Make Your Own Decisions about What to Show
Walk into an electronics store to shoot a story about the hot new items and you may find an enterprising store worker tagging along telling you what shots to get. Maybe that person's just trying to be helpful, or maybe he's trying to earn his commission by getting you to highlight the merchandise he wants to sell.Either way, the decision on what to show is yours. Maybe you can appease the salesman by shooting video of the items he thinks would make "good TV." That doesn't obligate you to put those shots into your story.
Instead, work with your reporter on choosing the video that best matches the focus of the report. That way, the reporter's writing of the retail story will help dictate what is shown and not just the sales inventory.
Limit Shots of Store Logos
There's nothing wrong with showing video of a Wal-Mart sign when you're in the store to do a story on grocery prices. You're answering a viewer's basic question of where the story was shot. But after showing the logo early in the story, move on to something else.You can easily shoot produce, shoppers, grocery buggies and checkout lines without repeating shots of the logo. If the story is specifically about grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, it's not much of an issue. But if you're just at Wal-Mart to do a broader story on groceries, make your video more generic and less brand-focused.
If you'll also be shooting a reporter's Live intro for the newscast, avoid making the store's large lighted sign the backdrop. With a typical 15-second reporter intro and 15-second wrap-up, you would have given the store 30 seconds of free exposure, which is sure to make your station's sales manager's hair catch fire. Make the store buy that airtime.
Avoid Shooting in TV Commercial Style
You've seen these shots in ads for furniture stores and car dealerships -- lots of wide pans of the merchandise and zooms. Just because you're shooting a story on a retail business doesn't mean you have to adopt the same style.Commercials are shot that way so that viewers will say, "Look at all that stuff!". But news stories make the most impact when they are shot intimately.
That means tight shots. Get creative with your camera work, so that static video of canned corn or car tires doesn't become boring to watch.
But unless the point of the story is how car dealerships' lots are full of unsold vehicles, you are under no obligation to show the square footage of great deals that are just waiting to be claimed.
Stories about retail business may seem like boring assignments. But if you approach shooting them in a creative way, you'll avoid a cookie-cutter commercial approach and instead make the story come to life through your camera lens.
