FYP Critical Reflection

My FYP is on the General Election. It is a feature-length video with three complimenting reports in different mediums.

Milk: A political issue? is a profile/mega package on an environmental political issue, its subject is the current milk price crisis. The video is an extension of my WINOL package from last year, giving a more rounded and informed view on the issue.

It was clear to me that I wanted to get involved in the General Election coverage and still continue to operate as a broadcast journalist right up until the end of third year. I wanted to ensure that my FYP would be useful in my career as a piece of journalism and not just university work.

I originally intended to produce a three to four minute mega package with several multimedia reports to go alongside the video, not only to link directly with the FYP but also to compliment it. My idea was to make a series of reports all based around the milk issue, all varying in formats and styles. The feature length video would be in a slightly softer news style than I am normally used to, similar to Countryfile reports. The main package would have different textures from a variety of cameras and some content created entirely virtually. I aimed to have three interviewees: the Hampshire NFU Chairman, DEFRA or the Environment Secretary/ Farming Minister and, a supermarket chief. For the reports, I intended to include an in-studio graphic, a standard news package and, multiple text stories and comment pieces. I wanted to create more than three reports so I had the choice of which to submit and could ensure those were my best work. I wanted to show that I was a versatile journalist and could incorporate modern data journalism and iPhone filming with traditional print.

Being a national issue makes interviews difficult as we are not a well known broadcaster. I made the issue stretch across the South and Hampshire to work on our platform and was able to use my contacts and knowledge of this beat to make the video a real success.

With news, the biggest problem is securing the interview. I used my contact at DEFRA to try and pin down Elizabeth Truss or George Eustice. I was in negotiations with the body for weeks over phone and email but neither was available so I was sent a comment via email. To make this visual and work for a video package, I filmed a piece to camera at College Green in London on an iPhone. Despite this change, I think the footage came out incredibly well and even better than the DSLR (vision and sound) that I took to the location as well. Even though this wasn’t in my original plan, it looked even more successful than I imagined as it meant that my package complied with the Representation of the People Act as parliament had dissolved by the time my video was aired. I chose not to edit the iPhone footage on the device and instead in Final Cut but I would definitely use an iPhone for filming again.

Unintentionally I created texture in my video package as I didn’t realise its value, I therefore developed this idea from that moment on. I continued to film on an iPhone with the vox pops and the timelapse introduction, then moving onto go pro footage from my personal archive. These techniques all add to the change in pace to my four minute milk report, which I think, makes it visually striking. Despite this experiment and risk, I have not compromised on the quality of sound or image throughout.

I also spent time researching and in talks with supermarkets to discuss their milk pricing. Unfortunately I was unable to secure an interview, with two sending me statements and two declining any contact with me. However, I managed to localise my profile further with a local farm shop (Good Life Farm Shop) interview. I chose this location and carried out a recce of the farm shop and knew that the fruit and veg holders and lighting would make very good visuals and sequences especially with the DSLR cameras.

The most time consuming part of my FYP was the starting graphic in the main video. Before this point, I had not made a graphic I was happy with. I wanted to push this and make a stand-out piece of journalism no matter the timescale. From the start, I knew I wanted a map graphic but as I was not experienced in this type of journalism I found a Creative Commons map website (openstreetmap.org.uk). With my previous knowledge of Photoshop, I moulded the maps to what I envisaged, with statistics from the NFU and thisisdairyfarming.co.uk. I wanted a UK map with various dairy and milk stats over the top and then to zoom in and pinpoint Hampshire and do the same with the county. I had not intended to use pictures as bullet points but I think this was extremely successful, all images are licensed under Creative Commons. The attention to detail makes all the difference in this fairly simple graphic.

Another time consuming section was the sound sync for my Hampshire NFU Chairman Jamie Butler interview. This was due to the cameras recording at different frame rates. I researched how to fix this and am now confident that this issue will never happen again.

The main focus for my FYP was to produce content suitable for the WINOL election live show. I was torn between doing a complete political profile or a mega package – I played to my strengths and did the mega package so that I did not have a video of just talking heads. In my opinion, if I had made a standard profile it would not be able to be played on the night as it is not part of a series of videos on separate political issues. To get the most out of my video and how in-depth and focused my issue was, I think the package was the best option. If I was to interview politicians on their policies and views on milk prices, I would have to localise the problem for our show and using, for example, Winchester candidates would not paint the full picture. I solved the slight lack of politics with my first report.

I produced a pre-recorded as live to be uploaded separately to the site or to work on the back of Milk: A political issue? I rehearsed this in the newsroom, made sure all logos and images used as floats and inserts were under the Creative Commons license. There was a necessity to be balanced in this inject because of the Representation of the People Act reporting restrictions. I also thought that due to my lack of supermarket input in my video, the inject was the chance for supermarkets to have their say here. Lives and off the cuff piece to cameras are one of my weaknesses so I wanted to push myself with this report whether I intended to submit the final video or not. I think the finished video is very successful and is well researched – the piece has different textures and a variety of different components that add even more texture to my FYP.

The main issue with creating the reports would be to produce them with a local enough angle or to be audience appropriate if there was the intention to publish on the WINOL website in the lead up to the General Election. As I was given such a broad subject and I have previous experience as working on the environment beat, I made the decision to focus more on national stories from Westminster. I have tried to add a local line into the multimedia reports (specifically in the Tory badger cull article) but found the angle in others particularly challenging. Having said that, I think that national stories attract a bigger audience to the website because we do not limit the audience we are aiming at. This may also encourage larger audiences to watch our election live show.

In my article: Tories to continue controversial cull if they win election, I added updates as and when the other political parties released their manifestos. This made sure that the content complied with the election reporting restrictions over the whole election period so the article could stay published after parliament had dissolved. I feel like WINOL as much as possible should replicate other news websites with constant streams of updates. News is a formula with changes; there are patterns of stories that come back into the agenda. This is one of the reports strongest points. I think the variety of interviewees and strength of their quotes also added a lot to the standard online news article and my pinpointing of a largely national story to our local region was successful. I used social media to get in touch with a Flickr user to confirm a Creative Commons license on his photo – this led to me being sent a higher resolution copy of the image on the photo sharing website.

My third report: Manifesto watch: rural broadband, was on a particularly pressing issue over the last year at least in politics. This essentially was one big research task going through reams of manifestos and stats simplifying the information for readers. I also had to churn out the information and condense it fairly quickly; I have not noticed that the main broadcasters have covered the issue. The photos are all licensed under Creative Commons, with accreditation in captions and in the photo descriptions with links to the pages on Flickr to secure the license. The report was not meant as a news article and as more of a summary to inform readers. Although direct quotes were not necessary, I included extracts from the manifestos themselves. To make this article stronger I would have got direct quotes from the parties but it is still successful without them.

As part of the run up to the General Election, I have been working as a paid member of the election team at ITV News. I am an Assistant News Editor in the lead up, logging images and checking their copyright licenses and, keeping on top of the database of constituency information throughout the UK including stringer records. On the night, I am adopting a producer role with the official title of OB result input checker.

In conclusion, for pre-recorded packages there should have been more of a formula and standard template for the night, see for example the house style of ITV and BBC. This would make the show more continuous like telling a story and link into the website. The biggest issue with being a small broadcaster in the election period is being dwarfed by all different media, this is why for the show going local was our forte. OB locations were the focus for the night and what WINOL’s audience would be most interested in. In my particular project, I feel that the portfolio I produced was very successful; there are no legal issues, it is visually striking and, it is a very informative video. I produced a variety of reports that were equally entertaining and newsworthy – showing a mixture of my abilities. A big success was my research tasks for each part of the bundle; I gathered information from a range of sources and so was able to make work with real credibility utilising skills I had learnt over the last three years.

*My critical reflection to be submitted as part of my FYP alongside my video package , three reports and my showreel*

 

 

WINOL Analysis Week Four

This week I was in the headlines again, was top story in the bulletin and did my first in studio chat.

The week started off quite poor as I chased three stories Monday morning which all fell through, I guaranteed an interview for Tuesday afternoon as a last ditch attempt for at least an oovact.

I was contacted by Brian on Tuesday morning to cover a story on local volunteers filling extra sandbags to cope with flooding in Winchester city centre. I spent a couple of hours here getting shots for sequences and interviews with volunteers and fire crews from Hampshire. The firemen then directed me to where they were actually taking the sandbags – this was a prime place to find my case study.

I feel that at the scene my quotes were okay but my case study was much better. The two volunteers when I was editing were far too over exposed, the sun was really bright and I did try two different angles when I was on site but there was not much I could play with.

The natsot and action shots I feel worked really well as I was by myself I think I obtained a lot of images to mess about with when editing. When heading down to water lane, I needed my case study and a few GVs. This week I made sure that I filmed all GVs with a tripod to eradicate all shakey shots, I struggled to get a case study the first time I went down to the lane but managed to get it the second time and secured a good, solid ‘it’s a nightmare’ quote.

During editing, I knew the shots I wanted to open with with rich water sounds to hit the viewers with. Ian wanted me to change the beginning to follow a logical sequence with more water then into the sandbags. I had to cut one of my interviews to secure the best quotes possible – I had to kill my babies. Sequences next week need to be closer and get down at a lower level, it’ll take longer but needs to be done.

Once again I had trouble this week with my scripting but managed to put a pun in the first line and the rest flowed nicely to the pictures.

I was pleased with my overall package, except the first interview and should have had some more water shots. You can never have enough pictures. I had all of the elements which is what I need to aim for every week now.

My in studio chat went much better than I originally expected, I filled it with facts and did exactly what an in studio chat should do. I could have done with remembering it a bit better but I did well overall with little practice.

My headline clip needed more water action however the quote worked really well.

This week I intend to have the same elements as I have done so with the flooding package but improve it all technically and produce an equally interesting story but on a different beat.

WINOL Analysis Week Three

I found this week a struggle and was not as pleased with my output as I could have been.

This week I had organised my councillor interview on Friday so this was organised days in advance, I just needed to secure my case study. I spent this time over the weekend to plan my questions and shots.

My story would have to include lots of GVs which I filmed all of on Tuesday, I managed to film traffic and moving pictures with rich, natural sound. I wanted to get the roadworks with a drill or digger to begin the package with – I achieved this aim. I wanted the angle of misery and chaos for travellers being put across for viewers. For this I particularly needed a case study of local residents being affected by the closures. I tried to get a bus passenger, taxi drivers and just general vox pops in southampton but with no luck despite several attempts and going back later in the evening as well.

I made sure I had lots of raw footage and different angles to work with this week when editing. Due to there not being a people aspect, my package was a short 50 seconds. The best shots were my sequence for introducing the councillor.

I only had to change the top line of my package. I made sure my interviewee stood outside and held the mic close to him to get the most clear sound. Framing of he interviewee was nice and tight this week.

I tried to film all cut always free hand again but because it was windy the balance wasn’t great and shots were shaky. I will use a tripod next week unless they are action shots and I need to get in extremely close.

Due to there being a lack of public interaction in this package, I originally had archive footage in the report from Simisola’s last year to represent the disruption the bridge has caused but the news editor’s decision was to take this out as it was not the same story.

My voiceover this week was much more authoritative and clear throughout the package.

Despite these issues, my report was still in the headlines.

WINOL 3rd February Bulletin Debrief

 

Circulation at this time is poor – the same as last semester – our rivals East London Lines are doing better currently. We need to work on building circulation again, with the reduction in team members WINOL no longer has a social media editor so we all need to tweet more and promote our work everywhere on forums and the like. Sport is getting the most hits at the moment and the feature interview with Joshua Rozenberg is attracting viewers. We need to attract big names and celebrities this will bring views right up.

The page furniture and architecture of the site took some improving this week; we had to scale images and created new columnist sections and links for each feature writer. WINOL, the website, is mid-market leaning towards broadsheet style needing to reduce the picture size to add tone and interest to the page. Effectively some of the images were just padding – news pictures need to be either action or for positive identification. Take cameras on location and experiment with stills – be sure to include captions when uploading images.

Headlines are too descriptive at the minute, we need to use journalism words – verbs like slammed and fight. As a group, we need to work on news angles for WINOL stories at the moment its more or less just information – every story needs a news peg so avoid being vague.Sell the story. Why is the story interesting? Feature interviews should relate to what is relevant at the moment, use the news to help get pegs and ideas.

Feature reviews should consist of two parts: what the thing is and whether it’s any good.

Comment has to be labelled at the top of article clearly as a legal defence. Features should be producing in bulk to get the hits, it is all about content however it can’t be too reflective articles need to be assertive. Journalism is aggressive. Comment should be extremely hard-hitting, we want to talk about the article make sure it can go viral. Have an extreme opinion – see Jeremy Clarkson example.

Journalists should be constantly thinking of defendable facts, be sceptical and question everything.

Angus’ Debrief Videos

Overall, Angus was impressed with the bulletin; we had thought of production, put it together well and the quality of packages was generally quite high.

Heads

The opening head grab was too small and didn’t quite make sense but the choice of stories was good and solid – some shots could have been more exciting. Sport heads need to be worked on with more action shots not just team scores goal.

Laura Flood

The key components were done well but in the link we could have had a statistic – ‘the wettest on record’ etc. Laura’s script needs to be simpler and have more authority her PTC should add more detail, be careful of using a PTC just for the sake of it add something to the package and throw it forward. Overall, the package had good human interest featuring the people that mattered.

Alex Job Cuts

This package was nicely written, with a good opening shot but we need to be careful of overlapping shots as these two were very similar. There was good editing but be careful of too many cut aways during the grab – in and out makes it difficult to watch. Interviews are good an it is a well rounded story but be careful of hands and over expressing in PTC – there is slight interference with wind on the mic in this too.

Lucy In Studio Chat

Lucy’s talk had real authority, she had a simple manner during exposition and added a lot to packages – one of the best debriefs we’ve had in studio.

Be sure to hold the grab for 3 to 4 seconds, quotes were better this week.

Brian focussed on PTCs in his debrief:

Laura was good, the wire was slightly annoying but she had authority and it was interesting. The purpose of a PTC is to give a fact, give variety.

It can help to carry a report when doing a PTC.

Lucy was very good, the walky talky contained a three point list and was visually strong but was on the edge with sound due to the rich NATSOT.

My PTC was good, contained strong facts but the sound was a bit weak due to location. I need to get more involved next week, get in the action and hold something – be less serious. This story was visually strong but lacked an angle.

Whenever filming a package, get three shots incase they are needed for an OOV. Remember facts in PTC and do n0t stray over the comment line – show disinterest.

WINOL Critical Reflection Y2S1

At the beginning of the semester, WINOL’s circulation ranked high at 1, 309,425 globally and 38,579 in the UK. Circulation figures around the end of October show we were mid range in student journalism both globally and in the UK, making us a competitor in the first few weeks. WINOL had beaten off the local competition from the Daily Echo and The Basingstoke Gazette in UK rankings. Even though we were ahead of JMU and WNOL as they did not have any UK ranking at this time, globally we were lacking. The latest figures from the 3^rd December are less promising; we are ahead of our main rival of last year – East London Lines- but now rank below JMU and WNOL globally.

Our biggest viewings should come from Wednesdays, due to the bulletin and, packages and stories constantly updating the site. Having said this, it has not been the case, for example, on the week beginning the 21^st  October, Sunday was the most successful day and we have also seen surges of popularity on Thursdays.

We need to vastly improve on circulation; we are accredited by BJTC awards and have been praised by guest editors so our work has to be seen. I think that text stories need to be a focus; these get read and it is not certain that the bulletin gets viewed. This semester, reporters began work on house style and being more concise with leadership from the subs. Videos alone do not pick up traffic; Google can search the text on a website. In the last week, skeleton stories were introduced to make writing easier and keep the website fresh. It was a great idea as people are only searching for something when it happens. I don’t feel that this was too successful because it left the layout untidy and needed a permanent image for uniformity. Also not all reporters came back to complete a full structure after broadcast.

WINOL has had a heavy reliance on social media: we set a target of tweeting at least three times during the production of a package, this would be: during the planning stage, when filming and once it was broadcast. Our twitter followers should have risen to 2000 but we did not meet this goal.

It is difficult to accurately assess circulation as there is uncertainty over what our target audience is; should we stick to campus based news or spread to a national scale. However, there was a good mix of local stories, the university and by localising national stories. In my opinion, the local angle should be WINOL’s main focus; this would help to build contacts and make the project most reputable.

As a local broadcaster, WINOL covered a variety of stories including the Polimeri Europa UK factory closure, BAE shipyard job cuts, Flybe job cuts, university strikes, care home closures, Zeena’s flu package and all local sports. These are all examples of news affecting a lot of people; attracting the biggest audience possible. With the BAE story, we reacted to the breaking news well using an OB during the bulletin. We should aim to do this more often and get the case studies to give packages a clear people aspect.

From the point of view of a campus audience, Access falls right into the target market with the development of its graphics and feature style of presenting. The team are small and have guaranteed entry into some high end entertainment places, such as: building contacts in the Mayflower Theatre and achieving press passes to London Olympia. Features, overall, hit the student/national audience hard. At the end of the semester, we rebranded the magazines to group them all under one: Here&Now Magazine. This change worked really well and I think gained articles higher ratings; each section fed off of each other and kept the audience on the site for longer.

News packages as a whole have greatly improved– especially technically. Quotes as comments are now coming through and facts are in the reporters’ voiceovers but the struggle still lies in getting the story. News conferences can be sparse and reliant on others’ ideas, next semester this needs to change. Reporters should be fighting over time in the bulletin and producing news rich items for the news editor to work with.

Sport has improved tremendously and should not be overshadowed in the bulletin; it is always going to be a large section. Last week saw an introduction in graphics and snappier editing – this is what Angus had been waiting for.

My first role was a news sub, I was required to make sure all text copy was written in WINOL’s house style – the BBC – write headlines and assure all pictures and facts were attributed. We decided with the Editor that Bracken, Katherine and I should focus on news subbing primarily and help out with features if necessary. With subbing, I feel that the process has improved my news writing to make me more ruthless and concise. My aim at the start of the semester was to check the site for new stories every two days – I exceeded this goal by checking at least daily so we had the most constant stream of news going up on the site. We introduced the Subs’ Board so reporters were able to contact the subs direct whenever they had a story that needed editing, this worked well. SEO checks on articles have improved greatly since the start; I think this is due to reporters now understanding its significance. Top lines have also vastly improved; we got into a rhythm of sending back poor examples for restructuring work to the reporter so we could work on getting the content up to scratch and not rewriting stories. We introduced the Subbing Bible, which was a list of thirteen commandments, to aid the writing text stories process and the right manner in how to submit the story. I also did a brief tutorial of how to complete SEO checks so reporters would not be confused and I was happy to help anyone.

Ever since these initiatives, news writing was much more effective. The subs worked really well as a team to get the content online as soon as possible to a professional and faultless standard, Emma was transferred roles to Website Editor late in the semester so took on some of the subbing later. I feel that this would have been much more effective earlier in the semester, to all be focussing towards the same goal and have similar mindsets so subbing does not differ. Next semester needs to keep the same strictness on style and fact checking that we have managed to upkeep. There needs to be clearer deadlines for reporters as a Wednesday rush does not work, stories need to trickle through from Monday evening onwards.

On production, our roles rotated fortnightly to ensure everyone was fully trained on each part of the studio. Every WINOL this semester has gone out at 15:00, which is impressive for a student run organisation. Rehearsal time was the biggest problem, we managed to practice OOVS and any coming ups every week but it has been very tight. Scripting has been a focus, with Ian Anderson joining WINOL; last minute changes for legal issues and a shorter, flowing script. Post production has been a minor issue with getting the broadcast live at five, which unfortunately could be the reason for lower ratings. We had to overcome the problem of two different versions of Final Cut Pro so every package had to be re-exported into a compatibility mode but in the second week we got all reporters to encode the original package before putting it onto the hard drive. WINOL has seen more on the day edits meaning tighter deadlines for production. With the extra projects of filming the COMPASS Meeting, Nadine’s political interviews and Christina’s questioning of Winchester’s Prison Governor equipment and lighting improved to get the smoothest package possible.

The new green screen looks more professional and with the updated vision mixer we can get a finer finish to get the clearest picture. Headlines are now recorded in the radio studio before broadcast so played out as a VT, this is much slicker and we can sound mix better. We attempted to have four headlines as we were getting more news rich bulletins. This worked well but we did not have the bulletins to fulfil this every week.

Being director made me realise how important communication between news and production was. I personally checked all VTs before broadcast so could adjust timings and cues – I think this worked really well. I feel that I had the strongest and clearest instructions I could possibly give for the first time directing. I think I could have been slightly louder and more authoritative if I was to do this again.

Last week on WINOL, Nicole and Kirsty were not here so I, Bracken and Katherine had the task of creating headlines, post-production and collecting packages. We really worked as a team and did the best we could with little experience. One idea for improvement could be to have assigned one person to directly stand in for Nicole so everyone had a central point to answer to but this would have been a lot of pressure. We didn’t manage to get the bulletin up live at five and there were some issues when importing but this was overcome and I was happy with our overall effort.

My other role was on Absolute:ly magazine. I aimed to produce two features a week but this became too much so only managed one and focussed on bigger projects, such as: filming a make-up tutorial, planning the fashion shoot, completing my street style column and guaranteeing my interview with Wicked the Musical’s lead makeup artist. I felt that I provided original ideas to the site and played around with men’s fashion. In particular, with my suits article I wanted to create something different for the classic fashion template we had previously created. I hoped that introducing men’s fashion would boost ratings and with the training on 650D SLRs I could create sharp, professional images. For my make-up tutorial, I think that the image quality and framing were the best to my ability, being my first camera work for WINOL. My PTC could have had more personality and editorially the beginning sequence needs to be cut earlier. I based the tutorial around the Vogue online videos for an upmarket style that Absolute:ly aims towards. For Access, the editing should have been quicker but for a tutorial it flows just about right.

I guaranteed my Wicked interview by working with the PR company for a few weeks to establish a relationship and consolidate WINOL’s reputation with them. This meant I gained backstage access to one of the biggest musicals in the West End and made a great contact for future features use. I pushed hard for further access but was pleased with the overall result.

In features, Nadine helped to produce podcasts to go alongside features. It was a long editing process but conversation between me and Katherine flowed well and was comfortable to listen to. I feel that the podcasts give the magazine a human face not just being an online entity, sound bites are essential.

We rethought how to produce images – they had to follow the rule of thirds and not be point pictures; features should be picture lead. Since this and the introduction of using press images of products, ratings have improved; my latest article has the most views I’ve got standing at 43 views on 7^th December. Overall with features we could have had more guidance and leadership in how to produce an article with an angle.

WINOL as a whole has been a whirlwind this semester, I have vastly improved my camera and editing skills so am pleased with my overall contribution. However, WINOL will continue to be a learning process for all and can only improve with experience.

 

My personal WINOL analysis 27/11/13

I would describe this week’s WINOL as a car smash.

We did not have a news rich bulletin; a lot of the team were in Coventry for the BJTC awards and some production members were away. I think that just because a newsroom is a bit thin on the ground, it shouldn’t compromise the output – if this was a news corporation it wouldn’t have.

This week, communication was the one thing we needed to step up with and we didn’t. This was with both the news editor and production wise, organisation would have helped everyone. It was proved so much that reporters need to be versatile and extremely flexible. If it’s not your beat, cover it. If your story falls through, find another one and pester everyone. Keep everybody in the loop. Employers aren’t going to care if it’s a dry week, you either have a story or you don’t.

We, on WINOL, need to work out how to have a bank of news stories to bring to Monday conferences so that there is always a back up.

Production analysis

Director: Bracken

Vision Mixer: Sean

Autocue: Katherine

Sound: Alex

VT: Me

I think production this week worked really well as a team, we delegated but also came together when we needed to – we did the heads together with Tom’s help. Despite being two members down, we got the bulletin out on time just even with packages coming into the studio later than five to three. Normally, packages are in on an okay time but this week the bulletin was full of last minute stories which Ian loved but production wise is a nightmare. The script came in very close to the wire but we managed to practice with a paper script about ten minutes before. Bracken stayed extremely calm throughout the whole process and just went for the broadcast which was brilliant. Post production went up fairly smoothly, it was just the uploading to YouTube that took a lot longer than we anticipated but me, Katherine and Bracken worked with it and did the best we could.

We did have some vision mixer issues because it was rushed and we had little if any time to rehearse, there were some glitches but Sean has not done it often. Sound this week was very strong and autocue flowed well as Spence did not stumble. This was tweaked in post production anyway but I think the team really pulled together.

Subbing took more of a back seat this week as we had big features projects to complete – the photoshoot with Katherine and Bracken and I went to the West End to film about Wicked. Emma, now being Website Editor, took on a bulk of the subbing with a few checks and tweaks from the team when we got a chance. Next week, focus will fully be back on subbing to get the best possible content we can up on the site. Reporters just need to remember the subbing bible and to just think about your story/its newsline because overall this week’s stories were weak and there wasn’t much to work with.

WINOL Debrief 27/11/13 Angus Scott

 

This is a short debrief because we did not have a guest editor and most of the third years were at the BJTC awards on Wednesday, I will be posting a further detailed production analysis.

This week was a quiet week in terms of news; these will always be the hardest weeks in the industry. We must generate the stories because that is a journalist’s job. Editors should be taking time away from the reporters’ packages and all should be fighting for space – this is a good bulletin.

Sound is still an issue in the VTs, there were problems in around three clips this week. Relying on camera sound will not be good enough, make sure to check it (have a back up for sound) and if there is interference around, tighten the shot and get the mic in as close as possible.

Employers will look for consistency in both your shots and your sound across the whole package.

ZEENA: A care home story is well within our target audience, it affects a lot of people. Her case study is perfect; it directly adds the human interest part to the package. This is detrimental to news. Zeena has engaged with Angus’ advice to let UPSOT breathe at the beginning of her report before starting her script. The PTC would have been a cleaner shot without the gun mic but the overall package has all of the right elements.

COURT: It was obvious that we had a limited supply of pictures for this package, which is always the difficulty with crime stories. The focus should be to get more than a PTC and a mugshot.

HEADS: There were too many still images in the headlines; we could have done with dropping one or both as headlines. It is all about the pictures to attract the audience into watching the whole bulletin.

ALEX: This package was reworked to tell the story. It is important to remember to tell the story, explain and never assume any knowledge.

LUCY: The talk was developed into a package by using his speech when interviewing the CEO. Lucy’s pictures clearly told the story.

News editing is about looking at the whole bulletin including its shape and style.

OOV: These were three good stories worth telling, one of our best oovs yet. There was a strange clip in the oov though that didn’t really make sense – there wasn’t any sound from the choir.

When interviewing someone, don’t say ‘I spoke to…’ and take out personal thoughts like ‘fantastic’ be objective and move onto the next question.

BJTC AWARDS: This was a huge story for WINOL, we need to shout it out and get ourselves noticed. The package was well written, had an excellent turn around and the story was fully sold.

The more awards we win, the more jobs will be available to us.

Monday Debrief 25/11/13

Our aim should be just to get the story up, this needs to happen as soon as possible because people are only searching as and when something happens. People do not search for old news. 

Headlines need better and stronger pictures, should we start with a church? Would you be hooked into the bulletin?

Sports heads need to be more than just a football team scored a goal against another club.

LUCY: There was a mid shot used in this package, what Ian means when he talks about this is basically just move the camera more. The script had a minor issue in that ‘the changing face of the church’ was not backed up by the images. Some of the images were too dark and needed a greater white balance. Keep the result of the package for the in studio chat, leave the brief exposition for the VT.

Remember to compliment your pictures with your script, write the script as you are watching your video. Refer to the images and do not describe them – you do not need to have full sentences all of the time.

BEN: He did well to get this good access but exploit it and get right into the action with your PTC.

COURT (Christina): This is an example of how to do a court story well. You have limited pictures, make the most of what you have. Take impact statements and refer to them as quotes in your PTC; they are the best comments you can get. Christina’s delivery was good because she believes in the story and can therefore tell it well.

COUNCIL: Stories should normally start with a human face. We need a clear fact and comment distinction to be able to get the correct level of balance.

The greatest impact comes from getting someone who can represent a lot of people.

ELLEN: Give us a news line, be sure to vary your drop intros. Be careful of too much exposition, the local angle needs to come very close to the beginning of the package.

ZEENA: Let the NATSOT at the beginning of a VT breathe. Be careful of fact and what an organisation claims. 

The ‘has’ and ‘have’ differentiation needs to be perfected. Football teams are the exception to the rule.

In sport, we need to be more creative – use split screens, graphics and a rolling league table.

FEATURES

Features need to be picture lead and writers must write to the pictures. 

Fashion is the biggest difficulty as the pictures are hard to get for free so we must scale down and employers will understand this.

Do not use point pictures in features because it will look like an amateur.

Interview tips

• If you don’t do anything, you won’t make mistakes
• It is good to make errors, as long as you learn from them
• Get there early, take a look around and find the best lighting and place. Suss out the situation and set up
• Coach your interviewee if you don’t want to see the questions being asked
• Facts need to be out of the interview and in your own voice

 

 

My WINOL Analysis 20/11/13

This is a brief analysis of the bulletin from the production side of WINOL.

Director = Katherine
Vision mixer = Kirsty
Autocue = Me
Sound = Alex
VT = Bracken

Headlines were extremely good this week; they flowed well, were short and to the point and, provided a good hook for the viewers.

Again we had sound problems in the studio; Nadine was really quiet and needed to be turned right up. Sound on the VTs was fine, slightly quiet but the difference between studio and packages was huge.

We had a few issues with the green screen around Nadine and Lucy’s hair but the team managed to work around this. The in studio discussion worked well this week; transitions were smooth, sound was good and Nadine and Lucy had a natural rapport.

I felt that Katherine’s directing this week was really good; she was calm and kept everyone in check in the gallery. This week she was more authoritative and was pushing the reporters. Content wise, the bulletin struggled this morning and we didn’t really stick to deadlines so production was not the most calm it could have been. I can only echo previous weeks in that the script needs to be in as soon as possible and packages need to be ready. Communication needs to be stepped up both in the newsroom and in the gallery.

Rehearsal time was not good enough this week.

We had to re-record a few links this week; there was a potential legal issue with the illegal rave story link. The autocue stopped working dead on three o’clock but I managed to restart it in the time of the first VT to run more smoothly during the rest of the bulletin. Nadine adapted well to this in the beginning.

One last production point is that, Kirsty did not switch back to Nadine quick enough after Lucy’s package and the sound was not pushed up quick enough either. These are minor issues that are not to noticeable in the final bulletin.

Subbing went okay this week, better than last week but not its best. We still need to aim to get those stories in as early as possible and remember once it hits around one, subbing turns to production and NO STORIES WILL GO UP.  SEO checks were fairly alright this week and writing had improved.

My WINOL analysis 13/11/13

This is a brief analysis of the bulletin from the production side of WINOL.

Director = Katherine
Vision mixer = Sean
Autocue = Me
Sound = Alex
VT = Bracken

Personally I thought that the headlines were too long this week and the last part in the script didn’t entirely make sense; it was a bit waffly. Harry was a bit quiet when presenting, I think that the sound could have been tuned better.

For the in studio discussion, Nadine was exceptionally quiet and the green screen was slightly see through over her but the transitions worked well.

Christina’s interview was improved on the lighting front compared to Nadine’s last week, which shows that week after week the production team just gets better and a more professional finish.

I felt that Katherine’s directing this week was really good; she was calm and kept everyone in check in the gallery. However, next week she could be a little louder and communicate slightly more but for her first attempt I felt at ease with my job.

We did a much better job of getting the script in this week to rehearse a few times in the studio but reporters were not up to scratch at getting links into Harry early this week so we did not have script for headlines for a while. Noone really knew what was happening so communication is key. If you have updates for the bulletin, you must let the news editor know, the director and the presenter too. We did not need to re-record any of the bulletin this week.

Subbing did not work this week; there was a limited supply of stories coming in and then a rush on Wednesday for the last few. SEO checks have continued to be much better though.