amera

November 2005

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

San Francisco/Northern California Chapter

www.emmysf.tv

Off Camera, November 2005, page 1

HOW TO WIN AN EMMY

AWARD

Bob Goldberger

It’s already November, whichmeans the Call for Entries deadlinefor the outstanding work you pro-duced in 2005 is just around thecorner (

Entry deadline: January20, 2006

). Let’s face it, we all liketo be recognized, and yes, evenhonored for work we consider ourbest, particularly when we believeit’s better than anything we’ve seenon the competition. The problem is,the Emmy

judges (whicheverchapter they happen to reside in anyparticular year) don’t always agree.It’s frustrating, and sometimesdemoralizing to lose. So what doyou do? Quit trying? If that’s youranswer, you’re in the wrong businessand should probably see if WellsFargo has a bank teller opening rightaway. No, you keep plugging away,refining your entries, and increasingyour odds by getting valuable insightfrom previous years’ winners. If youdon’t know any personally, a coupleof multiple winners agreed to sharetheir “secrets” to Emmy

successwith you.But first, there’s another way youcan increase your odds—by enteringsome of the less popular, less entry-saturated categories that are primeopportunities just begging to beexplored (or exploited).

Secrets of Winning

Tips from

Wayne Freedman

, KGO-TV reporter. Wayne has won 47Emmy

awards in news writing,reporting, and on-camera perfor-mance categories.

Q- When did you win your firstEmmy

statue?

A- I won my first Emmy

® award

in1985, after five nominations withoutsuccess. It was a story about veter-ans remembering the 40

anniver-sary of D-Day. I ended up winningthree others that year.

Q- Were you reluctant to enter?Were you afraid it wasn’tEmmy

-worthy?

A- I was not reluctant to enter. I amreluctant, now, but still compelled.

Q- What did you learn from earlyentries that helped you withfuture entries?

A- One should not “try” to win anEmmy

® award

. You do excellentwork, and maybe it happens. Someof the best stories I’ve ever donehave not won. I have been sur-prised, at times, by those that have.

Q- Do you have any insights toshare from your wins that couldhelp somebody who hasn’tbagged a statuette yet?

A- The key, I think, is to do a storythat advances the medium. Toomany people expect to win Emmy

awards for pieces in which theymerely did their jobs. An Emmy

Secrets of Winning

Tips from

Craig Franklin

, KPIX-TVproducer and photographer (formerlyKRON-TV). Craig has won 17Emmy

awards for photography,editing, and for producing storiesand documentaries.

Q- When did you win your firstEmmy

statue?

A- I won as cameraman for a storytitled “Peacock Gap Flood.” It was1982. I think the category wasbreaking news/camera. We covereda big storm that pales next tohurricane Katrina but was unusualfor Marin County, with muddy riversflowing down streets and throughupscale houses. Not the best video Iever took—wet, foggy, and shaky—but we were right there in the actionand reporter Hampton Pearson wrotea wonderful mix of facts and dramato go with the pictures.

Q- Were you reluctant to enter?Were you afraid it wasn’tEmmy

-worthy?

A- Oh yeah, I had all thosethoughts.

Q- Did you win the first time youentered?

A- I had entered one other story theyear before, and to this day I stillthink it was one of the best things Iever shot: 3 days of flight operationson the deck of the aircraft carrierUSS Enterprise. Lots of action andgreat stories of young hot-shot Navy

AD SALES

FORUM 11/2

continued on page 3continued on page 2

Perhaps the most important issuefacing the broadcast industry will beexplored early this month at anevening forum.A panel of experts will discussthe status and future of television adsales at a forum at

7 p.m

. on

Wednesday, Nov. 2

in the studiosof

KPIX-TV

, 855 Battery St., SanFrancisco.

continued on page 2continued on page 2

Off Camera, November 2005, page 2

FREEDMAN

award-winningstory should bedifferent, reflect-ing extra effort,extra care,prescient vision,flawless execu-tion.

Q- Any particu-lar type of storythat seems todo better orworse with judges?

pilots longbefore “TopGun” became amovie. Ithought it was asure Emmy

winner.It didn’t getnominated.That really hurtmy confidence.

Q- What didyou learnfrom early

EMMY

continued from page 1continued from page 1

FRANKLIN

continued from page 1continued on page 3

A- Stories about other people dyingor being sick rarely do well with judges. Remember, the judges arecynical. Try to make your submissionas different as possible, while re-maining true to requirements of thecategory.

Q- How much do you write in thesummary/précis?

A- The précis depends on the entry.There are no absolute rules.

Q- Can you win a reporting orwriting Emmy

award if thestory is shot or poorlyedited?

A- Good video always helps, and badvideo always hurts, particularly whenthe judges include photographers.

Least Entered, 2004

Daytime Newscast, Medium Market:

0 entries

Daytime Newscast, Small Market:

0 entries

News Broadcast, Medium Market

7 entries

News Broadcast, Small Market:

4 entries

There are clear opportunities fornews departments outside of SanFrancisco and Sacramento to pull in BestNewscast awards this year. With zeroentries in the Daytime Newscast catego-ries last year by small and mediummarket stations, simply entering mighthave earned one of those stations anEmmy

® award

, although it’s still far fromguaranteed. Even if there’s only oneentry, judges must still grade the entryhigh enough to make it worthy of receiving a statuette; but clearly, yourodds are much better competing againstfew entries, than many. Here are someother great entry opportunities that arenot market specific:

Technical Achievement:

1 entry, No winner.

On Camera-News-Sports Talent:

2 entries, No winner.

On Camera-Sports Live Event:

4 entries, 2 nominations, 1 winner.

Live Event Program:

3 entries, 3 nominations, 1 winner.

Camera Program Editing News:

4 entries, 3 nominations, 1 winner.

On Camera-News-Weathercaster:

5 entries, 1 nomination, 1 winner.

Children/Youth Program:

5 entries, 3 nominations, 1 winner.

Current Affairs-Segment:

6 entries, 3 nominations, 1 winner.

Sports Live Broadcast:

6 entries, 2 nominations, 1 winner.

Audio/Sound:

6 entries, 4 nominations, 2 winners

Children/Youth Segment:

8 entries, 4 nominations, 1 winner.

Editing News-Same Day:

8 entries, 4 nominations, 1 winner.

Editing News-Unlimited:

8 entries, 5 nominations, 1 winner.

The bottom line, though, is greatwork wins out, regardless of how stiff thecompetition. Your best bet is to startlooking NOW. Go back through yourscripts or archives, and gather your bestwork NOW. Start making your dubsNOW so they look thought out andprofessional to judges, rather thansloppy and rushed. Everyone else will bescrambling on January 19

. A little pre-planning can give you an advantage.

EMMY

UPDATE

The Awards Committee is stillfinalizing the “Call For Entries” forthe 2005-2006 area awards.Next month we will have the listof new or changed categories andthe “Call For Entries” will be postedonline.The good news is that theEmmy

entry fees are being re-duced. Last year every nameentered paid $70 if you were amember and $200 if not. This yearall fees are lowered, and a greatersavings depending on your marketsize.If you are not a member you can join now and be paid through 2006.

DMA Member Non-MemberSan Francisco $65 $195Sacramento $60 $190Fresno/Hawaii $50 $150Reno/Salinas/Chico/Eureka $40 $115Reduced From

$70 $200

entries that helped you withfuture entries?

A- I learned never to do a story withthe hope or purpose of winning anEmmy

award. It’s bad psychologyand bad karma. Telling a good storyis the only goal. Tell enough goodstories and you’ll win an Emmy

statue, god willing. Winning anEmmy

® award

is great but it’s notthe goal.

Q- Do you have any insights fromyour wins that could help some-body who hasn’t bagged a statu-ette yet?

A- If you’re trying to do your bestwork you need to work with like-minded people. I’ve won Emmy

awards with a broad range of report-ers, producers, editors, camerapeople—all with obsessive-compul-sive disorder. Sometimes it wasbrutal. As for Emmy

entry tactics,I think it may depend on what kindof pizza the judges eat. But the factis you’re putting your best workagainst everybody else’s, which isespecially tough in the crowdedbreaking news, feature, andcraft categories. Stories under fourminutes seem to do better in mostcategories. I think longer analyticalstories don’t get the time or respectthey may deserve unless somethingin the enterprise and execution really jumps out at the judges as theywade through a long pile of entries.

Q- How much do you write in thesummary/précis?

A- I rarely write a précis, and if I doit’s to make one single, otherwiseunexplained point like: “We spentthree weeks with Osama before hegranted an interview.” Usually Iwant the story to reveal itself to the judges like any other viewer. I try toinclude on-air leads and tags withpackages.

Off Camera, November 2005, page 3

FRANKLIN

continued from page 2

KGO anchor

Dan Ashley

willmoderate the discussion. Scheduledso far to be on the panel are

RonLonginotti

, general manager of KPIX;

Michael Dempsey

, KGO localsales manager; and

Arturo Riera

,WB20 local sales manager.Among the issues up for discus-sion:*Are television stations sufferinga serious decline in ad revenues?*What does a significant drop inad sales mean for people who workin news, programming and otherdepartments?*How seriously have TV stationsbeen affected by the new “PeopleMeter” ratings system, as well as therecent spread of viewership over newmedia markets?*How important is the Internetto television’s future?*Are services such as Tivocutting into ad revenue becauseviewers can “speed through” com-mercials?The panel is one in a series of “issues forums” sponsored by theNorthern California chapter of theNational Academy of Television Artsand Sciences.This is a FREE event. PleaseRSVP to:forum@emmysf.tvor call650-341-7786.

AD SALESFORUM

11/2

continued from page 1

Dan Ashley Ron Longinotti

On the roadagain.As part of anannual member-ship drive,NATAS NorthernCalifornia chap-ter president

David Mills

isvisiting stations

PRESIDENTIAL

ROAD TRIPS

Dave Mills

in the region to talk to televisionindustry employees about the non-profit organization and its activities.The “road trips” began on Oct. 6-7, when Mills paid a visit to Sacra-mento. He updated employees at Fox40, KUVS and KVIE on NATAS mem-bership benefits, the upcomingEmmy

Awards and the lower feesfor the competition.Mills then traveled to Honolulu onOct. 17-18 for the chapter’s firstofficial presidential visit to the Hawaiiregion. The chapter president talkedto employees at KITV, KHNL andKGMB. Mills also dropped in at KHONand PBS Hawaii and spoke to stu-dents at Leeward Community Collegeand Waianae High School.On the night of Oct. 18, Hawaiiboard members

Pamela Young

(KITV) and

Duncan Armstrong

(KHNL) hosted a reception at theGordon Biersch restaurant in theAloha Tower Marketplace. A tape of last year’s Emmy

winners wasshown to the dozen TV industryemployees who attended.Mills is scheduled to visit TVstations in

Chico

and

Redding

Nov. 14-15

Salinas-Monterey

Nov. 21-22

Reno

Oct. 28-29

Fresno

Dec. 5-6

and then returnto

Sacramento

Dec. 12-13

SACRAMENTO

GOVERNOR

A photojournalistfrom Sacramento’spublic broadcastingstation has beennamed as thenewest member of NATAS’ NorthernCalifornia chapterBoard of Governors.

Martin Christian

of KVIE wasappointed by the governors at theirOctober meeting to fill a vacancy onthe board. Christian has been doingvolunteer work for the chapter as amember of its Sacramento Council.Christian began his broadcast journalism career in 1992 as aphotographer at WMDT in Salisbury,Maryland. In 1995, he drove acrosscountry to accept a job at KRNV inReno. He moved to KTVN in 1997,and then went to KXLY in Spokane,Washington, in 1998.He married

Karen Christian

of KCRA then moved to KVIE in 1999.Christian won a “camera pro-gram” Emmy® award in 2001. In hisspare time, he competes in ironmantriathlons and ultra-cycling events.

BRIAN COPELAND’S SHOW REACHES A MILESTONE

Brian Copeland

was probablyhoping for three months, maybe sixmonths, when he opened his one-man show, “Not a Genuine BlackMan,” at The Marsh Theater in SanFrancisco.That was almost a year and a half ago. It turns out Copeland has beenin for quite a run.Last month, the stand-up come-dian and former feature reporter atKTVU in Oakland performed his 200

show. That makes his personal storyof growing up black in San Leandroin the 1970’s the longest runningone-man show in San Franciscohistory.Word is a special with HBO is inthe pipeline. Copeland also has abook deal in the works.

Q- Can you win a photography orproducing Emmy

award if thereporting or writing is poor?

A- It’s next to impossible to win if one or more elements are donepoorly. Even in individual categories,Emmy

® entry

is a team sport.

Craig’s Final Thought:

Iworked with

Wayne Freedman

when he was honing his craft in theyears before he won an Emmy

award (and sometimes thought henever would). Last I checked withhim, he’s still honing his craft.