Breaking News in Video
Most of the work we’ll be doing this semester is slower-paced video where you’ll have the ability to take your time to put together a thoughtful, carefully edited final product. But you might one day find yourself in a spot news or breaking news situation where you’re filing material throughout the day as you get it.
If you are working or stringing for a wire service, they will have a system for filing footage. You’ll need to file something called a dopesheet along with your video material. The dopesheet is basically a summary of what you’re sending them so they can see it all at a glance.
Here is an actual dopesheet I filed on a breaking news assignment; feel free to use it as a template. The trick with dopesheets is not only to transcribe your soundbites accurately; it’s to distill the main takeaway of the story, because the news outlets that subscribe to your wire need to know at a glance what the point of it is, why they should care, and why it’s worth them deciding to run it. So it does come back down to good writing. Think about what your nut graph would be in a print story.
The actual video file you’ll send them (I usually use WeTransfer, although some places may have another system in place, often via FTP) will be minimally edited, but the trick is that you have to work fast. You pull out soundbites, transcribe them, and cut together a sequence of your best B-roll. Then you put it all in one video project (sound bites first, then B-roll), export, and send. It will look something like this:
Assignment:
You will cover a spot/breaking news story. You will file a video with at least three sound bites (from at least two different interviews) and 45 seconds of sequenced B-roll (3-5 seconds per shot) with accompanying dopesheet. The trick is that you must file it by midnight on the same day you filmed it.
I will not be holding class as usual on Monday, April 8 so that anyone who wants to cover the eclipse as a breaking news story may do so. However, you are welcome to propose an alternative breaking news story if there is something else you’d prefer to report on. The Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill is on Sunday April 7 this year; that’s always fun to cover. But if you do, make sure you securely wrap your camera first to protect it!