|
Real TV Station Drama Plays Off Camera
by Sable Adams
You may think the weatherman points to a map, but you don't see one here.
|
Hilltop Reporter Sable Adams recently spent an evening in the studios of Asheville's WLOS-TV to find out what goes on behind the scenes in a broadcast news operation. Her report:
Viewers of the six o'clock news on WLOS see the meteorologist pointing to a map that shows upcoming weather changes.
What the viewers do not know is that Mike Cuevas, chief meteorologist, is actually pointing to a blank green back-drop. There is no map on it. Hundreds of lights flash above him.
Cuevas is reading his lines on a prompter located in front of him. As the camera tapes him speaking about the weather, he can see an animated map on a monitor next to the prompter. A computer program substitutes the map for the green space, and that's what viewers see.
Viewers of the six o'clock news see the anchors and the reporters who are currently speaking or preparing to go on.
What the viewers do not see is all the people who are involved and all the preparation that goes into an evening news show.
Reporters find all the stories for the day. Producers put the entire show together and make sure everything flows -- the run-down sheets, the order, and what approach to use in telling what needs to be said in stories. The anchor is the pretty face shown on television and is the one who pulls the story together and figures out how to present the assigned topics well to the public.
The producer of a show does not work on the set that the viewers see. The producer, director, graphics technician, technical director, and prompter for the show sit together in a small room facing a wall of monitors. The glassed-in audio booth is behind them.
They can see what the viewers cannot -- Anchor Tammy Watford, who had minimal time to get ready and who is hurriedly checking her cue cards and making sure her hair is not blowing; Reporter Heather Grady in Bryson City, checking her lip gloss and gesturing to her camera man. She is visible on a monitor that can be seen by the production staff.
"30 seconds!" says the director. "Ten seconds!" "Standby Satellite!" Five seconds!" "Talk!"
Putting on real makeup for virtual world of TV
|
This is the distinct point when the cameras focus in on the reporter or anchor, who changes suddenly from the relaxed person making sure her hair is not blowing into the professional on-camera personality that viewers see.
Checking lip gloss isn't the only thing that reporters do. Reporters make phone calls or go out into the field to gather information, conduct interviews, and write up what they have learned before they are shown on the news that day. The reporter does the write-ups on the news story and then the editor reads over and makes any final revisions to the story. They then meet with producers to go through the run-down.
The reporter reads over the script to make sure their pronunciation is good and their wording fits perfectly. The reporter does this fairly quickly, in around 15 minutes. Each broadcast typically runs in a block of 2-3 minutes. For the run-down the reporter needs to be on top of the story to make sure all flaws are taken care of before they hit the camera.
Viewers of the show can't see problems behind the scenes, but like anything else in life, there are unseen ones. Problems often occur when a news story turns out to be shorter or longer than its allotted time frame. As one producer put it, "Everything in broadcasting is about time."
Leading up to the newscast is when the problems most typically occur. The original time frame for a reporter is subject to change during the run-through if the reporter needs more time. On the flip side, the reporter may need the script to be shortened. These are problems that are taken care of before the show is actually shown on television.
"Stretch!" says the producer. That is a term that the anchors hear as frequently as they hear about the daily topics they are going to be working on. Ad-libbing to stretch a story to fill a pre-determined time slot is a skill that TV reporters and anchors are forced to master. The anchor must add as much time as the producer needs so the show will not run short.
In a live broadcast a lot goes on simultaneously
|
It is even more important for a news story not to run longer than its allotted time, as that will push everyone behind. If a reporter runs over, it cuts into the next reporter's time, and everything falls on the reporters to correct the problem. Someone must drop out of the planned sequence, find a way to cut 30 seconds or a minute from their report, and then get back in line with the program. Or one entire story may be dropped and everybody else has to stretch.
"Dealing with problems last-minute, once people get behind the scenes, is the hard part," said one producer.
If the entire show happens to run over, then what was a small problem turns into a very expensive one. If there is no time to correct for a goof, and the reports run over the time frame and go into a commercial break, then WLOS is forced to compensate the people who paid for the commercial. WLOS then loses money.
A person seeking a career in broadcasting must generally have a four-year degree to be on-the-air. A master's degree is not required to get a job.
Broadcasters typically don't start out being viewed in front of the camera. Typically, "A broadcaster has worked in radio, a good training ground for acquiring different skills needed for a broadcasting position," said MHC Director of Communications Mike Thornhill.
To be a broadcaster, the number one skill to aquire would be writing --not just being able to write proper English, but knowing what words to use and how to write conversationally. The second thing to know would be how to type well, according to Thornhill.
Reader Comment:
Mike Thornhill, MHC director of communications, 5/3/2008, 10:37 p.m.
It's hard to boil down a whole day's worth of "life in the newsroom" into a short written story, but Sable's done a pretty good job of it here.
Just to clarify one point: it's not "typical" for a TV journalist to have worked in radio before moving to TV, although I do think radio is an excellent training ground, and I think radio experience was a big contributor to the success I and some of my WLOS colleagues had (or are still having) in our TV news careers.
Give us your feedback. We value your opinions.
The Hilltop reserves the right not to post anonymous comments, personal attacks, or any comments that could be judged slanderous, that make unverifiable allegations of fact, or use language we consider in bad taste.
All fields must be filled in.
HOME
| 
