An independent television station art director recalls the first time he designed a newsroom presentation:
Way back then, everyone had just a desk and a background. Then someone came up with the bright idea of making the news seem more authentic by showing the whole staff rushing around and there were many problems with this: noise, confusion, and most of the time, nothing happening in the background because by the time the news was on the air, most of the news staff had finished their work!
News broadcasting is a major source of income for most television stations in the United States and receives a large share of management’s attention. In the infancy of television, commercial station news broadcasting played a minor role because viewers wanted to be entertained by the new medium rather than informed. For some people, this is still the case.
Ratings rose when news broadcasters increased news entertainment values and introduced attractive news-reading personalities. Appearance and presentation style became important. The amount of money broadcasters could charge for commercial time increased as audience shares increased. Broadcast lengths increased to allow more time for entertainment and production values. Technological advances enhanced these values.
The appearance and tone of news broadcasts rests heavily on the setting in which viewers see the reporters. The care the art director puts into set design can increase the broadcast’s excitement and authority.
Broadcasters place much emphasis on the appearance of the people who talk to the cameras. Many viewers believe that these authoritative-appearing people rush around all day gathering the stories they tell. The reality, however, is that, generally, staffs of reporters, writers, editors, and news-gathering crews prepare the material the on-camera personalities read. An art director contributes one element that helps create an authoritative feeling: the setting.
Let’s join a typical production meeting at which a new news presentation will be discussed. The management of WXXX has decided to abandon their traditional broadcast format – three people seated at a curved desk in front of a city photomural. WXXX is going to follow the crowd and do a two-hour newsroom-format program which they hope will win the ratings race in Midland City.
Present at the meeting are the news director, program director, station manager, production manager, technical director, facilities manager, assorted assistants, many coffee cups, and Harold, the art director. After the obligatory chit-chat with which all meetings begin, the station manager says: “I have called this meeting to get the ball rolling on a new secret news show that you all know about. We’ve been concerned about the success of the newsroom format over at Channel 8 and in other markets around the country. We’re not going to be left behind…(etc., etc.). Now our illustrious news director will tell us about this exciting new project.”
The news director starts in. Everyone takes notes. He says the new show will be two hours long, have a newsroom format, and that the news staff will appear in the background doing their regular jobs (which they will have already done by the time the broadcast airs). We hear a lot of enthusiastic talk about how exciting this will be, how we will have new mobile state-of-the-art news-gathering equipment, and the new look will make WXXX the highest rated station in the area.
The words “new look” rouse Harold from doodling strange creatures on his yellow pad. New “looks” always mean a set that looks completely different from the old one, but won’t scare anybody and has to be ready in two weeks. Harold wonders how exciting he can make a set that contains some editors typing behind a row of news readers.
“When is all this supposed to go on the air?” Harold asks.
“We’re shooting for September 8th,” says Mr. News Director. A hush falls over the room.
Taking a white-knuckled grip on his coffee cup, Harold says, “That gives me three whole weeks. I don’t see how I can design and have a whole new newsroom built by then.”
“Don’t worry,” the news director says. “All we have to do is move the cameras into the old newsroom and put in some lights.”
Harold asks some more questions and returns to his cubicle to begin creating the solution to this new challenge. Setting aside the problems posed by the low ceiling in the existing newsroom, he makes a list of the requirements discussed at the production meeting:
• Anchor desk with four positions
• Chromakey effect (blue or green area for inserting electronic graphics)
• Channel number in every shot
• Clocks showing worldwide times
• Map of the world
• Map of the state
• Bank of television screens
Harold’s first job is to record the general dimensions of the room, including the height of the ceiling, changes in floor level, width and height of doors, and jogs in the walls and ceiling. He also measures and counts the desks at which the news-gathering staff will be seen, and makes notes of the positions of computers, television monitors, and telephones he needs to show on the plan.
Back to the Drawing Board
Armed with the numbers, Harold sketches out some ideas. He starts with some obvious solutions and works up to some more innovative plans to present along with the dull ones. He then draws plan views of the room.
Scale It Up
To be sure the new pieces will fit into the existing room, Harold makes scale cardboard shapes representing desks and other necessary furnishings. By trying different arrangements of the shapes, he gets a clearer idea of how the spaces can work. When he has a preliminary arrangement, Harold makes a simple white model of the room. Now the set and its proportions are even more clear because he can hold the model up to camera level and peer at it from any angle.
Don’t Forget the Weather
Weather reporting holds extreme interest for many viewers, and Harold reserves a portion of the set for the Chromakey process. The weather person stands in front of a blue or green area onto which still and moving graphics are electronically inserted.
The weather reporter looks into an off-camera monitor to see the computer-created graphics. As we saw in Chapter 5, saturated blue and green are the colors of choice because they are far away from the colors reporters usually wear, and allow the system to cut a clear stencil into which the system can insert graphics.
More Numbers
Another item on Harold’s list is the channel number appearance desired in every shot of the newsroom so that viewers will not think they are watching Channel 6. At this point in the design process, he has only a rough idea of the camera angles and can only estimate where to put the logos. Harold plans to leave the exact placement until he sees the set on camera and sees the shots chosen by the director.
Clutter Everywhere
Looking at the existing newsroom, Harold sees that it is a visual mess, has no central staff working area, and no color identity. The room serves its purpose as a utilitarian space as determined by the staff’s needs, but it will look messy and confusing on camera. Armed with measurements, he decides to make a central anchorperson area toward the end of the room where the cameras will be. This area will be elevated 18" above floor level to get the seated, on-camera people’s eyes at lens level. Behind this anchor desk area, the cameras will see feverish news-gathering activity, the wall clocks, and banks of television monitors, as well as a channel number or two. Much of the time, the possibly distracting activity will be out of focus or not in selected shots.
Harold May Scare Them
Because he has several ideas, ranging from ordinary to innovative, Harold makes sketches and rough plans for each. This approach can be risky, because clients may get confused by many choices, but Harold decides the following three designs will give everyone a chance to show their true colors:
1. A standard solution—Following the news director’s suggestions, Harold places a four-person anchor desk in the foreground, station logo and weather area to the right, and clocks on the wall above. The color tone is beige.
2. A different arrangement of the same idea—This version of the set has colored panels, an interview area, and chrome trim around the walls. Everything else is the same as the first plan.
3. An arrangement that will frighten everyone—This set has no conventional walls, but features a semi-circular 180° Chromakey green area behind the anchor desk, giving free rein for insertion of news graphics. A curved, transparent desktop at which the news readers sit even shows the bottom half of their figures, a broadcasting innovation.
Ms. Cautious will go for set No. 1 or possibly set No. 2 if she feels daring. Mr. Middle-of-the-Road will not say anything until he hears the station manager’s opinion. Mr. Courageous will go for No. 3, whatever may happen to his career.
Station management cautiously approaches any changes in news presentation for fear that they may frighten loyal viewers to another channel, so after many hours of soul-searching, they choose to go ahead with Harold’s solution No. 2, Middle-of-the Road. Harold files away No. 3 for another day.
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In the next chapter, we will see how an art director can help present a lot of information in a short period of time by designing a commercial setting.