Reflections:
SAVANNA STEFFEN
CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Logging can be a pain.
So for this show, I decided I wanted to log all the interviews word for word. That means that I wanted every interview that we conducted to be typed up, word by word, so that we could search exactly what people said later on. Just to give you a little insight, we had over 20 interviews on this show, many were between 30 minutes and an hour. One was around 90 minutes. I thought doing it this way was going to save us hours in the editing stage, I was wrong. BUT, what it did accomplish was allowing me to become an expert on the interviews that I logged. I knew them inside and out. Let me tell you, just because you were the one conducting an interview, DOES NOT mean that you know the content backwards and forwards. That comes from rewriting each word that a person says, listening to it over and over until you are sure you have it right.
And on that note
This is not a pleasant topic.
Reread the last line of my last point, and then trust me when I tell you I know how hard some of this is to listen to. I will be real honest right now and say that I cried in more interviews during the making of this show than I would care to count up. Of the stories that we heard, some were gruesome, and all were heartbreaking. As a journalist it is so hard to find the balance between giving it to you straight and completely scaring you off. We did leave some of the more gruesome stories that we came into contact with out in attempt to make the show more watchable.
Just because you think something is important, doesn’t mean you get to put it in the show.
I think every member of the staff can tell you, this was the hardest for me to deal with. Child abuse is such a huge issue, and there are so many things that feed into it. We weren’t able to show every aspect, or even cover some of the angles in as much detail as I would have liked. In class, we have a name for this process of getting rid of important information that you simply don’t have time for – killing puppies. I think it captures the feeling I get as a producer/reporter when I have to cut them out.
We ended up putting a special spot up on the whiteboard labeled “Savanna’s Kennel”, where we wrote down all the “puppies” that couldn’t fit in the show, but I couldn’t bare to part with. You can find those clips in the Additional Information section of the website. My puppies are still alive and kickin’!
CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Logging can be a pain.
So for this show, I decided I wanted to log all the interviews word for word. That means that I wanted every interview that we conducted to be typed up, word by word, so that we could search exactly what people said later on. Just to give you a little insight, we had over 20 interviews on this show, many were between 30 minutes and an hour. One was around 90 minutes. I thought doing it this way was going to save us hours in the editing stage, I was wrong. BUT, what it did accomplish was allowing me to become an expert on the interviews that I logged. I knew them inside and out. Let me tell you, just because you were the one conducting an interview, DOES NOT mean that you know the content backwards and forwards. That comes from rewriting each word that a person says, listening to it over and over until you are sure you have it right.
And on that note
This is not a pleasant topic.
Reread the last line of my last point, and then trust me when I tell you I know how hard some of this is to listen to. I will be real honest right now and say that I cried in more interviews during the making of this show than I would care to count up. Of the stories that we heard, some were gruesome, and all were heartbreaking. As a journalist it is so hard to find the balance between giving it to you straight and completely scaring you off. We did leave some of the more gruesome stories that we came into contact with out in attempt to make the show more watchable.
Just because you think something is important, doesn’t mean you get to put it in the show.
I think every member of the staff can tell you, this was the hardest for me to deal with. Child abuse is such a huge issue, and there are so many things that feed into it. We weren’t able to show every aspect, or even cover some of the angles in as much detail as I would have liked. In class, we have a name for this process of getting rid of important information that you simply don’t have time for – killing puppies. I think it captures the feeling I get as a producer/reporter when I have to cut them out.
We ended up putting a special spot up on the whiteboard labeled “Savanna’s Kennel”, where we wrote down all the “puppies” that couldn’t fit in the show, but I couldn’t bare to part with. You can find those clips in the Additional Information section of the website. My puppies are still alive and kickin’!
DAVE DAVIS-
TEACHER/ADVISER
The Final Cut
When the students on the staff of this Special Edition of HTV Magazine chose child abuse in Greene County as their topic, they basically decided to do a show about people they could not show. That was a problem...or what we Broadcast Journalism teachers prefer to call "a challenge." Boy was it.
The three victims interviewed asked for varying degrees of anonymity. One, "Chris," was fine with using his real face and voice. The young lady, "Beth," made it clear she wanted her voice and image protected. The adult victim, "Jane," also needed her voice changed and her face hidden.
In the end, we opted to backlight the adult, and to just show the hands of the two younger victims. Hands can tell a story of their own, and we think at times that is what happened. The gestures added emphasis to the words being spoken. Just showing the hands also makes viewers listen more closely to the words.
In this program, the students recorded plenty of interview footage with experts, and a few people did not make it into the final cut. It happens. But on this website you can see some of that deleted content, and hopefully it will add to the overall coverage of this compelling, troubling topic.
Another thing you may notice is the lack of statistical information on the show. Many presentations about child abuse overload the audience with numbers. They all kind of get lost in the process. We felt we proved there is a serious, ongoing child abuse problem in Missouri, and specifically in Greene County, where we live. To break down the abuse in great detail, it would require a Power Point presentation that would bring any video to a grinding halt.
Instead, you take this journey through the painful, sad world of abuse by hearing the experiences of the people we met along the way. This includes the victims, and also the dedicated, compassionate experts in this field, those providing care and assistance every day. We felt their input was more important than any number on a page we could turn into a pretty graphic.
In the end, this show is for you to judge. It is certainly not easy to watch some of the images, or hear some of the stories. But isn't that the point? Child abuse is ugly and disturbing. If it is part of your life experience, or someone near you, we hope you learn from this program that there is help out there. Great people are standing by to assist. We urge everyone to Spare the Child.