Using Live Shots During a Newscast

A live shot is a very valuable tool you can use as a producer of a newscast. It adds a certain relevance to the story you are reporting becuase the viewer can see that there is ongoing reporting at the location the reporter is at. This past week I was lead producer, and although we were unable to use a live shot, it would have proved to be useful.

There was a story we tried covering called 'Rivals United for a Kure'. It was about how people from USC and UCLA were coming together before the football game this weekend to raise money for underfunded cancers. We were unable to cover this story because the event started at 5 pm and sending someone out there to report and then come back and edit their story would have been very difficult considering the newscast starts at 6. If we had a live shot we could have sent a reporter there to do a live shot explaining what the event was about. Unfortunately we were unable to do so and because of that missed a relatively important story