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Sep 27, 2005
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Video on reserve
Broadcast Operations shares U.S. Army stories with TV news
by Laura DiBenedetto-Kenyon
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Across the globe, members of the U.S. Army Reserve are hard at work, but they don't always get the recognition they deserve. The Army Reserve Public Affairs Broadcast Operations is working to change that.
“When the Army goes off to war in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq, there are a lot of reporters that are going to be there, but they're probably not going to spend a lot of time with Army Reserve units,” said Steve Stromvall, deputy director of public affairs for the Army Reserve. “If a reporter from CNN or Fox News goes out, they're going to want to be with the XVIII Airborne Corps, the 101st Division, or something like that. The local and regional stations - where our units come from - probably are not able to afford to send someone there.
“So if the public is going to hear about our units, it's probably only going to happen if we find a way to make that easy for them.”
Making It Easy
Broadcast Operations accomplishes that mission by going where Reservists are training or deployed and shooting interviews and B-roll of soldiers in action. Back at its headquarters at Fort McPherson, GA, Broadcast Operations cleans up the footage and offers it to television stations, free of charge.
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| Broadcast Operations shoots interviews with U.S. Army Reservists on location and shares the footage with TV stations back home. |
The video is typically targeted to local markets (though Broadcast Operations has had a number of Reservists appear nationally). For example, if Broadcast Operations interviews a soldier from Rochester, NY, who is stationed in Baghdad, they'll contact the television stations in the Rochester broadcast area and offer them a video package.
The package includes interviews and
B-roll, which run between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on the number of soldiers coming from a given TV market area. A time-coded run sheet is shipped along with the footage (usually in Beta SP), so producers can plan their story before viewing the images and editors can find particular shots quickly.
“Stations can take what we send them and turn it into their own news piece. Put their own local angle on it,” said Scott Ferguson, chief of Broadcast Operations.
These packages are different from video news releases. A VNR is a fully produced story exploring or promoting a given topic. Broadcast Operation's packages, however, are intentionally unfinished. “The footage is still somewhat raw in nature,” said Lt. Col. Matt Leonard, Broadcast Officer, U.S. Army Reserve Public Affairs. “Only the bad shots and non-essential comments are discarded.”
Even before the VNR controversy, Broadcast Operations had been careful to give news outlets an unfinished product, thereby allowing a station to make the story their own. “It's not like we're saying, 'Hey, sneak this on the air and pretend it's yours,'” said Stromvall. “Here's the information, here's points of contact if you want to follow up on this. Make this your story, add to it however you want - it's in a format so that you can do that. Therefore, it becomes your news story, not our propaganda.”
When Stromvall sees a station's finished story using his department's footage, he'll frequently see that the station has added its own imagery. “They may have footage of a unit's departure ceremony or they may go out to [see the soldier's] family. Stations do make it their own and I think that's pretty important.”
Telling It Like It Is
The process begins with contacting a company or battalion commander to set up a shoot. Broadcast Operations doesn't necessarily have more access than commercial media, but there are fewer preparatory procedures because it's an “in-house” operation. The on-ground point of contact will be asked to look for articulate soldiers or those with a unique story.
Not surprisingly, Broadcast Operations tries to capture soldiers performing visually interesting activities, making the footage more attractive to news stations. They are also looking for Reservists with a story to tell.
“Once you start to strike up conversations with people, you get a feel for what they're passionate or excited about,” said Ferguson. Frequently, these casual conversations will lead to sensational stories, such as one involving a solider with 100th Battalion 442nd Infantry, now stationed in Iraq.
“It's the only combat arms unit left in the Reserve,” said Ferguson, “and it began right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I interviewed a young kid whose grandfather was one of the original members of this unit. When we were doing the interview, I just happened to ask if he had a picture of his grandfather with him. 'Oh yeah,' he said, 'I've got an 8x10 that I carry with me.'
“So we went up into his barracks room and interviewed him showing this old black-and-white photo of his grandfather. He said, 'I'm taking this with me to Iraq and he's going to be there with me.' That's such a cool story to pass on to a TV station.”
Not every soldier has such a different story to tell, nor is every soldier uniformly positive about aspects of Reserve life, but that doesn't mean they're excluded from a B-roll package.
“For us to be credible, we have to tell it like it is,” said Leonard. “Soldiers often talk about the hardships they face or things they feel could be improved. Enduring hardships are something the public expects of soldiers - it is a valid story to tell.”
Getting the stories often requires Leonard to be on the road twice a month, and he spent most of May in Iraq. Broadcast Operations uses Sony BVW-D600, DSR-PD170, and DSR-570 camcorders on location. Footage is usually edited back at Fort McPherson using Avid Media Composer or Avid Xpress, though packages are occasionally edited in the field on a laptop equipped with Xpress DV.
Beyond The B-roll
In addition to shooting footage for newscasts, Broadcast Operations also adds to the Army Reserve's collection of historical footage and produces promotional or speaker support videos for the command staff. One of its highest visibility efforts, however, is getting soldiers on the national cable news networks.
“While we're out doing an interview with someone, if we hear something that may be of national interest, we will get in touch with our PR firm, MS&L,” said Ferguson. (Manning, Selvage & Lee Public Relations is subcontracted by Leo Burnett, the Army's contracted advertising agency.) “We'll send MS&L the interview and B-roll we've done. We'll work in tandem to pitch it to CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc. We try to schedule as many as we can; if we're in New York, it may be a whole day, day and a half, two days doing as many interviews as possible.”
All of this media coverage, whether local or national, has a large payoff for the Army Reserve. “If a 30-second commercial on Fox News in the morning costs $15,000 and you have two Army Reserve soldiers ... on Fox for five minutes, you're getting $150,000 worth of airtime,” Ferguson noted.
Local station coverage can be similarly beneficial. "Let's say a television station in Indianapolis charges $1,000 to $1,500 for a 30-second commercial during its 6 o'clock news. Say they run a 1:30 package [using Broadcast Operation footage] at 6 p.m., do a sidebar at 10 p.m., and maybe they run it again at 5 a.m.," said Ferguson. "That is $6,000 of positive airtime from one station, let alone the other three in the market.
"Last year, we did basically over $5 million worth of 'ad dollars' with an operation that cost, including salaries and TDYs, certainly less than $500,000."
It would be easy to say Broadcast Operation's work is justified solely by the financial benefits. But for Stromvall, Ferguson, and Leonard, that would be missing a large point.
"Our mission is to tell the story of the U.S. Army Reserve to the American public," said Leonard. "I've worked in commercial broadcast and in corporate production, but this actually feels less agenda-driven to me. I enjoy interviewing and photographing the 'average' soldier. They are working hard under tough conditions and I consider it an honor to be able to tell their story."
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