Sights and Sounds: The first revelation I had about electronic media writing I found on page 6 of the book. Hilliard states, “The writer must be able to write for the eye and ear, in addition to mastering the use of words.” When I thought about writing—even for the media—before this class, I never thought that the writer would be outlining visuals as well as dialogue. Now I know that if writing for any visual type of production, it is the responsibility of the writer to take into account visuals and sounds when writing the script. This is especially true of television, where visuals should take precedence over dialogue if it can capture the desired effect.
“And Now Our Feature Presentation”…Or Is It?: Chapter 6, “Features, Documentaries, and Reality Programs” discussed the differences between features and documentaries and explained the importance of each. I never really knew the difference between a feature and a documentary until reading the chapter. On page 214, Hilliard says that “the feature principally should inform; the documentary principally should make the audience think and feel.” This is important to know if one is supposed to write for a feature or documentary. A feature should be more informative and a documentary should be more poignant. Thanks to Domenica’s blog post on chapter 6 for the great quote!
Image Courtesy of Crunch GearFormat This!: Possibly the most important thing that I learned about electronic media writing in this course is how to format a script. When scripting for television, most writers use two columns; the left column contains video cues and the right contains sound cues. When scripting for film, however, writers make a one column script. On page 55, Hilliard states that “all dialogue is typed within a column approximately 3 inches wide running down the center of the page.” This is important because this is where everyone on a set will be expecting to see the actual dialogue of the script. It would confuse everyone, including the actors, if their lines were not in the center of the page.
Image Courtesy of The Ninth ConfigurationAdvertisements—Good vs. Evil?: In chapter 4, Hilliard talks about commercials, public service announcements, and promotions. When watching television, I see all commercial breaks as a nuisance and don’t really try to distinguish the types of advertisements I am seeing. This chapter taught me that there really are different types of advertisements and different effort goes into each type. This quote, found on Jim C.’s blog post, explains how a public service announcement (PSA) is different from a commercial: “The PSA is similar to the commercial except that it does not sell a product or service for money, but is made on behalf of a nonprofit organization or activity and can include advancing an idea or policy” (Hilliard 71). On the other hand, commercials try to sell a product or service, and promotions are advertisements for a television network or program. Here is an example PSA by Above the Influence.
Make the News Sexy: Chapter 5 in Hilliard’s book discusses news programs. A very important part of a news piece is the lead. The lead should contain the five “W’s:” who, what, where, when, and why. Hilliard states that writers should “begin the stories with clear, precise information. The opening should be, as much as possible, a summary of the entire story” (Hilliard 124). In order to keep the audience interested and intrigued, the lead must be informative and provocative, or as Dr. W. would say, “sexy.” Thank you, Tara, for the quote.
Image Courtesy of The Autism Genome ProjectWhat’s All the Fuss About Interviews?: Interviews allow you to feel like you’re having a one-on-one conversation with someone famous, or at least important. That is why they are so interesting to us. There are three major types of interviews: “…the opinion interview, the information interview, and the personality interview. Any given interview can combine the elements of all three” (Hilliard 224). The most common ones I see are personality interviews on late night talk shows. These types of interviews are human interest, feature story interviews. Thanks to Tara again for the quote! Here's an interview with Lady Gaga.
The New Music Video: Some music videos these days have nothing to do with the lyrics of the song. The best example of this would be Lady Gaga. Watch her “Bad Romance” video below to see what I mean by this. Hilliard states that every aspect of a music video "must have an integral relationship with the music and the performer,” but I don’t really think that’s true anymore (315). It was probably more true when music videos were first premiering.
How Did Shakespeare Do It?: It is generally believed that William Shakespeare was the greatest playwright of all time. That is because he was good at creating conflict. “A play’s plot structure is based on a complication arising from the individual’s or group’s relationship to some other force”—in other words, a conflict (Hilliard 394). The conflict should be presented early on in the play. Following the conflict is a series of crises or complications that build and lead toward a final climax. The climax is the turning point where one force wins and the other loses. Plot remaining after the climax is known as the resolution. Shakespeare had this formula down pat. And if you did too, maybe you could be the next Shakespeare.
Image Courtesy of The Mary SueCreativity is A Gift: In his final chapter Hilliard concludes that writing is a creative process. One must be creative as well as know the formats and particular types of scripts in order to be a good electronic media writer. Hilliard also states that “good creative writing cannot be taught” (Hilliard 406).
Image Courtesy of Apt DesignSo You Think You Can Write?: One very important thing I learned about writing as a career is that companies are not only looking for awesome writers, but they are looking for well-rounded people as well. “Station managers look at your transcript for such courses as history, psychology, political science, and sociology. They want you to be a full, rounded person” (Hilliard). You must also have experience. Hilliard recommends taking classes on particular aspects of writing, as well as social and political science courses that give you the background for thinking, reasoning, and understanding. Hopefully my transcript will look good enough to employers.
Original Image Courtesy of Gear Live
