{Learning in Progress}

Time to share two stories I made last semester.

I'm excited about both of them! But...

Here's my disclaimer: My standups are pretty rough. :)

(That's the time when I'm on camera.) I'm not looking for

reassurance. I just don't want you to think that I think they're

good. I've now done a total of five standups -- all of which are

from last semester -- and they're all way, way too long.

But I figured I'd show you where I was last semester, in all

my amateur glory, so when I do much better stand ups in the

coming months, you'll be able to see progress. :)

Otherwise, I really hope you enjoy the stories themselves!

***********

Story 1 -- Stand up = Too long. Forgot what I was saying half

way through. The background didn't enhance the story, and I

look terrified. Lame-o. But the rest of the story is solid, I think.

I had some good sequencing and a strong central character that

made the piece work.

Story 2 -- Brace yourselves. For this one, we were required to

appear three times. We had to open and close the piece as if

we were live on location. Plus, we had to do a stand up in the

middle of the story. It was purely for practice. In the real world,

you don't show your face this many times in a two minutes story.

Not unless your Diane Sawyer. Either way, I still spoke for too

long every time I was on camera, but at least I felt much more

comfortable doing it!

Here's what I now know about stand ups:

- They should be 2, maybe 3, sentences long. That's it.

- Movement should be motivated. So, if you're going to

walk and talk, you should walk to something that you

want to show the viewer.

- It's good when they reveal something (visuals, facts or

conflict in the story) that are difficult to demonstrate with

video.

- They should inform and educate the viewer by adding to

the story -- not just be a way to get the reporter on air.

- The best ones act as a bridge or transition in the story.

- Multi-part stand ups are more interesting to watch. (Where

you say your couple of sentences but do so using more than

one shot.)