Networking progress and story ideas

Having worked with several bloggers living in Hull, I am now in contact with many of them. From this, they have got in touch about my going along to their meeting for me to write a story about.

I was very happy about this, as they are keeping me in mind when they have anything that would be worth writing about rather than me getting in touch with them.

From the bloggers I have also found several other stories that I have put forward, one such being the feature I have written about being Merryhide.

I am now putting forward several ideas on a regular basis that could possibly featured in both Femail and The Journal. I feel like I am contributing a lot, and it shows I am interested in both finding and writing stories myself. It also shows that I am using my initiative, instead of just being told what to do.

Suggesting ideas also means I get the chance to write about things that I am interested in, gaining experience in the areas I would like to write about in the future.

Second time writing The Hotlist

After struggling slightly when writing The Hotlist for the first time, I found it a lot easier the second time around. This time instead of going straight in to write each piece, I researched different topics and searched the Press Association site for ideas. I also had a look through my PR folder in my emails that I had organised previously to see if there were any interesting pieces.

Working this way meant I felt a lot less stressed, and found topics easier then I did before. Also, I was more familiar with the writing style and the sort of things The Hotlist includes so it took less time to write up.

However, as there are eight different subjects to find and write about, it is still a little hard to come up with so many different, individual topics. Hopefully as I spend more time at the Hull Daily Mail I will be sent more PR pieces to use, and will find time to note down any ideas that I could use during the week.

Ideas for Femail Twitter

From previous lectures about the importance of social media, I’ve had a few ideas that I could do whilst in charge of the Femail Twitter account.

Firstly I am going to start advertising stories that will appear in the Hull Daily Mail. This will catch people’s interest and may also lead them to buy the paper. Once the paper is released I could also send  links to stories that have appeared for people to read.

I am also going to start advertising for the makeover feature, for which we haven’t had many nomination letters recently. This will catch a wider audience that follow the twitter page and will give us more makeovers to organise and write about.

Something else I will do is start networking with those around Hull, such as the Hull bloggers network. This way they know who I am if they have a story, or if I need anything when writing for Femail.

Creative ideas for promotional video

After researching other promotional videos, I have decided that I would like mine to stand out, and I want to do this by being creative. I have had a couple of ideas that I will try out to see if it works.

The first idea is to work my way around Hull, and recording anything that says the word Hull on it. This footage would appear at the beginning of the video to establish where the university course is based. It would also include different shots of Hull, giving a better idea of what the city is like.

The second idea is to film students on the course with a large piece of card. On the card would be wrote something like “I love JDM because…” and then they can write their own opinion. This would give all of the student’s opinion on the video without having to interview everyone. It would also be eye catching and stand out from the crowd. However, I will need to see how this looks before deciding to include it in my video.

Introduction to statement of intent

During our last CATS lesson we had a look at writing our statement of intent.

This is an introduction to our dissertation, for which we write about our ideas that we would like to focus on.

It is to develop our current ideas, including a new challenge.

For our dissertations we will have a tutor that will help us along the way, that we can show our arguments and opinions. In order to do well we will need to read/ study extensively and keep records of our research.

In order to choose a subject we need to browse the library, and locate five initial sources.

Documentary and Narrative Video 03/02

During this lesson we reviewed our documentaries that we have been working on. We watched one of the group’s footage of what they had so far, and pointed out what we did and didn’t like.

This led to us speaking further about how the video cameras work. We spoke about telephoto lens and wide lens, about how when you zoom in and out the footage can become shaky. This can be solved by either using a tripod, or filming mainly with a 50mm lens, which is great for portraits and is the main lens used by documentary makers.

We also looked at what point of view our documentaries will be. When we watched Nicky and Lauren’s footage they had so far, they had shot theirs from a multiple perspective, which meant that it was from several people’s point of view, giving an omniscient narrative. Another way in which you can shoot footage is from a restricted point of view, following one person throughout the documentary. This gives limited perspective.

This was useful to learn, as it gave us different ideas of what we could do for our own documentaries. It also showed us the right way to film, which will be useful for me as I have several video assignments this semester.

It was also useful for us for in the future, if we ever need to film a documentary or a news package. It gave us ideas for different ways to capture the same subject, and gave us a lesson in different ways to film, either with a telephoto zoom or a wide lens.

Meeting with Jackie and John

After organising to chat about my project on the way to London, we had a chance to have a brief discussion on the Thursday afternoon.

My main idea is to promote the course through a video, advertising the different aspects of the course. This would include filming lectures, as well as events we attend such as journalism week.

Jackie and John thought this was a good idea, and told me to have a look at my tutor Sally’s promotional video that she produced. They would also like it to be uploaded to YouTube so they can embed it and use it on other sites such as Hyperfruit.

Other footage I can record is shots of Hull itself, to get an idea of what the city is like, and where HSAD is based. As well as this would be short interviews with students that could fit in at the end.

In addition to the video I am going to research how people find information on courses. I will do this by creating a survey, and asking students their thoughts. Also how they would like to give information on this, by email or by being given questionnaires.