Saturday, October 20, 2007

WFAA: The mountaintop

When I first got into promos, I was shown a tape that blew me away. It was 1995 or so - and the tape was of promos from WFAA in Dallas. They were great promos and got me excited about the possibilities.

I later went to work for KENS in San Antonio - which is owned by Belo, the parent company of WFAA. All of the sudden, I had access to the Belo Reels - a compilation of the best promos from across the company. WFAA was always the best of the best.

I soaked it up like a sponge. WFAA promos were always light years ahead of the competition. Sure, in the late 90's - they shot everything on film and the spots were beautiful. But the most interesting thing I took away was the use of concepts in selling a news story. Unbelievable stuff. Great writing. Smart spots.

I've since found a few other stations out there doing great work. KPIX does good work, KTVT in Dallas does some incredible creative, WNBC has done some great work. I check out youtube all the time for great promo work. (More on where to find great promos to inspire yourself in a future blog)

My entire career, I've spent trying to live up to the great work that first inspired me. I've done ok with that.

Here is one of my favorite WFAA spots ever. There were 3 main :60s - but I only have this one available. I eventually worked for one of WFAA's best producers, who worked on these spots. I learned a ton from him. At the time, I had no idea what the Dallas market was like. But after seeing this spot - I was left with the impression "Wow... that must be the biggest and the best station in Dallas. How could they not be?" They didn't have to say "Biggest newsteam" and "advanced this and exclusive that" -- the spot's production left me with the "feeling" that WFAA was special. And even 11 years later, this spot holds up. Great work always does.

2 comments:

PenCapChew said...

I dunno... I think the visuals and time-lapses are pretty, but I'm kinda tired of hearing that same script a billion times. The VO in this spot turns into white noise after about 2 seconds. The swelling dramatic orchestral music doesn't do it for me either.

IDOPROMOZ said...

The only thing I can say is this spot was done back in 1998 - well before every station in the country was writing this kind of script. Actually, the other 2 :60s were even better written.

I'm a sucker for swelling orchestral music - and I thought this spot was infinitely better thn most image spots done around the country.

Remember what most promos looking like even back in 1998? I think this spot was head and shoulders above most in 98 and above most even today.

But... as they say, that's one man's opinion.