This week's WINOL

This week i managed to get my story prepared on Friday as i found a press release and acted on it straight away. I managed to get two interviews and the permission to film inside a school on the Monday which allowed me to prepare my story a long time before actually filming; preparation is key as it means the story can be thought about rather than being rushed. I was pleased with this week's story, however as i was not allowed to film children inside the school my shots are mainly of empty classrooms and children which was disappointing as they are not the most interesting shots.

I do think that this weeks shots are filmed well, despite trouble with my tripod as the level was not working, meaning that i thought my shots would be framed poorly; as it turns out i think that the framing of my shots were some of the best i have done yet and they are very clear and well shot in my opinion. This is something that i am improving on week by week. My interviews are relevant and they do not explain the story but add opinion, emotion and reaction to the news.

I have had a piece to camera in every one of my stories so far, but i managed to avoid the temptation this week as it would not have added anything to my story therefore i voiced over clips rather than  a pointless piece to camera. I think this has made my story better this week than previous week's as a result.

My story of Hampshire County Council receiving a grant is not the most interesting story however and i feel that i need to find bigger, more controversial and more exciting stories for the future, rather than relying on just locally relevant stories.

For the second week in a row i did not have any trouble with using final cut pro to edit and i think that getting better at editing and using this program is making my packages look much more professional and making my packages look smoother.

In the debrief I was told that my story was good as i manged to get access into a primary school; soething notoriously difficult, ans it was my good access into the school which made the story a success as the shots of the school were good, only getting the outside of the school would have been boring. This is the difference between my more recent stories and my first few stories, managing to get the good pictures and shots relevant to the story have made my packages much more watchable and enjoyable.  I was told that my shots do look very similar however. I do tend to pan left to right for the majority of shots rather than pulling focus or zooming in and out and using other techniques, so this is something i will have to improve on; making sure i get a variety of different angles and shoot in sequences. I remember being told at the end of last year to shoot in sequences so it will be a good idea to start doing it as of next week! I was advised not to use the shots of company names when talking about bad or negative issues as it makes it seem as though are to blame for everything, when other organisations may also be to blame for certain problems.  I was however, praised for my good use of quotes rather than more explanation, this is what makes the story more interesting and adds to my package; at the beginning of the year this is something i didn't do, but my more recent packages have had a lot more interesting quotes.

In general we were told that it would be good to change to bulletins opening sequence with some better shots. We were also told to make the most of the situation we find ourselves in when creating a story; get over the fear or thought that people might dislike what you are doing, so that rather than just filming we need to get in close to the action, put on equipment and use props so that the packages aren't just explaining and describing. I feel that this is something i am getting better at as my confidence is growing, and as of yet, i haven't had the chance to wear any equipment or use props; as my stories haven't involved this.  We are also informed about the obvious problems with recording live on Skype and that it would be better to pre record any Skype interviews due to the signal problems causing sound to be hard to hear.

I think last week's story was better than this one, but with a greater range of shots and more information in this piece i think it is still a good story, despite not affecting as many people as previous stories i have created.