TV Masterclass - the do's and don'ts...

So, just a few important points made at the TV Masterclass

Overall:

contact book - contacts, relations - not only phone calls, face to face contact will give you more information and more detail straight away

targeted audience - think WINOL land - 500 viewers would be the golden target

be more ambitious than last year since were a bigger team - team work absolute vital!

Generally: sport - men, feature - women (balance)

Bulletins:

put work in before monday morning - always bring at least two stories - it's about people not an issue

press officers will not help you and call you back and won't be helpful

talk to the affected people first - for example the Union if job cuts - then council

hit problems and overcome them = success

no need to explain how we've done things or haven't been able to do something

we are journalists

persistance!

right place right time!

you need to write text stories and have photo to go with it this semester and publish on the site alongside with the VT

Harry Evans book! to get the style right

take still photos when you're out and about

fight for your stories to get them in the bulletin and justify why you want it in there

prep before output - watch and scrutinise daily TV bulletins - half hour every day

running order - why to put which story in what order - think of your audience (1,2,3 story)

organisation of bulletin

balance

reporters - hero reporter/presenter that you respect, story crafter

deconstruct, interpret and use in your own work

listen to links (!) - worst aspect at minute - ours are being overlooked at minute - not least important - explain it in link prior to it

*start piece with natural sound - not through reporter

*conflict = story = angle

*develop a story

*soften things - it makes things more natural

*humanise/personalise the story

*change camera around to get different angles for same shot (sequence)

*framing - we shoot in thirds

*best picture first to engage people in your story

*don't start with PTC (piece to camera)

*no guilty signs

Phrases to ban:

I couldn't find a story/feature (- lots of stories going all the time)

I want to do a story about the ... recession (worse than 1)

you have to talk to actual real people, most read papers - especially local ones, listen to radio stations, bulletins

I couldn't do the story cause they didn't ring me back - you can't be passive as a journalist

too little too late - don't use

remains to be seen - don't use

I spoke to (name)... / I'm at (place)... - don't do - use captions

Targets:

women sport and other sports (not only football) better mix

not rely on highlight packages every week

one featured team from campus in bulletin each week

cultivate sport

Production:

a bit more ambitious with production - especially since we've got the tricaster now so use it more from outside the studio (OB's preferably 1 a week etc)

work on projects, not only the bulletin, such as updating the intro, the look at the show, green screen

team has to get trained in using Joomla (CMS - content management system)

and also some Flash training to be able to make headers and such on website

Features:

a lot more pictures, photography, think visually!

feature program to go on back of WINOL bulletin

booker - someone to book guests etc - maybe a first year student?

need to be more fun and eye catching

cross pollination between departments to promote each other

Internet and all its wonders...

Joomla and Module managers, Quicktime and Final Cut Pro, Youtube and Bandwidth, Livestream and Autopilots... Gaaw!

Do you feel like it's just not your thing? Well, here's my attempt to clarify some bits and pieces for you:

JOOMLA

this is a leading open source Content Management System (CMS) platform which enables us to post items, update and change, and finally upload them to our website. It enables us to work with our text stories, and keep our website looking simple and nicely constructed, which makes it much easier for the readers to come and enjoy their stay.

Basically, use your login and your password details that you have obtained earlier (the same ones you use when logging and handing in your story) here to get started. (You need to be an administrator to be able to do this, which the production team and the editors should now all be selected as - let me know asap if it still doesn't work for you and we will sort it out!)

Once logged in you've got eight different colourful icons to choose from. We are going to pay most attention to three of them; Add New Article, Article Manager and User Manager.

Add New Article: this is the option that we've had access to since we started, and all it does is basically to upload your new stories, articles and features into the wonderful world of Joomla. They will then stay here until the subeditors, and the editors have proof read them and confirmed that they are fair and accurate and then finally tick the box and upload them to Winol. So, as an author all you really do have access to is posting stories, but not uploading or editing them once they're posted - this is what the production team and the editors will do on Tuesday afternoons between 3-6pm - and therefore the deadline for the written stories from all journos is on Tuesday's at 3pm.

Article Manager: Through this option the subs and the editors can proof read and edit the articles that have been uploaded. The articles not yet published on the website will still have a red cross right next to them which indicates that they are hidden from the public, and should also say Ready for Production in the headline which means they've been put on their and the author is happy with it. Once a sub editor has proof read - that is, checked grammar, spelling mistakes, made sure names are correctly spelled, football scores etcetera correct and so on - you have to remember to save what you have done and add Ready for Publishing and your initials in the headline which indicates that it is now time for the editors to have a final read through before publishing.

If you discover spelling mistakes and such, Change - but if there are bigger problems that needs changing, contact the journo responsible for the article and make sure they change it ASAP! The articles should be around 200-250 words, except if there is a big investigative article, or a featury kind of article.

User Manager: In this menu you will find everyone that has registered with our website and their rank within the system, what they can and can't do. As I already said, everyone should now have their right 'title' here but if anyone is unsure about this, do ask and I will look at it. An administrator can change the 'title' if the person is ranked lower than him or her, but not the other way around.

Also, when you first log in and arrive on the frontpage, you have the option Extensions --> Module Manager up top of the page. Through this you can change the appearance of the website - where you want the header, the ticker, the video output etcetera. Chris will talk more about this in the following lectures but an example can be found here.

Enough about Joomla for today. Tomorrow, Livestream.