Discussion: Photography and Editing

One thing I realized as I went about reviewing this topic is I really had taken this subject for granted. Its one of those things when the stories are good you pretty much discount what goes on behind the camera, and praise the reporter. But when things go bad, you think who did that? I have adapted the philosophy if you aren't thinking about the photography and editing when watching the story, then those behind the scenes are doing a good job. I had a hard time thinking how I would review and critique the three stations. I finally realized, especially when it comes to photography and editing, style is key. Everyone has opinions when it comes to style and if they agree with all your opinions, then I think that is problematic. So I expect people to disagree with my opinions. With that here is the delayed discussion about photography and editing. I'll first start out with some basic things I was looking at, ratings, and then discussion will follow.


Overall Photography mechanics

Of course you want good color, sound and interesting angles.

Consistency

One thing when going into this I thought, consistency was important. From a blog in Washington I pulled off the idea of consistency. This could be applied to all facets of TV news and I will include this with future discussion topics. The Washington blog wasn't breaking down the different parts of the newscasts, but mentioned when talking about reporting the idea that individuals will have their own styles, but they should correspond to the station's own personality. Of course, different subjects will bring on different challenges and reasons to do stories differently, but the idea is when you watch a story you should be able to tell what station it is.

Overall Finished look

This goes to editing for the most part. Even if it is a day of story, when a station can make it look like some thought went into the post production and editing process, like graphics and pictures, it only adds to the story.

Extra Bonus points

Lighting for especially promoted stories, where you know they had several days to work on them.


Photography


#1KWCH


#2 KSN


#3 KAKE


Editing


#1 KSN


#2 KWCH


#3 KAKE


KAKE

Now those from KAKE will probably be upset. I will say to start I think it has more to do with their overall news philosophy. I am sure they can and do material just as good as those at the #1 spots, but on a day-to-day basis, this isn't so. When watching their newscasts you get this fast on the run kind of a style with breaking news and such. With their editing and photography, you get the feeling they don't get much time to fully devote to their stories. They have a record and spit it out philosophy although one positive is consistency. As far as consistency with reporting and photography goes, I think KAKE does this well. Although I am not a fan of their style, I think if you didn't have a bug on the screen, know who their reporters were, a majority of the time after watching one of their stories you could identify that as KAKE. They could stand to spend more time on lighting and overall execution for stories they tease. For instance, this past week they teased a story about a baby who was hit at a Wranglers game. Much of the video came from the night of the incident and might have even been home video. I'll totally discount that part, but the interviews could have been lit making it seem like a bigger story since they promoted it throughout the week. Maybe it was not shot by KAKE, since the people lived, I think, in Kansas City. If this is true, than why was the story called a "special report?" If it was so "special" to KAKE, than send your own crew there and do the story right.


KSN

One thing they do lack is consistency. I think they need to decide if they want to be more like KAKE or KWCH. Maybe that is characteristic of a station that has or been ranked #3 for a long time. On one newscast you can see a piece that looks very rushed and not put together all that well, but then the next story could look like something you would have seen on the NBC nightly newscast. On the other hand, during their special pieces, often seen during the sweeps ratings period, their photography comes off as very professional and just as good if not better than KWCH on a consistent basis.
What inconsistencies they may have in photography, are more than made up in editing. I wonder if they have the same equipment as the other stations. In someways this doesn't matter, because they do a nice job in using the pictures of the story as well as text and other graphics to really create a nice finished product. Earlier I mentioned KSN lacked consistency in the overall product. On the other hand they are far more consistent when it comes to editing. While on KAKE and KWCH you may only see the special editing effects during sweeps, it seems as if KSN does these sorts of things on a far more routine daily basis.

KWCH 12


Its starting to sound like a broken record. Their #1 ranking in the ratings and conservative approach definitely shows in the photography and to a lesser extent in editing. They really don't take many chances and shoot solid and quality stuff. It seems they don't over think a shot, and it comes out natural and better that way. Some of the interviews will have different colors in the background as if they are lit. This appears to happen far more often on KWCH than with the other two.
As for editing, I said earlier that I like a consistent philosophy with everyone pretty much shooting with the same idea in mind. Sometimes KWCH can get a little carried away in editing. Case in point several weeks ago they did a story on watching the grass grow. As much as I praised the photography and editing in an earlier post, but one cannot get carried away. http://wichitatvnews.blogspot.com/2007/07/slow-news-day-watching-grass-grow-is.html. I will say with the dull topic, the photographer and editor most certainly resurrected this piece from the grave, no matter if others want to argue that it is a viable story idea. However, sometimes the constant editing of sound breaking up the reporter's voice became distracting and makes one start thinking about who is editing or shooting that. I feel a good photographer or editor is doing their job if that isn't even a question. I think KWCH could stand to incorporate more graphics into their pieces. The lack of graphics and the breaking up of the reporter's voice, moved KWCH to #2 in editing.

So let the discussion begin. This might be hard to do, but take a few steps back and try, just try to give a real quick unbiased look at things. -Hal

Morning shows: More than holding their own

Outside of Roger and Cindy (Felicia more than held her own), replace the on-air crews from the evening newscasts on the 3 channels and make way for the morning crews. Kudos to all 3 stations' morning coverage of the apparent murder suicide and officer involved shooting. Only complicating matters for the three stations, they looked like they were already planning on live shots from the site of Yesterday's chemical plant fire. Maybe KWCH should just have Kim Hynes report in the morning. She acted like she had years of experience, for once in a live shot, she was composed and told what she knew well. Probably the best breaking news report I have seen her do. Not to be outdone Cayle Thompson at KAKE and KSN's Anne Meyer also did well. The press conference at 6:30 was handled well. KWCH got into it first while KSN and KAKE got into it just as it began and all had it live when it was discussed of multiple deceased victims. It happened at 3AM, just about 2 hours prior to their 5AM start times for a newscast. Here's another topic I'll throw out there, to those who saw this morning's coverage, I think the morning shows of all 3 stations handled this situation better than the larger-in-number evening crews would have if it happened at 3PM or even at 8PM at night. Once again good early morning hustle by all 3 stations. And not to forget, all had live on-the-scene reports at the site of the chemical fire this morning. Someone talked about online coverage of the plant explosion last night. I will say KWCH and KSN had the police involved shooting on the web site before 7. Please comment and share your opinions on this morning's coverage.
There's that saying: they come in threes. For the stations' sakes, let hope Thursday doesn't bring a 3rd major news story. -Hal

Valley Center Explosion

No, I haven't given up on the blog. I must say thanks to the comments to a previous post earlier this morning, which alerted me to the events. I was checking on the comments about 10AM and a comment about an explosion and my thoughts of the coverage. I quickly found a TV and watched sporadically through the day. First thing, KWCH employees will be excited when I do say early on they definitely had things moving well. As the day continued Roger and Cindy showed without a doubt, why they are the market's #1 anchor team. Cindy is able to stay serious and focused, Roger does the same, but every now and then he is able to get a one liner in that kind of puts the viewer to ease somewhat. One problem with KWCH as I have said before, outside of Michael Schwanke, Jim Grawe and Kim Wilhelm, their reporting depth drops. Shots from Kim Hynes and others, have been worse in the past with other stories, but they still are rough compared to the others I mentioned. KAKE scrambled quickly and handled things about expected. Their 6PM had the nuts and bolts you would expect. Like all the stations the press conference a few minutes into the newscast I am sure threw a wrench into all the newscasts. I didn't get to see it but from the early comments, KSN had a rough start to the day's events. A little slow to get going. That isn't a surprise, normally though by the end of the day they do a decent overall job of wrapping up the days coverage. We'll have to see what happens at 10PM. I will say I thought Anthony Powell shows why he is their best on-air male talent. Maybe it was good he wasn't a main anchor and stuck out in the field, because he probably was one of the bright points for KSN out in the field, although a late press conference was a little rough. I will say KSN could have maybe bailed out of the 6PM news conference earlier, like KWCH did, but that's a tough call. KWCH went the longest with continuous coverage early in the day. They can do it especially when they have a strong crew like Roger and Cindy to come in and take over things. That is a real brief summary of my thoughts about the day. I probably saw at the most about 2 hours of total coverage through the day, so please comment and give me your thoughts about the highs and lows and please after your comments rank the stations 1,2,3 for who had the best coverage collectively through the whole day. -Hal

Wild West World Fall Out

Sorry folks. I have been out of town since last week, therefore I haven't gotten to last Friday's discussion. I'll try to get to the topic this Friday. I was reading the comments from readers to the Eagle's website this evening about the closing of Wild West World and one caught me by surprise. I am interested on your thoughts about it. Here is what the person wrote as a comment to an Eagle article.

The local media made this guy seem legit by giving him a massive publicity build up before the park opened. Now they are all racing to tear him down. The Eagle and the 3 local TV stations helped fleece the people who bought season tickets as much as Etheredge.

So I am curious what your thoughts are. I seem to remember the stations doing stories on his past slightly very early on. I think one of the 3 (Possibly KAKE) did a more in-depth piece on Etheredge's past, but overall as the park was preparing to open and did open, most stories were upbeat. Frankly I really don't disagree with that idea. I think there was generally positive hopes toward the park and reason to think it could do OK. Now as the weeks wore on and you saw the parking lot half full, if that, on even a Sunny weekend, one had to start to wonder. I disagree that the media "helped fleece the people who bought season tickets." They definiely helped create a buzz of excitement for a new amusement park's opening. But, it was something exciting for the area. So as the e-mailer to the Eagle's comments wrote, is the media partially to blame by making Etheredge seem "legit?" Curious what you all think. -Hal

Slow News Day: Watching Grass Grow is news

We've all heard the description when describing something as boring as watching grass grow. Well if you watched the KWCH 5PM newscast you actually were able to do that. I wondered if viewers were bored? (Actually it was photographed and edited well, but the topic was going a little far.) KWCH staff, I know you'll be upset. The story was about the rain of the past week causing grass to grow faster than normal and regulations in the city for grass height and lawn crews being backlogged. The citations given to extra long grass I guess is an angle and it is after all the 5PM show, but I still question if there was something else out there..
I have been out of town the past couple of days enjoying the Country's freedom, so I might postpone this week's in-depth topic into the weekend. The voting is over and photography and editing won by a pretty good margin. I have my opinions already, but I haven't been watching TV closely the last few days to cite examples for my opinions, so I'll hold off for that probably Saturday or Sunday. -Hal

The Problems Coffeyville poses

On the surface, one could argue a town not quite in a TV station's viewing area isn't news. I probably would have argued early in the day sine there was flooding in Fredonia, which is in the viewing area, Coffeyville could wait. Now KWCH fans (employees) I can hear your cheers right now. Yes I will praise your product. I don't know when the decision was made to send a crew to Coffeyville, but it paid especially now since as Jim Grawe said, not only is it natural disaster but an environmental one with oil now mixing with the flood waters. They had the flooding in their viewing area covered at 10PM with a pkg from the Kansas City Fox affiliate WDAF. Michael Schwanke probably had one of the best flooding angles yet, by taking a look back at the year in disasters for the state. We just began July and as Schwanke reported the flooding makes the 3rd disaster declaration this year with over 90 percent of the state having been in some sort of disaster declaration. It was good information and a decent example of taking a story and finding a wider angle to it. In all at 10PM, KWCH spent 10 minutes on the flood while the others switched to regular news earlier into their newscasts. KAKE and KSN had some varieties of stories pulling from local and national video. Now, some of you might say, "Well you didn't see the 6PM." I don't have the numbers from May, I am sure some of you do, but especially as the Summer hits I would say the audience at 10PM is bigger. If this is so why so often are station's wads all blown on the 6PM show? Now one could argue there is more time to fill at 6, given that the newscasts are preceded by national news so they must stay away from it. My response to that would be whats more important losing a few viewers in your 2nd or 3rd segment at 6 or having a lame show at 10 coming off of primetime. In that regard if you hadn't watched news all day, KWCH definitely had a more in-depth and worthwhile presentation at 10PM than the other two.
Don't forget, to vote on which topic you want me to go in-depth on this Friday. The choices are listed below this entry. I will tally them late tomorrow night. -Hal

Vote on Next Week's Topic

Please respond by posting a comment anonymously with what you want me to comment on this Friday. Your choices are:

Sports
Photography and editing
Morning Shows

Just type one of those 3 topics in the post by Tuesday and I'll tally the responses and write one for Friday's discussion. It might take awhile for you to actually see your vote posted, because it sometimes takes me some time before I see it and get it sent through, so be paitient. -Hal