Scoop!
| Scoop! | |
|---|---|
| Designer: | Silke Abele |
| Year: | unknown |
| Players: | 30 - 45 (3 teams of 10 - 15 people) |
| Stuff required: | 3 tripods, 3 basic Flip-type camcorders, 3 screens + linking cables, 3 flipcharts, marker pens, 3 reporter’s microphones, 3 bags, ties for all team members in 3 colours, notebooks for all team members in 3 colours, props in 3 colours (wig, bucket and spade, juggling balls, a tent, a miniature boat etc - if played in different locations, the clues and props can be personalised to fit the location), cards with clues, outfits for the ‘celebrity’ and the bodyguards, silly 'poop-a-scoop' award rosettes for the winning team. |
| Crew required: | Crew needed: 3 scorers, and 3 co-scorers who also work as "extras" to play the celebrity and their 2 bodyguards |
| Preparation: | Two or three hours |
| Time required: | An hour: 20 minutes playing + 20 minutes watching / scoring + explaining and regathering time |
| Place required: | Any public space. A space with multiple levels & pedestrian access is ideal, eg Barbican, South Bank |
| Activities: | Sneaking, filming, teamwork, sound |
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Scoop! is a game of sneaking, stealth, sensational stories, scoops and of course some silliness set in the world of TV news reporting. It is part of the Playmakers project.
Players work as a unit - a TV news team - to secretly scout filming locations in the gamespace and report on outrageous, funny or ridiculous but almost certainly newsworthy stories and video record these reports.
They have to get the best stories without being caught on camera by rival TV stations, but also have to try to foil scoops of their opponents or catch them being lazy.
Instructions for Players
Players are part of news teams for rival TV stations, working either for Channel Blue, Channel Red or Channel Yellow. Players wear appropriately coloured ties (a reporter has to look smart on camera of course!) and carry appropriately coloured notebooks. Each team will also have a video camera, a reporter’s microphone and a bag of props which will also be in their TV station’s colour.
Players will be given a map of the gamespace and a list of team-specific clues for potential stories and locations which includes one clue that all three teams have in common. This will be the biggest scoop of them all: an interview with a ‘famous celebrity’ (an ‘extra’ who will be roaming the gamespace and who will be guarded by two minders).
At the beginning of the game all TV news teams start recording on their cameras simultaneously and they keep rolling throughout the game.
Over the course of the game the task for the teams is to scout for their locations and snoop for stories and film as many TV reports a possible about subjects relating to the clues the teams are given, also using the props they have (which can include a wig, bucket and spade, juggling balls, a tent, a miniature boat or similarly fun items).
Example clues could be A FOOD ITEM WHICH MELTS, or a GEOLOGICAL LANDFORM BY A BODY OF WATER which means that the reports could be a report on the biggest sandcastle at the beach with an interview with a sand expert or an ice-cream eating contest at the ice-cream van with various contestants scoffing ice-cream as fast as possible. Imagination and a sense of fun are crucial to come up with some exclusive news stories.
The clue for the major scoop could be A WELL-KNOWN CELEB WHO HAPPENS TO BE IN TOWN. The players need to film each report for at least ten seconds. Extra points are rewarded for longer reports, for using props and including team members and members of the public, but teams can of course get caught filming more easily by an opposing team the more elaborate their report is.
The aim is to complete as many reports as possible and to outwit the opposing teams by catching them reporting their stories or being lazy and also by making sure to get the biggest TV scoop of all before the other teams – an exclusive interview with a ‘celebrity’. Bonus points are rewarded for the funniest and most inventive news reports.
The game lasts 20 minutes. All players must be back at base by the end of the game. Points are deducted for lateness, and anything filmed after the end of the game will not be added to the score.
Once returned to base, players are safe from being filmed and need to switch their camera off.
The videos shot are then played simultaneously on three screens. The videos are scored in real time, and the TV news teams are encouraged to stick around to watch.
The winning team receives the “poop-a-scoop award for ridiculous journalism” in the form of silly rosettes.
Scoring
- 10 points for filming (for at least 10 seconds) a report from the location or about the item the clue points to (needs to be in vision)
- 5 points per 10 seconds for reports lasting longer than 10 seconds
- 5 points per item for including a prop in the report
- 5 points per person for including members of own team in the report
- 10 points per person for including members of the public as interviewees in the report
- 1 point per second that you film members of rival TV team
- 1 point per second that you film a prop of the opposing team
- 3 points per second that you film a rival TV team's camera
- 10 points per second that you film the opposing team reporting a news story (their microphone has to be in shot). (These points are not cumulative – no extra points are rewarded for having three TV journalists or props on screen, or a reporter and their camera)
- 50 bonus points if you film a report for every one of your team's clues
- 50 bonus points for your own report of a rival's clue
- 50 bonus points for the team who gets the major scoop – the interview with the ‘celebrity’
- 20 bonus points for funny or imaginative reports (to be rewarded at the scorer’s discretion)
Instructions for the Gamerunner
Gamerunners should recce the gamespace ahead of the day to find suitable clues to point to the locations or items for the teams to film. It is necessary to have enough clues to give all teams different clues (nearby each other ideally).
