Latest Videos
7October06
Rita Anderson Reports:
For the first time, the Madrid Fashion Week set minimum standards for models participating in their show. Fashion Week is an international modeling show which takes place in major cities including New York City and London every year. In Madrid, models with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 16, which is considered underweight, were not allowed to participate in the show and were even referred for medical treatment by doctors on staff measuring the women’s BMIs. Madrid representatives set this requirement to promote an image of “health and beauty” in hopes of decreasing the dangerous eating behaviors of young women in Spain and around the world.
Get the full story
Great piece Rita! The RSF professional’s insights on BMI really gave the story a great angle.
(Comment by Ani @ 10:24 pm on October 7th, 2006)GREAT JOB RITA! I liked the ending….that was cute. Good job.
(Comment by tonia @ 1:24 pm on October 10th, 2006)Devin’s info was a really good addition, I agree. BMI is just a number – basically a person’s weight over height. Anything below a 18.5 is considered “underweight,” though this does not necessarily mean they are “under-healthy.” However, something to consider: being underweight is more likely to lead to death for ALL age groups (regardless of sex) than being overweight.
Also, a few technical asides, more so for CalTV’s stories in particular. I would like to see less jump cuts (you don’t EVER see them in professional network news stories) – you can cover over the splicing of interviews by adding some b-roll or stock images. In this case, the editor could have added pictures of particularly skinny models, or an image of what a 16 BMI looks like; these images could be taken from the Internet. Also, having someone being interviewed face the camera directly (such as in Devin’s case) is a little confrontational. It is always better practice to shoot an interview subject from a slight angle – it’s softer for the audience and emphasizes the storytelling aspect. For this story in particular, it was a little awkward to hear all the “mmhmm’s” during Devin’s interview. I know those sounds are encouraging for the subject to hear, but they interfere with the information the story tries to gather from him.
All in all, a well-rounded story. It would have also been interesting to get a model/pagent girl’s opinion on the Madrid rule.
(Comment by Christine @ 4:26 pm on October 11th, 2006)