Paul and I have planned to produce a studio based feature show, presenting our best packages and having a guest to comment on the pieces. This week's special guest: Laura Barton, feature writer for the Guardian
WINOL Life with Laura Barton, Part 1Most of my team members worked hard and delivered beautiful packages or redone the ones I requested.
We planned the show to be in style of The One Show on BBC, with Paul and I as main presenters.
It would take half an hour and our special guest was Laura Barton. Feature reporters to be on the sofas to talk about their work would be Katie and Claire (Wine tasting feature), Justyna (£20 Food challenge), Thom (Keats Anniversary) and Jake (Christmas in Winchester feature).
15 minutes of the show would account of the VTs and other 15 interviews and chats in the studio. We planned to record it on Wednesday as soon as Laura Barton comes in (around 12), then finish of with nice intro edited in and polished any technical glitches before uploading onto youtube.
As I mentioned before the most difficult was part organisation of the studio and the gallery. I had to be a big part of the production process, setting up the studio (sofas, camera angles etc.) as there was not enough people in the production team to do so. The few that were there tried their best but there was just not enough man power to have it run smoothly and that effected in lack of rehearsals. However as you can see on the film we show no sign of stress and the ending effect came out to be quite successful.
Paul and I researched into Laura Barton's work to be prepared and knowledgeable and make the script reacher for our special guest. On Wednesday Tomek and Paul polished and completed the script while I was finishing of preparation of the studio.
At the end we were overwhelmed with Laura's feedback at the end and I spoke to her after recording the WINOL Life on Wednesday:
Part of the editors role is to know how we can put it on the page and look out on the legal side of the stories or features, and it is really looking up for some of us as the WINOL as some of us are growing into great professionals. It is hard to believe that it is one week before last till I finish working for Winol and it will certainly be a sad moment for me to end the project.
Other things that I decided to do this week was to turn two of my photoessays into features Wales Photographed Feature and Scotland Photographed Feature (you can also click here to go to another post with these two features: Wales and Scotleand Photographed Features).
Going back to my weekly routine of Feature editor's job, Monday morning was not starting of well as not many members of my team was in. My concerns about commitment levels grew from the last few weeks. I spoke to Charlotte, managing editor at WINOL last week and said that I was going to have a chat with my whole group about the levels of involvement in my team and asked her to take part in the Monday's meeting. On the not so nice side of this week I had to give an unpleasant speech to my team regarding few points which were directed separately at different members of the team. The reason of me doing so was that I was trying to reming them that this is our chance to practice, learn and make mistakes and if we don't use it now there will be no more room for error or re-doing in the world of journalism. It is important that they realise that they do it for themselves not to impress me or our tutors, they have to realise that if they avoid doing work that will reflect in their lack of skill and knowledge, bad marks and eventually smaller chance to break through in the industry after finishing the degree.
The points are purely a constructive criticism that is meant to motivate some of the members of my team a little bit more and remind them that they are not letting themselves down but also the whole team. Winol is not only meant to develop individual's personal skills but teach working within a team as that will be mostly what we will be facing after leaving university. I already spoke to most of the members of the team that should only pick out the points of further improvements and the ones that were non present would understand that other points would be directed at them. So the individual points are directed at individual members if the group:
- absence on the de-briefs on Monday mornings
- missing out on days at winol - avoiding work
- lacking in bringing own ideas (most of the time I have to appoint them tasks and tell them ideas and how to do them)
- need to speed up with editing as the deadlines keep being extended
- when editing in two's or doing a film and article in twos try to have one person working on one thing and other on another thing to meet the deadline
- not all of the members come to the features meeting on which they are meant to 'sell' me their ideas, they text a brief description or not come at all which is not acceptable in the real world of journalism, there is no way the idea will be presented well through a brief text message for example 'oh I want to do this... do you like the idea?', no that is not good enough
- And finally, a reminder - do not upload onto youtube unless I have seen it and approved it!
Other points I made were reminding them on trying to get big names into their piece; keep a weekely log of what you do and learnt at winol for the critical reflection; communicate with Jason, our photographer to come with you and take pictures to your pieces.
The last reminder was also to have all the packages chosen for the Show completed and exported onto my hard drive - TUESDAY, the end of the day.
Features my team prepared features for the show for this week and continued working on the rest of the ideas that were planned for the following week. Prepared for this week's show:
1. Thomas Hobbs: John Keats 'To Autumn'
2. Whole team involved (edited by Katie and Claire) : Who's the Hostess with the Mostess?
3. My Students demo (can be viewed in my previous posts)
4. Jake Gable - Christmas in Winchester (requested to be redone after the show-awaiting new version)
My legal concern here and what I was aware of was using a lots of GVs and possibility of having under 16s in the film and so I made sure I went through the piece carefully looking out on above. And as I thought I found few moments that children were shown - I advised either not to use it in the package or to stretch the picture so that the children are not visible (not identified). Jake did well on getting rid them, he listened and made his GVs legally correct.
Other problem here was writing a voice over in a poetic style which I knew would be quite challenging but I was hoping for the best.
Eventually, unfortunately, I decided to cut this piece out of the show as there was a room for improvement in area of voice over and I advised to not do it in a poetic style but just normal informative voice over for the following week.
5. Student Finance- Eating for a week on £20 by Justina
Film that was already done and requested to be perfected. Justina did an excellent work on that and everyone was impressed.
UPDATE FROM THE FEATURES PROMISED LAST WEEK and NEW IDEAS FOR NEXT WEEK
1. Behind the scenes of feature making film, by Justyna – not completed
2. News feature article on a historic mansion that was going to be taken down, by Gareth from news - not completed
3. Student version of the come dine with me – Who is the Hostess with the Mostess - completed
4. Restaurant Review, places to eat out for students, by Claire and Katie - decided not to complete
5. Budget Cuts article- in depth analysis of the Browne’s review by Thomas Hobbs -not completed
6. Wine tasting show in London, gonzo style feature by Claire and Katie - completed
7. Richard Cheetam, Atacama race - to be completed for week 11
8. Katie and Claire are adding voice-overs on to their autumn fashion piece - completed (planned to be used in week 11 for when Maria Melano comes over)
9. Also Thom has transcribed his interview with bishop and I listened to the whole interview to check for accuracy and that Thom informed the bishop of the purposes of the interview. I also advised Thom that I would like to see the consent in writing via email from bishop’s site agreeing for publication of the transcribed text. - consent received - piece uploaded onto website
10. Anniversary of Keits poem which was significant for Winchester by Thom- completed
11. Thom is also planning to get Steve Bishalti (bbc sports ancor) to write a comment piece on strikes at NUJ. - not completed
12. Concert of Skinnyman (English rapper) - completed
13. Justina is redoing few parts of the £20 challenge - completed
14. Jake brought an idea of setting himself up a challenge of living with a baby-doll - not completed
NEW IDEAS:
15. Thom Hobbs:
- Akala concert review and a comment piece by Akala on Current Music Industry (Deadline Wednesday week 11)
- Feature Interview with Alistair Steward from ITV- to be done for Tuesday (for the Maria Melano show)
- Adrian Howks - aliens in Winchester? Comment piece (deadline - Wednesday week 11)
16. Jake:
- Winol's version of Apprentice - (idea sent by txt message only) - spiked- sports feature that is already being done by sports team - I spoke to the sports team and they said that they do not want to give away their own idea - they want to do it themselves - spiked for Jake (kept for sports)17. Katie and Claire: Christmas Party deresses-to be done for Tuesday the end of the day18* My idea to make a behind the scenes for Katie and Claire feature making - appointed Jake to do it as I spiked both of his (txt message) ideas- I advised him to finish it of by the end of this week including little promo introducing the fact that Maria Melano is meant to be in our next week's WINOL LIFE
19. Andy:
- Feature Interview with lecturer who run through Atacama desert- deadline Tuesday the end of the day- written piece - profile on the same lecture to go with the video
- short documentary - how were the police techniques changing across the student protests- fashion - suits20. Hanna (&Justina) Christmas Gifts on law budget21. Radical Fashion - Cara: text, Hanna & Justina : video
22. Room make over - student acomodation - Cara: text, Jake;video
23. Reading list challenge - Justina
Kayleigh also produced What's on for this week:
The legal concern of mine in this film was the question of consent from a guy that is skating behind Kayleigh, I noticed that while she was editing and made sure she was aware of that. She had the permission to film. However I was communicated to that the section on What's on belongs fully to Kayleigh and that she is editor herself so I should not be having that in control. I took it on board and spoke to Kayleigh about that.
On Thursday this week there was meant to be a decision made on the issue of the tuition fees in England, Maddie and I planned to go there in the morning to film and make another documentary. Even though we both managed to even to take our Law revision lecture on Monday instead of Thursday to be able to go to London unfortunately, Maddie found out she had to work on Thursday evening and I had a very little time to arrange another person go with me. Eventually, I didn't go as it would have been unsafe for me to go on my own especially with such a huge potential for the protests to go big. I was incredibly disappointed and felt that I failed myself in a way that I wasn't in the place of 'history making', on the other side it would have been extremely dangerous for me to cover it on mu own.
Next week's plans: WINOL LIFE with Maria MELANO, editor from the InStyle magazine.
The points are purely a constructive criticism that is meant to motivate some of the members of my team a little bit more and remind them that they are not letting themselves down but also the whole team. Winol is not only meant to develop individual's personal skills but teach working within a team as that will be mostly what we will be facing after leaving university. I already spoke to most of the members of the team that should only pick out the points of further improvements and the ones that were non present would understand that other points would be directed at them. So the individual points are directed at individual members if the group:
- absence on the de-briefs on Monday mornings
- missing out on days at winol - avoiding work
- lacking in bringing own ideas (most of the time I have to appoint them tasks and tell them ideas and how to do them)
- need to speed up with editing as the deadlines keep being extended
- when editing in two's or doing a film and article in twos try to have one person working on one thing and other on another thing to meet the deadline
- not all of the members come to the features meeting on which they are meant to 'sell' me their ideas, they text a brief description or not come at all which is not acceptable in the real world of journalism, there is no way the idea will be presented well through a brief text message for example 'oh I want to do this... do you like the idea?', no that is not good enough
- And finally, a reminder - do not upload onto youtube unless I have seen it and approved it!
Other points I made were reminding them on trying to get big names into their piece; keep a weekely log of what you do and learnt at winol for the critical reflection; communicate with Jason, our photographer to come with you and take pictures to your pieces.
The last reminder was also to have all the packages chosen for the Show completed and exported onto my hard drive - TUESDAY, the end of the day.
Features my team prepared features for the show for this week and continued working on the rest of the ideas that were planned for the following week. Prepared for this week's show:
1. Thomas Hobbs: John Keats 'To Autumn'
2. Whole team involved (edited by Katie and Claire) : Who's the Hostess with the Mostess?
3. My Students demo (can be viewed in my previous posts)
4. Jake Gable - Christmas in Winchester (requested to be redone after the show-awaiting new version)
My legal concern here and what I was aware of was using a lots of GVs and possibility of having under 16s in the film and so I made sure I went through the piece carefully looking out on above. And as I thought I found few moments that children were shown - I advised either not to use it in the package or to stretch the picture so that the children are not visible (not identified). Jake did well on getting rid them, he listened and made his GVs legally correct.
Other problem here was writing a voice over in a poetic style which I knew would be quite challenging but I was hoping for the best.
Eventually, unfortunately, I decided to cut this piece out of the show as there was a room for improvement in area of voice over and I advised to not do it in a poetic style but just normal informative voice over for the following week.
5. Student Finance- Eating for a week on £20 by Justina
Film that was already done and requested to be perfected. Justina did an excellent work on that and everyone was impressed.
UPDATE FROM THE FEATURES PROMISED LAST WEEK and NEW IDEAS FOR NEXT WEEK
1. Behind the scenes of feature making film, by Justyna – not completed
2. News feature article on a historic mansion that was going to be taken down, by Gareth from news - not completed
3. Student version of the come dine with me – Who is the Hostess with the Mostess - completed
4. Restaurant Review, places to eat out for students, by Claire and Katie - decided not to complete
5. Budget Cuts article- in depth analysis of the Browne’s review by Thomas Hobbs -not completed
6. Wine tasting show in London, gonzo style feature by Claire and Katie - completed
7. Richard Cheetam, Atacama race - to be completed for week 11
8. Katie and Claire are adding voice-overs on to their autumn fashion piece - completed (planned to be used in week 11 for when Maria Melano comes over)
9. Also Thom has transcribed his interview with bishop and I listened to the whole interview to check for accuracy and that Thom informed the bishop of the purposes of the interview. I also advised Thom that I would like to see the consent in writing via email from bishop’s site agreeing for publication of the transcribed text. - consent received - piece uploaded onto website
10. Anniversary of Keits poem which was significant for Winchester by Thom- completed
11. Thom is also planning to get Steve Bishalti (bbc sports ancor) to write a comment piece on strikes at NUJ. - not completed
12. Concert of Skinnyman (English rapper) - completed
13. Justina is redoing few parts of the £20 challenge - completed
14. Jake brought an idea of setting himself up a challenge of living with a baby-doll - not completed
NEW IDEAS:
15. Thom Hobbs:
- Akala concert review and a comment piece by Akala on Current Music Industry (Deadline Wednesday week 11)
- Feature Interview with Alistair Steward from ITV- to be done for Tuesday (for the Maria Melano show)
- Adrian Howks - aliens in Winchester? Comment piece (deadline - Wednesday week 11)
16. Jake:
- Winol's version of Apprentice - (idea sent by txt message only) - spiked- sports feature that is already being done by sports team - I spoke to the sports team and they said that they do not want to give away their own idea - they want to do it themselves - spiked for Jake (kept for sports)17. Katie and Claire: Christmas Party deresses-to be done for Tuesday the end of the day18* My idea to make a behind the scenes for Katie and Claire feature making - appointed Jake to do it as I spiked both of his (txt message) ideas- I advised him to finish it of by the end of this week including little promo introducing the fact that Maria Melano is meant to be in our next week's WINOL LIFE
19. Andy:
- Feature Interview with lecturer who run through Atacama desert- deadline Tuesday the end of the day- written piece - profile on the same lecture to go with the video
- short documentary - how were the police techniques changing across the student protests- fashion - suits20. Hanna (&Justina) Christmas Gifts on law budget21. Radical Fashion - Cara: text, Hanna & Justina : video
22. Room make over - student acomodation - Cara: text, Jake;video
23. Reading list challenge - Justina
Kayleigh also produced What's on for this week:
The legal concern of mine in this film was the question of consent from a guy that is skating behind Kayleigh, I noticed that while she was editing and made sure she was aware of that. She had the permission to film. However I was communicated to that the section on What's on belongs fully to Kayleigh and that she is editor herself so I should not be having that in control. I took it on board and spoke to Kayleigh about that.
On Thursday this week there was meant to be a decision made on the issue of the tuition fees in England, Maddie and I planned to go there in the morning to film and make another documentary. Even though we both managed to even to take our Law revision lecture on Monday instead of Thursday to be able to go to London unfortunately, Maddie found out she had to work on Thursday evening and I had a very little time to arrange another person go with me. Eventually, I didn't go as it would have been unsafe for me to go on my own especially with such a huge potential for the protests to go big. I was incredibly disappointed and felt that I failed myself in a way that I wasn't in the place of 'history making', on the other side it would have been extremely dangerous for me to cover it on mu own.
Next week's plans: WINOL LIFE with Maria MELANO, editor from the InStyle magazine.
