Week 9

Hello!

Every week is getting slightly more stressful and tiring - this week I'm facing a looming deadline and trying to adapt to not having a half term for the first time in 14 years so I'm very, very tired but let's talk about last week!

Last Wednesday was another live news day - the editor decided that letting people volunteer for stories was a good idea (which it wasn't because no one really knew where anyone was) and I ended up being put on a story, as a photographer, that didn't need photos. So I just hung around in the News Room with my laptop working on my assignment stories (the looming deadline) until we left for this conference trip that some of us were going to in Portsmouth.

The conference wasn't really what any of us were expecting - it was sitting in a lecture theatre listening to how a bunch of local journalists got their jobs and then we were put in a small stuffy room with lots of the same journalists sat at tables answering questions that we already knew the answers to. What we were expecting was a bigger room with national journalists and company representatives offering advice and potential jobs so it was somewhat disappointing and my phone died.

I then had to go to my jazz dance class and I didn't get back home till twelve and a half hours after I left and making myself dinner was a challenge - I was very tired.

Next day was radio and we got to work with Jordan, one of our voice coaches, on writing for radio. We looked at some examples then in groups we were given four stories that we had to write two versions, a headline and a tease for. I got the story about Queen performing at the Isle of Wight festival - writing about music is my thing. It was actually really interesting figuring out what works for radio in comparison to traditional headlines and copy. In the afternoon we were reading our headlines in the studio so it was a fairly easy afternoon.

Friday photography was exclusively assignment work - we were allowed to use the studio or work on the prep and I organised everything a little bit more. I've got some more formal ideas and when my writing assignment is done hopefully mid this week, I'm going to work more on the mood boards and making everything look pretty - I'm excited, I love a good mood board.

Over the weekend my mum was in town and I organised my life a bit more - I got my flat mate to print out a couple of calendars and I wrote everything in pretty colours and I feel like my life is a little bit more on track.

Monday's lectures were somewhat difficult to get through to say the least - we had another lecture on contacts which told us everything the first one did, I don't know if I've actually expressed my hatred for grammar lectures yet but every week makes me consider skipping them and I've never ever been someone who can skip lectures - I feel too guilty, my conscience can't handle it.

In the afternoon we had a seminar with Adam Leitch, the head sports writer from the Daily Echo in Southampton and whilst most of the afternoon was allocated to working on our assignment but we were also given a press release and five minutes to interview Adam to write a feature about his running of the Ironman marathon, race, thing. I recorded the interview on my phone and I should probably write some notes down but I'm more concerned about this assignment than a seminar feature that doesn't mean anything right now!

And today, my wonderful day off, I've been to the opticians, got my lip pierced and bought numerous cuddly toys! 

In other news, as of yesterday I'm officially blogging for university admissions company UCAS and I'm excited! I will keep this blog up to date with what happens on that blog!

There is a lot going on right now, but it's all good and exciting.



Personal blog: http://sophiecountsclouds.blogspot.co.uk/
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SophieCountsClouds
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SophieALuckett