We are now ready to advance to electronic forms of story-telling. Today, we will look at the basics of
television news writing, but looking at three of the basic forms of story.
1. A reader: if a story involves no video or other visual over the face of the anchor, then it's called a reader.
1A. If you see a graphic over the anchor's shoulder for the duration of the story, that would still qualify as a reader, because the viewers see the anchor for the entire story.
2. a voice-over, or VO,
is any story that's read by the anchor and also incorporates video, a full-screen graphic or other visual. The term "voice-over" simply indicates that the anchor's voice is heard "over" some visual. The acronym VO indicates that she's talking over a piece of video.
Voice-over stories serve an important role in a newscast. They help the producer vary the pace of the show, while allowing us to deliver useful and interesting information in short form.
Voice overs are usually 20-30 seconds in length. The relative importance of the story isn’t the only reason for assign- ing the story VO status. We might be getting late-breaking video from the satellites and have no time to put together a longer piece, so we would quickly edit some of the compelling video and give the few details that are available.
3. A voice-over to sound-on-tape, or VO/SOT:
During the newscast one structure starts with a short on-camera anchor read followed by video that is played while the anchor continues to read. This video is called the VO (Voice Over - the anchor talks over video). In some instances, the VO may be followed by a SOT (Sound On Tape, or sound bite). After the SOT is played, the director might then cut back to the anchor on camera as they read a tag to finish the story. In the final form, this news story is what we call a VO/SOT
Lesson: Go to KXAN.com
-- Click on this link:
http://kxan.com/2014/11/10/fire-forces-north-austin-apartment-building-evacuation/
What type of story is this?
4. A package is a self-contained story that has video, and is voiced by a reporter. It is sometimes pre-recorded and sometimes done live. Packages are the bigger "feature" stories in audio and are often one to two minutes in length.
Look at this story:
http://kxan.com/2014/11/09/north-austin-elementary-school-dedicated-to-fallen-hero/
-- Click on this story:
http://musclecarmemoir.weebly.com/blog/devil-in-the-details
Write a hard-news lede for this video. Think of this as the video for you VO.
Answer as many of the who, what, when, where, why and how as you can. Write it to
be 20-30 seconds in length, like a standard VO.
This clip is actually 1:40 in length. Write to about 35% of it.
television news writing, but looking at three of the basic forms of story.
1. A reader: if a story involves no video or other visual over the face of the anchor, then it's called a reader.
1A. If you see a graphic over the anchor's shoulder for the duration of the story, that would still qualify as a reader, because the viewers see the anchor for the entire story.
2. a voice-over, or VO,
is any story that's read by the anchor and also incorporates video, a full-screen graphic or other visual. The term "voice-over" simply indicates that the anchor's voice is heard "over" some visual. The acronym VO indicates that she's talking over a piece of video.
Voice-over stories serve an important role in a newscast. They help the producer vary the pace of the show, while allowing us to deliver useful and interesting information in short form.
Voice overs are usually 20-30 seconds in length. The relative importance of the story isn’t the only reason for assign- ing the story VO status. We might be getting late-breaking video from the satellites and have no time to put together a longer piece, so we would quickly edit some of the compelling video and give the few details that are available.
3. A voice-over to sound-on-tape, or VO/SOT:
During the newscast one structure starts with a short on-camera anchor read followed by video that is played while the anchor continues to read. This video is called the VO (Voice Over - the anchor talks over video). In some instances, the VO may be followed by a SOT (Sound On Tape, or sound bite). After the SOT is played, the director might then cut back to the anchor on camera as they read a tag to finish the story. In the final form, this news story is what we call a VO/SOT
Lesson: Go to KXAN.com
-- Click on this link:
http://kxan.com/2014/11/10/fire-forces-north-austin-apartment-building-evacuation/
What type of story is this?
4. A package is a self-contained story that has video, and is voiced by a reporter. It is sometimes pre-recorded and sometimes done live. Packages are the bigger "feature" stories in audio and are often one to two minutes in length.
Look at this story:
http://kxan.com/2014/11/09/north-austin-elementary-school-dedicated-to-fallen-hero/
-- Click on this story:
http://musclecarmemoir.weebly.com/blog/devil-in-the-details
Write a hard-news lede for this video. Think of this as the video for you VO.
Answer as many of the who, what, when, where, why and how as you can. Write it to
be 20-30 seconds in length, like a standard VO.
This clip is actually 1:40 in length. Write to about 35% of it.