It’s Not About Me is sage advice from video journalist Darren Brown at KWTV/Oklahoma City. 

 5 TO REMEMBER

• Doing a quality story almost ALWAYS takes more time than you planned on.  Traffic, a wrong turn, chit-chat, rain, snow, ice, heat, etc.  Sometimes all these things will conspire against you.  Just realize that it will happen.  Use your time wisely.

• Don’t be afraid to “kill some puppies.”  Isn’t that terrible?  It’s not mine—I got it from reading OMB tips from Lynne French at KPHX in Phoenix.  She warns that to keep your story “lean and mean” you gotta let go of some of those precious SOTS and shots that you went to great lengths to get.  The viewers don’t know the time and effort that you went to, and therefore, really don’t care.

• Keep it simple..or maybe a better term would be concise.  See above.

• Don’t take yourself too seriously.  Yes, this is a business, and therefore subject to all manner of business-like-not-fun-stuff.  But we get paid to TELL STORIES—we’re not splittin’ the atom.

• Remember I.N.A.M.  “It’s not about me.”  Sometimes clever writing is MUCH BETTER than a clever standup. 

5 TO AVOID

• Don’t overshoot.  This is a tough one when you work by yourself.  You can’t take notes while you’re engaged in the interview AND checking your shot AND formulating your next question AND monitoring your audio.  But you can’t let the camera become a gigantic notepad either.  You have to leave room for b-roll, and you don’t wanna get back with 120 minutes of stuff for a 2 minute pkg.

• Shaky video.  There’s really no excuse for it.  You have a tripod for a reason.  And if you don’t have one, you should raise a stink until you get one.  Just because you’re used to seeing hand-held video on Youtube doesn’t mean that it’s right.  Of course, having said that—-not EVERYTHING needs to be, or should be, on a tripod.  Just be smart about it.

• Avoid “talking heads.”   Not the band, of course, you certainly wouldn’t want to avoid them.  What I’m saying is, try to interview your subject  while they are doing what they normally do.  It makes no sense to talk to a wheat farmer about the drought while he’s sitting on his couch. 

• Avoid “reporter speak.”  Viewers are sick of reporters who don’t speak like real human beings.  The trick is to be professional—but also be yourself.

About Darren Brown

Darren Brown has worked in television for over 20 years.  Brown first worked as a camera operator and a tape operator, but found his true passion in TV news photography. In late 2007, Darren moved from TV news photography to become a videojournalist for News9.com.

An Oklahoma native, Darren graduated from Rose State College and the University of Oklahoma.  Darren has worked at NEWS 9 three times, as well as KAUZ in Wichita Falls, Texas, KOKH in Oklahoma City and KOB in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

As a videojournalist, Brown sees and experiences events and people the general public doesn’t usually get to see, and feels it’s his responsibility to bring those experiences home to the viewer. 

Darren believes storytelling is the essence of his job, and strives to convey every story he does in the best way possible.  “Some stories have great visuals, and others just have great characters,” Brown said.  “Some have neither, but they’re stories that just need to be told.”

Darren Brown is excited to have moved to News9.com  as a videojournalist.  He plans on bringing the same journalistic integrity to the website that viewers have come to expect from NEWS 9 over the years.

“Stick around, we’re just getting started!” he said.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Multimedia Journalism, Power Tools for TV Journalists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.