TV Children's Reporters Visit Wissenmedia In Gütersloh

Do you need to be very clever if you write for a children's lexicon? How do the texts and images get into the new "Kinder Brockhaus"? How is a children's actually book made? Lilli, Stefanos, Melina, Vanessa, and Johannes recently shot a film about these subjects as WDR reporters. For the five third graders, the location of the shoot was only a short walk from the Kapellenschule in Gütersloh-Avenwedde: they paid a visit to Wissenmedia, the company that publishes the "Kinder Brockhaus." Tonight, the five young reporters will certainly be excited about sitting in front of their television sets: at 7:30 p.m. their piece will be broadcast during the local television program of the public TV channel WDR.

Of course, shooting a film is exciting! The five students from the Kapellenschule were no doubt filled with suspense as they waited in the Wissenmedia conference room for the three members of the television crew to arrive. Simone Nettingsmeier knows how to reduce nervousness: first she explained to the young reports how to operate the hand-held camera and offered them advice about how to position the microphone. "And always pay attention to whether everybody is ready," she said, appealing to their team spirit. 

Equipped with microphone and hand-held camera they finally walked down the long hallways to their first interview. The office of Anke Braun was on the agenda. Stefanos, a little shy, was the first to pick up the microphone and address his questions to the head of the children's book editorial team. She explained in detail that many people participate in the production of a book and how she is tresponsible for coordinating everything. The editor held galley-proofs up to the camera and explained that it takes at least half a year from the initial concept to the actual printing of a book.

The second stop was the office of Jo Pelle Küker-Bünermann, DTP layout artist and illustrator of Wissenmedia. On the monitor he demonstrated how the character "Kalle doing breakdance" that he drew gets colored on the computer and finally ends up on the pages of the "Kinder Brockhaus." He answered Vanessa's question "How does Kalle always look like Kall?" as follows: "That's very simple. You can try it yourselves." The children eagerly took the paper and pens. "Pelle" instructed the children: "I always start with the eyes." Under his direction, five "Kalles" were created step-by-step, and they all undisputedly resembled the original.

"And who writes all of the texts?" Naturally, Melina and her fellow students also wanted to know this. They met with Christiane Güth, one of the numerous authors that write for Wissenmedia. The woman from Gütersloh reports that she likes to leave the office and, for example, gathers ideas in cafes or in nature. She communicates in a credible way that you do not have to be a professor to write texts for a lexicon, but that the content always has to be checked for accuracy.

"When writing, we have to make sure that children understand our texts," she said. Lilli asked: "How do you do that?" The author said, "I write short sentences and avoid using foreign words or I explain them. I always try to imagine how it was when I was a child." All of the students agreed with her. And then the shooting of their film came to an end; they had shot almost three hours of material. And now the young reporters are looking forward to the broadcast date, when their four-minute piece will be shown.