Week 4 - WINOL: Debrief with Angus Scott

There is no definitive answer to journalism. 

We all have differing views but we all share the same goal - 

- to tell a story

The key focus is is the end product, no one really cares about the excuses and troubles along the way, the problem this week was storytelling.

We need to be pushing our stories forward, the initial news lead needs to be developed further and pushed into a TV package. We should be gasping the reaction more, who is being affected by it?

The bulletin this week was fairly picture light, lots of interviews and some big names amongst it including Steve Brine, Vince Cable and Chief Constable of Hampshire, but nearly all of these interviews didn't have a set up shot.

Set up shots are so important to link into an interview, and give you a few seconds to introduce who we are about to see. Even if its a walking shot, but sequence shots are so important, and crucial for TV.
On the topic of pictures, a variation of close and wide shots also makes it far more interesting, it gets boring if all the shots are of the same width and depth, experimentation and creativity is key.

Audio is of equal importance to Visual, you should always be monitoring the sound levels, using radio mic's with your interviewee. A note for reporters who are asking the questions, favour yourself and speak into the microphone when you are speaking, we want to hear your questions clearly too.

Presenters need to be breaking up the packages by looking down in between each story, this signifies that the story is finished and another begins.

Commentary such as "I am here" is banned, this is terrible TV everyone can see there is no need to explain. However, in other cases where you have a story that you assume everyone may know when they don't background explanation needs to be made explicit.

Overall this week, it was a good mix of stories again, but the bottom line is reporters have to continue to work harder, not give up and push the story on. Most importantly scripting to pictures and narratively telling the viewer the story is the biggest piece of advice to take away this week.