TV News | Feedback + Developing our Ideas

After we had worked out the gist of our channel we ran through our ideas with Jo Clark and discussed what needed to be done to move forward.  Jo liked the idea of our channel and we discussed potential angles for the stories.

She encouraged us to look into potential contributors and locations, and to expand on exactly what our angle was: are e-cigarettes healthier than conventional cigarettes? / are e-liquids safe? / etc.  We decided to look deeper into e-liquid and began looking around for potential locations to shoot our live package.

We found Vape Royale in Canterbury, which is a vape lounge that would offer the perfect backdrop for an e-cigarette story.  Jason phoned them and they were happy to help out; they then agreed on a time and date to film.  We also kept in touch via email to ensure they would still be on board with contributing.

The main issue we were finding was that it would be difficult to find an appropriate angle for the e-cigarette story to achieve the tone we wanted to, and we debated on this for a while.  After discussing with Helen, we decided to prioritise our brand over the e-cigarette story and try to look for something that we could make more fun and light-hearted.

We spent more time trying to think of what else to base our story on, until Katie came up with the idea of shooting a Halloween story at Broadditch Farm, Southfleet, which is host to Halloween events every year.  This fit a lot better with our brand, and so we got to work.

Katie got in contact with Broadditch Farm, and she was put in touch with John, one of the owners, who was more than willing to help out.  Our angle for this story was to explore the events and for a bit of fun, quiz John on some Halloween myths.

We also carried out some research into Halloween myths to test John and drafted some questions to ask him:

1. “What exactly is the Broadwitch Hauntfest?”
2. “How long have you been running this event?”
3. “Is this something that people of all ages can come to?”
4. “Anything special this year?”
5. “What’s the best / most popular attraction?”
6. “What’s your personal fave?”
7. “Any recommendations for a first timer?”

These questions were for John to answer MYTH or FACT:

1. The magician and escapologist Harry Houdini died on Hallowe’en in 1926.
• FACT - There is also an official Houdini seance conducted every year
2. If you spot a spider on Halloween it means that the spirit of a deceased loved one is watching over you.
• MYTH
3. HALLOWEEN IS THE DEVIL’S HOLIDAY
• MYTH - (Halloween is actually derived from Celtic and Druid ritual, which is separate from Christianity -- meaning “Satan” isn’t even a factor.)
4. If you’re caught with Silly String in Hollywood on Halloween, you could face a $1,000 fine.
• FACT
5. You should watch out for poisoned sweets whilst trick or treating
• MYTH - Whilst there have been a few cases over the decades, this myth has been debunked by police authorities and folklorists and Halloween sweets are considered safe
6. If a bat is spotted flying around your house three times, it means that someone in that house would soon die.
• MYTH
7. Ghoulish costumes were originally worn to frighten away spirits of the dead looking for bodies to possess.
• FACT

For the pre-recorded package, we were still happy to look into hangover cures.  Our angle was to determine the science behind a hangover and to determine what cure is the best cure, if any.

We based this on our research carried out before in the initial stages, and since we already knew that keeping hydrated was likely the best treatment for a hangover, we decided to effectively stage the rest of the package to allow us to create a more engaging and entertaining package - this part of the news piece would aim to be silly and fun.