Thursday, April 05, 2012Daniel MackrellNo comments
Week Starting 02/04/2012
Monday.
I had a few different story ideas this week.
One was to try and do the '3d Lung x ray' story that I had as a back up last week, and was unable to do because of the Student Union elections story.
I rang up the press office a few times to hope to arrange an interview and the chance to film the technology, but the press officer needed to get confirmation that I would be able to film. This took a lot longer than I had hoped, and prevented me from doing the story.
Another idea involved the Queens Diamond Jubilee, and involved four parks in Winchester becoming commemorative fields. I had read that their was some controversy from unsure councillors, and it was felt this would be good to follow up.
My other idea was to follow the result of the SU president election that I had covered last week, as we now had a winner. I proposed it as an oov, as I could comfoprtably get an interview with the new SU president Tuesday.
Today after speaking with Brian, I decided to turn my interview with Harry Stow into a full package, instead of just an oov.
The aim was to show Harry and Seb (the current president) together, shaking hands and discussing the plans for the future of the student union.
I managed to arrange to meet both Seb Miell and Harry Stow together, which meant I was able to follow them around with a camera.
I followed them with a camera s they walked over to the office, and then filmed them in different places around the office, and chatting together, this gave a lot of footage to choose from when I was editing. Wednesday.
This morning I finished editing my news package, which just meant tweaking some of the voice over, and adding the straplines.
I had already put together my written piece during the weekend, when harry had first won the election, and their wasn't much I could add as an update.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012Daniel MackrellNo comments
Week starting 26/03/2012
Monday.
In this week's debrief, I recieved some good feedback from my lecturers.
Mainly for my ability to construct a package, and be able to pack so much into a one minute package in terms of content, and also for good scripting.
This week I had two ideas for a story. The first dipped into my 'news beat' of Science and Technology, it was a new 3D machine that is expected to help tackle lung disease, and was being developed at the university of Southampton, visually it could be very interesting.
My other story idea was to cover this years University elections. I soon decided to make this my priority, because it would appeal to one of our key audiences (students). Leaflets and campaigners were all across campus, so it was clear that this was something most students would know about.
I managed to arrange an interview and general filming with one of the three candidates for tuesday afternoon, and was just waiting to hear back from the other two.
Tuesday.
Today I was able to meet all 3 candidates in the afternoon, two let me film them campaigning. I followed one campaigner as they travelled through campus, and through the West Downs student accommodation where they were handing out flyers and knocking on doors.
Later in the evening, I filmed the election Q&A which took place in 'The Stripe' building on campus. It gave me a few good shots, such as the three candidates sitting next to each other. I was also able to interview the two candidates that I hadn't yet interviewed, which allowed me to have a balanced/fair story.
Saturday (10/03/2012)
Today I got aranged a press pass for a Science and Engineering Day at the University of Southampton.
We've been told that if we go to event, the focus should not be on the event itself, instead we should find a story within the event.
Before heading their, I already knew that my main focus would be on a model vehicle called the Bloodhound SSC, which hopes to reach 1000mph. I made sure to get a number of shots, as well as shots of a special 'bloodhound experience' that they had on the day for people(mainly children) to use. I asked permission of some parents to record some of the footage, but the media officer assured me that generally it was ok to film the public as their were signs informing them that filming would be taking place.
One of the most interesting parts of the day was that I was walking around with the press officer alongside two ITV journalists who were filming the whole event itself.It was interesting to see how they decided to interact with the public, and decide on their shots. They moved to multiple areas before deciding on a place to shoot one of their interviewees.
When at the bloodhound, I managed to find a good spot to film some of the 'bloodhound experience', and one of the itv crew asked me when I was done so they could stand in my spot. I felt quite good that I had found a spot that ITV wanted.
I also filmed some Vegetable Orchestra, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped. I was hoping for a touring orchestra that uses vegetables as their instruments, but it was more simply a small workshop for families to construct their own vegetable instruments
Monday
Today kind of replaced Tuesday, in that I was editing the majority of my package together, including the majority of the voiceover. We also had the usual news meetings and debreif where we analysed the previous weeks bulletin.
Tuesday
This morning I helped Louis with his 2 interviews in Southampton, including one with the head of the Southampton City Council. Unfortunately the two stories Lou had fell apart, but when we returned to the news room in the afteroon, I was able to record the final piece of my voiceover, to finish my package completely.
Wednesday
As usual. today was very busy.
I was first asked to edit together an oov on a planned biomass plant in Southampton. A similar oov was developed the week before by Graham using stock footage, but the oov wasn't used in the end. I made it a bit fresher from the week before, so it was still usable.
Tuesday
I already knew that my story was falling apart, but Tom was slowly running short on news stories, and had asked me to try and make an oov out of what I could get, considering I already had an interview arranged.
I went to interview a local councillor about the recent power cuts in Winchester. It wasn't the best of interviews, I soon realised that the oov would generally be quite week, but because of Tom's desperate need for content, I made an oov nonetheless in case he needed it.
Wednesday
I was made script editor this week, which originally meant knowing everything about every package. But I was put on script writing duty along with Tom, which halted my attempts to look through what people had and understand all the information and context of the packages. I then had to print the scripts, help people with links, look over packages, keep communication between the newsroom and gallery, and assist Tom with News Editor dutys when he was busy. Juggling lots of responsibilities made it difficult to keep on track. It also prevented me from fully achieving my role as script editor.
Thursday, March 01, 2012Daniel MackrellNo comments
Week Starting 27/02/2012
Monday Debrief Notes
Today was the first time I was struggling in terms of securing a story for the week, I had made a few attempts on the thursday and friday before this week hunting for a story, and had a few ideas, but because of interviewees being unavailable, I had to scrap them.
When Monday arrived, I was still unsure on my different ideas, some weren't enough of a story, and others just wouldn't work as a video package. In the end I settled for a report on the proposal to add more fluoride to the water supply of areas of Hampshire, particularly around Southampton.
I made a few calls, to try and speak to someone from the Hampshire Against Fluoride group. I got hold of the wife of the Chariman of the campaign, and while she was unable to be interviewed, she said she would try and find someone else that could.
After not recieving any contact for the rest of the day, my hopes were down, the only good thing was that I had recieved a statement from Southern Water.
Tuesday
Today I woke up very pleased, as I had recieved a text at around 7:30am from a member of Hampshire Against Fluoride, telling me that they would be available for an interview today at 3pm. This immediatly put me in a happy and determined mood. So I went down to the newsroom for 9am, picked up my camera and tripod, and started to shoot various shots for my package.
I knew that I would struggle a little bit for pictures this week, and would have to be creative with my shots. I first went to the terrace bar, and found a person that was willing to have me film them drink a glass of water. I filmed it a few times with different shot distances so that I could form a sequence. I then went home and filmed a sequence of my kitchen tap being turned on to start my package with. Because I was limtied with shots, I decided to also film a river to continue the link of water.
Just before I left the news room for my interview, I recieved a call fromSouthampton Lib Dem Councillor Maureen Turner. She was available for an interview at 4pm. I wasn't certain if I would need the interview, but felt it was worth my time to see what she would say considering I would be in Southampton at that time anyway.
I then went to my interview with Arshad Sharif, a member of Hampshire Against Fluoride. Wednesday
This morning I recorded my piece to camera, and then just touched up my package, and was finished by 11am.
I then returned to my role as Deputy News Editor, while Tom was working on the script and preparing to present this week.
Their were a number of tough decisions this week, the first arose when Chris approached me with the proposal to include a short in-studio discussion with Rachel about her new feature. While I do really like the idea, we agreed that it should be post-poned until next week, so we have more time to prepare from both a news aspect, and a production aspect.
The next decision came when Ewan had told me that we had more packages than we needed for this week, and would greatly go over our target of 12 minutes or less. The final decision was to remove the oovs from this weeks broadcast,
Tuesday
I arrived at the eco home with Lou at 10am, and the devloper, Nick Price, was at the gate and lead us to the homes.
He was very helpful, and because he was quite busy, I decided to interview him first, so that he was then able to get back to work while we filmed around the home.
The interview went soothly, and had a nice looking background as it was inside the house
Friday, February 17, 2012Daniel MackrellNo comments
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.
Monday. Today started with a debrief of our first real bulletin of the semester. We looked at the developing design of the Winol website. This includes the new addition of Twitter, wich we are starting to focus a lot more on this semester. As a frequent user of Twitter, I'm pleased with this decision. As I see Twitter as a great tool for modern journalists to not only promote their work, but to find out news(sometimes quicker than through other forms of media).
Tuesday. Today was a very busy day for me. It started very early when I left my house just after 8am to head out to the train station to travel to Southampton for my interviews and filming.
My first interview was with the Deputy Leader of Southampton City Council - Cllr Jeremy Moulton. The interview was a 10am, I arrived about 10 minutes early, but this seemed to be fine for Jeremy, he mentioned that he thought I may have arrived slightly early.
We then commenced the interview, and I was pleased with the responses I got, their were some good quotes. my particular favourite was 'this is the peoples museum', which I ended up using in both my package, and the headline clip that was used for the broadcast.
After the interview, I was left feeling quite pleased at the good start made to my story. I had decided that it was best to try and get my other interview(for balance) sorted today. Especially after calling my news editor Tom Morgan, he told me that a lot of the stories from other reporters were falling through. So the bulletin was starting to rely a bit on my package to work out. I decided that since I was unable to get a lift from anybody, and I needed to get to the otherside of Southampton rather quickly, that I would have to catch a taxi to Thornton, so that I could get the balance that I needed.
Before that I walked behind the City Council, where they are still doing building work for the Sea City museum, and I filmed a number of GVs. I knew I would be light on footage, as I as of yet have not recieved access to go and film the building work inside the museum. So instead I filmed the building work that was happening outside. I noticed a few of the builders shovelling some dirt and gravel, and remembered when Brian asked us to try and start our package with some natural sound to give it sometime to breath before entering the voice over. So I asked them if I could just film them shovelling the dirt into the wheelbarrow. They agreed. After my filming there was done, I jumped into a taxi, and went to Thornhill. I walked into the Thornhill Community Centre, and was able to interview Cllr Simon Letts. He was very polite and helpful, and then afterwards I asked to film a sequence of him just looking at some sheets of paper. We've been told in the past, that if your lacking shots for your package, sequences are often a good solution.
I managed to catch a bus back to the city centre, and then got the train back to Winchester.
When I arrived at the newsroom at around 1pm, I then got to work on editing my package together.
Friday, February 03, 2012Daniel MackrellNo comments
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.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012Daniel MackrellNo comments
Written Piece
Newly discovered shrimp species
Southampton Scientists have discovered swarms of mysterious chemical feeding eyeless shrimps in the depths of the ocean, writes Daniel Mackrell.
The discovery was made about three miles beneath the ocean surface, on 'black smoker' vents in the deepest part of the Caribbean.
Scientists used an underwater robot called Autosub6000 to locate the deep sea vents, south of the Cayman Islands.
Dr Douglas Connelly, one of the team at the National Oceanography Centre, described the experience as 'absolutely brilliant, it does represent the culmination of a lot of hard work'.
The undersea environment is able to support life despite no sunlight reaching these depths. The shrimps do not gather energy from sunlight, but by breaking down chemicals in their surroundings.
They have been named Rimicaris hybisae, and are closely related to the mid-atlantic species.
Dead tube worms, which are normally located in the pacific, were also found near the vents. Mining companies are hoping to start working in the vents, which are believed to be rich in iron and copper.
The next two research projects will be taking place in the Scottish Sea Loch to do a trial CO2 release.
Their will also be an expedition in the North Sea as part of a project called Eco2, which focuses on renewable energy in the UK and Europe.
Image: Courtesy with National Oceanography Centre and University of Southampton.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012Daniel MackrellNo comments
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.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011Daniel MackrellNo comments
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.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011Daniel MackrellNo comments
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.
Thursday, December 01, 2011Daniel MackrellNo comments
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.
Thursday, December 01, 2011Daniel MackrellNo comments
This is my expo package about some of the Unions involved in the November 30th strikes.
The package was used in WINOL's coverage that was streamed live on the day of the strikes from 12 until 4pm.
My thoughts on the package
At first felt a bit dissapointed in my package, I felt as though it didn't have much to offer, and wasn't particularly 'news worthy' or interesting.
But then I thought about the context in which it was used. Essentially it proved an important part of our live braodcast, as packages were needed frequently when we had nothing else to go to(either because of technical issues, a lack of guests etc...).
The package is entended to be an expo(exposition) heavy piece, meaning that it's main job is to explain things the audience. In this case I am explaining some of the key unions in the country, and their influence in the strikes.
This meant that I didn't have any GVs or 'talking heads'(interviewees) to use as a way of creating more interest, or varying what the audience sees/hears.
To combat this I tried making some graphics to help the audience follow along with everything I was saying. I also used some archive footage that WINOL had of previous union strikes.
Overall, I was pleased with the outcome, with the restictions of what I could actually produce, I feel it was a decent attempt. The package was used a few times throughout the broadcast.
One way i perhaps could have improved the package would have been to maybe try and get some of the union leaders/members to explain a bit about their Union, but some may consider that a bit pointless and would go against the idea of only showing a person giving 'comment' and only having facts in your own voice.
Sunday, November 27, 2011Daniel MackrellNo comments
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, November 16, 2011Daniel MackrellNo comments
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'
Wednesday, November 09, 2011Daniel MackrellNo comments
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.
