The Design for the News Broadcast

We have began planning out how our news headlines and format is going to look when the two news anchors are talking in our news broadcast. The image below is what we are going to be going off of. My partner and I looked at many different designs and finally agreed on this one, the image down below.

Since we don’t have the high quality editing programs that news broadcasts use to make the headlines and make a logo for their channel, we had to make sure that what we went for a more simple, and manageable design. This image gives us a basic idea of what exactly he are going to do to make our news broadcast seem as real as possible. We will be using a desk or a table which will be slightly shown just to rest our arms like the stereotypical news anchors do. We will be using the website Piktochart, which is a website that is used to create logos and infographics, to create our channel’s logo. Then, we are planning on using a white wall as a background so that we can use a projector, that my partner will borrow from a family friend of hers, to show our logo on that wall behind us. Doing this will make the news broadcast look as real as it can get, since we can’t do much more due to our lack of equipment.

We have also thought out our ides for the makeup, hair, and outfits of the news anchors. For all of these aspects we will be going for a formal, serious, and business look which will be important in making our news broadcast look as professional as possible. I will be using a white tank top with a blazer over it, and since the bottom half of our bodies will not be shown, I will probably just wear black shorts. I will also be wearing my glasses to make me look more sophisticated which adds to the professional look. I will be wearing a watch, pearl earrings, a silver bracelet and gold and silver necklaces. My partner and I plan on using more of a neutral look, but with a pop of color with red lipstick. My partner and I have a little disagreement on how we should style our hair, she thinks that we should use a tight ponytail, but I think that we should wear our hair down. This is because I searched up news anchors hair styles and I only found ONE anchor wearing her hair in a ponytail, out of MILLIONS of pictures of them with either straightened or curled hair. Below is an image of a typical news anchor.





Then, for the lighting aspect of our news broadcast, we will be using the three point lighting technique. This technique is used to eliminate shadows cast by foreground elements onto the background. The key lighting will be in front of the two anchors, fill lighting from the sides of them, and the back lighting from behind them. We will be using the lighting as it is shown in the image below.

Ideas for the making of chaotic clips in News Broadcast

We have had our idea of making the news broadcast very realistic by inserting clips of the mass-suicides and what is happening in certain places while the news anchors speak. But, what we now have to do is make sure we know exactly how we are going to be creating those dramatic clips of the mass-suicides since in real life there are none going on that we can film, obviously. My partner and I came up with two ideas on what we will be doing to create the feel that there are mass-suicides going on, and we what camera movements and techniques we will be using to make it look as real as possible.

The first clip that we will be inserting is going to be a video of a woman, in this case it is going to be me, running through a crowded mall. This will make it seem like the world is ending and everyone wants to buy as many things possible to be able to survive. We are going to film this by having me running in front, and my partner will be running behind me with the camera using the handheld camera movement. This movement is the shaking of the camera, which is often used in many horror or action movies when something bad is about to happen. Utilizing this camera movement will make it seem like there is more chaos than there actually is. Obviously, in the mall, there will be a lot of people everywhere, but they will be most likely just strolling by, not acting crazy. We will creating audio clips of many of our friends screaming and then putting them all together into one clip. After that, we will combine that audio clip with the background noises of the actual mall clip so that there is a more realistic feeling of the chaos.

My partner and I are planning on going to Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise, FL on March 15, 2019. There is where we will film this clip. We will be going to an exact area in the mall, right in front of Victoria Secret, and Banana Republic. We know that this is the area where there are most people crowded around due to our past experiences of going to that mall in search of the perfect place to film our clip. March 15 is a Friday, which is the best day of the weekend to film our clip because it is the day that the most people go, and we can achieve the mass-suicide chaotic scene that we want for the news broadcast.


This is the exact location that I spoke about above.

The second clip will be showing images and maybe some video clips of the grocery store in our area, that show empty isles where there used to be water bottles and jugs. Since we can’t go to the grocery store and empty the isles out, we will be using images that I took. In September of 2017 a powerful hurricane named Irma passed by our town, and in order to prepare for it, I went grocery shopping. When I got to the grocery store, there were empty isles of food and water and I took pictures and videos to send to my family. So, we are going to insert these images and videos to add to the chaotic feel of the mass-suicide and end of the world theme.





These images are what we will try to achieve when making these clips.


We will still have the news headlines included in these clips as well as when the anchors speak. We have watched many broadcasts to get ideas and to make sure that we make ours look as real as possible, and the headlines were kept throughout. We will be doing this by using either iMovie and any special effects that we need. As shown in the storyboard, included in my last post, we will be placing these clips in a specific way. We will first show the anchors speaking, and then insert these videos and images in between. This order is also displayed on the storyboard for the news broadcast that is shown in one of my last posts.

New Event on the Schedule!!

Down below is a picture of our editing and filming schedule because there has been addition to it, which is highlighted in yellow. We have made this change because we want to film the clip of a woman running through crowds on a Friday. This is so that we get the most chaotic feel we can, on Fridays, the most people go to this mall than any other day of the week, so it is perfect. In a later blog I will explain exactly what this clip consists of.

Storyboard for the News Broadcast

Above is the image of our storyboard for the news broadcast that is a part of our film opening. In this story board are all of the cuts we will be making in between shots of the broadcast. The news anchors will be talking and then there will be inserts of scenes of the mass suicides. We will also be creating a script further on, for what exactly the news anchors are going to say. We may still change some of these scenes because of any filming or editing problems, but I will keep the blog updated with any changes.

The Filming and Editing Schedule

The image above displays our schedule for editing and filming our film opening. It includes dates, times, and the task that we will be carrying out. We created this schedule with the easy Table tool on Google Docs, this facilitated our making of the schedule and allowed us to make it visually appealing as well. Even though this is a very defined schedule, it is able to change depending on my and my partner's activities or schoolwork. If anything changes, I will make sure to talk about it on other posts.

The Storyboard

The above two images are the storyboard for our film opening. This is more focused on the main events and more on what the main character, Lucy, is doing. It includes many shots and camera movements so that when we film, we can stay organized and not forget anything important. Later on, we will be creating a storyboard and a script for the news broadcast, as well as a script for the text messages that we will be displaying through Lucy's lock screen. This may be featured in one of my next posts that are coming up. There may also be fixes or changes to it when we begin filming, so I will update it whenever that happens.

Main Character and Text Messages

We have figured out the name and the characterization for the main character in our film opening. The name is a typical white, American name that is very well known and used in most movies. Her name will be Lucy Thomas, and she will play the role of a stereotypical blonde, popular teenage girl. Another name that we have come up with, is the name of one of her friends who will call her during the film opening. The fact that we asked our blonde friend, Valentina, to be in our film, was not a coincidence at all. Stereotypically, the most popular girl in every movie is blonde. Some examples are; High School Musical, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About you, and the list goes on and on. This aspect of the popularity of the main character is important to our opening because we will be portraying the main character as an ignorant teenage girl who is on her phone for most of the film opening. Her lock screen will be shown and it will have thousands of notifications on it, which implies that she is popular. 

We are still trying to find the exact way to show her phone screen, shot-wise and camera angle-wise. There are many ways that movies show text messages. One way is that they film a long shot of the character holding his/her phone, and text message bubbles pop up on the side like a hologram for the audience to see. This is done in the movie The Mindy Project, the show House of Cards, and many more. Because of the fact that this method is very interactive for the audience since they have to read and interpret the messages, millions of movies use it and are very successful.

Above is the method of displaying text messages that are shown like a hologram.

However, just because this method is beneficial, doesn’t mean it is easy to make for a high school student with a computer and some editing apps. Furthermore, what we will be doing is we will be showing the screen of Lucy’s phone and doing a close-up so that the viewer can read it with no problem. We will later be coming up with different ringtones and sound effects for when a message or a call comes into her phone. 

This is the Mean Girls blonde, popular lead.

Above is out blonde, popular lead.

“Top 10 Blonde Stereotypes.” Listaka, 2 Nov. 2017, listaka.com/top-10-blonde-stereotypes


Cox, Jamieson, and Lizzie Plaugic. “How Should TV Shows and Movies Depict Texting?” The Verge, The Verge, 12 July 2016, www.theverge.com/2016/7/12/12159636/texting-tv-shows-movies-the-mindy-project-house-of-cards.