An Insight Into ITV Wales

On the 6th May 2008 I started two days of work experience for ITV Wales, working specifically for “Wales This Week”, concentrating on editing.

We went straight into the editing room where I met Peter and kath who I would spending the morning with, they were at the “tidying stage” with a documentary focusing on a teenager with ADHD. They showed me what material they had so far as Peter got straight to work on Avid Media Composer which included a highly technical multicoloured keyboard that Peter moved his fingers around so fast I could barely follow them.

The documentary had yet to have its voice over added and I learned that this wasn’t completed till the day it went out on air when the sound level were also improved. At first I was a little taken aback by this, I filmed my documentary to a strict script, researching each interviewee before approaching them so I was to gather the information I was expecting – I soon realised that obviously ITV Wales do not have time to do all this research and just “go for it”. While watching the clips through Kath wrote a script over the top of a blank in the timeline, compiling with the information already being discussed and writing in the exact times such as,

“3.09 – 3.17 voice over gap”.

This way nothing could be said out of place I suppose.

There is a piece in this documentary where Stacey, the protagonist, has recorded a teacher being rude to her on her mobile camera, the dialogue is used in our piece, however, we spend at least 20 minutes trying to work out the exact words so we can add subtitles for the audience, this takes a while but we “cannot risk getting sued over a mistype” Peter tells me.

Another legal problem we come across is Stacey’s Mum wishes Stacey to be referred to as “Stacey Roberts”, the surname of her husband although Stacey’s actual surname is Izzard. It becomes apparent they spend a lot of their day checking the legal information; otherwise this documentary could be pulled on the day of the viewing. Kath phones her legal representatives and confirms we have to use Izzard, against Stacey’s Mother’s wishes.

Peter the editor, Kath the journalist and Bruce the executive producer are debating whether to include the protagonist revealing she wants to be a hairdresser – personally I feel this is a nice clip as it shows she has goals and isn’t just a “waster”. In the end however they decide against it, as soon as Bruce leaves the room Peter and Kath launch into a conversation about how interfering he is. I feel this is very unprofessional, especially in front of a work experience student and as far as I’m aware that’s the job description of an “Executive Producer”.