Ever since Chris mentioned Features I have been excited to find out more about what type of features can be produced both for magazines and bulletins. I have looked over a range of students feature programmes and the type of topics they have covered. I have chosen 'Fashion First' feature with permission from Zoe Anderson and Becky Davies (no copyright) to analyse it as I felt it was a particularly strong first ever feature that covered the latest Autumn trends local to Winchester.
This feature covers the Autumn trend as it changed for Winter and investigates the type of clothing that hit the high streets. I like the way that the feature begins with the opening music and title that engages the audience and explains to them what the feature is about. The feature is introduced clearly by the presenters (Zoe and Becky) along with the establishing shot of the high street that sets the scene.
I like the way they choose people from the high street who are mainly young as this is the target audience for the feature. The camera shot pans up and down the persons outfit keeping their face out of view which makes the feature safe meaning that no one can sue them even though it would have been consented beforehand (it may also be that they just don't want to be recognised.) The on screen text is professional as the camera zoom in on the item listed which allows the audience to relate the text to the specific clothing. However if I was to produce this feature I may have carried out further investigation into finding out average prices for the clothing so that they can be compared.
The voice over of people's opinions of what they believe the trend to be cuts in over the music well and can be heard clearly. The edits have been cut well however in some cases i think it would have been effective to allow the person to say more than a sentence about what they believe the trend to be. I really like the footage of people walking along with the change of music to signify a change of gender to the male trend. It appeared to me that the male fashion wasn't as complex as the women and appeared rushed. It would have been effective to have a range of clothing such as jumpers, coats and different trouser wear for the male style rather than focusing on the same footwear and jeans. It may have been effective to have a couple of male and female accessories also mentioned as these are a main part of outfits today.
The ending is effective as it is filmed where the feature began and ends with the girls walking off as if they are going to shop for their trends. I think this feature is good for a first and follows the conventions of usual features such as 'This morning' however another nice idea to steal could have been the idea of a catwalk of what they believe the main fashion trends of that season will be whilst they use voice over to describe them.
Well done though girls it is successful and relates to its audience however where was Primark or cheaper brands to cater for the students! And I hope that I can work as part of the feature team next year it looks interesting and fun to be a part of!
4 comments:
Thanks for the feedback Sophie, really appreciate it. For a first feature, we were really pleased with the outcome especially as we had so many technical problems when we were filming this. I've explained this in more detail on my blog. I think it's great that you've taken the time to write this post, you've taken a step further from just commenting on the weekly WINOL packages and it's shown you have an interest in features. I hope you continue to enjoy the feature packages :)
Yes - we also produce a magazine (that is all features) - the editor is charlotte clarke (year three). this is her blog and you can see some of the 'spreads' (ie layouts) that she has already produced. So we are aimimg to built up the magazien and featrues side, and charlotte is leading that at the moment. We are still a very new course and we gave a lot of attention at first to building up the news side of things - that's pretty much the core of journalism - last year we had a realk breakthrough with sport as well and the big priority this year is to get the same recognition for consumer magazine work and feature writing/ documentaries. So we are already recognised to be frank as best for student news production, and also now for sport (by a mile actually). We are already producing some fantastic documentaries (they are rather 'newsy' though) including the incredible 'Karet' which is bound to win a BAFTA in the student factual category. Zoe, Becky and the WINOL featrues team are starting to produce some very strong consumer (ie less newsy and more magaziney features). The thing is features are slower to produce, so while the nbews team are on their sixth or seventh attempt now (thus great improvements as noted_ the features people have only had one or two attempts. So the best is yet to come. If you wanted to volunteer to help out on the production of the features TV show - WINOL life in the stuydio, or just be part of the studio audience, this is produced I think fortnightly on a Tuesday around the middle of the day - ie in the gapo between law on tues morning and HCJ on tuesday PM. So if you wanted to help out I think you would eb weelcome (though thsi up to the student production team). Just go to TAB9 anytime mon, tue, weds and ask for the features editor Katies Rawles or the managing editor Claire Lomas.
MORE on features... (exceeded word limit for a blog post!)
If you want to have a go at contributing articels or features to the magazine then contact charlotte clarke. We are going to do onw edition of the magazine per term and we are determined that this will look as professional as a magaizne, as WINOL does as TV,
Charlotte Clarke's blog - http://charlotteaclarke.blogspot.com/2011/10/lust-vs-must.html
Maria Milano of InStyle magazine on student features work at Winchester:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3vDvoAxBww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4GKVPZl69U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIa7yNLg7Wg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JaEa5-9DO8
If you like this material you can help straitght away by commenting on the videos and promoting them to other magazine fans that you know in facebook groups, etc, etc.
Although I am a shabby old bloke I have a bit of experience in the features and magazines world and former students of mine include loads of people in the features and magazine worlds including Lisa Smomarksi, the editor of More magazine (until recently, she was the launch editor of Stylist magazine) and also Putel Verma, the producer/editor of Come Dine With Me. Your course is a bit news, news, news toi begin with, becuse that really is the hard bit. to be frank there are tens of thousands of 'wannabe' people wanting to go in to magazines, but the difference is that if you have a cutting edge with al lthe tough skills of news reporting and editing PLUS all the all-round Oxbridge type education of HCJ then you are in the strongest possible position. So both Lisa and Putel I do recall went through a news course in their first year without so much as touching a magazine, and then did the HCJ material (at which they both excelled - I rememebr a very good paper given by Puitel on the (year two) topic of existentialism.
Also if you look round the blogs you may notice that we have tried to balacne the intake as much as possible so we have groups of peopel who are mainly features, others who are very interested in news, others sports, some who are interest in it all. One reason why we interview everyone fairly thoroughly is to ensure we have a spread of people. That's because it is a bit like recruiting a team to produce WINOL. This year WINOL and now its sports and features bits are going amazingly well for this stage of the year. So you lot will inherit something really amnazing. In the meantime you need to get your head down in the class room learning a load of skills so that when your time comes on WINOL yourelly make the most of it.
Thanks for your feedback, Sophie.
On the day we had a lot of unexpected technical problems so I am proud of what we produced. As you can imagine, the men were a lot more difficult to film as not many of them had a major interest in fashion!
As Zoe and George have pointed out on your other blog posts, your grammar and spelling really need to improve. If you do this, your blog as a whole will be better and will look more professional to any future employers. (Also, don't write LOL - looks slightly amateur.)
I look forward to reading any future comments. I think you would like working for Features team.
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