WINOL Week Four, Year Three

WINOL

This week, like every other week so far this semester, was cutting close to the 3 o’clock deadline. Luckily we're all used to this mayhem and managed to go live in time. The script was in very close to three and meant that the presenter had little time to go through the script. But Luckily packages were in with enough time to be checked over on the VT machine and any problems were dealt with in time.

The only issue that delayed the team slightly was the radio studio being down in the early part of the day and so packages were later than we would've liked.

The bulletin itself went well and there were no major issues, other than a few black holes coming out of VTs. We did have to to re-record one of the links because the script on the auto-cue wasn’t the same as the edited one on the paper script.

Diane James interview

Nadine had arranged an in studio interview with UKIP member Diane James, which required the help of the production team. The studio was set up differently to how WINOL is filmed and we didn't use the green screen.

The first of the issues we faced with the studio was that the main camera was out of focus. This made the entire shot soft and facial features etc. were not defined. We were unable to come up with a solution before the interview and so we made the decision not to use the main camera (which had been set up as an establishing shot of Nadine and Diane James).

To top this off the lighting in the studio was quite bad. This was because we moved the set up for interview into the corner of the studio, which was directly under the main florescent lights. Even when we used a lighting kit and/or turned the house lights off the image in the gallery wasn’t great, though in the end we managed to get a decently lit set up.

Throughout the interview myself and Nicole were in the gallery, watching the sound levels and vision mixing live. With only two cameras being used I felt the interview looked a little rigid, but because of the way the shots were framed it worked well for the purpose. Mixing was a little easier than for the COMPASS meeting because there was one less camera but also because it was easy to judge when a question was going to be answered and when Diane would respond.

WINOL Week Three, Year Three;

Role; Autocue

This week the production team were not needed to film Sports Week in the studio, instead they filmed on location.

Changes to the way the headlines are recorded - a rather than fading in the studio the decision was to record the headlines in the radio studio in hope that it would reduce the time it takes to prepare the headline sequence.

The way in which packages are exported has changed and stead of exporting in Final Cut Pro x then seven, reporters are now required to export their packages as normal through Final Cut Pro and then change the format of the file in Adobe Media Encoder to export again (explained properly on Nicole’s Blog).

This weeks bulletin was very close to missing the deadline – it was only minutes before going live at three that we were able to practice with a presenter. This was a shame because Ellen was presenting for the first time and may have felt more comfortable with more time to rehearse – more so because there was an OOV the team and director were unaware of. It would have been nice for the gallery to have had more time practice on the equipment because all of the roles changed.

My role on the auto-cue went well, despite it being my least favorite piece if equipment in the gallery.

WINOL Week Two, Year Three;

Week two;


COMPASS meeting - role; director
The filming of the COMPASS meeting was a lot different to the way we film WINOL in the way that it was mixed live, because of the use of all three cameras in the studio. As director it was my decision when to cue the vision mixer - which was nerve racking because it was an unscripted event. Judging when to cut between Simon Hayes, Andy Marsh and a shot of them both on screen was difficult at first but because of the q&a nature of the meeting, after a while it was easy to judge when a question was going to be asked/answered. Once or twice the speakers were cut out of too early, but because there was no script there was nothing we could do to avoid it.


WINOL - role; director
Suggested that we no longer film the headlines as the presenter isn't seen - instead utilize the radio studio to save time to sort out other problems. This idea was taken on board because the headlines this week were not filmed until late in the afternoon because of the changes made to the headlines and the headline clips.

We had a lot of problems with exporting files this week as none of the news room computers have Final Cut Pro seven as well as Final Cut Pro x. The way packages were exported before was through both so that they worked and were the right size in the gallery. For the second week we had an issue with this.

I made the decision to go live at three even though we had a short amount of time to rehearse with a new presenter. The bulletin went well but I felt that this week the gallery that the team were not cooperating because of all of the problems going on. I Felt we needed to rehearse but it was impossible with editors and reporters coming into the gallery with changed packages and chunks of script minutes before we went live, which was very frustrating.
The bulletin went well in the end and there were only a few hiccups to do with sound and cutting out of VTs too early – but this was something that was very easily sorted in post production.

WINOL Week One, Year Three;

WINOL is back and this semester my role is part of the production and sub-editing team.

As I have been on the production team before, our return to the gallery wasn’t as daunting as the experience for the second years. Although we immediately notice a new piece of equipment – the Vision Mixer had been updated over the summer and seemed to have a gazillion new buttons and a jazzy screen on it. Day one and already there was an issue waiting to be solved and that was using the thing. Myself and Nicole managed to figure out a few of the buttons but still need to be trained properly to ensure a smooth output for the first bulletin.

Luckily everything else was as we left it and so I felt quite comfortable. Showing the second years how to use all of equipment has been Nicole’s main focus for the last week, and they are now able to use the equipment. We aim to have a full day practising, knowing this time how to use the new vision mixer, so that the new members of the team can become more confident with the equipment and so that those who have used the equipment before can familiarise themselves again.

There are already some other events happening in the next few weeks, these include the COMPASS meeting and the launch of the crime and justice centre, which the production team will be involved with the filming of.

WINOL week one;

The lead up to the first bulletin was daunting and quite stressful having been our of practice for so long and having second years making up the team.

I began the day by creating the headline and credit sequences for the bulletin, these look okay technically but the by-lines decided on by the group could have been more creative. Filming the headline VT went well, but like the bulletin there was a lot of waiting around for the script to be completed.

My role in the gallery for the bulletin was director, a role I enjoy. I knew it was important to have the script as early as possible so that the crew in the gallery could prepare and practice the bulletin with and without the presenter, just in case VTs cut out early or there were problems with the script.

The script was finished twenty minutes before the deadline giving us a short amount of time to practice. The time we did have was spent concentrating on the OOV with UPSOT so that we could concentrate on getting the timings right. I made the decision to go live at three, hoping that our producer Nicole agreed and the team felt confident enough to do so.

The bulletin went smoother than I could have hope for a first bulletin;

• Between the headlines and Harry coming into vision there was a black hole.
• The flu package had no sound at the beginning, meaning no top line.
• The from VT back to Harry wasn’t smooth – the VT remained in vision for a second as Harry came into vision. This happened again from the fraudster package to Harry in the studio.
• The OOV was the most problematic part of the bulletin; the sound of the presenter was lowered before the UPSOT, which meant Harry was cut off. This was the only part of the bulletin to be rerecorded.
• There was no sports VT cued up in the running order but was on the script – this threw us all off track but it was well recovered but the whole team.

Post production;

I helped Nicole with capturing and fine tuning the bulletin to be uploaded to the WINOL website. There was a huge change in the way the bulletin was uploaded. Half way through the recording in the gallery we took a break to change the tape so that the bulletin was in two parts.

This made capturing and editing out the black holes a lot easier & quicker. The bulletin was also uploaded in two parts to make it easier to hit the five o'clock deadline.

Though we didn’t make the five o'clock deadline. This was because the programme used to upload it to website changed to Dreamweaver rather than Youtube and the .mov files didn't work. The problem was solved quickly and once we knew what format was needed the upload was fairly quick and simple.