The 5 News launch was great. I guess Im biased because I think Citytv Toronto's Citypulse format, on which 5News was based, is brilliant. I think 5 should have stuck with the format, let that become their signature style. But of course modernised & refreshed the style over the years. Like graphics and hypercolourful newsroom, it was a bit much, even back then, but over all the format was great. Today 5News to me, has been newscast that has sorta been adrift. LL could have easily done something like that for their Headline London programme. Youthful, energetic, different. Like they claim to be. Its almost like "style over substance."
Headline London appears to be changing slowly towards a more beefed up news agenda.
Running order:
D-Day - Live with Maleena Pone at the RAF Museum in Hendon.
Westminster and local political review with the Political Editor of the Standard.
Package from Epsom racecourse
UKIP by-election result. Interview with former UKIP member Alexandra Swann.
Tottenham community pub bid lost, replay of Wake Up London interview.
Pre-rec package about Bromley council charging for street parties. No narration from a reporter, using the people affected in Beckenham.
Interview with Camden schoolgirl who's been given a bursary to a US college
Pre-rec PTC from Miami using a Standard sports journalist with an iphone who saw Roy Hodgson give a Q&A.
Roundtable debate about sex education.
Small note that might have been mentioned. LL added spot lights behind the columns on the brick walls between the windows. Looks nice and adds some interests. Now the set just needs be "livened" up a bit. Needs screens or something else.
Here is an idea...in the US there is a channel called PIVOT its a similar vein as LL wants to be (sorta).. Anyway the centerpiece of the channel is a discussion program called TAKEPART LIVE its like a serious NOT THE ONE SHOW... They recently launched a new set. Got that loft like feel. It features an Apple-store "newsroom" of sorts in the background. Dont like the overall "brown" feeling, buts interesting nontheless. It has some grafitt-esque stuff on the brick walls. Not sure about that. LL shoulda tried for something like this.
I dipped into Wake Up London this morning to see if it had got any better since I last watched - and it definitely seemed more polished.
Top story was James Banks at Scotland Yard on new anti-terror measures for London, which felt like the right kind of lead story for a local news programme. Alex was doing a great job presenting, and Vanessa's updates seemed much better.
Not sure if this is representative of what the show's like nowadays, but what I saw certainly seemed to have come a long way.
Anthony Baxter has been covering for Louise Scodie on Not the One Show since Friday. On Friday, Scodie tweeted he was covering, but no reference was made about her on the programme, nor on any of the Twitter accounts today.
Incidentally, the show thanks to Baxter's delivery had more of a serious tone, which suited the discussion about Rik Mayall and the usually inane local newspaper slot about random stories appeared to work better.
Joe Naylor is doing the Big Question segments.
Now if they can just dump that bloody name and Scodie, they might be heading in the right direction with the 7pm slot.
Doesnt have any "Umph" behind it. The report kinda just lays there. The writing was uninspired and voiced in a deadpan way. They are moving in the right direction with covering actual news, BUT if they want to be exciting and youthful....be just that... exciting and youthful. Get that camera down off that tripod work on punchier writing. Hope this is not a signal of things to come.
Get the camera off the tripod doesn't work with self-shooting video journalists though!
Aside from the cameras LL is using, I respectfully disagree about the flexibility of "One-man-bands" or VJ's dynamism in filming their stories. Again I go back to local tv pioneers Citytv. They perfected the Videojournalism. They often used multiple cameras. Holding the main camera in their shoulder and whilst shooting themselves with a smaller camera in their outstretched arm. Then they would splice this footage together. If they wanted to do a stand up they would sometimes shoot into a reflective surface like a mirror or a glass window or put the smaller camera on a tripod whilst balancing the big camera on their shoulder. The look and impression on telly was brilliant. As it made getting the story feel like the most important thing. In fact the VJ was the centrepiece of Citytv's adverts and idents for many years. Here an example of CityVJ Cynthia Mulligan shooting a story using their typical techniques with a young kid at the Citytv OpenHouse. I would imagine with the improved equipment on offer today the production quality would much better now. (Bonus)You also get to see inside the ground-breaking CityPulse newsroom
Here are some promos that feature the VJ/Cameraperson. The centrepiece of Citytv.