Story Telling Tips

Story Concept Selection

Come up with story ideas that are visual and compelling. Television relies upon visual images to help tell the story, especially in sports.
Be realistic with your time and availability. Sometimes stories take longer to develop than you might expect. Typically it takes 10 to 20 hours-start to finish to complete a 3 to 5 minute video package. Be sure to select someone that can work within your class & work schedule.
Pick the right person to profile. Be sure to select a sports scholar that is a good role model, who is easily accessible and willing to help work with your schedule on this project. This person should have at least a 3.0 GPA and no discipline referrals. In addition, the reporter should look include that student’s career objectives and favor their participation in the district’s Center of Excellence/ Career Education initiative.
Narrow your focus. Telling someone’s life story in 3 to 5 minutes is a difficult task; find out the most interesting, compelling and inspiring elements to include in your story.

Story Production

Do your research! Make sure you are familiar with the sport and team your sports scholar participates. The more you know about the subject, the better your story will be.
Outline your questions and organize your interview in a logical progression. Don’t jump around. Be a good listener and be on the lookout for insightful follow-up questions. Ask open ended questions using words like –describe-explain-recall.
Schedule your b-roll video taping after your interview to make sure that you have video of what your subject talks about. Example: if a specific pre-game ritual is important to your athlete, you’ll want to include video of it in your package.

Writing & Editing

Before you edit, transcribe your interview, select the most interesting and emotional sound bites and write transitions between them.
Make sure you write to your video.
Use the natural sounds from your video to allow your story to breathe and take the viewer there.
Use copyrighted recorded music sparingly and be sure to document all music used in a story.
Every story has “little gold coins” special moments in the interview, compelling video or merely things that make you smile while watching the story. Don’t edit them out of your story.

Final Edit

Be sure to leave two seconds of video at the beginning and end of the segment for pad.
Make sure your voice over (VO) is clear and conversational.
VO/SOT-(sound on tape) should be edited on track 1/ natural sound (Nat. Sound) on track 2
Make sure that music & nat. sound does not compete with your VO or SOT.