I gradated in 2006 from the Journalism school at Drake University, having majored, somewhat inexplicably, in radio & television production. (I think I mostly just liked things with knobs and switches, and having projects instead of tests.) Here are seven lessons I learned from my radio/television major:
1) Throw the airplane.
Our first video production assignment was to create a short instructional video about something simple, like making a PB&J sandwich or folding a paper airplane. Professor Wade’s advice on the assignment stuck with with me: “If you show people how to fold an airplane, you’ve got to throw it at the end. They want to see it fly.”
2) Know your appeal.
The top-left corner of every radio script was where we’d mark the appeal — one or two words that describe the angle, the emotional hook, of the ad. It was stage direction and production advice all in one. “Nostalgia”, for instance, might encourage you to grab somebody with an old-timey baritone voice, and add a bit of fake AM crackle to the track. An appeal of “high-energy” might lead you to an earnest application of laser sound effects and that SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY monster truck voice. Articulating the appeal is still a technique I use in some of my writing work.
3) Protect your master(s).
Hard drives used to be fucking awful and fail CONSTANTLY. Before solid state those things were blowing left and right like cheap light bulbs. Losing a paper you spent all weekend writing by yourself was one thing — losing original interviews a dozen people spent weeks working to produce was quite another. So a little paranoia and a lot of triple-checking those record-protect tabs went a long way.
4) Count to one.
This is more of a party trick than anything: watch a TV commercial (especially the highly-produced ones during major TV events) and try to count to one before it cuts to the next shot. You’ll discover that many 30-second ads are made of 60 or more discrete shots.
5) Wrap your cables right.
Properly-wrapped cables are easier to manage and less prone to breakage. I still over-under wrap every cable that allows it, even my earbuds. I found this exceedingly difficult to learn because everyone talked it at me instead of showing me. Using words to explain how to do something with my body has always been useless to me — my old guitar teacher learned to just grab my hands and move them. But I got it eventually.
6) Look up. +
7) Look out.
There are lots of ways to get hurt in broadcast work. One is extending an antenna upward into high voltage lines. (Look up!) The other is getting whammied by whatever you’re shooting video of. (Look out!) When operating a camera, one forgets that what they’re seeing in the viewfinder is also a real thing happening in the world, and that that racecar/motorcycle/horse/300-lb linebacker getting rapidly larger in frame is also rapidly approaching your body.
(BTW, if you DO accidentally connect your vehicle to a high-voltage line, and absolutely must try to escape because of fire or other eminent danger, proper procedure is to do a big bunny hop off the frame, then keep hopping. You’re less likely to make a self-frying circuit if you keep your legs together. 🐇)
*** Originally published as List No. 55 of the 7x77 newsletter project.