Question Time at the University of Winchester

On Monday the 19^th of April the University of Winchester hosted a local version of the nationwide known Question Time – the first university ever to host a local event like this. The event was hosted by the university’s vice chancellor Joy Carter who during the one hour show took on the role of David Dimbleby, making sure that everyone got a chance to speak about the subjects of the evening. The questions were given by the public after Joy Carter had started the hour off with the first question of the night. The politicians involved, Michael Mates (Conservative), Alan Whitehead (Labour) and Sandra Gidley (Liberal Democrat) all had a fair deal of questions to deal with and a chance to react to the public’s questions about everything that concerns them, both locally and nationally. Also by their side was the editor of the Daily Echo, Ian Murray, who participated as the non-political part of the show, trying to get the public’s general view through to the politicians as an hour is unfortunately not long enough to get an equal chance for everyone to speak their mind and ask their questions to the different parties.

To be able to organise this event, our tutors seemed to work day and night to get everyone to appear at the same place at the same time, and the final product turned out very well. We managed to put this hour together by using six cameras, four static ones and two handheld which Veronica Frydel (year 2) and Catherine Hayes (year 2) handled very nicely. James Kenyon (year 3), Paul Carrett (year 2) and Shira Pinzcuk (MA student) operated the static cameras and made sure there were tapes around when the cameras decided to run out of it. Andrew Giddings (year 1) and I operated the two gun mics, which was a completely new experience for both of us as we have never operated them during a live event with such a big(ish) crowd before.

Also there to sort out the sound and other technical things, such as lights, was Chanin Lloyd (year 2) and the staff at the university, Chris Horrie, Angus Scott and Brian Thornton. It was a great experience as I have never been doing anything like this before, the closest I have come is doing the news packages every week, but that is nothing similar to this. With them you have got a good few chances to re record and make sure you get what you want out of an interview and the angle you want to give your story. This is all a one time only opportunity and if you don’t get it there and then you will never get it. Thanks to this opportunity I feel a great deal more confident in dealing with live television, even though it was just a first time chance, and hopefully I will be able to do similar things during the next year of my course as it gives me good experience to take with me for the future.

The event went online last night, Tuesday the 20^th of April, on our website, WINOL, and will be there for you to watch and make up your mind on how to cast your vote for the election.