We planned every part of our day out this week, right down to the minute but again, a lot went wrong. The day started off with a very simple line up of link, VT, link, VT, link, OOV etc but at about 2.30 (30 minutes before we go live) we had so many changes I lost count.This week Charlotte, myself and Aimee told everyone we would like your head line clips ready to upload at 12.10 and packages ready to upload at 1.00. Everyone managed to do this except Andy. For both deadlines he was alte making us alte in recording the headline clips. He then asked for a 20 minute extension on his package and even then he added to that; meaning we finally collected his package at 1.40. We finally got all the packages uploaded and started rehersals where Andys package would not play so I had to re-save that three times, then there was a legal problem so it had to be taken off and at about 2.57 I finally got the package back to put on to the system. Alas, I did not check this version and when we came to play it in the bulletin, it did not work. We had to apologise for this and it was missed out of the bulletin. I had to put it back in in editing.
We also came up witha breaking news story which then had to have pictures put in and a script written and rehearsed in about 20 minutes.
We also had a problem with two people putting straps in the middle of the page. After changing one we could not change the other so they both had to be put back on the VT system without the correct place for the straps.
The running order was changed last minute too due to the script writer putting two OOVS together and then the handover which we would not be able to do. Geoff gave us the idea to switch the running order and this worked with Becky Grey's help too.
This was all happening in the Studio where we had two men from BJTC, Angus, Chris, Brian and Geoff Hill from CNN. Justina also had a problem with another OOV that we did not have much time in practicing. So overall another bad week due to content being changed a lot. I understand that this probably happens in broadcast a lot but I think that we did not actually need the breaking news. It happened on the Isle of Wight which is not for our target audience, there was no body found and we said in the bulletin that we would keep the viewer updated on our website but we have no story on the website for them to look for more information.
This week I think I found out why the voice sync was wrong in our last couple of bulletins. When we record the french and polish bulletin, editing is fine and the sound and vision is synced but when I put the ustream on the VT computer it puts the sound out of sync. So this week we put the ustream on Brians computer and the sound and vision were synced perfectly. I found and corrected this problem by myself, which makes me very proud instead of running to a technician. So snaps for me.
When I started editing and after putting Andys package back in I noticed that because of the technical problem and because of changing the running order we had no link between Andys package and the Emily OOV. This made it look like one long package so for the first time that I have been Production Editor we had to go back in to the studio to record a link. Kieran Brannigan, the presenter also wanted to re-record the beginning because he had fluffed a couple of his lines due to all the complications in rehearsals. This added to editing time and again the bulletin was not uploaded until 6.30. Next week our primary goal is to have the bulletin on WINOL at 4pm sharp.
Lastly, the talk back was not working due to technical problems that could not be fixed so I would like this to work next week too. It meant that we were still running back and forth to Tab9 instead of jsut being on a headset.
This week we wanted to keep production simple so that everything would go to plan and work properly but decisions were made to complicate a lot at the last minute; confusing the director, sound, vision mixer, VT person and the presenter.
Next week I hope that all the Editors are a lot stricter with deadlines. I have also been shown by Paul Carter a way in which we can drop packages in to a folder that will appear on the studio computer. This means that we will not have use hard drives and keep running back and forth.
It wasn't so bad - I left notes on deadlines etc on Kate's blog (I think) where she mentions the same difficulties. I think you did very well and as I said the BJTC man from ITV said the production/direction work was "brilliant". Some of the changes were legitimate - like including the breaking news. The newsroom became aware of that story at about 2pm and it was in the bulletin when it was recorded within the same hour. If you can do that then you really, really are working at a professional standard.
ReplyDeleteThink back to when you started doing telly off-line in the first year - people thought it was tough to get something on screen in the same month, let alone the same hour. So you've all come such a long way.