Human Interest Stories

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Human Interest Stories
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The Story Behind the Story

• Humans are social creatures
• We are inquisitive
• We love to look into the lives of others
• In general we are emotionally drawn to success,
  tragedies, scandals, etc.

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Sensationalism

• Our society hungers for intimate information of
  those in the news.
• Too often the search for more personal news leads
  to overt sensationalism.
• Local network news, local and national papers are
  a good example

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Paul Harvey

• The rest of the story
• Long career in news broadcasting
• Amassed personally over 1200 affiliates
• Success often attributed to the personal
  relationship or personal depth of a story

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News format comparisons

• Headline news
• Katrina strikes New Orleans-City is destroyed
• Scientists confirm global warming results from
  fossil fuel energy use
• Sports doping scandal continues to rock the
  cycling community

• Human Interest
• 98 year old women captains fishing boat and
  rescues cats from rooftops in New Orleans
• Ecology activist couple builds energy efficient
  home from reclaimed landfill trash
• Lance Armstrong battles back from cancer to
  become Tour record holder with 7 victories
  Cancer victims cheer him on to victory

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Where to find stories

• Own experience
• Talking to others
• Topical trends (lifestyles, technology, etc)
• Assignments
• Spotting trends

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Telling Stories with Pictures

• Test theme by using a headline
• Narrows focus
• Test for images and ideas
• Does the theme create a visual picture?
• Usually does not communicate a broad area but a
  small pertinent section of life
• Must provide some point of interest that
  captivates viewers

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Example

• Alcoholism
• Young peoples path to drink in excess
• Adults pass habit to children
• Pressure of peers/camaraderie
• After effects, brain
• Drunk driving, advertising of alcohol
• Alcohol tied to style, sex, happiness

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Visual Consistency

• Pictorial devices
• Person
• Object
• Mood
• Theme
• Perspective
• Camera technique

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1 Focus on one person

• Easiest way to tie story together
• Insiders view
• Easy to relate

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2 Same Object or Place

• Place stories

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3 Consistent mood, perspective or mood

• Childs view of the world-Dogs view
• Honor, valor, heroism
• All environments shots, all carefully controlled
  studio shots

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4 Camera technique
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Narrative storytelling

• Selections will remain individual pictures
  without a cohesive narrative
• Problems or complications, and resolution
• Complications must be visual
• Story of Lance Armstrong
• Ego, cancer
• Healthy, international sports star
• Founder multi-million dollar cancer foundation

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Narratives

• Natural narratives
• Documentaries

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Life magazine layout photos

• Overall
• Medium
• Close-up
• Portrait

• Interaction
• Signature (decisve moment)
• Clincher

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Overall
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Medium
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Close-up
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Portrait
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Interaction
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Signature (decisive moment)
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Clincher