Sports Anchor/Reporter
VOSOTS
A VOSOT is an anchor's best friend. Not only do SOTs, which stands for "sound on tape" add credibility to the story you're trying to tell, it also offers the anchor or reporter to have a break from having to continue to talk. Sometimes a VOSOT is just as, if not more effective than a Package is. Here are some of my favorites from WRDW, WBKB, and WYFF.
2021 World Series Preview
Interacting with the crowd comes with the territory when you're live. I had a preview written and ready to go, but the Astros fan in this video gave me little choice but to role with the punches. I always made it a point not to be biased, but you also have to know your audience. Very few reporters will ever call out their photographer the way I did, however it was a continuity that became a schtick of my coverage. If you watch the World Series Facebook live in the anchor reads page, you'll hear me talk to Gary quite a bit. He may not be a listed member of the news team, but photographer deserve a lot more credit than they get,
2021 MiLB Home Opener
I often found myself the Guinea Pig at my previous employer. Sometimes I didn't mind it. I was the first producer to utilize a dual-pano live background with 2 reporters in our pano at the same time, and I often found myself testing the limits of our gear's range. I do like to be experimental and try to find more fun and different ways to make a live hit a little more interesting. This one was inspired by Gary who came up with the idea so that our live hit wasn't stagnant. You can see the rain warning at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately opening day was a rainout that year.
2020 Masters Weather Concerns
Weather was as much a talking point of the November Masters as Tiger Woods. No one was really sure what to expect from the course and what kind of condition it wold be in. The Greens were certainly less firm and as we learned, over seeding can also play a factor. Sometimes less is more, and I think in this live hit I could've simplified what I was trying to say and make it a bit more clear. Kevin Kisner does a great job bailing me out with his line, as does my anchor Richard who also helps clarify why we care about Kis by mentioning he's a local favorite. Kevin grew up in Aiken, went to UGA, and always gets a good cheer, not to mention he's one of the most popular players on tour.
2021 MiLB Home Opener
Following the rain out for the GreenJackets home opener, I went back to SRP Park for round 2. Luckily the weather was on my side this time around. When it comes to talking about minor league managers, very few stay with a team for more than a year. Usually this is just a stepping stone to get to another organization or get another coaching role at a higher level. The managers aren't nearly as important in the minors as they are in the majors. At the same time, when your manager is a former big leaguer and an All-Star, it's definitely something to get a little more excited about. This guy is joining our community and leading our team, it's important to give the manager some early public confidence and humanize them before the season gets going. Due to COVID protocols, I was not able to interview Michael in-person. Some Broll of his playing days would have to do.
2020 Masters Brooks vs Bryson
I want to take a second to point out progression. In the Masters Weather Concerns clip, it's 4:01pm. This hit is at 4:33pm the same day. I knew I was a bit wordy in my last live hit, and I wanted to make things easier. I definitely was able to accomplish that. Brooks Koepka and Bryon DeChambeau hadn't hit their peak of beef just yet. Bryson had already made his 6 pack joke about Koepka's physique, and Brooks clapped back with a picture of his trophies from past majors he'd won. Bryson's workouts and analytics were the polar opposite to Koepka's show up and play. I've always appreciated how blunt Koepka is and makes for a very contrast between how elaborate DeChambeau is. I was very critial of that last live hit at 4:01, but this was a great way to bounce back. It was also my 25th birthday!
2018 High School Basketball
Basketball is both sides of the coin. It's either incredibly to shoot, or incredibly difficult. The big balancing act comes between getting enough baskets to actually tell the story vs over shooting and staying longer than you have. This was an incredibly low scoring game that was shot for shot just about the entire time. I couldn't pick who was going to win in advance just because of how slow this game progressed and how close it was the entire time. I did get rewarded with a buzzer beater. Still, this was a great learning experience. I probably should've gotten tighter or closer with the closing shot and the winning team. I still think back to this game whenever I wanted to leave a basketball game early if it was too close to call. Visually, having that end celebration and the winning basket was really what made this entire VO worthwhile.
2019 High School Basketball
In the highlights section, you get to see a few clips from this game about the emotions that go with basketball. It depends on the team and the matchup, but you can definitely get a lot of emotions when the stars line up. When you think of an emotional sports moment, many times it's about the end and accomplishing something. In this case, it was much more about the actual process of getting to the end and the emotions throughout.
2019 High School Hockey
I've talked about high school hockey in another section. Some games deserve a little more attention and effort. For example, in this one I drove over an hour to Gaylord, Michigan to get some great conference playoff action. Cold opens are really hit or miss, generally speaking you want to get right into the action. I'm a big chronological guy, I don't like breaking continuity when it comes to telling a story. If a coach is kind enough to let you into a locker room with a camera, you've got to take advantage of it. Was it the most hype speech in the world? Absolutely not, but it was still a nice double establisher. If you're not picking up on things during a game, you're not doing your job well as a reporter.