INTRODUCTION

The major difference between radio and TV news is, of course, pictures. When you write for television, pictures are always crucial to a story. In radio, you must create pictures in your mind and then find the words to paint those pictures for your audience. In television, you can show the actual pictures.

In television, as in radio, a writer’s duties depend on the size of the newsroom. In a small market—and even in some medium sized markets—no one is assigned solely to writing. The anchors, reporters, producers, and perhaps an intern from a local college write the news. Television newsrooms in big markets and at the networks usually have several writers and, perhaps, associate producers who also write. There are also packages, which are self-contained video stories that come from reporters in the field.

This chapter examines a variety of terms used in television news, such as split page, voiceover, and font, and describes a television writer’s most common writing assignments.

In carrying out these assignments, you need to learn to work with both words and pictures. Broadcast news professionals have strong views on which are more important—words or pictures. The truth, of course, is that both words and pictures are critical to a successful TV news script. Television is a visual medium, and the pictures must be effective, but if the words that go with those pictures are unclear, confusing, or contradictory, the story will fail because no true communication will take place.

Choose your pictures carefully and do the same with your words. We’ll start with readers, the most basic form of story on an evening newscast.

READERS

Readers are stories that are read by the anchors without the use of pictures. Visually, readers are the least interesting in TV news. They are the same as radio copy, except you can see the anchor who is reading the script. They are, however, an integral part of the TV newscast despite their lack of visuals for several reasons:

■ Readers give the anchors exposure to the audience. Anchors are paid well and the audience expects to see their faces on camera at least part of the time.

■ They are used because no video is available. This happens with breaking stories (no time to send a crew) or distant stories (too far and too expensive to send a crew).

■ A producer can use a reader to fill time in the newscast when there are not enough visual stories to complete the entire show.

■ Readers are used for stories in which the video would be dull and not compelling.

At the same time, readers play a major role in the TV newscast by breaking up the other types of material. Because too much of anything can become irritating, the readers provide a change of pace for viewers at home, allowing them to take a breath from nonstop visuals.

Another option for readers is to air them with a full-page graphic. This is more visually interesting for the viewer, plus it allows the newsroom’s graphic artist the opportunity to put bullet points, contact information, or a map over the talking anchor. A reader on a simple story such as a blood drive could be supplemented with full-page graphics, such as the location and operating hours of the donation center. For a traffic accident or other breaking news for which there is no video yet, a quick map of where the incident is happening is useful to the viewing audience. Producers can easily expand the humble reader with an on-air link to a website, a Facebook group, or a Twitter stream that can provide more detailed information.

FIGURE 13.1
Readers are stories read by anchors without the use of pictures. Michael Dechev/Shutterstock.com

Finally, readers are the most flexible types of story to use in a newscast, as they can be easily inserted around other “larger” stories, like packages. They also play the same role as radio pad copy by allowing producers to make adjustments that guarantee that the newscast gets off the air on time. If the TV newscast is long, the readers are the likely stories to be dropped. If the newscast is short, more readers can be added. While readers are straightforward stories of just written text, television news depends on video images. Let’s examine the interaction between the visual pictures and the spoken narration.

COMBINING WORDS AND PICTURES

The battle over which are more important in television news—words or pictures—is endless. There is no doubt that words are vital and that some broadcast writers use them more effectively than others. Great pictures and great words together make great television news.

The beauty of good pictures is that they do not need a lot of words—just some good ones. The challenge for TV writers is to avoid clashes with the video. Do not tell viewers what they are seeing. Instead, support the video by saying what the video does not or cannot reveal. Fill in the blanks, but do not overpower the video. Give your viewers time to savor the pictures.

This is best explained via the touch and go principle. Assume you have a series of five shots for a voiceover. These shots show a family festival in the park. The shots are a wide shot (WS) of dozens of people milling about a park playground, a WS of two kids on a seesaw, a medium shot (MS) of one of the kids bouncing up and down, a close-up (CU) of one of the kids’ smiling faces, and a final WS of adoring parents watching the kids. One example of poor narration would be:

Saturday in the park brought out dozens of people. Two kids played on the seesaw, going up and down. Judging by their smiles, they both seemed to be having a good time. Even their parents were happy to be there.

Awful. Not only is it lousy writing, you are simply telling the viewers what they’re already seeing. Instead, the touch and go principle allows you to tie the establishing video and narration together and then lets the narration advance the story while the video maintains the story line. For example:

Saturday in the park brought out dozens of people. But moments like this are in jeopardy with state budget cuts. The latest proposal would remove 15% of the money from parks and recreation. First to go? Local parks.

FIGURE 13.2
Great stories come from a combination of great pictures and great words. lixai/iStockphoto.com

See the difference? By merely touching the first video in the sequence and then proceeding into solid narration, you can expand the storytelling beyond mere recitation of what the viewer sees. Of course, such advice assumes that you have good pictures. If you don’t, then the words become more crucial because they are needed to prop up the video. But because TV news is not about using poor video, stories with bad pictures are likely to be dropped for more appealing ones unless the messages they convey are too vital to be eliminated completely.

If the pictures are poor, you can be sure you’ll be asked to tell the story quickly. A common criticism of television news is that it relies on the pictures too much, but right or wrong the formula is not likely to change for a news crew in the field. Poor visuals lead to short stories, but strong visuals can create longer stories.

VOICEOVERS

The above example of the kids playing in the park is a voiceover (VO), which is the simplest type of video story. The structure is similar to a reader, but the anchor reads the copy while those visual elements are shown. In this way, the viewers see the video footage but they hear the anchor’s voice over the video. The video can either be silent or have a soundtrack that is kept low for natural effect, a technique referred to as sound under or natural sound.

Remember that the copy must complement the video, not merely duplicate what is obvious to viewers. Avoid phrases such as “what you are seeing here” unless the video is difficult to understand. For example, if you are showing video of a train derailment, rather than tell your viewers, “What you are seeing is the derailment of a Conrail freight train that left its tracks last night,” you would say “Clean-up workers hope to get this accident under control after a Conrail freight train left its tracks last night.” Let the pictures show the derailed train.

To write voiceover copy intelligently, you need to look at the video and take notes. When viewing the video, note how long the footage lasts. The videographer sometimes shoots a series of short shots that may require little editing, but individual shots are often too long to use without some trimming. To illustrate, let’s assume a field crew returned to the newsroom with video of a train wreck. The field crew returns with the following scant footage:

■ A long, continuous pan of the wrecked cars that lasts about 30 seconds.

■ A 20-second wide shot of a derrick hovering over the scene.

■ A 20-second shot of railroad workers huddled around a hastily made trashcan fire to ward off the frigid weather.

■ A 10-second shot of the wrecked train.

■ A 10-second shot of spilt cargo—mostly smashed lumber.

■ A 10-second shot of workers moving debris.

The total running time of the video is one minute and 40 seconds. The producer asks the writer for a 20-second voiceover. The writer then must lift an assortment of brief shots from the video that can be strung together in some logical order that will make sense when narration is added. In a small newsroom, reporters often write the script and edit the footage. In a large operation, an editor follows the writer’s or reporter’s instructions.

Now that the writer has notes on the length of each scene, she must decide how to edit, or cut, the video. Cut is a film term that has carried over to video. All editing is done electronically; nothing is physically cut. The writer decides to use part of the wreck scene first. It is a wide shot that sets the scene and illustrates the large amount of damage, so the writer wants eight seconds of it. Then the writer selects five seconds of the wreckage video that shows the lumber spread over the tracks and terrain. Four seconds of the derrick at work follow, and the voiceover closes with three seconds of the railroad workers around the trashcan fire. Of course, more footage, possibly another ten seconds, will be added to the end of the footage in case the footage rolls late.

FIGURE 13.3
Voiceover copy must complement the video footage. NRedmond/iStockphoto.com

The writer gives her instructions to the editor and then returns to her desk to type out the script from her notes and wire copy. In preparing the script, the writer uses a format different from that used in radio.

SCRIPTING THE VOICEOVER

In a VO, the newscaster or reporter reads copy as the video appears on the screen. Normally, voiceovers last between 20 and 30 seconds. Here’s an example of three short voiceovers that are linked together as the anchors read over the footage:

The first VO in the example ran 20 seconds, the second ran 22 seconds, and the third ran 25 seconds. They were separated by wipes, an electronic technique that slides one video picture off the screen and replaces it with another—in this case, with the opening video of the next story.

INCORPORATING SOUND BITES

As in radio, sound bites, the words of newsmakers, are key to telling a good TV news story. An advantage for TV writers is that TV sound bites feature the faces of the newsmakers as well as their voices. A bite is also referred to as sound on tape (SOT).

From a technical standpoint, there are certain elements a reporter wants from a SOT. First, it needs to contain relevant information; plastering in a SOT that conveys no usable words is a waste of air time. Second, production skills such as good lighting and audio are expected, as poor production values will eliminate the effectiveness of the interview. Finally, an ideal SOT lasts eight to 12 seconds. If it’s much longer, it becomes a speech. If it’s too short, the technical director will not have enough time to key in the graphics font of the interviewee’s name.

The next layer of news beyond a voiceover adds a sound bite to the video. This is known as a VOSOT, V-SOT, or VO-BITE—the terminology differs from newsroom to newsroom. Essentially, it’s a VO with a sound bite woven into it.

FIGURE 13.4
pkline/iStockphoto.com

Let’s go back to the train wreck story and suppose that there is some sound on tape of one of the workers trying to keep warm around the trashcan fire. The writer decides to add that sound on tape to the script at the end of the VO before the anchor comes back on camera. The script would look like this:

The sound-on-tape symbol and the time appear in the left-hand column to indicate that sound on tape will be used at this point in the script. The director now knows that when the anchor reads the last words of the voiceover, it is time to bring in the sound on tape.

The terms “Track Up” and “Time 15” also appear in the right-hand column along with the outcue, the final words of the sound bite. This lets the anchor know that a 15-second sound bite comes up before she returns on camera to read the last sentence in the story. The abbreviation FONT in the left column means that the name and identification of the railroad worker are to be superimposed over the lower portion of the screen while the railroad worker is speaking. The director will signal the font operator to punch up the information approximately three seconds into the sound bite.

After the sound bite instructions, the anchor returns on camera to wrap up or “tag” the story or to begin a new story.

Here’s an example of a VOSOT script, but this time there is more video available to the director. The editor has placed video before and after the SOT, thus giving the director the option of returning to the anchor after the SOT or staying with the field footage:

At this point, the anchor could return on camera to do a tag to the story or go back to a voiceover, as is the case here:

VOSOT stories are usually used when the producer decided that the material was not strong enough, or of enough interest to the audience, to warrant the time necessary for a package. Because there is no on-camera reporter, VOSOTs are usually shot by the field videographer alone.

There have been countless newsroom battles between reporters and producers over VOSOTs, particularly when a reporter returns from the field only to learn the story had been “downgraded” to a VOSOT. This is frustrating if the reporter had already outlined the package and even shot a stand-up, but the finite time in a local newscast often means packages may be turned into VOSOTs to save time on the rundown.

THE SPLIT PAGE

THE PACKAGE

The foundation of any TV newscast is its packages. That’s because, if they are done well, packages have all the elements that bring a story alive: Good pictures, interesting sound bites, and a well-written script. If any of these elements is weak, the story may be downgraded (to a VOSOT or even a VO) or kept short. In other words, the quality of the video and the sound bites can determine the length of a package. But even great video and excellent sound bites do not guarantee a long package; it depends on what else is going on in the news that day. Noelani Mathews works as a multimedia journalist at the Valdosta, Georgia, satellite office for WCTV in Tallahassee. She says flexibility in delivering the news is key, adding:

I’m constantly on and off the phone with my producers. It’s normal for things to change either in your stories, or back in the newsroom. If big news breaks in Tallahassee, my package might turn into a VOSOT or even get pushed back to the 11 o’clock newscast. My packages are required to be a minute and 15 seconds long. A few seconds over is okay, but more than five seconds over is not. A producer’s job is hard when it comes to trying to calculate and squeeze stories into a certain time frame. Unless your story is the biggest thing in the newscast and you’ve talked to your producer, don’t push your luck.

This mentality is common across newsrooms; changing story types is a vital skill, plus the ability to make a compelling package brief is crucial. Larry Spruill, a reporter for Action News Jax in Jacksonville, Florida, says:

I’m only allowed 1:10 for each story, including my live intro and live tag. The story itself is only allowed 1:00 for me to tell this story. If by any means, I have to go over, my producer has to approve that time, but nine out of ten times, I have to stay within that 1:10 and also I have to meet deadlines. Making a deadline is NOT an option, it’s mandatory, everyday.

Let’s walk through how to develop a package. For this example, we’ll focus on how a drought is affecting local crops. Before leaving the newsroom, reporter Emily Goodwin has scheduled interviews with two subjects. The county extension agent, Jay Price, can meet for an interview at his office at 9am to provide statistics about crop failures and how farmers are coping. At 10am, she is slated to interview Mark Stewart, a local blueberry and peach grower. That interview will take place at his farm, where her videographer expects to record footage of irrigation sprinklers, farm machinery, and shriveled crops.

Good organization is essential in putting together a successful package. In fact, most reporters understand the fundamentals of their stories before they actually produce the package. They may not have every detail pinned down, but in this example, Goodwin knows there will be two interviews, footage from the farm, and the opportunity for a stand-up. This is part of the story where the reporter appears on camera and addresses the camera directly. A discussion of how to create a good stand-up follows, but for now, know that the reporter plans to be on camera during the package.

The first interview is a snap; most county extension agents are familiar with reporters and have been on camera a number of times so the interview is relaxed yet informative. Goodwin jots down notes, listening for a good sound bite. Halfway through the interview, Price mentions that federal aid may not be coming this year, saying: “The federal aid program is out of money, and even if there were any money at all, it wouldn’t get here for a good six months. We’re looking at hard times for a lot of really good people.”

Although the interview continues, Goodwin had mentally flagged that quote. It’s good, informative, and lasts about 12 seconds (perfect for a sound bite). Note that she doesn’t immediately halt the interview once she has her workable bite, as there may be more to come.

When finished, she thanks the extension agent, the videographer gets a few quick shots of her talking to the agent (to use as cutaway footage if needed), and they head to the farm. On the way there, Goodwin may review the footage in the news vehicle or, if she recorded the audio on her phone, will listen to the interview to time any potential sound bites.

The next location, Mr. Stewart’s farm, reveals a number of shooting possibilities. There is idle farm equipment, irrigation sprinklers spraying the crops with water, and fruit that may not be saved despite the farmer’s best efforts. Goodwin talks to Stewart off camera for a few minutes while the videographer shoots some cover footage. Included in this footage are several shots of Goodwin and Stewart walking among the crops.

The interview is shot beneath the peach trees. Stewart is passionate, near tears, at the thought of losing this year’s crop. Again, Goodwin listens intently, silently counting the number of workable sound bites. She identifies four, all of which are between ten and 15 seconds long, which bring a human emotion to the story.

As the interview ends, they thank Stewart and then Goodwin turns the videographer loose to finish shooting. Goodwin sits in the news vehicle for a minute, writes a few notes for a stand-up, and rejoins the videographer. They shoot several takes of the stand-up, each with slightly different pacing and phrasing. Goodwin presents the stand-up as a bridge, which will occur in the middle of the story.

Back in the newsroom, Goodwin confirms that it is a slow news day, so the producer is asking for a full 90 seconds for the package. She then times the sound bites: One from Price (12 seconds), two from Stewart (ten seconds each), and her stand-up (13 seconds). Note that her stand-up is logged as a sound bite, as she will incorporate it into her package just like any other SOT from the field. Her list is:

Price—“The federal aid program is out of money, and even if there were any money at all, it wouldn’t get here for a good six months. We’re looking at hard times for a lot of really good people.”—12 seconds.

Stewart (1)—“The way the crops have been affected, I’ve had to lay off half of my field crew. They’re gone. I don’t know when I’ll get them back.”— ten seconds.

Stewart (2)—“I don’t understand why we can’t get help. That’s why we pay taxes into the government, to help us out. Ain’t they got any money for us?”—ten seconds.

Goodwin—“The workers are gone because the crops may be a total loss. Right now, the only movement in the fields comes from the automated sprinklers. But even these sprinklers can’t make up for the lack of rain.”— 13 seconds.

As a visual medium, television allows flexibility in building news packages. One way is to emphasize the best video images first, thus hooking the viewer into watching the story. A number of news directors advocate putting the strongest video within the first five seconds. This plays to the strength of television, as compelling images are unmatched in other media.

Another strategy is counterintuitive; instead of concentrating on the pictures, the reporter builds the audio track first. This is useful for reporters to correctly hit their allotted time. With the preceding four bites, let’s arrange them as follows: Stewart (1), Goodwin, Stewart (2), and Price. Adding the bites together gives us a running time of 45 seconds out of the 90 seconds possible. This leaves 45 seconds of airtime for Goodwin to tell the story.

The next step is to link the bites together with bits of narration, which Goodwin will record onto an audio track. During editing, the bites (and their accompanying video) will be interspersed with the audio segments. For this example, Goodwin writes her narration like this:

Narration (1)—“Usually, the peaches and blueberries at this farm are ready to pick by now. But there’s not enough rain. And it’s killing the crop.”— ten seconds.

Stewart SOT (1)—“The way the crops have been affected, I’ve had to lay off half of my field crew. They’re gone. I don’t know when I’ll get them back.”—ten seconds.

Goodwin Stand-up SOT—“The workers are gone because the crops may be a total loss. Right now, the only movement in the fields comes from the automated sprinklers. But even these sprinklers can’t make up for lack of rain.”—13 seconds.

Narration (2)—“The drought started three months ago, sending farmers scrambling to find either water or money. Right now, they can’t find either.”—ten seconds.

Stewart (2)—“I don’t understand why we can’t get help. That’s why we pay taxes into the government, to help us out. Ain’t they got any money for us?”—ten seconds.

Narration (3)—“But unlike past years, the agriculture department’s relief funds are already gone.”—seven seconds.

Price SOT—“The federal aid program is out of money, and even if there were any money at all, it wouldn’t get here for a good six months. We’re looking at hard times for a lot of really good people.”—12 seconds.

Narration (4)—“While the outlook for federal funds is bad, the extended weather forecast is even worse. No rain is expected for at least two more weeks. And as the drought continues, farmers like Mark Stewart say the irrigation may only save a fraction of their crops. For News 20, I’m Emily Goodwin.”—18 seconds.

Once the audio track is laid down, the editor lays video and natural sound on top of the narration segments. The end result is a 90-second package, complete with field footage, interviews, and a reporter’s stand-up.

Most reporters use a hybrid of these two strategies. They are aware of their best video, plus they position their audio clips to tell a cohesive story. With practice, broadcast journalists create the package’s narrative structure as a holistic combination of video and audio.

STAND-UPS AND REPORTER INVOLVEMENT

Many news directors want to see their reporters’ faces in their stories. They encourage reporters to appear on camera either at the end or in the middle of their packages. The theory is that the audience should think of the reporters and anchors as “family” and the more on-air exposure these family members get, the better management likes it.

The best reason for a reporter to appear in a story is to help explain it. Some reporters argue that should be the only time a reporter is seen on air. Whenever a reporter appears on the camera and continues the narrative by speaking directly to the viewers, it’s called a stand-up. These are broken into three categories: Opens, bridges, and closes.

A stand-up open takes place at the start of the reporter’s package. It looks much like a live shot from the reporter in the field, as the first frame of video shows the reporter addressing the camera. CNN Newsource and other news services even distribute such packages as look lives where the reporter begins the story with a stand-up open. This allows the news anchors to toss directly to the prerecorded segment as if the reporter is live in the field.

If there is a lack of video, the story is late breaking, and the producer wants to give the appearance of urgency, stand-up opens can offer options for those in the field. But stand-up opens are often clumsy and lead to poor story structure. Far too often, a stand-up open offers nothing but time-killing sentences as the reporter talks on camera. For example: “I’m standing here outside of the nightclub that’s the focus of a number of noise violations. I decided to talk to the owner of the club to see what’s going on.” Not only is that a poor stand-up, but it shifts the attention of the story to the reporter. You’re standing there? You decided to talk to the owner? That’s called being a reporter. The audience isn’t necessarily enthralled with you actually doing your job that day.

Another challenge with stand-up opens is that it’s hard to write good leads in the field. Unless you’ve screened the sound bites, written the copy, and committed yourself to the final product, you take a risk in recording your lead sentence so early in the process. As noted in the chapter on writing leads, the first few seconds are the most important in the story. By locking in the lead in the field, you lose the option of crafting something better before you edit. Finally, some news directors frown on stand-up opens that are used consistently. The implication is that the reporter is more important than the story. Use the stand-up open sparingly if you’re a veteran. If you’re a student journalist, don’t use them at all. It sends the message to prospective employers that you want the viewer to see your face before the actual news.

On occasion, a reporter can help the viewer better understand a situation by appearing on camera in the middle of the story. This is called a stand-up bridge, which can be useful in tying together two parts of a complicated story.

Let’s say the football team must practice for a big game, but a deluge makes the practice field a soupy mess. The coach calls for practice inside the gym. This scenario lends itself to a stand-up bridge, as there will be two physical locations in the same story. The package can begin with video of the soggy field and then cut to a stand-up bridge inside the gym: “But the coach said there was just too much rain and too much risk that a player would be injured while sliding around. The solution? Bring the team inside and run some plays inside the old gym.” In this way, the stand-up bridge can tie together two physical locations. It can also bridge the gap between two different sides of an issue (hunters versus vegans, Democrats versus Republicans) or two competing aspects of an indi vidual’s life (day care teacher by day, kickboxing champion by night). Consider using bridges when there are two sides of a story, but remem ber they can disrupt a story when a reporter suddenly appears for no practical reason.

FIGURE 13.5
2p2play/Shutterstock.com

Some of the worst examples of reporter involvement occur when the reporters become a part of the story. A number of news directors have no problem with reporters sledding down hills after a heavy snowfall, eating a hot dog at a street festival, or lifting weights at the opening of a new health spa. Some TV audience members and news producers think such reporter involvement is cute and builds a connection between the viewer and the news team.

On the contrary, many news directors will tell you that they discourage such behavior and want reporters involved in their stories only when there is a legitimate reason. For example, it would not be inappropriate for a reporter to demonstrate how to use a new at-home device that measures blood pressure. Doing so could be the best way for the reporter to explain how the new device works. But if the package is fine without a stand-up, the reporter should not try to force one in just to get his face on camera. There will always be another stand-up opportunity in a future package.

POSTING STORIES

Once a story is finished and on the air, broadcast journalists do not simply go home for the day. Due to social media and the audience’s never ending demand for updated news, reporters are now expected to post their finished stories on the television station’s website, update their Facebook status, tweet the latest to their Twitter followers, and upload snippets on Instagram. The commitment to specific social media outlets varies from newsroom to newsroom, but there is a universal push to distribute news across various platforms far beyond the constraints of the traditional half-hour newscast.

Fortunately, the days of reporters using the cumbersome HTML computer programming code have ended. Posting digitized news packages is now a simple matter of transferring a video file, adding a few lines of explanatory text, and dropping in a few hashtags. The greatest concern is keeping the files current. This requires the newsroom personnel to update the content on an ongoing basis.

FIGURE 13.6
SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock.com

SUMMARY

As you can see, writing television news is more complicated than writing radio news. Although one individual writes the television story and may even edit the footage used in the story, the final product involves other people in the newsroom.

In radio, writers usually pick the stories they wish to tell their audience. In television, those who write the stories are told what to write and how long the stories should be. In radio, one person may do it all—record interviews on the phone, cover a news conference, and include in the newscast some of the audio he or she has edited. There are no one-person newsrooms in television, although at small stations you may be expected to play more than one role.

As in radio, television affords opportunities to learn how to do several different jobs. Writers often go on to other positions as reporters, anchors, and producers. Some move over to the assignment desk, where the people “find the news,” a subject discussed in Chapter 2.

When reporters leave the newsroom on assignments, they never know how their stories will turn out. The producers and assignment editors may be looking for a package—a story that includes one or more sound bites, the reporter’s narration, and video. Sometimes they must settle for less because the story itself turns out to be less important than they originally thought or because the interviews are not strong or the video is weak. When that happens, the story becomes a VOSOT or perhaps even a VO.

No matter what the final format of a story is, one thing reporters find exciting about their job is that they rarely know what’s going to happen when they get to work. Once a story is handed to them, they may be reassigned to a breaking news story while they’re in the field, learn that the story has been shortened from a PKG to a VOSOT, or even find out that their story has been “upgraded” to the lead slot (complete with an on-set appearance next to the anchor). If reporters have enough flexibility to accommodate the needs of their newsroom in generating stories, they’ll find themselves a valuable part of the news team.