Spectrum News 1 Texas MMJ Ashley Claster Delivers a Great Story
 

Characters Drive A Story

Posted August 12, 2020
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My mentor in this business was Fred Friendly

He told me, among many other things, that small stories work the best

Take a look at this story by Ashley Claster, an MMJ with Spectrum News 1 in Texas.

(She took our bootcamp a few weeks ago).

This is the kind of story that a local TV news station would cover, but they would send the reprorter and camera person, do a stand up, shoot some b-roll, get a few Man on the Street soundbites and interview someone and call it a day

Predictable and pretty much unwatchable.

What Ashley did was different.

She found a character BEFORE the parade and then went to the parade with him.

This is what we call character driven stories

And it works.

It makes a big difference

And, of course, she did it all on an iPhone. 

Well done Ashley!  

 


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