Jump to content

Short Teases or Long Teases?


Jess

Recommended Posts

Just something I've picked up lately... a lot of stations - Tegna ones particularly - are doing pretty long teases in (or in some cases, instead of) their opens these days. Like this:

 

 

Then you have stations that just wham-bam get into the news like this:

 

 

And more often, it's kind of a happy middle, though some stations take a few different approaches to this.

 

 

I kind of like the "wham bam" approach myself... here's the intro, you're watching the news, here's the top story. If there's a tease I like it to be as short as possible. WPVI does both and it's a masterclass. The 4, 5, and 11 open up with the "wham bam" while the 6 is Jim Gardner's usual "Monday night, this happened, this happened, but the big story..."

 

What do you guys prefer?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion a good teaser:

1) Keeps it short and sweet.

2) Uses the station's music package, not production music.

3) Is live.

 

Several Chicago stations got the idea a few years ago to use prerecorded teasers with "ultra dramatic" production music. IMO, it cheapens the product and makes it feel tabloid.

 

I'm ok with prerecorded teasers at the national level because they're produced with high quality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The headlines in that WCBS clip are actually longer than the WVEC one. I understand what you're trying to say though. KUSA has been opening with a full minute cold package (which is to say, several stories with an anchor track and pre-produced graphics) and is doing a lot of deep teases at the end of the A block in their 10pm.

 

A lot of factors go into how to open a show. It depends on the day, the timeslot/format of the show, station style/culture, and the mix of stories that day. But most importantly is whatever the lede is.

 

In the WVEC case, they're leading with weather. That's a perfectly justifiable decision, especially if it was a particularly hot day and if there isn't much else happening locally, which is my guess from watching that. It's also the 4pm news, so they're probably saving bigger and better stories for the later shows anyway. But if you're going to lead with weather, you want the viewer to know you're going to get to other stories. Weather by itself is a pretty weak lede if you ask me.

 

WABC is leading with a pretty sexy lede in that clip: an apartment fire. Fire almost always grabs peoples' attention, so you don't really want to lollygag and tease a bunch of other stories before getting to that.

 

WCBS is in some ways the most elaborate of all of these: VO of hurricane preps, crazy NATSVO of bikes overtaking streets, and more NATS of the Mexico earthquake. Two of those are big stories, and the other one is just good video to rile people up. The earthquake is a good lede, but it's not local or national, so it was probably a good idea to tease some other stories before getting to it.

 

It really just depends on the day and whatever feels right. If it's a crazy busy night and the nightside reporters' stories change, then that slickly pre-produced tracked open isn't going to happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should have posted a video of WPVI to better illustrate what I meant, so here we go:

 

 

Without exception, their 11pm opens are this. (The weekday versions vary in that the open is shorter.) Edited video clip alongside live anchor copy. Personally I like that approach a bit more than the more elaborate teases some stations use.

 

The headlines in that WCBS clip are actually longer than the WVEC one. I understand what you're trying to say though. KUSA has been opening with a full minute cold package (which is to say, several stories with an anchor track and pre-produced graphics) and is doing a lot of deep teases at the end of the A block in their 10pm.

 

A lot of factors go into how to open a show. It depends on the day, the timeslot/format of the show, station style/culture, and the mix of stories that day. But most importantly is whatever the lede is.

 

In the WVEC case, they're leading with weather. That's a perfectly justifiable decision, especially if it was a particularly hot day and if there isn't much else happening locally, which is my guess from watching that. It's also the 4pm news, so they're probably saving bigger and better stories for the later shows anyway. But if you're going to lead with weather, you want the viewer to know you're going to get to other stories. Weather by itself is a pretty weak lede if you ask me.

 

WABC is leading with a pretty sexy lede in that clip: an apartment fire. Fire almost always grabs peoples' attention, so you don't really want to lollygag and tease a bunch of other stories before getting to that.

 

WCBS is in some ways the most elaborate of all of these: VO of hurricane preps, crazy NATSVO of bikes overtaking streets, and more NATS of the Mexico earthquake. Two of those are big stories, and the other one is just good video to rile people up. The earthquake is a good lede, but it's not local or national, so it was probably a good idea to tease some other stories before getting to it.

 

It really just depends on the day and whatever feels right. If it's a crazy busy night and the nightside reporters' stories change, then that slickly pre-produced tracked open isn't going to happen.

You make some really good points that I never really considered going into those thoughts. Weather has always been a huge lede in this market. If it's really hot, cold, or stormy you'll get a weather open almost guaranteed. Crime is also a popular lede but I don't think this market is really an "if it bleeds it leads" market type these days. You'll see weather represented, if not as the top story, then somewhere in the tease.

 

(An aside, WSVN had some of my favorite ledes of all time - one that promised "THREE BLOODY CRIME SCENES" and another that was just a video clip alongside the remark "What is happening here?")

 

But you're also right in that station culture comes into play. Like I said above, 99% of the time WPVI's 11pm opens are like that. No fancy tease, no really elaborate production (outside of maybe the graphics), just the top story. The 6pm opens with the "but the Big Story" type tease they've done for decades at this point.

 

I think one night this week I should do a DVR of each station's late newscast so I can compare approaches...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just something I've picked up lately... a lot of stations - Tegna ones particularly - are doing pretty long teases in (or in some cases, instead of) their opens these days. Like this:

 

 

 

Frankly I was more distracted by Regina Mobley's incredibly articulate Ts to the point that her Ds almost sound like Ts, and the ridiculous new TEGNA music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should have posted a video of WPVI to better illustrate what I meant, so here we go:

 

 

Without exception, their 11pm opens are this. (The weekday versions vary in that the open is shorter.) Edited video clip alongside live anchor copy. Personally I like that approach a bit more than the more elaborate teases some stations use.

 

 

You make some really good points that I never really considered going into those thoughts. Weather has always been a huge lede in this market. If it's really hot, cold, or stormy you'll get a weather open almost guaranteed. Crime is also a popular lede but I don't think this market is really an "if it bleeds it leads" market type these days. You'll see weather represented, if not as the top story, then somewhere in the tease.

 

(An aside, WSVN had some of my favorite ledes of all time - one that promised "THREE BLOODY CRIME SCENES" and another that was just a video clip alongside the remark "What is happening here?")

 

But you're also right in that station culture comes into play. Like I said above, 99% of the time WPVI's 11pm opens are like that. No fancy tease, no really elaborate production (outside of maybe the graphics), just the top story. The 6pm opens with the "but the Big Story" type tease they've done for decades at this point.

 

I think one night this week I should do a DVR of each station's late newscast so I can compare approaches...

My only pet peeve - and it's a minor one at that - is that the director didn't dissolve out of the open to the anchors on camera, but I understand wanting to keep the quick "Action News" pace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion a good teaser:

1) Keeps it short and sweet.

2) Uses the station's music package, not production music.

3) Is live.

 

Several Chicago stations got the idea a few years ago to use prerecorded teasers with "ultra dramatic" production music. IMO, it cheapens the product and makes it feel tabloid.

 

WLUK has done the prerecorded post-intro teaser thing as well, and they've used the production music on them. Never liked them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My only pet peeve - and it's a minor one at that - is that the director didn't dissolve out of the open to the anchors on camera, but I understand wanting to keep the quick "Action News" pace.

That’s a “style”. They always cut out of the open to the 2-shot or CU. They’ve been doing it that way since the 70’s so I imagine that’s a sort of “mandate” — now probably hard-coded through Ignite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not too terribly long ago, I saw a YouTube video of a teaser that had at least six different anchors or reporters on it -- all of them doing both on-screen and VO, and all of the reporters on location. It was fast-paced and smooth-flowing enough that it had to have been pre-recorded and edited to be that tight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like a short tease. I’m fine with teasing two stories before doing the big story. It usually kind of varies on WBAL and WJZ (the stations I watch the most) between long and short.

 

Usually the 6pm newscast on WBAL has a long tease with all the reporters in the field.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMO:

 

1) Teaser of tonight's stories

2) Open

3) The big story

 

Pretty much how WPVI does it at 6:00pm and sometimes at 11:00pm during sweeps. Its amazing, it works.

 

I think that's how KSTP Channel 5 (ABC in the Twin Cities) did it way back in the day. Here's an August 1985 Eyewitness News broadcast from that Twin Cities ABC station as an example:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Without exception, their 11pm opens are this. (The weekday versions vary in that the open is shorter.) Edited video clip alongside live anchor copy. Personally I like that approach a bit more than the more elaborate teases some stations use.

 

Open + Top SOTVO or VO + on cam toss isn't a bad way to go. It's certainly a good fit for the late evening news. But every show is different, and every station is different. I don't know what WPVI's morning show is like, but I'm willing to bet it starts very differently from the evening shows, as is the case in many places, just as one example.

 

I really wish I had a clip of KCNC's 10pm opens from not too long ago. For a while, they were starting nearly every 10pm with a Breaking News stinger, about 5 seconds of VO, then doublebox toss to a live reporter. It was one of the fastest opens I've ever seen. I haven't caught their 10pm in a while, but the last time I watched, they had a more normal paced open with about 3 or so VO headlines before an abbreviated opening animation.

 

Weather has always been a huge lede in this market. If it's really hot, cold, or stormy you'll get a weather open almost guaranteed. Crime is also a popular lede but I don't think this market is really an "if it bleeds it leads" market type these days. You'll see weather represented, if not as the top story, then somewhere in the tease.

 

I should add that "leading with weather" can manifest in many different forms. If leading with weather means "it's hot out and we're going to do a minute of first weather in the A block to fill time," then that can't really stand on its own to open the show. If it's blizzard coverage and there's at least one reporter on it plus first weather, then by all means, you don't really need to tease anything else off the top.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We go with the no-tease approach, just start the newscast and beat the others to the lead story. But we don't get any assistance from creative services either (they're 100% on station image duty now).

 

For several years the night-side newscasts used tease 1 at the end of the a-block as the big pre-produced tease segment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is "Open + Top SOTVO"?

 

That's structurally how that WPVI 11pm open is written. The "sound over tape" anachronism is still used to signify that a piece of video is a soundbite, and "VO" inside a newsroom means video with an anchor reading script over it. "NATS" signifies "natural sound," though really it's no different from a SOT other than that it's real sound and not spoken voice.

 

In case you were curious how the others in this thread are structured:

 

WVEC: stinger | PKG | open | WX computer/VO | 2-shot on-cam

WABC: open | VO | map | stinger | (presumably reporter live, but the clip cuts out before then)

WCBS: open | VO | NATSVO | NATSVO | 2-shot on-cam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using TVNewsTalk you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.