Mini assignment week 5: video story narrative structure in bullet point form

Instructions: This mini assignment is designed to help you to structure the narrative of your video stories while you are still in the field reporting. It’s not about forming a polished video edit but instead about ensuring that you are clear about the basic story structure for your video(s) and that you have the sound bytes and the visuals you need when you come to sit down and edit. It should reinforce concepts that have already been taught, and demonstrate how to write your narrative out on paper both in bullet point form and as a final detailed script. You will need to send tutors scripts, first in bullet points — by Monday 20th June — and later in a final detailed form in the following weeks . This way we can support you more easily through your reporting and editing period.

It’s critical to think about your story structure before and while you are shooting, not only at the editing period — this ensures that you have all story components you need before you leave the field. By now you all have some initial reporting done so please follow the steps and for next Monday and make a bullet point narrative structure for your video or videos.

Steps for assignment:

1: First read the original script. This was made after detailed research but before any reporting or even going to the field. At this stage we are just trying to anticipate the storyline. You will see the final video has many similarities but also many changes according to what we found in the field.

The original script is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yajhgrhppy43wvv/Original%20Script%20Idea%20after%20research%20but%20no%20reporting.pdf?dl=0

2: Watch the video — take note of the structure there is a clear message and a clear beginning, middle and end. (Find the password for the video in your email).

3: Read and look carefully at the bullet point list and the final script. See how we adapted things and the thought process behind the story arc (hook, exposition, rising tension, climax, resolution and kicker).

4: For your main video story, make a bullet point list of story structure. If possible fill in more detail with an actual script, filling in details of what shots and sound bytes you will need. Make your bullet point narrative arc by Monday 20th June. Submit in your dropbox folder in the video section as a word document.

5: Make a shot and question list to ensure you get all the assets that you need to edit your video later.

6: Later, once you have done all your reporting you can go on to your paper cut, and refine things on your timeline.

7: Later, once you have things almost perfect on your timeline you can make a final script so that teachers can view. This means that it will be easy for us to make notes and suggested changes on your videos.

MORE NOTES:

You can see that this video story is very short and very simplified, I had just two days to film and had to travel long distances, there was also heavy rain to contend with. If it had been a news assignment, I would have perhaps focused more on Bimala’s story and bought out more nuance and complexity. For example, even though Bimala is back home, she missed so much schooling that she can’t re enter — she’s only 13 but spends a lot of her day helping her elder sister care for her children and disabled husband. Things are much better and safer for her, but still not great. You will approach your stories from a news angle, you will also have a much longer reporting period. Still the same steps apply and you should be plotting out your narrative structure as you report.