By Joanne Stevens, Stevens Media Consulting, LTD

Hello. I hope you've all been well.  I'm back, with the urge to discuss stand-ups. More and more I feel I'm being distracted by reporter stand-ups rather than being further edified about the story.

Gratuitous movement: most news directors prefer to see you moving or doing something in your standup.  After all, it's video.  But walking down a supermarket aisle (hmm.. is that the soup aisle? Oh no, I think I see canned meats) for no reason only serves to make you look histrionic and to distract me.  If you think I'll believe that you happened to stop exactly at the boxed pasta, a fabulous coincidence so that you could reach for it, (almost without looking! Wow!) and use it as a crutch... Naah. Too cheesy. 

Or last night I watched a story about free eye surgeries for lucky people.  The reporter suddenly appeared from around a corner in a hospital hallway wearing scrubs with a facemask dangling around his neck.  I'd learned nothing about what the eye surgeries entailed other than better vision.  I only saw b-roll of what looked like surgeons in an OR.  But here was the reporter decked out like the doctor he perhaps always wanted to be.  There was nothing in the package that led us to believe he'd been in the OR, nor did he refer to his outfit.  Perhaps it was a germ-related requirement on that floor?  I honestly don't think so.  It came across as a 'look ma! I'm a doctor'.  It also didn’t help that it was two days before Halloween.

I feel the urge to remind you that it's not about you.  It's about the story, and those who are part of it or affected by it.  Walking can, in fact, work for you.  For example, walking to bring us along  [a particular area] so we can appreciate the story even more.  "The entire length of this curb is.."… or  "each of these 5 houses.." or  "walking on this particular block can be dangerous because of [these tree roots/this dim lighting/the proximity to traffic to my left.. etc.] " 

If there's something interesting or cogent that can be explained better by what you do (ie - movement)  that's ideal.  'Watch how this fabric ignites'.. or 'look at the residue on my fingers when I touch this wall'.. or 'listen to the engine on this bus.' 

A client once returned to the site of a tree that had toppled, killing several young girls in a schoolbus.  She did her own shooting.  She positioned her camera on sticks and shot herself kneeling by the spot where the tree had been.  She scooped some soil and showed us how dry and sandy it was as it ran through her fingers. She did this while telling us about the investigation to determine whether the soil in the area was too sandy to have sustained that particular species of tree.

Some of you may enjoy the 'drama' of the standup and choose to milk it a bit.  Not my first choice, but this is merely my opinion.  I watched a reporter step out from smoke left by the fire that decimated an area in Texas.  He too had a medical mask dangling around his neck.  It was his choice to suddenly appear.  My concern was that he didn’t refer to the smoke, nor to the tainted air nor to the burnt vegetation we saw around him.  Yes, he referred to the fire (no facts or statistics) but like the reporter in the food aisle and the reporter magically showing up in the hospital corridor, there was no reference to what we were looking at, or to what the reporter was experiencing (eg. 'the smoke here in __ is still so thick that doctors say…'.. or '24 hours ago these burnt and singed bushes were… ' )    

You are not in a contest to bring back the most clever or viral standup.  Ideally you can show us something interesting in your standup, or you may 'just stand there' and explain where you are and why it's significant. You are on camera to communicate with us personally, not to assume the Shakespearean role of  'I'm on TV and you're not'.  We all have different personalities.  If five of us covered the same story the packages would not look the same. 

But we can also learn from Shakespeare: 'To thine own self be true.'  Trust yourself and trust your journalism to carry you to your best standup decision. 

POST A COMMENT

Thank You

Yes thank you, can we add to this that we are journalists; story-tellers. The story should be the most important, if you wanted to be an actor go for your dreams and try a soap but the least important part of the story is you, the most important is your writing of it

Wildfires

My biggest pet peeve is watching tv reporters wearing fire protective clothing while 10 miles from the fire. I once asked a reporter why she was wearing the bright yellow coat having never been near the flames...she replied, because it looks cool on air.