WINOL Reflection - Week Five

This week did not go as well as the previous one.



I've been quite unwell for a while and, coupled with the loss of my phone and no money to replace it, I wasn't as on the ball over the weekend as I should have been. I missed a court case on Monday morning that looked as though it could have been quite interesting. I rang up to see if there was anything coming up the next day or Wednesday that I could sit in on, and there was nothing that I could use. From there on I had no more luck in trying to find a story - everything led to a dead end, and Chris's idea about chasing up local authorities and lawyers to see what they thought of the legal aid cuts was surprisingly difficult; I could not find anyone who would agree to an interview before my deadline. I had a statement from the Taxpayer's Alliance backing the cuts, but I could not find anyone to balance it.

As I was essentially twiddling my thumbs while still looking everywhere for a viable story that could be shot and edited before the ever impending deadline, I decided to help everyone else out as best I could. I went with Tom to help him film his interview with the media lecturer about the 'zombie symposium' and went to town with Lou to help him film some GVs for his piece.

Lou did very well and had found two stories this week, one about a drop in university applications and another about the council's plans to install cameras in the meeting halls - the only problem was that he could not be in the bulletin twice, and so I agreed to voice the latter story. I used the footage Lou already had to stitch the story together, but we unfortunately found that one of the balancing interviews was completely unusable due to a problem with the tape. To balance the story, I went out on the Wednesday morning to do a piece to camera in front of the Hampshire County Council building in which I read out a statement from the chairman.

My piece to camera was poor, as my voice apparently seemed almost mocking of the Chairman's statement to the point where the balance of the story was thrown in to doubt. I didn't sound like I had enough authority. I was unaware that this is how I come across and will work on that in the future. Holding the soggy bit of paper was also a mistake as it looked unprofessional and I should have just held my notepad instead.

My grammar was also off - it's "The Council is" not "The Council are." Such an elementary mistake is embarrassing and I'm annoyed that I didn't catch that. In future I should always double check subject verb agreement as I have made this mistake before.

Chris and Brian mentioned on a broader note that everybody's interviews were a little bit dull, and that we weren't going out to film with our story in mind. Always get a soundbite is now as important as always making sure you get an interesting headline picture. I think this is a good rule to stick to as it'll make the whole process much less complicated.