The first week back after the summer holidays is always a chaotic mess however this weeks WINOL went surprisingly well considering we had new reporters, new concepts and new roles.
The WINOL news bulletin went ahead as planned, with all reporters turning up with a story for the week we were able to produce a bulletin with a variety of content.
Our guest editor this week was Ian Anderson, a former editor at the BBC who very kindly gave up his time to visit us at Winchester to offer his opinions, guidance and advice on our packages. Ian is very honest and to the point which is brilliant for us as his advice is invaluable and in a few weeks time you will be dying to have someone like him come alone and strip your package so it is important to take on board everything he says and learn quickly.
Ian's comments were very positive, he was impressed at our punctuality and how professional our rehearsals were. He believes it is key to meet and rehearse and it is a good mindset to get into at a young age. The running of the bulletin is down to solid team work of which we should all be proud of as we took our roles very seriously and produced a legitimately sound bulletin.
It was a great achievement to get an OOV belt out as filling in the spike is never easy which meant our news editor of the week didn't have to rely on stories, as well as creating a competitive edge for the reporters to get their stories into the bulletin. Ian again re-enforced how important it is to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse as OOV's can be a nightmare due to the presenter reading the script live to images, providing a certain amount of risk however it is a useful tool to have as it breaks up the bulletin and allows us to cover more stories, this week being the development of Southampton docks and the re-building of the warship at Portsmouth.
Something that Ian said really stuck with me, that 'as journalists our only real currency is the quality of our stories' and I think this week the news content was extremely good, that each reporter managed to find and produce a package was exceptional, especially reporters such as Calum who can continue and build upon his story over time.
Ian made a point that we need to think about our audience, who are we trying to appeal too and who will be watching, which will effect the running order and choice of headlines that we use. Our news editor made a few last minute decisions, deciding to go with Zeena's more visually engaging story as our opening report followed by Emma's uni ranking story which had more relevance to Winchester.
Zeena's flu story is a good seasonal story as it is current and relevant to our audience, a highlight to her package is that she gained access to a laboratory which really showed the audience what was going on, we were not telling them what was going on, visuals are key as it involves the audience and really explains the concept and setting of the story. One point Ian said could be improved is that she could have done her PTC in a white lab coat as it shows the viewer that the reporters are there, getting involved and having a first hand experience into the story.
Emma's Winchester league table story was good as it was relevant to the university however the opening shot could be improved as it needed impact. The shot next to the sign is just a pet hate and a serious no no as it is stating the obvious and is not visually exciting. As Ian says the first ten seconds are the most important as they have to have impact to make an impression.
Toms scam story was a great first court story with a good graphic, however the pace was a little too fast and the presenting needed improving however this will get better with time and practise.
The type face on the graphic was also a little too small to read but that can easily be adjusted when editing.
Ellen's actual story was very average and run of the mill however she put an interesting angle onto her piece and made it interesting and engaging for viewers. Her final edit was extremely professional and technically perfect as the colours, sounds and shots were spot on.
Liam's mine craft piece was graphically very advanced and gave his package a unique edge, he used the sounds found in the game to keep interest. I thought the idea was very clever and worked really well at the end of the bulletin as it was fun, entertaining yet still informative.
As my new role as entertainment reporter it was our first Winchester Access which went extremely well considering none of the entertainment team had produced this kind of package. For our first event we travelled up to London to cover the RainDance film festival where we were allowed to film around and inside the venue. We also managed to film a master class with one of the directors as well as attending a Q and A with another director and one of the leading actresses.
To input some other content our entertainment editor, Jack went to an African drumming class where he got a first hand experience into how to play the instrument as well as getting an interview with some of the people who attend the class.
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