Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [99]
In order to obtain all of this information, preliminary telephone conversations that you have with the booking producer should be carefully heeded. Producers will also tell you anything you should know about that show’s particular format or what is expected from you as a guest. For example, there might be an opening question, to which a fifteen-second answer is expected. Failure to observe such a time limit may cause the director to stop the tape and do the opening a second time. Or you may be told that you will be going on the air with your arch-rival and that a gloves-off debate between the two of you is expected. Or you may be sharing your air time with others as one member of a large panel or roundtable.
If you don’t pay attention to the producer stating such things over the phone in advance, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise when you arrive at the studio.
A Preparatory Checklist
So now you are aware of the fact that in order to arrive at the right place at the right time, well informed, relaxed, and ready to go on the air, you should get as much advance information as possible about your television appearance. It also is a good idea to confirm all details the day before you are scheduled to appear.
The following checklist can help. You or one of your staff members should fill out a similar list for each TV appearance. This is particularly helpful when you are doing multiple television and radio interviews one after the other on the same day; you can review the checklist in the car between interviews.
• Name of program
• Date of TV appearance
• Expected time of arrival
• Time of taping or live broadcast
• Station or network name
• Station address
• Station switchboard telephone number
• Program contact or producer
• Producer’s phone number
• Your interviewer’s name
• Program format (such as hour-long live call-in show, pretaped interview with no edits, etc.)
• Subject(s) to be discussed
• Length of interview
• Names of any other guests
• Program is being taped in advance for broadcast on _____ date or
• Program is shown live
• Visuals or props to be provided by you, if any
• Will you be expected to read prompter copy? If so, will it be provided to you in advance?
• Travel arrangements, if any
• Remarks (may include such things as the following: the best way to get to the station; where to park; availability of a makeup person; what to wear; questions you might be asked; questions you would like to be asked in order to get your message across; or, the basic position your organization has assumed on a specific topic)
Additional Advance Preparations
Make all of your other advance preparations before you get to the TV station, assuming that nothing can be done after you get there. This enables you to approach your television appearance with confidence and quiet authority, allowing you to relax and even enjoy the whole experience.
Prepare your notes in advance so that they can be referred to easily. Idea headings, direct quotes, or complicated statistics should be typed in capital letters, triple-spaced, on stiff notecards. (The cards should be pastel-colored rather than white so that they do not “bloom” on camera.)
If you are doing an on-camera “read,” make last-minute changes on any script or prompter copy beforehand. Every TV producer has seen guests who keep the studio crew waiting while they fiddle endlessly with the script and political candidates and their advisers who cause unnecessary delays while they rewrite material which must then be retyped. In a television studio, on paid time, the clock is ticking away, often at a cost of thousands of dollars per hour.
Come prepared with questions you would like to be asked, which would permit you to give effective answers. This is especially appreciated by talk shows that do back-to-back interviews, with the host being only partially prepared; by interviewers who have not read your book (in