Nat Pack Ideas

[detroitsprings]

I saw a post on here sometime ago, about a bunch of Nat Ideas, would love to see some more...

A few I have but not yet done....

How to make Apple Cider
Chimney Sweeper
Glass Blower
Baseball Grounds Crew

 

[woodsiecam]

Seems like lately, I don't have the freedom I once did to go out and shoot the glass blower or the chimney sweeper... so I've been collecting nat pack ideas to better tell the BS stories that the newsroom forces on us. In these instances, it's more about the characters than the event.

For instance, I ran into a great one at a gas station near by. Lady that works there is hilarious, would make for GREAT tv. So I put a bug in her ear about doing a story with her some time down the road and she seemed very receptive. This way, the next time the station wants ANOTHER gas price story, or ANOTHER travel story, etc, I've got her in my back pocket for a way to do the story AND keep it watchable.

Of course, with high turnover jobs like hers, you need to keep your list fresh. But at least you have a list to begin with.

 

[eb]

I saw a post on here sometime ago, about a bunch of Nat Ideas, would love to see some more...

A few I have but not yet done....

How to make Apple Cider
Chimney Sweeper
Glass Blower
Baseball Grounds Crew

I am not sure of your experience level, etc... so not exactly sure where you're coming from...

But it appears you are looking for a nats pack simply to work on your skills... your Craft. That's good, that you want to fine tune, or sharpen your skills. Find those visual stories and do it. But try to get out of the habit right now, of putting the cart before the horse. Look at your job as providing useful, solid, meaningful Content to viewers. So seek first the Content. What is your story exactly? Where does it go? Who really cares? Once you find that.... then look even deeper for content. What's the story within the story? (Surprises, layers) So work on your content more. Read the paper. Listen to the news. Find something relevent.... like a Glass Blower who is going out of business because of higher taxes, or the baseball grounds crew that half of them has the Swine Flu, and so the local high school team is pitching in to help.... Those are lame examples, but hopefully you get the point. TRY harder to find REAL news or really really interesting twists.

Go ahead and get busy. Work with producers and managers to find visual stories (good luck with that When young photographers get started, they are mainly working on their shooting and editing.... not their storytelling. A good story ... combined with good shooting and editing is what you need to strive for. Have fun.

 

[newsshooter]

eb is right find the story inside the Nat sound piece and bring it out as the surprise. The examples are very clique. We have all done them. Maybe you could do the chimney sweep story after some huge house fire this winter. There will be a house fire do to not having the chimney clean. I always wanted to do the turkey farming story right before Thansgiving or on Thanksgiving. Sometimes I do find the person or thing that is cool and has no relavance to news. They are just GREAT TV. Shoot your piece then sell it to the producers. Where do you live? Look around... there are nat sound pkgs all over the place.

 

[cameradog]

The thing is that the majority of stories you shoot with a reporter could be nat packs or interview packs, even stories that aren't very visual. More often than not, you have or can get the sound you need in your interviews to be able to tell the entire story without the reporter's track. You just don't normally shoot them that way. The trap most photogs fall into is to think that only certain kinds of stories can be nat packs, while GA and spot news can't.

If you want to get really good at nat packs, try turning your daily turn stories as nat packs, under the same deadlines you would have for a reporter package. The result doesn't have to be beautiful. It just has to tell a coherent story with the interviews and pictures. I've done interview packs that told the story with no b-roll or nat breaks at all, just the newsmakers themselves in their own words.

Don't pigeonhole yourself by looking for "a bunch of Nat Ideas." If you do, you'll end up with the same masturbatory garbage everyone else does, which only impresses other photogs and causes the thumb your viewer has on the remote to start itching.