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These seven clips were shown as part of the BPJ workshop held in Orlando, Florida, January 1113, 2002.
 Campaign Confidential
WNET  New York, N.Y.
air date » 10.Sept.01
clip run time » 10:19
The 2001 New York mayoral primary had many contenders, and WNET/Thirteen wanted to show their viewers a portrait of The Men Who Would Be Mayor. The station hired independent producer John Alpert to follow the candidates on the campaign trail and into their homes over the course of several weeks, to create a picture of their public and private lives. The cinema verité style brings a feeling of honesty and freshness, and theres lots of humor to keep viewers tuned in.
Balance of Power
WNET New York, N.Y.
clip run time » 5:32
WNET/Thirteen put together an hour-long documentary about the personalities that dominate the New York Statehouse, including the issue of lobby and campaign reform. This excerpt shows how they used voices other than the key politicians to tell the story: here, a lawyer fighting for reform and the Students4Reform.org group he organized.
Unfinished Business/Can They Do It?: Housing & Schools
WNBC  New York, New York
air date » 3-7.Sep.01
Schools run time » 5:24
Housing run time » 10:17
In the week before the New York Mayoral primary, WNBC ran five expanded segments covering issues important to voters. Political reporter Jay DeDapper and government affairs reporter Melissa Russo teamed up on each piece. They begin by describing through personal stories a particular piece of unfinished business (these clips feature improving schools and creating affordable housing; they also did welfare, public safety, and jobs/economy). This is followed with statements by each of the six candidates, declaring how they would solve the problem. The reporters then evaluate the feasibility of these campaign claims. Its an effective way of combining citizen voices and truth checks in an issues piece.
[DeDapper notes that compared to the previous week, ratings were up in this quarter-hour. For the week, the show averaged a full rating point higher.]
Two Story Approaches: Traffic
developed for BPJ by NewsLab : Washington, D.C.
clip run time » 4:15
In these two stories produced by NewsLab for a BPJ workshop, reporter Elliot Lewis shows us differing approaches to covering an important local issue traffic. The first clip reflects a fairly standard way of presenting the positions and goals of the two Virginia gubernatorial candidates. By comparison, the second clip builds a framework using a citizen driving to work. The result is more memorable, more meaningful to viewers.
Two Story Approaches: School Prayer
developed for BPJ by Boa Vista Creative, Austin, Texas
clip run time » 4:06
Alan Berg produced this pair for the BPJ workshop in Orlando, when we wanted to explore ways of improving upon conventional storytelling techniques, particularly in a short form suitable for commercial stations. In the first example, Alan (former Austin Bureau Chief for WFAA in Dallas) set up the first piece as a typical day-of-event shoot lead with footage from outside the church rally, brief bites from someone in opposition, someone in support, etc. The second piece positions the issue within a portrait of the community, creating a more informative and engaging story. The running time is the same, but it does a better job of explaining why the issue of school prayer is important to this town.
Profile of a Candidate: Carolyn McCarthy
clip run time » 10:13
Independent producer Gini Sikes created this piece especially for our Orlando workshop, as an example of a candidate profile that looks for motivating forces that drive a person to run for office. Sikes paints a fascinating portrait of Carolyn McCarthy, who went from homemaker to gun control advocate to U.S. Representative. It should be noted that this piece was not developed for air, but rather to show interesting storytelling approaches to the candidate profile model (and if you think Ginis use of music is unusual, take a look at this excerpt from the Where Where You at 22? which she produced for MTV during the 2000 presidential campaign).
How to Do an Ad Watch
KING Seattle, Washington
clip run time » 23:15
Weve often used ad watches from KING in Seattle as excellent examples of this particular format. Reporter Robert Mak and producer Mike Cate created a how-to piece for us: in this anatomy of an ad watch, youll get tips on research, preparing graphics, working with the candidates, and ideas for different approaches to commercials. Reponse to KINGs ad watches in 2000 was so strong (high ratings, lots of email comments), they actually repackaged many of their ad watches into a successful hour-long special!
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