Curious About the English Term

[Joseph W. bourke]

Although it’s on a monitor in this frame grab, the standard term in the Broadcast industry has always been OTS, or Over the Shoulder. It’s often abbreviated to Slide, as in Over The Shoulder Slide.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Mark Landman]

I had 1 news director that I worked with that referred to it as an ‘insert’, everyone else called it an ‘OTS’ (Over The Shoulder).

Mark Landman
PM Productions
Champaign, IL

[Walter Biscardi]

I’m pretty sure at CNN we called it Box Left, Box Right depending on which side it was on. Made for an easy command to the camera people and TD at the same time.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

Foul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People.

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[Todd Terry]

I spent much longer in TV news than I cared to (“I’m not a journalist, but I play one on TV”)…

An OTS is a term you’d hear sometimes… but not to the degree where I’d consider it quite an official term. Having worked at one network affiliate, and visited other television stations as a “journalist” (also making air quotes with my fingers), and many more directing promos for various stations… I think it’s almost safe to say that just about everywhere I went called them something different.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Simon Roughan]

Gentlemen, thanks for the feedback.

The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.

[Juris Eksts]

Another meaning of OTS or Over The Shoulder, used to be the shot during an interview of the interviewee, over the shoulder of the interviewer, showing part of the interviewer.

[Joseph W. bourke]

Ah…we called those Reaction Shots. Just goes to show that’s there’s really no standard in the industry; just one facility to another. Of course there were also outside producers – mostly from ad agencies, who would come in and call all the graph supers “camera cards”, just to show you what they knew (past tense is very correct here)…

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Walter Biscardi]

Some other fun terms from my CNN days…..

SLUG – Title of the story, I believe that came from newspaper days.
MOS – Man on the Street interview
SOT – Sound On Tape usually meant an interview
NAT – Natural sound
Donut – Pre-created element with a hole in the middle for current video, like a show open.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

Foul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People.

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[Simon Roughan]

Yeah, I think the OSS (over shoulder shot) picture composition is a pretty standard term. I have books on scriptwriting, and directing, and they all refer to this as an “OSS” shot.

The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.

[Mark Suszko]

You get to hear lots of behind the scenes chatter on remotes when they plug your headset into the IFB and PL channels of the intercom. It is common the hear “gimme a 2-box”, to show two different shots, each in it’s own PIP (picture-in-picture) box, across a master background.

At CNN’s PL line for example, they refer to a screen full of 4 or more, smaller, individual screens as the “Biggie Smalls”. I’m always wondering, when I hear that, if I’m going to hear some rap music next..:-)