Opens

I got an email asking for ideas on opens so here goes...

Sometime's it's fun to treat them like mini-pkgs. Say you have a minute-- pick the top story, if warranted, and devote the whole minute to it. Pick nats and short sots to combine to give people a sense of waht's coming next-- but not give it all away. Build interest.

Or you could pick two or three different stories and grab a bit of nats and one sot for each and track them.

Or if it's something big where there's a great visual element (let's say a tornado or a big storm) you could use nats full... maybe a graph of vo after the nats. Then go out to anchors for a graph on cam and pop to triple boxes to show team coverage. Boom, get to it.

I am a big fan of content driving form and not the other way around. Take risks. Have fun with your show. I do like quick pacing though.. so watch your opens from previous shows... if you sense youself getting bored.. it's time to start putting in some nats or sots to change it up. This is also where you can show your stuff-- what a great writer you are. Find the best editor in your shop and let them handle your opens on a regular basis.