Talking heads can be boring, you see, or they take five minutes to talk about what they could say in about 45 seconds, so you use that wonderful b-roll to cut and paste and edit.
That's what I love about a big election year, despite my apolitical nature: I always vote, but pretty much loathe the men we have to choose from each time. It's a banner time for deftly used b-roll, especially in carefully targeted TV political ads.
A spot this year for former Congressional candidate Ed Broyhill had it all. The requisite shot of a church steeple (b-roll means: "I am religious"), a walking shot of him and his family (b-roll means: "I have "family values,' none of that gay stuff"), and the favorite of all spin doctors everywhere, a shot of factory workers that includes at least one minority person (b-roll means: "I'm a millionaire, but I can still get down with the blue-collar brothas").
In most cases, the b-roll speaks louder than the candidate. The soundbite or the convention speech is drowned out by one-stop political shopping in generalities, hot-air pundits, and the pollsters' mission to clearly mark who is "us" and who is "them."
ROCK THIS, GEEZERS WWMG-FM lost the "Magic" last week when it changed to a younger music format and dumped oldies and older listeners along with its morph to "The Beat." It's a move to make more money, and take on rival Infinity Broadcasting, which owns the two Charlotte stations that currently cater to the pop and hip-hop crowds, KISS-FM and WPEG-FM.
Survivors from the shake-up are Liz Luke and morning man Jim Shafer, who move to sister station Lite 102.9.
Stay tuned.
E-mail with feedback and tips at Shannon.Reichley@cln.com