Video Link: https://vimeo.com/mediafactoryrmit/review/468844435/942a20548b?fbclid=IwAR3_jxI6EYpwdCEyM9MRaxlLb6BPTp-mY2Ky6Mh6HmMOYI-a5RiSBwTQI2Q

From our week nine presentation to our final submitted work, a lot changed, however the core idea remained intact, to create a piece of comedy news that progressed beyond the typical man-in-suit-behind-desk format that is so prevalent in the comedy news genre. In our presentation, we presented our idea of creating a satirical news chow parodying entertainment news reports on morning television, although this was later streamlined to just parodying entertainment news reports in general.

Up until that point we only had a brief outline of the story as well as a shared document full of jokes about Ellen, called the Ellen slam sheet. This provided a useful base to start building our final script on. The rough story line we had developed was an introduction, voice over providing background information on Ellen whilst a slideshow plays, then an interview with a former staff member. We however dropped the voice over section and decided to add a parody Ellen apology segment at the end as whilst writing the script Ellen released an apology video regarding her shows work environment. This agility to change and develop ideas quickly proved very useful from our group as it created a great segment for the show. Our presentation was successful as guest panelist, Paul Ritchard really enjoyed the idea and even suggested filming an additional documentary style video to accompany it where one of our group members begins to take on the sour characteristics of Ellen whilst researching her for the project. Although an amazing idea from Paul, it never progressed beyond that, however I believe if we weren’t in lock down and on campus, this idea would have been explored more thoroughly.

As we already had the Ellen slam sheet, we then just needed to actually write the story and include our jokes from the Ellen slam sheet into the script. Although not all the jokes made it into the final script, we were still able to use them as scrolling headline jokes in the lower third graphics, enhancing rewatchability as viewers won’t catch all the jokes in one viewing. We split the writing tasks between each group member evenly as Andrew wrote the introduction, I wrote the staff interview and Cherry wrote the Ellen apology. We also split acting roles as Andrew played the reporter, I played the former Ellen staff member and Cherry played Ellen herself.

Filming proved to be not as difficult as initially thought as our idea lent really well to filming in lock down without needing to physically be in the same space. If Victoria wasn’t in lock down, our way of filming the interview remotely would still have been a viable way to film it. Andrew and I filmed our interview over Zoom. However, initially in the script it calls for my character to be living under a bridge. This was later changed to living in a strangers garage as my virtual background on Zoom wasn’t working properly on the shoot day so this was something we had to change just before filming, again flexing our agile muscles as a group. Once filmed editing duties was then split between Cherry and Andrew.

Overall, I believe we created a successful piece of satirical news satire. Although more surreal in its approach to the genre it is still informational and educates viewers on the current working environment at The Ellen show.