Even though you might have no idea what a VO or VO/SOT is, I’m sure you are more familiar with them than you think if you have ever watched the daily news. These are terms used in the television industry that are short for "voice-over" and "voice-over to sound on tape." Before taking my Broadcast News course I had no idea what either of these were, but I now understand that they are a very important part of a newscast.
A voice-over is a short story, usually around 30 seconds, that is read by an anchor that also incorporates video. The anchor reads the story over the video hence the name “voice-over.” As the anchor reads the story, the footage changes accordingly. For example, my first project was a voice over and when I mentioned Cooper Hall the video was a shot of Cooper Hall. When I was talking about construction the footage or “b-roll” was of construction workers using heavy machinery. If the video does not match the copy, it is known as wallpaper video. This is when video is used just for the sake of using video, which is usually inappropriate.
For my second project I will create a VO/SOT. This is similar to the VO but is about a minute longer and includes a sound bite of someone being interviewed. The voice-over leads up to and introduces the sound bite. After the sound bite the anchor ends the story on camera. Since I will be continuing my story on construction on campus, I will interview a student who has classes near the construction and ask them how much the closure of sidewalks interferes with their commute between classes.
Knowing how to produce a VO and VO/SOT will be very useful to me in my future career as a producer. The show producers are usually responsible for deciding the content of these short stories and how they are put together. Every story you see on the news is a VO, VO/SOT, or a reporter package (a story done by a reporter that includes narration, bites, a stand-up, and accompanying video with natural sound). Next time you watch the news, see if you can distinguish these different types of stories.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
When I clicked on this I saw that in the beginning it said "Even though you might have no idea what a VO or VO/SOT is, I’m sure you are more familiar with them than you think if you have ever watched the daily news." I honestly did not think that I would have any idea what those foreign acronyms were regardless of whatever explanation was to follow. I never even watch the news but I was surprised when I read more and saw that I actually DID know what those were! I think that the video part is very effective, especially living in Florida and being so plagued by hurricanes. Whenever I hear them talking on the news about how the weather is looking it never seems very serious but when they incorporate a video of a person at the beach or near a wrecked home and I can see the wind and rain and destruction it gives me a much clearer picture of what's happening. It must be really interesting to learn to do this!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf your website gets a great deal of traffic, more than 100,000 impressions per month, then you need to have the ability to join a great banner network's ad film program.
ReplyDeletePractically everyone can make a video with todays readily available technology. Learn more about tube promaster click on this site.
ReplyDelete