WINOL Reflection Week 1 - 4

Week 1

The first week of WINOL was a shock to everyone’s system, packed with news meetings, potential stories, re-writing of scripts, billions of phone calls, rejection, interviews, travelling further then just the news room, lugging about heavy equipment, filming, and editing on new software! But it was expected that it was going to be a rocky few weeks, but what fun it was to be submerged in all the action. The atmosphere in the news room on a Wednesday, is definitely an adrenaline a buzzing vibe amongst us all, with the appearance of a guest editor. As my news beat is court and crime, I went to Winchester Crown Court, sat in the Press Box, and attempted shorthand, I realised this wasn't going to work and I’d be better off scribbling away everything I heard at supersonic speed. I was definitely an intense experience, being sat within feet of the defendant, and in a lot of cases their family, but this is something in time I hope will make me thick skinned. I found there was a lot of problems and obstacles with court reporting in my first week, in particular Identification, at this stage I was unaware of how to get the defendants name, DOB, and address, but I realise now that I shouldn’t be afraid to go down and speak to the Clerk of the court, or even ring Court Listings for confirmation. There was still however, a few legal issues with my first report, I was unsure of spellings of places and names and the defendant was being charged for three separate offences, so it was hard to keep up and report each detail accurately. So, after an eventful trip down to court, I returned to the newsroom and was faced with a story on cycling safety. By this time I was panicking, but if I could turn something around on Wednesday morning, then I've started off with a hard challenge, and it can only get easier. I went to the scene in Southampton where one of the roads had common accidents, and did my piece to camera (PTC). I got some relevant GV’s of the road, and cyclists which was vital for the visual aspect of the story, I even got a guilty road sign, but I'm proud to say I didn't use it! I learnt my script and was told that I had a confident and clear delivery (confidence I would say I need to work on) but compliments always help! Criticism is the best way to learn, and this week I was reminded of Article 8 (Right to respect for private and family life) and therefore had to remove some of the footage I had where cyclists faces could be clearly identified, in its place I had filmed plenty of shots of the back of people’s head that I could use. My package was not used this week as it was incomplete, to improve I should have had an interview with the officer in charge of the campaign or perhaps some VOX POPS from cyclists would have made it more interesting then just PTC and GVs. For a first week, I won’t dwell on it, it got used as an OOV in the end, so I edited my footage into a 20 second grab. I realised when looking back at my package, that all of my shots were more or less from the exact same angle, therefore it looked like I disappeared after my PTC, in future different shots from different viewpoints will look much better and make it more visually interesting.

 Week 2 

This week I made a lot more phone calls, which helped a great deal! I made a strong contact with the Crown Prosecution Service, who helped me confirm the spellings and names of key facts in the case. This was the first case I publicly reported, as I was for certain that my facts were true. I managed to write down a good quote from the Judge, and although I struggled to get the name of the place where the crime occurred, I eventually found out after help from the CPS. Through making phone calls and contacts, confidence was building that I could formally identify the defendant. This week I rewrote the script several times with a lot of guidance from Flick (previous court reporter) and Brian! The advice I was given was to keep it simple, but the most interesting part at the top, and follow with details, ensuring a conversational yet formal tone was maintained. I struggled to make my script conversational which is why I took several attempts at memorising a very wordy script. The key is to keep it simple. I went down and did my PTC outside the Law Court, and got some footage of the courts – a pan of the building, and a blurred in to focus shot of the ‘law court’ sign which was a good opening shot adding context and location. This package did not make it in to the bulletin but I could certainly see why, I had no other visual footage other then a PTC and a few standard shots of the court, so visually it was very dull. I tried to get hold of photographic evidence from the officer in charge, of the damages made to the property but he proved to be extremely difficult to get hold of. In addition, the place itself had closed down so I couldn't go there, or talk to anyone who had worked there.

Week 3 

This was an extremely interesting week for me. I got a story from court that I knew would be of interest to a lot of people. After chasing up calls I managed to get in touch with the Officer in charge of the case, who kindly emailed me over some photographic evidence. This was vital for my package, as previous weeks I struggled to find pictures that would make it visually interesting for the viewer. The images of the burnt out house were shocking and very eye catching, initially I made a mistake by putting them in the middle of my package but with some useful advice I learnt that your best pictures should be the first thing you see! I also learned that we must speak to pictures and discuss what the viewer can see, in order to create a bigger picture. Therefore, I cut a lot of my PTC down, and recorded a Voice Over describing the images. I had a lot of trouble with echo and background noise despite using the lip microphone, but I re-recorded it in the Audio Suite to ensure the quality was clear. Court Listings and CPS confirmed the identification of the defendant so I sent of a request form to Hampshire Constabulary for a mug shot. I was extremely pleased that I had all the information required to obtain this as the image itself secured positive identification and ensured I was not at risk of libel. To make my package more interesting I went down to the scene of the crime in Totton, to do my PTC, instead of the standard law courts background. However, it could have been framed better to cut out some of the unnecessary brick wall! For the first time since starting out as court reporter, I had pictures from the police, a mug shot and a PTC from the house, so a visually interesting package for once this week! When I had all the elements I needed and a rehearsed script filmed from the scene of the crime, I could begin to piece it together. I learnt new skills on Final cut pro X such as scaling into certain aspects e.g. the eyes which added emotion and power to the piece; moreover, I used key frames, which allowed me to create movement on a still image. This week I made a huge mistake, which I hope to never make again; I bumped into a lady who spoke to me about the event of that morning, but ashamedly did not interview her… she was a witness, and this was the missing piece to my package. Initially, I planned to use the image off the daily echo website, with the confirmation for copyright from their picture desk; however, I am pleased to say that I got the photographic evidence myself from the police.

Week 4

This week I steered away from Court as I struggled to get a complete coverage of a case, I attended 4 separate cases but elements were missing so I was at danger of contempt of court. Instead of court, I focused on a crime related story, and with Halloween approaching I thought a Halloween based package was needed for the bulletin! The story itself is pretty bland, it’s about a lot of guilty posters that can be pinned up to stop trick or treaters knocking on people doors, therefore I tried to be more creative in my editing and filming to make it as interesting as possible. The critic from the week before was that no one used NATSOT to open their package; therefore I took this on board and ensured I started by package with a knock at the door from a creepy character, this instantly made it clear from the onset that it was about trick or treaters disturbing residents on Halloween. I tried to be more creative with my PTC this week, rather then a static PTC, I had the poster on the door in view, and then I opened the front door, creating a transition from the initial knock to me opening the door. This week I hoped to get an interview with a shop owner about them not selling eggs to under 16s however, I felt the questions I asked were too closed, and therefore the response I received was very brief and not worth using. In replace of this, I did some VOX POPS of elderly residents who could give me their opinions on how they were feeling about Halloween. Although I got a lot of rejection understandably because of the scary camera, I found a few helpful locals willing to be on camera, who offered some insightful comments and quotes. One of the shots was too over exposed, even after moving her a few times, it was still hard to block out the sunshine. This week I also created a sequence: going on to the website, clicking on the poster, printing it out, and putting it up on the front door. This demonstrated exactly what the story was about – it showed them what they needed to do. I was pleased this week, as it made it into the headlines, although the story itself was not an extremely interesting one, it was relevant to Halloween that night. On the whole, I felt the vox pops worked well, and with GVs, PTC, and a sequence I felt I got a better understanding of how to edit a package together.