PR Spanners.

This is a rant really, nothing informative or behind the scenes other than to tell you what we, as journalists and cameramen sometimes have to put up with. Today I was filming the new Health Minister, the day after an emergency budget from our new coalition government.

First of all, we were given the wrong times to be there. The real timings were buried deep in the print of the press release given to our producers. Secondly, and this is the bit that irks me, is that when trying to make up for a lack of shots, the PR people who populated the general area decided that I didn't need the particular shots I was taking and stood in front of my camera asking me if these particular shots of the minister were relevant.

Listen to me good PR People, we work in pictures, not paperwork. We need sequences to make a story work, in order to tell our viewers what is going on. One shot doesn't cut it. If I am filming something it is generally because I have been asked to do so by my reporter or I believe that the shot will work in a sequence. Please don't tell me what I need. I already know ... You don't. You never do. And if I say so myself, you never will, unless you have worked in TV or broadcasting, which most of you haven't.

So please PR People, go away and get some training about what it is we do and what it is we need. And don't stand in front of my camera telling me what you want me to film or it will result in the kind of words I gave to the PR person this morning that I won't repeat here.

Thank you in anticipation of meeting a PR Person who knows what they are doing.

Paul Martin.
Media Attention Ltd.
www.media-attention.co.uk

Posted via email from Media Attention Ltd