Directors Brett Holey of NBC Nightly News, Eric Shapiro of the CBS Evening News, Eric Siegel of ABC World News Tonight joined Brady, who is also a director for CBS News, in discussing the future of network news in light of changes in long-established anchors and challenges alternate sources such as cable news and internet blogs.
One of the most easily perceived challenges is that of dealing with the often breakneck pace of breaking news items and getting the story and it’s accompanying components right. Shapiro explained how he as a director was able to remain focused in these situations. “The biggest challenge is being able to follow the story, follow the talent and almost be a step ahead of them because it is all ad-libbed. You want to know you have the right visual elements ready to go so you can pull up that playback of a building coming down, or shots of people running to support what the anchor is saying.”
Siegel explained how directing techniques have evolved modern news broadcasts beyond the 'talking head' pieces of the past, illustrating his point with footage of Hurricane Katrina and Iraq. "One of the things we've worked very hard at is getting those cameras off the sticks and telling the stories," said Siegel. "I view my role as giving the viewer the most important seat in the house. I want them to see what is actually happening. I want the camera walking with the talent and seeing where we are, not seeing a fabricated background."
Highlighting some of the changes affecting news directors, the panelists showed how instead of being threatened by new concepts like blogs, television news is on the forefront of embracing these technologies to get the story out. Holey talked about working with concepts like “virtual sets,” and Shapiro spoke of systems already in play at CBS like news-on-demand, where viewers can rearrange a broadcast to be able to choose the stories they were most interested in. "Clearly the next four or five years is going to see an enormous change in the way we do business,” said Shapiro.
The general theme of the evening indicated that no matter what the future holds, these directors will be able to roll with the punches and come up with creative and innovative ways to deliver the news. The overall feeling seemed best summed up by Siegel when he stated, "I think sometime television news directors get a bad rap. We're in such a film and episodic-oriented business that sometimes people think news directing is not quite directing. But I wanted to tell stories, and for someone who wants to be a storyteller, I can't see a better field than news and journalism."
