Tonights question TV news story packages typically range from 45 seconds to as many as _____ minutes. A) 2 B) 3 C) 4 D) 5 Leave your answer in the comment section of the class website. Dont forget your first and last name. No name, no extra credit, no record of you being here.

TV Scripting CMAT 131 Prof. Jeremy Cox

Tonights agenda Go over the optional redo for the radio assignment Talk about formatting a television news package script Practice on a pre-packaged story with raw footage Discuss the media critique of a television newscast, due a week from today

Mea culpa I wasnt as clear as I should have been about what I was looking for with the radio rewriting assignment Id hate to lose a whole assignment because of that So, I propose allowing you all to do what we call a write- thru, rewriting a story based on new information Heres what I should have the first time around....

Optional rewrite guidelines Write in the past tense. DO NOT editorialize. DO NOT begin stories with the name of a person whom your audience likely does not know. (i.e. Barry Landau.) Instead, refer to him generally in the lead, as a document collector or once-vaunted presidential historian or something. No, I do not mind if you steal these. The sentence before a sound bite should say more than, John Doe had this to say. Try: John Doe, head of the postal union, is worried about the proposals impact on health benefits. A warning: Be careful not to restate whats already in the sound bite, though.

Optional rewrite guidelines In virtually all cases, use said. Avoid believed, felt, commented, averred, declared, noted, explained, etc. Keep it simple. Facts count. Double-check spellings, titles of organizations. (House of Representatives, not House of Republicans) The stories come from different days of the week. But for our purposes, lets assume they all happened today. ANNCR should only include the words from the sound bite and not your words like said or the speakers name. Rewrites due Tuesday at very start of class. Printed out, double-spaced, stapled or paper-clipped.

Formatting a TV news script First, open up Word. Find the drop-down menu Table and create a 2- column table with lots of rows. Lets say 150. We just want to make sure we have enough. We can delete the extras later. If asked for how wide the columns should be, make it the length of the word. In the top left corner, type Video. On the right, Audio.

Terminology (for left-hand side) SOT = Sound on tape. Used whenever you are using sound captured in the field, even interviews. VO = Voice over. This is where you, as the reporter, would be reading your script OC = Orange County On Camera. Used when you, as the reporter, are doing a stand-up in front of the camera TRT = Total running time. Got a stopwatch? Use this only on SOT segments to indicate how long it runs.

Types of broadcast leads Summary lead: "A small girl escaped injury today when she met a wolf in the woods north of town. Teaser lead: Things almost got out of hand in the woods today. "Staccato lead: "A girl...a wolf...and a lucky escape. Startling fact: 15 young women went missing in the woods last year... and one little girl almost joined them today.

About the assignment Write a 15-second intro for the anchor about the story. (Left column should say Anchor on camera.) It should use one of the types of leads from the previous slide. Then, maybe one more sentence, and.... Have the anchor toss to the reporter with something like, With more, we turn to our correspondent, [your full name here].

Particulars This happened today. Write it in past tense. Pictures must match the words. Do it this way: Voiceover, SOT, voiceover, SOT, voiceover, SOT, on camera for the conclusion Should be at least 1:15 (160-word minimum for the spoken words alone) and no more than 3:00 (no more than 390 words spoken) Dont forget a concluding sentence that ties everything together. For the end, during your stand-up, write, For CMAT 131 News, this is [your full name here] reporting.

Lets try it!

Due next Thursday Critique of a television news show. Must be scripted. Local 30-minute newscast or 30-minute network news. Networks like FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN (SportsCenter) are fine. DO NOT choose 24-hour news networks; theres no beginning or end. No daytime talk shows or morning shows. No news magazines (60 minutes, Frontline, Dateline) or parody shows (Daily Show) Consider answering: What kinds of leads were used? Was the writing understandable on first pass? Did the pictures match the words? How strong was the writing (active verbs, concise, etc.)? Minimum 500 words. See syllabus for formatting guidelines.