Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

How to be a creative visual storyteller with video journalist Forrest Sanders

Forrest Sanders is a reporter, videographer, editor, geek, Collierville, Tennessee native, Middle Tennessee State University grad, Nashville resident, a rambler of useless information and a horror movie nut – as his Instagram handle fondly articulates. He is a multimedia journalist for Nashville’s WTVF who enjoys the independent process of reporting and producing stories that he feels passionate about.

Sanders earned first place as the 2024 Solo Video Journalist of the year and second place as the Ernie Crisp Photojournalist of the year from the National Press Photographers Association. In this interview, we spoke about the latter, awarded in recognition of his 17 years of work as a writer, shooter and editor of everyday stories. These years have forced him to think both creatively and quickly, brainstorming ideas on his way to locations, and strategizing how to make inherently non-visual stories as visual as possible. 

These videos contained neither fancy graphics or loud, suggestive music, but still showcased  creativity in its content, camera angles and edits. Some of Sanders’ stories include a young man who suffers from high blood pressure, yet plays the piano in the hospital’s Chapel to bring joy to others, a young boy keeping traditional bluegrass music alive, and a community newspress on the brink of being shut down. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Do you go into your interviews with an idea of the shots you’d like to take or generate ideas post-film?

It’s usually in the moment. The only way I can really describe it is that if you do this every single day – under a certain pressure to think really creatively, really quickly – you just adapt to that. There’s nothing fancy about it because you don’t have time to get fancy. You’ve got four hours to shoot, write and edit a story. You have to be creative with your camera shots in the moment because this piece needs to cut together really fast.

Could you talk about your experience and what inspires you creatively?

Well, I feel like I kind of went through an unusual trajectory towards news. My big inspiration was horror movies. Specifically, I watched the original, early 80s “Evil Dead.” After I watched it, shot composition kind of made sense. 

The Evil Dead. Directed by Sam Raimi, 1981.

I like the mechanics of horror movies: how they’re paced, how they’re very specific about what’s going to happen, their atmosphere and the music. They are very deliberately put together. In a strange way, I feel like that’s what we do with news stories – we try to take you to the place where the story’s happening, and we have to build the atmosphere. 

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Any specific methods? 

I’m really careful and very intentional about reveals at different points throughout the piece. I want to be in control of when you’re going to find out certain details, so I don’t put all my cards on the table about what is happening. I want to bring in those details when it’s going to make the most impact. I want to grab people from the beginning, and I hope you take the journey with me to figure out the rest of the details of the story. 

How can future visual storytellers be quick at creativity, and also improve their craft? 

It’s experience more than anything. I know that that’s a really simple and broad answer but it’s true. It takes lots of repetitions and a whole lot of practice. And eventually you kind of figure out what your voice is, and what makes sense to you. 

I really recommend those who are news photographers to get involved in the National Press Photographers Association. They do a contest where one can send in stories they did throughout the year and receive constructive critiques from those in the same line of business. However, what one person’s favorite thing is about the story, someone else will just hate. It’s not that one is right and another is wrong, it’s just that we all view things differently. 

In “Calling the Keys,” which follows a young man suffering from high blood pressure bringing joy to others playing the hospital’s piano, street shots corresponding to your speech change to the sound of a blood pressure monitor. How did you think of shot ideas for this interview?

This story was done in about four hours; the one I turned around the quickest out of all of them. What helped is that it really was one-stop shopping because – aside from those shots driving past the hospital, which is literally just my GoPro on my window – everything else is shot in that one room: the chapel. Whether it’s that one person on the piano, or one with a guitar, his mom, it’s all just right there in that room. It’s close to the station, so I was able to cut it together really quickly. It had to be. I had the deadline, and it had to be on air a couple hours after when he could meet.

Do the deadlines help or add to the pressure?

The deadlines that you get really train you to think on your feet, think quickly and be observant of your surroundings. Several of these pieces are not inherently visual stories, so okay, how am I going to get it there? If I am constrained to a chapel, there are few visuals but there’s not a lot. How will I carry a story that’s two minutes long in an environment that’s not super visual? You have to start thinking creatively. It usually does take a while to get your rhythm with that, but you get there eventually.

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Do you consider yourself an innovative visual storyteller?

I like that description, actually. What I’m doing is telling personal stories. I want to introduce you to people and take you on a brief journey, where we start at this place and we learn more and more details about the person. Hopefully, when you get the full picture, it has the most impact. I’m not regurgitating information at you; that’s not what I do. I want you to like the people and go on the journey with them, so a visual storyteller ー that descriptor, that’s cool with me. 

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