Children In Need 2013
The live show took place on Saturday 16th November, running for 2 hours. It was produced by Helen Hobin, directed by Sam Nicholson, and presented by Grace Winpenny and Matt Judge. Involving a range of live music acts, presenter challenges and VTs, the show - combined with Chris Wall and Helen Hobin's pledge to wear Pudsey onesies for 7 days straight - raised £608.
The Live Show
Live Music
The first act was Stewart Crank, on vocals and guitar, who played a range of songs including 'With a Little Help From My Friends' by the Beatles. Next was Thea Maxwell, playing her own songs, also on vocals and guitar. Finally, BNOC and YUSU President Kallum Taylor and guitarist Robert Grout played a medley of songs which they'd composed earlier that day, all inspired by popular York club, 'The Willow', and including the memorable refrain: 'I'm a mother-loving B-N-O-C!'.
Presenter Challenges
The primary presenter challenge, 'The Great Bear Bake Off', was prerecorded and used as a VT. Two other challenges took place during the live show. The first involved Matt and Grace being given two sets of face-paint, kindly lent by Liz Williams, and instructed to paint each other's faces as animals, whilst guessing from the colours and techniques used by the other person what they were being painted as. However, this was made slightly difficult by the fact that both presenters wore glasses, which had to be taken off for the painting - and therefore when the challenge ended they were slightly surprised by the effects which they had created - to put it bluntly, they looked like an ill dog and a tired orange. The second challenge began when they were given two giant Pudsey gingerbread cookies and a packet of coloured icing tubes. They were told to turn over the cookies and using the icing tubes draw another iconic animal icon. Grace created a frowning Rudolph-esque bear whilst Matt somewhat ingeniously used the opportunity to make a portrait of Chris Wall, within his Pudsey onesie, of course. Chris was the judge for this challenge, and declared that Matt had won.
Other Acts & Interviews
Chris Wall performed a magic act, using his mind-reading abilities and card skills to bamboozle the presenters, before being interviewed about his magic. Helen and Chris also appeared earlier in the show, to discuss Children in Need and the experience of living encased within a onesie. This led Chris to tell an alarming story involving vodka and a little girl in a queue.
VTs
- Pudsey 007: The first VT showed Pudsey arriving from the bus at library bridge, and making his way across campus, James Bond style. Filmed and produced by Helen and Charlotte Bennington, using original music composed by Rob Drane.
- Mr & Mrs Pudsey: This rather soppy video showed Chris and Helen mucking around in their Pudsey onesies, including shopping for honey in Costcutter, dancing atop Central Hall and playing a terrible game of tennis - beautifully filmed by Tim Copeland.
- BrassNeck Sax Quartet: A music performance by Grace's quartet - Soprano: Katie Wood, Alto: Grace Winpenny, Tenor: Sam Johnson, Baritone: Nick Jones.
- Gabrielle Aplin: Matt Judge got an exclusive interview with this wonderful singer-songwriter, talking about everything from her progress in the music industries to toothbrushes.
- How to Train Your Teddy: English Literature Lecturer Jonathan Brockbank kindly agreed to deliver an onslaught of bear-themed puns in a seminar room full of teddy bears - an insight into the inner thoughts of students.
- The Hostage Situation: Cutting straight into this VT from the previous one (due to technical issues during the live show, remedied by creative editing) we find Lloyd Wallis and Pudsey gaffer-taped and under a spotlight, desperately in need of £50 to save them. Narrated by the epic voice of Greg Ebdon, Menagerie Man, played by Dominic Matthews, steps up to save the day in this extremely bizarre story.
- BNOC Flashmob Teaser: A glimpse into the effort that went into the next VT...
- BNOC Flashmob: On Friday 15th November YSTV combined forces with Dance Soc and the YUSU Sabbs to stage a flashmob on Vanbrugh Paradise, aiming to gather a few pennies and raise awareness of the cause and YSTV's appeal. Dancing to Christina Aguilera's 'Candyman', Chris Wall began the performance, before being joined by the 'jellyfish' that is Kallum Taylor and the rest of the Sabbs. Choreographed by the talented Dance Soc team.
- Teddy Bear's Picnic: Basically a bunch of cuddly animals having a picnic and discussing the work and history of Children in Need, filmed and wiggled by Ellen Dunbavin and Helen, and voiced by the ever-talented Greg Ebdon.
- The Great Bear Bake Off: The main presenter challenge, this was set in the student kitchen of Charlotte Bennington, and features Matt and Grace attempting to bake a Pudsey-themed bake whilst hindered by the fact that they couldn't use their own arms. Instead, limbs were provided by Helen and Charlotte, which led to eggs cracked into the pouch of Matt's apron, flour in the air and one cake being held out of the window. However, things took a surprising turn when Matt added toothpaste to Grace's cake without her noticing. Filmed and judged by Sam Nicholson, who decided that the toothpaste-y cake was refreshing and won on 'sheer innovation'.
- Acting Up: Helen visited the Riding Lights Theatre in York, to interview director Kelvin about 'Acting Up', a drama workshop for young people with special needs or disabilities. They receive funding from BBC Children in Need, and we wanted to show where donations go locally. Filmed by Tim Copeland.
Producer's Notes
This section is intended to help future producers of Children in Need by giving a run-down of what went well and what went slightly less well.
The Good
- The set and props were thought through quite far in advance, allowing for balloons, bunting and badges galore, and the white boards were nicely repainted during the afternoon of the show, covering any scratch marks etc.
- Many new faces were involved in the live show and the production of VTs, which is lovely, as CiN is intended to be a nice first show for freshers/new-comers.
- Presenters Matt and Grace and director Sam Nicholson did a wonderful job of keeping everything smooth and calm, despite the ever-changing running order and a few technical melt-downs.
- The live acts, both music and magic, were very good, and the set was made even more beautiful by David Heaton's sparkling dot lights; it was also brilliant(ly entertaining) to have YUSU President Kallum Taylor rapping about Willow and how the 'funk' will bring you 'to your knees'.
- It was in HD, which (despite MEL beating us to the broadcast) led to many screen-strokings and happy glances.
- There was a strong range of VTs, from music and kidnapping to cooking and picnics, and a particular highlight was being able to see where the donations go by interviewing the director of 'Acting Up'.
- We raised £608 and, despite a few tense moments on the night, generally had a wonderful time!
The Bad
- Helen and a wonderful crew of helpers (Chris, Kieron, Matt) may have still been editing a few VTs whilst the show went on...sorry! (Will try not to succumb to sleep again).
- In the immortal words of Sam Nicholson: "The VT server was a pile of sh*t and was re-written over Christmas".
- It was ever so warm in the studio.
- More thought should have been given (by Helen) into the presenter challenges - whilst they were quite interesting in theory, we forgot to set a time limit - perhaps some exciting background music should be used to prevent silences whilst the presenters work, though Grace did a good job of humming instead.
- Edit 1 melted. We actually had to put a real fan next to it.
Press & Publicity
The BBC wrote a paragraph about our efforts on their Children in Need BBC Blog: "That's a crazy amount of stuff going on for a good cause, we’re sure you’ll agree - and there's more! The awesome students at York Student Television (YSTV), York University’s very own campus TV channel, put together a great BBC Children in Need-themed broadcast featuring all the characteristics of the charity’s annual Appeal show and giving them a distinct York University twist. Two students, Grace and Matt, presented the show which featured live music, onesie mayhem, broken eggs and funny sketches! You can check out the show here, and of course, a huge thank you to all at YSTV for going to such a huge effort to raise money!"
BBC Radio York mentioned YSTV too, although sadly didn't interview Kallum Taylor as they'd suggested.
Helen Hobin gave a video interview for the York Press, filmed by Christopher Parker, and student newspaper Nouse came along to the BNOC Flashmob to take photographs and tweet about the event.
Credits
Producer Helen Hobin, Director Sam Nicholson, Assistant Producer Charlotte Bennington, Assistant Producer Ellen Dunbavin, Head of VTs Georgia Woodroffe, Head of VTs Amy Craddock, Vision Mixer Peter Naylor, VT Op Liz Williams, Sound Engineer Henry Wadsworth, Camera Op Luke Tolen, Camera Op Erika Budd, Graphics Op Charlotte FitzGerald, Camera Op Lauren Gledhill, Floor Manager David Heaton, Presenter Grace Winpenny, Presenter Matt Judge.