KARE-11′s Boyd Huppert is an amazing storyteller.  A workshop with him may be just about equivalent to a master class in TV news.  At the Excellence in Journalism conference, he shared some of the things he wished he had known when he first started reporting — here are Advancing the Story’s favorites:

1.  Keep interview subjects pointed toward the action.

TV journalists tend to frame interviews so that the interest or the action is going on behind the interview subject.  For example, we question people with the long line of protestors or the crumpled cars in the background of the shot.  Huppert says that’s a  missed opportunity.

“Action is only half as strong without the reaction,” said Huppert. Check out this story and note how the interview with the neighbor is framed to keep his and the viewers’ focus on the action.

2.  Natural sound is a story’s best throttle.

“Every story has a pace,” Huppert said.  “Nat sound is the throttle to speed up or slow down the story.  The quick bursts of sound in the helicopter rescue story pick up the pace.”

In this story about a farmer’s tribute to the love of his life, Huppert uses nat sound to slow it down.

“You can use it to reveal things you don’t have to say.  My advice is to use fewer words to leave more space for natural sound.”

3.  Use characters, emotion or concepts to focus the story.

Every story is better with a strong focus and Huppert defines it this way.  “Focus is the character, emotion or concept that holds together the disconnected pieces of the story.”

For this piece about gun control, Huppert and his photographer got the assignment too late to attend the legislative hearing, but they turned the problem into the solution, using the concept of debate to make the ongoing discussion in the hallway the focus of the story.

And as always, Huppert’s great writing is evident.  Be sure to listen for the last line of the package.