What is a stand-up? It’s you talking to the camera for a live report or for use in a taped piece. In the taped piece, stand-ups have two beneficial effects. It’s always good to see the reporter in the package, to remind the viewers just who it is bringing them the story. It’s a real live person and not just some disembodied voice.
It’s good for you to be seen of course, but it is equally impor-tant for the viewer to know you as a storyteller. Without you, the
storyteller, the story is not as relatable. Without you telling us, without you doing the interviews, the story seems distant and does not connect as well with the viewer. This leads to the chance that the viewer’s mind might wander, or worse, the viewer might change the channel. That is something you cannot allow to happen.
So, what do I say in a stand-up? What kind of information do I put into a stand-up? It should be something important. If you are seen on camera, talking directly to the viewer, it will get the viewer’s attention. It demands the viewer’s attention. Therefore, don’t let the viewer down. Give them something key to the story.
It may be the whole reason for the story.
Report from the Trenches
During a presidential campaign, one of the candidates was visiting a small rural town in South Carolina. The candidate was set to make a major civil rights speech at the opening of a new church. The old church had burned down and the community, mostly black, had pitched together to build a new place of worship.
The correspondent and producer had done some digging and learned that a grand jury was about to indict the accused arsonists on charges. The prosecutors also had enough evidence to charge that the arsonists were members of the Ku Klux Klan. This was not only blockbuster news, but also the point of the presidential candidate’s appearance — that civil rights was still a fight. And that became the stand-up, done at the site of the burned out church.
Be Creative but . . .
Creativity in your stand-up can make it memorable and make you stand out from the others. If you are trying to show how tall an ocean wave was and don’t have pictures of it, then go stand in front of a ten story building and explain on camera that the wave was as
high as this building. A visual helps those viewers who might not otherwise understand just how tall that wave was.
Be careful. Creativity can be overdone or too clever. For example:
Report from the Trenches
During a report on some severe flooding in her area, a young reporter got creative in a way you should not. She cleverly, it appeared, did her stand-up while in a rowboat as she floated down a flooded street. She was doing this live and as a result, she was found out. She was reporting from her little boat how deep the waters were when someone walked between her boat and the camera. The viewer saw the boots and knees of the person walk-ing in front the reporter. It was obvious that the water was only a couple of inches deep. It was hardly the severe flooding that would require a boat.
Fig. 6-1 Oops!
Wallpaper
Another good use of the stand-up is to present information for which there is no good cover (video picture). For example, say you have legal papers such as a deposition or a court proceeding where no cameras were allowed. Instead of using a picture of a pile of court documents — known in the business as wallpaper — use your stand-up to say what is important in the paperwork while holding the court documents. In the past, reporters would have to resort to that “wallpaper” — that generic picture: a shot of a bank if you were talking about a business story. It is generic and dull.
Bridges
And another useful stand-up is the bridge. The bridge takes you from one part of the story to another. It bridges two different things . . . it could be geography or time or people.
Let’s say you are covering a hurricane along the Gulf Coast. The storm was aimed at New Orleans but veered to the west, spared Louisiana, but clobbered the Texas coast. You spent time in both states and your reporting addresses the effects on both states. In this example, your bridge is geographical, carrying the viewer from one place to another . . . from Texas to Louisiana. The top of the report told about Texas, the bottom reports on Louisiana and the bridge takes the viewer from one to the other. Something like:
“While Texans here are returning to communities destroyed by the hurricane, residents of neighboring Louisiana are coming back to their homes — homes untouched by the storm.”
Bridges could be temporal, carrying the viewer from one time to another.
“James Joseph is a Nobel Prize winner today, but his teachers remember him as a brat.”
Or a bridge can be communal, taking the story from one person or group to another. This is useful especially when you have two sides to a story: A bridge from Democrats to Republicans . . . from strikers to management . . . from young to old.
Graphics
Another valuable tool for you is graphics. They are getting more sophisticated and jazzier. The best thing about graphics is they help explain a complicated idea simply and, well, graphically. In addi-tion, graphics help cover narration that otherwise might not have any great pictures.
Your pictures should speak to the viewers as much as your copy and your interviews. Never miss an opportunity to dazzle. Graphics will dazzle instead of bore your viewers.
Report from the Trenches
A reporter got word that a doctor’s phones were out and the doctor was beside himself. And well he might have been. He was a gyne-cologist with pregnant patients about to give birth. A phone was crucial. So he alerted the reporter of the problem.
He told the reporter that he had been trying for three days to get the phones back and was getting the run-around from every phone company involved. The doctor had signed up for bundled service that was supposed to save him money and consolidate all his long distance, local and DSL phone services into one. The problem developed when the phone went out. He called the company that sent him the bill — a long distance company. That company said they couldn’t help because it contracted his local service to a dif-ferent company and he would have to call that company. He called that company and a person there said he would have to call another company because the service had been subcontracted. He called that company and was sent back to the original long-distance company
that had bundled all the services. He got the run-around and he got no phone service.
Since none of the phone companies would speak to the reporter on camera, the reporter was left to explain this complex dodge by using wallpaper cover of the company logos or headquarters. Not very exciting video, right?
The graphics department came up with a design that showed three phones each with the various company logos arranged in a circle. The narration said how the doctor was sent from company to company, and the graphic showed an arrow whooshing from one phone to the next and to the next and finally back to the first. It was a classic run-around.
It was a good example of how graphics can help a report.