THREAD: How we explain the news through graphics!
So graphics, or GFX for short, are now even more important for journalists to get information to the viewer in engaging and easily-digestible ways. Here’s how an idea becomes a GFX

So first comes the idea about the “treatment”, like the wrapper that the story comes in. For some stories, the quirkier the better - a bit of sugar to help the medicine go down. In this example, we wanted to explain holiday rights during #COVIDー19 disruption.

The amount of information coming at viewers is enormous. But we’re not in the business of being the most knowledgable person on a topic, we’re in the business of communication: the communication of need-to-know information to people in a way that they will want to watch.

So in this example, we used the treatment of a board game, with each square representing a situation the viewer might find themselves in. First we planned what scenarios we wanted to include in the script, and then put them on the board.

So with the scenarios plotted out, we need to know how we will introduce them to the audience. With this example, the answer is obvious: the roll of a dice. So working back from each square, we know what each player will get for their roll, and work that into the script.

Then we fine-tune the board, edit the script right down so that the sequence doesn’t last too long and the editor doesn’t shout at me for taking too long. This all then goes to the GFX artists who do their magic (from home these days)

Once the graphics have been created by our GFX wizards, we review them and suggest any changes we’d like. Then the director and I will go through the script (which will appear on autocue), writing ANI (ANIMATE) at the place where the next graphic needs to appear, eg. a dice roll!

This all then gets put into the running order system, and printed out on our scripts that we clutch in case the autocue goes down. We get to rehearse once on set (or maybe twice if there’s time), and then you bless yourself and hope it all works!

And then I just talk and trust in the graphics team and the director that everything will go smoothly. And hopefully someone somewhere watching goes “oh now that makes sense”.