Month: October 2015

Class 5 – Monday, October 26

You’re not going to believe this.

Our next class is on Monday, November 2nd and it is our last class together. Midway through class you’ll be moving from audio to video until the end of the semester. So sad!

But if you love radio, theres’s a 15-week class in the spring semester called Radio News Writing & Reporting. It’s also the pre-req for the podcast class – a class for people who want to make a weekly show. And there’s also more to learn and listen to here.

Assignments due next class (Nov 2) –

  • Write and record a short feature using your work interview.  You should have already picked your favorite tape. You’ve written a script. Now record yourself reading the story and edit it together in ProTools. You should use at least 3 AX, and the story needs to be a good balance between tape and script.
  • Next class you should hand in a WAV file of your story onto Network Share. It needs to be between 2 min – 3 min. No shorter, no longer. You should also hand in a script (here’s an example). ** You can have a host intro or not, your choice **
  • Please read “Common Newswriting Errors” – I’ll email it to you.

 

Story Example

Jake Becker

September 30, 2013

Joel Seidemann, Assistant District Attorney Script

LISTEN TO THE STORY HERE

JAKE BECKER: Trial lawyer Joel Seidemann broke out of law school with a high-paying job at a big-time New York firm, but the corporate world quickly tired him out. Leaving his post at Shearman & Sterling for the Manhattan district attorney’s office meant taking a major pay cut, but 31 years later, he doesn’t feel any regret.

JOEL SEIDEMANN (0:12): The difference between the big firm and the DA’s office was the big firm was all perks, horrible work, horrible people, and the DA’s office was no perks, wonderful work, wonderful people.

JAKE BECKER: Wonderful, but many. Office space in the DA’s office is rather tight. Lawyers’ desks replace those that would otherwise belong to receptionists, and attorneys share facilities with those less keen on the law.

JOEL SEIDEMANN (0:15): In the DA’s office, you’re in an alcove, a little 6×6 entry room to a senior person’s office. The toilets are used by defendants. The toilets are used by witnesses who are semi-criminals, they’re always filthy.

JAKE BECKER: I spoke to Seidemann at his clean, comfortable home in Westchester County. He lit up the rom with his Sunday afternoon outfit: blue jeans and a bright orange Syracuse T-shirt, showing support for his hometown and his daughter’s current university. The work can be especially stressful when handling high profile cases, such as the 2009 trial against the son of deceased New York City grand dame Brooke Astor, which Seidemann won as lead prosecutor. Though he often has to work with convicts, he enjoys finding humor wherever he can.

SEIDEMANN (0:16): My witnesses have criminal records, I mean I put murderers on the stand. I remember one guy had murdered somebody, he was cooperating with us and was testifying and he’s sitting in my office smoking a cigarette, and his mother said, “Bernard, don’t smoke!” And he said, “Ma, get a grip, I’m doing 25 to life.” [laughs]

JAKE BECKER: To help compensate for the lower state attorney salary, Seidemann, who turns 60 next year, has for the last 18 years taught a trial advocacy course at Pace University. He finds that the best way to teach students how to build a case and work a courtroom is by using his everyday skills: discussion and debate.

SEIDEMANN (0:04): It helps keep your skills sharp. It’s the most transferrable.

JAKE BECKER: Though supporting a wife and 2 children on a DA’s salary has proven to be difficult, he continues to provide through his knowledge and love of the law.

In Manhattan, I’m Jake Becker.

Class 4 – Monday, October 19

Congrats on two successful newscasts, everyone! We’ll listen to the shows in class next week.

For next week’s class, please do the following:

  • DO THIS FIRST: read and listen to the clips in the Nancy Updike manifesto (Pt 1 and Pt 2) on Transom.
  • NOW DO THIS: Write your story. Thank you for your audio clips from your work interview. Now write a short feature using your work interview.  You should have already picked your favorite tape. Next step is to write a story using some of that tape. You should use at least 3 cuts, but the story needs to be a good balance between tape and script.
  • Next class you should hand in just a SCRIPT of your story. Your script should be an EXACT transcription of your story and all of your cuts should be transcribed. Read it aloud – it needs to be between 1:30 and 2 min.
  • Here’s an EXAMPLE from a student from two years ago.

** DO NOT LEAVE THIS ASSIGNMENT TO THE LAST MINUTE! It sounds straightforward, but is more time consuming than you think. Get your script done first and make sure you leave a few days to get the mix together too. **

Class 3 – Monday, Oct. 5

NOTE: There’s no class on Monday, Oct 12th.

Assignments due on Monday, October 19th, 2015:

  • Complete a one-on-one interview. Find someone you don’t already know and interview them about their work. Try to find some compelling and surprising stories and details about their job. The interview should last between least 15-25 minutes. Be sure to ask lots of questions including: what does the future hold for their job? We will use their responses for a short news story. You do not need to hand in the whole interview.
  • Pull 5 or 6 cuts from your interview that you really like. Each cut should be between 10-30 second. Put the cuts up on the Network Share (the folder is called “Jobs”)
  • FOR THE NEWSCAST ON OCT. 19TH: Come to class with three ideas for news we should cover in our newscast. It can be big or small, and at least one idea should be about something happening in NYC that evening.
  • Bring your charged cellphone to the class and your dinner

What we listened to in-class:

Tips for Interviewing

  • Prepare your questions
  • Write a lot, weed out the ones that don’t matter
  • Put them in order
  • Make sure you have the ones you need near the top
  • Put the truly difficult ones at the end
  • Arrive a bit early, dress appropriately, bring extra batteries
  • Tell them the rules of the game: how long you’ll record, how much you’ll use, feel free to say whatever you want, you can also say something again
  • Ask them their name, their title, a short title, how to pronounce and spell their name
  • Make sure you listen
  • Ask them to explain, ask them again
  • Ask the questions that the listener are thinking
  • Don’t let them hold the mic! Ever!
  • Feel free to steer subject back to the subject that matters
  • Try to maintain eye contact, don’t go “uh huh”
  • Bring paper & pen – write down Qs that come up
  • Look at your questions, anything you missed? Anything you should ask again?
  • Anything I should have asked?
  • Room tone / ambi – at least 30 seconds – if it’s a noisy room get a minute of ambi

Good luck!