WINOL Week Seven, Year Three:

WINOL week seven 13/11/13:

My role this week was Vision mixer.

For the bulletin on the Wednesday I was told that Sean Ward wanted to be a part of the gallery team and he was given the role of vision mixer, and so I showed him how we would use the vision mixer in the bulletin and which buttons controlled what. For the rest of the day I was helping around wherever I was needed. For the recording of the bulletin, I was manning a second camera because there was an in studio discussion, rather than cluttering the gallery pointlessly.

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 The quality of the Diane James interview was criticised and was said to look outdated when played back, so for this interview the decision was made by Nicole to use the DSLR camera instead of the studio cameras because they film more crisp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.

Critical Reflection Semester One, Year Two:

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.

WINOL bulletin;

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WINOL week nine;

My role this week was vision mixer and I was also required to collect headline clips, create the headline sequence and collect packages for the bulletin, all of which I had done before and so I knew what I was doing. The only difference was the way that the headlines were made – instead of recording the headlines and VT’s in the studio, just the headlines were recorded. They were then captured and the headline clips were cut to fit the headline template and length of the individual headlines. This was fairy easy and similar to making the coming up clips. 

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.