Part V
It’s All Part of the Show
16
If the Shoe Fits, Write it
What You’ll Learn_________________________
Television and radio scripts aren’t uniform from one newsroom to another—among other reasons, they use different scripting software. What’s more, formats are different depending on their use: at the station, or in the field. This chapter is strictly about use inside the station (generally, the field reporter can scribble the script on her hand, as long as she can read it, although that’s not recommended). As you’ll learn in the final chapter, “Holding Onto Your Dream,” you might have to learn an entirely new format at every new station you enter.
But certain basics apply everywhere you go, no matter what software you use. Well, almost everywhere (I assiduously stick to the prospect that at some point, you’ll end up working at a station that is the exception). Although there are several kinds of script formats, I’ll tell you what remains the same, almost wherever you work. It’ll certainly be based on the style I’d want if you worked for me!
Why does it matter? Because the whole purpose of a script is to be readable, and uniform to all who see it. That means not only readable language, but a uniformly (within the station) readable format. You’re working with a team, and everyone on the team—anchors, writers, producers, graphic artists, control room technicians, studio technicians—everyone needs the same information, in the same language. Everyone needs to know what’s supposed to happen as the story airs. Furthermore, as you already have learned in this book, all the good writing, reporting, and editing you do can go down the drain if the anchorwoman stumbles on the script, because that will distract the audience and quite possibly be all the viewer or listener remembers.
The Terms of the Story_________________________
Incue The first few words of a sound bite, included on a script so everyone in the studio and the control room knows what will be said.
Rundown The list of stories, including the length of each, that will air in the newscast, in their planned logical sequence.
Slug A code specific to each scripted story, making it easy for anyone to quickly identify the title, the writer, the date, and newscast for which it is written.
The Shape of Your Script
The fundamental difference between scripts for television news and for radio news is simple: a TV script (depending on the software) has an imaginary line (and sometimes an actual printed line) down the middle of the page, usually just a bit left of center (making roughly a forty/sixty percent split). Only technical information for directors, producers, and technicians goes on the left side, the script of the story itself (and sometimes some technical information useful to the anchor) goes on the right side. When a teleprompter is used, just the part on the right side shows up.
Here is an example:
| Mayor resigns—4 Jul—6pm—Dobbs | :55 Page 1/1 |
| Jennifer o/c Cam 2 CG: Jennifer Jakes/7News |
(JENNIFER) The mayor this morning dropped a bombshell. She will resign in a month. |
| Jason o/c Cam 1 |
(JASON) Why? |
| Jason VO Tape 3 |
(JASON VO) At her regularly weekly news conference she wouldnt say, but her official spokesman dropped a hint afterward. |
| SOT Tape 3 CG: Larry Law/Mayor’s Spokesman 8 seconds Outcue: “…job in Washington.” |
|
| Jennifer VO Tape 3 |
(JENNIFER VO) As longtime local citizens know, Mayor Martinez is the daughter and granddaughter of senators, and early in her political career, she said there has never been any question in her mind that the United States Senate is her ultimate political goal. |
| Jason o/c Cam 3 CG: Jason Jeffreys/7News |
(JASON) Of course this raises a different question: who will succeed her at City Hall? The city has no formal procedure to select a successor without a special election. The Clerk of Elections says that will be costly. |
| SOT Nancy Nigh/City Treasurer 5 seconds Outcue: “…of half-a-million dollars.” |
|
| Jennifer o/c Cam 1 |
(JENNIFER) The City Treasurer says that right now, there’s no money for that. |
If a station has the software, as most do, then a script for TV can be typed out from the left margin of the page to the right margin, and the software can convert it to the left-side/right-side format.
A radio script usually doesn’t have a line down the middle. Instead, it is written the way you write almost everything else: from the left side of the page to the right side, with technical information inserted wherever it falls in the script and often indented to distinguish it from the words that are read on the air.
Here is an example:
Mayor resigns—4 Jul—6pm—Dobbs :55 Page 1/1
The mayor this morning dropped a bombshell.
She will resign in a month.
Why?
At her regularly weekly news conference she wouldnt say, but her official spokesman, Larry Law, dropped a hint afterward.
SOT #4
8 seconds
Incue “Mayor Martinez has a long history…”
Outcue: “…job in Washington.”
Summary: Mayor has history with Washington politics, always wanted to work there.
As longtime local citizens know, Mayor Martinez is the daughter and granddaughter of senators, and early in her political career, she said there has never been any question in her mind that the United States Senate is her ultimate political goal.
Of course this raises a different question: who will succeed her at City Hall?
The city has no formal procedure to select a successor without a special election.
Nancy Night, the Clerk of Elections says that will be costly.
SOT #2
5 seconds
Incue: “Typically this kind…”
Outcue: “…of half-a-million dollars.”
Summary: Special elections typically cost half-million dollars
The City Treasurer says that right now, there’s no money for that.
What’s the Point?
If you go to work in a newsroom and don’t know the difference between a script for radio and one for TV, you might not lose your brand new job, but you’ll wish you’d learned the difference before getting there.
The Look of Your Script
Should you type your scripts in All Upper Case Like This, or in Upper and Lower Case Like This? Single spaced, double spaced, or triple? It’s a matter of personal preference. The news director’s or the anchor’s personal preference, not yours. How about indenting sentences? Some newsrooms do it, others don’t. How much potentially distracting technical information should you provide on the portion of a script that the anchor must read live? Some think everything ought to be noted, some think almost nothing.
So I won’t purport to tell you the right way and the wrong way to do these things, because there’s a good argument for each. (The best argument may be that if the news director wants it a certain way that is how you’d better do it!) But I shall tell you what I’d want in my newsroom, and why.
1. Upper and lower case versus All Caps
Say you write a sentence like this:
The limo driver, Matthew Miles, says he has the first Lexus in Lubbock, and he loves it.
The anchor may be able to read it more easily in upper and lower than if you write it in ALL UPPERS like this:
THE LIMO DRIVER, MATTHEW MILES, SAYS HE HAS THE FIRST LEXUS IN LUBBOCK, AND HE LOVES IT.
This is even more important, I believe, when you have consecutive sentences. Bearing in mind that the anchor has many distractions while reading and cannot simply stare at the script, upper and lower case helps him distinguish between the end of one sentence and the start of another. In other words, it helps prevent confusion.
For example? Look at the paragraph you just read about consecutive sentences. It is duplicated below, word for word, in the same size, the same spacing and the same font, but in All Caps:
THIS IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT WHEN YOU HAVE CONSECUTIVE SENTENCES. BEARING IN MIND THAT THE ANCHOR HAS MANY DISTRACTIONS AND CANNOT SIMPLY STARE AT THE SCRIPT, UPPER AND LOWER CASE TYPING HELPS HER OR HIM DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE END OF ONE SENTENCE AND THE START OF ANOTHER. IN OTHER WORDS, IT HELPS PREVENT CONFUSION.
Which one seems easier to read? Upper and lower case in my opinion, although many news directors disagree. You’ll work for them, not for me, so do it however they want it.
2. Single versus double or triple spacing
Let’s take a look at the last paragraph in both single and double spaced formats:
Which one seems easier to read? Upper and lower case in my opinion, although many news directors disagree. You’ll work for them, not for me, so do it however they want it.
Which one seems easier to read? Upper and lower case in my opinion, although many news directors disagree. You’ll work for them, not for me, so do it however they want it.
Now imagine the paragraph in a teleprompter, or only on the right side of a television news script. There’s probably no real consensus on single versus double spacing. In my experience, double spacing is better, simply because with all the distractions confronting whoever’s reading this on the air, the eye will find the next line in the script more easily if the script is double spaced.
3. Indenting versus not indenting
You’re writing a news script, not a novel. Each story begins at the top of the page and, if it’s long enough, continues onto the next page (and each page after that) until the end. There are no paragraphs and, therefore, my preference is no indentations, although here too, some news directors (and anchors) prefer indentations. In any event, you start each story on the left-hand margin of your script section.
Here is an example for TV, first, with indentations:
The mayor this morning dropped a bombshell. She will resign in a month. Why? At her regularly weekly news conference she wouldn’t say, but her official spokesman dropped a hint afterward: the mayor has her eye on the United States Senate.
As longtime local citizens know, Mayor Martinez is the daughter and granddaughter of senators, and early in her political career, she said there has never been any question in her mind that the United States Senate is her ultimate political goal.
Of course this raises a different question: who will succeed her at City Hall? The city has no formal procedure to select a successor without a special election. The Clerk of Elections says that will be costly, something like half-a-million dollars. The City Treasurer says that right now, there’s no money for that.
Now, the same story without indentations:
The mayor this morning dropped a bombshell. She will resign in a month. Why? At her regularly weekly news conference she wouldn’t say, but her official spokesman dropped a hint afterward: the mayor has her eye on the United States Senate. As longtime local citizens know, Mayor Martinez is the daughter and granddaughter of senators, and early in her political career, she said there has never been any question in her mind that the United States Senate is her ultimate political goal. Of course this raises a different question: who will succeed her at City Hall? The city has no formal procedure to select a successor without a special election. The Clerk of Elections says that will be costly, something like half-a-million dollars. The City Treasurer says that right now, there’s no money for that.
Both examples look fine, and in fact you might glance at them both and think that in the example with indentations, it is easier to distinguish one paragraph from another. But there’s the rub: it’s all one story, so there shouldn’t be any paragraphs to distinguish. (As you’ll see in a moment, the insertion of a sound bite will create its own natural separation.)
So if you shouldn’t write in paragraphs, how can you help the anchor see a clear distinction between one sentence and another? By starting each sentence on a new line. Like this:
The mayor this morning dropped a bombshell. She will resign in a month.
Why?
At her regularly weekly news conference she wouldn’t say, but her official spokesman dropped a hint afterward: the mayor has her eye on the United States Senate.
As longtime local citizens know, Mayor Martinez is the daughter and granddaughter of senators, and early in her political career, she said there has never been any question in her mind that the United States Senate is her ultimate political goal.
Of course this raises a different question: who will succeed her at City Hall?
The city has no formal procedure to select a successor without a special election.
The Clerk of Elections says that will be costly, something like half-a-million dollars.
The City Treasurer says that right now, there’s no money for that.
Remember too, for a TV anchor, this probably will be on a teleprompter, which means she will be reading from a mirror reflecting the script in front of the camera lens. It’ll scroll by the center point of the lens just one line at a time, possibly with each sentence starting on a new line, but without paragraphs.
4. Being clear about where the sound bites fall
Although formats differ (as with different scripting software), every script, for a radio or a TV newscast, requires a clear, visible, identifiable break so the anchor knows to stop for a sound bite.
Let’s use the same story about the mayor’s surprise announcement that she is resigning. But this time, there will be a sound bite. As you’ll see in the television format below, no matter what else might be distracting the anchor, there can be no doubt while reading this on the air about when to stop, and when to start again.
Sometimes, the kind of information that is printed on the left side above will be in that break, the empty space, between narration sections. That allows the anchor to see it too, although usually either a floor director or a control room executive can give this information to the anchor through the earpiece.
5. Too much versus too little information
Note the information on the left side of the script, above: a sound bite (SOT), the name of the speaker (so it can be turned into a CG), and the bite’s length and outcue (so both the control room and the anchor know when to expect it to end).
Now, just to be clear, here’s the story one more time, but with two sound bites built in. As you’ll see, the principle is the same whether you have one, two, or twelve. But I’ll add another element: the names of the anchors on the right side, and whether they are doing a voiceover (VO) covered by video, so if two anchors share reading duties, they’ll know who is supposed to read what, and whether they are on camera or off.
There also might be information typed or penciled in on the left side about which computer or tape machine will be used to play the sound bite, although like a few other pieces of information for the lefthand column of a script (like which camera to use, and what else to generate as a CG on the screen), that is strictly for the control room’s use and is often added by the director or producer.
6. Information notations in radio scripts
As you saw earlier in this chapter, the radio script typically isn’t arranged in a “left-right” format—it is done “above-below”—but the principle of ensuring visual clarity by separating narration from information is the same.
What’s more, you want a bit more information for radio. For instance, the “incue” is a good idea, so the anchor knows right away if a careless finger or a technical snafu has triggered the wrong sound bite. And the “summary,” so the anchor can extemporaneously paraphrase the sound bite if it doesn’t play at all. Not all radio stations require this, but I think they should.
The mayor this morning dropped a bombshell.
She will resign in a month.
Why?
At her regularly weekly news conference she wouldnt say, but her official spokesman, Larry Law, dropped a hint afterward.
SOT #4 (referring to the station’s system of cataloguing sound bites)
8 seconds
Incue: “Mayor Martinex has a long history…”
Outcue: “…job in Washington.”
Summary: Mayor has history with Washington politics, always wanted to work there
As longtime local citizens know, Mayor Martinez is the daughter and granddaughter of senators, and early in her political career, she said there has never been any question in her mind that the United States Senate is her ultimate political goal.
Of course this raises a different question: who will succeed her at City Hall?
The city has no formal procedure to select a successor without a special election. Nancy Nigh, the Clerk of Elections says that will be costly.
SOT #2
5 seconds
Incue: “Typically this kind…”
Outcue: “…of half-a-million dollars.”
Summary: Special elections typically cost half-million dollars
The City Treasurer says that right now, there’s no money for that.
7. The long and the short of it
As you learned earlier in the book, if you’re given forty seconds to tell a story, the producer doesn’t want thirty-five seconds and she doesn’t want forty-five. Furthermore, people helping produce the newscast need to know how long it is, but might not have a copy of the rundown.
Some scripting software actually times scripts according to the preprogrammed normal speed at which the anchorman or anchorwoman reads. It will post the timing on the script itself.
Otherwise, at the bottom of each story, you should either type or pencil in the total running time (TRT) of the piece.
Some do it formally: TRT :40
Some do it informally, just putting “:40” or “40 sec” at the bottom of the page and circling it.
What’s the Point?
The choice between upper and lower case letters and ALL CAPS, and between indenting or not indenting, is up to your superior in the newsroom. But arguably, it isn’t just a matter of looks, it’s a matter of visual clarity. Likewise, clarity and specific information are critical when you show a sound bite.
Slug Every Script
The last thing you want to do when you’re in a hurry—which is usually the last half hour before a TV newscast and the last ten minutes before a radio newscast—is have to read through a script on a computer screen or a piece of paper to find out what it’s about—or if someone else wrote it and you have a question, to find out who to ask—or to see if it has been used before.
That’s why you write a slug horizontally along the top, or in some newsrooms vertically in the upper left corner, of each new script.
What specifically do you include? By now you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that there is no uniform answer. As in almost every other area of script writing, different stations require different elements in the slug. Uniformly though, they require a name for the story. On the story about the mayor resigning, for instance, it probably should be:
Mayor resigns
You want to keep the slug name to a word or two if possible. “Mayor resigns” is just enough for a producer frantically stacking the stories in the right order at the last minute, and anyone else needing to be certain they’re on the same page, to know precisely what the script is about without having to read through it.
Be careful not to be too vague when you choose the name. If you use “Mayor news conference” or “Mayor talks” rather than “Mayor resigns,” it could be mistaken for another story from the mayor’s news conference the same day.
I think three other elements are useful in a slug: date, time (the time the story airs, not the time it’s written), and the writer’s name.
Here’s a brief rationale for each:
• DATE By listing the date, someone checking the archives while writing a followup or a related story will know how long ago the original story took place.
• TIME By noting the time of the newscast in which the story aired, you make it clear to whoever is producing a show later that same day, or the next day, that this script needs updating or rewriting or removal for fresher news. In other words, how old the story is.
• WRITER’S NAME This is how someone with a question about the story can quickly figure out who to ask.
So, here’s the slug I’d want to see along the top, or in the upper left corner, on the first page of the story about the mayor:
Mayor resigns – Jul 4 – 6 pm – Dobbs
Or:
Mayor resigns
Jul 4
6 pm
Dobbs
Finally, some stations include a “designator” at the top—a code that includes the nature of the package being read: whether it’s a voiceover (VO), whether it includes tape (SOT), whether it involves video, a photo, or an illustration behind the anchor (for example, CHYRON, which is an image projected behind the anchor), or other such elements.
Also, some scripting software programs will automatically give you page numbers, updating them as new ones are inserted.
What’s the Point?
The slug isn’t important, until you need to know information, and there’s no slug. The slug can answer a handful of questions in a single moment.
Exercises to Fit In_________________________
1. below are the elements of a story. You must write a 45-second voiceover version for tele vision, and a 20-second version for radio. Put each in an appropriate script format, with appropriate information, for its medium.
• Two street gangs
• Names: “Feeders” and “Riders”
• Housing project 10 blocks west of downtown
• Each side has guns
• Day after mayor announces new terminal for airport
• Shooting from opposite sides of playground
• Fourth gang-related shooting in city this year
• Girl shot on swing
• Mayor releases IRS forms
• Girl died on way to hospital
• Mother pushing her
• Mother injured
• Girl four years old
• Project residents demonstrate for more police protection
• Police have descriptions of shooters
• Police have no suspects
• Mayor names new police chief
2. Below are the elements of another story, including sound bites. Write one version for tele vision, a minute and ten seconds long. Write another for radio, 50 seconds long. Include at least two sound bites in each, and put each piece in an appropriate format, with appropriate information, for its medium.
• 2 trucks collide head-on
• 7:15 a.m.
• On eastbound I-80 just west of Main St exit
• 1 driver killed
• Dead driver had pickup truck
• Dead driver’s name unknown
• Other driver ran from scene
• Other driver had oil delivery truck
• Driver who fled wearing red jumpsuit, long hair
• Male friend from dead driver’s car hospitalized, then released
• Traffic stopped 2 hours
• Oil all over road
• Governor trapped in traffic jam, late to park dedication
• 3rd highway death in town this month
SOT: JACK JOHNSON, FRIEND OF DEAD DRIVER, HOSPITALIZED THEN RELEASED
“Don’t know where the guy came from, we were just driving along, kinda slow because of rush hour, then bam, he hits us on the left side of the truck and the next thing I know, I wake up and my buddy’s slumped over the wheel.” (Make this 13 seconds long)
SOT: BERNICE BROWN, WITNESS
“I’m right behind this oil truck when he starts skidding, then bangs into the pickup, and I see the guy jump out his door. He’s wearing this bright red jumpsuit and he’s got real long hair, and I hope they catch him fast!” (Make this 8 seconds long)
SOT: SGT. TOM TAPPER, FIRST OFFICER TO RESPOND AT THE SCENE
“When I got here, the suspect was long gone. But we’ve got a good ID on the guy and we’ll get him.” (Make this 5 seconds long)