Access Winchester Week 8 Review

In this weeks show we had my interview with Keith Chegwin in the Nutcracker on Ice at the Mayflower. We also had a report from Liam at the Beaulieu motor museum. Emma reported from the Southampton Christmas Market and we had an exclusive interview with the deputy editor of Cosmopolitan Rosie Mullender. So overall this weeks show had some great interviews and content. 

Although our christmas market report didn't reflect the same quality of content we have received from the other reports this week it was still a good attempt to produce something for a 'what's on' themed show. The pictures were weak and didn't really show off our best pictures. But on the good side we have three other great packages and we have produced another show with four packages in. 

I got some great access this week at the Mayflower theatre Southampton. This week The Nutcracker on Ice was showing at the theatre. TV personality Keith Chegwin was starring in the show as he recently went on the ITV show Dancing on Ice. The mayflower gave me press passes to the show but I directly contacted Keith Chegwin and his management who informed me Keith would do the interview. 

We also got access to film them practising for the show. 

I originally edited this package in a light hearted approach and my piece was too positive. I needed more balance and I had left his interview with too much facts and not enough comments. So I cut it back and voiced the facts in my voice and the opinions in Chegwin's voice. I did a three point list of some of the shows he had been on and used 'fair dealings' and I created a montage of clips of the shows he has appeared on. This was much more effective in my voice. 

Overall I was happy with my package this week as Chegwin was a good name for us to get on WINOL and the shots were of an ok quality. The lighting in his interview was too bright due to the lighting on the stage in the background.

We had an exclusive interview with the Rosie Mullender, deputy editor of the very successful female magazine Cosmopolitan. This was a great interview bang on with our target audience. Shona race bagged us this interview and myself and Shona Race and Georgia Spears went up to London to meet her. I was the camera man(women) for this project which i felt confident in doing so as I have been up to London four times now with the cameras for winol. It was my idea to bring a second camera for the inteview to do 'noddy's' of the interview. But this proved to be a problem in post production as when we came to edit the package we found out that we had 'crossed the line' with how we filmed this two point camera interview. 

Many problems occurred with the interview location due to lack of space in the room they gave us for the interview. I literally found the only two empty spaces in the room and put up the tripods and did so not realise that the cameras had crossed the line. This basically means that when watching the shot of Rosie and the shot of the interviewer, Georgia it didn't look natural. Georgia's eyeline was looking in the wrong direction to Rosie's.   

The camera on Georgia was also overexposed and because we didn't have anyone standing by the camera to change it we just let it run. But not all is bad... the shot of Rosie is perfectly fine. 

The interview went extremely well and Rosie gave us a load of interesting information relating to Journalism and a job in the fashion world. Unfortunately, when getting back after the interview some of the camera angles didn't work out that well so editing the footage was slightly difficult. Right now Georgia and Shona are editing an extended version of the interview to go on Journalism Now. However, a shortened version was used for the most recent episode of Access Winchester:

The Nutcracker On Ice at the Mayflower Southampton

This week I interviewed Keith Chegwin at the Mayflower theatre Southampton. He was starring alongside his ITV Dancing on Ice partner Olga only with Imperial Ice Stars for this festive show.

I bagged the interview luckily and he was very easy to interview. Giving me lots of outs for quotes.

After editing my first package I was advised to make changes. This is the final result. I am much happier with it because now it has balance. Before I think I was being too positive about the show. I had left too much 'fact' in Keith Chegwin's voice instead of my own. This time I voiced the fact and left the opinion to Chegwin. I stated what he had done during his TV career and I was told he was a cheesy character and I needed to get this across.

I like the shots that I filmed and was very happy with the access I received for this week's show. I think i'll upload a full length interview as well as this as some people might enjoy it!

Access Winchester: Week 6

Our sixth factual entertainment show, Access Winchester, featured national sausage week, Lucy Spraggan and a Coffee House Session. 

From receiving feedback about this week's show we have recognised that our packages need to be quicker and the editing in between shots needs to be sharper. The national sausage package was too lengthy. The sequences should literally just be quick flashes on the screen and we should of left Jack's talking as atmosphere sound. 

We were trying to achieve a 'come dine with me' spin on sausage week. We thought this would be perfect as it reflects the jokey/ not so serious tone that the show is about. However I think we got a bit carried away and made the package too long. 

Jack Webb presented this week and introduced the show but there seems to be a slight jump cut when we see him again outside the butchers. We didn't need to see Jack again outside the Butchers we could of just cut to the shot of him inside the butchers collecting the sausages with the narration over the top. 

On my Lucy Spraggan package I needed to use a cutaway of the interview over the top of what I was saying about interviewing her at a festival. Also when we see her in the interview I could of used an info crawl graphic about her.  But my review was fair and it allowed me to use the music video clip abiding by the fair dealings rule. 

Emma Jefferies voice over on the Coffee House Session was good. She gave a fair review of the artist and didn't just say that he was great she stated he might not be everyone's taste. The sound on the vt wasn't quite right, this may of been a post production problem because it seemed ok in editing. The sound should of dropped when Emma spoke but it didn't it dropped to late. 

We have understood the main conventions of the show and now we need to put them into practice next week. 

- Editing needs to be our focus.

- Shorter packages  (time is quality not quantity) 

Access Winchester Week 5: Halloween

This week's Access Winchester was a Halloween special. It gave us a good theme to go by. In this week's access there was mine and Emma's Ghost Walk in Winchester with the Supernatural Tours, Jack presented and told us some places to go this halloween in Winchester and Harry Parkhill did a 'Top Five Halloween Films' review, we also included a makeup tutorial from our fashion specialist magazine Absolutely, they showed us 'how to create a smokey eye.' 

Overall this week has again improved from the last. We are finally understanding the structure of this show and we have captured the right reviewing style in our packages. We have remained impartial. Rather than just promoting an event, which you feel like you have to, we are reviewing it instead. Giving our own fair opinion on it and not taking it too seriously. 

I particularly liked Harry Parkhills Halloween film review, he used fair dealing by reviewing the films and places them in a top five sequence. His presenting style is confident and fun which suits access Winchester. He also used a special feature on final cut pro called 'Ken Burns' to place the film trailer above to the side of his head. This looked really professional and reflects something you would see on TV. I would like to use this effect/style on the next review we do on Access. 

Myself and Emma Jefferies joined an organisation called Supernautral Tours Uk on a Ghost Tour around Winchester. We didn't really know what to expect from this tour.. whether or not it will be scary. Fortunatly it wasn't scary at all. Before we edited/filmed the footage from the ghost tour we knew we wanted it to look like the television programme Most Haunted. This worked well for us to study something we wanted our package to look like as we used the same conventions in our package and this worked really well. We spent a lot of time editing this package, going crazy with filters and music/sound effects. Our lecturer Chris Horrie advised us to go even more out with the special effects and add more sound effects and we really should of used graphics. The graphics would of allowed us to really take the tour not too serious. 

Me and Emma Jefferies with the mysterious figure on the Ghost Tour.

Things to focus on with our next Access Winchester:

- Make stings shorter.. this week's were too long.

- Time is quality not quantity, only give the packages the length they deserve. Our ghost tour package was too lengthy and we agreed it could of been shortened down. 

Access Winchester Week 4

App World Convention, English National Ballet 'Le Corsaire', JSB song interview,




Our fourth Access Winchester was the most successful yet. This show featured Jack and Liam presenting from the App convention 'App World' in London. The presenting style was full of humour and special effects, perfect for the style of this show.

It was great to see the apps and games from the app show.

I went to the ballet at the Mayflower. This package relied on the professional video trailer of the show. The English national ballet kindly let me use this for my review. This is an example of fair dealing.

Tips to improve my piece to camera:
- Whilst doing a piece to camera at an event like the theatre film yourself walking through the crowds. I recorded my ptc before the audience arrived. I should of filmed the ptc when everyone had arrived and they were waiting to go in. This would of made my ptc more real and interesting.

- Make sure you say the show name right! Luckily I was able to re-recorded how i said 'le corsaire' in my script over the pictures. But in my ptc I had to leave it unfortunately.

I really worked on my script this week. The original scripting sounded too positive so I was advised to make it sound like i really know what I was talking about and add balance.
So i really did add balance and my lecturer gave me a few classical oprah names to drop in. Overall I am pleased with how this sounded.

Lucy Spraggan exclusively told me she 'can't wait' to perform in Southampton next week

Former X FACTOR star Lucy Spraggan ‘Can’t Wait’ to perform at the Southampton Guildhall next week. 

21-year-old songwriter Lucy Spraggan is to perform in Southampton for the first time next week. 

Southampton is one of the many cities that Lucy will be playing at on her national tour. 

She exclusively told Access Winchester: “There are some huge venues on there so it’s been an amazing experience so far, and with venues like the Southampton Guildhall on the way I can’t wait.”

Lucy said that we can expect to hear songs we’ve heard on the show and songs from her new album ‘Join the Club.’ 

Lucy Spraggan will perform at the O2 Guildhall Southampton on the 1st November. 

Interviewing Lucy Spraggan earlier this year at a festival. 

Access Winchester Week Three

Access Winchester Review
Octoberfest, Live Mic & Coffee House Session.

This weeks Access Winchester wasn't quite there editorially. Where this is a new show we hadn't quite crafted what we wanted it to look like straight away. I'm more confident that next weeks show will be a better improvement. 

We have some jazzy new opening credits to work with. These are used in the headlines. 

In the headlines we will have four stories and the presenter will end with 'but first.' This is the first week where we have established how we want the headlines to look. Obviously the sound this week wasn't right but where we were focusing on the structure of the headlines our sound and other editorial techniques fell out of the window a bit. 

In terms of 'access' this week wasn't a strong week. Jack filmed Octoberfest in Basingstoke and the Live Mic session at a pub in Winchester and we used another Coffee House session which we shouldn't rely on every week. I think with these events its all about forward planning as we need to get in their early and for me this was my weakness this week. 

I voiced over the Octoberfest when really this package really needed a strong ptc at the event and some 'gonzo' journalism throughout. My voice over on the other hand was just describing the event. It was too positive and we need to remained balanced we shouldn't be all positive. 

The live mic was a good event as the pictures were good and its a local and free event to attend. Generally something people might want to go to. Again the vt needed a sign off and a ptc. 

I think this week as a whole was the weakest but now we have some jazzy opening credits ready and edited for the headlines everything should look a lot smoother for the next week. 

War Horse Launch

 Today myself and Emma Jefferies attended the launch of War Horse at the Mayflower theatre Southampton. 

I was kindly given this opportunity when the press officer for the theatre invited me. I have also been given tickets to the English National Ballet in two weeks time and The Nutcracker on Ice. 

I love the theatre and to be given this opportunity to report for our course's What's On show has been excellent. 

Plus the Mayflower theatre is beautiful too!

War Horse was outstanding. We heard from the Puppeteer Director Jimmy who gave us an in depth speech about how the horse puppets work. 

It's much more complicated than you think. And that is the art of pupperty. You believe the being is real. These horse puppets made for the show are very life like. 

They perform horse noises and they can even gallop and trot. The puppet mimics exactly what a horse does. 

The puppeteers have been trained in depth. They have even spent time with horses to understand their movement. 

After hearing all about the horses we amazingly got to meet Joey. The main 'War Horse.' 

He walked from the back of the theatre up to the stage. The puppet is worked by three men. One for the head. One for the front legs and one for the back. 

This truly is an art. 

At the end of the launch me and Emma were able to go on stage and interact with the horse. 

We also interviewed the three puppeteers and we interviewed the song man Tim who sings throughout the stage show. 

I couldn't tell you and everyone enough how amazed I was by these puppets. 

Today we got a tiny glimpse of how amazing the stage show is. And there is without any doubt that I would like to see this when the show is on at the Mayflower Theatre Southampton in February next year. 

The video for our what's on 'Access Winchester' show will be up tomorrow. Just you wait!

Access Winchester Week 2

Access Winchester Week 2: 

Here is our second Access Winchester of the semester. This week the show covered War Horse, Musician Ben Goddard's coffee house sessions and Liam Garraham joined us with 'The Top 5 Student Apps review.' 

The presenting by Jack Webb was spot on with how we want this show to look. It's much more relaxed and jokey and the walkie talkie style is successful. 

I particularly like the graphics used this week. It establishes the style of the show and makes it different to the news bulletin. We have established that our approach to making this show should be a features approach rather than news. 

War Horse VT feedback: 

In terms of 'access' I received some great access from the Mayflower Theatre when they allowed me and Emma to watch the launch of WarHorse which will be coming to the theatre early next year. The shots we received from this were fantastic. The puppet horse moves just like a real horse and with our front row seats we captured some great footage. The interviews we received. were also successful we got to speak to the puppeteers and the songman. 

Emma Jefferies PTC: Emma's ptcopens the vt at the Mayflower theatre. I asked her to do this as I think she is very confident in front of the camera she walks with her piece to the cameras. This is something I need to attempt. We have banned the term 'I went to' as the opening to our vt's. In news a summery introduction is used but in features we should always use a drop introduction like 'Lets take a look' 

My voice over on the War Horse VT could be improved. I understood that my voice over needs to be over the pictures to explain it. But I did too much explaining. The facts must be in my voice and the opinions should come from our interviewee's. We need quotes such as 'It's a dream' in the interviewee's voice. Never in our own voice. 

In my interviews at War Horse we showed too much of the interviewee. We needed to put our cut-away's over the top. This would of given us the chance to show off our best pictures of the horse. The interviews also needed captions to say who they are. (we shouldn't let the interviewee say who they are) 

There are many things that I need to work on in terms of editing the package. But I was happy with the access I received this week its just piecing together the package that I will be working on. 

Access Winchester now has its own link on the winol website. This makes the show more accessible. 

Access Winchester Week One

Here is our first edition of our What's On show of the semester. 

Produced as a team by Jack Webb, Emma and myself. 

We all attended the Rain Dance Film festival in London which was a great start for us. 

Jack joined in with some African Drumming at the uni. 

As this was our first week of producing a brand new show that would be additional to the bulletin we needed to decide what we wanted it to look like. We watched E News and 5 access to get the feel of how we wanted the show to look. 

We decided it needed the tone to be jokey and visually it needed to be full of graphics. 

We made these decisions after filming our events so as this was our first show the tone isn't quite right. 

The presenting is perhaps too serious and we've decided to approach the presenting differently next time round.

We had to add music to the VT's. Music needs to be categorised by mood. At first we chose music that was too rocky, it didn't suit our tone we wanted to set. For example music is categorised by moods such as travel music, rock genre etc.
We decided we wanted upbeat house music or Jazz with the idea that we could listen to it before a night out.

We added graphics to the vt's for example the thought bubbles over our heads. The tone we wanted to set with this show needed to be in a self depreciating way.

We filmed our vt's in a serious way and pointed out by our lecturer we were told to reverse expectation of these events.

As this was our first week we also had to make the opening credits. We started this by making a logo. At this point we changed the name of the show to Access Winchester. We felt this was much more stronger and punchy. We wanted the credits to have animation but in the end we only able to make it swoosh in due to the tight deadlines. We added boom's and swooshes to the opening credits as these opening credits were our only hope in drawing in our viewers attention before seeing mine and Emma's faces presenting.

The african drumming piece was slightly too long for our style. Because we are used to editing our vt's for a news bulletin we kept to the conventional rules. But for our Access Winchester show we need to go against all of our traditional news rules and add as much detail as possible but we shouldn't be using exposition and simple explaining things as this is too boring.
The good points about this african drumming piece is that at the end Jack filmed himself joining and and playing the drums.

The London Rain Dance Film festival piece needed more continuety. But overall the shots we got from this event were useful and Emma's presenting the style reflected our style really well.
We also needed to work our our overcoming issues with noise e.g: traffic noise. And the dark lighting inside the cinema where would could of used an led light or moved to a lighter area.

For our first week this was a good attempt. Although our editing needs to be much tighter.