Did you know that the typical length of a story you see on WRAL-TV is about 1 minute and 30 seconds? It usually takes a reporter and photographer one work day to complete a story.
Producer Clay Johnson and photographer Jay Jennings make up the documentary team, which was created in 2004 by Capitol Broadcasting Company CEO Jim Goodmon. Before that, WRAL's news department produced them.
"We cover very broad and complex topics, sometimes doing in-depth interviews with more than a dozen people and shooting 10-15 hours of footage," said Clay. "I don’t think people understand the challenge of paring all of that down to 22 minutes yet still providing a balanced, fair, accurate presentation of the topic."
Clay and Jay try to produce about seven, 30-minute documentaries a year. It takes a team effort to pick the topics they cover.
"When we created the documentary unit, I sat down with Jim Goodmon, the general manager, the programming director and the news director and we had a brainstorming session to come up with every topic we could think of and created a 'master list,'" said Clay. "Topics are always being added to and deleted from the list."
WRAL's "Focal Point" documentaries are usually issue-oriented, but Clay and Jay work on other long-term projects as well.
When asked what project he is most proud of, Clay had a hard time naming just one.
Clay and Jay work in tandem to produce the documentaries and get them to air.
"I research the topic and come up with a concept of how the topic will be presented," said Clay. "I determine who we will interview and what supporting visuals will be needed and schedule the interviews. I also conduct the interviews, though I try to arrange for our hosts to do one or two key interviews for each documentary. I later log all of the interviews and write the documentary script. Jay does all of the photography and editing. He also works with me to help develop a look and feel for each documentary. He often chooses the music and works to find effects that will help enhance each program. Jay also tracks down any needed file footage from the news archive and outside sources."
Learn more about some of WRAL's documentaries:
Related Topics
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.