News Room 10 & 5 Second Cues

Video Transcript

Now, in this segment, we're going to learn the ten second and five second countdown cues for a news anchor. Now, generally, when you give your cues, you're going to want to be pretty close to the front of the prompter. This one's a little bit different than other ones because, as in your thirty second cue, you want to be on the side of it. And your fifteen, you kind of want to be on the side of it. But your ten second cue, you can also be on the side of it. Some anchors usually, you know, this is pretty much the universal sign--ten seconds, two hands, all five fingers up. So, you usually want to have it like that. Hold it up there for about two or three seconds. Then you can take it away. Now, when you get to five seconds, you want to have your hand up, all five fingers. Then, when they come, and then when four comes, you go four, and then three, and then two, and one. Now, you don't say that, if they're talking. If you say that and they're talking, of course, you're going to go over air. You're going to sound kind of stupid. They're going to be a little mad at you. Your director's going to be a little mad at you. But it does happen. Now, when you're coming out of the sound byte or commercial, it is ok to give a verbal countdown. So, say you're coming down from five seconds, you want to say, "Five," and also do the hand movements. So, you go, "Five, four, three," but you don't say, "Two" or "One." And then, of course, you always give your cue at the end, that way they know, ok, they're coming on, they're going to be there, they're going to be talking. But, of course, you don't say, "Two" or "One," just in case something happens, to where you come back early from it or a mic gets turned on, something like that. You never, ever want to get caught on air talking or moving your hands in front of the camera or hitting the camera, anything like that. You want to be as discreet as possible. You don't want people to even know that you're there.

Watch these related videos

• 
  News Room 10 & 5 Second Cues

  playlist Views: 299

• 
  News Room Hand Signals & Cues

  playlist Views: 346

• 
  News Room Story Cues

  playlist Views: 276

• 
  News Camera Zoom Tips

  playlist Views: 319

• 
  News Anchor Movement

  playlist Views: 340

• 
  Following News Director Cues

  playlist Views: 314

Community Members who...

• Favorited this Video
• Rated This Video

Top Tags