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Oh my GOSH – I cannot believe I missed this. Andy Dickenson’s dry humor revealed once again in a couple of video cartoon shorts.
First: his video on Quality.
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And next: his video on Quantity (or Point and Shoot).
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After rolling around on the floor in tears, I realized that that a rebuttal is in order, so I offer this little clip in response.
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As mentioned before, I’ve strayed from my original intent of keeping this blog focused on videojournalism – as a learning tool. In search of other outlets, Angela Grant of newsvideographer.com has allowed me to help out occasionally as a contributor with reviews, etc. She’s one of my favorite sites for what’s going on in the real world.
So hop on over there for a real mashup of reviews, current trends, job openings, opinions, etc.
I’ve been compiling lists of gear and today seems like a good time to go over some of it. Most of what I’m checking out below is meant for the smaller (handheld) cameras. So I’m not looking at bulky gear that I attach the camera to – I want gear I can attach to the camera. Some of the information is from my own research and some I picked up cruising around the Internet. Since I’m currently using a Canon HV20 and older JVC GY-DV300u, my preference is lights that can run on their own power with as few cables entangling me as possible. Remember…some of this equipment I have and use…and other stuff I’m daydreaming about because it looks so neat. If you have stuff you’re in love with, let me know.
Lights
You have your choice – on camera or off camera. Tungston or LED. Or even flourescent (none of these for on-camera use though).
On camera lights serve two purposes – fill light when doing an interview and you want to eliminate shadows and main light source on breakers at dark (or in dark areas).
Off camera lights allow you to avoid the “deer in the headlights” look that a straight-on camera light gives subjects.
Tungston – The original electronic light source. Warm temperature can be altered with filters or gels. Light head can get hot if left on for long. A real battery drainer if you go for high power. Fortunately with today’s sensitive cameras you don’t need a ton of power.
Sunpak RL-20 Readylite 15 Watt Video Light – Charger Included for around $35. And yep, I have used one of these for several years. Quick recharge, head is not too hot to handhold and puts out a decent light. Disadvantage – no filters to adjust for color temperature changes.
Sony HVL-20DW2K2 20-watt Video Light Kit with Battery and Adapter/runs on Sony NP batteries and can be switched from 10 to 10 watts for around $160. I have an older model of this light and it allows me to make good use of some old batteries I have lying around that i no longer have a camera for. Nice thing is that it doesn’t really seem to heat up that much.
LED – Light Emitting Diodes. Very low energy consumption and cool to the touch/no heat problems. Can run from affordable to ouch.
Litepanels LPMICRO Micro LED on Camera Light/filters included to change from 5600 to 3400/runs on AA batteries/dimmable/around $300
Bescor LED-10K1 10-watt LED On Camera Light Kit/runs on AA batteries/around $65.00
CameraBright X1-ER+ Extended Range Plus – Digital/Video Camera Light (Black)/a lower level LED light and battery all in one for about $38. I’ve ordered a couple for my school. Kinda weird mounting – on the bottom of the camera using a tripod screw. Nice feature is it will automatically turn itself off if you forget. CameraBright makes several cheaper versions without the range of this one (20 feet).
So why pony up the $300 for the Litepanel? Two reasons: you can turn it up down/brighter & dimmer and the filter set allows you to be ready for whatever situation you find yourself in.
Now how to you get that nifty Rennaisance-light look with a simple on-camera light? Grab yourself a low-end light stand (Impact Light Stand – Black, 6′ for about $6) and tape or bracket your on-camera light to it; raise it and place to one side and there you have it.
One of the simple facts of gear is that cameras will come and go…but usually there are few changes in your accessories. Yes, LEDs have moved in as another choice for on-camera lighting in recent times…but if you buy good quality lights, tripods, and mikes, you can keep them through several changes of cameras.
Stay tuned for the next gear update on mikes and tripods. And light kits. Or whatever else strikes my fancy.
That seems to be the clarion cry of newspaper photographers everywhere as they shift gears and begin shooting video. But there’s a lot of meaning behind that cry…and you have to listen to hear what it really means.
Part of it is obvious…we’re real journalists/not some highly-visible off-spring of entertainment. As in, “We cover real news the right way.” (Do I detect some tilted noses?)
The second part lays claim to new territory – print photogs are discovering a new way to visualize and they are not tied to the broadcast model (reporter, standups, live shots). They bring their own vision to video – a vision that is excited about exploring the limits of video rather than doing the same old same old.
The third part is hardest for broadcast folks to get. You stage – we don’t. Ouch and true. Reaching down into the well of time, let me recall what I can of this transition. 1974 – it is ground into my very being to NOT stage any story or event as I began my new career at KXTV/Channel 10 (Sacramento). A reporter wanted to show how a purse snatch happened for a story and was told to super over it “Re-enactment.” That was the only time I saw that super – it was extremely rare for broadcast photogs (cameramen, as we were then called) to do anything but shoot what was happening. I recall getting to a demonstration early once – bus drivers on strike about something – and Jane Fonda was supposed to join them. We pulled up without being noticed and saw a bunch of folks standing around drinking coffee. A few minutes before the announced time, up pulls Fonda, hops out and the picket lines begin marching – just in time for the arriving media. Now I’d been in anti-war marches in college and I know we marched for ourselves – not anyone else. This was a first for me. A staged protest.
As the 80s approached, the slippery slope became very hazardous. Broadcast moved from covering events to asking occasionally for a subject to “do what they’d normally be doing” for the camera. The ethics debate over these incidents grew. Wasn’t a cutaway staged? Were you allowed to move an object to make an interview background look better? Wasn’t lighting and placing a subject in a specific area staging? Consensus finally arrived with an understanding that some staging was “soft” (ie, ok) and some was forbidden (never never never in hard news). Frankly it became a personal matter and personal ethics ran the gamut. Mine were kind of in the middle, leaning towards being conservative. Several times a week I’d get sent out to do a horse and pony show. Ag stories. Political stories. Most of the time I’d grab what was actually happening. Sometimes I’d get boxed in and resort to the “walkie talkie,” with reporter walking and talking with the subject. Some mom would leave dirty dishes in her sink so we could shoot her cleaning them for a drought story. It became easier to bend the once hard and fast rules. Not that they were always bent. Remember Holly Hunter in “Broadcast News” arguing with the cameraman about the soldier putting on his shoe? I had an argument with a reporter when covering a story on allergies. A construction worker sneezed while I was shooting elsewhere. The reporter asked the worker to do the sneeze again for me when I can back…and for some reason I dug my heels in. So judge me both guilty and not.
The ethics of shooting/covering a story is the real chasm between broadcast and print photogs. Not that every broadcast shooter crosses the line or that every print photog is pure. That we all fudge is probably closer to the truth – with broadcast fudging more. Why? My guess is that newspapers do not have to fill their pages with photos, but TV stations do have to fill their air-time with video. Time is money.
My hope is that the print media does not get caught up in the many hidden traps of shooting video.
Addendum: After reading this through several times, I need to make the warning clearer. With the inevitable staff cuts and fewer people doing more and reporters shooting video, ethics become even more crucial. Broadcast got squeezed by not enough staff, not enough time, and competition.
My favorite video stories (both print and broadcast) run at the pacing of real life. There is no staged feel to them. The stories I hold dearest and those I still think I did well on are those with no staging (okay…I’ll give on the reporter standups/but both the stations AND reporter mandated those).
And let me add that shooting with low-end and tiny cameras for the past few years have made me aware of just how much that big bulky gear imposes itself on the story and the consciousness of those who see them. Just as those big black Canons and Nikons let the world know still folks are pros. Unless newsies are literally the fly on the wall, their presence will affect/alter moods and events.
Some reflection on the Bay area buyout/layoff story. It is a shocker – and I feel for everyone involved. Can’t be easy to be the guy making the announcement…or one of those receiving the news. But it begins to come back to me…once upon a time local TV news was gushing money and everyone was grabbing their share…this was in the seventies and eighties. Advertisers were throwing money at the stations and life was wonderful. But somewhere in the nineties it all ground to a stop. Belts were tightened…trips cancelled…expenses reined in.
I got laid off – twice in less than five years. The first time I was on staff at KQED/Channel 9 – the PBS west coast flagship station. We depended on federal funding…and the honchos looked two years down the road – federal funding was for two year periods. One dark day in September 1980 (I had to be out town at the time) the announcement came in – the news show was being cancelled. We had two weeks notice and “A Closer Look” was no more.
The second time I was on staff at KTXL in Sacramento. Budget cuts and two folks had to go. I was the last hired photog and reporter Pat McConnahay (now at KVIE in Sacramento) were called into the office and given our walking papers.
Gut wrenching. Sucker punched. The first time I was in good company…my very first baby shower was attended by a ton of folks looking at unemployment checks (by the way…including a young intern named Bill Whittaker). The second time I actually cried. I loved news and felt as if I’d been abandoned. But it wasn’t personal…got a call about a year later. They wanted me back and had the money to prove it.
So the good times come and go. Losing a job is an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. There are lessons to be learned…if you are good, you move on. If your rep is good, you get a job. You hunker down and look and network and eventually something turns up. The time to look is now – before the ax falls. As a result, I always have a ready resume and tape…and either can be online or in the mail before the ink dries on any pink slip headed my way.
The buzz is on in Mrs. Green’s broadcasting class. Two events today/tonight have the class excited. The first – the eclipse of the moon tonight. Every kid with a camera (yours truely included) will be out hoping the skies are clear enough to get some spectacular video.
Event number two is more worrisome. The attempt by the US government to shoot down the spy satellite. For now that may be delayed due to weather in the Pacific where a missile is ready to be launched from a military ship. My students are fascinated by the possibilities…will the missile be able to hit the target when they meet 200 miles overhead and travelling at 20,000 plus miles per hour. What will happen when they meet – will there be an explosion that can be seen? What if the missile misses…where will it go and what will become of it? Will we be able to see the satellite when it falls?
Great questions…and I wasn’t able to supply answers to all of them. One student found a photo online of the satellite and we did a search and found more information on British and Australian newspaper sites than here in the states.
We live in interesting times, we do…
I was just talking with a friend here at my school, telling her that this is the most revolutionary time in news and reading since the invention of the printing press when it hit me – it IS. This is a watershed time in communications…with the news of the massive buyouts in the San Francisco/San Jose area; with revenues fallling and everyone desperately racing to claim their stake on the web…can you think of anything even remotely close? Andy Dickenson is right – this is the year that will make or break print media…with broadcast media following.
My high school kiddos are writing opinion statements this week. The more popular topics are abortion, school lockers (we don’t have them), school start time (they want it later), and sideshows…illegal street racing and performing. My guy groups are very much in favor of sideshows because they are exciting, despite the dangers. So I showed them part of The Perfect Storm…a movie based on real events with a violent rescue at sea. Now some of them are interested in joining the Coast Guard – they thrive on excitment. My point? I thrive on excitment too – I miss the daily deadlines…the near misses…the ecstacy of the perfect edit. I see a period which may never be rivaled in history and I want to be part of it…and am even thinking about moving from the sidelines this summer if I can find a paper to put up with me. Haven’t seriously shot stills in decades but I can outgun a lot of folks with video.
To those of you out in the front lines…keep fighting. As with any battle, if you stay in one spot your are a target, so keep moving. Somebody…some paper…some station…is going to find the magic formula that will move news profitably to the web.
Big shock…and a sense of impending doom. Just caught a news flash on KCBS/San Francisco that the publisher of the San Jose Mercury News is offering a buy-out to all 1,100 employees of that paper, the Oakland Tribune and more than a dozen other papers. Read about it here.
This site has more…the actual announcement to employees from President/Publisher John Armstrong.
Many members of SFBAPPA work at these papers. Some of the brightest and best…folks who lead the way into video for the Internet. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for all of them…
It’s a sunny day here in the Central Valley of California. Temperature in the low sixties. But as pleasant as it is, I keep dreaming of Brussels. Hate to even think about what the temperature is there. Probably cold and slushy. Overcast. Dismal. However, in two weeks in Brussels some of the top folks in videojournalism – and not just shooters, but folks from the marketing/money and business/management side – are meeting for the 2008 Digital News Affairs conference. March 3-4. Would that it were a few weeks later when I have spring break.
The panel I would die to listen to (hey, can you stream it to the web for me?) is the one with Andy Dickenson, Michael Rosenblum, and Chuck Fadley. But oh the smorgasbord of choices! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this and hopping from blog to blog to keep up on events.
There are times in your life when you have to compromise – err from perfection to just getting it done. Lighting is often the first thing to go on a breaker. Face it – you can’t control light when chaos breaks out. So you can’t see the sniper – what cha gonna do? Pop out the 1K and spotlight him? I don’t think so. You’re close to a deadline and have to grab some sound bites – and there isn’t always time to pull out the light kit or even the umbrella and a single light. You go with the on-camera because there just isn’t time to do what you have to do any other way.
But there are some ways to make it a bit less of a compromise. On-camera light is like your car headlights – your subject is stuck in the headlights and looks it. The trick is to get the light away from the lens. If you’re not working with a stick mike (in which case you need a third arm) you can clip your lav onto the subject and then hold the on-cam light up and to one side so you have some depth. Or ask your reporter to do it. Don’t trust this to casual on-lookers cause they’ll aim the light all over the place. I used to have a crappy little Lowell light stand that was almost falling apart I’d carry and put my on-camera light atop if I had a few seconds.
The other (obvious unless your brain is burned out) advice is to find any light – street light, light from a store window, headlights – and use that. You can even use that kind of light for backlight and fill with your on-camera.
I will freely admit to being a thief – I used to steal other photogs’ light all the time. Out comes the perp or subject and we all turned on…but sometimes I’d leave mine off so someone else’s on-cam could become my high and to the side light – great shadows and mood.
Oh – and the sniper in the dark? Now there’s another compromise. If you know exactly where s/he is, aim your camera there and hope for a gunburst/flash of light. For the sure thing get reaction shots – people you can see. Roll, get the sound you need and reaction of others to that sound.
And now for some digression. Ever watched a broadcast live shot that pans from reporter to a window or scene as the reporter says something like, “behind that window is a man with a gun.” Well, that reporter is safely hidden behind the wall – but guess who head their head sticking out like a target? Don’t ask.
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