EmailNiki Griswold is an MMJ with Spectrum News 1 in Texas.
Last week she took one of our week long virtual video storytelling bootcamps and shot a lovely story about two professional ballet dancers in Austin who are coping with the Covid lockdown.
They are continuing to dance, but in their small apartment - with their dog.
The story is great, as are the visuals - all shot with an iPhone, as usual.
Take a look at the pointing on toes!
BUT - small differences in editing and pacing can make an enormous difference in the story.
Take a look at the two versions here.
In the first, the narrative is breathless and unrelenting - a problem we often find in local TV news stories. It's the Breaking News! mentality.
Now take a look at the recut.
Notice how she lets the story breathe.
So much better.
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Recent Posts
The Future of News is NOT TikTok, It’s Netflix
December 18, 2024
Character-driven journalism is not new to newspapers, though it once was. It was once called The New Journalism in the 1960s — see Truman Capote or Tom Wolfe. Today it is industry standard. Why not take the Sopranos or Breaking Bad formula and marry it to TV journalism? (How many interviews have you seen in The Sopranos? How many Man on the Street soundbites have you seen in Breaking Bad?)
Good News is actually Good News
October 14, 2024
In a recent study by The Reuters Institute, 40% of Americans no longer watch or read the news at all. They find it too depressing. All doom and gloom.
The Future of News: TikTok or Netflix
September 09, 2024
There is a great deal of concern, well placed, that few people under the age of 30 watch TV news. Viewership of TV news in general has fallen off, so naturally, TV executives across the boards are searching for a solution. How to appeal to a demographic that spends most of their time on social media?