The "scene" in a broadcast report is an elusive thing, I've found. No matter how I try to describe it, it seems to be misunderstood. Perhaps what we can do is look at a scene for what it's NOT...
1. Random sound: A scene isn't the disconnected sound of the ocean, birds, a screaming car or an angry mob, just for the sake of hearing something. It's got to be described...to matter.
2. Anything outside an interview setting: While walking and talking in the great outdoors can actually be a scene, it's got to have purpose...why are we talking to this person there? What are they describing? If we take someone out of a studio and office and have them walk down the sidewalk for no reason, it will sound chaotic, disjointed...
Instead, here's what a scene IS...
1. A chance to hear something about a story that words alone can't convey. The sound of a bulldozer knocking down a building takes you there, in the way someone telling you a story about a bulldozer knocking down a building never could.
2. A chance to break up the narrative flow. If all we ever heard was: Reporter talks/Soundbite/Reporter/Soundbite/etc....it would get pretty boring. A scene lets you go elsewhere in the story...and really separates what we do from print reporting.
3. A chance to SHOW and not TELL. A scene should be constructed to create a visual image that shows you something about a person's life or character...about a situation or controversy.
Here are a few examples of scenes in radio stories. The first one's light...a story I did for NPR about a new rule in Connecticut high school football. This next story has at least one disturbing scene...Nancy Cohen reports on a broken sewage system.
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