WINOL critical relections week 1-4

These notes will be the basis for my Critical Reflection.

Week 1

My new role on WINOL is sports reporter and I chose to cover Eastleigh FC. Just like all the other sports reporters, if the club wasn’t scheduled to play, I would have to make a package on a sports news story or make a sports feature package. I started off the week knowing that Eastleigh were playing at home on the Tuesday. Due to the weather, the game was in doubt the weekend before, but I used the bad weather to my advantage. I planned to make a package on how the snow had affected local sport. I filmed a PTC at Winchester City’s ground as well as shots that I could use in the package. I also filmed at Eastleigh’s stadium the next day whilst volunteers we clearing the pitch of snow.

There was an announcement early on the Tuesday afternoon that the game would be going ahead. The sports editor then decided that I should make a short package from the footage I had collected which would introduce the highlights of the game. We wrote the script for Sportweek as if the game had gone ahead as well as recording links for Sportsweek. About two hours after we did this, Eastleigh announced that the game had been called off, this meant I had to re-edit the package into an OOV as well as writing the words that the presenter would say over the top of the footage. This put back the news and production teams because Sportsweek had to re-recorded, but in the end everything turned out well though.

Week 2

Before the week began, I knew I would have a package for the week as Eastleigh were scheduled to play on the Saturday. I filmed the game and got an interview with the assistant manager. There were a couple of things that I think I could have done better though. Firstly, I didn’t get in close enough to the players when they were on the ball. Secondly, the interview with Eastleigh’s assistant manager wasn’t as good as it could have been. I framed him well but I could have chosen a better location for him to stand. He was standing in front of a brick wall with a sign on it and even though it looked good when I was filming it, after watching it back, it didn’t look that good. Next time I interview a manager or an assistant manager, I will make sure he stands pitch side.

Week 3

This week, Eastleigh didn’t have a home match so I had to think of an idea for a package. I decided to get an interview with Eastleigh’s manager. For one reason or another, I was unable to get the interview. This worked out quite well for the sports editor though as it meant he had someone to present Sportsweek and the sport on the news bulletin. I didn't have that many takes as I knew the script very well, but I should have been more expressive with my face because at some times it looked like I was just staring at the camera without any movement to my face. I also presented Sportsweek radio on Tuesday. I only had one problem during the show and that was a technical issue and was easily fixed.

Week 4

I presented Sportsweek radio on Tuesday for the second week running and I enjoyed doing it, I would like to do it more over the course of the semester to build my experience on live radio.

I then filmed Eastleigh’s game on Tuesday night, this went well but missed a sending off. The score was 1-0 so the sending off would have given my package a bit of ‘colour’. I got around the problem by showing the player being shown his first yellow card and then mentioned that he was shown a second yellow later on in the match. This is something I will not do again. I got a short interview with Eastleigh's manager and it was framed and lit well. I put this into both packages.

The editing of the package was quite simple as I filmed the game in a certain way that made it easier for me to select which clips I wanted to put into the two packages. I made sure that I stopped recording every time there was a goal, a shot or another incident. I had to re edit the package that went on Sportsweek as the sports editor said that the clips I had edited were too short, so I extended the lengths of all the clips and this improved the overall quality of the package.

I made sure that I was more assertive on my voiceover than on previous football highlights packages that I have produced. I thought that the packages I produced this week were much better because of my improved voiceover.