Download: Philadelphia Neighborhoods: Style Basics
WRITTEN
• Follow AP style. (Specifically: job titles, addresses, numbers)
• We use past tense and third person voice.
• When referencing the city’s government, capitalize City.
• Keep paragraphs short, two or three sentences at most.
• Make quotes stand alone as their own paragraphs.
• Place attribution after the first sentence in a multi-sentence quote.
• Quote attributions should be formatted by identifying the person speaking first, then the verb: s/he said.
• Avoid “partial quotes.” Partial quotes may be used if it is obvious who said it.
• When talking about people, say “people who,” not “people that.”
• “Punctuation ALWAYS goes inside the quotation marks,” the editor screamed.
PHOTOS
• At every situation, shoot wide, medium range and close-up shots.
• All images need people in them (with the exception of secondary close-up shots). Photos of buildings, signs, people staring straight into the camera or those which are static and have no action will not be accepted.
• Shoot portraits in environments that create a visual story about the subject.
• Follow the subject doing whatever s/he does.
• You need a strong horizontal for the top/featured image.
• Do not over-manipulate images in PhotoShop. Just crop, tone and re-size, please.
• Refer to the Philadelphia Neighborhood style guide for how to handle cutlines.
VIDEO
• You should always have interviews shot separately from the action shots.
• Be sure to shoot video of the subject doing whatever the subject does. Try to capture nat sound – including potential soundbites/quotes – while following the subject.
• Your video storytelling should walk the viewer/listener through a narrative, with a beginning, middle and end.
• Here is a rough guideline for video stories:
- You should have around 3 or 4 soundbites per 60 seconds of video.
- A soundbite should not last more than 10 seconds, if that.
- Gather enough B-roll to cover the full video (meaning you will gather extra).
- Cut away shots should last around 3 to 5 seconds. Preferably 3.
- That means for a 90 second video, you’ll need between 4 and 7 soundbites and around 18 cut away shots.
• If you do stand-ups in the video, either do them as ins and outs or as a bridge in the middle. Do not do an in, bridge and out.
• If you do a sig out, it should be: “Reporting in (neighborhood) for Philadelphia Neighborhoods, I’m (name).”
• Everyone who speaks in your video must have a lower third. Lower thirds should be semi-opaque black background with white Verdana text. The file can be found here.
Last updated: August 13, 2020