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News Scripts



First Draft.

This is the first copy of the script that I wrote. It has many similarities to the final pieces and a lot of it hasn't changed, but there have been a lot of improvements.
The most noticable is the layout. For the first draft, I wrote it in a screenplay format as I didn't know how else it would be written. This makes it hard to understand what is happening when and who is saying what. It was also very difficult to distinguish what was voice over, or a piece to camera.
The language also needed to change as it was a bit too heavy to begin with, such as starting out with 'A new law', which would immediately disengage the audience. 

Studio Script.

For the studio links script, it took a lot of editing to get it right. This is down to having a younger audience who we needed to cater to. We wanted to use language that was clearly understandable and also engaging, but we didn't want to 'dumb down' the script too much, at risk of disengaging the relevant viewers. I read through what I had written a lot to ensure that it flowed with an active voice and conversational tone.
Initially, I also wasn't aware of proper formatting for a studio script; I defaulted to a screenplay script in the beginning, but with the guidance of Helen I followed up with a documentary style 2-column script. This is the layout I'll be using for the package as it's simple, but for the studio script I needed a bit more guidance as I had never come across a studio script format in the past. Helen gave us an example to use as a reference which helped and I was able to write the script in a manner that was understandable visually.
This example is only half of the studio script, as Ebony and I decided that we would split the responsibility of writing the studio script. This made it easier to manage as we also split the responsibility of writing for the package and live. Writing this way meant that we could ensure the studio links flowed into our package easily.
To help to write the script I used advice from www.thebalancecareers.com as they had a webpage about how to write a news script [1]. This helped me to write with the right tone, and also what information should be included.


Package Script.

This is the script for the non-live package. I tried to keep the script layout simple, so that it's easy to understand and visualise.
To understand how to properly format this script, I used some tips from KPHS Film [2], which helped me with the layout and also some of the terminology used.
The language for this script was probably the most difficult. The topic is actually very political, so to make the topic more focused to a younger audience's interests took a lot of the thought. I also wanted to include a 'skit' somewhere in the script, to keep the audience entertained and engaged, and I also hope for it to break up the content to give the audience time to think about the topic. With this kind of heavier topic, I believe it'll be important to allow for a lot of 'breathing room' to give the viewer time to absorb the information, so I might even introduce a second, similar skit of a robber stealing the cat photo. For now however, I've left it out as I don't want the skits to grow confusing rather than explanatory.
I've shown both scripts to the crew and they all agree with the language used and the layout so now it's down to me and Jay to deliver it in the right manner.

References

  1. Halbrooks, G.(2018) How to Write a News Script for TV News At: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-write-a-news-script-for-tv-news-2315281 Accessed on: 11/10/2018
  2. Fuller, F. (N/A) Documentary Script At: https://sites.google.com/site/kphsfilm/scripts/documentary-script Accessed on: 11/10/2018

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