Bulls Eye
Bulls Eye is a news satire program aired on nation media’s television, NTV, during Friday nine o’clock news cast that shows the lighter side of news. Bulls Eye is prepared and presented by acclaimed journalist Emmanuel Juma. Mr. Juma humorously covers different subject matter with a specific theme being passed across, which could vary from burning issues of national importance to the hottest topic of discussion during the week. A typical Bulls Eye show is a mixture of several items with one getting particular prominence. However, sometimes it may be just a series of dramatic events of the same story that may have taken place within the week. Every episode is comically titled and cleverly packaged to create a specific reaction from the audience. Between August 6th and November 19th 2010, I have followed up Bulls Eye and have come up some observations. Let me start with August 6th 2010, the birthday for yours truly.
Celebrations: 06th August 2010-11-24
Remember the historical referendum, Kenya was still in somewhat the aftermath of the euphoric mood and news content was plenty. Emmanuel Juma seemed to have been spoilt for choice. Unlike his traditional voice over, he edited the videos in a sequence that told a story of their own without any commentary. What stood out was the editing technique that allowed the story to speak out on its own. Sneaky snapshots of politicians, celebrating citizens, well mixed to appear like one piece of story. It was made to appear like President Mwai Kibaki was reacting to wananchi antics. Right from Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka lamenting of being undermined, ladies dancing to Ohangla music, a man offering thankful prayers to jubilant youths at the presidential address immediately after declarations of the referendum results. It was like Mr. Juma made a rough cut the raw footage based on his keen eye for unique shot angles and taste for implicative and catchy statements. There were no special effects or uniform soundtrack. This was the very basic yet it managed to bring out such an effect depicting the level of creativity on put in the program.
ODM Wrangles: 13th August 2010-11-24
This was when Prof. Anyang’ Nyongó made the famous quote “If you spare the rod, you spoil the child” referring to rebel members of parliament from the Rift Valley province. Here Emmanuel Juma used clips as well as his traditional voice over to create his desired effect. He brought the exchanges between members of parliament from opposing camps as they traded carefully worded demeanour of each other in their respective press conferences. At some instances extreme close up shots were used to show the speakers facial expressions.
Here again great editing skill was used to cut and arrange clips in a way that showed the exchanges seem like a word for word argument with Mr. Juma’s voice over interjecting to keep a systematic flow of statements. There was no much of creativity with the camera used because the subjects’ torrent of verbiage was enough source of useful funny exchange. To bring out the desired effect, Emmanuel Juma only allows a specific part of the words spoken by his subject, sometimes taking them completely out of context.
Mwakwere versus Mary Onyango: 20th August 2010
Now this one I missed it in the week long news but trust Emmanuel Juma to pick out such events out of nowhere. Chirau Ali Mwakwere was getting fried by one Miss Mary Onyango for alleged hate speech. As usual, it automatically became a juicy source for real life humour that we have become accustomed to every Friday. Statement and counterstatement, a mix of audio with Mr. Juma fixing his voice over to ask the question and then he runs the audio of the video clip from that seems to directly answer his comical question. The camera also follows gestures by the subjects, like when Mr. Mwakwere says, “…tell to her come and sit here with me…” pointing at the empty seat next to him, the camera focus zooms out of the close up shot, pans to the left to show several empty seats then pans back to the right to the particular seat next to Mr. Mwakwere that he was pointing. It leaves you to think for yourself.
The next subject then was the chaos at the city council with the city father fighting again. The camera has a boom shot of the scene allowing it to pick most of the action with quick zoom to focus on a particular point of interest and the voice over is right ///elements were visible the set was darker and needed slightly more concentration to take more details.
Anyang’ Nyongó versus Atwoli: 05th September 2010
This one was very interesting; Francis Atwoli was opposed to the increase in the amount of healthcare contribution for the low income earners, something that did not go down well with medical services minister, Prof. Nyongó. The minister’s brag on a two thousand five hundred shillings lunch at the Serena did not help much either. A good camera work and editing gave this particular show an edge over the others. First in the opening shot we get the ministers chatting away and the Professor is telling lands minister James Orengo about a niece’s birthday party he attended at the Brew Bistro Lounge, now this is one of those joints you don’t walk in with ten thousand Shillings in your pocket, this may seem negligible but a knowing what Emmanuel Juma is up to, it fell right in tune with the Serena lunch, and a point is made. The close up shot of the minister glaring into the camera as he admonishes Atwoli is stilled with this scary look lagging on the screen. Right on that point then, a clip of Mr. Atwoli comes on and the selected verbatim seems to describe the minister’s character from the previous feed, as arrogant, brilliant editing. Both scenes for were press conferences. The ministers’ set was naturally lit because it was outside while Mr. Atwoli was addressing journalists from his offices well lit as an office could be.
The Sudanese president’s visit could not have gone unnoticed on bulls eye with all the furore it caused in the country. The trick for this Bulls Eye show occurs to me to be in creative editing skills and a good mix and balance of sound. It is always on point, good audio quality audio although the same cannot be said of video.
Highlights: 24th September 2010
It seems like Emmanuel Juma did not have new material on this day, or he was late to beat the deadline to submit his work. Instead of the normal creations, old Bulls Eye snapshots were played as highlights of the past. It was some kind of reminiscence of the old times.
By-elections losers: 1st October 2010
This was a special dedication to all those who lost in by-elections. George Thuo, Dick Wathika and Maina Kamanda, they were presented in a composition of shots that presented them miserably. For Mr. Thuo, the camera man took a long shot with a slightly large field of depth at an angle that excluded the crowd. The result, Mr. Thuo appeared desolate and humming to himself alone and Emmanuel Juma goes on to say George Thuo is a lonely man, perfect! Of course not there were people around him in the other clips but this one achieved its purpose. Then clips of the winners in wide angle shots, played in slow motion and exaggerating the crowd with colourful words from the presenter are played to set a whole new mood.
Police Arrest Police: 6th October 2010
I never thought I would live to see this, police dealing with fellow police roughly like they would a common mwananchi, it was quite a spectacle and as Friday approached I was so looking forward to what Emmanuel Juma would show us. Well, he did not disappoint. Mixing his content as usual to crack your ribs, he used an interview on a Naivasha OCPD about a road accident and perfectly used it for his mock interview fitting in questions about the arrested officers and getting answers about the accident. It was hilarious. The picture quality though was poor, either on the part of the camera quality or poor setting by the operator. This one remains my favourite in content and poorest in quality of production. The natural light which could have been a plus was a complete disaster with everything almost turning white. Camera movements can be excused because of the running and the mêlée that ensued as the culprits engaged their colleagues in a folly run and chase.
Michuki Vouching For Uhuru: 16th October 2010
Someone needs to remind Michuki this is the twenty first century! Not my words, but from the stung Martha Karua. This was one of those Michuki moments that tell you he is of another generation, declaring Uhuru as the sole Kikuyu leader and threatening all the other wannabes. The supporters of this idea were “smoked” out by Karua’s reactions. Well as usual Emmanuel Juma was on his favourite victim, John Mututho, capitalising on his trivial mistakes, Juma said it was because of his close relation ship with Changáa! I have no comment there. The video here was of Michuki planting a tree and the voice over implied a figurative planting of another seed, should I say of discord? I don’t know.
One thing about the kind of video signal used in this show is that their quality may vary because there is no set preparation; they rely on natural lighting most of the time or the lighting inside the building which most of the time is not at the right amount for good camera quality.
Comments
Bulls Eye as a creative program scores the mark with such level of originality in content and idea like no other. Some of its good attributes are demonstrated in the highly creative editing skills that combine a variety of content to bring out unified, witty and thematic messages that keeps viewers glued to the screen every Friday evening. Mr. Emmanuel Juma has an eye for those out of the ordinary clips that most people will assume, on which he heaps his witty remarks to give a whole new humorous meaning. His selection of certain footages with specific shots and angles to emphasize facial expressions, body movements, gestures, out of place objects and queer images.
Most of the footage is poorly lit, though the shots may be apt but the quality sometimes is not up to standard with the especially the unpredictable natural lighting. The problem is that this footage is news stories and nobody prepares a cast to perform a news event. News just occurs and camera operators are left to work with only that which is available which could be anything from complete darkness to extremely bright light.
However, editing creates a whole new spice off the footage and covers up for the shortcomings. This to me confirms a very important aspect of production, that there should be an understanding among the whole crew working on a production to know what is needed, how and in what quality. Each should understand the working of the other and the expectations to be met.
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