Digital News: Student Night Out Progress 2

Cheap Night Out Survival Guide

For this story, I've decided to brainstorm what we could do and have decided to tell the story by making a news report which is a 'survival guide' in terms of being able to afford a cheap yet good night out.

The budget: what is classed as a 'cheap' and 'affordable' night out?

Firstly it would be important to determine a realistic budget of a night out. We were originally going to aim for a £10 budget, however to me I feel that this isn't very realistic as I think the story should include having pre-drinks and potentially even getting food after a night out. Therefore I feel that £15 would bet better - £20 to some people on a night out may not be exactly 'cheap', therefore £15 seems reasonable and realistic. You can also divide this easily for example you could have £5 for pre drinks, £3 for entry, £3 for food and £4 in the club.

How should the story be told?

Below is a list of the structure of the story which will then be explained as to what happens:

    - Introduction: Reporter saying what is going to happen and introducing the student life. (montage)
    - Preparation for the night: Pre drinks & Games & Tips
    - The night: Introducing the cheapest clubs.
    - Interviews with club promoters regarding drinks
    - Post Night: Cheapest takeaways (if you have money left) - or even to go to a shop to buy food to
      take home
    - Two-way: Concluding the tips. Back to presenter.
    - Live report: Back at a club. Interviewing students/promoter (see below).

Introduction/Reporting Style

In my opinion, I feel that this story could be told very easy and in a fun way by making it report-led - not like your average report where you tell the story, but actually getting the reporter to take part in this cheap and affordable night out. This doesn't mean basically getting the reporter to get drunk and go to a club, but instead have the reporters involvement so that he/she can see how to have an affordable night (not to actually do it!).

An example of this sort of style would be Extreme Fishing with Robson Green - the famous actor/presenter learns about extreme fishing and learns it no better way by actually doing it himself. This is very similar to the style for this - the reporter will be going to clubs him/herself, learning about cheap drinks and cheap food etc. This works very well as it is more engaging for the audience and more motivational instead of simply getting a reporter to just tell and even 'waffle' on about a story.

Moving on, the story will begin by simply introducing what the story will be about. It could begin with a montage showing footage at student's nights out at the different clubs whilst the reporter's OOV says that he will be going on a student night himself to find out these 'survival tips' and how not to spend more than 15 pound. The introduction could briefly touch on saying what is going to happen - finding the cheapest pre drinks, what the best drinks to buy in the club are, and then the cheapest post-night takeaway food.

To maintain this idea of making the story fun, we could also create a 'survival' theme, to reinforce and clarify this idea that this story is to benefit the students and to help them save and 'survive' their finance. This theme therefore could be constantly reminded by having 'survival' tips - not just showing the main tips but by giving a couple of subtle hints throughout which the students could learn from.

Pre-preparation aka Pre Drinks

So, for this to work the reporter could almost investigate into the case to see how this is possible. Firstly, he/she will need to go to a group of students who are pre-drinking and ask them what/why they are drinking. This means visiting a student house/flat and actually going there whilst they are preparing for a night out by drinking. I think to make this interesting we could make this more interactive. For example, by following the 'Top Trump' general strategy - having categories like you do on the card however adapting it to drinking.

For example, the categories could be:

- Type /Name of drink (beer, spirits, wine, mixer, etc)
- Prices on drink (the lower being better). This should be measured by say 500ml so that the prices are fair.
- Alcohol Rate (by %) the more alcoholic being better
- Alcohol Units per 500ml.
- Best Deals - Still measured by the litre. Could show which supermarket the deal can be found from.

This could then lead to a ranking by starting from the least ranked going to the best ranked. The best rank would be the drink which is the most efficient, in terms of a combination of the categories above (cheapest drink, most alcoholic, best deals, etc). This basically creates an easily-read summary of what the best pre drink is.

As well as this idea, the story could then lead into its second survival tip: pre-drinking games. This part could focus on a drinking game which helps you to make the most of your pre drink and more importantly get you in the mood for going out partying. To do this, we could explain how to play the game by filming the students playing it, with the presenter asking questions on certain aspects for the game. For example, the game could be Ring of Fire - the presenter could ask why is the drink in the middle of the game being filled up (if you're not sure on the game then look to the image below)
and then ask what happens to it.

For information on how the game works, then click on the link below:
http://www.ringoffirerules.com

'Ring of Fire' - certain cards lead you to add your drink
(no matter what it is) into the glass in the middle. This is then
drunk depending on which card you pick or if the ring
of cards has been broken.

Nightclub Battle: Tap 'n' Tin vs. Mojos

To make the story seem more entertaining and giving it drama, we've decided to make the story in a  sort of mini battle between two local clubs, which would be 'Mojos' and 'Tap 'n' Tin'. This can then be concluded in the live interview where we would then get back to the student to see his decision (see below). The winner would be the club which of course was the better night as well as the club 

Additional Survival Tips

As previously mentioned, we could have a couple of extra survival tips (which will flow in with the story) to reinforce this idea that this story is like a survival guide. We're not quite sure what to title this as of yet however it would be something like "The Do's" and "The Don'ts". The tips could be:

Going to the nightclub later. This could sync in with the pre drinks part of the news report. It could say something about going later is better for a number of reasons. For example, you won't spend as much there as you won't be there for as long, you will jump straight into the good part of the night (as the start is usually the quietest), and you can save money by drinking more pre drinks instead.

Post Club: Cheapest Food?

As well as having a night out, we also aim to find a cheap takeaway - one for a couple of quid which the student could have for after. This will need researching however there is a place in Maidstone which costs £3 for a small pizza, chips and a can of drink. This would be very effective as it is affordable as well as being great value for money. Nevertheless, I will continue to research other cheap takeaways which are accessible.

Live Interview

This could include interview's with the club promoters. It could ask questions such as:

    - So what deals on drinks do you have?
    - What exactly is 'FRAT' Fridays?
    - Has it been successful: do you get alot of students here?

We could then also the student whom we are following around for the news report to ask him/her what they think is the best nightclub, how much they spent and if they had any change. They could even rate each club out of 10 for example and give the advantages and disadvantages of the two clubs. Thus, basically concluding which night was the best night out.

How can we film in the club?

Of course, we will need permission from both clubs before we can even film. I have already got in contact with one of the clubs (Mojos), where the promoter, Liam, was more than happy to allow us to film at the club. I have emailed Tap 'n' Tin however am still waiting for a reply.

Nonetheless, we were planning on filming with two cameras: The Sony PMW is one of them - we've decided to use this due to its small size making it portable which is essential as we will be filming in a busy club. As well as this, we also plan to film with a GoPro. This will provide a point of view (POV) perspective showing the audience the best perspective which you can get. It would also allow us to see when the student spends more money which we can then add an effect saying how much he/she has spent and how much is remaining.

Conclusion

To conclude, this will be worked on (as well as the script) throughout the week, and will be updated on my blog. We still need permission from 'Tap n Tin' to see if we can film there as well as trying to find the perfect student to use for our story. This is subject to change depending on if we can get permission or not, as well as to see whether our course leader feels that this idea is strong enough for us to progress on.