- J K Rowling Ian Anderson's Masterclass
When it comes to putting together a VT, the most important thing a reporter must do is share the story.
Impact is everything. The best pictures need to go at the beginning of the package to grab the audiences attention. The strongest and most powerful images of human interest need to be at the top to ensure the viewers will want to continue watching.
No story is complete, without a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning is heavily relient on impact, the middle is the stories substance, and the end draws conclusions, and throws the story forward.
The story in classic TV news is all in pictures. It is important to visually assemble the story on your timeline first, and then script your voice track afterwards. The logistics of this is that you are scripting to the pictures, you should be talking about what the viewer can see.
Reporters must be filming interesting sequences and capturing the natural sound at the scene, this will help master the art of bringing the story to life. We should be heading back to the newsroom with reels and reels of rushes, allowing ourselves to be creative and have a variation of wide and close up shots.
Set up shots with interviewees are crucial to allow a lead into the interview, everything needs to follow a logical sequence, and flow smoothly. The VT shouldn't feel jumpy and abrupt. To enhance this, we should hear our interviewee before we see them.
It is so important to have a plan in advance, head out on to the field with an idea in mind of how you in-vision your VT, and stick to the plan. As a reporter we are in charge of telling the story so we must tell our interviewees what it is we want from them, not expect them to be professionals in the art of TV, that is our job.
All journalists will be aware of the fatal error system and the serious consequences that could follow if these errors are made. For example the paper could be sued for thousands of pounds or the individual could find themselves facing a court trial.
Every report must be fast, accurate and fair, and without fail avoid these errors:
1. Malice
We must never report with malice, this is targeting someone in order to damage them.
2. Dishonestpresentation of sources - dishonesty generally
We must never lie.
3. Causing Disrepute or disruption
The above three would all have to be pre-meditated in order to fall into these errors.
4. Reckless inaccuracy
For example spelling names and places wrong
5. Legal Problems - (without justification)
You have justification if it is true and you can prove it
6. Regulatory problems - (without justification)
For example, do not swear
The above three all boil down to inaccuracy, and this bad practise comes down to lazy reporting.
The above video shows what it is like to be apart of WINOL on a weekly basis. It takes you behind the scenes and shows you the ins and outs of what work goes in to making our bulletin. From the initial stages of Monday morning meetings, sharing story ideas, reporters out on the field filming, interviewing, resolving complications that they encounter, right the way through to the editing in the newsroom and finally the production in our TV studio. The WINOL team is dedicated to making every week bigger and better! No other University gets the opportunity to broadcast weekly, we are provided with hands on experience, and a grounded foundation to help us step straight into a bigger organisation.
Here are the highlights of our coverage of the Eastleigh by-election. The show was on air live at 10pm which was streamed on Ustream, reaching a peak of 1600 viewers! We stayed on air until the results were annouced around 2am. I was extremely proud of the hard work that had gone in to make the night a success. For all of those involved in both the run up to the show, and the entire nights coverage we worked as a team creating a project that no other student course has ever done before. We had breaking news from inside our newsroom with the latest updates on the social media, an outside broadcast and Skype to the count and in studio guests from the four main parties that joined in on studio discussions.
This was an extremely valuable experience for me, I was the presenter for the first hour show; this was the first time I had ever done any presenting, and with it being Live, I was extremely nervous. I set myself the challenge, something outside of my comfort zone to push myself into trying new skills and a different role from the usual reporting that I do. It certainly will be an experience I will never forget.
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.
Court reporting is known as one of the toughest reporting jobs in Journalism. You enter a place where you encounter the highest and the lowest of society; the professionals and the suspected criminals.
As a court reporter you have to be thick skinned. You have to expect to hear all the gory details of the crime at hand, without letting it faze you. It is extremely hard at times, to be in such an intense environment hearing the summing up amongst the defendant’s family and friends, but your main focus has to be on getting down all the details; ensuring your facts are exactly how you hear them in court. This is where shorthand comes in handy, it does speed things up if you can do it, but if you’re a fast writer longhand works just as well.
Your notepad is your bible, it’s important to keep hold of everything you write in court as backup, in-case somewhere down the line someone tries to sue you for libel. If you have the facts written down about what was said in court, then you have a Qualified Privilege defence.
Entering court initially is daunting, passing by security, and anxiously sitting outside the court rooms twiddling your thumbs until the next case is called. Court is an extremely isolated and lonely place, especially as a reporter when you go alone, but, when you get a good story you know your news editor will want it gives you the drive. You can be sitting in court for endless hours at a time, and still not find a good story that you can legally report on, so time and patience is crucial. Be sure to know your media law, in particular about defamation and the risks of contempt of court.
Writing the script is the next challenge you are faced with. For TV it needs to remain simple and to the point, summarising all the key facts in a way that is fast, accurate and fair. The most important part is to legally identify the defendant with their name, age and address, ensuring it is all spelt correctly for print - don’t be afraid to ask people how it’s spelt! As Journalists, it's sometimes worth playing dumb. This way you have positively identified them, and at no risk of defaming someone else, who could potentially sue you for a large sum of money!
When you are in court, you will hear a lot of jargon from the Defence, Prosecution and Judge, you do not need to worry about this, just get down everything you understand, in particular any quotes from the Judge. Contacts will rescue you when in doubt, for instance, Court Listings can confirm identification, and the Crown Prosecution Service can confirm details on the case. These are the people you will work closely with; you have to be confident and build a friendly relationship with professionals that you wouldn't normally speak to. In particular, the police, you need to know the name of the officer in charge of the case to see if they can give you any photographs or footage that they may have, in addition, with their name you can fill out a convicted photo request form to get a mug shot. Often the officer in charge is present at the court so if you go up to them and introduce yourself they can help you, either that or call the police headquarters and get in touch that way. There will be countless times you will be passed on to different departments, and feel as though you are not getting anywhere, but maintain persistence, and chase up calls, don’t wait for them to contact you back, because it’s likely that they won’t.
A good TV report has to be visual, court reports can be extremely dull, and it’s a challenge to make it more visually appealing for the viewer. Photographic features which are ideal to illustrate your report are a mug shot of the defendant, police photographs if there is evidence to be seen, a piece to camera on location and cutaway shots of the scene, if you can get there. Regularly you see reports whereby the reporter is stood outside the law courts, this can be visually mundane, so depending upon the time scale you have if you can get to the scene of the crime, it lifts the piece, adding context and colour.
We are seen as the nosy hacks of society, but you are there to do your job, so don’t let any evil stares, or off-putting glares put you off. Don’t be shy to speak to people, they are your richest source, just be sure to be dressed smart, and act professionally in court, and in return you will be treated in a respectful manner. Although you may feel as though you are intruding upon peoples personal lives, it is called a public gallery for a reason, no one can stop you from going, and it’s a reporter’s job to share what is the public's interest.
Here are some examples of the work I carried out as a Court Reporter -
WINOL
has undoubtedly progressed this semester covering all forms of broadcast such
as TV, Online radio and social media. Five teams lead our project: news,
features, sport, production and web, and together the WINOL team has worked
tremendously hard in achieving the highest ranked student publication in the
country; receiving many national BJTC awards. WINOL strives to continuously
improve, and in doing so we persistently observe our competitor East London
Lines’ strengths and weaknesses. This semester we focused heavily on our online
websitewww.winol.co.ukmaking vast changes to the layout of the site and adopting a
‘broadsheet’ style of writing. Moreover, regularly updating the website with
news daily, and further promoting this on media sites such as Twitter has
allowed us to reach out to a larger audience and increase our traffic flow;
this was something we found our competitors initially had an upper hand on.
Despite our competitors being a much larger team based in London,
we have over taken them both globally and in Great Britain. WINOL’s Alexa
ranking is currently [10/12/12] #10,338 in GB and #477,045 globally which has
dropped dramatically from 1.8 million over the past three months, in contrast,
East London Lines is over double in GB with a rank of #24,950. In comparison
our local paper The Hampshire Chronicle has a global ranking of #894,774 and
#43,856 in GB, these figures speak volume, as it is clear that the audience
appreciation for our site is far greater targeting both the local people and
students. The time spent on our site is approximately six minutes, whereas East
London Lines is only two minutes, this is primarily due to our weekly news
bulletin, but the content on our site has a ‘live’ feed by having constant
twitter updates and regular stories posted up; writing for the site helped me
practice and develop my news writing skills. In addition to channelling out
continuous content we were determined to improve the picture content on the
site, ensuring that every news story had a good picture preferably with faces
involved. If it was not possible to get hold of our own photograph then we used
creative commons, abiding by the laws of copyright licensing.
On top of WINOL we have covered several special
events including the BJTC Awards Ceremony, HPCC debate, US American Elections,
and WINOL 99 Daily News. The Hampshire Police Crime Commissioner debate saw
three hundred people fill the Stripe to watch the debate live. My active role
on the night was an audience runner, passing microphones in a question and
answer debate; it was a privilege to be apart of an extremely high profile
event, particularly as it was covered by BBC South. This role amongst my
position as Floor Manager for the US Elections, allowed me to experience more
of the Production led role, teaching me that organisation and timing is crucial,
particularly in a ‘live’ transatlantic broadcast. The US Elections was a huge
milestone for WINOL, receiving recognition and praise fromwww.journalism.co.uk. In the run up to the elections I produced four
short packages on the main campaign issues, which could be played into the
gallery to lead discussion between the presenter, experts and guests. My VTs
included a graphic of the candidates and some fair dealing clips from YouTube
of the debates; this was a skill I did not know before. On the morning of the
election we found out that the results were in and Obama had won. The scripting
had to be changed, VTs cut down, but this is the art of live TV and I think
WINOL handled it extremely well turning the show in to a reaction based
programme.
Sound Radio launched Tuesday Takeover. I
contributed weekly, writing news stories, and adapting my court report scripts
to a radio style, abiding by contempt of court laws by legally identifying the
defendant, and simply summing up the story and the sentencing. I presented one
of the news bulletins and recorded an in-studio discussion, which could be
recycled as an audio cut; both of which helped me practice my delivery and
build confidence.
For the first semester of WINOL I was appointed
Crime and Court Reporter, this entailed making close contacts with Law Courts,
Crown Prosecution Service, Hampshire Constabulary and Police Press Offices.
Court reporting was an extremely challenging but exciting position to fill; I
regularly encountered two main issues. Firstly, finding pictures that made my
report visually interesting, and secondly legal identification and scripting.
As court reporter, it allowed me to put the law module from first year in to
practice, reporting the facts accurately with a Qualified Privilege defence,
ensuring that I was not at risk of libel or contempt of court. My packages
heavily relied on the scripts and unless it was fast, accurate and fair abiding
by the laws of defamation it would not be broadcasted, I found scripting a
challenge at first but feel I improved with guidance from Brian Thornton and
Ben Mitchell from the Press Association. Unfortunately I was not able to use
shorthand in court quick enough to keep up to speed accurately, but this is a
goal to work towards.
In time, I built contacts with the CPS and with
Court Listings who verified identification such as date of birth, address and
any spellings I was unsure of, this way I could be sure that my report was
accurate. For most of my packages I obtained a mug shot from the Police, but in
two instances I learned that this was not possible, as the defendant did not
receive a custodial sentence. In week eight my package had no visual element to
it, and when trying to get hold of a picture of the defendant the only source I
had was Solent News who charge a fee for their photography. As Geoff Hill,
editor for channel 5 news suggested I could resolve this by having a cameraman
waiting outside of the courts to film them as they walk out. In order to get a
convicted photograph I had to fill out a form where often the missing detail
was the name of the officer in charge, initially the CPS helped me identify the
officer in charge of the case, but they claimed this was against their protocol
and that I should seek this information from Police headquarters. Some of the
officers in charge of the cases were extremely helpful, talking to them
directly, allowed me to ask if there were any police photos they could send me
to help me illustrate the case. In week three I covered a case regarding a man
who set himself on fire in a suicide attempt; visually it was extremely
eye-catching as I had police photos of the inside and outside burnt property.
To begin with I had these photographs merged in the middle of my package,
however I soon learnt that the best images had to be at the top of the package,
ensuring the voice over was re-scripted so the words matched the pictures. The
fire happened in Totton, which was within driving distance, allowing me to do
my PTC on location; this worked far better then outside the courts as it added
context and meant I could film the flat from the outside, and have extra
cutaways. This package had all the features needed for a successful court
report, a piece to camera on location, a mug shot from police, exclusive police
photographs as evidence of the damage, and a revised script with no legal
issues. However, I made a huge mistake by letting a witness pass me by, without
asking if she would comment on camera. This was a lesson well learnt.
I often went down to court and came out without a
story, particularly in my first week, where I hadn't got to grips with court
reporting. However, I quickly moved on to a new story about cyclists safety, I
did a PTC on the road affected in Southampton Wednesday morning but with a
tight deadline there was no interview and it was cut down to an OOV. The shots
I used were all filmed from the same angle so I learnt the importance of point
of view and to vary the angles. I found that at times it was pure luck as to
whether you got a good story that editorially worked. For three of my court
reports I was limited to doing a PTC outside the law courts, although this is
visually mundane, in certain instances it couldn't be avoided, so I
experimented with other alternatives to make the package interesting. For
example, creating a reconstruction of the case, ensuring it was clearly
labelled and changing the colour of the footage to blue. In week six I covered
a case regarding a courier who was caught with cannabis in his car boot, the
props of a car and suitcase was easily accessible so I filmed a series of shots
to put together a sequence illustrating this.
Week seven was my strongest week; I took a court
report and related it to a wider issue of hoax calls. This meant I could
arrange to set up an interview with the South Central Ambulance Service who
assigned me to Paul Jefferies, the Area manager for North Hampshire. When I
arrived at their office in Otterbourne I chose not to film in the control room,
as this was a noisy room, with echo, therefore I opted for a quieter room where
the acoustics and sound quality were good. To link into my interview I got some
GVs of the control room and of the paramedic walking. The interview itself was
constructed well; I ensured the questions I asked where open, relating back to
the law court issue at hand, and covering the larger scope of prank calls. I didn't stop the interview until I knew I had a good sound bite that I could use
in my package “it’s a matter of life and death” - this summed up the entire
report, and I think it worked really well hearing it from a respected
professional. That week I also had a mug shot, which scaled in on the eyes to
focus on the emotion, dramatising the criminal and a PTC on location in Southampton. The weather conditions were bad in
particular wind and rain affecting the quality of the sound and footage, but we
worked around it finding a quieter spot. Although it was rushed and the camera
had not been white balanced, when it came to editing, the colour balance tool
in Final Cut Pro helped bring the colour tones back.
Aside from court, I did a crime related story in
week four, which was topical to the festivity of Halloween. This week I got the
chance to be more creative with my work aside from the seriousness of court.
Although the story itself was regarding posters for the elderly to stop trick
or treaters knocking at their door, I did my best to make it as entertaining
and visually appealing as possible. My opening shot is of a creepy character
knocking at the door this initial NATSOT grabs the audience’s attention, I
swiftly open the same door to do my PTC, I felt this transition was creative
making it more interesting rather then static. I filmed several cutaways which
were not used of Halloween related clips, but this gave me the chance to be
selective with what I put into the package. With this story elderly people’s
opinion was vital; therefore I did some VOXPOPS of local residents. This was my
backup as I tried to arrange an interview with a shop owner at One Stop
regarding the matter that they would not sell eggs or flour to under 16’s, but
as their press office is led by Tesco they were extremely weary of how the
report may seem negative, and requested it all in writing. However, it didn't meet
the tight deadline we were working to.
On two occasions throughout this semester I got a
Court report out in WINOL before the Daily Echo did, particularly the arson
story that made front page two weeks after the sentencing. After speaking with
the reporters at the Echo who initially reported on the fire when it happened,
they were naturally inquisitive to hear the details of the case and I
immediately brought them up on the fact they did not have a follow up story.
The second story was the child abuse story, the Echo covered the trial but they
were not present at the sentencing, they put the story in their paper a week
after WINOL published it. To be able to say I got a story out before the local
paper did is a huge personal achievement for me. Although we are students, we
are training journalists who operate similarly to any other news publication;
the guest editors who came to visit us at WINOL this year have justified this.
We were set the task to review Channel 5's 5 o'clock news by the editor Geoff Hill, who will similarly critique our WINOL bulletin tomorrow.
To begin with the first thing I was drawn to was the delivery of the headlines, I expected the presenter to sit down after the headlines were over, as I found it slightly distracting that she was stood up for the entire bulletin. I find the traditional news readers of BBC and Sky News are always sat behind a desk similarly to WINOL which I find more professional and engaging with the audience, as the eye line is more intimate and enticing.
Two flood related stories led the bulletin, this was ideal for the top story as it is the most current national story affecting a large audience who will want to be updated on the story. The bulletin lasted around 20 minutes, this is an ideal length to keep the concentration of the audience, however the floods took up 10 minutes of the bulletin and therefore I lost focus as it felt like it dragged out for a long time. I really liked the use of OB's from the reporters and the link/handover from the presenter, the fact it was live also enhanced the strength of the content, as it was happening then and there, making the news present, and it visually supported the story by having the PTC on location near the floods. I thought the range of interviews from emergency services, to Prime Minister to local residents really covered the entire scope of public opinion, in particular the interview with the man stood in the 2nd floor window added a humorous appeal but also demonstrated the extremity of residents being housebound.
I found with a lot of the interviews the reporter/interviewer was in vision, although this seems like a stylistic feature of Channel 5 I found it visually uncomfortable as I wanted to just focus on the interviewee and found the back of someone's head distracting - moreover seeing the gun mic (or fluffy dog as I call it) in vision was a little distracting too, but this is hypercritical.
I really liked the studio set, the opening music, and the neutral colour blue which added a universal appeal. I thought it was really effective that a photo illustrated what the presenter was saying in the screen behind her, it was visually pleasing and was a teaser for the viewer who is waiting to see the full footage.
The use of graphics in two of the stories: floods and the virus were a nice visual way of getting the statistical evidence across, it was punchy and clear for the audience to follow. In terms of the norovirus story, I thought the pictures were good, especially as they filmed inside the hospital without breaching privacy rights of Article 8 - Human Rights - simply filming hands and bodies rather then identifying peoples faces. However, I noticed that the package did start and end with the same image, which was a bit lacklustre.
The third story was about I'm a celebrity star Nadine Dorries, this added more a light hearted entertaining tone from the previous risks to property and health. I did question why there were still images used, and Nadine Dorries herself wasn't interviewed, but this was shortly answered when the reporter in Westminster explained that she couldn't be on screen, which I have not often seen.
I loved the coming up news belt, it continued to build tension and interest to know what's still to come, this is something we have recently introduced on WINOL and I think it works really well in keeping viewers tuned in. Furthermore, it breaks up the bulletin from having solid packages one after the other. On return, the presenter reminded us of the top story which is a nice introduction and refresher for potential viewers who may have missed the start of the show.
I am not sure whether this is because I am not used to writing links, or because I have not had a great deal of practise with but I found the links that introduced the packages were very long, but this is only a personal preference.
The OOVs in the bulletin helped to break up the lengthy packages, compared to WINOL where we have recently incorporated an OOV belt of several OOVs lined up back to back.
The funeral of Coronation Street star was a story to touch the hearts of the nation, I felt it should of been situated above the story on Nadine Dorries. I've didn't feel like the package began with their best shots, the opening frame of the young child and the crowds stood outside didn't illustrate that it was instantly a funeral as it would of done if the first thing we saw was the coffin being carried into the church. I liked the use of fair dealing clips of the actor on the soap opera, giving the audience fond memories of his on screen performance. I felt the clips of the speeches inside the church and of other fellow actors outside added a touching and heartfelt message as well as seeing a lot of common faces for Corrie fans.
Archive footage was used on the Yasser Arafat story which was well handled considering it was hard to get pictures.
The final story was Sports Personality of the Year, which had some sharp and superb photography that caught my eye, I liked the effect of overlaying miniature clips of the Olympians over each other. During an interview with the reporter it would have been nice to see a more creative approach to the reporter being stood by the interviewee, for instance a walkie talkie instead of a long held shot that cut in closer to the reporters head. It would of worked better if the interviewee was framed in closer, or a sequence shot was done before introducing the interview. I liked the vox pops too, it added some light and shade from the lengthy interviews, getting an overall balanced opinion of who may win. This sporting story featured in the headlines which included action shots and natsot of crowd cheers which instantly grabbed my attention.
I personally would of liked to watch the bulletin back, but Channel 5 on demand says that it is not available I think this should be altered so the presenter can refer the audience to the website for more information.
Overall, the bulletin flowed really nicely, the sound was continuous, the stories were relevant, covering a large scope and there was something for everyone covering beats on environment health, politics, entertainment, crime and sport. I liked that it ended by promoting the 6.30pm news: "find out why..." which teased the viewer into tuning back in.
Today, we were given a master-class in TV reporting. This is potentially one of the most valuable lectures we will have, taught by an experienced man in the industry himself, Mr Angus Scott. I will share with you what knowledge he passed down, about the core foundation and training in producing a successful TV report.
First things first, it is essential to do your research, don't just automatically think you have a story, you need to think in pictures as well as words. Ask yourself what sort of footage will compliment your text. Although it may sound silly know where you are going, and more importantly get there early! Forward planning is the most crucial stage, you will be in a better position to shoot something if you know your stuff, especially if your time is limited. Now, imagine you show up to the scene, you're ready but your battery has suddenly died, or you've got no tape in your camera. This triggers panic, and leaves you with no option but to stop and head back, empty handed with no story, no interviews and no footage at all. So remember to always check your equipment and kit before you head out, and it certainly doesn't hurt to take spares! Soon as your camera is set up, start rolling, you don't want to miss anything! It's always better to have too much footage then too little, no doubt. Another thing worth emphasising to you is never be afraid to ask, talk to people, get their permission and approval. If you're in a public space then reporting restrictions don't apply but remember legal issues when it comes to filming, for example you cannot trespass or invade people's privacy.
When filming your package, it's great to illustrate your story in a variety of different ways. For instance, in a sequence, or by using different size shots e.g wide pans or close ups. Always maintain continuity and don't forget to shoot for longer so when it comes to editing you have more footage to play with. It's vital to shoot cut aways, in order to cover up a jump between two clips. When filming interviews, you have to apply the rule of thirds. This is where the interviewee must be eye level with the top third of the frame and positioned either to the left or to the right. They must NOT be centred, directly facing the camera or positioned at awkward angels. Take a look at the example below:
Time management is key in journalism here are some tips to take into consideration when piecing together your VT.
- Headline - 8-10 seconds
- Begin with establishing shot, roll to out of vision (OOV), use best photographs, then back to presenter to round up
- Introducing the story should take 30 seconds long, approx 90 words, the out-word will then signal the pre-recorded VT which should be just over a minute (Fat Minute)
- Include 2 or 3 interviews, approx 15 seconds each with a balanced view.
- If your going to include still images, add an effect for movement.
- If your going to record a PTC (piece to camera) it should be a maximum of 20 seconds.
- End it by signing off with a Standard Out Que (SOQ) 'Christina Michaels, Winchester News Online, Winchester'.
PTC - Piece to Camera
It is advisable to never start with a PTC, it should only be there to add something to the piece. Place yourself in the heart of the action, and if you can talk and walk then movement adds a change of dynamic. Just remember to walk before you talk.
Interviews
Always get cut away shots. Film the interviewee before you interview them doing something relevant to the story, this sequence acts as an intro shot providing the reader with background.
Wrap Up
When you are travelling back start to write your story, think of suitable headlines and report back to your news editor about potential ways of editing your footage e.g graphics, pictures
Writing the Introduction
Write the link in which the presenter will read before your VT is aired. The introduction is the most important, it has to grab the viewers attention, use the 5 Ws 'Who? What? Why? When? Where? Remember not to repeat what you said in the link in the opening introduction.
Writing up the story
Use one idea per sentence, speak in the present tense and in plain English; it's hard enough for the viewer to take everything in let alone if you are waffling on using jargon. Simplify numbers to avoid complications and for a more visual appeal, illustrate them using graphics.
Packaging
Start with your best pictures! You want to entice the reader instantly, there is no point teasing them, they will just switch over if they are not interested. There is also no need to name the interviewee, simply add a caption on screen. Bare in mind that you are telling a story, use a sequence, and words which compliment the footage rather then describe what they already see. Limit yourself to grabs of 20 seconds max and end the story with something that means something, don't end on an interview! Always finalise the package by signing off.
If you attend a press conference, get there early, be the first to choose where to position your camera and get ready to roll. Ask if there are any one-to-ones because once again if you don't ask you won't get. Lastly, if your going to join a media scrum, be prepared for the crush.
If you take this all on board you'll be producing perfect packages! Good Luck!
