Market Madness

Fresh fruits and veggies galore all in one spot grown right in your local area. Yumm! Too bad the city is cutting funding that helps support this place. I'm talking about a farmer's market in Myrtle Beach, SC. I figured since I'm heading down to Myrtle Beach this summer for an internship, I should check out how all the local television stations cover news. I simply searched Myrtle Beach in Google News and found this story. It caught my eye because I did my first story about how popular farmer's markets have become last semester.

The anchor seems to be a little distracted in the intro. It takes her a while to spit out what she's trying to get across. It's distracting to the viewers. As the directors takes the package they use a graphic that says "Top Story" which I found to be interesting and eye-catching.

PHOTO COURTESY: scnow.com

One thing I noticed was a lack of a natural sound opening. This brings viewers closer to listen and watch. The reporter did not start her story with sounds of the market but with her voice. It's not as appealing. I'm an avid fan of nat opens. It's a must!

I enjoyed much of the video, especially the close-up shot of the tomatoes. You could see how plump and juicy they looked; it made me want to go out and buy one! However, I feel like the reporter didn't demonstrate how many people were at the market. I wanted a few more wide shots in the story.

Wendi, the reporter, does provide good facts with numbers of how much money the city will save by cutting support to the market. I like that she talks to several different people shoppers and vendors, but I want to hear from one of them sooner. There's too much of her talking in the beginning to the first sound bite.  I also noticed that she re-used a piece of video within 15 seconds of the story. That's a bit redundant.

I did like the framing on all of the interviews. You had a good feel for where they were at; she created a good background for all of them. I'm a fan of starting your sound bite with b-roll video then going to the video of the interviewee and back to b-roll. It has a nice flow. I'd like to incorporate that in my reporting more often. I wish I had more time in my past two reporting shifts to tweak my stories to do that. However, that's not always appropriate. I think it can be used often but not always.

PHOTO COURTESY: sodahead.com

The sound of the cash register was a great transition out of the sound bite and into her voice track. That's the kind of sound viewers want to hear. Wendi's stand-up was very demonstrative and provided good information. She showed us the fruits and veggies and turned to a local vendor as she talked about the changes local vendors will see.

She goes to a sound bite with a "Myrtle Beach Spokesperson". I'm not sure what that means. I feel like that title is way too vague. I'm assuming he's on the city council or maybe not. I would want a more direct title for this person.

Wendi uses phrases like "plans to tackle" and "funding slated to stop". These are catchy and flashy. Love them! Good writing makes a big difference. I'm working on making mine better with every story.