Five Things You Are Guaranteed to Hear on a News Set
Working on on a television news set is an exciting opportunity. It can also be an intimidating one, especially if it’s your first time. Simply put, you need to be prepared.
Here are five things you’re guaranteed to hear on a news set:
1. Warm Props: This term is used for camera shots containing employees walking around in the background during a live broadcast. You might hear the director announce they need a lot of
“warm props” for their next shot.
2. Newsroom: The newsroom is where editors and reporters sit at their desks to work on stories before or after a newscast. Sometimes the newsroom can be seen in the background while filming live.
3. SLAP Shot: Also known as “stupid, live, and pointless,” this term refers to the camera crew filming live shots that are meaningless and used to fill time.
Yellow Journalism: Yellow journalism is a term reserved for stories involving controversial and sensational topics such as sex, scandal, violence or rumors. Usually involving very little or no legitimate research.
Foam the Runways: This is something you don’t want to hear while on a news set. This is a term used by the producer to inform the director and other crew members that the newscast is experiencing significant technical difficulties right before airtime.
These are just a handful of terms that are thrown around on a news set. Working in broadcasting is an exciting and fast paced career choice, and this kind of lingo helps crew members communicate quickly and easily. Now that you know some of the terminology, you are one step closer to feeling like you belong on a news set.
Here are some other news broadcasting terms to remember:
● Generic Live Shot, or “:01”: A live shot that can be used by multiple news stations and is usually regarding a popular national story. Also, the news reporter will not toss the story back to a specific anchor. Instead, they will say something like “now back to you.”
● Lip Flap: This term is used to describe a loss of auditory communication between anchor and news reporter. It’s a live shot of a reporter who can be seen, but not heard.
● Stop and Pop: This term is used when a live crew gets stuck in traffic while on their way to do a live shot. If news time comes, they have to “stop and pop,” meaning they have to stop where they are and shoot the story from their current location.