we felt the need to) was Sheffield and local based content and news. Since we have now added my RSPCA Sheffield gaming night video to the script (and also correctly edited the script based on Vicky's feedback) and both the group and Vicky are happy with the result, we haven't missed any content in our script.

As all of our content was different and aimed at a verity of ages, we had no content for specific age groups, especially for those over the age of 18. If we had any content related to those over 18, it would have been important that they were no explicit visuals or swearing shown due to the possibility of audiences under 18 watching it. Also we would have made sure that overall, the content of the script included no swearing, portrayal of offencive themes or visuals that may be distressing to younger audiences (gore/sex etc.). Our script was originally different as we had content and news from such games as Mortal Combat X and GTA IV, which would have originally required us to take these themes into more consideration.
The Games Corner will be shown during daytime television pre-watershed time, meaning viewers of any age can watch the show. We will ensure that they will be no expletive language or offencive themes within our script.
In terms of being bias, Vicky made it clear that she thought the show and the presenters were balance well, as they both had equal segments and dialogue. Although our topics are not those of which the presenters can be outright bias about, due to the content being information based. The informal element of the show means that there can discussion between the presenters in order to keep the flow of conversation going as well grab the interest of the viewers listening. An example of this would be when the hosts introduce the review of such themes such as the Star Wars trailer. As this topic can be a very bias and opinionated theme because of the popularity of the movies. Because they, and many viewers anticipate the game to be great, in this instance, based on the success of the previous games and the films, the game is shown in a positive light. Specific examples include 'potential to become the greatest Battlefront game yet. There's also some bias opinions about Sheffield based themes and games, as Sheffield Live are a community based broadcaster. The show and the radio station would like to promote community based projects, to better the station. Some examples of this would be them promoting such companies such as Sumo Digital and Team Cooper.
The topics that will be discussed by the hosts of the Games Corner are properly credited because they will say the companies responsible for developing and publishing the games. This is shown when Vicky and Jordan state just some if the company's that will be attending the E3 event coming up in America. In order to use such visuals and audio from games and videos for our script, we will have to reference and give credit to the copyright owners in the shows credits. Sheffield Live! TV owns a license allowing for the use of such visuals and audio provided they are used in a educational format, which is what they'll be used for, to provide information in The Games Corner.
Libel means 'false information', so we ensured that all of our information was correct. We used reliable and trusted sources from a range of websites to back up our content. This primarily includes getting reliable news and content from the actual websites of the companies we talked about, for example, we gained the Apple watch news through the apple website. The battle field news and trailer through the Star Wars Battlefront 3 website and You Tube and the E3 content and information through the E3 website.This news influenced our script and visuals. Because the news was from a reliable source, it was viable to put this content in the script.

Today our team will be meeting Vicky Kirby from Sheffield Live TV; a presenter from the Games Corner, in relation to discuss our draft script and gain feedback on it.

I had come up with 5 questions in order to ask vicky about our script so that we can gain feedback and make improvements.

1) Do you think we covered enough news topics to keep the viewer intrested?

2) Did the new script balance well for both the presenters equally?

3) Was the gaming news relevent for the show and was it suitable for the target audience and genre?

4) Do you think the news we mentioned was spread out enough to cover a few different areas of the gaming genre?

5) Do we need to make any improvements to the layout, text or dialoge?

Our meeting with Vicky

Feedback from Vicky

Hi Caitlin,
Here is feedback from your script. If you need me to elaborate on any of the answers feel free to drop me a message.

1) Do you think we covered enough news topics to keep the viewer intrested? I

do, I really enjoyed the fact that all 3 topics were different and also gaming related.

2) Did the new script balance well for both the presenters equally?

Yes I felt that it was balanced well between both presenters.

3) Was the gaming news relevent for the show and was it suitable for the target audience and genre?

I felt all of the topics covered were relevent and is suited to all types of gamers and also is applicable to other audiences.

4) Do you think the news we mentioned was spread out enough to cover a few different areas of the gaming genre?

I really liked the topics that were picked you didn't just stick with releases or events it was mixed up well enough and covered enough to fill the slot for the show, however if you want to add more to it, think about covering a local event/development.

5) Do we need to make any improvements to the layout, text or dialoge?

The layout of the script is fine however, I spotted that there were a few parts of the script with informal content. I would say to avoid putting in too many scenes of us laughing/asking each other questions as it takes away the 'news' feel of the segment. Once those changes have been made I think it will be a great script.