WINOL the Second

I'm quite late on reviewing WINOL. This will be focused mostly on myself. I got my first real package done - not just an OOV like in the first practice WINOL. It was on the oncoming bus cuts and quite shabby. It was boring and aimless, but I've learnt from it. First of all, angle is more important than I thought - that is, I should prioritise having an angle. I was unsure as to how I would spin the buses story and left it too late to have one. That is, I kept thinking "I'll wait until I've got everything together before I think of an angle," which is just the wrong way to go about it. I know that now though, so by keeping it in mind I might be able to aim for more excitement in my packages right from the start.

I was unimaginative with my footage - it was all just passing-by buses. I should have gotten some empty bus stops, people walking home. Perhaps I could have walked off a bus and begun talking? Dan Mackerel was helping me with camera work, so it was entirely within our ability to do so.

My piece to camera was atrocious - I had to do about thirty takes to get it 'right', and by then I was wildly exaggerating my voice and physicality. I never brought it back to a more 'sober' level.

Another issue was the framing for my interview, a technical issue that should not have come up. If I had just spent a few more minutes with the camera I could've easily sorted these issues out. The final problem was that the camera was faulty, and I didn't realise until I came to edit all my footage. Had I checked when I'd taken it out, I could have traded it for another. I still got my package together, but the camera problems cost me about 2 hours and I couldn't hand my work over to production until 1pm. Our news editor Becky warned me that on another week that would have just had to have been dropped, the leniency would stop.

Though there were other problems, these were the main ones and what I'll work on. It was hectic, and I got no approval from my lecturers for it - though I'd've been stunned if they did approve, it was an awful package overall. One thing though - Angus said I had a bit of Robert Peston to my piece. Though I can't fix the technical and journalistic issues until I come to do my next package, this at least gives me something I can work on my own.