How to Create Intro for TV News Report

Video Transcript

"BILL ALBIN: Hello, I'm Bill Albin. And on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to teach you what you need to know to be a local news reporter. In this clip, we're going to talk about basic stand-ups. A stand-up is when a reporter is on camera. He doesn't have to be standing; he could be sitting; he could be playing with something; he could be illustrating an issue. But basically, a stand-up is the reporter on camera during a story. So let's first talk about intros. Intros are exactly what they sound like; they're the beginning of a story. Every story has three parts: the intro, the body of the story where all the information is, and then the outro, the end of the story. In an intro, a reporter introduces the story, grabs your attention and sets up the rest of the story for the viewer. It's very important in the intro to do a few things. First of all, it's the beginning of the story, and it has to be current and it has to be exciting and it has to be what's happening right now, because you don't want to start the story with: This happened last week. If it happened last week, why am I talking about it now? So the intro to the story should be what's happening right now, and it should set up the rest of the story for the viewer, grab their attention and keep them interested so that they'll stick around for the rest of the story. As an example of a walk-in intro, you would speak, you would look directly at the camera, and you would engage your audience. You would also want to start moving before you start talking. It sounds a little halting sometimes when you take off the same time you start speaking. So take a step or two, get comfortable with your movement, and then start speaking and grab your viewers' attention. "