Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Channel 5 News Critique 27/11/12 (5pm)

As our guest editor this week is Geoff Hill, the WINOL team has been asked to review the Channel 5 news. It is a 20 minute bulletin, with an opening sequence that cuts straight to the headlines after it is introduced at the end of the adverts. The headlines are quite pacey and generally cut the point. Today’s headlines were:

·         Flooding across Britain;

·         Bill Tarmey funeral; and

·         BBC Sports personality of the year 2012 contenders.

The fact that there is new angle on the first story as it could become a little repetitive without it and he shots of the floods from the helicopters were fairly visually interesting. I felt, however, that the Bill Tarmey story was perhaps not important as others that could have taken its place in the headlines. I also thought that the edit on Chris Hoy for the sports personality story looked a little strange; I realise was to tease the audience, but I feel there were probably better ways of doing this by perhaps choosing a different clip or using a different edit.

For the first live cut to the floods, I thought the positioning with the fire engine in the background looked good. The way in which the UK map moved as locations were pinned on there looked odd as the pins did not move with it and the interview with David Cameron seemed quite bland; the statement made seemed very pre-prepared and perhaps a better quote was available, perhaps different questioning could have acquired it. The second throw was very same-y in a way and some of the quotes and questioning of the rescue person and those in hostels seemed a little weak and pointless. It wasn’t overly interesting either. The interview with the man trapped in his house was very good though. Personally, I found it impressive that the sound was so good in that interview when there was no way of getting him a good mic.

The Norovirus story had too many facts from the interviewees and the dramatic music at the end sounded very out of place in the VT. The story about the rebate was seemed very important yet was over so quickly I didn’t get a chance to make many notes on it.

The Nadine Dorries story didn’t seem to be as important as fourth story to me, especially as there was not a lot of new information.

The “still to come” before the ad break seemed much better in its construction than the headlines. However, the news recap after only included one story, which I felt made it a little short over all.

The possible murder of President Yasser Arafat was a very interesting story, however it wasn’t particularly grabbing visually and the interviews did not add a lot, especially the scientist who mostly spoke about facts.

Bill Tarmey funeral, whilst quite moving, seemed unusually long. It would, perhaps, make more sense to be that long if Coronation Street was a Channel 5 program. There was also a strange buzzing during part of the eulogy which could have been removed or at least faded during edited.

The crane fire story was very visually interesting, using good images for a good length. The story was about the right length to, however the scripting could have been more dramatic and had a greater focus on the people involved.

Chris Hoy was quite oddly framed in the Sports Personality story. It became a little better when it was tightened but seeing the back of the journalist’s head was a little jarring and unnecessary. The voiceover quality was poor and seemed to peak quite a lot. Personally, I would have cut (or at least shortened) the last voxpop as it was a little long, as was the overall length of time dedicated to them.

Overall, I found the bulletin quite informative and enjoyable. However, finding things I could critique gave me confidence for our own on http://winol.co.uk (live at 5pm every Wednesday, in case you don’t know) and for my own future career, as well as those of my colleagues/fellow students.

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