RUTV 3

As aspiring student journalists we thought we should investigate the increased number of students at our University: Rhodes. We had only a week to find out where all the new students on campus were coming from. Queues had increased all over campus and some lecture venues even had students sitting on the floor. We decide that our story needed some official comment

We decided to speak to a warden who also lectures at the university. The warden explained how queues in dining halls have increased dramatically compared to the last year. She also told us that there was a Dining Hall braai on that same night. We then decided to hunt down crowds at the braai, we were successful. Older students at the braai all agreed that the campus had exploded with new students at the beginning of the year and was beginning to become a bit crowded. Check out the snail queue that we caputured at the braai. People had to wait up to half an hour just to get their food.

Over the next few days we struggled to get better official comment but got to speak to the Registrar (from the student admissions offices) at the last moment 24 hrs before deadline. He revealed to us that government has not being providing money for infrastructure until very recently and all the new residences built in the past four years have come out of the universities own funds. He made the story and told us that the university has implemented plans to ease the load for everyone. He mentioned the expansion to the library. Together Phumz and I decided that the construction site would be the ideal place to do our piece to camera. After capturing the perfect piece, construction site officials told us to put hard hats on and re-do everything. Phumz prefers her shot without the hard hat. What do you think?  

Due to time constraints we couldn’t include the interesting piece from the registrar about subsidies. We also had to leave out student comment. Feel free to post your comments here about crowds on Rhodes campus and how they affect you.

I Interviewed Khanyisile Khanyile, a third year politics student to find out the reason behind her decision not to vote in this year’s upcoming elections.

You may have watched  our video on the Get home safe project.

Please see below safety guidelines for students at Rhodes University by the  Dean of Students.  It must be noted that this project runned with the help of Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use

See  Posters below ;

http://www.ru.ac.za/1783

MEDIA RELEASE FROM DEAN OF STUDENTS     

Coming to a new town and a new university constitutes a lot. Yes the parties and the new people but also a new found loneliness and detachment. We tend to bury our lack of comfort into bags and bags of food, and then we acquire what has come to be known as “first year spread syndrome”-probably something the ladies are more attuned to. Gaining weight is often a short term issue, but for some more than others, this syndrome as it were tends to perpetuate itself through second, third and even fourth year. When living in res, the dining hall is not to helpful in this regard either. Its mass produced, oil induced foods can’t be that healthy either.

No more eggs
The point of this story was to try and understand why the university has completely cut out all hot meals from breakfast and limited the cereal intake for its students, since fees have increased significantly. (Read the Dispatch article here)
I have no idea whether the decrease in breakfast portions is an attempt on the universities part to assist students in this regard but it is sure as hell creating a lot of controversy all around.

Gathering the Info
Affected Students did not shy away from the camera; they were infuriated and felt that their grievances needed to be heard. In this case it was extremely easy to get comments from them. Finding an authoritative comment from one of the university officials was a bit tricky. We attempted to contact Mrs. Jay Pillay, Head of the Catering Department, who unfortunately did not respond to our emails. The SRC then commented in this regard and were very much for the breakfast cut, explaining that it was for this reason our fees have not increased by a larger proportion.
According to a Cape Town business man, food prices have dropped since last year. Obviously inaccessible for the news package, an economics student would have worked as well but time was limited. This would have illustrated to the viewers the reason behind saving costs.

The Footage
We came into a bit of trouble when shooting in the dining hall. According to Mrs. Pillay, we would have to go through the ethics board to film inside any dining hall. Regardless, she gave us permission provided that it was not to be broadcast on any major television station. In the course of researching this story, the university made a decision to add an egg and yoghurt to the menu in alternate days. We were unsuccessful in getting any real reason or information concerning the funds for the introduction of the egg and yoghurt.

In terms of shooting, there are always those random people walking by trying to be on camera. We experienced a lot of those whilst shooting. Both interviewee’s and reporters for that matter are nervous being on camera for the first time. Therefore, the bloopers that come about make the story all the more interesting…Check them out below

The first thing I did upon arriving at the Rhodes Drama department to film a rehersal of Die Bannelinge was to set up my camera and tripod. Carefully levelled and bubbled, I was set to go. And then the rehearsal started.

The actors flew around the stage at the speed of light, grabbing each other, leaping on tables, falling to the ground and spinning around. Having been drilled in all my practicals NEVER TO TILT THE CAMERA, I was stumped; in interviews, we had learned to carefully sit the interviewee in the shot, eyes placed perfectly on the cross point of the imaginary grid of thirds. But now, subjects shot in and out of my line of vision like loose cannons, and soon poor autofocus was fuzzing up trying to keep track of the expressive faces. Eventually, I improvised. With a worried look, I took the camera off the tripod and began to go freestyle. My brain overflowing with remembered advice: “Keep your knees bent, don’t ever zoom in, get close”, I inched towards my subject, who was lying down, humming loudly. As soon as I managed to bootleg a shot, she stopped. So I took a deep breath. “Zanne, please, if you don’t mind, could you do that again?” And she did! With my new found authority, I discovered how pleased people were to be on camera, and thus how accommodating they were to my requests. Cool.   Click to view video

  The positive thing about filming rehearsals is that the actors always repeat their actions, which allows you to predict their positioning and thus get good shots, as well as different angles and close-ups, which can be used to build up a sequence. Another pro is that drama people tend to be rather expressive and are not shy of making a fool of themselves. This led to great shots of the director crawling on the floor with her bum in the air, and the cast leaping up and down laughing, as well as attempting to push their protruding tongues back it not their mouths with their fingers.  Click to view video

The main difficulty I had with the filming of this project was the amount of movement it required from the camera.  There were many level variances in the drama department, ranging from the seats, the steps into the auditorium, the stage, and the platform of the stage, all of which I had to clamber over holding the camera, with interesting results.  Click to view video

By the end of the filming, I had got many interesting shots, some of which sadly we had to edit out due to the length limits. I had a lot of material filmed, mainly because, as a result of all the climbing, I often forgot to turn off the camera as I was moving between shots. The action was unpredictable and made for great visuals, but this meant that at the end of the day we had a lot to edit out, and a lot of potential sequence shots which we just weren’t able to use.

Overall, the experience was great; I felt like a real pro, learned a lot from being shoved in at the deep end, and realised the great power that comes from brandishing a camera. I am TV3, hear me roar!

Read about S.C.A.M’s interview at 5Fm here!!

http://www.theoppidanpress.com/oppi//content/view/399/57/