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Lexi of the hand trick and audio test video clips is growing up. I know I usually focus on video and related topics and this barely qualifies…but she took off for a three day workshop last night – getting ready for her summer stint at 4H camp. This time there’s a twist – she’s training to be a JC (junior counselor). A big step for her…moving from childhood to young adult.
In her mind she made that move this past August when she began high school. She understands the playbook. There are folks above and below you on the path of life. Treat those on either side with respect so you can earn it back. Be honest. That last one nearly earned her no camp due to a mixup in paperwork. She had to choose honesty and possibly not being allowed to be a JC or not mentioning the problem so she could be a JC – and she chose the former. Fortunately those in charge realized she was not at fault.
So this is number three nearly out the door. Number One (and she knows it) is Carol – debate coach in San Jose. She was an “only” for five years and loved it. Number Two we’re heading out to visit today: Pearl just got her first job a week ago at a casino in Reno as a prep chef. She dreams of eventually having her own funky hotel and restaurant, but is going through the necessary apprenticeship to learn her craft thoroughly. She’s also a Number One – she taught us that not every child is the same (big surprise for new parents). Where Carol is outgoing and loves people, Pearl is very private and opens up only with family and close friends. Finally there’s Number Three, Lexi. She brightens our lives at a time when many our age are grandparents. She will close the door on parenthood for us, perhaps at a time when other doors are opening.
I pause to reflect today because one of the reasons I left news was to be with family. Carol grew up accepting that mommy wasn’t home a lot and some days didn’t come home. All three girls had night terrors during the hot days of August and September when I would be out on the fire lines covering forest fires. They got used to me rushing out the door during a meal or waking up seeing me coming in the door after another middle-of-the-night callout. Teaching allows me to see more of them…although I am busier than ever. Lexi gets to ride to and from school with me, as did Pearl. I know how to plan weekends off now because I know I have them off. This time is precious…because I know, as do all news folk, that life is fragile and can be gone in an instant.
If you are still in news remember to kiss your family goodbye every day. I did and still do.
How do you see the world?
How tall are you? Subtract about four or five inches from that and there’s your perspective on the world. I’m 5′2″, so my world is viewed from about 4′10″ – about the distance of my eyes to the ground. My husband is 6′2″ and sees the world at about 5′10″. Very different from my perspective. He can see the top of my head…I can see under his chin. He can see what’s on top of the fridge without a stretch. I can see what’s on the bottom shelf of the fridge without bending. If I were to suddenly start “seeing” the world at his height, it would take some adjusting.
Think about how you shoot your stories. Convenience says put the camera on your shoulder and shoot at eye level – after all, we all see the same world. You know now that isn’t true. Great shooting goes beyond exposure, sound, composition…how you see and interpret the world includes how high or low are you willing to go.
Keep in mind that one of your goals as a VJ is to show your audience the world in a way they may not have seen it before. Extreme closeup. Low angle shots. POV (point of view) of a child…of a giraffe. The morning after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area, I was stretching my legs after sleeping in my news vehicle when I saw the sun coming up over the Oakland skyline…seen through part of the collapsed freeway. It looked okay…but when I laid down on the ground it was a perfect shot – symbolizing hope. I got my shot, got up and looked behind me and several other photographers (print and broadcast) were down on their bellies.
So keep in mind that high and low angles help tell the story. Shoot an interview at eye level and then frame it up from about two feet above and then two feet below the subject’s eyes. The high shot places the subject in a submissive position; the low angle shot makes them domineering.
Demonstrations can be exciting, but also visually boring. People walking. People waving signs. Put your camera at ground level and let the marchers walk by, close up. Get above the crowd and shoot down, looking for patterns. Get into the crowd and get a POV shot – how the marcher sees the onlookers.
Let your camera go where no man has gone before. I once sent mine through the metal detector at an airport (pre-911). Had a bomb squad guy in full protective gear lower it into the bomb trailor to get a shot of a pipe bomb (don’t tell my news director). Sat the camera down in a chicken house and let chicks climb over it and peck at the lens. Got too close to a snail race (now that was exciting) and the winning snail oozed right off the straw it was climbing onto my lense. Got one POV shot I could have done without – closeup of a competitor’s hands in an amateur cow milking contest and when the cow sashayed my way, viewers were treated to a shot of my feet going skyward. We included that shot cause it was a funny story and it certainly was a funny shot.
So don’t be afraid to belly crawl, climb trees, let your lens kiss a bug. It will keep you humble and your audience will love your shots.
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Drink deep or touch not the Pierian Spring.
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
(Alexander Pope)
Knowing a little can be a bad thing…and convincing yourself that you know it all based on knowing just a little is a very bad thing. As a teacher, I speak the truth here. Everyone watches movies or television or the web. Lots of folks have cameras and/or camcorders. They all “know” how to shoot. One of the biggest hurdles I have to overcome as a broadcsting teacher is students’ perceptions of what they know and how much they know.
Those of you who aspire to become videojournalists understand this…life is a constant learning experience. You can never “know it all.” The deeper you drink from the wellspring of inspiration (passion for learning), the more you realize how little you know.
It is that willingness to say, “I don’t know – teach me,” that makes great students and philosophers. Life long learning is a given for those who choose journalism as their life’s calling. Your job requires you to think and question, analyze and reflect, compare/contrast and write (why do I feel like an English teacher? Oh yeah….). In order to decipher information for your audience, you have to thoroughly understand it – well enough to simplify and explain even the most complex concepts. Visual journalists (VJs/videojournalists) must go one step furuther. They must find a way to visualize ideas, emotions in a way that makes the audience see/feel/know what they are trying to convey.
I’ve never seen a good reporter say, “Yeah…I know it all already.” There’s always one more question to ask.
So where does this lead? As a high school teacher, I’m in the middle of a balancing act: trying to instill a passion for learning in my students and making them understand that admitting you need to learn is just as important as learning. Too many students are hopping through hoops, doing what’s required to get the grade and move on. They think they already know what they need to know…and for many, there is no joy in learning. I have some remarkable students who are derailing themselves because of this. And I have some soon-to-be remarkable students who have forgotten about grades and who are driving themselves because they have found their passion – be it poetry, break dancing, or editing. They are making themselves learn, telling me they need to know more because they don’t know it all. This is the part I love about teaching – when I stop teaching and become a guide. (These, by the way, are students that I allow to break free of the regular regnimen of assignments and strike out on independent projects…their needs go beyond my pre-packaged lessons.)
My school district approved a text which, had I been around to help out, I would not have chosen. It is confusing and frankly way over the heads of my students (considering most of my students were placed in the class because they are required to have an elective and are just now beginning to realize they can have fun and learn…but that’s another story, as is the fact most are below basic in reading and math skills). Anyhow, I had that textbook in the classroom and only used it once. I’ve been working off a list of what I believe students need to know to produce good stories, using the assignments on this blog to gradually build their knowledge. However, the lack of a text of some type for them to refer to is frustrating for both me and the students.
Solution – I guess I’m gonna have to make my own “text.” I operated at my last school with a list of resources and a CD with all assignments and examples of the type of projects I expected students to produce. It worked. This time I have all summer to put together a binder, complete with the following:
Table of contents
Class expectations
Class rules/procedures
List of required materials
Lab fee explanation
Equipment waiver
Movie waiver
Objectives (what students are expected to learn – they will check these off as they achieve each goal)
Assignments (team powerpoint, basic, animation, autobiography, dvd)
Terms/definitions
iLife (iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD, Garage Band) overview and instructions
Equipment diagrams (camera and tripod)
Worksheets
Resources
Insert with CD (student examples)
That’s it for the beginning students. The nice thing is, I can adapt and change as we get new gear or students move up to the intermediate/advanced classes – they can just add sections to their binder. This also gets me going on planning for a summer video boot camp I’m teaching at a local college as well as long term plans for the training section of think-news.
I’d appreciate hearing from you what lessons you feel are important for the rank beginner – the person who has a consumer camera and thinks they know it all (hey,they’re kids and they don’t know how little they do know). Or not. Let me know what you wanted to know (or want to know) when you first picked up a video camera and started shooting.
By the way – taxes are done (ouch), planning for the most part for school is done…just sliding into the last six weeks right now…and I’m down to one daughter in the house (and two out in the world).
I’m just your ordinary meat and potatos videojournalist. I love my craft and I know how to tell a story. But Howard Owens was wondering a while back why none of the the great broadcast videojournalists aren’t posting on the web…apparently the only video he could find was one of mine on this blog. Easily answered: they can’t. Broadcast companies are very protective of their property – especially their video.
Print photographers don’t own their images either – their photos belong to the company. But I see work done by still photogs posted on websites (take a look at SFBAPPA and other professional organizations) – and never see video done by TV folks on any but the company website.
What gives? Why the difference?
Personally I think it may be because of perception – by the employer, the employee, and the public – about the role of the visual journalist as part of the news operation. Just as the print media has always had a better reputation for their ability to cover a story in depth and have larger staffs to cover more community news…their photographers seem to have better reps too. Print photogs are seen as visual artists and have a history of being part of the journalistic tradition. They are seen as independent individuals with their own identity and vision. Video/TV photogs do not seem to have the same polished reputation – even though they provide pretty much the same commodity to their medium and have equal aesthetic and creative abilities. This may be because (opinion again) they work with a reporter who is seen (first) as a TV star and (second) as a reporter. The amount of equipment traditionally carried by TV photogs turns them into living breathing pack mules. They set up live shots and run microwave trucks. So there they are: the perception is subservient, technician, pack mule.
Unlike still photogs who shoot the story along-side, but independently from the reporter, the TV photog’s visuals are driven by the style of their reporter and interwoven with the words written and narrated by the reporter. The identity of the photographer is lost in the shadow of the on-camera person, who is recognized every day for their efforts. Rarely is a TV photog given recognition…while their print counterparts get a byline whenever work appears.
This lack of identiy has made television photographers an almost invisible class. While they are what sets television news apart from print and radio, they are not given recognition as individuals or even allowed to post their images to the web so they can earn some individual recognition – because somebody else might profit from their work besides the company that owns them and their images. The no-competition contracts most photogs sign even preclude them from doing much video on their own that might compete with their own stations.
So there you have it Howard. Until a television photographer becomes an independent, they just can’t post to the web.
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