Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Adobe Certified Expert exam objective

Given an editing tool, explain the purpose of the editing tool.

Story Creation Tips from NBC-TV's Bob Dotson

Bob Dotson, NBC-TV reporter.

NBC-TV Today Show correspondent Bob Dotson is, I think, the best human-interest feature-story TV reporter.

Although you probably aren't a TV newsperson, you'll likely create human-interest stories. If there's a storyteller out there you should emulate, he's the one. During my TV reporting days I tried to watch all his stories, and when a station I worked for offered me the chance to attend one of his seminars, I jumped at it.

I've reproduced my notes, with his approval, here. I took many things away from his class. Three points stand out:

• Give viewers a reason to remember the story.

• When interviewing people, try not to ask questions. Merely make observations. That loosens people up, letting them reveal their emotional, human side to you.

• Make sure that you get a closing shot. Most video producers look for dramatic opening shots or sequences (and that's still a good thing), but your viewers are more likely to remember the closing shot.

Bob Dotson Storyteller's Checklist

Dotson has prepared his list with TV news reporters in mind, but his tips apply to professional, corporate, and home video producers as well:

• Always remember that the reporter is not the story.

• Decide early on what you want the audience to take away from the storythe commitment. Use that commitment to guide your story creation and use your images to prove that commitment visually.

• Write your pictures first. Give them a strong lead, preferably visual, that instantly telegraphs the story to come.

• The main body of the story should usually be no more than three to five main points, which you prove visually after you've identified them.

• Create a strong close that you can't top, something you build toward throughout the story. Ideally, the ending is also visual.

• Write loose. Be hard on yourself as a writer. Say nothing in the script that your viewers would already know or that the visuals say more eloquently.

• Throughout the story, build your report around sequencestwo or three shots of matched action.

• Allow for moments of silence. Stop writing occasionally and let two or three seconds or more of compelling action occur without voiceover. For a writer, nothing is more difficult to write than silence. For viewers, sometimes nothing is more eloquent.

• Use strong natural sound to heighten realism, authenticity, believability and to heighten the viewer's sense of vicarious participation in the events you're showing. Some reports merely enable you to watch what happened. The best reports make it possible for you to experience what happened.

• Tell your story through people. People sell your story. Try to find strong central characters engaged in compelling action that is visual or picturesque.

• Build in surprises to sustain viewer involvement. Surprises help viewers feel something about the story; surprises lure uninterested viewers to the screen. Surprises can be visual, wild sounds, short bites, or poetic script. Surprises are little moments of drama.

• Short sound bites prove the story you are showing. Don't use sound bites as substitutes for more effective storytelling.

• Address the larger issue. "A trailer home burned down." Such a story fails to meet the "so what?" test. "The trailer home burned down because the walls are full of flammable insulation" describes the larger issue and meets the "so what?" test.

• Finally, make your story memorable. Can your viewers feel something about the story and its subjects? If feeling is present, the story will be memorable. It will stick in the viewer's minds.