Just tell me one thing....

Coming up with story ideas is easy; it's telling them that's hard.

After all the research and interviews are done with your news story, coming up with the script that will put all that information together in a cohesive tale that flows is difficult. But it's even harder to come up with an interesting story.

Here's how you know if your story is interesting or not...are you telling your viewers something they didn't already know? That's the key. Don't tell me the same old story with a teenage point of view...tell me a new story with interesting facts that I didn't already know, with a teenage point of view. Tell me through the eyes of someone who has experienced it, or give me a perspective I didn't experience before. Do something different!! Make it interesting, visual, engaging. Just tell me one thing I didn't already know. One thing.

Use all the storytelling tools I've taught you for this last story. Surprise, parallel parking, nat sound breaks, silence within the story, etc.

I'm going to ask you to propose your story to me. You will need to complete your story, a separate VO/SOT, a presentation on your best story and quite possibly a documentary. Three weeks is all we have. Get going.

For your response to this blog, I'm going to ask you to tell me what motivates you and what you want to get out of this class this semester. What are you going to improve upon or what do you want to know more about? Be your own advocate for your learning.

With three weeks left in the semester, I'm going to ask you to work harder than you've worked so far this semester. We have a lot to do.

In the meantime, check out this story by Steve Hartman about Unlikely Friends. Some of you have already seen it, but it illustrates what makes a story interesting. Watch it again.

Are you a Real Journalist?

I've always treated each one of you as a journalist. In my mind, there is very little difference in what you do and what employees of a news organization do except that you get a grade... and they get a paycheck.

I'd like to see more from you, but I've seen some really good stories. I've seen a lot of you take chances, ask tough questions, and get phenomenal video and write moving stories. I want more. I want you to not give up when it gets a little difficult; when someone doesn't call you back right away or when you don't get the answers you want. What ever happened to the corn maze story, for example? Did we give up because someone couldn't make it? Do it without them!

You stand a better chance of getting a job in the journalism industry if you show that you don't back down. You show that now, while you are in high school. You're building your resume as we speak. In fact, in college, you're expected to do daring interviews if you major in journalism...in high school, it's a surprise if you do. And, very impressive, I might add. Show what you got. You ARE real journalists...act like it!

See the short excerpt below from Advancing the Story Blog and let me know what you think about how you can be more driven. Take advantage of the unique opportunity you have right now. Don't let life's moments pass you by; you'll regret it later. Trust me.

Are J-school students really journalists?

Posted on November 10th, 2009 by Deborah Potter

If a journalism school offers real world experience, should the students who participate be protected by reporters’ privilege? That’s a key question in a case involving a professor and students at Northwestern’s Medill J-school.

David Protess runs the school’s “Innocence Project” in which students investigate old crimes looking for wrongful convictions. In the past decade, the school says, “[they] have uncovered evidence that freed 11 innocent men, five of them from death row.”

Protess and his students believe they’ve found another wrongful conviction and Northwestern’s legal clinic has filed a petition for a new trial. But local prosecutors are suggesting that the students may have been under pressure to prove the case in order to get a good grade in the class. As the Associated Press reports, the prosecutors have subpoenaed the students’ grades, private emails, notes, unpublished memos and expense claims. That kind of information would typically be protected by the state shield law but the prosecutors claim the students aren’t journalists, so they’re not covered.

The case raises concerns for all students who do “real world” journalism as part of their course work. And it underlines the need to bring shield laws up to date in today’s multimedia world when anyone can be a journalist. The latest draft of a federal shield law does just that, by covering anyone who does journalism, even if they don’t get paid for it.

Breaking Legs!

"Break a Leg!" It's the phrase people say to wish performers good luck. It's what we did on Friday with our first Eagle TV show, Friday Live!

After three weeks of practice on increasingly harder and more challenging shows and broadcast elements, the Eagle TV crew really pulled it out on Friday with one of the best shows I think I've seen in a long time! I'm so proud of my students.

It could've been different. It's live. The potential for a million things to go wrong are there. We experienced that, rehearsed that already. During rehearsal we had to start over many times when the video switcher froze up or the TelePrompTer wasn't keeping up or when the wrong camera was punched or when audio screwed up or when the cameras made jerky moves, etc. We rehearsed the mistakes and flubs and technical problems. We were prepared.

We also had a live audience with Mrs. Ausenbaugh's class. They came in right at the beginning of the announcements and scurried across the set floor to take their places at the corner of the studio. They couldv'e been loud, they weren't. There could've been problems... there wasn't.

Right before the show began, the last VCR in our system (the one that's downstream to all other equipment and the last component that our signal hits before going out to the school) kept turning off. It has to stay on in order for our signal to go out to the school. This was significant. We determined quickly that it was a tape stuck in the machine. As I sent Candice running to my office to get a pair of tweezers, Mr. Hosey's announcements began. Quickly with the tweezers, I got the tape out, turned on the VCR and still, it turned off. Mr. Hosey began to introduce us, I opened up the tape door and pulled out a tape label, turned the VCR on and then we rolled the open. Whew! Just in the nick of time! Everyone stayed relatively calm, which is the key to doing live television. We went on with the show and broadcast an incredibly professional product.

I'm incredibly proud of my Eagle TV staff. I have one of the most hard working group of students who care deeply about our show and what they have to offer. I have students who want to learn more and more and who are excited to learn more techniques. I have a group of students who are invested in what they are doing and are always wanting to improve on their last project.

Evidently, at the end of the show, I jumped up in excitement and re-injured my broken ankle a little. I don't think that the phrase is "re-break" a leg, but I see an irony here. The injury wasn't severe, just a little irritation, but I had to put my boot back on. I hope all shows are like this....I won't be jumping up and down for a while, but the excitement in the room was palpable after the show. Nice job, Eagle TV crew! You make me proud.

Comment on the show for your blog. What was your experience during the show or during the weeks rehearsal leading up to the show? What could we do better? What did we do well? What did you feel during the show? Did you feel like we were doing well? How can we keep this energy and professionalism going? We have a lot more shows to do!

Gathering news

Sorry you've had to wait so long for the weekly blog. We've been really busy getting ready to go on the air with Eagle TV! We debut on Friday the 23rd and have a few tricks up our sleeve for the show.

That being said, we will resume gathering news stories next week. Eagle TV students seem to be pretty adept at telling a story and editing a story, but getting the story seems to elude them. Knowing how to GATHER news stories will get you the best material to work with when you're in the edit room and when you want a really strong package to show your audience.

Let's start at the beginning: Research. You have to do research in order to know WHO to ask questions about your story. Let's say you're doing a story on teen sleep disorders. You need to first call someone....oh, I don't know.....maybe a doctor who specializes in sleep disorders. So, you call a doctor at a sleep disorder clinic. The person you get on the phone happens to specialize in geriatric sleep disorders, not teenage problems. What do you do? Ask that person to refer you to someone they feel is more appropriate to answer the questions you have. After all, they know a lot of people in that business.

While you're on the phone with these people, you happen to ask them to send you an information packet or press kit about sleep disorders and if there is any interesting recent studies on teenagers and sleep. Voila! It just so happens that a doctor who works in their office released a study last week that says that teenagers who get less than 6 hours of sleep do better on standardized tests! (Ridiculous, I know....I made this up for the sake of the blog). There is your "hook" and the angle of your story! You also need to set up an appointment with this particular doctor who released this study.

Let's also talk about camera work. Please, please, please, please hold your shots....steady....for at least 10 seconds. Please don't shoot your video as if you are frantically scanning the crowd for a movie star! If you are all over the place with your video, I worry that you're having a seizure. Also, panning is evil. It's called "firehosing" because it looks like your holding a water hose instead of a camera and trying to put out a fire. The ONLY time it's okay to pan is when your subject refers to something offscreen and/or points then we'll need to see what he/she is talking about, but do it slowly! Try this experiment: focus on something to your left. It could be a spot on the wall, a pattern in your bedspread or a lampshade. Then, find something on your right to affix your gaze to. Then, go back to the item on the left, then to the right, back to the left, then again to the right, then back to the left. Were your eyes panning? Or, were they just "cutting" from one object to the other? If you said, "panning", I suggest you get an eye exam.

Frame your shots properly. Watch for backlighting and weird background clutter. Pull people AWAY from the cinder block walls we have at our school. Don't cut off their heads or, conversely, their bodies. Do some close ups! Frame sequences: wide, medium, tight. Look at that viewfinder....don't just point the camera in the area of your subject. Put some thought into the parts that make up your entire picture.

Interview people while you're at all events. You have an entire football stadium full of people who would love it if you asked them a few questions about the homecoming game or the track meet. Why not get a few good soundbites while you're there? You don't have to use them, but what if your package could use some perspective? Get those interviews. Every time!!

While we're talking about interviewing......let's talk audio. Wear your headphones. Every time you take out a camera. Listen to that audio. Is it clear? Is it combined with other distracting audio? Is the air conditioner on or the hand dryer in the bathroom blowing? Move that mic closer to their mouth so we can hear them! Don't be afraid to get close to them. I promise they won't bite. They are probably more likely to step back away from you!

Ask the right questions. What is your angle and ask questions pertaining to that angle. What do you want your story to sound, feel, look like? Keep that in mind while you're formulating your questions. Ask a lot of questions. Ask them to add anything else that they'd like to add.

Respond to this blog by talking about what you do well out in the field and what you could use some work on. What will you work on? What other things can you think of that we need to work on?

Can't wait to see what you guys turn in next!

Objectivity in the middle of chaos

I've always told you guys to be fair, accurate and true when reporting your stories. Fair in that you show both sides of the story, accurate in that you never report false information and attribute everything you say and true in that you stay true to the nature of the story and the angle that you chose to report. Good journalists are objective in their reporting. You are never part of the story.... but what if the story happens to you?

That was the case last week when Austell residents and other areas in metro Atlanta saw unprecedented flooding. According to news reports, an estimated 500 homes in Austell alone were destroyed. Many Eagle TV students and their peers at South Cobb lost everything. Undeniably, this will be the talk around school for a while and given that Eagle TV students latch on to the latest buzz as the subject of their next story, I'm sure I'll get many story ideas in next week dealing with the flooding. There will be many angles to the story. But you have to step back from the story in order to do it justice.

That's hard. Everyone has an opinion about things that they experience because we live the experience. We're not just being told a story by someone we're interviewing. We were there. We saw it, we smelled it, we heard it and we felt it.

So what are the angles to this story? There are many. Maybe an angle could be a subject that is unknown to you. Perhaps the story of someone who moved here from New Orleans to start over after Katrina who is now looking to start over again. (No, Chris, you can't do this story) Or maybe the story of the kids of Clarkdale...unless, of course, you have a little sister or brother at Clarkdale. Or maybe the slew of perfect strangers who have donated time to help clean up or items for those in shelters or maybe a story on how much money the Red Cross is spending daily to take care of those in need.

Tell me the angles that you would report on. Tell me how your experience may or may not allow you to be objective. Tell me about your experiences and then ask someone else to do the story. In the meantime, check out this documentary of a female CNN photographer who became part of the story she was reporting on. It's in two parts, very heavy, but extremely well-done. This woman has a lot to tell us about strength, courage, living life to the fullest and not dwelling on the bad. She also tells us a lot about how to objectively report the story, even when you're part of it. There is a big surprise at the end of Part 2.

Part 1 of the CNN documentary, Fearless: The Margaret Moth Story (TRT 14:00)

Part 2 can be accessed after you've watched part 1. Below the video box will be another video you can click on and it is titled, "Camerawoman Fights Back". (TRT 10:00)