Upian supports France 24 in the production of its weekly program The Observers, both in its television and mobile versions. We were immediately enthusiastic about the journalistic requirements and the 100% web DNA of this program.
What is the Observers program?
The Observers is an international news program broadcast by France 24. The news is deciphered thanks to amateur images and through accounts by witnesses (the “observers” who give their name to the program). These videos, broadcast on social networks, verified and authenticated by the journalists of the editorial staff, are the starting point of the program. They are verified and authenticated by the editorial staff, using open source investigation techniques (OSINT). Witnesses and experts enrich the subjects covered by the editorial staff. Committed to the fight against misinformation, the editorial staff covers international news topics such as :
- Haiti: In the grip of the gangs
- How did EU-made shotgun shells end up being used against protesters in Iran?
- The American clinics that pretend to offer abortions
- Iranian police ‘aim to kill’ using shotguns to repress protests
- In Pakistan, the world’s second-highest peak is covered in rubbish
- How a video game has been used to create fake news about the Ukraine war
A weekly program, the Observers is broadcast every Saturday morning on the France 24 channel, but also on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and the France 24 website. It is a quadrilingual program: English, French, Arabic and Spanish. With this project, Upian is trying a new exercise: producing for television, with the constraints of a hot news program. In order to be as close as possible to the events, the subjects are determined on Monday for Friday: reactivity is essential to build a program from a wide variety of media such as videos, sound recordings, studio recordings or even maps.
A demanding and multi-location organization
Each program is generally composed of two three-minute items, except for “specials” which can be up to 12 minutes long. We also produce a “mobile” video every two weeks for social networks.
In order to streamline communication between teams spread out in different locations (journalists are at France 24, and technical and graphic teams are at Upian), we have unified the means of communication. Tools such as Slack or Notion allow us to communicate transparently, without some information getting lost along the way (that would be the last straw!).
Technical routines to streamline production
The journalists in charge of the different topics share with us an editing guide for each program, as well as all the images intended to illustrate them. The script also contains details of the infographics to be created.
Thus, the assistant editors are at the heart of the Observers’ post-production. They are the ones who bring together and unify the different sources to make the editing process more fluid. This mission has also led us to work on new methods of production: for each program, we use recurring design templates predefined according to the format and language. These templates, coded directly in the Adobe Premiere editing software, save us precious time and allow us to concentrate on the editing of the subject. It should be noted that these templates are created on a daily basis according to the needs and that they are constantly evolving.
A visual grammar at the service of information
The format of the amateur images, which constitute the raw material of the programs, is a characteristic that pushes us to imagine new ways to highlight them. Often shot in vertical or square format, they need to be adapted to a 16:9 format, which we do by slightly repeating the image in the background. In addition, the sources are often shot in different formats within the same program: we therefore use several display modes, like mosaics, to harmonize them.
Several formats are used to allow the viewer to identify the speaker: a photo and a synth when it is the specialist of the subject, an avatar and a soundtrack to respect the anonymity of sources.
The geography of places is often the central element of the subjects approached by the Observers. Thus, we use different types of maps depending on whether it is a question of locating a country or a city (illustrated in blue) or of figuring out a route (with a satellite map).
Finally, to highlight the key information of the topics, certain words or phrases are highlighted.
The Upian teams
Committed to what we hope will be a long-term work alongside the editorial staff of France 24, the Upian members involved in this project are:
- Production managers: Alexandre Brachet, Laurence Gillard, Claire Debost
- Post-production director : Valentin Perruffel
- Chief Editors : Sidoine Tesson Godefroy, Carlos Gomèz Barker, Pierre Nicolas, Tommy Gury
- Assistant Editors : Étienne Gueriaux, Elias Garfein
- Art Direction : Thomas Deyriès, Marion Lavedeau, Camille Bernard
- Motion Design : Jérôme Gonçalvès, Camille Solbès
- Social media advisor : Mélodie Bouchaud
- Adobe Premiere plugins coder : Maëlle Rabouan
The France 24 teams
The editorial staff of The Observers is composed of :
- Derek Thomson, Alexandre Capron, Corentin Bainier, Imed Bensaied, Ershad Alijani, Chloe Lauvergnier, Maeva Poulet, Fatma Benhamad, Arthur Bamas, Yu-Hsiang Wang, Aude Dejaifve, Djamel Belayachi, Pariesa Young, Olivia Bizot et Thais Chaigne.