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michael's blog

The Importance of Characters

Posted on January 26th, 2012 Written on michael's blog

Do you like this?

Today I am going to show you two versions of the same story.

One was shot and produced by ITV, the commercial television network in the UK. The other was shot and produced by one of our graduates who is also a reporter for The BBC. Both aired.

Although they cover the same story, they have a basic difference.

One is 'information-driven', the kind of local news story you see on TV all the time.

The other, even though it covers exactly the same story in the same place at the same time, is character driven. It has the two key elements to success: A chacter and an arc of story.

Watch both.

Tell me which one you like better.

Tags : Videojournalism , Storytelling , ITV , Hawtonville , Crusaders , Characters , Rob , Glass , BBC

Category : storytelling

5 comment(s)

changing19
12:55 pm Saturday
Jan 28, 2012

I watched the first all the way through.. and stopped the second after 1:24. Which is the better of the two I think depends on who we've established as the audience. News? 1. Documentary piece as a part of a larger story? I think 2. Agree with Vinibomba... editing is where this story gets made.

topcraig
3:15 am Saturday
Jan 28, 2012

The second piece was definitely the better of the two, but the length would not play on a local news broadcast in the US. The length was more appropriate for a news magazine show. The second video showed a real situation and the first video just explained the program. By the way, we were doing this kind of thing on Long Island when I was a kid back in the sixties, only we called it "Safety Patrol."

VINIBOMBA
12:41 am Saturday
Jan 28, 2012

The second video, gets bored because it performances very slow. For example I can stay watching the video until the first 20 seconds... After that, it shows a sequence of pictures that gets me out of the video.... 0:20 seconds until 0:40 seconds could be delivered in 5 seconds... So cutting some peaces at begin avoids the audience to identify the character only with 0:40 seconds of video... In 0:40 seconds Video 1 delivered a lot of more information than Video 2.... I feel like that Video 2 gets interesting after the first minute.

markozino123
9:05 am Friday
Jan 27, 2012

I would agree with you, but the second video was way too long, I wanted to slash my wrists after one minute. It then became a rambling mess and I shut off. The first video was short and informative but totally devoid of any character.

axonuproar
3:19 am Friday
Jan 27, 2012

Night and day difference. The first video 'TELLS' you, (boring-removed emotionally) the second video engages you and makes you ask questions that then get answered.