Feature story and narration vox pops

1. Vox Pops, Sound bytes,
Writing the
Feature Story & Narration
FILM 290
Introduction to Video production
Oyetayo Raymond Ojoade

2. Vox Pops
 Referred to as “the voice of the people”. It is a general view
of a particular subject by members of the public, especially
recorded and broadcast on TV or published in the papers.
 For video and television Vox pops, the interviewer
approaches people "in the street" and asks them simple
questions about the topic.
 These people will be new to interviews and will often be
nervous and shy.
 It is important to make them feel comfortable and relaxed.

3. Vox Pops
 When asking people to participate:
 fast is best
 don't give them time to worry about how they look or
what their friends will think.
 Use a short, sharp standard question such as ”Can you
answer a few quick questions about the flood victims
and the 15,000.00 dollar grant for TV6 news tonight?".
 (Note: Everyone will want to know what channel you're
with and when the programme will be broadcast, so it
helps to get that out of the way quickly.)

4. Vox Pops
 Always ask open-ended questions.
 What is your favorite memory from childhood?
 Avoid leading questions.
 Were you at the NLC last night?

5. Vox Pops
 You must be specific enough to obtain brief answers.
 Camera shots are usually framed as a MS or CU.
 It is important to get the interviewee’s looking direction.
 Always get your subjects to left-face and right-face for a
balanced interview. Never keep to one side all the time.
 It pays to ensure that an accurate mix of genders and
races are represented, appropriate to the population being
surveyed.

6. Interview Questions
 Q - Do you enjoy your work
 A - Yes I do (wrong answer)
 Q – How did the flood affect you?
 A – The flood affected me in many ways namely…
 Q – What is the best part of your job?
 A – The best part of my job is……

7. How to Interview
Someone on Camera
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqKG8SnqTKs

8. Sound Bytes
 A short comment taken from a longer speech or press
conference and broadcast on TV or radio especially
during a news report.
 When you record your vox pops, they will be pretty
long.
 You will need to go through the interviews and pick out
the sound bytes. (paper edit)

9. Sound Bytes
 When editing your work, you will have many jump cuts
because you would have picked certain sound bytes
from all your interviews and put them together to form
a story.
 This is when cut-a-ways or B-roll is important to cover
up the jump cuts.

10. What is a Feature Story?
 A feature story is not about the news.
 A feature story is about human interest.
 We can call a feature story 'people stories,' or
narratives about the human element of life.
 They can be about almost anything:
 Your drive from deep south to class every day.
 Your neighbor who was flooded out after the heavy
rain.

11. What is a Feature Story?
 Feature stories are not all just fluff pieces (an
unimportant news article)
 Features can be written to raise awareness about a
cause or an issue.
 A story about the day you met your best friend on the
boat to Tobago is going to be totally different from a
story about your sister kidnapped in the mall; however,
they are both still considered feature stories

12. What is a Feature Story?
 A feature story is all about the details
 A picture of a person, event, or place on the front page
makes your topic come alive to the reader.
 They allow a writer to be creative.
 It is not only about facts; feature stories are more about
storytelling and weaving an interesting narrative

13. Example of a Feature Story
from the Trinidad Express
“Rats rule Charlotte Street”

14. Example of a Feature Story
from the Guardian
 Tabaquite member of Parliamant Suruj Rambachan is
asking Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein how
the Ministry could spend $12 million in wages and
salaries for public health in Port of Spain when rats
are still running along Charlotte Street.

15. Narration
 Narration refers to the way that a story is told, and
so belongs to the level of discourse (although in first-
person narration it may be that the narrator also plays
a role in the development of the story itself).

16. Narration
 The different kinds of narration are categorized by each
one's primary grammatical stance: either
 1) the narrator speaks from within the story and, so,
uses "I" to refer to him- or herself. In other words, the
narrator is a character of some sort in the story itself,
even if he is only a passive observer; or
 2) the narrator speaks from outside the story and never
uses "I”

17. Narration and Voice
 Narrative voice is a related topic to think about, and
especially important in third person stories.
 First person narratives already have a narrator built
in; the narrative voice is the teller's voice. (Voice-
over)
 POV and over-the-shoulder shots are usually used to
depict a narrative voice or first-person narration.

18. Narration and Voice
 Third person point of view is any story told in the
grammatical third person, i.e. without using "I" or
"we”. It is told by a narrator who is not part of the
story and generally uses pronouns such as: he, she,
it, they, them, him, her, its, etc. There are three types
of third person narration: Omniscient or Third Person
Omniscient, Third Person limited and Third Person
objective “Omniscient” means all-knowing.

19. Third person omniscient
 Third person omniscient is a point of view where the
narrator knows all the thoughts, actions, and feelings
of all characters. The author may move from character
to character to show how each one contributes to the
plot.

20. Third Person Limited
 In third person limited the narrator only knows the
thoughts and feelings of one character. All characters
are described using pronouns, such as 'they,' 'he,' and
'she.' But, one character is closely followed throughout
the story, and it is typically a main character.
 A good example is when a camera is placed over the
shoulder of a character and the camera follows the
person closely throughout a film. We stick with that
person throughout the film hearing his/her thoughts
while seeing everything else in the film.

21. Third Person Objective
 The narrator describes what is happening, but does
not know what anyone is thinking, and does not give
opinions about what is happening.

22. Example of third person
Limited, Omniscient and
Objective
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKi56cPUSFk