I would try to talk less, and let my interviewees talk more.
When I put together my man-on-the-street piece about Prince George’s County police, I formatted the piece somewhat like I would an article. My voice mainly narrated the story, and the random people I talked to mainly reinforced my voice. I formed the script after I listened to my interviews, but I still think that it was my voice driving- perhaps to too great an extent- the piece. I would still want to be in control of the overall piece, obviously, but I would try to let the voices of the people that I spoke to come out a bit more.
I think that in the beginning I focused more on the story of “Prince George’s County police,” as opposed to “what students think about Prince George’s County police.” The story really isn’t about PG police anymore- they’ve overcome most of their controversy- the story is about the fact that students aren’t really concerned about them anymore. The second half of the piece was the more interview- or story-driven part, and that’s how I’d like the entirety of my audio to be in the future.
I’d also try to ask better questions. I mostly just asked people what they knew about Prince George’s police. I could have tried to develop more on their responses, or had a better idea of what I would say if they didn’t have a problem with PG police. I went into the story expecting students to still be concerned with police brutality, because as recently as spring semester of this year, students were still concerned. When they weren’t, I had to kind of quickly rearrange my questions and motives. In the future, I’ll try to be better prepared for a change in my plan, and try to have some alternative questions available so I’ll get better responses than I would from questions developed on the spot.
If I redid this piece, I would get rid of a lot of the narration in the beginning, just explaining that PG police had gotten into some trouble before, and then I would jump into the students’ opinions and comments, which some narration and explanation from me in between quotes to help direct and maintain the focus of the piece.
UMD J-School "Slice Class" -- Multimedia for Print Journalists
This is the class blog for Journalism 328G/28G, "Special Topics in News Writing and Reporting," where we offer a crash course in audio, photo, and video.
I would try to talk less, and let my interviewees talk more.
ReplyDeleteWhen I put together my man-on-the-street piece about Prince George’s County police, I formatted the piece somewhat like I would an article. My voice mainly narrated the story, and the random people I talked to mainly reinforced my voice. I formed the script after I listened to my interviews, but I still think that it was my voice driving- perhaps to too great an extent- the piece.
I would still want to be in control of the overall piece, obviously, but I would try to let the voices of the people that I spoke to come out a bit more.
I think that in the beginning I focused more on the story of “Prince George’s County police,” as opposed to “what students think about Prince George’s County police.” The story really isn’t about PG police anymore- they’ve overcome most of their controversy- the story is about the fact that students aren’t really concerned about them anymore. The second half of the piece was the more interview- or story-driven part, and that’s how I’d like the entirety of my audio to be in the future.
I’d also try to ask better questions. I mostly just asked people what they knew about Prince George’s police. I could have tried to develop more on their responses, or had a better idea of what I would say if they didn’t have a problem with PG police.
ReplyDeleteI went into the story expecting students to still be concerned with police brutality, because as recently as spring semester of this year, students were still concerned. When they weren’t, I had to kind of quickly rearrange my questions and motives. In the future, I’ll try to be better prepared for a change in my plan, and try to have some alternative questions available so I’ll get better responses than I would from questions developed on the spot.
If I redid this piece, I would get rid of a lot of the narration in the beginning, just explaining that PG police had gotten into some trouble before, and then I would jump into the students’ opinions and comments, which some narration and explanation from me in between quotes to help direct and maintain the focus of the piece.