Despite significant problems that we had experienced already at the start of our rehearsals in technical aspects we managed to pull together one whole hour of the show with very few mistakes considering this was an early practice. It was rightly noticed by Paul, our Director, that Madeleine had far too much to do on the rehearsal and the decision to split the role and put another person on Vision mixing was an absolute spot on.
Before the big night came we already reached 100 views in a single day for Catherine's trailer for election night, which proved a great idea for promotion of our big night.
On the night of 6th May 2010 there was many impressive performances at WINOL. As part of the gallery team I must admit I felt that the first two hours went a lot easier than the rest of the night. We managed to plan our script well for the first two hours and the rest of the night was meant to be led as the night went. With no script and good intuition Maddie, James and I managed to pull the rest of the night together, it was not hard because we had fantastic team of reporters that we could always rely on. They gave us some time to think on the next step to take.
As our tutor Chris said, as a team we “completely outshone Kingston University who were, so far as I was aware, the only other student operation that was trying to cover the election live (…) and whatever the situation in terms of old school tie - we will have been involved in the actuality of producing journalism to a far, far greater extent and at a much better level than any other students in the country.”
We reached up 2000 unique user sessions which proves our high determination, potential and level that we are aiming at in our WINOL experience.
We all worked incredibly hard to produce Constituency Profiles, Election Issues packages and additionally some of us "Fly on the Wall" packages from the day that we spent with a politician before the election. I personally covered an Immigration issue, which I found quite challenging considering all other responsibilities as a PA Producer in preparation for the big Thursday. Along with the Immigration Issue package I was asked to make a 3min and 10min version of my "Fly on the Wall" documentary that I did on Mr Richard Benyon, who was back then a conservative candidate from Newbury. I put my best effort to fit my package editing around all the rest of arrangements for winol. I managed to produce 4 packages all together, fulfill PA duties and be where ever I was needed on the night of election coverage and joined the gallery team throughout the whole night. I enjoyed it all immensely and was happy to be part of such a successful team of production.
My package on Immigration Issue:
Graham and Tom Otrebski were absolutely superb as presenters. Claire also did amazing especially when the Autocue started playing she managed to keep calm and perform professionally. Maddie, Paul Wood and James Kenyon did wonderfully as directors and also it is worth mentioning that Rob Anderson kept on top of the sound operating even though he had’t had much practice on the sound desk before.
Stuart kept his title of the best reporter in my opinion and there were also some fantastic first attempts of reporting among OBs, we witnessed very natural and professional performances from Andrew from first year and Luke Garret from combined honours. Kayleigh did a great job with the Outside Broadcasts which was not an easy considering a faulty equipment, she stayed calm and carried the SKYPE conversions till the end.
Unfortunately, it was hard not to notice that our equipment made it difficult for most of our OBs to report back to the studio, perhaps next time we could make sure all the computers, sound, cameras (etc) an the location are properly tested to avoid technical hiccups. We can also definitely see that we should be preparing our materials like packages a lot earlier and make the ‘deadlines’ more meaningful than they still are at the moment as the rehearsal time is significantly limited otherwise. All the equipment should be checked, butteries and tapes ready for exchange.
Top of the hour reports Josh, Grant, Joey and James Fraser did definitely a top job and showed how highly skilled and professional they are. We can also definitely see that we should be preparing our materials like packages a lot earlier and make the ‘deadlines’ more meaningful than they still are at the moment as the rehearsal time is significantly limited otherwise. All the equipment should be checked, butteries and tapes ready for exchange.
The highlights if the 7 hours of our Overnight Election will be also made available through our winchesterjournalism channel. I will also post them on my blog so if you missed our big election coverage triumph you will have a chance to see the best parts of it shortly on my blog, I assure it is such peace of journalism not to be missed out on!
