Journalist
Chroma Key and Radio Two Way
On the 5th March 2020, I got the chance to do a chroma key. I was very happy about this as I enjoy presenting and I had not had the chance to do one up until this point. Knowing I had to write the script, record and edit this together for the 12.45pm bulletin was a bit daunting as I didn’t really have experience in creating a chroma key, but it was a success and my lecturer and myself were happy with the final clip I completed for the bulletin.
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When I got to the newsroom in the morning at 9am, I was told Flybe had just collapsed. This was a good story to create a chroma key on as I knew there were statistics I could add as well as important quotes. It was a big breaking news story, so I had to add a lot of information into it such as specific quotes from MP’s. For example, I included a quote from the Eastleigh MP, Paul Holmes, who I coincidently interviewed at the Eastleigh election results when he won.
Once I finished my script, I had some time free whilst waiting for my slot to film the chroma key. In this time, I planned what text I wanted to add on each part of the video, so when I was editing, I could quickly copy and paste the text to reduce the editing time.
Once the chroma key was sent over to the TV team, I began preparing a two way for the 3pm radio bulletin. For this, I reported on Flybe’s collapse and introduced an interview that the radio team did earlier on in the day. I then scripted a question that the presenter asked me. I had written a script which I followed when I was live in the studio, however I tried to make this sound as if I was talking without a script, whilst still sounding professional as this was a serious story to report on. I really enjoyed reporting on this story and it has shown me that reporting is something I would like to practise in the future. It was helpful having voice training on this day as well, because I was able to get advice about my presenting.
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Flybe report (skip to 45 secs)
“It was lovely. I thought your delivery after the clip was particularly strong as you sounded very relaxed as if you were talking without a script. Best example of this is at 2'33 when you said 'EasyJet are now offering a dedicated rescue fee...' Your pace was calm and your voice had real authority. Well done!”
Jill Sainsbury
Associate Lecturer, Voice Training
The radio bulletin was finished at 3.15pm, so I then went back up to the newsroom to help produce the last TV bulletin of the day. My job was to play the ulay clips during the live bulletin by following the script.
Journalist - Re:So
On the 20th February 2020, I was given the job of being a journalist where I went out and filmed and edited a package ready for the bulletin at 12.45pm. This seemed to be a very tight deadline considering I could only start filming at 10am, and even though it was, I still got the final video to the TV team on time for the live bulletin. I would have liked to have more time to work on my voice over and editing, but with the time I had, I am really happy with how I put it all together.​
Myself and a second year student worked on the story. Originally, we were meant to have two different stories to film at the same location and I had a plan in place for this. However, when we got to the Re:So shop, we realised we were not able to film one of them so I therefore had to think on my feet and change our plan slightly. Luckily the interview we had organised was still going ahead, which was about the clothes swap event.
I asked if the second year student wanted to try and do a bit of filming as well as the interview. I helped her through this by showing her how she could improve the shots in different ways after she gave it a go. I also asked a few extra questions at the end of the interview to get a good clip for the package.
Even though I just had to focus on the video and audio aspect now news days are different, I also took a few photos for the print team in case they wanted to use them. This was worth doing as my photo also made it to the online newspaper, along with my article.
After filming was complete, I quickly sorted through the videos and edited the best ones together, with the second year shadowing me. I then wrote and recorded a voiceover and finished editing the package ready for the 12.45pm TV bulletin.
Watching my package go out live.
After this, I helped my colleague write a script for a voice package, which was used in the radio bulletin later on in the day, with a new interview clip.
Overall, it was a successful news day and I was proud of the final video. I enjoyed showing the second year what I was doing and helped her improve her confidence with editing and filming on location.
Journalist - Southampton Congestion
I worked on many stories on all our news days this year. One of these was when Southampton had roadworks causing congestion on multiple routes in the city. News days start at 9am and we were not given the story before we arrived in the newsroom. Therefore, we made sure we went straight out to try and film as much traffic as we could, but of course we had mostly missed rush hour. This meant when we recorded the piece to camera, we adapted it to make sense with the pictures on screen.
I also recorded some clips of cars when they were stopped at traffic lights and was patient with the traffic flow to get the best out of what I had to work with.
Click on the video to see the full story.
We had someone on our team who was not too confident with the camera equipment, so I helped him out with it. He had a go at taking some shots and then I stepped in and demonstrated how to improve them. This included simple tasks such as zooming in, changing the height of the tripod and making sure the camera was level once the tripod was adjusted. I have learnt that simple changes like these, can make a difference to the quality of a video.
Whilst we were out filming, we made sure that the other member of our team was back in the newsroom working on the copy. She also put together a map of Southampton and highlighted the key routes that were suffering with congestion, which added to our multimedia package nicely to inform the reader.
Prep Story - Mockup Crime Scene at Solent University
Prep stories are an important part of our news days as it means we have one full package ready to go before the day even starts. One prep story I worked on last year was about our university. Solent University Criminology students attended an ‘as live’ crime scene to practise their crime solving skills. The news day editor that week organised for us to head to the scene. We made sure we got video, audio, pictures and copy for the prep story.
I focused on the video and audio element with a course mate.
Once we had introduced ourselves to the Course Leader organising the crime scene, we put together a plan and set up the camera equipment. We arrived just as a group was about to start the activity, so we spent time filming the students figure out what had happened at the crime scene. After this, we then got some interviews for video and audio. When setting up the video interviews, we made sure we alternated where the interviewees stood, so there was a variety throughout the video.
I took this prep story as a good opportunity to practise filming different shots. For example, I changed the focus on the camera to slowly fade onto the ‘do not enter’ sign. Little effects like this can make a video more interesting for the viewer.
This prep story was a success and it was interesting to talk to lecturers, that were former detectives, to hear about their previous experiences and how they use those to now teach students at Solent University.
Gallery
One thing I really enjoyed about news day was working in the gallery. This is something I did regularly throughout the year. I have now tried all the different roles including sound and working on the autocue.
