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What is implied consent? According to law.com:
implied consent
n. consent when surrounding circumstances exist which would lead a reasonable person to believe that this consent had been given, although no direct, express or explicit words of agreement had been uttered.
What does this mean to the videojournalist? Well, if you’re doing an interview…you walk up to a subject with mike extended, ID readily available either by the mike cube or press tags or if you introduce yourself (camera rolling) and explain what you are up to…if the subject speaks and answers your questions they are giving consent – implied consent, even thought you may not have formally asked them for permission to do an interview. A reasonable person, seeing the camera and microphone, would asssume that the interchange is being recorded and would most likely be broadcast.
This comes in handly, especially when you’re in a hurry. But it only works if you are upfront with your gear and purpose. This will not work if you wear a hidden wireless and the camera is out of sight – in fact you’re setting yourself up for a lawsuit if you do not have consent for interviews. California, for instance, is a state that requires all members of a conversation to give consent before it can be recorded. Some states have a single person consent – one person can give consent. Others in the conversation may have their voices recorded without their knowledge. Know the law in your state.
I’ve shot countless interviews at accidents, MOS’s (man on the streets), whatever…just by walking up to a person and asking the question. Never had a complaint. I have been turned down (both graciously and rudely)…and always respect those who do not wish to be interviewed…well, almost always. There are those public figures who would rather avoid the media, but who’ve placed themselve in the public eye and lost their rights to privacy. But that, my friends, is another story for another day.
Whoooweeee! Now that was a fun project. Kathy Newell and I are planning another shootout, but this next time we’ll shoot, write, and edit using our own stuff rather than sharing. Don’t know yet when or where it will be…but anyone in the area who wants to hop on board, sign in and we’ll let you know when we decide. Or we could even have a virtual shootout, in which case we’ll try to find something generic enough so everyone can give it a shot. Give us a few weeks to a month cause my school begins on Monday and it takes me a few weeks to get the kiddies tamed.
One of my big frustrations in news was seeing absolutely amazing work by other photogs and never really getting to watch them work or talk to them indepth about why they shot a certain way. Heck – photogs (even the gals) are a macho bunch…with the souls of artists, even though they would never admit it. They’re tough and ready to take on anything given to them.
That’s why this past Saturday was fun…I got to shoot the same story with a photog I admire greatly and we got to talk about issues we had with gear, people, what worked and what didn’t. I look at her raw tape and see shots I missed and her personal touch in every frame.
Too often we work too hard and don’t stop and enjoy our friends and co-workers. And I’m not talking about the after work brewski…but relationships that last beyond the next presser or disaster. I was talking with Willie Kee’s wife Jeane once about how hard it must be to be married to a news photographer….and she blew up. You – she said – have no idea. Ron (your husband) understands…but you photogs are buried alive in your jobs…to the point where you sometimes forget family. Or words to that effect. I was reeling by the time she was through.
Next point – recognition. Not awards or acclaim. When two news photogs meet…they eye each other, but there is a connection…an invisible understanding of each other. Recognition of another member of a strange and independent breed…a first responder who documents events and moves on – documents another event and moves on. Never really part of an event, but touched by each scene, each person, each story they cover. I’ve gone beyond what I wanted to say…but as far away as I am from the daily grind, I still feel the tug…and the relationship with my kinsmen and women.
Here are the two versions of the story. I feel mine has a weak ending…just couldn’t decide on a strong shot – and ideally a story should have a strong open and close. Editing is more of an art than any other part of production. Shooting can be too…but editing makes or breaks a story…editing creates the mood and flow. A good editor can make a bad photographer look good. A bad editor can destroy a good photographer.
Plus…compression doesn’t look that good. Will give it another shot and see if I can make it look better.
Later….I did a recompress and while it looks better on my computer it still looks pixelated via youtube.
Re Kathy’s video…her version is much livelier. She thinks because she’s just out of news and I’m more comtemplative (i.e., older and been out of the field longer). Whatever…she also noted that without talking to each other, we seems to key in on the same shots. Now we had about 45 minutes of cover and interview between us and there were a wide variety of shots to choose from, but we still selected very similar shots…most likely because we read the same thing into the script and looked for matching shots…but also because we both recognize good video. The shots we passed on may not have been as well framed, exposed…not as to the point.
Cyndy Green’s version
Kathleen Newell’s version is on her blog at klncreations.
Day Two – Kathy Newell drove down the hill to my house and we traded tapes and captured all of our video from Murphys Heritage Day to both of our laptops. She’s editing Final Cut Pro on a MacBook Pro and I’ve got Express on a plain ole MacBook.
We talked about what we remembered from our shoot yesterday and some opening lines we’d been tossing around. We settled on an opening that focused on children playing and adults not being afraid to admit their ages and took it from there. Remember, with a video story you need strong video, strong nats or an interview, or a good narration. Lacking the former, we went with the latter. We actually wrote the script without really logging…something you can do only after years (and years and years) of shooting. We remembered what questions we asked in interviews and what shots we got – and which were good and bad. As we tossed lines back and forth, we also hopped on the Internet to get some historical facts about Murphys and Heritage Day. Below is the final script. Notice we left the actual wording of the interviews out…we knew we had the sound, just didn’t log it (don’t do this at home boys and girls).
Nats- kids creek
Murphys, California. A Gold Rush community, where children still play in the creek … twirl hula-hoops … and adults are not afraid to tell their age…
Interviews with ages (two or three)
Or be called “Duck Master.”
Nats- ducks and duck race
Every July Murphys holds Heritage Day, when anyone who’s lived here more than ten years and is older than 70 years old joins to share memories.
Interviews – two about how they like town or whatever
Nats Music (:15) –cover with B-roll
Even the songs are a throwback to an earlier age. Murphys began as New Murphys Diggings in 1848 in the midst of the 49er Gold Rush in California. It stayed an old-fashioned backwoods hamlet for nearly a century, but in recent years the population has changed.
Interviews – one or two
But what hasn’t changed is the essence of Murphys.
“It’s quaint”
(maybe add another bite)Nats music concluding shots
No – not a heavy script. But a mood piece…a look in the day of. Now for the fun part. I tracked the narration and then Kathy cut her track. We’ve on to the next stage: each of us is editing our own version of the story, using the same tape. We’ll each pick out sound bites and nats and see what our end products look like. (Hint: we did show off our first sements before parting for the day. Kathy’s version is faster paced, more upbeat. Mine is slower. Strangely, she used the same interview I did in one place, but let it run longer. I used more bites in the beginning, where she only used one.) We hope to post tomorrow, with comments, on
Kathy Newell and I met up the hill in Murphys yesterday. Murphys is a small Gold Rush Town in the foothills, and they had a couple of events going on. What originally caught our eye was an event listed in the community calendar – a dog and pony show put on by the local SPCA. We never quite made it there though.
Drivng Murphys Grade into the town was leisurely…and we just kind of happened onto the narrow streets, which were lined with cars. It seemed as if there were more cars than buildings. We parked and packed our gear into Murphys Community Park for the annual Heritage Day. Our purpose? A team shootout – we’ve been wanting to work on a project together and this happened to be a free day for both of us. The story was simple – go to a small town event and shoot and edit a story. Kathy uses a Panasonic AG-DVC60 camcorder and I’ve got my old JVC GY-DV300u. Both are three chip cameras – mine is five years old while Kathy’s is less than a year. We both like the XLR mike inputs and manual controls on our cameras. We each took a lightweight tripod, stick mike and cable, and one tape.
Here’s my take on the day. (I know Kathy will add her comments once she reads this.)
As we walked over the bridge I saw children playing in a creek…partly in sun with a large area in sunlight. Kathy headed for the bandstand where an old time band was tuning up. This was the first time using my new tripod and I had to work with it a bit to “grease” it up so it would operate smoothly. I did some tilts and pans. Adjusted the legs, checking the level bubble. Walked down to the bandstand and watch Kathy shooting and got some cutaways (audience) and a wide perspective shot. Noticed some women experimenting with making a mike work, so asked one of them who would know something about the event. Michelle (never did get her last name) volunteered to find us someone and disappeared.
About the time Kathy and I were wondering who to track down for information, Michelle turned up and escorted us over to one of the picnic tables and introduced us to Lafeyette Worms – the oldest old-timer at the picnic. I began the pre-interview with “Laf” and his cohorts…introducing Kathy and myself and teasing him about his age and how long he’d lived in Murphys. Others at the table chimed in and I got the okay to interview three of them. My intent with the interviews initially was to find out how long each of them had lived in Murphys…how old they each were…and why they moved here. Interviewing Laf was a hoot. He had his agenda…talking about his late wife, family, and job. I had my agenda. And he had a hearing problem. The raw tape is funny – I ask a question – he looks confused and wants it repeated. I try to direct the conversation and he takes it in the direction he wants to go. Interviewing people is both a science and an art and an adventure. The science part is knowing what you want…the art is being graceful or friendly with your questions. The adventure is where the interview goes. I whipped out two more interviews at the table. I’d added another angle to the questioning…what are the advantages and disadvantages of living in this neck of the woods. What I got back was that traffic and congestion were left behind….quiet and country were what they found. Kathy, in the meantime, had been shooting an interview at another table and finished about the same time. We did a final interview together and took a lunch break. Over hamburgers and watermelon we discussed what we had so far – good nats, some interesting soundbites, nice small town visuals.
Our intent was to head to the dog and pony show when we found out that the final duck race would be soon, followed by a hula hoop competition for kids. Notice: We purchased a ticket for the duck race – #270. (We had big plans to win.)
Kathy opted for shooting the dumping of the (rubber) ducks while my job was to get the race ending. As usual we asked who was in charge of the race and a nice older gentleman told us he was the Duckmaster. Wow – what a title. Turns out he wasn’t a judge – his job was to take the winning ducks and line them up so folks could see the numbers. We asked several folks where the dump would take place – most agreed it would be at the bridge upcreek, at the highway. Kathy headed upstream and I peeled off some shots of a dog swimming and kids playing. Then, without any fanfare, someone yelled, “There they go!” I glanced up just as hundreds of yellow duckies were poured into the creek about 300 yards upstream. There went the money shot….I jammed and got focused in time to get them floating my way…stayed wide, grabbed a few closeups and ran to the backside of the bridge to get the winners being handed up on shore (and NO, #270 was not a lucky duckie). Got a closeup pan of the winners and met up with Kathy again. She drove me downtown to get some mood shots of the old buildings and we cruised out of town, back down Murphys Grade.
In review – I’ve been relying too much on my ZR60 and have forgotten the feel of my JVC. It took me about half an hour to get up to speed. Initiallly I had trouble with the audio…had to go into the menu to reset it. Took me a while to get back into shooting and keeping on top of manual aperature. White balance on the JVC is sensitive and I had to keep white balancing between shade and sunlight. I’ll admit I was lazy and kept it on auto-focus. I did walk around with the camera on for a few minutes – unaware I was shooting helter-skelter. Also have to get back into my news mode of shooting. Somehow I was telegraphing my moves and folks were looking at me instead of ignoring me…waiting for the camera to turn their way. I missed some great hug shots and spontaneous kids in water shots because of this. And it may partly be because of the larger, more professional looking camera. With the ZR I truely am invisible – just another old lady with a camera.
Oh – and the dog and pony show? We never shot it. There was more than enough going on at Heritage Days. Stay tuned…later I’ll post how we logged and edited…and hopefully we’ll post the final story Monday night.
Media gets sucked into story. Mayor and reporter. Reporters and sources. Media “honoring” each other’s privacy. What’s this all about?
Transparency. Allowing the audience to know about relationships – and allowing the audience to make determinations about integrity and honesty. Two obvious cases. Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villagaigosa and Telemundo reporter Mirthala Salinas admitted to a relationship which has created a national stir. And today in tvpsy’s shoptalk column, Chicago reporter Amy Jacobson is “outed” for taking her kids to the home of a news subject (Craig Stebic) whose wife has disappeared. The explanation?
Jacobson reportedly got a phone call from Craig Stebic’s sister inviting her to go to the Stebic home to discuss the case.
In what Jacobson called a “lapse in judgment,” she drove there, with her kids and wearing her swimming suit.
Jacobson now recognizes that decision was more than just a “lapse.”
“I know I made a horrible mistake,” Jacobson told WGN-AM 720 radio on the day after she left her TV station.
That assessment is, I believe more accurate. That “horrible mistake” was about judgment, professionalism and ethics. Ironically, in this case, Jacobson’s demise was driven by other journalists.
Someone — it’s unclear who — videotaped Jacobson as she, wearing a swimming suit and a towel, spent time going in and out of Craig Stebic’s house.
There’s a couple of things working in the latter case. Poor judgment in going to a the home of a possible “person of interest” in off-duty clothes with kids. And another station airring video shot over a fence of Jacboson at Stebic’s house.
First – the audience in both cases needed the facts, yes. Salinas reportedly denied any off-duty relationship with Villagaigosa. An outright lie, if you will. In the second case…I would question why Jacobson felt so comfortable with Stebic that she felt she could turn up so casually and with her kids. She herself needed to let the audience know about this…and I’m sure they would, as I do, wonder what was going on. I mean – her own kids and in a swimsuit???
Next – I’m torn on this one. I’ve done my share of over-the-fence shooting. It’s okay at times (crime scene, cops know you’re doing it, the neighbor whose yard you’re in says you can be there). I’m not too sure about the source for this video…or the reason for shooting it. But I am somewhat behind the reason for airring it – if done properly. High profie people give up some of their rights to privancy. Jacobson, as a reporter whose face is on air frequently, is a high profile person in a swimsuit at a story subject’s house. Yep – she lost her right to privacy. And this is tricky…how should this information have surfaced? In a perfect world, her station would know and reprimend her and acknowledge publicly what happened, as Telemundo has done with Salinas. As it is, the video surfaced on another station.
Author of the tvspy article, Bob Steele who is a Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values, gives five to-the-point recommendations to consider in cases like these, beginning with “Think before you act” and reminding both staff and bosses of their responsibilities to fully disclose and discuss any potential landmines.
Oh yeah – and what about media respecting each other’s privacy? You mess up, I ignore it so if I mess up, you ignore it? Whoowheeee. At what point do these “mess-ups” become so big they can’t be ignored? I honestly don’t know. There are private matters that are truely private and private matters that should be public. Each is an individual call – they can’t all be judged together and no matter what you decide, you are damned either way. Just make certain in you heart and mind you back your decision.
Transparency…it’s to your benefit and allows your audience to trust you as a journalist.
Through with excuses…out to the workshop.
Just in case you didn’t notice…there’s a new category in the left column, just so you know when I’m being blatent about promoting something I have a personal connection with. It’s all about transparency. Yes, I’m starting a business…and yes, you need to be able to separate those posts from the rest. I’ll keep posts to this new category (Shameless self-promotion) to a bare minimum.
Okay…that’s another minute away from the spiders. Ugh…and now, out the back door.
Man, I feel PROLIFIC today. I watched the dawning sun filter through the leaves on the tree outside my bedroom, fed the critters, and had pancakes with sliced banana for breakfast and sat down for a few (hah) minutes at the computer. FYI I sit in my kitchen at the breakfast table (sounds grand, doesn’t it), looking out at my front yard and the waving field of corn across the street…watching clouds, chickens, and whatever passes by as I type. Today my head is a jumble of stuff I want to post…so here’s a list I may pick from for future posts.
Video ethics – a strange beast. There’s more you have to watch for when producing a video story.
Implied consent – letting folks know you’re for-real media
Light – a never ending subject
Logging – damn boring but also necessary
Visualizing – seeing the world as an individual
Adding sound – music and sound fx/are they ethical (no – and maybe)
Separating your life from work – the blended videojournalist
Technical – how much do you really need to know
Clear vision – why are you shooting this story/what do you want your audience to get from it
Choosing a visual story (if you’re allowed to have input)
Making a non-visual story less deadly (aka making a dud come alive)
The tai chi of shooting video
People I admire
The best visual stories aren’t always the big stories
Well, it’s a beginning. What I’m really attempting today is trying to find ways to avoid going into the workshop behind the house and pulling out some dusty, spider-infested, grimey file cabinets I need for the classroom. I have to pull and clean them and then (lucky) daughter #3 will use up the last of the cans of spray paint to enhance them (yep, they’ll look colorful…but no longer ugly).
Got to thinking this morning about audio again. Every day you’re out in the field shooting interviews with all kinds of ambiant noise in the background. So once you’re back in your home base, why suddenly is there a requirement for good clean audio when you narrate your voice track for your story? After all, the interviews usually have noise behind them.
First – that background noise is part of their lives…it’s the mood music they live with. The sound of tractors, buzzing of flourescent lights, cheering of crowds, wailing sirens and so on. It actually adds to the flavor of your story and pulls your audience in.
Your narration must be clean so you can ADD natural sound/ambiant noise when you edit video over it. Remember, you’re working with two audio tracks minimum when you edit (unless you’re editing stereo, then it’s four). Your video should always have audio embedded with it – that’s the interview or natsound. So let’s say you’re editing a quick package…narration and interviews interspersed with some natsound. You start with an interview (video with sound) and then go to narration (sound only) and back to interview and some natsound (video with sound). The narration has no video…pretty obvious. But once you place video over it, you’ve added sound too. Think about this – do you really want really muddy sound – your narration recorded in the field with noise behind it and then you add more sound? I don’t think so. Even if you record in the field (with sound behind your narration), when you edit in video the nats behind won’t match the video. That’s why you need a clean audio narration…so you can layer whatever background sound you want over it and it will match the accompanying video.
Some quick suggestions in case you have to do a quick field track (aka narration). Get in your car and put a cover over your head to deaden the sound (a coat, sweater). If you have to, just bend over and read into your lap. Stand close to a wall in a quiet area and read into the wall. A solution some of my students at Middle College came up with was a cardboard box which they glued foam into. They cut away the top and just leaned into it to read. Why go to so much trouble? You don’t want an echo – and coats, foam absorb echos. Give this a try…and see how much cleaner your tracks sound.
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