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breakingnews
Think what you would say if somebody asks you: “What´s new?“.Keep sentences short. Each of them should contain only one idea. Avoid a mass of facts in one sentence if possible.Remember the “6 x Ws” in your script (Who, what, when, where, how and why). Many news agencies and TV channels recommend starting a short news story with what happened and then moving to how and why.
Try to use the active voice in sentences instead of the passive. The phrase: Dozens of precious manuscripts were stolen by a resident of Paris is less powerful than A resident of Paris has stolen dozens of precious manuscripts.
Do not use too many numbers in one sentence. The viewer’s brain is not a calculator and it will be hard for them to process 2 and more figures in one sentence.
Do not begin the first sentence with a proper name the viewers have trouble understanding. (Especially if they are hard to pronounce — e.g. Vsevolod).
Catch attention.
Build up the expectations.
Set a mood of the viewer.
Always ask yourself:
There is a common belief among journalists that pictures give us what happens and the words help us to better understand why it happens. The viewer can see what is happening without our explanations but they also want to know why.
Pictures should not completely dub the action that you talk about. This can only happen if you’ve shot something unique and with your text you help the viewer understand the things he sees.
Do not put words on the pictures when your main characters are saying something important. Let your viewers hear what they say. The same is true for shots when you hear something important (explosions, shouts, unusual sounds) and if the text is too long.
Do not start the recording of your narration until 2 seconds after the picture starts. It helps the viewers to establish the connection with the story. Let your pictures breathe!
Every shot should last as long as it is worth. We’re all humans and we all blink. On average people blink every 3–4 seconds. That is why the average length of the shots in the news and features is 3 seconds. It is problematic to make each shot less than 2 seconds — the human eye can´t adjust to what is happening. But if you have a shot of a car that goes away, let it stay on screen till it disappears completely. Otherwise the viewers will see the “jump cut” — part of the passing car in this case will appear for less than a second which is irritating for the human eye.
Never join two wide shots and two middle shots together.
The shots we use in film making are: wide shot (the person at full height), 2 middle shots (the person to the waist and to the bottom respectively), close-up (the face of the person) and the detail (the eye of the person).
We can´t mix two wide and two middle shots because it will be next to impossible for the viewer to watch transitions like these. In this case it will always seem to him/her that something has flashed in-between the shots. The transition between a very wide shot and an extreme close-up is also bad for the eye – the person may feel that somebody has pushed him forward really hard. However, nothing like that happens with close-ups. You can edit them together.
Be careful with pans and zooms.
All the unnecessary motions of the camera may irritate the viewer. Use them only within a reason. Zoom your camera in when you try to show the important object closer and use the zoom out when you do not want to “sell” the background of the story right away.
Human face is the best shot on earth.
If you show an event make sure you include some shots of how people react to it. Sometimes the shots of the event are not that colorful. It is the reaction of the people to the event that matters most of all.
Do not forget about close-ups.
When you show a person doing something it is necessary to show some details — his head, his face, the object he is working on. This way you create the effect of reality.
Respect the people you film.
When you interview people, make sure that you position your camera at their eye level. If you place it higher, they will seem smaller — this usually happens when ilming children. If you position it lower — you will distort the way the person looks in real life.
Do not cross the “line of the dialogue”.
If you film two people talking, shoot only from one or the other side of an imaginary line that connects them. If you cross that line when filming the second person, the viewer will be confused – these two people will face the same direction on screen and it will not be clear who is talking to whom.
