The Big Interview - Diane James

In a WINOL exclusive interview, UKIP’s Diane James stated that other than its stance on Europe, the party is still working on its policies regarding other issues.

Since February, MEP candidate, Tim Aker has been developing the parties policies which will be announced “as and when it suits” UKIP before the General Election in 2015.

When it comes to current issues such as energy prices and economy, Diane stated that she is happy to sit back and watch the larger parties “battle it out”.

The Waverly Councillor also expressed her disgust against the Conservatives “illegal immigrants go home” posters calling them “abhorrent”, and stated that if UKIP were successful in the General Election they would not use such tactics.

WINOL - Week 4 - Vince Cable Energy Package

WINOL Week 4 -

On the Friday I managed to grab a quick interview with Business Secretary Vince Cable. I was pretty certain that I wouldn't be able to speak with him,as every other news organisation had booked a set slot with him, so I had the intention to grab some candid shots of him at the event and treat it similarly to my coverage of Nick Clegg. But as he walked away from the BBC my journalism training took over and I threw him a question regarding the energy price hikes, and thankfully he answered!

At Mondays news meeting Harry (this weeks News Editor) decided that we had to try and fit Vince Cable into the bulletin as he is a big name which would attract viewers, so I focused on turning it into a full package. My initial intention was to get a case study of an elderly resident to give the story a more local angle, however after knocking on many doors I eventually got the message that this was not going to happen.

As this was going to be a picture weak package I worked on making graphics to give it some more life. I also got in contact with British Gas to get their response to Vince Cables statement and they chose to send me a generic press release. Another tactic I chose to use to help get pictures for this story was "fair dealing" of a British Gas advertisement.

This weeks Guest Editor was Graham Bell. Angus Scott returned to WINOL aswell, so alongside Ian Anderson, we were spoiled for choice when it came to industry experts.

Graham Bell and Ian Anderson both said that my package was just missing one shot; Vince Cable arriving. His arrival would have provided me with the perfect set up shot so it was a real shame I didn't get it. Graham Bell used a Great British Bake Off analogy of Francis's picnic bake being "10 minutes away from perfection", my package was one shot away from perfection.

I had taken a lot of footage of Vince Cable throughout the day with the intention of using them for cutaways, however due to the colour difference between that and my interview footage, it wouldn't have made sense, so I chose to stick purely to the interview shot. My package also needed another shot to fill the time before the graphic, as it paused to white for an awkwardly long time. Graham Bell and Angus Scott were both quite pleased by my use of NAT SOT at the beginning and end of my package, which I was slightly worried was going to be bordering on cheesy.

Vince Cable slams energy companies over price hikes

Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable, has slammed energy companies for blaming price hikes on green taxes.

Mr Cable told Winol: “There are green taxes and there are obligations on companies to help low income families with conservation but it’s not straightforward or honest to pretend that this is the cause of the big increase.”

British Gas has announced it will increase its prices by 9.2% from 23 November. They stated three reasons for the price hike; wholesale prices, improvements to pipes and wires, and the cost of complying with government programmes.

Vince Cable accepted that wholesale prices had played a big part in the increase.

But the Lib Dem minister said that energy companies were still not being transparent enough with customers.

WINOL Radio - Week 1

This week was the first week of podcasting and it went a lot better than I expected. Although we only managed to get one podcast completed by the Tuesday deadline it has set a very good template.

I was very impressed by Karina and Emma's podcast and Emma definitely has a voice for radio! There are just a few tips that could help make their next podcast even better; explain Turandot a little at the beginning. As you are discussing such a niche topic some of your listeners may not know what Turandot is, so you could have benefited from giving a brief piece of information so that they can really appreciate your review. You could also make a bit more of the opera singer, she really injected some life to the podcast and she is one of us so it would have been nice for you to have highlighted that a little. Maybe consider bringing her in for an interview sometime in the future also.

I decided to give the New Winchester Review podcasts a different bed and intro/outro than every other features podcast as I felt that you were reaching for a different target audience so needed something a little less cheesy and a little more classy.

Over all I am very pleased with how this week went and I look forward to seeing what we come up with next Tuesday.

Podcast Advice

It is still very early days so over time it is very likely things will change, but for now I am trying to keep it as simple as possible.

•   Make it timeless – The podcasts will be treated as a weekly digest. They will go up on the website on Tuesday, and stay there until the following Tuesday. This means it is incredibly important to ensure that your podcast is timeless. Your podcast needs to be as relevant on Sunday as it was when it was first put up on Tuesday.  Avoid making it too topical or too centred around current events as these will date quickly.
  
•  Keep your podcast to around 3 minutes - People get bored easily and struggle to stay focused when they are listening to one voice. The best way to keep a podcast interesting is to use sound bites and clips of interviews, as these break it up and help to refocus your audience. This also helps your attract your audience, if you advertise the fact you have an “exclusive interview” with someone, then more people will be inclined to listen to your podcast. Unfortunately none of us are as interesting as we would like to think, so unless you are Stephen Fry, try to keep your talking down to 45seconds as studies have shown that people tend to zone out after that point. Another tool you can use is having more than one presenter on the podcast, the back and forth banter and communication helps to give a podcast a bit of life. This leads me onto my next point.
  
•  Use your personality!  - Give your podcast some character. Unlike WINOL you do not have to be objective, you can be yourself and the more you put that across the more the audience will like you.
  
• Give your podcast a running order - This is a list of all of the things you intend to discuss during your podcast and it helps you to avoid lulls and stops your podcast going off on a tangent.
  
•   Make sure you don’t waffle -  Keep what you have to say to the point, people don’t care about what you had for breakfast, keep your podcast focused.
  
•  Only keep in the good bits - When you’re editing your podcast this is your opportunity to take out those rambling moments you may have had or any of those technical glitches. Use stings and beds to make your podcast as polished as you can. The more professional it sounds the better. 

WINOL - Week 2

This week was a bit of a disaster for politics. It started off strong but it very quickly all went downhill.

I had managed to get myself and Alex Delaney (Political Correspondent) invites to UKIP’s announcement of their MEP (Members of European Parliament) candidates. This would have made a very strong package as we had a guaranteed interview lined up with Diane James, and there was a good likelihood that we would have managed to grab Nigel Farage as well. I had the whole package laid out in my mind, I knew exactly what shots I wanted and how to structure them. I was feeling confident that this would make a great first package to prove my worth in my new role as Political Editor.

It seemed to be going far too smoothly, so I was less than surprised when I was informed on the evening before that the event was cancelled. I immediately got on the phone to Christina Michaels who was our News Editor for the week and began apologising.  

On Tuesday morning I then began chasing down other stories, but we couldn’t find a strong enough story to make a package on such a short deadline, so instead Alex and I got on with making an OOV belt. I followed the UKIP  story through as they announced their MEP candidates on their website, so I used my archive footage from the Eastleigh by-election and created a graphic to try and make my OOV as visually interesting as possible.

The WINOL bulletin overall was very good this week and clearly demonstrated that the second years are flourishing in their new roles.  Ian Anderson gave a lot of constructive criticism, such as don’t use words or terms that you don’t understand. If your interviewee starts using technical language ask them to explain it in layman’s terms otherwise the viewer will get confused and tune out.  The schools package was very good as they had managed to get into a school and work around the problems of identification, however it could have benefited from a wider range of creative shots, for example using soft focus. The main point he stressed was that you should be certain of your top line when you approach your story, and you should always have your top line before you write your script. If you don’t know what your story is, how can you expect anyone else to understand it?

WINOL - Week 1

Guest Editor: Ian Anderson

The main point Ian pushed was that rehearsing is essential, and this week production were very well organised. As most of the production team are new to the role this semester you would be forgiving if they weren't keeping to the minute, but they worked like a well oiled machine.

As a rule of thumb you should always check and double check your package to make sure there are no black holes or awkward jump cuts. Pay attention to your framing, make sure there isn't anything in the shot that shouldn't be there and make sure that you're placed correctly (not creeping off screen).
The first ten seconds of your package are the most important. You need to make an impact as this is the moment when you are most likely to lose your audience, so grab their attention!

Flu package- this was visually a very interesting package, there were some great shots which is what you need for good TV. The PTC could have been improved by doing it on location, get in a lab coat and prove you were there.

University league table - Very good story but needed some slightly more creative shots. Investigate the universities policies on privacy and try to film the hustle and bustle of students. Also its a good rule to try and avoid filming in front of a window.

Scam package - good court story, presenting was a little fast but it was a very nicely framed PTC outside of court. The statement needed to stay on screen slightly longer just to give the audience an opportunity to read it fully.

OOV- warship story was a very good story and could definitely make a package in the coming weeks once there is more to access. The elderly story made a nice oov but the interview needed to be a little longer just to get more of an idea who the lady speaking was.

Keep about three shots per oov, any more gets difficult to watch. Try to avoid hitting a change of shot at the end of the script as it can feel too abrupt.

Climate - Nice camera work, just needed a few more shots so that there was more to choose from when editing. Very good piece to camera.

Minecraft - Really well done package, started with the natural sound of the game, very comical presenting.