How My Sci/Tech Stories Come About

I will explain how my science/tech packages on FoxCT come about. The choice of topic is mine. I appreciate the freedom and everyone else is glad not to have the responsibility!

I was kvetching a little bit earlier on Facebook. Writing tech stories is a bottomless pit. I have a deadlines now. Gotta find something new every time.

I will explain how my science/tech packages on FoxCT come about. The choice of topic is mine. I appreciate the freedom and everyone else is glad not to have the responsibility!

I find a topic then research. It’s important to know more than what will be reported. You risk screwing up the nuances otherwise.

I look at publications, doctoral dissertations, even Wikipedia. I get as deep as I can. Some subjects are quite complex. It’s tough.

Next I go searching for video. If a university did research there is often high quality video available online. I find what I can. If you choose something popular to hobbyists there’s always huge video availability.

That reminds me — amateur rocketeers before this week is up. Fun, interesting and extremely visible. High quality video abounds!

Next is writing. I write my words to support the video. Every scene should have a purpose. Then I rewrite.

It’s short, 90 to 100 seconds. Tight writing. Well, I try.

In many cases this will be the viewer’s entire cursory knowledge of a subject. I try to include some ‘gee whiz,’ something to remember.

The stories are written in my voice. They represent my sensibility.

We have a booth overlooking I-84 and the Flower Street grade crossing. That’s where I cut the audio.

The editor takes over at this point. Most days that’s KChill. Wednesday Tom Carl. The editor holds the fate of the package in his/her hands. They are our surgeons.

They use Final Cut Pro. They’re organized. They’re fast. It astounds me how quickly a package can come together, but they we do it every day.

There’s no videotape involved. Everything moves machine-to-machine then into a customized video server which plays out to air.

Ten seconds later I’m looking for another story for tomorrow.

6 thoughts on “How My Sci/Tech Stories Come About”

  1. I do love watching your tech stories…..just your enthusiasm alone gets me hooked. By the way a long time ago you did a blog about Google Chrome…..because of that story I converted to a Chrome user, have helped countless friends see the light, and they never go back. Just wanted to say “thanks”!

  2. How about a piece about some of the neat webcams that can be found online – ie, pandas, penguins, hummingbirds, etc. I’m sure there’s more that I haven’t come across.

  3. Geoff, this is fascinating stuff. It’s way beyond my feeble mind to comprehend how you do it all, but very exciting to be introduced to subjects I normally would never know.

    By the way, and off topic, kindly notice my correct use of an apostrophe in the second sentence. My feeble mind isn’t so feeble with punctuation.

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