WINOL Weeks 1-5

I think it’s safe to say that moving into second year was a shock to the system for everyone studying Journalism. The comfort of regular lecture times and the structure of learning information that you would have to relay at some point throughout the year has long gone. We are now deep in the world of being real journalists, which all depends on self-motivation and a constant intake of coffee.

As a member of the production team working on WINOL (Winchester News Online)we are saved from the panicked Mondays which reporters have to go through as they try to get their story organised for Wednesday. Every Monday morning everyone meets for the WINOL de-brief during which we are taken through the highs and lows of the previous weeks bulletin and given a hearty dose of constructive criticism, after all we are constantly striving to make our output better. On a Tuesday the production team comes in early to set up the TV Studio and we then produce Sportsweek. We use any spare time we have to help others with filming or work on the other roles we have, for example I am also a member of the features team and I am the Radio News Editor.

Wednesday comes and the pressure is on. We come in early to set up the TV Studio, and once every button and every switch has been turned on we then return to the news room to collect the headlines from the reporters. We then pre-record the headlines with the presenter, after which we return to the news room and become incredibly irritating for the reporters as we badger them all for their final packages. As soon as we have the finalised script and everyone’s packages we rehearse the bulletin as many times as we possibly can and try to fix any of the problems which will inevitably arise, before we go out as live at 3.00pm. The bulletin is then published online for 5.00pm

Every week our roles change on production so you have a chance to try your hand at everything. The roles within production are; Director, VT Machine, Vision Mixer, Autocue, Sound, and we also always have someone stand on camera so they can communicate with the presenter if the presenters talk back fails for whatever reason.

Here is a week by week recap of WINOL including what role I was in and how it went:

Week 1: Autocue
This was our first WINOL of the year and it definitely felt as though we had been thrown in the deep end. I never thought that the autocue would be too difficult, and when I practised without a presenter it seemed simple. However once the presenter sat in front of the camera I found it became much more difficult, as you have to keep with the speed of the presenter and make sure it’s in the correct place for when the camera goes back to them after a VT. Unfortunately we did not go out on time at 3.00pm which was mainly due to it being our first WINOL of the year and those of us that were new to WINOL were not used to the time constraints we have to stick to.

Week 2: DirectorI cannot deny that I was terrified when I was told I would be directing, but I’m also a firm believer that if you don’t give something a go as soon as the opportunity arises, your fear of it will only increase over time. I was right to be scared as there is a lot of responsibility being the director. You have to keep the gallery calm and under control whilst making sure you cue them and the presenter at the correct times. We were ready to go out at 3.00pm however unfortunately we made the error of forgetting to put a tape in so we had to go out at 3.05pm. There were also issues in post-production which meant that the presenter’s links had to be re-filmed out of the studio.` 

Week 3: Vision MixerThe vision mixer was one of the roles I enjoyed more however it didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. I cut out of a VT too early so we had to re-film part of the bulletin. This week we managed to go out at 3.00pm.

Week 4: VT Machine
This was the first time I had ever used the VT machine and in my opinion it’s one of the easier roles, as long as you make sure in advance that the packages are lined up in the correct order as they are on the script. The main issue with the VT machine is that sometimes the packages won’t work so they come up with a big red X when you put them in. However this is easily resolved by re-exporting them on that computer in Final Cut 7. This week we went out at 3.00pm.

Week 5: VT Machine
By this point I was very comfortable using the VT machine as I had also been in that role earlier in the day, during the American Election live broadcast. This was our smoothest week production-wise and we went out at 3.00pm.