Chapter 3 Writing the Script A television story

Chapter 3 Writing the Script

• A television story is really THREE stories … How so? Script, video AND AUDIO. • All must work together. • Watch a TV newscast with sound off … and you still pick up a lot of information from the visuals.

Writing to the picture • The pictures (video) rules the script. • “Referencing” … p. 56 -57 … In our copy, you must reference what is being shown … What does that mean? Examples? • Talk about what is being seen … show audience what is being discussed. SEE AND SAY. • Name is spoken precisely when picture appears. Mention the president’s name as his picture appears.

Preview the video • In previewing, decide what must be put into words and what can be carried by the visuals alone. • Linda Ellerbee, p. 56 … the pictures come first … changing the words to fit the pictures makes more sense, because once you have the video, you can’t change it. (Works only when video really does tell the story. ) • If words don’t match the video, you have “video fruit salad. ” • Write loose …What does this mean? • Don’t try to pack too many details into a story … if copy has too much detail, the audience will not remember it anyway … let the visuals tell the story as much as possible.

Avoid the obvious • Written words should supply only the information the visuals can’t. • If you include too much detail, the audience won’t remember much of it anyway. • Example: p. 57 (Miss America).

Terminology, p. 43 • Actuality? VO? SOT? TRT? CG? Outcue? P. 58. • Examples of TV format , p. 6167. • Learn VO-SOT format on p. 6566.