* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The relationship between words and pictures plays a vital role in making ‘television news’.
The relationship between words and pictures plays a vital role in making ‘television news’. A good edit is when the reporter or the script editor looks at the picture first, and then frames the words as per the pictures captured in the camera. These are some of the things we can overlook in newsrooms. In fact, coming from a print background, this information was new to me, even though I have been working in a television newsroom for over a year now.
This was one of the things I learned in April, when I was lucky to be among the participants of Thomson Reuters Foundation’s course ‘Making Television News’ held at Canary Wharf, London.
Thirteen of us journalists from all corners of the world took part in this course which had a lot to offer.
Since both of our course instructors’ names were Steve, they suggested we call them Steve 1 and Steve 2. Steve 1 was kind enough to sit with me and go through one of my news scripts and give me basic tips on television news script writing. Keep the script simple, and let the picture tell the story. But if the pictures are not so good, a powerful script can always save the story. And PTC (Piece-to-camera) can enhance story-telling technique but it is not necessary all the time.
During the course, the most important thing I learned was that too much information in a story can confuse the viewers and also ruin the news story itself.
“Every news camera operator’s job is to cover the action—but the action alone is not the whole story.” Steve 2 taught us that picture is very important for visual media. It is, therefore, important how a cameraman shoots the pictures.
And lighting can do magic in creating a good image on the screen, and also help complement the features of the subject or object present in the picture.
The most important lesson on camera work was, “Don’t cross the axis”. Everything has a nose, stay on one side of the nose when you are filming a subject. I had never heard about this nose before.
We were also taught how, in this hyper-connected world where social media plays a vital role in feeding us with information, we can use our journalistic skills to filter genuine information from fakes or hoaxes. It is not easy, but not impossible.
Although our stay was short, we took home with us lots of happy memories. And of all, we made many wonderful friends.
P.S. Tashi Delek and good luck to all participants of Making Television News.
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