Elections 2007

Elections 2007
Genre:	Events Coverage
Broadcast:	9 March 2007
Producer(s):	Matthew Tole Roxanne Benson-Mackey Sarah Leese

Elections 2007 was broadcast on 9th March 2007, and was produced by Matthew Tole and Roxanne Benson-Mackey, with Sarah Leese as Executive producer.

Changes

A number of changes were made to the setup of the previous few years. It was found early on that the terrace room had been booked up until around 5pm on the day of broadcast, meaning there was not enough time to set it up as a studio as had been done since 2003. Instead, two rooms were used directly above on the first floor - the old Derwent Library was the control room, and a small seminar room next door was the studio. Moving the equipment up the stairs and/or in the lift provided a nice bit of extra work for everybody!

Only interviews took place in the Derwent studio this year - the "panel" discussing candidates and such was nominally based back in YSTV, the intention being that cutting back to the studio did not leave two people not-so-clued-up about elections having to fill for some time, but some more meaningful discussion. However in practice few hacks made the journey to Goodricke, with those who did being in the early part of the programme. Luckily the programme had some very able presenters who were able to fill admirably!

Theme

There were plans to make Elections 2007 James-Bond themed (from the 007 in the year), but these fell apart when the tape of Matthew walking around campus in a tuxedo (destined to be the title sequence) was lost. In the end the titles were scrolling video boxes of various campus shots - including a number taken from the raw video footage used to make the YSTV Week title sequence, still on Edit PC four years later! The theme tune used for the 2003 and 2004 programme returned, in a slightly speeded up form.

In Derwent the new coloured curtains were used as a backdrop with the sofa for interviews. In Goodricke the Elections 2003 set was used yet again (a number of re-paints down the line!) although the Bona Dicta table top was used instead of the main desk (with the supports for this dating back to 2000's set).

Special Programmes

FourPlay returned with an elections special; details are on the FourPlay page. This was shown in 3 segments throughout the night; the two heats and the final being separated. Bona Dicta returned after a year's hiatus with two candidate debate programmes, and the usual 60 Second Manifestos were also in evidence. The previous year's STV VT was re-screened.

On The Day

There were a few problems in setting up as no-one had done the programme from this location before. These included problems in getting wires from studio to control room and also the set boards assigned to the studio being too tall for the room itself! A number of Old Farts turned up to help including Kate Rushworth, Dave Baker, Jonathan Bufton, Kevin Bowman and later Cally Nixon.

Big Telly was once again taken on its annual outing and placed outside the JCR for the queues to watch.

Ambitiously the programme went on air soon after 5pm, with the first three hours consisting of pre-recorded programmes to "warm-up" to the main show at 8pm. These included the spin-off programmes listed above and Elections Past, all linked from the Goodricke set by Claire Butler (whilst set up continued around her!).

ENCampus was due to make a return after being rewritten by Matthew to include the "other college" (created in '06 with the new online voting system, when the vote can't be traced to an individual college) with these votes will be displayed at Central Hall. However technical problems on the night lead to this being sadly scrapped.

Once again the balcony camera brought some of the atmosphere from the event. A projector placed nearby enabled those in the bar to watch coverage of the programme. There were also some sections filmed in the queue outside the event, which had mixed success due to the difficulties in getting a picture back up to the control room!

There was a controversy later on in the night when it emerged that a certain campus radio station were being extremely competitive in getting winners for interviews first, including those who'd already agreed to go on YSTV. In one incident a YSTV presenter was actually held back (and hurt in the process) by someone from the "other side". Ironically this sort of situation is what led to the creation of the "Press Conference" in the early 2000s, and after its demise it appears we've now come full circle!

The night ended with the election of the first female President of YUSU for six years.