Video
By Eliot Caroom, New Jersey Local News Service reporter, Nov. 2010
Shooting and editing journalistic video for the web can be incredibly fun. The hard part is creating video under a tight deadline that’s fun for the viewer and also works with the story.
To start, you’ll need a camera and editing software. The software choice will be pretty simple depending on your price range and OS. As for a camera, first make sure that the camera produces a video file type your software can edit. Read reviews and consider low light performance and audio, both the quality and whether you can plug in an external mic. Think about buying a great camera that came out last year—the price has dropped, and you can see from other customers how reliable the camera turned out to be on a ratings site like Newegg.com or Amazon.com. Go beyond the 5-star count on reviews and read what people have to say. The hive mind knows all.
Core ideas
Substance: look for a story with a compelling visual element (action sports, volunteerism, charismatic or weird-looking characters doing what they do).
Get to the good stuff right away: Viewers drop like flies (exhibit a), so immediate action is a winner, instead of title cards with lots of words, a boring talking head or the exterior of an office building. Expensive web video bootcamps like Michael Rosenblum’s often instruct noobs to open with the strongest action and tell the story around it, instead of trying to write a script beforehand and then fitting your best footage into the gaps.
Brevity is important: By the 3-minute mark, you are likely the only one still watching your video. Also, viewers smell boredom when they see a long duration at the bottom of the video like “4:50.”
Checklist before shooting
There’s nothing worse than sitting down to edit and realizing your footage is useless because of a catastrophic mistake. Keep these five things in mind to avoid forehead-palm later.
1. Audio. Plug headphones into the camera and listen to the audio to make sure the levels aren’t faint or overpowering. Listen for distracting background noises. If you are in a quiet room near a fountain or a running refrigerator, that can be bad. If you’re outdoors near car traffic, that is not good. Consider walking away from the noise. Keep checking the headphones as you shoot to make sure all is well.
2. Lighting. Try to shoot your subject with bright lighting at your back. Unless you want a silhouette, don’t aim a camera at someone who is between you and the sun. Keep the sun behind you and in front of them. When indoors, watch out for bright windows backlighting the interviewee. If you use lighting, remember that direct light is harsh and casts shadows, and diffuse light (bounced off walls) is softer. For more advanced lighting advice, go here.
3. A clean, steady shot. For stability, use a tripod or brace your arm against your body and lean against a chair or wall. Remember, zooms make a picture shake. Get closer to your subject when you can instead of using the zoom, for either action or a sit-down. Keep sit-down interviews relatively clutter-free. This means no lamps, plants or outdoor light poles behind the subject’s head, impaling them. Also, your camera should have a button or a menu that automatically adjusts the white balance setting. Don’t skip this step.
4. B-roll. Variety makes a video rich and faster-paced. While you may be focused on capturing “the main event,” i.e. an interview, song, or speech, take a little time before and after to record the subject in their natural habitat, and shoot closeups of special physical features/activities/surroundings. Make sure you have a good number of close-up shots.
5. Make a list. You can’t always get what you want. But if you try, most times, you get what you need. Think of an asset list of the visuals you want to capture and the topics you want to cover in your interview. Don’t forget basic reporting staples like name spellings, ages and occupations of people.
See Eliot’s videos for The Star-Ledger and other outlets.
In-depth resources
Basic SPJ Primer
Knight Digital Media
Final Cut tips http://weynand.com/wt/content/articles-and-tutorials/
Lifehacker’s 8 tips
Forums to discuss technical troubleshooting or workflow issues http://www.dvinfo.net/, http://forums.creativecow.net/