WINOL Week Six, Year Three

Week six:
The production team were involved in filming Nadine's feature interview with Rowenna Davis, who is running for the 2015 Southampton, Itchen seat in parliament for the Labour Party. The quality of the Diane James interview was criticised and was said to look outdated when played back, so for this interview the decision was made by Nicole to use the DSLR camera instead of the studio cameras because they film more crisp image.
The problem with using the DSLR cameras for interviews before this was that there is no known way to capture sound on the camera and meant a lot of extra effort in post production because it had to be captured separately. But Nicole discovered a simpler way to capture sound with film using a radio mic, which is perfect for interviews and will likely be the way that they are filmed from now on.
Because of the cameras used everything was reliant on those watching the cameras. Sound levels could be tested in the cameras and there were three seamless shots of the interview (interviewer, interviewee and a two shot) so there was no need for using the gallery equipment or live vision mixing.

I went down to Southampton university to help Sam Sheard film his interview with Professor Tim Leighton about the development of a new radar system which has the potential to save lives. We filmed in Professor Leighton's lab, which wasnt the best for lighting and was made worse by faulty white balance button on the camera, though despite this the footage wasn't terrible but could have been better. I found that throughout the interview, the Professor kept moving across the screen and out of the rule of thirds, but even when I re-framed the shot as questions were being asked, as they were answered he kept moving.

WINOL Bulletin 06/11/2013:

For this weeks bulletin I was in control of the VT machine. Its probably the least glamorous of jobs in gallery but by no means unimportant. The main part of this role, other than pressing play, is checking that the VTs are in the correct play out order and format so that they air in the right dimension and where the VT ends. If it cuts out of a VT suddenly its my job to communicate this to the director and vision mixer.

Being in charge of VTs requires a lot of effort outside of the gallery in terms of badgering the news teams for finished packages. This went smoothly and there were no last minute changes to VTs already on the machine so we had a set of packages ready to play out during rehearsals.

All VTs were played out on queue and there were no hiccups; the bulletin was recorded at three o'clock under the direction of Megan. Once the bulletin was over a few of the links were recorded (inducing the OOV). 

I helped Nicole in Post Production by cutting out the last few black holes between presenter and VT and then uploaded it to Youtube, because she was needed in the gallery. 

Debrief 04/11/2013

In this weeks debrief it was bought to our attention how poorly written news stories were and how often content is posted on the website throughout the week compared to last semester. The issues with the stories began with the structure & so we needed to refer back to basic news writing methods.

How to write a news story:
Who? What? Where? When? Why?
The news pyramid:
- Headline: Subject, verb, object formation.
- Intro: short and sharp - latest most important information (who?, what?, where?, when?).
- Two: elaboration of other important information or quotes – 'the move follows'
- Three: chronology, more detail (why?).
- Four: more detail, loose ends.

Once this is established the fine tuning of an article can begin:

• it's okay to lift quotes but they must be attributed. For example, 'tweeted so and so' or 'in a statement'
• Use verbs of attribution. 'Said last week.' 'Says....'
• if you wish to use sections of quotes dont use ellipsis, in stead use “he said, adding 'blah, blah'”
  
• Through out, subject and verb must must agree on plural, tense & case.
  
• Must always use an active voice - The cat sat on the mat (SVO). The cat can sit on the mat, so subject and verb agree on case. (Passive - the mat was sat on by the cat).
  

Fact vs Comment:
Facts are independently verifiable, true statements. Facts must be in your voice. Comment in theirs (everything else). Facts must be checked.

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.

Critical Reflection Semester Two, Year Two:

After last semesters redesign if WINOL’s online presence, the whole team have constantly been thinking of ways to improve its quality and ranking in comparison of other news sites and student material. The websites Alexa ranking in January was 33,950 and continued to climb steadily throughout the semester to 12,025. Our main competitor last semester was East London Lines which only improved its ranking slightly, going from 56,486 to 49,664. The TAB is another student run news site which has a much higher ranking than WINOL.
Each week the news editor changed, giving everyone the opportunity to run the newsroom and still produce content. This worked really well and each week the standard of the bulletin remained high, with packages improving. The most successful WINOL bulletins were during the Eastleigh by-election and allowed ‘The South Decides’ happen. The election special was made up of studio guests and discussion as it happened. There was also a live OB from the vote count, of which I was involved in.
The OB was planned as a Skype call going through the gallery at various points of the night, as well as being recorded on a camera, but there were many issues that almost stopped the OB from happening. In the end the Skype call took place on an iPhone. The quality wasn’t great but it was the only way we could successfully get the result to the newsroom live.
The features team worked together to launch several magazines for WINOL this semester, following the success of Absolutely magazine toward the end of last semester. The Volt focuses on music and features music news, reviews and a playlist of the music it recommends. The New Winchester Review is dedicated to the arts, with reviews and features on theatre, tv, philosophy etc. The Adventure and Travel magazine is where the gonzo features, car reviews and travel blogs are found. The features site have been successful throughout the semester and have had content added regularly (unlike the first semester when ideas were being developed).

This semester I was assigned the role of a sport reporter. Knowing very little about sport, I found the first week of WINOL very daunting, especially after being part of the production team. My assigned beat was Ice hockey and knew that each week I would be expected to film and script packages on league games that would be part of Sportsweek and potentially part of the news bulletin.
My first package was a skiing feature, which was influenced by the weather at the beginning of the year and chose a ‘gonzo’ style. It wasn’t the best of packages because of the lack of camera angles, but it wasn’t a complete disaster. Using the GoPro camera made all the difference, but it was hard to find footage that didn’t have the main camera in vision. In comparison to the other packages I produced, the style of this was one was very different, and could have been improved if I had spent more time planning.
My first highlights package for the Basingstoke bison was a real struggle, even after filming a game with Lewis Salter the week before. Having no real knowledge of the rules or hockey jargon made scripting the game really hard and I relied a lot on the teams twitter feed to make it sound as professional as possible. The package itself was almost a disaster because I missed the first period and the first goal. Following the puck for the rest of the game wasn’t easy either and meant that the camera wasn’t in focus at times and shots could have been a lot tighter. After this package I knew what needed to be done to improve my work.
The following week we were unable to film the game and were told that we could no longer film the Bison games because we were unable to guarantee that the games would be reported on every week. I would have liked to have had a particular sport to follow for the semester as I could have seen an improvement in my work and become more confident reporting so that I could be more creative with editing games instead of each week doing something new.
I then seemed to fall into university sporting events, the main one being Winton Weekend. Over two days, all of the current sports teams competed with those who previously attended the university and were part of those teams. I was put in charge of organising what games/matches could be filmed and interviewing the vice president, activities. Getting a team together to help film was difficult and couldn’t be done by myself as events overlapped. From researching the history of the event it was certain that no matter what the rugby game had to be filmed. I didn’t get as many events filmed as I had wanted to. Winton weekend seemed like an opportunity to boost viewing of sports week because people at the university would want to view something that they were involved in, and would be more willing to share it with others.
I also had the opportunity of reporting on the Totton vs Bournemouth game, as well as helping out with filming various football matches throughout the semester. For the Totton vs. Bournemouth game we used three cameras which allowed me and Liam to experiment when editing, particularly throughout the penalty shoot-out. Like the first hockey game, I found it really hard to script, but after listening to Liam’s previous packages I felt more confident with the overall package. 
There were a few weeks when I didn’t produce a package for sports week and I was able to help with production in the gallery. My experience in gallery from the previous semester meant that I was able to help out with all of the equipment when needed and was able to direct comfortably. I was also able to present sports week and the bulletin sport on a few occasions which I really enjoyed and would like to do again. The week I present was quite difficult because there was no one from the sports team to direct – in post-production the footage wasn’t very good and the team had to re-film on the morning of the deadline.
During our weekly debriefs our viewings were always disappointing – despite the efforts the team made to get sports week onto forums and social networking sites. This lead to the conclusion that it was the quality of our content causing the problem. This is where the idea for filming the multi-camera football match was suggested to us. Sam Sheard, Thomas Baxter, Jack Griffiths, Liam Garrahan and I filmed Eastleigh vs. Dover game. the addition of graphics in post-production made the package stand out and look professional.
As a whole, the sports team worked every week to try and achieve the best possible ratings, better than those of the week before, but for most weeks the views were really low and on a few occasions barely reached two hundred views (which was a disappointment when previous sport weeks had reached over a thousand views).
An issue within the sports desk and one we were all guilty of at some point, was putting the effort in to reach the deadlines. Once the package was edited it seemed okay to leave recording voice overs to the last minute.  
The way the final edits of the bulletin sport caused the sport to be missing from bulletin – despite being exported the same way as all of the other packages, the aspect ratio was wrong and meant that it looked horrendous as it was played out in the gallery.

The ‘Tuesday Takeover’ continued into the second semester following the same format, aired around the university campus, except this time we had the help of the first year students for the hourly news bulletin and benefitted us because the radio team is so small. Though, it was difficult having a new team every week and no one seemed to want to come back to help out.
As usual there were technical problems almost every week, but we still went ahead trying to meet deadlines.  The downside the radio slot was that there was no way to track if we were getting listeners, as well as being limited by Sound Radio which caused a number of problems. Unfortunately, sound radio has been shut down and means that there is no longer a ‘Tuesday Takeover’. Nadine toyed with the idea of podcasts for the WINOL, but there was a lot more to it than posting audio clips online.
I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of the sports team this semester and have put the skills I learned in the first part of the year to use. I found some things a struggle at first because of my lack of sporting knowledge but together with the team I found my way through and have become more confident in creating packages and being on camera - this I hope will be put to good use next year.