WINOL 16/11/11

Check out this week's WINOL. I had the pleasure of presenting the news, something I have requested for a while.
I'm confident now in my ability to present, and have been for sometime. I have been voice coaching myself over the last year to stop my "typically cockney" accent and become more approachable to an audience.

I feel the in-studio chat with Rebecca was necessary, but the VERY VERY VERY late decision by William means we were under-prepared. My criticism of this was that we had known all week about this story, yet only decided to act on it, an hour before going live. We need to be more decisive in what is to be put in the running order, and waiting on putting something in. If we wanted that studio chat, then we put it in. I understand a breaking news story, but this was known and we acted upon it, but far too late.

Julie filled in fantastically for Cara (who went home ill late in the day) on Sports. She handled the pressure well and our off-screen chemistry allowed us both to feel comfortable working together on-screen. Any doubts over the pronounciations, then Julie would ask me in terms of sport and we worked well and without hardly any rehearsal time I believe we both performed confidently.

I have no criticisms over any of the VT's this week except one. The Estonia piece was appalling. There was the same shot THREE times and for two people to be out there and record some mediocre, sloppy, repetitive shots is lazy and simplistic. The voiceover by Hannah is clear and well scripted, but technically the camera work is of an embarrassing standard.

I was particularly complimentary of George Berridge this week as Director. I have presented twice with George now and feel very comfortable and confident under his lead. He is clear, he is gracious, and he is appreciative of the work his team in the gallery in doing. My only advice to him would be to be more strict in his delivery and be firm in his decisions.

Other than that, it was a stressful week. It was not our best week, but my God, I've seen much worse.