Mondale could have said, “There’s no substance.” Instead, he played off a popular Wendy’s commercial that was running at the time and his “Where’s the beef?” remark became one of the most memorable quotes of his campaign. If you’re clever, you can turn an otherwise boring statement into a great sound bite. It was the perfect seven-second soundbite. She couldn’t have summed up her feelings any better if she had talked for days. And when she learned that the city was about to spend $70 million on an extravagant bridge, she said on camera, “It’s like having a run-down house and buying new furniture.” Boy, did the bells go off in my head when she delivered that little beauty! I didn’t need to ask her anything else. For years, the city had failed to fix the craters in front of her house. For instance, I interviewed a woman about her pothole problem. Some of the best sound bites I’ve ever heard are analogies-parables, if you will-to prove a point. You don’t have to be Walt Whitman, or even Walt Mondale, to come up with some great quotes of your own. Each candidate’s writers and coaches carefully crafted them. And don’t think for one moment those quotes were ad-libs. None of those quotes are very informative. We remember Walter Mondale asking “Where’s the beef?” We remember Ronald Reagan saying, “There you go again.” And we remember Lloyd Bentson scold-ing Dan Quayle, “I knew Jack Kennedy. Just think about the memorable quotes from political debates over the years. In other words, the reporter prepares the meal, and you add the spice. They serve only one purpose: to add flavor to the story. The best sound bites are rarely informational. In fact, if you’ve crafted some great quotes beforehand, you can always answer a difficult question the way many politicians do: “That’s an excellent question, and it reminds me of another point I’d like to make.” Then you change the subject and deliver answers to the questions you’ve already thought about. What are the points you’d like to make? What questionsĭo your friends ask you about the subject? If you give the inter-view enough thought, you won’t be surprised by anything the reporter asks. You can help us by preparing for the interview. All we are trying to do is tell the story while being both informative and entertaining. We’re not trying to twist your words or make you say something you don’t want to say. Believe it or not, most reporters don’t have a hidden agenda. It’s amazing how many people beg me to do a story about them, yet have never given a moments thought to what they might say once the camera starts rolling.
But there’s no reason you can’t become a sound bite machine too. As far as I know Halperin has never been coached in the art of delivering quotes. He could have said, “Cryonics isn’t as final as being buried.” But that wouldn’t have had nearly the impact. Wow! What a sound bite! He summed up all his knowledge on the subject in one punchy little sentence. So why would such a man sign up for a service that offers no guarantees? “Well, I figure it’s a lot better odds than letting the worms eat me,” Halperin told me on camera. He makes critical decision on the value of coins, often involving a small fortune, everyday. Now, you should understand that Halperin is a very logical businessman. It was while doing research for his book that Halperin became convinced that cryonics is possible, so he signed up for it himself. In addition to owning Heritage Rare Coin Galleries, the world’s largest rare coin company, Halperin is the author of several books, including The First Immortal, a critically-acclaimed novel on the subject of cryonics. My feature focused on Jim Halperin of Dallas. I was reporting on cryonics hoping to answer the question “Why would anyone want to get frozen at the moment of death, when you have no way of knowing whether science will ever be able to bring you back?”
Honestly, as soon as I hear one, I say to myself, “No more calls, we have a winner!” We may interview you for an hour on tape, but all we’re really interested in are those seven-second gems.
In fact, bells go off in my ears whenever someone delivers one. I just know after twenty years of putting together television pieces, that the best quotes are those pithy little sentences that seem to sum everything up. There’s no magic to my seven-second rule. You don’t have to run out and buy a stopwatch. In this chapter, I’ll help you master the art of the seven-second sound bite. You, too, can become what’s known in our profession as a sound bite machine. Most of the time, a good quote is a happy accident. Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes TALKING THE TALKĮvery once in a while, reporters run into someone who has a silver tongue, a person whose every sentence is a ready-to-print quote.
0 kommentar(er)
