Drought OTS
OTS is short for “Over The Shoulder” graphic. OTS’s serve to create a sort of visual headline to a story. Sometimes OTS’s are story specific, but other times they are created so they may be used in a variety of stories with the same theme. As with all graphics created for newscasts, they are generally created in a very short space of time since they are assigned shortly before air-time.
The drought OTS remains a favorite for several reasons. The first is that any time a graphic is not only effective, but also looks like it took more time create than it actually did, it’s an unmitigated success. Also, since longevity for television graphics is pretty rare, one has to be thankful when a graphic has staying power. Since the Drought OTS was so successful, it was used in subsequent broadcasts, eliminating the need to create new drought OTS’s and thereby granted more time for other graphics.