Say it, See it!

Flirtatious: "So how would you like to lead the newscast tonight?"

Real Mood: Pedagogic

Prediction: Somewhere tommorrow wind will flap a flag, and the hardware on the flag's rope will bang on the metal flagpole.

I've been having discussions with my Broadcast Journalism class about the importance of finding video and sound for Television news stories.

For that to happen? Eyes and ears need to be working overtime without pay. It's a little strange to try to sell skill development that will in time become second nature.

They'll all get it in time.  I just plan to shorten the learning curve.

Perhaps if I put it in the context of, "I want MY story to play a prominent role in the newscast!"

"Okay," says the show producer, "your story is about dying elm trees.  What pictures (video) do you have?"

"Just a couple of healthy trees I think are elms?  I can't find any dying ones."

"Any vid (video)  and nat (natural sound) of somebody working a chain saw?"

"No. Just a man walking by a pretty large tree trunk.  I don't know yet if it's an elm."

"What sots (soundbites...or sound on tape) ya got? Anything dramatic or compelling? Anybody crying over the loss of "Andy the Elm tree?"

"Got the state arborist saying he thinks it's a problem."

"Isn't he the guy with the really monotone voice who looks like he's going to go to sleep on camera?"

"Yeah, I guess you could describe him that way."

"So how big a deal is this elm issue anyway?"

"The arborist says we can expect a thousand trees to be dead in six months."

"But you've got no good video, no good natural sound, no compelling sound bites? "

"I guess not."

"Well I'll give you a ten second reader in the bottom of the 'A' block."

"But this is a big deal!"

"Uh, Huh! And this is TV."

In print you can paint word pictures. No one will ever know if a quoted source is animated, compelling. 

In TV you get just one shot. Then what you've reported is in the ether. No time for absorption. To grab viewers and hold them you need: Great Video, Great Natural Sound, Great Sound bites.

And the only way you get those elements is to look for them. And that needs to become second nature.  In your crowd? You are the first one to hear a flag whipping in the wind, the train blowing it's whistle, the glass breaking, the door squeaking.

You are the one to see the pickup going by with a dead horse in the back. It's legs are sticking straight up in the air.  You see the window washers precariously hanging from their ropes.  You see a grown man break into tears because his home has  been destroyed in a natural gas explosion. ( these are all real observations by reporters and photographers that got their stories to the top of the 'A' block.)

It was you who got an interview with a homeless guy about homeless murders.  (The guy later turns out to be a prime suspect.) You get the soundbite from the woman right after she clobbers her attacker with her purse. You are rolling when an activist and the Secretary of State are yelling at each other with just inches seperating their noses. You find an arborist who sings folk songs while he trims trees.

You get all this suff  'cause you're paying attention. You are always looking and listening. You're doing that because you don't want your story to be a ten second reader at the bottom of the 'A' block.