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The newsman relies very largely on headlines, cross-heads, italics, general display and layout to make his impression on the reader. The news broadcaster has none of these aids available to him. In the circumstances he has to depend upon pauses and inflection of voice to mark his delivery.
Delivery becomes all-important. The pause cannot be too long lest the listener loses interest. A newspaper reader can glance back over anything he has missed or failed to grasp or under- stand but the radio listener cannot pull the announcer up and ask him to repeat what he has said. The announcer therefore has necessarily to speak smoothly, his words must flow uninterruptedly, all of which calls for the use of short words and unadorned sentences.
But, of course, what holds good for news reports does not automatically hold good for commentaries, reviews and the like. Else there will be a dull uniformity over the radio or TV that can be palling. Here the commentator has greater leverage. His personality has to stand out. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made excellent use of radio in his famous Fireside Chats. He spoke informally as one would to a friend across the table. His sentences were sometimes long and there were calculated pauses, just as there would be when one individual talks to another. Mr. Roosevelt’s aim was to sound natural and hence credible. Art Was sacrificed to naturalness with success. It is well to remember that when a man speaks on the radio he has a captive audience all over the country simultaneously. And that audience is largely in the drawing rooms of the nation. In other words, the speaker is on intimate terms with a whole family.
Obviously this rules out the use of bad language, obscenity and anything jarring on the ear. The use of slang would be in poor taste. One thing that the commentator must be aware of is not to lose the respect of his audience. If that is lost, everything is lost. Mr. Roosevelt aimed at an easy conversational style and he was a big hit.
Understandably, the use of a conversational style permits of long, even involved sentences, as long as the speaker can carry it off-and that requires a lot of expertise. Attention can still be held, if the speaker can punctuate his talk with such physical aids as a raised eyebrow, a gentle smile, a shrug of shoulders, even h wave of the hand. But all that is for the expert, not the novice.
Wherever possible, the news is given in the present tense. Consider this example from the BBC Press Review of July 13, 1980:
As often happens when news is scarce, the papers are forced to use a little ingenuity in finding front page stories. Some are more successful than others.
The Sunday Times, for example, headlines a story, which it describes as an exclusive, about the high mortality rate among babies.
The Observer has the same story, but on page twelve. The Sunday Express, speculates about the purpose of Mr. Joshua Nkomo’s visit to Libya.
The Express reporter says that Mr. Nkomo tried to keep the trip secret adding to suspicions in Zimbabwe that he was seeking international backing for a showdown with Mr. Mugabe, possibly even a coup.
However, the paper quotes Mr. Nkomo’s supporters as dismissing the suggestion out of hand. The Observer in an editorial considers another of Mr. Mugabe’s problems, his relations with South Africa. The paper refers to reports that the South African Prime Minister is under pressure not to help Zimbabwe achieve economic and political stability.
If he should give in to such pressures, says The Observer, and work actively to destabilize Zimbabwe, the outlook for Southern Africa as a whole would darken considerably.
The paper appeals to the West to use its influence with the South Africans to urge Mr. Botha to act realistically.
The Sunday Times correspondent in Johannesburg says that there are certain factors which make a complete rupture of relations between the two countries unlikely: One of these is the large number of South African tourists who go to Zimbabwe each year.
The Sunday Times devotes its entire leader column to an analysis of unemployment in Britain.
It suggests some remedies to the government, which it accuses in certain instances of slow, crude and wasteful methods.
If the present policies of tight monetary control and related measures are allowed to continue, says the paper, the economy may not start growing again until the mid-1980’s. . . .
It will be noticed that even in summarizing the news and views appearing in the’ British national press, care is taken not to use big words or economic jargon. A radio audience is much larger than a newspaper audience. Its attention cannot be held by sounding superior or intellectual. Certainly in Britain, the average intelligence of the mass of radio listeners is not very high. The broadcaster is not talking to an exclusive or sophisticated audience. Hence the need to write copy in plain, simple English that is easily understood and just as easily assimilated.
There is yet another point that needs to be made. More especially on TV, it is important that the spoken word sounds as if it is aimed specifically at the particular listener who has turned on the knob. The listener must be made to feel that the broadcaster is talking to him and him alone. Here it is a matter not only of the use of words, but the personality of the broadcaster as well. He is addressing not a million people but one man in a million homes. It is easier to convince a large body of people in one hall; it is more difficult to convince the same number of people sitting in their separate homes listening to the radio.
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-as did Edward R. Murrow and other great broadcasters who used the medium effectively-and then find the words to paint those pictures for your audience. In television, you can show the actual pictures.
Combining Words and Pictures
The battle over which are more important in television news- the words or the pictures-is endless. There is no doubt that words are vital and that some broadcast writers use them more effectively than others. Charles Kuralt is an example of a writer whose words rival the pictures for prominence in a story. But even Kuralt would be hard pressed to tell his stories without pictures. His talent lies in his ability to strengthen the pictures with words. Great pictures and great words 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.
Such advice assumes that you have good pictures to work with. If you don’t, then the words do become 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, however, you can be sure you’ll be asked to tell the story quickly. A frequent criticism of television news is that it relies on the pictures too much, but right or wrong the formula is not likely to change: poor pictures, short stories; good pictures, long stories.
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. Good TV newswriters weave their copy between and around the sound bites, much in the way that radio writers create wraparounds. This combination, called a package, is the best way to tell a news story on television. The chapters on reporting will deal extensively with building packages.
The Television News writer
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.
Television news writers have three basic writing tasks: read stories, voiceovers, and lead-ins.
Read Stories
Read, or tell, stories are read by the anchors without the use of pictures except for those that usually appear next to the anchor’s head. Visually, read stories are the least interesting in TV news. They are virtually the same as radio copy. They are, however, a necessary part of the TV newscast because they give the anchors exposure to the audiences. Anchors are paid well, and the audience expects to see their faces on camera at least part of the time.
Sometimes, read stories are used because no video is available. Read copy might even lead the newscast if it is about a breaking story that is just developing. We all are familiar with the phrase film at eleven, which usually indicates that it’s too early for video, but it will come later.
Read stories are most often stories that are not important enough to require video or whose video itself would be dull. At the same time, read stories play a major role in the TV newscast-they break up the other types of material. Too much of anything tends to be boring, so the read stories provide a change of pace.
Finally, read stories are easiest to work with in a newscast because they.’ are flexible. They are the putty that fills in the holes of the newscast. Read stories often play the same role as radio pad copy; they provide an opportunity to make adjustments that guarantee that the newscast gets off the air on time. If the TV newscast is long, the read stories are the likely stories to be dropped. If the newscast is short, more read stories are likely to be used.
Voice Overs
The second type of assignment given to TV news writers is the voice-over (V/O), copy that the anchor reads while video or other graphics are shown. 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-the copy must complement the video. It should not 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 “A Conrail freight train left its tracks last night,” and let the pictures show the derailed train
To write voice-over copy intelligently, you need to look at the video and take notes. When viewing the video, use a stopwatch to time each scene. The cameraperson sometimes shoots a series of short shots that may require little editing, but individual shots are often too long to use without editing.
The cameraperson shot a long, continuous pan of the wrecked cars that lasts about 30 seconds. There’s another shot of a derrick hovering over the scene for 20 seconds and a third 20- second shot of railroad workers huddled around a hastily made trashcan fire to ward off the frigid weather. Finally, there’s an additional 30 seconds of video that shows some of the train’s wrecked cargo-an assortment of steel rods and girders and lumber. The total running time of the video is one minute and 40 seconds. The producer asks the writer for a 20-second voice- over. 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 the narration is added. (In a small newsroom, reporters often write the script and edit the videotape. In a large operation, a tape 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; the videotape is not physically cut.) The writer decides to use part of the long pan of the wreck scene first. The cameraperson held steady on the scene at the end of the pan, knowing that the writer might wish to use part of it. It is poor technique to cut into a pan, but it is acceptable to use part of it as long as it comes to a stop before the next shot. The writer uses eight seconds of the pan. Then the writer selects five seconds of the wreckage video that shows the steel girders and 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.
The writer gives her instructions to the tape 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.
The Split Page
You have already learned that TV scripts differ from radio scripts because they contain both the newscaster’s words and an explanation of how the video is to be used. The format for a TV script is known as the split page.
The split page is divided vertically so that about 60 percent of the page is in the right column and about 40 percent is in the left. Most TV stations now provide their staffs with computers to write their scripts, which are often sent electronically to the Teleprompters. However, typewriters are still used at some stations. When that is done, the scripts are written on copy books, usually five or more pieces of typing paper separated by carbon paper. There must be enough copies of the script for the anchors, the director, the producer, and the teleprompter.
The right side of the split page is reserved for the copy that will be read by the anchors, the running times (which also appear on the left), and the outcomes (final words) of any videotape that has sound. The anchors-and this is important to remember-will be able to see only the right side of the script on their teleprompters. It is also important that you write only in the column on the right side. If you write outside the column, the words will not appear on the teleprompter screens.
Video Instructions
The left side of the script is set aside for the slug and for video and audio instructions and tape times for the director. Because of the limited space on the left side of the script, abbreviations are used for the various technical instructions. Here are some common ones:
- Ole, “on camera,” tells the director that at this point in the script the anchor will be on camera. 2. Via, “voice-over,” means the anchor is reading copy while the audience is seeing something else, such as silent videotape or graphics.
- SIL indicates “silent” videotape and is used in combination with the via symbol.
- SOT lets the director know that there is “sound on tape.” It could be a sound bite with a newsmaker or a report from the field that was taped earlier.
- ENG, “electronic news gathering,” tells the director that the video is on a videotape cassette.
- FONT, an abbreviation for the manufacturer Vide font, indicates that names, titles, and other information are superimposed over videotape or graphics to identify newsmakers, locations, and various other pictures appearing on TV screens. Many stations use the term super or the abbreviation VG (video graphic) instead of FONT.
- SL, ESS, or ADDA indicate that pictures or graphics of some sort will be shown next to the anchor. SL stands for “slide”; ESS refers to Electronic Still Storage, an electronic graphics and video computer system; ADDA is the name of a computer system that also provides electronic storage. If the word box appears next to any of these abbreviations, the graphic will be enclosed in a box next to the anchor, rather than fill the entire screen. There are other technical abbreviations used by writers to help the director. You will learn them once you start working with video on a regular basis.
Here is the split-page script for the train wreck story Train Wreck 3/15 6pm two Smith
O/C Smith Box ADDA A Conrail freight train today left the tracks near Centerville, Kansas, causing some major problems for passenger service trains that also use the tracks.
Via SIL (TRT: 40 sec.) V/O Railroad officials say the locomotive and eight of the train’s 14 cars were derailed. They blamed a broken rail. Remarkably, there were only two injuries-to the engineer and his assistant-and they were not serious.
If you examine this script, you will see that the slug TRAIN WRECK is in the upper left-hand corner along with the date, the time of the newscast, and the writer’s initials.
On the next line in the right column is SMITH, the name of the anchor. Because most newscasts have two or more anchors, the name of the anchor reading the copy must always be displayed at the top of the right-hand column.
On the next line at the left is ole Smith, which lets the director know which anchor is on camera. Underneath that are the words Box ADDA, which tell the director that there will be a picture displayed in a box next to the anchor’s head In this case; it could be a generic train wreck graphic that TV newsrooms keep on hand along with scores of other such graphics. (It also could be a freeze frame of part of the video that would be shown with the voice-over. But if that were the case, the writer would have to indicate it by typing SILIFF [“silent/freeze frame”] next to Box ADDA.)
The anchor’s script continues on the right side. Below the first sentence, you see the V/O symbol, which means that at this point in the script the video will be shown. The anchor continues reading, but the audience no longer sees his face.
The V/O symbol is also displayed in the left-hand column with the abbreviation for silent videotape, SIL, for the benefit of the director. In parentheses is the total running time of the videotape (TRT: 40 seconds), which tells the director that there are actually 40 seconds of wreckage footage on the videocassette. Since the via copy should only take about 30 seconds to read, this means the director has a 10-second cushion to avoid going to black, something of a nightmare for directors and their bosses. 1b avoid that problem, tape editors always “pad the tape”-cut more tape than the writer requests.
When the anchor has finished reading the via copy, he returns on camera (which is why we show O/C in both columns) to read a final sentence about delays in rail service brought on by the wreck. That final sentence is called a tag, and the writer of this script has added the word tag after ole in the left column just to remind the busy director that this is the end of the story.
Sound on Tape
News writers must also learn to write voice-over scripts that include sound on tape (SOT). Because the voices and pictures of newsmakers are a vital part of TV news, a great deal of the sound on tape will be provided in the middle of reporter packages and is of no real concern to the news writer. But sound is often worked into the anchor’s script without the help of the reporter, and that is the news writer’s function.
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 voiceover before the anchor comes back on camera. A sound bite used at the end of a voice-over is abbreviated VO-SOT or V-SOT. The script would look like this:
SOT :15 TRACK UP
FONT: Mark F10rman Out-cue” get any railroad worker warmer.” Time: 15
O/C Smith Railroad officials say that while the wreckage is being removed and repairs made to the tracks, Conrail passenger trains will be detoured. This probably will cause delays for at least 48 hours.
The sound-on-tape symbol and the time appear in the left 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 voice-over, “difficult and unpleasant,” it is time to bring in the sound on tape.
The terms Track Up and Time: 15 also appear in the right column along with the out-cue, the final words of the sound bite. This lets the anchor know that a 1S-second sound bite comes up before he 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 is 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 symbol ole is written on both sides of the script to indicate that the anchor returns on camera to wrap up or “tag” the story, or to begin a new story.
LeadIns
The third common scripting chore for the TV news writer is preparing leading lines for sound bites and reporter packages. Writing television lead-ins is similar to writing lead-ins for radio wraparounds, but is slightly more complicated. As with radio lead-ins, the information in the first line of the report or sound bite cannot be repeated in the lead-in.
Unlike radio lead-ins, those for television require some additional instructions for the director because while the anchor is leading into the report or sound bite on camera, some visual is usually shown in a box next to the anchor.
TRAIN WRECK 3/15 6pm tw O/C Smith SMITH
A Conrail train has Derailed in Kansas and we have a report from the scene from our reporter Frank Coakley.
SOT :55 TRACK UP
FONT: Frank Coakley Out-cue: . . Frank reporting.”
“Time :55
The writer used a soft lead-in because she knew that Coakley would provide the hard-news lead. He started his report this way:
The engine and eight cars of the Conrail train left the tracks around midnight near the town of Centerville. Fortunately only two people were injured slightly.
This lead-in is effective because it allows the reporter’s opening words to build on it as he tells the rest of the story.
Headlines and Teases Depending on the size of the news operation, headlines and teases usually are turned out by the writer, the editor, or the producer.
As always, the major difference between headlines for television and those for radio is that headlines and teases on television are normally supported with pictures. Some network newsrooms forgo the traditional headline approach, preferring to have the anchors talk briefly about the top story before going to a reporter for details. But local news almost always leads the newscast with headlines, which are most effective when used with flashes of video. Here’s a sample of how one local news room scripts headlines:
HOWARD (DEE) (HOWARD)Coming up on Action News at Six
VIO # 5 (liquor store) Police search for two men who killed a liquor store owner during a holdup.
RUNS :04WIPE TO Mayor Thompson honors a citizen who rescued a child from a burning building.
VIO #3
(Mayor shaking hands)
RUNS :04
WIPE TO VIO #2 (HOWARD) and unemployment in Center City
(Unemployment office) reaches a new high.
In the left column, HOWARD indicates that one anchor reads the opening line of the newscast and the first headline, while (DEE)-note the parentheses indicates that the other anchor is also on camera. Both anchors quickly disappear from the screen, but Howard is heard reading the first headline over video showing the scene of the liquor store holdup. The video runs about 4 seconds. After the first headline, the video wipes to a shot of Mayor Thompson shaking hands with a hero while Dee reads that headline. The second voice-over also runs four seconds. The video wipes a third time to a three-second shot of workers standing on line at an unemployment office. Howard reads that headline, as indicated, over the video. Then both anchors return on camera as Howard says “good evening” and identifies himself. Dee does the same and reminds the audience that the stories just teased would be covered in the upcoming newscast.
The numbers next to the voice-over symbols indicate which playback machines will be used in the control room, information that is vital to the director.
If the director or his or her assistant calls for the wrong machine, the wrong video would appear, and the newscast would get off to a confusing start. Some stations give numbers to the tapes instead of the machines. In that case, the tape numbers would be placed on the scripts so that the director could call for the proper one.
Later in the newscast-before the commercials teases will be used in an effort to hold the audience. The same voice-over technique used in headlines is used for teases. Many producers also include fonts over the video to give it extra punch. For example, these words might appear at the bottom of the appropriate video:
Police hunt killer. . .
Hero honored. . .
Unemployment climbs. . .
The point of such teases is to hook viewers, to keep their interest in the news during the commercial. Teasing three stories increases the chance that your audience will be interested in at least one of the upcoming stories.
A Team Effort
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 videotape 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 tape 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, there will be opportunities in television to learn how to do several different jobs. Writers frequently go on to other positions, often as reporters, anchors, and producers. Some move over to the assignment desk, where the people “find the news,” a subject discussed earlier.
Trails and Promos
Part of a station’s total presentation ‘sound’ is the way it sells itself. Promotional activity should not be left to chance but be carefully designed to accord with an overall sense of style. ‘Selling’ one’s own programmers on the air is like marketing any other product, and this is developed in the next chapter, but remember that the appeal can only be directed to those people who are already listening. The task is therefore to describe a future programme as so interesting and attractive that the listener is bound to tune in again. The qualities which people enjoy and which will attract them to a particular programme are:
- Humour that appeals
- Originality that is intriguing.
- An interest that is relevant.
- A cleverness which can be appreciated. . Musical content
- Simplicity – a non-confusing message. . A good sound quality
If one or more of these attributes is presented in a style to which he can relate, the listener will almost certainly come back for more. The station is all the time attempting to develop a rapport with the listener, and the programme trailer is an opportunity to do just this. It is saying of a future programme, ‘this is for you’.
Having obtained the listener’s interest, a trail must provide some information on content – what the programme is trying to do, who is taking part, and what form (quiz, discussion, phone-in, etc.) it will take. All this must be in line with the same list of attractive qualities. But this is far from easy – to be humorous and original, to be clever as well as simple. The final stage is to be sure that the listener is left with clear transmission details, the day and time of the broadcast. The information is best repeated:
‘. . . You can hear the show on this station tomorrow at six p.m. Just the thing for early evening – the ‘Kate Greenhouse Saga’, on 251- six o’clock tomorrow’
Trails are often wrapped around with music which reflects something of the style of the programme, or at least the style of the programme in which the trail is inserted. It should start and finish clearly, rather than on a fade; this is achieved by prefacing the end music to time and editing it to the opening music so that the join is covered by speech.
At its simplest, a trail lasting 30 seconds looks like this:
MUSIC: SPEECH:
MUSIC:
Bright, faded on musical phrase, held under speech Obtains interest Provides information on content. (Music edit at low level under speech) Gives transmission details Fade up to end.
There is little point in ordering a listener to switch on; the effect is better achieved by convincing him that he will be deprived if he does not. And of course if that is the station’s promise then it must later be fulfilled. Trails should not be too mandatory, and above all they should be memorable.
