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Showing posts with label winchester journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winchester journalism. Show all posts

Friday, 17 February 2012

Winol Semester 2 Week 3

Week starting 13/02/2012 
Monday.
Debrief Notes
- My link was good, but could have used one more sentence.
- My package had a limit to the shots I could use, and it showed in my package, I was told that my quotes were good.
- For my writing of the two oovs scripts (Broadband and Jamie Oliver), both Angus and Chris said that they were well written, which I was quite pleased with.

News Story Preperation + Meeting

Today I came in with an idea for two different stories.

My first story regards the growing housing list for the city. My plan was to interview someone at the Winchester Nightshelter because of the ever increasing number of people try to find somewhere to live, with families being moved into hotels and bed and breakfasts, because of lack of space.
To balance this, I was going to interview a member of the council, preferably a member of the housing comittee. When I called the nightshelter, I was told that the woman I wanted to interview was away today, so I immediatly felt that this story was going to struggle to progress in time for Wednesday. I decided that it was safer to turn my primary focus on my other story idea.

My other story revolved around the citys carbon footprint. over recent years it has developed a bit of a reputation as one of the least eco friendly citys in the country.
I had already arranged an interview with Robert Hutchison, a councillor who has been vocal about the councils carbon footprint in a recent council meeting. I was scheduled to go to his house on tuesday afternoon at 2.
I then arranged an interview with the WACC - Winchester Action on Climate Change, for 10am on

Tuesday.
My other fresh angle to the story (and also to help gather some slightly interesting shots), I discovered that two new 'zero carbon' homes were being built on the outskirts of Winchester. I decided to contact the company behind the buildings to try and gain access to film inside one of the homes.
Sadly, the person I spoke to wasn't in the area this week, and was therefore unable to show me around. However, he said that he would speak to Hamptons, the estate agency that was selling the houses. However, I didn't get another call back on Monday.

I had an interview with the Director at 'Winchester Action on Climate Change' 10am, thier offices were in the Main Building at the University, so luckily I didn't have to travel too far. It was a good interview, and I was able to film a sequence of her typing at a computer.

I had then secured an interview with Ian Tate, a conservative councillor in winchester. And I travelled to the guildhall to have the interview at 12:30. Again this went smoothly, and this time I filmed Ian walk through a door as a shot I could use in my piece.

I then helped George for his interview with George Beckett which was also at the guildhall, at 1pm. After that we went to the home of Lib Dem Councillor Robert Hutchison, which was not too far from the train station. I interviewed him, and then we popped into Hamptons so that I could see if I was able to film inside the home  in time for the wednesday bulletin.

I was told that the best they could do was 10:45 on Wednesday. I decided that it was the only way my package would work, and agreed.

Me and George then returned to the news room after he had collected a few gvs, and got I got to work on editing.

I then recieved a phonecall from Hamptons and it turned out that I was unable to get access on wednesday, as Hamptons were going to be a man short.
I spoke to Tom Morgan, the news editor, and we decided that I should try and see if I could get permission to use some of their images in my package.
I did get permission on Wednesday morning, but the conditions were a bit hazy, and myself and Tom were abit cautious about using them. And after speaking with Brian, we agreed that the piece was more reliant on actual footage of the homes. We then decided it would be best to postpone the story until next week, when I would have more time to gain access to the home.
My sights then suddenly turned to the lobby meeting I was expecting today. Brian thought this should be my new focus today, and we began to discuss me heading down to Southampton where the unions would be holding a rally outside the civic centre.

As I was beginning to prepare for that, I was then told by my news editor Tom, that he had decided that it was more valuable for me to handle the new unemployment figures that had been released today. I was lsightly hesistant, as I had a deeper knowledge of the union rally, and thought it would be more interesting visually.
But I understood Tom's desire for us to have coverage of the new unemployment figures as it would interest our audience.
I tried to speak to someone at student services about the figures, but after being moved all around the building, nobody were willing to talk. Also, we struggled to find to find local figures in time, which made the story impossible to localise.

It was then decided that I should try and pursue the union story once again, but it turned out to just be a lobby, and no officla decisions were being made on the day. And because it was now too late to travel to southampton to cover the lobby, their was little I could do. he hope was that I'd be able to record a shrot piece in the news room possibly reporting that their was going to be a strike sometime in the future, but sadly for me that wsn't the case.

As Tom Morgan was presenting this week, I was given the temporary role of news editor for the remainder of the day. This involved looking through peoples packages and communicating with Ewan (production editor) to ensure everything ran smoothly as we went towards going live.

This weeks Winol

Friday, 3 February 2012

Winol Semester 2 Week 1

Week starting 30/01/2012
View my package from this week here.

Monday
Today we had a small debrief which mainly involved looking at the new production changes, such as the new opening credits.

Tuesday
Today involved finishing off the editing of my piece, which meant
recording my voiceover.

Wednesday
Today started with me double checking through my package, as well as adding the strapline for the sot in my package.
I then turned my attention to writing the written version of my news story. Before that I spent some of the morning helping Graham to film some GVs nd his piece to camera for his housing story.

We had a first year, Sean Ward, come in for the day to see us all at work on what is always considered the busiest and most stressful day of Winol. I took him to the gallery just after 2pm so he could help out with the production side of the broadcast. Ewan(production editor) placed him on the autocue. I shadowed him throughout incase their were any issues, which unfortunately there was.

This Week's Winol (01/02/2012)

Friday, 9 December 2011

Existentialism

- It is a cultural movement

- Kirkegaard

- Phenomenology - a branch of philosophy, closest to psychology, and deals with the perpection of things.
Eg- the 'duck rabbit' - object of perception. You my can see both a duck and a rabbit in the picture(but you can only focus on one at a time).

The 'Duck Rabbit'
Kayka - Book called 'The Trial'.

Husserl

- Consciousness is intentional, and meaning is fixed subjectively.

Consciousness = intention - desire to see the object.
'Duck Rabbit' - humans choose between different things to see.

Huuserl had a student caled Heidegger.
Heigeger's man book was 'Being in Time'. It was about how the how the human personality develops over time.

- Structure of time - constantly looking towards the future.
- The way the future seems to someone varies on how long in the future they look.

Heidegger was a nazi, and thought highly of Adolf Hitler.
He wanted to go back to nature(much like Rousseau) and felt technology was wrong (bad faith).
He also thought western civilization was not sustainable financially, morally etc...

Described the present as 'dread'.
Heidegger also believed that we are always thinking about the past, and looking back through our memories to search for signs of what could happen in our future. And the main memory from our past is guilt.

John Paul Sartre
Was an economist (and not a nazi).
He takes from Heidegger the idea of 'dread'.

Takes 'Dassein' but calls it 'good faith'.
Sartre is brutally honest - feels it's the only way to combat nausea.
He was imprisoned by the Nazis.
- Solidarity - we're inevitabley doomed, but so is everybody else.



Existentialists are against fighting the collaboration from within.

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Winol - 07/11/2011

This is the second time I directed an edition of Winol. Overall, I was very pleased with my direction, and was again described as a very calm voice throughout.

Winol 10.0

Week Starting 05/12/2011
Monday.
Today we had a guest lecture from Tom Hepworth. You can read my blog on the lecture here.

Tuesday. The day started in tab 9, with people preparing for interviews, Sportweek and general Winol work. I was asked by Tom Morgan to help him with his latest story about cameras (both video and sound) that have been placed in taxi's around southampton.
We had to travel to Eastleigh to interview Kevin May who has already spent around £30,000 to take the Southampton City Council to court and get the sound turned off of the cameras.

Wednesday. The day started very quiet at 9am, considering it was the last Winol of the year, but it soon picked up, and was buzzing with people by mid-day.
My main job today was director, a role which I have instantly loved since i first did it a few weeks ago.

This week's Bulletin

November 30th 2011 - Highlights

November 30th was a great day for WINOL, with a LIVE 4 hour broadcast from the Unite offices in Southampton.
I spent the day controlling the various cameras that were in use in the studio. Here is a video containing some of the many highlights from the day.


You can read my notes from the week leading up to Novemember 30th here.
You can read my notes from the week of November 30th here.

Saturday, 3 December 2011

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism can be seen as a form of dictatorship. It is a political system which produces complete control over both public and private sectors.
Political parties with the aim of totalitarianism usually have policies that are concerned with movement.
Previous governments have used positive laws - they replace them with teorror. Everyone then becomes subjectively innocent.

Single process of thought - This way nothing new can be learnt. Reality is seperated from ideological thinking - People's perceptions of reality are altered.
Loneliness then starts to exsist amongst the masses when you de-individualise them.
Marxist - 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need'.


It goes against the 'positive laws'.
'Positive law' isn't needed. The police are seen as fair. It's best to not be guilty of anything, it's better that you're completely innocent, so that their is no reason at all for you to be killed.

Statutory law - Government
Common Law - Court cases (man made law)

Milgrams Theory - Stanley Milgram
The Malgram Experiment
Stanley's Experiment was influenced by the evnts of the Nazi Holocaust, and decided to carry out an experiment that would demonstrate the relationship between obedience and authority.

1963 - Milgram submitted the results of his 'Milgram Experiment' in the article - 'Behavioural Study of Obedience'.
1974 - Published 'Obedience to Authority'.

37 out of 40 participants administered the full range of shocks up to 450 volts after being instructed by someone that looks like they're in authority, the highest obedience rate Milgram found in his whole series. Those shocked were actually paid actors, and simply faked the effects(the shocks were fake)

According to Milgram, the subject shifts responsibility to another person and does not blame himself for what happened.

Resembles real-life incidents - people see themselves as cogs in a machine, 'just doing their job', avoiding responsibilities for the consequences of their actions.

Milgram also started the six degrees of seperation idea.

Thursday, 1 December 2011

Winol 9.0 - November 30th Live Broadcast

Week starting 28/11/2011
Monday. Today was a mixture of meetings in preperation for wednesday, but I spent most of the day putting together my package so that it can be used on the day if it is needed.
This meant recording my piece to camera and voiceover, and uploading it on Final Cut Pro, then chopping and changing pieces, and overlaying graphics which I design. I also recieved some archive footage frm Julie which show strikes from earlier in the year I was able to include this in my package to give the audience other things to look at as i had nor eal gvs.
Overall, i wasn't too pleased with the general look and feel of my package, but considering what i was asked to do and what I had to work with, i think I did a decent job, and the package is mainly intended to be an expo piece to provide some information on the unions and what they represent..

Tuesday. Tuesday started off early as I came into the newsroom at around 9am, only a few people were in there at the time, but i got to work on the straplines that I asked people to send me if they needed them. I finished them pretty quickly, and was then able to make a few alterations to my package. After watching the package, Julie had told me to alter a few of the graphics so that more acurately match what i'm saying. The graphic is mainly there to help the audience understand what you're telling them.
At about half 10, Henry drove to the university to pick me up, and me, graham, Henry and Jack went to Southampton for the day of rehearhsals in the Unite building in Southampton.
After seeing the building for myself, i agreed that it was a great location and a good size for us to set up an 'on location' studio.
Although i was originally going to be 2nd director, things were constantly changing over the fews weeks leading towards the broadcast, and i ended up controlling two of the key cameras that were being used throughout, in the studio. On the day this meant, moving the camera between different people, as well as changing between close ups, two shots, 3 shots and anything else that was needed. As well as this I had to change the tapes whenever they were close to running out, as we were also using tape to record as a back up.
You can watch my video package about Unions here.
Wednesday. Today was the big day. Lou was able to give me a lift in the morning, and we arrived in Southampton at the Unite building at around 9:30am.
I found that along with moving the cameras around, i occasionally had to work as communciation between certain people when someone like Will or Justina was too busy or didn't hear, because we usually had to remain very quiet throughout, except when the VT's were playing, and even then it was important that only a few people spoke at a time, because we were constantly deciding what to display next.
We went live at 12, but had a few technical issues throughout the start of the programme, mainly to do with sound. Their were issues with the wireless radio microphones which meant that the presenter wasn't heard very well by the audience.
At one point in the first hour, we decided that a 5 minute 'will be right back' vt would be played on a loop so we could try and sort out the issues.
While we fixed the problem partly, issues with sound became a theme throughout the day.

Sunday, 27 November 2011

Winol - November 30th Preperation

Week starting 21/11/2011
Debrief Notes

Monday. Today was almost nothing but meetings. Firstly a general meeting about November 30th and our plans for that day. In the meeting I voluteered to create an expo package about the unions, explaining who the represent and some of their history(such as what they've influenced or campaigned for).
After that we had a production meeting, to gather some ideas of what we will all be doing on the day.

Tuesday. Today we recorded Winol Life where I was controlling the sound desk. The sound for Winol life is more complex than Winol, as you have 4 mics to monitor - the two presenters, the guest, and the feature team. So it can be difficult to try and get them all up at the right time after a package, and you need to remember to fade them all done as well as pushing the VT sound up at the start of a package.
Afterwards we recorded the links for Sportweek, and I was sitting at the autocue, which also meant typing up (and editing some parts of) the script.

Wednesday. Today theirs was no Winol as the preperations for November 30th continued. I went with Tom Morgan in the afternoon to Southampton, to help with an interview with the Southampton UCU President.

Thursday. Again I went down to Southampton with Tom Morgan, this time to interview a Southampton City Councillor Jeremy Moulton about the Novemeber 30th Strikes. We interviewed him at his office in the Southampton City Council building. He came across as veyr media trained, but gave some good answers to a few quesitons that we'll be able to use in some form for a package.

Friday. The aim today was to do some more research for my union package which i was able to do. I was also hoping to collect interview pieces from the various reporters that had done them, but unfortunately the news room was pretty empty apart from a few people, so my package was unable to make as much progress as I had hoped. My aim is to try and get it as ready as much I can over the weekend, despite the limits to what I can actually do.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Winol 8.0

Week starting 14/11/2011
Monday.
Debrief Notes
Got to split the audience. Their are people that are interested in politics, those that are mildly interested, and those that aren't interested at all. You need to cater for all of these audiences.
Eg - The Chris Huhne story wouldn't appeal to all audiences, and you need to make a bigger deal out of the fact that he's a minister, and cover recent stories involving him and his wife. Don't be afraid to ask questions that may upset your interviewee, or people around you.
- 'Assume no knowledge' - from your audience

- Audience is key
You need to connect with the audience.
- Make sure you have a strong quote.

- This week we're going to start a new 'behind-the-scenes' style piece to add onto the end of our weekly Winol Bulletin. Showing parts of the debrief, and discussions between editors and reporters etc...

- The spoken parts of the headlines are too descriptive, as well as some of the links into packages. Their was also comment for no reason.

- Take control when filming, instruct you're interviewee and guide them if necessary to ensure you get a good shot, and that they're looking in the right place.

- Be careful of juxtaposition libel. Eg - The bin story update included a shot of Biffa bins which could imply them to be be completely in the wrong/to blame.

- The graduation piece was a bit too descriptive, more focus should have been made on the identical twins.
- Need good quotes
Eg - The teacher saying 'It's amazing news!' in the school story.

- Your experience at the point of filming isn't the important part. It's what the final package looks like that is important.

Tuesday.
Today I was helping Tom to film some gv's for his news piece this week. This involved travelling over to the Winchester Recycling Plant.
I found out on Wednesday that unfortunately the footage wouldn't be used, as Tom was unable to secure a second interview on statement to give his story balance, and therefore it couldn't feature in the bulletin. However, the shots could perhaps prove useful in the future, if a similar story comes up.

Wednesday.
Today started when I arrived in the news room at around 9am. I was surprised to see absolutely nobody in thier, unfortunately this was a sign of things to come. Lee came into the news room shortly after me, and said that he had come in simply to drop of his euipment and make sure his packages were sorted, as he had been sick all night, and still felt ill with the flu.
As the day went on I helped open up the gallery and set up the equipment, as well as going around sorting out straps with Graham and George. I then had to distribute them to the reporters.
The headlines were a big problem this week. It's hard to put my finger one exactly where it went wrong. Their was a bit of a wait for some headlines, such as the Estonia piece, this was because the mac with the footage on had freezed multiple times.
We also had trouble with the music for the headlines, and also a black hole was in one of the clips.
Ideally we should now have a template to rely on each week, but we still seem to be facing a few problems.
These were all errors that we tried to fix as quickly as possible, but unfortunately, the huge number of errors meant that it took a while to correct. For this reason, it took a while to get the headlines done, which consequently pushed back almost everything else.
In the end we were very short on time and only had around 30 minutes of decent rehearsal time.
I feel like everyone in the gallery still worked hard to try and create more time for ourselves, but everything seemed against us this week. George did his best to direct, but at times he faced some difficult problems. Over the last few weeks I've noticed different directing styles, all have there pros and cons, and I do feel like watching the different directors including myself) over the last few weeks has helped me understand the role more and more. I also feel really comfortable in the gallery, and can jump onto almost any piece of equipment last minute and control it if needed.
We faced some difficult challenges this week, some we managed to overcome and others we didn't, but I feel like I learnt a lot this week.

Debrief Notes

- It can be better to have headlines that make sense in 7 seconds, instead of trying to cram them into 3 or 4 seconds.

- For the unemployment story, we need to explain what's important abouts the figures going past a million, and that winchester has gone up by 100% - what does it mean? What if thier was only 1 person unemployed, and now it's 2. Suddenly 100% isn't such a big leap.
Should be more prepared and have it in a diary that the latest unemployment figures were goign to be announced.

- Southampton story - If you don't know the answer to every question, then neither will the audience.

- Need full VT rehearsals every week to make sure they're all correct and have no errors.

- The paedophile story should be nothing more than an oov/nib (news in brief)
If you only have the mugshot and not much other information can be used, then it's not really a package.

- No excuse for mistakes (stutters, pauses, strange noises etc...) in a piece to camera, as you can do it as many times as you want until it's perfect.
You can do it again and again as much as you like.

- Parking story - Cut aways can be elongated, not just 2 seconds, otherwise it's clear that you're covering up a cut in something like an interview. If you need to cover up a cut, then make the overlaid shot longer so that it doesn't change too quickly for the audience. You can even use more than one shot (one after the other). You don't have to neccesarily go back to the interviewee after a cutaway either, once you see them, you don't have to neccessarily show them again.

- Estonia story - Make the most of the trip - get good visuals. You should see things that we can't normally get/show.
You also need to caption her film piece, even though she's an ex studen,t that shouldn't matter, otherwise the audience might not pick up enough information.

- The nib had a black hole for the wipe between two oovs.

- Sport - First line of the package was exactly the same as the link.

- Should have made more of the hat-trick - it was the fastest hat trick from a sub in FA Cup history.
It could have been more personalised, perhaps gone to his house for an exclsuive interview.

- The Sportsweek promo - images didn't match what was being said.

- Banned phrasing - 'Our very own' and 'too little too late'

This week's Winol

Friday, 11 November 2011

Modern Economics

This week, in our HCJ lecture we focused on economics. Money.
In the past we have looked at money in some ways, such as Adam Smith, and his look at free trade. We also looked at Smith's satirical solution to the financial problems in Ireland in 1729.

We have a desire to consume which outweighs our desire to produce. We have a number of 'wants' in our life, and finance usually means we have to decide which 'wants' to satisfy. People often say that they 'need this' and 'need that'. Humans don't 'need' anything. They simply 'want' it.
Economics ignores 'needs'. Need has no reference point.

Utility- To economics it is fundamental
- A phenomenon
- The reference of human wants
Humans maximise their utility.
'Utilitarianism'

Marx = Ricardo (Value theory) + Neo Malthusian

Value Theory
Embedded labour power

Eg- Piano = 5000 bins
Takes more work to make the biron - 5000 times more labour.

Malthus - the iron law of population
You should have 2 children, so that they can replace you.
- More than 2 children means a population increase.
- Less than 2 children means a population decrease.

Neo-Malthusian - the iron law of wages
- Internal contradiction of capitalism
- Inability of system to scoialize surplus vaue = crisis of revolution
= Crisis and revolution
- Neo- Malthusian means over productions and under consumption ecause of profit.

The answer to unemployment is growth.

Simple Economy (an example)
All that's made is 1 apple.
Value of the apple = £3
Producer of the apple is paid = £2
Profit would be = £1

However, if the producer of the apple went to the shop and wanted to buy the apple, he wouldn't have enough money.

They would then try to solve the problem -
Cut wages to = £1
Cut price of Apple to = £2
But this doesn't solve the problem.

Source - Flickr: Images_of_Money
Old economists thought of money as transparent.
Modern economists eel that money exerts popwer on the real world - irrational.
Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto
People didn't have enough money

1850's - The gold rush in America.
Until recently - gold had no real value/purpose.
Anthropology - Superstitions about gold.
Gold supply has varied through the decades.
But gold mines caused economic recession.

Paper (money) circulation is a small percent of that used today. It is now mainly electronic.
In some ways this means that the 'Economy is based on confidence'.

- 1880's onwards - Germany, America, Britain - The welfare state.
State education came at around the 1870's.
- Government bonds (gilts)

Why pay taxes?
Taxes help to pay interest on the bonds, because governments get charged interest on the bonds/gilts that they recieve.

Problem - Inflation
German hyper-inflation - resulting from 'printing money' (not backed by gold standard)
Too much money chasing too few items.

Two types of economists
1- Keynesian
- Don't care about inflation.
- Plan economic growth

2- Monatarism
- Followers of Adam Smith
- Classical in the sense of Smith
- Pre-modern and Pre-Freudian
- Think people accurately work out what the want.

'Know the price of everything, and the value of nothing'

People should accept cuts in their wages to help the economoy, but they won't.

National Health Service - helpful in avoiding inflation, as the government needs too keep spending money to keep people employed.
However, they need to keep public spending within the public sector.
Eg - War
- No private sector
- Means investing in public sector of war doesn't put anybody out of business (thier is priate sectar for war, so it doesn't damage any private companies).
Eg - Space programmes
Eg - Digging holes

Y = C + I + G

C = Household spending
I  = Private investment (eg - savings)
G = Government spending
If Y decrease, then thier wont be enough money to keep people employed unless they take pay cuts.

If banks won't take bonds, we end up with the situation currently in Greece. They are no longer trusted to eventually pay back the money.
Answer - print more money. Germany have taken out a lot of money and handed it to Greece to help them financially.
Germany has more ability to raise money, so they can continue to take out bonds.
Once banks default on bonds = Mass unemployment

In the long term, we can try to keep doing this and 'kicking the can' further and further forever. Alternatevly, we could try and wipe all debt, or could face a global economic crisis.
In the long term we're dead, and the problem moves onto the next generation, and so on.


When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.
Oscar Wilde
Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.
Plato 

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
Jonathan Swift

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

Winol 7.0

Week starting 07/11/2011
Debrief Notes
The straps for the headlines need to be smaller so that we can see faces etc...
Sports is arguably too long, decisions are being made in order to help the viewer, such as explaining(just before going to sport) what other packages we still have for them too watch.

Features Debrief
Gonzo - Presenter Lead (Eg: 'I went to...' or 'I spoke to...)
Be careful as it shouldn't always be presenter lead. Those too phrases shouldn't really be used.
Gizmo - 'Quest'

Avoid too much exposition

Keep it balanced. Try and find something neutral to say. If you're reviewing or visiting a place, you should try to avoid always being really positive and make sure you don't come across as selling the product/place.

Be careful of sound.

Avoid too much padding.

Monday. Today we had a meeting to start planning for our November 30th broadcast.

Tuesday. Today started by helping Ewan and Graham to film their links for Winol Games. For this I was on camera 2, and wearing a headset to communicate between Dom (in the gallery) and Ewan/Graham (in the studio) as neither of them really needed talk-back.
We then showed members of sport and features some of the equipment that we use in the gallery. This included the autocue, vt machine, video mixer, sound mixer, cameras and lights.
We then filmed the links for Sportsweek. I was mainly watching over these recordings as some people tried out different jobs in preparation for 30th November.
Wednesday. Today was as usual a busy day for the whole team behind Winol. I took over the job of making the straps this week, and luckily the majority of them were done very early as not too many were needed this week (they were mainly for sport). Most of my day was based more in the gallery, setting it up for the day, helping to record headline, and of course helping throughout rehearsals and during the live broadcast. As well as this myself, Graham and Dom set up the OB kit in the newsroom. Although we haven't used the News room as a place to broadcast so far this semester, it is very useful to practice as much as we can so that we have a good knowledge of how to set it up. Dom's blog post has proved very useful. The OB kit also means we can communicate with the news room from the gallery to save time, while this doesn't always work (sometimes nobody can hear us calling for them), it's still useful to have. Also, it looks likely that the OB kit will be used in the news room on November 30th, in which case the practice will be very helpful for us.
For the headlines I was on autocue, whilst also adding the headline straps to the VT. The aim this week was to make them smaller so that they didn't take up too much of the screen or cut off big parts of heads. Whilst this cannot be completely avoided because of the tight shots, the smaller straps worked a lot better in this weeks headlines.
For the live broadcast I was sat on the vt machine. Usually it consists mainly of pressing play and selecting the next clip thats needed. Although, during rehearsals i realised how important it still is to keep you're attention at all times, as at one point I missed my cue, which was completely my fault. After that i made sure that i stayed focussed. Even if a job doesn't require too much attention, it doesn't mean you don't need to give it much attention, because that is when things can go wrong.
Looking at the bulletin overall, it was a decent collection of stories. One point raised was that (like 2 weeks ago) thier weren't any really memorable moments, and I can't help but agree. Thier were no outstanding visuals that really grabbed my attention, and the stories were a bit bland overall. However, thier was a decent balance in the type of stories we had, and the reporters did really well with what they had. I'm definately seeing improvements week after week.
After the headlines were recorded, at around 1:15, I decided to head into the news room to collect packages, and to my surprise they were all exported and ready to collect! I could simply walk up to each mac and transfer them onto the hard drive. This is the first time that has happened this semester. I don't know if it's simply because of delays with the headlines, or because the reporters have got used to the schedule, but I was very pleased and hope it stays the same next week. Package collecting ran very smoothly.
We experimented this week with a live feed, and it's good that we remain ambitious and always keen to try new things. However, we didn't quite pull it off. We were able to see Tom through skype and get it onto the screen, but it was hard to make out what he was saying as the audio wasn't particular good. But it was a good attempt and it's nice to see we're always trying to add something new, it's what makes student journalism such a great opportunity.

This Week's Winol (09/11/2011)

Thursday, 3 November 2011

How to...Make Straplines

The straplines are a slightly under-appreciated part of any news broadcast when you are watching at home, but in the news room they are a vital part of any package that has any form of interview.It provides correct, precise identification which helps from a law aspect, as well as providing the viewer with more information on who they are seeing without the news reporter having to explain in too much detail. It also provides the knowledge that the person being interviewed has some relevance to the story and has an actual purpose in the package. It (almost subconciously) makes their soundbite relevant to the audience, because they then know exactly who it's coming from, and can make up in thier own minds that it is from someone that has a write to voice thier opinion on the subject. This is usually either someone in authority, or someone directly effected by the news story.

The current WINOL strapline
The way the name and position is added to the strapline isn't very complicated. The member of the production team in charge of straplines simply goes around the news reporters and checks if they need any straplines to be made. They write down the full name and the profession. Some reporters will occasionally say they only have the first name(this is usually when it's not someone with a high position, and may instead just be a campaigner or 'local resident'). The reporter may argue that the person didn't want to give their full name for some reason, and they may even say the full name isn't important. But of course, it is important. As reporter you should tell the person their interviewing that if they are happy to go on camera, then they should be happy to give their full name. If they still refuse, then you should simply find someone else to interview.
We currently add the names to the straps using 'microsoft paint', but hope to soon move over to using Fireworks, which would enable the strapline editor to remain in the newsroom instead of having to go into the mmc.

The straplines need to be saved onto a memory stick, so they can then be 'delivered' to each reporter. Usually you save them onto the desktop for the reporter to then add onto thier package.

How to put the strap onto you package using Final Cut Pro
Once the strapline is on the desktop you do the following:-

- Import into final cut pro
- Drag onto the timeline
- Place over the interview that the strapline is for
- Double click the image and select the modify tab on the middle screen.
- Change the scale to 80
- On the far right screen, you should be able to move the strapline(if not, then it you should be able to do it on the middle screen.
- The strap should be placed near the bottom left of the screen (make sure their is a slight gap between the strap and the very edge of the screen, like an invisible border).
- Go to effects, then to wipe, then selected edge wipe.
- Place edge wipe on the beginning and end of the clips.
- Reverse the edge wipe that is on the end of the clip. (You do this by double clicking the edge wipe that you need to reverse, then look at the middle screen, and thier is a reverse button that you need to click)

Hope this helps.

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Winol 6.0

Week starting 31/10/2011
Monday.

Debrief Notes
- Fair Dealing - Few seconds - linked with review/comments.
Fully credit the clip.
This means you can't be accused of passing it off as yours.

- Time is quality (not quantity)

- Don't be afraid of cliches

- Always try to get a good quote/soundbite
It helps to warm them up before the interviewee.

- Pictures and quotes are very important for a good package.

- You're best visual should be at the very start of your package, as well as in your headline.

Tuesday. Today was another busy Tuesday. We recorded for both 'Sports Week' and 'Winol Life'.
I came in at 9am and helped to open up the studio. We then had to start preparing for Winol Life while waiting to start Sports Week. This included setting up an ob kit outside of the studio to plug into an extra camera so we would be able to have 4 cameras in the studio. This enabled us to film a yoga segment where Becki shows George some of the yoga moves that she picked up(to follow on from hers and Zoe's yoga package). I felt this added more depth to the overall show, it's always good to experiment with new ideas and possibilities.
At around 11am we were able to film the sports week links, and I had my first attempt at directing. It wasn't the most difficult of directing though (because they are just links) so it simply required me to cue in the presenter (which was Gareth) and just keeping communication with him to make sure he was happy with everything. It was a good practice ready for when i would be directing Winol which is more complicated when sound, VTs etc come into use, and also the fact that it's live and cannot be re-filmed will add more pressure.
We then moved our attention to Winol Life. This week's guests on Winol Life was Elizabeth Barnett.
In my opinion, it could be considered the most complex to film, as you have multiple people on camera, and multiple camera angles to use. This means more cameras are used, more microphones are needed, and you have a lot more people to speak over and instruct. However, their were huge improvement over the quality of the first Winol Life from two weeks ago, we were a lot more prepared and their seemed to be a calmer atmosphere.
I was controlling the VT machine for Winol Life, which meant playing the VTs at the right time for the broadcast. It's not the most difficult job, but you need to keep your concentration as you don't necessarily have a strict time on when to play it, as the interviews are mainly spontaneous responses.

Wednesday. This day is always a busy day, particularly for production. I came in today to be told that George had decided last minute to help Ali with his filming for his Bournmouth package. This meant that we were short by one production person, and with a small production crew as it is, we were a bit short of helping hands at the start of the day. George's job would have been to collect the packages and to control the vision mixer for the day.
Me and Graham decided that it made sense to try and get the straps done as quickly as possible, this was helped with Gareth having the straps he needed already prepared at around 9am, so we could then go away and have them done pretty quickly. In fact, we were able to quickly get everyones straps this week, they all seem more informed on who they had interviewed, and thier positions. While Graham did some of the straps, i went to help Jack prepare the gallery for the day, before heading into the news room to try and get the rest of the strap information ready before making some more a bit later in the day.
Without George, Graham did really well to then assume the role of collecting the headline clips and the packages, which really helped to keep us fairly on time.

Of course my big role this week was working as the director for Winol. The job carries a fair bit of pressure, and required a lot of organisation and concentration.
A lot of communication was needed amongst a number of different people ranging from the editor Will, to the people on the cameras, the production editor Jack, the production people controlling equipment in the gallery and also the presenters. So it can be difficult to direct my attention to multiple people at the same time, and when possible I tried to concentrate on one set of people at once.
I also had to keep remembering to keep the presentes and other people in the studio informed on what we're doing in the gallery, as thier are constant changes and check-throughs for the packages, and its easy to forget that your the one main communication to inform those down in the studio of what is happening.
I was really pleased with the support I got from everyone, as well as the praise afterwards, but I know that thier are areas that I can improve on, such as the timing for cueing the presenters and people in the gallery, and i feel like my voice needed to be maybe a bit more commanding. But overall I was pleased with my performance, and look forward to doing it again.

Debrief Notes
Good preparation

Should caption only when they literally start talking.
The link shouldn't be too similar to the opening of a package.

This Week's Winol (02/11/2011)

Friday, 28 October 2011

Nietzsche, Freud and Marx

Lecture Notes
Frege - 'Sense and Reference' (1890's)

- The 'reference point' of the word 'deofinition' is 'sense' of the word which means its sense within the sentence. This is 'sential logic'.
Inidividual propositions do not have meaning, thye only have mkeaning in relation to other propositions. This is essentially relativity bought to logic.
Frege is the final rejection of syllogistic logic (Aristotle) as a path to truth.
When paradigm shifts occur, it is often in the field of logic first of all.

- 'No fixed meaning' - word emphasis can effect the meaning of what you're saying. Eg - 'I thought she was his wife'. Depending on which word you plae emphasis on, you could be saying something completely different.

- Without logic, all certain knowledge from reason, as opposed to pure sense data, is brought into question.

Friedrick Nietzsche
Source - Flickr: mansionwb
- Sentential logic - please understand and be able to explain this significance of these statements :-
(a) The evning star is the same thing as the morning star.
(b) The present king of France is not bald.
(c) There was nobody on the road.

Marx + Nietzsche + Freud = 'the three great skeptics' - they undermine the concept on enlightenment.
All 3 felt that truth always depends primarily on your perspective.

- 'Subjectivist Epistimology' - concerned with how we know things.
- Modernism = 'Nothing is certain'.

- Marx is the least sceptical and least subjective of the three.
- Nietzsche and Freud came in the following generation.

- Nietzche wrote in a series of outbursts, with particular use of 'Aphorisms'.
- Aphorisms are things such as :-
'God is dead'
'Dog bites man iisn't news, man bites dog is news'
'Mankind is a thing we must overcome'.

What lives on from Marx is the concept of alienation and of ideology. This is still alive and an important idea in social science, practical politics, journalism and in literary criticism.

- Frederick Engles - The origins of the Family State and Private Property and the subject of anthropology, assets that truth and systems of mroality are indeed subjecture and transitory.
- A key word in anthopology is 'taboo'.

Marxists argue that Freud lacks an anthropological basis for his theories, or a political framework.
 - Also that mental unhappiness often comes from issues around power and confromity/inability to conform to social norms - but he underestimates this social basis to subjective feelings and tries (and fails) to treat what Marx would think of 'alienation' as a personal, clinical medical problem.
Freuds 'talking case' is little more than people coming to terms with thier role in life.

- The ego fears death.
- Freud - triumph over the id 'self control' conformity, self realisation, constant psychoanaylsis and self-questioning.
- Nietzsche loves the ego and see's pride as a good thing.

- Nietzsche had a 'herd mentality', and saw 'resentment' as the 'one unforgivable sin'.

- 1885 - Zarathustra - the overman - 'Mankind is a thing that must be overcome'.
- 1895 - The Anti-christ - 'That which does not kill me, makes me stronger'

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Sigmund Freud - Lecture Notes

Sigmund Fred was an incredibly ambitious man, trying to explain everything he could, but this lead to him raising some very controversial views.

He was born in Vienna and died in London. His ideas were a challenge to the enlightenment (alternative to rationality).
Freud was seen as a sexual renegade - damaged our idea of ourselves as noble people.
He admitted he was pessimistic, his ideas had very little light to them, they were quite a dark vision of humanity.

Freud had a disciple called Wilhelm Reich. But they shared slightly different view points. While both many had theories heavily based around sex and that sexuality was important, also that thier are areas of our minds that we aren't in control of. But Reich believed that we are ultimately good people, and that sexuality was a good thing. He was a sexual radical that believed in an unparalleled significance in sex, he saw it as the ultimate measure of human happiness. Opponents of Freud follow Reich because he would encourage pateints to express thier feelings openy, it is a direct attack on the Freudians who tought people to 'control' thier feelings.
Freud followed Plato's idea of the tripartle self - reason, spirit and desire. However, thier were differences in thier views.
Plato believed that reason could rule 'the others', but Freud thought that reason was the weakest becase people are irrational. He felt we are driven by desires that are beyond our control.

Fred also shared conflicting opinions with Karl Marx. Marx' belief was that we are eading somewhere, and wanted a communist society. He believed in the infinite potential of human nature to develop and evolve.
Freud believed this too be too idealistic, our basic needs are not benign. Our deepest needs are aggression, the wilful desire to hurt others and ultimately to seek our own destruction in the 'death wish' (even wanting to ultimately destroy ourselves).
Sigmund saw the reality of human nature as pain and suffering arising out of his own psychic alienation and the painful interaction with other human beings.

Sigmund Freud
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sigmund_Freud_LIFE.jpg
Psychoanalysis - He felt that this technique heled discover the truths about the unconcious that were never known before.

Freudian Personality
One of Freud's key theories was that the mind was divided into 3 distinct processes that are in constant conflict with eachother - The Id, the Ego, and the Superego.

Id
This is part of you from birth, and is animalistic. Freud considers it to be a bundle of instincts aimed at gaining pleasure and avoiding pain. 'The reservoir of the unconscious'. Sex and aggression are fused in the Id and they dominate the personality, even though we have no idea how dominated we actually are.

Ego(or self)
The voice of reason. This is the reality principle - the least powerful part of the personality. It is where we get our moderation and common sense. It is hopelessly embattled and besieged.

Superego
Referred to as the 'policeman in your head'. It is the irrational part of your mind. It internalised rules of parents or society. The morality principle, it develops after birth through socialisation, and is effected by your surroundings.
It makes you think irrational, unreachable expectaions of yourself., and has an internal ideal - impossible standards of perfection.

It is a picture of the personality in conflict - divided within ourselves.

Pain
1 - our own decaying body, nature.
2 - the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
3 - the greatest pain of all is our everyday interaction with other people because it is loaded with pain.
People are out to get us, to hurt us - but we (as irrational beings) are inclined to hurt others.

Freud see's the answer as analysis, it is needed to strengthen the ego. Freud would also access the Id and in someways control it. But this isn't open to everyone, the masses will continue on thier destructive path.

Although, Freud did suggest alternative coping mechanisms :-
- Chemical Solution - intoxication, but is only temporary.
- Isolation - Temporary, and only works for a few people.
- Sublimation - Finding sexually acceptable releases for our aggression. Such as sport, or being a workaholic. But these are only mild satisfaction.

'Civilisation is a collective superego' - imposing moral limits on the Id.
'Men are not gentle creatures - they are aggressive forces'.
'Man is a wolf to man'.

The battle between the 3 distinct proccesses can result in -
- Repression - Censorship and defence mechanism.
- Sublimination - Turn sexual energy to something (such as art or sport).
- Displacement - Shameful thoughts, turn into something else.
- Projection - Send feelings onto someone else.
- Regression - Returning to earlier stage of development.

Freud saw dreams as a way into the unconscious.
He also believed that aggression would never be eliminated(meaning we can never escape the unconscious).
Freud Controversy
- Science has no way to vaildate his theories.
- Freud was too vague for it to be protected.
- Many would say that he didn't discover the unconscious, he merely made it famous.
- The unconscious, repression, childhood, regression etc were all discussed in academic circles in the 19th century - pre-Freud.

Winol 4.0

Week starting 19/10/2011
Monday started with the usual debrief of last weeks bulletin.

Debrief Notes
- A good way to start a package can be with natural sound.
- Using a prop for a piece to camera can be a good idea(and can help you feel more relaxed with something to do with your hands) but you should be holding something thats relevant to what your talking about.
- To make your piece to camera easier you should just focus on 3 key points, it it then easier to remember and say.
- If you use a still (picture) in a package you should give it movement(such as a zoom or pan from left to right)

Facts = Your Voice
Comment = Thier Voice

We then had our production meeting to assign roles and organise what we'll be doing. This week will be a busy one, as we are going to film Winol, Winol Sports as well as Winol Life.

Tuesday started off with a 9am start as we prepared the studio for recording Winol Life. The day started with us carrying sofas across the uni into the studio. Then we needed to start setting up all the equipment. Unfortunately, it became one of them days where nearly all of the technology goes wrong. We had problems with sound(such as the microphones not working properly) and needed to use boom mics to pick up some of the sound. I worked on the auto-cue, but as the presenters were in a more casual broadcast, they were able to glance down at their scripts to remember the questions to ask. The only time the auto-cue was essential was when the presenters faced the camera at the start and finish, as well as leading into the start of a package.
We also had a guest for Winol Life - Sarah Crawford.

In the afternoon, we needed to record the links for Sports Week. As well as this, the sports team had arranged for a guest to come into the studio for an interview. It was the player/coach of the Basingstoke Bison - Steve Moria.
For this part I was on the video mixer which meant changing the camera angles throughout the interview to get different perspectives and give the interview more of a flow.

Wednesday was (as usual) a busy day. Without a guest editor this week, we needed to be prepared for a few twists and turns along the way towards this weeks bulletin. One of my key jobs this week was to collect both the headline clips and the finished packages, as well as helping out wherever else I could.
We had a brief production meeting at 9:30 to check with roles and make sure we all knew what we would be doing.
This week Julie managed to get a 'Winol Exclusive' by using the Freedom of Information act. For this package, we needed to pre record her doing a piece to camera with a graphic in the background to highlight her points.

This week's (week 4) broadcast

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Winol 3.0

Week starting 10/10/2011
Monday started off with just reading the papers and online news as we prepared for the 10 O'Clock debrief regarding last week's news bulletin.

Debriefing Notes

For website write ups-Write headline that fits layout.
- Try to make a person the 'who' in your top line.
- Always remember(the method) who, what, where and when. - A 'simple summary intro'.

News Story Layout (Basics)
Paragraph 1 - Who, What, Where, When
Paragraph 2 - Why
Paragraph 3 - Quote
Paragraph 4 -Detail (Not always though)
Paragraph 5 - But (Balance)

Bulletin Debrief

- Fair dealing = you can use footage for something for a few seconds in circumstances such as reviews or comment etc, but should only be used within reason.
- Don't be too technical/expert in what you say. Assume no knowledge.

Keep the fact and comment seperate
- Journalist = Facts
- Interviewees = Comment
- You need 'Fact Fear' - check, double check and triple check. Make sure its correct before using it, if your not sure, just get rid of it.
You can also use phrases like 'they claim' to be safe if necessary.

Source Protection
Never use a blind source unless you really have to.
Even so, if you offer them protection, you need to remember that thier is nothing to defer them from lying. Source protection should only really be used if in extreme cases such as protecting the source from violence, it shouldnt usually be used to preotect someone from being fired.

If you agree to protect the person, you must protect them to the grave, and should be prepared to go to jail.

'Off the record' interview = waste of time. It should only be used as a journalistic technique so they brief you regarding the story, and sometimes to try and convince them to go on the record with a certain comment.

Tuesday. Today we started off by trying to learn how to set up the OB (using the OB kit) in Tab9. Thier were a lot of wires, but i tried to take down rough notes of the layout out to try and remember it all ready for tommorow when myself and the rest of the production team will try to set it up ourselves. It was a very complex set up, and we required a technician to help with a few minor pieces such as setting up the microphone so it would work, it turned out it wasn't connected correctly and needed an extra wire which was in the box.

After we had finished packing away the OB kit, it was time to prepare for filming the links for Sports Week. My job in the gallery for this week is to control the auto-cue, this also includes typing up the scripts for both Sports Week and Winol. A times the auto-cue can be a frustrating piece of equipment, the laptop occasionally struggles to work, and the autocue software sometimes decides not the to work. Other than that, its not too much of a problem, aslong as the text is a good size and it is travelling at a comfortable speed for the presenter. Even though they should have scripts with them incase the autocue fails when live, it is obviously a lot more helpful and comfortable for the presenter to have the autocue in front of them. It also helps the broadcast to come across more professional instead of having the presenter constantly look down at a piece of paper to know what they're saying.

Also, the person I was helping this week was Tom Morgan. We travelled to Southampton University to film interviews and other footage for his news story on the lecturer strikes. To get a balanced story he interviewed both the UCU and the students union so that he could get both opinions.

Wednesday was as usual a busy day. It started by opening the gallery and switching on all of the equipment. This week I was assigned to collect the straps and make them ready to go on the packages. Thier weren't too many issues this week in collecting the names and positions of the interviewees. After introducing a new logo last week, we continued to tweak the stap design. This time I added a line to seperate the name of the person and thier role/position.

New Winol Strapline
This week we also included straps in the headlines.

Debrief
This week we had a guest editor - Rachel Canter from BBC South Today TV.

- The headlines in the broadcast need to be punchier, the language needs to be tightened.
Should start off overboard(tabloid) and then slowly bring it down to a good level

There should be more people in the oov's, instead of just buildings etc.

- Favouring - this is a technique where you move the gun mic towards yourself when asking a question if you want that to be included in the package. Otherwise if you include yourself speaking, it sounds too distant and can be hard to hear.

- Don't use phrases such as 'only time will tell' or 'it remains to be seen' when your signing off at the end of a package, it seems lazy.

- Make sure you're at the same level as the person you are interviewing.

- If you are going to have 3 oov's in a row, you should have them flowing simultaneously with a transition such as a white flash between each one. We are going to now try and have a 'news in brief' every week.

- Can simply end the broadcast wiht something like 'that's all'

This weeks(week 3) Broadcast

Monday, 3 October 2011

Winol 1.0

Week starting 26/09/2011
This week was my first time as a full-fledged member of Winol [Winchester News Online]. I began my first role as a sub editor and part of the production team.

Monday was very much about settling in and understanding what my role would require, and to speak to the people i would be working with. I spoke with Jack, Dom and Justina about the production aspects, and also spoke with Aimii about the sub-editor role. I felt more ready for the week ahead.

Tuesday was very much a day of learning about the gallery in preperation for the Wednesday broadcast. After creating my video piece on the gallery at the end of year 1, I had some idea of what to expect. But the third years were very helpful in explaining the properties and controls for the different pieces of software. Myself and the other members of the productipon team learnt a bit about the video mixer, the sound mixer and the auto-cue. It was soon decided that the sound mixer would be the first thing I try to master.
We had hoped to start learning how to use the joomla system, but we were unable to log in, but Aimii gave us a briefing on what it involves. She also gave us a few outlines on how she wants the posts to look. The hope is to have a picture with every article this year.

Today I was also asked by Louis O'Brien to help him film some of his news report. This involved going into town to record some shots for his package, aswell as his piece to camera for the report. We travelled to a road directly related to the news story, and I feel the background fitted fine with the story and wasn't too plain.

Wednesday was a great day, I really enjoyed the busy atmosphere. It was nice to see that despite being under enormous pressure, everybody around me was very calm and kept a clear mind.
Myself and the other members of the production team were assigned to sort out the taglines for this weeks bulletin. This involved speaking to each of the reporters and finding out if they had interviewed anybody, and if so, what thier name was, and the relevance to the story (ie:- job or position). This became difficult when one reporter was unsure of the name of thier interviewee. After looking at her Facebook page, we were still uncertain if she was using her real name. The package didn't end up in the broadcast, but if it had, we would have had very few options other than to just include a first name.
George managed to land his first sub-editors job, editing together a piece by Lee. While we were waiting to get to work in the production side of things, i was watching him edit and tried to assist where i could. I started to see the importance of editing once we noticed problems in places, such as the closing line. Thier was no real reference/justification to what was being said, but after speaking to Lee, he was able to provide a good source to back up his claims. By the time it was finished, it looked like a good quality piece of journalism.

While my current position is behind the camera, I did still pick up some useful advice from the lecturers after the broadcast, particularly from Angus Scott, mainly involving the reporting side of the broadcast.
Starting a package with a piece to camera is something that should not be done.
If you are qouting somebody in your package, it sounds better when you get somebody else to read it out, otherwise it will sound a bit odd jumping back to your voice afterwards.
Tr to take as many different shots as you can, because then you have a more wide(and therefore better) selection to choose from. You only want the best shots in your piece. You also need to avoid shooting a persons face when getting certain shots.

I would consider this a successful first week considering that it was all achieved in a very short time after only just returning back to university, and I'm sure it will get better and better.

Thursday, 26 May 2011

The Gallery - Video

The Gallery is the base of the production team, and controls very important parts of the news broadcast. This includes the autoqueue, the lights, the camera shots, the sound and more.
It is run by a production crew, lead by the production manager and director.
In this video, we hear from the people that currently control the Production Team for Winol[Winchester News Online]. They explain why The Gallery is so important.