News Pre-production Knitting for Charity

Wednesday 16th Oct

Hannah managed to get in contact with the organiser from knitting for charity and arranged a day where we could visit and find out more about what the charity is about and if there are any interesting stories. We had found out that they meet up every wednesday 2-4pm at Walderslade Library. This was great because it would give the organiser enough time to talk to the others involved and the library to let them know we were coming to visit them and introduce our project to them.

Wednesday 22nd Oct

Our group went to see the people in the knitting charity to find out more information about the charity and look for people with interesting stories. We turned up an hour before the arranged time so our group could sit down, briefed each other about our main goals for attending the meeting and went through the questions to remind us what we need to find out.

Briefing before the meeting with the Knitting group.

Some of the questions were:

What happens weekly?

So, the volunteers sit down together once a week and get together have a chat and some tea and biscuits whilst they knit.

What is the Charity?

The Charity is to raise money to buy a new machine for screening breast cancer.

Do they help with different charities?

The knitting group help different charities. Ususally selected by what is closest to their hearts at the moment. For this case, a lady in their group had passed away from breast cancer, and some have been either affected or know someone who have been through breast cancer.

What are people doing to raise money?

The volunteers knits a range of items from baby shoes to Shoals for women. They will then hold an annual event in which the items will get sold. All the profits will contribute towards the funding for the machine.

How will this event help the charity?

Knitting for charity will help raise as much money as they can towards the £75,000 for a new machine.

Who else is getting involved and why?

A young lady briefly turned up and we were told that she had only learn't how to knit in a week. She has also taught her child to knit and now looking forward to using this skill to getting involved with other knitting charity events.

Is knitting more popular?

The ladies in the group don't seem to think that knitting is getting popular. One had mentioned that at one time when a celebrity had picked up some needles and started knitting, there was a knitting craze. Now, it has died down.

What do they get out of the meetings?

Some of the ladies in the group come out to socialise. Some are retired and widowed, so they come together to make friends. With so much time on their hands, they decided to form a group where they can support each other. The knitting for charity came about when they had so much knitting but didn't know what to do with it. So they decided to  sell their hard work and use the money to give to charities who the group feel need it the most.

Do people involved need to be experienced?

Sometimes schools bring school children to the library where they learn how to knit. The ladies would normally help out and teach them.

During the day we had a quick look around where we wanted to place camera, thinking about any lighting we would need, and finding power sources to plug in any lighting if needed.

Expected shot of the area where the knitting group sit.

Behind the seating area where the group sit.

The group were sitting in a corner at the back of the library which was perfect for the shoot. This is because when filming, we will be out of the way from any members of the public using the library. There was a big pillar in the middle of the room with sockets running up it. This was the perfect space for plugging in any lighting equipment. We took the DSLR camera to take some test shots of the location.

Storyboard

After filming our studio links and intros we had a meeting to discuss and plan out what shots we needed to shoot our live show. After much discussion, I wanted to shoot the presenter standing with the knitting group in the background to introduce the report then at the end, the reporter sitting with the knitters to give some movement in the report instead of 1 static shot. 

So after the reporter introducing the story, I then wanted the camera to pan to the left to introduce Carole who will talk about the knitting group, then to introduce Angela the camera to pan further left who will be talking about the Machine. This will be a 2 shot with the reporter facing away from the audience and more towards the selected specialists.

The next part would be for the reporter to go round to the knitting table and sit between 2 knitters who are going to be interviewed. The camera would follow the presenter, leaving Carole and Angela standing away and out of shot. The reporter will walk behind Angela and Carole so that in the location people don't trip up over the wires. For example, if the reporter was to walked across in front of Angela and Carole, then the camera on the other side goes in the opposite direction, the wire could trip Angela and Carole up, also the cable would not be long enough to go around them.

The 2 knitters would be a 2 shot close up from over the table at eyes height. 1st shot of the knitter will be on the right, then when the 2nd knitter sitting on the left is being questioned, the camera will pan to the left. The presenter will wrap up on that shot.