WINOL is a student run editorial package, simulating every
aspect of a fully functional news operation so that we students are get a real
taste of what it is to be a journalist and therefore preparing us for
transition into a working environment within journalism. It is presented to its
audience on multiple platforms with an online TV news bulletin broadcast each
week being the main focus of the project, live, on YouTube. Alongside the
bulletin, the news and features team publish written stories and videos on the
WINOL website. The website is regularly updated and allows stories that happen
before the next bulletin to be published, and those in the bulletins, and more
recently the weekly radio bulletin, so that the site users are kept up to date
with local news.
Even though most would assume that a student lead project
would be of mediocre attempt at replicating a commercial news broadcast, the
reporters at WINOL throw themselves into stories and illustrate thinking
outside the box with WINOL specials such as the Police commissioner’s debate
and the American election coverage - all produced to a high, professional
standard with the help of the production team, tying up all of the knots. All
of this hard work is reflected in the website Alexa rankings which stood at
50000 at the beginning of the semester and has steadily lowered in number
since.
To widen the audience and add value to the WINOL online
presence the website has been completely redesigned to look more like
broadsheet news website, as well as the addition of online features and fashion
magazines and a 99 second daily bulletin - which all seem to have boosted
viewings and Alexa rankings have
improved dramatically. This is made clearer when the website is compared to the
rankings of our rival student project East London Lines, which currently stands
at 25000, but at the beginning of the semester had much better ranking than
WINOL at just over 37500. WINOL has now over-taken with an Alexa ranking of 12500.
Being thrown into the deep-end doesn’t quite describe the
first week or two of WINOL; my role on production didn’t seem like much to
stress about compared to the work that the news team had been putting into
their packages. It wasn’t until the first bulletin was underway that myself and
the rest of the team realised how important our roles were - without us there
would be a bunch of packages and no bulletin.
The first role assigned to me for WINOL was to be part of
the production team;. Each of the roles in the gallery, and out of the gallery, were explained
to us in great detail and we had plenty of time to play around with the new
pieces of equipment, which now seem like second nature to use. Every week,
everyone swapped roles so that we were able to build our confidence using the
machines. For the first and many of the bulletins throughout the semester I was
vision mixer. For the second bulletin, my role in the gallery was to control
the sound – this was a little trickier than vision mixing and didn’t rely on
the director’s cue. That particular week the sound in post-production was awful
and had to be rerecorded in the newsroom. The problem with sound was something that
could have been avoided if we had known there was a problem with the microphone
we were using. For the third bulletin I was in charge of the VT machine, which
in very simple to use, but also very simple to mess up the whole bulletin if
VT’s weren’t played at the correct time.
It wasn’t until week seven that I was given the role of
director – a role I was avoiding like the plague, that and autocue. Despite
being incredibly nervous my fifteen minutes or so in charge went smoother than
I thought, but it would have been much smoother if there was more time to
rehearse, in particular, the OOVs; when I was directing the script was too
short for the length of footage, leaving empty air. The most useful criticism I got was
from Angus, who said I needed to communicate more with everyone in the studio
and I needed to rehearse earlier – with or without the presenter. I then
directed the next bulletin and tried to meet Angus’ requests. Feeling more
confident and more comfortable, I realised it was my favourite role and I
should have tried directing sooner.
Away from the gallery the production team still had plenty
to do; collecting packages, creating the headline clips and credits, along with
the more experienced third years editing the final bulletin (if needed) and
uploading it for its live stream. To give the bulletin a new dynamic we tried
out a ‘coming-up’ clip in the middle of the bulletin and a VT highlighting
other new stories on the website. These were all made by the production team,
another part of the being on production I really enjoyed because it was more
relaxed than the goings on in the gallery. I was able to produce a fair few
whilst the gallery wasn’t in use, they became easier to make and choosing the
best pictures out of the footage the reporters gave us became easier.
During our weekly debriefs the problems that the lack of
organisation, in terms of equipment, were having on the bulletin – it needed to
be checked the day before the bulletin because fixing silly things wasted rehearsal
time. The most problematic was figuring out the correct format for the VT’s so
that they could be played correctly in the gallery.
The most vital lesson I learned during the first few weeks
was forward planning and preparation – getting packages, headlines, the script
etc. in the at a reasonable time. This was why a few of the bulletins missed
the three o’clock deadline. From then on we worked as a team to get things done
properly and on time. This helped a lot when packages were spiked from the
bulletin or when OB’s didn’t quite go to plan, which happened several times during
the semester.
Of all the areas making up WINOL that I have been able to
take part in, features was the area I produced little content for. Despite
having feature ideas that worked in theory, actually achieving them was harder
than it looked. The first feature I produced was for the fashion magazine on
winter fashion accessories and required mastering Fireworks/Photoshop to fit
the style that we had decided on. It wasn’t the greatest piece of work; I had
attempted to replicate what I had seen in magazines but I wasn’t entirely sure
of how to manipulate it to fit a website. I knew what needed to be improved
after we have once again discussed a style for the website. The second piece
for the fashion magazine I produced fit the style that we had agreed on and
relied heavily on production rather than text. I think it was more successful than
the first, but definitely could have been improved.
I also
attempted a 'gonzo' style piece – I would live on the budget of a student
living only from a student loan/grant. I worked this out to be around £50 and
spent seven days trying to stick to it, while still spending as I normally
would. I started out with a daily video diary, explaining what I had spent
money on every day. When I was watching it back is was incredibly boring and
figured it needed something to give it a little bit of life. My answer was
cutaways - the problem was that the cut-aways looked awkward and didn’t seem to
make any sense and so I decided not to continue with it.
Half way through the semester the radio news bulletin became
a reality, allowing us to connect with our audience on another medium – in my
opinion successfully. Even though it is a small team, there is input from the masters
students, and the news team who re-write
their copy for radio, if it’s needed. For the short amount of time the
bulletins have been going out, majority of which have gone out at the top of
the hour (with some small technical glitches), I have helped out by submitting
a few ‘and finally’ stories and news stories. Being on production means that
there isn’t much time for news gathering and the radio bulletins have given me
the opportunity to produce some content for WINOL, even though it may not be to
the high standard of what is in the TV bulletin. The radio team also have a
set, four hour slot in sound radio to fill in the air-time in between news bulletins.
Nadine and I present our own radio show which aims to reach a female audience,
by discussing current affairs and celebrity gossip, as well as reality TV.
Although I was assigned roles, in production, features and
more recently radio news, I was able to help out others with bigger projects which
took place in the early part of the semester. The first project was briefed to
us before we had started WINOL, and this was the BJTC awards. This was the
first chance the production team had to practice with the equipment we would be
using during WINOL bulletins, but also see what goes into a television show so
that it looks good. My role for the BJTC was floor manager, which meant I had
to keep everything going smoothly when the director couldn’t be there, to
communicate with guests, to cue audience reactions and mic-up those in the
show.
The second of the projects was the Hampshire Police
Commissioners debate, and event Louis O’Brien had spent months preparing and
planning. This bought the production team together outside of the WINOL
bulletin. For this I was floor manager again and attempted to keep the audience
in the right places. The entire WINOL team pulled the event off and Louis
packaged the debate (and candidate profiles) to a very high standard.
The third project need the entire WINOL team to pull off;
this was Ali Al-Jamri’s American Election special which incorporated news
packages, summaries of the nights events, live updates throughout the morning
and interviews. For this project I volunteered to be part of the OB team, who
were allowed access to the American embassy on the night of the elections.
During the weeks leading up to the special the OB teams brief changed – a lot.
We were first asked to do a live OB over Skype to the studio. This changed
because of the scheduling of the show and the length of the show being
shortened. Instead we were asked to film interviews and elements of a package
that was edited back in the newsroom. While we were there, myself and Sam were
also tweeting the goings on at the Embassy and taking photos of the event. The
live broadcast was success and a range of content was broadcast, giving a broad
overview of the election night.
WINOL has been enjoyable, but tough at times. I feel I have
learned a large number of skills though-out this semester and will be able to
put them to good use in the next. Mistakes were made, but as a team, and
individually, our best was done to correct them - otherwise lessons we’re
learned for next time those problems arise.
