REPORTER’S GUIDE TO SCRIPTING NEWS FIVE COPY ON E



TV NEWS SCRIPTING GUIDELINES FOR HOFSTRA NEWS PROGRAMS

TO WRITE A COPY STORY: It’s very similar to radio, but now all the “script” to be read on the air must appear on the right side of the page. All production commands – such as OC (On Camera) or TAKE PKG -- appear on the left. Newsroom computer software systems such as Avid i-News will put a slug on the story for you. For word processed class assignments, however, slug the story as you would a radio story with a story title, your name and date in the upper left.

TV COPY EXAMPLE:

Copy

Smith

10/19/09

:20

|OC: ANGELA |You will immediately be able to |

| |tell a TV script from a radio |

| |script. |

| |TV director commands appear on the left side while the information read by an |

| |anchor is on the right. |

| |For class purposes you should double space all the copy, though newsroom computer|

| |systems will do that for you automatically. |

Note: the TV scripts here do not have the pound sign (###) indicating the end of the story. Because most TV stations use teleprompters, many stations do not use the story ending sign because they would have to scroll through them and it takes too long to get to the next story.

TO WRITE A VO: A "VO" (voice over) is a story which begins with the anchor reading on camera, then video appears and the anchor keeps reading over the video. The video usually appears after the first sentence, but it is up to the writer to decide when to "take"  the video.

         When you get to the point in the story where you want video to begin, enter TAKE VO on the left side of the page. Below that put in the director’s command TAKE SUPER. That is for a lower-third graphic which we use to identify a place or person. SUPER is short for superimposition (placing one image over another).    

VOICE OVER EXAMPLE on next page:

VO

Smith

10/19/09

:20

|OC: GRAYSON TWO SHOT |This is an example of a VO with two anchors – with the second anchor turning to a|

| |box shot – which is a graphic just above the anchor’s shoulder. |

| |After Grayson reads, Tera reads on a different camera and the director knows to |

|OC: TERA TURN TO BOX |take the box, because we typed in “Tera turn to box on the OC command line. |

| |The TAKE VO command tells the director to roll video for the voice over and the |

| |copy to match the video should be directly across from the TAKE VO command. |

|TAKE VO |The TAKE SUPER command in this case is for a lower-third graphic to identify a |

|TAKE SUPER: Hempstead\City Hall |location. |

| |Use a city or a town first, followed by a more specific location such as City |

| |Hall or a street address for a fire or a murder scene. |

___________________________________________________

TO WRITE A VO/SOT: A "VO/SOT/VO" also begins with an anchor lead. But when you are ready to TAKE

VO, besides the TAKE SUPER command you also need to add a new command: TIME TO BITE.

When you are ready to type in the bite information, you need more information on the script, TAKE SOT, plus the OUT (outcue) and TRT (total running time) as well as the transcript of the bite. Put the bite between these marks < >. Many newsroom computer systems recognize those marks so that it will not add extra time when timing the script.

             The final instruction is what happens AFTER THE BITE.   You can enter MORE VO or some other command, such as OC:, or TAKE FS (an electronic full screen graphic).

VO/SOT/VO EXAMPLE is on the next page:

VO/SOT

Smith

10/19/09

:45

|OC: JALIL BUST |This is an example of a VO/SOT/VO, usually just called a VO/SOT – which stands |

| |for voice over, sound on tape – or a sound bite. |

| |In this example, Jalil reads as a single anchor, then it is time to take the |

| |video or VO. |

| |We again need a location SUPER – in this case, Roosevelt Field in Garden City. |

|TAKE VO |We also need a new command – seconds to bite. The anchor will time the script so |

|TAKE SUPER: Garden City\Roosevelt Field |editors know how much video to cut for the story. |

|TIME TO BITE |That way the voice over video ends just as the anchor finishes reading the copy |

| |leading into the sound. |

| | |

| | |

|OUT=THE TRANSCRIPTION LINE. |After the bite we usually need more video, so put in MORE VO on the left side of |

|TRT=:19 |the script. |

|TAKE SUPER: G. Stuart Smith\Journalism professor | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

|MORE VO | |

There may be times when we want to go back to set or use a full screen graphic, also called full screens, but those would require different commands.

___________________________________________________

TO WRITE A PKG:

              A package is a  reporter’s complete story on tape, with the reporter narrating it. The script begins with the anchor intro. 

Begin writing this as you would any story.  When you get to the end of the anchor intro, enter TAKE PKG as well as OUT= and TRT=.  If the OUT is standard (your name and Broadcast News I), then just type standard.  This will be different, however, if you would be doing a live-package, because your outcue will not be Pauline Perils, Broadcast News I. It will be the final words of your package, whatever they are.

            Once again type in TAKE SUPER – and you may have several of them, one or more for the location of the video and one SUPER to identify each person you interview.  

Make a separate page to write the reporter narration portion of the package. USE THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PAGE TO WRITE WHICH SHOTS YOU WANT TO ACCOMPANY YOUR NARRATION. 

Write your reporter narration copy as you did with the previous stories, entering times, outcues and transcriptions for each sound bite.. When you want to enter either NATURAL SOUND or a SOUND BITE, put in the time of the bites and transcribe them. This will help you keep track of the overall time of your package and help you write into and out of the natural sound and sound bites without repeating information in the bite itself.

REMEMBER: USE SEPARATE PAGES FOR THE

ANCHOR INTRO

REPORTER NARRATION

ANCHOR TAG

Package: Anchor Intro Example on next page:

PKG-Anchor

Smith

10/19/09

1:30

|OC: BEAU TWO SHOT |Here’s an example of a package with a two anchor lead and the second anchor |

| |turning to a bust shot. |

| |Insert the OC: commands as described before. When it’s Kim’s turn, put in the |

|OC:KIM TURN TO BUST |command along with her name and turn to bust. |

| |And, of course, we always set up the reporter. |

| |H-N-N’s G. Stuart Smith shows us how to do the reporter narration part of the |

| |package script. |

| | |

| | |

| | |

|TAKE PKG | |

|OUT= STANDARD | |

|TRT= 1:33 | |

|TAKE SUPER: Hempstead\Hofstra University | |

|TAKE SUPER: Prof. Bob Papper\ Hofstra Professor | |

|TAKE SUPER: Prof. Geoff Roth\Broadcast News Guru | |

|TAKE SUPER: G. Stuart Smith\Reporting | |

Package: Reporter Script Example on next page:

PKG-Reporter

Smith

10/19/09

|TRT= :02 | |

| |Remember, you are always working to get to your next sound bite or natural sound.|

|Wide Shot of Professor Smith |Minimize your writing: let the video and sound transmit the experience to your |

|working at computer |viewers. |

|Medium shot at computer |Boy! This sure is a lot of copy – time for some more natural sound. |

| | |

|Close up fingers on keyboard |Work hard to get good sound in the field, log it diligently, then work it into |

| |your script so it flows from beginning, middle to the end. |

| TRT= :02 |Using sound judiciously |

|Shot of computer screen |will help you tell a story that will have impact on your audience. |

| |Now, let’s put in a bite. |

| | |

| |The best sound bites have emotion – funny or sad – it doesn’t matter. |

| |They should also be short – maybe only eight to ten seconds long. |

| |Don’t use a sound bite that you could say better yourself. |

|BITE TRT= :11 | |

| | ................
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