WINOL debrief & Absolute:ly 02/12/13

WINOL bulletin

Last week there were a few production problems which meant that the bulletin did not go out on time. Although this is not technically our fault it does affect the viewing figures quite dramatically as people see that the bulletin is not there and assume it is not happening.

There is still question about changing the news editor weekly. It is good to allow people the chance to experience it. However in terms of WINOL i have said previously that I personally think it would work better if the news editor was designated to one person. This would mean that they can improve each week on their role and be more organised in the way they go about it. It would also mean that the other WINOL reporters all know who their editor is so that they can contact them if they need any help. It would be a good idea to have a shadow editor weekly to still allow people the chance to experience being the news editor however they would work alongside the main WINOL editor.

In regards to features the new website is slowly beginning to come alive as people are moving their work across from the individual sites. By having one big magazine it makes it easier for the editor to see what is going on contents wise. It also means that magazines all seem to be updated even if one magazine is producing a lot more than others. I think that the images need to all be stronger both on the front page and in individual articles. Features should be image lead and by having a strong image it will engage the audience and get them to look at your article. Using an image to illustrate and decorate the site is not the type of images we want as they do not do anything visually e.g: the Google image. I also think it would be a good idea to have the individual twitter accounts featured on the front page of the magazine. At the moment it is all tweets from WINOL news that does not relate to the content in the magazine or show people what else is in the magazine and a link to it.

The WINOL website has a good layout and the quality of the writing is very good. We now have a better process of subbing stories which is good and works well for the site. The site is starting to become updated but this needs to be kept up especially over the weekend; even if it is just with sports stories. Social media needs to improve for WINOL as the followers since the start of the semester haven't really improved. Tweets need to be updated more regularly about what is coming up on WINOL and the sorts of stories people are going to be producing. It needs to reach out to the public more by using tags and tweeting about people you interview which they can them re-tweet and be seen by all of their followers. We could have WINOL campaigns and leaflets to hand out around the campus or locally to get people to recognise us and get involved. Images for the text stories on the site could improve which would make the whole front page look better.

The website that beat us at the BJTC awards, Lincoln website does not contain content like ours. The stories do not make sense and are not written correctly. Their images aren't good at all such as the image of an empty football stadium. They have used a posed PR picture which doesn't look right as there is no point of the image.

It looks as if they have lifted quotes from other websites as the quotes are perfectly punctuated and contain phrases such as 'he said in a press conference'. They also have long quotes that they could not have written down themselves in short hand. If this is the case, there are no accreditation on the quotes, they even use football footage from the likes of Sky and the BBC instead of getting their own footage.

Ray Gosling sadly passed away lately and we looked at some of his gonzo style journalism. He was very good at doing PTC and using the style of his voice to interest the audience and want them to watch. His typical audience was the elderly as his programmes used to be on during the day. He basically invented the use of sequences that are effective and keep us wanting to know more.

His scripting is very good for features and the bend in the words makes an interesting sound with his voice. He uses a drop intro quite a lot which works well in features but should not be used in news. he usually wrote about dull topics such as allotments but managed to make them interesting and appeal to the audience. In one of the clips he was holding a newspaper and simply stating that newspapers give us news and was talking about the story featured. This then linked with what his piece was going to be about but was a good way to start if you do not have a good enough image for it.

When filming in a supermarket, he got straight in there and had shots of him and the trolley as well as the checkout scanning his items. What he didn't do was spend time filming the outside of the building and describing where he was etc. This gives us very good natural sound of the scanners as well as being at the market and hearing the punters shouting their sales. At one point it included some good but humorous editing where he was made small and was sitting talking to the audience from the top shelf of a fridge. This was good as it was a different way to talk to the audience instead of having a simple piece to camera at the market.

This gave us a good idea for someone to do next semester where you go out and film yourself buying your own fruit and vegetables. You then get a chef to cook them for you in a restaurant and show the actions of them making the food and preparing it etc. You could then do a restaurant review and combine it with similar prices on the menu for the food that you bought cheaply at the market.

Absolute:ly

The modernism/ existentialism photo shoot for this semester was another great success. The photos produced were brilliant. It was a struggle in the last week leading up to the shoot as various people dropped out such as models and there was not a makeup or hair stylist sorted either. For this shoot I was trying to allow the second years to have a go at helping arrange it and see what needs to be done to complete one of these shoots successfully. I was very stressed out that the week before the shoot was due there was still no makeup or hair artist. This is because two weeks prior to the shoot I usually have everyone and everything organised so I know what is happening when. Plus, I am aware that trying to find a makeup and hair artist so near to the shoot is nearly impossible especially if you want to use a professional one like I have in the past as they are very booked up. There were members of the team that were happy to drop this shoot as it was organised. However in the last week, I managed to use my contacts to get a hair stylist and a Benefit makeup artist. 

I also had arranged for a local clothes designer to make us a simple flapper dress as we were having trouble trying to get a company to lend one to us. This dress was simple but actually looked really good in the photos and suited the design that I had asked her for perfectly. She also made us a hairband and feather bower to match which finished off the look. As for models, I think we did a great job in finding the exact style of models we wanted to pull off the look in this shoot. The rest of the clothing we had was donated to us from other sources and some were the models own clothing. We used a photographer from the university who was great in helping us take the pictures. It was harder to edit this time round as the infinity screen in the studio has been ruined meaning we had to make do with the white curtain. i think this is a big downfall for the photo shoot outcome as you really need the floor to match the background colour when editing the images. However this did not effect our shoot as the images still turned out brilliantly.

I feel that I really took control in directing this shoot to make it exactly how I had planned it to be. I chose the makeup and hair for each individual to suit their clothing style. I also directed both the models and the photographer to make sure I got the shots I wanted. I had looked at images of Malcolm X, Audrey Hepburn and researched other people as well as the eras of both the shoots. This enabled me to copy some of the famous poses that these people did to relate my shoot to the eras.

I think the shoot was a total success and I will post some of the images at the end of my blog. We are currently making a video with these images and adding in some history context. We are also making some magazine spreads using the images to make it look visually good.

We also have our Wicked makeup artist interview coming up on the site soon, as it is currently being checked by the make up artists PR to make sure it is all safe to go up on the site.

We are currently producing a video using our images from the shoot by adding music and some context of the times with the images. This will give the images some background knowledge and additional information on the inspiration of the shoot etc. We are also creating some magazine spreads using the images and adding information to make them appear more professional.