Video in Video

I saw a couple uses of video boxes that I thought were interesting.

One was during a pkg. A small box with video came up with a snipe teasing a story at 6pm. So you're watching a story (for example) about politics and a small box down near where the fonts go pops up with video of overweight people with a title next to it "How to lose weight, at 6."

On that particular usage, I'm lukewarm. I don't hate it but I don't love it either. If I were EP there I'd probably want to see it done for a week to see if it grows on me. Of course you'd have to be very careful that what you're teasing is appropriate to run inside the other story.

The next use of a video box I liked a bunch. The weather guy was standing next to a chroma key map and they had about three boxes pop out one at a time showing the bad weather around town. Each box popped out, he talked about ten or fifteen and then it popped back. Looked super smooth. Nice way to highlight talent and still have video to boot. How else could you use this? Anytime you have multiples... so for a crime reporter... maybe there's a bunch of burglaries... "The first one was here... the second here.." Or whatever.

The point is-- try stuff. Be adventurous. Take risks with your show. Sit down with your director. Maybe he/she has some ideas to try. Start simple and go from there. If you hate it, you can always never do it again.