Our tutors write about the daily realities of shooting, reporting and going live. Articles appear about once a day, each one short enough to read between assignments and practical enough to try the same week.
On-Camera Reporting
A practical walk through the first part of on-camera reporting: how to structure a piece to camera, settle your voice and rehearse so the take feels natural rather than recited.
Live Coverage
A plain checklist for reporters and operators weighing up live coverage workshops: what to look at in your own work, the sessions and the kit before you commit.
Camera Craft
Most footage problems on location come from a handful of habits formed early. Here are the common ones in framing, exposure, audio and handheld stability, and the small changes that cure them.
Costs
A plain breakdown from our course coordinator of what shapes the fee for small-group classroom lessons in television news: group size, hours, materials and the choice between classroom and location.
Mentoring
A short account of how one working reporter, Callum, used one-to-one footage reviews to settle his handheld shots and rebuild his confidence before a busy autumn run of stories.
Reporting Advice
Short days, cold hands and wet streets change how a reporter sounds and looks on screen. Here is how to adjust your delivery and preparation for the coming weeks of autumn and winter.
Trade Terms
A plain-words guide to cueing, the small signal that starts a live report, and why reporters and camera operators need to understand it before they ever go on air.
Camera Craft
A lead camera instructor weighs a shoulder-mounted camera against a compact handheld one for location news work, and says which he would put in a new operator's hands first.
Behind the scenes
A behind-the-scenes look at how a small-group classroom session is built, from the morning story pitch to the edit review, and why we run it the way we do.
Mentoring
The question we hear most about one-to-one mentoring is what actually happens in a session. Here is how footage review, feedback and follow-up work for reporters and operators.
Company News
Helen Marsh sets out how our on-camera reporting sessions are run in these weeks: script delivery, piece-to-camera structure, voice control and composure, and what each cohort can expect to practise.
Live coverage
A look at the planning sheets, cue systems and rehearsal habits we rely on when teaching live links and breaking coverage, and why simple tools beat clever ones.
Field Technique
A practical walk-through of the audio and handheld habits we teach in our field sessions, so your location footage holds up when it reaches the edit suite.
Training advice
Six questions worth answering before you commit to a small-group classroom course on story selection, interviewing, ethics and editing, written by the instructor who sits in on many of them.
Mentoring
One-to-one mentoring only pays off when both sides prepare. Helen Marsh walks through the common slips we see in footage reviews and what to do differently next time.
Training costs
A plain look at how our on-camera reporting coaching is priced, which choices raise or lower the cost, and how to get the most from the hours you book.
Live Coverage
A short story from one live coverage workshop: how a reporter named Callum planned a live link, lost his cue mid-report and found a way to carry on without panic.
Seasonal advice
Mid autumn brings low sun, early dusk and wet weather. Priya Nair explains how to adjust framing, exposure, audio and handheld steadiness so your location footage holds up as the days shorten.
Newsroom Terms
A plain-words explanation of editorial judgement, the phrase tutors use constantly in our classroom sessions, and how it shapes story selection, interviews and edit decisions.
Mentoring
Priya Nair compares individual footage review with small-group classes for working reporters and operators, and says which route she recommends once you have a few years of practice behind you.
A training hub in Bath for television reporters and camera operators: field camera technique, on-camera reporting and live coverage, taught in small practical sessions.