Back to Heart FM…

I know my blog has been a bit bare recently and I apologise for the lack of posts, but let’s kick this back off with some more work experience from Heart FM Sussex & Surrey over the summer. I went back to the Heart office in Portslade for a week in July.

I helped the news team out at Heart Sussex & Surrey and also Kent during the Olympic Torch relay. This involved me interviewing torchbearers, amongst other interviewees for our other local stories. I also kept the websites up to date and wrote stories for the bulletins daily for all outputs.

Once again I had a fantastic time there with the team and loved being back.

I also recorded two more demos – which are definitely the best ones I have done so far thanks to more coaching from the Heart team. Give them a listen below!

Heart FM Kent Demo

Heart FM Sussex Demo

Curls, Cup Sizes and Confidence.

ETC magazine, Sussex

For another university assignment, we were required to write a 1,000 word ‘investigative’ feature, of public interest for a target publication. My publication that I chose was ETC magazine, a locally distributed, free magazine for Sussex with a variety of features each month.

My feature is based on how Cancer can affect women’s body image.

I also did a magazine layout in the style of ETC for the assignment. Please take a look and read my feature here – Curls, Cup Sizes and Confidence.

Why does Bournemouth love vintage?

This article was written for a university assignment. We were required to write a 750 word local feature for online publication.

Vintage collaboration boutique What Alice Found in Boscombe has recently celebrated its first birthday. Situated in what is now commonly known as Bournemouth’s vintage quarter, Buzz looks into why all things vintage are suddenly capturing the public’s curiosity more than ever.

Vintage items are considered to be those produced between the 1920s to the 1980s and have come to light in more recent years after being adorned by many celebrities. No longer just to be found hiding in second hand shops – specialized vintage fairs, markets and boutiques are appearing all over the country, including in Bournemouth.

But why exactly is it, that vintage has become so popular with the public?

Vintage items from What Alice Found in Boscombe

Vintage in Bournemouth

What Alice Found in Boscombe hosts several brands under one roof selling an abundance of desirables, from handbags to wedding dresses. Owner, Nicki Grainger explains that if the boutique were a high street store, it would be a Topshop in terms of its price range and variety. The fact that it isn’t a high street store however, is exactly why her customers love it so much.

“Despite the recession people are still spending money but they’re thinking more about what they’re spending it on. People are taking a step away from mass produced high street items for something more,” tells Nicki, explaining that she finds her customers really deliberate over their choices rather than buying throwaway high street fashion.

Richard Mason, owner of Clobber vintage store in Pokesdown agrees with Nicki’s comparison of vintage and high street purchases. “Customers like vintage items because they are going to get something individual. Fashion is fast in the high street but if you’re buying a bit of vintage, it’s timeless.”

Genuine vintage goods

For some buyers though, it’s the vintage look rather than the authenticity that they are after, regardless of the price. With more people taking to the road on two wheels rather than four, the demand for vintage bicycles has boomed. While stores like Clobber have authentic vintage bicycles at a reasonable price, some people are willing to pay double or sometimes treble this to own a brand new ‘vintage look’ cycle.

Perhaps with transportation this boils down to the reliability of a newer model, but vintage and high street shopper Lauren Earey admits that she doesn’t mind if it is mass made or vintage that she is buying – as long as the look is right. “As much as I love the idea of vintage goods some of it is just ugly. If I can find a necklace or a top on the high street that has that kind of vintage look I’ll buy it. It’s not about the history.”

Clobber’s Richard disagrees though and claims “With vintage, you never have that moment of someone else wearing the same thing as you,” and we all know how awkward that can feel…

The romance of vintage

Whether it is genuine vintage or not, people are still in love with the concept as a whole, and not just clothing either. Emily Fisher of Fishee Designs runs a portable vintage photo booth. Armed with a shabby chic backdrop and an abundance of vintage props, Emily visits a variety of events from corporate meets, to parties and weddings.

Emily agrees that the public have turned to vintage because of the money saving factor, and with more people conscious of recycling or upcycling their possessions to help the environment, it’s no wonder the trend has become so popular. Emily’s personal fondness of vintage though, is more sentimental than environmental.

Emily Fisher’s vintage style photo booth

“My love is the romance of vintage. Now people take a lot of things for granted and there is a lot of bad in the world at the minute. So for me it’s looking back to the romance of the past and peoples values and morals. Down to the things like women and men together – they’d meet on the first date and be committed for life. I think we have lost of lot of that nowadays.”

So whether for you it is that every item has a story, or that you just want that retro feel, here are Nicki Grainger’s three top tips for buying vintage – even if you are nervous. Perhaps you can try them out at Judy’s affordable vintage fair, which is visiting Bournemouth on the 13^th of May.

• • Anyone can wear vintage, but if you are shy, start with accessories.
  • Try it on! As it was handmade for a person before, it could be your size but not your shape.
  • Don’t let the hanger be the judge, something ‘granny looking’ can transform once you put it on.

Heart FM Work Experience (again!)

I was lucky enough, back in April, to return to my local Heart FM studios for another week work placement. This time I mainly focussed on the online elements for the station – independently updating both the Sussex and Surrey websites almost hourly. Here is one of the webpages I created – Heart FM.

I also carried out various phone and ISDN interviews, along with vox pops, which I edited using Burli for broadcast on the news bulletins.

I wrote stories for the news bulletins and continued with my voice training in the studios as well during my time there.

My newest demo is available here – have a listen 🙂

Train Travel Is Awful – No Wonder There’s So Many Cars On The Road

Gone are the days when I used to be excited about getting the train. Yes, although it’s hard to believe, there actually WAS a time I used to get a little flutter of butterflies to be jumping ‘all aboard’ onto one of those carriages.

Personally, I think that it’s probably because I only ever really got the train at Christmas when I was little – that I loved the whole experience so much. It was one of those really old fashioned ‘choo-choo’ trains with steam, and Santa (or a man in a cotton wool beard anyway) who was always there to surprise me with a gift. I now realise of course, that the train I used to get didn’t actually go anywhere other than around the convention me and my Mum were visiting, and at the age of five I was never in any rush to reach my destination, therefore making the £30 ‘experience’ amazing. Now however, my train travel outlook is a whole different kettle of fish.

So my hatred for *insert British rail company here* began when I went to college. Before this point, being an only child, I was chauffeured around by my Mum here and there at ease. When I started my A Levels however and my taxi driver was working at the time I needed to be in a lesson – I was forced onto the tracks of hell.

The amount of times I was late for college was ridiculous. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t particularly keen to be at college early, but getting there before my lesson had finished would have been nice some days. Having the most infrequent station in the world near to my house also meant if my train was cancelled, it was a whole hour until the following one. The consequence – I got a bus pass. As much as I dislike buses, this was the preferably option to failing my A Levels.

Then came university… and the bum-numbing experience of a three and a half hour train ride to visit home. I had decided before university not to bother learning to drive just yet – ‘I’ll never afford the insurance/petrol/maintenance of the car anyway’ – and this I now realise was a mistake of epic proportions.

Not only do I have to endure three and a half hours of other irritating passengers, that annoying woman who recites the stops every 10 minutes and that weird musty train smell, but on top of that is the lugging of my oversized suitcase across the platform in time for the battle of the seats. If I am in fact then lucky enough to be seated, I’m far too terrified to leave my whole life in my suitcase to move for a visit to the toilet. The consequence – a bladder the size of a hot air balloon.

To be honest however, I’m not sure that even if I could move for the toilet, that I would after the horror story of my friend Laura.  For poor Laura, Frankie Boyle’s stand up joke was just too true. Whilst going for a sneaky number two on the train, she told me of how she was revealed by the automatic door to the rest of the carriage, with her jeans round her ankles. Cringe. I’m not sure if it’s just me either, but I’m also always slightly terrified that the force of the train flush will suck me down there along with my toilet paper and deposit me onto the tracks. Ever since this incident, I have only ever visited the toilet if I really, REALLY need to, and even then it involved a balancing act between hovering over the seat, and reaching as far as I can to hold that flashing little ‘lock’ button to retain my dignity.

On top of this, when getting the trains from home to university, and vice versa, the three minutes that I have between connecting trains at one of the stations is absolutely ludicrous when about four flights of stairs and a suitcase is involved. Not to mention the merciless door minions who despite my half sprint still frown unsympathetically and again I end up platform stranded, waiting for the next train to come in half an hour (at least) for which my pre-paid reserve ticket is no longer valid. The consequence – the rest of the journey hiding behind my belongings, sweet-talking the guard or just generally panicking that I am on the right train.

If this all wasn’t bad enough, other hiccups of mine on the railway lines have included connecting/disconnecting carriages making a delay, sheep on the line, snow or ice related cancellations whenever the temperature drops below 2 degrees, probable dehydration due to no more tea or coffee due to staff cutbacks, and that one time a little boy locked himself in the toilet for 45 minutes before staff could find the key and stop him bawling and screaming.

The joys of train travel are never ending, I’m sure you’ll all agree. If only I could afford to drive…

Written for Kettle Mag 🙂 Check it out!

Short Documentary – Bouncers

A group assignment set during the TV unit of my degree was to make a short documentary. My group and I chose the subject of ‘Bouncers – The Inside Story’ and we produced this short film just before Christmas. Last week, Channel 4 broadcast their new documentary ‘Bouncers’ and okay, so their production may have been a little (or a lot) more experienced, but I think we were all pretty chuffed that our idea was actually plausible in the real world – it made the 3am filming seem a bit more worthwhile!

2nd Year Television Package

Again, for part of my university degree I was assigned a short news television package to produce. I chose to do mine on the topic of charitable organisation Oxfam, and their wedding departments in local stores.

Podcasts and Radio Features

For my BA Hons in Multimedia Journalism, I have had to produce several podcasts/radio packages as assignments. You can listen to them via the Soundcloud links below:

My first package was on the topic of tattooing,

I then did a podcast on the Royal Wedding with coursemate Natasha Salmon,

and my most recent piece was a short package on food waste, with interview from Liz Brewer – etiquette expert from Ladette to Lady.

Enjoy!

Heart FM Work Experience

In November, I visited the Heart FM Portslade studios for Heart Sussex and Surrey. In my first radio placement, I learnt a vast amount about how radio newsrooms work.

I wrote bulletins for the news editor and shadowed him during his live broadcasts. I had voice coaching with the news team, practiced reading bulletins in the studios and also sat in on the presenters shows. Alongside this I regularly updated the Sussex and Surrey websites independently, from the ‘top stories’ sections to whole web pages, hyperlinking many of these together.

I also attended the re-opening of Gatwick’s North terminal for a press conference (very fancy! But also very scary…) where I interviewed the CEO of Gatwick for an audio clip, which was broadcast.

You can listen to my Heart FM demo here too. (Be lenient though please – I had an awful cold!)

BBC Online Work Experience

After a second week at Bliss Magazine and a handful of other online book reviews and daily gossip stories published, I headed on to do a further work placement a month later at BBC Online with the features team.

Here I attended editorial meetings daily, did research for the features team and shadowed the editor on his tasks. I helped compile some of the smaller website sections, such as ’10 things’ and ‘Paper Monitor’.

Later in the placement I co-wrote my own feature, researching, sourcing and interviewing to work towards the final piece. You can read the finished article here.

Whilst at the BBC I also attended a college of journalism training course on content management systems for the web.

PS – I’m sorry that my blogs been neglected for so long! Between placements, summer, uni and work – I haven’t had much time left to update. My (late) new years resolution is for this to change…