News at Eleven:
Shooting TV News
by Ivan Snopek
Editor's Notes:
EMS = Emergency Medical Services
MVA = Moving Vehicle Accident
CPR = Cardio-Pulmonary Resusitation
WHAT THE NEWS PRODUCERS WANT
BIG CITY
1 Big disasters
2 Terrorism acts /Hate crimes
3 Famous people getting into trouble or accidents
4 Many members of a family involved in something bad
5 Children shot or murdered
(crimes against children or crimes committed by children)
6 Police brutality
7 Police shootings (police shot or police shoot)
8 Anything that affects a big part of the population
9 Unusual rare things (huge fires odd rescues etc.
10 Children or animal rescues
MID SIZE CITY or SMALLER COMMUNITY
1 All of the above
2 Homicides
3 Shootings
4 Fatal car accidents
5 Crimes against seniors
6 Structure fires
7 Rescues
8 High speed police chases
9 Accidental deaths
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME ON
1 Suicides
2 Natural deaths /Overdoses
3 Routine traffic accidents
4 Small fires
5 Medical emergencies
IS THIS FOR YOU?
As you can see this is a cold blooded business. Unfortunately you have
to provide the producers with video of violence, death and tragedy. If that is not
enough, you also have to concentrate your shots on the
pain of the people affected. You will be seeing the worst of our society
on a daily bases and you will be lose to the sights, sounds and
smells of death.
THE GOOD PART
If you can put up with the above, you will receive a pay off. For example I covered a fatal hit & run accident of a young man.
This is normally not a big deal in the news business (dime a dozen). Anyway it was a slow news day and I submitted my footage to the most watched news station in the region. For some reason they did a two minute story on
it for three days. This kind of footage usually gets fifteen seconds and it's buried in one broadcast only and that is if you are lucky. Because the media turned this story into such a frenzy, every cop in the city was looking for the suspect and lots of news viewer tips were coming in. BINGO they caught the guy. You do not know what a good feeling you get knowing that you helped bring this guy
to justice.
HOW MUCH WILL THEY PAY ME?
First of all don't commit any crimes, if you start showing up at crime
scenes the police will get to know you. Second don't stalk anyone, it is
against the law. If you do commit a crime or stalk someone you will be
paid a jail sentence and a heavy fine.
NO, REALLY HOW MUCH DO THEY PAY?
It depends on what you get, how early you get it, who else shot
it, what else happened that day and want kind
of a mood the news producer is in. If you get a plane crash and you are
the only one with early shots (plane burning, rescuers pulling out victims),
go for a four figure amount. If someone shoots a cop and you are the only
one with shots of the cop before EMS takes him away, go for a three figure
amount. If you shoot a single fatal MVA, be happy if they offer you $75.
If you shoot someone famous in trouble, go for a five to six figure amount.
How much they pay all depends.
WHAT CAN I EXPECT MY AVERAGE MONTHLY
INCOME TO BE?
Maybe $75 or Maybe $7.500. Really it depends on how much time you put
in, how many people are working in your area, luck and how hungry the news
producers are
IS IT DANGEROUS?
Yes, it can be You will be working in crime invested areas or near
structure fires with live wires down and a real possibility of an explosion
or at a dark rainy hiway near a fatal Motor Vehicle Accident. CAUTION NEVER GO TO A CRIME
SCENE BEFORE THE POLICE ARRIVE AND ALWAYS LEAVE BEFORE THE POLICE LEAVE.
Buy a bullet proof vest because you will be in the worst areas in the middle of the night shooting bad guys.
POLICE SCANNERS
Buy scanners that pick up the police, EMS, fire, Coast Guard, air traffic
and mountain rescue frequencies. Get to know the codes for shots fired,
officer down, DOA and so on.
BEST TIME TO WORK
Night time. The reason for this is that most news gathering TV employees
don't work at night. Also a lot of crimes happen at night and the roads
are not busy so you get many high speed fatal accidents and structure fires
that don't get noticed until they become really big because people are
sleeping. But choose say a five square mile area that you can scan at anytime
because if something big happens you will get the earliest shots and a
sale.
WHAT DO I DO WHEN I GET TO THE SCENE?
Never block in any emergency vehicles and always leave enough room
for them to come and go. You might show up early at a one alarm structure
fire thinking you left enough room but the fire might quickly turn into
three alarms and they might discover three trapped people. That's a lot
of extra fire trucks and EMS units that will need priority space. Always
respect crime scene tape. Never cross it. If you arrive at a crime scene
before the police had a chance to put up crime tape, never trample all over
the scene you might ruin their chance of recovering evidence by contaminating it. Never get in the way of emergency workers. You might prevent them from saving a life.
HOW DO I SHOOT THE SCENE?
Always look for emotions. That's what makes the story. Shoot things
that won't last. Say you arrive at a huge structure fire. You see 1. Big
flames coming out of the windows. 2 A middle aged woman in a bath robe
shivering. and 3. EMS giving CPR to an infant. Always shoot the infant first
This shot will become the whole structure of the news clip. You might only
get five seconds for this dramatic shot before EMS takes the baby away.
If you can frame a close up of the baby with flames in the background, do
it but don't waste time looking for the most dramatic frame. Tme is
precious. Take any shot you can of the infant. Next look for good frame ups of the fireman putting out the flames.
Don't just shoot the flames. The drama is the firefighters risking
their lives. Look for the firefighter most at risk e.g. up on the roof.
Next shoot the middle aged woman in the robe. Ask her nicely for an interview.
HOW DO I SET UP MY INTERVIEWS?
Try to interview the victim's relatives or friends.If that is not possible, get the people that were on the scene the earliest.
Set them up so you have some action in the background if possible. Try
not
to shoot near very loud noise. Warn them before blinding them with your
video light. Always use an external mic. Don't do an interview with your built- in camera mic because these mics are usually omni directional and will not do a good job on an interview. Use an external uni-directional mic like a hand mic, shotgun or lavaliere. Next look for a police supervisor, head of EMS and a fire investigator and try to get some sound bytes.
WHAT DO I ASK IN MY INTERVIEWS?
Civilians
First get them to spell their names on tape so the news editor can
pass it on to the graphics department. Ask them what relation they are
to the victim if any, what they seen, what they were doing in the area,
has this happened before, are they afraid it may happen again. Let them
talk. The news editor will cut this down.
Emergency officials
First get them to spell their name and give you their rank on tape.
Ask them what happened, how many dead, how many injured, how serious, what
caused it to happen, how many suspects in custody, how many outstanding,
any description, could this have been avoided, how, get as much info as you
can from the officials.
WHEN DO I NOTIFY THE PRODUCER ABOUT
MY FOOTAGE?
As soon as you shoot the footage, remember you are shooting for a news
broadcast and not the history channel. If there is one thing the news producers hate, it's old news
WHAT DO I TELL THE PRODUCER?
Tell them exactly what you shot and the truth only. Don't exaggerate,
these people are in the news business. They will know. If you
lie to them they will blackball you from the business.
Ivan Snopek
has been in the broadcast business since 1981. He produces and shoots video for reality based shows, as well as spot news for the network affiliates.
He is located in Vancouver, Canada and does business through out the world. For more information see his web site,
You may reach him
via Email
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