Week 6: WINOL

The Guest Editor this week was Will Boden, from BBC Daily Politics. He was extremely impressed by the running of our newsroom and 'blown away' by the fact that we are doing this every week. He said the mix of stories this week were really varied, and the lead story [shipbuilding job cuts in Portsmouth] was spot on to lead as it was the biggest news story of the day, and close to our patch. Will liked the use of the two way between the studio and the newsroom, however he suggested we included some footage of David Cameron. 

The interview with Rowenna Davis followed, this was good interview but a point Will addresses is that we shouldn't assume our audience have followed the story and know all about it. We don't want to spoon feed our audience but we do want them to be aware of what it's about so more consideration to explaining it in the link is needed. Will suggested this shouldn't have been the second story, based on the audience that we are trying to engage with it would have been more suitable to have a more localised story higher up for instance the 20mph speed limit story, or the scrap metal package. 

The Scrap Metal package has been the best piece of TV Journalism to air on WINOL according to Angus Scott, and I couldn't agree more. The entire package had every journalism trick, it was heavily picture lead, included NATSOT, a range of sequences, lots of varied GV shots wide and close up, and perfect scripting to pictures. What this package does extremely well is it keeps the viewer watching and thats purely because it is full of pictures, and this is what TV is all about. There are moments where there is a small pause in between shots, which Will encourages as it allows the pictures to breathe as they roll on, giving the viewer a moment to digest what they are watching.  

The 20mph speed limit package was a great effort to be more imaginative with pictures, both Angus and Will agreed that the use of a GoPro was innovative but the story needed to have pedestrians in it as it was lacking the hustle and bustle of central town. 

The dead dogs story was also another great story adding variation to the mix, Will said animal stories always go down well with the audience, this was one of three stories that had animals in it - dogs, dolphins, and hedgehogs! This was a good package, which Angus deemed a 'free story', by this he meant it was good to have a follow up from the story we covered previously, keeping up with the contacts that were made. In this instance we didn't need to state the footage was 'archive' even though we try to be as transparent as possible. Will made a point that we should look out for jump cuts, and avoid jarring moments as there is one point where the dog magically changes. 

The uni strike story was a good campus story, shame we didn't have any footage of the teachers striking or speak with any of them, but the interview with the Deputy Vice Chancellor was good. The radar story had some good set up shots allowing you to lead into the interview. Just remember the rule of thirds, as he is quite central in the shot. 

The hedgehog was the 'and finally' this was another good package, Angus credited the first 15 seconds of this opening as the best scripting to a news VT, it told the story instantly and from the very beginning the audience knew what the story was about. The PTC with the hedgehog was also a nice touch, however it would have been nice to see a bit more personality come through, and to demonstrate the hedgehog in a more playful way but it's understood that in these circumstances that you were asked to keep it informative and more serious. A point was made to ensure our links are not repeating what we are saying in the package, the PTC could of been cut in half to avoid repetition from the queue.