How to Hold a Mic in Sports Reporting

Video Transcript

"I'm Jamal Spencer for Expert Village here at ABC3 here in Lansing. And we're going to talk about how to be a successful sports broadcaster. This clip is about how to hold the mic during an interview and in a stand up. When you're doing an interview, you hold the mic when you ask your question. You get your question on the mic then you extend the mic so the answer can be picked up. But when you extend the mic towards the person that you are interviewing you want to make sure that the you don't jam it in their face. You don't want to get it to close to their chin or their lip and make them feel uncomfortable. You want to put it right here below their mouth. And if they turn to the right you want to try and point it that way and if they turn this way you want to try to point it that way. But you never want the mic to come above their lips because for two reasons; one, if there is a hear-impaired person in your audience they can't read the lips of the person you are trying to interview because the mic is covering their mouth. You also don't want the person feeling uncomfortable so you want to try and keep it around the chin area pointing in the direction of the person's mouth. Like I said if they turn, you turn the mic. Now if you are doing a stand up, it doesn't matter if you hold the mic with your left or your right hand. It doesn't really matter. The thing that matters is that you don't move the microphone. I had this habit that I had to break. I was unaware. I would talk and I would go like this, I would move the microphone a lot as I moved my hands. It is fine to move your left hand or your free hand. You can do that, you can gesture, you can point, you can do whatever. But try not to move the mic as you talk because the sound jumps in and out the further the mic gets away from your mouth. So you want to keep a steady mic. You want the mic flag or the logo pointing toward the camera so people can see where you're from obviously. But you don't want to move the mic too much. Feel free to move your hand but keep the mic steady. So when you do your own reports you keep the mic, like I mentioned, right below your chin, close to your face where everyone can keep it up and feel free to move your hand as you want to, but keep the mic steady. A"