HOW TO PRODUCE A TV NEWS REPORT
So, where to start…
Firstly, let me explain the elements that come together to make up a TV news report. They are the following:
Piece to camera by reporter
Voiceover by reporter, with a script written to pictures
Interviews (2 or more)
B-roll footage to illustrate the interview
Natural sound
News angle
You’ve all seen TV news reports on a regular basis, so I’m sure this will make absolute sense to you. A reporter drives the narrative of the news story with a voiceover script and carefully selected soundbites from two or more interviews he/she has filmed. The reporter then uses an in-vision Piece to Camera (PTC) to make a key point about the story.
The best TV news stories combine sequences of powerful images with a voiceover script that complements what is being seen on screen. The core news values that drive all journalism are still at the centre of all you do in broadcast journalism. The news angle is the first thing you have to think about. What’s the story and why is it important to your audience? And that means answering the ‘five Ws’, of course. What happened, when and where it happened, who it happened to and why? Perhaps throw in a ‘how’ there too.
But then how you tell your story takes a different path to a print journalist…
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