Work Experience- ITV 5

The last day of my work experience I went out and filmed a story about a girl whose house and electric wheelchair was destroyed in a fire. We went down to Margate and did 3 interviews with, Holly (her room burnt down), Lydia (the mother) and Amy (sister that set up the fundraising group). The cost of the chair is £7 thousand in which they have been able to raise since Monday. Most from the online group set up by Amy (£2 thousand) and £5 thousand has been given to the family from one person. This story was made for Saturday's news cast. ITV News- story edited for the Saturday broadcast.

From the week at ITV news Meridian I learnt a lot more about how fast everything in a news room moves, just because there is 6 stories in the morning meeting does not mean that all 6 will be going out. Some stories are cut due to issues in the stories.

I also learnt about self-shooting, interviews and quick editing, all of these things that a reporter will do in an average day.

I'm grateful that ITV News Meridian let me come into their news room for a week, it was an unforgettable experience that has given me a lot to think about for the future.

Work experience- ITV 4

Today I went for a shoot that has 3 interviews, I helped with the interviews and setting up the camera. The story was a follow up from the explosion in Ashford a month before, we managed to track down Tracy who was interviewed the day after the explosion and her son who is currently fund raising for the families affected by the fire.

For this story I also spent time and transcribed the interview clips on to the script for the reporter while she recorded her voice over. This story was a follow up of the original story.

I also spent some of the afternoon ringing around to local MP's and asking if they have decided to take the 10% pay rise that went through today. I was then asked by the news editor if we should run the story but I didn't think it was a good idea so we decided to call the producer and suggest running it tomorrow.

Work Experience- ITV 3

Today was day three of my work experience where I spent some of the day contacting the local NHS trusts for FOI's on information about the nurses.

I sent the questions to 4 NHS trusts, it was asking for back dated information about temporary nurses.

I was then able to practice on more NIB's (News In Brief).

Amanda is the person I have been sending my work to, she has said today that my writing style has massively improved in the last day as to day the NIB's have been better and usable.

This morning I did research for an follow up story about an explosion in Ashford and my research led me to a phone number that has enabled Lydia to arrange an interview tomorrow morning. I will hopefully be going out tomorrow morning to be doing the filming of the interview with a reporter and a camera man.

Work Experience- ITV 2

Second day at ITV and I was asked to shadow the Program assistant. Part of the job is to sort out the news bulletins for the lunch hour as well as helping towards the main program at 6pm. I was sat with Amanda all day, she had me work on my own version of the bulletins by sending me the information she has and asking me to make one.

This was a story from the Sussex police, in which they are appealing for the public to help find someone who had taken money from an elderly women, unfortunately there is nothing on the website.

My version- 

Police are appealing for the identity of a man who persuaded a 78-year-old women from Horsham to hand over her credit card, thousands of pounds and her bank details, the CCTV footage shows the suspect buying champagne in a Sainsbury’s at Euston on the 7^th May. He has been described as an Asian man in his twenties police are keen to talk to anyone who may know the man or of his location. 

Actual-

Police are appealing for information about a man who stole thousands of pounds from a 78 year old women in Horsham, the man was caught on cctv buying champagne, using the women’s credit card. Police believe the women lost more that 7 thousand pounds after she was persuaded to withdraw money from her bank accounts.

This is after the morning's news of people being injured after trying to enter the country. 

My First Version;

Delays on the Channel Tunnel this morning, as a number of migrants break into Calais, leading to three being taken to hospital. This is to be the second incident recently as a migrant died last week on a freight shuttle trying to enter Britain.

The home secretary will make a statement later today about the migrant crisis in Calais.

This is after the news of a body being found in Brighton. A crew went to Brighton and were able to get images for the lunch program that I then watched Amanda edit. 

My version;

Police in Brighton are investigating a suspected suspicious death in Chesham Place, from the early hours of today. 

Police are calling a suspicious death in Brighton.

In Brighton the police are investigating a suspicious death.  

Actual:

An investigation has been launched after what police are calling a suspicious death in Brighton.

Officers were called to a home in Chesham place in the early hours of this morning.

This was sent in by the Fire and Rescue Services, there was not much information; 

My version; 

Around 5am a collision occurred on the A229, Blue Bell Hill, Maidstone. Four vehicles were involved due to an oil spill on the road. Fire and Rescue Services crews cleared the road making it safe for other vehicles. 

Actual; 

There were delays in Maidstone as 4 vehicles crashed in Maidstone A229, Blue Bell Hill at about 5 am firefighter cleared the spill and the road has since been re-opened.

A armed robber was sentenced to jail but the information about the trail and what was found has been released.

My version:

A convicted armed robber has been sentence to nearly 8 years in prison after firearms were found in his home in Pembuy.

Police believe that Castle was planning another ‘serious offence’ after finding sawn-off shotguns, walkie-talkie’s and Halloween masks in his loft. 

Castle pleaded guilty on two counts of possessing a firearm on the 9^th July in Maidstone Crown Court.

They then sent me a short version that they had put together. 

Their  mock  version:

An armed robber has been jailed after police found two shotguns, post office uniforms and masks in his loft. Stephen Castle from Pembury had already been sentenced for robbing a jewellers in Tunbridge Wells. He pleaded guilty and will serve 8 years behind bars.

This is the version that I then came up with, it's a massive improvement on the rest of my work;

A armed robber has been sentence to nearly 8 years in prison after two sawn-off shotguns, post office uniforms and Halloween masks were found in his home in Pembuy. Stephen Castle had already been sentence for robbing a jewelers in Tunbridge Wells in 1997. Pleaded guilty on two counts of possessing a firearm at Maidstone Crown Court.