Meeting With Helen:

Today was our first meeting with Helen in which we would discuss our full plans, including how we wish to produce our package and live interview and see if she has any improvements that we could develop on and overall improve our work.

Before this, however, we decided that we should create a risk assessment  for our shoot next week so that we can take out the equipment as soon as possible. I was bale to create a risk assessment with the full list of the various addresses we are proposing to film in, also listing the many hazards that could occur as well as the amount of equipment we want to borrow from the studios.

We also decided that we should print off our script that we have all worked on various sections of. This was so we could show Helen that we have already completed it and she could give us improvements and we can change sections of it as we are given them.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I wasn't able to print out the risk assessment. We tried converting the file to different file types, each of us trying on our own systems and logins but the printer would not print it out. Thankfully we were able to print off the script before this problem occurred, though we only have one copy of it at the moment.

As for the meeting itself, I felt it went rather well. Helen appeared to think that our idea could work but there were still a few things that she brought up. The first was how we were going to present our package. Our package involves a comparison between an electric and standard petrol car to see which one is better.  The problem is that we do not actually have the scientific knowledge or expertise behind us to give an accurate report on this. it was mentioned that there would be many actual experts in the filed that would immediately contradict what we would have said if this was, indeed, a real news report. It was suggested that we take a lighter approach to this, much like in the non-factual sections of Top Gear where the team would say, personally which car they would prefer to drive and have fun driving them and comparing them. I personally felt that this was the direction that this part would take any but the rest of the group unfortunately appear to disagree, meaning that this package has just suddenly become harder to create and make a concept for.

Another improvement that was brought up was in regards to the live interview. Our plans for the live interview are to talk to our contact, Ajay, who has some expertise in  electric cars, seeing as he states that he has own a few but also driven most (if not all) electric cars that have been manufactured. The suggested improvement involved trying to get an opposing opinion on electric cars, seeing as Ajay already appears to have a positive outlook on the whole idea of electric cars taking over. Meaning that we should have a proposed battle of opinions on the subject.

Other contacts that were proposed to us to get were the RAC breakdown service. They could give us a clear idea of how difficult it might be if an electric car driver was to break down with no feasible supply around to power their cars. This could give us some negative opinions from another source that we could use to battle against Ajay's supposed positive arguments.

Unfortunately, due to some lack of communication on both my part and the rest of the groups, I wasn't able to stay around after the meeting with Helen. I had important business that needed attending to at home and had already made plans to leave at this time to accommodate for this. It wasn't conveyed to me until the very last minute that the group would be staying for another hour to sort out a few more things and I wasn't able to cancel my ride home at the lat minute. I unfortunately feel that this would be taken the wrong way by the rest of the group. I will just have to wait and see.

However, upon looking at their blogs, I have been able to see and catch up with what was discussed. I will develop on this during a future blog post.