Exercises

Exercise 1
Choosing and Writing to Sound Bites

The best TV stories make excellent use of sound. Take a look at Chapter 8 to review how to select sound. Now, watch the following video clips, both of which are silent. You don't always need to hear a sound bite to know if it will be effective.

Which of these sound bites would you use in a story? Explain how you made that choice without being able to hear what each person said.

Questions--Sound Bite Selection

  • How did you make your choice?

Now, we're going to ask you to choose one sound bite from a reporter's log notes and write a setup and tag to the bite you selected. Click here to download the log notes and a story fact sheet. Choose the bite you would use first in a TV story. Write the top of your package, including the complete text of the sound bite and one sentence following the bite.

Questions--Sound Bite Package

  • Write the top of your package.

Exercise 2
Discover Natural Sound Stories

Award-winning editor Brian Weister shot and edited this natural sound story for KMGH-TV in Denver about a Christmas program at a local mall. The assignment desk sent him to the event to "grab a V/O," Weister says, but after shooting the video he decided to offer the producer a short nat sound package. The producer was thrilled to get a story that told itself. The entire piece runs just 00:50.

Now write a post on your blog about the use of sound in this story. Consider off-camera and on-camera sound bites, nat pops, and music. How does Weister give this story a clear beginning, middle, and end? How does he use sound to glue the story together and keep it moving?

In the nat sound package you just watched, photojournalist and editor Brian Weister uses off-camera sound bites at the start to establish what the story is about. The first line, "This is our first-ever holiday challenge," sets up the rest of the piece, while the video clearly supports what the unseen narrator says about the contest. Weister also makes good use of close-ups to draw the viewer into the story. And when he edits sound bites together back-to-back, he chooses bites with different screen directions as often as possible.

Weister captured crisp, clear natural sound that he uses throughout the story--including scissors cutting wrapping paper and gifts hitting the tables. Also notice the brief use of music in this story. Some stations allow the use of prerecorded music in certain stories, but in this case Weister has used music he recorded on site. He makes sure the audience knows that by including the comment, “Nice music!” from one of the women taking part in the contest.

Exercise 3
Skill Building--Choosing Graphics

When considering whether to use a graphic, your first question should be, "Why do we need it?" As we discussed, you shouldn't use graphics just to dress up a story, or to cover a black hole you don't have video for. A graphic should help the audience or user understand the story better or see it in a new way.

Consider the following stories and decide whether a graphic would be a useful element. Then decide what kind of graphic you would suggest.

Question 1
New technology produces clearer mammograms.
A. Map
B. Animation
C. Chart/graph
D. No graphic

Question 2
City plans new condo/commercial development.
A. Map
B. Animation
C. Chart/graph
D. No graphic

Question 3
Mayor arrested on corruption charges.
A. Map
B. Animation
C. Chart/graph
D. No graphic

Question 4
New college graduates burdened with increasing debt.
A. Map
B. Animation
C. Chart/graph
D. No graphic

Question 5
City murder rate holds steady for third year in a row.
A. Map
B. Animation
C. Chart/graph
D. No graphic

Question 6
New study released showing potential impact of a hurricane on your area.
A. Map
B. Animation
C. Chart/graph
D. No graphic

Exercise 3--Answers

Question 1
Ans: B. An animated graphic would be a great way of demonstrating exactly how the new technology works. If you are able to quantify how much better the new system detects tumors compared with the old system, you might also be able to build a meaningful chart to go along with the story.

Question 2
Ans: A. This story cries out for a map showing where the development would occur. But what kind of map? A basic two-dimensional map would show the specific location of the new development, but a three-dimensional map or aerial view would demonstrate the new development's impact on building density in the area. You might want to use both types of maps in your story.

Question 3
Ans: D. This story probably doesn't need a graphic. But don't reject the possibility out of hand. Sometimes, in a complicated story, a graphic can help clarify the relationships between major players.

Question 4
Ans: C. This story would benefit from a graph showing how indebtedness among new college graduates has increased over time. Oddly enough, when USA Today did a story about this subject, its online package included a map, which didn't make much sense.

Question 5
Ans: A. You could create a graph showing how the murder rate changed over time but since the news is that it hasn't changed much, that might not be the best way to go. If you have data on all of the murders, however, you might be able to create a useful map. And an online package could make the map searchable, as the Philadelphia Inquirer did.

Question 6
Ans: A, B, or C. This story could go in more than one direction. A map would work well to illustrate which areas would be hardest hit, but an animation could show how different categories of hurricanes might affect your community in different ways. It's also possible that charts or graphs might help explain how population growth has changed the impact in comparison with previous studies.

Graphics can make complex stories easier to follow by illustrating the relationships among major characters and making clear the sequence of events in a way that video alone cannot.

Take a look at this story about a grand jury investigation into allegations that elected officials pressured a local hospital to do business with a particular medical equipment salesman. On this day, two county commission members and one former member have been called before the grand jury. Television cameras are not allowed inside the grand jury room.

This story is difficult to follow, in part because the relationships among key players are unclear. The reporter provides too much background information on what the commissioners allegedly did and on the history of bribery in the county, but not enough information to put sound bites in context.

Now look at the same story told a different way.

In this version, a graphic section establishes both the relationships among key players in the story and the sequence of events under investigation. Background information is simplified, based on the question: "What do viewers absolutely need to know in order to understand today's developments in this story?" We'll concede that the graphic itself could have been flashier, but at least you can see how a graphic can be used to make a complicated story more understandable. And notice that doing this doesn't require more time; in fact, the second version of the story is 00:13 shorter.

If you'd like to read the scripts for these two stories, click here.