Thursday, February 25, 2010

One Minute News Script!

News is scripted too. Anchors need something to say so they can explain the news, and they aren't coming up with it on their own. Here is one scripted minute of CNN. Normally I'd embed but they wont let me, so here's the video:
scene 1
CLOSEUP: HAITIAN CHILD BEING GIVEN WATER BY OTHER

scene 2
CLOSEUP: HAITIAN CHILD WITH BALL
Tuchman VO: Six tiny boys, in the custody of the Haitian...

scene 3
CLOSEUP: HAITIAN CHILD LAYING ON BED, SURROUNDED BY MISC. OBJECTS
Tuchman VO:...government, only miniutes before they were to get on a plane to start new lives in the United...

scene 4
WIDE: 3 WOMEN AND ONE MAN SITTING IN ROUGH CIRCLE, IN STONE ROOM
Tuchman VO:...States. Haitian officials suspicious of these three women.

scene 5
CLOSEUP: BLONDE WOMAN
Room noise
Tuchman:Is there any chance that the papers, are not legitimate?
Blonde: No.
Tuchman VO: Sarah Factors, from Minnesota.


scene 6
CLOSEUP: HANDS HOLDING BOOK WITH PICTURES OF REESE, PAGES BEING TURNED
Tuchman VO: And was about to take this two year old named Reese home as her son. But then, serious allegations against her, and...

scene 7
OVER SHOULDER MEDIUM: INTERVIEWER AND PURPLE SHIRT WOMAN
Tuchman VO: against this woman, who works in a Haitian orphanage, and who has raised Reese most of his life.

scene 8
CLOSEUP: BLACK HAIRED WOMAN
Tuchman VO: And this woman, a volunteer who came to Haiti to help...

scene 9
WIDE: 3 WOMEN AND ONE MAN SITTING IN ROUGH CIRCLE, IN STONE ROOM
Tuchman VO:...all three were going to escort Reese, and the five other orphans to...

scene 10
MEDIUM: BLONDE AND BLACK HAIRED WOMEN SITTING, BLACK HAIR IS BEING INTERVIEWED
TEXT:STEPHANIE ANDERSON DETAINED BY HAITIAN POLICE
Room noise
Tuchman VO:...new families waiting for them in the US
Black Hair: I can understand paranoia, absolutely, and I can understand that there was just a story where people were illegally taking children out of the country however...I don't think that fear justifies actions.

END OF ONE MINUTE

Now that that's over with, I noticed some strange things during this video. One is the way that the narrator structures his sentences. It seems quite strange, especially the very beginning. It seems like they are missing something grammatically. Why would something this obvious be left in a finished product though? Another observation comes not specifically from the video content but from delivery source. I wonder what they gain from disallowing embeds. The video marks it as coming from them, so its not like they aren't going to get credit or something of that nature. It is just strange, why bother having it on a place like YouTube rather than your own site if you aren't gonna let people share it?
Aside from these strange quirks of the story, I thought it was well done. It grabbed my attention quickly. Perhaps this is the purpose of the strange grammar in the beginning.

1 comment:

  1. EXCELLENT scripting here, Zach.

    Good to include the "room noise" sound.

    BUT...You forgot to give us three specific observations about the NEWS story, yes?

    Do so, for excellence.

    Dr. W

    ReplyDelete