As we were short for cutaways I think it was suitable that we had footage of the headlines that were plastered over every national paper, additionally to the use of archive footage.
VOX POPS was the right decision, it was necessary to hear from the public's opinion
in Eastleigh.
Keith House Interview – Well framed, only critic is I would frame it in closer, and focus it sharper.
Confident PTC in Eastleigh, but be aware of the traffic
noise, it suddenly peaks.
Altogether this was a great package, It was my top story
as it is the biggest political scandal currently, and as it is so close to our
patch it is a huge story both nationally and locally.
Scripting was great, you told the story well. The voice over was clear, and the sound was good apart from the traffic noise in the PTC as mentioned before.
I know you had another interview that you hoped to use, but
I think we made the right decision to cut it as the sound quality and wind
noise was poor thus bringing the quality of the package down.
Nadine you worked really hard this week, and determination was clear
when you went back early Wednesday morning to re-film VOX pops that were
originally out of focus. – I like the use of archive footage also, you told the
story well.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Love the opening script of the metaphor ‘opening door’ to symbolise the welcoming of the new law change, with
NATSOT of an organ.
MP Lynne Featherstone interview is great, with good
soundbites, what a golden moment to have the equality minister at our university, an opportunity you grabbed with both hands Anja.
Good use of cutaways, small note keep the aston on for a
bit longer so people can read exactly what they say.
This was the longest package in the bulletin, but I made the
decision to give you the extra time of 1.40 as I thought it was crucial to hear
from all of the people who may be affected by it – MP, Priests and the case
study of the man who was engaged was perfect, without that element the piece
would certainly be missing direct context to those affected by the new law
decisions.
Good interviews, I know you struggled to get hold of a
priest to talk to you initially but you found a way around that, and was
determined to speak to them.
Voice over is clear, and I appreciate that you re-recorded
when I asked, I know you had to cut down time, but try speak slightly slower so the viewer can digest everything that is being said.
The piece on the whole works really well, follows through
nicely and there is good balance of opinions, but mostly in favour.
Anja, you delivered everything I asked for, so thank you for
following critic as you were working on the story.
The script was also polished off nicely, just remember not
to include the name of the person you are going to speak before you see them, the one exception this week was with the case study where you
introduced him as “Ash”.
Ending script: “Walk down the isle” proves a good example of speaking to pictures.
Sign out just needs to be your name and Winchester News
Online, drop the “for”.
[I like the idea of pushing people towards the website, to
check out how the Hampshire MPs voted]
NEW CHIEF CONSTABLE
You did fantastically first of all Spence to get an exclusive
interview, with both Andy Marsh and Simon Hayes. On top of this you also had an
interview with John Apter the Chairman of Hampshire Police Federation, so in terms
of interviews this was the strongest package, which will target a niche market
who are interested in this matter.
Great cutaways at the start leading into the interview,
shaking hands, appropriate set up.
Good that you had more then one camera to get different
angles, small note is remember your rule of thirds, but I know this was
difficult as you were interviewing two people at once.
Good sound bites. As suggested by Paul Greer, may have been
good to hear the last interview first, but that aside I like the opening of “leading
the way” good scripting to visual.
Voice is clear and confident, linking into your interviews
well.
Although some consider the flag cheesy, I thought it was a
nice touch to end the piece on.
This didn't go in the headlines in the end, but maintained
its position as third story. I decided to do this as it is a big local story
of great interest to many.
[I chose to put OOVs after three strong packages, in order
to break up the heavy weight stories]
OOVS
KING ALFREDS BONES – This worked really well as an OOV Jack,
it is still very initial stages, and therefore was suitably a teaser for a potentially
big story to unravel, it is particularly current following the discovery of
Richard III. The shots were good as they were the location of where they are
believed to be, but try to avoid too many pans. A note to remember, do not do two motions, if you are going to zoom out do not move up, similarly to do
not pan across and then move up or down. Keep to just one motion at a time. I
know you helped Nadine with filming on the Tuesday, but I was disappointed that
you didn't come to the news meeting, or have a story for me this week.
LAND DEVELOPMENT – This was a package to begin with that you
worked really hard on Simi, you had some interviews with councillors, but I
felt that they didn’t directly target the story in hand. I struggled to get to
grips with what the story was about, and found it worked better as news in brief.
Looking through your rushes you had lots of good footage to
use as cutaways. Just remember Article 8 – The right to a family life and
privacy, to ensure that you don’t identify anyone’s face even if there was
permission to film at the station. Good way to get around this, is to get shots
of people’s feet, that way they are not identified.
Avoid too many pans also, I know when it comes to filming
big land its often very easy to just film pans, but try to get some different
angle shots, both wide and more focused in.
You were determined to get balance for your story which it
really needed, good idea to hear from estate agents, but I know you struggled
to get anyone to speak to you. Well done for continuously calling and not
giving up, you did get the interview in the end, but sadly within too short
notice to the bulletin.
COURT RAPE
First of all well done for getting all of the legal issues
passed Luke, and identification with a mug shot. Good opening visual, with the zoom
in on the eyes, this works better then a static photo which you initially presented
to me.
The walking PTC is fantastic Luke, you are on location, speaking
confidently and much slower then last week. I know there was another line on the PTC which we cut, but remember
what I advised, that you stop after a sentence and speak directly to the camera
so that when it does come to editing, you can blade it, so that you don’t end
on an UP where the viewer expects to hear more.
I like the statement that you put in from the police, adds a
nice element to the package.
Visuals are always extremely difficult to get hold of
understandably, but although we did cut down a lot of the park shots, it still
felt like there was too many guilty signs. Another PTC at the end of you in
vision may have worked better.
It is a hard hitting crime story, which made the headlines.
I appreciate that you tried to get hold of the e-fit picture and tried to get
in touch with the cold case unit that set up the Operation, but often these
things fall through and prove to have complications, aside from that a good
week for you Luke, strong court report.
MARKET UPDATE
Good NATSOT of the bus to begin with Ellen, and good scripting to
pictures.
I'm glad you added movement to the still archive images, bring them to life more, I like that you put quiet audio beneath the still images, and took advice from last week that stills shouldn't be silent.
Good update on the interview with the campaign founder, I
like how you took on board mentioning last week’s proposals, and the changes
that had been made. Interview is shot well, good use of rule of thirds; it is a
little dark though but still visible.
The update meant we had time to hear from stall owners, something that was missing from last week's package. Ellen you got some good cutaways, plenty of cheese to be seen!
Shame the high street market wasn’t running so you couldn’t get some moving
footage of the change implemented, but considering this you did well to illustrate
the story.
['Still to come on WINOL' – I made the decision to incorporate
a ‘coming up’, as seen on news broadcasts it works well and keeps the viewers engaged.]
Shame that the Mayor was not on his bike though when it was said - the timing was out.
I like the smoother transition from the sport back to news this
week, in previous weeks it looked like a straight jump cut, but with a brief “thank
you” it adds a sense of communication between the two.
LEISURE CENTRE
This was the only story in my bulletin that was more
light-hearted, and therefore I decided it would work best as an “And Finally”, in comparison
to all the hard hitting news stories from Chris Huhne to police to court
reports. Although it was a puff piece about the leisure centre opening I like
the fact that it was related to a second story with plans the council had implemented,
this gave it more of a news angle.
Good NATSOT at the start of the piece. I didn't get the
chance to look over the interviews but as you said the quality was poor it made
sense that we didn't include it and leave the viewer on that note.
You got plenty of varied shots Faith which was great! I didn’t
have to see another pan, instead you had varied wide and close shots, with some
great cutaways of the Mayor using the equipment, this is far more interesting
to look at then just equipment sat unused.
I know you worked hard to script it, and it worked well,
also good point that we didn't include the opinionated statement at the end
about there being “no excuse for Winchester to keep fit”, keep to the facts in
your voice.
Overall this week, I think it has been one of the strongest
WINOLs. The news content was extremely strong, with currently big national and local stories. It is a bulletin the entire news team should be extremely
proud of. Thank you reporters, for taking on the advice I gave, and
appreciating some of the decisions I had to make.
It was an extremely valuable experience being News Editor this week, it made me more aware
of areas that I had never thought about before as a reporter. For example: the
timings of the packages, prioritising packages, thinking about the structure of
the bulletin, looking over scripts deciding what the headlines should be, and how in
control you are of making decisions you feel best fit.
The guest editor this week was Paul Greer from Five Live, a de-brief thoroughly enjoyed by all! A lesson that Paul left us with, is that your story is not you, if your story turns out to be rubbish, then the critic is not aimed at you personally, you are not rubbish as a reporter. A valuable lesson everyone should take on, in the industry of journalism we will have to be thick skinned and take critic on the chin. Lastly, he expressed the need to be interested if you are not interested in your story then you can't expect anyone else will be. See what else he had to say about WINOL in the video below.
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