Writing the Package

 

 

 

Package. An edited, self-contained video report of an event or feature, complete with pictures, sound bites, voice-over narration, and natural sounds. The package is a form of narrative storytelling with a beginning, middle, and ending.

 

Some reporters start with the pictures whenever they “write” a package. Others start with the words. But the most efficient reporters first block the package as a story with a beginning, middle, and ending. The blueprint looks something like this:

 

1. Focus (the story stated in a sentence)

2. Beginning (lead)

a. Studio lead-in

3. Package lead

a. Visual lead

b. Voice over (VO)

4. Middle (three or four main points)

a. Main point A

b. Main point B

c. Main point C

d. Main point D

5. End (close)

a. Final visual

b. Final VO

c. Strong closing sound

 

Following this approach, you first emphasize the ideas you wish to communicate, and only then begin the search for images and words that will most effectively tell the story. You structure the story through four distinct stages of development: (a) reviewing existing knowledge and new information obtained from story research before you leave for the field; (b) conducting field research and interviews; (c) viewing and editing field video and sound bites; and (d) writing the final package. Structuring a package thus becomes much more a way of thinking than of writing.

DEFINE YOUR FOCUS

Once you understand the story, you can define its focus. The focus is a simple, vivid, declarative sentence expressing the heart, the soul, of the story as it will appear on air.¹ Until you know the story yourself, it will be difficult to tell it to anyone else.

In the following example of how to structure a package, assume you are assigned to cover a story on smart ways to lose weight. Perhaps as you research the story, you begin to understand that the story focus is, “The secret to weight loss lies in eating a healthy diet from the four basic food groups.”

WRITE THE BEGINNING (STUDIO LEAD-IN)

The package, like all stories, will need a lead-in. It could take several forms:

 

  ■ the introductory copy an anchor reads on camera from the studio before the package airs

  ■ as explanatory printed copy for web viewers to read for themselves before they click to activate the accompanying video

  ■ a recording of someone reading the copy on camera within a totally self-contained video package for a web page or public presentation

  ■ voice-over copy with accompanying graphics within a totally self-contained video package for a web page.

 

Audiences are best served if the studio lead-in instantly and intrusively begins the story, rather than serves merely as an introduction to a story yet to come. In a studio setting, the video package then continues the story as the screen cuts from the anchor’s studio lead-in to the package.

Studio lead-In:

If you want to lose weight and become healthy for life, you’ll never need a fad diet again. In fact, you never did. You learned the secret in elementary school. (Reporter) has the story.

The anchor has disclosed the heart of the story in the studio lead-in. At this point the package begins to air and audiences see the story’s first video, which is a continuation of the story a continuation of the story rather than its beginning.

WRITE THE PACKAGE LEAD

Again, as you plan the “visual lead,” or first video of your package, identify the central idea you wish to communicate before you worry about the words. In general, the thought process focuses first on (a) an idea to communicate; (b) images to prove the idea visually; and (c) words as necessary to interpret and explain the images.

If you want to indicate in your first visual that healthy diets are instinctive, you may decide your first video should be of children eating healthy foods. You might further decide to emphasize close-ups that show healthy faces and foods. Now that you have the images defined, you can write the voice over.

Voice Over To Accompany The “Visual Lead”:

Nutritionists now tell us the only diet we ever needed is to follow the four basic food groups, and to eat a variety of food from those groups. It’s how healthy people just naturally eat … and it can become a way of life for almost anyone.

(Video [close-ups]: Children eating healthy foods: apples, vegetable snacks)

WRITE THE MIDDLE OR MAIN BODY

After the package lead, begin the middle or main body of your report. In a 1:10- to 1:30-minute package, try to limit yourself to no more than three or four main points. Again, focus on the ideas to be communicated before you worry about the images or words.

In this example about healthy diets, perhaps after finishing your research you know that you wish to emphasize four main points, as follows:

 

1. You can eat anything you want, just not everything (eat in right amounts).

2. Exercise plays a role, although you don’t need to be obsessive.

3. Healthy diets and foods are tastier. Fatty foods actually are less satisfying. If you cut fat in your diet, you begin to crave healthy foods.

4. If you find you can’t control your eating, you may be using food as a substitute to fill other needs in your life.

 

Again in the main body, focus first on (a) the ideas to communicate, (b) images to prove the ideas visually, and (c) words as necessary to interpret and explain the images.

Now that you have your idea clearly focused for point one, “You can eat anything you want, just not everything (eat in right amounts),” you begin the search for images. Perhaps you decide to visit a supermarket and obtain permission to photograph a shopper as she buys apples and whole grain foods. As part of your report you interview the woman and she admits to having the occasional urge for a hot fudge sundae. In the sound bite, the woman tells you, “I’ve found that diets based on deprivation will not work, so I try to eat healthy foods but also occasionally reward myself with a hot fudge sundae. It’s no big deal that way.”

Even while you are in the field, you decide to build off the woman’s interview as a way to incorporate a reporter standup at this point. “Try to integrate the reporter standup so the story doesn’t come to a stop,” counseled network freelance television producer and photojournalist Ray Farkas. “Make it flow visually.”² In this story, perhaps you decide the standup gives you an excellent transition from point one (“Eat reasonable amounts of whatever you want”) to point two (“Exercise plays an important role”). You “script” the standup either in your mind’s eye or perhaps jot down the main idea on a note pad and deliver your standup to camera. Normally, in a 1:10- to 1:30-minute story, two or three sentences will provide sufficient length for a standup. Avoid one-sentence standups, however, because they may feel too abrupt, and can even diminish the reporter’s authority.

Standup (At Fast-Food Take-Out):

“So the occasional indulgence in a healthy lifestyle is normal … and inevitable. Just one caution: Know when to say enough … and remember to exercise.”

The standup in this example helps introduce point two: “Exercise plays a role, although you don’t need to be obsessive.” Again, after you define the main point, look for images that will help prove it. In this story, perhaps you decide to photograph people walking along the exercise path; people running around an exercise track; and a basketball game you happen to spot as you drive by. Perhaps you decide to interview a person walking along the exercise path and record the following sound bite for the report.

Bite:

“Five months ago, I weighed thirty-eight pounds more than I do now. Once I started working out, my body began to crave healthier foods.”

Remember to block in visual transitions as you move from one main point to the next, and remember to insist on “visual proof” for each of your main points. Because point three states that “Healthy diets/foods are tastier,” you will need one or more shots that prove this idea. The transition shot that begins point three after the sound bite could be of an ultra close shot of mist-covered red delicious apples. As the shot holds on-screen, a hand comes into frame. The next shot, in matched action, shows a shopper reaching into the fruit bin at a natural foods store as she selects apples. The next shot, a close-up, might show the woman’s hand coming into frame. In a matched-action shot, this time a medium or long shot, the woman places an apple on the kitchen counter at home. As the sequence continues, she cuts the apple, arranges it on a plate with some cheddar cheese, and hands the plate to her four-year-old daughter.

Voice-over narration throughout this sequence would make the following points: Natural foods, those without much processing, often are the healthiest and the tastiest. Further, when people cut fat in their diets, they begin to crave healthy foods; fatty foods actually are less satisfying.

At this stage, you begin point four in your package: “If you find you can’t control your eating, you may be using food as a substitute to fill other needs in your life.” Because point three ends on the idea that fatty foods actually are less satisfying, you could launch point four with video of fatty foods. The shot might be of dessert cakes on a bakery shelf, rows of potato chip products in a supermarket, fried chicken in a deli display, or any other shot that proves the main point visually. If you use such a shot, you will need voice-over narration that helps you make the transition to point four: “While fatty foods won’t kill you, they can leave you craving more. Worse yet, with high-fat temptations around, it’s easy to lose control with these foods.” At this point, you might cut to another sound bite that helps prove point four. Perhaps during your field interviews, someone told you:

Sound Bite:

“Food is a powerful drug. Often we eat to satisfy needs that have nothing to do with food. To live a healthy lifestyle, you may have to learn why you’re eating when you’re not hungry.”

The person who gave you such a sound bite might be a dietician, a specialist in addictions or eating disorders, a dieter you meet at a weight-loss clinic, or some other person with the close knowledge or experience to make such an observation. A word of caution: The bite must occur spontaneously in the field during the interview process, without coaching from the reporter. Ethical reporters never steer an interviewee into making a statement to help substantiate a main point in a story. Based on your own research, however, it might be permissible during an interview to observe, “I suppose some people use food almost like some people use drugs.” In this way you have suggested subject matter, but not the response itself. Every interview question follows such a process.

WRITE THE CLOSE

Next, write the close to your package. The close makes it obvious to your audience the story is ending. Without a strong close, the package will stop but it will not end. As soon as you arrive in the field, begin your search for a closing shot— a visual close you can build toward throughout the entire piece, something so strong it’s obvious the story is finished. Lazy reporters sometimes end stories on interviews or standups, but such endings resemble unsigned letters.

If you must write from video someone else shot in the field, search it carefully for a closing shot. If you are under extreme deadline pressure, ask the photographer or editor to help you identify a strong closing shot. Once you have identified the shot, you can then build every component of the report toward that final moment.

In this example, you might want to leave audiences with the idea, “If you learn how to eat and live healthily, you will live a happier life, and possibly a longer life.” The close not only wraps up the story but also reinforces the story’s focus. In this example we stated the original story focus to the effect, “The secret to weight loss lies in eating a healthy diet from the four basic food groups.” Note how the story close, “If you learn how to eat and live healthily, you will live a happier life, and possibly a longer life,” reinforces the focus and brings the story to a decisive ending.

Again, in the close, give your audience visual proof of the point you wish to communicate. Images that show an elderly person playing with a grandchild might address the idea of a longer, happier life. You also might photograph senior citizens having the time of their life at a square dance, or perhaps find a fit, trim couple in their 70s jogging in a park, and some closing sound as the woman says, “Let’s go for twelve laps.” The more articulate you can make your images and audio, the more memorable your message will become.

PREPLAN THE PACKAGE

Often, you can plan many elements within a package before you enter the field, based on your existing knowledge and new information obtained from story research. We are not talking about making a story, or writing the story in advance, but rather about nailing down all the information you can before you enter the field, then filling in the holes as you shoot field video and conduct your field research and interviews (Figure 9.1).

The term preplanning thus refers to planning that occurs before you enter the field. “You can do a lot of effective reporting without leaving where you are—kitchen or station—by letting your fingers do the walking,” says reporter Chuck Crouse. “The more extensive your use of the phone, the more finesse you may need to apply. For instance, your city councilors are probably experienced at talking to you, and see each call as a chance to communicate with their constituents. An attorney involved in litigation, however, may be wary of talking to you.”³

You also can gather information by reading newspapers and magazines, talking with friends and acquaintances, and just from living. “You must reflect on the story before the need to write it occurs. Otherwise it will be difficult to speak with authority,” says Bob Moon, senior business correspondent for Marketplace, public radio’s daily magazine of business and economics. “As a given, we assume you know everything you can about the local community: what crops come from the fields, what goods emerge from the factories, and the like.”⁴ The same need for reflection and understanding applies even when you are covering institutions and issues. The late Peter Jennings, anchor for ABC World News Tonight, became convinced during years of international reporting, that prior acquaintance with developing country issues— not to mention knowledge of the tastes and smells in those lands—is indispensable to covering the news. Jennings believed it simply wasn’t possible to catch up with events by reading official reports and calling government officials.

 

 

In such discussions, note the distinction between preplanning and “prewriting” the story. “Planning is essential. But it is no substitute for the reality of what a reporter finds on location,” says NBC’s Bob Dotson.⁵ Basically, when you preplan a story, you plan the story on paper or as a storyboard (reproduction of a single frame of video that represents one scene or sequence in a video story) in the mind’s eye that treats only those elements you feel reasonably certain about. But if conditions change in the field, you must change with them. “Prewriting is an easy way to laziness,” believes Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC news. “Skill in reporting comes from the ability to rapidly organize your story once you’ve arrived and had time to digest what is happening.”⁶

Another form of laziness occurs when reporters wait to understand the story until they return from the field and begin to write. By then, it’s too late because the story happens in the field and can never be more than you bring back from the field. “A good visual story is made in the field by competent reporters and photojournalists,” says KAKE’s Larry Hatteberg. “Reporters must be concerned with the story and not the standup and how it will play. You have to cover the story to write it.”⁷ Using this approach, you focus first on ideas, then on images and words.

SPOT-NEWS PACKAGES

Spot-news packages can follow the same planning process, although fast-breaking news offers less time for contemplation and reflection. Often the reporter and photojournalist do well to capture what’s happening. Still, once the breaking event has ended, some time usually remains to identify the story and its focus, assess what happened, and record pickup sound and additional video. Even while covering spot news, the video journalist can identify (a) story focus, (b) the story’s three or four most important main points, and (c) how the story will close. If raw field material is unavailable to prove the story’s crucial beginning, middle, and ending, or if the VJ or field crew has insufficiently identified these points before returning from the field, the story will suffer. In the accompanying spot-news story, note how the package has a beginning, middle, and ending, and how the visuals “prove” every main point. The studio lead-in has been omitted to help make the package’s essential structure more obvious.

 

SET A HIGH STANDARD FOR PACKAGES

If you do make your story into a package, you are obligated to set high standards for your work. Not every story justifies a package or even a reporter’s presence, and many stories work well as simple anchor VO or VO with previously recorded sound (VO SOT). Conversely, if you are assigned to write, report, or photograph a simple VO but think the story would make a good package, tell your producer or assignment editor you think it should be a package. To help guide your decision, you can think of stories as falling into two categories⁸:

 

1. A video story that can be told by the camera and through sound bites. Into this category fall spot news, fires, overturned tanker trucks, and similar “event-driven” stories.

2. Stories that require explanation, analysis, or the reporter’s observations of the environment—stories the camera alone cannot tell without a reporter to help tell it.

 

If the anchor can do what the reporter is doing, and do it better, then the reporter must justify his or her presence in a package. Otherwise, the anchor can simply read a VO SOT VO. “When reporters tackle a complex story, they chronicle the sequence of events, flesh out the personalities, explain the issues and the implications, and put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” says journalist Peter R. Kann.⁹ They know more about the story than the anchor and can bring such stories to life. Such television reporters can justify their presence in the story. Furthermore, if the television reporter experiences the story, senses it, and serves as an eyewitness in some way to explain the smells and sights of an event, then audiences may feel they need the reporter in the story.¹⁰

Ultimately, it’s not how many stories you crank out that counts, but how memorable you make them. “You pick timeless subjects and treat them properly, and people are going to be looking at them 200 years from now. We are stockpiling history,” said Canadian documentary filmmaker Donald Brittain.¹¹

Fifty or a hundred years from now, for example, historians may look back on Ron Mitchell’s reports about construction of Denver’s International Airport, the last U.S. airport to be built in the 20th century. When construction began, Mitchell, a KUSA reporter, took viewers into the empty fields east of Denver. In subsequent reports, using standups and even the routine sounds from public address systems at other airports, he crafted reports to “show” viewers where the various concourses, taxi ramps, baggage claim areas, and concession stands would someday be located. Today his series chronicles the airport as it rose from empty fields to become a hub for international travelers.

 

USE NATURAL SOUND LIBERALLY

To help involve viewers and listeners in your story, and to help them feel as if they’re experiencing the events you show on-screen, remember to use natural sound throughout your package (Figure 9.2). Natural sound at the very start of a package, even before the first voice over, can help draw viewers into the story. Such natural sound could be an athlete’s labored breathing, a young boy yelling “Ice cold lemonade, 25 cents!,” or the purr of electric clippers at a pet grooming boutique. “When we go out, we don’t often enough listen for the little sounds,” observed Ray Farkas, the network television freelance producer and photojournalist. “Too often, we go for the bite at the sheriff’s news conference versus the sense of what it felt like to be in the sheriff’s office or the marriage license bureau.”¹²

In the end, every package should capture something of the news environment and communicate that experience to viewers. Universally, storytellers seek to communicate a sense of experience to their audiences. The news package is simply another form of narrative storytelling with a beginning, middle, and ending. “Television journalism is uniquely a combination of storytelling, photographic, and cinema-editing skills which can be specifically learned and clearly articulated,” says news producer John Haydock.¹³ Routinely, at television organizations around the world, the most memorable journalism often takes the form of compelling news packages.

SUMMARY

The package can be defined as an edited, self-contained report of an event or feature, complete with pictures, sound bites, voice-over narration, and natural sounds. It is a form of narrative storytelling with a beginning, middle, and ending. Before they write the words for a package or shoot the pictures, the most efficient video journalists first create a blueprint or structure for their packages. Ideally, the thought process will concentrate first on the main story idea, then on images to prove the idea visually, and finally on words as necessary to interpret and explain the images.

Typically, a 1:10- to 1:30-minute package includes a focus statement, a beginning or lead, a middle section with three or four main points, and an ending or close. The strongest packages normally begin and end on visuals and sounds from the environment rather than with standups or sound bites, except for tosses to and from live shots and remotes.

The package takes form during four stages of development: reviewing existing knowledge and facts obtained from story research before you leave for the field, conducting field research and interviews, viewing and editing field video and sound bites, and writing the final package.

To tell the story effectively, you must first understand it yourself. A good way to do that is by defining your focus statement. The focus is a simple, vivid, declarative sentence expressing the heart and soul of the story. When you can distill your understanding of a story this succinctly, you are ready to report it. The best reporters exchange ideas for the story with others involved in the storytelling process so that everyone works toward a common goal.

The strongest packages begin with a studio lead-in that instantly and intrusively begins the story, rather than serves merely as an introduction to a story yet to come. The main body of the package typically contains three or four main points, each with visual proof, and with a visual transition to help the package flow smoothly from one main point to the next.

Identify the closing shot early, so you can build the package to an obvious and definitive ending.

Plan elements within a package before you enter the field, but never go so far as to write the story in advance: The goal is to gather information and reflect on the story before you write it. Breaking news offers less time for reflection and contemplation, but often you will have time after the main action subsides to identify the story and its focus, assess what happened, and record pickup sound and additional video.

Not every story justifies a package or even a reporter’s presence. To guide your decision, you can think of stories as falling into two categories: The first category includes “event-driven” stories or spot news that can be told by the camera and through sound bites. The second category includes stories that require explanation, analysis, or the reporter’s observations of the environment.

Use natural sound liberally in all packages as a way to help involve audiences, and to help them feel as if they’re experiencing the events you show on-screen. Remember, too, the more articulate you can make your images, the more memorable your messages will become.

KEYTERMS

close 154

focus 151

lead-in 151

storyboard 155

 

EXERCISES

  1. Record a television news package and analyze its structure. Prepare a two-page, printed, double-spaced report that addresses the following considerations:

 

■ Length of the studio lead-in, in seconds

■ Your analysis of how effectively the studio lead-in discloses the heart of the story

■ How effectively the first video communicates the story to come

■ Whether the package lead-in continues the story as expressed in the studio lead-in or actually begins the story

■ Number of main points in the story, listed individually

■ Use of visual transitions between main points

■ Use of sound bites

■ How well the story integrates a reporter standup, if any, without disrupting the package’s visual flow

■ How well the story builds to an obvious, definitive conclusion

■ The presence of an obvious and easy-to-articulate story focus

 

 2. Using a newspaper story that contains quotes from one or more sources, write the script for a 1:10-minute video package. Include all elements for the package: a studio lead-in or lead-in copy for a web page, all VO narration, scripted sound bites transcribed from quotations in the story, notes or a script for the standup, and a brief description of all visuals you would use, complete with visual transitions between all main points in the body of your package. Follow the script format example in Chapter 8, Video Script Formats.

 3. Record a television news package or similar web video and write a script that reflects how you would make the package more informative and interesting. Change any components of the package as it now exists: You may want to rewrite the studio lead-in, for example, so that it’s more interesting and addresses a wider audience or that discloses the heart of the story more immediately. You may wish to indicate changes in the existing video, or perhaps you may want to eliminate or shorten some sound bites. You may want to build a stronger close for the package. You may decide to shorten the package itself. All changes you make should make the story more interesting, more informative, and more memorable.

 4. Record and view five television news packages and write a one-sentence focus statement for each, based on what you understand about the story after watching it. Next, analyze how a stronger focus statement could have made each story even more memorable and relevant to viewers.

 5. On a given day, study a front-page newspaper or substantive web story and decide to what extent you could preplan the various story elements before you enter the field. Choose a story you think a local television station, cable channel, or web site will cover as a video package that day. Identify the story; try to write a focus statement for it; list what you already know about the story, all the facts you still need; and decide what sound bites you might use. Include a reporter standup, if possible. Next, write a script that contains everything you know about the story, leaving holes as necessary in the script for missing information. That evening, watch the story on television. Compare your treatment of the story, based on your own preplanning, with your sources’ video field coverage.

 6. Compare the structure of a spot-news package with the structure of a package that addresses a nonbreaking news event. Discuss how package structure differs between the two examples, and what influences might account for the differences.

 7. Apply the “Story Blueprint” on page 150 to the script you wrote for assignment #2. Rewrite the original script as necessary to incorporate as many of the checklist elements as possible.

 

NOTES

  1. Fred Shook and Don Berrigan, “Glossary: Television Field Production and Reporting,” Atelier Sur le Récit Visuel, Service National de la Formation et du Développement, Bureau de Montréal, Société Radio Canada, Montréal, Canada, 1991.

  2. Ray Farkas, “Looking through the Lens Differently,” a presentation at the NPPA TV NewsVideo Workshop, Norman, OK, March 21, 1991.

  3. Chuck Crouse, “Doing It by Phone,” RTNDA Communicator (September 1987), 66.

  4. Bob Moon, “Bringing the World to Main Street,” a workshop for students and professional journalists at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, November 9, 1990.

  5. E-mail correspondence with the principal author, June 27, 2007.

  6. John Premack, “Straight from the Shoulder,” RTNDA Communicator (December 1985), 28.

  7. Ibid.

  8. John Haralson, in remarks to students at the Talent Performance Development Workshop, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, February 22, 1992.

  9. Peter Kann, quoted in an undated letter to Wall Street Journal subscribers.

10. Bob Kaplitz, “Managing Creative People,” a presentation at the NPPA TV News-Video Workshop, Norman, OK, March 19, 1991.

11. Terry Kolomechuk, ed., Donald Brittain: Never the Ordinary Way (Winnipeg, Canada: National Film Board of Canada, 1991), 54.

12. Farkas.

13. John Haydock, “Developing an Evaluation System for Daily News Packages,” RTNDA Communicator (November 1987), 17.