Selby Showdown

‘Selby Showdown’ is an episode of a game show created by Year 10 Media Studies students and their teacher Mr Patchesa at the end of their GCSE course.

Following their GCSE exam on the topic of TV game shows, the students applied their knowledge to invent a new game show during time remaining before the end of the school year. Jemma Booth, Bethany Reay and Rhiannon Barker meticulously painted the stage set, after DT technician handy Andy upcycled some old desks, and operated cameras along with Abi Hirst, whilst Jamie Martin did a fantastic job of lighting the stage. Tom Fletcher was selected as a contestant after a rigorous audition process, and managed to hold his own against Miss Smith and team captains, Mr Morton and Mr Sheehan, during the show’s five testing rounds. One of the hardest jobs was to live mix the three cameras and graphics, a job ably carried off by Jenny Thomas and Harry Sawdon. The first round tested contestants’ knowledge of school subjects, the second required the captains to be subjected to a 2 minute extreme make-over, and the third was a listening challenge to identify which member of staff was singing / murdering Oasis’s ‘Don’t look back in Anger’. For the penultimate round the captain’s took to the schools multi-use game area for a penalty shoot-out – with several twists, before a quick fire quiz round determined the final outcome. Who emerged victorious? You’ll have to watch to find out…

The title of the game show, and graphics for the stage and title were designed by James Ward, whilst the content of the show was devised by the whole team, which also included Marcus Ramskill, Taylor Sills. ICT technicians Tom, Chris and Charlie gave invaluable support and assistance, especially in the use of the drone camera used in the penalty shoot-out round. The goalkeeper, who managed to stop goals with the power of psychology more than with his body, was Dan Elcock, whilst commentary duties fell to Mr Patchesa and his son, Finn. Mr Patchesa also, reluctantly, had to step out of the shadows to become the presenter when the Year 10 student assigned the role was offered a seven figure contract at Sky at the last minute.

The students worked tirelessly on this project, often in their own time, during June and July. At the end of Year 9 every media student had the fantastic opportunity to take part in a game show workshop at the state-of-the-art studio facility at the University of York, an experience which really inspired them.  This was arranged with the Head of the University of York’s department of Theatre, Film and Television, Patrick Titley, who kindly came in to Selby High for an afternoon, to give his professional advice which was invaluable to the development of the show. Patrick, who also created the children’s TV game show, ‘Jungle Run’, and has often worked as a producer on Channel 4’s countdown, kindly gave feedback on the finished show, saying, the show was

“really good. The content of the show is excellent - very watchable games and fun quiz questions that let you play along when watching. There's good use of captions to tell us the score; and excellent casting - the contestants are very entertaining. The location (football) stuff looked great and was very watchable. I think the crew should be congratulated on doing something that's extremely hard to get right, and making such an enjoyable show.”

The students achieved a very impressive set of Media Studies results at the end of Year 10, and a number are planning to continue their studies in the subject at A level. If they choose to enter an exciting career in TV, film or another area of the media, they already have an impressive project to add to their CVs.