When most TV stations produce new promos for their news, the production of the spots are well-planned, sometimes story-boarded and nearly always carefully scripted. Before one frame of video is shot, the outcome is mostly a forgone conclusion. And that makes sense. But sometimes, serendipity plays a role. I once received a letter (yes, snail […]
When most TV stations produce new promos for their news, the production of the spots are well-planned, sometimes story-boarded and nearly always carefully scripted. Before one frame of video is shot, the outcome is mostly a forgone conclusion. And that makes sense.
But sometimes, serendipity plays a role.
I once received a letter (yes, snail mail, back before the days of email) from a viewer who happened to have the same name as our well-known, chief meteorologist. In the letter, he described the fun reactions that happen when people hear his name, like getting great reservations at restaurants.
I invited the guy to the station sight unseen, and when the time came, I shot the interaction between him and our chief, and edited it into a nice spot.
I then found two other people in town with the same names as our other two meteorologists and repeated the process to create a nice three-spot campaign. (Unfortunately, I can’t find examples of any of those spots anywhere.)
Russ Nelligan, WCVB’s creative services director, knew that his morning team was going to be shooting a live shot for Good Morning America, in Quincy Market, a popular downtown Boston location where he knew there would be a large crowd.
He and his staff thought that would be a unique opportunity to see his morning news personalities talking and interacting with a group of people. So his staff brainstormed and came up with some questions that would break the ice with people and get them talking about mornings and the role WCVB’s EyeOpener played in their morning routines.
Nelligan says the whole shoot took less than an hour.
“The spots have a fun energy that reflects how comfortable the morning team is with each other. WCVB’s EyeOpener has a good little streak of success going. We’ve been No. 1 at 6 a.m. for 55 straight books.”
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