Writing for Instructional Television. P INSTITUTION Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Washington, D.C

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 221 158 IR 010 181 AUTHOR O'Bry,an, Kenneth G. no. TITLE Writing for Instructional Television. P INSTITUTION Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Washington, D.C. REPORT NO ISBN-0-89776-0521-2 PUB DATE' 81 NOTE 157p. AVAILABLE FROM-Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1111 16th St.," N.W., Washington, DC 20036 ($5.0,0, prepaid). EDRS PRICE MF01 Plds Postage. PC Not Available from' EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Educational Television; Group Dynamics; *Instructional Design; *Production Techniques; *Programing (Broadcast); Public Television; *Scripts; Telexiision Studios ABSTRACT Writing Considerations specific to instructional television (ITV) situations are discussed in this handbook written for the beginner, but designed to be of use to anyone creating an ITV script. Advice included in the handbook is based on information obtained from ITV wirters, literature reviews, and the author's ' personal,experience. The ITV writer's relationship to other members of a project team is discussed, as well as the role of each team member, including the project leader, instructional designer, academic consultant, researcher, producer/director, utilization - person, and writer. Specific suggestions are then made for writing and working with the project team and additional production crew members. A chapter is devoted to such specific ITV writing conventions as script format, production grammar, camera terminology, and transitions between shots. Understanding production technology is the focus of a chapter which discusses lighting, sound, set design, and special effects. An in-depth look at choice of form--narrative, dramatic, documentary, magazine, ortdrama--is provided, followed by advice and guidelines for dealing with such factors as the target audience, budget and caktitig, treatment, visualization, and revisions. Ten additional readings are suggested. (LMM) ,,- *********************************************************************** * 4 Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * . * \ from the original document. * *****************************************************************t***** % . ) DEPAATMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE§ INFORMATION CENTER IERICI *This documem has been rsproduced as waved from the pe(sOn or *to/towbar) ononaW1.04 o Mono( changes have been made to wrgrovo reproduction quaky Points o' yew or Opmons sta tedm this document do not necessarily represent official NIE position or poky UCITONAJ TELEVISION by Kenneth G. O'Bryan "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHEONLY - HAS BEENGRANTED BY Mary Sceiford TO THE EDUCATIONAL,RESOURCES I. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Educational Activities Corporagon for Public Broadcastting her 1 p Copyright 1981 Corporation for Public Broadcasting 1111 Sixteenth Street N. W. Washington, D.C. 20036 An Equal Opportunity EmployerAV.' ISBN 0-89776-052-2 First Printing January 19r1 Published by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting pd distributed by the Public TelecoMmunications Press, National A.ssociation of Educational Broadcasters (NA EB) 1346 Connecticut Ave. N W. Washington, D.0 20036. ./ 3 , I c TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgernents . vii Chapter One/ The Creation of the ITV Writers Manual ,1 Chcipter Two The ITV Writer and the Project Team....... ... 5 There is no "Captive Audience" . ,.. 5 The ITV Writer's Environment 10 The Project Leader 11 The Instructional Designer 12 The Academic, Psychological or.Educational Consultant 13 ., The Researcher..>, .... : ..... , ... .14 The Producer/Director . .. .. ..16 ,,.......... , The Utilization Person 18 The Writer 19 .. Chapter Three Writing and Working With the Project Team 21 The Writer and the Project Leader....... .21 The Writer and the Instfuctional Designer . .. .23 \ : The Writer and the Program Researcher . .. .25 The Writer and the Formative Researcher 28 The Writer and the Utilization Person . 32 The Writer, the Director and the Studio Team 34 The Director 36 The Talent Director 43 Camera Persins , 47 The Lighting Technician ,, 50 Other Crew Members 52 The Set Designer 52 Chapter Four-, A Recipe for writing: The Conventions 55 Script Format , 56 Production Grammar 61 General ProductiOn Grammar Conventions..... 62 .. ',..' .I. e v A t Camera Terminology 65 Camera Movement ............. 68 Transitions Between SWots 70 Chapter Five Understanding and Using Production Technology. .. 79 Lighting 80 Sotind 82 84 Sound Mixing 5 Set Design 86 Special Effects 88 Chapter Six Writing the ITV Script 93 Choosing the Script Form 93 The Narrative Documentary 94 The Drama Documentary 193 The Magazine Format 110 The Dramatic Form . ........... .. 116 Before the Treatment 122 Knowing the Target Audience 122 The Budget 125 Casting Realities 129 Writing the Treatment 138 Elements of the Treatment. 133 ' Developing the Treatment 133 In Search of a Metaphor 135 Creating the Treatment ...... : ... .. .. 138 Characterization \- 139 Describing the Sets 140 Writing the Story Outline 140 Writing the Script 142 Thinking and Writing Visually 142 A Checklist of Script Writing Ingredients 144 Writing Revisions 146 Chapter Seven Conclusion 149 Ten Selected Readings 151 b. /- 1. 1 11 -Acknowledgments Acknowledgment is gratefully made to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and to the professional writers of ITV who were con- , tacted for this manual and who gave freely of their ideas and knowledge. Special thanks is due to author's associate, Ms. Donna Paul- ionis, for her contributions to the content and her ssistance in completing the manual. K.G.O'B. Toronto 198)0 Chapter One' The Creation of the ITV Writers Manual In the past decade, writing forinstructional television (ITV) has become a specialty pro- fession. A breed of full-time andfreelance writers have turned fromother media and generaltelevision (GTV)towork almost exclusively in ITV. Most of these writers have had tomake substantial changes in the way 'they practice their ftt in order to meet the unique demands of ITV, where the princiPal aim is to ensure the quality of a program's instructional content. To be fully effective, ITV writelr have found it necessary to integrate the resources of many ITV educational and research spe- cialists with the attention-getting, motivating aspects oftelevision.In some cases their scripts equal or surpass GTV in their use of televisionasai medium and, at the same time: meet established instructional require- ments. It is from discussions with such writers thatthecoreofthismanual has been written. In addition to informatthn obtained from leading writers in ITV, the author reviewed an extensive listof books and articleson writing tor all forms of television. Ideas obtained from 'these sourceswere integrated with the author's experience inmany facets of ITV as a researcher, writer, consultant, andproducer.Consequently,this manual presents the author's personal approaches to ITV script writing. The manualisbased upon production methods that exist in most major, ITVagen- cies as they enter the 1980s. It examines the contexts .in which the sbript writer will func- tion as a member of fi project team and the nature of working relationships which will arise therein. It studies the basic elements of script writing and describes the grammar and syntax of scripting in relation to the production elements of setting, camera, lighting, sound, switching ind direction. Finally, the manual offers suggestionson the choice of formats and invites the writer to consider the use of known technologies of research,in- . *, 2 , structional design, production techniques and # advanced educational systems approaches to the writing of effective instructional scripts. Effective writing for, ITV is qualitatively Is different from writing for GTV and, therefore, demands a special understanding of education, research, and the. media. It is not in- tended to be a set of guidelines for the writing of a specific script or number of scripts on a single theme.Rather, it is designed to be used as a basic Manual for beginning and moderately experienéed writers, boil' profes-, sionalandoccasional,in-house andfreelance. The manual is aimed primarily towards the less experienced writer and the newcomer to ITV scripting. As such, it contains some ma-. terial which may be more basic than would be necessary for the skilled scriptwriter. Ex- perienced and highly skilled writers, however, may nonetheless find somevalue in the sug- - gestionsfor more advanced scriptingap- proaches which appear towards the end of the various chapters. As we move into the 1980s, a new body of inforrnatiOnisbecoming available to ITV writers about how children watch television and how they learn. This new information, coupled with new technologies which will' become available inthe 1980s, can be expected to change the face of' ITV. And theITV writer, can be in the vanguard of ,that change 3 7 through knowledge of the tools of the trade and of the role that can best be played. - In that spirit, this manual has been pre- Nired for those who will be writing for the decade of the 1980s and beyond. The decade itself will create new challenges by bringing the ITV writer into contaCt with advanced technolo.gies demanding as-yet undevélorred techniques of ITV scripting. As changes. in ITV are anticipated, changes in schools, delivery systeths, teaching tech- \ niques and even learning itself can also be expected: This manual is; therefore, written from the experiences of the 1970s and directed to the opportunities Off 'the 1980s. It attempts

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