AP conference gives broadcast students new storytelling prospective

This past weekend, the State of the Field 2014 New York State Associated Press workshop left broadcast journalism students inspired by nationally acclaimed journalists.

The AP conference included guest speakers like Boyd Huppert and Jonathan Malat from KARE TV. The feature reporters from Minneapolis have won 12 National Murrow Awards.

Their presentation started with guidelines to improve the beginning and ending of stories. First, have a “handshake shot.” This means to have the person who the reporter is introducing dominate on the screen when describing him or her. Second, have meaningful details. Third, set a focus, meaning give a roadmap for the viewer. This focus should include character, emotion or concept. The team showed their stories and explained that letting things happen during filming helps the story.

“That’s a gift, when things happen and you just go with it,” Huppert said.

He also advised to give the big picture of the story through a smaller story. To do this, Malat said to let the interview be in the moment.

“Make your problem your solution and make your story visual,” he said.

Tips with camera shooting included holding the light to the side of the interviewee’s face instead of attaching it to the top of the camera. Also, they said to not use same interview framing with the interviewee. When interviewing, the team advised to use a two-part question to have more sound bite options. The main idea stressed throughout their presentation was to keep the focus of the story in mind.

“Once you know what your focus is,” Huppert said, “dive in.”