Check and Recheck
Video is important to any newscast, but people often forget that writing is just as important. If the words you're hearing don't make sense with the video you're watching, viewers can get confused. As video producer this week, I felt like I had a hand in both the writing and video aspects of the newscast.
It is important to make sure that the MJs know enough about the story to be writing the script. When we send an anchor or reporter out to cover a story, they do all aspects- writing, video, editing, etc. Sometimes an MJ will come in for a shift and we'll ask them to help write a story to go with some video we have. When we go through and edit later in the day, sometimes the writing doesn't make sense, or seems vague.
On that note, copy editing is SO important. I know the producers have gone through and found lots of little grammar and spelling errors that can make reading much harder for the anchors. I've also found that sometimes the bigger, more intelligent sounding words aren't necessarily the best. You can explain something in smaller words that roll off the anchor's tongue much better.
Editing is also so important for the sake of understanding the story. We always have to write to video, so going back and making sure that the writing matches the video we have is so important. If we're showing video of students on campus, we want to make sure that the anchor is reading something about students on campus. Writing and video should complement each other.
It was really cool to be able to oversee the editing of video while being video producer. Whenever an reporter or MJ was done editing their video, they came to have me check if it was good. I was able to make some suggestions I feel make the newscast better, and it was awesome to see how talented our Thursday team is!
