What do you do when the person you’re interviewing sidesteps your question? You can learn from one of the country’s most successful reporters in this brief clip from Sixty Minutes.
Question: “How can I save time editing? I’m pushing my deadlines and once missed my slot in the newscast.”
One basic approach is to avoid shooting an interview and “B” roll separately. When possible, shoot the person describing the subject of the story. You may still want to get additional video to be sure, but if you plan well in the field, you’ll save editing time.
These examples are from KFOR-TV/Oklahoma City multimedia journalist Galen Culver.
What surprises news people most about branding provides a critical reality check, as you’ll see in this Learning Video that runs 2:41.
You work hard on them, but many of your sweeps reports likely fail to pull ratings or build your image as a multimedia journalist. And that’s assuming you provide the promotion producer with memorable moments and strong viewer benefit.
Based on our studies of literally hundreds of thousands of viewers, here are keys to success.
You sometimes have to take control to get the best shots as you’ll see in this story with limited visuals.
Multimedia journalist Galen Culver discusses this story at a three day AR&D training workshop at KSBY in San Luis Obispo, California.
From a viewer’s standpoint, “Don’t change reality.” Capture what the person does, but don’t tell him to do something else to get better shots. TV news needs to show what’s really happening.
We welcome your comments.
For more Multimedia Minutes, look at Recent Posts in the column on the right.
Going the extra step to set herself apart from the competition is what KVOA/Tucson multimedia journalist Naomi Pescovitz did in this story. Our comments include suggestions regarding how to make the story even better.
Naomi completed a three day AR&D multimedia journalist training program at KVOA the week before crafting this story.
Recent Posts on the column to the right include many more Learning Videos.
When we test viewers’ second-by-second reaction to stories, interest drops for live from the newsroom. Viewers believe reporters can do a better job when they see them at the scene, not sitting back at the station. As one viewer said, “I like reporters who go where the action is.”
An exception is when the reporter just found out something very important and needs to tell viewers. Or previewing a tomorrow story for the morning news because you just found time to get the information. When you multi-task, that happens, as you know. Or your news director or producer asked you to do it. But remember: Pictures and sound tell the story best, then standups from the field build your image and make for more engaging TV news.
Never say never. You’ll find times you report from the newsroom because that’s the best option. It won’t hurt your career. It just won’t advance it.
For more Multimedia Minutes, click on the links to the right.