News Report Training - Angus Scott

NOTES

On Assignment
- Do your research
- Know your library
- Know where you are going
- Forward Planning
- Check equipment
Make sure equipment works and is charged.
- Be punctual
- Get shooting

Rule of Thirds

Filming
- Use sequences
Eg- wide, medium, tight shot
- Different size shots
- Shoot long - 10 second shots
- Maintain continuity
- Shoot cutaways
Helps you bridge a gap between two cuttings
- Don't 'cross the line' (180 degree rule)
- Shoots in 'thirds'

Piece to Camera
- Don't start with a piece to camera
- It should add something to the piece
- Use movement (but don't start walking before you talk)

Interviews
- Make interviewee comfortable (use small talk)
- Stay in control
- Get cut aways
- Intro shot for interviewee (set up shot)
- Sequences
- You can never have too many shots

Coming Home
- Start writing your story
- Check pictures are out of the library (archive)
- Organise graphics (if needed)
- Make sure you have straps/captions for your upsot
- Report back to the news editor

Writing Intro
- Write the link/intro first
- 3/4 sentences setting up the piece
- Remember the 5 W's - who, what why, where when.
- Never repeat what is said in the link, in the package.

Writing your story
- One idea(piece of information) per sentence
- Make it simple
- Compliment the pictures
- Use present tense if possible
- Keep stories fresh
- Speak plain english
- Simplify numbers
- Use graphics to explain numbers/stats

Packaging
- Tell a story and use a sequence
- Start with your best pictures
- Don't name your intervewee - use a caption/strap instead
- Limit 'grabs'/interviews clips to 20 seconds max(more likely 10-15 seconds)
- End with something that 'means something'
- Never end on an interview
- Don't end with SOT then SOQ

Press Conferences
- Get there early - get central position
- Sit near your camera
- Ask if there are one-to-ones

Media Scrums
- Roll early
- Be prepared for 'the crush'
- Look after eachother - you're a team

Terminology
PTC - Piece To Camera
GV- General View
SOQ - Standard Out Queue
SOT - Sound On Tape (interview/grab)
UPSOT - Piece of interview uring oov
OOV/OOV ACT/UNDERLAY UPSOT - Out Of Vision (presenter out of vision)

OOV    -    Underlay     -      UPSOT
Presenter    Pictures           Interview

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Tabloid Nation - Parts 2 and 3

During the 1945 election, the Mirror wanted to get their readers to vote labour, but without actually telling them how to vote. The feeling was that they needed to reach out to female voters as they would have a smaller idea of who to vote for, and the beleif was that they'd vote for Winston Churchill simply because it was a name they recognised.
On the polling day in July, they decided to simply have the headline 'VOTE FOR HIM' with a picture of the candidate.
After the second world war, it was felt that the paper needed to change. King felt that a new formula was needed, instead of the formula(that while being successful in the 1930's) was now outdated.
It was now post-war, and King saw the readership as better educated, and more female. He wanted to have less sensationalist and more up market reports like the Express.
Bart disagreed, and sent a message by publishing a front page stating pride at being a sensationalist paper.

I do find it interesting that Bart was such an influential figure at The Mirror, and held a lot of control over its content despite being illiterate. The core reason for this must have been because of it's focus on pictures to create the sensationalism that made the newspaper so popular at the time. When he was editpor, Guy Bartholomew was still able to ensure their was senesational content that would interest people, and could assess that based on the images that they could put on the front page.

The 'Vampire in Notting Hill' story could be seen as a bad turning point for the Mirror, but perhaps showed more of Barts self-obsessed desire for constant sensationalism. After the arrest of a man (John Haig) on suspicion of both murder and drinking the blood of his victims, Bart published a front page which included a picture of the man in handcuffs while getting arrested, and used a number of different words such as 'monster' and 'maniac' to describe him.
This was a clear breach of contempt of court, it could influence a jury member if they were to read the paper, because of the images and the language that is used. Therefore, it could heavily influence a jury's decision.
However, as the editor of the paper, Bolam was the man that was sentenced to prison for the crime, despite not being enar the building when Bart discussed and approved the the article. But the 'law of the land' dictates that the editor takes responsibility for what is published. The three months in prison left Bolam a 'broken man', but Bart showed a rare act of 'kindness' and reinstated Bolam as editor.

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Back to Winol - Refreshing

This week was a return back to University, with new roles, and new faces.
It was decided that instead of jumping straight back into Winol, we would have some 'refresher training' so that our work for the weekly broadcast would be better than ever.

My roles for the semester will be the Radio Production Editor as well as a reporter for Science and Technology.

(24/01/2012) I had an interview with Dr Douglas Connelly, a Marine Geochemist at the National Oceanography Centre.
The interview went well, Doug was veryf riendly and helpful throughout. Some of the interview answers were quite technical, so it will require me to present them in a digestable way for the audience(through my own voice), however their were some solid quotes which showed 'comment' which we're told is needed for a good news package.
Visually, I managed to make options available for editing. I got a shot of Doug walking into the room that I interviewed him in. This gave me atleast a bit of a sequence.
I also asked Douglas the day before if he could supply me wioth any images or video footage from the deap sea vents that the news tory is about. He was very helpful in this respect, and was able to provide me with a number of excellent images and some great footage that helps tell the story and make it interesting for the audience.

(25/01/2012) We had some more news report training from Angus Scott which you can read about ___here___
We also did a production dummy run, which i sat through in the gallery so that I could help out with any issues, and assist the new members of production because my experience in the gallery last semester. I also provided my opinion on some of the new experimental techniques that we tested today.

(27/01/2012) I went to the news room to edit together my news package today. I decided that I would make two versions for my news editor - A one minute package, and a 20 second oov. I also started writing different scripts for the two versions, as well as writing a link that doesn't repeat what is said in the package.

Aims for this semester
- Produce good quality news packages each week.
- Successfully convert news packages into written and radio versions under deadlines each week.
- Arrange a weekly podcast that can involve all members of Winol.
- Produce good quality radio bulletins.

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