Yannick Boussaert : Autofocus

Artist profile

2009-11-29T10:54:00.002-07:00

Sometimes you are sure the story you are about to make is an easy one.

I was on my way to follow Sutu Forte, a pianist, to do a profile story an her. The occasion was a concert held in the Missouri Center for the Art. I went to one of the rehearsal to gather nat sounds and make the interview. I had full access and was able to conduct interviews with different artists.

But Sutu was the hardest interview I had in month. She was not reluctant to it, but she was not an interviewee/interviewer relationship. She was adressing her answer directly to me and had a tone not suitable for broadcast. I tried several things to get her back on the track. I changed my personal tone to sound as professional and serious as I could and ask the question several times.

Finally, she had a good tone and gave me great sound bites. She remained an artist with a touch of crazyness but explained what I wanted her to describe for the listeners.

Quote

2009-10-21T13:01:00.000-06:00

"Radio is sounding conversational... well... conversational as if we were super super super smart"

Janet Saïdi
KBIA News Director
October 21st 2009

This American Life : More is Less

2009-10-14T19:36:00.004-06:00

I'm listening to my favorite NPR broadcast while writing this post. It's the Chicago Public Radio's This American Life. I had heard about it but never listened to it. I must say I'm amazed.
I thought, even NPR and NPR affiliate (such as KBIA the local radio I'm working for) have a good reputation, equal to what the BBC is in Great Britain, and better than our national public radio, Radio France, I thought "this is the United States, nobody will never air long, in-depth radio story". And by this, I mean, who would listen to such long stories ?

I was wrong. Badly wrong. I haven't checked the number of listeners or people downloading the podcast, but I'm sure it's huge. Because it's splendid. Now that I'm getting used to the American storytelling and editing, I think these stories are everything I should try to do and actually do.
You can relate to them easily, each one of them has a character who tells his story. Then the journalist gives context. I've just heard a long sound bite, what we would call an interview. But in fact it was a conversation between the journalist and the interviewee. When the journalist came back to her script her tone, and words were the same. No transition.

Another thing amazed me. On her way to interview a Lady who had issues with her health care insurance, the journalist turned her recorder on. Before introducing her sound bite she has this amazing natural sound of the lady welcoming her. Zoom! I was in the Lady's house.

Next time I go on the field, I'll press the "REC" button a 100 feet before I get to the place.

Dealing with anger

2009-10-12T14:43:00.003-06:00

During the last story I cover I encountered a problem I had not forecast. For the problem did not occur during the report on the field but after. I was doing a story on a local coffee shop called Lakota. I found the story by talking with the waitresses there. They told me that summer had been really difficult for them and for the business. They accepted making sacrifices to keep it running, and keep their job. Now things are better. The story was good and made a good example of Ben Bernanke statement about the end of the recession.

I approach the owner of the place, Skip Ducharme. When I heard his name I immediately tried to connect with him. "This is a French name!", anything good to make him feel comfortable, and forget about the fact we were having an interview. I had the impression that everything was all right. I ask matter of fact questions about his business and its finances. Skip answered them.

Back in the newsroom the next day, I was told that Skip had called, furious with my question, especially the finances related ones. Six months ago, I don't how I would have reacted to this. I'm almost sure I would have felt bad, wondering if I had made a mistake. But now I feel safe. I think I know my job. I think I have been clear with him right in the beginning by exposing my motives and what the story was going to be about.

Furthermore, I asked questions -that seemed normal to me when doing a story about the crisis- and he answered them without hesitation. If he had told me, "I'm not going to answer this", I would have tried to make him talk, of course, but the final decision was his. He made that decision when he chose to answer my question.

Recipe to change bad luck into good luck

2009-09-26T14:22:00.005-06:00

This week I had bad luck. Or I felt so. Every each story I was planning on doing just let me down. I went to the City Council hoping for some story idea. I spent four hours there for almost nothing. Though I learned a little more on how the local democracy works in the USA. The decision making process is interesting. I was puzzled in the beginning with private companies turning in reports and offering option, of course fitting with their well-understood interest.
Then I was relieved to see that the councilmen also had their own agenda to follow, which is make sure the citizens would be pleased with the decision.

Anyway, on Thursday morning I had nothing. I knew there was a "prayer vigil" in front of the Planned Parenthood in Columbia. This a national movement organized by pro-lifers. I was monitoring the local pro-choice associations to see what their reaction would be. They had planned for a peaceful counter-protest this evening. I asked my editors in KBIA if I could go and cover it. They give me their agreement but warned me that there was little chance the story will be aired. Because abortion is a burning issue, they told me I had to gather all opinions to get a balanced story. Fair enough.

I got in front of the Planned Parenthood almost half an hour before the counter protesters. So I had time to gather nat sounds and interview the pro-lifers during a quiet moment. When Cathy, the lady in charge, realized I was French, I thought it was going to be a problem. I guess French are known not be very religious people, and she must have assumed I was biased right in the beginning. I interviewed her, and made her feel more comfortable. I wanted to know what was her position, talk about the strategy (why 40 days in row, would not one big protest be more effective?) and also have her as a character for my story. She turned out to have an interesting story to tell. Whether you agree or not with her is not the problem, you have to give her credit for her commitment: 8 hours per day, outside, praying and giving advices to the women going into Planned Parenthood. I had one character.
Because I was there early I was able to get her reaction live when the counter protesters arrived.

They say that the wheel of Luck always turns back in your favor at some point. But you can help it turn a little more quickly. The counter protest was peaceful but noisier than the people praying. Always a good thing for radio. I quickly noticed that the drivers were interacting with them, hostile reactions or friendly ones. So when I interviewed Danielle, the leader of the counter protesters I took care to pop my question about the drivers' reaction when the light turned green. I was hoping to get honking while she was saying people honk. I got better than that. In 22 seconds I have the perfect soundbite with nothing to edit at all, just cut in, cut out. Here is an extract of my script.

Danielle speaking: Some people are honking; some people make rude gestures. It is what it is, but some people...
Lady in a car: Fuck you!
Danielle continuing: ...are saying that, and people are showing support so... it is really every en of the spectrum
Question: How do you know ?
Danielle: You know, you don't know.

I just have to find the "beep" sound on my software to hide the rude word. I would have to do the same in France.

Qu'est-ce qui a valeur d'information ?

2009-09-13T17:09:00.003-06:00

Depuis mon arrivée aux Etats-Unis, il m'a été donné de voir plusieurs reportages télévisés. On dit que les standards journalistiques sont différents entre la France et les USA. La télévision en est l'incarnation parfaite à mon sens. Les "histoires" sont presque toujours abordées sur le mode de l'émotion -ce qui n'est pas forcément une mauvaise chose en soi- au détriment parfois, j'ai même envie de dire souvent, de l'information.
Doit-on pour capter le spectateur -et accessoirement être payé à la fin du mois- nécessairement tomber dans ces travers. C'est en train de se produire en France. Ici c'est ce qu'on apprend aux étudiants journalistes et ce qu'on attendrait de moi si je faisais des reportages TV. Dans mon post précédent je donne l'exemple de ces petites filles atteinte d'une maladie rare (300 cas recensés en 70 ans depuis sa découverte). Le reportage est bien construit, on découvre la jeune fille obligée de se faire des piqures. On en apprend une peu plus sur la maladie. Elle a besoin d'une greffe de moelle. Son frère serait un bon donneur. Mais, coup de théâtre, lui aussi est atteint par la maladie.
L'effet d'attente et la surprise sont un bon moyen narratif pour le spectateur. Le seule problème c'est que la narration soulève des questions qui ont une forte valeur informative. La maladie supposée rare, est-elle génétique ?
Et les réponses fournies s'arrêtent là. Ce n'est ni plus ni moins qu'un portrait d'un famille qui a un problème. Certes inhabituel mais l'information n'est pas ou peu mise en valeur, voire défaussée au profit du sensationnalisme.
La manière de filmer le reportage m'a tout de suite fait penser à une émission trash comme on peut en voir sur certaines de nos chaines. On est loin de la forme journalistique française (malgré toutes les critiques que l'on peut adresser à nos chaines d'information). Peut-être est-elle froide, mais au moins elle a l'avantage de la vraisemblance.
Je reviendrai plus longuement sur les tournages ici.

What is News ?

2009-09-13T11:11:00.003-06:00

Since I started my Broadcast class here in the Missouri School of Journalism, we have watched several television news stories. I was told that the American standards for journalism were not the same as in France. Television is definitely the epitome as this assertion.
Most of the stories I've seen so far would not have been run by a French television news station, or in totally different way. I can understand the point of these stories. They are well constructed and staged, there is suspense, the viewers' attention is caught. But I disagree with the editing that has been done: very often flash shoots (about 2 seconds) of random places and characters. Maybe I'm not used to American newscasts yet. But this could not be broadcast in France.
For example the story of a young girl affected by a very rare disease has no news value in France, unless there is something else : a cure has been found, the parents try to find money or help to save her life... and in that case the story would be the parents' struggle, not the girl.
Eventually, I don't think this will be in a newscast but maybe in an in-depth reporting show (in the best case) or worst, in a talk show, where the family's life will be exposed.
And last but not least, in this story the climax is when we learn that the girl's little brother also have the very rare disease. But there is a question that remains without an answer. The journalist tells us that there have only been 300 cases of this illness in seventy years. So How come both children can have it ? Is it genetic ? What do we know exactly about this disease.
There is a professional failure here. Making a sensational story is a good thing, people will remember it, but not if part of news is lost in the process.