The general presentation, on both Friday and Saturday is clear as Karigoh Ng’arua takes anchorage, while ‘Sunday Live News at Nine’ is presented by Julie Gichuru. Monday news has two anchors Michael Njenga and Catherine Khasavuli. These news anchors are eloquent in their speech. Karigoh starts off by walking onto the platform in all of the shows and she stops at a particular point beside a glass table. While Catherine and Michael start off in their seats. The lighting, sound, shots and movements do not change much in this production as it is constant, and a repetition. All that changes is the main subject’s attire and make up. Julie Gichuru comes in, in what they call studio B. Here she interviews guests. Throughout the weeks anchors are changed and switched. Through out the week news anchors are changed but the procedure is routine.
Lighting: It is not perfect as I notice a shadow formed behind Karigoh; this could mean that the back light is not bright enough; rather the intensity is not strong enough to kill the formation of a shadow. For the outside interviews it is clear as the camera person is using natural light. You can tell that he has used the white balance. Another problem is when Hon. Raila Odinga is talking it is really dark and the camera person realizes as it suddenly becomes bright. The Sunday production is just as well lit, where most shots were taken during the day thus shadows are minimal as the camera person and the subject both stand in the sun.
On Monday News at Nine, Catherine Khasavuli is focused on with the screen at the back it creates a false image of extreme light. At the end of each production the studio lights fade away until it is totally dark.
Shots and Movement: At the beginning of the news broadcast the camera person does what is known as a follow shot of Karigoh. He then takes a two-shot of two cabinet ministers seen talking in the news highlights. Back at the studio, the camera person zooms in at Karigoh when she begins to talk. He then zooms out in order to capture the image on the screen while still capturing Karigoh speak about the news showing on the screen. He then pans left to get a better shot of the screen and Karigoh. He centralizes these two subjects which I believe qualifies as a two-shot. I feel like even though the two shot is actually of a living thing and a screen that the camera person leaves too much head room above Karigoh. Another impressive shot is the aerial view shot of land below as the news reporter talks of land grabbing issues. The camera man does another follow shot leaving sufficient nose-room as Karigoh walks to the visual screen. Most of the shots taken in the interviews are bust shots and over-the-shoulder shots. The Sunday News at Nine Live shows a wide-view shot is taken of Julie Gichuru after she has given the news headlines. The shots are mainly bust shots in the Monday ‘News at Nine’; this is due to the continuity of interviews. A knee shot is taken of one of the field anchors as he speaks on the new constituencies. There are very few shots where the camera person is tilting or panning the camera to fit the subject into the frame of the camera and even then, they are not as obvious. It is as though the camera is set and then the subject placed in front of it.
Sound: Sound is not as clear as it should be. There are a lot of breaks in speech, and delay in the reception of sound. Also we keep hearing Karigoh flip the pages of her script. This indicates that her lavaliere microphone is very sensitive and picks up sound easily. The sound during the Sunday production is somewhat worse as their voice break in between words and sentences, making it hard to hear what the people are saying. Some of the reporter relayed news sound very rushed; as though the speed of her speech is artificially increased. It seems that the main problem is just breaking in sound waves at some point in all the productions. No echoes or feedback is had in any of the microphones.
Visual Editing Techniques: The visual aids they use are well cued. For example, at the bottom of the screen where there is a constant display of news; business news, forex exchange reports, international news, as well as sports news. The use of the “CW” that appears to be floating on a screen in the background is well placed. Other visuals include the names of the news anchors and interviewees. These are shown well and are on time: they appear in time with the picture of the subject. These visual effects are definitely added as the news is edited and presented. A few scenes are however not well edited, for example on the 12th of November, a man bends to pass in front of the camera, so that he is not seen but he is still visible to the viewer. The use of transitions is visible when they change from one scene to another, this helps show continuity in the story.
Conclusion
You can tell throughout these productions that those that do the lighting and shots and movements are very talented and have studied the right way to work the equipment necessary. The sound is the only thing that seemed to constantly have a problem from the microphones picking up unnecessary sound to the anchors not being heard clearly.
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