BBC News 24 comes to REGIONAL news...

Well I'm not normally one for mocks but I've had a hell of a lot of spare time over the past week. Now I'm not satisfied with BBC Look East's graphics package at the moment, and I have brought the News 24 stylee to Norwich to see what would happen.

I must credit The TV Room and MrTom as I have nabbed snippets of images from both. If you spot any bits that come from you, please contact me and I will credit you. I have created all of these in Microsoft PowerPoint no less, just to demonstrate that it does have its uses and doesn't look cheap all the time.

Feel free to add comments and suggestions as applicable.


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The opening wide shot of a Breakfast bulletin. Note the view of Norwich, and the addition of a clock. The strap animates in exactly the same way as News 24 - and in my PowerPoint file actually does! How sad!

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Here, a presenter shows off the Eastern Counties' very own - and MUCH BETTER - version of Kay Alexander's weather thingy. Although here, instead of the traffic, it's plugging Local Radio.

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The Kay Alexander technology is removed at the end for full screen traffic, travel and weather. Beware of black ice.

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Not too many problems on public transport. Good.

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And now a quick look at the region's weather. I'm quite pleased with this: generic BBC Look East meets generic BBC Weather. Both styles meet at the same time but don't clash. Nice.

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Variant 2. Perhaps a bit dark?

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Closing shot of breakfast bulletin. Strap animates on a la News 24.

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A ticker. They might need one, you never know. The text fades to make it neat if the clock is present as well.

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In brief graphic. Top bar is location, bottom is description. Animation same as News 24.

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Standard name aston. Not sure whether it should animate like News 24 or just simply fade on and off. Either way, he doesn't look like a Lisa.

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For reporters, note the temporary Look East bug top right. Just like BBC News pre-1999.

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Location strap during a live.

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Name strap with clock and Live bug.

http://www.das-djs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BEC/Picture22.jpgAn irrelevant shot to demonstrate the secondary info strap top right.

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A slug is added.

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A rarely used double shot.

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A quick promo for something coming up later. News 24 animation.

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A generic full screen graphic, in this case showing off a completely made up statement from the police.

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Vote now.

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And why not? BBC Look East adopts BBC Sport's style for sport graphics. But they do NOT use the straps - that would go TOO far. I've added the breakfast clock to demonstrate flexibility.

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Demonstrating the simplistic copyright notice.

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Now I'm not keen on full screen graphics closing a bulletin, but here's one anyway.

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Final frame of Close Up sting. Very red I know. I did think about going for orange as the main colour, but thought it was a bit wimpish. So I've gone for bold.

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Promoing Local Radio.

And finally...
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The placenames would be local though, obviously.

Very good!

But one minor thing ... wouldn't it be a bit more appropriate to have Soham under the guy standing outside the house with the corrugated iron fencing round. Just looks a bit bizarre being seeing that iron fencing and Old Bailey written under it.

http://www.das-djs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BEC/Picture24.jpg

Ah yes. Up until I posted the images, the pictures were just coloured boxes. I quickly shoved the caps in but forgot to change the text. Well spotted though!


(Also, it's just occurred to me, apologies for the somewhat morbid subject matter in some of them. It was in the news at the time and in the source of the images as well it would seem).

Technically and aesthetically, these look great. The type is appropriately sized, safe areas respected, and the colors follow the existing regional news scheme, but add a bit more personality and life. The only thing that I might say is that unfortunately, BBC News is following this "swirly shapes" theme, and these mocks --- whilst it bears mentioning again, are excellent --- follow the now-exiting "rings" theme. I would love to see a regional news look that has a very similar look to this, but explores a more "swirly"-compatible approach.

But if you were looking to average the "swirlies" and "rings" concepts, this is an excellent job at doing just that.

http://homepage.mac.com/robertpalmer/tvforum/sig.gif

fantastic! another member who can actually use PowerPoint effectively to create a superb mock!

bravo!

Thank you for the comments, much appreciated.

Nice work DAS, well done.

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I'm really sorry to take this a bit OT, but doesn't that look like an agonising positing to do a self-op from? Having to work the autocue pedal whilst standing and hold pages cant be easy. And the vinyl floor looks a bit messy being peeled up like that!

Anyhoo, kudos again Daniel. Looks very stylish.

some of the best mocks I've seen for a while!