For the course, I analysed several live music events, primarily festivals, Glastonbury, Rockness and Radio 1's Big Weekend - noticing similar themes and conventions used to produce the coverage of the festivals. Broadcast in a narrative format, pieces to camera and fading transitions often act as a cohesive device in the shows.
Firstly, as a class, we began by watching and analysing BBC Alba's music festival, Rockness, comprising of artists from the UK and Scotland. The programme began with a two-shot piece to camera, with the presenters placed in front of the audience, introducing the show and artists to the audience at home. In festival coverage, I noticed that there's usually two presenters that open the show before the titles, just like in Rockness. The two faces are welcoming and energetic, encouraging the audience at home to continue watching. In Rockness, once the presenters had finished their opening speech, the camera (on a crane) lifted from the presenters to reveal the audience cheering and shouting before the titles rolled. This first shot is crucial to the opening of festival coverage, setting the pace, trying to involve the audience in the action - setting the scene. In Rockness and other festival shows I saw, the titles were basic, CGI and bright.
The titles are similar amongst all of the live music festivals. I noticed similar colours used in the titles - blues and greens to represent the outdoors. The opening sequence is usually simple, lasting no longer than 20 seconds. The music that complements the titles is usually a rock instrumental, conveying the ambience of the festival on screen. As the titles finish, a piece to camera in a studio follows.
Seen in the coverage of Radio 1's Big Weekend, Glastonbury and Rockness, another piece to camera is presented after the titles. The two presenters are usually now in a pop-up studio, overlooking the festival premises. This part of the segment is usually live, whereas the introductory, pre-titles shot is usually pre-recorded to create the correct mood for the programme. I saw this in Glastonbury and Rockness. The studio the presenters usually sit in are designed to fit the identity of the programme in terms of the logo and on-screen idents. For example, in Radio 1's big weekend, the studio's theme and design looked like it had been designed in accordance to the opening titles. Whilst Rockness and Glastonbury used greens and blues to represent the outdoors, Radio 1's Big Weekend used blues, oranges and yellows to convey summer.
The second two-shot piece to camera isn't necessarily there to 'welcome' viewers. This section of the broadcast is usually where the presenters inform the viewers as to who's coming up on the programme. In this shot, the presenters discuss who they've enjoyed and their highlights from the festival, before handing over to a montage of pre-recorded shots to show who will be featured in the live music show. In Rockness, Glastonbury, Radio 1's Big Weekend, these montages were accompanied with captions with the names of the artists. The montage usually hammocks the lesser-known acts in between the bigger artists so that viewers stay entertained and appealed by who'll be appearing on the show. Once the montage has finished, it's cut back to the presenters who then introduce the first performer of the show. The show usually finishes in a similar format, with a montage of the performers the viewers have seen (seen in Radio 1's Big Weekend) before saying goodbye, when the credits are cut to.
Generally, the target audience for music festival coverage is male and female teenagers that take particular interest into modern indie, rock and pop, the typical target audience for festival-goers, and the programmes seem to have been designed to fit this demographic. Everything in the shows are geared towards the demographic - the graphics, music, presenting and editing. The presenters are young, fresh-faced and have knowledge on the festival music scene, people who the audience can usually relate to. The graphics are bright and fun, something that would definitely catch the eye of the teenagers. The music featured are usually themed for the type of broadcast they're airing. For example, Radio 1's Big Weekend would often feature artists like Cheryl Cole, Lady Gaga and Rihanna together in one broadcast and Example, N-Dubz and Eminem in another. This is probably to maintain a steady audience throughout the shows. By grouping artists and music by genre, the shows flow and are more cohesive. The editing is also cleverly put together to entertain the target audience, adding pace and quick cuts between different cameras.
Shots are used in a number of different ways to grab the ambience of the festivals in the broadcasts. One of the most popular, and most used in the headline acts are shots that are taken on the camera cranes, capturing the audience cheering and chanting. These shots are important to capture the mood of the festival. The crane shots are used across a range of different live programming - sports, reality television, music programmes and interview-based shows. Not only does it make a smooth edit, it also captures more of the festival in one shot.
"Rockness" was also filmed in live, as-live and recorded segments to create extensive coverage of the festival. Due to the fact the coverage has a wide range, it allows for coherant presenting styles and similar show structures and I think it works well for this coverage. It's also fairly similar to other BBC festival coverage like that of, "Radio 1's Big Weekend" and "Glastonbury".
Recorded Music Programme
The recorded music programme I will be analysing is 2011's Christmas special of "Top of the Pops". Like Rockness, the show is presented "as live", however, performances would have been recorded over various different days and weeks with all the links filmed in one go.
The show is presented by Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates, two of the most famous faces of Radio 1, presenting the live lounge and Reggie presenting the chart show. The two were also the last presenting duo of Top of the Pops, hence their selection. Their fitness for audience is perfect, given their years of experience in presenting, and both self confessed musical and festival lovers, something that I think appeals to the young and family demographic the "Top of the Pops" specials aim at, unlike "Top of the Pops 2". Fearne could be considered a wise choice of presenters having been a part of the "TOTP family" for some time, initially presenting the CBBC Saturday spin off, "Top of the Pops Saturday", which follows the same format.
Rather than a dark and more edgy output when it finished, the show follows a more funky, colourful and almost nostalgic feel, with references to older logos and using bright lights to light the audience and stages.
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