WINOL: Week Four 23/10/13

Due to attending an Apps Convention I didn't produce a story for WINOL this week although I was on the lookout in case there was anything there to use. Instead I produced VTs for, and presented, Winchester Access. I feel that this was a huge success.

Jack Webb and I bantered about who was supposed to be presenting as we shared the role and both had a VT each from the convention, AppsWorld. Mine was on a virtual reality gaming device called 'Omni' which was pretty incredible.

We mimicked other entertainment shows in that we took the mick out of the people there. I encountered some 'colourful nerds' dressed up in odd costumes and maybe exploited them a little but it worked as an entertainment element.

The final show was probably the best Access so far with content including: a new ballet opening in Southampton, an interview with Celia Imrie, another interview with the creator of the JCB song, as well as footage from graduation.

WINOL: Week Three 16/10/13

This week for WINOL I checked out Wolf Awareness Week. This was a bit of a departure for me as I would usually fill it with puns but I wanted to avoid using any and see where that got me.

I encountered an issue instantly in that I wasn't allowed in with the wolves. The sanctuary usually let you visit the wolves up close and personal but as it was a busy week they didn't have enough handlers to allow me to for health and safety reasons. Instead I chose to film through a fence and pass comment as to why some people may be glad that I was on this side of it.

I was hoping to leave with a news story and a feature for Winchester Access, but that fell through because I couldn't get enough access.

I opened with a pull-focus which looked good but Ian suggested that I may have had too many mid-range shots. My reasoning for this was that otherwise I would've ended up filming a fence from a distance with wolves as tiny dots on the other sides. I wanted to focus on the animals as much as possible.

In his debrief, Angus suggested that I needed to get the handlers to say why the wolves weren't as bad as horror movies have lead people to believe. Instead I opted for a quote where the handler said that working with the wolves was a "dream come true" for her.

WINOL: Week Two [9/10/13]

This was probably the toughest week I've had on WINOL, with three failed stories, a role-change and presenting the bulletin.

Story 1:

The first story I had fall through was on scientists at the University of Southampton charging a Nokia mobile phone with a lightning bolt generated in lab conditions.

This story fell through pretty quickly when the press office refused to give me access to interview the scientists. They offered me awful promotional interviews and some decent footage of the experiment to make a package out of, but I declined.

Story 2:

Although not technically ditched, this second story is about laser technology being used on planes to see through the canopies of the New Forest to spot historical formations.

The aim is to get this filmed in a couple of weeks time, with a piece to camera on the plane if possible.

Story 3:

Although this story was short-lived it deserves a mention: a new patent has emerged in America for technology that will enable couples to see the percentage chance of their child contracting a hereditary disease.

Although this is incredibly useful technology it does have it opponents - some say that it will lead to 'designer babies'.

I was going to go to the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton to get the opinions of a doctor and mothers with their children.

New Role:

After these stories fell through and my Minecraft story last week was more suited for features rather than news, it was decided that I would take on a new role that would encompass technology news when I have news and technology features (as part of Winchester Access) when I don't.

Top 5 Student Apps:

The first feature for this segment was on the Top 5 Student Apps - I had a day to turn it around. I made a list of apps and narrowed them down before getting permission to film on campus at the University.

I'm pretty pleased with the end result - there's a few things to improve on such as stumbling over my words and pronunciation of certain words, but overall I think I managed to capture the 'Xtra Factor' style that I was aiming for.

Presenting WINOL:

This was my first attempt at presenting WINOL and with this in mind I don't think it went too badly. I made a mistake in the very first link but I ploughed on through it and carried on. It was later re-recorded.

We had a few issues with the headlines and script. First of all, the original headlines seemed to libel Hampshire Police's Chief Inspector, so this was changed. We had to keep changing the script as we were going along - the last change was made in the last minute before we went live, which threw me a bit.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this first effort.

WINOL: Week One [2/10/2013]

So this was to be my first week on the News Desk - alien territory for someone who spent all of last year on sport. I've been given the Sci-Tech reporting role: anything that is science or technology based is right up my alley.

http://winol.co.uk/2013/10/worlds-largest-minecraft-map-created-in-southampton-5832

My story for this week was on the video game 'Minecraft.' A summer intern at the Ordnance Survey in Southampton had created the world's largest map.

It proved to be quite a talking point in the news conference as some people were unsure whether it counted as news or whether it was just an impressive feat by someone with a little too much time on their hands.

I fought valiantly for my story, arguing that Minecraft is played by 33million people worldwide and as far as student publications go, they could do far worse than reporting on the latest student phenomena.

It's easy for anyone to see that this story isn't hard news but I pitched it as an 'and finally,' and after much deliberation it made the bulletin.

Ian Anderson pointed out a small issue with the sound during the interview where I had the microphone too far away, but was impressed by the story overall, especially the use of natural sound at the beginning.

The main issue I have with the story is that it doesn't have an interview with Joseph Braybrook, the intern who created the map. His manager stepped in as he is now back at university. He hasn't done any of the press for the map and I could not get his contact details. I aim to improve the story by adding an interview with him at a later point, replacing Graham Dunlop.

http://www.winol.co.uk/winolarts/tom-clancy-a-life-in-literature/

This week saw the death of best-selling author, Tom Clancy. I saw a news-peg here and created a feature on the life of the author for the New Winchester Review.