Lead law story

Before I went to Jefferson City to do the interview last Friday, I thought it would be a good story. A new lead law was enacted last week to ban children's products containing lead. However, it affects a lot of motor dealers in a bad way. I found some conflicts in it and also found a central compelling character. I thought the pkg would be easy to finish.

But, after I arrived at the Larry's Motor Sports, I realized there was a big problem: no action in the story. The story is about a law, a ban of sale and kid-size vehicles, none of them containing movement. The worse thing is my CCC, the general manager of the dealership, just stood in the store chatting with customers without any movement. I really don't want my piece full of static pictures just like wallpaper, but the whole store is so quiet and tranquil.

Although the manager is extremely nice, I don't think it is ethically acceptable for me to stage him. So I spent a lot of time hanging around in the big showroom and waiting. Luckily enough, a father brought his son to the dealership. I did the interview with the father, who is very proud of his riding family. He said their whole family had ridden to a lot of states so far, such as Colorado and Illinois. And then he offered to let me shoot his son riding. I was so grateful to him and started shooting.

Another problem popped up: I had no idea where the little boy was going so couldn't catch him! I wish I could ask Scott about how to shoot this kind of situation beforehand! So there is only one sequence shot in the final pkg, which looks not so inviting. It just proves to me how important sequence shots are.

Since the visuals are not great, I want to make the script better. Sometimes, I don't know how to express my meaning in a conversational manner. So I googled the topic and found some similar stories covered by reporters from everywhere. I read them loudly and try to find some better ways to put words.

Below are some examples.

"A new law is putting the brakes on youth dirt bikes and ATV’s. "

"A new federal ban on ATVs and dirt bikes for children under 13 is putting a dent in local businesses. "

"Until they get the OK to sell them again, dealerships in the F-M are either keeping their youth bikes on display or are wiping them off the floor completely."

"He said if the new law isn't reworked, then an entire sector of his business could fall flat."

I am so eager to improve my writing. Is there an efficient way to learn?

Tragedies: plane crash and unwanted horses

The biggest tragedy in the past week is definetely the plane crash. At the moment when the Continental Airlines plane hit a residential house near Buffalo, New York, late Thursday, I can only imagine the catastrophe vaguely. Althrough from tons of feed news that I received, I was pretty clear about the 5 W of the tragedy. The infomation was more like a statistics to me: all 49 people aboard were dead, a person in the home were killed. So abstract.
Right away, I opened a new tab to visit NBC Nighly News out of a habit.There were already some clips about the event. I was amazed by the speed of the reporters there. It was shortly after the crash, but the reporters have already found some families of victims. I even don't know how they could make that. I opened one clip of an interview with a man whose younger sister was on the plane. After watching the video, I was totally stunned by the power of a good soundbite and the magic of asking questions.
The brother was very very sad at that moment. He told the reporters he was on his way to the airport to pick his sister up when he heard about the crash.
"What has been through your mind the last minutes?"
"I am just think about my mother. They are on vacation in Florida.I have to call my father down there to tell them what's going on."
"How was she taking it?"
"Um...to tell you the truth, I heard my mom making some noises that I've never heard before."
The details the young man revealed can easily strike viewers down. It is so imaginable, sorrowful and impressed. A good soundbite can make people cry.
In the reading, Shook says soundbites can be categorized into two kinds: informational and emotional. That is why I am so fond of the soundbite I used in my second package. It is from Dr. Haden, MFA vice president of livestock operations. He said, “This is a real problem and if you've ever watched one starve, it's not a good picture. It's one of the saddest things you can see."
This is another sad story in this week. Some horses are abandoned in the street, starving to death. The reason for this bad situation is really complicated. I did have difficulty squeezing so much information into a 1:30 piece. The first version of my script is about 2:20 long. The trick is I have to chop off a lot of words without diminishing preciseness. That is not easy. Now I can understand why someone wrote this at the beginning of a long letter, "I am sorry I don't have time to write a short letter."

Will the Times print edition be dead in May?

The most impressive thing I learnt at KOMU last Friday is from the producer Jason Bent. He told me he made it a habit to watch news programs in bigger market and learn how those reporters tell a story. He also gave me the name of his idol: Tom Costello, an NBC Nightly News reporter. His work is not only with high-quality, but also with consistency of quality. It reminds me something I read in Shook’s book: There is no bad story, only bad reporters. Back in China, when I started to learn journalism as a sophomore, I was told to tell good stories. But how? It is a question that I haven’t figured out yet. I don’t believe there is a certain template that fits all kinds of stories. So currently, there are two things I can do: 1. practice; 2, read more and watch more.

On last week’s Time Magazine, there is one article discussing newspaper industry: How to save your newspaper.

It says, “It is now possible to contemplate a time when some major cities will no longer have a newspaper and when magazines and network-news operations will employ no more than a handful of reporters.”

Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in last October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. The paper’s future doesn’t look good. What is worse, the Atlantic even predicts the Times print edition will be dead this May.

NYT, the newspaper I read on a regular basis will disappear? I even don’t want to accept the possibility. I would feel heartbroken if it comes true. But giving a second thought, I find I read the print version less and less. As is often the case, I read the news stories on my laptop. For readers all over the country, why don’t they choose the free media instead of the traditional paper?

Most likely, The Times will move to internet-only distribution. Although, The Web site, nytimes.com, has already have a 20 million users for the month of last October, making it the fifth-ranked news site on the Internet.

Then what about the traditional TV media? What is their future? If I will be a TV reporter in 2 years, what kind of industry change I am going to go through? In Missouri School of Journalism, “convergence” is more and more popular. Our Broadcast 2 class requires us to write a web-version of every story we cover. Those all seem like dangerous signs that we are going to experience some jolt and pain.

My first Package is about the overpass on the Providence Road in Columbia. Its fact is pretty simple: the city of Columbia is going to redo the overpass. It is not a “hard” story apparently, but I like it because in the process of shooting the story, I found some new facts and met Robert King, the disabled man living in that area. He was very nice to tell me his feelings, thoughts and suggestions. Also, he showed me how dangerous it is to go across the busy street. You can tell it is really dangerous from the “WOW” uttered by the viewers of this B-roll. Without the chance of covering this story, never will I notice there is no handicapped accessory on the overpass, nor will I realize what kind of inconvenience the old bridge brings to disabled people.