Hints for making your stories better
(Contributed by Paul Griffin)

A guide to writing your package (for those who don’t remember Media Writing):

Your basic structure should be something like this:

Startling Statement - Something that gets the viewers attention

Cause - What happened

Effect - Who/what did it effect?

Formulate a rough version of your story in your head before you even shoot your first clip. That way, you will know what type of b-roll you might want in your story, and you will be better prepared to ask your interviewee questions which will work with your preconceived view of the story.

Listen to your interviewees. If they say something interesting, keep that in mind for writing your story. Also, shoot some b-roll related to what they talk about.

Say it, show it. If you are talking about cafeteria food, you should probably be showing shots in the cafeteria, not from the volleyball court.

Things to make your package look (and sound) good:

Test all of your equipment before leaving the Studio, especially your audio equipment. If you don’t know how something works, ask. If something doesn’t work, let the work-studies know.

Hold your shots. Leave 5 seconds of extra time before and after all of your shots. That means every piece of footage you have should be at least 10 seconds long.

Make sure your shots are not too light/too dark. Use the viewfinder, not the pop-out LCD to check your light levels. If they are too light or dark, check your ND filter, your gain level, and your iris setting.

White balance every time you move to a new shooting location, especially from outdoors to indoors.

Use a tripod. Your shots will look a lot better if they do not move.

Watch your shot framing. Watch for headroom, nose room, etc. Use bust shots for interviews.

Ask your interviewees to say and spell their name on camera, and also their organization name and position in that organization. This ensures that they know they are being videotaped, and it will help for lower thirds.

Let your interviewees know that they need to look at you, and that they need to ignore that the camera is there.

Make your interviewees feel comfortable during the interview. Chat with them a little bit before you get to your questions.

Pay attention to what is behind whatever/whoever you’re shooting. Do not shoot your interviewees flat against a wall, against a trophy case (or anything else reflective), or against any other background that is unrelated to your story.

Vary the location of your interviews.

Watch your audio levels while shooting. Use a lavaliere microphone, and make sure you get a reliable set of headphones before you leave the Studio. Avoid interviews in noisy locations.

If you use a handheld microphone, do not let the interviewee hold the microphone. Not only does this look bad, the next thing the interviewee usually does is stare straight at the camera.

Avoid pans, zooms, and tilts. Shoot a sequence instead.

Get close to the action. The cameras can only zoom in so much, but they can get fairly wide shots, and you can always back up if it feels to close.

Look for interesting ways to get shots of not-so-interesting locations. Shoot from spots that a regular person would not be at. Try shooting from ground level, or try shooting from

Watch your audio levels while editing. Normalize any speech that occurs (to maximize volume), and reduce your Nat Sound so that it does not interfere with the rest of your package.

Make sure that your VO sounds clear, smooth, and natural. If you are unhappy with the way your VO sounds, redo it.

Use straight cuts between all shots. No dissolves, no fades, and no wipes. The only good use for a dissolve is to convey the passage of time.

Keep your clips somewhere between 3-5 seconds each when editing. Your sound bites need to be shown for about 8 seconds so that there is time for a lower third.

Look for flash frames while editing.

Look for jump shots while editing.

Do not cross the axis (if applicable)

Leave about 5 seconds of extra footage both before and after your story.

Watch your package again before turning it in!