Chapter 8 Summary
This chapter focuses on telling a story with video. Your audience does not just want to read the story, but also see it. In Chapter 8, Briggs talks about the different sects within video journalism, its impact on the news industry, and specifically what tools needed to shoot video.
The Impact of Digital Video
The overarching theme in this textbook is the news media’s shift to more interactive stories. A common way of doing this is through video. With the advent of YouTube, everyone can view and produce video. This applies to any kind of journalist. Because of this, some TV stations are now video journalists – a team of two people who act as both a reporter and a videographer on assignment.
The expected quality of video over time has changed. Unlike the early days of video journalism, all levels of quality are accepted. An example comes when comparing David Pogue’s videos for the New York Times to Walter Mossberg’s videos for the Wall Street Journal. Pogue’s videos, which appear on CNBC, are painstakefully edited in order to be appealing to the eye on TV, while Mossberg’s material is comprised of a guy sitting a computer talking, often shot in one take. These two media can compete because all levels of quality are accepted.
Surprisingly, the less polished video content on news sites attracts a larger audience. This has caused newspaper to change their approaches to video journalism.
Planning Your Shoot
The key question to ask yourself when shooting for a story is to ask how will video help tell the story?
There are two types of video assignments – the documentary-style video and the breaking news and highlight clips approach. Documentary-style clips give you more control because you decide on what the content is, as opposed to breaking news, which cannot be manipulated due to the need to portray it accurately.
Some strategies to use when shooting (or even before a shoot) are storyboarding and mixing your shots. While storyboarding allows you to plan out the sequence of your shots, it does not mean you are confined to those shots while on location. In order to make the video visually appealing, it’s good to shoot from different angles – specifically wide shots, medium shots, and close-ups.
Briggs mentions that a video should have five different type of shots, known as the five shot sequence:
- Close-up on the hands
- Close-up on the face
- Wide shot
- Over-the-shoulder shot
- Creative shot
Interviews
One of the most basic forms of video journalism is the interview. The first step in planning an interview is selecting the right location. The person you interview must be comftorable in the surrounding. Additionally, the environment needs to have the proper lighting and no ambient sounds. A good tip when interviewing is to focus on the content, not your own individual personality. However, this does not mean you should not be personable and engaging. Also, be prepared by having a script written and rehearsing it.
Equipment
Now, while all levels of quality are accepted in the field, it’s important to at least have high-quality equipment to produce your videos. Before a shoot, you should have all of the following
- Tapes and batteries
- Microphones
- A tripod
- Headphones
- Good lighting
Journalists have to know the technique of shooting video as well. Some good tips when shooting are to be selective in your shots, avoid panning and zooming (let the action in front of the camera determine where the camera goes), hold your shots, and be silent when shooting.
Many people forget that in video content, the audio is just as important as the video iteslf. You can use built-in mics, wireless mics, and shotgun mics. Built-in mics are good for sporting events and capturing the natural sounds on an environment. Wireless mics are better for sit-down interviews. Shotgun mics are best used when capturing audio among multiple people.
