Structure, timing, positioning and letting the interview breathe are all essential elements for ensuring a TV or radio package works.

It's also important not to try cram too much into an item, perhaps just three points.

And try to avoid noddies (shots where you, the interviewer, nod and which are edited in later) and walking shots for TV, they are overused and boring.

Try to think of original shots and sounds that will capture the attention of the audience.

20 tips for TV and radio packaging

1: Clarity

Before you start editing have a clear idea of how long your finished item is likely to be and approximately how much of your interviewees you are likely to use.

2: Format

Map out a structure for the piece and try to work out a possible order for the interview clips and which points they will address.

3: Limitations

Try to limit yourself to no more than three key points for one item.

4: Key points

Try to make sure each of these three key points is addressed by a different interviewee.

5: Review

Listen or watch the interview in full from start to finish at least once in order to refamiliarise yourself with the material, taking note of the time on the recording of each potential interview clip, the words that begin the clip and the words that end it.

6: Coherence

When you have repeated the process for all the interviews in your piece, return to the structure you have mapped out for your piece and see if it is still coherent or if the order of interviewees needs to change.

7: Strength

Try to put the strongest interview near the start of the piece.

8: Selection

When you are selecting interview clips, choose ones which give opinion over ones which relay only information; information which is not controversial can easily be summarized by you in your linking commentary.

9: Pace

Try to leave a half beat at the start and end of each clip. Life isn’t breathless; neither should a radio or television package be.

10: Cliches

In television avoid using noddies and walking shots to illustrate your material. They are the mind numbingly boring to look at and do not make use of the medium.

11: Editing

Avoid cutting excessively from the answer (ie taking one part of three seconds from the start of an answer, three seconds from the middle and five from the end). This sounds and looks unnatural and is excessively difficult to process for television interviews.

12: Context

Never use an answer from one question and use it in response to another question. This is taking things out of context and is unfair to the interviewee.

13: Commentary

When you are writing commentary to link the various clips together, try to avoid using the same words at the end of your text as the interview says in the beginning of the clip ie. : John Smith said he was delighted.. [John Smith] "I am delighted ..."

14: Summaries

Try to avoid summarizing everything in the text that is going to appear in the clip.

15: Positioning

In television reports, try to stick to the convention of alternate interviews being on opposite sides of the screen. (First interviewee looking left to right, second right to left, third left to right etc).

16: Voices

Try to avoid running two clips back to back without a commentary in between. Where this is unavoidable, for example in the case of vox pops, in radio try to alternate between male and female voices.

17: Titles

Always make sure you have the correct title for your interviewee and a correct spelling of their name. This is particularly important for television captions. If they have a particularly long job title, agree a shortened version before you return from the interview.

18: Ending

Try to avoid ending a report on a clip of one of the interviews. In television this looks untidy. In radio, it complicates life for the studio presenter. It also gives one side or another of an argument the last word.

19: Answers

If you are editing an interview as a stand-alone item, try to put as much of the non-controversial information in the intro or lead-in to the item and always remember to make sure the intro ends with a question and the piece begins with an answer to that question.

20: Options

For stand alone interviews always give an option of an early out, with a shorter duration and the right outwords. This will help the production team in case more urgent news breaks or they need to cut back your item.

 

Jaldeep Katwala has been a journalist since 1985. He has worked for the BBC, Channel 4 News and Radio Netherlands as a broadcaster. He has also taught journalism and run several media development projects and training courses around the world.

 

Note: Image used in this piece and on the front page of the site are from the Media Helping Media photostream on Flickr. Both are released under Creative Commons.