Another entertaining week working for Winchester News Online. As the weeks go by I feel the team is growing in confidence, which can only lead to better results. Once again there were some great packages and a brilliant link to the news room involving Julie (our news editor).
On a personal note I still have a lot to learn when it comes to putting together a great news package.
I have been given the job of education correspondent on the team, and I cant say I was particularly excited by the prospect of this. However, my first assignment was actually quite enjoyable.
I began the week struggling for a story, but after a little research found some that I thought had legs. The story I decided to run involved budget cuts at Hampshire County Council and how they could affect education in the area. At last Friday's budget meeting it was decided nearly 1200 jobs would be cut, with 458 to go in children's services (thanks to Sam Homewood for the info from the meeting).
After emailing most of the county's Sure Start centres it became apparent that many of them may be forced to merge or to close in the foreseeable future because of this. One set of parents contacted me to tell me about a protest they are organising in a few weeks, and that I should come down and speak to them.
I proceeded to interview the group outside a set of school gates. I was extremely happy with the answers they gave me, both informative and full of emotion. They really seemed to care about the future of their centre. As soon as I got home I realised I had made an absolute rookie mistake. I had accidentally filmed my footage in HD and in wide-screen, therefore, I wouldn't be able to use it as WINOL works in DV and 4:3.
I had another interview arranged with another concerned mother an hour later. This time I made sure all the setting were correct before going out. I managed to get some great shots of her kids, as well as some good footage in the kitchen for a sequence. The interview again went really well, although I think I need to work on where I interview people. The background looked quite messy and the sound had a bit of an echo to it.
At this point it was decided that I probably wasn't going to have enough footage to make a package of my own, as unfortunately no Sure Start centre would allow me to come interview staff, or film inside at all. So me and Sam Homewood were partnered together, he focused on the Council cuts, whereas I brought an interesting case study to the table.
We set out and got some good Gvs of the Council (as well as a few poor ones; signs and a bronze pig, which in retrospect we really shouldn’t have used!) and then worked on the scripting of the piece together.
Sam's piece to camera was good, straight to the point and not overloaded with info. I made the recommendation that he should look at his piece of paper when reading a quote. I think this would have worked if we had done it properly, but unfortunately you couldn’t see the piece of paper on camera. So, it ended up looking like he was taking a shifty look to try and remember his lines. I'll take the blame for this one.
I was really happy with our scripting, especially at the start, where the words really worked with the pictures. The links between interviews also worked really well.
What I'm most proud of this week is the way the sequence and interview linked together. It was edited together in a very interesting way, including some good cutaways. I really like the idea of hearing someone’s voice on screen before you see them. We actually used it twice in this package, doing it for the piece to camera as well, which in hindsight may have been overkill.
One thing I've learned this week is that even if I know what my pictures mean, the viewer may not. An example of this is the GV of the pig at the end of the package. For me, the bronze pig outside the Council offices is an obvious symbol of Hampshire County Council. But I quickly found that most people didn't have the same opinion. We ended the package on a shot of the pig, and looking back on it really shouldn't have. At best it had nothing to do with the content of the package, and at worst it could have been construed as an attempt to paint Council bosses as swines.
A pretty successful week, but a lot to work on.
No comments:
Post a Comment