Limited Edition

Limited Edition
Genre:	Light Entertainment
First Broadcast:	October 2006
Producer(s):	Rowan de Pomerai Sarah Cheyne

Limited Edition was a light entertainment show produced for YSTV by Rowan de Pomerai and Sarah Cheyne in the year 2006/07.

Inception

In the years before LE came about, there had frequently been talk about a 'personality based' magazine show, as successfully done by stations like Stoic with their Matt and Dave Show and Foot and Mouth. The previous year, Sarah Leese and Kev Larkin had discussed the possibility of such a show but had not gone ahead for reasons including the production of The Sofa Show. The latter show was Ben Tattersall-Smith's attempt in this area of programming.

So it was that plans started forming for a show to be produced in 2006/07. This would be produced and presented by Rowan de Pomerai and Sarah Leese, and ideas started forming in pub discussions and the like. However the arrival on Charlie Selby scuppered these plans, meaning Sarah wouldn't be available. Rowan still wanted to produce a show, moving on from LipSync (which he was producing at the time), but wasn't sure what to do. Eventually the idea cropped up that Sarah Cheyne might be a suitable co-producer and co-host, and when Rowan approached her she liked the idea.

Ideas began forming during the 2006 Summer Expedition, which was itself broadcast in parts as a fearure on LE. The name of the show (then mostly referred to as The Rowan and Sarah Show - hardly catchy!) was discussed over various pub meals, and many ideas were dismissed before Limited Edition was settled on. And so the show was ready to begin production in the Autumn term.

Production

Whilst some episodes were better prepared than others, good organisation was generally a strength of the show. The mood was intended to be spontaneous, and there was never a script, however the flow of the show, arrangement of features and so on were carefully constructed and ordered. In earlier episodes, the presenters had a flip-chart telling them the order of the show, though NaffoCue was later used for this purpose. (Still only displaying feature outlines though, not a script).

Production Team

Being a heavily feature-led and VT-led show, the production work involved in LE was substantial. Rowan and Sarah produced the first 2 shows themselves, with help from Sarah Leese. However it became apparent that the workload wasn't really sustainable, and so a search was begun for an assistant producer. Mark Friend responded to the call, and came along to episode 3 before becoming involved in producing episode 4.

The crewing of the show always remained open, and other contributors helped with the production, including Iain Cooke, who edited the YSTV's Outtakes feature for episodes 5-7. However the core team working closely together is generally regarded as a strength of the show's organisation and production values. It ought to be mentioned that Rowan, Sarah and Mark were all involved in other areas of YSTV, avoiding the sometimes-unpopular habit of closed teams not contributing to other areas of station life.

On-Screen Image

Limited Edition was rare in its use of a continuous on-screen logo (or DOG). The 'LE' is ever present in the lower left corner, and this was made possible by using PACT - in fact the ability to do this was built into PACT at Rowan's request, specially for Limited Edition. Some features used stings to break up the show and re-inforce the branding, while most VTs included a 'buffer' at the start and end. This is a short Limited Edition logo animation, which (a) reiterates the branding again and (b) provides some dead space to allow mixing into/out of VTs without cutting off content. With episode 8 (Summer Term week 3), LE became the first show to use the new on-set monitor, utilising it for cheesy transitions into and out of VTs.

Features

Limited Edition was mainly a feature led show with diverse features - some regular, some one-off - making up the majority of the content.

Challenges

One of the main centerpieces of the show is the challenges feature, in which a challenge is set by one presenter for the other to complete. Usually the challenged must complete the task ready for the next show and either perform it live on the show, produce a VT or both. Challenges set were:

• Episode 1 - no challenge as there's no previous episode to have set one in. See One-Offs below for what was done instead.
• Episode 2 - Rowan had been challenged by Sarah to learn Hamlet's To be or not to be... solliloqy, and performed it live on episode 2 in the style of Tony Blair. Before the performance itself (in which Rowan made 2 mistakes) there was a short video diary style VT which showed Rowan learning the speech. Matthew Tole helped film this, while Rowan did the very cheesy editing for it.
• Episode 3 - Sarah's challenge had been to go karting with The Twig, and a VT (the first to be filmed using YSTV's then-new Canon XM2 camcorder) showed how it went.
• Episode 4 - A VT (filmed by Sarah and Mark, edited by Rowan) showed how Rowan got on when he went abseiling off Central Hall for World AIDS Day.
• Episode 5 - A VT (filmed by Rowan, edited by Sarah) showed Sarah running around campus trying to get 7 different people to say the phrase "Hello, you're watching Limited Edition on YSTV" in 7 diffrerent languages. Some controversy surrounded the fact that many of them failed to actually translate "Limited Edition" and/or "YSTV".
• Episode 6 - Rowan and Claire Butler performed the Limited Edition song which they had composed. They were very out of time (the backing track was way too quiet in the studio) but it was quite funny. The tune of Kylie Minogue's I Should Be So Lucky has never been put to such good use.
• Episode 7- Sarah had been challeneged to produce and star in a music video for the above mentioned Limited Edition song. The video was shown on the show with Rowan's reaction also on screen using picture in picture. The highlight of the video was undoubtedly the dance routine performed towards the end of the song starring Sarah, Mark Friend (who also helped produce the video,) Roxanne Benson-Mackey and Matthew Tole(dressed as James Bond!)
• Episode 8 - Rowan's challenge for this episode was was to learn to 'fire spin'. Seb from Juggling Soc taught him 2 manouvers using poi - the butterfly and the weave. A few genital-endangering accidents and a couple of hours later, and the filming moved from Goodricke Dining Hall to Vanbrugh Bowl for the final performance with fire poi - long chains with flaming blocks of kevlar on the end. Fire spinning in the dark was an impressive sight. Uniquely, the Odd Soc interviewee was connected to the challenge on Episode 8, as Seb came in to talk about Juggling Soc and the fire spinning challenge.
• Episode 9 - Sarah had been set the task of building a sandcastle likeness of the Houses of Parliament. One of the stipulations was to get it identified by a passer-by, to prove that the resemblance was good enough. However Sarah sunk to new lows and cheated an lied, telling the girls in question what it was supposed to be and asking them to pretend to guess wrongly a couple of times first in order to look genuine. The guilty looks on Sarah and Mark's faces in response to Rowan's question "did they get it? without telling them?" gave away the betrayal, and Rowan was shocked and upset. He took the piss out of Sarah on the show, introducing the start of the programme with Hello, you're watching Limited Edition, with Rowan de Pomerai and Sarah Cheat... I mean Cheyne. It was however nothing more than she deserved.
• Episode 10 - Rowan and Sarah were given a joint challenge by Mark and Matthew. They were sent on a treasure hunt around campus, solving anagrams of the names of the places to visit. The cards on which the clues were weritten has 2 letters on the back, and could be arranged to spell the words "Limited Edition" once they had all been collected. The trail went Roger Kirk -> Central Hall -> Vanbrugh Paradie (due to a spelling error by Mark!) -> Market Square -> Nightline -> SU Building -> YSTV Studio.

Star in a Remote Control Car

The track layout

One of the central features of the show, and a direct rip-off of Top Gear's Star In A Reasonably Priced Car, this feature sees the Odd Socs guest each week being asked to record a lap time driving the show's remote controlled car. The track was constructed once a term with the guests each recording a lap, and their time being revealed when they appeared on the show. (This meant guests for the whole term had to be lined up well in advance so that their laps could be filmed). Both Rowan and Sarah also recorded times, and a benchmark was set by tame racing driver 'The Twig' - a certain YSTV member dressed in full karting gear. Rowan's time was significantly better than Sarah's! An extra second was added to the contestant's time for each bollard knocked over. The Christmas episode also saw a certain YSTV Production Director dressed up as Santa having a go.

The lap times are: (times are listed in seconds, including any penalties, with the number of penalties in brackets)

• The Twig - 25.5 (0)
• Ben Griffiths from RAG - 27 (1)
• Rowan - 33 (2)
• Matt from Karting Club - 38 (1)
• Tim from Doug Soc - 46 (2)
• Thomas from Guilbert & Sullivan - 47
• Harriet from 101 Things To Do In York Society - 59.5 (3)
• Seb from Juggle Soc - 1:05 (5, waived due to the car being a bit low on battery!)
• Sarah - 1:07 (2)
• Roxanne from Gymnastics Club - 1:10 (5)
• Claire from Revelation Rock-Gospel Choir - 1:23.5 (2)
• Santa - 1:33 (5)
• Anne-Marie Canning, incoming SU President - 3:21 (5)

Ben Griffiths, the fasted time other than the Twig, was awarded the destroyed car (see below) as a prize.

Odd Socs

Going hand-in-hand with 'Star', this feature involved interviews with representatives from some of campus' more unusual societies. It has a sting which features Rowan and Sarah's very own socks. The guests were:

• 101 things to do in York Society - Harriet and Charlotte
• DougSoc - Tim and Hannah
• York University Karting Club - Matt and Paul
• Student Development and Charities Officer - Ben Griffiths (talking about RAG Week)
• Guilbert and Sullivan Society - Thomas and Chris
• Revelation Rock-Gospel Choir - Claire and Ben
• Juggling Soc - Seb
• Gymnastics Club - Roxanne

Summer Expedition

The 2006 Summer Expedition was a canal boating trip. It was serialised for Limited Edition, with the 4 segments being shown on the 4 autumn term episodes. It was edited by Sarah throughout the Autumn term. For other Summer Expeditions, see the Summer Expedition page.

Outtakes

Following the previous success of YSTV's Bloomers, Iain Cooke edited a 3-part series called YSTV's Outtakes for Limited Edition's Spring term shows.

Student Television

Taking cues from the magnificent Small Screen, Rowan and Sarah reviewed output from student TV stations around the country. Programmes featured were:

• Bookman - LS:TV
• Seven Suns, Seven Sounds - GUST
• Gameswatch - Stoic. A clip of YSTV's Games Disaster was also shown.
• The Raven and GlamTV News - GlamTV
• News: Topup fees Debate - Nexus
• The Venue - XTV's NaSTA07 winning music programme
• The Second After - coming full circle back to LS:TV for the last feature, with their follow up to drama, "The Morning After"

Food Cheyne

This feature came about from a very bad production process - first think of a name, then worry about content! A series of occasional and fairly disparate food-related features. It made its debut in episode 3.

• Pizza Challenge - the first (and best?) Food Cheyne had a large margherita and a bottle of coke being ordered from 3 of York's takeaways (Efes, Ali Gs and Pizza Planet). The food was delivered live on air, with the show being interrupted for the deliveries. The pizza was reviewed and the time noted. Efes were fastest (12 minutes) and provided good, hot pizza. Sarah slightly preferred Ali G's pizza, but it was much slower to arrive. After some shocking filling at the end of the show whilst waiting for Pizza Planet to arrive, the presenters gave up, and vowed never to order from Pizza Planet again. (Rowan subsequently broke this vow, but does now generally favour Efes!)
• Christmas Party - how to make mulled wine and make (well, heat up!) mince pies. Everyone on the crew (except those needed to run end credits) came on set to share in the food at the end, giving a nice warm fuzzy end to the Christmas show.
• Student Food - in a two-part feature, Rowan and Sarah each cooked a 3 course meal for under £1.50. Rowan cooked tomato and garlic spaghetti followed by cheese omlette and salad, finished with choc ice and banana. Sarah warmed up a tin of soup, made a tomato and mushroom pasta and finished with apple and natural yoghurt.

Guest Publications

Originally a quick time-filler for episode 1, but actually an enjoyable and popular reguar feature, Rowan and Sarah took the paper review concept and applied it to random trashy magazines.

• Episode 1 - Total Carp (careful how you read that one!) and Yorkshire Life
• Episode 2 - Top of the Pops, Top Gear and The Radio Times
• Episode 3 - Zoo and AXM (tits and gay)
• Episode 5 - Beers of the World and Broadcast
• Episode 6 - Country Smallholding and Girl Talk
• Episode 7 - Pianist and Majesty
• Episode 9 - Pure Yorkshire and Livewire (GNER's onboard magazine)

Competitions

2 competitions were held on Limited Edition. At the end of the Autumn term, viewers could win items including a book, scratch cards, a magic tree and a scarf, in return for sending in their New Year's resolutions. Winners included Sarah Leese and Iain Cooke's brother. Keith from Ayelsbury entered.

Through the Summer term, viewers were invited to send in pictures of limited edition products. This was inspired by Jonathan Bufton's sighting of Domestos giving away a free limited edition apron - he was disappointed to hear that the apron was not actually branded with the Limited Edition logo. The winner was Sarah Leese, for her picture of a limited edition Miffy plate and bowl set. Both Sarah and Jonathan got a Limited Edition box set for winning. Keith from Ayelsbury entered again.

One-Offs

Stuck In The Mud

Instead of a normal challenge on episode 1, Rowan and Sarah set themselves a challenge to get 10 people on campus playing Stuck In The Mud. A great time was had by all, although the people in Goodricke who Sarah literally begged to come join in never did.

Review of the Year

On the Christmas episode, Rowan and Sarah took a bunch of people, companies and objects and commented on whether they'd had a god year or a bad one. This feature used some nice graphics knocked up in a hurry on Rowan's MacBook (making switching between these and PACT running on Graphics PC tricky).

Finger Painting

A quick and easy VT when they were short on time, Sarah and Rowan's finger painting was actually rather fun. They very simply filmed themselves finger painting each other in YSTV's studio. Sarah's picture of Rowan is notable for the fact that Rowan's clothes are see-through, while both participants signed their creations, complete with their age, in the style of a primary school art class.

Antarctic

Using footage from Michael Prior-Jones's video blog, a feature edited by Mark in two parts showed life in the Antarctic. The feature included a tour of the British Antarctic Survey base, and some spectacular timelapse footage of cloud formations over 24 hours on the Antarctic continent.

Word On The Street

For Episode 8, Rowan and Sarah headed out about campus to record some vox pops, speaking to random students about topics such as who should run the country (Jon Snow, Jordan, Bob Geldof, a midget...), how to teach kids to be happy, what should be banned in public (displays of affection, chavs...) and what's best about summer (drinking in the day).

Dolls Houses

Another childish make-and-do, Rowan and Sarah built dolls houses for Madge, the pound shop doll with Madonna-esque pointy boobies. Rowan's 2-storey house was well protected, with weather proofing all round and an insulated roof, and had design features including a patio, pictures on the walls, and an integrated disco. (Made of the bottoms from flashing LED shot glasses, given away free at freshers fair). Sarah's house was smaller and had a roof which fell off at the slightest touch, however she won the design vote based on her girly pink wallpaper. Sarah's house also won the earthquake test, with the height of Rowan's house being problematic. Rowan's exterior was better rain protected, but the lack of any overhang on the roof meant too much water got inside, leading to a draw with Sarah's dry inside but dangerously soggy cardboard walls. Wind proved no problem to either house (or at least simulated wind made from Sarah's rubbish fan didn't), leading to an overall win for Sarah.

Car Destroying

After a year of trusty use as the remote controlled car in Star in a Remote Controlled Car, Rowan thought it would be fun to try and destroy the car, in another Top Gear rip-off. (They tried to destroy a Toyota Hilux, in case you were wondering). The car survived rain, mud, being driven down steps, being driven off Central Hall, being thrown out of a window, driving through fire, having a PC dropped on it, being set on fire, and finally being run over with a real car! (Belonging to Matt Fullerton). In the end, it was bent and battered, with the right wheels not working at all and the left ones going forwards only, but it did still drive...round in circles. It was presented to Ben Griffiths as a trophy for being the fastest Star.

Highlights

For the last episode, Matthew edited a VT of highlights from the last year, set to 2 pieces of music: It's Hard To Believe from High School Musical, and Don't Leave by Faithless. This VT was originally going to be edited by Rowan, who chose the Faithless track as a heart-wrenching closer designed to make the audience nostalgic and possibly even make Sarah a little upset. However Matthew suggested that it would be good if he edited the VT and neither Rowan nor Sarah saw it before the show. This proved to backfire thoroughly on Rowan, who ended up a little tearful after seeing the VT, and thoroughly embarrassed himself on air. At least the Faithless did it's job!

NaSTA

In 2007, Limited Edition was entered as YSTV's Light Entertainment entry for the NaSTA awards, with Sarah being our Best On-Screen Female and Rowan being the Best On-Screen Male. Sadly, none of them won, however the judges comments were favourable. They said:

Light Entertainment: The studio material was quite interesting and varied. However, the shots of the Long Boat trip seemed a bit irrelevant and it was hard to understand what was going on here. - obviously Summer Expedition didn't go down too well!

Best On-Screen Female: Nice smile and good personality. Better at doing individual pieces to camera than interviewing as she tends to speak fast then which makes her harder to understand. She needs to remember to talk to the camera / audience at home more rather than her co-presenters.

Best On-Screen Male: Really liked Rowan. Very natural.