Liveshots

A couple things to remember on liveshots...

First, it's important to communicate with your crews. Give them cues-- 5 minutes out.. 1 minute.. 30... and then during the liveshot, tell them if they're in pkg or video or sound. This is especially important for the photographer who made be doing a move for you live... or may need to use the break of a pkg or sot to adjust his/her shot.

Also for lives, encourage your reporters to move around and show stuff if warranted. Standing in one place is boring especially when there's something to show. Encourage people to take risks in their storytelling. Encourage creative thinking and ideas by giving good feedback when you see them done in your show. And if something you try doesn't work out? So what? It's live TV not brain surgery.

Finally, if there is more than one hit, consider trying to change up each hit. So maybe you focus on one person and one area in this hit... another person and another area in the next. You can encourage this by checking in with the reporter at the end of a hit... "What are you doing for the next one?"

ABOVE ALL, if something is interesting and it is happening live, SHOW IT!! I was watching some live winter weather coverage and there was a live crew near a road that had iced over. At the end of the reporter's liveshot, he points out the car that is just now going around all the other cars toward the big ice patch on the road. The car starts sliding... and .... they go back to studio. ARG! What happened? In that case, the reporter could have said, "I know we need to wrap up, but let's just watch this guy... this is why these storms are so dangerous..." Or the anchor could have jumped in "Hey Bob, can we keep that camera up? Let's see what happened with that car."