Sunday 15 April 2012

Thoughts on the DSMS TV Studio so far...

The Studio
The TV Studio has now been almost in fully working order for just over a month now (there are still small developments to be made) and I think that it has been an amazing resource for the school to have. There is so much you can use it for! Making music videos, filming drama pieces, producing a news show or just experiencing how a TV studio works.

When I first started working with he TV studio I couldn't believe how many jobs both in font and behind camera there were. For a start you need a good script written, then someone to run it on the auto-cue, someone to set up the camera shots and the set and sometimes even a group of people to sort out the green screen.

The Wyvern
A few weeks ago we released the first pilot episode of the Wyvern TV where we interviewed Jenny Chapman (MP of Darlington). Despite some parts of the show being quite quiet and pauses at some parts I would say they the first episode was a success.

Link to Wyvern TV Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK7KvsE4EQQ&feature=plcp&context=C42505b7VDvjVQa1PpcFOzUAPxUHq1hv9q_iBLVh7PHV9rO05atRM%3D

My personal ideas for future episodes include a section called 'Pupils Perspective' where we ask fellow pupils at the school for their opinion on recent topics happening in and out of school.
Maybe some sort of feature on a teacher where we can ask teachers some questions and find out their view on things (although we do already do this in every edition of 'The Wyvern' newspaper).

Please, if anyone has any more idea's you can leave them in the comments box of the YouTube video or tweet them to us @DSMS_Wyvern 

Thank you :)

The Grand National Overshadowed by Horse Deaths

The horses are getting ready to line up for the start of the 2012 Grand national however one horse, Synchronised, flipped under the pressure of thousands of people watching, filming and gambling on him so he throws his jockey (AP McCoy) to the floor.
After reuniting horse with jockey the race started but before the tenth fence Synchronised has fallen and sustained such injury that he needs to be put down.

Since the 1800's the grand national has been running and since the beginning there has almost always be at least 1 seriously injured horse. I don't know if it is because social networks have been becoming more popular recently or if this has always been a idly spoken about problem but this year there were LOADS of negative status's, tweets and headlines regarding animal cruelty at the grand national. Is it right that horses should be raced so hard that there is a possibility that they might die?

Some people think yes because it is traditional and has happened for the last 100+ years.

Unlike humans, if horses break a bone it doesn't repair it's self, instead it stays broken and causes the horse excruciating pain and pneumonia. This is why horse race organisers decide to put the animals down before the pain gets too bad.

Fortunately, regulations have been made to help horses welfare, like how they made a limit of how many times you could whip your horse. They also changed the grand national course from last year to make it more safe (this didn't work though as there was still horse fatalities).

This raises the question of 'Should horse racing be banned altogether?' However unless something stupidly dangerous happens during a race (which I hope won't happen), Horse racing will continue the way it is now where healthy horses die because of pure human entertainment and greed.

RIP SYNCHRONISED and ACCORDING TO PETE