Limited Edition

Limited Edition is 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 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 who edited Summer Expedition. However it became apparet that the workload wasn't really sustainable, and so a search was begun for an assistant producer. Mark Froend 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 was the firstUnverified or incomplete information YSTV show to utilise 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. 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.