I know I told you all that I would be meeting with the Newsdirector at WKBN/WYTV, but with all of the snow we had this week some adjustments were made in the schedule. So I will be meeting with him this upcoming week, but I know I've been telling you guys a lot about the whole Videojournalist experience. This week I got to add to that. I went out with Bill to cover to high school playoff games up by Cleveland. The one game that we were going to was Northwest & Canfield. Canfield has a player on their team that we were going to be interviewing for WYTV's Student Athlete. Bill shot student athlete all by himself. He first set up the camera on a tripod, whitebalanced, and then checked to make sure the student would be in frame. Next he got the mic out, tested it to make sure there was audio, and then began the interview. This was great hands on experience because I got to see the whole product from beginning to end on just what it was like to be a videojournalist.
After the interview on our way back, Bill gave me some surprising news. He said that I was going to write a story on this athlete and this upcoming week I was going to be able to put a package together from the footage we filmed on her. This was really exciting because this is my first big opportunity to put together such a good story and hold onto it so I can one day use it for my resume tape because I helped film and would be writing my own story. I was so overwhelmed and excited at the same time that I began writing a story right away on our way back to the station. I first thought about the sound bites I had heard during the interview and what I was going to use out of them for my story. Most likely what caught my ear will catch the viewers ear as well. I began to write my story, and as with most beginning journalists you tend to write long bites and not as conversational as it should be. Since Bill was with me I would write a bite ask him how it was, and then if I wasn't satisfied (which was most of the time because I'm a perfectionist) I would stick to the same thing I wrote before but shorten it.
One of the best pieces of advice that Bill gave me was to just imagine you are reading this to a friend, would you really talk as formal as you are, or would you be more conversational. This really helped because I would read my story out loud and realize that I would never talk like that to my friends if I were telling just how great of an athlete this player really was. Another thing that I realized was that with the Student Athlete profile that they do on area athletes they really focus on players who are both academic and team leaders. The girl that we did this week was not only going to be going to Pitt to play in the fall, but she had an academic GPA of almost 4.0. Bill told me that this is a common theme with all of the athletes they chose. I can't wait to finish this story next week and see how it compares to the actual one that showed on the news segment lastnight. I didn't watch it purposely so I could compare what I wrote to that of a professional. I will let you all know how this goes next week! Just maybe being a videojournalist is in my future after all!
After the interview on our way back, Bill gave me some surprising news. He said that I was going to write a story on this athlete and this upcoming week I was going to be able to put a package together from the footage we filmed on her. This was really exciting because this is my first big opportunity to put together such a good story and hold onto it so I can one day use it for my resume tape because I helped film and would be writing my own story. I was so overwhelmed and excited at the same time that I began writing a story right away on our way back to the station. I first thought about the sound bites I had heard during the interview and what I was going to use out of them for my story. Most likely what caught my ear will catch the viewers ear as well. I began to write my story, and as with most beginning journalists you tend to write long bites and not as conversational as it should be. Since Bill was with me I would write a bite ask him how it was, and then if I wasn't satisfied (which was most of the time because I'm a perfectionist) I would stick to the same thing I wrote before but shorten it.
One of the best pieces of advice that Bill gave me was to just imagine you are reading this to a friend, would you really talk as formal as you are, or would you be more conversational. This really helped because I would read my story out loud and realize that I would never talk like that to my friends if I were telling just how great of an athlete this player really was. Another thing that I realized was that with the Student Athlete profile that they do on area athletes they really focus on players who are both academic and team leaders. The girl that we did this week was not only going to be going to Pitt to play in the fall, but she had an academic GPA of almost 4.0. Bill told me that this is a common theme with all of the athletes they chose. I can't wait to finish this story next week and see how it compares to the actual one that showed on the news segment lastnight. I didn't watch it purposely so I could compare what I wrote to that of a professional. I will let you all know how this goes next week! Just maybe being a videojournalist is in my future after all!
2 comments:
Do a search on Viewfinder Blues--
http://lenslinger.blogspot.com
He's a photog (former one-man band) in North Carolina who blogs frequently about the VJ movement.
Always treat television and radio audiences as if it's an audience of one. You want to remain genuine and conversational. NO OFFICIAL NEWS VOICE. Television and radio are intimate media. Talking one on one is great advice.
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