Welcome to the Members’ Area! Here you’ll find lots of goodies to help develop your TV station and best engage with other NaSTA stations.
Welcome to the Members’ Area! Here you’ll find lots of goodies to help develop your TV station and best engage with other NaSTA stations.
As technology adapts, and equipments/ trends used in live television are always changing, please take these items note as they can always be updated. See what works for your station best, and email [email protected] if you have further queries!
Before starting to plan a broadcast ask yourself if the programme has to be filmed live. It should meet one of two aims by being filmed live: either to produce the best content or give your station the best experience. Even events don’t have to be filmed live. Sometimes filming as live or doing a highlights video edited during the event can be more effective and much easier.
You need to decide what you want to achieve with your live broadcast. Are you producing a single standalone programme? A live special of a normally VOD series? A weekly or monthly live series? Or covering an event? Are you trying to reach a different audience and if so will the timing of the broadcast be suitable for this audience? Or are you trying to extend your stations capabilities and give your members a new and exciting experience?
If you are covering an event are there any requirements from the organisers? For example if it is a Students’ Union elections results or hustings are there any regulations on fairness and impartiality you need to stick to? If it is a debate or Question Time style programme have you got plans in place to prevent any controversial or potentially liable content from being broadcast?
A live broadcast doesn’t stand much chance of happening if it doesn’t exist on paper beforehand. Make sure you conduct site visits for any venues you are unfamiliar with as you’ll need to plan your camera and gallery positions, where you can get power and internet access from etc.
There is nothing worse in a live broadcast than a presenter being left on air without anything to say or not knowing how long they have to talk for. Communications is the most important part of an outside broadcast. The director needs to be able to communicate with everyone so they all know when you go live, when you cut to a VT, when the studio is due back on or how long they need to keep filling time for.
If your live broadcast is part of a weekly live series with a regular team then the chances are you won’t need to rehearse each individual show in full. However it will be helpful to rehearse any new features or individual links that are different. If you are producing a one off show or event coverage, or have new crew, rehearsals are vital.
Even if you can’t access your venue you should setup as much of your equipment as possible anywhere you can find to check that.
If you are broadcasting from a new venue make sure that you can live stream from the venue. Check your stream using the same network socket that you will use for the right broadcast to make sure you are assigned the right IP address, the socket is on the right VLN and there are no port restrictions or access restrictions that will stop you from connecting to your streaming server.
Make sure that you choose guests who are able to talk about the relevant topic for a long time. This means you can fill any gaps caused by delays or technical problems with conversation rather than having to use up all of you VT or go off air. DO your research and be aware of any topics they may not want to, or may not be allowed to talk about.
Live broadcasting is one of the most stressful things a student TV station can attempt but being stressed and worried about it will only make it harder. Enjoy the experience, learn from your mistakes and make the next show better.
Stations may request funding for lots of bits and bobs for kit from their Students’ Union, especially around SU Elections and Varsity as they are great events to get cross-promotion and boost audiences for Unions and the Student TV Station.
We collated together some examples from Stations across the UK, about they have used to host events such as Varsity, SU Elections and the national simulcast broadcast like Freshers TV. One option is also to rent the equipment from local kit hire companies. It will depend on if you as
RHUBARB TV, Royal Holloway University
LA1TV and YSTV, University of Lancashire and University of York
FORGE TV, University of Sheffield (below)
Forge TV
VISUALS
AUDIO
LIGHTS
SOFTWARE
STREAMING HARDWARE
These Resources will be able to help and assist you as you prepare for your final few months and years in Student Television, and want to enter the Television Industry! There’s lots of avenues to explore, and it can seem quite daunting how to progress. Attached are some handy guides, schemes, and areas where you can find out more information about getting into particular roles, genres and formats.
Look regionally!
E.g. Film London and Film Birmingham have regional runner email databases for new opportunities
BAFTA Guru
In particular – Breakthrough Brits is a great scheme!
Media Trust
Anyone based in Birmingham, London or Manchester
Call Time Runners Agency
Actively recruit a few times each year, great way to segway into becoming Assistant Directors
Production Guild:
Once you are more experienced with credits, a good scheme to get into!
BFI NETWORK |
£10,000 |
Account on BFI Network website Not made a feature film Not received public funding UK Resident aged 18 + |
|
Channel 4 |
£4000 |
Aged 16 – 24 No longer than 4 minutes Emphasis on non- narrative work |
|
Creative England |
£10,000 |
Not in full time education, employment or training |
|
Film Cymru Wales |
£5000 – £15,000 |
Made 1 previous screen based piece of work Be Welsh Resident aged 18 + |
|
Film London |
£4,000 |
Base in London, aged 18 + |
|
Film London |
London Calling Plus |
£15,000 |
Base in London, aged 18 +, BAME |
Jameson |
– |
Aged 25 +, resident in US, UK, S. Africa, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Bulgaria or Israel |
|
Kevin Spacey Foundation |
£10,000 |
UK resident, aged 18 + |
|
Northern Ireland Screen |
Female, 30 +, Disabled, BAME, LGBT Filmmakers, N. Ireland resident Writing/ directing credit on short film in the last three years |
||
Scottish Film Talent Network |
£15,000 |
Aged 18 +, Scotland based, not in full time education |
|
Wellcome Trust |
£5000 – £50,000 |
Aged 18 +, Medical research & academic involvement aspect |
ALL (Production,, Editorial, Networking) |
|
Factual & Entertainment |
|
Film & Distribution |
|
ALL |
|
Really useful training information for aspiring directors in film or drama |
Film and Drama |
Distribution |
|
Fact – Entertainment (all areas) |
|
Film and Drama |
|
Production Management or Editorial (Researchers) |
Factual, Entertainment |
Technical (video, audio) |
|
Hands on training |
|
Various schemes |
|
Disabled talent – Film |
|
Factual |
|
Production Co- Ordinator Training Scheme Pilot programme launching in London and Manchester this year, extending to Birmingham too |
Factual |
OFCOM’s regulations are used for broadcasters using television, radio etc. Releasing videos online, such as YouTube are not restricted by these, as each site will have their own legal restrictions to photos and videos being displayed on their page. They are at discretion to remove content if they feel it could cause offence, or conflict with the site’s agenda. Nonetheless, users are of course, able to report it if they feel the decision has been made unfairly.
Many Stations use platforms such as Facebook, and YouTube to showcase videos, with Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat also becoming increasingly popular. These services enable users to livestream, which is becoming increasingly popular. When publishing and releasing videos online, stations should be aware about where the images, video and audio have been sourced, and whether the correct permissions have been sought out from the original source.
PRS Music Licensing can be extremely expensive, so it is advised that student TV Stations consider using royalty-free music, or signing up to services such as www.audionetwork.com to use copyright free images or video, sites like Flickr and Wikicommons also include an option to search for ‘creative commons’. Or even try collaborating with musicians and other societies to create your own!
If content is found, which hasn’t been cleared, stations are at risk of paying a fine- which could have to be paid by the SU, due to structures and governances of Student TV Stations.
Broadcast practice (TV). OFCOM uses the Broadcast Code, for all broadcasters (think BBC, ITV, Sky etc)
This is comprised of 10 sections. Full information is available online here, where Stations and SU’s can refer to: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code?lang=c