Spotlight

Spotlight
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Genre:	Magazine/Light Entertainment
First Broadcast:	2014
Producer(s):	Sam Nicholson (2014) Kenric Yuen (2015-)

Spotlight is a Magazine show started in 2014, a successor to Monday Evening Live. Unfortunately, MEL was restricted by the intention of being broadcast only on a Monday, in the evening, and Live. It was ratified at the beginning of 2014-15 academic year, with Sam Nicholson at the helm. Due to degree commitments, the production passed to Kenric Yuen in January of 2015.

Spotlight was also the title of a previous YSTV production in 2010, now retconned to be Series 1 as Sam couldn't think of a better title for the new show after a month of trying!

Show Format

Spotlight was created for members to experience a simple live studio show set-up. The show is headed by an executive producer, with each episode produced by a relatively in-experienced member of the station, to help learn or experience how production works. Or at least that was the theory. It hasn't happened so farUnverified or incomplete information.

Title Sequence

The title sequence was created by Sam Nicholson, and customised to the content featured on each show. It's built out of a Premiere project for the video tiles and an After Effects project to actually generate it - I'm sure if you can find it you'll figure it out!

Set

The first five episodes of the series, taking place in the 2014-15 academic year, featured a set similar to that of Monday Evening Live. Due to the lack of lighting grid for most of the year, amongst other issues, setup varied from show to show. Typically, the show was set up with three cameras and two sofas in the set, where the presenter(s) sit on one side, and any interviewee(s) on the other. The plasma screen went in the middle or off to one side depending on how much space could be invented in the studio - for Episode 3 it was used to show images and slides relevant to that segment of the show, but for the other episodes it didn't get set up.

From Episode 6, at the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year, Spotlight gained an improved set design which has remained relatively consistent. This was thanks to the acquisition of new lights and a matching sofa, as well as the presence of the new truss lighting grid. The two sofas are set up perpendicular in the far corner of the studio, with the plasma in the middle creating a symmetric look to the set. LED lights are used to add colour to the back walls, while the presenters and guest are lit with a combination of Highlight 110 floods and Arri 650 fresnels.

2015 set build

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  Flood lights being tested.

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  Plasma installed, pointing fresnels, waiting on second sofa to arrive.

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  Completed set, as it appeared in Episode 8.

Episodes

Episode	Presenter	Producer	Content
1	Judy Walker and Elish Ashworth	Sam Nicholson	Yorkshire Marathon, LEGO convention, and interview with Sam Maguire and Chris Wall
2	Judy Walker and Helen Farquharson	Sam Nicholson	Children in Need, Illumintating York, RAG Week, and G/046 20th Anniversary
3	Helen Hobin and Matthew Ingram	Sam Nicholson	Somewhat unknown, unfortunately the recording didn't take!
4	Helen Hobin and Sarah Mesterton-Gibbons	Kenric Yuen	Pantsoc promotion, YUSU Elections 2015 warm-up, and interview with Chris Wall
5	Matthew Ingram and Helen Farquharson	Amy Wilson	Interviews with cast of TFTV's 'Demon's' and Zohra Khan, YUSU Awards highlights
6	Adam Tye and Tomas Silva	Kenric Yuen	World Mental Health Day, Graduation 2015, and interviews with fresher Jemma Carr and Chris Wall
7	Adam Tye and Jemma Carr	Kenric Yuen	Interviews and highlights from Geekfest, and live demo from DevSoc
8	Matthew Ingram and Sean Pullen	Kenric Yuen	Nightline, Inauguration, and interview with Ben Leatham

At the conclusion of the 2014-15 run, the best piece of advice to give to a future producer of something Spotlight would be not to try and do a live show every other week by yourself (especially not in final year), either tag team with someone else and take alternate weeks or adjust the schedule to be further apart! ~SN