WINOL Bulletins;

The production team for WINOL are expected to produce the live bulletin at three o’clock on the dot. Our first week was most challenging as everything in the gallery was completely new to us, as was the set up and routine of news day.

I think we all felt slightly relieved when we realised how demanding being part of the news tem was at the beginning of the first week; it was only on the Wednesday that we realised that we hadn’t drawn the short straw.  We began the day by recording the headlines so they could be run as a VT in the live bulletin; once they were done the team could focus on pestering the news team for their packages and links – we follow this routine every week.

Everything seemed to from bad to worse with equipment and time management – VT’s didn’t reach the gallery until the last minute, nor the script to the autocue, leaving the production team and presenter with very little time to rehearse the bulletin and get used to using the equipment; this lead to the bulletin going out after three o’clock, which after a day of hard-work and stress took its toll on the team. It was then I realised how important our roles were and we weren’t just relying on the news team for stories.

My first role on the production team was vision mixer – this meant that I was in charge of live editing the headlines and the live bulletin. The vision mixer relies on the director’s cue, which indicated when to cut to a different camera or to a VT. I also became familiar with how to use the green screen, making sure that the background was at the best possible quality.

After the hullabaloo of the first week, Graham created a plan to make sure that all went much smoother than the first week – all of the problems were to do with planning and preparation. The resolution involved checking the equipment early on the Wednesday morning, which meant that we could identify the problems early, rather than shortly before the bulletin. Though, unfortunately like the week before we didn’t manage to get the bulletin out at three and there were also some problems in post-production.

For the second WINOL I was in charge of the sound desk where I had to change make sure the sound levels didn’t peak throughout the bulletin, but I also had the job of adjusting the sound levels in the headlines and OOVs so that the VTs weren’t cutting out the presenters dialogue. This role was quite challenging, but just as enjoyable as the vision mixing I had done the week before.

The third week bought a more confident team, we knew what was expected of us and were determined to get the bulletin out at three – which would have happened but we forgot to record on tape!!  I was in charge of the VT machine, which meant that I had to line up the pre-recorded headlines and the news teams packages and play them when the director cued. This is one of the easier jobs, but it was quite nerve racking because I was expecting to mess up something to simple.

Week four was the most organised week by far, we had headlines, packages and a script all ready for the three o’clock bulletin with very plenty of rehearsal time and little stress in the gallery. I was on the vision mixer again and felt more confident using it, though we had an in studio discussion, which I found difficult because, at times, I had to judge when to cut without the directors cue.