Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Re-voicing other packages

Every station does it. They have their local anchors re-voice a network or syndicated package in an attempt to make the viewer think it was their own.

Back in the day we had a service that sent us regular medical packages to voice. Slight problem...they produced all the packages in New York City. We were in the South and inevitably there'd be a sound bite from a doctor that sounded like this:

"Ya need ta tawk to ya doctah when ya hava problem."

No viewer would possibly believe the story was produced locally.

On the occasion they'd send a piece without a physician who didn't talk in Brooklynese, we'd get calls from viewers wanting an appointment with the guy... and then we had to confess he was in New York.

You can get around this problem easily by taking a little time to include someone local in your package. You can still use the same b-roll from the original piece, but don't send up a red flag to viewers that the story is not your own.

--

No comments: