Week 1, WINOL 10/02/10, EDITION 1
Being in a Production team demands a lots of preparation of the studio and proofreading of written stories to make them ready for publish on the website (Joomla). On Tuesday all the necessary equipment has to be booked, like radio microphones for the studio and Auto-Queue as well as OB Kit. I also had to remember to purchase DV tapes for the recording. Wednesday consisted of preparation of the studio, lights, Green Screen and also making sure of all the equipment working properly and setting the table for news and sports presenters.
Our reporters seemed to be fairly relaxed and I could hardly sense that they are under pressure, which was a slight worry. Having experienced News Reporter’s role in a previous semester I knew how crucial deadlines are and how important it is to plan in advance and be organised and focused on the role. Having had a little bit experience in News reporting before, it will be important to be ready to help those who are trying themselves out as reporters for the first time. In between preparation of the studio and proofreading we were happy to go out and help reporters with their filming or editing just like we could rely on year three students in the same matter in the previous semester.Unfortunately, it was easy to notice that some people were not taking their roles seriously and the commitment and awareness of importance of deadlines varied. We certainly have to be focusing on our own roles more. Our approach has to be a lot more professional and we need to learn to adjust to our new roles. As a team we ought to trust each other and learn not to interfere in each others’ responsibilities.
One of the biggest mistakes of this week’s edition was lack of communication between WINOL team members and interfering in other people’s roles which had a very negative effect on output of our bulletin. Our Script had no in- or out- words of the packages, which made my and Producers role extremely difficult. Being a Vision-mixing person working closely with the producer, I pretty much had to be guessing when to mix vision with VTs and when to switch it into presenters in the studio. Also, due to sound issues in the packages it was very difficult to make out when the VTs were finishing, all that and lack of the same sign- offs (Winchester news Online, Name, Surname) in the packages made it impossible to guess when to switch from a VT onto presenter in the studio.It did not help having our Producers’ authority undermined by other members of the team. The frustration and disorganisation in gallery made a tense and confusing atmosphere, which certainly did not help to focus and stay calm. It all affected everyone’s performance, mine effected in many black-holes in vision mixing which I am very disappointed about.
My role within production varies depending on the needs. It is equally difficult to what I was doing last semester but the intensity of it is spread in a completely different way. It is very much dependent on everyone else’s performance while recording the bulletin. Remaining calm and focused as well as being good observer is essential, as well as being flexible and open for suggestions for the best interest to our bulletin.
Being a reporter was stressful because of the pressure put on us from our editor and competition to win time on air. However, it did not always affect the final output of the whole bulletin and therefore it carried less responsibility. In the worst case scenario, my story would be cut out from the bulletin and replaced by a better one. Being a Sub Editor in Production team, and working close with the Producer always affects the whole bulletin and therefore the whole WINOL website. The amount of responsibility makes up for unequal spread of stress throughout the week. There is hardly room for mistakes; in fact, there should be none, whereas being a reporter, there is more tolerance for individual mistakes.As we heard in our feedback there was luck of strong leadership and the commitment levels varied extremely. We took around 7 attempts to record bulletin which is, in a real life unacceptable, it should have been one shot, one chance to record it. We have to trust each other and stick to individual roles better, as well as be well organised. We had many chances to get it right and we still managed to fail to deliver a good bulletin. Reasons for it are described above as well as that we all are facing new roles that we all need to learn, and it is natural we will be making mistakes before we get it right.
Additionally, I feel that we may need around four weeks before we get more confident with our roles and gain better understanding before we change for the new roles again. From now on, we can only see our bulletin getting better and make progressive improvements within our roles effecting in producing not only a better technically but also content wise news.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
Multimedia Production: WINCHESTER NEWS ONLINE
Semester 2 WINOL 10/02/10, EDITION 1
