Lately I’ve been feeling a little “news cursed”. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been assigned to work on several stories that didn’t quite turn out as advertised.
I have to admit, it’s a real bummer to get excited about reporting a story, only to have it fall through. The bummed out feelings are only exacerbated when I have Live Apartment Fire sitting a few feet away, constantly admonishing me to go shoot a story.
But this morning’s assignment really exemplified the circumstances and frustrations that I have been feeling lately.
I should have known from the moment the assignment was made. It was born out of an e-mail from a viewer:
“A high rise office building… has one of those giant inflated gorillas on its roof with a sign on it that says “I’m Barack”… I find this offensive and racist and I think most people would agree with me…are they comparing our President to a gorilla??
Fueled by the desires of our newsroom and the newsrooms of our national affiliates and smelling a story that would bring outrage and conversation to the viewing masses, I set out on my trek to find this inflatable gorilla. It didn’t take me long.
An inflatable gorilla sits atop an office building near Powers Ferry Road.
As I approached the office building, sure enough, there was a large inflatable gorilla, menacingly looking down upon the masses with a frightening message: “I’M BAAACK!”
An inflatable gorilla sits atop an office building near Powers Ferry Road with a sign that says "I'M BAAACK!"
I had to smile to myself. Clearly this would not be a story of bigotry and outrage. Clearly this would not be a story at all. I got a couple of shots of the building and the cartoonish inflatable gorilla, just to cover myself. (A wise Executiver Producer once told me “Never come back to the station with nothing.”) It’ll never air.
I called back to the station. Eager voices awaited my early report. “It says ‘I’m back,’” I told them.
“It’s a bust,” the assignment editor called out to the newsroom. “Come on back, Chris.”
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.
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 →
Latest unemployment numbers out. Not looking food for Metro ATL. Talking to the Labor Commissioner about it. (@ Georgia Department of Labor) [csweigart]
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