Thursday, July 31, 2008

GOOD DICTION, BUT....

C News/Talk City has a morning news presenter who strikes us as something of an enigma.
Esther Saavedra has very good diction. She has probably been working in radio broadcasting for some time, so her pronunciation and diction are spot on.
But Esther, you have to realise that you are also on tv now, so we also need to get some facial expression, as well as a little more expression in your voice.

When you are reading the news, you look up at the camera with an expression on your face that seems to convey to the viewer that you are not quite sure why you have to look up, or you are not sure if you are doing it properly.
Perhaps your camera is too high. You can probably take a look at the tape and discuss it with the director.
But from a viewer's standpoint, you look really uncomfortable.
We know you would probably feel better just sitting in the radio studio to do the news without the camera, but you have to learn to roll with the punches.
Why not book some time in the tv studio and practice in front of the camera? It will probably improve your ease of reading.

Also your voice seems very monotone. Perhaps you are concentrating so hard on playing to the camera that you forget you also have to engage your listening audience.
Overall you are doing a good job, just keep plugging away at it.

And we have just one point to raise with your colleague Jessie May Ventour.
Miss Ventour, in your interview with ANR Robinson, we didn't see the very beginning so we are not sure if you appeared on camera, but throughout the rest of the interview we did not see you at all. However we heard you faintly asking questions and interacting with the former President.
Was there a problem in getting two cameras and two mics to shoot that interview?
If the answer is yes, then the next best thing to do would have been to ask your questions to camera after the interview was completed, just as if you were still speaking with Mr Robinson. Then you could have had an editor edit the piece seamlessly and none of your viewers would have known anything was wrong.

Your voice on the questions was also very faint. Didn't you have a microphone?