WINOL- Week 4

Starting week four i came into the news meeting with a local story about a library closure, knowing that it would affect the local people watching our bulletin. The story was approved and i began filming that afternoon, unfortunately i was unable to gain access into the library as the staff inside had already been warned about journalist's potentially wanting to write or record a story. I managed to get a statement from the council and used this with a piece to camera outside the library. Planning my story before i am due to film is of great importance and that is something i have realised this week, with only shots of buildings and signs my stories will never be interesting, and therefore i have to make sure that i have access.

I came in and put my piece together in what would turn out to be a hectic couple of days. My footage was completed on Tuesday morning, therefore i decided to help out another news reporter, filming in Southampton. This all went very well and i returned to write my written story and links.

Wednesday morning i was asked to film an OOV on the night life in Winchester which i managed to complete, however it was later dropped. I feel like i have learnt about editing over the last couple of days as i learnt how to put transitions and effects between OOV'S to separate them, despite a few technical issues i finally managed to stop the transitions fading to black; something which is not allowed into the bulletin.  

I spent much of the day running around but i received some useful advice once i had finished my own package, my OOV and the News in brief.  My story was not interesting enough to be a package; i needed to get a case study or clips inside the library, rather than clips outside and then a piece to camera. I was advised to plan my stories in advance so that i had interesting shots and clips of people doing things, rather than buildings. I will take this advice into next week to ensure that my package is interesting and useable. 

I was alos told a much better way to write a link, rather than starting with a company name or organisation, it is much better to 'sex up' a story so that it is interesting, rather than a boring or too simplistic report or link which no one will be interested in.

I think that this week was a big learning curve as i now know what i need to do in terms of filming to get a piece into the bulletin, improve my written stories and links, as well as how to put in transitions when editing. I felt the feedback today was extremly important to take in as i think that i now know how to improve my packages. I also realise the high standard they have to be to get into the bulletin, so i will now ensure that any mistakes are eradicated before i give my piece in to be checked.

After last week's bulletin with little stress or worry as it went to plan, i think that a week like this week where not everything was running smoothly and stories were being created on the Wednesday morning, was needed so that we keep pushing ourselves to make sure that when things don't go right we can make sure we do something about them. It was also mentioned that more stories need to be ready on the spike so that they can be used if a story isn't up to scratch. I also need to work on where i am getting my stories from, and not just relying on the local papers. Meetings, and events should be attended as well as asking questions to get a story.  

I can however feel myself slowly improving and hopefully my story for next week will make it into the bulletin without being changed as a result of problems with it, as i now think that i have a better understanding of where to get stories and how they can be improved.