Just For TV Teachers

Time to take advantage of much caffeine “inspiration” to list my New (School) Year’s Resolutions. Here we go:

*I will lose 140 pounds. How? By kicking a kid out of class for losing or breaking equipment. One less body to deal with. Instant “weight loss.” Hey, it could happen. Not the losing or breaking–that WILL happen. But the kicking out. That could happen.

*I will make CQI work in my rather non-traditional classes. What is CQI? It’s “Continuous Quality Improvement.” Evidently, it’s something our district is adopting from the business world. While I do not support the idea that the students are our customers–I prefer to call them, well, our students–it’s something I’ll try with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. We old dogs love learning new tricks, you know.

*I will do a better job teaching my advanced kids some advanced stuff. They deserve more challenges than just producing a good magazine show. Time to put more on their plate.

*I will make sure we continue our ongoing efforts to converge on the Internet, using our website to produce more content, and different content, than we provide on our broadcasts.

*I will figure out a way to rearrange my room so it makes more sense. We are grateful for the new equipment we are receiving in about a month as part of our new curriculum adoption cycle. Now we have to figure out where to put the new toys. A nice problem to have, finally, after doing this for 18 years on fundraisers and the occasional grant.

*I will re-visit these resolutions regularly, to see just how well I’ve stuck to them. I may or may not share my success or failure on this blog. You’ll just have to check back here around January to see for yourself.

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Television is a visual medium, but audio must come first in the edit bay.

We teach kids to put their stories together, they should edit their audio first, on the timeline, so the story makes complete sense. I was reminded once again about the importance of this approach at “Camp STN” in Chicago the past four days. The teachers there who were contructing their own stories understood it at last when they saw how easy it made their lives.

Kids and adults who are not experienced at editing stories will always start putting their best video clips onto the timeline. It’s natural in a visual medium to fall in love that really cool low angle rack focus shot that looks like something from an NPPA highlight reel. Too bad it comes last in the editing process.

Simply put, start the edit of your story by assembling your voiceovers (narration) and soundbites in the order they will run in the final piece. If you haven’t figured that out, stop editing and write the story from beginning to end. Quit worrying about video. Concentrate totally on the words we will hear from the reporter and the interview subjects.

Put the reporter’s voice track and the soundbites on the timeline, close your eyes, and LISTEN to the playback of the entire story. If it makes sense, hits the right notes, has the impact you intended, you’re ready to add video. Then let someone else listen to it and make sure it makes sense to them as well.

This will save you HOURS of wasted time. If you edit in reverse, putting the pretty pictures on the timeline, then searching for soundbites that justify the video, you are cheating the people you are covering, and the topic you are addressing.

In the end, you will be cheating your viewers, producing the classic “Looks Great, Less Filling” story.

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