Both Sides of the Fence

Some artists paint with oils, other prefer to pencil sketch. Many can do both, but choose one over the other. While most prefer to use canvas, here in the south it’s not unusual to find a beautiful landscape painted across an old saw blade.

I’ve known plumbers good with wiring and dump truck drivers who can easily operate a Grade-all. The point is, just because you choose one aspect of an artistic endeavor to concentrate your talent, it doesn’t mean you don’t occasionally branch out and produce work outside your norm.

The same is true for TV News. I’m a “News Photographer”. I prefer to use my lens and editing talents to tell my part of the story. But occasionally I write news stories, and I’m pretty good at that. If it wasn’t for my southern accent and my status as “attractively challenged” I might just appear on camera too.

I know some reporters who are pretty good with shooting and editing, and occasionally they’ll dive into that part of the artistic effort.

Some people in the business will tell you that the landscape is changing, that you do more these days than just your job. It’s more with less. But the underlying concept has not changed at all. The best people in the business have always been able to do more than “just their job”. The best people in this business can do, and understand, many aspect of the artistic endeavor that is TV News.

TV News is about “the story”, it’s using pictures and natural sound, it’s about good writing and good delivery of that writing. TV News is about telling an interesting story with compelling video and interesting video editing. It’s about taking the viewer someplace else.

I’m reminded of this recently by a little story out of Phoenix, produced by “News Photographer” Lynn French. She didn’t shoot most of the story, although what she did shoot was very well shot. The most important thing Lynn did with this story was recognize it IS a STORY. So she stepped outside her norm to produce a story people will talk about for some time to come.   

So when you meet a “News Photographer” or a “Reporter” or a “Video Editor”, don’t button hole ‘em into a cliché you think they may be. After all, I bet Monet’s “The Wheat Field” would have looked great painted across an old saw blade.