大象传媒

Week Four 鈥� Southampton

After the excitement of week three, week four brought me back down to earth a little. Because we were so busy during week three I hadn't organised anything up to do.

I spent Tuesday doing some brief previews for cup games taking place that evening and I also set the wheels in motion to do a feature on a local swimming club which will also cover my 'Olympic' piece as two of the clubs swimmers have been selected for a development squad for the 2012 games.

This week I also wrote a preview article for Poole Park Fest, and event taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend for the Dorset site. I interviewed one of the organisers and used his pictures to build a piece up giving the details of his event.

Week Five 鈥� Southampton

I am going on holiday later this week! But I found time to pop into Southampton on the Monday (I go to Crete on Tuesday). I spent the day with Thelma and the News Online team.

This gave me an interesting insight to the working 大象传媒 newsroom and also helped teach me about writing to tight spaces and learnt how to use the CPS system, which is quite different to the CMS used to produce the 大象传媒 Dorset website.

I got to write stories about areas all across the South and did a couple on arson in Berkshire and developed one about the HMS Clyde that was leaving Portsmouth for the Falklands.

It was a good day and I enjoyed being part of the newsroom.

Now for some sun!

Week Six 鈥� Isle of Wight/Southampton

I travelled with Stephen to the Isle of Wight to cover Wight Air 07, an extreme sports festival.

White Air 2007

It was an early start to the day for me catching the 6.34 train from Bournemouth to Southampton, meeting Stephen at 7.20 and getting the 8am car ferry to Cowes.

After a drink and some breakfast on the boat we arrived in Cowes and made our way to Sandown on the coast of the island.

After getting there and parking in a field we wandered down to the press area where we registered and received our passes. We then set up our cameras on the beach where I interviewed the organiser of the event Nigel Howell.

We were then introduced to the new activity of Speedminton and I interviewed one of the guys from the UK association. The sport is a mixture of squash, tennis and badminton and can be played without nets and with minimal equipment 鈥� it seemed really cool and I quite fancied having a go but sadly I was not really dressed for the occasion.

Then Stephen and I walked around the site of the festival watching the gymnastics and various other things going on.

We then got some shots of 'happy' visitors before interviewing a disappointed kite surfer who was unable to get out on the water because of the poor wind.

The final interview of the day was with the local popular band The Bees, who were performing at a concert in the festival grounds that evening.

It had been a busy and exhausting day and we got back home very late but all the same an enjoyable one.

Ferndown Otters in action

Swimming club

On early Friday morning I went down to Ferndown Otters swimming club.

Two swimmers from the club had been brought into the Olympic 2012 Targeted Training Squad.

I had taken a Nagra and camera from Southampton on Wednesday and took them with me to the training session. I arrived at 7am, so I could interview the head coach Tony Watson and then catch the swimmers after the session was over.

Unfortunately one of the swimmers was not present at the training session so I was only able to interview one of the girls.

It was lucky that it was just one as after I had finished the interview with Tony I noticed that the device was running very low on battery. Luckily it held through and I was able to complete my task.

I travelled to Southampton later in the morning to prepare my work for the site.

After listening back to the interviews I went about editing the photos so that they were ready for upload in CMS.

I then set about writing up my 'Olympic' feature. This was my feature and I felt pleased because I had arranged the interviews, worked independently and I had got some good audio from Tony.

Week Seven 鈥� Dorchester/Weymouth

I arrived in Dorchester on Tuesday and Kevin helped my edit all my audio and assisted me in uploading the work and updating the page for my feature.

He also told me that we would be travelling to Weymouth later in the week for a feature on the Olympic Sailing venue.

After I had finished with the audio I went about researching the venue and the 2012 games to try and find some angles for the feature.

I was excited about this as it was great chance to make a really good piece about something that will affect the region greatly in the years building to 2012.

Kevin also said how he was planning to take the video cameras down and suggested to me that I did a piece-to-camera and presented the film.

When I arrived in Dorchester later that week I bumped into Martin Clunes who was doing an interview in the radio studio for 大象传媒 Wales. Unfortunately it was only a bump and not a chat as my route into work was delayed by problems on the road and on the train, not a good start!

Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy

Weymouth

We headed down to Weymouth and the 大象传媒 Dorset WiL team were there ready for action. Kevin, Claire and myself were all up for this and the sun was shining so everything was bound to go well.

When we got there we were taken into the academy and introduced to the executive director Mark Stubbings, who I interviewed on camera outside the academy looking out onto the water. He spoke in depth about the academy and how it will host the games and what it will do for the area.

After finishing the interview with Mark we were then introduced to John Tweed who took us on a tour of the buildings and facilities explaining as we went what kind of things would be happening to the venue in the build up to the Olympics.

After completing our interviews Kevin and Claire took some cut-away shots of the venue that we would be able to use for our film when we got back to Dorchester.

It was while doing this Kevin said "Quick James, before the taxi comes let's do your piece to camera!鈥�. I was completely unprepared for this as I did not think that we would have time. So I had to quickly think up an opening gambit for the film. After a several takes ('See you in a bit鈥︹�︹��!') and amusing fluffs we finally got the cut we wanted!

When we got back - after an interesting conversation with a Weymouth cabbie, and a horrible ride back to Dorchester on the First Great Western train, we began editing the film.

James Tiller interviews Mark Stubbings

Claire and I looked at the interview and hacked out some of the stuff which we did not want and looked for the best places to start and finish the film.

Although I did not stay to finish the film off I was still working on the feature and on the train home, noted down important quotes from the interviews.

I wrote the feature that evening and emailed it to Kevin and Claire so that they could sub it and upload it to the site the next day.

Week Eight 鈥� Southampton

I spent my final week working with 大象传媒 Radio Solent's sport team. This gave me a great insight into the way a radio newsroom works. When I got in I was taken to meet Laurence Herdman, who had been present at my interview. Laurence recognised me and immediately got me working.

Somebody had called in asking for some information on the Tour of Britain which was visiting Southampton that day. I found out the details the chap wanted and called him back explaining what he wanted to know.

A surprise visitor then popped his head into the sports room, Peter Slater from 5live, was covering the Tour of Britain race and came in to borrow some equipment. I had met Peter before from when he had given a talk at uni.

I had to find a couple of 15-second clips from an interview with Shane Warne, Hampshire CC captain so they were ready to be used as previews for the county championship match on the radio sports bulletins. I also wrote the scripts to lead into the clips.

I then worked with Kris Temple for the rest of the day (Laurence was on the early shift). He got me to grab some more clips from an interview he had recorded with Dave Pavill from the Isle of Wight speedway team.

He also took me into the studio where I sat in when he read the afternoon bulletin which was cool as he was explaining to me what he was doing and how it was all working.

Football interviews

I went back to Sport during the week and accompanied Kris to Bournemouth so we could do the previews for the weekend match with Northampton.

We arrived early and grabbed a quick bite to eat. Neil Perrett who I knew from when I had done work experience with the Bournemouth Echo arrived, as did other members of the media, who had all come to preview the game.

We waited ages and still nobody showed, the press officer Jon Sharkey did not know where everyone was as the clock creeped forward each of us were getting more agitated. Even a kick-a-bout with a signed raffle ball did not really calm the frustrations.

Eventually a few players began to trickle in, and Kris and my first target was Neil Young, who didn't seem interested in talking as he would not be playing this weekend.

We managed to speak to Asmir Bergovic, who Kris interviewed.

AFC Bournemouth manager Kevin Bond

We then waited for the boss Kevin Bond to arrive!

After the interview with Bondy 鈥� I grabbed a quick chat with Welsh U21 international Sam Vokes. Kris and I returned to Southampton and I started to grab the clips we needed for the bulletins. As soon as I had one from each person I prepared the scripts to be used on the radio.

After saying all my goodbyes I made my way from Southampton Broadcasting House as I had ended my placement.

It really has been ace, and I can't thank the people who have helped me along the way 鈥� the have all been amazing 鈥� particularly Kevin and Claire.

I have had a really good time and enjoyed every minute of it - it has been a BLAST!

• James has returned to university where he is in the last year of a Sports Journalism degree.

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