Pitch

I intend for my package to begin with a piece to camera, introducing viewers to the idea behind the package itself, and also giving them an indication of what is to come by talking directly to them. We will then have a voice over come in, further introducing the subject, and will probably start off with a statistic or figure that may potentially surprise people, coming off something like this: “In the UK, the media sector employs just 550,000 people, encompassing roles in animation, computer games, film production, interactive media, radio and television,” and then finish off by asking the audience; “What does this mean for the thousands of budding hopefuls trying to merely get their foot in the door of the industry?”

Ideally the package would end with just a piece to camera, where the presenter will be seen walking towards the camera, finishing up by rounding up and summarising the findings, then giving a sign off - possibly in Media City – with the camera craning up at the end cutting to the intimidating figure of a BBC tower.

There will be several voice overs throughout, the first of which was mentioned earlier, they will be used primarily to explain statistics presented, to explain the concept of the VT itself briefly and to introduce VoxPops or talking heads within the VT. The package should only require a relatively small kit, with one camera, one boom mic and a wind jammer, a spare battery, tape or SD card depending on camera and a tri-pod (and plate) is more or less all I should need.

There will be various locations for the shooting of the VT, ranging from within the Fielden campus section of the college, talking to our student body and tutors, gaining relevant opinions and information on everything from the state of the media industry to the realities of work after education. I intend for the VT production to also venture into more exclusive surroundings, in the form of Media City for example, and if there is a chance of relevance, I hope to take the package onto the streets of Manchester as well, to gain the opinions of the general public.

A crew of two should be adequate, maybe three if possible, one to interview and present, one to man the camera and one to operate the sound aspects of the shoot. Filming will hopefully be done over one long weekend, with me living in Liverpool, it is difficult to lug the equipment back and forward, so if I aim for it to be completed over either the weekend of 12^th April if the equipment is available, alternatively the following weekend at a push.

Copyright

  Copyright is the legal term that describes the event of someone creating something original, and then to ensure that no one else 'copies' or steals any aspect from this idea - for commercial gain - they will seek out legal protection in the form of a 'copyright' trademark. 

   The length of this protection is usually fairly short, with the creator having the option to renew copyright generally on a year to year basis, but they will always have exclusive rights to renew it before anyone else, once the copyright been granted has been granted in the first place, unless a court of law intervenes and rules otherwise.

  All the time you see people and companies testing the limits and pushing boundaries, in terms of dealing with copyright, and trying to avoid the trap of being caught within its grasp. Some people seem to know how to deal with the laws of copyright better than others, and are able to find loopholes and faults within the system, to then profit or gain some sort of advantage, while some simply ignore it entirely; something we have seen over and over again in the world of illegal downloading. Just this year we have seen one of the biggest cases of copyright infringement of all time, with the now infamous founder of Megaupload Kim DotCom, being found guilty of copyright infringement on an unbelievable amount of different charges to do with the filesharing website.

  It is something that we as students of Broadcast Journalism must learn about in great detail, as the extent of being in breach of it comes with very hefty consequences, and I personally wouldn't like to be employed by a company and to somehow fall into the trap of copyright infringement, as the potential is there to not only lose your job, but a serious jail sentence is very possible.