Writing your AOC's
Once you have all your soundbites transcribed and your GFX picked out, you need to write analysis-style introductions for each of your elements.
Opening AOC
- Some general guidelines to follow:
- The first line of your story can be both clever and informative. But it MUST be informative. Don't sacrifice substance for style.
- The opening AOC needs to be 1 or 2 sentences long. You need to get the story moving- don't drag it out.
- Use a "hook". A viewer should watch the first 10 seconds of your video and want to watch the rest of it.
- If your initial AOC gets longer than 1-2 sentences, use VO (Voiced-over-video) to make the opening visually appealing.
- Here are some examples of opening AOC's
"Guts" AOC's
- All your other AOC's should be thoughtful introductions to your video and graphic elements.
- Go beyond just summarizing what the upcoming element is about to say. Make an observation about the author's tone. Reference something else the author/anchor/reporter/blogger says in another part of their report.
- Keep the AOC's as concise as possible.
- If the author/anchor in the element is well known (Example: Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, Ezra Klein) use their name in the AOC.
Final AOC's
- Your last AOC is a useful place to answer the "What's next?" question.
- You can add a fact or figure here that you couldn't fit in anywhere else.
- You can pitch to an extra link in the transcript section. (Example: If you want to see the full survey for yourself, check out the transcript section of this story)