WINOL week 12 and Vision Mixing

This week was a rather slow news week - especially compared to last week when the ideas came in from everywhere and gave us good, quality stories. But as our guest lecturer and guest editor Andy Steggall said, you do learn so much more from these weeks when you need to actually think hard about how to angle the things you've got to get a proper story out of it.

Production wise everything worked really well this week, which was a relief for us as BJTC came to visit our university to have a look and talk around, making their minds up whether or not the course should get accredited or not. I think, and truly hope, we made a good impression as this course definitely deserves to be accredited. It is absolutely brilliant! In our run through - about 30 minutes before going live - we realised the running time was actually 46 seconds over the 10 minute golden limit - PANIC! - but everyone managed to stay calm even though I think the majority of us panicked quite a bit inside and pull it off to a spot on 10 minute bulletin. Kudos to Glenn Hutt and Catherine Hayes for working efficiently with the reporters in the news room to cut out seconds here and there and make it all manageable.

Overall the sound of this bulletin was a bit all over the place. Even though we seem to have sorted out issues with cameras, white balance, focus and framing, there is still an issue with sound that we need to work on. Not only do the packages vary in sound levels, but so does also the audio within a single package on its own - so in the future we definitely need to pay more attention to sound levels and how to get a nice audio level all the way through the bulletin.

Headlines this week were quite alright. But, another weak point is our links. Everyone are producing links for each and every week for their own packages - so the reporters should know what their stories are about and what sentences to use to link into their own packages - but still some of the links are quite dull and not capturing the viewer, making him/her wanting to watch the next story.. so it's definitely something we need to work on - it's our headline, this is where the audience decide whether they want to stay tuned or change channel!

Top story this week was Stuart's well found story about councillors rejecting a new housing development in Winchester, which had a bit of audio problems but a well made story with good interviewees and some great footage. Steggall said that this would usually not be a top story, but seeing what a slow news week this has been, it made sense to put it up there anyway.

Following this piece was Grant's story regarding the crime rate in Winchester, and how it has decreased. The link itself did not sell the story, but Grant's PTC (piece to camera) definitely did. The story in itself had to be more relevant to the actual people concerned - the people of Winchester - and it was a bit too vague, not addressing this issue properly to our audience - so we have to remember to localise the story even more and address it properly, clearly to our target audience. Also, when using library footage, make sure you either write 'library footage' (which may look a bit dull) or mention in your VO (voice over) that it is previous recorded material, by saying 'last month' or such.

Next up was James' piece on a Walk to School - this package should definitely have started with the 3rd shot in the package, which was his best shot. This way it would have drawn the viewer in right from the start. Also, since this package handles children you need to see them, and hear them since they are the main subject of this story. So, when the interview is with the adult, you should either put up the kids on the adult level so they are together in the shot on the same eye level. Or take the kid out if he or she is not talking or making a point in being in the shot.

Sports followed and this week we actually had some pictures. It started of with Jason's coverage of athletics. An absolute cracking opening sequence with a gun shot starting off one of the laps, which made the viewer jump and get straight into the piece and into the action. Unfortunately the link didn't sell the story but the opening sequence luckily did.

Followed this piece was a lovely World Cup coverage by Josh. A really good edit, with some fun added to it but it could have been even more fluffy and fun with interesting beer facts about how much lager pubs are expecting to sell in a PTC outside a pub - to make it a bit more factual, but still keep a fun twist to it, and to add some colour. The captions should have been kept longer, as the average time for a caption is 4 seconds, for people to be able to realise who he/she is and what they're doing in your piece.

And finally, Chanin brought us a piece on an art exhibition at the Discovery Centre in Winchester. A cracking link (!) with great camera work that showed off the art in a good, fun filled way - where this could actually, with the wrong footage, been quite a boring piece. The framing for the interview was a bit boring, considering all that great art was around him, and he was just placed against a wall that said nothing.

This week I was assigned the Vision Mixing role in the gallery, which means pressing the right buttons at the right time to make sure that the right content goes out live. It looks complicated, a big box with quite a few shiny buttons and black wheels to twist around, but once you get the hang of it, it isn't too hard, as long as you keep listening to the director for orders for when to change cameras or go into a VT.

Basically what you do is deciding what you want in the foreground, and what camera or VT you want to go with it. When using camera 1, 2 or 3 in the studio - which happens to be button 1, 2 and 3 (top line - foreground) - you have to combine this with button 9 (second line, green screen, background) to make sure you get the lovely WINOL live at 5 backdrop.

When going into a VT (a package) you have to press double 4's - that means button 4 (top line, foreground) which will show your package - and button 4 (second line, background) to make sure that the green screen won't show through and discolour your package as it is broadcasted.