VideoJournalism

Just posted a piece about tripods on Angela Grant’s newsvideographer.com. More of a technical look than what i’ve done here in the past - parts of the beast with explanation.

Another one coming up sometime this week on where some of the terms we toss about everyday come from…bins, clips, A and B roll. I’ll post that link when she publishes it.

Newsvideographer.com just published the A roll, B roll, C roll posting. If you’re a bit of a history/definition buff, take a look.

Daniel Sato delved into demographics in his latest post. An interesting concept…one I met when I was about his age and at his stage of experience. Bob Helms, chief photog at KXTV in Sacramento, was brave enough to bring me on board in 1974 as his first female photog after a casual comment: “If you don’t work out I guess we won’t be hiring any more women.” But those were the times.

And then I got this sage advice on how to cover demonstrations: “Shoot what represents the crowd.” Different in a way from what Daniel is being told. His blog looks at “mainstreaming” -

“…which was explained to me in a nutshell, was putting minorities in photos when possible, or better reflecting the diversity of the community.”

Two different concepts about how to visualize when shooting news. Bob was telling me to make sure I represented everyone…the elderly, the ugly, the young…not just the hunks and babes. He didn’t even get into race, although I know he meant that too.

Mainstreaming seems to mean to take the extra minute to make sure you get diversity…and Daniel’s argument is that he goes for the moment - the picture.

“I don’t really think I look at what a person’s ethnic background is when I am taking pictures, just what they are doing, what the composition looks like around them, etc.”

And while Daniel points out that he feels his paper does not represent minorities enough…others have argued that there is too much focus on minorities, out of proportion to their demographics in the community or specific segment of the community.

Daniel wonders if he now has to worry more about who he is photographing than what. I think Bob Helms’ advice may cover this issue better. Shoot what is there and represent what is there. Some days the balance will swing one way…some days another way.

Part of this issue comes from the assignment desk…what do they send you to cover. Are THEY focusing more on certain segments and ignoring others. Does your newspaper represent its community?

Two closing thoughts.
Had a discussion with a friend when we were working on a lighting video. He said too often in discussions photogs like to say they light dark skinned and light-skinned subjects the same when in truth there are lighting challenges for both that are unique. Racism in lighting. Do we want to discuss this?
And I (oh forgive me) erred from time to time from Bob’s advice. My own mother said she could tell when I shot a march/demonstration because there were more shots than usual of good looking guys. (Well, I did have to balance out the opposite tendency of an otherwise all-male staff.)

My spelling skills are average…and while there is instant gratification using online dicitonaries, I’m using them less and less and my hunky old Random House Dictionary of the English Language more and more.

Makes me feel like a scholar….about three inches thick. Dusty. Tiny type. And about every word known to man (through 1966, the year it was published). Like a newspaper, it is solid and real. Some things are hard to let go of.

I felt a sense of hope and serenity when I used my own link from my blogroll to find Richard Koci Hernandez again. Left the link up as a sign of respect for the blog that was everything good about still photogs moving into video and multimedia - and for the photog who got me started on blogging.

This is not an earth-shaking blog in the sense that it will lead us all to Mecca. No, it is more a look into Richard’s soul. youarenotyourego…kind of says it. The first post I read - the man in the hat - is more a look into what drives all who visualize…all who create.

There’s a saying I once heard from a plein aire artist: “I can’t not paint.” I think that applies to all photo-video-mulitmedia-journalists. We can’t not see and we can’t not document. There is something in us that forces us to look below layers and try to see truth. To find the meaning of the universe in a glance, a movement, a moment. A compulsion to document this slice of time to show to others…not for recognition but so that they can see and understand our vision. Or not.

I don’t remember stories I’ve done so much as moments of time burned into my retina. A burned firefighter breaking down as his burned hands press against a hospital window as an engine bearing the body of his fallen partner passes by. A look of innocence as a small child turns in wonder while riding a cable car. The blurred shapes of firefighters dropping their gear and running for their lives as a fireball roars down a mountain. A moment of silence which is broken by the call of a red-winged blackbird. A wail…a honest-to-God Biblical wail..from a father whose daughter is missing/much later discovered dead.

We should all watch Richard as he gropes along through this thing we call life…and watch for his moments of truth. And mourn with him for moments lost.

While Lenslinger and his ilk get to take in the NAB; as a high school teacher I get STN and JEA. The latter was the past few days. My district cut all out of town conferences, so I zipped down Friday night and did my workshops yesterday. VJs: the New Paradigm and Lighting Basics.

Traditional print journalism teachers are revving up for the rapid changes in the industry they are teaching to. Writing they have down - the same with still photography. What makes them hesitate are the skills needed for video and the web. My job was to explain the reasons for the changes and then introduce the individual skills necessary to enter the field. Reassuring them it wasn’t all that difficult and technology was only one of the hurdles.

How to make this work? Make your students’ passion for technology and the web work for you - acknowledge they have certain skills, which they need to learn how to channel into the classroom. Stop writing inverted pyramid and LISTEN to and LOOK at your video to choose your strongest audio or video to lead with.

And finally - there is no longer a template to follow. At this point there may be some sensible guidelines - but there is no completely right or wrong way to present multimedia. The model(s) are still being explored and one of their students might well be the one who creates the template for the new frontier.

I only talked for about fifteen minutes and spent the rest of the time answering questions from what kind of camera; what kind of mike; to (this from students) how can we set up a video program at our school.

The lighting workshop came next…for the first time done without PowerPoint. Students got to set up lights for me while I explained basics of light (what you “see” is a reflection of light; Kelvin temperatures; types of stand lights). A wonderful young woman named Chelsey Wilton (please correct me if I misspelled your name) volunteered to take the “hot” seat and be my lighting model.

She sat through single light tricks (how to use one light to get both a front and back light) up through formal three point lighting. Again…all through this…the questions. What kind of on-camera lights are affordable and work. How can we do a good job lighting the principal if it takes time to set up and he says do the interview - don’t bother with the lights. Where do you buy your gear?

Questions are good - questions are the best way of getting answers (duh) - and no one was too shy to ask. Or get nailed by me. If I see a question in somebody’s eyes, I get it out of them.

The down side was I promised time to get hands-on and unfortunately time just disappeared and we had to break. This is one workshop that could go on for several hours.

Carol Knopes, education director of RTNDF, says that light and sound are the two weakest point in high school journalism and she can’t emphasize enough that they are critical for professional looking work. Oh - and on her behalf - you pros out there with a free weekend here or there and a yearning for an appreciative crowd. Send her an email and volunteer. She’s all over the place with workshops and helping both college and high school programs and she needs authentic (read professional) speakers who can relate to young people. Trust me - it’s a high that can take a week to come down from.

Kathy Newell emailed me asking what was wrong - why haven’t I been posting lately. Blame it on spring doldrums. No energy. A bit more time in the garden would help…except school is taking all my time. And i have a great post today - but not here. Promised Angela Grant I’d write some stuff for her and when I saw some new flash drive camcorders I spun out a short review. Should pop up in the next few days.

There’s another one on tripods that should be done soon.

TGIF tomorrow. Should be the start of a warm mellow weekend, but I’m off to LA to do a couple of workshops. Also had an invite to attend the Rhythm Emphasis Jam on Friday night at school - almost cancelled the trip but thought better of it. They’re MY breakers and I really wanted to see them compete. (If you have the night free and are in the Stockton area - drop by McNair High School starting at 5pm. Door price is $5)

Enjoy the weekend and I’ll see ya if you’re at the JEA confab in Anaheim!

As many of you know…Multimedia Shooter is no more.
As with many of you…there will be moments missing in my life as I reach for and am not able to view Richard Koci Hernandez’s site.
I am leaving his link up til the end of the month.

Fighting stupidity can be futile.

The studio is officially up and running at Ronald E. McNair High School. What a challenge. All of the gear was bought nearly four three years ago and it took this long to get the class started and enough interested students to open the control room doors and let them get hands-on with the good stuff.

I like to break my students into teams of three…two would be better, but not enough gear for that. Anything more than three results in one team member not doing much. Each team has a cameraman, interviewer/producer/reporter, and camera assistant/editor. They rotate in these roles.

To run the studio we need three of these teams - this time in the Control Room, working the Floor Crew, and on the Anchor desk.

Control Room crew works under the Director (one of the advanced students). One student runs the Audio Board, one is the Switcher/Assistant Director and the third is the Producer. The latter marks up the daily bulletin so that the Anchors know which segment each is reading. We have two main anchors and a sports anchor. Floor Crew is divided into two cameramen and a Floor Manager.

Nine (sometimes ten) teens all learning to work together. The first day was horrible. Got the Floor Crew on board (how to turn on camera, work safely with tripod on dolly, dressing cable, getting shots). Anchors ditto - the hard part was explaining scripting to the Producer. Control Room crew just played with buttons and switches and we found some errors in cabling from gear into the switcher.

Day Two - the teams who were rotated into training this day had been watching (and getting in the way) the day before. We got all the way up to a partial read-through of the scripts.

Day Three - again, teams observing the past two days training were observant and we actually taped a run-through of the show. Totally amazing.

Nine teens in synch with split second timing - what an accomplishment! And better yet - they knew where the problems were and gave feedback for improvements. Frankly I tried to keep the roles as simple as possible…and their suggestions mirrored the actual duties of production crews.

Let me state publicly that I am proud and honored to work with such a team. Freshmen to seniors; special ed to honors - and they took the stress and made it work for them. Now if I can only teach them to use the mute button on the Comrex.

Twenty-six total from what I’m hearing and all over the place…both KMAX and KOVR. A couple of reporters, two photogs, engineers, sales. Most of the photo staff made it through…but one of my old shooter-buddies didn’t. Marty Hernandez - a veteran with an infectious smile and love of life and news. He took the buyout and is moving on.
This apparently is a CBS edict - make cuts and try to save the ship. That ship is gonna have to grow wings and fins and feet in order to compete in the new world.

This is a difficult post to write. The paradigm shift has hit home - layoffs at my old home, KOVR in Sacramento. Not just a few folks from what I’m hearing. By the end of today it should be over - for this round at least.

It’s interesting how you can talk about change but it doesn’t really hit you until it touches someone you know. I’ll update with new information as I learn more…
I recognize too many names already…