Storytelling Methods

Advanced Sports Reporting class week two went pretty well. Mike and Howard gave the class mostly positive reviews on our first batch of blog posts. Howard found just enough time to get in a entertaining rant on the importance editing your work. Its quite telling how just simple mistakes can bring down an entire piece, no matter how good you think your work may be.

This week's assignment was to take look at different storytelling techniques and give our opinions about them. There are many ways to deliver a story. You do straight-forward no frills news or you can dress it up with graphs, and other visuals. With many online media outlets its become crucial to find a niche to make your content standout. Mike gave the class a few examples of websites that have done as such.

New York Times: Blowing Off Steam

This piece is a slideshow that uses still photos, ambiance sound, and sound bites. To tell a story of corporate co-workers growing closer by team sports like dodgeball and basketball. I really liked this a lot. The sound of the dodgeball colliding with the players was captured perfectly. Bringing back fond memories of high school gym for yours truly.

I really liked that the producers of this piece chose a slideshow instead of using regular video and having voiceovers over the footage. The slideshow is better because the still photos provide a smoother transition for soundbites. Editing together a bunch live shots could make a story come off choppy, the audio may not natch up properly. I'd definitely would consider using technique for some my own work in the future.