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Top honour goes to Julian Tay for August’s story of the month

Meld Magazine

Mon Dec 02 2013

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Julian-Tay-500x333

Story of the month – congrats Julian Tay!  

You don’t often get to see the people behind the cameras, but for August, we’re putting Meld videographer Julian Tay in the limelight. He wins Meld’s story of the month for August, for the excellent job he did filming the interview senior reporter Diane Leow did with award-winning filmmaker Anthony Chen. The video has attracted close to 20,000 views on YouTube. Read on for entertainment editor Hieu Chau’s comments.

Entertainment: Award-winning director Anthony Chen on ‘Ilo Ilo’ and the life of a filmmaker
Reporter: Diane Leow
Videographer: Julian Tay

  • Pageviews: 643
  • YouTube views: 19,919
  • Facebook Likes: 131
  • Tweets: 1
  • Average time on article: 07:14

Editor Hieu Chau’s comments:

Both Diane and Julian should be commended for the fantastic work they did in their interview with Cannes-award winning filmmaker Anthony Chen.

Given that Diane had a rather short amount of time to prepare the interview, it was good to know that she was not only enthusiastic during the whole process but was able to work under pressure (at the time, she had been taking on Entertainment Editor duties, Production Editor duties and had a whole bunch of other things going on) and kept in contact with me just to go over how the interview ought to be played out.

She did a great job on the interview and it shows as the piece itself has been very well received. It’s been “liked” 131 times on Facebook and the actual video on YouTube is in the top five most popular videos on the Meld Magazine YouTube page and is also amongst the top suggested videos when running a searching for “Anthony Chen” on YouTube.

Julian also deserves credit for not only being available to film the interview but also putting it altogether in time before the film’s second screening at MIFF. It was an extremely short time to do that and given the timeliness of this interview, I feel that both did a great job of submitting it at the right time and created a really great package.

 Other top stories for August:

storyofthemonthnews0813

News: TAFE funding cuts leave students in the cold
Reporter: Vivian Tan

  • Pageviews: 194
  • Facebook Likes: 11
  • Tweets: 4
  • Average time on article: 02:54

Editor Sandra Qian’s comments:

Prior to being stationed in the news beat, Vivian had little experience with news reporting, and this story shows the extent of her progress over the past few months.

The issue of TAFE cuts has been covered a number of times elsewhere with industry representatives, professionals and government weighing into the debate, but the voices of international students were missing.  In her piece, Vivian decided to include the voices of international students currently studying at TAFE. Doing so meant she had a more original story that brought the issue ‘closer’ to our readers.

News reporters are expected to digest a vast amount of information and be able to make sense of this information in a short period of time. While this isn’t always easy, Vivian has shown that she is able to unpack complex issues and communicate this to our readers convincingly. She was also able to do this while demonstrating her usual professionalism and commitment. Well done Vivian!

storyofthemonthlifestyle0813

Lifestyle: Healthy Bento Lunch Box Ideas
Reporter: Jessica-Anne Lyons

  • Pageviews: 366
  • Facebook Likes: 3
  • Tweets: 1
  • Average time on article: 366

Editor Elisa Scarton’s comments:

This story was pitched by the reporter herself. I thought it was perfect for our readers who are on their own and on a budget for the first time. We do so many stories about restaurants that it was nice to have a healthy and budget-friendly alternative.

Jessica-Anne really went above and beyond with this article. She didn’t Google healthy recipes, but created her own with real attention to the reader’s needs. Her recipes were healthy, interesting, cheap and easy to make. She offered a really original and satisfying week’s menu. I was so impressed.

Jessica-Anne is a fantastic writer. She once again demonstrated that she has our style down pat and a real knack for engaging the reader and being helpful without being condescending. This piece required no editing and Jessica-Anne even went out of her way to prepare all her dishes, photograph them professionally and lay them out on WordPress.

This story mightn’t be a game-changing investigative piece or expose, but it was a fantastically written piece that had impact on our reader’s daily lives. It’s hard leaving home and having to fend for yourself. I’d like to think Jessica-Anne’s piece helped make the day-to-day chore of surviving a little easier.

Tech: Cosplayers go all out at PAX Australia 2013
Editor: Leon Saw
Videographer: Julian Tay

  • Pageviews: 214
  • YouTube views: 574
  • Facebook Likes: 0
  • Tweets: 0
  • Average time on article: 04:38

Editor-in-chief Karen Poh’s comments:

A picture paints and thousand words and in this case, the video Leon and Julian put together featuring the cosplayers at the PAX Australia event says it all. Not only was the video visually interesting, Leon and Julian went a step further to give audiences a fun behind-the-scenes look into the effort that goes into the creation of the amazing attires showcased at PAX.

The video also covered a very different aspect of the event compared to an earlier story that had been published prior.

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