Limited Edition

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

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

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 various reasonsUnverified or incomplete information 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 it was that the show was ready to begin production in the Autumn term.

Production

Whilst some episodes were better prepared than others, a high level of organisation is a strength of the show. The mood is intended to be spontaneous, and there is no script, however the flow of the show, arrangement of features and so on are 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 is 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 has always remained open, and other contributors have 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 are 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 is 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 use stings to break up the show and re-inforce the branding, while most VTs include 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.

Features

Limited Edition is 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 are challenges, 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 or produce a VT or both. Challenges set are:

• 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 this week 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.

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. 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 is 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)
• Rowan - 33 (2)
• Matt from Karting Club - 38 (1)
• Tim from Doug Soc - 46 (2)
• Harriet from 101 Things To Do In York - 59.5 (3)
• Sarah - 1:07 (2)
• Claire from Rev - 1:23.5 (2)
• Santa - 1:33 (5)

Odd Socs

Going hand-in-hand with 'Star', this feature involves 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

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
• Have I forgotten one?Unverified or incomplete information

Food Cheyne

This feature came about froma very bad production process - first think of a name, then worry about content! A series of occasional and fairly dispirate 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, we gave up, and vowed never to order from Pizza Planet again. (Rowan has since broken this vow, but does now generally favour Efes!)
• Christmas Party - how to make mulled wine and make (well, heat up!) mince pies. We got everyone on the crew (except those needed to run end credits) 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 and enjoyable and popular reguar feature, Rowan and Sarah take the paper review concept and apply 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

One-Offs

Stuck In The Mud

Instead of a 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, we took a bunch of people, companies and objects and commented on whether they'd had a god year or a bad one. Used some nice graphics knocked up on Rowan's MacBook (making switching between these and PACT running on Graphics PC interesting) it was enjoyable and light-hearted.

Antarctic

Using footage from Michael Prior-Jones's video blog, a feature edited by Mark as two-part feature showed life in the Antarctic.

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.