Week 6 notes
Week Six began with a 12 question mid-term quiz. Grades will be given to you as soon as possible.
We continued to review the Top Stories assignment from two weeks earlier.
Here are some examples of well written scripts.
Top Stories, or “Headlines”, are very short versions of the day’s important news stories. They are usually about 15 seconds long – two or three sentences – just enough to tell the essential facts of the story.
We looked at some examples of well-written portions of Philippines Floods packages. These examples showed us good use of compelling video and sound at the start of the package. We also saw good script to shot matching and good use of video to tell the story, while short direct sentences gave us essential details. We’ll look at a few more in our next class and post examples here on the blog.
In preparation for the next writing assignment, we looked at a storytelling style sometimes called “Particular to General” or “Specific to General”. Using this structure, the script begins by referring to a specific individual or business or location, etc. We then learn that this particular person, place or thing is an example of something broader and more general.
If a package (or a newspaper article) ends by returning to the specific example used at the start, we call this a Full Circle Ending. The pattern is Specific=>General=>Specific.
This week’s writing assignment is to try the PTG (Particular To General) storytelling style on an agency package kit: Thailand HIV Drugs
The news agency shotsheet is here: Thai-HIV-Reuters-copy
A link to the agency video is here: You must use this link to see the video. It is not available to the public. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2tN4U-7Vf8
The assignment is to write 15–20 second intro for an anchor to read.
Then write a 1:30-2:00 minute package that starts with the HIV+ man near the end of the video feed, then tells the broader story of the ARV drugs being made available to HIV+ people in Thailand. We’ll correct & analyze your stories after reading week.
Send them to mwalsh@hku.hk Deadline: Wednesday March 7, 6pm