Features - W/O 25th Oct 2011

Features has improved vastly this week. The quality of the video features is much better.

• Zoe and Becky have produced their first restaurant review. We had been in contact to Stuart who works for a PR company and he agreed to give us free drinks for a competition winner if WINOL reviewed Giraffe restaurant - Basingstoke. Becky and Zoe arranged to attend the restaurant, which led to them having their meal for free and very good service from the staff. The finished package was of good quality. Even though they had a lot of footage on their tapes, they edited the shots to about 1'30". The images were a lot quicker and sharper, which captivates the audience, making them stay for the duration of the package. Through editing they were unsure whether to keep their 'summary' clip. But after reading their written article and this having all the detail from their experience at the restaurant, the summary was necessary in the video also. We would not have been able to class the package as a review if the summary clip was not included.
  Having reviewed one restaurant, this needs to be an ongoing feature for WINOL. We have decided to continue this as possibly a two weekly feature allowing both Becky and Zoe to produce other features during this semester too.
  This week they are heading to London to attend The Yoga Show. They are in the process of deciding an angle of which to produce the feature. This needs to be deciding before the event so that all interviews are carried out in the right angle.
  
  
  
  
• Ewan has produced his first Games Review, filmed in the studio using the green screen. This was presented by Ewan and Graham, but produced predominantly by Ewan. This was based around the recent release of the Batman: 'Arkham City' game. This featured a small clip of this game as well as other game reviews. The clips were used under Fair Dealing. This game review is a very good example of the use of Fair Dealing.
  Ewan is planning on carrying out more game reviews, but like this one, he is going to base it on a new release, featuring other games.
  

• Poppy has produced a number of written features for her column: 'A Diary of a Winchester Lady' . I have now asked someone to create a cartoon of Poppy for this column. Using a cartoon rather than a standard picture will ensure Poppy is kept 'mysterious'. This image should be completed by Friday this week.
  Poppy produced a comment piece about her experience on visiting a medium. Her account of this is very good. It provides a first hand account of the reading as well as her opinions towards it all.
  Her latest article was entitled 'A Bad Choice'. This was based on what she had overheard recently. The first draft of this was good, however the end paragraph was more on the lines of advice, and as a comment column this is not the role of the piece. I advised her to alter the ending to make it more punchy and about what she thought as the column is based on what Poppy thinks - or what the Lady of Winchester thinks. The piece is now much better. www.winol.co.uk - 'The Diary of a Winchester Lady'.

• What's On had to be re-edited this week after not having an editorially strong structure to the piece. I hadn't set a deadline for this so Cara and Jake had more time than they gave themselves to edit the footage, but it was completed very quickly which sabotaged the quality. After meeting with Chris and Brian, a clear structure was established. I asked this to be re-edited for Wednesday as well as producing a tease clip to feature on the end of the bulletin. Due to technical complications this deadline has been extended for another day and did not feature on the bulletin, however will be plugged in time for Halloween.
  It has been decided that from now on, Cara is to present What's On and to arrange interviews etc with celebrities, and Jake is to produce the show, including filming and editing.

Now that features have taken off, we must set aims before the end of this semester.

• It would be very good to have at least 4 episodes of WINOL Life published.
  We need to keep on track with our dates. Next WINOL Life to be filmed this Tuesday 1st November.
• We must all plug every feature in order to increase our hits on the website.
  This can be done easily through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
  E.g. for 'Girls of War' I searched for 'girl gaming' pages on Facebook and posted the link to the video to them. I did the same for 'Cooking in Comfort'. We all need to be doing this!
• Branch out from Winchester. This is the plan for Poppy who is going to The Ideal Home Show - Christmas Special and for Zoe and Becky who are attending the Yoga Show and the Luxury Travel Show, all in London. This will give you all better experience as well as a wider range of features produced for the site and for you.