When committing acts of television (hat-tip to Live Apartment Fire for that one) it is necessary to have to proper b-roll to tell a story. For the uninitiated, b-roll is the video you see during a news story while you hear an anchor or reporter’s voice.
“B-roll” is apparently an “old film term” which I am too young to understand, and you probably don’t care about the details anyway.
Here’s what’s interesting: Sometimes reporters will find themselves assigned to cover a story that is “weak on video”. Usually that means the story is about an event that was not visually capture, or a story about an issue. These are often referred to as a “great story for newspapers”.
Apparently, an Asian media mogul has developed a way to fudge that b-roll by making news reports look like video games. As this report from CNN shows, his company creates animations to depict the news.
I’m what you might call a “casual sports fan”. I enjoy sports. I like to watch them. But, I’m not well-versed on the ins-and-outs of on (and off)-the field strategies and history.
But, I have a lot of friends who you might call “die-hard” sports fans. They’re involved in endless “fantasy” sports leagues and such. It’s not my thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
It with those folks in mind, that I refer you to my Brother-in-law’s brother (would he be my Brother-in-law, too?). He’s quite the sports guy. Some might call him a “walking sports almanac”. A sports history savant.
A.J. writes his own blog, dubbed A.J.’s Old School Sports Blog. Today’s post is particularly interesting for the NFL fans out there for he has compiled not the top 5, top 10 or even top 25, but the 50 Greatest Moments in NFL Playoff History, including perspective on each ranking moment. Read and discuss.
David Letterman, always known as quite the Luddite when it comes to embracing new technology, finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon last night. Of course, he brought his usual wit to the segment (watch it below).
One of my favorite people to follow on Twitter isn’t actually a person at all. In fact, @Roland_Hedley is the fictional globe-trotting Fox News reporter @Roland_Hedley popularized Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau.
I am, without a doubt, a huge fan of CBS’ 60 Minutes. Week in and week out, the reporters and producers of the show open my mind to new thoughts, ideas and stories that I may never have considered or previously been interested in.
This past Sunday, 60 Minutes profiled Tyler Perry, an Atlanta media mogul who making a name for himself, by bucking the trend.
Ironically, his success has upset much of the Hollywood establishment, and Perry has drawn a lot of criticism, especially when it comes to race.
In his closing moments of his profile on 60 Minutes, Perry responded to those criticisms, especially those from Spike Lee, in this thought provoking commentary.
Two videos on the internet caught my attention today.
First the saga of “balloon/cardboard box boy” continues with the discovery of two theme songs Richard Heene. Apparently he fancies himself starring in either a “Psyience Detective” show, or a reality contractor show. He went so far as to produce theme songs for each show:
Then, for you Real Housewives of Atlanta fans, there’s this video from FunnyorDie.com. Enjoy.
I had the great pleasure this week of working with one of 11Alive’s brilliant photojournalists, Dan Reilly.
There are several reasons I enjoy working with a photojournalist from time to time. One, it’s great to have a fantastic shooter to make a story come alive. And two, it’s great to have somebody to talk to while you’re driving around town.
Dan has been around the 11Alive newsroom for quite some time. He’s a great guy and always willing to share a story or two about the characters of years past.
This week, we were discussing one of the icons of 11Alive, photographer Bruce Mason.
Bruce is known in media circles as one of first people to tie a rope around his waist and hang out of the side of a helicopter to capture aerial news footage. This was a time before robotic cameras were mounted on the bottom of the chopper and gyroscopically stabilized.
This week, Dan told me the story of how Bruce was quite a celebrity in Japan in the mid-90s.
As one of the few people in the world crazy enough to hang out of the side of helicopter flying hundreds of feet above Atlanta, in 1995 Bruce was featured as the answer to a trivia question on a Japanese television game show, “Show By Shobai”.
Bruce was kind enough to share video of the game show with me. I have no idea what is going on here. But it is quite entertaining.
There is a bit of discussion today about a recent ruling by the Federal Trade Commission efforts to regulate blogging.
The FTC is seeking to require bloggers to disclose any handouts, freebies, affiliations or paid product reviews in order to protect consumers who might otherwise be misled.
FTC: Bloggers, Testimonials Need Better Disclosure
“The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could result in various sanctions including a lawsuit.”
“The FTC’s proposal made many bloggers anxious. They said the scrutiny would make them nervous about posting even innocent comments.”
“To placate such fears, [Rich] Cleland [assistant director of the FTC's advertising practices division] noted that the FTC’s enforcement priorities make it more likely an advertiser would be targeted for disclosure or testimonial violations than a blogger. The exception would be a blogger who runs a ’substantial’ operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said.”
I think it will be interesting to watch how all of this shakes out. I’m unsure how the FTC will define a “substantial” blogging operation, or how it intends to enforce these guidelines. I’m not the only one who is confused.
The web has traditionally been embraced as one of the few places in this world that is almost completely unregulated. That lack of oversight on content has allowed new ideas about politics, business and commerce to emerge, be discussed and modified and perfected. While there is some garbage out there, I start to get nervous when I hear about a governing body’s attempts to filter and control that content.
“I do know a number of non-wine bloggers that do a ton of pay for play and don’t disclose that to their readers. I have an issue with that, but one that I want no part in attempting to regulate.”
“The positive we fail to see is that by only regulating the online/blogosphere piece, we instantly make blogging more credible than traditional media. Bloggers receive 1/100th of the freebies, trips, dinners, samples, jet boat rides, cougar hunts, and Spice Girls tickets than traditional media.”
“Disclosure for us is easy. Disclosure for legacy media is not easy or pretty and comes with a much higher cost.”
A couple of weeks ago I did a story about a grassroots effort that was forming on Twitter to help organize volunteers and flood relief efforts. Shortly after the floods, a website called HopeATL.com (Twitter @HopeATL) was launched and the donations of goods, time and money began pouring in.
The man behind all of that is Shaun King (Twitter @ShaunKing). While many in Atlanta have returned to their normal lives, the people who lost everything to the flood are still dealing with their lives upside down and King is right there next to them, doing everything he can do to help out. He says he doesn’t want the aftermath of the Atlanta Floods to be anything like those of Katrina.
The folks at HopeATL.com are still looking for support. Check them out online to see how you can get involved. In the meantime, they have produced this video to highlight their efforts so far. It is a nicely shot and edited piece. I’d even go so far as to say it is “broadcast quality”.
Chris Sweigart is the Director of Social Media and a Multimedia Journalist at 11Alive News (WXIA-TV) in Atlanta, Georgia. During his career at 11Alive, Sweigart has also served as a Web Producer for 11Alive.com.
Sweigart began his journalism career at WRBL-TV in Columbus, Georgia. As a reporter for WRBL-TV, his work knew no borders. [...]more →
Don’t Got That B-Roll?
When committing acts of television (hat-tip to Live Apartment Fire for that one) it is necessary to have to proper b-roll to tell a story. For the uninitiated, b-roll is the video you see during a news story while you hear an anchor or reporter’s voice.
“B-roll” is apparently an “old film term” which I am too young to understand, and you probably don’t care about the details anyway.
Here’s what’s interesting: Sometimes reporters will find themselves assigned to cover a story that is “weak on video”. Usually that means the story is about an event that was not visually capture, or a story about an issue. These are often referred to as a “great story for newspapers”.
Apparently, an Asian media mogul has developed a way to fudge that b-roll by making news reports look like video games. As this report from CNN shows, his company creates animations to depict the news.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to call these guys?
Posted in Commentary, Television.
Tagged with Animation, B-Roll, News.
1 comment
By Chris Sweigart – February 1, 2010