Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling for Online, Broadcast and Documentary Journalists [2 ed.] 103222388X, 9781032223889

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Telling Stories
2 Teasing Out a Theme
3 Successful Story Topics
4 Finding a Story
5 Producing a Story
6 Selecting a Video Camera
7 Controlling Focus and Exposure
8 Selecting the Right Lens Length
9 Looking for Light and Color
10 Recording Sound
11 Shooting a Sequence
12 Moving the Camera/Lens for Visual Variety
13 Conducting an Interview
14 Writing a Script
15 Editing the Video
16 Editing Workflow
17 Facing Ethical Dilemmas
18 Staying within the Law
Index

Citation preview

Videojournalism

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling for Online, Broadcast and Documentary Journalists is an essential guide for solo video storytellers— from “backpack” videojournalists to short-form documentary makers to do-it-all broadcast reporters. Based on interviews with award-winning professionals sharing their unique experiences and knowledge, Videojournalism covers topics such as crafting and editing eye-catching short stories, recording high-quality sound, and understanding the laws and ethics of flming in public and private places. Other topics include: • • •

• •

understanding the diference between a story and a report fnding a theme and telling a story in a compact time frame learning to use diferent cameras and lenses—from smart phones to mirrorless and digital cinema cameras using light, both natural and artifcial understanding color and exposure

Te second edition of this best-selling text has been completely revised and updated. Heavily illustrated with more than 550 photographs, the book also includes more than 200 links to outstanding examples of short-form video stories. Anatomy of a News Story, a short documentary made for the book, follows a day in the life of a solo TV videojournalist on an assignment (with a surprise ending), and helps readers translate theory to practice.

 For a short documentary, Ken Kobré flms a palliative care nurse explaining to a long-term patient how to administer morphine in tiny doses to reduce chronic pain. The nurse, who is sitting of camera to the left, works for Ndi Moyo, the frst palliative care organization in Malawi, Africa. She helps patients that are dying of an incurable illness but cannot stay in the hospital. The man died a month after the video was recorded. (Photo by Lino Chilongo)

Tis book is for anyone learning how to master the art and craft of telling real, short-form stories with words, sound, and pictures for the Web or television. A supporting companion website links to documentaries and videos, and includes additional recommendations from the feld’s most prominent educators.

Ken Kobré is Professor Emeritus at San Francisco State University where he headed the photojournalism/videojournalism program for 30 years. Kobré has been producing documentaries for broadcast outlets and NGOs for 23 years. His documentaries have been shown on PBS, France 5, and other international outlets. His textbook Photojournalism: Te Professionals' Approach, published by Focal Press-Routledge, has been the widest-selling text on photojournalism in the world since 1980.

 A large drone is used to carry a heavy video camera.

Video Second Edition

Journalism

Multimedia Storytelling for Online, Broadcast and Documentary Journalists

Ken Kobré

Designed cover image: © 2019 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren Caption: Pursuing a story about stateless Rohingya refugees crowded into Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, Lisa Berglund stopped to video traditional fshing boats moored along the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Te Rohingya now living in the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp had fed Myanmar in boats like these. Berglund is a former National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Video Photographer of the Year. Second edition published 2024 by Routledge 605 Tird Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2024 Ken Kobré Te right of Ken Kobré to be identifed as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe. First edition published by Focal Press 2012 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kobre, Kenneth, 1946– author. Title: Videojournalism : multimedia storytelling for online, broadcast and documentary journalists / Ken Kobré. Description: 2nd edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2024. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifers: LCCN 2023015751 (print) | LCCN 2023015752 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032223889 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032223865 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003272380 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Video journalism. | Video recordings—Production and direction. Classifcation: LCC TR895 .K637 2023 (print) | LCC TR895 (ebook) | DDC 777—dc23/ eng/20230816 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023015751 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023015752 ISBN: 9781032223889 (hbk) ISBN: 9781032223865 (pbk) ISBN: 9781003272380 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380 Typeset in Warnock Pro and Neue Haas Grotesk by Alex Lazarou Access the Instructor and Student Resources: www.routledge.com/cw/kobre

Dedication Tis book is dedicated to my lovely wife, Betsy Brill. Without her encouragement and support, I would never have fnished this book.

 Kevin Painchaud always uses two cameras to shoot an interview. When he edits the interview he will have a wide shot and a close-up shot to choose from.

Contents List of Contributors Preface Acknowledgments 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Telling Stories Teasing Out a Teme Successful Story Topics Finding a Story Producing a Story Selecting a Video Camera Controlling Focus and Exposure Selecting the Right Lens Length Looking for Light and Color Recording Sound Shooting a Sequence Moving the Camera/Lens for Visual Variety Conducting an Interview Writing a Script Editing the Video Editing Workfow Facing Ethical Dilemmas Staying within the Law Index

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2 20 34 48 70 84 102 120 142 162 180 198 214 240 266 288 312 342

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 The photographer stands before a three-story-tall poster of a young man holding a video camera like a gun. The poster was part of a project by two French photographers to paper walls with outsized images. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Contents

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Contributors FIRST EDITION  CHAPTER 1 

Regina McCombs, Faculty for Multimedia and Mobile, Te Poynter Institute CHAPTER 2   

Josh Meltzer, Photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University, formerly with Te Roanoke Times CHAPTER 3 

Josh Meltzer, Photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University, formerly with Te Roanoke Times CHAPTER 4 

Josh Meltzer, Photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University, formerly with Te Roanoke Times CHAPTER 11   

Jerry Lazar, Interviewer, E! channel

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CHAPTER 12 

Stanley Heist, Lecturer, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland CHAPTER 13 

Kathy Kieliszewski, Deputy Director of Photo and Video, Detroit Free Press CHAPTER 14 

Donald R. Winslow, Editor, News Photographer magazine CHAPTER 15 

David Weintraub, Instructor, Visual Communications Sequence, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina CHAPTER 16 

Mary Thorsby, independent business writer, Torsby and Associates   

SECOND EDITION    Te second edition of this book has been based on extensive in-depth, two-to-three-hour interviews with video professionals, directors, producers, and educators. Many of the interviewees work producing for online media outlets, broadcast networks, producing documentaries, and teaching at universities.   Staci Baird, University of La Verne; San Francisco State University; Engagement Editor, Global Press Journal    Tamara Baluja, CBC, British Columbia    Josh Birnbaum, Ohio University; Oakland Tribune, Te Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Te Omaha World-Herald  Bo Bogatin, Bogatin, Corman and Gold at Law; California Lawyers for the Arts; National Lawyers Guild member; Co-author of the Legal Guide for the Visual Artist   Malcolm Brabant, PBS correspondent; BBC; UNICEF     Curt Chandler, College of Communication, Pennsylvania State     Ben de la Cruz, senior visuals editor, NPR     Josh Davis, San Francisco State University; VICE News; NPR Aaron Day, news producer, KCPQ-TV, Tacoma Washington; Adjunct Professor of Journalism, Green River College   Craig Duf, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University; CNN, NYT.com, Time    McKenna Ewen, CNN Digital, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune    Travis Fox, Director of Visual Journalism, Craig Newmark Graduate School Journalism, City University of New York; Washington Post; PBS FRONTLINE 

  Alexandra Garcia, director/producer New York Times; video/multimedia journalist, Washington Post    Anne Herbst, Director of Visual Journalism, 9News, Colorado    Da Lin, KPIX 5 News, San Francisco; KRON 4 News, San Francisco    Regina McCombs, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Minnesota; Visual News, Minnesota Public Radio; Te Poynter Institute; producer StarTribune.com, Minneapolis; producer, KARE-TV in Minneapolis. Colin Mulvany, Te Spokesman-Review, Washington    Erik Olsen, freelance flmmaker; West Coast video correspondent, Quartz; senior videojournalist, New York Times     Ed Robbins, Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism; nonfction TV writerproducer for ABC, BBC2, CBS, FOX, NBC    Bob Sacha, Video Storytelling at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, City University of New York; freelance for Guardian, New York Times, National Geographic    Whitney Shefte, senior videojournalist, Washington Post; president, White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA)    Jacob Templin, former executive producer, Quartz; Senior producer, Time    Will Yurman, Department of the School of Communications, Pennsylvania State; Rochester Democrat & Chronicle   

Contributors

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Preface Solid videojournalism demands a broad set of technical skills to collect the audio and video that stories require. But the art of storytelling is the most crucial skill of all for great videojournalism. With practice and knowledge, the art of videojournalism storytelling can be learned. Tat is what this book is about. Videojournalism is a new feld that has grown out of print photojournalism, slideshows that combine sound and pictures, public radio, documentary flmmaking, and the best of television news features. Tis amalgam of traditions is merging to serve the Internet’s voracious appetite for nonfction video stories. Mastering this new form of storytelling and its requisite skills is as challenging to veteran visual reporters as it is to newbies to the feld. Yes, most anyone can do it. But not everyone can do it well. Te term “videojournalist” was invented to describe a jack-of-all-trades journalist who can and will “go it alone.” Yet the very concept of videojournalism is so new that the word “videojournalist” is not yet in all dictionaries. Tis book is targeted for those who would like to research, produce, shoot, interview, voice over, and edit their own nonfction news or feature story. Tose who do this kind of work are called many things: a one-man/woman/person band, a multimedia journalist (MMJ), a backpack journalist (BPJ), a news photojournalist, a solo journalist, and perhaps—out of earshot—a lot of other things we can’t name here. Whatever the title, the job is the same: Tell a story with sound and pictures that will hold a viewer’s attention past the opening title and—keep them watching until the closing credits.

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THE ORIGINAL EDITION I wrote the frst edition of this book with the collaboration of eight contributors—a group that represents the merger of traditions that has given birth to videojournalism. I called the original book Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling because I sincerely wanted to assist those interested in learning how to master the art and craft of telling short-form stories with words, sound, and pictures for online, broadcast, and documentary audiences.

THE SECOND EDITION Today the three distinct disciplines including online, broadcast, and documentary visual storytelling have merged. All three now use the same equipment to shoot, the same software to edit, and, for the most part, share the Internet to transmit their stories. Just about all print media outlets have websites that feature videos. Broadcast and cable television outlets also pump out video news stories on their websites. Online streaming services like Netfix and Hulu feature an array of long-form documentary options. Some observers say we are in the Golden Age of documentary storytelling. While this might be the Golden Age of storytelling, all that gold is not reaching the producers, reporters, videographers, and editors of visual stories. Producers still fnd it hard to fund long-term documentary projects. Broadcast videographers complain that their stories must be told in uncomfortably short 90-second segments, and online storytellers have to work within constrained budgets if their stories don’t attract enough clicks (advertising). Despite the challenges, viewership for nonfction video stories grows steadily. Yes, fewer people watch the evening news on a television. However, these same people are checking their smart phones multiple times a day for video

of the latest political development, war news, scenes from a food halfway around the world, or a home run by the home team. Media companies, whether print or broadcast, keep their stories available for months online after their video packages frst air. Viewers continue to fnd these stories worth their time. Tese stories are sometimes called the long tail of the viewing curve. Even if their viewership is not high when they are frst released, many are seen by a wide audience over time. Documentary flmmakers who had a difcult time getting a distributor to feature their flm in theaters now have online outlets on which to share their work. As a result, viewership for documentaries is skyrocketing.

PRINT VERSION Whenever you see a title of a video in red and a thumbnail-sized picture on the outer column of the page, you will also fnd a unique QR code. With your smart phone on camera mode, frame up the QR code. Follow the prompt to see a featured story or an explanatory video.

Anatomy of a News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Tis book can be read in the order in which chapters are presented. Or it can be sampled corresponding to the reader’s level of knowledge about a subject. For those who already know how to operate a video camera, the chapters on camera basics and exposure may be superfuous. Readers with a good foundation in media law need not spend much time with that chapter. Te ethics chapter will probably contain some issues that are not familiar to even experienced video practitioners. For those just starting out in videojournalism storytelling, I hope that reading the foundation chapters will point you in a clear direction and perhaps help lead you to a career in this exciting, rapidly changing feld.

ELECTRONIC VERSION Scan the QR code or use the URL next to the video title to view the video related to the text.

WEBSITE Tis book has its own website. www.routledge. com/cw/kobre leads to links to all stories discussed in the book. “How-to” videos are also linked to this site. Bookmark this page, and you’re all set to go: www.routledge.com/cw/ kobre

Routledge. www.routledge.com/cw/kobre

 The ranch manager is interviewed for the Regenerating the Ranch docuseries by videographer Shaun Smith (right). (Photo by Rob Mattson/Noble Research Institute)

Preface

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Acknowledgments SPECIAL THANKS TO DA LIN 

Anatomy of a News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

Da Lin is a well-known, hard-hitting, and imaginative one-man-band TV reporter for KPIX 5 San Francisco. I wanted to make a short documentary about how one person doing it all covers a news story on deadline. He gave me complete access to follow him on one day’s assignment. He explained every step of his process.  Da Lin’s story that day was about a missing person. Te assignment seemed routine when the day started. However, a real mystery—possibly a murder—was unveiled.  I hope those watching Anatomy of a News Story can observe and absorb some of the methods deployed by an award-winning multimedia journalist to cover a breaking story on a one-day turn-around deadline. 

SPECIAL THANKS TO DARIA BRILL As the book neared completion, I needed organizational help. My daughter, Daria Brill, stepped up. She managed the massive task of cataloging nearly 700 pictures and graphs in 18 chapters. She confrmed that every Internet link was live and that every caption matched its image. Without her help, I have no idea how this project would have gotten out the door on deadline.  

FOREVER THANKFUL TO JOHN HEWITT  First, I must thank John Hewitt, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University, and author of Sequences: Strategies for Shooting News in the Real World (Mayfeld) and Documentary Filmmaking (Oxford University Press), written with Gustavo Vazquez.  More than 20 years ago, I branched out from my career in photojournalism to start shooting video documentaries. John Hewitt was my mentor.  John became my collaborator on many projects; my video editor; and my co-producer for

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Deadline Every Second: On Assignment with 12 Associated Press Photographers.  I have learned most of what I know about videojournalism working with John. To this day he carefully reviews and critiques—minute-byminute—almost every video project I shoot and produce. Always the great teacher, John never chastises me for the shots I missed. He looks at the footage and advises me on how to better edit those shots I recorded. 

CHAPTER REVIEWERS/ PROFESSIONALS  Tey say it “takes a village to raise a child.” I don’t know what the equivalent expression would be for writing a book, but I needed several villages to produce this edition of my textbook. I called on some of the most outstanding experts in the feld to read practically every chapter in the book to identify missing elements, poorly explained techniques, technical mistakes, etc. Tese experts pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of each chapter—and sent me back for yet more editing. Te contribution of the reviewers listed below is beyond measure. 

Reviewers by Chapter  Chapter 1: Bob Sacha, Craig Duf; Chapter 2: Ed Robbins; Chapter 4: Bob Sacha; Chapter 5: Erik Olsen; Chapter 6: Jacob Timplin; Chapter 8: Will Yurman; Chapter 10: Josh Birnbaum; Chapter 11: Josh Birnbaum, John Hewitt, Craig Duf; Chapter 12: Craig Duf, John Hewitt; Chapter 13: Jerry Lazar; Chapter 15: Brian Kaufman, Ed Robbins; Chapter 16: Brian Kaufman, Ed Robbins; Chapter 17: Craig Duf, John Hewitt, Regina McCombs, Bob Sacha; Chapter 18: Bo Bogatin, Micky Osterreicher.  

VIDEOGRAPHERS AND ACADEMICS  I also wish to thank all the videographers and photographers who contributed their powerful images to this book. Each of their names is listed under their pictures. Teir pictures gave this book its visual impact. 

KEY CONTRIBUTORS  Ben Barbante, with whom I have worked for many years on other book projects, came through with clear and informative line illustrations.  Sibylla Herbrich and Dave Hall shot the lighting demonstration pictures. 

PRE-PRODUCTION EDITORS  I want to thank the people who read every chapter, every page, and every word with an eye for clarity and consistency.  John Knowlton, head of the journalism program at Green River College in Washington state, brought his copy-editing skills to bear on the early manuscript of the frst edition of this book. He took on the same role for the second edition. He relied on his 18 years of professional journalism experience as a reporter and editor to get the job done.  Michael Maher read several chapters with an eye toward improving their grammar but especially their clarity. Michael is a former newspaper photographer at the Lowell Sun and now Career Advisor at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Emmanuel Serriere loves to copy edit. Although French is his native language, he has caught more spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors than others that have spoken English from birth. I am lucky to have found someone that copy edits for fun.

 Sometimes a crew is needed to help a videographer make a flm. (Photo by Warren DeFranco Hsu)

MY EDITORS AT ROUTLEDGE/ TAYLOR & FRANCIS/FOCAL PRESS  Elizabeth Cox, editor, recognized the need for this book and shepherded it through all its publishing stages.  Hannah McKeating, editorial assistant, exhibited consistent patience with all the changes the book has undergone.  Neil Dowden, copy editor, snagged fnal errors that had eluded other eyes, and formatted the typography for consistency. His careful review of the manuscript added clarity to the fnal text. Alex Lazarou, production coordinator, worked with me patiently to assure text and pictures fowed together logically and aesthetically. 

Acknowledgments

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Video Second Edition

Journalism

Multimedia Storytelling for Online, Broadcast and Documentary Journalists

Ken Kobré

 Lisa Berglund flms a celebration for a new vocational school built to beneft teenagers in a community still recovering from the Rwandan genocide. Berglund won the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Video Photographer of the Year. (Photo by World Vision/Kari Costanza)

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Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

CHAPTER

1

Telling Stories Regina McCombs, University of Minnesota Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University Additional material provided by Stanley Heist, Kathy Kieliszewski, Josh Meltzer, David Weintraub, Suzanne White, Bob Sacha, Craig Duf, and John Knowlton

W

hat this book is not about? • Cats falling backwards into the toilet (sometimes funny but mostly irrelevant)

• Your best dance moves (also sometimes funny) • Tips for using your smart phone you didn’t know (good advice but you don’t need to read this book to make that video) • How to build your biceps (recommended) • Love advice (depends on your present romantic state)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-1

Chapter 1 Telling Stories

3

• •

How to fx a tire (bookmark it for later) Daredevil moments (diving of a clif but don’t do this with or without the book)

So what is this book about? Tis book will show you how to create and tell true stories using video. Tis book is targeted at those who want to create video stories without depending on a flm crew, including a sound technician, a lighting technician, a producer, or even a reporter. Te book will show you how to produce a 1:30 (one min. 30 sec.) piece for the evening news short, a fve-minute feature story for the Internet, or a full 60-minute feature documentary for a television streaming service. As a new breed of videojournalists you might be called everything from a one-man/woman/ person band, a backpack journalist, a multimedia journalist (MMJ), or just a simple straight forward videojournalist …. But, then, what’s in a name? Bottom line, whatever you are called you are a person who wants to be completely independent. With this book you will learn to fnd a story, flm it, write a script, voice the script, edit the clips, and fnally send the story to the web or broadcast on the evening news. Te book is full of up-to-date links to stories on the Internet that illustrate many of the points in each of the chapters. In the printed edition of the book you will fnd a small QR code next to a section of text. Point your smart-phone camera at the QR code and your phone will go directly to the video story on the Internet. In the e-book edition, just click on the highlighted link.  Watch Anatomy of a TV News Story. This documentary is about how a 90-second news story was constructed. You will see how a news story for the evening news was produced. The news package uses video clips, voice-over, and the reporter talking to the camera. You will also notice how the making of the news story was transformed into a documentary.

Anatomy of a News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

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Tis frst chapter explains what makes a story. Te word “story” means many diferent things … including a foor in a building, a lie, an account/report/statement, a tale, a yarn, a narrative, an article/piece/feature, etc. Wow … that’s a lot of uses for one fve-letter word. Chapter 1 in the book will use the word “story” to mean nonfction narrative. Te chapter will distinguish between a broad topic, a report of an event—and an authentic, sharply focused story that grabs the reader from the opening shot and holds them through the fnal credits. Te chapter will explain how a lead character can help hold your story together from beginning to end. It will review the underlying elements of storytelling from original Greek tragedies to modern New York Times op-ed videos. By the end of the chapter you will learn how to transform a vague idea or boring (here’s that word again) report into a nail-biting nonfction video story, ready for any smart phone or wallsized 72-inch screen. Also check out the link to a special documentary video, Anatomy of a TV News Story, produced especially for this edition of the book.

DOCUMENTARY, ONLINE, BROADCAST—THREE DISCIPLINES INTO ONE In the past, if you went to a college or university to study visual storytelling you might have diffculty deciding which department to choose. Do you want to be an online visual reporter, a documentary flmmaker, or a broadcast news person? If you wanted to put your visual stories online then you usually took classes in the journalism department. However, if you hoped to shoot and report for television you attended classes in the broadcast department. If you dreamed of seeing your documentary stories on a movie screen at your local theater you would have found your way to your school’s flm department. At some schools these three academic departments were completely separate. Today, colleges and universities often fold all three disciplines in one department. Why? Te

potential viewer of nonfction news stories now sees a four-hour documentary series, a fveminute video story, or a 1:30 story on the 6 o’clock news report on their tiny, 4x6-inch, portable smart phone ... or, just as easily, on their gigantic 40x70-inch fat home-screen. Te stories for a broadcast news report, the in-depth documentary, and the news websites were probably shot with the same or similar digital camera, lens, and audio gear. For all three pieces, the editors assembled the stories on a computer using similar editing programs like Final Cut Pro or Adobe’s Premiere Pro. Te point is that all three visual storytelling categories have now melded

together in the way videographers produce the stories, editors edit the stories, and ultimately how viewers, waiting in line at the drug store or sitting on their recliners in their living rooms, view the stories.

MANY WAYS TO TELL A STORY Tis chapter lays out the many ways to tell a cinematic story and serves as an introduction to online, documentary, and broadcast storytelling. In videojournalism, the characters and content are real. Te secret to good videojournalism lies in fnding and telling well-shaped, powerful stories using sound and images.

 Car Accident.  Police ofcers hold up a white sheet as paramedics remove a victim from a Honda Civic that crashed on Robeson Street in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The victim died in the one-car accident. A standard news story puts the most important facts frst.  (Photo by Andrew Craft, Fayetteville Observer)

Chapter 1 Telling Stories

5

Living on the Brink. https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/ living-on-the-brink-onefamilys-struggle-to-survivethe-pandemic/2020/12/20/ e5afab7a-c696-468a-886dcd542c3f4deb_video.html

You may have tons of keen ideas that are good topics for stories. But don’t confuse a broad topic with a sharply focused story. A topic is a broad area of interest like climate change or infation. A story, on the other hand, usually has a character facing a challenge. Te challenge might be related to climate change or infation, but the true story has an individual person facing some kind of opposition or trial. Steve Kelley and Maisie Crow of Maryland’s Howard County Times, for example, had the idea to document the efects of an incurable genetic disorder whose symptoms include insatiable hunger, low IQ, and behavioral problems. Although the disease is unusual, merely documenting Prader–Willi syndrome would only have yielded, perhaps, a well-done piece for medical students. Te piece might have explained the existence of this rare disease but such a piece would not have told a story. Instead of doing a mere report, Kelley and Crow explored the relationship between a teenage boy with the unusual disorder and his father, the boy’s caregiver. Te efects of the disease are shown in the fve-minute multimedia video— Hungry: Living with Prader–Willi Syndrome— through the eyes of the father and his struggles to help his son.

 Hungry: Living with Prader–Willi Syndrome. The story shows not only the disease but also reveals how that disease has afected the father–son relationship. Note how in this video the sound track including the ticking clock adds depth to the story.

Hungry: Living with Prader– Willi Syndrome. https://vimeo.com/50764576

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Te story reveals how father and son deal with the toll the syndrome takes on their relationship, and the strength they fnd to survive.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Your frst goal, then, is to fnd the story in your bright idea: how to turn a broad topic—Living with Prader–Willi Syndrome, for example— into a sharply focused story. Te topic is the disease. Te story is the relationship between the dad and the son who is aficted with the disease. Once you have found the right story and a compelling character, your next goal will be shooting and recording it, writing a narration or script, and assembling the pieces during the editing process. It is crucial to tell that story in a way that engages viewers emotionally. Whitney Shefte of the Washington Post pitched a story to her editors about the economic impact of the COVID pandemic. She had a solid topic of interest but no focused story yet: “I reached out on Facebook and searched on Nextdoor, the neighborhood listserv, and just started to look for people who were immediately impacted by the virus from an economic perspective. A family responded. I did a quick interview but then, about a month later, I wrote and said, ‘Hey, how are things going with you guys?’ And she said, ‘Well, we actually decided that we have to move away.’ And so I thought this is a bigger story. Let’s keep following these people.” Te Silvester family lost their entire income when the pandemic took hold in the United States. Tey lived in Arlington, VA. Nine months later they are desperate for government aid, still struggling to get back on their feet. Now Shefte had a real, focused story with a compelling character to report. To survive they decided they must move halfway across the country to the Midwest to be near their relatives. “In some of the very best video stories you’re seeing change take place over time,” says Shefte, Pictures of the Year International (POYi) awardwinning senior videojournalist at the Washington Post. “You’re following someone through a journey and these people were going on a journey. Tey were moving to a new place. And so it had a very clear narrative arc to me once I knew that this was happening. And so we were able to be there literally the day that they moved out.” Here was a great example of “seeing” a story unfold rather than having the characters tell us what happened.

Shefte took fve trips from Washington to Illinois to complete the project titled Living on the Brink. Tere are many ways to organize a story: • •

•

You can do it chronologically—start at the beginning and end at the end. You can disclose the most important piece of information frst, and then reveal the rest of the story, bit by bit, and save the pay-of for last. You can start in the middle of the story and then help the viewer understand where they are at and then tell them what they need to know to go forward.

Sometimes you can tell the story through the eyes of your main characters. Other times you can show what is happening from the viewpoint of an outsider. As a videojournalist, you get to decide how you will tell your story—in a way that will compel your audience to stop, look, and listen. Will Yurman, professor at Penn State University, used the election night as the framework to build suspense for his story about a state assemblyman who was running for his fourth term. Watch the story titled Tis Time Would Be Different. He had won the frst term in a close race. Te next two times he had run unopposed as a Republican in a pretty conservative, semi-rural Pennsylvania town. And then shortly before the primary he came out as gay. In his documentary about the politician, Yurman started and ended with the election. He opened the piece with the sounds of someone giving the vote count and ended it with a speech by the candidate after the votes were in. Te viewer does not know until almost the end of the story if the protagonist won or lost. Tis is a very cleverly edited opening, where we hear one thing but see another. In a standard news story, the lead or most newsworthy element is always placed at the beginning. If the gay state assemblyman was reported on the evening news, the 90-second would have begun with the election results. Jacob Templin, formerly executive producer at Quartz and senior producer at Time, produced a video story about a drought in Texas and its impact of cattle prices. Te story was titled Texas’ Droughts and the Cost of Cattle. Templin could have started the story with a shot of a cow on the dusty dry, windswept range and followed

the animal’s journey. Instead, Templin opened his story directly in the middle of the action as the cows are herded through the pens of the auction house while the auctioneer calls out the bids. “I think under ordinary circumstances I would have opened with the lead character on the ranch, for sure,” said Templin, whose work has been presented in the New York Times, Retro Report, and PBS. “I think the reason I opened with that cattle auction was it was just so unusual. It was just so visually stimulating. And for me, a kid from Toronto, that auction caught my eye.” Templin starts to reveal the story about 30 seconds into the six-minute documentary. By then, the viewer is engaged wanting to fnd out what happens next.

 Texas’ Droughts and the Cost of Cattle.  For the producer, Jacob Templin, seeing a cattle auction for the frst time helped him decide how to open his story about drought in Texas.

Texas’ Droughts and the Cost of Cattle. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YB-2x5s81BQ009.

NARRATIVE ARC You Tell Stories All the Time “Storytelling doesn’t change. We’ve been doing it the same way since Aristotle,” says Craig Duf, former editor with Time magazine who now teaches at Northwestern University. You already know how to tell stories. Don’t you do it all the time? When your car breaks down on the way to the hospital? Or your girlfriend or boyfriend leaves you? Or simply when your dog eats your homework? Ten, quite naturally, you tell the tale to a friend. Te narrative arc frst introduces us, the viewers, to the players in the story. Ten we start to fnd out the confict or challenge faced by the protagonist. Next we see how the primary character will overcome the confict, obstacle, fear, or other impediment. And fnally the story is resolved so that we get a sense of relief and look at the central character’s future.

This Time Would Be Diferent. https://www. willyurman.com/stories/ this-time-would-be-diferent/

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 The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race, like many other “reality” TV shows, is unscripted but does not document a true story that evolves on its own without a producer to guide it.

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Reality TV versus Real Stories How is your story diferent from the story in a novel or a movie? First and foremost, of course, your story is real. Te events actually happened. Tey were not fgments of your imagination or the invention of a writer or producer. You did not create the characters or the plot. Your story is nonfction. In this book, we will be dealing solely with nonfction stories—with events that actually happened in the past, are taking place right now, or might occur in the future. We deal exclusively with actual actions that happen to real people— not to paid actors, or contestants who volunteered. Again, this book deals only with reality. TV shows like Big Brother or Survivors are loosely referred to as “reality shows.” But is reality TV … real? Not quite. Reality TV shows, whether frst run or rerun, such as Te Apprentice, Fear Factor, and Te Amazing Race, are highly orchestrated and often partially fctionalized pieces of entertainment. Tey would not occur without a producer, multiple camera crews, willing participants, hours and hours of footage, and a team of editors to shape a narrative and bundles of money. Don’t forget the catering service. Tese shows are contrived contests, not real stories. Tey would never have taken place without the creative energy of a writer, a producer, and a director. Te outcome of such shows may be unknown at the beginning. But the setup is cleverly engineered to produce guaranteed emotional reaction for the viewer.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Real stories, on the other hand—those you see on television news programs such as 60 Minutes, on the 6 o’clock news, or the documentaries available on Netfix—reveal actual people living through the thrills and pitfalls of unadulterated events in their lives without the interference of a script doctor.

Narrative Story or News Report So, even if your story is not contrived like an episode of Te Bachelor, how are stories you tell your friend diferent from reports broadcast nightly on CBS, NBC, or ABC networks or their local afliates? Traditional news stories required starting with the most important fact—a form of news reporting called the inverted pyramid. All university courses in writing for print or broadcast journalism teach this formula. “A fre burned 30 homes in San Bruno today.” Or, “Te San Francisco Giants won the World Series yesterday.” Sometimes these broadcast news reports are just headlines. Sometimes they have more supporting facts. Tese reports relate what happened today but don’t engage viewers with a character or plot. Reports rarely introduce viewers to a person, follow that person from one state of emotion to another, see the challenge the person is facing, or reveal how the person resolves the problem. News articles are written to provide content to inform viewers as quickly as possible … readers on the run … viewers on the go. Visual storytelling, however, not only informs viewers but engages them emotionally. Of course, it often takes more than 90 seconds to tell that story.

HUPPERT EXPLAINS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TRUE STORY AND BASIC REPORT (BOYD HUPPERT, LAND OF 10,000 STORIES) Boyd Huppert, KARE 11 Minneapolis producer/ reporter for Land of 10,000 stories, remembers this incident. Somebody pitched Hubbert a story about four sisters who play on the same high school basketball team for a special features segment on KARE 11 TV. For the frst time all four were on the court at the same time. And because they haven’t lost a game all season they’re probably going to go to state championships. He was just going to set up a Zoom call on the computer screen for an interview with the four girls. At this point, Huppert only had a quirky fact ... four sisters playing basketball simultaneously in the same game. For Hubbert this  Boyd Huppert,  of KARE 11 Minneapolis,  carrying the tripod and just deserved a simple report for the 6 o’clock Chad Nelson with the camera  flm Mickey Nelson, a WWII veteran news. Huppert made another phone call. who was walking 100 miles over the course of the summer to mark Hubbert talked to the girl’s dad because he his 100th birthday—while raising money for the Salvation Army. (Photo by Craig Dirkes, The Salvation Army) wanted to get the dad and his wife on the call, too. The dad said, “Having the four girls play on the team means a lot to me because of my rela Four Sisters on Toptionship with the coach.” Ranked Basketball Team, Hubbert asked, “Oh, what’s your relationand That’s Not the Best  Part of the Story.  Boyd Hupship with the coach?” pert  fnds the theme of his The dad replied, “The coach was my foster stories by digging deeper. dad.’“ Wow! Now the same man is coaching his four daughters. “That’s a way better story than the report of four daughters playing in the game at Four Sisters on Top-Ranked the same time ... but combine the two threads, Basketball Team, and That’s four girls on the court and their father raised by the coach ... So that’s a pretty deep story.” Not the Best  Part of the Story. Huppert adds, he is trying to tell a story, not produce a report. A report is facts. In a story the https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=hLgXtmVqKeg&t=18s facts are connected and have something that ties them together. The story has a storyline ... a point it is making. In a news report he would try to compress all the interesting important things in the frst lead sentence. In the example above, four sisters playing basketball on the same court at the same time is a news peg, but not the real story. “The story is going to be about this coach who took in this young man who needed a home 25 years ago,” pointed out Huppert. “The old coach is teaching these beautiful girls, daughters of the man he helped a quarter century ago, how to play basketball.” Now that is a story a lot of viewers would like to see. Bob Sacha, who now teaches at  Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY, puts the report vs. story dichotomy another way. “A report tells you what’s happening. The story takes you there.” In the example of the basketball playing sisters, the report tells you that the sisters are going to play on the same court. The story tells you how and why they got to the same court and what that means.

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Personal Story

SHAPING A STORY

Let’s go back to your original story about the calamity of getting to the hospital despite your malfunctioning car, tragically breaking up with your sweetheart, or losing your homework to your rambunctious dog. When you tell your interesting story, why doesn’t your tale sound like a standard article ripped from the newspaper or nightly news show? Part of what transforms your tale into a story is your use of the narrative format. Te classic inverted pyramid news report simply presents the facts with the most important one at the beginning. Your narrative story has a hook to entice your viewers, a confict, suspense, and a resolution if it follows the narrative arc. And, of course, your particular story has a sympathetic character—you! Your story evokes the problems you faced with a car breakdown, a relationship breakup, or mangled homework. You might begin by explaining the problem: “Oh boy, my car broke down on the way to the hospital.” Ten you might go on to describe what you did to overcome the problem—how you had to call AAA and get a ride to the hospital in a tow truck. In the case of the relationship breakup, you might explain how many phone calls, gifts, cards, and letters it took to make up with your boyfriend or girlfriend. In the case of the homework-chewing canine, you might explain how you had to reprint the brilliant 200-page term paper and turn it in just before deadline. Your tales feature a sensitive character (you!) facing an obstacle to overcome. Each of your stories has an arc—an opener that explains the challenge, a development that shows how you approached the problem and a resolution to the calamity. Along that arc, you interject drama, humor, or insight as you reveal how you overcame the obstacle and what fnally happened. In sharing your tale, you are—in the classic sense— a storyteller.

Good Storyteller or Bore?

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Let’s face it. Some people are better storytellers than others. Some start a story in the middle and have their audience nodding of within minutes. Others tell the story starting with the dawn of creation and include every detail until the present moment. Still others meander into tangential events on their way to the climax. And then there are those who tell a story by giving a recitation of facts leaving out all the drama. But then, I know you have friends who capture their audience from the opening words of “You won’t believe this, but when I …” to the fnal words “and then I got out safely.” What makes a short video documentary that grabs viewers by their eyeballs? How do you edit a story so that it doesn’t let go the viewer until the fnal credits? How does story difer from a dull, “eat your spinach” documentary which inspires the viewer to click “next” after 10 seconds? Good videojournalists do not just report facts. Tey employ classic storytelling techniques to present accounts about real people. Tey share their stories in the form of short or long video documentaries, usually shown on the Internet, but also on streaming services, on television, and sometimes even in theaters. Videojournalism applies the fctional storyteller’s techniques of character development and story arc to relate real-life tales of happiness, achievement, struggle, success, failure, and woe. Te secret lies in fnding and telling powerful stories. Sacha, of Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY, notes, “You’re looking at sort of the same techniques people use for plays, for books, for movies, for graphic novels, maybe even for some country songs.” Tis is your challenge: how to shape your story and design the story’s structure. Sometimes—rarely—you’ll know how to shape the story before you even start the reporting. Most times, however, the story structure develops while you’re working in the feld. Sometimes it doesn’t even develop until editing begins.

 Frytag’s Pyramid. Classic storytelling structure.

FREYTAG VS. INVERTED PYRAMID

Though both  Freytag’s  storytelling approach and the  inverted  pyramid approach communicate the news of the day (the resolution), the narrative approach (on the left) allows the audience to relate to the confict before getting to the resolution. The inverted pyramid (on the right) gives the important information frst but does not provide the audience with an emotional incentive to stick around for the entire story.

Three-Act Play

The Rise and Fall of Freytag’s Pyramid

Many storytellers think of structure as a threeact play. Act One. Introduce your characters. Let us meet them; give us a reason to care about them and introduce the key layers of confict. Act Two. Reveal the complication. Tis is usually the longest part of the story. Tis act reveals how the layered complications intensify until the fnal showdown: the crisis in Act Tree. Act Tree. Outcome or resolution of the confict/crisis, and fnish the story in a satisfying way. Tis act reveals the choices made in the crisis and how the outcome of these choices. Te three-act play design is as old as ancient Greece and as modern as the most recent Hollywood release. Watch movies, TV shows, and even some commercials closely for structure and you will see the three-act construct used over and over again.

Freytag’s Pyramid, originally developed to analyze ancient Greek and Roman plays as well as those of Shakespeare, applies to documentarystyle visual storytelling as well. You need to set up your story—characters, issues, location—in a way that allows events to unfold so that viewers learn more and more about the topic, the ways your characters are afected by it, how they develop a solution (or not), and, fnally, where they go from here. At the end of your story, real characters go on with their lives.

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Hungry: Living with Prader– Willi Syndrome. https://vimeo.com/50764576

In Hungry: Living with Prader–Willi Syndrome, mentioned earlier, the frst act introduces you to the father and son. Te second act explains the disease. And the third act shows how the disease brings the father and son closer. Walk Walk Walk: Te Story of StandProud also follows a narrative story arc. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, hundreds of children with malformed legs, unable to walk upright, are destined not only to crawl or be carried, are also often shunned by their own families. Walk Walk Walk, a short 16-minute documentary, showcases the revolutionary work of Dr. Jay Nash and his nonproft organization StandProud, which provides free plaster casts, braces, crutches, physical therapy, and medical assistance to a generation of formerly crippled children. Walk Walk Walk, opens with a scene of a crippled young man crawling on the dusty ground. A gang of children follow him with some of them awkwardly imitating the way he moves. Te young person was struck with polio before the vaccine was readily available everywhere. Te story arc has set up the problem. Ten the audience watches interviews with children

 Walk Walk Walk. When a child has had polio and cannot walk the StandProud organization puts a cast on the child’s leg to help straighten it out. Eventually the cast is removed and replaced by a metal brace.

 Walk Walk Walk.  After the children receive braces they learn to walk for the frst time and even line dance to the tune of “Walk Like a Man.”

Walk Walk Walk: The Story of StandProud. https://vimeo.com/manage/ videos/258099133

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Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

as they tell their heart-breaking stories of what it has been like to be crippled all their lives. Tey describe how they have been mocked and ostracized by other kids. Teir parents view them as a bad omen and neglected them. Tis frst segment of the documentary is setting up the problem or complication ... what it is like if you can’t walk on your own. Te documentary has introduced the characters. Each has told their tearful stories. Ten the documentary introduces the hero of the story, Dr. Nash. Now the documentary moves into resolution mode by showing how Dr. Nash developed a way to reset the bones on the children’s legs using a series of plaster casts. Along the way the viewer witnesses the pain the children sufer as the successive casts force the leg bones to straighten. Ten the brace makers construct from local scrap-steel and leather, tailor-made, leg braces. Te audience is watching the resolution of problem. Now for the climax ... Te actual story climax comes when a young man, wearing his braces, is helped to stand upright. He then walks a few tentative steps for the frst time in his life. His smile says it all. Te narrative continues showing the individual challenges the young polio victims face as they learn to use their braces. Eventually, with repeated practice on the parallel bars, the young people are able to walk to school. Te resolution of the story starts to unfold. After months of living at the center, wearing their braces and using crutches, the kids start playing soccer. From a life of crawling on the ground to a life where you can play soccer, the

documentary carries the viewer on a fulflling trip. Finally, for an ending to the confict and a satisfying solution, the documentary repetitive ... you note the length higher up … the children line-dance to the Four Seasons’ song “Walk like a man.” Of course, there are many other ways this story could have been told. In the Walk Walk Walk narrative, diferent children exemplifed each stage of the recovery process. Te child crawling on the ground at the beginning of the documentary is not seen again in the flm. Te viewer sees one child who gets a leg cast and then watches another child being ftted for a steel brace. Te viewer is shown each step of the process through the experiences of a diferent child who is at his or her own level of recovery. Another way to tell the story would have been to follow one child through the whole process from crawling on the ground to linedancing. Tis approach would have required the flmmaker to follow just this one child over the course of several years. Te subject might have gotten tired of being photographed and asked the videographer to stop midway through the treatment, leaving the producer with an unfnishable flm. Te Walk Walk Walk documentary coincides with the story arc of a fctional flm. It introduces the characters, presents the confict/complication, and reveals a resolution of the problem. It ends with a satisfying conclusion. Now if Hollywood wanted to tell this story they would just hire an actor to play the part of the polio victim and shoot the story on the studio’s back lot. As documentary flmmakers, however, you need to record reality. A fctional flm never has the same power as an actual true documentary. While both the fctional flm and documentary might use the same story arc, the power of the documentary flm lies in the fact that the audience gets to hear, for themselves, real polio victims talk about how their “friends” treated them. Tey get to witness the reaction of an actual person taking an independent step, all by himself, for the frst time. Finally, viewers get to see kids who could only crawl on the ground before now actually playing competitive soccer and line-dancing. Te audience gets the vicarious pleasure of watching someone walk upright for the frst time. Even Hollywood can’t beat that.

COMPLICATION AND RESOLUTION In his book Writing for Story, Pulitzer Prizewinning author Jon Franklin says that nonfction stories share a common structure but are a bit diferent than the three-act play. Franklin, who twice won the prestigious Pulitzer award for feature writing, says stories revolve around a complication and its resolution. Good stories typically contain layers of complications. Complications can be good or bad. Franklin defnes a complication as any problem that a person encounters. Being threatened by a bully is a complication. Having a car stolen or being diagnosed with cancer is a complication. Certainly, having polio and then being unable to walk the rest of your life is a clear complication. Complications are not all bad, Franklin says. Falling in love is a complication because you may not know whether the other person is in love too. Winning the lottery means you get to fgure out how to spend the money—but still you must pay the taxes.

Signifcant Problem Complications that lend themselves to videojournalism must tap into a problem basic enough and signifcant enough that most people can relate to it. When a mosquito bites you, you have a complication. But it neither refects a basic human dilemma nor a signifcant universal problem. Discovering you have malaria and might die, on the other hand, is a fundamental complication that would be signifcant to most readers.

Coming to a Resolution Te second part of a good story involves a resolution, which Franklin says in his book “is any change in the character or situation that resolves the complication.” Whether you are cured of malaria or die from the disease, the complication is resolved. For stories with complications and resolutions, Franklin points out that most daily problems don’t have resolutions and, therefore, don’t lend themselves to creating terrifc stories.

External and Internal Confict Although Franklin is talking to writers, his central idea is applicable to many other story forms. Let’s dissect his central thesis and see how it applies to video. “To be of literary value,” he says, “a complication must not only be basic but also signifcant

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Story Structure Lecture. https://vimeo.com/67685986

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to the human condition.” So complication— sometimes called “confict” or “tension”—is an essential story element. Just introducing a character is not enough to tell a compelling story. Adding a complication—an obstacle to the character’s progress—enables us to relate to the person facing it. In the documentary on children with polio, Walk Walk Walk, just meeting the victims would not be sufcient for a story. Te complication was apparent when you saw that these children could only move from place to place by crawling on the ground. In many hard news stories, the tension is obvious: man against fre; woman fghting discrimination; child triumphing over a bully; police solving a mystery; neighbors battling over property lines; and so on. Tese all originate as external conficts. Hence, they are easy to visualize, and the viewer can relate to their story. “Any good story is going to have something at stake,” says Craig Duf who teaches at the Medill School, Northwestern University. “You know, whether it’s a confict of the human vs. human, human vs. nature or human vs. himself. What is this person up against?” Feature or in-depth stories can be much more subtle, as they may involve internal conficts or reveal understated complications. Overcoming depression after a divorce, for example, involves an internal change in the person. Te challenge to the person is just as big as if they had fought a fre or triumphed over a bully, but the changes take place internally. While perhaps more difcult to show visually, these stories of internal change are just as rewarding to the viewer. When watching Hungry: Living with Prader– Willi Syndrome, you don’t notice that the child has any outward physical deformity. Te short documentary is able to reveal the internal craving for food by witnessing the interaction between the father and son. Te real resolution of the story is revealed by the gradual changing relationship between the parent and child.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

STORY STRUCTURE LECTURE Check out Kurt Lancaster’s video which is based on a short documentary produced by Travis Fox. The story begins with a family in China. Follow the story from the opening hook, through the confict, climax, and ultimately the resolution. Lancaster dissects each step of plot to reveal the underlying structure.

What Motivates the Character? How do we identify and use this tension? When searching for tension in a story, it helps to start with one simple question: why? What is motivating the character or characters? Motives frequently reveal tense inner conficts and help us to answer the “Why” question. Merely showing someone creating a sculpture is not a story. It’s a demonstration of a process. To get to the complication within the sculpting process, we want to ask an artist, “Why do you create these sculptures in this way?” Using this tactic, we are likely to uncover some intriguing surprises. Te sculptor might have a burning desire to form some image from his dreams or might want to experiment with how a particular shape looks when it is constructed from a unique material. People’s motives may include wanting to please someone else. For example, a politician might say, “I ran for ofce because my wife wanted me to be a senator.” Or the politician may possess an inner compulsion they feel must be obeyed such as, “I have always known I wanted to be an actor since I starred in my third-grade play.” Subtle motives such as these constitute complicating factors that help make up a more compelling story.

Central Character Wants Change Stories begin when protagonists want to change their lives, their environments, or something or someone else. In Hungry: Living with Prader– Willi Syndrome, the father, who serves as the protagonist, wants to help his son. Te boy is living with a burning desire to eat all the time. Protagonists may know they want to change consciously or unconsciously, but when an event throws their lives out of balance (sometimes called an inciting incident) protagonists decide to act. In any story you produce, look for the inciting incident that tips the balance. Ethan Brooks’ short documentary Ghost Bikes is the story of Brooklyn resident Mirza

Molberg, who began volunteering with his local ghost bike project in 2011. In 2016, his girlfriend, Lauren Davis, was fatally struck by a car on her bicycle en route to work. Hours after the accident, Molberg stopped at the site of Davis’ death. “Tere was no evidence [of the accident],” he said. “I created Lauren’s ghost bike the following

 Ghost Bikes. A white bike is left in the spot where a cyclist was killed while riding.

week.” Te inciting incident for the flm, in this situation, was the death of Molberg’s girlfriend. So now we can see that a complication is established once the audience can identify a drive, or a pressing need, in a character. Te protagonist wants to change.

 Ghost Bikes. The story of making memorials to lost riders started when the documentary producer’s girlfriend was killed while riding her bike by a passing motorist.

Ghost Bikes. https://vimeo.com/243579287

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CHARACTER-DRIVEN STORIES Although every story does not need a main character, most successful stories do. Finding a compelling central character or group of characters can mean the diference between a lifeless story and an outstanding one. Te young man with Prader–Willi syndrome is a sympathetic character who lets you feel his pain. Te children with polio in Walk Walk Walk tell their personal stories and there is not a dry eye in the audience. In Ghost Bikes you feel sympathy for the central character who has lost his girlfriend to a bike accident. Te main character might simply be someone who has an intriguing tale to tell, or a person with a unique talent, an unusual achievement, or a quirky personality. Or your central character may be someone who can personalize a complex issue such as health care or environmental pollution.

Unique Talent

Collin Rocks. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=VQW48XiOHFg&t=7s

Here is a story based on a unique talent. In Collin Rocks, by Boyd Huppert and Jonathan Malat of KARE-TV in Minneapolis, our “hero” is Collin Johnson, a 10-year-old with a unique talent. He can play heavy metal guitar like Led Zeppelin. As the story develops, we fnd out that he has a medical history and a personality that makes him special. He’s a character worth knowing. Along the way, we meet a supporting cast, as well—his parents, sister, teachers—each of whom helps develop important elements of Collin’s story.

Use a Character to Personalize an Issue Te second possibility for a central character is someone who personally illustrates an important issue or problem.

This Time Would Be Diferent. https://www. willyurman.com/stories/ this-time-would-be-diferent/

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Profile Approaches “Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of profles, the general and the microcosm,” says John Knowlton, former business journalist and now journalism instructor at Green River College. He explains the diferences:

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

General Profle: “Te subject of this profle is chosen for its inherent interest, which usually depends on qualities that make it unique or unusual. So it makes sense in this kind of a piece to pour most efort into detailing these qualities of ‘diferentness.’” Microcosm Profle: “Te subject of this profle is picked because of its ‘typicalness,’ its similarity to others in its class. We use the subject as a vehicle to tell a wider tale, as representative of other subjects that are going through the same experiences and having the same reactions to them. A story about one airline worker’s family during a Boeing strike, for example, would stress that family’s similarities to others, not its diferences. “In the microcosm profle the character becomes Everyman or Everywoman. Te subject of the piece helps viewers relate to what otherwise might be a dry, tedious, fact-flled story. Tese characters’ individual situations, which are similar to many others facing the same problem, can clearly illustrate such issues as government funding, health insurance, or the complexities of the legal system. By meeting so directly with someone struggling against an unyielding obstacle, viewers can both sympathize and even identify with the person. In this way, the viewer experiences a clearer, more emotional impact of how laws and regulations can really afect a single human being.” For an example of someone personifying a national issue, remember the story of Pennsylvania State Representative Mike Fleck? Tis Time Would Be Diferent follows one state assemblyman coming out of the closet as he runs for re-election. Te story really represents the tale of all gays and their challenges as they reveal their sexual identity. In fact, the comingout struggle of this gay politician is not so diferent from every member of any group who has sufered discrimination for sexual identity, race, or religion, or just being diferent.

In Denied, directed and produced by Julie Winokur and Sheila Wessenberg, the central subject represents Everywoman and Everyman caught in the tangled web of the American health-care system. Unable to aford escalating insurance premiums, the central character had to stop chemotherapy for breast cancer. She died the day before she would have been eligible for Medicare, the government-supported healthcare program.

Strong, Nuanced Personality Strong characters often are obvious—they have vivid personalities, the ability to speak clearly, and are personally compelling. Tey should be like a friend everyone wants to hang with. Tey entertain us, enlighten us, and stay focused on the story they’re telling us. Wanting to hear more about someone when meeting him for the frst time is a good sign.

 Denied. In Denied, the photographer and videographer tell the story of health care through the experiences of one woman who had to ask for help on the roadside to pay her medical bills. (Photo by Ed Kashi)

Denied. https://vimeo.com/showcase/ 5303127/video/128908409 Note: On the website the story is located in the Vault

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An Unforgettable Character

Turtle Man. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=a8BOtEpUcX8

David Stephenson of the Lexington Herald Leader found a great character in Ernie Brown, Jr., a snapping-turtle catcher in Kentucky. In Stephenson’s piece, Te Turtle Man, Brown pops of one-liners in his thick Kentuckian accent and behaves in the most extraordinary ways. He dives into muddy water and pulls up a large snapping turtle with his bare hands, all the while giving an ear-splitting whoop of success. Brown’s is a story of the odd and the extreme, which is one reason this character appeals to such a wide audience.

“Ernie is entertaining, and, in fact, he wants to be an entertainer. Tat is actually a big part of the story,” Stephenson says in an interview for this book. “In fact, Ernie tries too hard to be an entertainer, which ends up being funny. He’s odd and unusual, but simply put he makes funny sounds—much beyond his dialect and accent— and he whoops and he hollers.” Stephenson said many journalists had done stories on the Turtle Man. So, he and writer/narrator Amy Wilson decided to take the story a bit deeper. “We wanted to examine more about why Ernie Brown wants to become famous. Basically,

 The Turtle Man. Ernie Brown, Jr., pulled two snapping turtles from a Lincoln County farm pond near Stanford, Kentucky. Though catching snapping turtles is a unique occupation, Brown’s personality is what gives the piece its character. (Photo by David Stephenson/Lexington Herald Leader)

 The Turtle Man. An angry snapping turtle approached the camera after Ernie Brown, Jr., yanked it out of the mud from a Lincoln County farm pond.

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 David Stephenson. David Stephenson, now an assistant professor at University of Kentucky, poses with his subject.

he doesn’t have what it takes to make it big nationally or internationally. He’s not sophisticated enough. But he does well at the kitschy, campy level, which will probably be fne for him. He’ll make money at it, and as he says, ‘I’m the poorest famous guy around.’” So Ernie’s tale, which on its base level is just funny and fun, was taken to a higher level of storytelling because the creators of the piece went one step further and looked into Ernie’s quest to become famous, albeit in his own weird and unique way. Wilson and Stephenson sought to engage viewers emotionally. And they succeeded. Tough Stephenson sometimes works with a writer who will narrate parts of his stories, he prefers to let his subjects narrate their own stories. “Whenever we can let our subjects have a voice,” he says, “if they have the power to articulate, then all the better.” Strong characters, though, don’t often make themselves as obvious as the Turtle Man. You must seek them out by opening your eyes and ears and sometimes holding dozens of mini preinterviews while scouring your scene for just the substantial character whose presence will place a gentle fve-minute hook into your audience’s attention span (see Chapters 5, 15, and 16).

Find Subjects to Tell All Sides of the Story If your story centers on a public confict, remember that one character is hardly ever enough. Each side of an issue needs to be represented by equally well-spoken and authentic voices. In Jake Sumner’s story Bob of the Park Knows New York City Birds Best the director has told the tale of the enthusiastic birder with his recorded bird sounds but also the intense opposition to Bob by those who think he is disturbing the birds. If you visit New York’s Central Park, along with the local fowers and plants you may fnd Robert DeCandido, also known as “Birding Bob.” If you don’t bump into him on the trails, you’ll hear him. Among dedicated birders including professional ornithologists, some consider his use of recorded bird calls a disturbance to birds and birdwatchers alike. Others see him as an enthusiastic advocate for the world of birds. Sumner, director of the short documentary, went to spokesmen for both sides of the controversy to produce this very amusing New York Times op-doc.

Bob of the Park Knows New York City Birds Best. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GLQUC7_wtFg

Chapter 1 Telling Stories

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 Ed Robbins, on patrol to flm Warriors, a PBS documentary profling the day-to-day life of US Army soldiers  during the Iraq Civil War  in an area called the Triangle of Death. Robbins, principal videographer and director, was embedded as a “one-man-band” with soldiers for a few months. To read more about Ed Robbins’ war story see page 22.

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CHAPTER

2

Teasing Out a Theme Regina McCombs, University of Minnesota Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University Additional material provided by Stanley Heist, Kathy Kieliszewski, Josh Meltzer, David Weintraub, Suzanne White, Bob Sacha, Craig Duf, and John Knowlton

FINDING A UNIVERSAL THEME AND CONSISTENT VOICE

B

ob Sacha, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize-winning videographer, notes that if you have an idea for your story but don’t have a theme you can waste a lot of time.

“When you go flming without a theme, the result can be described as ‘spray and pray’,” says Sacha, who now teaches at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY. “You just flm

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-2

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everything and you come back with a big pile of stuf and you say, ‘Oh please, God, I hope I have a story here.’” A good way to avoid that feeling is by ensuring your story has an enduring theme. What are some universal themes? All humans share certain common experiences and feelings such as birth, death, love, fear, joy, and, for many, a sense of adventure or competition.

Universal themes might include: what it means to be a hero, fnding love, redemption, recognizing evil, defning personal success, or rivalry between competitors. If you are lucky enough to hit on a story that touches on universal themes, chances are your audience’s interest will be aroused.

Stories That Have a Clear Theme Rivalry

ED ROBBINS ON PATROL

The Schools Are Tiny. The Game Is Huge. https://photoblog.statesman. com/the-schools-are-tiny-thegame-is-huge

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Ed Robbins (see picture and caption on page 20) profled average U.S. soldiers for Warriors, a PBS documentary about the Iraq War. Robbins was the primary videojournalist and director. My closest call came on one of the most boring days. I was in the city of Baghdad, my soldiers were pulled in for patrols during the big election. Then, so fast it didn’t even register, an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on my side of the vehicle. Luckily it was set of a hair too early. It blew up the front of our Humvee truck, leaving us dust covered but unhurt. The soldiers in the remaining fve vehicles spread out on foot to inspect the crater of the explosion and hunt for suspects. But then, while on the street, hundreds of yards from any of the vehicles, I heard an explosion behind me. Still flming, I turned to screams of “medic,” “medic” from inside a mushroom cloud of smoke where one of the Humvees was parked. It had been hit by a shoulder-launched explosive. Seconds later their strafng raked the street. It was so loud I didn’t even know where the fre was coming from. My only thought was surprisingly not fear, it was, “Do your job, slow down, don’t screw this up.” I made it back to the vehicle for shelter and after returning fre, we hightailed it back to base. The soldiers soon returned to the streets, enraged and pumped for revenge. But there was no one to be found. The perpetrators had long slipped back into their houses, and were probably relaxing and watching television, looking like everyone else. I was able to flm both those explosions and the ambush. Later, after it aired, I am proud to say David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, saw the documentary on TV and asked to include the attack footage in the show.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

 The Schools Are Tiny; the Game Is Huge.  The story reveals the history of the rivalry between two small high schools in Texas and then builds in anticipation as it follows the teams on the night of their highly anticipated annual showdown.

 The Schools Are Tiny; the Game Is Huge. The Texas towns of Gordon and Strawn are only eight miles apart and the high schools play six-man football because they’re so small that they don’t have enough boys to feld regular 11-man teams.

Rivalry is a universal theme dating before the time of Cain and Abel. Te Texas towns of Gordon and Strawn are only eight miles apart and the high schools play six-man football because the schools are so small they can’t feld regular 11-man teams but their rivalry is no less intense as a game between Army and Navy. Te narrated audio slideshow Te Schools Are Tiny; the Game Is Huge, produced by Jay Janner of the Austin American-Statesman, is a well-crafted combination of stills, natural sound, music, and interviews. It reveals the history of the rivalry in the town and then builds suspense as it follows the teams on the night of their highly anticipated annual showdown. Although not everyone has gone to a tiny high school in Texas, most people have

experienced some form of rivalry or competition—for a job, for a scholarship, or for a touchdown. Dealing with Death Ghost Bikes, discussed in Chapter 1, page 15, shows bicycles painted white and left at spots where cyclists have died around New York City. It explores the universal theme of how to remember the dead. Te girlfriend of producer Mirza Molberg died in a bike accident. His short movie is a remembrance of her and all the others who have died tragically from bike accidents. Overcoming Adversity On the surface, the story Walk Walk Walk, discussed in Chapter 1, page 12, is a story about making crutches for children who having had polio have never walked upright. Te real theme of the story, however, is about overcoming obstacles. Being an Outcast Before 1900, the government of Istanbul tried to kill every stray dog that was on the street. Tere was such an uproar and pushback from the population that it’s now illegal to capture strays on the street and euthanize them. Elizabeth Lo, the producer of Stray, explains this setup in white type on a black background to the viewer of the flm. Te flm has no voice-over and, of course, the dogs don’t talk. As the flm progresses, the strays’ lives intersect when they each form intimate bonds with a group of young Syrians with whom they share the streets. It is not hard to see the similarity in situations between the street kids and the stray dogs. So the flm is a story about dogs on the street. But, in a way, it’s also a story about refugees or outcasts. It’s a story about trying to fnd

connection. It’s a story about being homeless, and … by the way, it’s also a story about dogs too. Since the flm has no interviews, it lets the viewers draw their own conclusions from what they see on the screen. Tis is called the “direct cinema” style (see pages 28, 29, 195 and 196).

Testing a Theme … Concise Description Approach A handy measure of whether you have a decent story is to try to describe it in two or three sentences to another person. With a little practice, you should be able to concisely introduce the characters, set up their conficts, and evoke their challenges. “What is the bigger idea of this story?” asks Sacha. “What is this story about? Is this a story about family? Is this a story about security? Is this story about safety? Even before you start, if you can get to this bigger idea of what it is, if it’s in one or two words, then I fnd it really helps inform a story and inform where it’s going to go.” If you can reduce your tale to a few concise lines and make it worthwhile for someone to listen to, chances are you’ve got yourself a terrifc story. Ed Robbins, who teaches at the Columbia School of Journalism, asks his students, “What is your flm about?” Not what’s the storyline, or what happens, or the topic. “What’s it about?” He points out that this is often a tough question to answer, but critical in giving the story its magnetic core. He fnds that pressing students on this question has been a great tool because, “Te answer infuences how you shoot scenes, what questions to ask, and how you edit the story structure.”

Ghost Bikes. https://vimeo.com/243579287

Walk Walk Walk. https://vimeo.com/258099133

 Stray. The underlying theme of the documentary is not just about dogs of Istanbul. It is really about a dog, a child, or an immigrant that is left out of society.

Stray. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uC38BqP2_fI&t=2s

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Audience Must Care

DAY-IN-THE-LIFE

So now you know much more about stories. All kinds of tales of human experience: adventure, escape, loss, rebirth, rivalry, revenge, sorrow— and then some—all of these can be foundations for stories.

A day-in-the-life story records the activities of someone through a period of time—such as the length of a day. Te videojournalist shoots everything in hopes of capturing revealing details. But most people’s daily lives are not actual stories. See if you can remember any of the individuals or the stories featured in the many beautiful picture books with the title “A Day in the Life of … America, Japan, China, etc.” You can’t? Why? Because the “Day in the Life” books consist of beautiful images, but the individual pictures are vignettes. Tey highlight aspects of a country but don’t add up to tell a coherent story. Tere are other diferences, too, between a day-in-the-life and a true story approach. A dayin-the-life video has no central theme or point of view. A day-in-the-life video has limitations and constraints. It usually doesn’t have a central theme. Some day-in-the-life essays have a point of view. Sometimes that point of view is simply “this job is hard.” Even if you follow someone from morning to night, in a day-in-the-life documentary, no one faces and/or resolves a confict. No one reaches a resolution of a problem. A day-in-the-life video is merely documentation of what happens over a period of time. When possible, look for a better story plot than a day-in-the-life of your subject. Day-inthe-life projects make nice cofee-table books, where there is little competition for attention. But they do not work as stories told for the Internet or broadcast medium.

HIGHLIGHTING ONE ASPECT OF A PLACE  Sideshow Tent. With the purchase of most of Coney Island’s six-block area by a commercial developer, Travis Fox’s short documentary captures the last of its pre-Disney past. (Travis Fox, Washington Post)

 Barker with a screwdriver.

 “Shoot the Freak” paintball.

Portrait of Coney Island. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=oETS016dgKA

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In Travis Fox’s short video documentary Portrait of Coney Island, the videojournalist presents a slice-of-life portrayal of this soon-to-be demolished amusement park. Without the aid of any voice-over to explain what the viewer is seeing, he lays out some special aspects of this nostalgic, pre-Disney entertainment spot. Fox’s point of view comes across clearly in his subject choice. For a theme Fox has zeroed in on the more bizarre aspects of the boardwalk.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

From Day-in-Life Idea to a Themed Story: A Case Study Seasoned photojournalist Eileen Blass, a staf photographer at USA Today, was attending a Western Kentucky University Mountain Workshop on multimedia storytelling when she selected as a story idea “a Kentucky family who runs an organic farm.” Bob Sacha, a well-known multimedia journalist and now professor at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY, was Blass’s coach at the workshop. He asked her to explain in two minutes or less what the story (not the idea!) was going to be about. She replied that her plan was to make a story about how this farmer had to work a second job as a conservation ofcer in order to maintain the family farm—basically a look at a day-in-the-life of a man struggling to maintain his farm.

 Tethered to Tradition. Brad Lowe feeds his chickens and turkeys on his family’s farm, Hillyard Field Organics in Murray, Kentucky. The  video  became more  than  just  a day  in  the  life  of  this  farmer because the videographer looked  for  universal themes.

“But I didn’t have a focus beyond that,” Blass admits. Her plan, Blass told her workshop mentor, was to hang out for a couple of days and hope that the story would sort itself out. Sometimes just trailing someone can provide research for a potential story idea but this is not a good approach if your time is limited. “Without an interview, I really didn’t know what the story would be. So for the frst day or so, I shot everything in sight—a few hours of tape,” Blass recalls. “I’m actually personally interested in organic farming and healthy eating,” she says, “but even I had no real interest in the story so far. For me— and for a general audience—I still wondered why

we were going to connect to the story. I knew that a broad audience wasn’t going to connect because of healthy eating or organic farming. I needed some other, more universal and emotional draw. Frankly, at that point my story sounded pretty boring,” she said in an interview after the workshop. Blass says she was pretty lost on the frst day, so she was shooting everything in sight. She did conduct interviews, trying to make some kind of story pan out of her original idea. But it still didn’t have the necessary emotional attraction that Sacha wanted.

Tethered to Tradition. https://vimeo.com/7368035

 Bob Sacha. Bob Sacha, Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @ CUNY.

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Ebola in the Congo. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ frontline/flm/ebola-in-congo/

Finding a Theme

WHO GETS TO TELL THE STORY?

“All along I’ve been told that at the end of an interview I should always ask, ‘Is there something else I should know?’ ” says Blass. “I did just that with the farmer, and that was the moment when he really told me what was on his mind. “He explained that a good friend, an older farmer, had just passed away. As he told me about his friend, he became very emotional and teary eyed. I certainly didn’t expect that,” she recalls in an interview for this chapter. “It really took me aback. He cried about his friend who taught him how to make sweet sorghum, and how he planned to preserve that tradition. So at that moment, I knew I had the story.” Her idea to follow the farmer’s eforts to maintain the farm while working another job became instead a story about relationships, tradition, loss, and love. Tese are the types of themes that a broad audience can and will relate to on an emotional level. Blass’s fnal story, Tethered to Tradition, just over two minutes in length, centered on these universal themes—still showing, of course, that the subject is an organic farmer. But as the farmer moved through his day, Blass’s story focused on emotional issues to which an audience can connect.

When the story you are telling is your own, the obvious person to tell the story is you. Nothing beats a frst-person account of a heroic act or near fatal collapse. Te issue becomes trickier when the story is about someone else, as is the case in most journalism accounts. Below are diferent approaches to the question of who gets to tell the story.

 Ebola in the Congo. For this story about those who pick up the body after someone has died of Ebola, the story is told through the voice of one of the workers.

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Voice of the Central Character One approach is to have the central characters of the story lay out the fundamentals. In a documentary, during sit-down or interviews, the central characters explain the topic and give the highlights of the story. Sometimes these people will be seen on screen as they are questioned. Other times, only their voices are heard. Teir voices are heard as images corresponding to their words roll by. For example, frst you see and hear a freman talk about the blaze that burned down the building. Ten the freman’s voice continues as you see footage of him or her holding a hose and dousing the fre. Ben Solomon, in his piece titled Ebola in the Congo for Frontline, tells the story of an ambulance driver who picks up the bodies of the dying and dead. Te words of the ambulance

driver explain in detail the trail of sufering caused by the disease. Te video images sear in the tragedy. Proponents of the “tell-their-own-story” approach note that the central character’s voice gives the yarn authenticity. Te viewer is hearing the story from the proverbial “horse’s mouth.” In the Ebola story by Solomon, the driver’s narrative takes the reader inside the tragic situation and shows the disease from the perspective of one man’s dangerous job. Te view can see how close the driver comes to death at every stop on his daily journey. If any part of the corpse or the material around the body touch the driver, he could be infected and, later, die of Ebola. Tere was no cure for Ebola at the time the story was flmed. Sometimes this approach does not work. Te key person may not speak clearly and with energy. Perhaps the lead subject does not explain their story in a coherent manner. Te producer could also be stuck if the central fgure does not tell all the necessary details during the interview to form a cohesive narrative. Many times, editors are caught fat-footed without all the needed sound bites to complete the story.

Voice of the Reporter Te reporter ends his stand-up for his story Anatomy of a News Story with “Tis is Da Lin, Channel 5 ...” Da Lin has just fnished telling the story of the family looking for their missing relative. Te man has disappeared under suspicious conditions in San Francisco. Television stations around the world, like Channel 5 in the Bay Area, are under constant deadline pressure. Station managers have determined that their on-camera reporters can tell the story better, faster, and clearer than if they depend only on interviews with the lead of the story. Broadcast videographers and reporters are trained to speak well. Tey can collect the facts quickly. In a concise, clear manner, they can write and read a script. If the original script needs alterations, the reporter/videographer can easily rewrite and rerecord (track) the dialogue. Also, many stations want their reporters to have screen time to develop a connection with the viewer. Viewers come to trust on-screen correspondents, have favorites, and trust their reporting.

Depending on the channel, reporters/videographers often have to produce two or more stories a day. Tey don’t have much time to learn the subtleties of any given situation. Since they are on deadline, they cannot wait around until something happens so they can flm it. Tey frequently describe something that has already happened earlier in the day or something that will take place later. Te downside of a reporter-driven story is that the journalist, not the subject, becomes the driver of the story. Te story tilts in the direction of the style and manner of the on-camera journalist and the primary players in the story become secondary. Te viewer sometimes even remembers the face and voice of the journalist and not the subject of the story. “Da Lin, Channel 5, San Francisco” becomes the dominant voice not that of the missing person in the story. Craig Duf, who has worked for CNN, NewYorkTimes.com, TIME, and NBCNews.com among others, notes that, “Broadcast TV has not changed much in its 70 years of existence. You have a reporter, you go out and gather interviews and you gather information and arrange it into a package. Te package has to ft within a certain time frame on television.” “If you’re working for a local TV station you’re turning three or four more stories a day,” says Will Yurman, a videojournalism professor at Penn State University. “You’re the reporter, you synthesize everything. You write it into a script and you just say what you need to say, and then you get some B-roll images that correspond with the story. And you throw that all together into a quick package. It’s efcient.” Erik Olsen, award-winning journalist and flmmaker based in Los Angeles, notes that broadcast news still depends largely on reporters in the feld reading a “stand-up” narration sound track, directly into the TV camera. By comparison, online videojournalism and documentary stories generally avoid showing the reporter or producer’s face in a piece. Online videojournalism and documentary stories generally avoid showing the reporter or producer’s face in a piece. Olsen refers to these on-air, reporter segments as, “Just silly stand-ups.”

Anatomy of a News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

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 Shots Fired. Shots Fired  tells the story of police shooting in Utah. The documentary, produced for PBS (Public Broadcasting System), uses a narrator’s voice to tell the story.

Shots Fired. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ frontline/flm/shots-fred/ Might not be available in all countries

Voice of the Narrator Some documentaries use an unseen narrator’s voice-over to tell the story. In the PBS (Public Broadcasting System) Frontline documentary Shots Fired, a deep male voice says, “In Utah, a record number of police shootings ...” You know you are watching a PBS Frontline story featured on its weekly TV series. Will Lyman is the go-to narrator for this series. Te viewing public has never seen Lyman’s face. Tis repetitive resonating, baritone voice adds a continuity that helps connect each story to the PBS channel. Of most import, the voice gives all the stories a sense of gravitas. Rather than the voice of a narrator, some documentaries use a few written sentences, often white type on a black background, to introduce facts to the viewer. Te producer of Stray used three or four full screens of text to say “the government in Istanbul tried to kill every stray dog on the streets before 1900.” A narrator could have voiced this information but the producer preferred to let the viewers read it for themselves. By having the viewer read the subtitles, the producer could avoid using a “voice of god” narrator that might have been distracting.

Direct Cinema—No Narration Using the “direct cinema” style, no one tells the story. Te style of cinema appears to be realistic, showing ordinary people in ordinary situations, having normal conversations with one another. Robert Drew was an American documentary flmmaker known as one of the pioneers—and sometimes called father of cinéma vérité, or

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direct cinema, in the United States, according to Variety magazine. In his early career Drew investigated two issues: Why are documentaries so dull? What would it take for them to become gripping and exciting? Drew’s flms pioneered a strict journalistic code that allowed no directing of subjects. Te candid footage was edited into a dramatic narrative intended to give a sense of what it was like to be there as events occurred. His technique became known as cinéma vérité or direct cinema; he liked to call it “reality flmmaking.” Drew recruited like-minded flmmakers including Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Terence Macartney-Filgate, and Albert Maysles To accomplish the cinéma vérité or direct style, Drew and his associates re-engineered a motion-picture camera and sound recorder so they could move freely and in sync with a subject. Te direct cinema style was sparked by a technological breakthrough during World War II: the advent of small, lightweight cameras that could be hand-held and record sound synchronously. Tis allowed cinematographers the mobility to capture real life as it unfolded before the lens. Te new technology of the time ofered independent flmmakers the fexibility to use small crews, no studio sets, no tripodmounted equipment, nor special lights to shoot a flm. Using the hand-held cameras and other techniques reduced the expense to make a flm. Tese changes opened up the market to lowbudget early documentarians.

As a crucial moment in the development of direct cinema, Drew’s collective produced documentary flms for clients like ABC News (for their television series Close-up) and TimeLife Broadcast (for their syndicated television series Living Camera). Teir frst major flm, Primary (1960), documented John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey’s respective campaigns in the 1960 Wisconsin Democratic Primary election. Drew was able to follow Senator John F. Kennedy through a crowd at a campaign rally during his run for president. “Te hand-held camera and portable sound recording equipment gave viewers at the time unprecedented access to a presidential candidate in this direct-cinema documentary also known as cinéma-vérité, according to Matt Yockey, professor of flm, at University of Toledo. Te Maysles brothers, Albert and David, of the United States, were early adapters of the nonarrator documentary style. Tree of their best known works were Salesman (1969), Gimme Shelter (1970), and Grey Gardens (1975). Rather than planning a scene they wanted to record, the brothers would let the story unfold naturally as the camera rolled. Te brothers thought that the camera itself, without any narrator, was an “objective observer.” Te “camera as observer” style is often identifed with producer Frederick Wiseman. His flms have no narration, reporter voice-track, or even interviews with the leading characters of the documentary. Wiseman’s flms can be described as examples of the observational mode which has its roots in direct cinema. Wiseman is sometimes associated with another style of flmmaking that originated in

France. It is called the New Wave cinéma vérité style, but the flmmaker dislikes the term when it is applied to his work. Watch the flm titled City Hall. Wiseman follows his subjects around with his camera rolling in order to record whatever takes place in front of the lens. Simultaneously he records on his boom mic the dialogue between subjects. “What I try to do is edit the flms so that they will have a dramatic structure,” he told Aftab and Weltz, in their paper “Direct cinema: observing America in the 1960s, Frederick Wiseman’s Law and Order” (1969). Rather than a journalist or even the key subject explaining the story during an interview, the viewer must make sense of the fnal edited footage themselves. Te viewer gets to hear the subjects talking spontaneously to one another. Tese voices are referred to as natural dialogue caught on the fy. Trough massive amount of shooting (more than 100 hours for a 4-hour documentary) and selective editing, Wiseman constructs a narrative arc but he does not simply reveal the story directly. Rather, he lets the viewer draw their own conclusions. When this highly prized but rarely followed method of “direct cinema” flmmaking works in its purist form, the method leaves a lasting impression with the viewer. In this approach the central characters don’t so much tell their story as live it in front of the camera. Not all topics lend themselves to the “direct cinema” approach. In fact, Wiseman’s own flms tend to drag on for two or three hours and sometimes lack any kind of clear story arc or sharply defned conclusion.

Primary. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rFjBI0r4B_w

Grey Gardens trailer. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5HNhlry-ggg

 City Hall. In City Hall,  Frederick Wiseman, the producer, uses his observational style of producing a documentary that does not include any narration or reporter’s voice to explore life at city hall in Boston.

City Hall. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4SuQcICWArA

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Bob Sacha of the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY notes that while there are many stories that follow the non-narrative approach, they inevitably raise serious artistic questions. After watching too many of these non-narrated stories he asks himself, “What the hell is going on here? I’m completely lost. I don’t know who’s this guy or where are we at. What’s happening? What’s going to happen next? At the end of seven minutes, I’m still confused. God,

76 Days trailer. https://www.wbur.org/ hereandnow/2021/10/07/76days-documentary-pandemic

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 76 Days. The producers of 76 Days managed to get inside a Wuhan hospital as the COVID-19 virus started to spread frst in the city and then in China and fnally around the world. The story of the frst hospital to face this pandemic was told through natural, overheard dialogue and strong visuals. The documentary does not use a narrator.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

if you just had somebody narrate 10 sentences, this would have been so much better for me to fgure out.” For a powerful example of the direct cinema approach, see 76 Days: an inside look at the frst COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan. (Tis is described in more detail on page 69.)

Combining Styles: Narrator, On-Camera Reporter, Character Interviews Most nonfction videos tell their stories with a combination of styles. For example, in the documentary Caring in Time: Emergency Medical Training in the Congo, an unseen narrator sets up the story. “Imagine a country of 81 million people … with only one doctor qualifed to handle medical emergencies.”

Tat’s the situation in which Dr. Vera Sistenich, the lead character in the story, found herself when she came to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dr. Sistenich is interviewed and the editor selected sound bites to explain the problem. Television videographers often combine styles. Te videographer explains the most signifcant elements of the story directly to the camera’s lens and then does a wrap-up at the end

 Caring in Time. Caring in Time uses interviews with key subjects and overheard natural dialogue as well as a narrator’s voice to explain how such a large country as the Congo can have only one specially trained emergency doctor. Caring in Time: Emergency Medical Training in the Congo. https://youtu.be/3J3jzPHRlTI

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Editing for Rhythm and Pacing Lecture. https://vimeo.com/67910992

Shattered. https://vimeo.com/40379197

of the piece. Te journalist interviews the prime subjects. In addition, for some coverage the videographer becomes the narrator. As the journalist tells the story with a voiceover, the images on the screen fash by. Additionally, the videographer has recorded the subjects in action along with their “nat sound.” As they talk to one another the viewer can overhear the subjects in normal conversation. Videographers who choose to use the combination approach have a number of diferent voices telling the story. In the story about the Congo, titled Caring in Time: Emergency Medical Training in the Congo, the viewer hears the doctor explain what is happening in both an interview and while she is practicing medicine in front of her students. Te documentary also picks up the voices of the students and patients. Te fnal piece includes the subject answering questions during an interview, the subject talking with friends, and the journalist as a narrator. Te fnal documentary is successful if the voices blend together into a coherent story arc.

 Caring in Time.  Caring in Time uses interviews with key subjects and overheard natural dialogue as well as a narrator’s voice to explain how such a large country as the Congo can have only one specially trained emergency doctor.

Caring in Time: Emergency Medical Training in the Congo. https://youtu.be/3J3jzPHRlTI

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Kurt Lancaster, who teaches at Northern Arizona University, has produced a video lecture on editing styles. Te video contains a beautiful example of the diference between having the correspondent tell the story versus having the subject describe his or her inner feelings. In this example, Laura Logan reports for 60 Minutes about Alex Honnold’s freestyle, no-ropes ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan rock formation. Using footage for a similar situation of a climber facing a challenging climb, Tyler Stableford produces a story, Shattered, about Steve House, ice rock climber extraordinaire. Lancaster in his voiceover tries to explain the diference in emotional impact that result from the two approaches. Note: If you use narration alongside text explanations, beyond statistics or a key phrase, then the reader can get overwhelmed. Choose either narration or text but not both. When the text gets too wordy and frequent, seriously consider narration instead.

STORYTELLING APPROACHES TO CHOOSE FROM In John Hewitt’s book Documentary Film Making, he has categorized eight approaches to visual storytelling. While the book was originally oriented toward documentary flmmakers, it is now applicable to visual stories that are produced online or broadcast, and documentary projects. Filmmakers often mix and match styles while pursuing their documentary inspiration. These are some traditional methods that help deliver the power: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

The sequence-driven documentary  relies on powerful scenes captured in exciting or actionflled moments and using no interviews. Often referred to as vérité, it simulates the observational or fy-on-the-wall point of view. Sequence-driven documentaries are more likely to be what are called open text, allowing the viewers to draw their own conclusions. The character-driven documentary relies on the powerful presence of one individual or several personalities to carry the story. It presents serious ethical questions through depictions of sympathetic characters and is usually a mix of formal interviews and sequences. The narrated documentary  relies on an authoritative voice to make connections and explain complexities of the topic. This is particularly efective in the areas of current events and issues, where sequences may not be readily available but interviews and B-roll can be assembled to illustrate the narration. Narration is often helpful in flms where viewers need more context to understand the story. Perhaps it takes place in a developing nation, or a complicated feld of fnance or breakthrough science. Situations where the information is too dense for text or an interview bite to handle. The hosted documentary  has an on-camera personality who acts either as an expert or as a surrogate traveler for the viewer. Although a recognizable host will lend it a certain credibility, its success relies on the engaging qualities of the host. This type of program needs a large crew, a more experienced flmmaker, and a script. The inductive documentary  structure begins with intriguing sequences and unfolds a story without a thesis statement. More often than not it is non-narrated and the viewers are left to form their own conclusions. Cinéma vérité/direct cinema fts into this category. The deductive documentary  opens with a thesis statement and follows with supporting testimony, sequences, or archival. It has a rhetorical structure when presenting cause-and-efect reasoning. The personal refexive documentary explores the issue or topic by turning the camera back on the flmmaker. As with the hosted documentary, it often lives or dies on whether the flmmaker has an engaging personality. Undertaking this requires a comfort level on your part to let yourself, your family, friends, and associates be exposed in exhaustive, sometimes intimate ways. The experimental or hybrid documentary  combines almost any documentary approach with many narrative styles, including performance actors and docudrama, dramatic recreations, poetic images, or any combination of categories. Often called essay documentaries, these can be enormously successful and memorable while bafing critics who reject them as outside the genre.

As you can see from the list above, you as a videographer have many choices for the style of documentary you wish to produce. No documentary style is right or wrong. Each has a purpose. Your role, as producer, is to select the one that fts the needs of your particular story. Documentary Filmmaking: A Contemporary Field Guide (2nd edition) by John Hewitt and Gustavo Vazquez (Oxford University Press, 2013)

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 Ed Kashi in Nepal working on a project for Time magazine about heat stress on workers in Nepal.

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CHAPTER

3

Successful Story Topics Josh Meltzer,  Rochester Institute of Technology Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University

N

ot every topic lends itself to a videojournalism story—some are better suited to being told in print or on the radio. So how do you pick a topic

that will compel viewers to watch your video? People overcoming adversity, handicaps, and other seemingly

insurmountable problems make good material for visual storytelling. Ironically, people living in poverty or people touched by war make excellent subjects for compassionate videojournalists and

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-3

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audiences alike. Poverty’s sting and the ravages of war touch the hearts and minds of viewers everywhere.  Luckily, life consists of more than the hardships and tragedies of poverty and war. Te stories that underlie the daily lives around us can make for compelling videojournalism as well.

BREAKING NEWS—THAT HAS “LEGS”

Videos Capture Terrifying Scenes Inside Florida School Shooting. https://www.nbcnews.com/video/ forida-school-shooting-videoscapture-terrifying-scenes-asstudents-hide-1161943107662

Headline-grabbing stories have interest for the moment. Tey are usually covered with short video clips or footage from amateurs with their smart phones ... often held vertically. A forest fre near Fresno, a riot in Rochester …. When spot news happens, a professional videojournalist is often not present. TV stations’ frst response is to fnd local citizens who were on the scene and recorded with their smart phones and then put the footage on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, or other sites on social media. Te media also look for security camera and police body camera footage. Some news stories outlast the frst day’s headlines and continue to garner public interest long past the initial event.  Te Parkland school shooting in 2018 was an example of a story with journalistic long-term

 Videos Capture Terrifying Scenes Inside Florida School Shooting. Parkland Florida school shooting documents the tragic news event. 

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news value. Te story, titled Videos Capture Terrifying Scenes Inside Florida School Shooting, lasted beyond the frst few days of the tragic event. Te next day’s headline read: “Teen gunman kills 17, injures 17 at Parkland, Florida high school.”  When the shooting happened at Parkland, Whitney Shefte, videographer for the Washington Post, went the next morning and just started interviewing whoever would talk to her … just for breaking news coverage. One person she interviewed was the journalism teacher at the school. Tis interview provided the seed for the Post’s eventual video. Editors at the Post recognized that this school shooting story would hold the public’s interest, meriting the investment of time and money in producing a video story with some substance. In journalism jargon, a news story like this is referred to as a news story “with legs.” Shiefte, along with her colleague Alice Li, met with the journalism students at the local Barnes & Noble in Parkland, since school was not yet back in session.  Te fnal emotional video piece, ‘We’re Kids But We’re Also Journalists’, provides a unique look at this repetitive American tragedy. Te aftermath of the school shooting, through the eyes of the young Parkland School journalists,

 ‘We’re Kids But We’re Also Journalists’. ‘We’re Kids But We’re Also Journalists’ tells the Parkland school shooting story after the initial event took place. The videographers followed school journalists as they covered the story about themselves.

‘We’re Kids But We’re Also Journalists’. https://www.washingtonpost. com/graphics/2018/national/ parkland-documentary/

remains captivating and informing months and even years after the tragedy took place. Some documentary flmmakers specialize in the topic of mass disasters. Charlie Minn’s company Double Wave Productions/Dreamscape Media produces flms sometimes months after the event. His flms include 915: Hunting Hispanics (about the 2019 Wal-Mart El Paso shooting) and Miracle on 4th Street (the 2017 shooting in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas). Minn also made a flm about Parkland, Inside Look at Parkland, Fla School Shooting. Note that most of his flms lean heavily on bystander cell-phone footage. As a Fulbright scholar, Josh Meltzer, who now teaches at Rochester Institute of Technology, worked on a story titled Migration, about international migration. He describes his story this way: “Te zones of expulsion and poles of attraction are the forces at work that explain the movement of tens of millions of people over the past century within the borders of Mexico from rural regions to urban hubs. “In the frst decade of the 20th century, 75% of Mexicans lived in rural regions. Today, nearly 80% live in metropolitan centers. “For indigenous Mexicans, who today still speak over 68 diferent languages, urban migration has had a tremendous impact on their communities and personal lives, as they experience both the benefts and incredible hardships of moving to urban centers. “Tis story on international migration will not quickly grow old. Te problem will persist and so will the interest in understanding the powerful forces that cause migration.”

 Josh Meltzer shoots a story on migration while working in Mexico during his year as a Fulbright scholar. Over time the topic of migration won’t go out of fashion or lose viewer interest. (Photo by Melissa Warp)

Migration. http://migration.joshmeltzer.com 

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JOHN KNOWLTON, GREEN RIVER COLLEGE Here are the elements of newsworthiness that you might consider when formulating your story idea: •

•

•

•

•

•

Timeliness: It is called news for a reason. It’s new information. The more recent something happened, the more it will engage readers. Changes to the class schedule were really interesting and pertinent a month ago, but it’s old news now.  Impact/consequence: If something is happening right now that means we will either progress or sufer a consequence. It will have an efect on people, public health and safety, and or the economy. It’s pretty newsworthy.  Proximity: If something is close to us, it is very likely to matter to us. The snowstorm throughout Puget Sound in the winter quarter of 2019 was newsworthy to us because it impacted our daily lives, including closing the college for four days. The college community came together and adjusted classes, helped people get rides, and brought food to stranded residents. That is what proximity means. But, there is also relative proximity. If things are happening to teachers in the nation, I’d probably be interested since that is my profession and the feld is something very close to me.  Confict: What happens when we see two people in the hall start to yell at each other? There’s always someone who’ll yell out, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” It is human nature to be interested in a situation where two people don’t see eye to eye. Conficts are newsworthy because we want to know who’s winning and who said what. And let’s not forget that it is also human nature to pick sides and stand up for one party. Find yourself a confict and you probably have a newsworthy story. Famous people or celebrities: One year, Matthew McConaughey came to a local high school to work out with its after-school ftness program as part of an initiative to help schools realize the importance of working out to stay healthy. It was the news of the week. Do you really think it would have lasted beyond mention if it were someone from 24 Hour Fitness? Hmm ... What happens to important people is important to us. If my neighbor gets a DWI over the weekend, he won’t make the 5 o’clock news, but if the mayor does, that’s a whole other story. Human interest: Humans like hearing about other humans interacting, living, being, experiencing. News like this makes us smile and really exists for the sake of telling the stories and showing the lives of the human race, which is interesting. Seriously. And, because we are animal lovers and pet owners, our furry friends might make the news too. Examples might be a story about an unlikely student winning an award, a look inside a local family’s experience in the big snowstorm, or someone who survived an avalanche and is now competing in an Olympic snowboarding contest.

LOCALIZING AND HUMANIZING A NATIONAL PROBLEM

Carrier of the Economy. https://vimeo.com/487281431

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Brian Kaufman’s Detroit Free Press story Carrier of the Economy presents a micro-view of the economic crisis through the eyes, experiences, and observations of a postal delivery worker. Te postman says he is witness to the downturn in the economy via the types of mail people receive: bank notices, advertisements for legal services, and certifed letters. Tis story, which has an ordinary person as its main character,

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

is enlivened by compelling videography: clever camera angles, unusual shots, quick-cut editing, and smooth transitions. Te problem with many stories about broad issues—be they the failing economy or the rising homicide rate—is that a large audience may fnd them dull. Many members of the mass-market audience rarely get beyond the big picture news value of a story. Te videojournalist’s challenge is to stimulate the public by infusing the work not only with the human side of the crisis but with clever videography as well.

One morning in his own newspaper, Will Yurman, a staf photographer at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, read a brief 102-word story about one of about 50 homicides in his city. Te story contained the barest of facts. A man was found dead at 7 a.m. Tere were no suspects. A few days later, Yurman was assigned to cover the memorial for the slain man. He got to the vigil early, and the man’s sister was there outside the house.  He started talking to her and naïvely said, “I’m shocked at how little we wrote about your brother.”  She said, “I’m not surprised. No one cares about a black man from Jamaica.” Yurman says she didn’t say it angrily and wasn’t blaming him, or the paper, but was rather saying sort of, “Te grass is green, the sky is blue, and no one cares about a dead Jamaican man.”  Te videographer couldn’t let go of what she told him. He drove back thinking, “We should care.” Te facts are that Rochester has a hefty homicide rate. Te city averaged 50 per year. Yurman conceived the idea to highlight who these homicide victims were. He didn’t want it to be about the crimes, but rather about who they were as people and the efects their deaths had on the family and friends who survived them. For one year, every time there was a homicide, Yurman reached out to the victim’s family. He often went to funerals and vigils. Only four or fve families politely declined to participate. Te majority were totally open to the idea of participating in the project. Yurman’s story answers the question about why you should care about the homicide

statistics of Rochester, New York. After seeing the story, when you hear the numbers and statistics, you cannot help but care. Te numbers are hard enough to wrap your head and heart around. But Yurman found a way to show the humanity behind the numbers.

Not Forgotten. https://www.willyurman.com/ stories/not-forgotten/

THE NATURAL NARRATIVE OF COMPETITIONS  Why the interest in sports and competition as media entertainment? It has a mix of suspense, heroes, villains, pageantry, and ritual. All of which make for built-in story arcs that usually have a protagonist and a natural timeline from start to the fnish. In this respect, it is relatively easy to fnd the narrative because the confict is so obvious. Te challenge in the game and confict is inherent in the competition. Te outcome is unknown until the winner and loser emerge. David Stephenson’s story Cutting through the Competition follows a tobacco-cutting competition that pits two experienced tobacco farmers against each other in a unique race. Te story builds with edgy tension as the two farmers, shirtless in blazing summer sun, each work madly to cut his respective tobacco rows more quickly than the other. Te tobacco-cutting contest was perfect for a narrative video story, Stephenson says. He points out that there is a beginning, middle, and end already spelled out. Tere is obvious confict and resolution. He found a character that added grist to the whole story because of a sympathetic twist—if the farmer Alvin won, his winnings would help pay fees for a child he hoped to adopt. “Really, it was a no-brainer in terms of having a competition and character,” Stephenson says. “We almost couldn’t go wrong.” 

 Cutting through the Competition.

Cutting through the Competition. https://vimeo.com/6835871

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South High: Fighting against the Odds. https://vimeo.com/52583059

Many times, sports and competition stories will have a second storyline within the obvious narrative. For example, Stephenson’s weaves into the tobacco-cutting contest facts about the history of tobacco farming and the decrease in small tobacco farms in Kentucky. “If you can add a subplot to the story,” Stephenson says, “all the better.” Obviously, competitions don’t have to feature only traditional sports. In fact, the more unconventional the competition, the more likely it is to draw in viewers. Tere are TV programs and, in fact, whole TV channels devoted to covering alternative competitions: hot dog eating contests, lumberjack events, and strongman competitions are fast gaining audience attention.

Sports Has a Built-In Story Arc  On the surface South High: Fighting against the Odds was produced by McKenna Ewen, now a CNN producer. Te documentary follows during one season an undermanned losing football team consisting of students from a poor, primarily minority, large city high school.  Most sports stories depend on the competition between teams or between players to build their story to a climax. Tis story does not hinge on the team hoping to win. Tat’s good because they lost 42 to 0 in their seasonal opener. Instead, the documentary attempts to explain the psychology of the players and their coaches including last year’s quarterback who is academically ineligible to start the season. Trough overheard conversations, like the moment the coach tells the quarterback his  Playing Piano with a MindControlled Robotic Arm. Playing piano with a mindcontrolled robotic arm turns what could have been a dull engineering story into a human-interest tale by documenting how one man is learning to control his artifcial arm with his brain.

Playing Piano with a MindControlled Robotic Arm. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DP677lA_DEA&t=3s

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grades are too low to play, the viewer comes to understand what football means to these young high schoolers beyond their win or loss.  Ewen had exceptional access to the coach. He photographed over a three-month period going back to the school several times a week. Below the surface, the story is about kids who want to play the game, even for a rotten team. To complicate matters further, some students can’t achieve the grades necessary to meet the minimum requirements even to participate for a hopeless cause.  Te documentary follows the life of the team from frst practice to the fnal game of the season. Te opening of the documentary uses quick visual cuts timed with the music to build up the excitement. Te piece continues without any voice-over from a narrator or correspondent. Te story is constructed from natural dialogue recorded using wireless mics on the key subjects including the coach and the failing quarterback. Ewen went into the story open-minded. He didn’t know where the story was going to go. What he thought would be the climax of the story was very diferent than when he began. “Te team turned out to be neither the best nor the worst ... just average,” said Ewen. While most sports stories end with a winner or loser, South High: Fighting against the Odds brings the story to a climax with the team achieving a goal that was not obvious from the beginning of the documentary. Te team, for the frst time in the history of the school, got to play a Friday-night game under the stadium’s new lights. And, by the way, they even won the game.

SCIENCE CAN SIZZLE Jacob Templin is the former executive producer at Quartz and senior producer at Time. He says video stories about science and technology attracted a large audience to both Time and Quartz magazine’s websites. “Tat was our bread and butter,” he says. His story, Playing Piano with a Mind-Controlled Robotic Arm, told the story of of a man who had lost his arm but could play the piano with a robotic hand controlled by his brain was an example of just such a story. Tis fve-minute video received a third of a million views.  Eric Olsen, formerly a videographer with the New York Times, says science is a very “video-friendly” topic and it’s also evergreen. He means the interest in the story will last. Te best political gab show in the world will be old in a week. Science stories, two years after they are produced, will still resonate with people. Over time the short documentary on a science topic can build up an audience. Zacchaio Tiels, afectionately known as “Z,” sufers from severe epilepsy. Te seizures are unpredictable and every one of them is damaging his young brain.  Doctors recommend a possible cure. Tey want to remove a third of Z’s brain. Tere are no guarantees the surgery will work or that Zacchaio will survive the operation.  Te operation is irreversible. Even with the operation, the outcome is not guaranteed to be successful at stopping the seizures. Te operation could limit the boy’s ability to walk or talk. Alternatively, the parents can watch their son continue to have epileptic seizures with possible loss of intelligence and other unknown future consequences. So one part of the story is the parent’s agonizing decision. Te second part is the recovery of the child after surgery. What will the rest of his life be like? Te story of Z’s Brain has obvious dramatic potential. Te parents must gamble with their son’s unknowable future. Te child might die on the operating-room table, continue to have seizures after the surgery, lose motor control and IQ. Alternatively, the child could start to live a comparatively normal life. Neither the doctor, the parents, nor the viewer know the outcome. Viewers will remain drawn to the story to fnd out the eventual outcome.

 Life with Half a Brain. When drugs don’t work, parents turn to extensive surgery. Doctors removed more than a third of the child’s brain to stop his epileptic seizures. (Photo by Alexis Kollias Thiele)

Life with Half a Brain trailer. https://vimeo.com/712665142

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 The Big Exit. The Big Exit captures the emotional story of the last elephants to appear in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Of course, almost anything elephants do is fascinating but seeing them perform for the last time is special.

The Big Exit. https://vimeo.com/205832109

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Animals Deserve a Story Too Animal stories could be a video category by itself. No, I don’t mean cats doing backfips of the kitchen counter or dogs running after their tails. Take McKenna Ewen’s story for the Washington Post about the last elephants to appear in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Te documentary Te Big Exit gives the history of the elephant in the circus as well as the controversy over treatment of circus animals and, fnally, the reaction of the performers and crowd to the loss of these circus stalwarts. In

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

their fnal year, the elephants traveled 16,000 miles and took the stage in 400 shows. For the fans and performers this last show, documented by Ewen, will be a bittersweet goodbye, knowing the circus will never be the same. While the story is about ending the use of performing animals in a show, the story is also about perhaps the fnal curtain on the traveling circus itself. Te short flm not only documents the last elephant parade but goes with the elephants to their new retirement home at the Center for Elephant Conservation in Laos. 

Leaving Them Laughing Videojournalism is built for humor. Tink of the times your friends have sent you a video on YouTube that caused you to laugh until your sides hurt. In fact, you laughed so hard you couldn’t resist forwarding it to a dozen other people. Kyle Green of the Roanoke Times produced a story titled Dooty Diva on a woman who runs a dog poop collection business. Green’s questions led to some funny answers. Te subject tells Green, “I don’t charge more for small dogs than I do for large dogs because it actually is harder

to fnd small dogs’ poo than large dogs’. Here you are searching around the yard hoping you won’t step in it, but that is the way you fnd it. Large dogs, you can’t miss it.” Te answer to another question produced this insightful response. “I am one of the few people in town … that can come home and say, ‘You can’t believe the crap I put up with today,’” followed by this observation on life: “Tere are only so many hours in the day. How many do you want to spend picking up dog’s poop?” 

 Dooty Diva. Katie Halsted has created a business called “The Dooty Diva.” Job description? “Professional pooper scooper.” Katie’s business involves traveling to customers’ homes and removing, well, dog poop. It is stories like Katie’s where inherent humor grabs and holds the attention of an audience, shocking them with witty lines and satirical comments.

Dooty Diva. https://vimeo.com/131008700

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Circus Nuns: These Sisters Are No Act. https://vimeo.com/133799348

THE ODD AMIDST THE ORDINARY

LOVE NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE

Amidst the plethora of news stories online, our audiences are always looking for something to catch their attention. Many times, it can be the slightly oddball or diferent slant on a subject that does the trick.  McKenna Ewen, who shot for the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) and then Washington Post and now with CNN, found a story that is out of the ordinary. His story Circus Nuns: Tese Sisters Are No Act opens with a time-lapse sequence of the riggers raising the circus tent. Ten, Ewen gives a brief review of the diferent circus acts. Next he introduces the audience to Sister Dorothy Fabritze, 67, who has traveled with the circus for 16 years, providing guidance and support to employees and their families. On the circuit traveled by the circus, Sister Fabritze was joined by Sister Mary Seibert. Te new religious arrival was assigned the tricky task of grooming the circus’ llama. Te llama, who Seibert refers to as “the Dalai Llama,” loves the sister and she loves the llama. Just about anything nuns do, outside of praying and sleeping, triggers public curiosity. But when you combine a nun, a circus, and a llama you have the makings of an engaging short documentary. 

People want to feel empathy for others. Boyd Huppert, of KARE 11 in Minneapolis, says some managers at his TV station think people don’t want to see sad stories. He doesn’t buy into that. He notes that people want to feel happiness. Tey want to feel sadness. Tey want to feel anger. “A good story should engage them in some way so that they can feel something.” For a story that touches the viewer’s emotions, Huppert cites his story essay, Neighborhood of Love, on six couples who live on the same block and all were married more than 50 years. In the interview with each couple, they reminisce about how they fell in love with one another.  Two days before the shoot Huppert said, “We need a focus.” Jonathan Malat, the videographer, replied, “I’ll bring the couch into the studio and we’ll light it up.” Hubbert retorted, “Tat’s a terrible idea, Jonathan, because if we bring them into the studio, we’re taking them out of the neighborhood. Anything that was special about it isn’t special when they leave the neighborhood.” 

 Neighborhood of Love.  In this story about a neighborhood with six couples that have been married from more than 50 years, the producer and videographer used a couch as a repetitive visual element. They had each couple sit on the couch and tell their story.

Neighborhood of Love. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4-AbvmOHi8s&t=3s

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So, the videographer replied, “Well, what if we take the little love-seat couch to them?” “Perfect,” said Hubbert Each of the couples sat on the same love seat for the interview in front of their own house. Te love seat served as a visual thread to hold the stories together. Each duo held up a picture from their wedding and talked about the secret to the longevity of their marriages. Tey talked about their love for one another for over 50 years. Te memories plucked a cord in most viewers’ emotional heart strings.  Hubbert noted they needed a closer for the story. Te reporter knew that the fnal shot had to involve a love seat. He found a for-sale sign up in front of a house on the street. Hubbert proposed that they just leave the love-seat couch in front of the house and walk away ... which they did. Tey shot themselves setting the couch down in front of the house. Ten they walked away with the camera rolling. Hubbert wrote this line for the voice-over to ft the shot. “Feel free to sit for a while, maybe 50 years.” In the fnal shot the velvet red love seat sat empty in front of the house with a for-sale sign as the soundtrack played the forlorn horn of a train passing by. 

CHOOSING THOMAS Facing death can be hardest for a family expecting new life. Perinatal hospice ofers choices and resources for parents when an infant’s death is imminent. Twenty weeks into their frst pregnancy, Deidra and T.K. Laux found out their son had trisomy 13—a rare DNA abnormality. Children with trisomy 13 usually live only hours or days if they survive birth at all. Te couple has to visit a mortuary before their child is even born. (Sonya N. Hebert/Te Dallas Morning News)

TURNING DYING INTO A STORY Stories of death are almost always dramatic, and audiences are naturally drawn to them, especially when produced thoughtfully and tastefully. Because death, like birth, is one of the universal experiences for all people, audiences are curious to learn about others’ experiences with death and dying. Sonya Hebert’s series for the Dallas Morning News including, Penni Bouque: Living Fully until the End, follows families and health-care professionals as they learn to use palliative care to help those who are dying.  “When I frst got the assignment, I thought, ‘Who cares, everyone dies,’ but after some research I realized, wow, this story has potential to be really powerful because everyone experiences it and everyone hurts from it,” Hebert says.  Hebert indeed met the challenge by fnding universal themes like love, hope, and despair that were present in the stories. Rather than focus on the specifc experiences of each family, she uses the experiences to focus more on the universal themes with which her audience can best connect. Hebert says good literature works partly because you can relate to the characters. You think, “Wow, I can imagine that happening to me.” You walk in the characters’ shoes, and feel their profound emotion. Finding universal themes in any story you’re pursuing is crucial. If you want to appeal to a large audience, always seek to connect viewers with your characters’ real experience. Temes of this type invite people to become immersed in your narrative story.

 Choosing Thomas.

Choosing Thomas—Inside a Family’s Decision to Let Their Son Live, If Only for a Brief Time. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ToNWquoXqJI

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MATCHING THE STORY WITH THE POTENTIAL AUDIENCE Consume by Date ... Once a topic has had a short run in the public’s consciousness, audiences are likely to move on to newer and juicier items. Documentaries based on current events or immediate controversies may not have the longevity needed for distribution. “Shelf-life is not just for bakery items,” says Anne Herbst of Channel 9 Denver. In the time it takes to produce the documentary, the topic may fade from the world’s media radar, and unless you can build the flm around more universal ideas, you will be left with an interesting but orphan program. An interview shot yesterday could be outdated before the end of the week. Te corruption angle in local government may disappear when the main antagonist abruptly resigns and fees to live in a diferent country. Shelf-life is a particular problem for independent documentary producers trying to make a living, says Herbst.

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Topic Too Local or Too Broad  When selecting a topic for a video you might consider its geographic appeal. Some topics have a narrow range, only relating to a particular neighborhood, city, or region. Other might be directed at a select audience familiar with certain types of music, particular scientifc theories, or ecological questions. Since it takes time, money and lots of work to shoot and edit even a short documentary, producers need to step back and determine if their story has a universal theme that will reach a wider audience. Ten again, it’s quite possible that the idea’s scope is too global, says Herbst of Channel 9 Denver. “Suppose the plan is for an ‘issues’ documentary on the elimination of malaria as a worldwide disease. Te program might show exciting eforts now underway in a number of countries on two continents. But an idea of this scale demands an experienced producer with a staf and a substantial budget for research, travel, and production. For an independent oneman-band producer, that might be production suicide.”

DOCUMENTARY THEMES— WHERE DOES YOUR STORY FIT? 1.

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The Journey (Hidden City) documentary  takes the audience to a place or introduces them to a culture they would never encounter. This usually demands a looser vérité style, careful cultural/ethnographic sensibilities, and a skilled artistic crew who can endure exhausting location shoots and travel. A producer would need up-front funding for travel and location costs and be adept at improvising with newly discovered characters and visual sequences encountered at the location. Unless the travel costs are low, this type of documentary is solely the realm of experienced producer/directors. The Process documentary follows a singular project from beginning to end, such as the building of a massive bridge or setting up a regional music festival or health-care program. It may be less time-consuming than the Journey but still needs extensive location work. An oncamera host would make it more complex. The Biography documentary  explores the life and works of a single contemporary or historical personality or group. It may involve some location sequences but will rely heavily on testimonial interviews with colleagues or family, archival research, recreation docudrama, or possibly foreign shoots. A novice producer will receive memorable lessons from demanding managers, fearful family, and archival owners who want to drive difcult bargains for the rights and editorial control. The Current Events or Issue documentary makes a rhetorical argument or a deductive journalistic investigation into contemporary topics or concerns. This will demand extensive research, an elaborate interview schedule, and an exhausting and sometimes dangerous efort to gather sequence visuals. There will be ethical and social concerns to discuss. Travel and location costs will be expensive, and quickly changing current events might suddenly erase months of efort. The Event documentary is based on the coverage of a signifcant meeting, concert, convention, or gathering that happens within a short time period. This requires complex planning for an intensive, multiple-camera/large-crew shoot. It’s an all-or-nothing feld production exercise. The Historical compilation looks at past events or issues. The producer creates a story without rich contemporary sequences, but must undertake a challenging and expensive efort to collect every signifcant historical visual scrap in whatever form it exists. Archival research can be grueling and legally bafing. As with the Biography and Issue documentary, it requires ongoing creativity.  The Natural History documentary expands the viewer’s knowledge about science or the environment. It requires a signifcant up-front budget, extensive travel and location costs, prescripting, and a long-term crew commitment during flming. Hosts are often brought in as a storytelling device and to add credibility.

While there are stories all around you, fnding a tale that works visually, has a central character, and you can gain access with your camera can be challenging.  Documentary Filmmaking: A Contemporary Field Guide (2nd Edition) by John Hewitt and Gustavo Vazquez (Oxford University Press, 2013)

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 Lucy Nicholson, working on a story about the Naked Cowboy, who sings in Times Square in his underwear. The Cowboy’s backstory turned out even more interesting. (For more details on the Naked Cowboy story see Chapter 15 “Editing the Video”) (Photo by Jassim Ahmad)

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CHAPTER

4

Finding a Story Josh Meltzer,  Rochester Institute of Technology Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University

N

ow that you’ve learned what makes great storytelling, how do you actually go about fnding possible stories and evaluating their potential for

your video and multimedia journalism projects? Sometimes a story comes from the videojournalist’s own expe-

rience. Sometimes it comes from talking with other people. Story leads can grow out of news assignments. Following are some possible sources for story ideas.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-4

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WHERE TO DISCOVER STORY IDEAS Stories are all around you, but how do you get started? Watch for trends that might include shifts in the public’s buying preferences, changes in lifestyles, or a technology revolution in an industry. For example, a news story about a new smart phone might result in a trend story that looks at all the ways smart phones have changed how people communicate.

Follow the News Te day after a Cheney High School student died in a two-vehicle collision, mourners gather for a candlelight vigil near the scene of the accident. Watch Vigil for Teen Crash Victim. Te short news brief caught the eye of multimedia producer at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, Colin Mulvany. “Having worked at the same newspaper for 22 years, I feel pretty connected to my community,” says Mulvany, long-time videographer for the Spokesman-Review. “I know what is happening in my town. I know what people are talking about and this helps lead me to good stories. “Many times at my newspaper, word editors would pitch stories about major community

 Candlelight Vigil for Teen Crash Victim.  A videojournalist has to stay current. The day after a Cheney High School student died in a two-vehicle collision, mourners gathered for a candlelight vigil near the scene of the accident. There was something about the short news brief on his paper’s website that caught the producer’s eye.

Vigil for Teen Crash Victim. https://vimeo.com/485747773

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events. My approach is to think less about an event and more about the people at the event. Personalizing a big, sprawling story with compelling characters will make your video stories come alive.” If you are on working as a staf photographer for a website you can consult their list of upcoming stories to see if any of them lend themselves to a multimedia/video treatment. “Nearly all global stories have local impact,” says Mulvany, whose work has been nominated for an Emmy. Mulvany points out that nearly every small town has a soldier in the foreign wars. Every rural county has families with unemployed parents due to the struggling economy. Mulvany advises fnding time every day to read and listen to news and information. Check out: • • • • • •

Wall Street Journal New York Times National Public Radio (NPR) Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Local and network television Local newspaper websites

Craigslist, Classifed Ads, and Social Media Today, online classifeds like Craigslist and social media outlets like TikTok are exploding in popularity. We all know by now that social media is a handy tool for keeping up with friends and family, but that’s not its only use. It also allows us to stay abreast of what’s going on locally. Make use of your connections to people who are more in the know than you are. Participate in discussions. Check out those sites daily and maintain your connections by interacting. Social media sites make excellent sources for story ideas and subjects. You may fnd that an acquaintance is aware of a strawberry festival or a baton-twirling contest, a beauty pageant, or an important political gathering going on in your town. If you’re always at the ready, you can quickly run out and cover it. Use tools like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter to stay in touch. Tey might lead you to some unexpectedly terrifc stories. Craigslist, the Internet’s global classifed website, can be a gold mine of story ideas. ”Missed Connections” was a section of the Los Angeles Times where people want to actually meet up with someone they barely encountered. In this section of the site, people describe a situation about how they almost met someone they had encountered. But, for a variety of reasons, they didn’t get the opportunity to actually meet that person. Te stories about these missed opportunities—called ICU, as in “I See You”— feature love, lust, loss, and intrigue, and span the emotional spectrum from heartfelt to hilarious. Te Los Angeles Times produced an entire series of stories titled Los Angeles Connections, that were found in the “Missed Connections” section of Craigslist. Videojournalist Katy Newton, the project’s producer, came up with the idea. “I had a friend who was going to Trader Joe’s for weeks at the same time hoping to see a guy again whom she hoped might be the perfect match for her, based on the vegetables he was choosing,” Newton explains. “I had never heard of Craigslist’s “Missed Connections,” but when I checked it out the next day, my frst reaction was that many listings in that section of Craigslist are real human interest stories. Tey contain drama, and they’re all set up with engaging characters who have a pressing need they feel must be fulflled.”

Te fact that all of these stories had built-in compelling narratives was just what Newton was looking for to apply to a regularly running series of online video stories. After Newton came up with the idea and made a successful pitch to her editors, she began the process of weeding through hundreds of ads a week, getting up early each day to read the posts on “Missed Connections.” “Just by the way they wrote the ad,” Newton says, “I could tell which ones would be good storytellers, and so I would email about a dozen people a day and hear back from a couple and narrow my choice down from there after talking on the phone. “Tese narratives that unfold from ‘Missed Connections’ have perfect built-in arcs,” says Newton. For example, one of Newton’s stories is about a woman who hits a guy on a bike with her car. First, she sets up a normal day. A woman is driving in to get gas and then—wham!—she hits something or someone with her car. Tis moment creates speculation in the audience’s mind. What or whom did she hit? Ten, she inserts an amusing comment. Te audience is taken quite by surprise when the woman says, “I thought I might have hit a baby.” Ten the truth is revealed. Te driver has hit a man on a bike. One might expect the man to be angry or sustain a severe injury. Te two characters might end up hating one another. Instead, Newton explains, the story has a twist. Te guy isn’t angry with the woman. Instead, he is worried about her. Tis comes as a welcome shock—not only to the woman, but also to the viewer. In a happy instant, the perpetrator, the woman, has found the type of guy she has been looking for—someone who values the welfare of others before his own. Who wouldn’t want to meet someone like that? Of course, the resolution of the story isn’t that the couple lives happily ever after but that the main character fnds the type of man she has been dreaming of meeting. Te quirky part is that he disappears. Now, the young woman is left to wonder. She has no idea how to contact this man of her dreams again. Hence the original reason for her posting on Craigslist’s “Missed Connections.”

Los Angeles Connections. https://vimeo.com/ user13472272

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So the story is set up with a need; there is a twist; the need is satisfed; and a problem is resolved. Te story, however, never tells the reader if the woman driving the car ever sees again the “hot guy” she hit on the bike. Newton explains that though each of the 52 stories produced in ICU that year were on diferent subjects, they all more or less followed this same arc. Looking back, Newton says the series was a success. Her audience wrote in frequently with positive feedback. Obviously, the success of this series of stories was due to the fact that all people inherently want to connect and fnd love. Looking for love is a universal theme. So we can all empathize with the subjects’ personal tales of missed connections.

Research on the Internet Aside from Craigslist, make sure to check out blogs and websites on any and all topics you can think of. At this writing, there are over 600 million blogs, 6 million blog postings a day, 2.9 billion Facebook users, and 1.7 billion websites on the Internet with 252,000 new websites created every day. A check on Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo, or any other search engine about any subject that comes to mind will surely bring up a healthy list of story possibilities. You can research a topic internationally, nationally, or right in your own backyard. Learn from the experts how to hone in on your topics with more efcient searches. Often you can even check facts for your story with a web search. Or you might be able to fnd contacts and potential subjects to interview that way. Te Cision Survey, which tracks how, when, and where written and visuals stories appear, found 89 percent of journalists turn to blogs for story research, 65 percent go to social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, 61 percent use Wikipedia, and 52 percent go to microblogging services such as Twitter.

Bulletin Boards—Real or Virtual Locating usable stories requires constant observation. Never walk past a bulletin board or utility pole covered in fyers again without at least scanning the notices. Tere is probably at least one story on every utility pole. Pick up neighborhood fyers and subscribe to email lists from clubs and organizations to fnd out what’s going on. Often you can translate a group’s activity into a lead for a genuinely compelling story.

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Nextdoor Te Internet equivalent to the bulletin board fyer is the app Nextdoor. You can fnd out lots of things about what is happening in your area code by subscribing to Nextdoor. Members post notes about garages entered illegally, bikes stolen, or new stores opening on Main Street. Tey also describe a local home-made soap company and a beloved cupcake service. Reviewing all the routine posts you can get a sense of what is happening in your neck of the woods. In fact, Nextdoor now serves 285,000 neighborhoods globally and nearly one in three U.S. households. Sometimes you will pick up on a post that leads to a story. One post complimented a woman for distributing day-old bagels to the homeless in her neighborhood. Tis led to a short story that told how the woman not only delivered the bagels but asked each person the type of bagel they would like and if they would like skimmed or regular milk to go with it. Tis simple story revealed the kindness the woman showed for those living on the street and often ignored by others.

Leads from Public Radio International (PRI) and National Public Radio (NPR) In Tis American Life’s Going Down in History video story for Public Radio International’s (PRI’s) website, Ira Glass and his visual reporting team attend a high school portrait day to talk about how a single image taken that day for the yearbook—a photo which really doesn’t represent much of anything about you—is the image that becomes your permanent historical record. In this story, Ira Glass shows the audience dozens of high school yearbook portraits. He then selects a half a dozen students to interview about this odd situation. Many excellent examples of character-told pieces can be heard on NPR’s weekly feature StoryCorps, which is devoted to recording people’s life stories. Te group uses a radio booth housed in an Airstream trailer that travels around the country and invites volunteers to interview a friend or chat with a relative or simply to recount a personal story. For more well-produced stories on radio, check out Tis American Life and Radiolab.

Reading and List-Making Pay-Of Erik Olsen, former videographer for the New York Times and Quartz, reads everything … from the New York Times to little specialized publications. He uses a bookmarking system, Instapaper, where he takes notes and saves a site or an article. “I bet you my list of links, story ideas, and characters is probably 75 pages long,” Olsen says. Olsen noticed an article about trees. In the ffth paragraph down it mentions a man who is studying Giant Sequoias and he has had to learn how to climb them as a scientist so that he can go up to the top. “It was just a paragraph in this bigger story about how global warming is afecting trees,” says Olsen. Olsen asked himself. “‘Who’s that character?’ I need the name and

contacts for the guy who just taught himself how to climb the biggest tree in the world”. Now Olsen has a global warming story, but it’s not just a huge, big picture report. Olsen can tell the story through the eyes of one man. He added the tree climbing scientist to his 75-page list of potential stories to work on. “I go back sometimes to look at the list and say now’s the time for this or that story.” Sometimes the person was busy when he contacted the person the frst time and now they’re free. Watch Climbing Sequoia Trees for Climate Change. Perhaps they’re not climbing trees now, but they will next year. So he makes a note on the growing list as a reminder to give the person a call in 12 months.

 Climbing Sequoia Trees for Climate Change. Climbing Sequoia Trees for Climate Change Erik Olsen followed up on a brief mention of a man who was studying Giant Sequoias to tell the bigger story about global warming. Following up on this lead gave Olsen a character for his story.

Climbing Sequoia Trees for Climate Change. https://erikolsen.com/ video-stories-2/2016/9/2/ climbing-sequoia-trees-forclimate-change

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 Uncovering a Buried Movie Sphinx in California. For the story, the producer/videographer Olsen saw a reference to the buried movie set but had to wait six months before the archaeologist started the big dig to uncover the remains.

Uncovering a Buried Movie Sphinx in California. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=66oHFRyuk_0

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Olsen did a story about Cecil B. DeMille, who built a set for the Te Ten Commandments in 1923 on the dunes of California’s central coast. He read about it in Sunset magazine. It was a one-column item. It said Cecil B. DeMille had built this set and it was buried. Cecil B. DeMille was the legendary producer/director who flmed movies on an extravagant scale. His over-the-top movies included King of Kings, Te Sign of the Cross, Cleopatra, Samson and Delilah, Te Greatest Show on Earth, and Te Ten Commandments. To flm Te Ten Commandants, DeMille built one of the largest movie sets ever constructed. And then when DeMille fnished flming, he had the set buried. No one knows quite why, for sure. Olsen read a story about DeMille and the buried Ten Commandments set and then he added that link to his 75-page list of story ideas. Later Olsen found out that there was an archaeologist who was going to go and try to dig around to fnd some of the artifacts from the original movie set. So he called the scientist. Te archaeologist said, “Yeah, I’m trying to raise the funds. And, you know, it’s not going to happen in the next year.” Olsen replied, “Just please keep me in mind.” Olsen checked back with the researcher in six months. He checked back in a year.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Ten a year and a half later the archaeologist said, “I’ve got the money and we’re going to go out and excavate this site to fnd the two huge sphinxes that were buried in the sand.” Te archaeologist invited Olsen to the site. He was the only videographer there to document the removal and the excavation of this sphinx. After that story titled Uncovering a Buried Movie Sphinx in California, ran on the Quartz website, “every single news organization on the planet followed on the story,” said Olsen proudly. NBC News, which did report the excavation, didn’t have any of the actual footage as the archaeologists discovered the buried sphinx in California. Te buried sphinx story came about entirely because Olsen stayed in touch with the archaeologist and then fnally was able to shoot the actual dig in real time.

Keeping a Journal Olsen, former video producer for the New York Times and Quartz, always carries with him very specifc notebooks called “Field Notes.” “I’ve got hundreds of them.” Tey are 48-page memo books sold by Duluth Trading Company. He only uses the “Universal” micro-Dina ball black. “It’s a little old school,” Olsen quips. Olsen takes notes, records inspirations and thoughts, and makes sketches and plans for

future and ongoing projects. First, he does his equipment list. Sometimes it includes lighter equipment. Sometimes heavier gear. He also jots down notes about his stories. He has his list of characters and questions for each of them. He does outlines for the stories starting with, “What are the ideas here? Who are the people who are going to be articulating these ideas? How will I tell the idea through video?” He does storyboards for each potential scene, and he always has an opening shot and a closing shot sketched out in his notebook. Many great inventors like Edison and artists like Picasso kept journals. Tey took notes, wrote down quick thoughts, made sketches, and put down story ideas. Since a journal exists only for the writer, these creative types did not necessarily feel required to write Shakespearean prose in their journals. Tey merely captured feeting thoughts to recall those ideas later when they were needed. Today you can write your ideas in a special notebook, type them in your smart phone, or just dictate them to a memo app on that phone. Te primary factor in journaling is to never leave home without a convenient place to store your thoughts. Ten, whenever you are stuck for a story idea, reach for your journal to review your list of ideas. Whether you are staying “old school” like Olsen and his feld notes or new school with the latest smart phone, you might fnd that you have already come up with the idea you were searching for because you had written it down or recorded it on your phone. While you might think you won’t forget any

patentable inventions or copyrightable ideas, you will fnd that a comment in your feld notebook with your favorite ballpoint pen can prove invaluable.

Try Crossing the Tracks To hunt down the best stories, do one thing every day that makes you a little uncomfortable. Go to unfamiliar neighborhoods and attend meetings of groups that are completely new to you. When you go, hand out business cards. Sit down and chat with the folks present. Ask people: • • • • • •

What’s been going on in their lives and communities? What is important to them now? Who or what would make for an interesting story? What stories are the news media not covering in their lives? What are the local controversies? Who are the characters in the community? Te standouts? Te misfts? Te community leaders?

“A Sunday morning without assignments led me to a small Baptist church that I had never been to,” recalls John Meltzer, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology who formerly worked for the Roanoke Times. While there, Meltzer photographed a middle-aged woman who cared for a handful of elderly women during the service. Watch Age of Uncertainty – Tommy and Linda Full Story. “Some of those women

 Age of Uncertainty. Sylvia Coleman lifts a cup of wine to help Hattie Brown take communion. The photographer suggested a feature story on this woman who assists her fellow church members. But a colleague encouraged him to think more broadly about what this lady did—caring for elderly people in general.

Age of Uncertainty – Tommy and Linda Full Story. https://vimeo.com/4061545

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 A Thousand Little Cuts.  In one of the more extreme acts of civil disobedience on Kayford Mountain, an activist poses as a crucifed Jesus on the edge of the Arch Coal mountaintop removal coal mine. The videographer, Emmynominated Chad Stevens, worked on the project for seven years.

were widows, others had husbands with duties at the front of the church, and so the women had to sit alone.” Meltzer met Sylvia Coleman, who helped the older women turn to the correct pages in the Bible. She told them when to stand and sit and when to drink their communion wine. Many of the elderly women sufered from Alzheimer’s or dementia. Te next week, while chatting with colleague Beth Macy, Meltzer suggested a feature story on the woman who helps her fellow church

Four Stories on Healthcare. https://www.wbur.org/ news/2009/12/11/121158190

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members. Macy encouraged him to think more broadly about what this lady did, about caring for the elderly. With a few weeks of brainstorming with their editors and experts on aging, they developed a plan for a nine-part series, titled Four Stories on Healthcare, on people who voluntarily care for the elderly. “Te news peg was that our community in western Virginia was experiencing huge growth in its elderly population. Tis new demographic raised the question: ‘Who will care for this rapidly growing population?’”

Localize and Personalize Large Issues of the Day Tink of the biggest stories in the news going on right now. Tey might be playing out in Washington, D.C. or Ukraine, and appearing on national news. But no matter where they are occurring, chances are they are afecting people who live in your community or town. Te health-care reform debate flled the national news for endless weeks. Most of the video reports on television focused on town hall meetings and congressional debates, both important events related to the issue. Robert Krulwich, science correspondent for NPR, produced a series of video stories called Four Stories on Healthcare for National Public Radio Online. Te series put faces on the news and presented four unique diferent viewpoints and situations of real Americans who will be afected by healthcare reform. In one story, a locksmith reveals that he has never needed health insurance and doesn’t want it. In another story, a man is thankful that he had insurance after a near-death accident at his home. Tese unique stories of diferent individuals do keep the audience centered on the large issues of health care and insurance. But they go further by presenting personal stories that help the audience to better identify with the broader issues. Furthermore, because the audience experiences these stories through single characters, there is a better chance viewers will be engaged and the stories absorbed in their entirety.

Long-Term Projects In 2003, Chad Stevens frst learned of a mining process called mountaintop removal, in which coal companies blast the tops of mountains to extract coal without having to mine underground.

“I had grown up in Kentucky and had never heard of the practice,” Stevens says, “but when we went to see it frsthand, I was changed forever.” Stevens had read a book called Lost Mountain. Tat book became the source for his master’s thesis at Ohio University. “Te genesis of the project was to do a visual version of this book with still images only,” Stevens says, “which would symbolize the transition of a mountain through this drastic process.” Tat initial spark has now spanned into a seven-year (and counting) project that evolved into a flm project titled A Tousand Little Cuts, that Stevens continues to shoot to this day. “Without foreseeing or even trying, I became the go-to person for mountaintop removal footage. I’ve licensed blast footage to Al Jazeera, the BBC, and most recently Spike Lee’s flm If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise. Tough Stevens considers that the risk of taking on a long-term project is personally and fnancially daunting, he strongly feels that “there is something in the universe that helps us when we risk. Risk is usually rewarded in one way or another.” Some of the most important and infuential documentary projects have emerged from personal interests. Tese kinds of projects are neither easy nor cheap. But if you can fnd a steady support network for both fnancial sponsorship and editing assistance, you can pursue issues that are important to you. Your conviction and enthusiasm for your own personal subjects will often be refected in a highly successful result. Take your eyes of your smart phone for a second. Stories can be lurking in the environment through which you move every day. Stay awake and alert at all times in order to be ready for them.

A Thousand Little Cuts. https://vimeo.com/10612056

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 Common Ground. Scott Strazzante photographed life on a farm and then came back over the next 27 years to record how the farm turned into suburban housing. He groups his pictures as pairs to bring out the contrast between the original farm and the modern development.

Common Ground. https://www.cbsnews.com/ news/scott-strazzante-onfnding-common-ground/

 Common Ground. The picture of the cow in winter and the drawn picture of a cow on a cup helps highlight the changes that have taken place since the project started.

Scott Strazzante, a photojournalist at the San Francisco Chronicle, says his antennae are always up. “I fnd that while I’m shooting routine assignments, I’m simultaneously listening to people talking. I’m reading blurbs that are in every little neighborhood publication, forever fshing for ideas. In simple stories that my newspaper thinks are just a brief, I might fnd a great narrative angle to make a powerful audio slideshow. I never discount even a passing idea.”

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For example, when Strazzante was working for the Daily Southtown, a suburban Chicago newspaper, his editor assigned him to a story about local farms. Strazzante photographed Harlow and Jean Cagwin as part of a story on people who raised animals in the township, a mostly rural area near Lockport, Illinois. “Tat afternoon, I spent three hours photographing the Cagwins working with their Angus beef cattle. I found it fascinating that they were

senior citizen cattle farmers with no children, working the farm by themselves. Te farm was a bit ramshackle and I felt it had a lot of visual possibilities. “And for some reason, as I was leaving the farm, being a city kid, I just kind of refexively said, ‘Hey, can I come back and visit again?’ I wound up dropping in on them on Mondays for many years as a personal project.” Strazzante photographed the couple leaving the farm and auctioning of their cattle. A subdivision developer that bought their farm actually started building the subdivision around their farm while they were still farming. “Jean and Harlow walked out of their house and Harlow goes one way, Jean goes the other. Harlow sits down on this big, felled tree that is in the front yard. Te developer just starts tearing the house down immediately. Tis shot of this old farmer, the house he had lived in for the past 80 years, being torn down behind him .... It’s the most compelling image I think I’ve ever made in my career.” Several years later Strazzante went back to the original farm land that was now a new housing development with a cul-de-sac. He took a photo of two children wrestling with the jump-rope. Te photo reminded him of a picture he had taken of Harlow wrestling with a day-old calf that had gotten loose. Strazzante thought to himself, “Tis is how I can tell the story of this land. I can have a photo from the farm and one from the subdivision and put them together as a pairing. A kind of compare and contrast of lifestyles on the same piece of land.” Te basis for the project titled Common Ground, started with a simple assignment from the editors at a small suburban newspaper. All together, Strazzante worked on the project for 27 years. In the end, starting from a photo in the paper, he produced a book, a documentary video, and a story for National Geographic. Besides giving a new defnition to the term “long-term project,” the work serves as an example of telling a story by showing a visual contrast ... in this situation a contrast between old and new. A contrast over time. In Strazzante’s documentary, he fnds similarities and diferences between how the same land was used for 80 years frst as a farm and now as a modern subdivision.

Contrast can involve something old and something new as in the farm story. It can also be used to compare all kinds of things. For example, you could photograph two twins who grow up in the same house but one becomes a priest and the other a criminal. Or compare the life of two immigrant families, one wealthy and the other poor. Constructing a story by fnding an underlying contrast often gives the tale a unifying structure. When considering your own stories, check to see if you can use this technique, but hopefully you won’t have to wait 27 years to complete your piece.

STORY-FINDING TIPS FROM REPORTER BETH MACY When the former Roanoke Times  ace reporter Beth Macy thinks she might be onto a good issue-oriented story, she often meets an expert for cofee to feel out the story and to start gathering a list of potential subjects and a plan of action. Macy, who is now a New York Times best-selling nonfction author, is always on the prowl for ideas, pulling out her calendar as she browses bulletin boards or has a conversation with a public relations representative from a relevant organization. A friendly meeting in person over cofee or tea will often yield Macy more contacts, names, and numbers for a variety of stories than she could ever hope to have gotten over the phone. “When you’re genuinely curious about the world, there isn’t a topic that, with the right amount of probing and tweaking, can’t make a great story,” Macy says. Macy’s story-fnding tips: • • • • • • • • • •

•

Be nosy. Snifng out a good story is like being paid to get a graduate degree in stuf you’re interested in. Get out of the ofce. Public relations representatives can actually be great sources, if you prod them enough. Pay attention to your own life. Do other people experience the things that are going on with you? Reserve judgment. Don’t knock down an idea before you give it a chance to mature a bit. Be alert. It’s the old boyfriend theory. The only time you fnd a boyfriend is when you’re not looking for one. Read the walls-bulletin boards, ads, and posters for upcoming events. Listen to what your friends are talking about; eavesdrop on strangers. Collaborate. Find reporters, photographers, producers, and/or editors you like to work with, can collaborate with and trust. Trust your gut. If I fnd myself talking to my husband about someone, or fnd myself ruminating about something, there just might be a story there. Read and take copious notes.

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HONESTLY EVALUATING YOUR STORY’S POTENTIAL All stories, regardless of the medium, should consider the following: strong characters, narrative tension, a take-away point to remember, strong visual impact, emotional engagement, broad appeal, narrow focus, cooperative subjects, and a reasonable deadline. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to answer these questions about your story: • • • • •

What does the story say about the human condition? Will it be a visually exciting story? Will the story have broad audience appeal? What emotions does this particular story tap into in order to engage your viewers? What will the viewer learn from this piece?

 Who Is Ida? Who Is Ida? is about a woman who helped transform her Malawian village in Africa by getting as many residents as possible to help each other. Ida’s outgoing, strong, vivacious personality helped to thread the story together.

Who Is Ida? https://vimeo.com/357296927

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Strong Characters? Strong characters in your online stories are like the friend that everyone wants to hang out with. Tey are funny, compelling, and interesting to listen to. Tey entertain us, enlighten us, and keep the focus on their story. Ida Puliwa, was born in one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi, Africa. In this country, girls often dropped out before high school, were married of in arranged marriages, and then often caught AIDS from their older husbands. Ida broke the mold. Who Is Ida? tells the story of one woman’s triumph in bringing change to her corner of Malawi, a small, land-locked country in Africa. With creative, home-grown ideas and two kids of her own, Ida has tackled problems ranging from famine during her community’s

dry season to deforestation of the countryside. Te documentary shows Ida has also helped girls continue their education. Te flm records how Ida has aided some girls even to escape from forced marriages. Ida’s “can do” personality shines. She is the Pied Piper of kindness. Te University of Michigan Executive MBA program has even sent students to Malawi to study how Ida has grown her organization from 65 to 4,000 volunteers where one neighbor helps pay it forward by “passing on the kindness.” Each of the volunteers who live in her village are so poor they exist on not much more than a dollar a day. Yet they pay 7 cents a month to participate in Ida’s organization … but they can pay it over time if that sum is too great on their meager budgets. Ida is the lead character in this documentary. Her energy carries the story along. She breaks the mold of the subservient, dutiful mother and wife. Her personality is revealed as the documentary unfolds her remarkable successes. Te camera follows Ida while she donates blankets to some of her poor volunteers. Her voice, captured by the wireless mic, lets viewers hear the dynamic personality that has made her a role model for so many women of Malawi. Ultimately, Ida becomes more than a leader of a local organization in Africa. She represents the concept of self-determination. Her story proves that even if you are a woman, black, and poor, you can organize your fellow citizens and improve your community without much help from the outside world.

Cooperative Subject? One of the obstacles that can make or break a story is whether your subjects are in tune with your need to fnish the story. Tis is one obstacle you must work out early. Your characters may simply see you as a photographer who wants to take a portrait and be done with it. But in fact, you have plans to hang around with them for a long time. You want to do several interviews and organize multiple follow-up visits. Have a conversation with the people you are flming early on in the reporting process so that they fully understand what might be expected of them during their participation. Similarly, you should have a conversation about the depth to which you want your story to go. Tis is a delicate area, so you must tread lightly to avoid causing the subjects to think you are intrusive, which could ruin your chances for developing a more in-depth story. Te message is: don’t scare away your subjects before the camera begins to roll. Sonya Hebert from the Dallas Morning News produced a profoundly somber, emotional story, titled Choosing Tomas—Inside a Family’s Decision to Let Teir Son Live, If Only for a Brief Time. Te story reveals the couple’s loss of an infant son to a rare birth defect. Hebert gained the trust of the family, who allowed her to remain with them, video camera rolling, while their son actually dies. Photographing the moment of death indicates that a high level of trust has been established with family members.

 Choosing Thomas. Deidrea Laux sits on her bathroom foor holding Thomas before making a plaster mold of his hands and bathing and dressing him for the last time. “I got to feel what it’s like to be a mom. It was good, Thomas. Thank you. I needed you,” Deidrea said to her baby. The videojournalist, Sonya Hebert, was able to capture this very intimate moment in a couple’s life.

Choosing Thomas—Inside a Family’s Decision to Let Their Son Live, If Only for a Brief Time. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ToNWquoXqJI

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Torn Apart. https://www.daisugano.com/ home (Note: You must navigate to story on Sugano’s page)

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Bob Sacha, a multimedia producer and teacher at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY, mentioned earlier, says he likes to be frank pretty early on in the reporting process. “I’ll tell my subjects, ‘I want to tell your story accurately, so I want to spend as much time here as I can.’ I want the experience to be a pleasant and positive one for the people. Basically, it’s all about building a good relationship with them. You don’t want to be a colossal pain in the neck. But you don’t want to waste time and go nowhere either.” Sacha says he frequently has to be persistent to get his subjects to be fully participatory. “When you show up more than once, the people may be impressed by your level of commitment to telling their story well. By the third, fourth, or ffth time you visit them, they will be comfortable with and even fattered by your dedication to their story. Such proof of your dedication will often open the fnal door to the degree of intimacy you’ve been waiting for.” Dai Sugano, a multimedia journalist at the San Jose Mercury News, agrees. “It’s all about maintaining a relationship,” he says. “When a person sees that you are consistent and committed to the story, they tend to be more accepting of your presence. You know you are in a good position when the subject stops asking, ‘Why are you taking that picture?’ If you have established good rapport, the people may even begin to contact you about upcoming events in their lives. Tis obviously precludes your having to constantly ask them probing questions. “Tere is no magical way for you to know what people are thinking, especially when you frst meet them,” says Sugano. “It’s really not a bad idea to put in the extra time to fully explain what it takes for you to tell the story well. Don’t be afraid to inform them that things might not always go as smoothly as you both hope at the outset.

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“When you are making a documentary, you can’t really predict what’s going to happen next. Tings have a way of just happening. And you simply don’t have time to ask for permission when they happen—one more reason why it is so important to explain the ground rules early on. If not, later on you could fnd yourself in a situation where the person you’re flming thinks you have crossed a line and are being intrusive or rude. Of course, you can always explain afterward why you needed to photograph the subject in a sensitive moment, but if the person knows ahead of time that you might eventually tread on some delicate territory or other, they will be more likely to allow for those awkward moments without resistance.” Sugano shot and produced a story called Torn Apart, which chronicles the account of a family of immigrant parents and Americanborn children who are faced with the parents’ deportation. He followed the family for close to a year. “I photographed many stressful situations, including an occasion where an eldest daughter was emotionally overwhelmed. I took the trouble to later explain to her why I had photographed her crying. Tat way, she better understood the reason the picture was so important as it showed the pain she felt over being forcibly separated from her father,” Sugano says. He adds, “It is important that the people understand what they are agreeing to when they give you permission to follow their journey. Otherwise, major misunderstandings can occur later, which can completely derail the story. Tat said, you may not want to go into extravagant detail or push for defnitive ground rules in the beginning, as when it works well, the process of flming people’s lives quite naturally evolves as the gradual building of a trusting relationship.”

Narrative Tension Michael Nichols and J. Michael Fay’s story Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma, featured on MediaStorm, is the story of eforts to protect elephants, often hunted for their ivory tusks, both inside and outside of national parks in Chad. Tough the issue of poaching certainly is important on its own, it still needs a narrative thread to which audiences can attach themselves. Te flmmakers zeroed in on one elephant named Annie whom the researchers collared to track as she moved both inside and outside of the park. Now their story, which is still about the issue of poaching and protection of natural resources, contained a chase that followed both the researchers tracking Annie’s every move and the poachers who aim to kill her just as she exits the safety of the Zakouma National Park’s boundary. Annie wanders here, and the tension builds. Ten she goes there, and the action grows even more compelling as she continues to move throughout the region in search of water. Finally, we learn that Annie has been shot by poachers. Te tension, not knowing what will happen to Annie, is precisely what keeps an audience’s attention. Te narrative tension that the

storytellers create and build upon as the story progresses is the kind of vehicle that carries an audience through a piece. When, at the beginning, neither the flmmaker nor the audience knows the outcome of a story the narrative maintains suspense.

 Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma. A story with narrative tension about poaching.

A Take-Away Message Once we have good characters and a sufcient narrative to keep our audience interested, a story should also have a take-away message. Perhaps there is a lesson or moral to the story, or maybe it just teaches us something we didn’t know enough about. Maybe it serves to make us laugh or cry, but every story must have a purpose to it that will linger after the viewer absorbs the last picture.

Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma. https://vimeo.com/429058530

Photographable Action Of course, it might seem obvious that since the storytelling medium is video you will need visuals. Yet the Internet is full of videos that lack any intriguing images. Politicians at a podium—or anyone else for that matter giving a speech—is rarely emotionally gripping. Philosophers spouting their opinions in a classroom has about same appeal. Viewers won’t stand for boring pictures of people simply talking into the camera.

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 Neverland: A Short Film. Patricia, 27, smokes crack in Mansfeld, Ohio. She graduated from the Rural Women’s Recovery Program in the spring of 2009 but relapsed in June of that year. Sexually abused at age 14 by a middle-aged man, her father’s best friend, she has been using alcohol and drugs (marijuana, crack, cocaine, oxycodone, and morphine) since. “I got pregnant with my daughter by a drug dealer, and I went for treatment for about nine months while I was pregnant. He is in prison and has never seen his child,” Patricia reveals.

Revealing Moments

Can You Elicit Emotion in the Viewer?

A graduate student at Ohio University, Yanina Manolova produced a series of video stories titled Neverland: A Short Film, on women living in the Appalachian region of Ohio—women who struggle with recovery from substance abuse and domestic abuse within their homes. She tracks the women every step of the way, following them through treatment, visits to prison, and even during violent encounters in their own homes. Simply interviewing the women about what had happened in the past would certainly have been powerful, but Manolova realized that whenever she could show rather than tell the women’s stories, the impact was tenfold. To explain their stories, she needed to actually visually document what was going on, including the drug use, the domestic violence, and even sticky family situations.

You are well advised to use emotion in your story. Does your story explore feelings such as humor, grief, passion, or rage (to name a few)? Tough not everyone will think the same things are funny, sad, or inspiring, there are certain types of characters and stories to which the majority of people will react strongly. A man has lost his arm but, with the most advanced robotic limb in the world, directed by his brain, he is able to plunk out a tune on the piano with a mechanical hand. Most viewers watching this story, Playing Piano with a MindControlled Robotic Arm by Jacob Templin, documentary flmmaker for Time, Quartz, and PBS, were not only amazed but empathetic for the main subject. Te viewer could sympathize with the emotion the man must have felt at regaining the use of a missing limb. Waiting for him to hit the resolving note in the piece of music was like waiting for the verdict in a murder mystery. Your sympathetic heart aches for the player to fnally strike the right key.

Neverland: A Short Film. http://www.yaninamanolova.com/ video/2/neverland/index.html

Playing Piano with a MindControlled Robotic Arm. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DP677lA_DEA&t=3s

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Is Your Focus Narrow Enough?

Do You Have a Reasonable Deadline?

Don’t photograph events to merely cover them. Find a focus frst. And stick to it! Drone racing is now a mainstream sport. Jacob Templin, on assignment for Quartz magazine, covered the frst national drone-racing competition in Sacramento, California. Templin knew that he had a visual topic, drone racing. He had virtual video showing the drones fying through a door, under an arch, between trees, and through a maze. Te producer needed to transform the collection of random TikTok-like clips of drones fying and operators adjusting their joy sticks into an intriguing storyline. Templin could have done a typical news/ sports, who won/who lost race story. To make a story with less of an expiration date, Templin discovered that promoters were trying to turn drone racing into a legit sport like stock-car or grand-prix racing. Templin flmed not only the leading drone-race pilot but also a woman participant who is paralyzed from her waist down and loves to fy drones. Te documentary, titled ESPN Just Made Drone Racing a Mainstream Sport, shows both the heart-stopping excitement of the sport but also, through interviews with the participants and fans and event organizers, its challenges to becoming a mainstream sporting event. With the theme of the story narrowed to the issue of making the sport national and profession, Templin was able to construct his interview questions to get the quotes he needed.

Many stories are produced in a few hours on strict deadlines; others take years or even decades to fnish. How will your story ft into your schedule? Often, many editors do not understand the gobs of time it takes to both shoot and edit even a short piece. It requires even longer time if you’re a little green and inexperienced. Shooting low-quality stories is easy and quick. Making great ones is usually not so simple or rapid. So be wise and plan ahead. Calculate, in advance, based on your own experience, how long the entire process will take you. Director and producer Taggart Siegel shot Te Real Dirt on Farmer John, a full-length documentary, over several decades. He began photographing a college classmate in the 1980s and continued until he felt the story was complete. He documented several major transformations in his lead character’s life. He followed him throughout the economic farm crisis of the 1980s. He documented his battles with local residents over his perceived lifestyle. And, fnally, he brought to light the man’s success at building up a large community-supported agriculture farm that now supports many families in the Chicago area. Sometimes, as happened to Siegel, you can’t put an end date on a story because you don’t know when or how it will fnish. As it turns out, this type of long-term story is very compelling to an audience. Tey watch the lives of the characters unfold in much the same way and at the same cadence the documentary maker did while producing the story. Of course, we do not all have the luxury of following a subject over many decades. Most of us live in a world of deadlines. All the more reason to fgure out the amount of time you’ll need and discuss it with your editor so you both agree on a time frame. Many beginning video storytellers with too little experience in the medium make the mistake of underestimating the time they’ll need to fnish a story. Tey end racing into the ofce at the last minute panting and pleading for more time. Remember that turning out high-quality storytelling in these media takes lots of concentrated application and oodles of time.

Does the Story Have Broad Appeal or Niche Audience? If your story has broad appeal to wide group of people of diferent ages, ethnic backgrounds, and economic levels, you’ll have the best chance of drawing in a large audience. Te broader the appeal, the more people from varied backgrounds will have an interest in your work. You can’t expect absolutely everyone to be interested; but as part of deciding whether to pursue a topic, you must examine whether you think a large enough audience will be attracted and engaged in your story. Are you hoping for wide appeal, or are you producing for a smaller niche audience? If you intend your audience to be small, you may want to include more pertinent details that would appeal to such an audience. If your intention is to reach a vast audience, you will have to think carefully about the level of details and in-depth reporting you put into the project. At what point does the accumulation of facts start to cause the viewer to lose interest in the story?

ESPN Just Made Drone Racing a Mainstream Sport. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XnutpyvMiUE&t=15s

The Real Dirt on Farmer John. https://www.flmsforaction.org/ watch/the-real-dirt-on-farmerjohn-2005/

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CHALLENGES OF FILMING THE PRESENT, PAST, AND FUTURE Photographing the Present

Uncovering a Buried Movie Sphinx in California. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=66oHFRyuk_0

“You should be looking for stories where your main character is going to be doing something and you can be there to flm it,” says Erick Olsen, former videographer for the New York Times. “Action is fundamental. You want to be with a person when something is happening. You want to be part of their discovery. If they’re seeing something and experiencing something for the frst time you want to be there. Tat’s gold.” Olsen’s story, Uncovering a Buried Movie Sphinx in California (see page 54), about watching archaeologists uncovering Cecil B. DeMille’s original set for Te Ten Commandments movie is an excellent example of a videographer capturing the action as it unfolds. Tell stories in present tense, says Travis Fox, professor at City University of New York. “Stories that happened in the past are possible. We do them all the time for PBS Frontline, but from a visual standpoint, they’re pretty hard to do. I tell my students, ‘Te best types of stories, the stories I like to approve as their editor, are ones that are present tense, ones that are unfolding in front of the camera.’”

Photographing the Past Video storytelling is challenged when telling stories about the past without a time machine. You can have people in your video talk about the past but what do you put on the screen besides their faces? No matter how good a story they have to tell, a character explaining his or her tale of success or failure won’t command the audience’s visual interest for long.

Ken Burns efect examples. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=n3DNZumaGNw

Ken Burns Enlivens the Past Most historic stories don’t provide the opportunity for the videographer to shoot any live action. To get around this problem Ken Burns made the Civil War come alive without recording a lot of new video footage. He used primarily the rich trove of vintage still photos available from the U.S. Civil War period. In his flm, Burns zoomed in on a still photo. (Watch Ken Burns efect examples.) Te scene goes from a wide group shot to a close-up of one person’s face as if he was walking up to the person. Burns panned across the sepiatoned images as if he were riding by the scene in a stagecoach. Te camera movement gave images the feeling of action. Even without any actual flm footage the viewer felt they were seeing movement and were captivated by the scene. Te efect gave these classic photos from another era a new lease on life in this modern video age. His technique was so successful and has been copied so often that it is now referred to as the “Ken Burns efect” and is actually a stand-alone option in some video-editing programs. Some producers feel the Ken Burns efect is overused but many practitioners still zoom and pan when they feel the need to add motion to their still images. Te lesson learned from Burns is that if you want to produce a story about the past make sure you have a large, relevant collection of old stills, vintage flm videotape. While the original stills might be a bit faded, the vintage flm might have been shot on 8 mm and the classic video recorded in black and white with a lot of grain, this material is invaluable for telling stories of the past. Without these elements your project might make a better audio podcast than a visual documentary.

 Ken Burns Efect. The flmmaker often zooms in on a still photo to give it the sense of motion

 Ken Burns Efect. For the efect, Burns usually starts out with a wide shot and then slowly zooms into to a tight shot.

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While the History Channel does reenactments, videojournalism and broadcast news avoid this approach. Some documentaries do hire actors, make up dialogue, and reenact whole scenes. Tis approach can be hazardous. Te viewer can confuse the reenactment for the real event. Viewers can also be angry when watching a reenactment if they think they are being fooled. “People send me story ideas,” says Boyd Huppert of Kare 11 in Minneapolis. “Tey write, ‘Something great happened. Our family reunion was so emotional.’ And I ask, ‘Did anyone shoot video of that?’ Answer, ‘No.’ And then it’s like, ‘Well, God, I wish I would’ve known about that beforehand.’ Tere are too many other stories that have visual components. I look for the ones that do have that visual element.” Te good news is that since the advent of the smart phone more than a decade and half ago, people have been digitally documenting their lives and the lives of everyone around them constantly, some would even say excessively. “I always tell my students, as soon as you hear someone talking about the past, your second thought should be writing a note asking for photos,” says Ed Robbins, award-winning director-writer-producer and digital journalist. “Get pictures, photo albums, phone shots, emails, maps, whatever.” Robbins did a story for Time about the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), one of the world’s most brutal rebel groups. Te LRA is a Christian extremist and a terrorist organization. Te group operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Te LRA has abducted over 67,000 youth, including 30,000 children, for use as child soldiers, sex slaves, and porters, and has brutalized communities since its founding in 1987. Robbins met a young woman who was working with the children who had been forced to serve in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) militia. He asked her if he could go with her. He also asked around, to see if anyone knew children who had recently gotten free of the Lord’s Resistance Army. He met this child who had recently escaped. He didn’t know the kid had actually killed someone. He just knew he had escaped. And here the child was going to school and playing soccer a few days after he escaped from the killing and raping of Lord’s Resistance Army. Robbins was flming the story that eventually would be titled, Te Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan, and at the same time wondering how he should present the material. He heard the children tell their blood-curdling tales but he had no visuals to accompany their interviews. “I saw the kids drawing and it gave me the idea.” Robbins bought them a ream of paper and he came back a few days later. One child had drawn not one or two pictures but an entire animation of what he had seen and done. Tere were 40 drawings telling the whole story. Te child said ‘You can see the helicopters arrived and we killed these people.’ Robbins animated their pictures to go with their stories. By having the children draw what they had seen and done, Robbins was able to visually capture their horrifc past experiences without documentary video. You no longer need to be a Ken Burns to make a documentary about the past if your

 Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in South Sudan. To tell the story of the terrorist group, Ed Robbins, producer, found a child who had escaped. He used the child’s drawing of people being killed to help tell the story 67,000 youth abducted and used as soldiers and sex slaves.

The Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan. https://youtu.be/-ip08pjKngI

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story takes place more recently than 2007 when Apple’s iPhone went on the market. Today, before you produce a story about someone’s past, check their hard drive to see if they have salted away a treasure trove of stills and videos or, sadly, if they were a late adopter to the new technology.

While it might be true that you can produce a documentary story on anything, certain subjects are certainly easier than others. Telling a complete story about the past using still pictures only, though certainly not impossible, can be challenging.

DID ANYBODY SHOOT VIDEO?

 Crossing the Cross-Country Finish Line. The producer missed the meet but with the help of a couple in the crowd who recorded the moment on their cell phone and a play-by-play radio announcer who was covering the event he was able to edit a broadcast-worthy story for his TV news channel.

Boyd Huppert wrote a story about a cross-country runner who fell down during a meet even though he, himself, did not attend the event. The girl collapsed about 75 feet from the fnish line and all these other runners just ran past her. There’s a rule that if you help a runner who’s fallen down, then you yourself will be disqualifed. One runner, however, started to stop and a woman in the crowd yelled, ‘Don’t help her. Don’t help her. You’ll get yourself disqualifed.’ So, this runner just continues with the race. Then another runner stopped and helped the fallen girl across the fnish line. Luckily for Huppert, there were a couple of people in the crowd that shot video of it. I called the local radio station and they had a guy there doing play-by-play. So, in real time this radio guy says, “Oh my gosh. The runner from the Mountain Iron is falling. Oh no. Oh, somebody help her.” He’s broadcasting the race in real time. NBC Nightly News picked up the story and ran it that evening. “Without the two parents with their cell-phone videos that I was able to get a hold of and the radio announcer it would have been a hard story to tell otherwise,” says Huppert.

Crossing the Cross-Country Finish Line. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=08SSPGi44OU

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Hard to Film the Future If making a documentary about the past throws up some hurdles for the visual videographer, photographing the future is particularly difcult without a crystal ball for a lens. Some flmmakers turn to old sci-f TV shows or movies for their images of the future. However, these images might not ft your particular topic. Video producers employ graphic artists and animators to provide scenes of the world yet unseen—the world of the future. Before embarking on a story about a world no one has experienced yet try fnding an illustrator with a style you like and add the animator to your production team.

PRODUCING THE “PURE VISUAL” STORY Not every story is a good video story. Some stories are better told on radio while others make more sense in print. “You have to have something to show the viewer ... a reason to point the camera. And then something needs to happen in front of that camera,” says Craig Duf of Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern. “Consider for a minute the documentary 76 Days. It is unvarnished and raw, a frst draft of a history that’s still being written,” notes David Sims of the Atlantic. When the COVID-19 virus frst broke out in Wuhan, China there was more than enough to flm in front of the camera on January 20, 2020 and for the next 76 days. Te flm, directed by Hao Wu, was primarily shot by Weixi Chen and a videographer called “Anonymous” to protect his identity. 76 Days has no interviews or a correspondent doing a “stand-up” narration to the camera. It just lets the viewer see and hear the grim world inside the Wuhan hospital as it unfolds. Te documentary opens with a hospital worker wearing a complete head-to-toe, white vinyl, hazmat suit with goggles, a face mask, and gloves, begging to see her father one last time before he dies in the hospital. Her besieging wails of agony transcend any language barrier. Her attempt to enter her dying father’s hospital room leaves no doubt of her pain. Tis “direct cinema” style of storytelling described in Chapter 1 depends completely on capturing reality as it unfolds. Te story has no narrator, correspondent, or even voice-over interviews. Te story

completely depends on what the video camera operators could capture as the hospital workers struggled with a disease no one had ever seen before and which the doctors had no cure for. For more about 76 Days see page 30. “I start from the visual side, where many in broadcast start from the interview side. In movies, they start from the script side,” says Bob Sacha who teaches at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY. Sacha was formerly a freelance photographer for National Geographic for more than 20 years. Since still photographers start and end with the visual, Sacha is particularly adept at fnding photographic ways to tell stories. When he transitioned to video he brought along that skill. “I feel like a great flm is a story told on two diferent roads,” explains Sacha. “So there’s the road of what someone says. And there is the road of what someone does. You interview for emotion and you flm for process. Te documentary does not tell the viewer how to make a cup of cofee, but the flm tells the viewer what cofee does to a person and why it’s important. Meanwhile, I will flm the process of grinding the beans, tightening the handle to secure the ground cofee, forcing the boiling water through the grounds, steaming the milk, and fnally drinking the resulting brew. Note how the visuals of making the cofee complement but don’t repeat the audio track of the story. “So we interview people for things they say and we can’t see. And we flm things we can see but don’t require a verbal explanation.” Eric Maierson, a producer for MediaStorm, an award-winning flm production and interactive design studio, warns not to be distracted by someone who has lots of tattoos all over their body or wears an outrageous costume. Make sure that you have a story worth telling that goes beyond the odd, surprising, or outlandish way someone looks or dresses. “In addition to having great visual potential, a good story must have a narrative that an audience can connect with.” Remember, beautiful sunsets make lovely postcards but not riveting videos. Every story you do will fall somewhere along a continuum of either great visuals, strong history, or current action. Te trick is fnding all three when you record a compelling documentary.

76 Days. https://www.wbur.org/ hereandnow/2021/10/07/76days-documentary-pandemic

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 Erik Olsen goes both in the air and under water to flm his science-based video stories. When he is on land he usually has a notebook with him all the time. He often sketches out a very basic storyboard of the documentary along with questions he needs during an interview.  (Photo by John Pierce)

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CHAPTER

5

Producing a Story Josh Meltzer,  Rochester Institute of Technology Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University

S

o, you’ve found what you think will be a good visual story. You’ve determined that it at least appears to have some of the necessary components to be a successful narrative:

• It has a narrative line and potential confict or tension. • It has strong characters. • It contains universal and pertinent themes outside of the story itself. • It has something to say about the human condition or has direct relevance to signifcant, meaningful issues.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-5

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But wait! Not so fast. Do you have an actual plan or outline for the story you’re going to tell? Have you any idea who you might need to interview … who your characters are going be? Do you know which direction the story might be going and how that fts into a narrative arc?

MAKE A PLAN—AVOID THE SPRAY AND PRAY APPROACH

Top 5 Storyboarding Apps for You to Explore. https://www.premiumbeat. com/blog/top-5-storyboardingapps/#:~:text=Previs%20 and%20Previs%20Pro%20 Previs%20Pro%20is%20userfriendly%2C,deserves%20 the%20title%20of%20%231%20 Free%20Storyboarding%20App.

“Have a clear idea of what your story is about,” recommends Bob Sacha, director of photography for the New York Times series “Living City” and teacher at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY. “Beginning with intention is much better than the ‘spray and pray’ approach.” With the spray and pray approach you just flm everything, says Sacha. Ten you come back with a big pile of stuf and you say, “Oh please, God, I hope I have a story here.” Sacha likes to have a clear idea of what he’s attempting to accomplish before he heads out to the feld. Planning ahead prevents him from shooting wildly, he says. His plan gives him a starting point. Moreover, he knows that most journalists have limited time to report. So a solid plan helps use that time wisely. “Entering the fray on a prayer,” says Sacha, “is a universally recognized bad idea.”

Construct a Storyboard Many videojournalists create a storyboard to keep track of all the elements in their documentary. Watch Top 5 Storyboarding Apps for You to Explore. Storyboarding is also discussed on pages 186, 278, 303 and 366. Make annotations about scenes on sticky notes or index cards. Each note will represent a scene in your story. Te scene sketches don’t have to be sophisticated.

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Tey are strictly for use by you. So even scribbles and stick fgures will do. Lay the individual sketches out in the order you think they might appear in your fnal video. You can rearrange the cards as you go along and see how to improve the narrative impact of your story. Te notes are there to help you tell your story as clearly as possible. Tese simple notecards will give you clues about missing actions or transitions. If you realize a scene is missing, create a new card and add the scene to your required shot list. Tis simple index card method ensures that you don’t repeat yourself or let your story sprawl too far in one direction or another. Rather than using notecards and hand-drawn stick fgures, you can use any of a number of software programs designed to help you produce a storyboard. Some videojournalists fnd these electronic storyboards easier and faster than the traditional paper-and-pencil method. If you are collaborating with one or more partners consider using Jamboard. Tis Google Docs application allows you to write and draw with a mouse or trackpad. Te program also lets more than one person use a session at the same time and work collaboratively. Make the storyboard as detailed as you like. Adjust the order of your pieces as you continue to shoot. Include opening and closing shots as well as transitions that take your audience smoothly from one scene to another. Erik Olsen, former New York Times videographer, constructs a storyboard for his stories. Imagine your opening shot, says Olsen. “It doesn’t always become the opening shot. But I always have one in my head when I start shooting a story.” He also conceives of the perfect closing shot. Besides imagining the opening and closing shot of his documentary, Olsen has an outline of

the whole story. He makes a note of the central story theme. He asks, “Who are the people who are going to articulate these ideas and how will I explain the ideas through the video shots?” Olsen uses a storyboarded structure to map out what he thinks the whole story will be like.

COMMITMENT STATEMENT A good story structure depends on, among other things, staying focused on what the story is really about. Viewers, it turns out, can track only one thing at a time. To ensure that the message is getting through to them, maintaining a sharp focus is critical. Longtime TV photojournalist, editor, and teacher Sharon Levy-Freed, who started the National Press Photographers (NPPA) week-long, in person, intensive video workshop, advises that you

create a commitment statement (also called a focus statement). She suggests you try thinking about stories as a one-sentence summary with a subject (character), a verb, and an object. For instance, “Mary Livingston overcomes spousal abuse through prayer” is an example of a commitment statement. Te subject is “Mary.” Te verb is “overcomes.” And the object is “spousal abuse.” Te videojournalist could record Mary talking about spousal abuse, then document any evidence that her husband harmed her, and, fnally, show the prayer in Mary’s life that helps her to confront and overcome the abuse. So, before you build your story, you need to be clear about its focus. Tinking of the commitment statement for the story itself as a sentence containing only a subject, a verb, and an object will keep you focused.

 Erik Olsen, who specializes in science stories, usually has a notebook with him all the time. He often sketches out a very basic storyboard of the documentary he is flming along with questions he needs answered during an interview.

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Boil It Down

Couple Welcomes Twins during Hurricane Harvey. https://youtu.be/rssXWEsR3KY

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Here is yet another way to keep a sharp focus on your story. Sacha, who directed stories for Al Jazeera America Online, Yahoo News, AudubonScience, and other clients asks, “What is the underlying idea of a story? What is this story really about? Is this a story about family? Is this a story about security? Is this story about safety?” For example, you could be working on a video about the COVID-19 pandemic. Te short documentary could be a story about health with a list of ways to avoid the disease. Te story could be about love. Te tale you want to tell could be about the loss of a husband or wife. Defne this bigger idea that describes the underlying theme—health or love—of your central story in one or two words. Tose words will help remind you of your story’s underlying message and keep you on track. Tose few words can inform you where the story is going. “If you know it’s a story about love then, of course, it’s a story about fnding love or about losing love,” says Sacha. Tose are two words, fnding love or losing love, might guide you in how you proceed with the documentary. At the Advanced Storytelling Workshop put on by the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) each year, students are instructed to fnd a story and then write a brief commitment statement. Tis statement is the heart and soul of the story and will guide them both in the feld and during the edit. One of the workshop leaders was Boyd Huppert, of KARE Channel 11 in Minneapolis, who took participants through a real-life example of honing a commitment or focus statement. He used one of his own KARE-TV stories, a

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piece about an elderly woman named Clara who learned one day, after a spring storm, that her lifetime home would be threatened either overnight or the next morning by approaching food waters. As he drove to the town that was awaiting the approaching food, Huppert’s focus statement went through fve diferent stages. His focus evolved from “Sent out to cover food” to “Tis food is impacting individuals” to “Clara is packing up” to “Clara packs up to save her past” to the story’s fnal focus, which was: “Clara struggles as she packs up to save her past.” “A story’s focus can be in a character, or an emotion, or a concept,” Huppert says. “It’s got to be something that ties the otherwise disconnected pieces of a story together. Te story was eventually titled, Couple Welcomes Twins during Hurricane Harvey. Tere are a lot of stories that may not have a strong central character. When that happens, you have to replace the strong character by fnding a concept that ties everything together. “Understanding the central role that commitment statement plays in storytelling is key. Not understanding how to gain and maintain focus can jeopardize the quality of the fnal product.” Scott Rensberger, a freelance TV journalist who has traveled the globe and was a faculty member at the National Press Photographers Association storytelling yearly workshop, follows such advice and boils his story idea down to a simple phrase or commitment statement. “If I can say what the story is about in one line—you know it’s going to be good. How can you screw up? ‘Te world’s largest machine gun shoot’; ‘A dog who thinks he’s a postal worker’; or ‘A happy couple that has been married 82 years.’”

Does Huppert have a theme before he starts a story or does that theme come later? Turns out that the commitment statement develops after he starts investigating the details of the story. Te public relations representative for the Salvation Army pitched Huppert a story about a guy who knitted 400 caps for the Salvation Army last year. Te 400 caps wasn’t the story, according to Huppert. He means that the 400 caps was the assignment but the 400 caps are not the real underlying story. Within a few minutes of talking to the public relations person, Huppert realized that the man who knits the hats is really a giving person. He spent his whole life just giving, volunteering. So when Huppert talked to the knitter’s son later, that’s the frst thing he asked him. Huppert said, “Your dad seems to always be giving.” Te son replied, “He feels like when he volunteers he’s doing God’s work.” Te commitment or focus statement for that story isn’t “Tom Cornish has knitted 400 caps this year.” It’s “Tom Cornish is always giving.”

“I love it now,” says Huppert. “I might rewrite that statement later, but at least it gives me a working sentence to use when I start interviewing and flming.” While a simple, powerful sentence will help guide you and keep you on track through every step of the storytelling process, you will also fnd this simple sentence, or commitment statement, approach to be particularly useful during the editing phase. Note that the fnal title of the story, World War II Vet Spends COVID Time Weaving 400 Hats for Salvation Army, was diferent than the commitment statement. Sacha, now a teacher at City University of New York, says he gives his students a chance to pitch their stories but they have exactly 60 seconds to do it. He has a big timer behind them. He says to the student, “I know your story is so amazing and that you’re gonna want to tell me about it for 10 minutes. But if you can’t capture my attention in the frst minute, forget it.”

 World War II Vet Spends COVID Time Weaving 400 Hats for Salvation Army. Boyd Huppert recognized that the story was not just that a vet knitted 400 caps for the Salvation Army but that he spent his life giving to others.

World War II Vet Spends COVID Time Weaving 400 Hats for Salvation Army. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=P3QunklAebw

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Write a Headline

Bob of the Park Knows New York City Birds Best. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GLQUC7_wtFg

We’re Kids But We’re Also Journalists. https://www.washingtonpost. com/graphics/2018/national/ parkland-documentary/

Living on the Brink: One Family’s Struggle to Survive the Pandemic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/ living-on-the-brink-onefamilys-struggle-to-survivethe-pandemic/2020/12/20/ e5afab7a-c696-468a-886dcd542c3f4deb_video.html

They Get Brave. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gXhPBGvYpsM

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Besides crafting a commitment statement, composing a succinct, simple headline for your piece can help determine the real storyline of your documentary. Crunching the essence of the story into the headline forces you to identify the most salient elements of your piece. In addition to helping you organize your story arc, a headline helps attract the viewer. Te viewer is going to select your story based solely on the headline you write and the image you present. Tese two elements are the primary ways to “hook” the viewer into watching your video. Without a commanding, clever, or surprising headline as well as an attractive beguiling photo your documentary will go unseen. Here are a few examples of headlines that might catch the viewer’s eye, inject a question in their mind, and hopefully cause the person to click on your story. “Bob of the Park Knows New York City Birds. But He’s Rufed a Few Feathers” “Last Lap at Laurel” “Pie Queen”

CASTING CALL: SEARCHING FOR GREAT CHARACTERS Te subjects in a story are often dictated by the nature of the piece. Some stories are about a particular person or family. If you can identify truly engaging subjects, you’ll have a better chance of creating an excellent piece of work. Travis Fox, who helped establish the new form of video storytelling when he was at the Washington Post, describes the process of fnding a lead character for your video like a casting call for a Hollywood flm. A videojournalist reports a story like any other journalist but then there’s an extra step. “Tat step would be casting/fnding a character that represents the trend or whatever it is that they’re reporting on,” says Fox. In casting, you are looking for someone who speaks clearly or someone who speaks emotionally or someone who is doing something visually compelling that can be recorded on video. Tim Broekema, a multiple award-winning photojournalist, cinematographer, video producer, and professor at Western Kentucky

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University, says, “You can’t sit at your desk and speculate: ‘Hmmmh. I wonder where that character might be lurking?’ Captivating characters appear to you when you’re out in the feld asking questions. Allow characters to come and go in and out of your life until you fnd just the right one. “Too many beginning videographers get stuck. Tey settle for a character they think is ‘good enough.’ But ‘good enough’ isn’t going to cut it,” says Broekema. Characters who grab and hold the viewers’ attention are pivotal. So, the process of character search is vitally important. Says Broekema: “Magnetic characters are just plain gifts from God.” Will Yurman, former Rochester Democrat & Chronicle videographer and now Penn State professor, says, “Because you’re asking someone to talk, you need someone who’s a good talker.” You must fnd someone who can speak and describe scenes. Someone who can talk about how they feel. When you’re putting together a video, you’re auditioning people almost like for a piece of fction or a play. You’re searching for characters who are going to sound good on camera, even though in this case the characters are not actors but real people. Whitney Shiefte’s story Living on the Brink: One Family’s Struggle to Survive the Pandemic was produced for the Washington Post. Te Silvester family lost their entire income when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States. She interviewed four or fve possible lead characters for the story. In the end, Shiefte selected Mrs. Silvester. She knew that she wasn’t going to do a story on all of the subjects she interviewed. Shiefte is searching for people who can open up about how they feel emotionally about a situation. She also needs someone who can speak clearly in complete sentences. “I could just tell that the Silvester family members were going to be really good at telling their own story,” says Shiefte who is a Peabody, Emmy, Murrow, and Pictures of the Year International (POYi) award winner.

Finding a Subject for a Documentary after a Disaster For a story about how the Parkland high school students who covered the shooting of their classmates they lost, Whitney Shefte (referenced earlier in Chapter 3) met with members of the journalism class. Shefte, along with her colleague Alice Li, met with journalism students at the local Barnes & Noble in Parkland, since school was not yet back in session. She started talking to them and just trying to fgure out who could be her characters for the story. She frst had to determine who was willing to participate in the coverage. “Actually, the red-haired girl who ends up being one of the main characters didn’t want to talk to the us … at frst. But then she just saw that we weren’t being pushy,” said Shefte. By the end of the meeting at the bookstore, the red-haired girl was OK with the idea. Te reporters quickly narrowed down their search for strong characters to two students, Rebecca and Emma. “I think the fact that Emma was clearly very emotional and raw made her a

good character,” says Shiefte. Te fact that Emma was a still photographer added to her attraction as a subject for the flm. Emma was going to be out doing some things that the videographers could flm. Shiefte just liked seeing the way Rebecca and Emma interacted with each other. “Tey were really good friends ... they spoke about everything and they were open,” said the Washington Post photojournalist. While Shefte and her colleague Li needed to select their subject from a class of Parkland High School journalists, Alexandra Garcia of the New York Times and her team had to pick their subjects from all the nurses, doctors, and healthcare workers in New York City. Te documentary Tey Get Brave, which ran on the streaming service Hulu, showed the doctors and nurses of New York trying to save patients from the coronavirus as they risk their own lives—and lives of their families. Garcia talked to dozens and dozens of nurses and doctors before selecting their fnal central characters. Tey wanted people who were invested in the project because this was going to require a

 The Pie Queen. This headline manages to tell the whole story in just three well-chosen words.

The Pie Queen. https://youtu.be/uZuWEyV1ef4

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lot from them. Tey wound up covering more than the fnal four hospital workers. Garcia remembers in the pre-interview she spoke with Dr. Salina Serbia and her husband. Te couple were sitting on the couch. “Within a couple minutes she was crying. It was so sad, but it also just made me feel like here’s a person who is comfortable enough with themselves to show their innermost feelings,” says Garcia. During the fnal edit, from the original group of six subjects who had participated, Garcia and her co-producers whittled the number down to just four.

Chat with Your Potential Subject While preparing to shoot a video story at an event, Evelio Contreras, a videojournalist at the Washington Post, says he’ll often casually chat with people at the event before shooting. Tis accomplishes two things. First, it allows him to understand the story better, and second, he can hold informal pre-interviews to determine whom he might want to interview for the piece he is about to shoot. “I’m looking to have a conversation with someone so that I can hang out with them … so that they’ll be loose and relaxed and be themselves. I want to be able to hear someone sound as if they actually want to be talking to me.” Contreras says he looks for people who are quirky or have something diferent about them. If they make a lot of hand gestures, he says, he’ll see that as a sign of someone who might be a character in the story. “I’m looking for passion in their eyes.” Contreras tries to establish himself as a documenter up front so that he can start a oneon-one conversation as soon as possible. He is not interested in a hodge-podge of voices. “I see that as overload to the audience. And it can often be a gimmick.” He feels that the interaction with one character at a time is more deliberate storytelling.

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Look for an Extrovert On the topic of fnding a subject, Darren Durlach from station WBFF-TV in Baltimore, describes a great character as someone who is dynamic, open, and unafraid to say what they think. Viewers generally care more about those extroverted types. He has learned to use his gut to look for “real” people. “Te more sincere they are about what they say, the more their message shines out through the television screen,” says Durlach. Characters who are the most “interviewable” are not camera-shy. Tey even like the camera. Tey speak clearly and with appealing detail about their experiences. Additionally, you will fnd that the more interviewable people are, the more they will tell you about their lives when you ask questions. “It’s almost as if they can sense what you’re looking for,” says Durlach.

Availability to the End Additionally, remember that you’re looking for someone who can stay with you all the way through to the end of your documentary. Many times, journalists ask a lot of their subjects in terms of both time and the quality of their participation. Te journalist wants the people he or she has chosen to be on tap at all times and to be completely open and frank. Many folks are not willing, nor are they able, to lend all of their time or be perfectly candid about everything. “In the end,” Dai Sugano, staf photojournalist and senior multimedia editor, says, “choosing any of your characters is a leap of faith. You simply never know if or when the person may grow tired of you.

WHO CAN REPRESENT THE STORY BEST? Months before his story Uprooted was produced, Dai Sugano, of the San Jose Mercury News, read an article in his paper about a trailer park’s upcoming closure. Te city of Sunnyvale, California, was attempting to close the Flicks Mobile Home Park via eminent domain for a large-scale construction project. “When I read it,” Sugano says of the news story, “I knew that this was only the beginning of what could be a series of unfolding events. I went to the trailer park one day and knocked on several doors searching for residents who would be open to letting me follow them through their journey.” Knocking on doors is a good way to start, but you can’t stop there. Next, choose and then interview the primary characters in your story. Tis second step is as important as the narrative itself. Te trailer park in question had many residents. Some were American families, some immigrants, and some elderly. Sugano molded his story around two central characters—an immigrant family and an elderly single woman. “When working in multimedia, it is not only important to fnd subjects who will allow you the access you need to tell the story visually, but you also need people who are able to articulate their part of the story,” Sugano says. “Te narrative is the key element that guides viewers through the documentary. As each event occurs, we want our characters to feel free to explain their

 Uprooted. A group of mobile home residents facing displacement in Sunnyvale, California. Its owners were closing down and selling the Flicks Mobile Home Park. The photographer went from door to door to fnd subjects.

 Uprooted. After 26 years of living at the mobile home park, Marilyn Baker will have to move if it closes. Baker pauses while packing up to leave. The videographer, Dai Sugano, points out that you must fnd a central character to represent the group but this person must be clear and articulate. Uprooted. https://www.daisugano.com/ home (You must navigate the site to get to the story “Uprooted”)

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feelings and be able to actually refect on their experiences. From the frst day Sugano met Marilyn, the older woman in the video Uprooted, who was about to be evicted from her trailer, she was very open to talking about her situation. He could sense that she wanted someone to listen to her story. She really did have a compelling story and an open personality. She also indicated a willingness to have him follow her on her journey—yet she wasn’t overly eager. Sugano needed subjects who represented the various populations that lived in that trailer park. Marilyn, the older, single woman, represented the seniors who were living there on a fxed income and had limited options. Tey wanted to fnish out their days right where they were. On the other end of the spectrum, Luis Trujeque and his family represented working families who saw living at the trailer park as a stepping stone to home ownership and the American Dream. Being able to compare and contrast the two diferent circumstances added both appeal and depth to the story.

Beware the Over-Eager Subject Sugano cautions that, through experience, he has found that subjects who seem over-eager to tell their stories may have a strong agenda that can overshadow the truth of the story. So, it’s important that you, the overall storyteller, recognize your character’s motivation for participating in a project. “If your frst contact with your subject seems a little too good,” adds Sugano, “then you need to think through the motivations and/or expectations of the person before you proceed.” For instance, sometimes a person takes a special shine to the videographer because they mistakenly think the videojournalist is there just to feature them, and not for journalistic reasons. When people think that way, they may eagerly give the journalist access to events they want the photographer to flm. But they may be concealing elements that they don’t want the journalist to witness.

AVOID AN OFFICIAL AS THE LEAD SUBJECT Durlach of WBFF-TV in Baltimore always tries to avoid making leading characters out of public information ofcers because that usually are insincere. Tere is a category of people who are over-interviewed. Teir message often sounds a bit memorized, like a sound bite. Politicians and public fgures often fall into this category.

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If you’re faced with interviewing such a person, plan ahead and ask unusual questions—questions that won’t elicit a sound-bite response. Sometimes a person in authority volunteers to be your main character. A director of an organization might be willing. Or perhaps he or she will try to steer you toward a particular person they work with. Don’t settle right away for these individuals as your lead characters. Rather, spend time in your story’s environment frst. Observe the people and analyze their motives before you settle on your protagonists. You don’t want to spend hours, days, weeks, or months following some CEO or district manager around who ultimately doesn’t turn out to be lively and comes of as someone who is missing a stif shirt.

What to Do without a Lead Character? Without a main character, documentary producers often employ an on- or of-camera narrator to give the story a consistent voice. For the one-man-bander the voice-over narration is the easier option.

FAIR AND UNBIASED JOURNALISM Multiple Points of View Remember, too, that yours is a journalistic piece. It ought to represent more than one viewpoint. Consider ahead of time who will serve as counterpoint subjects and what those opposing viewpoints might say. You may have a major point or an agenda to get across with your story. Nevertheless, you do have to give those with opposing viewpoints an opportunity to respond to your premise. Fairness and thoroughness can help you tell the story accurately and completely. In the end, if you manage to maintain balance, your story stands to be even more powerful. You must also try to remain utterly fair and rigorously representative of the population or situation you’re covering. Sometimes it can be easy to put blinders on and go with one viewpoint because one person is working out so well for your narrative. But do make sure that, from time to time, you step back and reevaluate your journalistic balance. If you are covering abortion rights, immigration, police brutality, etc. make sure that your report is even-handed. In addition to assuring that your story is fair, you should also provide yourself with the means to fact check what your characters tell you. As the old saying for journalists goes, “If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.” Tis imperative holds true with video just as with the printed word.

Check with the Experts

Finding an Analogy

Depending on the topic of your story, you might want to interview experts who can confrm a set of data, explain a phenomenon, or make a comment that helps put the story in the big picture. Sacha, a videographer for the Guardian project that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and a teacher at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUN, often relies on scientists to help explain the topic. “Mainly, I’m looking for an articulate expert who can tell the scientifc story a diferent way,” says Sacha. He points out that many experts have their own professional jargon, so he has to ask them to speak in simple English. When he is faced with a scientist who uses long words to describe an experiment, Sacha suggests to them to fnd an analogy for the difcult concept. Repeat a question until the answer will be understood by everyone. Sacha says it can be pointless to use even the best experts if their language is too complicated and jargon-laden for his audience. “At some point, the expert must put the points in everyday terms,” Sacha says.

As an example, in a story for the Asia Society on global climate change titled On Tinner Ice-Meltiing Glaciers on the Roof of the World, Sacha interviewed an expert, Lonnie Tompson, a professor of paleoclimatology at Ohio State University. In this story, Tompson made the analogy between glaciers melting and a dwindling bank account. “You can think of a glacier as a bank account,” he says in the story. “A water bank account that has been built up over thousands of years. In the beginning of the 21st century we are taking more out of that bank account than is being put in. Of course, we all know that long term with any bank account, if you do that, it will soon be empty.” “Tat analogy was a stroke of luck because everybody can understand a shrinking bank account,” said Sacha. (See Chapter 13 “Conducting an Interview.”) Global warming may seem like a complex scientifc topic to explain in a video story intended for the general public but if your expert can relate to the audience in a way that makes

 On Thinner Ice.  Bob Sasha calls on climatologist Lonnie Thompson as an expert scientist for his story about melting glaciers and global warming. Sasha understands that much of his audience is nonscientifc. Thompson must speak in plain English so that his message will come across to a broad audience of laypeople.

On Thinner Ice – Melting Glaciers on the Roof of the World. https://youtu.be/leKrvjz7f2k

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the subject appealing to everyone, then you’re in business. Finally, if you can strike a comfortable balance between an expert’s knowledge and the experience of people at ground level afected by the phenomenon, then you have a story that your audience can both comprehend and be emotionally moved by. Your goal is to teach your audience and at the same time touch a nerve with them.

Gaining Access Many times, owners, managers, ofcials, etc. don’t want videojournalists to photograph their operation. As the largest foreign corporation in Liberia, Firestone has come under scrutiny in recent years. After accusations of mistreating its workers, Firestone Liberia made concerted eforts

 Has Firestone Liberia Gone Far Enough in Workplace Reforms? 

Has Firestone Liberia Gone Far Enough in Workplace Reforms? https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=RdvqcckCREQ

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to improve its facility and the condition of its workforce. But Ed Robbins, shooting for Time magazine, wanted to know if the company had improved enough. Te story was produced in part by the International Reporting Project (IRP). Robbins managed to get inside the Firestone rubber factory in Liberia. “After I got in the main gate I snuck in a bit,” says Robbins. “I got closer to where they actually have the people doing the rubber work.” Te company did not want him to see the conditions inside. He was able to meet and interview a union worker. Robbins’ footage and interview for a story titled, Has Firestone Liberia Gone Far Enough in Workplace Reforms?, helped to reveal the challenging conditions that workers face in order to provide the rubber we take for granted.

PRE-PRODUCTION CHECKLISTS Research the topic: • Internet • Publication’s library (old term was ‘morgue’) • Previous stories—how will yours be diferent? Getting access and written permissions: • Print blank permission forms to record and broadcast a person’s image • Schools (public and private) • Principal • Teacher • Students • Some schools have their students sign photo permissions at the beginning of each year • Hospital — Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. This rule includes photographing someone in a hospital setting. • Prison (special rules) • Morgue • Public space • Private property Shooting arrangements: • When to shoot: — Time of day — Early morning/late afternoon best — Avoid the middle of the day • Outdoors vs. indoors • When and where will the action take place?

• •

After the shoot you can add questions based on what you have videotaped After the interview you will know what to shoot to accompany the audio

Options for selecting the right place for the interview: A telling background that adds to the story: • A plain background without any distracting elements • A quiet place • Natural light from a window or door Review your plan: • What do you expect to be your story opener? • What do you expect to be your story closer? • What do you expect to be your complication/resolution? • Do you have a series of scenes mapped out ahead of time? • Write out your proposed “commitment statement” or headline Equipment needed: • Camera/smart phone • Lens • External mic — Wireless mic — Shotgun mic • Tripod • Extra batteries—camera, mic • Empty the memory card before starting a new project • Extra memory card • Battery recharger • Lights (if needed)

Can you shadow your subject during work? • Avoid staging for the camera—even if the subjects ofers • Avoid including those who don’t want to be flmed and/or won’t sign a release The interview: • Pre-interview—short and sweet—don’t give away all your questions ahead of the on-camera interview • Prepare questions for the interview • To interview frst or shoot frst—that is the question

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 A well-made video camera is designed with most of the controls you need on the body of the camera within easy reach while shooting. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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CHAPTER

6

Selecting a Video Camera

I

f you are used to shooting still pictures, making the transition to video may feel like a big step. Don’t be alarmed. Many of the skills you have already

acquired about shooting stills—such as focus, lens selection, and controlling exposure—will transfer seamlessly to video. Tere are, however, some skills that are specifc to video. You need to learn about these to make full use of this visual medium. FINDING THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT

Cameras today are ubiquitous. An employer might hand you a camera and tell you to go shoot a video story. Or you might check

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-6

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out a camera from your school. You can also rent a video camera if you want to try out the brand and model. You might even shoot a video using your cell phone. But sooner or later you will probably wind up buying a camera for yourself— one that you can use all the time. Sizes, prices, and functionality of video cameras and/or cell phones can turn choosing a brand and model into a daunting task. Today’s cameras range from smart phones all the way up to full-featured, single-purpose, shoulder-mount professional video cameras costing thousands of dollars. How can you make sense of all the diferent video choices? In the following sections, you will fnd some of the most important elements to consider when choosing your video camera.

 Brian Kaufman uses a telephoto lens to shoot stories for the Detroit Free Press.

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Sensor Size Afects Picture Quality Most video cameras shoot clear, sharp images in bright sun or even in deep shade. What really separates the wheat from the chaf when it comes to video quality is how the cameras handle very low light like a dimly lit auditorium or dark hall. Tough a multitude of factors determine how well a camera shoots in low light, perhaps the most signifcant variable is the size of the sensor chip the camera uses to record images and the number and size of pixels on that sensor. Te larger each sensor is, the more light it collects. Collecting more light results in brighter, sharper pictures with better colors and less digital “noise”—especially in low light. Digital noise looks sometimes like a lot of purple, gray, or white specs appearing where you would expect to see all black. Of course, even sensors of equal size are not always matched in quality. In theory, more pixels on a sensor means you will have sharper images. However, packing more pixels in the same small space means each pixel must be smaller. Smaller pixels are less likely to capture individual rays of light. So smaller pixels usually mean poorer-quality videos with more of that unwanted digital noise when the video is shot indoors with the lights low or completely of or outdoors at night.

 Professionals Are Using Smart Phones for Assignments. Here a videographer taps the screen to control focus and exposure at a blues concert. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Smart Phones Cell phones, while originally designed for talking, now come with complete video capability. Tey have features that even high-end mirrorless digital single-lens refex (DSLR) cameras don’t possess. Tese sophisticated cell phones can shoot high-defnition (HD) video. Tey can even record extremely sharp video with 4K (400,000 pixels) or more per frame (see page 140 for more about 4k). Te modern cell phones can record not only video but also have potential to mount microphones which allow you to record professional quality sound as well. Many even allow you to manually focus by touching the screen. Some allow you to electronically control the blurriness of the background even after you have flmed a scene. Most smart phones have a builtin light for shooting in dark areas. With these devilishly capable devices, if you have small enough fngers for the task, you can even edit your video directly on the phone itself. Ten you can share your Oscar winner or breaking news exclusive by simply sending it to a friend or post it on social media. You can also upload it to a dedicated video Internet site such as YouTube or Vimeo. If your video is newsworthy enough, you can email it to your local news station or live stream it. A cell phone is small and compact. It’s with you most of the time. For that reason alone, many users fnd the cell phone preferable to stand-alone video cameras or mirrorless cameras that shoot video. Because you can send video directly from your cell phone, many users prefer these devices over other types of video cameras. You can, as mentioned above, also plug external

 Lenses for the Smart Phone. Cell-phone manufacturers are adding more and more built-in lenses to their top-end smart phones. Today, some phones come with a super wide angle, wide angle, and semi telephoto. A simple touch on the screen allows you to change from one focal length lens to another. With some models you can switch seamlessly from one lens focal length to another while recording.

wired and wireless mics into your cell phone so that you can record professional-level audio. Some users even buy additional addon lenses that range from a fsh eye with a 170-degree feld of view to a telephoto that zooms in for close-ups. Make sure the add-on lenses don’t degrade the sharpness of the image. Tip: Download smart-phone video apps such as Filmic Pro to have manual control over the shutter speed and sensitivity of the sensor or ISO (also called gain). With this app you can also control color balance, external mics, frame rate, resolution, stabilization, etc. Tip: Buy a smart phone with enough storage to shoot hi-end video. If your smart phone accepts memory cards, buy the biggest you can aford. Also back up existing photos and video before a shoot so you can free up space if needed.

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Video is a memory hog. You never have enough. For the $64,000 question … Do smart phones take video with the same quality as mirrorless or digital single-lens refex (DSLR) cameras? Comparison tests have shown that with the latest, high-end smart phones, the quality of the video, when used in a good lighting situation, is equal to a full-blown, stand-alone, digital camera. In certain circumstances judges rated smart-phone images even better than the competition. One thing is sure: smart phones are more and more pervasive. Te number of homemade videos shot with cell phones on YouTube alone is staggering.

 Smart phone.

Smart-Phone Video Cameras: Advantages • With you all the time • Light and small • Fantastic quality with good light • People mistake you for an amateur and don’t notice you as you shoot • Edit immediately in the feld • Send footage to the world from any cellphone connection • Broadcast live (live stream) from anywhere, anytime • Ability to add external mics for professional-level audio • Automatically or manually adjust exposure, color balance, and focus • Electronically produced blurry backgrounds (shallow depth of feld). See page 112 for more about this topic. • Choice of formats 720p, 1080p, 4K, etc., and even ProRes, a popular format used by pros • Slow mo + stop action • Many companies ofering unlimited “addons” for smart phones, including lenses, gimbals, microphones, and various kinds of mounting devices specifcally for phones Smart-Phone Video Cameras: Disadvantages • Te screen is difcult to view in bright sunlight • You can’t adjust the angle of the screen for low- and high-angle shooting • You can’t interchange lenses • Manual focusing is more difcult • Quality can decrease with some smart phones when shooting in very low light levels like night scenes and poorly lit interiors • Need an app like Filmic Pro to monitor the sound levels as you record the video • Built-in microphones inadequate for the best audio quality when shooting video • Small sensor Keep your mind open to the advantages of using smart phones for shooting your next project. Te automatic and manual controls on these highend smart phones are constantly improving.

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• • • • •

 Digital single-lens refex camera.

DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Refex) Cameras Several cameras capture still images and video as well. Tese cameras are a still/video hybrid. With their remarkable capabilities to shoot under low light and to shoot with a really shallow depth-of-feld (see page 112), the camera makes it extremely easy for videographers to take beautiful cinematic videos. Large sensor digital single-lens refex (DSLR) cameras have chips that can record video at frame sizes equal to 35 mm flm. Te result of using this large frame is images that can be shown on huge home screens or even in a movie theater. You can interchange lenses, capture audio, and monitor the sound while you record with digital single-lens refex cameras. Many of these cameras have fip-out liquid crystal display (LCD) screens for ease in shooting high and low angles. Some of these cameras have two separate focusing systems: one for stills in which the photographer views the world through the lens; another for video where the mirror is locked up and the photographer views the world on a highresolution electronic viewfnder (EVF) or a LCD digital screen. Hybrid Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) Cameras: Advantages • Compact in size • Relatively lightweight • Interchangeable lenses • Record at a range of resolutions—high defnition to 8K (8,000 pixels) • Adjustable color pallet including photo styles from normal to vivid, cinematic, or even black and white, etc. • Automatic focus locks in on a face, eyes, or tracks a moving subject

• • •

Adjustable LCD viewing screen can be tilted up or down Records in diferent formats including MOV, MP4, AVCHD, etc. Range of shutter speeds Professional-quality images equal to Hollywood standards Diferent types of internal stabilization— lens, body, electronic Shoots both video and stills Full 35 mm frame size sensor Can easily blur the background (shallower depth-of-feld) (see page 112)

Hybrid Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) Cameras: Disadvantages • Some of these models allow the photographer to shoot continuously only 29 minutes of video • Camera controls for video are often found on screen menus rather than as dedicated buttons on the camera body • Te focusing system is awkward for shooting video • Control over audio recording is often limited and buried in internal camera menus • Some exposure control techniques like use of “zebras” (lines on the screen to indicate over-exposure; see page 117), are absent • Ergonomically these cameras are not designed to shoot video steadily over long periods of time—they don’t rest on your shoulder like traditional videocam cameras • Several manufacturers say that they will discontinue making DSLR cameras in the future • News videographers sometimes prefer video cameras that rest on their shoulder— they fnd the shoulder-mount camera more comfortable and stable for shooting over long periods of time • Some one-man-band photographers like the built-in zoom lens of a dedicated video camera • By not having to change lenses they avoid getting dust on the sensor, especially in windy conditions • Cameras are not equipped to record two audio channels without additional external hardware

 Hybrid digital single-lens refex camera.

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Mirrorless Digital Single-Lens Refex (DSLR) Cameras Many mirrorless DSLR cameras were designed specifcally to shoot video. Tey overcome some of the limitations of the traditional DSLR camera listed above. With the mirrorless DSLR, the videojournalist sees the exact world the camera is recording. Te videographer is viewing the world with an electronic view fnder (EVF) or an electronic LCD screen. Tis arrangement is perfect for recording video since the photographer is observing exactly what the image will look like as it is captured by the camera. What this means is you can accurately see and even correct the white balance and exposure before you record a clip. Mirrorless cameras are built from the ground up to shoot video as well as stills with the simple twist of a knob. Some mirrorless cameras have one fxed zoom lens. With others, the photographer can change lenses. Having to lug around a huge, heavy camera can sometimes be exceptionally uncomfortable. One of the biggest plus points of having a mirrorless camera is its comparatively smaller size. Since it does not have a mirror, it is usually smaller and lighter than a DSLR camera. Almost all mirrorless cameras are now equipped with two separate focus detection systems. With a double system these cameras can automatically focus both rapidly and accurately. Mirrorless Cameras: Advantages • Lighter and smaller than DSLR camera • No mechanical shutter to break • High shutter speeds for slow-motion photography • Fast, accurate focus that lets the user know when the image is sharp

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Built-in electronic view fnder (EVF). You see exactly what you are going to record. Diferent types of in-body image stabilization (IBIS)—lens, body, electronic cropping Less obtrusive and attention-seeking Same advantages as DSLR Record at a range of resolutions—HD to 8K Wide color pallet Focuses automatically on face and tracks moving subject Interchangeable lenses Flexible-angle viewing screen Records in a range of formats, MOV, MP4, AVCHD, etc. Shoots both video and stills Very wide range of shutter speeds from hours to thousandths of a second Professional-level quality Two popular sensors: full 35 mm flm size sensor and 4/3 of full-size sensor Shoots slow-mo Modify the camera settings—some have as many as 300 menu options with custom settings

Mirrorless (and DSLR) Cameras: Disadvantages • News videographers sometimes prefer video cameras that rest on their shoulder— they fnd the shoulder-mount camera more comfortable and stable for shooting over long periods of time • Some one-man-band photographers like the built-in zoom lens of a dedicated video camera—by not having to change lenses they avoid getting dust on the sensor, especially in windy conditions • Cameras are not equipped to record two audio channels without additional external hardware

 Mirrorless digital singlelens refex camera.  Mirrorless camera.

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Camcorders Basic Description Manufacturers have produced a wide range of models ofering a vast array of diferent features, but the function of camcorders continues to serve primarily for recording moving images and sound for video. Single-purpose video cameras provide an ease of use for capturing high-quality images for documentary shooting. A camcorder ofers another advantage: powered, variable-speed zoom control. With a camcorder’s rocker switch, you can create smooth, slow zooms to reveal and introduce a location, or quick punch-ins to highlight action. Zooming a lens by hand is much more difcult to do precisely and smoothly. Often these cameras have only one permanently attached lens. Usually, this lens zooms from a wide angle to telephoto. Since you don’t have to change lenses, the camera is easy to use in the feld. Not having to change lenses avoids the problem of dust getting on your sensor. Higher-end camcorders have dual XLR (professional sound recording) inputs and can record a range of formats. Camcorders: Advantages • Simple to use • Easy to hold even for long periods of time • Better quality than a smart phone when walking with the camera • All in one unit—start shooting right out of the box • Has motorized optical zoom lens • Zoom lens usually covers an extended range from wide angle to telephoto • Safe from dust getting on the sensor • Relatively lightweight • Screen built in • Auto everything • Night vision for shooting in low light • Easy to reach controls • Ideal for vlogging • Inexpensive compared to other camera options • Some cameras have built into the lens optical image stabilization (OIS)

 Compact Camcorder.

Camcorders: Disadvantages • Cannot shoot still pictures with the same shutter, f-stop and gain/ISO controls as a DSLR or mirrorless camera • Cannot change lenses • Some cameras have a limited zoom range • Smaller sensor size • Poorer quality in low light without night vision • Lack internal stabilization

 Camcorder.

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Tese cameras ofer many ways to confgure the software to produce a wide range of cinematic “looks” or styles. Tey can accurately capture a complete array of colors while keeping skin tones neutral. With its large sensor and powerful software these cameras can produce a video that has the look of a movie shot on traditional flm.

 Digital cine camera.

Digital Cine Cameras Cine cameras sometimes have unique names like “the Red” or “Blackmagic,” “Z Cam,” or more prosaic names like the Canon 300, Panasonic Varicam, or the Sony 7S7. Cine cameras are often just a camera housing with no lens and no viewing screen. Tey do ofer impressive cinematography for indie and big-studio movie productions. A cine camera is a professional video camera with a relatively large image sensor capable of capturing footage that looks like it was shot on traditional 35mm flm. Te size of the sensor is equal to or larger than the sensor found on a single-lens refex or mirrorless camera. Like DSLR and mirrorless digital cameras, they use interchangeable lens systems. However, dedicated cine cameras have more powerful image processors, record videos in ways that compress data with higher speed, and have more robust sound-capture features. Te cine camera with its larger sensors can shoot at high resolution so the images can be shown on a movie theater’s widest screen. Te larger sensor allows this type of camera to capture a wide dynamic range from light to dark. Te camera can record detail in a scene that has both a sun-drenched beach as well as deepshadowed forest all in the same scene. Tese sole-purpose cine cameras often have built-in neutral density flters. Tis means that even outdoors you can decrease the light reaching the camera’s sensor while still using wide-aperture (iris) settings to create the shallow depth-of-feld efect (see page 112). Tese dedicated video cameras also have secure locking ports for audio. Tey often have XLR connections for reliable sound gathering without unwanted static. Tese single-purpose cameras usually have more controls readily available on the body of the camera, negating the need to open a screen and run through a menu to fnd the needed knob or button.

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Digital Cine Cameras: Advantages • 35mm sensor • Hand-held design—comfortable over long periods • Braces against your chest or shoulder • Can use a variety of lenses—specifc to manufacturer or cinema lenses • Super 35 mm sensor • Range of formats HD and 4K • Delivers bokeh or depth-of-feld efect defocused background shallow depth of feld (see page 112) • Relatively high ISO • High frame rate gives slow-mo efect • Change lenses, viewing screens, other accessories • Built-in ND flters • Four-channel audio input • Professional video out connections like SDI and HDMI • Range of cameras including those for capturing RAW data at high resolutions • Some models have the preferred global shutter rather than a rolling shutter Digital Cine Cameras: Disadvantages • Cost, cost, cost • Larger body makes it not as ergonomically easy to use as a mirrorless camera • Not designed to shoot stills • Needs an external monitor to view the image • Requires large heavy lenses • Sometimes requires a support system like a cage to attach external monitor and mics • Heavy tripod required

 Digital cine camera.

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Shoulder-Mount Video Cameras Shoulder-mount camcorders are designed specifcally and exclusively for shooting video. Tey are used extensively by both local broadcast television stations and national news channels. Tese electronic news gathering cameras are the culmination of 70 years of perfecting equipment for this sole task. News videographers often prefer this camera because they can rest it on their shoulder. Tey can shoot without a tripod and still get steady images. Also their shoulder helps to support the weight of the camera. Tese cameras are especially rugged, lasting years with everyday usage in spite of covering in the rain, wind, snow, riots, fres, and accidents. Tey can be easily adapted to send a live signal through a relay back to the television station. Many digital camcorders have a built-in zoom lens. Some lenses range from 25.5mm to 382.5mm (35mm-equivalent) focal range. Te viewing screen is integral to the camera body. Tey can record high-end 4K video and are relatively compact. Te camera has a powered, variable-speed zoom control. With a camcorder’s rocker switch, you can create smooth, slow, or quick punch-ins to highlight action. Zooming a lens by hand is much more difcult to do precisely and smoothly. Te number one reason to buy a camcorder today is for the lens. Shoulder-Mount Video Cameras: Advantages • 1080/60p recording • Includes various network connections, such as wired/wireless LAN, 4G/LTE, and Bonding Services with LiveU, TVU Networks, and more • Highly reliable: can resist shocks (up to 1500 G) and vibrations (up to 15 G) • 4K HDR video recording and support • Interchangeable lenses on some models, features optical magnifying system • Direct live streaming compatible with RTSP/RTMP/RTMPS • Ergonomically designed shoulder mount optimized for news, documentary, and sports coverage

 Professional shouldermount camcorder.

Camcorders: Disadvantages • Often big and bulky—7.5 lbs plus • Heavy to carry • Usually require a tripod if recording lasts for a long period of time • Autofocusing systems not as fast and accurate as mirrorless camera systems • Sensitivity for low light less than a mirrorless camera • Some models require brand-specifc memory cards • Awkward for shooting in tight places • Hard to hold above your head for long periods of time • Can’t shoot still photos • Expensive, expensive, expensive—usually purchased by companies, broadcast stations, or networks

 Shoulder Mounted HD Video Camera.

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SPECIALTY VIDEO CAMERAS For some stories a standard video camera won’t sufce. You need a specialty camera.

Action Video Cameras “A couple of years ago, everyone had a GoPro and they were sticking a GoPro on their dog and on everything else,” said Will Yurman, early technology adopter and former photographer at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Suppose you are assigned to do a video about a bicycle racer. Of course, you could record the racer just from the sidelines. You could, in addition, mount an action camera on the handlebars of the racer’s bike or helmet and let the viewer

 GoPro HERO10: Summer Reel in 5K—CINEMATIC. Without using a special waterproof housing you can use an action video to shoot underwater. You can dive down to about 33 feet. Ensure that the door latch is closed before jumping in.

GoPro HERO10: Summer Reel in 5K – CINEMATIC. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uUyBa7Qf5bI

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 Waterproof Action Camera.

see the world from the rider’s point of view. Te resulting footage might be harrowing as the cyclist takes a sharp turn down a cobblestone street or aggressively goes for a spot in the peloton against other competitive riders. Action cameras often come with a wideangle lens. Tey are easy to mount on any surface from a ski helmet to a car hood. Some makers advertise 30 ways to mount their cameras to any imaginable surface. Action cameras can shoot time lapse (sometimes called time warp) and slow-motion video. Tey often have internal stabilization. Some action cameras are waterproof to 33-plus feet. And just like the U.S. Post Ofce motto, they are rugged enough to deliver in rain, sleet, or snow. While action cameras can record sound, this element of the video camera is not their strongest suit. However, with some action cameras, you can use an external mic or even a wireless mic to record clean audio. Note: Te battery life of an action camera is short. Tese camera/battery combos are not designed to record long-winded speeches by politicians. Some videographers use the action camera as a second or third camera for a multi-camera shoot. Tey are easy to set up and work well if you need the additional wide-angle view while you are shooting an interview.

 You can attach an action camera to almost anything.

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 Four examples of 360 cameras.

360 Cameras

What Is a 360 Video? https://www.studiobinder.com/ blog/what-is-360-video. —Barcelona spain from the air

360 video and virtual reality (VR) are sometimes used synonymously, but the key diference is in the way these videos are viewed and how much the viewer can interact within the space. A 360 video viewed on a computer screen, headset, or smart phone allows for observational experience with limited interaction beyond moving your head or scrolling through the spherical space. Virtual reality is most often a computergenerated scene viewed through a VR headset, like an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, and allows for much more interactivity by the viewer.

 What Is a 360 Video?  Times Square New York photographed with a 36-degree camera.

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Note: David Stephenson, assistant professor, School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, says, “New tools for storytelling are coming out every day it seems and I want my students to think hard about how they could be used in nonfction storytelling or publishing. I don’t want them to be afraid of it.” Stephenson asks, “Will people be consuming news or flms in the metaverse in the future?”

 David Stephenson, University of Kentucky assistant professor,  instructs his students how to fy a 360 camera and then how to use the “tiny planet” editing technique.

 After shooting a 360 photo or video, some editing software allows you to zoom in or out of the image or video clip. This gives the image the “tiny planet” look, which makes the image appear much like the cover of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The efect occurs when you zoom all the way out.

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Drones with Video Cameras “What does a drone add to a story?” asks Shefte of the Washington Post. She notes that it was a trendy thing. Te Washington Post was using drones for all kinds of news. “Tey do give the story context,” she notes. “Tere’s a lot of stuf that we have to tell stories about that there’s not a lot of visuals to work with, so drones can be a nice tool.” So valuable, in fact, that Shefte even got her drone license with the FAA. A drone for a videographer is like shooting from a helicopter but cheaper. Drones can  A drone is easy to fy but watch out for local restrictions.

 The world seen from a drone (Photo by Gaëtan Piolot)

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deliver super image and video quality. Tey have high-resolution cameras, optical zoom features, extended fight time, and relatively long range. Tey can hover in place, track a subject and then return to their original takeof location. Te stabilization system in drones is remarkable at producing smooth-looking video. Drones cost between $50 and $50,000 depending on size and features. You can fy a drone as a hobbyist without a license, but you need a license to fy if you are shooting video professionally.

Keep in mind there are a lot of restricted air spaces where you cannot fy a drone legally. Some of the restricted spaces are obvious like locations that contain lots of people or locations near airports. Some are less obvious like certain federally owned lands such as national parks.

The Quack Attack Is Back. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=oIoBwLK8JqM

Our greatest action drone shots. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=n_GkpkanNJI

 Before the development of the drone you would have had a difcult time putting a camera in just the right location for this shot. (Photo by Gaëtan Piolot)

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FAA RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FLYING DRONES

 Make sure to consult the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restrictions in your area before fying your drone.

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

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Keep your drone within the visual line of sight or use a visual observer who is co-located (physically next to) and in direct communication with you. Give way to and do not interfere with manned aircraft. Fly at or below 400 feet in controlled airspace (Class B, C, D, and E) only with prior authorization by using LAANC or DroneZone. Fly at or below 400 feet in Class G (uncontrolled) airspace. Note:  Flying drones in certain airspace is not allowed. Classes of airspace and fying restrictions can be found on the free B4UFLY app or the UAS Facility Maps webpage. Take the Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST) and carry proof of test passage. Have a current registration, mark your drones on the outside with the registration number, and carry proof of registration with you.  Do not operate your drone in a dangerous manner. For example: Do not interfere with emergency response or law enforcement activities. Do not fy under the infuence of drugs or alcohol.

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TRY THE VIDEO CAMERA BEFORE YOU BUY Whether you are buying a high-end smart phone, a mirrorless single lens refex, a drone or an action camera, you will save yourself a lot of time and money if you experiment with the camera before you buy it.  “It’s good to try out a camera before you buy one,” says Lisa Berglund, a former director of photography at KNSD-TV San Diego, California, and the frst woman to win the National Press Photographers Photographer of the Year award. Berglund now is a senior producer at World Vision. You can borrow the camera from a friend or rent it from a production house, or check it out from your school’s loan ofce. “Try out the camera before you buy it. It could save you lots of headache, time, and money in the future. When you actually use a camera model you will quickly notice a camera’s strengths and limitations. You can evaluate a camera’s quality to see if it suits your style of shooting and or your immediate project.” 

Finding a Camera That Fits You Some cameras ft in your hands like soft kid gloves. Others seem clunky and confusing. Questions to ask yourself. Where are the camera’s controls located? Where are the important buttons and switches placed on the camera body? Are the controls buried in a series of menu items that you must scroll through on the camera’s viewing screen? Use Internet forums to learn about other shooters’ opinions. Read the reviews carefully and watch the YouTube videos religiously. Before buying, download and study the camera’s manual. When purchasing your own video camera, ask for the advice of pros. Keep lists of brands you see. Check of what each one ofers. Ten, after due analysis, choose the one that’s right for your personal and professional needs.

 Pygmies Tame Wild African Bees. Ken Kobré wears a bee suit while flming the wild African bee. The video camera was difcult to use while wearing protective clothing. Always try out a video camera before you buy it. See if the controls are in an easy place to reach. Feel the weight of the camera to see if you could carry it all day.

Pygmies Tame Wild African Bees. https://vimeo.com/279236786 

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 You can use the camera’s controls to adjust brightness, focus, color, and many other aspects of the picture or you can leave the camera on automatic and let it make the decisions. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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7

Controlling Focus and Exposure

O

n some smart phones and video cameras the only decision you need to make is how to switch the on/of button. Tat’s an easy choice to make.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is much more elaborate equipment that allows you to undertake a multitude of decisions. Better-performing cameras include giving the videographer a choice between automatic features and manual controls over focus and exposure, as well as a slew of other variables. Whenever a videographer shoots a scene, they must make sure two aspects of the camera are adjusted correctly: the sharpness of the picture, also known as its focus, and its brightness, DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-7

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also referred to as its exposure. Tis chapter will compare using auto versus manual controls for focus and exposure.

How to Manual Focus a DSLR Camera – Full Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=C-o-HOU6GVI

Everyone likes to watch sharp videos. No one likes to look at blurry ones. Te human mind instinctively seeks out the sharpest image in a scene and ignores the rest. You can use the human trait to search for focus when you record a scene. You can control who in your picture will be sharp and who will be blurry by where and how you focus the camera. Let’s say you are recording a dog trainer working with a tiny Yorkshire Terrier. Te little dog is in the foreground with the trainer walking behind the pooch. Te focus point you choose will unconsciously control the viewer’s attention. Do you want the viewer to pay attention to the dog or the trainer? Your choice will completely change the emphasis of the clip you are shooting. To control the viewer’s attention on one part of the scene or another you must focus the camera either manually or use the camera’s automatic focus features. You must check focus and refocus, if necessary, on every single clip you record. Sometimes, if your subject is moving, you must readjust the focus while the camera is recording. Tis is called follow focus and takes a bit of practice to accomplish manually. High-end video cameras can follow focus automatically and accurately once they lock onto the critical subject.

Manual Focus John Goheen, a 12-time Emmy winner, has shot for 30 years. He has never used autofocus. He manually focuses every shot, as do many longtime professional television and feature fullmovie shooters. Watch How to Manual Focus a DSLR Camera – Full Tutorial and Manual Focus vs Autofocus for Video – Why You Shouldn’t Autofocus.

Manual Focus vs Autofocus for Video – Why You Shouldn’t Autofocus. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=E453u8REkck

Manual Focusing Aids

 On many video cameras you can focus manually or automatically. Pros prefer manual but automatic works well in most fast-moving situations.

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Because nothing kills audience interest in your video quicker than blurry images, camera manufacturers have come up with ways to aid you when you manually focus a scene.

Edge Detection/Peaking Some cameras have an electronic edge detection program (sometimes called Edge Detection Focus Detail or EDF DTL or Peaking). In the LCD screen or viewfnder, with this option chosen, the edge of a subject that is in focus appears rimmed in a bright color. Te tinted colored outline allows you to see which parts of the picture are precisely in-focus. Tis outline color does not appear in the fnal video footage. Te color gives you, the videographer, confdence that the subject you want the audience to notice will be sharp. Edge detection or peaking makes manual focusing easier and faster, and will leave you more assured that your video is in focus. In fact, a brief glance at your LCD screen will let you know if the peaking outlines are outlining a tree branch in the background, a fowerpot in the foreground, or the key personality you want to emphasize. Watch Peaking Highlights: Using Focus Peaking During Manual Focus.

Focus Assist  Magnifer Some cameras ofer a focus assist switch that temporarily magnifes images in the viewfnder and on the LCD screen for the sole purpose of helping you focus manually—without changing the actual image being recorded. Activating this option momentarily magnifes the scene on the screen to make manual focusing easier. Manual focus takes time, requires practice, and challenges the camera operator when the subject is moving. Here are the steps pros like Goheen use to achieve sharp results with manual focus for an interview before starting to shoot: • • • •

• • • • •

Turn on the camera. Locate the focus control. Set the focus to manual (M). Either look through the camera’s viewfnder or watch the image on the LCD screen. Pros using a camcorder-type camera tend to use the viewfnder, claiming that the image is sharper and more precise for critical focusing than on the LCD screen. Tat claim may no longer be valid when LCD screen resolutions improve. Enlarge the face with the magnifer button or zoom ring. Focus by turning the focus ring on the lens. Adjust the ring until the subject’s eyelashes are perfectly sharp. Zoom out to achieve the original composition and framing you want. Begin shooting.

 Some cameras have an edge detection/peaking feature that lets you know which elements of the image will be in focus. In this example, the red lines indicate that the church and mountain behind it will be sharp.

Peaking Highlights: Using Focus Peaking During Manual Focus. https://imaging.nikon.com/support/digitutor/z_7II_z_6II/techniques/201801_22_11_ml.html

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RACK FOCUS

The Rack Focus: How to Guide Viewers’ Eyes with a Shot List. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Kb8QmEZjcto

Rack Focus on a Smart Phone. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=RH5THXEL1ac

 Rack Focus on a Smart Phone. You can control the viewer’s center of attention by changing the point of focus. Here the photographer racked focus  between the redhead and the blonde. You can rack focus as the camera is rolling or between shots. The efect works best when you are fairly close to the nearest subject, and you have a narrow zone of focus.

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Autofocus for Fast-Moving Situations Maintaining sharp focus on a subject coming toward the camera can be difcult with manual focus. If a politician is walking towards you as you shoot on manual, you have to constantly refocus as that person gets closer and closer. Tis type of follow focus requires a high degree of eye–hand control. While practice helps, the challenge remains. Autofocus might be a better option than manual focus in this situation. In fact, try autofocus for fashion shows, sports, street altercations, or other fast-moving situations when you will not have time to follow focus manually.

Five Scenarios When Autofocus Is Better than Manual Focus. https://noflmschool.com/5scenarios-when-autofocusbetter-manual-focus

Selecting the Focus Area You can tell the camera where you want to focus. With some cameras you can just touch the LCD viewing screen. By touching the place you want to be in focus the camera automatically adjusts the lens. Other cameras let you toggle a joystick which moves a small, boxed outline on the screen over the area you want to be sharp. If you are photographing the head of a horse you can frame up the image and then by touching the animal’s eye on the screen, or toggling the focus box indicator, the camera will focus most sharply on that area. If you then want the horse’s nose in focus you can select that area and the camera will sharpen the horse’s nostrils while leaving the horse eyes a bit blurred.  Once autofocus has locked onto your primary subject, like this woman in red, she will stay in focus as she moves toward the camera without the videographer needing to adjust the focus ring.

Autofocus In many circumstances, you can just put the camera on continuous autofocus and shoot. You do, however, have to constantly monitor the screen or viewfnder to make sure the camera is producing the results you want. Without any other direction from you, the camera will usually focus on the subject or object that is nearest the lens.

Mastering Subject-Tracking AF. https://imaging.nikon.com/support/digitutor/z_7II_z_6II/techniques/202003_29_02_ml.html

Tracking  Autofocus An even more precise focusing option is called “focus tracking.” A camera’s processor analyzes a moving subject and predicts where the subject will move in the next second in order to maintain focus. Tracking allows you to select a subject on the camera’s screen or viewfnder. Your selection tells the camera what you want to keep in focus. As the subject moves the camera’s focus point tracks the subject. At a football game, for instance, autofocus tracking allows videographers to follow a tight-end football player as he goes out for the pass, catches it, and then zigs and zags his way to the end zone.

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Autofocus tracking can fool you sometimes. Suppose the player with the ball, in the example above, runs behind the referee on the way to the end zone. Te camera could switch focus from the football player to the referee. Te resulting footage would show the player sharp up until he crossed behind the referee. Ten he would look blurry as the camera locked focus on the referee. To avoid this mistake, use the “lock-on” feature, if available, that lets the camera follow a moving subject but continues to follow that subject even if another person or object passes in front of the lens.

Face Autofocus Detection Some autofocus cameras employ face recognition software that literally recognizes and then hones the focus in on a human face. In Face Detection mode your camera is programmed to recognize the mouth, nose, and eyes of a person. If you are videotaping a scene of people munching away on sandwiches at a picnic, the camera will distinguish between the delicious pastrami and the participant’s blue eyes. Some cameras will draw a focus box in the viewfnder around each of the faces in the scene. Ten you can select which face you want to focus on. Even if the person moves left or right, the camera will continue to hold sharp focus on that happy diner’s expression.

 Face Detection. Today’s video cameras can automatically detect faces and even eyes. Some cameras draw a box around the subject’s face that will be sharp. The subject’s face remains sharp even if he or she moves. Often you can select which face you want sharp just by tapping the person’s image on the display screen.

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Eye Autofocus Detection Camera manufacturers ofer even fner focus detection by zeroing in on the eyes of your subject. Tey use Eye AF (Eye Auto Focus) to detect and lock-on just the eyes and ignore everything else. If you are recording a tennis match, the camera can focus on the eyes of the player serving the ball and ignore the player’s tennis racket moving swiftly through the scene. Eye recognition is ideal because in most situations the videographer would like the eyes of the primary subject to be pinpoint sharp. Te viewer at home watching the match on their TV screen has a deep psychological need to see the eyes of the primary subject crystal clear in most video footage. Autofocus is remarkably good and often better and easier than manual focus, but it’s certainly not perfect in all situations. However, for the one-man-band shooting on the go who is faced with simultaneously controlling exposure, sound levels, framing, and interviewing, consider autofocus. Te autofocus option makes it possible to better manage all the various responsibilities of a videographer and produce sharp footage, as well.

WHEN AUTOFOCUS FAILS

Manual Focus Necessary for Interviews

Autofocus can be fooled. Under certain circumstances, autofocus does not perform well. Tat’s why it is not a panacea for all situations. In these circumstances, seasoned professional videojournalists use either a combination of autofocus and manual focus or just manual focus.

Almost all pros switch to manual focus for recording interviews. In classic interview setup, the camera is on a tripod and the subject sitting in a chair or standing. Te person remains at a fxed distance from the camera throughout the interview. If the camera is left on autofocus and the subject moves slightly then the focus mechanism hunts for a new point of focus. If the subject rocks backward or forward just slightly, the camera automatically searches for a new focus point. On the screen, the subject—the interviewee— melts in and out of focus. Te efect is annoying. Tis is the reason pros select manual focus over autofocus for interviews.

 It can be hard to shoot through a window because autofocus can mistakenly focus on the dirt on the glass instead of focus on the trees outside.

 For interviews, most pros avoid autofocus. If, during an interview, the subject rocks back and forth even a little, the autofocus can kick in and start searching, causing the image to go in and out of sharpness. That is why pros prefer manually focusing for interviews.

 Autofocus can be fooled in low light-level situations.

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 Exposing for the Highlight. The videographer exposed for the bright building in the background. This left the fgure of the angel, blowing his trumpet, to appear dark. Had the videographer made the fgure of the angel lighter, the building in the background would have looked too light and washed out. Even if the exposure were a compromise between the building and the angel neither would look correctly exposed. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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EXPOSURE CONTROLS THE PICTURE’S BRIGHTNESS Manual Exposure with the Aperture When you go from sunny outdoors to your darkly lit bedroom—and back again—your pupils adjust quickly. Te size of your pupil automatically enlarges to let in more light when you enter a dark room. Your pupil narrows when you go back outside on a sunny day. A camera handles brightness changes with a device like the pupil in your eye. Te diaphragm, or adjustable hole, in a camera’s lens lets in more or less light. Te opening is called an iris in a video camera or an aperture in a still camera. Often manufacturers of hybrid cameras simply refer to both as the lens’s aperture. If you are not already familiar with these terms and their uses, they can be confusing. Aperture size is a fancy word for the size of the hole in the lens. You can adjust the size of the opening manually or automatically. A bigger opening lets in more light so the image will be brighter. A smaller opening lets in less light making the picture darker.

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Adjusting the aperture on your camera not only allows you to get the correct exposure, but it also provides creative control of how your shots look and how viewers respond. As with still cameras, the diameter of the aperture is described as changes in f-stops, also called f-numbers. A larger f-stop or number, like f/16, allows less light to reach the camera’s sensor. A smaller f-stop number, like f/2, under the same circumstances lets in more light. Tip: Te reason for this seemingly backward and very confusing f-stop marking system is that f/16 really represents the fraction 1/16. Likewise, f/2 actually represents the fraction 1/2. One-half of course, is bigger than one-sixteenth, so that is why the aperture at f/2 lets in more light than the aperture at f/16. Over the years, the industry convention has dropped the fraction and retained just the bottom number: f/2 and f/16.

 f/2.8

 f/4

 Inside most camera lenses is a diaphragm that opens and closes. In this camera the diaphragm consists of fve overlapping blades. The hole that is left in the middle of the diaphragm is called the aperture. When it is small it does not let in much light. When the diaphragm is large a lot of light passes through it. By adjusting the size of the aperture, the photographer can control the brightness of the picture.  f/5.6

 f/8

 f/11

 Each lens above is set to a diferent-sized aperture (hole) letting in more or less light. An f-stop (hole) of f/1.8 lets in the most light. An f-stop (hole) of f/22 lets in the least amount of light.

 f/16

 f/22  You can control the brightness of the image by adjusting the lens’s aperture (hole) from very wide to very narrow.

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DEPTH OF FIELD—BLURRING THE BACKGROUND Controlling the Audience’s Attention

How to Get a Blurry Background in Video – Depth of Field Tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IO-yiQavM2U

As noted earlier, the human eye naturally gravitates toward the part of a scene that is sharply focused—and glosses over what is blurry. Within the image frame, cinematographers and videographers use the eye’s instinctive reaction to control viewers’ attention. In a Hollywood movie the director wants the audience’s eye locked on the face of the beautiful, young ingénue. Te director

 Frame 1. The image has shallow depth of feld (zone of focus). The point of focus is the sunglasses but the faces in the foreground and background are both blurry. For this shot the lens was set to a wide aperture of f/2.

 Frame 2. The image has great depth of feld (zone of focus). The point of focus is still the sunglasses but the foreground and background are now sharp. For this shot the lens was set to a small aperture of f/16.

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wants the actresses’ eyes to captivate the audience. He does not want the audience’s attention drawn to the grafti on the wall behind her. Te director selects a wide aperture (wide opening) to give the fnal picture its shallow depth of feld. You can think of the technical term “depth of feld” as a zone of sharpness. In other words, the flmmaker adjusts the camera’s lens so only the actress is in sharp focus and the distracting wall behind her gets blurry and melts away. In today’s world, even the smart-phone photographer can accomplish the same efect.

Depth of feld, also called “bokeh efect,” is a technical term that means the “zone of sharpness” of an image—the area that is sharp in front of and behind the point on which you focused. Te demonstration photos above illustrate how adjusting the aperture controls depth of feld (zone of sharpness). Although a lens can focus on just one point at a time—the sunglasses in these pictures—the area in the pictures in front of and behind the sunglasses can also appear to be sharp, or it can be blurry, depending on depth of feld or zone of focus. Adjusting the size of the camera’s aperture alters the zone of sharpness. Closing the aperture to its smallest size (Frame 2, f/16) produces the greatest zone of sharpness. Te statues lined up before and after the sunglasses (the point of focus) are sharp. Opening the aperture to its widest limit (Frame 1, f/2) produces a narrow zone of sharpness, with only the point of focus, the sunglasses, remaining completely sharp. Factors that help give the shallow depth of feld (bokeh) look: • • • •

 This photo was taken with a smart phone. The faces are sharp from front to back.

Widest aperture Camera close to a subject Subject far from the background A telephoto lens

To keep the subject sharp but the foreground and background blurry (shallow depth of feld): • • • • •

Use the longest focal length possible (telephoto) Come as near as possible to your subject Subject far from the background Use the widest aperture possible (such as f/1.4, f/2 or f/2.8) Largest sensor

Watch How to Get a Blurry Background in Video – Depth of Field Tutorial.

 This photo was taken with the same smart phone as the one above. This time the photographer changed the settings and the camera blurred the background electronically. The photographer did not change the aperture (f-stop). This blurring, or bokeh efect, helps guide the reader’s attention.

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 Here the photographer has focused on the child throwing the frisbee. He is sharp while the people in the back are not.

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Achieving Narrow Zone of Sharpness Electronically Manufacturers of smart phones have developed an electronic technique to blur the background of an image. Traditionally, camera makers achieved this blurry background efect optically. Now they have created a “faux” depth of feld (see page 112) efect. Electronically, if you activate the option, the smart phone’s built-in computer blurs the background of the video through the magic of an algorithm. In other words, the smart phone’s on-board computer accomplishes the same shallow depth of feld or bokeh efect (see page 112) as that produced by an expensive large format camera

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and heavy lens. With the smart phone, the blurry background efect is electronically produced rather than optically produced. Without having to buy a bulky camera and weighty, expensive lens, the smart-phone videographer can produce stylish images that will pop the subject out from the background. Tis electronic control of the background’s blurriness is only available on certain high-end smart phones. Note that some videographers fnd that the electronically blurred background has an artifcial look and they don’t use it for professional assignments. However, as the computing power of smart phones improves, this issue should be resolved.

Dealing with Darkness Although auto-exposure works remarkably well, it has limitations. For instance, if light is streaming in from a picture window behind your subject the auto feature will darken down the image too much. Te camera’s electronics can’t read your mind or anticipate your personal vision for the shot. Te camera does not know how dark or bright you might want the overall look and feel of the footage. Te camera does not know when you want a silhouette and when you

want detail in the shadows. Only you can make those artistic choices—and this kind of creative input requires manually controlling the camera. You are the artist, journalist, producer, and photographer. You can’t blame poor footage on your equipment. If you see that the image is too light or too dark, you can adjust the exposure by opening or closing the aperture manually and letting in more or less light.

 Finding the right brightness for a night scene requires settings that will make the image dark enough to look like dusk but not so dark as to eliminate the sky in the background. Beside adjusting the aperture to let in more light you can change the sensor’s sensitivity. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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Controlling the Brightness by Changing ISO

 ISO 12800.

 ISO 800.

 ISO 6400.

 ISO 400.

 ISO 3200.

 ISO 200.

 ISO 1600.

 ISO 100.

 You can control the brightness of the picture by adjusting the sensitivity to light of the camera. You can select from ISO 50 to ISO 12800 or higher.  ISO 50.

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Besides adjusting the aperture, you can adjust the brightness of the picture by changing the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor. By making the camera’s sensor more light-sensitive you will brighten the picture. Te reverse is also true. Tis electronic sleight of hand is called adjusting the gain or ISO (International Organization of Standards) which determines how sensitive the electronic sensor is to light. Some cameras allow setting the gain or ISO manually to a higher level. Others do it automatically. Measured in some cameras from –6 to 18 dB, the gain is analogous to setting the ISO on a digital still or flm camera. Although auto-exposure also self-adjusts the gain, you can further fne tune the electrical sensitivity at which the camera will respond to the scene. You can set the gain manually. Cranking up the gain does increase the sensitivity of the sensor. It can also introduce more “electronic noise” into the footage. Te noise appears as unwanted gray or purple dots on the image. With cameras that have large sensors like a full-frame Digital Single-Lens Refex (DSLR) or a full-frame mirrorless camera you can increase the gain/ISO and not see any degradation of the image. Tese cameras can shoot outdoors at night with only the illumination coming from a streetlamp. Sometimes, of course, a little noise is the necessary trade-of for capturing footage in low light. Note: Most smart phones have a fxed aperture. Te aperture always remains wide open. Te videophone handles diferent brightness’s solely by adjusting the gain or ISO. Smart phones remove as much of the noise as they can electronically.

Using Exposure Creatively

Zebra Patterns Show Overexposure

McKenna Ewen, formerly with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, flmed in low light to tell the story of George Wurtzel, who lost his vision in his teens to retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. Te story is called Blind Woodworker Sees with His Hands. Although George Wurtzel lost his vision to a degenerative eye disease, he overcame the challenge and became a professional woodworker. Te low light level in Wurtzel’s shop gives viewers a feeling of working blind around power tools. Te video makes use of the faint light in the shop to give viewers a bit of the experience of what it must be like to cut wood without being able to see the fast-rotating saws and lathes.

Many photographers set their cameras for 70 percent zebra for a safety margin. Areas containing the pattern at this setting will appear light in the fnal footage but not blown out. Te zebra option ensures you don’t overexpose a scene. Overexposure cannot be fxed in post-production editing. Overexposure of your hard-to-get footage of the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro cannot be toned down later in “post.” Tip: In your desire to avoid overexposure, do not attempt to eliminate all zebra stripes. In general, a few highlights in the brightest part of the image, such as refections of a mirror or from silverware, are often desirable.

 Blind Worker Sees with His Hands. To emulate the world of the blind carpenter for the viewer, the videographer shot this scene with the man’s face rimmed with a sliver of light while the rest of his face and the background went completely dark.

Blind Woodworker Sees with His Hands. http://vimeo.com/98889112

 With the zebra stripes option turned on, a series of angled lines in the viewfnder or on the LCD screen will indicate the overexposed area. This is a danger zone. These striped lines are just visual warning cues for the videographer. They will not be part of the fnal image. With the camera set at 100 percent zebra the areas with undulating stripes cannot be saved during editing and will be completely washed out when the fnal footage is viewed.

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AUTO-EXPOSURE WORKS MOST OF THE TIME

How to Set Shutter Speed for DSLR Video. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EI4bpQmtJ7E

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Most smart phones and video cameras allow you to control how bright or dark you want your video. Te auto-exposure feature of many cameras is amazingly accurate. Travis Fox, who shot many video stories for the Washington Post and who now freelances for Frontline, sets his camera on automatic “Aperture priority.” Tis setting lets the camera adjust exposure automatically by changing the aperture of the lens. Sometimes, in extreme circumstances, a video camera may not be able handle the intense brightness. Even if the camera is at its smallest aperture, the image may still be too bright. To handle this problem, you might need a neutral density (ND) flter. Tink of a ND flter as neutral gray, colorless sunglass for your lens. ND flters cut the total amount of light entering the lens. By attaching an ND flter to the front of your lens you can shoot in almost any level of light. Some cameras have a built-in ND flter to reduce brightness. If the camera has built-in ND flters, a message usually appears on the LCD or viewfnder screen indicating how much fltration is necessary and which flter to select. Whether it’s a physical flter you add or an electronic adjustment, remember to remove the ND flter when moving to a darker environment. Tip: ND flters allow you to decrease the light reaching the sensor. You might want to lower the brightness of the image on the sensor in order to use a wider aperture and thus a narrower depth of feld (see page 112).

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

SHUTTER SPEED Many cameras allow you to change the “shutter speed.” Actually, modern video cameras don’t have a mechanical shutter. Instead, these camera let you turn the image sensor on and of very quickly and this acts as a shutter. Te “shutter speed” of a video camera usually stays open for 1/30 or 1/60 of a second per frame. Te industry norm recommends setting the shutter speed at double the frames per second (fps) rate. Normally, if you are shooting at 30 fps your shutter speed would be 1/60 second. Set the shutter speed and leave it constant for the entire shoot. Set it and forget it. Watch How to Set Shutter Speed for DSLR Video.

WHEN AUTOMATIC EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE OK. Now that you know how to use both manual and auto settings for focus, exposure, shutter speed, and gain, which choices are best for you? Some manufacturers have solved the problem for you by making their equipment completely automatic. If you are shooting with one of these cameras, you can stop reading here. Most higher-end smart phones and video cameras, however, ofer a range of manual and automatic controls. So when are you better of adjusting settings manually? When can you relax, put the camera on automatic and let it do the driving? Professionals usually recommend shooting video stories using the manual settings as often as possible. And the pros are right, of course. Practice shooting your camera on the manual settings whenever possible. But here’s a little secret: the auto controls in the latest sophisticated cameras are remarkable—for exposure and even focus. So clever are some of these cameras’ automatic settings that sometimes the camera’s choices are actually better than yours might be. Tis can be true

even when you don’t have enough time to set the controls yourself. Using automatic settings, you can be reasonably assured of capturing usable video footage without glaring brightness changes or seriously out of focus footage that can’t be corrected during post-production editing. It’s not easy for the solitary videojournalist to carry on an intelligent interview with thinking of follow-up questions while simultaneously fdgeting with focus, exposure, lighting, and sound levels. When you’re alone in the feld trying to do everything, the auto button on a good high-end camera is your best friend. When people see your video story broadcast or in a flm festival they won’t turn to their friends and ask, “Was that shot on automatic or was that shot on manual?” Whether they’re excited or bored by your piece, they are more likely to comment on its content or its storytelling success or failure. If shooting on automatic allows you to concentrate on what your characters are saying or helps you to observe and record what they are doing, go for automatic.

 By setting the camera on auto-exposure the photographer was able to capture this spontaneous moment without having to adjust any of the camera’s controls.

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 Lenses.  Many video cameras allow you to select a specifc focal length ranging from a wide angle to telephoto lens. With these cameras you can also opt for zoom lenses that cover various focal lengths.

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8

Selecting the Right Lens Length CAMERAS WITH ONE FIXED LENS VERSUS THOSE WITH INTERCHANGEABLE LENSES One Fixed Lens

Y

ou don’t have to use a fancy lens or even change lenses to shoot everything from close-ups to wide shots. To frame a close-up, just walk up near to your

subject. For a wide shot, back away as far as you possibly can. Being limited to a fxed lens is not as great a hindrance as you

might imagine. Using a camera with one lens, this writer produced a short video about a 300-year-old olive mill still powered by a water wheel that turns a huge millstone inside to crush the olives. For a detail shot of a worker’s face, the videojournalist DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-8

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 One lens.  This series of images was taken with a fxed focal-length lens. For close-ups the shooter brought the camera near to the subject and the olives. For a wider shot of staking the layers of crushed olives, pits and all, on the olive press the videojournalist backed of and stood on a chair. To capture the stone that grinds the olives, the videographer was able to stand back and include all the critical elements in the frame. (Photos by Ken Kobré)

 From Telephoto to Fisheye. With many video cameras you can change lenses, going from a fsheye (extreme wide angle) to a telephoto. Some fsheye lenses, like the one used to photograph this picture, appear to bend objects near the edge of the frame.

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approached him and held the video camera about three feet away. For an overall shot, the shooter backed up as far as possible in the room and held the camera as high as he could reach. Te fnal video might certainly have looked different had a larger camera with a built-in zoom lens or option of other interchangeable lenses been used, but the visuals from the one fxed lens looked entirely professional.

Interchangeable Lenses

TYPES OF LENSES

Some cameras have the advantage of an enormous assortment of lenses to use—from a fsheye that takes in a 180-degree view all the way to a 600mm telephoto that brings an eagle’s nest into easy view. Using the entire assortment of lenses available for the camera, however, does require removing one lens and putting on the next. Some videographers fnd this requirement stops the fow of their shooting, so they prefer using just one zoom lens that covers a wide range of focal length options.

Going Wide Angle Te wide-angle lens allows you to work in small, cramped spaces like this tiny bookshop. With the wide angle, the videojournalist can capture everything from precarious stacks of books to overfowing shelves without having to pan the camera. Many pros, regardless of the camera they’re using, employ a wide-angle lens most of the time. With a wide-angle lens, they can either fll the entire frame with their subject by standing extremely close or can stand back and take in the whole scene.

 With a wide-angle lens you show the entire room without having to pan the shot. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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 With a wide-angle lens you can capture grand vistas like this image of Les Gorges du Verdon in Southern France. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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When shooting outdoors to achieve a broad vista efect, the videographer can call on the same wide-angle lens used indoors. Capturing Les Gorges du Verdon, known as the Grand Canyon of France, required a wide-angle lens to take in the huge sweep of landscape that included the river, the pedal boats in the foreground, and the mountains in the distance.

Advantages of a wide-angle lens: • •

•

Wide-angle lenses take in a broad feld of view. Videojournalists say the wide-angle lens, which lets them work near their subjects, gives their pictures more of an intimate feel. Because this lens allows you to come in close, the viewer almost becomes a part of the conversation. When working in tight proximity to a subject, people irrelevant to the story can’t wander into the picture frame and block the camera’s view.

•

•

If using a wireless mic is impossible, shooting with a wide angle allows you to approach your subject and be near enough to record the person’s voice with the built-in or on-camera shot gun mic. Getting near a subject sometimes is the only way to get clear audio in the feld. A wide-angle lens allows for steadier handheld shots.

 The wide-angle lens included an area broad enough to catch this scene of a Japanese whaling vessel bearing down on a group of anti-whaling demonstrators. (Photo by Adam Lau)

Wide-angle lenses also exaggerate the feeling of depth in a picture. Subjects near the lens seem bigger and those in the rear are smaller than they would be in normal perspective. For the same reason, those subjects grow rapidly as they approach the camera, making them seem to move faster.

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TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT WIDE-ANGLE LENS MEDIUM TELEPHOTO LENS

 A wide-angle lens allows the photographer to come very close to a subject. The bottom of the cello nearest the lens looks overly large compared to the top. Notice the head of the musician appears to be tiny. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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A wide-angle lens close to the subject and pointed up or down distorts the person’s whole body. Standing on the ground and pointing a wide-angle lens up to include a building’s full height causes the structure to look as if it’s falling over. This happens with any lens, but the phenomenon is particularly exaggerated with a wide-angle lens because it allows the photographer to stand close to the base of the structure while still including the entire building in the image. It’s true that you can focus very close to a subject with a wide-angle lens. But the closer anything is to the lens, the bigger it will appear in the picture. Standing relatively close to and above someone and then tilting the camera down to include the subject’s full length will cause the person’s head to appear to be the size of a basketball and his feet small enough to ft into baby shoes. Obviously, try to avoid using the wide-angle lens when it distorts someone’s features.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

 This photo was taken with the lens about seven feet away from the subject.

 This photo was taken with the lens only about a foot from the subject. Note how the picture taken at close range distorts the subject’s face.

 This full-length photo was taken about seven feet away from the subject.

 This full-length photo was taken about a foot from the head of the subject. Compare the distortion in the two pictures.

 The photo of this cottage was taken about 15 feet away. Notice that the lines of the house are parallel.

 The photo was taken just a few feet from the cottage. Notice how the house appears to be leaning backwards.

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 A telephoto lens makes a far away and hard to reach subject, like this surfer, appear much closer. (Photo by Shmuel Thaler, Santa Cruz Sentinel)

How to Make Cinematic Shots with a Telephoto Lens. https://photography.tutsplus. com/tutorials/how-to-makecinematic-shots-with-atelephoto-lens--cms-57

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Telephoto Lenses Pulls In the Action Videographers use the telephoto lens to record telling details in a scene. Often a revealing detail like deep wrinkles in the face or callouses on the hands can tell a lot about a subject. Te detail might be a tattoo on the arm or doll on a shelf. Shooting a telling detail allows the videographer to draw attention to one element of the picture that might get lost without a separate shot. Te detail shot is needed to build a sequence that adds variety to a scene. When a photo’s subject is far away, a telephoto lens can be a videojournalist’s best friend. Tere are many circumstances when the photographer can’t get near a scene. For instance, at a crime scene, the police might have marked of an area with yellow tape and forbidden the press to cross the line. A telephoto lens might be mandatory to get a shot of the victim, the perpetrator, or just the cops investigating the scene.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Sometimes the photographer uses a telephoto to stay safe. During an intense riot, the telephoto comes in handy. Te long lens allows the videographer to shoot from across the street and stay safely out of the center of the action. For instance, during a clash between Israeli soldiers and protesters, many video shooters stood on a high hill above the two factions and safely recorded the scene. Shooting with a telephoto produces a distinct look. Suppose the videographer is covering the Israeli demonstration mentioned above. Because the videographer is farther away from the subjects using a telephoto lens the warring sides will appear to be closer together in the resulting video than if the same scene had been shot with a wide-angle lens and the videographer was standing near by the action. Te same efect occurs when two subjects are standing next to each other. Telephoto lenses, used at

some distance from the subject, give the appearance that subjects are standing close to one another. Te very long lens reduces the apparent distance between the two objects, concealing the fact that there was really a safe gap between them. Of course, wide-angle lenses have the opposite efect. Shot with a wide-angle, the couple will seem to be standing apart. Using telephoto lenses allows the videographer to isolate a subject from the surrounding background. Te longer the lens the more dramatic is the efect (see page 112). Particularly sports and wide life videographers use this feature to separate their subjects from a cluttered background.

Tip: Although you can get shaky video with any lens length, the problem is particularly exaggerated when you are using telephoto. For more about stabilization see pages 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 95, 99, 135, 134, 210 and 211. Watch How to Make Cinematic Shots with a Telephoto Lens.

 Because this photo was taken at a long distance from the horses, they appear to be almost neck and neck. In fact, if the same scenario was taken with a wide-angle lens the thoroughbreds would seem to be spread further apart.

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 Some zoom lenses go from medium wide-angle to short telephoto. Others cover a wider range of focal lengths.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) trailer. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=MBZ-POVsrlI

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Don’t Zoom When Recording

Some cameras allow the user to shift from a telephoto to a wide-angle shot simply by zooming the lens in or out. Changing the lens’s focal length allows the videographer to shoot a telephoto shot of one particular detail or without changing lenses shoot a wide-angle scene-setter. With some zoom lenses you must rotate the barrel by hand. Others have a motorized zoom. Tey have rocker switch or movable collar on the lens itself that allows the user to smoothly change the lens from wide angle to telephoto or vice versa. You can vary the speed of the zoom from a slow gradual zoom-in to fast sudden zoom.

Avoid zooming the lens while recording video. Zooming can give the picture a Blair Witch Project efect that connotes amateur production. Too much zoom can make the viewer feel seasick. Zoom the lens to the focal length you need, wide angle or telephoto or something in between, before you press the record button. Your viewers will appreciate this kindness.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Digital vs. Optical Zoom Some video digital cameras ofer two ways to zoom: optical and digital.  Optical zooms physically adjust the lens from wide angle to telephoto to enlarge the subject on the screen. Picture quality remains excellent. On the other hand, some cameras ofer digital zooms that create the illusion of coming closer by basically cropping out part of the image and enlarging what remains. Tis digitally cropped image thus has fewer pixels. Digital zooming results in unsatisfying blurry footage. Avoid the digital zoom like the plague.

KEEP IT STEADY SHOULDER THE BURDEN

 McKenna Ewen, CNN, covers Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. McKenna prefers to rest his rig on his shoulder. (Photo by John Sutter)

Three Legs Are Better than One Okay, admit it. You love the freedom of shooting video without a tripod. Go ahead, shout it from the rooftops. Everyone’s hands shake just a bit. Tis slight tremble is magnifed by the telephoto lens. Tis tremor can translate to images that bounce up and down. If you’re walking, using a telephoto lens and recording at the same time, the fnal footage can be decidedly stomach churning. Nothing screams “Amateur!” louder than shaky footage onscreen. An otherwise stationary

 Often video cameras used specifcally by local and network videographers are designed to rest on their shoulders. These news videojournalists prefer this camera design because its shape helps the photographers support the weight of the heavy video camera. They also note that with the camera resting on their shoulder they can record a shot more smoothly.

interview subject who appears to be weaving and bouncing on the screen is a sure-fre signal that the videojournalist was handholding the camera—and it’s a sure-fre way to make viewers feel seasick without boarding a boat. Many videojournalists use a monopod or tripod to help steady the camera when they shoot with a telephoto lens. A video camera on a tripod shooting with a telephoto lens can produce rock-solid footage.

 Tripod.  Whitney Shefte, videojournalist for the Washington Post, won’t leave home without her tripod. Other videojournalists rarely use a tripod except for long interviews. (Photo by Bill O’Leary/Washington Post)

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“What is motivating me to go handheld?” asks Lisa Berglund, senior producer at World Vision. “Am I doing it because I’m lazy, or because the action is moving around me, and I fear I will miss the moment if I stay on the tripod?” Berglund’s question to herself is good one to ask yourself. “Why am I shooting handheld?” Te general rule is to keep the video camera on a tripod whenever possible for an interview. But if you’re going down a street, in a moving procession with your subject, chasing after a mom trailing her toddler, or in a news situation such as a demonstration, a riot, or a war, viewers will probably not fnd the handheld camera movement disturbing. Note: Remember that most camera makers recommend that you turn of the built-in, antishake stabilization feature when the camera is on a tripod. Checklist for using a tripod: • •

•

•  Sometimes You Just Can’t Get High Enough. Anthony Durso, WHTM, Harrisburg, PA, was shooting a story about a special needs music therapy group but space was limited. He wanted to get a wide shot of the group playing, so he set up some chairs and placed his tripod on them. “Thankfully, the camera, tripod and myself all made it out in one piece,” he said.

Use a tripod (“sticks” in news video lingo) when shooting: • • • • • •

A building with distinct lines A seated or standing subject giving a long interview A pan or tilt of a scene A close-up of a fxed object Anything shot with a telephoto lens Anytime you can

Tripods do hamper fexibility and can interfere with experimentation, but footage shot on a tripod simply looks more professional. Of course, lugging around a tripod can be awkward so some cameras have a built-in stabilization mechanism to counterbalance shaky hand-movements and smooth out the resulting video. Software used during editing can also come to the rescue of bouncing video to help smooth out telephoto footage. But eliminating all shakiness is impossible.

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Make sure your horizons are straight. Take your hands of the camera during the shoot. Fiddling with the controls while shooting defeats the reason for using a tripod. Always keep your eye on the viewfnder or LCD screen to know what is going on in your shot. Turn of image stabilization (see page 135).

The Search for Tripod Nirvana Here’s the dilemma. Te heavier the tripod, the more stable it will be, which is ideal. Unfortunately, the heavier it is, the less likely you are to haul the thing along when you are on a shoot and need it. A solid tripod reduces the chance of the camera blowing over in the wind. Its substantial weight reduces wiggle when you pan, zoom, or tilt. However, the weightier the tripod, the less convenient it is for lugging—and the more likely it will be left at home. One idea is to outft your tripod with a sling strap that allows you to carry it on your back and keep your hands free. Just remember that any tripod, regardless of its heft, is better than no tripod at all. Compromise: select a tripod strong enough to hold your camera but light enough that you won’t mind carrying it on a long hike. When you fnd the perfect balance, you will have reached tripod nirvana.

 You Can Adjust Some Tripods for a Low-Angle Shot. When buying a tripod, select one that is light enough that you can carry it with you most of the time but heavy enough so that it won’t blow over in a strong wind.

Desirable Features for a Tripod Aside from fnding a tripod that is not too heavy or too light—but just right—you might need one with a fuid head. A fuid head allows smoothly panning or tilting the video camera. Fluid tripod heads ofer a certain amount of resistance as you push the tripod handle. Tis resistance helps keep the camera steady as you rotate it from one direction to another. It takes some practice but in the long run, using a fuid head is a valuable feature for shooting video. A built-in spirit bubble level helps you set up the camera so that it is level with the horizon. Adjust the tripod head until the bubble is in the middle of its glass container. Tis should ensure that the footage will be level with the horizon. A quick-release plate allows easy and quick removal of the camera from the tripod—useful when action develops while the camera is on the tripod, and you need to get it of the tripod fast to cover the feeting action shot.

Monopod Tink of a monopod as a one-legged tripod. Te camera attaches to the monopod just as it does to a tripod. A monopod extends and collapses. It is lighter than a tripod, and many videographers fnd it useful for stabilizing the camera in fastmoving or crowded situations.

 A monopod is lighter and more fexible than a tripod but no substitute for the real thing if you are flming a long interview.

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 A three-way stabilizer on a gimbal for your camera will assure smooth footage even if you are flming while you are walking.

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STABILIZING THE VIDEO CAMERA Handheld Stabilizer You can attach a handheld, three-way gimbal stabilizer to your smart phone or camera. Tese devices were originally developed for cameras attached to aerial drones. Te developers needed a way to keep the fying video cameras rock solid in the air. In spite of wind currents and the vibration of the drone’s propellers, the video camera remained stationary. Te three-way gimbal technique was later modifed for use with smart phones and even heavier mirrorless and larger cameras. Te camera gimbal works by measuring the camera’s position hundreds of times per second,

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

and when it senses a movement, it turns on motors to move an equal degree in the opposite direction, thereby negating the shake. When attached to your camera, the handheld stabilizers let you walk while flming. When walking with a gimbal, you still need to bend your knees and do what’s commonly referred to as the “duck walk,” “Ninja walk,” or “heel to toes movement”— a shufe that limits vertical bobbing. Te resulting footage looks like you were simply gliding efortlessly through the air. Te handheld stabilizers can achieve the same efect as the twenty-thousand-dollar, awkward-to-use, heavy Steadicam employed by Hollywood flmmakers.

 A stabilizer on a gimbal improves your smart-phone footage giving it a more professional look. The stabilizer compensates automatically for any movement you might accidently introduce whether caused by your hands shaking slightly or the up and down motion when you are walking.

In-Camera Stabilization You can buy a camera system that has built-in, in body image stabilization (IBIS). Tis feature is also called vibration reduction (VR). Camera systems can achieve this stabilization efect three ways. Tey can build it into the lens with optical stabilization (OS) with sensor stabilization, or with a slight cropping of the image. Some cameras do all three ways at once. With all three methods of stabilization working simultaneously, you can shoot relatively fuid video without a tripod, monopod, or any other device attached to your camera. You can walk along with your camera and the camera will compensate for the slight jolt of each of your footsteps. Both smart phones and mirrorless cameras have one, two, or all three of these stabilization techniques available. Tip: Remember to turn image stabilization (IS) of when using a tripod. Te lens will behave abnormally if it is expecting normal movement but getting none when the camera is fxed to the tripod.

 Some video cameras stabilize the image by moving the glass elements of the lens. Other models compensate for any unwanted movement with a stabilization mechanism which moves the sensor. Some models electronically crop the image slightly to eliminate the appearance of any shaky footage (electronic or E stabilization). When a camera uses all three methods, like this Panasonic, at the same time, you can record very smooth, handheld footage without the need of an external stabilizer on a gimbal.

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TECHNICAL REVIEW



HERE COMES THE GEEKY STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW … Every video camera is built a little diferently. Manufacturers place knobs and buttons in different places. Tey include or leave out diferent features. Each brand uses diferent terminology, sometimes to refer to the same camera function. You should check your camera manual to learn the peculiarities of your equipment before starting to shoot. Below is a rapid tour of the controls and settings you will need to set on many cameras and smart phones.

Seeing What the Camera Sees Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) Almost all cameras have a viewfnder that lets you put the camera up to your eye to view the

 Digital memory storage cards come in many sizes and capacities.

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scene you are recording. While looking in the viewfnder you can frame and focus the scene. Often you can set other camera functions of the camera as well while using the viewfnder. You can use the viewfnder both outdoors in bright sunlight and indoors when it is dark. Many cameras allow you to adjust the eyepiece of the viewfnder to your particular vision. Te adjustable part of the eyepiece is known as the viewfnder diopter. Even if you have nearly 20/20 vision, always adjust the viewfnder diopter (if available on your camera) to suit your individual prescription before you do anything else. Rotating the diopter does not change the focus of the lens. It personalizes the optics of the viewfnder for your unique vision. If you usually wear glasses, adjusting the diopter may eliminate the need to wear them while shooting. When shooting with an unfamiliar camera, be careful to adjust the diopter of the new viewfnder frst. Adjusting the diopter beforehand is critical when focusing manually.

 Some viewing screens come fxed to the back of the camera. Others you can tilt up or down. Still other screens fip out and allow you to see the image when you hold the camera at ground level or high above your head. Some photographers prefer to attach an external screen to the camera for ease of composition and focusing.

LCD screen Some liquid crystal display (LCD) screens are fxed to the back of the camera. Others have a fip-out viewing screen that swivels, enabling you to hold the camera above your head as high as your arms can reach and still see the LCD screen. Alternatively, with the swivel screen, you can place the camera on the ground and still compose your shot. Many videographers prefer an external screen even if the camera has a built-in screen. With the external display, it is much easier to compose the image and focus it accurately. You can face the problem of glare on the screen when shooting outdoors on a sunny day. To avoid the glare, you can tip the camera’s LCD viewing screen up or down to avoid glare. Or you can switch to the viewfnder for framing. Te smart phone has a fxed screen. You can hold a smart phone over your head or down by your feet but it is hard to see the screen under these situations. Te smart-phone screen is particularly difcult to view in direct sunlight. Te glare makes it difcult to compose the image and focus the shot.

Batteries Never leave home without extra charged batteries. No matter how short you think your shoot will be, you never know when you will need the extra recording capacity. You can never have enough charged batteries. Period.

 Rechargeable Lithium batteries.

 Lithium batteries keep your camera running longer than standard batteries.

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Memory Cards

 Memory cards come in all sizes. The physical size of the card is independent of how much data you can store on the card.

 CompactFlash card.

Most of today’s digital cameras record directly on removable memory cards. Tey have names like CompactFlash, CompactFlash Express (CFExpress), or Secure Digital (SD). You can also buy mini and micro SD cards depending on the requirements of your camera. Tese cards are small, cheap, and hold a lot of data. Teir size and price allow you to pack your camera bag with several cards which will greatly extend your productive time in the feld. Like the hieroglyphics on Egyptian tombs, you practically need a Rosetta Stone to translate the information on the front of a compact or SD memory card. Te symbols, signs, numbers, and other marks are hard to decipher even by an expert. Te good news is that you only need to watch for a few clues to determine if the memory card you buy is adequate for video recording with your camera. Capacity Te capacity of the card is the most important decision you will have to make when you buy a memory card. As the old saying goes, “You can never be too rich, too thin, or have enough memory on your card.” Memory cards today hold enough storage to shoot a complete short flm. You can always carry extra cards and load them into your camera as needed. Here are some questions to ask to determine the size of the memory card you need: •

• •

 Brand name, Lexar; Type, SD; Size/capacity, 128 gigabytes; Speed, 150 megabytes per second; Video speed class Rating, V60, U3, II, 10 in a circle all symbols = fast. This memory card is fast enough to record video.

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Will you be able to download your memory card to a computer or other large storage device every day during your shoot? Are you shooting super, high-quality video? Do you expect to shoot slow-motion video (4K or higher; see page 140) that will require lots of storage space?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions you probably need cards with greater memory capacity than you planned on. In general, the greater your card capacity the calmer you can remain during a shoot. In fact, some cameras come with two card slots to hold two memory cards. Tat way if you run out of room on one memory card the camera can instantly switch over to the second card. Once you have downloaded the video from the card to your computer or other hard drive, you can erase the portable memory card, and start all over. You can usually use the computer to erase the card, or you can clear the card by

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

reformatting it in the camera. Some manufacturers recommend this latter procedure to assure the card is formatted correctly for the camera you are using. Speed: Different Rating Systems How fast does your camera transfer the video you record to the storage card? Tis speed is referred to as “write speed.” Usually, faster is better. Manufacturers have diferent ways to indicate the “write speed” of their card. Card manufacturers have made life difcult for the videographer by using several diferent marking systems to indicate speed. All four of the following number/symbol rating systems (C, U, I, and V) are telling you the same thing. Te marking indicates if the card you buy will be adequate to save the captured video by the camera without any interruptions. Te marking also indicates if the memory card can keep up with the speed at which it is capturing the data. How to decipher the code: •

•

• •

Number enclosed with a C: Te numbers run from 4 to 10. Te C refers to a class of cards. A 10 is the top level of this rating system. U1 to U3: Cards with this classifcation write as fast or faster than those with a C marking. I or II: “II” is faster than “I.” V30, V60 to V90: diferent numbering system

Select a memory card that has a 10C, U3, I/ II, or V6 and higher. Te card will be fast enough for video captured for high-quality 4K (4000) video. Don’t worry about all the other numbers on a memory card. Tey refer to how fast the card delivers the video to your computer or storage device. Tis speed is not important for your purposes. Whether you have recorded one scene or a thousand on a memory card, you can review your handiwork in the video camera itself. If your clips are stored on a fash memory card you can just select the scene you want and review it immediately. Reviewing your most recent footage on the camera’s screen, while still in the feld, is crucial because it allows you to identify problems on the spot and immediately strategize on how to solve them.

 With time-lapse video you can take an exposure at fxed interval. When you play the video back at regular speed the images fy by as if time has been compressed.

de Young Open Show. https://vimeo.com/467165144

Tip: You can take the memory card out of the camera and slide the little tab on the side down to lock the card. Tis will prevent you or anyone else from writing over the card accidently. Just remember to push the lock up to unlock the card when you put it back in your camera.

Frame Rate Standard Video footage looks continuous but is really constructed from a series of individual pictures or “frames” presented to the eye so quickly that they seem like an uninterrupted stream. In fact, at any rate greater than about 15 frames per second (fps), our brains cannot distinguish individual images. Instead, our brains interpret the rapid series of frames as a stream of visual information. To our minds, it looks like continuous, smooth motion. Most videos are recorded at twice the 15 fps. Tey run by our eye at about 30 fps. Slow Motion (Slow Mo) Suppose for a story about wine making, you are assigned to photograph the workers tossing the grapes from a bucket into a passing cart. Watch the slow-motion technique used in the short doc Where Time Is Fluid – Rosé Wine Harvest: Provence, France. With video shot at 30 fps the resulting action on the screen takes place in what seems like a split second. With slow motion, you can shoot at a higher frame rate such as 120 to 180 fps. Ten when the video is played back at a normal speed, the grapes fying out of the bucket will seem to hang in the air on their slow journey to the cart.

To shoot in slow motion locate the framerate settings on your camera. Select a frame rate of 120 to 180 fps or higher. Te higher the frame rate you select the slower will be the fnal slowmo efect when it is played back on a TV screen. Keep in mind that slow-mo videos are bigger in fle size than a normal video. Next, keep the camera steady when you shoot slow mo. You can hand-hold the camera or put it on a tripod. Review the footage in the camera to confrm you have captured the efect you wanted. Time-Lapse In most videos, the frame rate and playback speed are the same. In a time-lapse video, the frame rate is stretched out far more: when played back at average speed, time appears to be sped up. In videography, time lapses are a technique where frame rates are slowed down. For example, instead of 30 fps, you may use 30 frames a minute or even 30 frames an hour. When played back at a normal speed, the world seems to fy by. Clouds drift quickly by. Stars move quickly across the evening sky. Skyscrapers are built in what seems like just a few minutes. Time-lapse can help you capture the dynamic nature of things in accelerated real-time videos. De Young Open Show uses the Time-Lapse technique to take the viewer on a rapid tour of an art gallery opening. To determine what frame rate to shoot at for the time-lapse efect you want, experiment. Try diferent rates to see if the results are what you are looking for. Check your camera manual for directions about how to adjust your camera for this special efect.

Where Time Is Fluid -- Rosé Wine Harvest: Provence, France. https://vimeo.com/293320809

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 A Comparison of Diferent Video Formats. The larger the format the more information it carries and therefore the crisper and more color saturated the fnal screen image. Sometimes you might even come across the 4:3 aspect ratio screen, known as the SD format, of old television sets. At the other end of the spectrum, 8K UHD (8,000 pixel 9 × 16 format) is on the market today.

Video File Format File formats with names like MP4 and MOV indicate ways the camera can compress all the data it is recording into an electronic package that is easy to store and playback. MP4 (MPEG-4) is the most common type of video fle format. Apple’s preferred format, MP4 can play on most other devices as well. It uses the MPEG-4 encoding algorithm to store video and audio fles and text, but it ofers lower defnition than some others. MP4 works well for videos posted on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. MOV (QuickTime Movie) stores highquality video, audio, and efects, but these fles tend to be quite large. MOV is supported by Facebook and YouTube, and it works well for TV viewing. WMV (Windows Media Viewer) fles ofer good video quality and large fle size like MOV. Microsoft developed WMV for Windows Media Player. YouTube supports WMV, and Apple users can view these videos, but the user must download Windows Media Player for Apple. AVI (Audio Video Interleave) works with nearly every web browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. Developed by Microsoft, AVI ofers the highest quality but also large fle sizes. It is supported by YouTube and works well for TV viewing. AVCHD (Advanced Video Coding High Defnition) is specifcally for high-defnition video. Built for Panasonic and Sony digital camcorders, these fles compress for easy storage without losing defnition.

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Screen Proportion • • • • • •

VCD Compact Disc Digital Video DVD Digital Optical disk 720p HD high defnition 1080p full high defnition 4K UHD 4000 pixel Ultra High Defnition DCI4K Digital Cinema 17:9 format

Format or aspect ratio refers to the proportions of the individual video frame—in other words, the relationship of width to height. Te higher the pixel count the sharper the image. When setting up your video camera, you may be asked to select from one of these formats before shooting: •

•

•

Standard defnition (SD) (640 vertical lines by 480 horizontal lines) 4:3. Te original TV screen for many years was more or less the shape of a slightly oblong box. Tis relative shape was referred to as four by three or SD format. On some cameras, this format is referred to as DV Normal. Tis format is infrequently used today. High defnition (HD) (1920 × 1080 pixels) 16:9. Any video camera or television today can show the picture in HD. Te size of the picture is 1920 pixels × 1080 pixels. Every device from your smart phone to your 55-inch living-room TV shows the image in this format. 4K (3840 × 2160 pixels) 16:9. Te number of pixels in each frame is 3800 × 2160 or almost 4000 pixels. Te shape of the image remains 16 × 9. Te clarity of the image is

•

•

higher than HD because you are recording with more pixels. Since you have such a high-quality recording for each video frame, you can crop the image later during editing without losing image sharpness. Of course, at this high pixel count, you will use up lots of storage space on your memory card or hard drive. Also, for some computers, the large fle size makes it difcult to edit. More and more televisions can show 4K videos. TV streaming services ofer 4K videos as an option for some programs. 6K (5568 × 3132 pixels) 16:9. Many television screens cannot show 6K yet. Te TV itself automatically shrinks the video to a lower pixel count. In essence, the extra pixels are just thrown away. 8K (7680 × 4320 pixels) 16:9. Te pixel level is 7680 × 4320 or almost 8000 pixels. Above a certain number of pixels per frame, the human eye can’t distinguish the incremental improvement to the picture. Note also that the frame size is so large that even robust computers cannot handle this size format. Editors faced with this problem use a “proxy system” to edit fles shot at 8k.

SETTING UP YOUR CAMERA So, what does all this geek-talk about 4:3, 16:9, HD, fps, and so on mean to you, the videojournalist? Often the menus on the video camera require you to decide which format to use and what frame rate to select before you can begin shooting any video. The material above gives you a quick run through of your options. Below are some base-line suggestions of where to start when you must set up your video camera or smart phone.

Format Select high defnition (HD 1920 × 1080 pixels) if you expect your video to be seen on either a computer or a television screen. HD footage looks fne on an older television, too. Select 4K (4K Ultra HD video recording 3840 × 2160 pixels) if you think you will need to crop the video image during editing. Use 4K if you think you might sell your footage to networks that demand this level or higher footage.

Frame Rate Select 30 fps for a cinematic look to your video. This frame rate leaves the individual image with a bit of blur that seems to smooth out the fnal video when seen on a TV or movie screen. A 30 fps speed is standard for many videos. A 60 fps speed produces very sharp individual frames. It is ideal if you need to capture a still picture while you are editing your video.

Besides being hard to edit, videographers in the feld have difculty sending fles shot with 6K or 8K back to the station. However, as transmission speeds grow faster, these higher-quality video formats may become standard.

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 This videographer kept shooting even after the sun had set. (Photo by Warren Difranco)

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CHAPTER

9

Looking for Light and Color

M

any times, you have no control over when or where you will shoot when gathering documentary footage. If the subject is a wrestler,

you are likely to be in a gym, regardless of the poor quality of the available light. If the subject is a new Marine recruit, you’ll need to arrive before dawn to capture the roll call formation. Sometimes, though, on certain stories, you can decide when to shoot. You can pick the best time when the light is at its most fattering. On other assignments you can set up an interview next to a large north-facing window for maximum indirect light.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-9

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 Sunrise. Sunrise on the playa at Burning Man, an event that highlights community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. It is held annually in Black Rock City, Nevada. (Photo by S. Todd Rogers Photography)

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Other times you can bring your own lights and create whatever atmosphere you need for the shoot. Lighting conditions can afect the whole feel of a story. Basically, you can control four qualities of light: intensity (bright or dim), contrast (hard or soft shadows), color (warm or cool tones), and direction (front, side, back, top, bottom).

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

TIME OF DAY IS CRITICAL When shooting video outdoors, timing is everything. Every day, from sunrise to sunset, the color of the light changes, intensity changes, and mood changes. If you are shooting a story about the life cycle of rosé wine, you want to record in the felds early in the morning to showcase the vines under the soft dawn light. If you record the same felds later in the day, under direct noon day sun, the vines will look more ordinary, less magical. Harsh noon-day sun is unfattering unless you have snagged Clint Eastwood for an interview and want to show of his craggy face. Direct midday sunlight is rarely fattering for either grape vines or interview subjects.

 Early Morning. A row of gondolas in Venice, Italy. At this early hour the contrast of light and dark is strong. Look for long and strong shadows at this time of day. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

 Midday.  Harvesting lavender in Southern France. The daytime sun adds strong, deep shadows to this scene of farm workers cutting lavender in France. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

 Night.  The Venice Canal during Mardi Gras. Don’t hesitate to shoot at night. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

 Midday.  Castle in full light.

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 Late afternoon.  Castle in light just as the sun sets.

WHITE BALANCE ENSURES CONSISTENT COLOR Try this experiment: hold out a piece of white paper and take it from a room lit by a traditional tungsten light bulb. Ten walk outside to an area lit by the sun. Is it white paper both indoors and out? Now, with your video camera’s white balance set to “manual tungsten” (the light-bulb symbol), record the white piece of paper while inside using the light from the lamp. Now record the same paper outside in bright daylight. Look at the results. Is the white paper white under both conditions? What is happening here? Why is the video changing color from the diferent light sources while your eye told you the paper remained white both inside and outside?

Diferent Light Sources Alter the Same Color Under the tungsten light inside the gallery, the camera’s daylight setting results in white paper with a yellowish tint (A). But once the tungsten setting is selected, the camera corrects the color to record the paper as white with no color bias (B). With the camera’s sensor set to tungsten but used outdoors, the paper records with a bluish tint (C). Once the camera’s white balance is set to daylight, white looks white (D). (Photo by Ken Kobré) Te color of direct sunlight on a clear day is diferent (more blue) than the color emitted by tungsten light (more yellowish). Your magical brain is at work. Knowing that the piece of paper is white, your brain psychologically and instantly reinterprets the change in color from one light source to another. Tus, you always think you are seeing white paper regardless of the color of the light that actually is tinting it. Tis phenomenon is known as “color constancy.”

 Seeing Color: The Eye versus the Camera.  Through the magic of the human brain, our eyes “see” the white paper in these photographs as white. Since we know white paper is white, we “see it” as white whether viewed inside or outside the art gallery. Of course, a camera’s sensor does not have our brain’s adaptability. However, many cameras do have a color-correcting feature, usually called “white balance,” that can ensure white is white once the camera is “told” the kind of light under which you are taking the picture.

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Lacking the psychological ability to know that white paper is white, the video camera simply records the paper as tinted by whatever light rays refect of it. To the video camera, the white paper looks quite diferent under the sunlight than it does under the glow of light bulbs or fuorescent tubes. Te white balance feature on video cameras is the secret to reproducing colors as the human brain interprets them. Tis feature detects and attempts to electronically neutralize the color shifts engendered by diferent light sources and to compensate for whichever light source is available: a fuorescent-lit laboratory, a home ofce lit by tungsten bulbs, a sunlit beach, or the shade under a tree. By the way, without fltration, fuorescent light appears greenish to the video camera

WE NEED TO TELL THE CAMERA WHAT COLOR IT IS SEEING Auto White Balance Works Most of the Time Most video cameras have the capability to automatically measure the color of light at a scene and to set the white balance accordingly. In the following circumstances, the camera’s automatic white balance feature works quite well: • •

• •

Outside on sunny days Inside when all the light is coming from incandescent lightbulbs, such as in a living room in the evening Inside a room lit by fuorescent lights Inside a room completely lit by energysaving Light Emitting Diodes (LED) or Halogen bulbs

Also, automatic white balance is usually the preferred choice when you’re shooting run-andgun style, moving back and forth from inside to outside, or from sunshine to shade. If you’re attempting to manually adjust the white balance between every venue, even the most perfectly color-balanced images won’t compensate for missed action.

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When Auto White Balance Doesn’t Work Te following four situations may challenge your video camera’s auto white balance feature: •

• • •

Rooms with mixed light from multiple sources, such as window light mixed with traditional incandescent tungsten light bulbs Ballparks or parking lots with high wattage sodium-vapor lights Rooms with walls painted solid colors like red or blue Snow-covered felds or ice rinks

Dialing in a Preset White Balance When shooting for an extended period in one location, consider using the camera’s preset white balance feature. Te following settings are available on most video cameras (check your camera’s manual): • • • • • •

Daylight Cloudy Shade Fluorescent Tungsten Compact fuorescent

Note: Colors are measured on a Kelvin scale. Daylight is 5,600 Kelvin. A tungsten light bulb is 3,500 Kelvin. A candle is 2,000 Kelvin. With a specifc light source identifed and preset, the camera will not be fooled by strongly colored situations such as a living room painted red or a hospital corridor painted green. John Goheen, of Terranova Pictures, has traveled the world covering major stories including famine in Somalia, the Gulf War, and the eruption of Mount St. Helens. He notes that in the end, you can do color correction during editing. “But, as they say … there’s nothing better than doing it the right way the frst time.”

Custom White Balance for Highest Accuracy For even more consistent color, use the camera’s Custom White Balance feature. In the comparison pictures shown on this page, the interior of the art gallery has no windows to allow outside light to penetrate. It’s illuminated solely by tungsten light bulbs. In a situation like this, you could leave the camera on auto white balance and let the camera decide the best color correction, but the results still might have a slight yellowish tint. Alternatively, you could select a preset option, in this case incandescent (lightbulb icon), or opt for a custom reading to ensure the most accurate color rendition.

Steps for Setting a Custom White Balance Professional videographers always try to set a custom white balance manually with a white or neutral gray card to achieve perfect color balance. Especially in interview situations when the subject is not moving, you almost always have time to get perfect color adjustment. If you are flming a researcher, you don’t want the person to have a light-bulb-induced golden glow that makes your subject look like she has been at the beach when in fact she hasn’t left her library in weeks. Taking the time to manually adjust the white balance will assure accurate, realistic skin tones: Every camera has a slightly diferent method of Custom White Balance. Check your camera manual for the steps necessary with equipment you will be using. Te frst thing Da Lin, a videographer for Channel 5 in San Francisco, does when he arrives at the scene of a news story is white balance his camera. “I stay with the white balance unless the lighting changes. Typically, I only do one white balance and that’s at the beginning of the shoot.” Watch Custom White Balance for Better Video.

 Automatic White Balance. Automatic White Balance setting under tungsten light bulbs gives a yellowish cast to the gallery walls.

 Custom White Balance. Custom White Balance setting gives the best results returning the gallery walls white and the painting to its true colors.

 A videographer points the camera at a white or gray card and sets the white balance (see below). Recording the white or gray card gives the camera a known standard so it can adjust to the color balance of the local lighting conditions. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Custom White Balance for Better Video. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zya_8TBvctY

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Below is a general guideline for setting Custom White Balance: • • •

• • • • • •

Stand in the same light conditions as your subject. Select “custom white balance” on your video camera. Place a white or neutral gray card (objects such as a white shirt or piece of paper will do) in front of the lens so that no shadow strikes it. Place the white card in the same light as you will be shooting in. Zoom in so that the card flls the image frame. Press the white balance (WB) button. Confrm that the camera has created a new  custom white balance setting. The camera should convey a message. Maintain this setting as long as you continue to shoot under the same lighting conditions. Remember to  reset  the white balance when you move to a new location and a diferent light source. If you’ve white balanced for the sun, don’t forget to reset the white balance when you move to the shade. If you don’t, your footage may turn blue.

 Shooting toward the sun helps to light up the poppy fowers and the grape leaves in the vineyards. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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Keep in mind that neutralizing a scene with the white balance feature on either automatic or custom is not always a good idea. If you’re following a surfer on the beach at sunset, turning the reddish hue of your subject’s white T-shirt into a neutral tone is likely to sap the beauty from the entire scene. In this kind of situation, you should set the white balance to outdoors (the sun symbol) to preserve the warm tones of the setting sun.

Saving the Day When All Else Fails No matter how hard you’ve tried, sometimes you forget to set the camera to the correct white balance. Some editing programs do allow adjusting the color during post-production. Tis adjustment step is time-consuming but can sometimes rescue what otherwise would be unusable footage. However, the result is not as good as getting the color right in the frst place.

QUALITY OF LIGHT Direct Sunlight Amateurs are often poorly advised to “stand with their camera where the light comes from over the shoulder.” Tis setup creates safe but usually uninteresting front light in which the entire subject is evenly lit with precious few shadows visible. Back or side lighting creates a much more dramatic look, with shadows to lend depth and tone to the images. Light casts shadows that can emphasize or diminish texture and volume. Selecting the most appropriate light depends on the characteristics of your subject and the tale you are telling. Do you want your story’s main characters to look worn, or would you prefer to show them relaxed? Is your subject a farmer or businessperson? Is the point of your story how youthful an older person looks? Or does it concern a young person prematurely aged by disease or drugs? If you want to emphasize a person’s wrinkles, shoot in hard sunlight. Te direct rays of the sun leave deep shadows on the face. Te rays from a spotlight directed at your subject have a similar efect. If you want to soften your interviewee’s appearance, which is usually the situation, avoid that midday sun and shoot under a cool porch awning where the light will be indirect, and shadows and highlights will be evened out. Indirect light from a north-facing window will give the same efect. Bouncing the light of the ceiling or using a soft box will help to soften the artifcial light you use.

 Sunlight coming from straight at the singer.

 Sunlight coming from behind the singer.

 Sunlight coming from the side of the singer.

 Filming someone in direct noon day sun is unfattering. The harsh sunlight puts the subject’s eyes in deep shadows.

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BACKLIGHTING CHALLENGES

Fill Lighting

A bright light source, such as the sun directly behind your subject, can present challenges for the videojournalist. Sometimes you can use this type of lighting for dramatic efect. But you need to be aware of the pitfalls as well.

When recording an interview outdoors with the sun behind your subject, the person’s face may not be lit well enough. Te diference between the brilliant sun and the light falling on your subject’s face makes the scene impossible to expose

 If you have a crew to help you, using a fll refector can add needed light to your subject.

 Without an extra person to help, holding a refector while operating the video camera and conducting an interview all at the same time could be difcult. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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correctly. If you expose correctly for the subject’s face the background will be too bright, or is it too dark? Te reverse is also true. If you expose correctly for the background, your subject’s face will be lost in shadow. In the situation with a bright background, using a white fll card can brighten the person’s face. When shooting interviews, bring along large white cards or foam core. Alternatively have with you a foldable refector—just in case. Te round collapsible refector, sometimes called an elephant’s diaphragm, is lightweight and easy to carry. Te challenge for the one-man band is obvious. It can be tricky to hold the refector, run the camera, and carry on an interview all at the same time. Sometimes you can get a bystander to hold the refector. Alternatively, you might attach the refector to a light stand. Put the refector in a position so the light bounces of it onto the dark side of the subject’s face. Stan Heist, director of news training and staf development at Sinclair Broadcast Group, observes: “When I worked in a team I would use light refectors like a Flexfll, but solo it’s pretty tough. Instead, I look for natural refection such as a white box, a light truck, a car windshield refector, even a small legal pad. Te principle is the same, but much easier than holding a foppy refector.”

 Lens Flare without a Lens Shade.  When shooting toward the sun or a lamp, light rays can strike the glass elements of a lens directly causing a fare. This fare appears as bright circles at the bottom of the guitar player. Flares can degrade sharpness and wash out color. Sometimes the lens fare can add excitement or convey warmth but other times the fare looks like a distracting mistake. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Lens Flare When the sun is coming directly at your camera’s lens, you really do want to use a lens shade. Hollywood cameras have huge, boxlike lens shades. In general, it is advisable to keep a lens shade on your lens all the time. Without it you are likely to get lens fare or just a general degradation of the image you are recording.

 Avoid lens fare by putting a lens shade on your camera’s lens. If you can’t use a lens shade, a typical problem with smart-phone cameras, hold your hand above the lens, like the bill of a baseball cap, to block the unwanted rays. Remember to watch the screen so you can keep your fngers out of the picture. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Dirty Lens When you are shooting a backlit subject—bright light is streaming toward you and into your camera lens—any dust, dirt, or other particles present on the front element of your lens or UV protective flter will show up onscreen as out-offocus, distracting blobs in the fnal footage. Even with the most careful cleaning of lenses and flters, backlighting still brings out tiny particles of dust you may not even have noticed. If you have thoroughly cleaned your lens with a soft cloth or lens tissue and you still see spots when you shoot directly into the sun, your only alternative may be to try reframing your shot to avoid the sun’s direct rays.

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 For Attractive Lighting Indoors Use the Window Light. To boost the window light efect, turn of the room’s overhead lights. Record the footage solely by window light.

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INDOOR AVAILABLE LIGHT Shooting under the light that is available is always easier and often better than adding light to a scene. When possible, while shooting video, use a room’s natural light. With natural light you don’t have to drag out the lamps, set up the light stands, or run extension cords all over the room. Natural light is honest. It shows if the person lives or works by the soft light rays fltering through a sky light, the more austere light from an overhead fuorescent light or the warm light of a freplace. Each light source conveys a diferent mood to the environment. Your role as videojournalist is to pay attention to what light is available. Note whether the room is lit by north light coming through a skylight or from a 25-watt lamp-shaded light bulb in the corner. By shooting from diferent angles and directions, the skillful videojournalist can usually fnd the ideal way to record the scene unfolding before the lens without adding light.

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Modern video cameras can perform well practically anywhere there is enough light to read a newspaper. Although setting up complex lighting for a scene is common in a Hollywood movie, most documentary photographers avoid the hassle and prefer to use the light that exists. If you are trying to be a fy on the wall it is hard to carry with you a trunk full of lighting accessories.

Look for Natural Light for Interviews Te secret to good lighting is to place your camera or your subject in such a way as to use the natural light to best advantage. Ideally, side light makes the most dramatic light for interviews. Whenever possible, place the interviewee so that one side of the face receives indirect light from a window and the other side is in partial shadow. “Do your best to put someone in front of the window,” says Whitney Shefte, Washington Post videographer. She points out that if your

interview is going to last more than an hour you need to adjust the exposure as the light from the window changes over time. Will Yurman of Penn State University advises beginning videographers to keep it simple. “Take a refector and fnd a window,” he says. Yurman says you can tell a 60 Minutes piece from the lighting alone. “Nobody lights like 60 Minutes, but on the other hand, they often don’t have much other footage.” Tose interviews are the core of their story.

 To record an interview outdoors, look for an area that is in shade like a porch or side of a building.

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT Single On-Camera Light Sometimes, when the level of light is very low, there’s just not enough to capture clear, sharp video images. Tough you can rectify this with a still camera by putting the camera on a tripod and slowing down the shutter speed, the option of decreasing the shutter speed does not work well with a video camera. In video, if the shutter speed is too slow, the resulting footage looks jerky. Lighting kits have gotten smaller, cameras have gotten better, and camera sensors have improved. Videojournalists like Jacob Templin, formerly a videographer with Time magazine, are doing much more with minimal lighting

equipment. “If I’m traveling and trying to be as minimal as possible, I’ll bring a single light. Te single light is sort of a backup if I don’t have a window.” Outdoors at night or indoors when the light is so low you can barely see your hand, you might need to add some extra light to shoot high-quality video. You can, of course, put a light on your camera. Or you can set up one or more lights in the room. Sometimes just one light bounced of a white or light-colored ceiling is enough to improve the quality of video. Depending on your subject and the time you have to set up, you might want to use two or three lights for a portrait-like interview.

 A battery-powered portable light attached to the top of his camera enabled this videojournalist to shoot in a dark, poorly lit museum. While the increased sensitivity of today’s cameras allows a multimedia journalist to shoot under most conditions without supplemental lighting equipment, sometimes at a news event, light is almost nonexistent and the videographer has no choice.

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 Baron Wolman, Rolling Stone magazine’s frst photographer, is interviewed for the documentary Sign o’ the Times: Rock ’N’ Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip. A soft box on the right is the main light on Wolman. A foodlight, also on the right, helps light up a corner of the large photo showing the original crowd at Woodstock. A hair light on the upper left is high and above and behind Wolman’s head. A silver refector bounces some light into the shadow side of the subject’s face. (Photo by Robert Landau)

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Essentially, any on-camera light directs most of the light to the nearest subject and leaves the farthest subject in the dark. Tis gives an unnatural look to the scene. Also the on-camera light, because of its small size, casts harsh, unnatural shadows from a subject in the foreground onto the background. In addition, a small on-camera light is unlikely to cover the entire scene. Te oncamera light brightens the center of the picture but leaves the edges unnaturally dark. All in all, a portable on-camera light tends to give video footage an artifcial “police lineup” look. Nonetheless, if you are caught in a dark location and have no other choice, an on-camera light can save the day—or night. Videographers use battery-operated lights at night for either live-shots or interviews. “I just have a small one that I can just quickly put up on a stand,” says Anne Herbst, director of visual journalism at Denver 9. “It looks better than that an on-camera light.” Tip: Beware of using a light at night while covering a riot or other civil disturbance. Your camera light will attract a certain amount of attention that might make you a target of the protesters and or police.

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LIGHTING EQUIPMENT Soft Box for Portraits Sometimes videographers bring along a lighting kit for interviews. Te kit often includes a soft box with the front panel made of a translucent piece of material. Te nylon fabric of the soft box is held together with tension rods. Te inside of the box is white or silver and the front panel contains several layers of difusion material.

 The soft box  has a light behind the cloth covering the face of the box. Compared to a direct light source, when the soft box is used close to the subject, it produces a gentle source of light without harsh shadows.

With a light situated inside the box, the setup is mounted on a sturdy stand. Te light travels through the layers of cloth on the front of the soft box. Te cloth spreads the rays from the bulb evenly. Te assembled soft box and light stand are a bit like a portable window through which light passes for a natural, softening efect. Te portable window can be moved where it is needed. With light difused by a soft box, the demarcation between shadow and highlight on the subject is gradual as opposed to the abrupt hard lines produced from a direct, harsh spotlight. With the soft box, shadows on the background are also less distinct. For an efect similar to a soft box, you can also direct your light into a white umbrella. For an even softer efect, turn the light around so that it shoots through the white umbrella’s fabric. Placing the soft box or umbrella to the side of the subject creates a dramatic side-lit portrait. Positioning it directly in front of the subject will create fewer shadows, efectively deemphasizing wrinkles in someone’s face.

 For a typical video interview the shadow on the subject’s face is on the side nearest the camera. The highlight is on the far side of the subject’s face. (Photos by Ken Kobré)

 For this photo only the soft box and table lamp are turned on.

For optimum softness, whether it’s positioned on the side or in front, a soft box or umbrella should be as close as possible to your subject. Te closer the light is to the person, the softer the facial shadows. When close enough, the light from the light source almost seems to wrap around the person. Remember to look in the video camera’s eyepiece or LCD screen to be sure that direct light or the light stand itself is not in the picture.

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 Umbrella Lighting. The light bounces of the inside of a white umbrella which helps spread out the light, giving a soft, almost shadowless, efect on the subject or object.

Umbrellas

Flat Panels LED Lights

By bouncing the light of the inside of a photographic umbrella, you can turn a small light source into an efective large light source. Photographic umbrellas come with a white or silver interior. Te silver interior refects more light but leaves a harsher shadow on the subject. Light bounced of a white umbrella spreads out evenly over a large area. Used about fve feet or closer to the subject, the umbrella gives the same efect as shooting next to a window with indirect lighting. For ultimate softness, photographers shoot directly through the white translucent umbrella. Tis setup provides a very soft, almost shadowless light. Like other light modifying arrangements, using the umbrella is most efective when employed close to the subject.

Flat panel LED lights are excellent for video production work. Tey come in many sizes, do not get hot when used during a long shoot, and produce no noise. You can change the color temperature (hue) of the fat panel light to match other lights in the room like sunlight or even shaded outdoor light. With just a fick of a switch you can dim the brightness of the fat panel lights without altering their color temperature. You can even operate some of the lights of a battery. Size does count. Te larger the panel you use the softer the light will be on the subject. With panels, like any other light source, the closer they are to the subject the nicer will be the quality of light. Some fat panel lights come with soft box adapters. Even though the fat panel is relatively small, the adopters that ft on the front of the panel help to spread the light evenly over a larger area.

 Michael Driver uses fat panels to light this interview. He can adjust the panels to any color temperature. The panels stay cool without a fan even when used constantly over a long shoot. They come in diferent sizes, and some can run of batteries. (Photo by Karen Ducey)

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Ring Light

 While conducting an interview, many vloggers use a ring light to illuminate themselves when they are in front of their computers. Using a ring light is often a better choice of lighting than the room’s unfattering overhead fuorescent light.

A ring light is a round, donut-shaped light. You place your camera inside the ring. Ten the source of uniform light comes directly from the point of view of your camera. Tis lighting device is usually made from a single circular fuorescent bulb or several connected small LED lights that form the shape of a circle or donut. Te videographer shoots through the hole toward the subject. Tis produces practically shadowless lighting. It is used a lot by those conducting a Zoom interview and wanting to light themselves evenly while they are looking at the computer screen. It is useful for illuminating a vlog, selfe, video conference, or webcam chat. Te ring light minimizes shadows, produces an even quality of light, and creates circular catchlights in your eyes.

 A ring light produces an even distribution of illumination over a subject’s face.

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CAUTION WHEN USING A SPOTLIGHT OR FLOODLIGHT

MOVING THE MAIN LIGHT Top view

Safety considerations: •

•

•

•

•

•

•

Spot and video foodlights draw a lot of current. Turn of toasters, dishwashers, and other high-draw electrical appliances when you’re ready to turn on the video lights. You don’t want to blow out an electrical circuit. Use the correct equipment.  Use light modifers such as umbrellas, soft boxes, and difusers specifcally designed to safely withstand the high temperatures generated by video hot lights. Soft boxes and umbrellas designed for still photography and electronic strobes can catch fre when exposed to the heat of continuous video light sources. Bring heavy-duty cords.  When using video hot lights, avoid a potential fre by using only heavy-duty extension cords. Use weights on light stands.  Should someone happen to bump your stand, serious accidents can occur. Sandbags or other heavy weights on the bottom of the light stand can prevent potentially costly disasters. Quartz bulbs need special handling.  Don’t touch quartz bulbs with your fngers. The natural oil from your fngers sticks to the bulb and causes a heat build-up in the spot where you touched it. Over time, that bulb is more likely to blow out. If you have to change the bulb, wait for it to cool down and insert a new one holding onto the glass covering with a facial tissue, handkerchief, or cloth of some kind. Wear gloves.  Because lights stay on for long periods of time, they get hot. Use special heat-resistant gloves or oven mitts when handling hot lights. Move hot lights cautiously.  Better yet, let them cool down before moving them.

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Side view

 High 45-Degree Lighting (Rembrandt Light). This is the ideal position for the main light when setting up an interview.

Top view

Side view

 Bottom Lighting. Light that comes from below looks distinctly odd in an interview. Light, whether outdoors or indoors, almost never comes from this low angle. Lighting from the bottom casts unnatural shadows that can create a menacing efect sometimes called “Halloween lighting.”

Top view

Side view

 Front Lighting.  When the main light is placed directly in front of the subject the face looks fatter and skin texture tends to disappear.

Top view

Side view

 Side Lighting.  A main light that is at about 90 degrees angle to the camera will light the subject brightly on one side and cast long shadows across the other side. This option is good for emphasizing the skin texture of a subject.

Top view

Side view

 Butterfy Lighting.  With the light high and aimed downward the nose shadow leaves a small butterfy pattern on the upper lip of the subject. This lighting arrangement is often used for beauty portraits. (Demonstration photos by Dave Hall and Sibylla Herbrich. Diagrams by Ben Barbante)

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CHAPTER

10

Recording Sound

L

isten as you watch America’s Pandemic: After Decades of Warning, a Failed Response produced by Whitney Shefte and Jorge Ribas of the Washington Post.

What would this documentary have been like without the

sound?

America’s Pandemic: After Decades of Warning, a Failed Response. https://www.washingtonpost. com/graphics/2020/national/ administrations-pandemicdocumentary/

When it comes to video, sound is king. You’re reading this statement written by a visual guy who started out as a professional photojournalist and who wrote the book on becoming a photojournalist. But even I have to admit that in the world of multimedia and videojournalism, sound is the most important element—not pictures.  Michael Driver, Fox13 Seattle, has his own segment on television called “Driver on the Street” where he fnds, shoots, and produces his own stories. Driver always monitors the camera’s audio with a pair of headphones. (Photo by Karen Ducey)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-10

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“I didn’t even bother to record video.” In fact, during the documentary you hear but you never see McCloud as he is interviewed in the closet. Yurman chose to prioritize sound over video because he knew that the sound is what would hold the story together.

SOUND IS VITAL TO UNDERSTANDING  America’s Pandemic: After Decades of Warning, a Failed Response. When it comes to video, sound is king. Note how the interviews and natural sound makes this documentary come alive.

Let me repeat that: For videojournalism, documentaries and broadcast TV, sound is the most important element. “Sound is 80 percent of what you’re getting in terms of the story,” says Ed Robbins, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University. “You can live with bad video of a dramatic situation, but you can’t live with bad sound in that situation.” “Te priority is getting good sound,” says Will Yurman, former Rochester Democrat & Chronicle videographer and now a Penn State professor. “I’ll take an ugly interview that sounds good.” Yurman notes that if you have clear sound, you can always cover up the interview with pictures. McCloud, the lead subject of Te Remarkable Journey of Mr. McCloud, wanted to do the interview at a school. Schools are loud echo chambers and hard to record in. Te only quiet place Yurman could fnd was a janitor’s closet. “It was mufed and quiet, but it looked like a prison interrogation room. Te closet had one single bare bulb over the subject’s head,” said Yurman.

 The Remarkable Journey of Mr. McCloud. For the audio interview, the videographer brought the subject into a janitor’s closet. This closet was the only quiet place he could fnd in the school building.

The Remarkable Journey of Mr. McCloud. https://vimeo.com/43509772

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“If you close your eyes while watching a news program like 60 Minutes, you will fnd that you can absorb the story with no problem. Te images enhance the story, but it is the sound that is vital to understanding,” says Dirck Halstead, a digital video pioneer whose workshops trained many photojournalists transitioning from still to video storytelling. Te corollary to Halstead’s observation is that if you turn of the sound and only watch the images, the piece won’t hold your interest for long. Few video stories stand on their images alone. Recall a recent flm you saw. How did you describe the movie to friends? Did you go into ecstasies about the lighting of a great scene that occurred 45 minutes into the movie? More than likely, you outlined the movie’s plot. You recounted the story. It’s the sound that provides the narrative—the plot drives the story. A video documentary depends on the interviews, narration, and natural dialogue (nat dialogue) to propel the story.

NATURAL SOUND IS NATURALLY … BETTER Any sound that is not part of a formal interview is called natural, or nat or ambient sound. Nat sound includes overheard conversations or natural dialogue (nat dialogue) as well as casual sounds from the environment. Stop for a moment. Listen to what you can hear right now. You may hear a computer hum, a radio or television playing somewhere, people talking in another room, the wind blowing, cars passing by, a baby crying, your own fngers on the keyboard. Natural sound lets viewers share what the character is hearing and what the environment or scene feels like. Complete stories with clear nat sound allow the pictures, dialogue, and ambience to tell the story. Te sounds bring viewers into a room when events are unfolding in real time. Tis nat ambient and nat dialogue sound of a documentary often lets viewers draw their own conclusions without beneft of a voiceover narrator and immerses the viewers in the story. Using wireless mic (microphone, pronounced “mike”)—which is relatively unobtrusive—you can record comments and interactions that reveal mood, defne personality, and give an audience spontaneous bursts of information rather than the sometimes stif responses elicited in a formal interview. With a wireless mic sender attached to your main character, the person, after a while, actually forgets about the tiny mic attached to their tie or lapel. You will be able to record the natural dialogue (nat dialogue) that evolves on its own between subjects. Tis nat dialogue can provide the richest form of storytelling for a documentary.

Sound of the Environment Remember to record relevant background sounds like water wheels, rushing streams, grinding gears, and so on. If, for only a moment or two, viewers feel as if they are on the farm, in the slaughterhouse, or on the street where your story takes place, you have succeeded. American radio programs such as Tis American Life (PRI) and All Tings Considered (NPR) and the podcast RadioLab (WNYC Studios) provide excellent examples of the power of natural sound. With nary an image, the background sounds of everyday life often play behind the words of the main subject in these stories. Occasionally, these natural sounds also fll the pauses between verbal exchanges in an interview. As a result, these audio-only pieces manage to become shockingly real to the listener. Listen for the “nat sound” in this prizewinning story, called Indianapolis Indy’s Original Twitter, by Steve Rhodes (WTHR Channel 13, Indianapolis). Hear the sounds of clicking keys on a keyboard, the snap of a slide in a slide projector, the Twitter sound, the sound of incoming mail on a smart phone, the ring of a bell, the whooshing sound of something moving fast of a computer screen, the wheels of a real trolley car going down the street, a quote from a bystander, street sounds, car sounds, a pincer pole grabbing plastic letters, the sound of an old-fashioned flm projector. Te list goes on. Notice that the soundtrack is not only flled with “nat sounds” but also interviews, the voice of the correspondent, and fnally music. Without the “nat sound,” however, this video piece would fall fat.

Indianapolis Indy’s Original Twitter. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XHn2_5czEXM

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 Deadline Every Second. The opening moments of this documentary about an uprising in Ramallah, Palestine give the viewer a sense for the tense and dangerous atmosphere in which photojournalists must work. (Photo by Khalil Hamra, AP)

Deadline Every Second: 12 Associated Press Photographers on Assignment. https://vimeo.com/24128076

Audio as Opener Natural sound segments are useful as “establishers.” Many documentaries start out using a segment that places viewers in the midst of some action, whereby they get the sense they are actually experiencing what’s going on. In the documentary Deadline Every Second: 12 Associated Press Photographers on Assignment, producer Ken Kobré opens with sounds of gunfre and tear gas canisters going of. Te white type on a black background, reads, “Ramallah, Palestinian Territories.” Te viewer sees a soldier, in full battle gear, walk by as teenagers in the background throw rocks, duck from

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the tear gas, and run from the bullets. Te flm continues with 30 more seconds of “nat sound” before we hear the voice-over of one of the flm’s lead players, AP photographer Tara TodrasWhitehill. “I have been lucky so far,” she says. “I have only had a few light concussions.” Te “nat sound” lets the viewer experience, if only for a few seconds, what it is like to be a professional photojournalist in an intense life-threatening situation.

Collecting “Nat Sound”—Keep the Camera Rolling In the chaotic protest scene described above, the videographer kept the camera rolling even when there was no action in order to capture the “nat sound” of the tear gas and bullets as well as the words of the lead subject. As the photojournalist moved about taking pictures of the protesters frst and then the army soldiers, the videographer continue to record. He hoped to capture some seemingly mundane—but telling—moments of the clash. Viewers like to make their observations based on what they see and what they hear. Without a voice-over narrator authority fgure explaining what is happening, viewers can draw their own conclusions from the nat sound.

Room Tone It is always a good idea to record sound for about a minute while no one is talking. Tis minute of what is called “room tone,” whether recorded indoors or outdoors, will come in handy when you edit. You might have to remove some distracting noise from the audio track, or insert a still photograph, but you will need something to replace the missing audio underneath the new images. You can use “room tone” to accomplish this. Without the room tone, the audio track would go completely dead. With “room tone,” you will have just enough low-volume noise for the audio track to sound quiet but normal.

AUDIO TOOLS OF THE TRADE For documentaries you will need to record all kinds of sound. You will certainly want to record interviews with your primary subjects. Tese interviews often drive the storyline. You might need to provide your own narration if the interviews you flmed don’t include all the points you need for your story. You should try and record environmental nat (natural) sound to give the viewer a feel for the atmosphere of the location you are flming. If you fnd music playing when you are documenting a scene you will want to record some of that also. You might also want to record specially written music for your documentary. To record all the diferent types of sound for your documentary you can use a handheld audio recorder or smart phone to capture sound. If you record sound this way, you can add the fle to your multimedia piece in post-production.

Using Handheld Audio Recorders Visual storytellers can use handheld audio recorders to capture high-quality interviews and natural sound. Some directors feel the quality of the audio from a handheld recorder is superior to the that of the sound recorded internally by the camera itself. As cameras have improved, so has their ability to record sound. However, a handheld device does have some advantages. Ed Robbins, a veteran videojournalist who has covered stories in Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, Iraq, and India among other countries, says he is not thrilled with sound from digital single-lens refex (DSLR) or mirrorless cameras. “Te sound quality is very bad, generally, if you plug in an external mic directly to the camera. So, for interviews I use only my hand recorder.” Videojournalists can keep handheld audio recorders in one place as they move the camera closer or farther away from the subject. For example, using a handheld recorder to record a jazz combo, place the recorder in front of the band and leave it there. Te recorded music will remain at the same volume even if you shoot with your video camera from diferent locations. You can flm the saxophone player up close and then shoot an overall of the band members from the bleachers. When you edit the music and visuals together later the sound will be constant since you didn’t move the recorder. Te images, however, will go from close-up to overall. Most handheld recorders have a high-quality built-in mic. Sometimes, when you are doing an

 Handheld audio recorder.

 Handheld audio recorder.

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interview, you can also use an external lavalier mic connected by cord to the handheld recorder. Digital audio fles can usually be downloaded directly onto a computer or transferred via the fash memory card. Te recorder’s internal drive or fash drive’s capacity determines the amount of audio that you can record at one time. Audio-in and audio-out ports on handheld audio recorders also allow headphones for monitoring sound quality. When considering a handheld recorder look for one with an XLR socket for the external mix as this option provides a secure connection with a ground wire that reduces undesirable static interference. Recorders with two XLR microphone sockets ofer a signifcant advantage by allowing placement of microphones on two subjects at the same time.

Record Sound and Video Separately but Sync Later

Pro Tip: How to Slate. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bd7BPX8oEeE

How To Sync Audio Like A Pro! | PluralEyes 4.0. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=dN4fp0Y4ETg&t=13sv

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Te key to syncing the camera and handheld recorder is to simultaneously record some kind of reference audio on each device at the same time. Traditionally, the sound recordist and the camera operator use a clap board to help them sync sound. When editing the footage later on a program like Apple’s Final Cut Express or Adobe’s Premiere Pro, you can hear the clap and see the moment the clapper strikes the slate. Tis sight and audio cue allows the editor to adjust the location of the audio or video track to sync the picture and sound. You can also sync the soundtrack from the handheld recorder and the soundtrack from the video. For instance, record an interview with an external handheld mic and at the same time record the interview with the on-camera mic. You will then have a high-quality version of the interview from the handheld mic as well as an exact copy recorded on video. You can sync the handheld audio with your video later. Watch Pro Tip: How to Slate. In the editing process you can import the handheld audio track and the audio/video track. Now you can use the audio track attached to the video to align the handheld audio track.

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Your high-quality, handheld audio track will exactly match the one recorded by the camera. Ten, during editing, you could use an application, such as PluralEyes, to automatically sync the audio from the recorder with your audio/ video track. (Watch the video How To Sync Audio Like A Pro! | PluralEyes 4.0 for a more complete explication.)

Recording Sound with the Video Camera’s Built-In Mic Te built-in mic on cell phones, video, and DSLR/mirrorless cameras will work for picking up music from a loudspeaker, the general ambient sound of a party indoors, or the rushing water of a stream outdoors. But for recording interviews or dialogue, a built-in microphone simply cannot capture professional-quality sound. Select a camera that allows you to manually control the audio levels. Don’t depend on the camera’s automatic gain control (AGC) feature. (More on AGC coming up.) Get closer: All microphones, built-in or external, work best when close to the source of a sound.

Reasons to Avoid a Built-In Mic •

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Keep in mind that if you back away from your subject for a medium or overall shot, while using a video camera, the internal mic also will be that much farther away from source of the sound. As you back away, the sound will naturally fade. Tat, quite simply, is basic physics and there is no way around that problem with a built-in mic. Put another way, proximity matters when recording sound. Built-in camera microphones are notoriously of inferior quality to external mics. Knowing that most pros are going to add external mics anyway, manufacturers invest very little in their cameras’ built-in microphones. Microphones in smart phones were designed for talking on the telephone with your mouth a couple of inches from the device. Tey were never meant for recording your voice, or that of your subject across

 Avoid depending on a camera’s built-in microphone to record high-quality sound.

•

the room, for broadcast on the Internet or over the air. Tat said, smart-phone mics are constantly improving and will work in a pinch (see below). Most built-in mics are designed to pick up sound all around the camera. If you try to record a person in front of you who is speaking, any ambient noise elsewhere in the room is likely to interfere.

Using the Built-In Mic in a Pinch What if you’re stuck and have to use a built-in camera mic for an interview? Te best approach is to record your interview in as quiet a place as you can fnd and position the camera and its built-in microphone as close to your subject as possible. Ten, don’t move the camera/mic during the interview.

Headphone Socket Make sure that the DSLR or mirrorless camera you use to record video and sound has a socket that accepts headphones. With headphones you can monitor the audio and detect extraneous noise or determine whether the camera is even recording the audio. Geek Note: Whether using a handheld recorder or video camera, if you have a choice, always select 24 bits as the sample size and 48kHz as the sample rate to capture the highestquality sound with your recording device. Some recording devices even ofer 32-bit foat recording. With these recorders and cameras you don’t even have to monitor levels because dynamic range is so high!

 Smart-phone microphones were designed for recording phone conversations. The built-in microphones don’t record accurate sound when the subject’s mouth is not near the phone.

Your Own Recording Studio Many documentaries depend on a voice-over narration to tell the story or add context to it. Tese narrations are performed by the reporter, the producer, or sometimes a voice-over narration specialist. If you just need to do a voice-over for your narration, consider using your laptop computer. First, buy a good mic. A voice-over or podcasting mic with a stand is going to sound much better than the one built into your laptop. If you are just recording a voice-over, look for a wired mic. Wired mics are usually more reliable than wireless ones, as well as more afordable, according to Sean Berry, in his article for Videomaker magazine. “You want to get the mic as close as possible to the source (the mouth of the speaker) without getting so close that you start getting unwanted efects like popping and distortion,” he says. You can plug the mic directly into your computer for the recording. Naturally, you need to fnd the quietest room possible. In addition, some videographers put up sound-absorbing bafing panels on the walls of their studio/ofce to cut down any echo efect. Even a blanket on the wall behind the mic will help improve your sound. As Berry of Videomaker says, “You don’t need to have an expensive recording studio to get good audio.”

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RECORDING SOUND WITH AN EXTERNAL MIC

diferent mics by testing them with the same recorder or camera, then listening to the results.

A Microphone for Every Occasion

Lavalier

Te best way to record audio is to use an external microphone. Your choice of the right mic will make a tremendous diference in the quality of sound for your documentaries. In fact, even professional videographers will tell you that the quality of the microphone can be more crucial than the quality of the camera itself. Whether used with a handheld audio recorder or a video camera, condenser and dynamic microphones are typical choices for best-quality recording. Each microphone has certain fdelity characteristics for the bass and treble sounds. Compare

Te tiny lavalier or lav mic can be attached directly from your subject to an audio recorder or video camera via a cable. Tis is the cheapest solution to improving the audio for your project. Te best—and more expensive—lavs pick up the sound in what is called a cardioid, or heart-shaped, pattern. Tis pattern is ideal for interviews. With the lav clipped to a subject’s attire, the little microphone will record clear dialogue without picking up much ambient noise around the person. Most lav mics are condensertype microphones and need batteries. Others get their power from the camera or recorder.

MICROPHONE TYPES Dynamic Microphone Dynamic microphones or handheld  microphones  are used by many news correspondents for one-on-one interviews. The dynamic mic collects but does not amplify sound. This type of microphone, also called a “stick,” is a decent choice for voiceovers. For cleanest sound, hold it close to the speaker’s or your mouth—at a distance of about the width of your fst.

Condenser Microphone

 Dynamic handheld mic.

 Condenser shotgun mic.

Condenser microphones, such as the “shotgun” mic shown here, are preferred by videojournalists. They require batteries to boost the audio signal level. These mics pick up softer sounds than do dynamic mics, but on the downside can also collect more general ambient room noise. They can be used directly on the camera to pick up general sound and candid dialogue or used handheld for interviews. A unidirectional condenser microphone such as the shotgun mic is a good choice for the voice-over. The shotgun mic has a narrow pickup pattern, which cancels out a lot of extraneous sounds. To be efective, this type of microphone needs to be aimed directly at the speaker’s mouth but at least 4 to 6 inches away to prevent the audio from becoming distorted and unusable.

Lavalier The lavalier microphone (lav or lapel mic) is a small mic used for video recording. This microphone is great for interviews because it mostly picks up the voice of the subject while blending in some of the environmental sounds. However, for recording a voice-over narration, its omnidirectional pickup pattern makes it less than optimal. In a quiet environment, it should produce adequate sound for the voice-over. But hold it gingerly or clip it on your shirt to prevent handling noise. For best sound, speak over the top of it, not directly into it.  Lavalier mic.

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 Wireless sender and receiver mic combination. Each piece of the system is about the size of a cigarette pack.

 This ultra-compact wireless package contains two mics and a receiver. Each unit is about the size of a match box.

Lavalier + Wireless Transmitter

Photographers Association (NPPA) Video Photographer of the Year award. “I have had numerous friends buy less expensive wireless systems to save money and they all have regretted it.” Other considerations: ultra high frequency (UHF) transmitters have a greater range than those with very high frequency (VHF). UHF transmitters are also less susceptible to electrical interference than VHF transmitters. Beware of cheaper VHF wireless mics for recording professional sound for your video or multimedia documentaries. You are likely to fnd that the VHF transmitters produce poor sound quality, and their propensity to pick up noise from other electronic equipment will prove more frustrating than not having a wireless mic at all. Most wireless mics can broadcast using several channels. Te cheaper models have from four to sixteen channels; the more expensive have a hundred or more channels. “Wireless mics are a fantastic option,” says Jesse Garnier, former web services manager for the Associated Press, “but they are very susceptible to interference, static, and particularly cellphone signals.” Stress-test all of your equipment to identify the kinds of situations that might cause problems and could force you to switch to wired microphones.

Here is what a wireless transmitter outft consists of: the lavalier mic connected via a wire to a body-pack transmitter and then on to a receiver. Te audio signal travels from the mic via the wire to the transmitter, which operates like a miniature radio station. Te signal from the transmitter travels over the airwaves to the receiver. Te receiver itself is plugged into a camera or a handheld audio recorder. You can monitor the sound with headphones plugged into the camera. A good wireless system frees a subject to move naturally and the photographer or videojournalist to concentrate on capturing candid interactions. Although manufacturers are hesitant to state an arbitrary distance limit for their equipment, a good wireless mic and receiver seem to work efciently within a 75-foot range of each other. Be aware, though, that the wireless signal is subject to interference from both television and cellphone signals. So, turn of cell phones if you can while recording—especially during interviews! Simply silencing a phone won’t help. And keep in mind also that when it comes to microphones and wireless systems, you get what you pay for. “I don’t skimp on my mics, and especially not my wireless,” says World Vision’s Lisa Berglund (who won the National Press

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Microphone Recording Patterns

HOW TO USE A MICROPHONE

Omnidirectional Omnidirectional mics fnd every sound, including those whispered by the videojournalist behind the camera—annoying chatter known as camera talk. Te on-camera built-in microphone in SLR cameras and video cameras is usually omnidirectional, meaning that it will pick up sound from every direction. Most lavalier mics are omnidirectional, but placed close to the subject’s mouth, they work well for interviews.

Shotgun Mic

Unidirectional Unidirectional microphones pick up sound mostly from the direction in which the microphone is pointed. Unidirectional microphones come in two varieties: cardioid and hypercardioid. A cardioid mic picks up sound in a heartshaped pattern. Most of the sound the mic picks up comes from the direction in which the mic is pointed. But some of the sound also comes from the left and the right of where the mic is aimed. A hypercardioid mic, also called a “shotgun” mic, picks up sound from a much narrower area. It records right where the mic is aimed. You can handhold a unidirectional mic, mount it on a camera, or suspend it from a boom. Booms are lightweight and collapsible. Nonetheless, a separate person has to hold the boom. Unidirectional mics do not—despite what you may have seen in the movies—have a supernatural ability to record conversations hundreds of feet away.

 The shotgun mic, in use on this camera, has a hypercardioid (narrow) pickup beam. The mic will record primarily the sound produced directly in front of it. By monitoring the sound with headphones that cover his ears, the videojournalist can detect any extraneous noise that is picked up by the mic.

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A unidirectional mic, often called a shotgun, collects sound in the pattern of a widening cone. Te shotgun’s reach is limited by the loudness of a certain voice in contrast to the background sound. For example, the shotgun mic will pick up a solitary subject’s voice even if the person is 10 or 15 feet away. If, however, the same person is at a noisy party, his or her voice will no longer be distinct at the same distance. When flming at a noisy gathering, the shotgun microphone will record the voice of the person directly in front of the mic; but it will also pick up the more garbled sounds of people in the same path behind the speaker. If it is noisy and the videographer only has a shotgun mic some photographers use a widerangle lens, so they can get closer to the subject. Ed Robbins of Columbia University says you need to be two feet away from your subject to pick up their voice clearly. “You can’t be four feet away. Otherwise, your audio will sound like a home video.” Also, keep in mind that if you use a shotgun microphone attached to the camera attached and it’s necessary to move the camera to photograph action elsewhere, you may fnd yourself turning the microphone away from your principal speaker. Tis change in orientation would naturally cause an unfortunate drop in the sound level of the speaker’s voice.

Aiming the Mic A poorly aimed shotgun mic attached to the camera can actually miss the subject’s voice and instead amplify background noise behind the person. You can take the shotgun mic of the camera to use it for interviews. Put the mic diagonally below the chin and below camera line works well. Diagonally above works too if the shotgun mic is on a boom. Just be careful that you aim it accurately toward your own mouth if you want your questions recorded clearly. Aim the shotgun mic toward the mouth of your interviewee for the responses. In the interview scenario, keep the shotgun mic as close as you can to the mouth of the speaker. Te closer the mic the better the sound.

Combining the Lavalier and Shotgun Some multimedia journalists have the shotgun mic on the camera for an emergency backup. Te shotgun is usually mounted on the camera while the photographer clips the lav on to the key subject’s apparel. If you have two audio inputs the audio signals from both shotgun and lav are recorded separately by the camera. Jacob Templin, formerly an executive producer at Quartz and senior producer at Time, says, “Te shotgun mic is like an emergency backup. If the sound from the lavalier mic is too loud and blows out, you still have the track from the shotgun mic.”

While the lav picks up the conversation from the primary target, the shotgun can record the voice of any other person who starts talking. Also, the shotgun mic will record any “natural sound” in the environment. Finally, the shotgun mic serves as a backup to the lav in case the lav stops working properly. Jacob Templin quips, “God forbid a subject should say something really important and the lav mic doesn’t pick it up.” During post-production, the editor can choose which audio track—shotgun or lav—to use in the fnal documentary.

Shotgun on a Pole Some videographers work with a sound technician when flming. Te sound person often has the shotgun mic on a boom to place it just a few inches above the subject’s head but out of camera angle range. If several people are talking, the boom operator can adjust the placement of the shotgun depending on who is the speaker of the moment. Holding up the pole and shotgun mic for a long scene can be tiring. Even tougher is using a shotgun mic when working as a oneman-band videographer.

 To avoid attaching a wireless mic to every subject, you can put a shotgun mic on a boom pole. You would need an assistant to hold the boom pole so the mic is just above the speaker but out of the camera’s angle of view.

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Lavalier Mic Playing Hide and Seek with the Lav Mic To attach a lav mic to a subject, frst bring the cord up through the person’s apparel so it won’t show in photos or video footage. Ten clip the lav mic about two buttons below an interviewee’s collar. Each lav has a small clip for attaching the mic to collars, ties, or other clothing. Keep the mic attached to within 6 to 12 inches of the subject’s mouth. Install the lav mic in such a way that it will not rub against the subject’s clothing. Te friction of the mic against fabric can cause a scratching sound and ruin a good interview. If you are using a wireless lav mic that uses a transmitter, attach the transmitter on your subject’s belt or in their back pocket. Te subject can now move anywhere within 75 feet from the camera as you can continuously clearly record the person’s speech.

7 Ways to Hide a Lav Microphone. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=D85HmR825wM

How To Use A Lavalier Mic | How-To Guide. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wd_f7iYbFrA&t=99s

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Two Approaches to Attaching the Lav Te industry has two schools of thought on placing the lav mic. Te hidden lav approach followers fnd ingenious ways to hide a lav mic on the subject. You can put the lav mic under a shirt or blouse. You can hide it inside a jacket pocket. If you are working as a Hollywood flm sound specialist, you can even put the lav in a starlet’s hair. Te viewer is unaware the person is wearing a mic at all. On the plus side, the viewer probably never realizes how the sound was recorded. Te resulting flm seems more natural as if the conversation were simply overheard. Te downside of the hidden mic approach is that you must take time to camoufage a lav. All this careful placement requires time and special tape used to stick the lav to cloth. Te show-the-lav style school of mic placement usually just clips the lav on someone’s shirt or dress collar, coat, or tie and then pulls the lav cord under the subject’s clothing to keep it out of sight. Although lav mics themselves are well hidden in Hollywood movies, letting the mic show is accepted practice in American documentaries. Most viewers are accustomed to seeing the tiny black mic clipped to a subject’s lapel or T-shirt. Viewers are not sufering under any illusion that the subject is unaware of the presence of the mic and camera. Watch 7 Ways to Hide a Lav Microphone and How To Use A Lavalier Mic | How-To Guide.

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With the lav clipped to a subject’s shirt, the microphone will record clear dialogue without picking up much ambient noise around the person. Te person’s body actually blocks the sound behind them. Even if the person wearing the mic turns his or her head while speaking, the microphone tends to clearly pick up the voice. If you are interviewing two people and have only one lav mic, locate the mic on the side between the two people. If the subjects are sitting or standing close together, the mic will usually pick up the sound of both voices. Note: When in the feld, if you have a multichannel wireless receiver, it’s important to confrm that the channel on the mic and transmitter match the channel on the receiver located near the camera. If you’re getting interference from other microphones or from TV transmissions, change channels on both the transmitter and the receiver. Since you will be wearing headphones, you will know right away if there is any interference or static. Lav = Freedom Boyd Hubbert of Kare 11 Minneapolis was asked, “Do you always mic your subjects when you start a story or do you chat with your subject for a while before miking them?” He responded, “I put the lav mic on as soon as possible because you never know when the person is going to say something good and it’s never as good the second time.” Anne Herbst of Denver 9 reinforces the point. “I don’t know how many times I have been in a situation where people are talking and the person is saying all these good things and I don’t have a wireless on them.” A wireless mic system with headphones, whether you are shooting an hour documentary or a one-minute 30-second news report, is the ultimate choice for multimedia makers. Te wireless system allows both subject and photographer easy, natural movement. “I rely extensively on wireless mics,” says Goheen of Terranova Pictures. Te videographer has access to at least four and sometimes fve mics on his camera at any one time. He is not using a mixer. Tis is not the norm, of course, but it suggests how much value he puts into gathering audio. Te wireless mic is a great tool for capturing all kinds of sounds, not just interviews. “I have put the mic in trees in order to capture the crisp chirps of birds, and placed the wireless mic on a fagpole to get the fapping

sound from the fags. You name it … I’ve put the mic anywhere there was sound to be captured,” says Goheen. When people are free to move about, they often forget about the wireless mic. Tey automatically become less inhibited about being recorded and thus act more natural and spontaneous. Another advantage to this system is that you are wearing headphones and will therefore be able to hear and record your subject talking at a distance—even around the corner or down the hall. Farkas, who produced and directed primetime news and entertainment programming for ABC, CBS, and NBC, has a quickly identifable look through the extensive use of long lenses, wireless microphones, and foreground composition. He believes in conversations—not interviews, but eavesdropping—not intruding, no lights, and keeping the camera far away from his subjects. Farkas produced New York Reacts by Ray Farkas after the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were blown up. Two days after the towers toppled, Farkas headed into Manhattan, armed with a wireless microphone and video camera. His goal, being as inconspicuous as possible, was to take the emotional pulse of the city by documenting people’s conversations with each other. Check it out. Travis Fox, City University of New York, says people give you permission, obviously, because you have a mic on them. But being physically removed from your subject and out of earshot, even when they know they are being recorded, does give the subject a certain level of comfort. “I found it allows them to talk more freely,” says Fox. You can use a wireless lav mic with not only your DSLR or mirrorless camera, but also with your smart phone. Some wireless lavs incorporate mic and sender into one tiny package measuring less than 1 × 1 inches for the lav/sender combination. Te receiver is equally small. Using their built-in, Bluetooth technology you will fnd it easy to link up the mic and the receiver. With some units you can even connect wirelessly two microphones with one receiver on the camera. Tis allows you to record a two-person interview or to mic both your subject and yourself at the same time. You can split the two audio channels into separate tracks when you edit the footage during post-production.

ESSENTIAL ACCESSORIES FOR RECORDING SOUND In addition to choosing the right microphone, you also need some other essential accessories to help you capture high-quality sound for your projects.

Windscreen/Dead Cat Whichever microphone you choose, always use a windscreen when you are outside. Windscreens help keep wind noise out of your recordings. Even a lav mic usually comes with a tiny windscreen. Te windscreen for a shotgun mic is called a “dead cat” or “fuzzy sock.” Tis very hairy version of a windscreen is highly efective at reducing wind noise.

New York Reacts by Ray Farkas. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=MwuhdEPirzc

 Shotgun mic with windscreen, more commonly known as a “dead cat.” The dead cat cuts down on the wind noise. You can use a dead cat on a shotgun or a lavalier mic.

Shock Mounts A shotgun mic covered with a windscreen should be mounted in shock mounts that attach to the camera or to the boom pole, advises John Hewitt, Emeritus Professor of Documentary Videos at San Francisco State University. “If you handhold a mic, even the friction from your hand on the barrel of the mic can add noise to the recording.”

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 While covering the Gay Parade in San Francisco, the videojournalist monitors the drum band through his headphones. Without the headphones, the videographer would not know if the camera was recording any extraneous noise or, worse, not recording sound at all. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Headphones “Not wearing headphones is akin to shooting a picture without looking through the viewfnder,” warns multimedia expert Brian Storm. “We’ve all shot from the hip now and then. But would you do an environmental portrait that way?” Headphones are the only way to truly monitor what your microphones are picking up. If you’re not wearing headphones, you simply won’t hear the quality of the sound coming in or even know whether your equipment is working. “I fnd that without headphones, you can’t hear the good sounds that will help mold your story, nor can you hear the bad sounds that could be hindering it,” says World Vision’s Lisa Berglund. Capturing great sound is equally as important as making sure you are aware of the bad sounds like white noise (an air conditioner, refrigerator, ticking clock, for example), airplanes, car alarms, cell-phone interference, or generators.

 Over the ear headphones isolate the sound you are recording from the surrounding noise.

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Earbuds and light headphones do allow you to hear interference such as a crackle from a loose wire connection. But these types of audio monitoring devices also let in environmental sounds that aren’t necessarily being recorded. Tat alone can make your work more frustrating. Te more isolating, larger headphones cut of most outside sound so that all you are hearing is the audio actually being picked up by the mic and recorded by the camera. Headphones are bulkier than earbuds but provide a better measure of the quality of sound being recorded. On most handheld recorders as well as on medium- to high-priced video cameras, you will fnd an audio-out socket that will accept the cable jack from headphones. Tere are a number of diferent-sized sockets that are standard in the industry including sub-mini, mini, 1/8-inch, and others. If your headphone doesn’t ft the outlet on your device, buy a converter to reduce or enlarge the jack size.

RIDING THE GAIN CONTROL ON YOUR MICS Spend a moment recording some small talk with your subject, or have the subject recite the ABCs or a favorite poem. Ten listen to the selection before starting the interview or the shoot. Tis delay may be a bit awkward, but it may also save you from recording an unusable interview.

What to Listen For When recording an interview, you obviously will be listening to what your subject is saying. But you also must pay attention to all of the following technical considerations so that your subject’s words are not drowned out by extraneous snaps, crackles, and pops. Listen for: •

•

•

•

•

•

Scratching sounds caused by the lav mic’s contact with the subject’s clothing. Adjust the mic to avoid this interference. Irritating or interfering sounds from nearby music, an air-conditioner system turning on or of, or a refrigerator’s buzz. You might actually have to switch of the radio, squelch the air conditioner, or unplug the refrigerator. Josh Birnbaum, professor at Ohio University, reminds his students to, “Put your car keys inside so you don’t forget to plug it back in when done!” Unclear diction. If the voice is not crystal clear, make sure the mic is near enough to the person’s mouth. Low levels. Check to see whether the volume is sufciently loud. You may need to adjust the audio levels or bring the mic nearer the subject. Volume too high. If the audio rises above 0 with digital recording, you cannot recover this lost audio during editing. Static caused by loose audio cables. If this is the situation, you need to verify the connections and check to see whether a wire has come loose or is broken.

Controlling Volume Te best way to ensure good sound is to know how to set and monitor the volume control on your video camera. As with other camera controls, you have a choice of manual or automatic, each with its advantages and disadvantages.

 Keep your audio level in the range of –12dB.

Manual Volume Control: “Riding Gain” Some cameras have audio volume meters that may appear on the LCD screen or in the viewfnder. Tese allow you to see if the audio level is staying within a usable range. Monitoring the meter can be difcult when trying to shoot and record sound simultaneously, but it’s essential to capturing usable audio. Professional videojournalists can constantly monitor the sound level and adjust it throughout the recording session. In fact, in feature-length documentaries, a location sound recordist monitors the sound. But if you are a one-man band, you alone will be shooting and monitoring sound levels. A decibel (dB) is the unit used to measure the intensity of a sound. Meters measure decibels from –30 (very quiet) to +6 (of-the-scale loud). Some meters show the dB level in numbers. Others just indicate the ideal audio level and the blow-out zone. To produce the least noisy recording, set the recording volume to peak no higher than –6 dB. Tis is to avoid “clipping” or seriously distorting the high end of the signal. Do not let the sound level go too high or too low. Once the sound level goes into the “danger zone”—usually above 0 dB, the sound fdelity cannot be recaptured in the editing process.

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“Always record a little low,” says Goheen of Terranova Pictures. He notes that you will more than likely be able to boost the level in editing if you recorded at too low a level. If you overmodulate—i.e., have the volume level too high—there is nothing one can do to correct the distortion. When recording an interview, have the subject speak in a natural voice and set the volume level so that it does not go over 0 dB. Ten leave it alone, says Goheen. You will need to change it only if the person becomes noticeably quieter or starts to shout during the interview. Adjusting the sound volume while on the move can be a challenge for the backpack journalist—who is simultaneously busy framing the shot, adjusting the focal length of the lens, and making sure the exposure and focus are okay, not to mention conducting a thoughtful interview with good follow-up questions. Tis juggling act takes practice.

When the Camera Controls the Volume Even skilled video shooters often forgo full control over sound by relying on the camera’s automatic gain control (AGC) features. AGC, also called automatic level control (ALC), is the term describing when the camera controls the sound level. AGC strives to record all sound within a fxed volume range. When a sound is very loud,

 In this three-person video crew, the sound man stands of camera. He aims the shotgun mic at the end of a boom pole toward the correspondent. (Photo by Betsy Brill)

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AGC softens it; when a sound is very soft, AGC tries to boost it. In efect, AGC limits the volume’s dynamic range to an acceptable level that the camera is capable of handling. However, because AGC is always striving toward the middle, it’s likely to amplify ambient sound when no one is speaking or to subdue the sound of an emphatic interviewee. When recording something like music with quiet and loud passages, the AGC will tend to compress the dynamic range by making the quiet passages louder and the loud passages quieter—not what Beethoven had in mind at all. Also, depending on the model of your camera or audio recorder, AGC can produce strange quirks. For example, when a person resumes speaking after a pause, the frst words may be overamplifed until the AGC fnds a comfortable level. Yet on many cameras and recorders, AGC produces remarkably consistent volume levels without any tweaking. If you’re working alone in the role of backpack videojournalist, and shooting run-and-gun-style video, like covering a parade down the town’s main street, consider putting the audio on automatic and leaving the driving to the camera’s software. Tis way if the band goes by the camera’s internal control will automatically limit the trumpets’ blast but crack up the volume when the piccolo players play.

SIX SOUND RULES 1. 2. 3. 4.

5.

6.

When placing the mic, closer is always better. You can’t hear problems without headphones. Monitor volume controls and stay within limits. Listen for annoying sounds to eliminate them or wait for them to end: • Unwanted radio music • Television • Airplanes or vehicles • Machines or appliances • Construction • Alarms or sirens • Unrelated conversation Always start by recording one minute of room tone (no dialogue; no one speaking). Continue to record important dialogue even if the picture is poor. You can split the audio and video tracks later and use only the relevant sound with other images in your fnal video.

 Sound of Gunfre. Although you probably can imagine the sound of the guns fring at this traditional wine festival in the village of Montfort, France, the impact would be much stronger if you could hear the actual blasts. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

 Even this little boy knows to protect his ears for the loud explosion from a ceremonial gun blast. Automatic gain control (AGC) on your video camera can also suppress sound levels that are out of range. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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 Ken Kobré, outftted in a protective suit for safety,  works on a story about the killer bees of Africa. To shoot a sequence, the videojournalist flms both close-up shots of the bees themselves and wider shots of the bee colony and its caretakers.

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CHAPTER

11

Shooting a Sequence

K

im Komenich, former Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle and now a professor at San Francisco State University,

compares making a documentary video to writing a symphony. When Beethoven wrote the 9th Symphony, only he knew what the score would sound like. Although the master wrote each line of music separately, he knew how they would sound when played simultaneously. Beethoven was completely deaf when he wrote that symphony. So he knew what it would sound like, but never actually heard it when it was played. DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-11

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“It’s pre-visualization on steroids,” Komenich says. Pre-visualization means imagining what the story will look like … just like Beethoven was able to “pre-hear” what his symphony would sound like. Note: Many examples in this chapter for suggested online links are drawn from narrative, Hollywood-style movies. When it comes to shooting sequences, the same principles apply to documentary, online, broadcast as well as Hollywood-produced movies.

FROM SINGLE SHOT TO COMPLETED STORY Start with a Shot Te key for recording each video shot is to start shooting before the action starts and to continue until the action is complete. Shoot each shot as if it were telling a short tale. Press the button to start and let the camera roll for at least 10

seconds or until an action is complete. Film for only a few seconds and you won’t leave yourself enough room to cut efectively, or even use the shot. Film too long—a boring repetitive action, for example—and you’ll have excess footage to sort through.

Putting the Shots Together to Build Sequences into a Story A sequence is a series of coordinated, related shots. Shown together, one after another, the shots create a narrative of an event, activity, or process. Tis short narrative has an internal sense of fow from beginning to end. Te sequence has a logical order of shots to lead the viewer through one bit of the story. Te sequence shots must be related in some way. All the shots in the sequence document the same theme, location, or event. Alternatively all the shots record the same activity or process.

CLIMBING THE CLOCK TOWER Let’s think about telling the story of the members of a local climbing club and their activities of as well as on the mountain. You obviously need footage of the climbers preparing for, ascending, and subsequently descending a mountain; you should also include how the club members put their sport to good use in order to actively support their local community. A public demonstration that includes teaching local children how to rappel down a town’s ancient fve-story clock tower ofers the ideal opportunity to capture not only this exciting event but also the members’ commitment to the townspeople. The place is the clock tower in the center of a small village in Provence, France. Over the course of the day, each willing child will trot up to the roof, be harnessed, and then will descend from the top of the tower to the ground. You could shoot this whole event by standing back and recording one child descending the clock tower from start to fnish. You could shoot the whole descent from the same vantage point in one shot. Most amateurs would press the button to “start” when the child appears at the top of the tower and press it again to “stop” once the child touches the pavement below. The descent might take fve minutes. Unless you are closely related to the youngster, can you imagine later watching all fve minutes of the descent on TV? A professional handles the same event by recording a series of shots. The videographer recorded each shot for at least 10 seconds. The result was a sequence with multiple shots. Edited together, the shots will form one coherent sequence in the larger story. The edited sequence will last a much shorter time than fve minutes that the event took to complete. This series of images that you will use to build into a sequence when editing the piece includes wide, medium, closeup, action, reaction, point-of-view shots. When edited together, a sequence holds far more visual interest than does an uninterrupted fve-minute shot taken from a static camera positioned in one location. Five minutes of real-time footage from a static camera position could be almost unwatchable. With a well-edited series of short shots, however, the same fve-minute event can be quite thrillingly revealed to the viewer in less than 20 seconds. The viewer has no trouble accepting that time has been compressed. As you cut from one shot to another in a sequence, you are urging the viewer to suspend disbelief and allow emotions to do the watching. The more individual shots a sequence contains, the more visually exciting the reportage. Television ads, for example, which are most absorbing and excruciatingly expensive to make on a per-second basis, sometimes contain more than 100 separate shots for a brief 30-second spot.

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 1. From the ground take a low-angle wide shot, also called an establishing shot, to show the top of the tower. Looking straight up, this shot gives a sense of distance from the ground. An additional wide shot could have been taken from farther away to show the height of the building.

 7. Look for a close-up detail (often called a cutaway) such as the ropes lying on the ground. During editing, you will use this shot to take the viewer away from the action for a second.

 2. Now, head up the stairs for a medium shot of the child being helped into his climbing harness.

 8. Aim up at the youngster and his mentor and shoot from a low angle.

 3. From a lower tower window, shoot up for a close-up of the child’s face and his reaction to what he can see below.

 9. Here’s a high-angle medium shot you would have taken while still on the tower, placed here to demonstrate that in the fnal edit, you will be able to include the anxious parents looking up at their son as he gradually progresses downward.

 4. Now shoot down to show what the child sees— the boy’s point of view.

 10. Back of a few feet to take a wide shot of the youngster when he’s fnally soloing toward the ground.

 5. Head to the ground and from a low angle shoot up as the youngster and his coach slowly descend.

 11. Capture in a medium shot where the future mountaineer is being guided to the ground with the help of his sister and the rope handler on the ground.

 6. Try a medium closeup of the belayer as he handles the safety ropes for the pair.

 12. End the sequence with a medium shot of the boy being helped out of his harness.

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TURNING INDIVIDUAL SHOTS INTO A STORY—PUTTING PIECES OF THE JIGSAW TOGETHER

La Révolution du Rosé. https://vimeo.com/manage/ videos/365322169/privacy

Consider a video story called La Révolution du Rosé, which will explain the new and surprising popularity of rosé wine, a type of wine reviled in the past but is now France’s second most popular.

Te story of rosé will be built from a series of sequences that show where the action is taking place, interspersed with interviews from experts. Let’s start with the frst shot.

Shot: Cutting a Bunch of Grapes A shot is the piece of video footage produced between the time the camera is switched on and then of again. The shot can run from a few frames to an hour. Usually edit the shot so it starts just prior to the start of the action.

 A farmer harvesting his grapes.

Sequences A sequence is a series of coordinated, related shots. Shown together, one after another, the shots create a narrative of an event, activity, or process.

The Vineyard Sequence: Picking Grapes

 The frst shot in a documentary about rosé wine might be a farmer in the foreground bending over a grape vine harvesting grapes with scissors.

 The next shot might be a low angle of the farmer.

 The next shot may be a tightly framed shot of his hands as he snips the grapes of the vine.

 The next shot might show the man’s face as he concentrates on his task.

Note: Keep in mind that it’s not necessary to shoot the individual shots in this or any other specifc order while recording (see Chapter 11). You can decide which shot to use when you get to the editing room. When edited together, the individual shots form a sequence that explains the cutting of the grapes.

Filling the Cart

 The frst shot for this sequence might catch the farmer tossing a bunch of grapes into a bucket and the bucket emptied into a cart.

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 The next shot could show a close-up of all the grapes in the cart.

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 The fnal shot in this sequence could show the tractor pulling the cart away through the rows of vines.

The Winery Another sequence might include a series of shots in the wine cellar.

Sequence: Cleaning the Wine Vats

 Entering the wine vat by a ladder.

Sequence: Sampling the Juice

 Shoveling grapes inside a wine vat.

 Close-up of sampling the grape juice before it turns to wine.

 The next shot could be a just the wine glass half-flled.

Blending Rosé Another sequence could include shots of the room where diferent wine varietals are sampled so they can be blended together to give rosé its unique taste.

 The sequence might open with a shot of all the diferent bottles, each with a diferent rosé. The rosés come from diferent parts of the vineyard and each have a slightly distinctive color and taste.

 The owner of the winery tries out each of the diferent rosé samples.

 For this sequence you would also want to have an overall of the room.

The Interview  The interview can be a static shot of an expert sitting in front of the camera as the person explains the intricacies of bottling rosé wine. You could show only the face of the vintner during the interview. Alternatively, you could start with the winemaker’s face on screen. Then, continue with his voice as you show images to go with the topics of the interview.

Wine-Tasting Contest

 Judges taste wine and then spit it out.

 A stack of wine bottles.

Final story The fnal story would include a number of sequences that lay out the process of making rosé wine. The story would explain why a ridiculed wine is now the second most popular in France. Watch La Révolution du Rosé.

 The fnal story will contain all the shots, sequences, and interviews in an order that will seem natural.

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THE FIVE-SHOT FORMULA Te sequences mentioned above are built from individual shots. For each sequence you need to try and shoot fve diferent types of shots. When you watch documentary or fctional flms, observe that they consist of a series of individual shots stitched together into a sequence. Te editor organizes sequences into a story that holds your attention. Tough you can identify a wide range of diferent camera placements, zooms, dollies, and pans, most documentaries—and even fctional flms—are built with fve basic camera shots: • • • • •

Wide shot Medium shot Close-up shot Point-of-view shot Action/reaction shot

Tese fve shots are your “bread-and-butter” coverage. Recording the fve basic shots for every sequence may sound tedious. It is sometimes even impossible—and doing so surely will produce more footage than will ever make it to the fnal documentary flm. But just as food on a shelf doesn’t make a meal until the proper ingredients are mixed in a recipe, all those shots seem unrelated only until it’s time for the fnal edit. Like a chef who doesn’t use every ingredient in a kitchen closet, you may not need every single shot to blend a satisfying story. But although the chef can run to the store to pick up a missing spice, there’s no going back for the essential footage you may have overlooked. Te fve basic shots for each sequence may seem like overkill, but if you have recorded them all, you will see that they provide all the necessary ingredients for cooking up a visually rich story. “If you don’t have it in the feld,” says Travis Fox, Frontline producer/videographer, “you don’t have it. You are constantly storyboarding in your head. You need to think about what the fnal

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product will look like even though you are in the middle of shooting. Where is the story going to start? What will make a great opener?” Rolf Behrends, a veteran freelance video shooter from South Africa, ofers this advice: “One shot is never enough.” For Behrens, just one shot of an incident will not produce enough footage to edit. (And each shot must run for a minimum of 10 seconds.) For a usable sequence, multiple shots of each sequence are a must. Memorize this mantra—“one shot is never enough”—and your footage will be more professional right from the start. In a documentary, you can’t ask the subject to repeat an action. Recording the fve shots as a person is moving from one place to another can be difcult. Sometimes you can only record one continuous medium shot of the action. Sometimes you might get only two—a wide and a close-up shot. But always keep those fve shots in mind as your goal. How do they capture the fve shots in Hollywood? Every Hollywood sequence and every shot within the sequence is pre-planned and drawn on a storyboard. Based on that storyboard, the director asks the actors to reenact the scene repeatedly in order for the camera to be moved—frst to get a wide shot, then a reverse shot, later a close-up, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Te lead actors repeat the same action over and over … ah, Hollywood and the luxury of fction. You, as the one-man-band videographer shooting a documentary, do not have the luxury of a Hollywood director. You can plan only for the basic sequence necessary to build a story. Planning a shot list for every shot in each sequence is all but impossible. Only when you arrive on location and observe the action unfold can these shots be identifed. Here are some techniques to make sure you capture all the shots required to produce a great video or multimedia piece.

Wide Shot (WS) Shows a Location To establish location for each sequence or the entire story itself, video shooters typically use a wide shot. Te overall result shows where the story is taking place: inside, outside, country, city, land, sea, day, night, and so on. Tis shot defnes the relative position of the participants. In a confrontation, for example, an overhead wide-angle shot would show whether the demonstrators and police were a block apart or across the street from one another. Te overall shot also allows viewers to judge crowd size and evaluate the magnitude of an event. Watch 3 Wide Shots Tat Every Filmmaker Needs to Know. For some stories, a wide shot might include only an overall view of a room. For others, it might encompass a city block, a neighborhood, or even a whole town. Te scope of the shot depends on the size of the vista and its eventual use in the story.

Ed Robbins, whose credits include PBS, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Channel, is a teacher at Columbia University Graduate School. He tells his students to remember the shots in the list because the individual camera positions help to answer journalistic questions of WHO is the subject of the story, WHAT is the story about and WHERE is the story taking place. Robbins says, “Get a lot of these wide shots. Shoot a wide shot and then change angles. Get up on a chair, get low. Even shoot the wide angle with a foreground object in front of your subject. Now, move closer or get back further. If you move up or back 10 feet you have an entirely different ‘WHERE’ shot.” Te extreme wide shot, very wide shot, and wide shot—sometimes called an overall, establishing or long shot in flm parlance—allows viewers to orient themselves to a landscape.

 The ship MY Steve Irwin is dwarfed by an iceberg as it sails Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. (Photo by Adam Lau)

3 Wide Shots That Every Filmmaker Needs to Know. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=VwbSxxm6skM

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Don’t worry about the precise name. Just concentrate on the reason for shooting it and don’t come home without it. “We all remember John Ford’s tiny wagon trains dwarfed by the vastness of Monument Valley or a gnat-size Omar Sharif riding out of a mirage in Lawrence of Arabia,” write the editors of Videomaker.com. “Long shots literally show us the big picture, revealing who and what is in it and the spatial relationships among them.” For a good wide shot, you shouldn’t have to tilt the camera to see everything, advises Steve Sweitzer, former news operations manager of WISH TV, Indianapolis, and adjunct professor at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Don’t stand under the front of a building and shoot up. Instead, back up until you can see the whole building in the wide shot. Observers present at any event move their eyes from side to side to take in the entire scene. Viewers watching a TV or movie screen don’t have the advantage of moving their eyes to see everything. Te wide shot allows viewers to orient themselves to a scene. Without a wide shot, viewers’ brains cannot very easily evaluate the other shots in the sequence. For a second, viewers don’t know where they are or what they are supposed to be seeing without the wide establishing shot. To photograph an overall wide shot of a room, you’ll want to get up on a chair, or—if nothing else is available—stand on a table or a desk. Anyway, it’s always advisable to bring your own ladder. It’s difcult to know ahead of time what you might or might not be allowed to stand on. So come prepared. Your ladder may come in handy outside unless you can fnd a telephone pole, a leafess tree, or a nearby building that will give you the height necessary for an efective wide shot.

 Ladder. A ladder comes in handy when you need to shoot from a high angle. News videographers working in Washington often bring their own ladders so their view of the action won’t be blocked by their competition.

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When caught in a fat area, even the roof of your vehicle will add some height to your view. Te wider the angle on your fxed or zoom lens, the less distance from the scene you will need to be. Your simplest option may be to set the lens on wide angle and hold the camera high above your head with the LCD screen tilted down. Tis position of the camera itself will give you some height, while you will still be viewing what you’re photographing with the monitor. However, for a major story that encompasses a vast area, such as a food, hurricane, or confagration, the time has come to use your drone. Videographers are carrying all-sized drones just in case they need a high and wide perspective. If even a drone won’t do, try getting a ride in or—if it’s important enough—renting a helicopter or small airplane to capture the magnitude of the destruction.

Medium Shot (MS) Shows the Action Te job of the medium shot is to carry the bulk of the story. Frame the shot close enough to see the participants’ action, yet far enough away to show their relationship to one another and to their environment. Te medium shot contains all the storytelling elements of a situation. Like a news story lead, the medium shot footage must tell the whole story quickly. Watch Medium Shot in Film: Examples and Film Teory. Medium shots allow viewers to follow the action and observe body language but still observe people’s faces. You will need to shoot many medium shots because most videos usually contain more medium shots than any other kind. Medium shots often provide the Who and What of the story. A medium shot gains dramatic impact when it captures action. Action often happens quickly and leaves the shooter little time to prepare. Shooting action is like shooting sports. For both, you must anticipate when and where the action will take place. If a man engages in a heated argument with a police ofcer, you might predict that an arrest will follow. Aim the video camera when the argument starts and don’t stop shooting until the confrontation has ended—peaceably or not.

During a confrontation like that between the policeman and the potential arrestee, keep the camera rolling even as you change positions. Even though the video might be unimportant, by continuously flming as you move from one location to another the audio soundtrack will have continuity and be invaluable during editing. Nothing is more frustrating to an editor than when the sound or picture is cut too quickly. You can always edit out the dull moments later. If you hesitate to shoot, waiting for just the right moment, the quarrel might end while you’re still fddling with the equipment. In addition to starting to shoot before the action begins, you must anticipate where the action is going next and position the camera there in time to record the next segment of the confict. “Let the camera observe the action,” says John Hewitt, former news producer at KPIX San Francisco and now Emeritus Professor of Broadcast at San Francisco State University. Set up the shot and wait for the action. “Keep the camera still and let the characters’ action take place within the frame.” Sometimes the action will end in a few seconds; other times, you will need to keep rolling for minutes.

 The medium shot of this food giveaway in Jerusalem shows the action. It is wide enough to show the physical setting in which the action is taking place, yet close enough to see facial expressions.

Medium Shot in Film: Examples and Film Theory. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=dQV2-6_0ZeY

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Don’t distract your audience by constantly readjusting the composition and lens focal length as you record the event. Relax. Let the action roll out. Follow the action if it moves. Have patience. Something will happen. Remember to let each shot tell a tiny story before hitting the of button. Of course, if the action is repetitive, you will need to move around with your camera to capture diferent angles. Editing together the shots taken from diferent angles of a repetitive action will help add zest to the fnal footage. For the medium shot, a wide-angle lens works well if you can stay in close to your subjects. Many videographers shoot almost everything with the wide angle. Tey move away or come in close but keep using the wide-angle lens. Shooting close in with a wide-angle lens provides intimacy by bringing viewers into the middle of the action. Shooting the same site on a telephoto—even framed in the same way— requires standing much farther away and leaves viewers feeling as if they are peeking into a private moment as an outside observer. Of course, when covering a dangerous situation or one in which your own movement is severely restricted, the telephoto still captures a fne medium shot, even though it will not net the same intimacy.

 In a Congolese church on Easter Sunday the close-up image of a choir member singing pulls in the viewer.

Close Up Shots that POP | The Best Camera Angles in Film. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=O5ZCsw22JRk

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Close-Up or Cutaway Adds Drama Nothing beats a close-up for drama. Te closeup slams the viewer into eyeball-to-eyeball contact with the subject. At this intimate distance, a subject’s face, whether contorted in pain or beaming happily, elicits viewer reaction. Watch Close Up Shots that POP | Te Best Camera Angles in Film. A close-up is like an intimate portrait. Tis type of shot eliminates the normal space barriers most people maintain during a routine conversation. According to Michael Wohl in Te Language of Film, this is one reason fans often feel they actually “know” famous actors. (Tough the feeling is certainly not mutual!) When shooting close-ups of a person, avoid the wide-angle lens if possible. At a close distance, the wide-angle lens perspective causes objects in the center of the picture to be unnaturally enlarged. People’s noses look out of proportion. It’s quite unfattering (see page 127). Te medium-to-telephoto lens is best for photographing faces close up. When photographing a sequence of a person doing anything with their hands, like sculpting a piece of clay, Ed Robbins, former Time magazine videographer, recommends showing only the face without seeing the hands of the subject. “Te single most important thing: do not show the arms or hands, just the head. Limiting

the framing of the shot to just the face will make editing enormously easier,” Robbins says. To take a close-up of the front or side of someone’s face as they work, you will need to place your camera near the person’s hands and aim the lens upwards. Tis shot is much simpler to execute if you have a fip-out LCD screen on your camera. With the fip-out screen, you can accurately frame the shot limiting the perspective to just the person’s face. Robbins recommends recording this close-up face shot for at least 30 seconds or more. He points out that with enough footage you can come back to this close-up several times during the documentary. For the sequence showing a person making a clay sculpture, restrict the camera’s view to just the subject’s hands. As the artist’s fngers shape the clay, the viewer can clearly see a sculpture evolving. Although most stories only contain a few wide shots, there should be lots of tight shots. “I’ve seen some great stories that were primarily close-up shots,” says Steve Sweitzer, a seasoned professional who has been shooting and editing video news for 30 years. Te close-up detail shot, sometimes called a cutaway because you are “cutting away” from the main action, is used during editing to shift viewers’ attention from the fow of the action. Te best cutaways are the ones that have some

logic to them and relate to the story. In the story about the sculpture, a short cutaway shot of the artist’s sculpting tools will come in handy during editing. Whatever the subject matter of your story, look out for telling close-up details—like a trumpeter’s lips or a card dealer’s hands—which will add relevant, visual variety to the story. Close-up detail shots also shine on the small screen of a smart phone. Although individual details in a wide shot are likely to be lost, a closeup detail shot practically rises of the screen and says “hello.” For social media like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, usually viewed on the relatively small screen of a portable device, the more close-ups you have the better. In a piece for Time magazine, Te Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan, Ed Robbins, now at Columbia University, came in close when a young escapee showed the actual wound resulting from being stabbed with a bayonet. Te close-up of the boy’s awful injury drives home the rogue army’s brutality. Tip: A close-up shot of a detail in the story, by itself, is useless. Te close-up shot needs context—where it is located, who is involved. If you have flmed a close-up detail of the sculptor’s hands for the clay story, your story also needs a shot showing the artist’s face and another showing the artist in his or her studio.

The Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan. https://youtu.be/-ip08pjKngI

 A close-up of grapes in the early morning. You can shoot close-ups with special macro lens on a digital single-lens refex or mirrorless camera. With a smart phone you can get very near to the subject without any additional lenses.

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 This point-of-view shot shows what the boat captain sees as he guides his canoe down the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Point-of-View (POV) Shot A point-of-view (POV) shot captures what your subject is seeing. It puts the viewer fguratively behind the eyes of your subject. In a hypothetical shooting situation, an artist dabs oils on a canvas. Te next shot then could show the canvas from the point of view of the artist. Tis POV shot might include the artist’s brush as he or she strokes paint on the canvas. To accomplish this shot the videographer puts the camera in almost the same position as the painter’s face. Often the camera is located just above and to the side of the painter. Sometimes the POV shot is framed by the side

The Diving Bell and the Butterfy trailer. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=t4Ek4ZBpshs&t=65s

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of the artist’s head with a bit of their shoulder. Te main purpose of the POV shot is to give the viewer the sensation of being in the head of the artist and seeing his or her perspective. In the movie Te Diving Bell and the Butterfy, which is based on a true story, the editor-in-chief of the French fashion magazine Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby, sufered a massive stroke which severed his brain stem from his spinal cord and rendered the worldly, charismatic man nearly completely paralyzed. He could move only one eye. Much of the movie is told from his extremely limited POV.

Action/Reaction Shot or Reverse-Angle Shot When someone says or does something exceptional, shocking, or funny, the viewer wants to see how others respond. Te reaction shot, or reverse-angle shot as it is also called, is often (but not always) a close-up of someone reacting to a comment or action. Tis shot helps defne the efect of the preceding shot. In the pair of images on this page, a man pretends to drive an imaginary motorcycle. Te reaction shot shows his partner laughing. Te woman’s tickled reaction to the humorous moment is almost contagious. Watch Shot Reverse Shot: How to Shoot Reaction Shots and Film Coverage You Need.

 Action.  The frst shot shows a man pretending to drive a motorcycle (Photo by Ken Kobré)

“I often refer to these shots as ‘action’ and ‘reaction’, ” says John Goheen, who has shot for 48 Hours (CBS) and Dateline (NBC) among others. For every action there is going to be a reaction. Te action part is usually pretty easy to identify, while identifying the reaction can take more efort, especially for the inexperienced eye. In a Hollywood movie, the camera captures the action and reaction of a conversation by cutting back and forth between two people as they talk. If a man and a woman are arguing, the camera might focus on the woman as she waves her hands and sticks her index fnger in the man’s chest to make her point. Ten the camera might cut to the man as he winces, sticks out his

 The point-of-view (POV) shot of a dentist was taken from the perspective of the nervous patient. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Shot Reverse Shot: How to Shoot Reaction Shots and Film Coverage You Need. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EBykqNDKbKY

 Reaction. The second shot shows the reaction of his hypothetical rider. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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tongue, or otherwise reacts to her vituperations. Tis back and forth can go on for many minutes. In baseball, if the hitter smacks a ball (action) the viewer wants to the see where the ball landed and if it was caught by an outfelder (reaction). For any situation like a concert, dance recital, or poetry reading, of course, shoot the action of the person on stage. Ten shoot several reaction shots of the audience. Shoot close-ups of faces in

the crowd. If the story is about a stand-up comic, the reaction shot might capture whether the crowd is wide-eyed in amazement, teary-eyed in sympathy, or just slumped in their seats looking bored. Shoot the crowd as the performance takes place and certainly at the end as the audience claps in appreciation. In pure visuals, the reaction shot shows the impact of what the fans are watching.

FIVE-SHOT FORMULA TYPE OF SHOT

LENS SETTING

ADVANTAGE

TECHNIQUE

Wide WS

Wide angle

Shows where the action takes place

Chair, ladder, building, monopod

Medium MS

Normal

Moves the story forward

Close-up CU

Telephoto

Telling details Face

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Move in close

Macro or close-up setting

Objects

Use telephoto setting

Point of view POV

All lengths

What the subject is watching

Place yourself behind subject

Reaction RS

All lengths

Shows the efect of the speaker or the action

Capture the audience reaction

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THE ORIGINS OF A-ROLL, B-ROLL AND MAYBE THE C-ROLL Te terms A-roll and B-roll are leftovers from the days when television news crews used celluloid flm. As late as the 1970s, news photographers recorded images with a flm camera, and audio was documented with a separate sound recorder. A news photographer shooting flm often shot only silent footage. Later, in the editing room, a soundtrack that might include an announcer’s voice, music, and perhaps even sound efects were married to the silent images that had been shot in the feld. Separate flm rolls allowed the editor to dissolve between shots. Te A-roll carried the narration track, images, and sound for reporter stand-ups and interviews—all the synced sound. Te footage containing action was called the B-roll. Te B-roll was made up of all the pictures used to illustrate the A-roll. Te two rolls were paired, and mixed during projection, and the result was called A/B-roll editing. Te distinction between A-roll and B-roll has nothing to do with the quality of the footage.

How the A-Roll and B-Roll Are Used Today A-Roll A-roll typically includes all interview footage and reporting commentary. In this kind of situation, the viewer can see the person and hear what he or she is saying. Of course, the sound of the reporter’s voice is synced to their lip movements. B-Roll B-roll comes in two favors: specifc and generic. Specifc B-roll images help to “verify” what the subjects are saying in their A-roll interview. Te B-roll video is particular to the content of that A-roll interview. If the interview is about a protest that occurred earlier in the day, the B-roll shows pictures of that specifc protest. Generic B-roll images show images of the topic not the specifc event or moment described by the interviewer speaking on A-roll. Notice how traditional six o’clock television news often reports and illustrates stories about the economy using generic B-roll, which is also called visual video “wallpaper.”

Te correspondent will recite the employment fgures, for example, while showing footage of carpenters hammering at construction sites. Te pictures of construction workers nailing boards are so generic that the footage can be used whether the economy goes up or down. Tese “wallpaper” pictures do not serve a real journalistic purpose except to fll visual airtime. Avoid them whenever possible by shooting lots and lots of B-roll directly related to the topic you are documenting. “‘Wallpaper’ is a derogatory term describing the random inclusion of unrelated video to cover during the time the interviewee or reporter are speaking,” says John Hewitt, former news director of TV stations in San Francisco and Emeritus Professor of Broadcasting at San Francisco State University. “Wallpaper shots do not comprise a sequence and often lead to confusion for the viewer.” Te person watching the broadcast does not know where the B-roll images came from or when they were taken. Te generic B-roll is like fake sugar for the eyes—it seems like it is sweet but it is not the real thing. C-Roll or Sound on Tape Tere should now be a third category called C-roll, in which the C stands for candid. Today’s video cameras automatically synchronize audio and video. Overheard dialogue of this kind is also called natural dialogue or nat dialogue. Te concept of nat dialogue is ideal for candid shooting of active situations. Is actuality the word you want here? Actuality footage is the most compelling footage you will record. Frederick Wiseman, the champion of the “direct cinema” style of shooting (see pages 28, 29, 195, 196), was a major proponent of this style of documentary flmmaking. Te whole style of cinéma vérité or candid direct cinema with sound on tape moments are often more revealing and storytelling than a formal interview in which the main character explains a situation. Recording candid action with natural conversation conveys the feeling that viewers are overhearing what subjects really say to one another while involved in an activity. Note: A natural sound on tape (NATSOT) is a sound bite gathered along with the natural ambient sound—rather than sound recorded in a formal interview setting.

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CATCHING MOMENTS How Moments Can Reveal a Story

The Boys of Christ Child House. https://www.freep. com/story/news/documentaries/2019/04/01/ christ-child-house-detroitfree-press-documentary/3335357002/

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As Brian Kaufman, staf videojournalist for the Detroit Free Press, says, “Moments are really key.” Most videos are built through a series of interviews, sound bites, and maybe some natural sound breaks. But the best stories also capture those naturally occurring moments that happen between people. In a story about a modern orphanage on Detroit’s West Side, Kaufman uses real moments to enhance key points being made in the story titled Te Boys of Christ Child House. In an interview with Mr. Dave, one of the home’s counselors talks about teaching the boys—many of whom sufer from severe emotional scars and developmental issues—to learn from their mistakes, work hard to do the right thing, and not be a quitter. To bolster that message, Kaufman uses a moment when Kevin, an older boy, is teaching Jalen, a younger boy, to tie his shoe Kevin says, “Don’t ever let me hear you say that you can’t do something. You can. You just don’t want to. You can do anything you set your mind, heart, and soul to. Now tie that shoe.” Te documentary then cuts to a medium shot of Jalen attempting to tie his own shoe. Te visual cuts back to a wide shot of Kevin actively helping Jalen tie his shoe. Ten there is a cut to Mr. Dave, who says, “I think they are pretty prepared. If they’re not, they soon will be.” A cut back to Jalen and Kevin in a wide shot just as Jalen looks up at Kevin and says, “I got it right?” Te videographer caught the exchange as it occurred. Tat interaction between the boys spoke to the very essence of the message that Mr. Dave was making in his eforts as a counselor. As important as telling moments are, they are not always easy to get. Capturing revealing moments as they take place requires patience and results in a great deal of footage. Grabbing real, unscripted moments is the peak of videojournalism. Tey let viewers see and hear what is happening rather than depend on a reporter telling them what they should think and feel. Only by hanging out with your subjects for hours, days, and sometimes even weeks, can you capture real moments. If you are trying to record natural, revealing moments, it helps to be able to sense when something dramatic is likely to take place. Cultivating this sense comes with experience, but it eventually helps make your available shooting time more efcient. Using the wireless mic, smaller video cameras, no additional lighting and unfettered

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access, the modern videojournalist can record poignant, honest moments that infuse a story with soul.

Frederick Wiseman and the  Direct Cinema or Cinéma Vérité Style Tis style of shooting is called observational or direct cinema. Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries are known for this approach. Wiseman shoots un-staged and un-manipulated action as he simultaneously records audio and images. He lets the camera roll as real life unravels before his lens. His flms High School, Hospital, Welfare, Ex Libris: Te New York Public Library, and many others allow audiences to watch and listen to the real lives of high school teachers, nurses, doctors, and welfare clients. (See Chapter 2 “Teasing Out a Teme.”)

Techniques for Capturing Candid Moments Capturing candid footage takes time, a lot more time than doing an A-roll interview and fnding B-roll footage to accompany it. If you want candid footage, you will have to hang around with the primary character and wait patiently for things to happen. Television shooters meeting deadlines for the 6 p.m. news rarely have the luxury of hanging out and waiting for storytelling candid moments. Documentary makers with paid crews on the clock can’t aford the cost of waiting for the action to happen. But backpack, one-person-band videojournalists shooting features fnd this an invaluable technique for capturing compelling footage. Te secret to flming moments is knowing the schedule of your subject, and planning accordingly. Perhaps your subject is a highly successful businesswoman. When is your salesperson sitting behind a desk talking on the phone? When is she out of the ofce meeting potential clients? Timing your shooting to coincide with moments that are likely to be flm friendly, i.e., flled with action and interaction, like a client meet up, increases your chances of catching a revealing moment in the life of your business executive.

SHOTS THAT HELP MOVE THE STORY Look for Transitions Just as writers need transition words to link changes in topics, you will need visual transitions—a scientist entering her laboratory, a busy subject driving from one place to another—some kind of action that brings the viewer to a new place with the character.

Tight shots also make great transitions from one section of the story to another. You may want to consider using a “natural wipe,” like a car passing through the frame, to serve as a transition shot between two diferent locations of the story. Locations, linked by transitions, will support the story arc as it builds and unfolds. Remember to shoot your subjects going in and coming out of buildings, opening and closing doors, and walking down a hallway. Don’t forget to record the sign that shows the logo of the factory or ofce. Tese shots don’t win Academy Awards, but they save the day during editing.

NO “DO-OVERS” IN VIDEOJOURNALISM Your subject’s action and dialogue will dictate some of your shooting options. Always record action immediately, as it is taking place. Never assume that the person will do or say something again. You don’t want to miss real, candid moments that might not reoccur. And, of course, don’t ask your subjects to repeat anything just for the camera. Aside from the fact that repeating dialogue is unethical in most journalistic situations, people simply never sound the same when they repeat something said in earnest or with emotion.

Reshoots Are Rare Don’t bank on coming back on another day to pick up the shots you missed on the frst pass. Your subject will surely have changed clothing by then, or the sky will have transformed from clear blue to overcast. Trying to edit together shots taken at diferent times and under diferent lighting conditions is difcult, if not impossible, to execute smoothly. Collect all the fundamental shots—those basic fve mentioned earlier—when you are on location the frst day. Tip: Sometimes, out of the blue, a character’s most revealing quotes start coming once the formal shooting session has ended. Even if you have packed your bags and are ready to leave, don’t hesitate to grab your camera and start shooting again.

HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL? Confused whether to shoot horizontal or vertical video? First decide on which platform you hope to show your video—and on which device your audience will watch it. Vertical video is often referred to as “portrait” mode, while horizontal framing is called “landscape” mode.

Horizontal/landscape In the past, almost all video was shot for television and its horizontal format. Te photographer held the camera horizontally. Horizontal remains the most common framing for work to be shown on television or in a movie theatre. When possible, most footage recorded for a traditional documentary or television broadcast falls into this category. News outlets will sometimes use vertically framed video if that is all that is available from a breaking news event. Documentary editors will also use vertical video in a pinch. YouTube, with 2.5 billion users, favors landscape orientation over portrait. Eighty-two percent of US adults watch YouTube. When shooting horizontally with a smart phone, hold the phone with the volume buttons at the bottom. Tis usually prevents the video from fipping upside down after being transferred to other devices. You can upload vertical video to YouTube. Te platform will change its shape to ft the standard dimensions of YouTube without distorting it. Te downside of vertically shot video on YouTube is the black bars that will appear on both sides of the vertical video. You can avoid the bars if you resize the video yourself for YouTube specifcally before uploading it.

Vertical/Portrait Most people use smart phones to shoot vertical videos for social media sites. Horizontal video is often considered “old school.” Viewers watch one billion hours of video a day. Seventy-fve percent of all video is viewed on a smart phone—and 94 percent of the time the viewer is holding the phone vertically. Vertical video became popular among nonprofessionals because of the vertical design of mobile devices … it was simply convenient to shoot in portrait mode. You can still show horizontally shot video on social media. It just won’t take up the full screen. Alternatively, include a URL in your social media post linking to your horizontal video on YouTube. Bottom line ... If you are posting content to Instagram, keep it vertical. If it’s going on YouTube, make it horizontal. If it’s going on several platforms, frame your shots so that you have plenty of room for cropping and editing the video image in post-production.

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CHAPTER

12

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B

y default, most amateur video is shot strictly from eye level. Guessing that the average height of most people is 5 foot 6 inches, think of this habit as the

5-foot-6-inch syndrome. Avoid the syndrome at all costs. Otherwise, all your shots will have a dull sameness to them. Shoot down from a 30-story building or up from inside a manhole. Either way, the viewer gets a new, sometimes jarring,

 Jacob Templin, head of video at Thomson Reuters Foundation and teacher at Columbia School of International and Public Afairs, flming from the air. He says his camera gives him the interchangeable lenses and the compactness of a digital single lens or mirrorless camera but all the features of a traditional video camera. (Photo by Mike Murphy)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-12

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 For this wide-angle shot of the U.S. Capitol the photographer chose a high angle above the cofn below. (Photo by Astrid Riecken, Washington Times)

What Does High-Angle Shot Mean? https://www.studiobinder.com/ blog/high-angle-shot-cameramovement-angle/#what-doeshigh-angle-shot-mean

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but almost always refreshing look at a subject. Even when covering a meeting in a standardsized room, standing on a chair or sitting on the foor while shooting can add interest to your images. Tis chapter will cover ways to add visual range to your shooting skills. You will need to place the camera in diferent locations. In addition, you will need to move the camera depending on the circumstances. Note: Many examples in this chapter for suggested online links are drawn from narrative, Hollywood-style movies. When it comes to camera and lens movement, the same principles apply to documentaries, online, broadcast as well as Hollywood-produced movies.

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WHERE TO LOCATE THE CAMERA Shooting Angle Changes Psychological Impact Shooting a subject from a low angle can make the person seem more important or powerful according to Videomaker.com. “Shooting at eye-level, by contrast, puts the audience on more equal footing.” If you shoot your subject from a high angle it tends to make them look weak. Te Videomaker editors point out that, “Bird’s-eye and high angles lend a feeling of detachment, of being literally above it all.”

GET HIGH, LEGALLY Even before you start shooting, look for ways to take the high ground. Whether going out on a catwalk or shooting from the balcony, fnd some way to look down on the scene. High angles often are used to establish location or to show the size of a crowd. Watch What Does HighAngle Shot Mean?

 Arm’s Length for a Higher Angle. To get a point-ofview shot of a wax fgure of Obama being delivered to Madam Tussauds, the videographer held the camera as high as his arms would go. (Photo by Jef Chiu)

Shooting a “Hail Mary” Te digital video camera enables shooting from above your head. To do so, open the LCD screen and point it down. With the lens set to wide angle, hold up your camera, extend your arms far above your head, and aim the lens in the general direction of your intended target. Watch the LCD fip-out screen to frame the shot. Start shooting (and say a few “Hail Marys!”). Te “Hail Mary” is also efective on dance foors or at street fairs, where it’s hard to isolate people from distracting, busy backgrounds. Coming up close to a person, holding the camera high, pointing it down, you will see that the ground or pavement usually provides a visually clean, undistracting background. Some photographers go so far as to bring their own stepladders to ensure they can shoot from an elevated position.

When Your Arms Aren’t Long Enough You can extend your height by mounting the camera on a monopod or tripod. Start the camera rolling, hoist the whole afair as high as possible into the air, anchor it in your belt or hold your arm close to your body, and monitor the scene with the fip-out screen.

Even if the LCD on your camera doesn’t fip out, you can use this technique by simply aiming the camera in the approximate direction of your subject. Ten, pray the pictures will come out well framed and in focus. Remember that the camera is not very steady swaying above you, so shoot a lot of footage to assure getting at least a few seconds or, at best, minutes of rock-solid video. Sometimes used to create an overall or establishing shot, this kind of overhead perspective can provide an unusual view and works especially well when in crowds or when competing with other photographers for footage of the winning athlete after a sports event.

The Ultimate Ladder … Fly a Drone As mentioned above, nothing beats a drone shot at a moment like this. When you really need to get the bird’s eye perspective, take out your portable drone. Beside the need to successfully fy the drone and record the scene, pay attention to the legality of its use. In spite of the fact that you are documenting the news, you will fnd many restrictions on where you can fy a drone. Check your app store for a program that will let you know if you are in a designated no-fy zone. Watch How to Fly a Drone.

How to Fly a Drone. https://uavcoach.com/ how-to-fy-a-quadcopter-guide

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How Low Can You Go?

 Ground Angle. With the LCD screen fipped out, you can place the camera on the ground for a dramatic low-angle shot. (Photo by Betsy Brill)

Video Essay: The Low Angle Shot. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=HnZsFS8I4bQ

 Low Angle. For a really low angle, place the camera directly on the pavement. (Photo by Kaia Means)

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“Get down. Get dirty. Get your camera where the action is,” says Bruce Chambers, an outstanding feature photographer for the Orange County Register. Video cameras and their fip-out LCD screens allow shooting from (literally) ground level. With the lens on wide angle, place the camera as low as possible—even on your toes— aim, and shoot. If you don’t have an LCD screen that tilts, you can check the results right away, and if your aim was of, reorient and shoot again. “We can take viewers to places they haven’t been before,” says John Goheen, photographer and producer at Terranova Pictures who has shot in Ukraine, Central and South America, Romania, Northern Ireland, and Hungary. “Few people are going to lie fat on the ground to see the texture of the cobblestone or practically taste the water from the stream rushing past the lens. But these types of scenes can do that for them.” Watch Video Essay: Te Low Angle Shot.

FRAMING THE INDIVIDUAL SHOT Level the Camera … or Not Normally, videojournalists level their cameras so horizontal lines in the scene are parallel to the top and bottom of the image frame. For most shots on a journalism project, they try to frame up the scene as level as possible. Some tripods even come with built-in leveling devices.

“Dutch Angle” Sometimes, to add a touch of tension to a shot, the photographer will tilt the camera on purpose. Te resulting shot is called a “Dutch-angle” shot. With this small tilt of the camera, the buildings in the scene will look like they are the leaning tower of Pisa. Dutchangle” shots represent madness, disorientation, or drug psychosis, according to flm scholars. “Dutch-angle” shots were popularized by German directors imported to Hollywood in the 1920s, according to Hollywood Lexicon. Te German word for the German language is “Deutsch,” which sounds like “doich.” However, the word was mispronounced to sound like “Dutch” and the shot became known as the “Dutch angle.”

Be careful that this unusual angle does not distract from the journalistic message of the flm so that the viewer spends time wondering why the world, as shown is your flm, is oriented at a precarious angle. In general, documentaries stick to moderate angles because they don’t want to call attention to themselves and how they are made. “Nonfction projects like news reports and documentaries often favor neutral camera angles that don’t draw attention to the production process,” according to Videomaker.com. Watch How to Use the Dutch Angle Shot.

How to Use the Dutch Angle Shot. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=R9FUEScjB1U

Watch the Corners of the Frame Whether you are shooting a close-up of a rose or the overall of a western landscape, frame the shot to carefully take in what you want—but leave out the rest. Usually photographers know the content of the shot. Te next step is to determine what to leave out. Watch the corners of the frame to determine what elements you don’t want to include in the shot. Don’t waste space.

 Composing with a Frame. Videographers make use of foreground treatment, such as this shot in a sewing school. Shooting through a foreground object can add another dimension to a twodimensional medium. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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Don’t include distracting elements that will draw the viewer’s eye away from the central content. If you are photographing a politician standing in front of city hall, ask yourself, “How much of city hall should I include?” You might want to include just enough of the building so the viewer will recognize it, but no more. Look at the corners of the frame. Do you need every brick, window, and column to communicate the idea that politician is located in front of his or her center of power? When shooting people, be sure to frame the shot so the characters have “looking room.” If your subject is looking to the left, they should be positioned on the right side of the screen. Usually, when shooting a person or an animal moving across the screen, try to lead the action. If something is moving right to left across the screen, you want to keep the moving body on the right side of the screen with extra empty space on the left of the screen. Te person or animal now has room to “move” into the picture frame. For instance, if a dog is meandering on the road in front of you, from right to left, pan the camera with the dog so it always has some “running room” on the left.

 Let the Action Complete before Stopping the Shot.  This series of images comprise a single medium shot of a woman trying on a hat. The shot begins with her picking up the hat, climaxes with her putting it on her head, and ends with her returning the hat to the table. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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Alternatively, you might want to keep the camera stationary and let the dog enter and leave the frame. When a subject enters or leaves the frame, the shot might be invaluable during editing as a way of leading the viewer in or out of a scene.

WHEN TO STOP SHOOTING AND REFRAME Regardless of what you’re shooting, you must always decide when to keep rolling and when to stop and change angles for a new shot. In general, let the action fnish before you move to start another shot from a diferent angle or before zooming the lens. While a videojournalist was flming an arrest at a demonstration, a policeman handcufed a young woman. Te videojournalist had to decide whether to keep rolling with a medium shot that included the action or to come in for a close-up of the protester’s face. Documentary shooting requires constant trade-ofs between continuing to record one shot or stopping to get a new perspective by changing position or lens length.

Starting and Stopping the Video Camera Anyone accustomed to taking still pictures has to overcome the habit of using the record button as if it were the shutter release on a still camera. Pushing the button turns on the camera. But pushing it again stops the video. So, if the camera is already running, hitting the button at the peak moment, as you are accustomed to do with a still camera, stops the video recording and leaves you with a truncated, unusable shot. You are left standing there as the critical moment plays itself out unrecorded.

Tip: Most video cameras have a “record” indicator signal visible in the viewfnder. Sometimes the indicator is a red light. Sometimes it is a colored frame around the LCD screen. Usually, a clock starts to run as soon as you press the start button. Get in the habit of checking all these indicators to make sure the camera is actually recording. Remember, don’t hit the same button again until the performance is over.

 Sometimes You Must Keep Shooting to Avoid Missing Important Action.  Other times you must keep the camera rolling so as not to lose important dialogue. In both circumstances, you can later separate the audio and video during editing and use one or the other, as you deem necessary. (Photo by Warren Hsu)

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 Clip one

 Clip two

 Think Ahead to Avoid Confusing Cuts During Editing.  Editing clip two to run immediately after clip one will cause the subject’s head to appear to suddenly jerk on screen. Avoid this problem, called a jump cut, ahead of time by shooting a cutaway  clip of the subject’s hands or some other close-up to place between clip one and clip two. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

How to Avoid Unwanted Jump Cuts! https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=D4aKsOblEU4

COMMON SHOOTING ERRORS Avoid the Unwanted Jump Cut An unwanted jump cut typically occurs with interview footage in which the flmmaker kept the camera locked on the subject. A subject, however, always moves slightly during an interview. Later in the editing room, when the editor wants to put together two diferent parts of the interview, the subject’s head appears to jerk on screen at the edit point. Te audio will sound perfectly normal, but the footage will convey an abnormal and often distracting twitch of the speaker’s head at the point of the edit. You can cover the awkward jump cut moment during the interview with a cutaway shot. Tese shots might include a reporter taking notes, the interviewee’s hands or just a wide shot of the interview scene. You can place the visual cutaway over the two parts of the interview you are connecting. Te viewer at home will see the subject’s face, then their hands, and then back to their face again. Even though the face will not be in the exact same place as before it will look like the person’s head never moved. Watch How to Avoid Unwanted Jump Cuts!

Beware of Colliding Footage— the 180-Degree Rule Two subjects (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. Changing position from one side to another while shooting can create editing problems later because the subjects themselves will appear to change sides on screen. Maintaining consistent screen direction is referred to as the 180-degree rule (see diagram). Imagine a line running down the middle between two subjects. Tis line is referred to as the axis of action or the line of action. You have 180 degrees within which to shoot on one side of the line, but if you cross over it, your characters will appear to fip sides. To avoid editing problems later, never cross that imaginary line.

 Obey the 180-Degree Rule. Stay on one side of an imaginary 180-degree line when shooting two people talking. This will help avoid the problem of the subjects’ heads appearing to change screen direction when the clips are edited together. If you cross over the 180-degree line, the couple will appear to reverse sides of the screen.

Breaking Down the 180-Degree Rule. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=HinUychY3sE

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 When edited together, clips taken from the north and south side of the street make the carts look like they changed direction.

 Note how the cutaway of the horse’s head provides a visual bufer between the shots of the carts. The clip of the horse neutralizes the conficting screen directions of the two other clips. (Photos by Ken Kobré)

If the problem of screen direction strikes you as complicated for two people talking, how about when you’re shooting a parade. You’ve set up your tripod on the south side of the street. You start the camera rolling as a line of horsedrawn carts approaching from the left passes in front of you. What happens if you then cross to the opposite side of the street to photograph the rest of the parade from the other side? Wrong! If you cross the street the horses will seem to be coming from the opposite direction. Yes, the horses are still coming from the same direction. However, editing together the footage of them shot from both sides of the street will make it appear as if one set of horses is running into another set. One shot will show the horses going from left to right on the screen, when suddenly the second shot will show them rolling from right to left. Tis apparent reversal in direction is visually confusing to viewers, to say the least. Maintaining the same apparent screen direction is crucial to avoiding this kind of visual confusion. Fortunately, the thoughtful shooter has plenty of options from which to choose to avoid colliding footage while editing. Watch Breaking Down the 180-Degree Rule. Also see more about the 180 degree rule on page 298.

Using the 180-Degree Rule Pick a Side One obvious solution to avoid colliding images is simply to stay on the same side of the street. Each ensuing shot will show the next group of horses continuing from left to right. Te direction for everyone will stay consistent. Tink of an imaginary line drawn down the middle of the street (the 180-degree line) with an arrow going in the direction in which the parade is advancing. Any number of the shots taken on one side of the line can be edited together with shots taken from that same side. Te same principle applies when covering a football game. Stay on the same side of the feld as long as the team you are covering continues in the same direction toward the end zone.

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Shoot from a Neutral Position Sometimes you must shoot from both sides of the street. How can you reverse the cinematic direction on the screen without disturbing the viewer? Tis is a case where the prepared shooter must think way ahead about how to edit the fnal piece. Take a shot with no left or right direction. For example, photographing from an overpass as the parade passes beneath will cause action to come from the top of the screen toward the bottom. When edited, the overhead shot can be followed by action coming from either right or left. Another solution is to shoot from the middle of the street as the parade continues toward or around you. Now the direction is neutral because the horses are coming straight at you. Again, this neutral shot can be edited between shots from either side.

Technique: Camera Panning and Tilting. https://youtu.be/FFFWuiKDgr0

Shoot Cutaways In addition to shooting the action from a neutral direction, shoot a detail in the scene that has no implied movement at all. Cutaway shots like this include close-ups, audience reaction, and objects that typically have no particular left–right direction. A shot of bystanders, for example, will provide a visual bufer to prevent the horses mentioned earlier from appearing to collide on screen regardless of the apparent direction from which they are coming.

WHEN TO PAN OR TILT THE CAMERA WHILE RECORDING Te fve basic shots listed earlier, whether taken from a high or low angle, typically involve the camera remaining stationary while the action unfolds in front of the lens. However, you also can move the camera itself or zoom the lens while shooting to add visual variety to footage. Panning, tilting, and zooming may seem familiar if you have been using a still camera, but don’t be fooled! Although still and video photographers each pan, tilt, and zoom, the visual results are completely diferent. Te still photographer shooting at a slow shutter speed while panning the camera or zooming the lens produces a partially blurred image—an oftenstriking efect in stills. Te same pan or zoom shot in video, though, produces sharp continuous footage. Additionally, the video camera can

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move while the subjects are moving—either parallel to them, or toward or away from them. All of these techniques can be used to enhance or detract from the visual appeal of your video.

Pan with a Plan Pan shots result from slowly swinging the camera from left to right on a fxed axis to follow action without changing the camera’s position. Suppose you are covering the Tour de France. As the riders pass, you will follow them with the video camera to keep the lead rider continuously in the frame. A smooth pan is one in which the rider stays in the same approximate place in the frame during the entire shot.

Pans That Will Turn Your Head Videojournalists also pan to mimic the action of a human head. We turn our heads in a semicircle to take in a wide view of a scene. Someone arriving at a mountaintop, for example, is likely to absorb the vastness of the scene below by surveying it with a continuous sweep of the head. Te pan shot can take in as much area as the photographer likes and can also be used efectively to establish location. “Pans work best if you can follow something, like a car or bike,” according to Steve Sweitzer, a seasoned video professional. “Also, pans are more likely to succeed if the movement is left to right; because we read left to right, our eyes are more comfortable moving in that direction.” Says John Goheen of Terranova Pictures, “If you are going to pan, use it to follow action. I believe the camera was created to capture action … not create action.”

Tilt Up or Down Besides panning left or right, slowly tilting the camera up or down during a shot can help establish location, such as outside a tall building. Tilting the camera on a fxed axis is a way to show the height of person, a structure, or a mountain, or to emphasize relationships between something high and something low. If possible, always allow the viewer to discover something at the end of a tilt. For example, a tilt may start at a man’s tennis shoes, but as it moves up, it might then reveal that he is wearing a tux. Te best reason to tilt is to convey height. Tis kind of tilt provides a payof at the end of the shot. Watch Technique: Camera Panning and Tilting.

 The motivated zoom starts with the wide shot of the fower market and ends with a payof of the vendor packaging up the plant. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

MOTIVATED ZOOMING, PANNING, AND TILTING If you are going to zoom, pan, or tilt, remember that each camera action should have a logical starting place and a visual destination, a payof, for the viewer when the movement ends. If photographing a fower vendor, for example, you might position the camera across the street from the fower stand. Te zoom would start out wide and hold for at least 10 seconds in the wide position. Only then would the camera slowly zoom onto the merchant and his customer—and hold there for at least another 10 seconds. Te close-up view of the forist is the payof at the end of the zoom. Te movement starts at a logical place and arrives at a satisfactory destination. A camera move that ends in a payof like the face of the vendor is called a “motivated” pan, zoom, or tilt. Te motivation of the shot is to fnd a particular person, place, or thing. Aside from motivation, speed of the camera movement is important—keep it slow so your viewers don’t feel seasick. Or zoom it fast to add to the feeling of action and excitement. Tip: Keep in mind that editing pans, zooms, or tilts for the fnal piece is often a challenge. It is almost impossible to edit part of the middle of a zoom or pan in a way that makes visual sense. Pans and zooms really need starting and ending points, so an editor is obliged to use the whole segment. Because some zooms or pans can run up to 20 seconds, they can slow down an otherwise well-paced documentary.

How to Shoot a Pan or Tilt It is difcult to shoot pans without creating shaky images. A sturdy tripod with a “fuid” head and steady hands are a must for swinging the camera at a slow, steady pace. Also, position your body so that you are facing the direction in which you will end the pan, called “the position of comfort.” Your body will be slightly twisted to start the pan, but you will relax during it. Start your pan slowly, speed up slightly, and then slow down just before the pan comes to rest at the fnish.

CAMERA MOVEMENTS Dolly Shot Moves the Camera In or Out A dolly shot refers to moving the camera toward or away from a subject while keeping the lens at the same focal length. It takes its name from the sturdy wheeled cart—a dolly—used by Hollywood photographers to roll a mounted camera on a track or a smooth surface toward or away from the subject. Te camera itself is completely stable, and the cart provides smooth movement. Watch Te Diference Between Dolly & Zoom Shots.

 For a do-it-yourself dolly, this flmmaker used an ofce chair with wheels. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

The Diference Between Dolly & Zoom Shots https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AKOxbCx1LNc

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Te dolly shot has more impact when the camera moves past objects. A camera moving toward someone working in a factory would pass people, machinery, and so on, and provide a sensation of real forward movement that is completely diferent from the efect of zooming the lens. Tat is why cinematographers prefer the dolly shot to the zoom (see below). Te efect is more natural. In the real world, we walk up to greet a person or to view something. We cannot zoom our eyes.

Tracking Shot Moves the Camera with the Subject Te tracking shot, also called a truck shot, describes a camera moving with, and often parallel to, the subject. Also shot from a dolly or “truck” in the world of movies, an efective tracking shot can add energy and variety to footage. Tough shot without a dolly, the series of photos above is an example of a tracking shot. Te photos were shot from a canal boat moving at the same speed as the bicycles. Te framing remains the same, with the couple as main subjects. Te camera’s speed and distance from the subjects also remain the same. Te trees between the camera and the subjects cause the viewer to lose the riders momentarily but then see them reemerge an instant later further along the trail. Documentary shooters and videojournalists rarely have the luxury of using an actual dolly for moving-the-camera shots. Shooters often imitate dolly shots and tracking shots by just walking or running with their subject while handholding the camera. Sometimes the jerky

 Tracking Shot.  Here, the videographer was able to shoot a smooth tracking shot. The camera was on a boat going at the same speed as the cyclists. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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footage that results from the camera bouncing in rhythm with footsteps can be efective. Most of the time, however, its impact is distractingly stomach-churning. Te success of a dolly shot and or a tracking shot rests with keeping the camera stabilized while moving it. Tink wheels. Find a shopping cart, a wheeled ofce chair, or maybe even a bicycle, skateboard, or other contraption that can be rolled relatively smoothly toward, away from, or alongside the subject. Without a handy shopping cart, consider using a stabilizer described below.

SHOOTING WITHOUT A TRIPOD OR DOLLY Handheld vs. Gimbal Stabilizer Hollywood cinematographers who don’t want to be restricted to shooting on a cart of any sort often use a camera stabilizer, such as a Steadicam, for “handheld” dolly shots or tracking shots. Tis contraption, which attaches the camera to the mobile photographer, absorbs sudden movements, including the up-and-down motion of walking. Te device allows the camera to remain level even as the cinematographer walks, climbs stairs, or just swings the camera from left to right. Some videojournalists use a much cheaper and lighter-weight camera stabilizer for the same purpose. Stabilizers are available for smart phones, light DSLR cameras, and even heavier video-specifc units. Some cameras have the stabilization built into the camera, lens, or

 Using a three-way stabilizer and gimbal, you can walk and flm at the same time yet still produce smooth-looking video.

Camera Gimbals – How Good Are They? https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YwIk9Uc1-xc

both. (See pages 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 95, 99, 129, 132, 135, 210 and 211 for more about stabilization.) Additionally, some cameras slightly crop each frame of the shot electronically to smooth out the shot. Tis option is called e-stabilization. Some cameras use all their methods—InLens Image Stabilizer, In-Body Image Stabilizer, and Electronic Image Stabilizer—at the same time to eliminate jerky footage. Here’s some good news. If you did not use a dolly or a camera stabilizer when you shot your epic doc in the frst place, software apps applied during editing can electronically remove a lot of—but not all—the shakes after the fact. Watch Camera Gimbals – How Good Are Tey? and Don’t Buy a Gimbal! Tips for Shooting Video Handheld.

AVOID ZOOMING THE LENS WHEN RECORDING Te most over-used button on a dedicated video camera is the zoom control. Yet zoom shots rarely add much to any story. “Te eye can’t zoom,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Kim Komenich, “so a zoom instantly puts the viewer into a situation that is not real.” In his book iMovie: Te Missing Manual (O’Reilly), David Pogue observes, “For the camcorder operator, zooming imparts a sense of control, power, and visual excitement. For the viewer, zooming imparts a sense of nausea. Overly zoomed and swish panned shots are a quick giveaway that a rank amateur has shot the footage.”

Tip: “Another good reason not to zoom is that it’s tough to handhold a steady shot if you are zoomed in,” notes Steve Sweitzer, former news operations manager for Channel 8 WISH in Indianapolis. To prove the point, handhold your camera, zoom in on something across the room and try to hold that shot without any shake. Ten put the lens in the wide position and walk up to the object and take the same shot. You’ll instantly see the diference. Okay. Okay. What about MTV or TikTok? You might have seen a shot that zooms so fast you feel like you’re in a time-travel machine, pans executed as if they were shot from a centrifuge, and camera tilts violent enough to throw of a pinball machine. And then there were those angles so severe that even teetotalers think they’ve been on a night of serious binge drinking. What is going on here? MTV’s shooting style provides eye-candy to accompany music. Te music’s driving beat powers the piece while the sometimes-chaotic images add visual spice to the mix. For MTV, the fast-cut, zoom-in-zoom-out style maintains a large audience and has spawned a unique visual shooting language of its own. Most documentaries, on the other hand, try to emphasize a story’s content rather than to support the beat of popular music or to show of a photographer’s shooting style.

Don’t Buy a Gimbal! Tips for Shooting Video Handheld. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Bj24pdXrGx4

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The Exception to the Zoom Rule: Emotional Faces Having warned you against excessive zooming, there are times when zooming the lens might be a credible choice. Sometimes during a painful interview, videojournalists carefully zoom in and hold tight to capture a particularly emotional moment. You must learn when to hold and when to zoom in a touchy circumstance such as shooting a person who is breaking down in tears in front of the camera. Te zoom shot seems natural in this circumstance. Tis particular shot is used often to heighten the drama of the moment. Also, the speed of the zoom is crucial. Ideally, the speed of the zoom should be so subtle that the viewer won’t even notice that the framing is changing. A very rapid zoom, sometimes referred to as a “whip zoom,” is too obvious, draws attention to the technique, and pulls the viewer’s concentration away from the emotional situation. If you suspect your subject may say something emotional or dramatic during your oncamera chat, try to adjust the framing of the shot in the lens before starting to record the actual interview. First, without recording, zoom in for the eventual close-up to adjust the composition. Ten widen the lens angle for a looser shot to start the interview. Tis way you are prepared to zoom smoothly should the need later arise. Although zooming in to an extreme close-up of an emotional face can be seen as a cliché, used sparingly and shot professionally it can also be an efective storytelling tool.

If You Absolutely Must Zoom It you must use it, hold the shot steady for 10 seconds before starting to zoom. Begin gradually. When you end the zoom, hold the shot for another 10 seconds at the new focal length. Tese pauses before and after the zoom allow the viewer to become oriented before and after the movement. As you zoom, it’s usually necessary to gradually tilt the camera up or down fve or ten degrees.

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Keep in mind that the “zoom-in” shot actually changes the focal length of the camera lens from wide angle to telephoto. Professionals consider a zoom-in followed by a zoom-out within the same shot exceptionally poor camera work. Te efect of bumping two zoom shots going in the opposite direction is unnatural and doesn’t coincide with how a person in the real world normally views a scene. Te efect is like seeing the world from a rocking chair. During editing, avoid putting two zoom shots together. Te efect for the viewer is like being on a horrible Coney Island ride.

Digital Zoom Is a No No! Remember never to use a camera’s digital zoom. Te digital zoom option activates software rather than true lens movement to create a zoom efect. Digital zooms produces undesirable electronic noise in the fnal footage. (See Chapter 8 “Selecting the Right Lens Length.”)

Manual vs. Automatic Zoom Controls You might fnd it difcult to manually zoom a lens. By hand, the zoom is often a bit jerky. Some cameras have a motorized zoom. You press your fnger on a rocker switch that causes the lens to zoom at a steady speed. Te speed of a zoom can be selected on some cameras. Other lenses zoom faster or slower depending on how much pressure is applied to the rocker switch.

PRACTICING WITHOUT A VIDEO CAMERA As you start to watch a documentary, a news show, or a movie, concentrate for a few minutes not on the plot or subject matter, but on the camera work. Notice the nature of each camera move. Observe. Analyze the choices. For example, if the piece starts with a wide shot and then cuts to a close-up and back to a wide shot, what was the purpose? What was achieved? See if you can start to anticipate the next type of shot the editor will use. As you watch any fction or nonfction flm, mentally fipping your concentration from

run-of-the-mill viewer to analytic observer is a bit like having an “out-of-body” experience. You will drift back and forth between being an observer of the technique and being an engaged, standard viewer—then back again to objective observer. Another way to accomplish this kind of shotby-shot visual self-training is to watch a movie without sound. Keep your eyes peeled to analyze the shots and scrutinize the editing. Learn by watching. Just like an athlete learns from reviewing game action during a playback session, you can improve your own shooting by studying the work of others.

Finally, here is some “homework” that will really expand your mind. Try counting the number of individual shots—from close-up to wide, zoom, pan, tilt, and more—in a TV commercial. Note how many shots are squeezed into a 30-second ad. To return to the basic rule of thumb for shooting video discussed at the beginning of the chapter: shoot and move, shoot and move. Remember the fve basic shots to edit a sequence. And, of course, one shot is never enough.

 You can practice recognizing diferent shots like a wide angle, medium, close-up, and point of view (POV) by simply watching documentary or feature flms on television. Try identifying the camera angle and movement used by the cinematographer. After you practice for a while you will be able to anticipate the director’s next shot before it fashes on the screen.

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 Interview. A reporter interviews an ultra-orthodox Jew in Jerusalem. (Photo by Betsy Brill)

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CHAPTER

13

Conducting an Interview Jerry Lazar, Former interviewer, E! Entertainment channel;  editor,  Time,  Us,  TV Guide,  Esquire,  Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

I

n addition to learning the technology of recording video and audio, videojournalists also need to master the techniques of interviewing. Being a good interviewer

requires more than just holding a microphone in front of someone’s face. Being a good interviewer means knowing what questions to ask.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-13

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TELLING THE STORY FROM MANY POINTS OF VIEW A good story needs a central protagonist—a hero, if you will. So start by asking yourself, “Who embodies the essence of this story?” Sometimes this choice will be obvious and sometimes not. At times, a decision to deliberately gravitate toward a less obvious choice can set your story apart from others on the same topic. For instance, instead of experts or opinion makers typically called upon by journalists to give the “ofcial” word, you might pursue interview subjects less accustomed to being in the public eye. Tese people will probably not be as comfortable or as polished in front of a camera as the former, but that slightly rough quality often turns out to be an asset. For Djamila Grossman’s story about heroin addiction, he found a convicted addict who actually had asked for a maximum prison sentence. Of course, the videojournalist could simply have interviewed drug experts, rehabilitation professionals, social workers, and police ofcers. Instead, he decided to interview this particular drug addict who was trying to get clean. Here’s a checklist of what to look for when selecting the central character in your story: • • • • • • • •

Knowledgeable? Informed? Involved? Afected/impacted by the story? Primary mover/shaker in the story? Strong feelings and opinions about the subject? Articulate and willing and able to speak candidly on camera? Reputable? Credible? Reliable? Trustworthy? Cooperative? Representative of a larger group, trend, or perspective?

See also pages 15, 16, 26, 47 and 74. 

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But one person does not a story make! Tink how boring a book or movie would be with only one character in it. Te same is true of videojournalism and multimedia storytelling. An alarming number of stories fail because they feature only one character source.  Constantly ask yourself, “What other perspectives are there? Who can best represent and articulate them?”  As you research and gather information for your story, search for names of individuals in previous accounts in newspapers, magazines, books, and on the Web. As you start contacting them, via phone or email, always ask them, “Who else should I talk to?” Tat’s one way to cultivate fresh perspectives—and perhaps even fnd the ideal “hero” for your story. 

Contrasting Points of View  Whenever you can show a contrast between two sides of an issue, two points of view, two opposing characters, you have the potential for a good story.  Mel Melcon of the Los Angeles Times built a clever story titled Battle of the Blondes, by contrasting a Marilyn Monroe imitator and a Marilyn Monroe wax fgure from Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Interviews with the lookalike and the museum’s PR person representing the wax Marilyn provide the contrasting points of view.  Te best stories, in fction and in real life, are those with intrinsic drama that is the result of showing two or more people in confict. So always try to explore individuals’ motives—and then fnd someone who represents a competing interest or point of view.  Tree years ago, Monica Long was told that a mammogram indicated ductal carcinoma in situ, or D.C.I.S., an early form of breast cancer. As a result, she had a quadrantectomy, in which about a quarter of her breast was removed. When Long’s medical records were reexamined later during a routine checkup at a diferent facility,

 Battle of the Blondes. This multimedia piece presents a synchronized sparring match between two Marilyn Monroe impersonators— one live, one a wax model— who spend their days on Hollywood Boulevard. Interviews with Weiss and a PR representative for Madame Tussauds provide the contrasting narration. (Photos by Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times)

Battle of the Blondes. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eE9CgIhbl_k 

she was told that she had never had cancer at all. Experts say that her case is not all that unusual. Videographers Stephanie Saul and Shayla Harris, working for the New York Times, not only interviewed the doctor who caught the mistake but also allowed the doctor who gave the original diagnosis a chance to respond.  For another example that requires multiple points of view, consider the debate over a proposed city council measure that requires restaurants to provide health insurance for all their employees. Rather than featuring only the politician who sponsored the legislation, your story might center on a popular waiter at a local restaurant. But will you just follow him about his day and let him explain how important it is to have health-care coverage? Well, that may be part of the story, but let’s also hear from the supporting and opposing lawmakers. Let’s hear from restaurateurs who favor the measure, and those who oppose it. What do they think the impact will be on their business? Let’s hear from the rest of the wait staf and the kitchen crew. Are any of them opposed to the legislation? During your sleuthing, keep your eyes and ears open for unexpected sources that may be directly or indirectly afected by the matter at hand, even customers, for example.  Tip: Remember, in general, in a documentary, the question you ask the subject will be eliminated during editing. Terefore the person’s answer has to be clear by itself. With an on camera news interview for broadcast, your question often remains in the fnal edit. Watch

the documentary by Jacob Templin for Time magazine titled Extreme Couponers. Note that the subject is explaining what she does but the viewer never hears the original question that generated the response. As you pare down your list of possible interview subjects, here are some other questions to ask yourself:  • • • • •

How and why is this person knowledgeable about this subject?  Can this person’s information be independently confrmed through other sources?  Who does this person speak for, or represent?  What is this person’s reputation?  Why is this person willing to talk? Does his eagerness to participate afect his or her credibility as a reliable source? 

 Extreme Couponers. Get groceries for (almost) free. In a story about clipping coupons for supermarket discounts, Treasure Phillips tells her tale. However, the viewer never hears the original interview questions that stimulated the answers.

Extreme Couponers. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0dD2nZqyO9A 

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HOW WILL INTERVIEWS BE USED IN YOUR STORY?  As you plan and prepare for your interviews, think about how they will be used in your video story. In typical TV news reports, for example, the subject and interviewer are on camera together, and we see and hear both of them during the interview—either in the same frame or, preferably, in alternating sequences.  But for telling stories in short documentaries, the following situations are the better options:  •

• •

Subject is on-camera, and we see and hear her responding to questions. Te original questions being answered, however, have been edited out.  Subject is on-camera, but we hear the interviewer’s questions of-camera.  Subject’s voice responds to questions while we see B-roll footage of what the person is talking about. 

Each interviewee may be used once or twice in the fnal story. Or they may appear throughout the video. You will most likely use some combination of these alternatives to weave your story together. Sometimes the central character’s voice narrates the entire video, essentially describing the footage as it’s shown. 

BACKGROUND RESEARCH  Te most critical aspect of interview preparation is researching your topic and your subject. Research not only helps you prepare excellent questions but provides you with a high level of comfort and authority while you’re conducting your interview.  Nobody expects you to become an overnight expert, but your interview subjects will generally be more cooperative if they feel you’ve done your homework and are taking them, and their pursuits, seriously. Some talk-show hosts claim they like to know as little as possible about their guests, so that they can ask “average-person”

Terry Gross on Efective Communication Skills. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SYSnWqaRv9w&t=120s 

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 Terry Gross. Terry Gross  is the host of  Fresh Air, a Peabody Award-winning weekday radio show of contemporary arts and issues. Fresh Air is among public radio’s most popular programs with fve million weekly listeners. (Photo by Will Ryan)

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questions. But they’re usually being disingenuous, as their producers provide them with well-researched questions on fle cards. And those who really do pride themselves on their ignorance frequently stumble and look foolish when they pose questions that refect their lack of preparedness. Asking “average-person questions” is time wasting and insulting to their guests, as well.  Te best interviewers—such as NBC’s Bob Costas and NPR’s Terry Gross—are, as you can readily tell, exceptionally well prepared. Tey’re able to steer in-depth discussions in unexpected directions. Watch Terry Gross on Efective Communication Skills. Te purpose of all your research is to ask good questions, so begin by envisioning specifcally what kinds of information you’re hoping to glean from your interview. You will be looking for someone who can describe an issue or an event or a process in a clear and engaging way. You’ll want to try as discreetly as you can to extract opinions and attitudes. You’ll also need to make sure in advance that your subject’s responses will be lucid and complete. And with the subtlest approach possible, you also will want to get the person to respond to other perspectives—even the most contrary or competing ones, if applicable.  Te more you know, the better your questions will be. Te better your questions, the better their answers will be. Te better their answers, the better your story will be. In short— if you want to end up with an excellent story, you must set out to obtain excellent information before you ever start. 

FINDING THE FACTS  When it comes to research, Web search engines are your best friends. Tere is no excuse these days to conduct anything less than an exhaustive exploration of the person you’re interviewing and the ideas and areas you’ll be discussing. Search the general topic and see what comes up. Tere will probably be so much data that you’ll have to narrow the search. Do make sure your Web information comes from reliable sources such as original research in journals, government sites, and data available in the public record, including published reports in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other news organizations that typically explore multiple sides of topics.  Don’t stop with online research. Libraries are still valuable reference centers, and reference librarians can be invaluable in helping narrow research. Don’t forget books and video.  You’ll also be calling sources for facts and fgures necessary for the story. Although they themselves may not warrant on-camera interviews, sources such as these can often lead you to others who may be camera-worthy. Be discreet. But don’t be afraid to pick people’s brains for references.  If you’re working on a story about a resurgence of sales of vinyl record albums, a recording industry trade association spokesperson may provide a valuable statistic. Using that statistic may not warrant an on-camera interview, but you may be able to use the data in a voice-over narration, on-screen text, or graphics. Also, you might ask that frst person to recommend a record company executive for an interview.  What are some of the things you need to know before you can develop the questions for your interviews about the comeback of vinyl? 

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History. What’s the story behind vinyl records? When were they invented? How long were they in use? When did they fall out of general use? Why are people buying them again?  Controversial issues. Find out anything regarding the medium’s longevity. What devices played the music? How was the quality of sound?  Follow the money. Does vinyl cost more or less than CDs to produce?  Contrarian point of view. Who thinks vinyl is outdated and gone for good?  Who has the facts? People in academia study all kinds of wondrous things. Are there professors of history or popular culture to query? What about canvassing musicians themselves? Or fnding out who is developing new recording/storage technologies? 

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PRE-INTERVIEW CHECKLIST JOHN KNOWLTON, JOURNALISM INSTRUCTOR, GREEN RIVER COLLEGE  •

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Have I made clear the purpose of my interview—both to myself and to my subject? (What do you really want from this interview and how eager are you to obtain this information? The more specifc your purpose and the more apparent your enthusiasm, the more likely you are to gain cooperation.)  Have I made it clear (to myself and to the subject) why I want information from this particular individual? (A source may be fattered to be singled out.) Have I eliminated my own preconceived biases and eliminated my emotional barriers to communication?  Have I done preliminary research on the person and the topic to be discussed—read things about him or her, done preliminary interviews so that I can develop new areas of inquiry?  Has my research included preparation for “small talk” or “icebreaker” kinds of commentary?  (For example, review news accounts of recent Supreme Court decisions when preparing to interview a lawyer.)  Before requesting the interview, have I prepared a few “sample” questions cold-bloodedly calculated to be both provocative and ego-reinforcing?  Am I prepared to use my listening “down time” efectively? (Your mind runs three to four times faster than people’s speech, so you can tune in and out of the conversation. You can make efective use of the “non-listening” time to evaluate what is being said, make comparisons with other data, take notes, and to think up new questions.)  Am I (or will I be by the time of the interview) well-rested, wellnourished, and sober with all my mental faculties alert so that I can catch the fne nuances of meaning or things left half expressed or even unsaid—in short, am I ready to listen between the lines? 

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 Tainted Meat: The Sickening of Stephanie Smith. The New York Times reporters used the case of Stephanie Smith, who was brain damaged because of meat she had eaten, to tell the story of lax food regulations.

Tainted Meat: The Sickening of Stephanie Smith. https://www.gabejohnsonvideo. com/tainted-meat 

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A far more serious, tragic story required extensive research that provided New York Times reporters Gabe Johnson and Michael Moss entrée into the loosely regulated meat-packing industry, where lax safety precautions have led to a surge in food poisoning cases in recent years. Consuming a home-cooked hamburger containing a virulent strain of E. coli bacteria nearly took the life of a young dancer, Stephanie Smith, and left her brain damaged and paralyzed. Watch Tainted Meat: Te Sickening of Stephanie Smith. By focusing on the numerous stops along the trail—from stockyards to your dinner plate—this investigative video piece provides a clear explanation of what can, and has, gone terribly wrong with our food regulatory systems. By bookending the story with one woman’s heartbreaking consequences of unwittingly eating an E. coliinfested hamburger, it turns a scientifc story into a personal—and frightening—story. 

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THE PROS AND CONS OF A PRE-INTERVIEW  Among expert interviewers you will fnd two schools of thought about whether to preinterview the key subject. Will Yurman, former Rochester Democrat & Chronicle photographer, avoids the pre-interview. “I always worry that whatever they say won’t ever sound as good the second time.” He notes that if you are flming, say, a dance troupe, you will need to chat with a few performers beforehand to select the best spokesperson. But he cautions, “Don’t get too deep into the good stuf, because you really want to save that. You want that sense of immediacy. You want the interview to feel like it is the frst time someone is telling their story with all its excitement.” 

Erik Olson, former senior videojournalist for the New York Times, can spend hours talking to a subject before he sits down for a formal interview. Te pre-interview is one of the most important parts of the process, he says. “I would argue that by articulating their story the second or third time, their thoughts are better formed in their mind. So you get a clearer answer.” He also notes, “You learn about the topic and this person’s involvement with it. You also learn how they’re going to come across on the screen. You learn how well-spoken they are. I’ve done preinterviews where the person was inarticulate and or had such a heavy accent I could not use their material.” 

PLANNING THE INTERVIEW  Toughtful interviews are well planned. Planning means contacting your subjects, explaining your story and why you need their input. It also requires detailing who your story is for and how and where it will be used. Good preparation also demands you arrange a mutually suitable time and place for the interview. And it means preparing questions that will elicit the most informative and engaging responses. Never just show up on someone’s doorstep unannounced, expecting a thoughtful and cooperative subject to be waiting for you.  Tere’s no need to go into exhaustive detail in your initial contact. You want to ofer just enough information so your subject will be prepared for the interview but won’t give them the opportunity to rehearse responses. Ofer general areas of conversation you’ll be exploring, but don’t provide a list of specifc questions, as that will ruin any chance for spontaneity.  Choose a time and location that will provide minimal distraction and noise. Ideally, you can shoot your subject in his or her “natural habitat”—at work or at home, or in a location that’s appropriate for the story itself. Make sure to schedule enough time—and remember to include time for setting up your location for recording optimal audio and video.  You don’t want to be rushed. Depending on the nature and complexity of your story, you may need to make multiple visits, at a variety of locations—especially if you’re following a process over a period of time. Or things can become

more complicated as you unearth new information that requires an on-camera response or rebuttal from other sources. Let the subject know that.  How much time should you request for your interview? Tat really depends on too many factors for us to generalize. TV news reporters are accustomed to getting in and out fast. Tey have frequent and rigid deadlines to meet and they know that only a short sound bite—a telling comment or observation extracted from a longer interview—will be used for their minute-long story. Tey realize there is no point in burdening the editor (most likely themselves) with wading through a half-hour conversation for the “money” quote. Instead, they fre of three quick questions, and they’re good to go.  Videojournalists face fewer such constraints. But at the same time, busy audiences do expect and appreciate economy. Even though stories can be told more expansively, nobody has the patience to sit through rambling monologues, especially when so many other online distractions beckon. 

What If the Person Doesn’t Want to Talk with You?  If someone does not want to be interviewed, that’s certainly his or her right. Plenty of people are wary of strangers in general and journalists in particular. Even a public ofcial is not obligated to grant an interview. But if a source is important to your story, here are some tips for enticing him or her to cooperate:  •

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Don’t use the word “interview”—it can be of-putting. Say you’d like to talk or chat. It sounds less intimidating. (But be clear that your conversation will be on camera.)  Like a good salesperson, try to intuit what’s causing the resistance and overcome specifc objections by anticipating and accommodating the person’s concerns.  If it’s a question of the person not having enough time right then, ofer a more convenient time or place—perhaps in the person’s car on the way to work.  If someone is afraid of looking bad or sounding stupid, explain why his or her perspective is so vital and necessary for your story. 

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If the person claims to have nothing to say, reiterate the information you are seeking. If he or she still feels uncomfortable, at least ask for suggestions of other possible sources.  If you’re having trouble getting access to a source, particularly one in an ofcial capacity who may be surrounded by protective underlings, be persistent. Call, write, email, or just show up. Find a mutual acquaintance (or another source) to serve as intermediary.  Be clear that the story will be told with or without the person’s cooperation—and so to be fair, you want to provide an opportunity to tell his or her side of the story.  Appeal to the person’s vanity. Each person has something special and important to contribute to your story. Emphasize the person’s unique contribution. 

 What someone wears  during an interview afects the viewer’s trust. For a documentary about brain surgery the pediatric neurosurgeon is wearing a lab coat.

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What If the Person Asks You What to Wear?  Sometimes your subjects will ask what to wear for the interview. If the story is about a retired soldier, you might suggest his or her uniform.  A costume might be appropriate for a stage actor before or after a performance.  More general useful advice is that blue is a color that shows well on screen and is not distracting, as are pastel colors. Most critical is what not to wear for a video interview:  • • •

Bright white refects the maximum amount of light and can throw of exposure.  Black is too harsh, can suck up all the light, and throw of exposure.  Bright red “bleeds” on screen and is distracting. 

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Stripes, herringbone patterns, small intricate designs, and checks can actually pulsate on screen. Hats, sunglasses, or tinted glasses tend to hide the face and be hard to light. Large, dangling earrings distract and can make noise or hit the microphone during head movements. Logos make the interview look like an advertisement. Shiny objects, including ties, can end up looking like plastic or mirrors.  

DEVELOPING YOUR QUESTIONS  Te two most important things you will be bringing to your interview (besides your equipment) are your list of questions and your sense of curiosity.  You’d be amazed at how many would-be interviewers leave those things at home, and instead think that the most important thing to bring is themselves—their own sparkling wit and personality. Tey somehow forget that the interview is about the other person.  Your curiosity is probably what got you impassioned about storytelling in the frst place. Good interviewers are curious about the world and are sincerely interested in other people and what makes them tick.  As you’re preparing your questions, invite interested friends and associates to contribute as well. Nowadays, the Web makes it especially easy for journalists to solicit questions for upcoming interviews, especially via social media such as Facebook or Twitter. You can invite input from total strangers who may share an interest (and even some expertise) either in your topic or in your interviewee.  Now that you’ve learned all you can in advance about your subject, and have determined what fresh information, ideas, and emotions you’d like to see shared with you and your audience, you need to structure a conversation designed to elicit all that. Even though some interviewers smugly pride themselves on their provocative or challenging questions, in truth, a question is only as good as the response it evokes. Tis fact is doubly true in videojournalism, where you’re unlikely to include the questions when editing. 

 Ben de la Cruz. Ben de la Cruz, producer for NPR, always tries to listen carefully to the answers to his questions to see if the responses are complete and will make sense without a lot of additional narration. (Photo by Eric Lee, NPR) 

Ben de la Cruz, award-winning documentary video producer and multimedia journalist for National Public Radio (NPR) online, thinks it’s essential to plan out ahead of time a good fow for your interview. He tries to make sure he has all the pieces that he needs for each answer, to edit the story. He says, “You got to really listen. You’re listening for how the subject gives the answer especially for non-narrated pieces. If you place all the story elements together in your head as you are doing the interview, you’ll have a better chance of not having to use narration in the fnal story.” 

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 Tami Tushi’s Toys. Just as their mothers may have done, women still give parties in their homes to sell merchandise to friends and neighbors. These days, plastic containers or candles aren’t the only things being sold. Tami Tushie is a working hostess of “Pure Romance” parties, where she hawks sex aids—lotions, potions, and toys designed to perk up a woman’s sex life. Notice how the story answers the who, what, where, when, and why questions readers have.

Tami Tushie’s Toys. https://vimeo.com/131457413 

Core Questions 

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What people remember most about a story is usually not factual. Rather, a viewer recalls the emotions the story stirs up and the senses it awakens. Tat’s why asking how a subject feels, in every “sense,” is a completely useful and valid interview tactic.  “Describe what it was like to …” is a good phrase for teasing out how a subject feels about something without asking “How did it feel to …?”  Allow fexibility, so that the conversation can follow a natural course and go down unexpected but fruitful paths.  Keeping in mind that your story will follow a narrative arc—rising action, confict, and resolution—you’ll want to ask questions that lend themselves to that dramatic structure:  • • • •

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What your subject has done, is doing, or plans to do  What your subject thinks about … How your subject feels about … What your subject knows about … What your subject has experienced regarding …

How did you get started?  What is your goal?  What drives you? Why are you passionate about this?  What are the obstacles or hurdles preventing you from reaching that goal? 

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How have you overcome them? How do you plan to overcome them?  What does the future look like? 

Tip: Remember to listen to your subject’s answer, not prepare for the next question. Your next questions could expand on what the interviewee just said before you change topics and take the interview in a new direction. Watch Tami Tushie’s Toys. Melody Gilbert originally made the video for a documentary flm contest. Does the piece answer a viewer’s basic questions?

Types of Questions  Tere are two general types of interview questions—closed-ended and open-ended. What’s the diference? A closed-ended question can be answered with a “yes” or a “no” or a one-syllable word, whereas an open-ended question cannot. Te best questions are open-ended because they lead to expansive responses. Look at the diference:  1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Closed-ended: Do your teenage kids respect you?  Open-ended: Tell us about your relationship with your teenage kids.  Closed ended: Are you going to vote in favor of this legislation?  Open-ended: What do you think about this proposed legislation?  Closed-ended: What’s your favorite hobby or activity?  Open-ended: What do you do on weekends? 

Questions to Close 

CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW 

Here are some other tried-and-true “closers” that you can adapt for your purposes: 

Respect other people’s busy schedules by arriving punctually and prepared. Dress professionally, or at least appropriately for the setting. Your appearance afects how people relate to you. You want to do everything you can to win your subject’s trust and confdence. 

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What is the signifcance of what you’ve told us today?  What have you learned from this experience?  What would you like our audience to do about this?  Is there anything you would have done differently, knowing what you now know?  What are your plans for the future?  What obstacles and challenges lie ahead? 

It’s also a good idea to ask whether you can call on the subject again if you need further information.  Finally, always ask your subject, “Is there anything else you would like to add?” 

Structure Your Questions in Themes So that you’re not hop-scotching all over the place, structure your questions to be clustered around themes. (Editing will also be easier.) Know well ahead where you plan to begin, and where you hope to end.  Te frst question should be non-confrontational—just to get everyone relaxed and rolling. Save tougher questions for later in the interview, especially if they’re confrontational in nature.  Te fnal question might be an open-ended summation, along the lines of, “So what’s the most important thing we should remember about …?” 

Organize the Questions  with Bullet Points and Key Words

Before You Start  If you think there is any possibility you will need the interviewee later, take care of signing release forms frst.  If you’re at your subject’s home or ofce, look at the surroundings to get a sense of what the person is like. A picture on the desk or wall may lead to small talk with your subject, serving as an “icebreaker” before the formal interview begins. Look for personality clues and identify any items that might be relevant to the discussion and might be used as visual props.  Take charge of the shooting circumstances:  •

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Find a suitable spot, with even, nonfuorescent lighting and a minimum of ambient noise.  Arrange your seats so that you are relatively close and facing each other. Ask everyone present to mute their phones, and everyone other than the subject not to speak.  Unplug noisy appliances.  Mic the subject, and, if your questions also need to be recorded, perhaps yourself.  Record some sound and check the audio quality. (See Chapter 10 “Recording Sound” for more on the technical logistics of recording the interview.) 

 Make sure the place you hold the interview is quiet and well lit. (Photo by Gearbrain.com)

Instead of writing specifc detailed questions, consider writing a list with bullet points and memory-jogging keywords. Tat way, you won’t fall into the trap of reading the questions verbatim, like a spelling bee moderator, or worse, a police interrogator. You’ll also be more inclined to pursue the interview as a conversation, which is conducive to the subject’s sharing stories.  Conversation is preferable to Q&A, which more often produces clipped, lifeless responses. To make sure you aren’t leaving out important themes you intend to explore, or information you need to get on-camera, do, of course, consult your list.   

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SOME DOS AND DON’TS TO REMEMBER WHILE YOUR SUBJECT IS TALKING  Do:  •

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Do heed the power of silence. If your subject answers a question tersely, incompletely, or unsatisfactorily, just sit quietly and look at the person instead of moving on to the next question. The silence may seem uncomfortable, but before long, he or she is likely to jump in and fll it. Your silence also conditions subjects to avoid simplistic or pat answers, and it shows them that you expect them to work a little harder and think things through. Psychotherapists use this moment of silence technique on their “subjects” all the time. You can do it too.  Do listen! Listen! Listen! And show that you’re listening (and not just getting ready to pounce on the next question on your list). Otherwise, you might miss the revelation of a key piece of information that begs further exploration.  Do use body language to change the interview’s direction. If you’re getting an unusable long-winded answer, use body language (e.g., raising an index fnger) to subtly but silently interrupt, and then say, “I understand, but … .” And then pose your next question.  Do resist the urge to say “mmm-hmm” or “yeah” or emit other refexive responses that are likely to intrude into the fnal audio. Instead, nod in acknowledgment, or use approving facial expressions (smile, raise eyebrows, and so on).  Do guide the interview by using your list of topics and questions, but be open to possibilities. If you’re listening carefully, you’ll fnd plenty of opportunities for unanticipated follow-up questions that take you down unexpected yet fruitful paths.  Do repeat the question if you don’t get a satisfactory answer to a question; don’t be afraid to rephrase it and try again. 

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Don’t kid yourself into thinking that sharing your personal secrets will entice them to share theirs. It won’t. It only makes them think you’re wasting their time. Nobody cares about you. Even famous interviewers like Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters succeed in ferreting out private insights without tipping their own hand or heart.  Don’t do all the talking. Again, it’s not about you. You’re not there to impress anyone. And don’t clear your throat—just ask your question.  Don’t preface questions with “I’m wondering if … ” or “I’d like to ask you this … ” or “Here’s a question … .” Also, don’t ofer your opinion as an opening statement. Get to the point. Pretend it’s a tweet. Don’t interrupt. Your voice will ruin the subject’s audio track. 

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Prepping the Subject  Put your subject at ease. Begin with a bit of casual small talk—trafc, weather, sports, and the like. Be sure to say “thank you” in advance for the time being generously shared with you.  Ask the person to look into the camera and say and spell his or her frst and last name distinctly and to say, for example, “My name is___ ___ and I’m a [profession] for the [name of company, etc.].”  To make the interview easier to edit, ask your subject to incorporate your questions into the answers. Provide an example. “For instance, if I ask, ‘Where did you grow up?’ it would be good if you could respond, ‘Where did I grow up? I grew up in Philadelphia.’ By including the questions in the answer, you will avoid a oneword response, like ‘Philadelphia.’” Rehearse with your subject by asking the person’s favorite ice-cream favor. If he gives a one-word answer like “Chocolate,” then ask him to respond in a complete sentence that incorporates the question: “What kind of ice cream do I like? I like chocolate ice cream.”  For another example, if you ask, “What went through your mind when the winds and water of Katrina came roaring through your neighborhood?” the answer might go like this:  “What went through my mind when Katrina hit? I thought the wind was going to blow us away!” When you get back to the editing suite, you’ll be able to use that quote anywhere, because it’s a complete statement. 

During the Interview  Remember that being interviewed is not a natural activity for most people, so it’s up to you to put them and keep them at ease. Your body language speaks volumes. Maintain comfortable eye contact and lean forward in a manner that says “I’m interested” without seeming overly intense.  Some videojournalists take notes during an interview. Note taking allows them to see the answers to their questions and make sure they have follow-up responses. Notes also help when it’s time to edit. Other videojournalists fnd that interviewing the subject, checking the focus and framing on the camera, making sure the sound has no interfering hisses, and so on, is enough of a job, so they don’t add note taking to the list. You will fnd your own method of working after you have tried several one-on-one interviews.

How to Ask Questions to Get the Best Response  Te single most important follow-up question is: “Why?”  Te single most important follow-up question to a follow-up question is: “Why?” Try a psychotherapeutic technique. “Mirror” your subject by repeating the tail end of his or her response as a method of eliciting an expanded answer as well as verifying your understanding of the response. Subject: “I think global warming is a fraud and climate scientists have deceived us for years.” You: “Climate scientists have deceived us?” Subject: “Yes, climate scientists were afraid of losing their grant money, so they rigged their data.”  Ask one question at a time. Multi-part questions are too confusing and don’t lend themselves to coherent, cohesive responses.  Keep the questions short. It’s the answers that are important.  If anyone starts reeling of statistics, or any abstract concepts, ask for concrete, real-world examples.  Prod the storyteller who lives within all of us:  “What happened next?”  Will Yurman, who shot for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, points out that he always asks himself, “Did the subject make an important point in a way that I can use it? If not, do I need to back up and ask the question in a diferent way?  Yurman further cautions, “Don’t ask a yesor-no question, if you need a fuller response. Yes-or-no questions don’t lead anywhere. Tey more or less hit the brakes in an interview. Try to avoid a question that can be answered with just one word.”  Be unfailingly polite. Take the high road. 

Common Problems and Dilemmas Despite the best research and preparation, even the best interviewers are sometimes confronted with problems and dilemmas during an interview.  What should you do if the subject ofers only monosyllabic responses? Skilled interviewers often follow up with questions such as:  Q: “Why?”  Q: “Can you expand on that, please?”  Q: “If you had to explain it to a child, what would you say?”  Q: “Tell me more.” 

Ask questions that call for a story:  Q: “What motivated you to become active in environmental causes?”  A: “My mother.”  Q: “How so?”  A: “She took me to a rally when I was 12.”  Q: “Really? Take me back to that event and walk me through it. What were you thinking and feeling?” 

 Will Yurman. Will Yurman of Penn State University tries not to ask his subjects questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”. Short responses don’t add much to an interview. 

What if the subject ofers a lot of long-winded responses? Preface your next question with: “Briefy, Miss Jones, before the (video) battery dies, I want to make sure I get these few quick questions in …”  Feign disinterest.  Put down your list of questions or your notebook.  What if the subject is dodgy and evasive or outright lying?  Don’t ever call anyone a liar or even suggest that he or she is not telling the truth.  Re-ask:  Q: “But XYZ has another perspective on that …”  Q: “For those who say [the opposite], how would you respond?”  Catch the lie on camera. Ten unravel it when you interview other sources. 

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CONFRONTATIONAL INTERVIEW  What’s the best way to conduct a confrontational interview, without losing the subject’s participation or cooperation?  Tere’s no better case history of this than David Frost’s historic adversarial interview with Richard Nixon, available on DVD. (Or you can enjoy the dramatic recreation in the movie Frost/Nixon. Watch Frost/Nixon – ofcial trailer.)  Writing in American Journalism Review and using Frost/Nixon as an example, CNN’s Mark Feldstein ofers a “how-to” primer for confrontational interviews that includes these suggestions:  •

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Take charge immediately by interrupting self-serving flibusters and by carefully avoiding pleasantries that might weaken the necessary resolve to go for the jugular.  Go for the tight shot. Prepare to zoom in slowly on the interviewee’s face when the exchange grows heated. Tis cinematic efect visually reinforces the editorial goal of your story. Write down any observations made during the interview, including questions for other sources, and ideas for additional video that will support or refute what the person has just said.  Verify facts, dates, statistics, and quotes. 

 The Epic Battle for the Truth: Frost/Nixon.  Poster from the movie about David Frost’s famous interview with Richard Nixon, the only person to resign while president of the United States. 

Frost/Nixon – ofcial trailer. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=7Axo80kr9DM 

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HOW A VIDEO INTERVIEW DIFFERS FROM A PRINT INTERVIEW  Unless you’re following your subject over a period of time, or in a variety of locales, you’ll probably get only one shot at an in-depth video interview. 

Zeroing in on the Quarry •

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Use props. As every good trial lawyer knows, tangible exhibits such as video, photos, and documents not only help buttress a cross-examination but also add theatrical fair.  Set up targets to lie. You can’t force anyone to do so, of course, but it is always better to provide an opportunity to tell a falsehood on-camera before (not after) you pull out the smoking-gun memo that proves culpability. A single lie captured on camera shakes the foundation of everything else the subject says afterward.  If you’ve the luxury of having a second camera, keep it rolling no matter what. Tat way, if your subject rips of his microphone or storms out of the room, you have footage of his defensive tantrum. Also, the second camera comes in handy if interviewees blurt out embarrassing comments during a lull when they think they are not being recorded. 

Are any of these tactics unfair? Not at all.  If you forgot to ask a question, or later think of a follow-up question you wished you’d asked, it’s probably impractical to go back for another formal shooting session to capture that one quote. Besides, the subject will probably be wearing diferent clothing from the original shoot, the lighting conditions may difer, and so on.  Now, if it were a print interview, you could just phone, ask your question, and insert the response wherever it fts best in your story. Not so easy with video. Instead, you would need to add missing information with your voice-over (VO) narration (if there is one) or perhaps with text that runs over the footage. 

On the Record  By defnition, a video interview is “on the record,” whereas the subject of a print interview can try to negotiate conditions before imparting information (e.g., “of the record” or “not for attribution” or “confdential”).  If the subject of a print interview mispronounces a word, or uses faulty grammar, or has a strong accent or even a speech impediment, all that may go unnoticed or get “cleaned up” in print. A video interview, by contrast, hides nothing. Certainly, some sections may be edited out, but otherwise what you see (and hear) is what you get.

into an audio recorder. My recorder sends each source into a separate fle. I then get the audio mix leveled perfectly then take the output and run it into my camera.” 

AFTER THE INTERVIEW  After the interview is over, you may be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief, pack up your gear, say “Tanks,” and head out the door. But hold on— your work isn’t quite done yet:  • •

Filming an Interview  Some videographers record an interview with one camera on a tripod.  Tey lock down the exposure, focus, and use one lens.  Other videographers use two or more cameras simultaneously.  Kevin Painchaud, a documentary producer based in Santa Cruz, California, always uses two cameras, so he has a wide shot and a close-up shot. He watches the images on two LCD monitors. “I always want to have options,” he says.  Painchaud uses a Sennheiser lav and a shotgun mic. “I have both audio feeds running

• •

Confrm that your video and audio functioned throughout the interview.  Exchange contact information, and invite the subject to call you if he or she thinks of anything pertinent after the interview.  Arrange for future interviews, if needed.  When you get back to your workspace, tie up any loose ends by transcribing and organizing your handwritten notes while they’re fresh in your memory. 

Tip: Learn from the best. Watch how the masters conduct interviews. Find journalists you enjoy watching and study their techniques.  Better yet, as you’re watching an interview on television or on the Web, imagine you’re in the interviewer’s chair. Listen carefully, and think about what question you would ask next. 

 For this interview, the videographer used two cameras  so he could simultaneously record a close-up and wide shot of the subject. The videojournalist watched the interview on the two monitors attached to a tripod. Audio from a lav and shotgun mic were frst directed to a handheld recorder, adjusted for volume and then fed into the master camera. (Photo by Kevin Painchaud)

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If you’re watching a video story in which the subject does all the talking, with the questions edited out, write down what questions might have elicited those responses.  What more would you like to learn? What other questions would you have asked? 

AUDIO LOGISTICS  Now that you’ve learned how to prepare for and conduct an interview, here are some practical considerations for recording audio and video.  For a “sit-down” interview, your frst challenge will be where to record the conversation. Start by fnding the quietest place possible. Stand for a moment in each room of the subject’s house or ofce, and just listen. 

Check Ambient Noise  What noises do you hear? Do you hear the sound of the refrigerator going of and on? Can you hear the sound of the freeway trafc zooming by or the ticking of a wall clock? Repetitive noise like a hammer banging or a fan whirring is particularly irritating. Even sophisticated editing software cannot eliminate distracting noises like these.  As MSNBC multimedia producer Jim Seida observes, “We turn of the background noise in our minds—a radio playing, pen tapping, an air

 Wired Mic. The videographer uses a microphone attached to the camera by a cord. He has placed the video camera on a tripod at about eye level with the interviewees. He is wearing headphones. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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conditioner, but the recorder amplifes background noise, which removes it from its original context.” 

Make an On-Location Sound Studio When you survey a situation for an interview location, look for a room with padded couches and thick drapes that will absorb sound.  “Sit on a couch rather than on a kitchen chair,” advises Brian Storm of MediaStorm.org. “Cover a table with a blanket. Close the curtains. Turn of the computer. Unplug the fridge. Just remember to plug it all back in before you leave.  “What you’re trying to do is create a sound booth for the interview wherever you are. Tis process is extremely important to the fnal product and equates to shooting an image against a clean background, as opposed to a busy one.”  In extremes, Storm recommends interviewing in a car with closed windows. He cautions to avoid places with lots of echoes like gymnasiums or hallways. A small tiled bathroom is the worst place of all.  “If you have to interview someone in a space with bad acoustics, you can compensate somewhat by placing the microphone very close to the person’s mouth,” says Storm. “Tis will efectively amplify the person’s voice and thereby reduce the ambient noise.” 

Placing the Mic for an On-Camera Interview 

Techniques of Recording a Good Interview 

Ira Glass is the host and producer for the highly successful Tis American Life, an hour-long weekly program on Chicago Public Radio that is distributed by PRI. Te program is well known for its ability to tell profound, almost visual stories in interviews. No pictures. Just sound.  In his booklet Radio: An Illustrated Guide, Glass says that placement of the microphone is the single most important factor in capturing a high-quality recording.  Proximity is the most important factor. Glass tries to locate the microphone four inches from an interviewee’s lips. Tis proximity helps bring out the natural bass in the subject’s voice and makes the person sound more “present.” When the mic is close like this, the recording sounds richer and captures less of the natural hum in most rooms.  With the microphone this close, interviews can be marred by the sound of the subject breathing. Avoid recording the breathing sound by positioning the microphone below the subject’s mouth rather than directly in front of the person’s face. 

•

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Shoot with the red record light on the top of the camera turned of. Tis signal alerts you to when the camera is recording but can be distracting to your subject during an interview.  Use wired or wireless lavalier mics or a handheld mic.  Use both a shotgun and a wireless lavalier mic at the same time to help guarantee you’ve recorded everything.  Keep the camera at least 8 to 10 feet from the interviewee—possible if you have one person operating the camera and another doing the interviewing, but harder if you are working solo.  Use windscreens over the mic if you’re recording outdoors and there is a breeze or a risk of a breeze coming up.  Try to avoid placing an audio recorder with a built-in mic on a table between you and your interviewee. If you must place one on the table, put it on a soft surface such as a towel or a sweater to avoid the bounce-back of sound waves hitting the hard table and echoing into your microphone. 

 Attaching the Lavalier. John Goheen, who has flmed for CBS’s 48 Hours, places a wireless lavalier mic on a small boy. Some pros say that placement of the microphone is the single most important factor in capturing a highquality recording.

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Deadline Every Second: On Assignment with 12 Associated Press Photojournalists. https://vimeo.com/19529107 

Shut Up, Please 

Interviews in the Field 

If there are other people present during the interview, do not be embarrassed to politely ask anyone in the room to be quiet. Extraneous voices will dramatically reduce the impact of the interview. Ask everyone nearby to shut of their cell phones and unplug their landlines. Tere is nothing more distracting during an intimate interview than the obnoxious sound of a telephone ringing exactly when the subject is about to reveal something personal. 

Of course, you cannot carry out all interviews in a sound studio, real or even contrived on the spot.  Interviewing someone as they are working has the advantage of saving time and bringing viewers into the subject’s life.  In a documentary about the work of AP photographers, for example, for Deadline Every Second: On Assignment with 12 Associated Press Photojournalists a photographer was interviewed as he was covering a wildfre— allowing viewers to accompany the photographer on his assignment.  Despite the sound of fre crackling, the photographer’s voice remained clear because a wireless lavalier mic placed close to his mouth captured his speech while mufing the background sound. Te ambient sound in situations like this helps reinforce what is being said. 

The Sound of Silence  Now that you are set to record the interview, take a minute to record silence. Of course, there is no complete silence. Your 60-second recording will pick up any ambient sound in the room, even if it’s just the “room tone” of a quiet room. Later, while editing, you will fnd 60 seconds of room tone very useful.  Tis audio can be used over places where a door banged, someone coughed, or you need to add a pause between a subject’s sentences. (For more about recording interviews, see Chapter 10 “Recording Sound.”) 

 The videographer, Anne Herbst  of KUSA, Denver always interviewed the Pie Queen while he baked his pies. Interviewing the baker when he was in action assured the videographer that her audio interview would correspond nicely with her simultaneous flmed video of the baking process. 

Pie Queen. https://youtu.be/uZuWEyV1ef4 

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Action versus Sitdown Segments  Filmmakers most often shoot the subject sitting down facing the camera. If you are going to undertake a long interview, this setup makes sense.

Alternatively, you can interview the person while they are in action. For a story about a drag queen who makes pies, Anne Herbst of KUSA in Denver interviewed the baker in his kitchen while he was rolling the dough and flling the cherry pies. Watch Pie Queen. One advantage of this approach is that you are assured that your subject’s answers will go with the video you are shooting. Her questions could directly relate to the texture of the crust or the technique of the rolling pin, depending on what was happening at the moment. As we are watching four sift through his hands, the pie-maker says, “I am going to leave a little lump in there.” Te fnal audio is married perfectly to the video. Washington Post videographer Whitney Shefte prefers sit-down interviews with the subject paying attention only to her. “I think that the best interviews happen when people feel like you’re really engaged with them,” she says. “I make eye contact with them and make them feel like they’re in a therapy session. I’m there to listen to them.” She notes that if you are shooting a subject who’s engaged in an activity, it’s difcult to concentrate on flmmaking and at the same time maintain an intimate bond between yourself and the subject. Ed Robbins, who has produced documentaries for PBS and Discovery Channel, notes, “Sometimes you can just stand there and do an interview in the midst of someone in action. You must be aware that you might get yourself into trouble when you try to edit the interview later.” For instance, if you conduct the interview in a kitchen while the chef is cooking, the noise of the chef stirring pots on the stove can become distracting. Even more importantly, if you want to use only the audio track of the interview later in your documentary, the noise from the pots might make no sense if the chef ’s audio is used when he is mingling with customers. Te viewer will see the dining room but hear the sounds of the kitchen.

VIDEO LOGISTICS  Keep the Background Simple  Besides trying to fnd a quiet place for your interview, consider what the background behind the subject will look like on screen. Try to interview people in their natural environments. Teir personal workspace or living quarters lets viewers learn a bit about them. If possible, meet the subject at the site of a key element in the story.  Tis can evoke powerful feelings and memories of the actual event for the subject and help viewers relate to the story.  Whether outdoors or inside, study the potential background carefully. Avoid having the proverbial potted plant appear to be growing out of the back of your subject’s head. Other backgrounds that can be distracting include strongly patterned wallpaper, or a sign with bold lettering. Viewers may lock their attention onto these distracting elements and fail to digest what your subject has to say.  Interviewing subjects in front of a sunlit window presents two additional problems. First, the window is often lighter than the person, and anything bright in the video frame can be distracting to viewers. Also, if people pass outside the window, their movements will draw attention away from the person speaking. 

 Reginette’s Story.  Bill Greene of the Boston Globe  shot from a low angle and used a wide aperture on his lens to blur the background and eliminate any distracting elements behind his subject. (Photo by Bill Greene, Boston Globe) 

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Te easiest way to achieve a non-distracting background is to pick a location that is visually simple. Don’t be shy about rearranging a couch or table, moving pens and paper on a desk, or pushing potted plants out of the frame of your shot to improve the background for the interview. You also can ask the subject to change positions to improve the shot’s composition.  If you’re stuck with a distracting background, try to limit the light falling on it. You might have to close the drapes to a window or turn down the lights in the room. Te tricky thing is to still leave enough light striking the person being interviewed. 

Tip: To avoid problems later, run this test. If you’re shooting the interview in someone’s home, position the camera and subject and then record a few seconds without the subject talking. Hit playback. Besides listening for any irritating ambient noise like the sound of a refrigerator or air conditioner, watch for bright lights or distracting graphics that might ruin the visuals of an otherwise great interview. 

Framing the Interviewee  Te basic interview shot includes the subject’s head and shoulders and not much else. Commonly called a “bust” shot in video lingo, the

FRAMING THE INTERVIEW

 Too far away—lots of lost space around the subject. 

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 Subject too small in the frame. 

 Cuts of the top of the subject’s head. 

 Subject seems to be looking of the screen because he’s too far to the left. 

 Comfortably framed. 

 Good if the subject uses his hands a lot. (Photos by Ken Kobré) 

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close-up interview shot is framed tight just above a subject’s head and extends down to a few inches below his chin. Don’t waste excessive empty space above someone’s head. Position his face slightly of to one side or the other of the frame.  Leave enough “nose room” so the frame’s edge does not cut of an important facial feature. Leave a little room below the person’s face— space you can use when editing to add a title with the person’s name.  For a psychologically neutral shot, adjust the camera’s height to meet the subject’s eyes. Avoid having the camera pointed down toward the person, as this angle can suggest that the subject is subordinate and insignifcant. From the other extreme, angling the camera up makes people seem extremely tall and therefore overly important and dominant.  When the subject is talking about something personal or emotional, prepare to go for the extreme close-up. Adjust the lens or bring the camera nearer so that just the person’s face flls the frame. Tis extreme close-up shot pulls the viewer into the same emotional space as the subject and helps to cement a bond between them. 60 Minutes, the most popular investigative journalism program on television for many years, often uses the extreme close-up technique to heighten the impact of their interviews. Te shot is efective when someone reveals a loss or a bad guy admits his crimes. 

Keep the Subject’s “Eyeline” Even with the Lens  During the interview, the subject should look at you, not at the camera. You want to control the subject’s “eyeline”—where the person appears to be looking. You don’t want anyone to appear to be looking at something of screen because viewers will wonder what is happening that they cannot see. Position your own head next to one side or the other of the lens. By positioning yourself in this way, you will control the subject’s eyeline. When the subject locks gaze with you, viewers have the sense that the interviewee is having a natural conversation with someone just of camera. You might have to stay in this awkward position for the whole interview, but your fnal shot will look professional!  “Put the camera at eye level when you are shooting interviews,” reminds Steve Sweitzer, former news operation manager for WISH television in Indiana. “Both the camera and the interviewer should be at the same level as the interviewee’s eyes. So, if you’re talking to kids, get down on your knees.”  Note: When you’re shooting a “stand-up,” you’re talking to the viewer, so you should look right into the camera. 

 Watch the Direction of the Eyes. For the primary sit-down interview for the documentary Deadline Every Second, the videographer stood just to the left but at the same level of the camera. The subject looked just of camera at the interviewer during the recording. The subject’s eyeline gaze remained about even with the lens.

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 As a one-person, multimedia journalist (MMJ), Erik Olsen had to both interview the lead subject and, at the same, frame the image, control the audio level, focus the camera, and be aware of every other technical detail. (Photo by John Pierce) 

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The Compassion of Oprah Winfrey Plus Top Tech Chops  Te perfect one-person-band interview requires you to have the compassion of an Oprah Winfrey and the technical skills of an Oscar-winning cameraperson. Erik Olsen, former senior video journalist for the New York Times, describes it this way: Te person you are interviewing says something and you’ve got to be listening. It’s really hard because part of your cortex is concentrating intensely on, “Is the subject in focus? Is he lit well? Is the audio level good?” And then the other cortex is thinking, “What he just said is actually very interesting. You have to employ both the left brain and right brain at the same moment.” TV producer Ed Robbins describes himself as a lawyer with a camera and mic. “I am a really intense interviewer. I know what I want. I know what I need. I’m a lawyer. If I walk out of there

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without getting what I need from my witness, I’ve not done my job.” Robbins knows the general content of the quotes he needs before going into an interview. “I need the subject to cover some ground and make some specifc points during the interview.” Robbins doesn’t leave until he has nailed the quotes electronically.   Generally, if you are doing a sit-down interview, you should set up your camera, lights, and mic. Adjust the exposure and audio levels. And then, in spite of the temptation, concentrate on the questions you are asking and answers you are getting. If the subject remains relatively immobile (and is not, for instance, moving back and forth in a rocking chair), and natural light levels remain consistent (beware the setting sun), then resist the temptation of repeatedly reframing and refocusing. Instead, focus on your subject’s responses.

THE COMPUTER SCREEN (ZOOM) INTERVIEW  Since the COVID pandemic of 2020, reporters are doing more and more interviews—both live and recorded—long-distance via the computer. If the lighting, mic placement, background, and framing are good, the remote interview—on popular platforms such as Zoom—can look and sound professional.

Advantages of the Computer Interview • • • • •

Health and safety of both subject and interviewer Access to subjects around the globe Quick turnaround for news Locate experts that would have been hard to reach in person Big savings on travel budgets 

 If you are recording an on-screen interview be aware of your subject’s and your own lighting and background. Which of these frames meets all the requirements? Use of an external mic or at least earbuds helps the audio quality immensely.

Advantages of the In-Person Interview • • • •

Higher picture quality Avoid distracting background Silence audio interference (e.g., family dog) More intimate bond with subject

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 Adding additional lights can help you look professional during an online interview. Beside direct lighting that is featured in this photo, you can also use a soft box, bounce the light of the ceiling, or employ a ring light. (For more information about lighting an interview see Chapter 9 “Looking for Light and Color”). (Photo by Lume Cube)

How to Prepare for a Remote Interview Eyeline • Te camera (on top of the monitor) should be at your eye level. • Adjust the height of the computer screen so you are not looking up or down but instead straight ahead. • If necessary, put the computer atop a box or a stack of books. 

 Window light coming from the side helps to nicely light this subject. Avoid windows directly behind the subject. The light streaming in from windows located immediately behind the subject tends darken the subject too much.

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Framing • Get close enough to the monitor so your face flls the screen.  • Your head should be in the top third of the screen, not the center. Light • Avoid any bright lights or windows behind you. With strong backlighting, you will appear only as a silhouette. • Use a food light, ideally a “ring light,” soft box, or umbrella refector pointed at your face. • Bounce a light of the ceiling. • Face a window. • Test the image before recording.

Sound • Use an external mic and headphones. • Test the audio level ahead of time. • Block out extraneous sounds, such as children, pets, trafc. • Record in a room with plenty of soft furnishings, such as carpets and thick curtains, to reduce echo. Video quality • Use HD option, or 4K (see page 140 for more about 4K).  Background • Skip the faux backgrounds—too hokey. • Avoid distracting objects behind you or the subject. • Check for any type of motion behind the subject—such as fapping fags or passing cars.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR AN INTERVIEW  The Shot List  You must remember what you have already shot, and what you are planning to shoot. Make a detailed list so you don’t forget.  Te shot list of recorded scenes will remind you during the interview to ask your subject to describe exactly what was taking place. You need to correlate the subject’s responses with the action you have already recorded. Your interview questions need to correspond to what the viewer will be seeing. From the visual shot list, make sure questions in your interview cover those subjects. Likewise, if the subject says something memorable or simply states a fact that will move the story along, take a note of the comment so that you can later flm the evidence. Once the interview is fnished, add these new facts to your visual shot list. You will need visuals to match your newfound information.

Ideally, Interview, Shoot, Then Interview and Shoot Again Photographers often must simply shoot frst and ask questions later. If a student wearing a shark costume is walking across a college campus, shoot, shoot, shoot. Capture the candid moments when they occur. Do not interrupt the action until you have observed how other students react to this “fsh out of water.” Only then should you interview the walking fsh and, hopefully, some of the passing students who have turned to react. 

Sometimes you must ask questions frst and shoot later. When working on a story about a geology professor who is going to lead a feld trip to the local mountains, interviewing the teacher frst is likely to lead you to watch for scenes that include the kinds of rock formations that coincide with the purpose of the trip. Had you not interviewed the professor before the hike, you would have been likely to miss photographing formations on the tour.  Te real answer to “Which comes frst, the interview or the photography?” lies in the need to do each more than once.  If you start with the interview and then shoot, you can watch for images that support the subject’s remarks. Following this round of shooting, the best journalists will follow up with a second interview. Te second interview provides another opportunity to seek information based on what was observed and photographed.  Depending on the subject’s level of interest, you may even want to show them the footage you have shot and have them comment on camera about the situations you photographed.  In fact, showing subjects your original footage—or even photographs or historical documents—while recording them as they relive the experience or otherwise react to what is before them, provides dynamic material for marrying words and images during editing. For the documentary Deadline Every Second: On Assignment with 12 Associated Press Photojournalists, the producer, Ken Kobré, flmed Oded Balilty, one of the Associated Press photojournalists, as he was covering a clash between Israeli soldiers and young Palestinian boys. Later, in a conference room at the AP ofce, the producer showed the footage to Balilty. For this interview the flm maker documented Balilty as he watched himself on the video screen during the earlier confict. Balilty was able to describe what was happening as the confict raged. He explained what he was thinking and feeling as he photographed one side throwing rocks and burning tires while the other side shot rubber bullets and fred tear gas cannisters. Recording subjects’ observations about footage you have shot of them generates a tight lock between images and audio that results in the clearest possible material for a multimedia or videojournalism piece.

Deadline Every Second: On Assignment with 12 Associated Press Photojournalists. http://vimeo.com/24128076 

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 Recording Narration.  Often you must record the voice-over narration track yourself. (Photo by Stanley Heist)

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CHAPTER

14

Writing a Script Stanley Heist, Director of News Training & Staf Development at Sinclair Broadcast Group

I

magine yourself as a composer writing a piece of music to be played by a world-class symphony orchestra. At your disposal are the woodwind, brass, strings, and percussion

players, all ready to work together to produce beautiful music at your command. Your goal is to make these elements work togeth-

er harmoniously in a manner that will be enjoyed by an appreciative audience. Te decisions you make as you put your pen to staf paper determines whether the instruments play in concert or in chaos.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-14

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In many ways, you can look at the videojournalism story you will produce in a similar fashion. As a videojournalist, you are the composer, but instead of musical instruments, you use video, natural sound, interviews, and often voice-over narration to communicate information to an audience. Employ these elements successfully, and you’ll produce a beautiful story that is memorable and easy to follow. Toss them in haphazardly, and the same parts will still be there—they will just be in discord. As a simple, linear outline of steps, it may appear that the writing portion of the process happens just before you must record the narration. However, the way we produce visual stories is much more involved. Te truth is that the writing process begins from the frst moments the story is conceptualized and ends only when the story is exported from the computer. Denise Bostrom, a professional scriptwriter and teacher of scriptwriting at City College of San Francisco, notes, “I’ve scripted many doc flms before they’re shot: for a proposal, and to save money and actually map out the content needed to cover.” Troughout the entire process, every decision infuences how an audience will accept a story. Te process is organic and infuenced by many factors: the sources selected for

information, the interview questions and the answers they provide, the natural sound you capture in the feld, the visual evidence you seek and gather in your videography, and the choices made in the scripting and editing process. All of these decisions dictate the direction a story will eventually take you and your viewers. Terefore, from the moment you begin thinking about a story, it is so important to always keep in mind the end product.

THREE APPROACHES TO NARRATION Tere are three approaches to narrating a video or multimedia piece. You can use an on-camera reporter. You can record a voice-over narration after the piece has been shot. Or you can use natural sound—dialogue, interviews, and ambient sound—to tell the story. (See Chapter 2 “Teasing Out a Teme” for more information.)

On-Camera Reporter An on-camera reporter speaking directly to the audience is a common way we experience video stories while watching the six o’clock television news and often in documentary flmmaking as well. Tis way, the reporter sets up the elements of the story as it progresses.

ANATOMY OF A TV NEWS STORY

 Anatomy of a News Story.

Anatomy of a News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

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To see how a multimedia journalist (MMJ) covers a breaking news story from the inside perspective, view Anatomy of a TV News Story. Da Lin, one-man-band videographer for Channel 5 San Francisco, covers the lead story of the day from reporting the original facts to the surprising follow-up. He gets a tip from a family whose brother is missing. He reports from the San Francisco Police about their search for the missing person. They are tight lipped. He interviews the family as they distribute leafets in front of the last know place their brother was seen. Lin, in his specially outftted van, downloads footage from the hall camera in front of the missing brother’s door. This footage contains the last known images of him. Watch to see how Lin flms the story, interviews the relatives on camera, shoots a stand-up of himself, edits the footage, writes a script, tracks (records) the script, and fnally sends the piece back to the station for airing on the six o’clock news. Stick around for the shocking follow-up to the story.

At its best, the reporter’s script is an easyto-understand, relatable companion to the visuals and sounds in the piece. At its worst, the reporter’s sound bite is distracting, unnatural, and it removes viewers from the experience of the story. For the traditional on-camera stand-up, a reporter looks directly into the camera and delivers a few lines to viewers. Here is the rationale used in broadcast news for stand-ups: • • •

•

•

Introduces the journalist to the audience Creates a sense of “liveness” that can help establish credibility for viewers Gives the audience a “familiar face” that they have gotten to know over the years of viewing a particular channel Provides an opportunity for the journalist to put on a demonstration for the audience, such as how to fx a faucet Quickly tells the reader the facts of the story

Te downside of having a reporter explain the story on camera is that it takes the focus of the story and its subjects and redirects the attention to the presenter. It also often defates

the drama, because we’re told about the events, rather than seeing them unfold—as occurs in a natural cinéma vérité style. As a result, viewers may pay more attention to the on-camera reporter than to what the journalist has to say. For this reason, in this book we emphasize either using voice-over narration or allowing the subjects’ own voices and observations to tell the story, either through interviews or sound recorded while they go about their normal activities.

Voice-Over Narration A voice-over narration is recorded after shooting a story is fnished. Te videojournalist doesn’t decide what to say in a narration until everything has been shot and reviewed. Te voice-over narration emphasizes the content of the story, not the personality of a reporter standing in front of a camera. Really good narration actually adds depth to the story by informing us about what we’re not seeing. See Anatomy of a TV News Story. Notice the writing style and presentation of Da Lin’s voice-over.

Anatomy of a News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

 Narration. Da Lin wrote and recorded the narration of his own story.

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Voice-over narration can be especially useful in situations dealing with: •

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Complex concepts, such as in economic, scientifc, and industrial stories. Experts in these felds have extensive knowledge but often need help simplifying the facts for an audience. A meteorologist could explain the development of super cell thunderstorms in the Midwest in terms that might be understood by fellow scientists but not by the general audience. A voice-over narration track can help clarify some of the more complicated details. Historical pieces for which primary sources are no longer available. A story about the Civil War would beneft from narration because there are no survivors of that era. Tat’s not to say it is impossible to pull of— there are a lot of experts on the subject— but narration allows you to share the exact information you found in your research. Situations in which key sources are unavailable to go on camera. Tis is no excuse not to do a story. Whether it is distance, the desire to remain anonymous, or some other factor that is getting in the key source’s way, narration can tell the complete story. Stories that need additional context than that provided by sources. Tere are (at least) two sides to every story. For example, although your subject may explain why she believes a certain law needs to be repealed,

 The Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan. Fifteen-year-old Moses and two other children were abducted in the night from a farm village and subjected to gruesome atrocities by lawless members of a rebel group who regularly seize and enslave boys from rural areas in southern Sudan. The voice-over helps to explain the story

The Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=-ip08pjKngI

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•

she may be less likely to explain the benefts of the law. A narration can explain the opposing side and put a situation into context from a neutral perspective. A narration often helps to clarify certain sections of a documentary, or to add backstory, or in some way to deepen the story. Stories in which the subjects speak little or no English. Sometimes you will encounter subjects who have a terrifc story to tell but have difculty communicating it to an English-speaking audience. Narration is often a better choice in this situation.

For example, this writer once shot a story about a children’s ice-hockey team from China that visited Baltimore for summer camp. Interviews were not very helpful—only one child on the team spoke English. Careful narration along with using images and sounds of the kids just being themselves made the story memorable. In a story by Ed Rollins for Time magazine titled, Te Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan, about children abducted by a rebel group in southern Sudan, a voice-over stitches the story together because the boys could not speak English. “Narration helps,” says Rollins, “especially with American audiences who know so little about overseas events and politics. Narration adds context to a complication situation.

“Voice of God” Sometimes voice-over narration can sound like the “Voice of God” speaking. Te narrator speaks down to the viewer from a position of an all-knowing authority. It is especially an issue when the voice seems to come from nowhere and is not appropriate for the subject matter. Scriptwriter and teacher Denise Bostrom observes, “Tis style of voice-over was particularly evident in early ‘50s documentaries post-World War II. On the other hand, docs produced today with an unseen narrator like Peter Coyote—whose voice seems to be used everywhere—seem more ‘natural.’” Te older flms today appear laughable because people in normal conversation simply don’t speak to each other in an announcer’s voice. Te so-called “Voice of God” is not natural

or conversational. In a 1997 article for Film History, “Historicizing the ‘Voice of God’: Te Place of Vocal Narration in Classical Documentary,” Charles Wolfe describes this form of narration as aggressive, absolute, and “fundamentally unrepresentable in human form.” For the viewer, this style often comes of as arrogant, condescending, and detached. Erik Olsen, formerly of the New York Times admits, “I’ve been accused of being a little too ‘Voice of God.’ I was constantly having to rerecord voice-overs because the editors thought my voice-over was too much like 60 Minutes. I think the preference is that my recording needs to be less ‘Voice of God’ and more casual.” Da Lin, Channel 5, San Francisco tries to be very conversational. He warns that you should not use big words. He says, “Less means more.”

 A reporter records a “stand-up.” Broadcast news depends on short bursts of narration usually voiced by the correspondent. The correspondent talks directly into the camera. These “stand-ups” help stitch together a coherent story in the typical one-minute, thirty-second (1:30) time slot allotted to an evening news package.

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Te role of voice-over narration, sometimes called a reporter track, isn’t to be all knowing or authoritarian, but instead to set up details and reveal facts as the videojournalist knows them. A narration should allow the visuals and sound to speak for themselves. In this way, we write objectively (present the facts as we know them from a neutral position) and use sound bites, succinct or telling segments of interviews or recorded natural sound subjectively (our subjects communicate their emotions, opinions, and experiences).

Natural Sound A third approach to storytelling is to use only natural sound and sound on tape, a technique sometimes referred to as cinéma vérité also known as the “direct approach” method. In this case, there is neither a reporter on camera nor a voice-over narration. According to Alan Rosenthal’s book Writing, Directing, Producing Documentary Films and Videos, this style was born in the 1960s when cinematographers could take advantage of lighter and more mobile equipment to gather stories on their own. Cinéma vérité allows the recorded elements—natural sound, sound bites, and visuals—to present the story. Many documentarians use the cinéma vérité approach: • •

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Interview subjects tell their story in their own words. No third party (a reporter or narrator) steps into the process of storytelling.

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•

• •

•

Te audience experiences the piece as being told in the subjects’ own words. From the viewers’ perspective, there is nothing between them and the subjects; this approach can build a sense of intimacy. Viewers interpret the material themselves and draw their own conclusions. Viewers are not distracted by trying to determine the possible bias of an on-camera reporter or of-camera writer for the voice-over. Te producer does not need to take time to record a voice-over.

As is true with all storytelling decisions, the use of an on-camera reporter, voice-over, or purely natural sound should be based on which is the best way for the viewer to experience the story. By the way, many beginning videojournalists choose to forgo narration simply because they are not fond of their own voice. But not having a perfect voice is a poor excuse for choosing this approach. As we will discuss later, it is not necessary to have a great voice to be an efective narrator. In the documentary Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry, produced by Ken Kobré and John Hewitt, the voice of the narrator is used to introduce the key subjects and make several important informational points. Te rest of the documentary rests with the voices of the subjects. Te subjects describe their own history without any interpretation or modifcation by an outside journalist.

Natural Sound or Narration? A test putting together a natural-sound story without any voice-over narration can be tricky. You must be certain that you have the proper elements to tell the story completely. If you can answer “yes” to each of these questions, chances are good that your story possesses the elements necessary to be told in natural sound. If not, then you will probably be better of writing some narration. • •

Do I have sound bites that explain each point of the story? Are my sound bites expressed in complete thoughts? Do they require only minimal internal editing?

•

• • • • • • •

Do I have visuals and sound that can easily explain the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of the story? Do I have opposing viewpoints to give the story balance when necessary? Do I have enough appropriate footage to give the story context? Do I have a succinct opening sound bite that logically begins the story? Do I have imagery that corresponds? Do I have a solid concluding sound bite that wraps up the story? Do the visuals support the words? Do I have audio that sounds clear and is easily understood by the average viewer?

 Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry.  A narrator’s voice helps fll in the details and give context to this behind-thescenes story of the adult entertainment video industry. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry. https://vimeo.com/manage/ videos/368843872

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 The beginning of a video is critical. Youth from the Mormon Church participate in a handcart event near the Utah–Wyoming border. Look for opening shots that help develop the exposition of a story.  (Photo by Jefrey D. Allred, Desert News)

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Challenges of the Script-Less Story Make the decision whether to use narration before you shoot one frame of video because the success of a natural sound story will depend entirely on the elements you gather. If you go “all natural,” you will need sound bites or visual evidence to support all of the necessary elements of the story. Tese include the introduction of characters and plot points in such a way that viewers can easily understand them. Typically, a natural sound story requires much more raw material to work with than a scripted piece, because without a script to explain the story, you must capture

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all of the story elements in the shooting. And all those elements don’t always occur precisely when you are there with your video camera. To accomplish the script-less story, you’ll need to seek out responses during interviews that will stand alone without the beneft of an on-camera reporter or a voice-over narration. To achieve some script-less stories, you will need to pre-interview and then script the documentary very tightly based on the information you’ve learned—before you begin shooting. You must ensure that the story can be told entirely by on-camera subjects.

Be prepared for things to change. Sometimes stories are planned to be natural-sound pieces, but when the elements fall short, narration becomes the better option. It is possible (but unlikely) to go the other way—to shoot a story as a narration piece, and decide during the logging process to turn the story into a natural sound piece. Discovering that you have the elements to do a natural sound piece without advance planning is usually nothing more than a happy accident. No matter which direction chosen at the outset, you must remain fexible throughout the process.

 The End of the Video Is Often What the Viewer Will Remember.  Always make sure you have a closing shot. Three-year-old Mia Peterson cries as she waves goodbye to her dad. Her father, along with other members of the 2nd Battalion, 211th Army Aviation Regiment, is departing for a 12-month deployment. (Photo by Jefrey D. Allred, Desert News)

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 Reviewing the Footage.  WBFF-TV reporter Kathleen Cairns reviews the video after a shoot. (Photo by Stanley Heist)

AFTER THE SHOOT After you have fnished shooting for the day, download all the material to an external hard drive. Ten take the time to label each individual clip with a unique name. Transcribe the audio from any of the clips that contain potentially usable dialogue. Labeling and transcribing are parts of the process that are tempting to skim through, or even skip altogether. After all, you should have a solid idea of what was recorded, because you did all of the shooting, right? Unfortunately, memory and reality often difer vastly. So don’t allow yourself to cut this corner. Even the “one man-band” who does it all needs to transcribe in order to review material before he or she can organize it or write to it. You don’t need to log every shot—just the ones you think will help when writing the

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script. Look for action and moments in the raw material and make a note. In this compelling shot, the Beijing Cubs, a youth hockey team from China, takes the ice behind their fag. Note the time code, framing (wide, medium, or tight), the direction in which the action is happening, and anything else to help you describe the shot. Te more aware you are of the elements you have to use, the more accurate and efcient the editing and writing will be. Often you’ll discover elements for your piece that will surprise even you—who witnessed it all. Ofhand comments someone has made. Funny expressions on a subject’s face or natural sound picked up by the mic. Other times, your recollection of an event is much more dynamic than it really was. Labeling and transcribing are the points in the process where you take stock of what you actually have that’s usable, so you may write your story with confdence.

Log Those Shots

Transcribing the Interview Most videographers fnd it easier to edit a written transcript of an interview than the audio version. Today there are a number of programs on the market that can help you turn your recorded interview into a written transcript. If your interview lasts more than a few sentences, you might consider using a program like Descript, Otter, Microsoft 365, Dragon Anywhere, etc. Tese programs, while not letter perfect, are far faster than typing the transcript yourself. Te programs are not as accurate but are cheaper than paying a typist to transcribe your recordings. If you include a time code in the transcript you can easily fnd the best sound bites in the original interview. Te only thing that a written transcript of the interview is missing is authentic, natural reactions of your subject. Hubbert Boyd who does transcribe his interviews says, “It’s not the words that are important. It’s the way those words are being expressed. Te transcript does not tell you that a tear ran down your subject’s cheek when he said something … or he looked lost or there was a sense of wonder in his eyes.” Boyd reviews the recorded interview over and over and makes notes about which sound bites to include in the fnal piece. ‘It’s the way the words are spoken,” says Boyd. “Often it’s right after the sound bite. It’s that thing that happened when the person fnished and then nodded his head and said … ‘yep.’”

^

 You can transcribe your interviews by hand or with a special computer application. Some video editing programs will also do the transcription for you.

If you will be the person editing the fnal story, it isn’t necessary to note all of the visuals, but you will probably fnd it helpful later if you note or “log” key images with video and flmmaking shorthand: WS for wide shot, MS for medium shot, CU for close-up, POV for point-of-view shot, and RS for reaction shot. FG denotes action in the foreground, BG action in the background. Keyboard carets such as , ^, and can help explain the shot’s screen direction. Screen direction means the direction the action is going, or which way an interview subject is looking. (For more on screen directions and types of shots, see Chapter 11 “Shooting a Sequence.”) Without logging your clips you are going to miss things you could have used, says Ed Robbins, who has produced for BBC2 and Channel 4 in the UK and is now teaching at Columbia grad school. “With no logging you may remember some of the best things you need an hour after you have started editing. You can spend another hour rummaging about looking for an audio track. I mean, it’s so wasteful. Without logging you are going to miss things that you could have used.” You also should be listening for natural sound or nat sound (NS), those little bits of environmental sounds that you can pepper into your piece later to help with the pacing or to give the story a more natural feel. Honking car horns, a ringing phone, chirping birds—they all provide natural sound that you can use for emphasis. Finally, the acronym SOT (sound on tape) in this context refers to observations or conversation recorded while a subject is in action. Even though recording tape is all but disappearing, the term remains. Also think about jotting down your shots in the feld, too. Many pros keep a reporter’s notebook so that they can log pertinent details as they happen. For an even more professional approach, use a “script supervisor form” to log the production and content info in a clear and

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organized manner. Making notes in the feld also helps you determine whether there are missing shots or overlooked answers to questions so you can recall them before wrapping up feld production. One additional beneft of being a fastidious note-taker, says Mike Schuh, an Emmy awardwinning reporter from WJZ-TV in Baltimore, is that it gives you immediate feedback on your performance as a news-gatherer. “A really meticulous log of what you have shot in the feld will help you to pinpoint your successes as well as your failures. Te next time you go out you will probably not repeat those mistakes.” Even if you’re working by yourself and are under deadline, taking the time to know what sound bites and visual moments you have recorded will make scripting and editing that much more efcient later. “What you’re looking for,” says Schuh, “is the juice, or the elements needed for the story.” At frst opportunity, Schuh goes through his raw media fles and types onto a page those elements he’s likely to want in his piece. “I start at the beginning and go to the end, in sequential order,” Schuh says. It’s important to see everything, even if it’s just a quick scan through the raw material. Be discriminating in what you actually detail. If you log everything with too much detail, you’ll never fnish, he cautions. In the end, a successful log for Schuh is when almost all of the elements that he notes in his log end up in the story, with little left over. Ed Robbins of Columbia University Graduate school says, “If you have the time and you’re doing really old school documentary editing, you can add your best clips to a ‘selects reel.’ Ten you can make notes about each select so you can fnd it later.”

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Label Your Clips in the Editing Program Most editing programs allow you to label clips as they download to the computer. Labeling will be helpful, especially for fnding sound bites and video in the editing process. At the very least, you can make some notes in the program about the interviews and include short descriptions of B-roll. A more in-depth option is to write a log on a separate form, such as in a scriptwriting program, a word processing program, or in a notebook. Te advantage to having all of your information together on easy-to-access pages is that you can fnd the material quickly when it comes to writing. However, you choose to label and transcribe, it is best to do it in a quiet place where you will be able to concentrate. Using headphones helps eliminate distractions. Take stock of all of the elements: the visuals, the natural sounds, and, of course, the interviews. Look for the natural moments—such as subjects showing emotion or interacting with one another. As you fnd an element that you want to save for later, make note of what it is, who is doing it, and where it is happening. All of these notes will be helpful later while writing and editing.

WRITING THE SCRIPT Now that you’ve determined where you are going to take your viewers, it’s time to start scripting the piece. To save money and time, scripting should begin before production and then be refned in post-production and editing. If you are using cinéma vérité to tell your story, a “script” will consist of your subjects’ sound bites and the visuals that support them, organized so that they tell the story without narration. Writing a narrated script should be relatively easy, considering that much of the hard work is already behind you. Still, there are some good principles to follow as you write. “I’ll have the sound bites and my writing is just to kind of fll in the gaps,” says Travis Fox who spent ten years at the Washington Post producing short documentary videos. “I try to tell the story with just sound bites but that’s really hard. So my narration just simply connects the sound bites.”

Write for the Ear, Not for the Eye

Use Active Voice

Te printed word can be read and reread for clarifcation, but with video the viewer will get only one shot at comprehension. Keep it simple, and keep it conversational. Many scripts look brilliant on paper, only to sound stif or confusing when read aloud. Your audience hears your words. Tey don’t read them, so avoid complex and verbose sentences. Instead, aim for short, declarative sentences or phrases. Consider this example, with accompanying video of a highschool student on stage at a theatre rehearsal:

Subject–verb–object. Tis simple formula works well. Avoid the “to be” verb—“is,” “was,” “will be.” When you change this verb from passive to active, you will by necessity select an action verb. In the following example, the verb goes from “is” to “trains.” Now you have some concrete action to shoot.

From watching his hard work at rehearsal, it is evident that Taylor is dedicated to the theater program. versus: Taylor’s dedication shows … In the frst example, the phrases “from watching his hard work” and “theater program” are redundant, as we are already watching his hard work on stage. Also, “shows” is much more efcient and easier to hear than “evident.” In the second example, only the important words are used. Because we see Taylor up on stage, the line “Taylor’s dedication shows” supports the visual.

Te puppy is trained by Grace. (passive voice) versus: Grace trains her puppy. (active voice)

Use Ellipses to Mark Pauses Ellipses are an easy way to visually reference where you want pauses to occur in a narration. Pauses signal dramatic emphasis and break up sentences so they’re more conversational. Te visual break (…) allows you or a narrator to notice it while reading and thus avoid accidentally running through the intended pause. Using ellipses as a pause allows you to omit unnecessary words. Te pause gives a dramatic emphasis, and signals that there is signifcance in the thought. Grace trains her puppy, but it is her parents who learn the lesson. versus Grace trains her puppy—her parents learn the lesson.

 Watch  how Da Lin, Channel 5 San Francisco, writes his script.

Anatomy of a TV News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

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The Inverted Pyramid Lead versus the Feature Lead

Introduce Important Characters with Words

In a typical news story, the writer attempts to compress all the interesting important things in the frst sentence.

Be certain to introduce people who are signifcant in your story through a line of script—or a sound bite in which they can introduce themselves. You can also use a line of type under the picture, a technique called a “CG” or computergenerated lower-third graphic. For ancillary characters—or someone who appears briefy— a CG alone is fne and additional setup is not necessary. Te second time you mention someone in the same story, it is more formal to use the subject’s last name only. But in stories that are more emotion-driven, informal, involve children, or have multiple characters with the same last name, you can consider calling a subject by the frst name. Use your discretion—if you’re unsure, go with the last name. When describing someone’s occupation for the frst time, his or her title goes frst, then the name. In the following examples, the second one puts the subject’s name immediately before the action (does tricks); the former has “trapeze artist” in that position, which creates a brief disconnect between the subject and the action:

As warning grew of an expected Russian assault, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed: “We will respond.” Civilians were told to fee the region. Tis lead contains the key action (imminent Russian assault), key player (Ukraine president), and when will it happen (soon). A story that tries to report everything as soon as possible is called an “inverted pyramid lead” in journalism lingo. “I think the inverted pyramid works great for newspapers, but I don’t think it works well for television,” says Huppert Boyd, CARE 11 Minneapolis. “Tere’s no incentive for me to hang around to watch the rest of the story. You are not ready as a viewer to take it all in during the frst 10 seconds of the story. It’s so much. It’s more meaningful if I can hold some information for you. With the inverted pyramid story I can stop at any point that I feel satisfed. With the video story you want to hold on to the viewer to the end of the story.” Huppert paraphrases John Larson, consultant and correspondent/producer at the i.e. network. “As journalists, we need to be concerned about the public’s right to know. It’s our frst obligation, but we should be equally concerned about the public’s right not to know until the perfect moment.” Huppert continues, “If I can parcel it out surprises and reveals throughout the story, then you’re coming along for the journey. Ten I’m rewarding you along the way. I’m allowing you to be invested in the story. And that’s where inverted pyramid fails in visual storytelling, because there’s nowhere to go after you’ve just bombarded the audience with all the basic facts.”

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Hailey Smith, trapeze artist, does tricks. versus: Trapeze artist Hailey Smith does tricks. (better writing)

The Strength of a Sentence Is at Its End Te fnal part of the sentence often has the most resonance with the audience. Decide what you want to emphasize, and place that thought at the end for maximum impact In an instant, there was jeopardy for Peter’s dream. Te emotive parts of the sentence, jeopardy and instant are in the middle, thus losing emphasis. In an instant … Peter’s dream was in jeopardy. Here, the word of maximum impact is “jeopardy.” If you want to emphasize the concept of jeopardy, this would be efective. Peter’s dream was in jeopardy … in an instant. Here, the emphasis is on “instant.” If you want to emphasize how fast the change happens, this phrasing would work.

Set Up the Visuals, Don’t Describe Them (aka “Write to Picture”) You want to strike a balance in which the words set up the visuals so that you are not explaining what viewers can see for themselves. Trust that viewers are looking at the screen and collecting information from what they see. Visuals should be supported with words so that the audience does not feel like it is being spoon-fed and can observe and interpret the action on their own. Let’s say, for example, you’re doing a story about an arrest—a compelling visual story! When introducing the story to the audience, you could write a line that says: With guns drawn, the police arrested a suspect. Tis is an example of writing exactly what the viewer sees. It doesn’t give the viewer the chance to discover what’s happening, but instead it spoon-feeds the information. By contrast, a more powerful line would be: Police caught the suspect leaving the Washington Mutual Bank parking lot. Tis phrasing alerts viewers that the suspect was likely to be involved in a bank robbery. A good way to think about this is to “say it” with words and “prove it” with the visuals.

 The viewer can see that the police have their guns drawn. You don’t need to tell viewers in the narration what they can see for themselves. (Photo by Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel)

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Craig Duf, former chief videographer for Time magazine, says, “I say write with the pictures. You’re not saying ‘See cow… say cow.’ You’re showing the pasture with cows in it and giving the audience an understanding of what happens in that pasture, but not necessarily saying the word ‘cow’.” Malcolm Brabant, PBS producer, reinforces the point. He says, “Don’t describe what’s going on in the pictures unless the viewer needs to be guided. You don’t need to say, ‘You know, that’s a red building over there,’ because people can see it. Tat’s a dreadful, dreadful mistake and lots of American TV stations do it. What you do is use your words to complement the pictures.” Duf notes to avoid adjectives. “Let the visuals be your adjectives and your words be your information,” he says. Brabant says, “If you’re thinking about putting in an adjective, take it out. Te facts speak for themselves.”

Sound Bites for Emotion, Narration for Facts Use sound bites that are subjective, that give opinions, express emotions, and convey feeling. Avoid using those that give basic information— you can write facts such as numbers and dates into the voice-over script. A not-so-compelling sound bite: Tirteen homes were damaged, two of them destroyed by the storm in this neighborhood. (Te quote is emotionless. Te quote contains important facts that could be handled better in the written narration.) versus a compelling sound bite: Even though we lost our home, we have a new appreciation for life. (Emotional. Succinct. Powerful.)

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Don’t Steal the Thunder from the Sound Bite Set up the sound bite so that the character has the most powerful words: Original: Narration: Mary considers the damage minor, compared to losing someone she loves. SOT (sound on tape, comment recorded during subject’s activity rather than later in an interview): “Even though we lost our home, we have a new appreciation for life.” Here the narration is redundant. Compare: Narration: Mary keeps everything in perspective. SOT: “Even though we lost our home, we have a new appreciation for life.” In each the narration sets up the subsequent quote. Let the narration deepen the content or move the story further. If the narration merely reiterates what the subject is saying, then it’s stopping the action, which you don’t want to happen. Tink of your job as a pin setter at a bowling alley. You set up the pins, and your subject knocks them down.

The Mouse Is the Ultimate Control Keep the story moving so that the audience is not tempted to click away. Once a point is covered, move on to the next one.

Pace

Present Tense

Pace your stories in an appropriate and varied way. Moments of tension should be written with quick lines of narration and short sound bites, while moments of refection should go longer and have some room to breathe.

Keep your verbs in present tense. Use “says” rather than “said” when setting up a sound bite and “does” rather than “did” when talking about an action. An obvious exception would be in cases of historical reference (“President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address,” not “gives.”)

Use Short Bursts, or “Pops” Use a short burst of natural sound to reinforce key messages in a narrative. You can even use everyday sounds that you might otherwise take for granted. A door slamming, cash registers ringing, birds chirping—they all give the viewer a diferent feeling about the piece’s pacing, setting and emotion.

 When Writing the Narration for Your Story Vary the Pace. Use quick, short sentences to heighten the pace. Use longer, more complicated sentences to give the viewer time to digest the material.

Build from Small to Large Another consideration when making complicated material more digestible is to start small and scale up. Tis builds a natural crescendo for viewers that can help maximize impact. Tis is especially useful when dealing with stories involving numbers that are hard to conceptualize or put in perspective.

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For example, if you’re going to list the top fve parking ticket scofaws in your city, it’s natural to start with the one with the least tickets and build up to the most egregious. Tis builds tension in an otherwise boring list of numbers. Te viewer is not likely to remember the exact fgures, but they will understand easily that the last one is signifcantly larger than the frst. Another way to handle big numbers is to turn them into something that people can easily visualize. Attempt to illustrate a scale that can be easily conceptualized—something is “as big as three football felds,” is “taller than the Empire State building,” or “if placed end to end would stretch around the world” are helpful analogies that make abstract concepts more easily understood. Finally, when dealing with numbers, if a specifc fgure isn’t absolutely required, it’s usually permissible to approximate. For example, by car the distance from Philadelphia to Boston is 307.5 miles. It’s much easier for you to say and for the viewer to hear “about 300 miles” or “a little more than 300 miles.” For very large fgures, try to fnd a way for viewers to understand the context quickly. When talking about a percentage of a population, instead of saying “20 percent” say “one in fve.” Te last thing you want to do is make viewers do math in their heads, especially when they should be paying attention to your story.

Which “Voice” Is Best? First person (I) is usually reserved for instances when you as the videojournalist are a direct participant in the story. Tis is very rare and should be used with great care because doing so implies bias. Second person (You) is also rarely appropriate for documentaries. When narrating to an audience, you are not claiming that the audience is an active participant. Tey experience the story, but they are not directly involved in the process.

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Tird person (Jane Doe/he/she) is usually appropriate. Your role as an observer is best portrayed in this manner. It is important, however, to remain objective and natural and to avoid the mistake of being omniscient and booming. Tis is the voice of God efect mentioned earlier that turns of many viewers.

SCRIPT FORMAT Te actual script (see example) is formatted into two columns such as that for “P-Nickerson’s story.” On the right are the narration track, natural sound bites, and sound bites written out in full, and narration script. On the left are your video cues for the edit. If you are editing your own story, it’s not necessary to write every video cue—you should have an idea of what shots you want to use by now. However, if you are writing to specifc shots, this is the place to note them. When writing the script, most reporters start from the beginning and go straight through to the end. Some videojournalists, however, fnd it easier to write the beginning lines and the closing lines frst, and then work through the middle. Te front and back approach allows you to concentrate your strongest eforts frst on the two most important parts of the script and then fll in the middle later. Tat strategy also helps when dealing with temporary writer’s block. Especially when working under deadline, spending too much time looking for particular words of inspiration can make the edit a real time crunch. Having a detailed outline helps avoid writer’s block during the scriptwriting process.

P-NICKERSON’S STORY 9/59/04 Tape # Unknown

Time Code Unknown

Time 04:50

Format PKG

Date 9/29/04

News Central Archive Production Cues:

Text:

[0]

(NATS-[0]-turning farm gauge)

TAPE 3 3:04:55---

THE SIMPLE SERENITY OF THE EASTERN SHORE.

[1]

[1](NATS)-crop duster-

TAPE 3 3;42:17--GREAT NATS-AND COUNTRY SHOT

IT’S WHERE CORNFIELDS CAN OUTNUMBER CARS... [2](NATS)-crickets-

[2] AND STEEPLES ARE THE ONLY SKYSCRAPERS. CRICKET SOUND -Music???? (soft piano-solitude) CORNFILELD-CHURCH-FARM SHOT??? [3]

(voice) [3]”its nice being out here.. kind of quiet” [4]A TOWN LIKE STILL POND IN KENT COUNTY, DOESN’T GET TO GREET A LOT OF VISITORS.

TAPE 3 3:20:44--(NATS) [5] [4] IT NEVER HAS A TRAFFIC JAM. [6] welcome sign [7] (voice) “and we’ll play football today...”) [5] AND ALL OF THAT SUITS THE NICKERSON’S JUST FINE. car passes in still pond [8](NATS) “ready??? catch...” [6] [9](nats (CATCH) “all right”) --OMIT--MAYBE TOO LONG??? [10](PHIL NICKERSON) “its a nice place for the kids to grow up” [7] [11](NATS) -Baxter running after the ballVOICE TAPE 3 3:11:36---

IT’S ONE REASON WHY PHIL NICKERSON BECAME A POLICE OFFICER...

[8]

IT’S HIS WAY OF PROTECTING THAT PEACE.

TAPE 3 3:13:47---

(SUE NICKERSON) [12]”i’ll tell you i’m his biggest support...”

[9]

[13] AND IF SUE WOULD BECOME HIS BIGGEST SUPPORTER...

 In this sample script,  the video notes are on the left and the audio notes, narration, natural sound dialogue, and music are in the right-hand column.

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WRITING THE SCRIPT FOR EMMETT AND ERLING BY BOYD HUPPERT Here is the story behind the story of Emmett and Erling, one of Boyd Huppert’s most popular documentaries from his series Land of 10 Stories that he has produced for Kare 11 in Minneapolis. Boyd Huppert’s voice-over: Emmett Rychner is three … going on four. And for no particular reason, he is driving with his eyes closed. Which would not appear to be going particularly well. Fortunately, Emmett has a mentor. Erling Kindem is 89 … going on 90. The video SOT (sound on tape) shows Emmett and Erling each sitting on their respective tractors getting ready to race. Huppert explains the reasoning behind his script: “So there’s this moment where Erling gets emotional. “Where I think it’s right after we reveal that Emmett is going to be moving away. Erling starts to, he starts to cry. “And that’s where I start to provide a little more insight into his situation. “His wife’s not doing well and he goes, ‘Yup.’ Soon he’ll be moving to a nursing home. “I’m trying to give the viewer a little more insight into Erling. His world is really coming down around him, you know, and he’s very happy in the life that he has and now Emmett is moving away. I say … “It’s Erling’s own kids who have fnally convinced him to move to a nursing home.”

 Emmett and Erling is  the touching story by Boyd Huppert, Kare 11 Minneapolis, between a three-year-old and an eighty-nine-year-old who were neighbors and became fast friends.

Emmett and Erling. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=lhjOcQk_VUw

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Traps to Avoid While Writing •

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Falling in love with your words. Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to put in. Sometimes a line of track or a sound bite seems valuable because it is clever, but if it doesn’t fall within your focus, leave it out. Writing for print. One of the toughest challenges for writers starting out is the temptation to write narration as if it is a term paper. Read your lines of track aloud to see if they are written for the eye or for the ear. Cliché. Sometimes a cliché is efective, but more often than not it’s a sign of lazy writing. It’s easy to say that something that is expensive “costs an arm and a leg,” but that lacks originality. Use this temptation as an opportunity to be more creative. Invent your own clichés. Giving away the surprise. Almost every story has some opportunity for surprise. Tink about what makes the story or the subject special. Tat’s usually where you’ll fnd it. Don’t start the piece by giving away the best element. Instead, allow the audience to discover the surprise for themselves—it will be much more powerful. Parroting. When writing into or out of a sound bite, be sure to set up the sound, not just speak the same words that the subject is about to utter. As mentioned earlier, don’t steal the thunder of the sound bite. When the voice-over track and subject’s sound bites say the exact same thing, one of them needs to go. Narrator: “Davis says it was a terrible ordeal.” Dave’s sound bite: “It was terrible.” Forgetting your audience wasn’t there. Because you researched and shot the story, you have much more intimate knowledge of the story than does your audience. Tey are not experts on the subject. So be sure that they are learning what they need to know.

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If there’s time, it’s very helpful to screen the rough-cut with some non-experts to fnd out if the piece is clear to them—or not. Dumbing it down. Tis is a common complaint about television news. Just as it’s important not to talk over the heads of the average viewer, no one needs to be spoonfed everything, either. Follow up with an Internet search. One of the benefts of online journalism is that the audience can go deeper into a story if they feel like they want to know more. Give the audience a URL so they can search for more information about a topic.

Read It Over Finally, when you’ve written your script take a minute and read it over, aloud. Do the words fow naturally? Are there grammatical errors or phrases that sound odd when read? Revision is a major last step—even for seasoned pros. “I am an obsessive reviser when I have time,” says Boyd Huppert of KARE-TV in Minneapolis. “I will write, and then I will reread and rewrite, and I’ll go through a script line by line until it says something to me. I’ll look at a line and think, ‘What does this say? Can I say it better? Is the strength of the sentence at the end of the sentence, which is where it should be?’ A good sentence should build. ‘What can I do with this to make it more interesting?’” Take time to review your script and solicit feedback from others—especially anyone who’s not as familiar with the story as you are. Huppert sometimes shares his scripts with his family— whom he calls his “focus group.” A fresh set of eyes—even untrained ones—can go a long way in making the story memorable. Screenwriter and teacher Denise Bostrom suggests that listening to someone else narrate the voice-over is also a great way to hear how the narration sounds. She also suggests showing the piece to an audience without sound to see if they can grasp the subject just by the strength of the visuals.

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Location, Location, Location

 The Car as a Temporary Sound Booth. WBFF-TV reporter Kathleen Cairns prepares to record a voice-over in the car. She will lower the jacket over her head to help mufe any echo from the windows.  (Photo by Stanley Heist)

PREPARING TO RECORD Now you’re ready to put your hard work into words and create the voice-over, which can be spoken directly into your computer. Many nonlinear editing programs allow you to record your narration, which can be a great advantage. You can edit the video and record a voice-over at the same time on the computer. Many computers have a built-in microphone, which eliminates the step of recording your script into the camera frst and then downloading the fle into the computer. Also, you have access to the video itself if you wish to review any shots or time a segment exactly with the narration. Finally, when dictating the narration into your computer, if you choose to revise your script in the editing process, you can rerecord the voice-over immediately. If you don’t have inputs for professional-level microphones and a mixer for your computer, though, the audio quality may not be as good as it could be if you recorded the narration into your camera.

Sit Up Straight!

Microphone Choices

 Note Da Lin records his voice-over in his van.

Regardless of whether you record into your camera or directly into an editing program via the computer, you should select the best mics for the job. Test your mics to see which gives the best result for your voice-over narration. (For more on audio recording, see Chapter 10 “Recording Sound” and Chapter 13 “Conducting an Interview.”)

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Choosing a location to record your voiceover track is just as important as selecting the microphone. If a soundproof audio booth is not available, fnd a location that is small, away from sound, free of fans and other white noise, and has no refective surfaces that may cause an echo. When nothing else is available, some pros sit in a car to record their audio. Tey can drape a jacket over their heads to prevent their voice from refecting of windows. A closet can also work, provided that there is no echo when speaking. Soft objects such as clothing dampen some of the echo, but a utility closet with bare walls would likely produce an unacceptable sound. Da Lin recoreded his voice-over for Anatomy of a TV News Story inside his tiny van.

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Wherever you record a voice-over track, maintaining a proper posture will help you get the most of your voice. Stand up when you deliver your lines. Never slouch. Poor posture will crush your diaphragm, which will limit your ability to project and speak clearly. A straightened back also makes you feel more confdent, and that confdence will be transmitted through your speaking voice. Smiling will help, too.

Anatomy of a TV News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

THREE, TWO, ONE … YOU’RE RECORDING Once a suitable location is found, it’s time to begin the process of recording. Do an audio check for levels frst by reading a few lines of your script. Tis is the time to relax, review the script one last time, and prepare to speak at a normal level. When you have an acceptable audio level, it is time to record the narration. Begin at the start of the script, give a countdown from three, and go. It should sound like this: Tree … two … one … (pause one second, keeping rhythm) [READ YOUR FIRST LINE OF NARRATION] Scripts written for narration are often broken into small sound bites divided by a series of ellipses. Once you get started … read through

the frst section of script up until the end of the frst sound bite … Sound bites usually consist of one or two short phrases … then … give a pause for editing. Read the next section of the script … Stopping and restarting in between narration tracks causes a natural interruption in the fow, which anchor/reporter Greg McQuade from WTVR in Richmond, Virginia says makes your voice sound more newsy than natural. “When I frst started out I was holding the scripts, tracking ‘3 … 2 … 1 …’ (between each section of script), and they sounded like news track,” McQuade says. “I would listen to myself, and it was as if I had changed personality in the audio booth. It didn’t sound natural. I wanted to sound like Greg telling a story to a friend, I didn’t want to sound like ‘journalist Greg McQuade’ in an audio booth.” By stopping for only a brief pause between script sections, McQuade fnds that his narrations sound more conversational.

 Chris Hansen, senior photojournalist for 9NEWS in Colorado,  sets up an interview shot with reporter Chris Vanderveen (at left). The device on the front of the camera is a teleprompter, also called an autocue, that will show the script to the reporter as he reads it. (Photo by Ross Taylor)

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that advice, even though he knows no one is seeing him in the audio booth. Tis way his voice speaks with the same intonation when recording a narration as it would with a friend on the sidewalk. Try visualizing another person in the room with you. If you are comfortable with the way you deliver your lines, the audience will fnd them just as comfortable and normal. All of this efort to sound natural will make you sound more believable, says vocal coach Dalley. Gone are the days of the Ted Baxter-like “whiskey baritone” voice and the authoritative voice of God efect discussed earlier. In other words, you don’t need to be blessed with—or try to emulate—a perfect voice to be considered an efective communicator. Dalley says that good audio narration means having a clean and easyto-understand voice—one that sounds much the same as one friend talking to another.

 Bad Location for Recording Voice-Over. This narrator is in a poor location to record an audio track. He’s in a large, hollow conference room. The whiteboard and table will cause his voice to echo and the microphone is much too far away from his mouth to get the clearest sound possible. His posture is hunched over, which will limit the power of his diaphragm.

Have You Got Rhythm? Another consideration is the rhythm that your voice creates. When you listen to yourself read your lines, do they begin to have the same length, the same pattern in syllables, or the same intonation? Is it beginning to sound like a poetic cadence? It’s easy for your narration to become predictable without even trying. Read these three lines aloud:

 Good Location for Recording Voice-Over. In this location, an empty ofce, the reporter is using a shotgun microphone with a narrow pickup pattern directed at his mouth. He is standing up straight next to a carpeted cubicle wall, which will absorb some of the sound. (Photos by Stanley Heist)

Smith walks into the diner … he has a seat at a booth … he orders a small cofee.

Conversational Means Believable Another suggestion for sounding conversational is to try to speak with the same mannerisms that you would outside your video production. If you are animated and speak with your hands, put the script down, and read the narration with your hands free to move. If you are holding the microphone, mount the script to a stand. One way we talk to friends is by using hand gestures. “We all do it whenever the message is important to us. It’s a visual way of being more clearly understood,” says vocal coach Nick Dalley of Intentional Communication, Inc. Dalley recommends keeping at least one hand available for gesturing while recording your voice. When recording a narration, McQuade follows

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Hear the rhythm develop? It becomes predictable. Now, try this: Smith walks into the diner … he has a seat at the booth and orders a small cofee. Same phrases, but turned into one short phrase, followed by a long phrase (reworked with the conjunction “and”). A simple solution can shake things up. As Dalley points out, we don’t normally speak in a predictable rhythm, nor should we voice a narration that way. Boyd Huppert of Kare 11 Minneapolis says, “My writing works for my cadence. If I gave my script to somebody else, it wouldn’t work. “Tere are certain literary devices that are just tailor made for the ear … repetition, alliteration and rhyme,” says Hubbert.

Example: Te perfect marriage between a person and his place sounds great. But if I said: Te perfect marriage between a person and his ofce that doesn’t sound so good. It’s that a little bit of alliteration that resonates well. Pauses give the viewer a moment to absorb what you’re saying. When a person is reading something, they can stop and think about what they just read. When a person is watching a video they can’t easily stop and contemplate what the reporter just said. Tey need that little pause between phrases. “When you’re hearing something, there’s no stopping,” notes Hubbert. “Sometimes you slow down literally toward the end of your voice-over track in order to tell the viewer that you are coming to an end. It’s a conscious thing. If you’re going to have a beginning, a middle, and end, the viewer should know that the end is coming.” So everything slows down at the end—the shots should be longer. Preferably “negative action” (the action moves away from the camera). For your closing shot, you want to see taillights going away. “Negative action” says this is the end of the story.

Use Your Vocal Range Avoid speaking in a monotone. Tat’s not to say that you should try to go outside your normal vocal range. (Viewers are good at spotting false qualities.) But speaking within your natural range, feel free to use all your normal tones.

Hit Periods Stop at the period for as long as it takes to breathe. When you do not take advantage of the period for breathing (or swallowing), you’ll be required to breathe in the middle of the next sentence. Breathing mid-sentence comes across as breathless and out-of-control.

Take a Listen When you have recorded the track, listen to it. Make certain that the audio levels are consistent, and that there is no under-modulation causing a hiss, or over-modulation causing distortion. If the sound is clean and clear at a full audio level, then the story is ready to go to edit.

Remember, sounding good does not mean sounding perfect. For the audience, a quality voice is one that is easy to understand and sounds human.

 Anatomy of a TV News Story. Watch how Da Lin shoots a stand-up selfe.

The Stand-up “You have to have a reason to do a stand-up,” says Craig Duf, Emmy Award-winning video journalist. What’s the point of the stand-up? Are you showing me something? Are you taking me from one point of the story to the next, by bridging two ideas? Are you demonstrating something? Is it something you can’t really show in video, so you have to say it? Before you write your stand-up script, review this list of questions. Make sure that you have a good reason for talking directly into the camera lens. You don’t want to just be standing with the microphone and saying, “Tis happened last week behind me.” For the story behind Anatomy of a TV News Story, Da Lin, channel 5, had to explain why a man had inexplicably disappeared. He needed to record a Stand Up explainer to the camera because he had no visuals to flm.

Anatomy of a TV News Story. https://vimeo.com/527589206

Be Flexible Finally, some of the best writing happens with the revisions you make during the edit. Te KISS rule—Keep It Simple, Sweetie—applies here as well. Sometimes a compelling story can be sabotaged by a desire to impress the audience with complicated verbiage and techniques. Tere is another old rule—this one from show business—to consider: Always leave them wanting more, never wishing they had less. Keep these things in the back of your mind as you approach your work, and you should fnd the process of writing and narrating an enjoyable one for years to come.

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15

Editing the Video Kathy Kieliszewski, Sr. News Director Photo Visuals and Freep Film, Detroit Free Press Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University Ed Robbins, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

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diting does not start in the editing room. From the story you choose to the questions you ask to the variety of shots you record, all the way to your piece’s fnal

cut, you are editing. At each step in creating a story, you must be thinking about producing the fnal product. Which shots are necessary to make sequences? What quotes and natural sounds will fully convey the story? If you have been thinking about the edit

 Film Editing. Colonel Frank Capra (right), famous American flm director, confers with a captain of the British Army Film Unit on the editing of the flm Tunisian Victory in 1944. The flm was made for the war efort during World War II.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-15

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from start to fnish, you will be able to more easily assemble the sound and visuals to seamlessly form a well-structured story once you fnally sit down at the computer. And when you start editing you will appreciate an old adage that says the best video makers are those who have been editors. Once you are wearing your editor’s hat, you will want to wring the photographer’s neck (that would be your own neck) for forgetting the 180-degree rule, for shots that are too short to edit cleanly into sequences, for zooming back and forth rather than moving in or out with the camera. You will regret that you did not record any “room noise.” You will want to yank the interviewer’s ears (those would be yours) for failing to wear headphones and not noticing an annoying scratchy sound interfering with your subject’s moving story. You may have to call upon all your skills and resources to pull the piece together. Sometimes, you may even have to ditch it completely. But perhaps for your next story, your shooting and recording eforts will become remarkably more refned. Note: Te online examples below are often taken from Hollywood movies but the principles they demonstrate are the same for shooting and editing a documentary, broadcast news story, or Internet video.

HOW TO BEGIN THE STORY How cleverly you tell the story will determine your story’s arc. Tough it may seem that this arc really develops after the feld reporting is done—you want to be thinking about your narrative plan before you get started and keep it in mind throughout the reporting process.

The Audience Is Watching … the Clock Is Ticking Here’s the good news. According to a survey of Internet video viewers, if your video story is less than 10 seconds long, about 89 percent of viewers will watch your whole video.

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Te bad news? Tere just aren’t that many compelling 10-second journalism videos out there. Most journalistic video stories are much longer. If your story is about 30 seconds long, the study shows that about two-thirds of your viewers will fnish watching it. Make it one minute and only half the viewers will stay until the end. Because most online video stories are in the 1:30 to 3:00 range, you may only hope that 10 to 20 percent of viewers will watch your short video to the end. As video and multimedia storytellers, you are fghting an uphill battle. Te wide general audience we keep talking about—your average viewer—is probably checking email, chatting online with a friend, and visiting another two or three websites while your story is loading and playing. Once you have grasped this discouraging fact, you can start to see just how compelling and engaging your stories must be in order to compete with the daily avalanche of online distractions all your potential viewers deal with. Which means that the frst 10 to 20 seconds of your story is without a doubt the most important part. “In short videos, if you don’t get them in the frst 10 seconds, you’ve lost them,” says Ed Robbins, award-winning director, writer producer, and digital journalist, “It used to be 30 seconds,” he adds sadly. Bob Sacha, professor at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY, says the start must grab you right away. Sacha imagines starting a documentary like this: “... you are overlooking Genoa, Italy with two guys with submachine guns ... “Te sequence says, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ “You’re like, ‘Whoa, what just happened?’ Oh, hang on. Oh, I have to pay attention to this. Right!” Sacha compares the Genoa mafa opener to this alternative: “‘Hi, my name is Bob. I was born in 1933. I went to a Catholic high school’ ... you know ... snooze ...”

Te point here is not just avoiding viewer boredom. Keep in mind the heart and soul of good storytelling lies in keeping the viewer intrigued. You want to keep triggering in them those simple questions a child asks when being read a story: “What happens next?” “Why did they do that?” Editing your story for maximum engagement is about raising those questions … and then … withholding the answers … even if for only a moment. Tis ofer and postponement helps to keep the viewer wanting more. In videojournalism storytelling and editing, you constantly work that rhythm. You need to choose not just what to put in but when to present a plot twist. Te key is fnding the right moment for the zinger that will propel your story forward. Knowing what to put in, when, and where in the narrative story is needed at each juncture explains why some video editors are master of the editing bay and worth their weight in gold.

Alternatively, start with a really clever piece of narration. Check out this video by Casey Neistat called Do What You Can’t. Jacob Templin, former senior producer at Time, points out that Neistat often opens his YouTube videos with a narration that grabs the viewer. Ten he has beautiful footage. “It’s not that he’s handsome,” says Templin, “but he’s got something.” Keeping a viewer’s eyeballs glued to the screen while your show is playing is, of course, the ultimate challenge. It takes research and planning and a knack for telling a story. But if you are excited about creating multimedia stories and aren’t intimidated by the challenges, you are probably a fne candidate for this fascinating profession.

 Do What You Can’t.  Casey Neistat, a popular YouTuber, often starts his videos with a narration that seizes the viewer’s interest long enough to get them into the body of the story.

Do What You Can’t. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jG7dSXcfVqE

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 Streetwise. To grab viewers’ attention, the producer opened his documentary on street kids in Seattle with a teenager jumping from a bridge with shocking dialogue.

Streetwise – short clip. https://www.maryellenmark.com/flms/streetwise/ clips/46d6489c-71f1-416a-84e1f81d15170ad0

Combine a Powerful Quote and Shocking Action

Streetwise trailer. https://www.maryellenmark. com/flms/streetwise/clips/ d7b7da16-5304-427a-a292bc09bd6d40bd

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Study the frst 10 to 20 seconds of strong flms. Have a look at the 1983 documentary flm Streetwise by Martin Bell, Mary Ellen Mark, and Cheryl McCall. In a few short minutes, the audience is focused on the story and its characters. Te flm begins with a powerful quote. One of the street kids, by the name of Rat, is standing on a bridge. It appears he is getting ready to jump of. “I love to fy,” says Rat. “It’s just you alone. You have peace and quiet, nothing around you but clear blue sky. No one to hassle you. No one to tell you where to go or what to do.” Ten he adds, “Te only bad part about fying is having to come back down to the fucking world.” As soon as Rat jumps of the bridge into the river, the flm cuts to scenes of Seattle in the

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early 1980s. First a wide view with ships, trains, long views, then it narrows quickly onto the street. We hear street performances and boom box music and then meet the main characters of the flm. Another kid is panhandling and says to a passerby, “Spare some change, ma’am, so me and my father can get something to eat?” Tis intro of less than two minutes in a feature-length documentary flm sets the mood and hooks the audience with a powerful quote and a kid’s terrifying leap from a bridge, and then a panoramic shot of the setting that quickly establishes a sense of place. Be bold! Tink about this. Is there a powerful line from the peak or climax of your story that might be a great way to start?

 Suicide Tourist. The opening of the documentary tells the viewer up front that the subject has ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease. The disease causes progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. The man is going on a trip to end his life.

Suicide Tourist. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ frontline/documentary/ suicidetourist/?

Sometimes it’s seductive to hint or foreshadow where you are taking your audience. PBS’s Frontline story Suicide Tourist, produced by John Zaritsky, tells a story of assisted suicide that follows the saga of an American aficted with the Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), as he decides to end his own life. In the opening sequence, he is on a plane taking of for Switzerland, where he will eventually end his sufering. Te very beginning is dramatic because he is declaring right at the start of the story that he is going on a trip to end his life. For the moment, the audience can only imagine or wonder why. But that initial statement is a shot square in the solar plexus.

Dramatic Beginnings That Leave Unanswered Questions Don’t be afraid to use quotes and symbols. But don’t fall into the trap of trying to be too clever with symbolic imagery or obscure quotes in your video that force the viewer to work in order to understand what is going on. Very early on, you need to tell the viewer what the story is about. But you don’t want to confuse or alienate an audience with show-of grandiosities. In those few seconds they’re working out their confusion. Tey may miss some key point in the next sequence and miss the point of the story. Templin’s story opens his story Playing Piano with a Mind-Controlled Robotic Arm with a man playing music with his brain. Tat frst

30 seconds gives the viewer a really clear sense of where the story is going to take them in the next four or fve minutes. “Tat arm was one of the more remarkable things that I’ve seen in my life,” says Templin. “From a storytelling perspective I opened with him playing because everybody’s going to want to see that. And then it’s natural to just sort of end on him playing the piano, because the note that he ended on was an optimistic note about the future.”

Hook Them with Humor Don’t shy away from humor. If you can get viewers to laugh up front, they’ll assume they may be in for more fun later. Funny moments through the video will help to hold onto the viewer to the fnal credits. Anne Herbst, 9News in Colorado, opens her story Pie Queen with a clip of a man stirring the ingredients for a pie. He says, “Tat’s another thing I like being a chef, you don’t have to have serious hair.” Te next thing you see is that the baker has a purple streak in his hair. Te quote and close-up shot of the lock of hair immediately sets the tone for the story. By using this touching bit of humor, the story seduces the audience with the whimsical side of the characters and lends a tone of light heartedness that carries us along throughout the piece. If your subjects are funny, let them be funny. Teir humor can only enhance your story.

Pie Queen. https://youtu.be/uZuWEyV1ef4

Playing Piano with a MindControlled Robotic Arm. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DP677lA_DEA&t=2s

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 Dail: Life Unbarred.  The producer uses the “character-retelling-his-ownstory” technique to explain how Dail was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned but later exonerated and released.

Dail: Life Unbarred. https://vimeo.com/5688086

Throw the Viewer into the Story Sometimes you want to plunk people right into the action. For instance, get a main character to recount and retell a part of the story so your viewers feels as though they, too, are reliving it right in front of their eyes. In a piece in the Raleigh News & Observer, photographer Shawn Rocco and multimedia producer Travis Long report on a wrongfully convicted and imprisoned man who is exonerated and released. Long uses this “character retelling his story” technique. In this example, the character is really reliving the story right in front of the viewers. It’s quite a compelling method of drawing in viewers.

What the Hell Was That?

Pie Queen. https://youtu.be/uZuWEyV1ef4

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Put something out there in audio or visuals (or both) that makes the audience say, “What the hell was that?” Build it slowly and little by little make them wonder. Give only a little smidgen away at a time. If you spill all the beans up front, there is no reason for a viewer to stay with you. Hook them with the bizarre, but keep it relevant. Te perfect story won’t all happen at once. Templin makes the same point. “Start with your most interesting, compelling piece of tape that is so interesting … so beautiful the viewer

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can’t resist. Or start with a sound bite that’s just going to blow your audience away.” In the story called Pie Queen, referenced above, the “surprise” comes when the man preparing the pies transforms himself into a drag queen. Te videographer, Anne Herbst, waited one minute and 18 seconds into the piece before revealing this aspect of the story. Ten the viewer witnesses the drag queen pulling an American Flyer wagon down a hall and hears the man say, “I’m going to be a drag queen and sell pies.” By delaying the “reveal” or surprise, Herbst keeps her audience watching to see what the next revelation will uncover. “What the hell was that?” says the viewer. Te “reveal” is an excellent trick when you can pull it of because the audience’s very wonderment will make them want to continue watching. Producers who want to hold on to their audience after the frst 30 seconds try to imbed as many “reveals” in their story as possible. Sometimes the “reveal” is referred to as fnding a coin on the ground or a video-game token. Te more coins you embed the richer your story will be and the more likely it will hold the viewer to its fnal destination.

 One Man Brand: Naked Cowboy.  This charming story opens with a couple walking and talking, side by side on treadmills.

Delayed Lead Sacha worked with Reuters photographer Lucy Nicholson and visual projects editor Jassim Ahmad during a MediaStorm workshop. Te pair wanted to do a story about Times Square in New York City. After discussing fve possible story ideas, the two journalists settled on the Naked Cowboy, an icon of Times Square. But Sacha had concerns about the story. Several Naked Cowboy stories had been done, he said. Plus, the Naked Cowboy is a celebrity, and celebrities rarely open up the way he likes his subjects to do. Visually, of course, “it would be like shooting fsh in a barrel,” Sacha said, “but we had no story.” As the three were leaving the frst interview with the Naked Cowboy at home, the subject’s girlfriend arrived. Nicholson asked her, “What’s

 One Man Brand: Naked Cowboy. The fact that the man is the Naked Cowboy who plays in his underwear in Times Square, New York is revealed only later as the story progresses.

 One Man Brand: Naked Cowboy. The short documentary explores the inner life of the naked cowboy beyond his own self-promotion.

 Lucy Nicolson, videographer, talks to her subject, the Naked Cowboy, in Times Square. (Photo by Jassim Ahmad)

One Man Brand: Naked Cowboy. https://vimeo.com/15728838

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it like to be the Naked Cowboy’s girlfriend?” Sacha says, “She totally opened up, told us all about how they met on the elliptical machines at the gym. It was a boy-meets-girl story,” Sacha says. “Te lightbulb went on!” Te relationship, of course, ensured the universality of this story. But what set it apart was that the relationship was about someone semi-famous. Everybody wants to know what is it like being the Naked Cowboy’s girlfriend. Says Sacha, “Imagine what’s it like to be in a relationship with a guy in such dazzling shape with an exploding ego to match. What makes this naked cowboy so irresistible in Times Square is precisely what makes him so problematical for her.” So the Naked Cowboy story is not just about a celebrity per se. It’s about a singular relationship, and a complex one at that. While the story, on one level, was about a relationship, which everybody has, not everyone’s partner plays his guitar naked in Times Square. But a lot of people have a relationship with somebody they think might be that crazy. Once they determined what their story would be about, Sacha and his team quickly made a plan for the opening of the story. “We knew we wanted to hide the fact from the viewer that the subject was the famous Times Square Naked Cowboy. We knew that to start the story we wanted a video of the couple working out together on the elliptical machines at the gym. So our story titled One Man Band: Naked Cowboy begins by hearing the tale of a regular girl meeting a regular guy at the gym. Tey chat. She asks him where he plays his guitar. He gives the address. He even hints that everyone knows him. But still, as the story inches forward, we still are not aware of who he really is. Ten, bam! All of a sudden Jack is out of the box and our hero becomes the Naked Cowboy! Tat is the delayed lead. Tat’s when the two personalities really come alive.

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THE END WILL BE REMEMBERED Viewers tend to remember the beginnings and endings of stories. Make the end as good as the beginning. Be cognizant of how you want to leave your audience. Remember, they have invested precious minutes watching your piece. Don’t just end the story without ofering some satisfying closure. If your fnale is weak, no one will remember the story. Te obvious fallout from a fabby ending is that people probably won’t come back for any other stories. One trick to keep in mind as you form your interview questions and later choose your answers for the edit: the ending of a video story often refers to the future. It contains a hope, a dream, a goal, or what is coming next in the life of the protagonist.

Three Essentials to End the Story In an essay for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, Bruce DeSilva, an author and former writing coach for the Associated Press, observes: A good ending absolutely, positively, must do three things at a minimum. It must tell the reader the story is over. Must do that. It also needs to nail the central point of the story to the reader’s mind. You have to be leaving him with the thought you want him to be taking away from the story. And it should resonate, it really should. You should hear it echoing in your head when you put the paper down, when you turn the page. It shouldn’t just end and have a central point. It should stay with you and make you think a little bit. (https://nieman.harvard.edu/articles/ endings/) Often a good ending reveals where the subjects are going next or the scope of their dreams. You must ask the right questions during an interview with the primary subject to elicit answers or their next step or their continuing dream for the future. Tose answers will help to nail down the fnish of your documentary before the credits roll.

Te Making of Mojo explores the behind-thescenes training of a potential WWE wrestling star. Te lead character, Dean Muhtadi, aka Mojo Rawley, says on camera, after throwing an opponent over his head: “Te character development aspect of the business is by far the most important.” Ten at the end of the documentary he says to his fans as he leaves the arena after a fght, “It’s all about leaving your mark on the

world.” Tis ironic statement hangs in the air as the wrestler walks of into the night. In fact, the documentary has just shown the viewer the real truth behind the fake world of entertainment wrestling. Te producer, McKenna Ewen, of the Washington Post, wants his viewers to recognize the contradiction between the real, human desire of this ex-football player to succeed in his career versus the faux world of wrestling.

 The Making of Mojo: A Wrestler’s Quest for WWE stardom. What impression of the man and the world of wrestling does the viewer take away at the end of the story?

The Making of Mojo: A Wrestler’s Quest for WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Stardom. https://vimeo.com/166718190

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End the Story with a Punchline

 Motel Manor: Homeless in Suburbia. To tell the larger story of a slumping economy,  Robert Cohen  focused on a story of a homeless families living in a hotel in a middle-class suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.

Robert Cohen, a photographer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, shot and produced a story titled Motel Manor: Homeless in Suburbia on the U.S. economy that focused on homeless families living in hotels in a middle-class suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. His story followed families in a paradoxical setting. Many people believed there were no homeless families living there. Using both familiarity and access, Cohen tells their personal stories as a way to put faces on the economic crisis. Te story concludes as one father has found work at a local McDonald’s restaurant. Tough the job certainly isn’t the solution to releasing his family from a tentative life in a hotel to one in their own home, at least it produces a sense of hope.

 Motel Manor: Homeless in Suburbia.  The fnal comment in the story comes when the wife explains that for many families going to a hotel is a vacation, where people clean up after you. While for a homeless family like theirs, the motel is a place from which they want to escape. Motel Manor: Homeless in Suburbia. https://vimeo.com/11248540

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Te fnal comment in the piece comes from his wife, who explains that for many families going to a hotel is a vacation, where people clean up after you. Cherri just wants their forced “vacation” to end so they can leave the motel and move into their own home. Tis poignant ending serves two purposes. First, it connects the audience to a universal and familiar experience—staying in a hotel. But it just as poignantly reminds viewers that for this family, the hotel experience is turned on its head. Second, it says to the audience, “Tis story isn’t over. It continues. And nobody knows how it will end. Tere is some hope, but there are no promises.” Story endings are critical. In this case, the use of Cherri’s poignant quote aptly sums up the feeling, the experience, and the moral of the story. It is an excellent way to provide the audience with a sense of closure.

YOUR VIDEO-EDITING SOFTWARE Te options for editing software have exploded in recent years. Some basic editing programs available today include Apple’s iMovie and Adobe’s Elements. At the more professional level you can buy or rent Adobe’s Premiere Pro, Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Avid’s Xpress Pro Studio HD, or Da Vinci’s Resolve. Besides the somewhat pricey professional video-editing programs you will fnd many very inexpensive or even free options like Pinnacle’s Videospin, VideoTang for Windows computers, Microsoft’s Movie Maker, Lightworks’ HitFilm Express, Movavi, and others. You will discover a plethora of reviews, blogs, and videos to help you weigh the pros and cons of each of these options. Te good news is most all these videoediting systems have lots and lots of key functions and approaches in common. So, on one level, it’s not that difcult to switch from one to another system. Te less good news is that their interfaces can vary a lot. Meaning the actual key combinations or clicks you choose to do even a simple edit can be very diferent from one software to another software. So there is often a defnite learning curve in switching from one video-editing program to the next. All of these programs are constantly evolving and changing. You will need to refer to their manuals online or search the Internet to fnd the most current instructions that will help you to use the program efciently. Check out YouTube.

It is a fne frst stop for learning new videoediting skills. Also try Vimeo. Vimeo has some excellent tutorials on flmmaking. In addition, the software companies themselves have excellent tutorials on their own sites. Don’t overlook the fact that there are many inexpensive online classes that will help you learn the most popular editing software programs.

Nondestructive Editing One of the most transformative innovations of editing software as opposed to the old flm or tape-based systems is that it is “nondestructive.” None of your edits change anything on the original “master” video clips from your camera. Change away in any way you want during the editing. You’ll still have your pure original footage in its pristine, untouched form. Importantly, while your original video media can be quite large, these “sequence” fles you create are relatively small. Tey act as “reference guides” for the software. Each edit choice instantly refers to the exact spot you want to show from your original material. Best of all, on higher-end software, should you make a mistake, you can undo a series of edits, going back as many as 30 steps back. And on all video-editing systems, you can “duplicate” any sequences and start a new version. Meaning you can (and should!) preserve as many diferent earlier stages of your flm as you wish.

Tip: Save Early and Often Never start a new edit without frst naming and then “saving” that new sequence at least once. Tat protects you from losing everything in a crash. And as you continue to edit, get in the habit of hitting that “save button” every few minutes. It will “save” you a lot of pain later. Luckily, even if your system crashes or you accidentally erased a whole section of your video you often have a hidden backup. Many editing systems have an autosave folder where copies of your work are invisibly stored at regular intervals. You will discover how incredibly helpful this is once you have forgotten to save, the program crashes, and all your work and time disappear. You will be able to retrieve the most recently saved project fle from the autosave vault if the auto save function was active. Don’t rely on using autosave, you will avoid a lot of future headaches if you manually save early and often!

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GETTING ORGANIZED Once you’ve shot interviews, gathered spontaneous dialogue and lots of video footage or photos, and written your commitment statement, you are ready to start assembling the pieces into a cohesive story. But frst, you need to get organized.

Storyboarding or Outlining Planning for your story’s narrative arc. Tis plan is sometimes called a storyboard. You’ll want to do this before, during, and after the feld reporting, making changes along the way. You might be able to storyboard some stories in your head, but for most of them you’ll want to work with a written outline or graphic storyboard. For help in outlining your story, check out the “Seven Boxes to Help Build a Story” below. Storyboards are basically visual outlines that help organize a story. Originally used for movies, they consist of notes and sketches of sequences or even parts of sequences. Below each visual are partial or whole dialogues and notes for the sequence. You may want to make small prints or screen grabs of each sequence for your storyboard and lay those out on a long table. You can also just label a card with each sequence without any artwork. Using the plan text or rough drawing method will not only help visualize the story, but more important will walk you through the narrative and allow you to reorganize sequences and experiment with possible alternative arcs.

Breaking your giant chaos of clips, photos, sound bites, etc. into a small number of screen grabs so you can quickly fnd and assess your work gives you a better handle on the range and depth of what you actually have. Now you can say, “Ah, that’s ‘visual’ clay from which I can sculpt a story.” At some point, you may be collaborating with other journalists, producers, or editors with whom you’ll want to share these storyboards. Digital storyboarding programs, including a free one called Celtx or Storyboard-creator are particularly useful for collaborating. When working on the storyboard, remember to write a commitment statement (see Chapter 5 “Producing a Story”) as the frst main heading. Tink back to the basics of outlining a story or a report. Tat outline usually had a thesis statement that you then needed to prove. In essence, the commitment statement serves the same purpose as a thesis statement: in one sentence, tell what this story is about. Te outline should cover the main points of the story and a description of each sequence that will move the story forward. Te outline should describe the opening, how the main points are going to be shown, and then the closing. However you choose to build your written plan, series of cards, or storyboard, you’ll fnd this step essential in building your story arc. Te method might even present to you other options. When and if your plan is complete, weaving the fnal story together in whichever video-editing program you use will be a breeze.

SEVEN BOXES TO HELP BUILD A STORY BY ED ROBBINS, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University, and award-winning director-writerproducer for PBS, BBC2, NYTimes, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and others. The Seven Boxes is a way to look at the structure that underlies a story. I am using a method Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg of the New York Times once wrote about, which I adapted for videojournalism. Bragg says he doesn’t like to linearly outline his stories. Instead, his “boxes” method frees him to organize his story in a way that works better for him. He starts to fll each box with a few key points and quotes. Then adds bulleted lists of facts and quotes: information, quotes, statistics. The contents of each box can change, but you can quickly pluck out your gems from the interview and plug them in. For many people this method frees them up to organize more freely than building it brick by brick: point 1, point 2, point 3. Using this method, you can rework the fow to try diferent approaches. You can start with the ending quote options, then go to beginning, or the backstory in the middle, etc.

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The method begins with you taking paper and drawing seven boxes: Use white cards or half pieces of paper. Or do it all on your computer. Whatever works for you.

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1. Opening Audio/Video •

What is your frst image and sound? Before the frst bite, let a little “natural sound” or music go for 2–5 seconds. Usually, 2–3 seconds is fne. Use a great opening image to draw us in. And, whenever you can, start on Action—not static shots.

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Surprises (reveals) are good at any point but here is a good place to introduce a “twist” or something unexpected: — Maybe it is in their background. — Maybe it is a handicap or illness. — Maybe it is that they were very rich and now they are poor. “Contrast” and being playful with the audience’s expectations are useful tools.

6. Details on How It Works, or Not 2. Pull Us In with a Voice-Over Quote •

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The second box builds on Box 1. It contains the images, sounds, and the opening quote that draws people into the story. You want to choose a bite that intrigues. It can say something direct about the story. But it may also be more of a personality reveal, an interesting “refective” thought on their life or what we see them doing.

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7. The End (The Kicker) •

3. What •

This box tells us WHAT: what’s going on, what activity is unfolding. Most times, stay in the present before you turn to lots of exposition or go into their past to tell the backstory.

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4. Why

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This critical box is a “nut graph” that sums up the story. The nut graph, where we really fnd out what’s going on, comes about the middle of the story. This is the reason WHY. You raise a question or tell us what the most important or interesting thing is about this story. Often it is something unique, e.g.: — The only place where ... The frst woman to ... The oldest ... The newest ... — An example of a much bigger trend, or issue? Whether it is a new fad, a rising new type of music, or one example or pollution that is changing a whole neighborhood ... This gives the story a larger context.

5. What Does It Take and How • •

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To this box add a new image or detail that resembles a lead. This middle part often talks more about the “WHAT.” This is the “What” in the Five Ws—Who, What, Where, When, and Why—that every good news story answers. Perhaps it tells the HOW they go about doing it: How they are getting what they want, often despite some obstacle or challenge. What is that challenge? Perhaps it is a surprise something you’ve been holding back—about the situation or the person. This is the more personal, dramatic part of the narrative.

The next box contains material that is less compelling but rounds out the story. These give a better sense of HOW things have worked out for a situation or person in your story.

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The last box is the “kicker,” an ending. You need to have asked a question during the interview that will elicit this kicker quote such as: — “How did this change your life? — “How will this afect the world? Sometimes a sequence can bring a conclusion to the story. You need a strong quote that leaves the reader with a powerful emotion. The easiest way to get a good ending is to realize that most often this is about the future: their hope or dream. It can also be as simple as what is the next step in the weeks or months ahead. How’s that looking now? A comment on their dream looking ahead can be from years ago, or one that addresses the days or weeks or years ahead.

Remember: Don’t overfll each box. Do the math. You don’t have all that much room in a short piece. The middle sections will have more in them than the start and end boxes. The Seven Boxes approach is a way to think diferently about structure by flling in the boxes at each stage. That means you can think about each box as the minimum you need to have a working story arc. This would include everything from planning to composing the questions you’ll need to ask, deciding what to shoot and how you choose bites as you structure, script, and edit it all together. Importantly: this is not a cookie-cutter approach. It’s a tool. Sometimes people start with the ending. What seems like a good beginning can wind up as the ending. But for beginners, who often fall into the quicksand of having an idea but not a clear structure, it can be a godsend. If you do a close analysis of most short flms you will fnd, surprise, the boxes get ticked of as you deconstruct what you’re watching. This can apply to broadcast news shorts as much as feature profles.

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EXAMPLE OF HOW THE SEVEN BOXES APPROACH CAN HELP YOU STRUCTURE

 How a Brooklyn Sneaker Head Turned Her Passion into a Business. Example of the Seven Box approach. (Produced by Shakti Langlois-Ortega)

How a Brooklyn Sneaker Head Turned Her Passion into a Business. https://youtu.be/qcqbgBE6r-Y

Here’s an example of that “deconstruction” on a short flm a graduate student did in her class:

1. First Image/Sound: Hook Us In with Natural Sound and Strong Visual(s) In this case, we hear a few seconds of the natural sounds as a beautifully colorful close-up shot makes us wonder, “What’s this about ... why am I looking at this sneaker?” Almost always plan to start with about 3–4 seconds of natural sound before the frst word of voice-over. It lets us in, readies us to hear the frst words, while the nat sound bring life to what we’re watching.

2. Grabber: The Visual Story and Voice-Over Quote That Pulls Us In The action, the process of working with the shoe, continues as we hear the opening “grabber” voice-over that pulls us in and sets the stage: “I consider myself a sneaker head. It’s kind of an addiction. That’s kind of deep.” (Laughs.) We don’t know what’s coming next but we do know it’s about an addiction to sneakers. Hmm, interesting. And, we can tell the main character seems to have a real fair, and that makes me willing and ready to go along with the ride from here. So far so good.

3. What Is Going On? What Does This Person Do, or What Is This About After a quick intro we learn WHO this person is, and then at about 20 seconds in text pops up that clearly tells us what she does: we learn her obsession is really about a sneaker cleaning business. Huh? … “a sneaker cleaning business …” That’s interesting and diferent enough to have most viewers go, “Tell me more.” And getting people to want to know more is the key to good storytelling.

4. Why? Reason to Watch. The Nut Graph Whoa! Sneakers are now a 70 billion dollar business aiming towards 102 billion dollars! Tell me more ... The new text tells us WHY this story on a sneaker business has a larger context. Sneakers is big business. And very importantly, the story is specifc: it focuses in on a unique angle within that context. She has found a niche by cleaning them. The stage is set, we know the larger context and are intrigued by how she might ft into it. Sneaker cleaner? Really? People pay her to clean sneakers? How successful could that be? How does she do it?

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5. What Does It Take to Do and How Do They Go About Doing It? At about 1 minute in, we see an example of who is buying these expensive shoes and how the realization triggered an idea for her. She tells us: “I think if people spend so much money on them, they like, if I’m spending so much money on them well then I have to take care of them. And that’s where I come in!” At 1.20 it transitions into her backstory, how she got there. Meaning, how she went about facing a challenge and getting to this new direction for her. And that she wanted to succeed at it badly to start a new page in her life.

6. Ok So How Is It Going? Problems, Methods, Obstacles, Details From about 1.55 in we meet a second character who validates what she’s telling us. In this section we start to learn how she went about doing it. And then we are shocked to hear from her sponsoring space that she has managed to actually surpass her sponsor’s laundry business. So now we are really curious about, well, what is it that she actually does that is so special. What steps are particularly tricky. The details of how she goes about getting what she wants. And at about 2.15 we get her quick rundown on the nuts and bolts, the process of what she actually does and, most importantly, what makes it special in her mind. We also fnd out details like how much a basic cleaning costs: $30. And an ultra cleaning costs $45 and premium $60. And from there, we see and hear what makes this process costly—and worthwhile if you’re a “sneaker addict” like her. The visual breakdown of each step tells a parallel story to what she is describing. Her simple line at the beginning about “I clean sneakers” is now spelled out so we understand what she does that makes it special. At 3.20 she throws in an intriguing example of some of the issues she faces: the guy who came in with a suspicious amount of blood on his sneakers. And then the guy who had stepped in horse manure. And then—unusually nearly at the end—we fnd out the backstory of how as a teenager her mom got her into cleaning her sneakers before going to school, and she just got into doing it well. At 4.30, as the process of cleaning up a pair of sneakers continues, she speaks about what it all means to her—why it matters to her. “Me having my own sneaker business ...” It’s about her motivation for doing it, and her love for doing it. Those kind of statements are the gold you are always looking for. The “refective” comments, the person’s thoughts about what they do.

7. The End: Often This Is about the Future: A Hope or a Dream. A Next Step At 4.20 she tells us, “I would like to eventually have a ...” In other words she’s talking about the future, about her hopes and plans for what’s next. And the fnal thought is a simple but great and memorable end line. She tells of what she wants to be: “I want to be the Chick-fl-A of sneaker cleaning, yeah!”

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SETTING UP YOUR PROJECT Getting organized is a crucial part of editing. On even the simplest of stories, you may have two or three interviews, more than an hour of B-roll, and multiple still photographs. Te interviews, B-roll, and photographs are called a project’s “assets.” First, set up a project folder, usually on an external hard drive with more than adequate space. A full project complete with all its supporting material may range in size from a couple of gigabytes, or gigs, to hundreds of gigs. In that main folder, you will nestle additional folders for diferent types of fles and media. To save yourself the trouble later, take a moment to gather all the pieces that will be integrated into your video before even creating the project fle.

Important Organizational Elements •

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Rising from the Wreckage. https://vimeo.com/273039775

First create folders for your interviews, your stills, your “sequences,” for each diferent day of shooting, or however you would like to organize your dozens or hundreds of clips. Do this before you import that footage to the editing software. Te only way the software knows where to fnd your master fles is from the way you set it up before you started importing the footage to the editing program. Never rename, move or create folders on your master drive after you have imported the footage into your editing software system. If you do move footage on the master drive after importing it to your editing program, you will see that horrifying “media missing” message appear on your work in progress.

For example, when the Detroit Free Press produced Rising from the Wreckage—a fve-part documentary on the rise, fall, and reinvention of the auto industry—the project folder consisted of 13 subfolders. Tese organized everything for

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the project, including footage shot by the Free Press, imported footage from various other sources, PDFs of newspaper pages, photographs, music, titles, and scripts. Tese folders were then sorted into fve sections called bins in the editing program, Adobe Premiere Pro used by the Free Press. Te bins were labeled: footage, graphics, music, narration, and photos. Nested in these main bins were other bins used to sort the video by interview subjects, various B-roll, and types of footage.

Labeling Your Clips Once you download fles from the video camera to the external hard drive, immediately label each video clip individually. Each clip is really one of those shots you made while recording video. It’s the material recorded from the moment you press “record” to the moment you stop recording. Another clip results from the next stretch of moments between record and stop. Te term “clip” is a holdover from the days of editing flm, when sections of flm would be clipped for editing. With that step eliminated, editing software recognizes each segment (shot) downloaded from the camera and allows labeling of those shots, which at this point come to be referred to as “clips” in many editing programs— and by most video editors. You will need to develop your own clipnaming convention to save time when you want to go back and locate the appropriate clips for editing. Label each interview clip with a few critical words of the sound bite. Tere usually is a place in the browser window, sometimes called “log notes,” to place a more complete transcription of a sound bite. Some programs will automatically analyze downloaded video fles. Tese scan the material and create tags such as: camera data, shot type, and whether the shot contains one person, two people, or a group. Tese tags can be used to sort, flter, and search the clips. You can also assign your own keywords to the clips.

Transcribing the Interviews Speedy Automatic Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transcription Programs You can laboriously transcribe your interviews by hand, yourself. However, with an app like Descript, Otter, or even your video-editing program you can let the computer create a fairly accurate transcript for you. All you must do is upload your audio/video fle into the software. Te software will quickly transcribe your fle into text. Te transcript is fast and reasonably accurate if the original sound fle was clear. Even more impressive, with some artifcial intelligent programs like Descript, you can edit the transcript on the computer into an onlineready script. As you adjust your transcript, the app simultaneously makes the cuts and changes in your audio/video fle accordingly. You can then upload the new, completely edited audio/ video fle with all the changes into your Premiere or Final Cut editing app. Te new audio/video fle will exactly follow your transcript alterations. You are now ready to use the interview with the new edits completed. It’s like having a video word processor program at your fngertips. For a story about discrimination against the pygmy tribes in Congo, called Pygmies in the

 Pygmies in the Congo: When the World Looks Down on You. The Pygmies dress up and dance to the beat of drums as a greeting for a new guest. This story about discrimination between the Pygmy and the much taller Bantu tribesmen involved a number of interviews. The editor used an electronic app that turned the audio/video digital fles into written transcripts that could easily be revised.

 Pygmies in the Congo: When the World Looks Down on You. While Pygmies were traditionally shorter than members of other tribes, with better nutrition and intermarriage, the next generation of Pygmies are, on average, taller. Pygmies in the Congo: When the World Looks Down on You. https://youtu.be/1qHH8qLBl4Q

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Congo: When the World Looks Down on You, the producer, with the help of a translator, interviewed a number of locals. Bantus constitute the taller and more populous tribe. Tey both fguratively and literally look down on the shorter neighbors, the pygmy. Te producer talked with a pygmy woman who was spat at in the market and refused service at the hairdressers. Te editor used quotes from the written transcripts of each interview to form a “paper edit” script. In the paper edit, the editor cut and rearranged the responses so that the answers fowed into a coherent story. Te editor then tested the story by reading and timing the script himself. Finally, the editor added a narration to compress important details. By combining voices and visuals, the editor created a meaningful video documentary. “I always transcribe my interviews,” says Will Yurman, former Rochester Democrat & Chronicle videographer and now professor at Penn State. “It forces me to listen to them.” Yurman almost always edits the transcripts of the interviews frst. He points out that the interview is usually the spine of the story. He constructs the story arc and fne tunes it before cutting the interview electronically and putting in on an editing program application’s timeline. Yurman fnds it faster and easier to edit the interview on paper than edit directly on a digital video timeline. With the paper edit, in addition to the primary interview, he can now add in various sound bites that you recorded. Tese bites could come from overheard conversation he caught or just man-on-the-street (sometimes called vox pops) quotes he wants to add to your story. Now he can add into his script the text for your voice-over, if it is needed.

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Advantages of Transcribing For most interviews, where you are behind the camera, you will cut out your questions and just leave the subject’s answers. Tis is not an iron-clad rule but a general practice in news and documentary flmmaking. Erik Olsen formerly of the New York Times and Quart, says, “I go through the interviews and I cut out all my questions. Tat leaves just the interview.” He then eliminates any part of the interview that goes of on a tangent or that he knows he will never use. Next he puts all the best sound bites from the interviews together. Ten he starts to whittle the remaining quotes down before he adds them to the fnal script. Transcribing will reveal whether the story can be told without a narration or needs a voiceover to provide details or background that support your subjects’ quotes. In either case, seeing the words on paper (or the computer screen) allows you to easily arrange the quotes and narration into a comprehensive story before you ever sit down at the computer to start editing. Disadvantages of Taking Time to Transcribe Brian Kaufman of the Detroit Free Press, takes a diferent approach to transcription. “Especially for short-form video, transcribing can be a huge waste of time, he says. What’s read on paper does not account for nuance of spoken voice and I’ve seen many great scripts not translate into video because the sound bites were not said as well as they read on paper. For me, the visual component of the interview is an integral part of the structuring process and I’ve often hung entire stories on quotes that had pace and nuance and emotion, and none of that comes through on paper.”

Deciding the Length of the Story When editing a story for television, total run time is limited. In any given newscast, a fnite amount of time must be divided between news, weather, trafc, and sports. On the Web, total run time is theoretically unlimited, but viewers’ attention is certainly fnite. Te most terrifc quote, exquisite photograph, or surprising video moment should be killed if it doesn’t support the central point of your story. Te tongue-in-cheek adage of this philosophy is “Kill your baby.” Jef Malmberg, a producer and editor whose work has appeared on ESPN, the History Channel, and A&, and whose frst feature-length documentary, Marwencol, won the grand jury prize at SXSW 2010, believes less is more. “Don’t overstay your welcome and don’t answer everything. An audience with questions is what I want. Make them connect the dots at dinner afterwards—allow them to interact with the material just like you were able to.”

Studies show that online audiences are watching more and longer Web videos. A report by comScore, Inc., a research frm, found that 178 million Americans watched online video content in one month (July) with the average length coming in at 4.8 minutes. Does that mean you should make all your videos 4.8 minutes? Of course not! Te length of a video must be determined by its content. Boyd Huppert, of KARE 11 TV in Minneapolis, says he determines the length of his stories in terms of surprises—little gems of information and moments sprinkled throughout a story that will be talked about in more depth later. “If I can identify ten surprises, I can write a four-minute story. If I can fnd only three surprises,” he says, “I will quickly lose your attention if I still try to write a four-minute story. Tree surprises may sustain only a 90-second story.” Huppert goes on to say, “Granted, not everyone looks at things this way, but it’s how I

 Philly D.A. Philly D.A.,  about the new district attorney in Philadelphia and his relationship to the police department, runs an epic eight hours. The story remains gripping to the end. Some streaming services prefer multi-episode documentaries to one-of documentaries. For them it is more economical to advertise an eight-episode series than a one-of, standalone documentary.

Philly D.A. https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/ philly-da/

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 Scientifc Support Coordinator, Ofce of Response and Restoration, National Ocean Service. View of Hurricane Katrina destruction in the City of New Orleans taken from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter New Orleans, LA.

When the Levees Broke Part 1 (2006) New Orleans. https://youtu.be/VjFCv6JvZnU

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determine the length of my stories. When I’ve used up my surprises, the story must end.” Anne Herbst, of Denver Channel 9, says, “Last week we did a 55-second story. I am now working on a seven-and-a-half-minute story. I’m only picking the stuf that’s interesting to look at and that’s fun or interesting or emotional to watch.” According to John Hewitt, Emeritus Professor of Broadcast, San Francisco State University, “Historically, running times range from 15-second TikToks to multiple-hour documentaries and everything in between.” Epic length is anything over two hours and can only be shown in multi-part presentations. Ted Passon, Yoni Brook, and Nicole Salazar produced an eight-hour epic titled Philly D.A., an inside look at the tumultuous frst term of Philadelphia’s unapologetic district attorney, Larry

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Krasner (see page 285). With eight episodes, the viewer had time to see all the challenges faced by the new DA and their resolutions. Spike Lee’s look back at Hurricane Katrina When the Levees Broke was four hours, and many of Frederick Wiseman’s institutional observations easily pass two hours (City Hall was just over four hours). For something of this length, there are very few outlets except for premium cable, PBS, or streaming services like Netfix, Hulu, Apple+, etc.

Any Feature-Length Film Documentary A feature-length documentary is usually between 72 and 110 minutes and averaging 86–90 minutes. A documentary of this length could be headed for theatrical distribution or specialized cable slots on one of the streaming channels.

Documentary Made for Broadcast Television Te running-time slot for an on-air documentary has an advertisement or promo within their 60-minute block of time. Made-for-television documentaries docs tend to run between approximately 42 and 52 minutes.

Short Documentary In flm festivals and in the Oscar and Emmy categories “Short Documentary” refers to flms under 40 minutes. Sundance Film Festivals cap short flms at 50 minutes. Public service broadcasters like PBS and streaming channels are more receptive to onehour programs that are part of a series. For the PBS documentary series POV, the broadcast length is 51 minutes and 50 seconds. Other PBS shows run about 54 minutes of content for each episode. Six to eight minutes is left for promotion announcements.

Most Common Length for Broadcast Te majority of documentaries sold worldwide, for broadcast television, run between 42 and 54 minutes, according to Tracy Beckett, PBS distribution commission editor. Finding a broadcast outlet for a standalone documentary can be difcult. Station managers know that publicizing a standalone production, also called a one-of, is difcult as they calculate that it does not cost much more to promote a “one-of ” than it does a series with ten episodes. If the proposed documentary ends up with an irregular total running time that is less than the standard 42 or 54 minutes, then broadcasters must slot it into programs under an umbrella branded title such as “POV” (point of view) or a premium cable channel like IFC, Sundance, HBO, or Showtime. Streaming channels like Netfix and Hulu will schedule programs with total running times that are feature length or irregular.

Determining the “best” length for your documentary will depend on your outlet and distribution Commercial broadcasters or niche cable channels like Te History Channel or Te Learning Channel vary in what they acquire, but they often like to be production partners.

Social Media—When Short Is Still Too Long Depending on the platform, the piece might need to be short—especially for social media. Templin, who produced for Quartz online, noted that shorter was better. He made videos that were between 60 and 90 seconds in length. Te frst three seconds of your video is very important, in this situation, especially on Facebook because that’s the time it takes for someone to scroll past your video on a feed. “I think at the beginning I would frst edit a longer piece. Ten I would keep cutting it down in successive edits. It was like cutting a diamond down to ft a ring,” Templin says. Te producers at Quartz online mastered the art of brevity. Tey were not dumbing down the reporting or the story. “Tere’s a way to do nuance in a minute as well as something that takes 15, 20 minutes to watch,” says Templin. Each social media platform has a diferent time limit for videos. Te total run time covers the gamut from 15 seconds to 12 hours. Of course, these time lengths are the outer limits for a video. Consider carefully if your video will beneft from brevity or comprehensiveness. More people will watch a short online video. While the audience is smaller for a longer video, they might learn and retain more of the information.

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 Aaron Day, TV news and documentary producer, inside the control room at KKTV, Los Angeles.

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CHAPTER

16

Editing Workfow Kathy Kieliszewski, Senior News Director Photo Visuals and Freep Film, Detroit Free Press Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University Ed Robbins, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Y

our main shooting is done. It’s time to turn that mass of clips into a fnely tuned story. In the industry this step is called “post-production.”

As noted in the last chapter, post-production begins with

prep work. Any editor will tell you before you start making a frst cut, organize, organize, organize frst. Even in the rush of a quick broadcast news story, taking steps to organize is essential. Both the producer and editor have expectations of what comes next: footage logs, transcripts, and a script or at least outline. Te longer the flm, the more that need grows to organize your materials. DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-16

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And the more you’ll want to add some tried and true methods to how you approach doing that. So, what are they? How do you go from the near chaos of a thousand clips and dozens of interview bites to a seamless fnal cut version of your flm? You rely on a methodical approach, giving you a foundation to build on. First of before you start to edit, here is what is generally expected: you’ve transcribed your interviews, organized your footage and audio into folders (or bins as Abode Premiere Pro calls them), made a list of each main action sequence and location footage you will build your flm with, marked up your interviews or sound bites, and sketched out a script or outlined a structure on paper. Now you’re ready for the frst steps of physically editing your flm. Which brings us to the concept of postproduction “workfows.” Workfow is a term you should know as it’s used a lot among editors. It simply means the step-by-step method you use going from start to fnished flm. Whether you are at a broadcast news company, or one doing online video shorts or longer-form documentaries production, every one of them will have a step-by-step in-house workfow. Each varies a bit, but they all have the same core steps.

THE ACCEPTED INDUSTRY WORKFLOW GOES LIKE THIS 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Te frst cut, often called a radio cut: Tis is mostly about content and structure. See below for two approaches to this step. Te rough cut: Here is where you take in notes from the frst cut to adjust structure and start to really build your visual and audio story. Tere are often several rough cuts. Te fne cut: Again, you take in notes on your rough cut and start to work on rhythm and pacing and other fne tune adjustments. Record a professional audio track if there is narration. Te fnal cut: You have a few changes left to do but mostly the fnal cut is about polishing what you have: adjusting the color, doing audio sweetening, adding in graphics, changing out a shot here and there. Pix-lock: Picture lock means your bosses have approved your cut and it is ready to publish or air. Everything has been ofcially approved, facts are checked, and there are no technical fxes left to do. For television or documentaries, this is done at a “postproduction house” where high-end software and expert operators bring everything to a high-quality polish.

TWO APPROACHES TO EDITING Radio Cut You can generate a transcript from your interviews by hand or with the artifcial intelligence of a computer program as described above. You can then construct a “paper” edit version of your story. With this approach you lay out all the audio from the interviews frst as well as any candid dialogue that was recorded. You will need to listen to the interviews, identify relevant quotes, and then add those quotes to your radio-cut document. Te audio part of your story actually should sound like a radio documentary. If it makes sense without pictures, a story will be even more successful with visuals. Videojournalists fall into two camps on how to approach the frst cut: those that do a radio cut frst and those that edit sequence by sequence frst.  Listen First … Edit Later.  McKenna Ewen, CNN videographer and editor, with his six-month-old son, frst listens to all the footage from his most recent assignment. He reviews interviews and natural dialogue before starting to edit. Some editors make a transcript of all the spoken dialogue. Others skip this step and go straight to the editing application. (Photo by Michele Ewen)

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The Value of a Radio Cut Radio cut is very simply a way to line up your audio bites frst. It is all about getting the structure and content going in the right direction before you worry about visual storytelling. Te name “radio cut” goes back to pre-television days when people listened to stories on the radio, just like they do podcasts today. Te name “radio cut” derives from the idea that you could just close your eyes and listen to the story, like it was on radio, and be able to understand the gist of the tale. Include all content a listener might need to know to follow in your radio cut. Tat means you include text or narration needed for context or transitions. Otherwise, your radio-cut audience can get lost. In broadcast news shorts you need to be more exact. You’ll need a frst draft narration as complete as possible in your radio

cut because news stories, and thus the editor shaping them, rely heavily on a narration track with a few bites thrown in. Listen to the evening news without watching the television and you will recognize that these stories are usually script-driven, audio reports at heart. But it is far from just a news approach. Radio cuts are also used in most shorter flms. A great many documentarians will start with a radio cut to nail down story structure frst. Sequence-by-sequence edits are dependent on building the story up from your visuals. Te editor pulls together sequences based on the action, drama, or emotion. Te main focus is on fnding those sequences that tell emotional or factual moments that move your story forward. Ten assembling those sequences into a larger story. Let’s look at each approach in more detail.

MICHAEL MOORE – ACADEMY AWARD WINNER

 Bowling for Columbine.  Michael Moore won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Michael Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for  Bowling for Columbine, which examined the causes of the Columbine High School massacre and the overall gun culture of the United States. The flm profles gun violence in the United States. Moore’s flm, based on box-ofce receipts, is one of the highest grossing documentaries ever made, according to Money Inc. In his next documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Moore criticized U.S. President George W. Bush’s handling of the September 11 attacks and the administration’s decision to start the Iraq War.

Bowling for Columbine. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=hH0mSAjp_Jw

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How to Create a Radio Cut You can generate a transcript from your interviews by hand or with the artifcial intelligence of a computer program. You can then construct a “paper” edit version of your story. For this approach you select the quotes you hope to use plus the narration script as well as any candid dialogue that was recorded. Te audio part of your story should sound like a radio program. Editors that used the radio-cut approach argue that if your story makes sense without pictures, your story will be even more successful with visuals. Ten you match up the paper version of the radio cut with the video clips. You then arrange the clips on an editing app timeline like Premiere or Final Cut Pro. Now all the clips are organized on the timeline like box cars on a train track. You can now play the timeline and listen to the entire story to determine its clarity. You can determine if the story is going to be coherent and engaging or unclear and boring. Now is the time to fx the problem. According to radio-cut proponents, if you can get the audio dialed in, everything else will fall into place. “I’ll edit the interview frst in order to fgure out the arc of the story,” says Will Yurman of Penn State. First, Yurman lays down his basic interview track. If it sounds smooth and fairly well fnished, then he starts layering other things. He layers in visuals, but also natural sounds that he wants to stand on its own. Alternatively, he might run the natural sound underneath the interview. “If I have music, it’s the last thing I add,” says Yurman. Brian Kaufman, an Emmy award-winning videojournalist and editor at the Detroit Free Press, says that audio is the story. Kaufman also uses the radio-cut approach. “Nothing else matters until you can tell the story through audio,” he says. He suggests closing the editing software’s window that displays visuals to prevent yourself from looking at images while laying down audio tracks. “You should be able to just listen to the story and have it make sense. If you have beautiful visuals but a weak interview and no natural sound, you will have something pretty to look at, but the story is likely to be incomplete.”

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Te radio cut is often used by journalists on a broadcast deadline to nail down the content and then quickly grab shots to cover it before airtime. But most schools teach it because it is very much known and used beyond the news. Whether it is in the world of short Internet pieces or longer television flms. Even featurelength documentarians use it. Tat’s because if the radio cut reads well and sounds sensible, the videographer can feel confdent that the story will succeed online or on air. And if you are not working on your own, a senior producer will often expect a radio cut, with script, before signing of for you to proceed to a rough cut. Te idea is to nail the content so that when you add in the visual storytelling it just makes it all more flm-like and engaging. With the sequence-by-sequence approach you also don’t waste a lot of time refning a beautiful visual, when the underlying storytelling is not working. Making changes is much faster and easier when it is mostly just interview and sound-ups.

“Sequence by Sequence”: A Visual Approach to Editing For the edit sequence-by-sequence approach, the editor reviews all the footage for a sequence frst; then edits the chosen individual clips into sequences, hunting for those “telling moments” to build a compelling visual story; and then weaves in the sound bites or interview lines within that sequence. Each sequence, like a pearl on necklace, can then be strung out to make a satisfying whole with beginning, middle, and end. (See editing a sequence, Chapter 15 “Editing the Video.”) Te editor arranges the clips into sequences of two to fve or more. Here is where the fveshot rule (overall, medium, close-up, point of view, and action/reaction) comes in handy. If you have followed the fve-shot rule when shooting, you should have lots of diferent angles of the same situation to build a sequence. Once the editor has arranged each of the sequences, he or she will organize the order that the sequences will appear in the story. Finally, the editor adds in the formal and informal interviews. Once the sequences and interviews are in place the video editor considers if any voice-over

is needed. Te voice-over narration is written to complement but not duplicate the video images. At this stage the editor might record the voiceover transcript in his or her voice on a temporary or scratch audio track. Now the editor can put together a complete story and test it for clarity and storytelling power. Te individual edit sequence-by-sequence approach is often used when the videographer is producing a documentary and not under a strict deadline. Tis approach puts the emphasis on the visuals. Te sequence by sequence takes longer to edit since the editor must manipulate a lot of individual clips into a sequence. Ten the editor must fnd a logical way to organize the material into a story. Tis approach has more of the feel of a narrative movie rather than a news report. Te visual storytelling, the body language, small asides from your character are the material the editor puts frst, while keeping in mind what point it adds to the story, and what interview bites might weave into that sequence and how. Note, however, that with a fctional flm, the storyline is already determined by a script before the shooting even begins. With a non-scripted documentary, the storyline must come from frst the action on the screen and then the subject’s natural dialogue. Tis dialogue is supplemented, when needed, by a voice-over to hold the story together. John Hewitt, who has been working as a documentary producer, cinematographer, and editor for 40 years, always edits using the sequence-by-sequence approach. In fact, he wrote a book about it called Sequences: Strategies for Shooting News in the Real World. He notes that if you use the radio cut you might have a tendency to cover the audio track with unimportant, bland, wallpaper-like B-roll video. Editing with the sequence-by-sequence approach forces you to do more visual storytelling, and fnd the best visuals for the story. (For more about wallpaper B-roll see Chapter 11 “Shooting a Sequence,” page 195.) Malcolm Brabant, who produces news stories on Europe regularly for PBS NewsHour, says, “I shoot my story and I cut the pictures frst,

which is not the PBS way. Tey write the words frst, but the thing is, my view is it’s a television story. It has to look visual frst. I’ve got a good idea in my head where I want the story to fow. I start with the strongest pictures, I get a nice sound bite there, which kind of grabs people in and I hold them all the way through the story, but I cut the pictures frst and then I write the script to go with it.” Jacob Templin, head of video at Tomson Reuters Foundation and professor at Columbia School of International and Public Afairs, describes his process of editing. He starts with listening to some music just to get a sense of how the pace and the style of his video is going to be edited together. Ten he goes through all the footage. He will choose bits and pieces, pulling out the best clips. At the same time, he is putting the clips on a timeline. Ten he will transcribe the interviews, depending on how much time he has. He will go through interviews and pull out the best sound bites—reducing a 30-minute interview to the fve best sound bites. Ten he just writes them on a piece of paper. From those interviews he builds the script. “Once I have a script in decent shape, I will go ahead and either do a scratch track (record the voice-over myself ) on my phone or I’ll do an actual reading of the narration,” explains Templin. Categories for Organizing Your Material • Best visuals • Archival footage • Interviews • Best sound bites • Best moments • Key story points you want/need to make Whether you use the radio-cut approach or the sequence-by-sequence approach, review Ed Robbins’s “Seven Boxes to Help Build a Story” (see page 278). His step-by-step approach will give you a starting point for structuring your story.

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TYPES OF CUTS

14 Video Editing Tips for Cutting a Documentary. https://www.premiumbeat.com/ blog/video-editing-tips-cuttingdocumentary/

Editing programs requires the shortening of clips, cutting out the beginning or end, or both, to leave only an important section in the middle. How long should a clip run? Although you will have shot a minimum of 10 seconds of video for each clip, an edited clip may last only a second or two. Other clips will run much longer. A fve-minute documentary might consist of hundreds or even thousands of individual clips put together, but each clip must be edited separately.

The Common Cut Joining two clips with a cut simply means abutting one shot against the next. A clean video cut between two clips is usually no more noticeable than switching our attention from one person to another during a conversation. We do not notice that our eyes scan a distance between the speakers. We just realize that at one moment we are looking at one person and then, seemingly instantaneously, we are looking at another. Most documentaries consist of a series of clean cuts between hundreds or even thousands of individual clips. Watch 14 Video Editing Tips for Cutting a Documentary.

Cutting on Action

Cutting on Action Tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5PzQYwN5eNw

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Cutting on action is when the cut happens at a point of movement. Editors start the cut at the beginning of the action or even into the action. Tey cut from one view to another view that matches the frst clip’s action. Tis second shot might be shot earlier or later than the frst shot. An example of this cut might show a man, from the back, walking through a door of the building. Te next shot, taken from outside the ofce building, would show the same man just as he exits the door. Cut together the action would seem continuous.

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Tat is all despite the fact it would be impossible for the camera to have suddenly jumped past the walker, out the door, all in half a second, just in time to capture that exit from the outside. We as viewers don’t even think of that. Continuity shooting and editing makes the sequence appear seamless. By having a subject begin an action in one clip and carry it through to completion in the next, the editor creates a visual bridge that distracts the eye from even noticing the cut or noticing any slight continuity error between the two clips. Directors making Hollywood fctional flms reshoot a sequence over and over. Tey shoot a wide establishing shot of the action and then a medium of the same action and, fnally, a series of close-ups of the same action repeated over and over. Multiple angles on the same action allows the editor to easily cut on the action. Ten they do a cut so the action in one clip ends exactly where the same action in the next clip begins. Example: Someone picks up a guitar, cut to their hand strumming, and they’re singing. How did we not notice them sitting down, getting out their pick before playing? Te magic of continuity editing. You may have clips of all of those details, but not have the time in your flm to let all that play out. So you “compress” the time with continuity editing on your timeline. Watch Cutting on Action Tutorial.

Avoid Cutting during Pans, Zooms, or Tilts Avoid cutting during pans, zooms, or tilts to another shot that contains a pan, zoom, or tilt. Moving shots like these need to have a steady, fxed beginning and ending to work successfully. Cutting from one zoom clip to another will completely disorient viewers.

KEN BURNS – PROLIFIC DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER Ken Burns has been producing documentary flms for over 30 years. His frst flm, Brooklyn Bridge (1981), was nominated for an Academy Award. David Zurawik of  The Baltimore Sun wrote in 2009, “Burns is not only the greatest documentarian of the day, but also the most infuential flmmaker period.” Burns’s other flms include include  The Civil War  (1990), Baseball  (1994),  Jazz  (2001),  The War  (2007),  The National Parks: America’s Best Idea  (2009),  Prohibition  (2011),  The Roosevelts (2014),  The Vietnam War  (2017), and Country Music (2019). He was also executive producer of both The West (1996), and Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015). His historic documentaries use quick cuts from one still picture to another. The narration for the flms is based on well-researched books and articles. He features famous actors as well as academics and others reading passages or explaining particular periods of history. Burns frequently incorporates simple musical melodies repeated over and over through a documentary and sometimes through a multiepisode series. And, of course, Burns is known for the “Burns efect” (see Chapter 4 “Finding a Story,” page 66) in which the camera slowly zooms in or out of a still photograph adding the illusion of movement to an otherwise frozen image. Burns made an agreement with PBS to produce documentaries for the network for many years to come. For more information about Ken Burns check out his website. (https://kenburns. com)

 Ken Burns.

 A few of the many documentaries produced by Ken Burns.

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Film Techniques – Crosscutting/Parallel Editing. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=k8lmdPUXWgs

 Rising from the Wreckage.  Editing helps compress the real time, perhaps lasting hours, action takes down to a few seconds.

Cutaway

Parallel Cutting or Cross-Cutting

A cutaway is a close-up of some detail that is inserted between two clips of action. It is often used to cover a break in the action or to speed up the action. For example, a woman is decorating a Christmas tree. You start with a wide shot showing her start to hang an ornament on the tree. Ten you cut to a cutaway close-up of the ornament itself. Ten you might go back to a medium shot as she fnishes attaching the ornaments. Suspending and adjusting a tree ornament might have taken a few minutes in real time but the cutaway allows it to play out in just a few seconds on the screen. Te cutaway, like a sleight of hand during a magic trick, distracts the eye and obscures the real time an event or action requires. A cutaway allows you to speed up or slow down the action on the screen.

Parallel cutting or cross-cutting is used to show two parallel actions taking place at the same time. In the very frst silent flms, a movie might show a heroine strapped to the railroad tracks, then cut to the approaching train, and then back to the heroine struggling to free herself, and then back to the approaching train getting nearer the maiden in distress. Two parallel but separate sequences—the trapped woman and the train barreling down the tracks—are cut together. Tis type of edit adds obvious tension to a sequence. An example of parallel cutting is seen in the Detroit Free Press Rising from the Wreckage series discussed earlier. An autoworker yells, “I say union” and the video cuts to other workers in another part of the picket line yelling, “We say strike.” Te next shot is a car driving by with a passenger raising a clenched fst in solidarity with the strikers followed by another shot of strikers and passing cars. All of those actions are meant to appear as if they are happening at the same time—and for the most part they are—but there is no way everything could have been recorded in a single shot. Watch Film Techniques-Cross-Cutting/Parallel Editing.

Rising from the Wreckage. https://vimeo.com/273039775

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Covering the Jerking Head Jump Cut

Anticipating the Audio or Visual: The J and L Cut

Te jump cut occurs when a piece of video from one part of an interview is spliced with another segment from the same interview, causing the subject’s head to appear to jerk at the edit point. For instance, suppose someone is speaking and then goes “um …” while they are thinking of the next thing they are going to say. You need to cut out this unwanted and distracting “um” sound. Te problem is the next time the person starts talking again their head is in a slightly diferent place. If you don’t do anything and just edit the two clips together your subject’s head looks like it jerked of his neck in the middle of the interview. Jump cuts look unprofessional, and while they may get a pass on TikTok, editors of documentary, broadcast, or online work often frown on them. Te solution to the jump cut is to cover the jump cut with a cutaway or “B-roll” clip. When an interview subject says “um…,” you can cut to a close-up of their hands. Alternatively, you can cut to a sequence that relates to the subject matter of the interview. If the subject is talking about their glory days in high school, a vintage shot of the school might be perfect cover for the jump cut. Watch How to Avoid Jump Cuts.

A split edit is when either the audio or video of a sequence arrives before the other starts. Te use of J and L cuts are like magic. Tey have an impact far beyond what they are: small overlaps of sound either before or after the cut point on the video track. Tose J and L cuts used throughout your entire flm will bring it to a next level of professional polish for an audience. Tey are both called “split edits.” Viewers will hear the next sequence before they see the action associated with it. Tis is called a J cut. Example: you have framed a tight head-and-shoulders shot of a race-car driver being interviewed. Te only audio is his voice. Ten the audience hears a racetrack while they are still seeing the driver’s face. Ten the visuals of the track appear while the sound of the roaring cars continues. Cutting with both audio and video directly from the person talking to the sound and sequence of cars on the track can be a bit startling. Te J cut edit simply brings in audio before its accompanying video appears. Tis type of cut smooths out the transition between the talking head and the on-track action. You can also perform a split, or L cut, edit by leading with the visual and following with the audio. In the situation with the race-car driver, you might cut the visual from the racer’s face to the road surface but continue to play the audio of his voice for a few beats before you hear the tires on the track. “Split edits make your edit points smooth and professional sounding,” says Colin Mulvany, a videojournalist at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. Watch 9 Cuts Every Video Editor Should Know.

How to Avoid Jump Cuts! https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=D4aKsOblEU4

9 Cuts Every Video Editor Should Know. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Wv3Hmf2Dxlo&t=33s

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CUTTING AN AUDIO INTERVIEW In a flm every second counts in keeping or losing the viewers’ attention. Even one or two unnecessary or misleading words in a sentence can throw of your viewers. Which leads us to making “internal edits” in your interview bites. Tis is an art every bit as important to becoming a great editor as is shaping beautiful visual sequences. Most beginners will choose interview bites that are entire sentences, even entire paragraphs, without a grasp of how important it is to do “internal edits.”

There Are Diferent Levels to “Internal Edits”

Breaking Down the 180-Degree Rule. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=HinUychY3sE

On one level an internal edit can just be editing out an aside made in the middle of a thought. It can also mean editing out unnecessary single words that muddle the main point being made. Every professional editor comes to recognize what stays and goes, and listens hard for anything unnecessary to cut out. Tere is also a more challenging but equally important skill in making internal audio cuts. Tat is combining bits and pieces of sentences into a cohesive whole. Why? Because people often begin a thought, wander, and return to it at the end. Combining that frst sentence with parts of the last sentence into a single bite remains true to their intention. Editors will often fnd a few words or a phrase in an answer made much later that is more concise or flls a hole in the sound bite they want to use. People also often say something out of order, with the subject last, or the most emotional part (the “punchline”) frst then lose steam.

Don’t Lose the Viewer It takes very little for a viewer to get lost or bored in a flm. Tere’s no going back to review it as in a print story. Any good editor is always looking for ways to make their characters sound their best.

9 Cuts Every Video Editor Should Know. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Wv3Hmf2Dxlo&t=33s

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Example: Restructure a Badly Constructed Sentence People often say things “backwards,” landing at the subject only at the end. You can fx that. Look at whether you can edit that subject phrase now at the end so it fts into the front. Example: The Payoff or Most Important Point Comes Too Fast, Losing Impact As any good storyteller knows, the key is knowing what to say when and what to withhold until just the right moment. You can help people do that by re-ordering their sentences to build tension or more impact before they say that great “payof ” phrase. Tese skills are critical to any edit. But do keep in mind mastering this, becoming truly artful at doing it, takes time. Te entry point begins the moment you mark up your transcripts and continues every time you review your bite choices. Importantly, you also must be knowledgeable about what is journalistically ethical and not when doing such edits. How do you know what is ethical? Te guiding rule is that the edited thought remains true to the intention of the speaker. Tat is critical as a best practice guideline in doing these internal edits. Adding small pauses where a phrase is added in is also a way of indicating edits have been made. Networks or production companies often have guidelines that require such pauses are added when combining sentences.

SCREEN DIRECTION When you edit two clips together, keep the screen direction consistent. Screen direction is simply the action needed to move in the same direction on the screen from one clip to the next. You can’t have a car going from left to right in one shot and then in the next shot see the same car moving right to left down the same road. Also for more on the “180 degree rule” see page 206. Watch Breaking Down the 180-Degree Rule.

VIDEO TRANSITIONS Cross-Dissolve A cross-dissolve allows two clips to overlap— one fades out as the other fades in. A crossdissolve between two clips works as a transition when moving from one time period or place to another. It also works to reinforce the relationship of clips to each other. You might dissolve between a beach scene in Hawaii and one in Los Angeles, for example. “Use sparingly,” says Mulvany of the Spokesman-Review when advising about the use of the cross-dissolve. He notes that most beginning editors put in too many crossdissolves. “As my own sequencing abilities improved, I noticed that I started using fewer dissolves. I look back at my early work and cringe at all the needless cross-dissolves.”

ADDING MUSIC CAN MANIPULATE A VIEWER’S EMOTIONS Regina McComb, who teaches at the University of Minnesota, has created three videos. Each has the same video but a diferent soundtrack. Listen to them before you continue reading.

Dip to Black For a dip to black, also called a fade-in fade-out dissolve, the clip fades to a black screen and then gradually appears or fades up on a new clip. One clip gradually disappears but at the same time another clip slowly “fades up” as the new clip replaces the old clip. Dip-to-black should be used sparingly. Used appropriately, the efect can signal the end of a major segment of the video and indicate that you will be transitioning to an entirely separate segment. Fading out to a black, blank screen for a few frames or even longer communicates the idea of a new “paragraph.” Te technique indicates that a new idea is coming. Te technique also gives the viewer a chance to better absorb what was just said or shown on screen.

Tip: The Handle for Dissolves In order to have one clip slowly fade out and the other gradually appear you need enough extra frames of footage on either side of the two clips so you have something to overlap. Tose extra frames are called “a handle.”

Mom Goes to War (natural sound only). https://vimeo.com/3254278

Mom Goes to War (upbeat music) https://vimeo.com/3254487

Mom Goes to War (downbeat music) https://vimeo.com/3254723

 Music.  Note how the mood of the story changes completely as you alter the soundtrack. Adding music often has a profound efect on the viewer whether they are watching a documentary or a fctional flm. Of course, many times the viewers are unaware of this infuence on their emotions.

Listen to the opening of a story about an island in the middle of Detroit and ask yourself, “What would this have been without music?” Music can be created and recorded by the editor/producer. Another source for music is easily downloaded, royalty-free tunes that are in the public domain. Check Creative Commons for copyright-use guidelines.

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MUSIC MOVES THE SOUL

Belle Isle Revealed. https://vimeo.com/16857192

AP News Values and Principles. https://www.ap.org/about/ news-values-and-principles/ telling-the-story/visuals

Listen to the opening of a story titled Belle Isle Revealed, about an island in the middle of Detroit and ask yourself, “What would this have been without music?” Music can be created and recorded by the editor/producer. Another source for music is easily downloaded, royalty-free tunes that are in the public domain. Check Creative Commons (see page 369) for copyright use guidelines. You can also pay royalties by renting or buy music from online suppliers like Pond5 and BMG Production Music. Tip: You can download and try out the music with your video from these suppliers before you have to pay for it. Also, music can come from ambient sound, say a car radio, a live band, or other sources playing while you are flming a scene. Tis type of music is sometimes called “feld music.” Te rules can be complex. For example, just because there was music playing in a bar you shot at does not mean you can just use it in the flm without a license or payment. A lot depends on where the flm is to be shown and other factors. Sometimes you need to check with a lawyer to determine how long a clip of “feld music” is legal in your country. Music can be a powerful way to set the tone and dictate the pace for a video. It can also be overdone and manipulate viewers’ feelings. It’s important not to add emotion or drama with music that doesn’t already exist in the story. If you have shot a sequence with a strong emotion, don’t add music that may compete and potentially overpower it. Music is defnitely being added to a lot of video pieces, notes McKenna Ewen, CNN producer. Music sets a tone, and you have a short amount of time, and usually you want your audience to feel something. Music is a tool to

 South High: Fighting Against the Odds. The beat of the music was edited to land on each visual cut during the story opener about the season of a local football team.

South High: Fighting Against the Odds. https://vimeo.com/52583059

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help you convey what’s happening in your story. “Music used well is incredibly efective,” says McKenna. “Music used poorly takes you away from the scene. It distracts you.” In Ewen’s story South High: Fighting Against the Odds the music, edited precisely to the visual cuts, drives the story opener. “Tere was a time when we didn’t use music at all in videos at the New York Times,” says Alexandra Garcia, New York Times TV division. “Te music that I choose, I try to make sure that it’s not overly manipulative, pulling at your heart strings.” Bob Sacha at City University of New York demonstrates the impact of music on video. “I show a sequence of kids playing basketball. It’s beautifully shot. Ten I took fve pieces of music and laid them over the basketball sequence. Something very happy, something very ominous, something very sad, etc. Te frst time when you see it, there’s no music at all. And then your impression of the character changes radically each time you view the piece with diferent music.” Familiarize yourself with diferent types of music and understand how those genres ft into diferent lifestyles—hip hop and a rodeo might not be the best match, just as country music might not mesh with an urban basketball scenario. For more about the ethics of adding music see page 340. Te Associated Press in its video AP News Values and Principles notes that cases where music is the principal ambient sound, i.e., when the video portrays a marching band or an orchestra playing, audio may be laid unbroken and video images edited over the top, provided the video was shot contemporaneously and the meaning of the sequence is not altered.

CONSTRUCTING A SEQUENCE Sequencing creates movement in video. Beginning videojournalists often shoot one wide shot of an unfolding action. A single, wide shot results in a static view of even the most dynamic event. Sequencing adds emphasis by allowing cuts from a wide shot to a close-up of a key emotion or showing what the main subject is seeing with a point-of-view shot. Shooting with sequencing in mind also is the only thing that allows you to “compress time.” If you shoot an entire event with a single long wide shot, as is typical with amateurs, you are stuck with it unfolding in real time. You can’t cut out parts of the long shot, or it will look like the action is jumping from one place to another. A variety of angles puts you in control of the edit. It allows you to create the illusion to a viewer of watching something unfold in real time. By cutting from a wide shot to a close up the viewer loses track of time. The story moves forward. The reality is that editing is almost always a method for making a kind of shorthand version of what happened. For accomplishing that, shooting close-ups, especially of your main character’s face, is essential to get to edit a sequence. In the sequence of the operation, by cutting from wide shot to close-up to medium, the story of the procedure that took an hour was told in three minutes. A sequence is built from a series of individual clips shot at the original event. A clip edited to its essence might last from a few seconds to 10 seconds or more. Typically, most shots are at least 3 to 4 seconds long. As a rule of thumb, it’s best when beginning to not edit with clips below 3 seconds in duration. These clips should include the fve basic shots: wide shot, medium shot, close-up, point of view, and reaction shot. They can also include other types of shots like a dolly shot or a pan. (See Chapter 11 “Shooting a Sequence.”)

 Wide shot—high angle.

 Close-up—face.

 Medium shot—low angle.

Operation in the Congo To construct the sequence, place several short clips next to one another. In the example, the video cuts between an overall, a close-up, and medium clip. The images are from a sequence about an operating room in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has no electricity or running water. The order of the clips for this surgery sequence depends on how you want to tell the story. You could start out with a wide shot of the room or with a tight close-up of the patient. You are likely to have taken many diferent shots from a variety of angles. Depending on the complexity of the sequence and what you are trying to say, you may actually be using ten or more clips to create one sequence. You don’t have to include the basic fve types in every sequence, nor do you have to lay out the clips in the order that you took them. The more types of clips, though, the more visually absorbing a sequence will be. The fnal length of a sequence will depend in part on how long each clip runs and on the time needed to accompany the audio track.

 In an operating room in the Democratic Republic of Congo doctors work without running water or electricity. Each of the fve clips in the sequence will run from 2 to 10 seconds when edited.

 Close-up—detail

 Wide shot—closer.

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 Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton, a famous comedic actor and flmmaker during the silent flm years of Hollywood, inspects 35mm footage. Timing, through careful editing, was just as important back then as it is today to keep the pacing of the flm up to speed.

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Use Text Judiciously Most online video stories are accompanied by some text, but don’t make your audience read screen after screen of text, especially at the start. Excessive reading has a high chance of boring viewers, and if you have only 10 seconds to grab attention, written text usually isn’t the way to start. Some producers prefer to use intertitles instead of a voice-over to set up a story or convey specifc information. Tis device has been used since Hollywood’s era of silent movies. Besides setting up the story, they can serve as a

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break between sections of the piece. Some producers feel intertitles help to avoid the “voice of God” efect (see Chapter 14 “Writing a Script”) of an unseen narrator. Others argue that intertitles can interrupt the fow of a story and add extra work for viewers. Don’t let intertitles be an afterthought, though. Keep them simple, and proof them carefully. Putting text over video, rather than on a black screen, can help keep the flm’s momentum moving forward. How you present and use text titles depends how much there is, and how helpful or disruptive it will be to your story.

STEPS IN POLISHING A VIDEO: THE FINE CUT • • • • •

• • • •

Proofread and fact check. Add the credits. Check the run time. Listen hard for any distracting audio noises like repetitive clicks or hums. Do “sound sweetening,” adjusting all levels to professional standards, and digitally repairing noisy or poorly recorded bites as best you can. Color correct: includes exposure and color temperature of your clips. Run down the whole piece, watch for “fash frames” or other glitches Prepare for export of your master, check export settings carefully. Prepare the piece for various forms of distribution, which may require diferent formats and sizes of export.

Outline See the section “Construct a Storyboard”, pages 72–73, in Chapter 5 “Producing a Story.” Write out an outline or use cards to represent each sequence.

CHOOSE BETWEEN THE RADIO CUT AND THE SEQUENCE-BYSEQUENCE APPROACH From Clips to Sequences From each set of clips shot of the same subject, edit them into sequence. Try to make the sequence cohesive so that the action fows from start to fnish.

Arrange the Sequences On a timeline in your editing program, put together all the sequences that form a story. Decide in what order you need to present the sequences.

Transcribe the Interviews Transcribe all the interview and pick out the best storytelling quotes. Transcript Tip: Use symbols to help you mark up your transcribed interviews. Each symbol is a shorthand to you about that bite: # can

be for something funny, $$$ can be for a “payof ” moment, ***** is your basic fve-star rating system, @ can be an emotional moment. As you mark up your transcript, add these to various bites. When you’re done it will allow you to very quickly “search” for that symbol in the document and fnd what you need faster. Transcript Tip: On your transcript, when selecting your sound bites, add consistent identifying HEADLINES IN BOLD to important sound bites or sentences within a bite. Be consistent with your word choices. Tat way you can “search” quickly. For example, “WHY IT MATTERS.” You’ll quickly be able to identify all your options for that topic. Even skimming through the document later will be much more efcient. Use whatever words work for you and for your story. Examples: Motivation, Home Life, Turning Point, Her Brother, First Break, Why it Matters, Ending, etc.

Assemble the Parts in Order Here is where you will order all the actual pieces—including interviews, conversation recorded candidly for natural dialogue, and natural (nat) sound from the environment including music and pure visual sequences (B-roll)—by placing them in the editing software’s timeline. Here is where you begin to see the bare bones of the story in the editing program and can consider whether the organization you’ve mapped out still makes sense or is missing anything. At this point, individual clips have not been fnely trimmed. You have not yet added transitions. You have not created intertitles or written the voice-over.

Arrange a Rough Cut of the Whole Documentary Finding the perfect organization for a story can be the most difcult part of the documentary process. Creating a rough cut will be the frst step in seeing all the pieces together—video, audio, music, titles, and so on. At this stage, you don’t need to worry whether each clip is the perfect length. With the rough cut, you are just going to get an idea how all the parts to this video puzzle will ft together.

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 Sergei Eisenstein. The Russian flm director produced several flm classics including Battleship Potemkin (1925). In 1958 this flm was voted the best flm ever made by an international poll of critics. Some of Eisenstein’s editing techniques, like using a montage of images, are still employed by flm editors today.

Time for Feedback Often at the Detroit Free Press, when a video is at its rough-cut stage, a group will gather to watch it, give feedback and answer these questions: • • • • • • • •

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Were there times the story dragged? Did a visual hang on the screen too long? Did it not stay up long enough? Is the rhythm uneven or not in sync with the mood of what is being said or seen? Is it a quote that is the problem or a visual? Are there not enough nat sound breaks or too few moments? Does the music match or confict with the mood of the piece? Are the cuts in the video disconnected from the music or in sync with it?

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All of these things afect pacing, and having extra sets of eyes and ears on your piece can provide an objective view of how the story moves along or doesn’t. Be sure to take this feedback seriously and drag yourself back to the computer to polish the fnal piece.

Fine-Tuning the Audio Once the story is ordered on your timeline, listen to it. Does it make sense? Are there any quotes that feel too long? Is there enough natural sound? Do the quotes and narration work together? How do the transitions work? Te story should be based on a solid sound bed of audio. When you listen to the story, it should sound as if it were broadcast from a radio station.

Putting the fnishing touches on your audio is a tedious but necessary part of the editing process. Adjust all the audio clips until they peak at about –12 dB. Use the industry audio standard of –12 dB. Tis means you need to adjust all spoken audio clips until they bounce peak at about –12 dB on the meter of your editing software. Tey can peak at about –6 but only occasionally. Tis is the accepted “industry standard” across the board: broadcast, Internet, documentary features. Tat is also why when you are recording your audio you keep your levels near or just below –12 dB. Without adhering to this standard, every time a viewer watched a video, they would need to adjust the volume. Music and natural sounds can vary depending what they are being “mixed” in with but they should never average above that –12 dB marker. Brian Kaufman of the Detroit Free Press, a top visual editor and expert in fnessing the editing process, says audio should sound smooth and seamless throughout. One way to ensure you are hearing audio at its clearest is to always mix audio while wearing good-quality headphones. Kaufman isolates individual tracks—turning of the volume on the other audio tracks—to get the sound level consistent across all the A-roll. He then isolates the B-roll track, adjusting where necessary. Finally, he listens to all the tracks together. B-roll audio typically fades in gradually just prior to a visual appearing on the screen and then fades out gradually, too.

Unblended Audio Is Jarring to Listen To A sequence unfolding in a quiet ofce may transition to a busy street scene, for example. By pulling out extra frames of sound from the quiet ofce and overlapping that with those of the busy street and vice versa, the ear will not be ripped from scene to scene. Editors use what’s called an audio crossfade to smooth out editing points between cuts. Fading the sound makes the edit seamless, and a cross-fade does this quickly. Don’t hesitate to cut out long pauses, stutters, and “uhs” and “ums” from interviews. Be

mindful that when you do, you are likely to be cutting the video, as well. Great tip: You do a cut in your interview but at the cut point notice the incoming word sounds clipped, too sharp edged. What to do? Add one or even two frames that will dissolve to an empty screen. Tis dissolve technique can help to visually cover the start of a word or the end a word that sounds cut-of.

Fine-Tuning the Video Once satisfed with the audio portion of a story, you can now start working on B-roll visuals— matching the visuals with the corresponding parts of the audio. With the audio track and video track in place, view them together. Do the words and video complement each other? What you hear and what you see are heavily linked. A piece of video may correspond with its appropriate audio, but it’s visually jarring if the video comes in one frame too early or one frame too late. Now watch without the audio to see if the video makes sense alone: • • • •

Does the story make sense visually? Do the sequences work? Do any of the visuals feel static or unnecessary? Where might video transitions such as fades or dissolves be necessary?

Tip: Correcting color is possible in professional video-editing programs that employ a simple color correction flter. Click the icon representing the flter, often an eyedropper, on what should be a neutral white in a clip—and presto—instant color cast correction. Usually, that’s all you need. It’s a great way to instantly warm a color balance that is too cool and blue. Video fnessing can include adding motion to still photographs (zooms, pans, or tilts) à la Ken Burns (see Chapter 4 “Finding a Story,” see page 66.). Although this motion can help emphasize a relevant part of an image, use a light hand. If overused, all that movement can feel forced. Stay true to video-editing rules.

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 Pacing. Some experienced video editors compare putting together a documentary to beating in rhythm with a group of drummers. Changing the frequency, you make flm cuts within a sequence or between sequences—some short and quick, others you hold each clip for a longer time—can afect the tempo of the documentary.

Pacing Editing is much like drumming: each series of cuts sets a tempo and rhythm. A story’s success is heavily tied to its tempo. Te way the surprises are revealed and the way the quotes, narration, and “nat” (natural) sound are edited together to create a rhythm works to set the pace of the story. Te pace should ft the mood and subject of your video and in any given story you may choose to change that mood in sections by changing the edit pace. Great video is like great music: it depends not only on a melodic line but also on the pace of the individual sections. Te pace of music is often set with a beat throughout, but some parts of the score are played faster and others

Ira Glass on Storytelling 1. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5pFI9UuC_fcv

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are performed more slowly to provide contrast and variety to the whole composition. Te same thinking can be applied to video stories. Some parts need to drive the story; others cry out for a slower rhythm. In a lecture at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, radio storyteller Ira Glass discusses pace in terms of a “45-Second Rule.” Watch Ira Glass on Storytelling. Include an anecdote and then refection for 45 seconds, he says, followed by another anecdote and refection for 45 seconds, and so on. Sample a few videos yourself. You may not fnd all anecdotes hitting at exactly 45 seconds, but in well-done videos, a story plays almost like a song with syncopated beats.

In Brian Kaufman’s piece Carrier of the Economy, an anecdote and refection occur about every 30 to 38 seconds. Although shy of the 45-second mark, the rhythm is strong and the pacing well established from beginning to end. Tom Putnam, a producer and director whose work has appeared on PBS and Sundance, believes that pacing is everything. “Even being a few frames of on the wrong cut can throw of the whole balance of a sequence, and if it’s the wrong sequence it can wreck a movie.” Pacing also refers to another more subtle but equally important technique. Among flmmakers “pacing” is used to reference the need for adding small spaces between your bites. Small in this case can mean just half a second to a second, depending on the speaker. And not just at the end of a sentence, these go within sentences, and very often before a very important word or point is said.

A two-second space without dialogue is like a period in writing. It indicates the end of a thought. “Use natural sound as punctuation because when you’re doing video you don’t have periods, commas, or paragraphs markings,” says Ed Robbins producer for television outlets including PBS, Discovery Channel, TLC, and Nat Geo Channel. Depending on the length, these pauses which are flled with natural sound or just room noise can act like punctuation marks. A short pause is like a comma. A longer pause is like a period. It gives the viewer a moment before you introduce a new idea. “Using natural sound for pacing is one of the hardest things for inexperienced editors. Tey just jam all the clips together. Sometimes they don’t even leave a breath,” says Robbins. “Pacing, that use of space, breathes life into your sequences and helps the viewer absorb what they hear and see. Important points can get buried much as they would in a paragraph without punctuation. Unlike

 Carrier of the Economy.  To propel this economic story, the producer, Brian Kaufman, introduces an anecdote about every 30 seconds.

Carrier of the Economy. https://vimeo.com/487281431

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a paragraph on the page, however, this is an audio medium, which means the viewer has but one chance at getting it while it unfolds. Tose pauses at every phrase or sentence end can help tremendously. How do you go about the process of determining pacing? Listen to the whole story at one sitting. Have others listen and watch their reactions. In the larger sense of pacing, as you review your edit always keep asking yourself, “What else can be cut?” Rigorously follow the rule that less is more. A video editor is like a sculptor, after all, removing the inessential to create a masterpiece.

Giving Credit Te Complete Film Production Handbook (Focal Press) by Eve Light Honthaner includes an entire section on screen credits. Determining credits for a movie or video production can be a complicated process. Tere are even union and guild guidelines that dictate how credits appear and in which order. You are unlikely to face these issues—at least at frst. A simple video like those you are likely to produce—those in which you conceived the story idea, shot it, and edited it—needs only one credit. “Video produced by” will usually sufce. Others prefer “Producer/director” credit.

 Forty Years of Respect. The Free Press paid for the rights to use the song “Respect” by Aretha Franklin in its documentary about the record.

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Otherwise, credit can usually be determined by the importance and the amount of work any given person contributes. In a complicated story, like the Detroit Free Press’s Rising from the Wreckage, the credits were extensive. Kathy Kieliszewski was the executive producer and project leader on this story. Her job was to oversee the production of the video and all the visuals—video and photos for broadcast, print, and online—hence the lead credit. Kaufman received the second credit on the list for his exhaustive work as editor and producer. When thinking of order, consider whether the video would exist without a person’s input. Te goal is to give credit where credit is due when talking specifcally about the video. • Executive Producer & Video Project Leader: Kathy Kieliszewski • Video editor and producer: Brian Kaufman • Lead Videographers: Romain Blanquart, Brian Kaufman • Videographers: Alexandra Bahou, Eric Seals, Marcin Szczepanski, Mandi Wright • Video Narrator: Mike Brookbank • Lead Script Writers: Brian Kaufman, Kathy Kieliszewski • Script Writers: Nancy Andrews, Mike Brookbank, Ron Dzwonkowski, Jim Finkelstein

Some credits are obviously mandatory and required. Licensed material such as footage, photography, or music often requires credit to the content providers. In the case of the Detroit Free Press’s Forty Years of Respect—a look at Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit “Respect”—the Free Press paid for the right to use that song in its production and was provided language to use in the credits: “‘Respect’ performed by Aretha Franklin Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing.” In cases where you may have paid for “royalty-free” music—stock music usually licensed for a single fee—the credit requirement often is the name of the song and artist. Te same can apply to photography or video footage, so it is important to check the source and go through proper licensing of content in your production. Frequently, you will see “Special Tank You to” listed in credits and, although not required, this is a great way to acknowledge people who went above and beyond to make your video happen in terms of granting access or helping with research in a unofcial way. Often, subjects are not given special thanks to avoid the appearance of favor being exchanged—such as a credit in the production in exchange for participating in the story. If you are unsure, leave it out. As soon as you create something, you are the copyright owner of that creation, but including the copyright symbol along with the date lets others know that the work is copyrighted. Tis line is usually placed at the very end of the credits. Adding “All Rights Reserved” is an additional notice to potential infringers that the copyright holder has the right to create additional or derivative work such as a novel or a motion picture based on the original content. As an alternative to “All Rights Reserved,” you can share your video with others and allow them to put it on their website, re-edit it, or use part of it for their own creative project. Creative Commons licenses ofer a way to preserve your original copyright while sharing your work more widely. Watch the video Creative Commons License.

IT’S SHOWTIME! Even if you’ve already had a viewing, gather your own audience one last time to watch the video for accuracy, pacing, and fairness. • • • •

Are they engaged from beginning to end? Where are the slow parts and how might you tighten them up? Did the pacing match the tone and subject matter of the story? Were the viewers left confused at any point? Were there technical problems?

Once you address any remaining issues, lock down your edit—and start the export!

Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/

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THE STEP BY STEP STORY BEHIND THE HOLOCAUST STORY Malcolm Brabant told the story of the 75th anniversary of the holocaust and its death camps for  PBS NewsHour. He focused the story on Tobar Friedman, the youngest survivor of Auschwitz who is still alive.

Malcolm Brabant’s Voice-Over

 Malcolm Brabant, producer/videographer.

“When the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz Birkenau, they were greeted by about 200 starving, freezing girls and boys. Somehow, they had avoided the fate of a quarter of a million children originally transported here. On the far left [of the screen] a feisty fveand-a-half-year-old Polish Jewish girl, Tobar Friedman, kept alive by a combination of good fortune, a mother’s ingenuity, and her own iron will.”

Interview with Brabant about the Story The piece started of with the Russians’ archival footage. The Russians flmed the sequence after the liberation of these children that they had found in Auschwitz about a week after the Germans had fed from the camp. Right on the corner of the frame on the left-hand side is this little girl, Tobar Friedman, rolling up her sleeve to show a number tattooed on her arm.

Brabant Voice-Over “Now approaching her 82nd birthday, Tobar Friedman of Highland Park, New Jersey, was compelled to return for this historic anniversary.”

 Never Forget. Malcolm Brabant produced the video story of the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust and its death camps. Brabant flms the survivors walking under the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp that ironically and paradoxically read, “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work Sets You Free”). He includes old photos of the gas chamber to bring out the horror experienced by his lead subject, Tobar Friedman, a woman who survived the concentration camp and is still alive. The segment appeared on PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruf.

The lessons of Auschwitz, 75 years after its liberation. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/ show/the-lessons-of-auschwitz75-years-after-its-liberation Might not be available in all countries

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Interview with Brabant about the Story “I wanted to focus on this little girl to see how she was as an old person. And then the frst shot that we had of her was of her walking through the gates and looking up. I panned the camera up to the sign on the entry gates to Auschwitz ... ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ [Work sets you free]. This sign was above many of the gates leading to the concentration camps.” Brabant does not translate the words on the gate. He assumes the viewer knows what the words of the iconic sign mean. Next, we see Friedman talking directly to the camera. Then we see shadows on the ground. The shadows are a reminder of all the people who were gassed to death in this camp. The viewer hears Brabant ask the 82-year-old survivor, “What do you see there?” as she walked next to the formerly electrifed barbed-wire fence. “I remember that so well. I remember that people trying to reach the fence got killed,” says Friedman. Brabant flms a close-up of the lock on the side of the cattle car used to transport victims to death camps at Auschwitz Birkenau. “That lock was special because it symbolizes the imprisonment of those people in there,” said producer Brabant. “There’s no way you can reproduce an image of people stuck inside that cattle car, people who were going to die. And, you know, what must have been the absolute panic of being sent to a place where they knew that they would end up fying up the chimney. That shot of the lock tells you all of that.”

Brabant’s On-Camera Sound Bite “The lessons that Auschwitz ofers the world today are exactly the same as they were when the camp was liberated 75 years ago. I wish that it speaks to the dangers of religious and ethnic hatred and of the rule of the mob of dictatorship of totalitarianism. “In Auschwitz, I had to say something that was signifcant, and I had to say something that was relevant for today. I crafted that stand-up in the hotel before I went to the camp. You couldn’t get away with just saying something fippant. You had to say something that was substantial. That piece had to stand the test of time. It probably took about fve minutes to write.”

Interview with Brabant about the Story The news package ends with a late-afternoon shot of the menacing, barbed-wire fence as the sun sets behind it. “We had fnished shooting for the day and I just realized the light was fading. You can see for yourself just how long the fence stretches. Suddenly you realize just how the Germans could have gone about getting rid of 6 million Jews during the course of the Holocaust.” Brabant’s piece is an example of a video that tries to show, through the use of metaphors like locks, shadows and barbed-wire fences, the horror of what took place in the Auschwitz concentration camp and a warning to what could happen again. The short video piece by Brabant, which appeared on PBS evening news with Judy Woodruf, became the basis for a New York Times best-selling book: The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope.

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CHAPTER

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Facing Ethical Dilemmas Donald R. Winslow, Former Editor,  News Photographer Magazine Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University

T

hink about ethical dilemmas before they happen so you can make a smart, informed decision in the heat of the moment.

As storytellers in a competitive environment, our goal is al-

ways to tell a fair, complete, and accurate story. But at the same time, don’t we also hope to tell a story in such a way as to snatch and hold viewers’ attention?

 Edward R. Murrow started his broadcast career as a radio announcer. He became a symbol for high ethical standards in network broadcasting.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-17

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Can those be conficting goals? How do you stay within the ethical boundaries of the profession and still produce eyegrabbing video stories? While this book has identifed all the similarities between online videojournalism, broadcast news and documentary storytelling these three disciplines diverge when you consider the topic of ethical behavior. Each area has its own guidelines, and they are not always compatible. But frst we will consider how all visual journalists and storytellers make ethical decisions about their work.

PHILOSOPHY OF ETHICAL DECISION MAKING Videojournalists make ethical decisions based on three diferent principles: the Golden Rule, the Greater Good Rule, and the Absolute Right and Wrong Rule. Sometimes following these principles can lead to the same conclusion; at other times, they point to very diferent courses of action.

The Golden Rule “Te Ethics of Reciprocity,” of Greek origin, is also known as “the Golden Rule.” It says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Ethicists have interpreted this rule to mean that we should treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated in the same situation. We must understand the implications and impact that our choices will make on the lives of others. Translated to videojournalism, that rule would state, “Record other people’s lives in the same way you would want your life to be recorded.” If you were severely injured in a car accident, how would you feel about a videojournalist photographing you bleeding and injured, and then showing the footage on the evening news?

The Greater Good Te Utilitarian concept of the greater good, which can be traced to the Greek philosopher Epicurus, was popularized by British jurist Jeremy Bentham and English philosopher James Mill in the 1800s. Te principle holds that within the potential rules of action, one should act only based on what the outcome will be, and that one’s choice should be determined by which outcome will do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Journalism generally operates on the Utilitarian principle of making ethical decisions based on the outcome. Your choice is which result does the greatest possible good for the greatest number of people. For instance, you might be photographing a car accident. Te very act of shooting pictures of victims might bring temporary emotional harm to the injured, but it might also save hundreds of lives if seeing the fnal footage serves to make viewers more cautious in the future.

The Absolute Te Ten Commandments serve as an example of an absolutist set of rules. For instance, “Tou shall not kill” is a fxed notion, with no leeway whatsoever. Regardless of the benefts to society (the greater good) such as killing during war or in self-defense, all killing is viewed as unjust. From the absolutist point of view, killing is always forbidden—regardless of any possible beneft to society, even a war to save democracy. In the videojournalism profession, the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) provides a code of ethics that might be considered the Ten Commandments of visual journalism. Te code’s absolutist principles are listed on NPPA’s website (https://nppa.org/ nppa-code-ethics).

 Preventing Future Deaths?  The boy in the body bag had just drowned. This family was grief stricken. Might running the picture in the paper, on TV, or the Internet help prevent future drowning accidents?  (Photo by John Harte, Bakersfeld, California)

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 Making the Right Choice.  Multimedia producer Fritz Nordengren shoots a video in Vietnam for a nonproft charity. “Morals are a choice between good and bad,” he says. “Ethics is when someone makes a choice between two right options.” (Photo by Huy Nguye)

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When Principles Collide You will often hear that “people have a right to their privacy.” For this example, think of “right of privacy” as an absolute rule. How does that notion work in conjunction with the idea of journalism serving a greater good? A video clip depicts family members in the throes of horrible grief, reacting to the drowning of a child. Tose operating on the idea of a greater good might believe that broadcasting this scene will make people think more carefully about swimming safety and accident prevention; those who adhere to the absolutist principle of privacy would oppose publishing the picture for any reason. Te absolutists would argue that regardless

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of any possible social beneft, the family’s right to privacy trumps the possible social gain. “Privacy” means exactly that—not having one’s personal space in any way violated. Te Golden Rule would lead you to ask, “If this were my child who died, would I want a video camera recording my grief and would I want millions of people to see me breaking down?” Obviously, diferent videojournalists would have diferent reactions to the Golden Rule in this situation. Ironically, any of the choices might be ethical, depending on who you are and which underlying principles you choose to apply in this case.

BROADCAST ETHICS IN THE “GOOD OLD DAYS” Today’s ethical standards of storytelling evolved during a time when television ethics weren’t so clear-cut. When Darrell Barton started in television news in 1967 for KAKE, Channel 10 in Wichita, the ethics of doing feature stories were very loose. “You could bring along your own characters,” Barton recalls, “to role-play storylines as needed in order to create or recreate the visuals you needed for storytelling.”

How Creative Could You Be? Barton knows of a story in which two journalists were doing a piece on a giant slide in Wichita. To make it interesting, they “developed” a storyline about a girl being afraid of the slide and her boyfriend convincing her to go down it. Tey selected a pretty girl and her handsome boyfriend to act out the roles. Set to triumphant music, she conquered her fears “and they lived happily ever after.” Barton recalls another incident in which two relatives of a photographer were used to impersonate the characters in a state fair feature about a lost boy on the midway and his big sister, who fnds him. In both instances, the use of roleplaying subjects was condoned because it abided by the ethical standards of the times. “I won an award with a dance contest feature story where I took the winners to a park and let them dance to a tape,” Barton says. He set up the scene and shot the video. “Tat was the last time I ever did anything like that because it won frst place in a Gulf Coast News Photographers competition. Bob Brandon’s story on a train derailment explosion won second. I got the award, and Bob spent three weeks in a hospital. I was ‘shamed’ into honesty,” says Barton. Tough the networks’ defnition of “staging” was pretty broad, there was a lot of “creativity” being applied until the day CBS News issued a Standards & Practices policy that said no one could stage events—ever—without being fred. And anyone who failed to report another journalist staging could also be fred. More than 67 percent of all television stations subscribed to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). “Te amazing thing was,” Barton recalls, “they meant it. I mean you couldn’t even ask someone to wait a moment while you moved ahead of them. Ten I found out it was a great way to work. It made you sharp. It made you feel ‘clean.’ If it happened, you shot it. If you missed it, you missed it. If it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen.”

 Darrell Barton who worked for KAKE Channel 10 Wichita, remembers the old days in local broadcast news when ethics were less stringent.

 Bell and Howell Filmo was the frst spring-motor-driven 16mm camera available. The camera was typical of those used in the 1960s when setting up feature shots for broadcast news was common. The hand-wound Filmo did not record any audio.

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 Darren Durlach, WBBFTV Baltimore, covered the scene of a car accident that killed a 16-year-old pedestrian the previous day.  (Photo by Mike Buscher)

The Walk and Talk

 60 Minutes often does a “walk and talk” with their subjects.

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Darren Durlach, a flm/TV director who cofounded Early Light Media, points out that sometimes on shoots that involve an interview, a reporter or producer may ask the subject to do something like walk down a hall or to take a book down from a bookshelf. CBS’s 60 Minutes correspondents are famous for the “60 Minute walk.” Almost every piece that features an individual includes the walk. Travis Fox, Frontline producer and nominated for eight Emmys, notes that traditionally in broadcast journalism you would set up shots here and there because you’re often working in a time crunch. For example, Fox describes “the walk and talk.” “You go to someone’s ofce, you do an interview, and you say, ‘Hey, I need some B-roll. You

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walk down the ofce hallway, then I’ll do the pan and get you behind your desk.’” Broadcasters would say, “It’s no big deal. It’s just time constraint.” Says Fox: “I haven’t gotten a shot like that in fve years, and when I get back to the edit bay I’ve never said to myself, ‘I wish I had a goofy shot of them walking down a hallway. It would really make this story.’ I think shots like that make a story reek of fakeness.” So, instead of asking the subject to walk down the hallway, Durlach, named Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year, asks, “What would you be doing if we weren’t here right now?” Durlach encourages the subject to go back to their normal routine. Begin photographing once “normal” is back underway. Still, the subject is doing something for the camera. Even if what he’s doing is what he’d be doing normally, just being there shooting makes the situation contrived. Te diference is subtle and may split hairs but capturing images of someone doing what they’d normally be doing still is more honest and more accurate than fabricating a situation like walking down the hall in order to create extra visuals that may or may not be useful during the editing. Just sitting at a desk, “sitting there,” as Durlach says, may not be visual freworks, but it’s more truthful than the total fabrication of asking someone to walk a particular way down a hallway. “For me,” says Durlach, “it comes down to doing my best to blend in and avoiding

manipulation and infuence over the scene.” Te TV videographer fnds that the best approach is to try to stay out of the way and avoid giving direction even if the subject asks for some. Instead, he does his best to anticipate action and be prepared to shoot the breaking moment before the action happens. Te moments he captures are much more genuine and natural than if he had created them. “For instance,” says Durlach, “ask someone to pick up a phone so you can shoot them doing it and they’ll do it in a way that will be trying to please you—which usually looks awkward and unnatural. However, if you wait for the phone to ring and catch it on video as it happens, it will be natural.” Sometimes keeping this mindset of limiting shooting to real moments makes for a slower shoot, but that’s okay with Durlach.

ETHICS IN BROADCAST STARTS WITH MURROW Since any discussion of ethics in broadcasting must start with an understanding of Edward R. Murrow we will take a brief lookback at this television legend. Murrow was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He built his reputation during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from London for the news division of CBS. Some of his most famous broadcasts occurred with the sounds of bombs dropping on London as he gave his news report live on air.

Murrow also hired an outstanding group of reporters. Known for their intellect and descriptive power, the group included such names as Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith, Mary Marvin Breckinridge, Richard C. Hottelet, Bill Downs, and William Shirer. Tey were later dubbed “Murrow’s Boys”—despite Breckinridge being a woman. Many of the Murrow boys went on to stellar careers in radio and later television at the three leading networks CBS, NBC, and ABC. In spite of the fact that Murrow, who made his reputation in live radio, said that he wished television was never invented, when he returned to the United States after World War II he reluctantly began broadcasting for CBS television. Murrow produced a series of reports on his television program See It Now which helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was a rabid anticommunist. He falsely claimed that there was a communist ring in the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Army, Voice of America, and Harry S. Truman’s administration. Te veil of suspicion that there was a communist under every bed was so widespread that this period of American history is called the McCarthy Era. On March 9, 1954, Murrow, Fred Friendly, See It Now’s producer, and their news team produced a half-hour See It Now special titled A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy. Murrow used excerpts from McCarthy’s own speeches and proclamations to expose the

 Harvest of Shame  showed the horrible plight of American migrant agricultural workers. Making this documentary was just one example of Murrow’s moral leadership of the industry.

Harvest of Shame. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=yJTVF_dya7E

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Marilyn Monroe – Person to Person – Edward R. Murrow. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Vv7zQWw6JOE

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senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself. Te broadcast aired simultaneously on NBC and CBS. It was seen by 60 million viewers. Te program contributed to a nationwide backlash against McCarthy and is seen as a turning point in the history of television. It elicited tens of thousands of letters, telegrams, and phone calls to CBS headquarters, running 15 to 1 in favor of Murrow and against McCarthy. Murrow himself faced a challenge to his ethics, according to Rich Riski, Peninsula College teacher and an expert in Edward R. Murrow’s life, legacy, and ethical foundation. Murrow hosted a program called Person to Person. Te show included such guests as John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Mae West, Jerry Lewis, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. Watch Marilyn Monroe – Person to Person – Edward R. Murrow. According to Riski, it was revealed that Murrow sent questions ahead of time to his subjects. Murrow readily admitted to this practice saying that while he sends the questions, that does not inhibit him from asking anything else he wants during the live TV broadcast. See It Now was an irregularly scheduled hour-long program that gave extensive coverage of national and international issues. Friendly hired former newsreel cinemaphotographers rather than CBS cameramen to flm the show. According to Mike Conway, television historian at Indiana University School of Journalism, these cameramen knew how to shoot sequences and

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produce visual stories on a level higher than the standard network evening news report. Te show also used Academy Award-winning flm editors from Hollywood. Te show was shot on 35 millimeter sound flm, a much higher-quality medium than the standard 16 millimeter flm used for regular news coverage. In fact, the See It Now budget for a half-hour weekly program was higher than the entire CBS TV news budget, according to Conway. Te most famous See It Now broadcast was called Harvest of Shame. Te documentary was aired in 1960 on CBS. It showed the horrible plight of American migrant agricultural workers. It was Murrow’s fnal documentary for the network. An investigative report intended to shock Americans into action, it was the frst time the general TV-watching public could see up close what it means to live in poverty.

Murrow’s Impact “Murrow stood up against the McCarthy Era, stood up against government and held the powerful accountable,” said Kenny Irby, former Visual Journalism Group Leader for the Poynter Institute. Irby’s comments were published in Howard Rose’s master’s degree thesis “Edward R. Murrow: Life, legacy and broadcast ethics today,” University of Nebraska, 2010. Steve Hartman, CBS news correspondent, also said in Rose’s thesis, “Edward R. Murrow ... was sort of the centerpiece of journalism ... TV journalism ethics and he was the cornerstone on which we built on.”

Since Murrow, the feld of broadcast journalism has evolved, according to Rose’s paper. Terry McCarthy, foreign correspondent for CBS News, is quoted as saying, “I would say that in the United Kingdom, which is the foreign press I know best, that ethics are signifcantly lower than they are in the U.S. In Afghanistan, I saw U.K. reporters and photographers staging (or faking) scenes as ... if they are in battle, when they are several miles from the front line.” McCarthy notes that in Afghanistan, he saw television teams paying artillery crews to fre of shells so they could get the footage on the air. “Tose shells could blow, could kill someone, [and] the fact that a journalist would pay for that to happen to me is beyond belief,” according to McCarthy.

Te CBS journalist says British and Japanese press pay for interviews, a practice that infates the market for interviews: once people are used to being paid for interviews then they want money from everyone. “Tat shuts out everyone,” says McCarthy. He goes on to observe that paying for interviews results in a lower quality of information. “You get to the stage where people will tell you what you want to hear.” McCarthy contends that CBS News and virtually every legitimate U.S. journalistic enterprise do not pay for interviews.

 Terry McCarthy, foreign correspondent for CBS News on the right, interviews Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense. McCarthy says he saw TV crews faking pictures during the Afghanistan war.

 Terry McCarthy CBS Journalist.

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Errol Morris has been up front about the fact that he’s paid some of his interview subjects. Here is the quote from a GQ profle: For his documentary “Standard Operating Procedure,” the frst of the fve subjects, asked for a fee and Morris agreed. Te questioner, a noted journalist, asked Morris how he convinced these individuals to agree to be interviewed, and specifcally if he paid them at all, “which is not okay in my profession,” the questioner added. Morris eventually acknowledged that he did, in fact, pay his interview subjects, jokingly explaining that he did so because “I have a lot of money and want to share it.” (He did not disclose an amount of money or if this is his standard practice.)  (https://theplaylist.net/errol-morris-didnteven-know-herzog-was-20080421/) 

Morris also does documentary “reenactments” or “dramatizations” which have been called into question by documentary purists. Bob Sacha who teaches at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @CUNY raises some questions regarding the ethics rule about bribery. He says, “You should never give cash ... but can you buy lunch for a subject? How about cofee? How about batteries for their radio if they’re a street person? Te imbalance between a paid network TV news crew and someone living in poverty that is expected to give up their time and story for free, that inequity troubles me. With the rise of community-based journalism, this absolute rule seems exploitative.” Steve Hartman of CBS News constantly asks himself the question, “How do I ask this person to help make the story happen without altering the story?” Hartman believes that the very nature of TV news is diferent from print news because it is not possible to be unobtrusive like a print journalist. “By the very nature of us doing the story, we have altered reality. We capture the story, the facts, and the vibe, and the feeling. As realistically as you possibly can, without telling people what to say.”

Broadcast Ethics Today

 Errol Morris, documentary flmmaker.

 Steve Hartman, a well-loved correspondent who specializes in feature stories for CBS, asks, “Can a video producer document a story without altering reality?”

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In Rose’s master’s thesis “Edward R. Murrow: Life, legacy and broadcast ethics today,” he notes that the interviews of journalists “indicate that Murrow’s ethical infuence is still present, even though many journalists do not know where or when the standard was set. Journalists may not think of Murrow daily, but virtually all consider him the standard-bearer of good reporting and ethical decision-making. Rose goes on to write, “Overall, the fndings in this paper show that there is a pronounced diference between local news and network news ethics in the United States. Tey said that network news have standards and practices as gatekeepers, while most local news providers do not.” Television photojournalists still ask subjects to walk down the hall, open a door, or answer the telephone that never rang in order to generate action for their B-roll footage. Some broadcast journalists feel that these are examples of minor manipulations that do not change the essential nature of the story. Other broadcast journalists hew to a more disciplined code.

ONLINE VIDEOJOURNALISM FOLLOWS PHOTOJOURNALISM ETHICS Online videojournalism, the newest of the three branches of visual storytelling, grew out of a need faced by newspapers and magazines. Print publications realized that they would need a presence on the World Wide Web as it grew meteorically. At frst, publications like the New York Times and the Time magazine simply shoveled their written copy directly from their print version to their online Web page. Teir Web presence had no video. Eventually the bandwidth of the web increased as well as the speed of transmission. Tis combination made it possible for legacy print publications to add videos to their news report. Travis Fox, Director of Visual Journalism Craig Newmark Graduate School Journalism @ CUNY, spent a number of years shooting visual online stories for the Washington Post. Fox, who now shoots for Frontline, says, “Photojournalism traditionally has pretty strict ethical guidelines. Tose ethics are well-defned compared to documentary.” Videographers working for publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post, or magazines like Time or the National Geographic follow the rules established by the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA—see below). By the time print media publications started using videojournalism the guidelines for still photojournalism had been well established. No fake photos, no setups except portraits, don’t alter events, and fnally minimal adjustments on the computer of the footage during editing. When caught staging or manipulating picture situations publications fred staf photojournalists on a number of print publications, including the St. Petersburg Times, Toledo Blade, Parade magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. Videojournalists working for legacy print media or exclusively online publications generally follow the rules of their photojournalist compatriots.

Citizen Journalists Have Ethics Too What ethical rules should citizen journalists follow? When Abraham Zapruder took his amateur flm-camera and decided to go and record John F. Kennedy’s rally in Dallas, he inadvertently captured images of his assassination. Zapruder, citizen journalist, sold the flm to Life magazine for $150,000 ($1.33 million in 2022). Te color footage showing JFK’s motorcade moving through the Dallas streets, leading up to the shocking instant when a rife bullet slams into the president’s head, remains one of the 20th century’s most memorable historical records. What are the ethics guidelines for these citizen photojournalism videographers like Abraham Zapruder?

 Abraham Zapruder, an amateur, recorded the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

 President John F. Kennedy Assassination.  This somewhat blurry, grainy color photo was taken by Abraham Zapruder, at the moment President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Often amateurs are the only ones present when a tragic news event takes place. Their footage is crucial and after a major news story breaks, the footage is the frst thing sought by broadcasters and online news sites.

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Web bloggers and citizen journalists could follow a prescribed code of conduct developed by one of the national media organization listed above. Or they could follow guidelines developed by Cyberjournalist.net which has a code for citizen journalists. Te code is a good road map, but the diference between the blogger and the professional working for a salary from an outlet such as a newspaper, broadcast network, or online publication is that the professional has editors and managers to supervise and enforce ethical standards. Freelancers, solo videojournalists, and independent web bloggers are, by defnition, “self-regulating.” Both citizen journalists and freelancers work for themselves. Citizen journalists, including bloggers, create content and then distribute it directly on the Web. Tey often must fnd economic support, sometimes in the form of advertising, for their journalistic material. Freelancers, alternatively, flm, edit, and produce news stories to sell directly to an already established media outlet. Regina McCombs, who teaches at Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Minnesota, notes that many citizen journalists have no idea that there are ethical issues involved when they take and share images. And they have no idea that there are codes to follow. She also points out that many photographers and citizen journalists are out there as advocates or protesters sharing their images—again, without any idea there are ethical issues involved when they share or sell their images. If you are working for an established journalistic organization, an ethical breach usually results in discipline from your employer. Disciplinary action can range from a relatively minor reprimand to the loss of a job. Regardless of where you work, though, if an ethical breach crosses legal boundaries such as committing a crime, slandering or libeling someone, or infringing someone’s copyright, the issue may actually lead to criminal or civil proceedings. For the sake of journalism’s credibility, many traditional editors of established publications believe it’s necessary to take extra precautions when publishing the work of “citizen journalists.” Editors point out that self-appointed journalists don’t have a track record or established trust and credibility. In fact, there are those who go to great lengths to dupe news organizations or foist a hoax. So citizen journalists’ work must be held to a tighter standard, if only because a news organization has no leverage over the individual if the reporting turns out to be false.

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 Poster advertising Nanook of the North,  an early documentary.

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING IS LIKE “THE WILD WILD WEST” It started with Nanook of the North. Documentary flmmaking started out on a questionable footing. In 1922 Robert J. Flaherty shot one of the frst documentary flms titled Nanook of the North. Te silent flm follows the challenges of living in the Hudson Bay of Canada in the country’s far north region. Flaherty dropped a cigarette in his studio and lost 30,000 feet of flm in a fre. He returned to the north and started again. Tis time he concentrated on one person. Te documentary flm he made on his second trip to Hudson Bay follows the life of Nanook, an Inuit man, and his family. Flaherty directed the flm and also served as cinematographer, editor, and producer. Later, flm researchers criticized Flaherty for staging events as reality. Nanook was not the Inuit man’s real name. Te “wife” shown in the flm was not really Nanook’s wife. In fact, the two women in Nanook—Nyla and Cunayou—were Flaherty’s common-law wives. And although Allakariallak, Nanook’s real name, normally used a gun when hunting, Flaherty persuaded him to hunt in the style of his recent ancestors in order to flm the way the Inuit lived before Europeans colonized America.

 Nanook of the North. Robert Flaherty, carrying the camera to flm his documentary.

 Nanook of the North. Hunting with Spears. By the time Flaherty made his flm, the locals were using guns not harpoons to kill seals. However, the producer thought the harpoons would make for better footage.

 Nanook of the North.  The “wife” shown in the flm was not really Nanook’s wife. In fact, the two women in Nanook—Nyla and Cunayou— were common-law wives of Flaherty, the flmmaker. Nanook of the North. https://archive.org/details/ nanookOfTeNorth1922

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 Craig Duf teaching a student in Cairo, Egypt. (Photo by Ed Robbins)

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Te building of the igloo is one of the most famous sequences in the flm, but interior photography presented a problem. Building an igloo large enough for a camera to enter resulted in the dome collapsing, and when they fnally succeeded in making the igloo it was too dark for photography. Instead, the images of the inside of the igloo in the flm were actually shot in a special three-walled igloo constructed for Flaherty’s bulky camera so that there would be enough light for it to capture interior shots. In fact, the protagonist in the flm did not live in an igloo except when hunting. He lived in a wooden cabin. Flaherty defended his flm by arguing, “one often has to distort a thing in order to catch its true spirit.” Te “higher truth” defense is still used by some producers today to justify their approach to documentary flmmaking. “Basically all the issues that we continue to have in documentary can be tracked back to ‘Nanook’,” says Robert Greene of the Jonathan B. Murray Centre for Documentary Journalism. Te controversies around Flaherty’s flm are a reminder that authenticity and embellishment are not minor considerations in documentary flmmaking—they are part of the story. (https:// www.economist.com/culture/2022/08/03/ the-vexed-legacy-of-nanook-of-the-north) While the ethics of early days of documentary flmmaking were questionable, the ethical rules for this discipline are not much clearer today. Unlike online videojournalism or broadcast news, documentary flmmaking has largely been an individual, freelance efort. Documentary flmmakers typically are small business owners, selling their work to a range of distributors.

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Even producers working for large outlets, such as Discovery, National Geographic, and PBS, are typically independent contractors.

Missing Rules for Documentary When it comes to the ethics of documentary flmmaking it’s like the Wild Wild West. For the most part, when it comes to ethical standards and practices, documentary flmmakers have largely depended on individual judgment.

Pressure on Documentary Filmmakers According to Patricia Aufderheide, Peter Jaszi, and Mridu Chandra in their study “Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Teir Work,” the feld has not yet articulated ethical standards specifc to documentary flmmaking. Many of the flmmakers surveyed by the authors of the study mentioned above spoke of commercial pressures, particularly in the cable business, to make decisions they believed to be unethical. “Te trend towards faster and cheaper documentaries and the ‘assembly line’ nature of work has proven challenging to flmmakers’ understanding of their obligations to subjects,” according to the study. It also points out the blurred lines between traditional documentary, reality, and hybrid forms. Craig Duf of Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, points out that the Aufderheide et al. study was done before streaming services and in the waning days of “cable docs,” which were prevalent before reality TV took over. “Tat ‘assembly line’ still exists,” he says, “but it’s now for the streamers, not the cable networks.” Documentary flmmakers also face pressure to infate drama or character confict and to create drama where no natural drama exists, say the authors of the study. “Filmmakers may be encouraged to alter the story to pump up the excitement, the confict, or the danger. In one case, a flmmaker lacked exciting enough pictures of a particular animal from a shoot, and the executive producer substituted animals from another country.”

Use of Actors In the world of independent documentary flmmaking, you can use actors, stage and restage scenes, and even pay subjects. You can use graphics, animate the action, add sound efects, and even recreate a person’s voice. In the Oscars’ documentary category, flmmakers have won awards using all these techniques. Robert Landau is co-producing and writing a documentary called Sign o’ the Times: Rock ’n’ Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip. Te 90-minute limited docuseries includes interviews of musicians, art directors, designers, and craftsmen who hand-painted the huge billboards. Te flm will be based on Landau’s photos that he took when he was a teenager. For some scenes in the flm Landau, now in his late 60s, is played by his 28-year-old nephew, Josh, who looks somewhat like the flmmaker in his teenage years. Tese reenactments will be considered for the fnal edit for the feature-length

documentary. Using actors is a technique that is acceptable in documentary genre but not ethical for online or broadcast journalism. Netfix streamed a documentary, Meltdown: Tree Mile Island, about the nuclear accident at an atomic energy plant in Pennsylvania that nearly led to a cataclysmic disaster. Te four-part series combined original archival footage from the original accident and its aftermath with modern interviews of some of the key fgures and reenacted scenes using professional actors. Tis flm was a hybrid of both a real documentary and docudrama. Te director did not label which scenes were real and which were created. However, after becoming absorbed in the flm the viewer could detect the archival grainy old video footage shot in an older 4 × 3 aspect ratio compared to the newer footage shot in wide cinemascope, high-defnition format. Tis hybrid documentary style does not break any ethical documentary rules since there are no ofcial arbiters of documentary ethics.

 For this documentary about a photographer who took pictures of billboards on the Sunset Strip of West Hollywood in the 60s, the director used an actor to portray the original subject. (Photo by Robert Landau)

Meltdown: Three Mile Island, ofcial trailer. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=nAOIH8HRdDo

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The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris). https://www.imdb.com/video/ vi765049369/?ref_=tt_vi_i_1

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Many documentary flmmakers noted that restaging routine of trivial events such as walking through a door was part and parcel of the flmmaking process and was “not what makes the story honest,” according to Patricia Aufderheide, Peter Jaszi, and Mridu Chandra in their article “Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Teir Work.” Teir research was based on interviews with more than 40 documentary flmmakers. Te researchers found that documentary flmmakers regularly used recreations (re-staging of events that have already occurred, whether in the recent or distant past), although they widely believed that it was important that audiences be made aware somehow that the footage is recreated. Stanley Nelson, an American documentary flmmaker and MacArthur Fellow, said, “People have to know and feel it’s a recreation. You have to be 99.9 percent sure that people will know this is not a real moment.” Randall Dale Adams was convicted of murdering Texas police ofcer Robert Wood. Te flm director Errol Morris was able to get the original suspect of the crime, David Ray Harris, to admit his guilt. Tis meant that Randall Dale Adams was innocent. To make a documentary flm, Morris needed footage of the actual crime taking place which, of course, he did not have. Instead Morris had actors reenact the shooting and he replayed the footage over and over during the documentary. Te flm was categorized as a documentary by distributors.   On one hand the flm was highly successful. It won many prestigious awards. However, it was also controversial in the documentary flmmaking community. While the flm won a prize from the International Documentary Association, other documentary flmmakers felt that because of the heavy reliance on reenactment Te Tin Blue Line did not deserve to be called a documentary flm. With any reenactment there is no way to know for sure exactly what happened

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in every detail. Some flm critics thought the flm did not win the Academy Award in the documentary category due to the reenactment scenes. Roger Ebert, a well-known and respected flm critic, attributed its rejection to “the inability of academy voters to appreciate innovative flmmaking.” Other critics and academics felt the use of reenactment in a documentary opened up a potential can of worms for all documentary producers in the future. Te Tin Blue Line represented a difcult ethical line to cross for all documentary flmmakers. Some documentary flmmakers also “stage” events to occur at a time convenient to the flming. One said that “as long as the activities they do are those they would normally be doing, if your flming doesn’t distort their life … there is still a reality that is represented.” Another recalled asking her subjects to stage an annual event earlier in the year than it would happen in real life. Travis Fox, Frontline producer and director of the visual program at City University of New York, says, as a viewer, “I love seeing documentarians pushing the boundaries. Doing things that are unconventional. As a professor, I love it when my students do that. Te diference is their intent. If their intent is to deceive the viewer into thinking something happened, then that’s a problem. If their intent is to push the form of storytelling, I think that’s pretty exciting.”

Documentary Recreations Many producers select reenactments of an historical event as the method of choice. Actors dress up, for instance, as 19th-century historic fgures like Abraham Lincoln or Ulysses S. Grant and play parts and speak lines that the author thinks might have taken place 150 years ago. With actors in wigs and costumes, viewers will not mistake the scenes as the real thing. Te result, a docudrama, is an amalgam of a documentary based on facts and a drama that adds fctional elements.

Videojournalism versus Docudramas Movies, of course, often show reenactments of historical events—even some very recent news events. HBO, for instance, created a docudrama of the monetary crisis that almost brought a second Great Depression to the United States. Te producers used famous actors playing living personalities. Based on the book by Andrew Ross Sorkin titled Too Big to Fail, the movie purported to show what happened in a series of closed meetings that took place in New York and Washington when the future of the U.S. economy was on the line. Te movie made clear that although it was based on facts, the docudrama was fction played by actors including Paul Giamatti, William Hurt, Ed Asner, and others. Tere is a vast diference between videojournalism (which records reality) and other forms of

entertainment such as docudramas and “Hollywood” movies. Te bottom line is that videojournalism rests on the ethical foundation that viewers can have absolute confdence that what they are watching took place as it is portrayed. Te videojournalist was there, on the scene, to record the moment. Videojournalists don’t invent anything. Viewers hear the actual voices of real characters. Te people they are seeing are not scripted actors. A videojournalism story is not a docudrama. Journalism, photojournalism, and videojournalism get their power from showing the unmanipulated, raw, candid truth. If videojournalists cross the ethical line, viewers will question whether what they are seeing really happened—and may one day turn away from the medium altogether.

 Too Big to Fail. This docudrama was based on real events. Don’t confuse docudramas that use actors with videojournalism, which records and presents the “real thing.”

Too Big to Fail, trailer. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fXQ5VfBTNpg

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DANGER OF RECREATION— CASE STUDIES Here are two case studies to test your understanding of journalism ethics. After reading the facts of each case, ask yourself what you would have done in a similar situation before knowing the outcome of the case.

Fake Dogfght, Real Ramifcations Emmy Award-winning KCNC-TV reporter Windy Bergen and videographers Jim Stair and Scott Wright produced a four-part series on dog fghting called Blood Sport. Te series was to run on the NBC afliate during “sweeps week,” one of the three periods of time each year when viewership is measured to determine a station’s annual ratings. Competition during sweeps can be ferce because market ranking can determine advertising rates. When authorities discovered that the trio had used footage of staged dogfghts and dogtraining scenes for their series, not only did the reporter and videographers lose their jobs, but a grand jury probe also led to Bergen being charged with multiple counts of perjury. Because

 Dogfght. Team from KCNC-TV, an NBC afliate, used a staged dogfght as part of their series called “Blood Sport.”

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they attended the staged dogfghts to flm them, Stair and Wright also faced additional charges of dog fghting and conspiracy. Wright and Stair both pled guilty to being an accessory to dog fghting and got probation. KCNC news director Marv Rockford was reprimanded for not adequately supervising his staf. Bergen was convicted of staging a dogfght, being an accessory to a dogfght, and conspiring to commit dog fghting. She was fned $20,000 from a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and $300,000 in fnes. Bergen’s ethical decision-making process was corrupted by the competition and pressure of sweeps week and by the pressure to maintain her award-winning reputation in a highly competitive TV market like Denver. “It was just one small, bad decision after another,” Bergen told the American Journalism Review. “I knew it was wrong, but no one ever believed it would escalate to this level.” In hindsight, which is always 20/20, many ethical minefelds can be seen clearly, but only after great damage has been done to journalism’s reputation and careers ruined. Because of

the “star” system embraced by many television network news operations, and this particular reporter’s award-winning track record, at frst her dog-fghting stories, footage, and sources went largely unchallenged. Also, had videojournalists researched their own legal standing, they would have learned that merely attending a dogfght was illegal and was not an activity protected by any First Amendment exemption. And the pressure-packed work environment of television news, which Bergen later characterized as a “two-minute review” of news stories by a line producer just before they air, certainly contributed to the ease of getting the fabricated package into the station’s story lineup.

Briefcase Handof A famous example of an attempt at using a reenactment that turned out badly occurred in 1989 when ABC News on the World News Tonight broadcast featured ABC employees acting out a scene that depicted suspected spy and State Department employee Felix S. Bloch exchanging a briefcase with a Soviet diplomat. Te constructed scene was based on words from an FBI document that said Bloch had been seen passing luggage to a known Soviet agent. In editing, the ABC flm was treated to look like an FBI undercover tape, the original color video was turned into black-and-white footage, and the quality was decreased to make it look grainier. Crosshairs were superimposed on the screen to make it look like surveillance flm. During the East Coast broadcast at 6:30 p.m., the label “SIMULATION” was inadvertently dropped. “SIMULATION” was added to the 7 p.m. feed, but most of the country saw the frst telecast, not the second. Bloch was never charged with any crime. Tere was no trial, but he lost his government job. Although ABC News executives were split

over whether they’d ever use the technique again, ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson had no question in his mind that the technique was wrong and unethical. “It’s important not to mix straight reporting with things that are not factual,” Donaldson told the New York Times. “People who saw that story are liable to say: ‘I know Bloch’s guilty. I saw him pass the briefcase.’ Of course, they didn’t see that at all.” Read the story in the Los Angeles Times. Most journalists now consider “simulations,” even those labeled as “simulation” or “reenactment,” to be unethical because any simulation— labeled or not—can mislead viewers. Te danger, of course, in acting out a story is that doing so can lead viewers to conclude that something probably happened, and happened the way it was portrayed because, after all, “seeing is believing.”

ABC News Draws Criticism of Spy Case Re-Creation. https://www.latimes.com/ archives/la-xpm-1989-07-26-ca215-story.html

ETHICS OF FILMING WILDLIFE Nick Nichols, who published more than 30 articles for the National Geographic.magazine, points out the clear distinction in ethical practice between the print publication and the completely separate television division of the organization. He says, “Photographers shooting still images for the print division were under strict regulations about setting up or in any other way altering pictures situations.” He notes that those in the television division did not care if you manipulated the situation to enhance a flm. Te television division would broadcast the flm without any disclosure of the manipulation to the public. Ronan Donovan started out to be a wildlife biologist. He switched over to shooting stills and video in 2014. In 2017 he was accepted into Te Photo Society of National Geographic. He has since worked for both National Geographic magazine and National Geographic TV channels division. Both are now owned by Disney.

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Te National Geographic magazine comes from the world of photojournalism and has strict guidelines about flming animals. Te rules are, “no captive animals, no pretending and no manipulation that isn’t stated in the captions. It’s about factually reporting the imagery shared to the public,” said Donovan. “Don’t take pictures of lions in captivity and pretend the lions were in the wild.” With the television division, on the other hand, “there’s a diferent approach,” said Donovan. Donovan shot video for the magazine on a story on wolves in Yellowstone National Park. For a parallel story, the television division hired an organization, Brain Farm, that specializes in action sports not wildlife photography. Te organization flmed a wolf amazingly close. Later Donovan found out that the organization had photographed the wolf footage at a captive game farm. When the flm was broadcast there was no mention of where the wolf footage

was recorded or explanation or how it was flmed in the narration—and the viewer had to look closely during the credits to fnd out those details.

Online Fake News Fools Viewers Check Snopes First Te World Wide Web has its own way of punishing wrongdoers. Although the editor of a traditional publication can’t fre a citizen journalist, fact checkers on the Web certainly can expose doctored stories or pictures. Web mavens like the editors at Snopes (https://www.snopes.com/) have exposed a number of fake pictures and called them out as ethical missteps. Fake news involves video and text intended to fool the readers and viewers into believing it is credible and true. Some people circulate fake news to make money from advertising. Other people distribute fake information to mislead people. Social media posts are copied and spread using the algorithms of diferent websites.

CODE OF ETHICS FOR JOURNALISM ORGANIZATIONS As a profession, journalism has created and followed its own set of ethical standards. Professional journalism organizations such as the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) have over time written and refned codes of ethics that individuals and entire news organizations can elect to embrace. Despite varying slightly from group to group and outlet to outlet, journalism’s ethical standards all share some basic principles: truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, fairness, and accountability (which lately has been called “transparency”). Here are some codes of ethics: • • • • • • •

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National Geographic Society’s code of ethics: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/ethics/ National Press Photographers Association’ (NPPA) code of ethics: https://nppa.org/nppa-code-ethics The Radio Television Digital News Association’s (RTDNA) code of ethics: https://www.rtdna.org/content/rtdna_code_of_ethics Society of Professionals Journalists’ code of ethics: https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp National Union of Journalists’ code of conduct: https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/ Associated Press’s (AP) news values and principles: https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/ A blogger’s code of ethics: http://cyberjournalist.net/a-bloggers-code-of-ethics

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 Fake news  video is proliferating on the Web.

Fake News: Separating Truth from Fiction – A List. https://libguides. valenciacollege.edu/c. php?g=612299&p=4251645

Communications expert Barbara Alvarez warns that, “Without the knowledge of appropriately identifying fake news, these websites can do an efective job of tricking the untrained eye into believing it’s a credible source. Indeed, its intention is deception.” When considering using images from the Internet in your video consider these questions. • •

•

Was it posted? Do the images or video match what has been distributed by professionals (wire services, news networks, etc.)? Is it original work or copies of what others have done?

Artifcial Intelligence Creates Voices and Faces From “whole cloth,” computer whizzes can create faces, bodies, voices, and action with today’s artifcial intelligence technology. Images of Obama, Hitler, and Trump can be manufactured to look perfectly real. Producers claim that it is cheaper to use deepfakes even when archival footage is available, or an actor could be hired. Old footage is

expensive and models or actors demand union wages. In a documentary about celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, director Morgan Neville created Bourdain’s voice using artifcial intelligence (AI). Tere was a total of three lines of dialogue that Neville wanted Bourdain to narrate, the flmmaker explained in his interview with the New Yorker. However, because he was unable to fnd previous audio fles, he contacted a software company instead and provided about a dozen hours of recordings, in turn creating an AI model of Bourdain’s voice. In the documentary, the flmmaker took an email written by Bourdain and through AI turned the written words into an audio clip that sound like Bourdain’s voice. Craig Duf, professor at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, detests the actions of the flmmaker. Once the audience realizes that one part of the dialogue is fake, they could question the authenticity of the rest of the flm While critics debated the merits of this voice recreation, the flm was a major success. Who knows how often this technique will be used in the future? Do you think it is ethical?

Deepfake Unstable Evidence on Screen. https://movingimage.us/event/ deepfake-unstable-evidenceon-screen/

Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain, ofcial trailer. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ihEEjwRlghQ

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Watch the Deepfake

In Event of Moon Disaster. https://moondisaster.org/quiz

Te centerpiece of deepfake is In Event of Moon Disaster, a startlingly convincing video co-directed by Francesca Panetta and Halsey Burgund that uses deepfake technology to suppose an alternate history of the Apollo 11 mission, presented on a television set in a period-appointed living room. In Event of Moon Disaster is an MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality production. Te project won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Media.

ETHICAL TRAPS Avoid Gifts or Bribes When completing a piece on a story about, say, a homeless man in your town, you might be tempted to give an obviously needy person money in exchange for recording some pictures and asking a few questions about his life. You feel sorry for him. He could use a solid meal and a place to stay. Why not give him a bit of cash? Don’t do it! Te journalism profession has a strict code that prohibits reporters, photojournalists, or videographers from paying subjects for interviews, information, or access. Te profession’s code of ethics does not allow giving gifts in exchange for on- or of-camera interviews. Journalists simply must refrain from the temptation to hand over money. Some media organizations even prohibit buying a prospective subject a meal. Why? Let’s call it what it is, or at least what it is seen to be: A bribe. Te reason for the “no bribe” rule is that once journalists pay for information, their relationship with a subject becomes a business proposition. Tis business arrangement can impact the veracity and accuracy of information conveyed. Filmmakers who thought of themselves as journalists resisted even the idea of payment.

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In journalistic practice, payment is usually forbidden for fear of tainting the information garnered. Jon H. Else, a documentary flmmaker who directs the documentary program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, said: “For years I never paid anyone for an interview. Tere is a huge danger that paying for talk will undermine the honesty of the talk, and that it will poison the river for the next flmmaker.” Te street person, for example, might not tell the whole truth or the “same truth” if he knows his answers are tied to a monetary reward. He might say what he hopes the interviewer wants to hear in hopes of getting a still greater payof. Also, a bribe sets a precedent. Subsequent journalists are likely to be asked for more and more money in exchange for an on-camera appearance. Perhaps most important, the public has less trust in a report that involves exchanging money for an interview. Bottom line. Avoid “checkbook” journalism by never ofering and, if asked, refusing to give cash for contacts. By the same logic, don’t accept gifts or special treatment. Most ethics guidelines also note that the videojournalist should not accept gifts or special treatment of any kind not available to the general public. Accepting gifts will create a potential confict of interest and erode a flmmaker’s independence. If you have been paid by an organization to produce a video for them, you should not turn around and shoot a documentary on the same organization. Te viewer has the right to suspect that you are not an objective journalist if you are shooting a story about your old employer. Tis rule does not include the access to events or areas traditionally granted to working journalists to facilitate their coverage. It does include “professional courtesy” admission, discounts and “freebies” provided to journalists by those who might someday be the subject of coverage.

Hidden Cameras, Hidden Problems State laws difer regarding use of hidden cameras and listening devices even if the evidence they record is reliable. Consider ABC’s Prime Time Live report which questioned the Food Lion chain’s sanitary practices. Te video clips were shot by hidden camera inside Food Lion meat and deli departments. A Food Lion deli worker was overheard telling a Prime Time producer to “sell the bad stuf frst.” Another clip allegedly showed ground beef that had passed its sell-by date being mixed in with fresh product and repackaged for sale. Food Lion won a victory from a federal jury in Greensboro, N.C. Tey awarded the chain $5.5 million in punitive damages in its lawsuit against ABC News. Te jury found ABC liable for fraud, trespass, and breach of loyalty in its eforts to get jobs at Food Lion and then to videotape other employees at work. Food Lion did not sue ABC for libel, and the truth of the broadcast report was not at issue in the case. Read the story Jury Finds ABC Network Committed Fraud in Food Lion Investigative Story. Consult a lawyer before setting up a hidden camera sting or recording a voice secretly. You must determine not only is the undercover recording legal but is it ethical.

Eliminate Distracting Background Sounds? Indiana University journalism associate dean James W. Brown shot a video story on a bicycle shop. In his edited piece, there is distracting background sound from a radio. He took his piece to WISH-TV veteran videojournalist Steve Sweitzer for a critique. Sweitzer told Brown that he needed clean audio to go with his video. Due to the radio sounds in the background on his recorded tape, he simply didn’t have it. “Do you mean I should have turned the radio down or of?” Brown asked. “Yes, under certain circumstances,” Sweitzer replied. “Ask yourself what the story’s about.” If

the radio’s a part of the story, then leave it in. But if the sounds coming from the radio are just a distraction from your story (the sound drowns out the dialogue between the repairman and the customer, for example), turn down the radio, said Sweitzer. Sweitzer says that if you did not want to change the radio volume for ethical reasons, then maybe you could use a lavalier microphone rather than the shotgun microphone on the camera. Changing microphones doesn’t solve all distracting noise problems, Sweitzer says. “Sometimes you have to tell someone to quit talking or shut a window to eliminate lawnmower noise outside.” In the case of the radio blaring in the bicycle shop, the ethical concept of “the greater good” is behind Sweitzer’s advice of turning down the sound—most viewers will beneft more from hearing the dialogue clearly than from having the background noise interfere with what the primary players said. However, the absolutist who says “thou shalt not alter anything” might warn the videojournalist not to touch the radio dial. Tis approach requires fnding some other way to shoot in the noisy environment or not shoot there at all. For the Associated Press (AP), the world’s largest news-gathering organization, its standard for audio is very clear-cut: “Audio actualities must always tell the truth. We do not alter or manipulate the content of a newsmaker actuality in any way. Voice reports by AP correspondents may only be edited to remove pauses or stumbles.” As for audio editing, “AP does permit the use of the subtle, standard audio processing methods of normalization of levels, general volume adjustments, equalization to make the sound clearer, noise reduction to reduce, remove, or otherwise alter the content or any portion of the content of the audio.” For anything other than these adjustments, any AP employee must consult with a supervisor.

Jury Finds ABC Network Committed Fraud in Food Lion Investigative Story. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ politics/1996/12/21/ jury-fnds-abc-committedfraud-in-food-lion-investigativestory/037aaef1-41ce-4e48-8b7c4f1a8f5a9a71/

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ETHICS AND EDITING Working as a Team Anyone working on a flm is collaborating. Collaborators have diferent views and needs when considering ethical quandaries. Say, in broadcast news, you are working with at least a news producer, a shooter, and often an editor. Te editor might fnd nothing wrong with slowing a shot to stretch across a need for a B-roll, or for moving sound. Finding a balance between all the players can be nerve racking especially, on deadline. Getting all the participants to agree on an ethical decision can be difcult. However, professionals that have worked together over the years have usually found a mutually acceptable way of handling these diferences in ethical opinions.

Juxtaposing Clips Can Change the Meaning of the Story

 Jorge SanhuezaLyon, Austin AmericanStatesman,  recording video of a circus in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Donald R. Winslow, News Photographer Magazine)

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Tere are hundreds of edits in a video even as short as 90 seconds, points out Jorge SanhuezaLyon, multimedia producer and photojournalist at the Austin American-Statesman and now with KUT in Austin. “Tere are so many ways to juxtapose clips that could make a story seem to go one way or another.” Sanhueza-Lyon, who also teaches at the University of Texas–Austin, tells his upper-level and graduate students about how easy it would be to alter the reality of a story by merely changing the context of video clips during editing. To illustrate his point, he shows the students raw footage from his stories, unedited. Ten he shows them the various ways those clips could be assembled to tell entirely diferent stories by changing the order of their viewing. For example, Sanhueza-Lyon shows raw video from a fre scene including a series of crowd and reaction shots. At most news scenes, a photographer can fnd a selection of people reacting diferently: grieving bystanders, nonchalant gawkers, or maybe even people who are having a good time and laughing about something unrelated to the fre. “How you pick which one of those shots to show next, after the fre pictures, gives context to the story,” Sanhueza-Lyon says. “You are telling the viewer that the crowd was either just hanging out and ‘doing their thing,’ or were really angry or hurt or concerned, or were trying to make sense out of what was happening, or alternatively, were reacting inappropriately … whichever shot you pick to show next can result in a completely diferent story.”

Changing the Video Speed Slowing down or speeding up video while editing, says Stan Heist, former videographer for channel WBFF in Baltimore, “can have a substantial efect on how it is perceived. It can be tempting to slow down or speed up video to ft a specifc need or want.” For instance, you might not have enough arrest footage in front of the courthouse to cover the voice-over script. Should you stretch out the arrest video, running it slower than normal, to cover the voice-over track? “Take a video of someone walking and slow it down—oftentimes the viewer’s perception of that person will seem ominous, sinister, or somehow guilty. Tat same scene, sped up, can give the appearance of someone who is harried, foolish, or superhuman. In this case, the audience may be in on the joke, but are you intimating something about your subject’s character by using this efect? Is it a fair efect? “Te question I ask myself centers on intention and how I believe the viewer will view the edit,” says Heist. “Am I trying to ‘fool’ the viewer into believing something is real that isn’t, or are they in on it?”

 Stan Heist,  Director of News Training & Staf Development at Sinclair Broadcast Group, cautions against changing the speed of a video just for editing convenience.

Sliding Sound Around Unlocking the audio and video tracks during editing allows you to slide the sound bite or natural sound under other video shots that were taken at a diferent moment. Te act of moving the sound fle around, unhooked from the original video fle, is called “slipping sound.” With interview footage, most professionals have no problem with unlocking the soundtrack from the video track. Te audio can be combined with B-roll video that illustrates the thrust of the interview. Tat technique, as old as theater newsreels before the dawn of television, is called editing with an A-roll (voice from the interview) and B-roll (supporting flm clips). (See Chapter 11 “Shooting a Sequence.”)  Deadline Every Second. At the opening of the documentary, the sounds of soldiers fring bullets and tear-gas canisters continues uninterrupted even though the documentary cuts to diferent images of the fghters and primary subject. This continuous sound efect required the editor to decouple the audio from the video track to rearrange the visual clips. This technique is a common editing device that some documentary editors use a lot and others avoid.

Deadline Every Second: On Assignment with 12 Associated Press Photographers. http://vimeo.com/24128076

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Te ethical dilemma for some journalists arises when the editor combines natural sound recorded at one moment with video recorded at another moment. For example, during clashes in Israel between the Israeli army and Palestinian youth throwing rocks, the sound of gunfre was going of all the time. When the camera was pointed at the soldiers, the sound of the gunfre was loud, but when the camera was pointed away, toward the protesters, the gunfre sounded mufed. Obviously, the sound of gunfre was constant during the uprising, and the only reason the sound dipped in volume was that the camera and shotgun mic had been turned from the source of the sound. Watch Deadline Every Second: On Assignment with 12 Associated Press Photographers. Is it ethical to transfer the sound of the gunfre to accompany all the footage of the clashes, whether the video showed the soldiers or the youth? If you were present during the confict, you would have heard a steady rata-ta-tat beat of shots being fred regardless of the direction in which you were looking. Continuing the audio soundtrack with all video footage of the confict was nearer to reality than having the sounds of gunfre fade in out as they were actually recorded. Some visual journalists see no problem with the practice of “sliding sound.” Senior Multimedia Producer, KUT, Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon in Texas says sliding sound from one image to another is a necessary technique: “Viewers have been programmed or educated to understand that in anything and everything they see, hear, read, or view, some editing and some eforts at presentation have—at some level—taken place. It’s all a construction of some kind or another.” National Press Photographers Association’s (NPPA) former ethics chair, John Long, however, is very clear-cut in his opposition to sliding sound for radio or television. He says there’s no place for it in journalism. “Whether it’s moving the sound of thunder closer to the image of a lightning bolt, or adding siren noise from another source, or rerecording audio after a still camera has stopped its annoying habit of making motor drive noise … this is lying,” he says. “If the initial audio fails, fnd another way (such as using a voice-over), but be careful not to create the impression with the viewer that the audio and visuals are from the same moments.”

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In the feld of videojournalism, handling audio raises questions that have diferent answers at diferent organizations. Some editors have no problem with sliding sound if it doesn’t change the story, create a diferent reality, or deceive viewers. For some news organizations, sliding sound is an “editing” decision and not an “ethical” choice. Other journalists put their foot down on allowing this procedure at all. If you are shooting a documentary, don’t hesitate to slip and slide. Slipping sound is not an ethical issue. If you’re not working for an established organization and you’re a solo videojournalist, you’re going to have to decide on your own where to pitch your ethical tent because the industry has believers in both camps. If you feel you’re deceiving your viewers, or if you would be uncomfortable with them knowing the methods you’ve used to create the combination of pictures and sound, don’t make the dubious edit. Find another way around the problem. If you would be embarrassed to stand in front of an audience and explain how you manipulated the sound, then you should reconsider the edit.

Compressing Time Te process of flm editing—collapsing actual time into screen time while shaping a flm story—involves choices that flmmakers often consider in ethical terms. Steven Ascher, Academy Award-nominated documentary flmmaker, said: “You could argue that cutaways in a scene flmed with one camera are a distortion—you cut from a person talking to a reaction shot, condensing or reshufing dialogue before you cut back to the person. But those kinds of distortions are often necessary to tell the story or to compress ideas that would otherwise take too long.” He points out that jump cuts might be more “honest” but might be unwatchable. Dialogue editing and reaction shots are necessary tools of documentary flmmaking, says Ascher. “While sometimes manipulative, they often fall under Picasso’s idea of ‘art as the lie that makes us realize the truth.’” Te bottom line is edit to compress not to distort. After all the cutaways and jump cuts, does your video tell an honest story?

Coloring the Outcome

Cleaning Up Quotes

Stan Heist, Director of News Training & Staf Development at Sinclair Broadcast Group, notes that adjusting color balance in the camera and in post-production involves ethical choices. He poses this theoretical question: “What would happen if the videographer made a mistake when setting the white balance in the feld. Let’s say it was set to a cooler than natural color. Ten the footage would have a blue cast. If the shooter warmed up the footage during editing by adding red fltration to the color balance, is this videojournalist fddling with the truth? Te footage will ultimately be neutrally colored but will it have been artifcially manipulated?” Heist believes that correcting a mistake in color balance during editing is acceptable behavior because you’re trying to match reality. But he says making a shot in the edit bay “cooler” (more blue) than the original scene to make it appear more “sinister” or “unhealthy” is an example of an ethical decision. Tere is a subtle but clearcut diference between the two. Correcting mistakes is ethical. Giving the footage a sinister look that was not present in the original scene is not.

In audio, you can edit someone’s quote for clarity, as is done on NPR and PRI. Yet, you can get fred for editing that same quote in a print article. In written text, however, you can paraphrase or add ellipses to indicate omitted material, neither of which is possible with radio. NPR removes verbal fllers and extra words to make the sentences sound better. Tose are things that print reporters do as well. You rarely see “ums” and “uhs” in a written quote in the New York Times. “Whenever we quote, edit or otherwise interpret what people tell us, we aim to be faithful to their meaning, so our stories ring true to those we interview.” NPR ethical guidelines: https://www.npr.org/ethics. Senior photographer and picture editor James Estrin of the New York Times says he and his colleagues have settled on “not cleaning up audio too much. We tend to like to rely on giving the listener the subject’s patterns of speaking, even if that includes a few ‘ums’ and ‘aws’ in their delivery.”

 Changing Color.  The Associated Press has strict guidelines about altering the tint of the image to make it look more dramatic.

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ADDING AUDIO OK? Music Infuences Emotion

Belle Isle Revealed. https://www.freep. com/story/news/documentaries/2019/04/01/ watch-belle-isle-revealed-freepress-documentary/3335938002

Adding music that was not captured during the original shoot is controversial in some circles. Video producers can add music to the story after it has been shot to heighten the mood of a piece. Te radio program and podcast Tis American Life often adds music to further the efect of the reporting. Of course, you wouldn’t want to add “Light My Fire” by the Doors to a story about a two-alarm blaze that occurred last night. Discretion and good taste must prevail. Craig Duf, Emmy Award-winning videojournalist, notes that he uses music in his pieces but urges caution when doing so. “With music you may be telling the audience how to feel about something, and there’s a certain danger in doing that.” Some critics argue that the video editor is manipulating the emotions of the viewer through music rather than letting the viewer decide for themselves how they feel based on the facts and images shown in the video report.

 Dave Delozier, KUSA-TV, thinks viewers are smart enough to understand when music has been added to work. (Photo by Matt McClain)

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“I think music can set a mood. And that’s where it can be overused as well, too. It cannot just set the mood, but it can dictate that mood,” says Bob Sacha, who has shot stories for Al Jazeera America Online, Yahoo! News, and Audubon Science and is a teacher at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism @ CUNY. “I think music is a double-edged sword. It can refect or emphasize what’s on the screen to kind of heighten it. Or music can dictate what you should feel. If you play happy music or sad music it is very much going to change how you see the picture on the screen.” WISC veteran solo videojournalist Dave Delozier, who has won 32 Emmy Awards, says that although music doesn’t always exist in the feld, he thinks viewers are smart enough to understand when music has been added to work with the feeling of the story. “Does it work with the story, or does it interfere with the story? If it works with the true feeling of the story and doesn’t get in the way, I have no problem with the use of music in a feature story,” Delozier says. For additional discussion of the ethics of adding music see pages 299 and 300.

Adding Nat Sound to a Documentary Video “sweetening,” or adding in layers of sound, did not concern documentarians in general—if it was incidental, according to the authors of “Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers Ethical Challenges.” One documentary flmmaker said, “If you add birds chirping to facilitate the story, the birds are inconsequential to the audience misunderstanding the scene, it helps them enter the moment.” However, a few noted that audio that changed the meaning—for instance, adding the sound of gunshots to a scene was regarded as inappropriate. Also be careful. You might be adding bird sounds to a story in which the particular bird species has never been seen in the location before.

What Does Artifcial Intelligence Have to Say about Ethics and AI for Documentaries and News Broadcasts? When asked... “What are the Ethical Implications of AI in News Documentary Production” ... Here is what the artifcial intelligence (AI) program wrote back.... Te integration of artifcial intelligence (AI) in news documentary production has transformative potential, but it also raises signifcant ethical concerns. Tis chapter explores the impact of AI on the ethics of shooting and producing news documentaries. 1. Automated Storytelling and Objectivity: AI algorithms can generate narratives based on extensive data analysis, but caution is needed to ensure objectivity. Biases present in the data can infuence algorithms, potentially leading to biased narratives. News organizations must be mindful of using AI-generated content that adheres to ethical standards and avoids perpetuating stereotypes or misinformation. 2.  Deepfakes and Authenticity: Te emergence of deepfake technology poses a major ethical dilemma. Deepfakes convincingly manipulate audio

and video, challenging the credibility of news documentaries. Vigilance in source verifcation and robust fact-checking mechanisms are essential to combat the spread of misinformation and protect documentary integrity. Te ethical limitations of using generative and artifcial intelligence programs to produce a news broadcast or documentary flm remain still cloudy. If you are a producer or director of a news video, keep your eyes out for new guidelines from professional organizations, some of which are listed in this chapter, about what they consider acceptable use and what they identify as crossing the ethical line when using these AI tools to produce documentaries the public can trust.

AN ETHICAL TEST Even though you have gotten this far in this book and read the chapter on ethics you might still be in doubt about what you should and should not do when shooting and editing a visual story. I would like to recommend a test for any ethical decision you have to make. Here is a thought exercise. Imagine that before the title of your flm appears on the screen you had to project text that described how you produced the piece. Suppose you had to write: “I asked the person to walk down the hall …” “I told the person to say …” “I asked the person to do it over again …” Etc. If you would feel comfortable imagining yourself telling your viewer, ahead of time, exactly how you produced and edited the flm, your actions are probably ethical. If, even in your imagination, you would hesitate to explain to the viewer what you did to produce the images and audio they are about to see, you are probably on shaky ground.

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 Multimedia photojournalist, Christopher Rusanowsky,  was arrested along with protesters by Dallas police. He was put in jail for more than 24 hours then later released and the charges were dropped. Rusanowsky had the legal right to cover the protest and should not have been arrested. (Photo by Tom Fox, Dallas Morning News)

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18

Staying within the Law David Weintraub, Former Instructor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina Ken Kobré, San Francisco State University Bo Bogatin, Bogatin, Corman and Gold at Law; California Lawyers for the Arts; National Lawyers Guild member; Co-author of the  Legal Guide for the Visual Artist

V

ideojournalists enjoy the same rights and face the same restrictions as their still-photography colleagues. All the major legal issues remain the same,

no matter what type of camera is in your hand: Where can I shoot? What can I shoot? And what can I do with my video after I’ve shot it? In legal terms, these questions concern the laws of trespass, privacy, defamation, and copyright. If you’ve taken

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272380-18

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some basic journalism courses, you are probably familiar with these laws. But videojournalists do have some special concerns. For example, can adding a particular soundtrack alter or distort the meaning of a video? What efect does combining clips shot at diferent times and in diferent locations have on the “truthfulness” of a video? Tis chapter will explore some of the special legal issues that concern videojournalists. Te chapter applies to laws in the United States only. Some other countries have very different regulations that cover photography and videography.

TRESPASS: WHERE CAN I LEGALLY MAKE IMAGES? Te First Amendment afords us extremely wide latitude as to what we can say and what we can publish. In terms of journalism, the amendment’s protections extend from today’s giant media conglomerates all the way to the lone videojournalist with his or her own website. And these protections don’t apply to just journalists. Anyone living in the United States enjoys the fve freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment’s 45 words: freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

 Michael Driver, Fox 13 Seattle, like any videojournalist,  can legally record on a public street or sidewalk.  (Photo by Karen Ducey)

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Journalists cannot be prevented from doing something that ordinary folks are allowed to do. Accordingly, videojournalists cannot be prevented from taking photographs and video in most public places. But in some instances, the First Amendment provides journalists some legal advantages with respect to reporting on newsworthy events that do not apply to everyone else.

Shooting Video in Public Places What is a public place? From Wall Street to Main Street, streets, plazas, parks, bridges, and city-owned transit systems are all fair game. And these are not limited to the physical structures themselves. You are legally free to video any person in a public place—be they a politician, a celebrity, a member of law enforcement or the military, or just an ordinary citizen. Tey may be central to your shot, or just a small fgure included for scale or human interest. By appearing in public, they have relinquished what lawyers call “a reasonable expectation of privacy,” and are thus suitable subjects for your lens. Although you have almost unlimited freedom as to whom you can video in public, there are legal restrictions on what you can do

with the footage. Tese restrictions are discussed in the sections on privacy and defamation. However, even the privacy and defamation restrictions are more limited if the video is of a newsworthy event in which the subject is involved. Also keep in mind some commonsense cautions. If a private individual says he or she doesn’t want to be videoed, stop shooting and assure them that you won’t use the footage. And be wary of flming children without notifying their parents, lest you seem like a predator. If you are in a public place or on publicly owned property, you can generally shoot video to your heart’s content. But many local jurisdictions, such as cities and counties, have ordinances to prevent obstructions to the safe fow of pedestrians and trafc. If people have to navigate around your equipment to move safely down the sidewalk, possibly stepping into the street, that could be a problem and you may need a permit. However, if it is just you and your video camera, you have the same rights as everyone else to flm and photograph freely in a public place.

May I See Your Permit? If you are packing a lot of equipment, however, you may be asked for your permit and certifcate of insurance. Shooting permits are usually required for commercial shoots or flm productions that involve signifcant use of public property—blocking a street to flm a sequence for a television show is one example. A certifcate of insurance shows that you are covered for liability in case someone is injured as a consequence of your shoot, say by tripping over your light stands or microphone cable.

 Street versus Private Property. If you witness a scene like this future NBA champion practicing in his driveway, you can shoot from the street, but you need at least verbal permission to go onto private property. (Photo by Andrew Craft, Fayetteville Observe)

I’m Just Trying to Do My Job Sometimes members of law-enforcement agencies, other ofcials, and even bystanders interfere with journalists who are simply trying to do their job. According to attorney Bert Krages, author of Legal Handbook for Photographers, the trauma of 9/11 may help account for the fact that ofcials have tried to block photographers from photographing at airports, train stations, and subway terminals—even though few of these public places have rules prohibiting photography. Chapter 18 Staying within the Law

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 Following the killing by a Bay Area Rapid Transit Police (BART) Ofcer, of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old African-American man,  a photographer documents the riots in Oakland, CA. Photojournalists and videojournalists have the right to photograph police ofcers carrying out their duties. (Photo by Thomas Hawks)

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Shooting Video of Police Although the U.S. Supreme Court has never addressed the issue, most of the federal circuit appeals courts have ruled that you have a First Amendment right to record police ofcers carrying out their public duties in public spaces. In the most recent of these cases, Irizarry v. Yehia, Abade Irizarry, a “YouTube journalist and blogger,” according to his complaint allegations, was flming a trafc stop when an ofcer attempted to shut his recording down—frst by blocking his view and shining a fashlight into his camera, then by driving his police car at Irizarry. Remarkably, a district court concluded that a reasonable ofcer in the defendant’s position might not have understood that that conduct was unconstitutional. Fortunately, the Tenth Circuit disagreed stating that “flming the police sits at the intersection of three bedrock constitutional principles: that the First Amendment exists in the frst place to protect the free

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discussion of public afairs, including public ofcials; that it protects the right to gather the news in particular; and that the government can’t circumvent limits on its power to regulate speech by preventing the press or public from creating speech in the frst place.” In response to the trend of video and other information being posted online, states such as Oklahoma and Florida have passed legislation making it a crime to “dox,” or post personal information, about law enforcement online. Tose who break the law would face either six months in county jail or a $1,000 fne, or both. On the second ofense, both of those would be doubled. Te stated intent is to protect the privacy of law-enforcement ofcers. In conjunction with criticism of the bill, the ACLU recommends that anyone posting videos or photos of law enforcement blur out police ofcers’ names on badges that could otherwise be identifed. Over the last 20 years there have been many newsworthy incidents in which photographers

were asked to stop taking pictures, even though they were on public property and had the legal right to photograph. Police should know better. However, many police departments have not received adequate training on the legal rights of journalists to “do their job.” Tere are many reported instances where police have ordered reporters away from a crime scene under threat of arrest, seized camera, and even had reporters criminally charged. Several of these instances have resulted in successful civil rights cases by the arrested journalists who were able to show that they were “deprived” of rights secured by the United States Constitution by an ofcer “clothed in the authority of State law.”

Authority and Control “Te police may believe they are protecting the property or privacy of people involved in a newsworthy situation. Or, they simply may wish to exert their authority and control the situation,” says Jay Bender, the Reid H. Montgomery Freedom of Information Chair at the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications and a lecturer at the university’s law school. Bender, who is also an attorney for the South Carolina Press Association and the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, says a photographer working for the state newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina was arrested for trying to fnd out what was going on at a car lot containing automobiles ticketed and towed by the police. Te photographer was with friends whose cars had been towed from a popular Columbia entertainment neighborhood. Te police told the car owners they could enter the lot but prevented the news photographer from doing so. When the photographer identifed himself as a journalist and asked who was in charge, he was arrested. “Of course, the arrest was invalid, and the charges were ultimately dismissed, because fortunately he had a videotape of the police acting in excess of their authority,” Bender says. “But it’s generally better to avoid the confrontation if you can.” In Oakland, California, retired KGO-TV videographer Doug Laughlin was outside Highland Hospital on March 21, 2009, to cover the aftermath of the single deadliest day for the Oakland police department. A total of four Oakland police ofcers had been shot to death in two separate incidents. When he tried to flm the arrival of an ambulance at the hospital, Laughlin says several ofcers attacked him and broke his

camera’s viewfnder when they knocked him against a parked car. Laughlin fled a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Te police are shown on Laughlin’s videotape cursing at him, shoving him away from the hospital, and threatening to arrest him, despite the fact that the videographer was on a public street flming a newsworthy event. Finally, the police put up yellow crime-scene tape to keep Laughlin away from the hospital. Laughlin’s lawsuit asks for unspecifed damages and an injunction to prevent the police from violating the First Amendment rights of journalists. “Te public has a right to be informed and for its journalists to report the news,” said Charles Bourdon, one of Laughlin’s attorneys. “Mr. Laughlin was doing his job to present a newsworthy event to the public and was not at any time interfering with the legitimate actions of the police.” What would you have done as a videographer? What might you have done as a member of the police whose comrades had been killed? In the heat of the moment, constitutional rights are not necessarily going to be foremost in the minds of police or reporters. Of course, law enforcement and emergency services personnel have the right to make sure their work can go on without interference. In normal situations, newsgathering activities such as making images and asking questions are not seen as interference. But if newsgathering hinders the work being carried out or threatens to compromise an investigation, ofcials are allowed to restrict it. Once you have been ordered to stop shooting or to move back, and you refuse, you can be arrested for disorderly conduct or for interfering with a police ofcer’s performance of duty—possible felony charges. While you can be ordered to move back you cannot be ordered to stop recording, according to Mickey Osterreicher, lawyer for the National Press Photographers Association. In all cases, says Bender, don’t try to argue your case with the police ofcer or other ofcial. Take a step back, he says, call the organization you are working for, if any, and above all, do not physically interfere with any law enforcement or emergency services personnel. Try not to let adrenaline and your independent spirit interfere with your good judgment.

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 Inside a Courtroom. You can shoot video inside a courtroom with the permission of the judge. (Photo by John Burgess, Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

 Inside a Courtroom. Accused of bending over to bear it all during their show, exotic dancers demonstrated for the judge that their underwear covered up anything “illegal.” Photos and video are now possible in most courtrooms. The photographer in this instance got a tip that an interesting performance might take place in court. (Photo by Jim Damaske)

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Public Buildings Although the First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, freedom of access for photojournalists is not protected. Federal, state, and local governments have rules about where you can shoot and where you cannot—even in what are clearly public buildings. If you are planning to shoot in a public building—including government buildings, schools, courtrooms, hospitals, and jails—make sure you check with someone in authority frst so that you know the rules.

Freedom Tracker Database of Press Freedom Incidents in the US. https://pressfreedomtracker.us

Public Assembly Media Access Statute Te State of California added special protections for journalists reporting on demonstrations and marches in California. Tis followed a signifcant increase in arrests and police assaults on journalists in the course of George Floyd and Black Lives Matters protests. California recognizes three distinct rights aforded “a duly authorized representative of any news service” (online service, newspaper, radio, television station, or network). Legislative history indicates that a “duly authorized news representative” includes not only journalist with established press credentials, but also freelancers on assignment holding a letter, badge or business card evidencing their credentials as a journalist. It also means that anyone with an ID issued by press trade groups such as Los Angeles Press Club or National Press Photographers Association, or accredited secondary school, community college, university, or college news organization should be considered a news representative. •

•

•

First, the statute expressly allows the accredited journalist the right to enter areas otherwise closed to the public for a police command post, police line, or rolling closure at demonstrations, marches, and protests. Secondly, it expressly bars police from intentionally assaulting, interfering with, obstructing, or arresting such journalists for failure to disperse or interfering with law enforcement if the journalist is solely gathering, receiving, or processing information. Tirdly, it bars police from citing journalists for failure to disperse, violating, or interfering with law enforcement if the journalist is solely gathering, receiving, or processing information.

 Press credentials  provide identifcation but do not supply any special legal rights (© Wide World Photos)

 All media have equal rights to cover an event.

Privately Owned Places Trespass law prevents you or anyone else from going uninvited into a person’s private property, which generally includes a person’s house, apartment, yard, car, and any of their possessions. Tere is no First Amendment defense to a charge of trespass, says Bender. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a videojournalist, professional still photographer, or newspaper reporter. If the owner asks you to leave private property, you must comply. A person can ask you to leave even if a news event like a fre or accident is occurring on his or her property. However, if you remain on public property, such as a sidewalk, you can train your camera lens on anything in plain view, including people on private property. Tis includes people standing in the yard of their home, sitting on their porch, or even standing inside behind a picture window. As long as they are in “plain view”— that is, visible from the street or sidewalk—they are fair game as subjects for your camera. By putting themselves in places where they can be seen by the public, these people have given up what the U.S. Supreme Court in Katz v. United States (1967) considered a “reasonable” expectation of privacy. Chapter 18 Staying within the Law

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WHERE AND WHEN A VIDEOJOURNALIST CAN SHOOT ANYTIME PUBLIC AREA Street Sidewalk Airport Beach Park Zoo Train Station Bus Station IN PUBLIC SCHOOL Preschool Grade School High School University Campus Class in Session

IF NO ONE OBJECTS

WITH RESTRICTIONS

X X X X X X X X X X X X X

IN PUBLIC AREA—WITH RESTRICTIONS Police Headquarters Government Buildings Courtroom Prisons Military Bases Legislative Chambers

X X X X X X

IN MEDICAL FACILITIES Hospital Rehab Center Emergency Van Mental Health Center Doctor’s Ofce Clinic PRIVATE BUT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Movie Theater Lobby Business Ofce Hotel Lobby Restaurant Casino Museum Shopping Mall Store in Mall

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

PRIVATE AREAS VISIBLE TO THE PUBLIC Window of Home X Porch X Lawn X IN PRIVATE Home Porch Lawn Apartment Hotel Room Car

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X X X X X X

Reporters Go Undercover Two ABC reporters committed trespass in a case involving the grocery chain Food Lion. In the spring of 1992, the reporters went undercover and got jobs at two Food Lion stores—one in South Carolina, the other in North Carolina— to secretly videotape with miniature cameras unwholesome food-handling practices. Some of the shocking, newsworthy footage was broadcast, airing on the ABC program Prime Time Live. Food Lion sued, but instead of alleging defamation—that is, that the footage was unfairly embarrassing—the company said ABC had committed fraud, breach of duty of loyalty, trespass, and unfair trade practices in gathering the video footage. Food Lion said the reporters had lied to get their jobs working at the grocery stores. Te U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the ABC reporters were guilty of trespass and breach of duty of loyalty. How could they be convicted of trespass? As Food Lion employees, weren’t they authorized to enter the company’s premises? Te court found that in secretly videotaping while on the premises, the reporters committed “a wrongful act.” In other words, Food Lion had hired the two to work in the grocery store, not to take surreptitious videos. Te court brushed aside ABC’s First Amendment claim, saying, “We are convinced that the media can do its important job efectively without resort to the commission of run-of-the-mill torts.”

Videojournalists Take to the Sky Using Drones Use of drones for recreation and commercial purposes, including journalism, are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration and state laws. Te current FAA regulations, Part 107 of the Small Unmanned Aircraft Rule (https:// www.faa.gov/newsroom/part-107-summary) provide that if you are using a drone in conjunction with your reporting work, you are subject to the following Rules: •

• •

•

Register your UAV with the FAA on the FAADroneZone website. [Failure to register can result in fnes of $27,000 to $250,000 in civil and criminal penalties] Your UAV must weigh less than 55 pounds, including payload, at takeof. You must fy in Class G airspace. [Unless you have a permit to fy in controlled airspace] You must keep your UAV within visual line-of-sight.

• • • •

You must fy at or below 400 feet. You must fy at or under 100 mph. You must yield the right of way to manned aircrafts. You cannot fy from a moving vehicle, unless in a sparsely populated area.

Since these Rules were updated in 2016, there has been an explosion in retail drone sales from 2 million in 2015 to 7.8 million in 2020 as drones technology and capabilities expanded signifcantly. Walmart now ofers a drone with a 15-mile capacity! However, while drones become more ubiquitous, more states are looking to pass laws limiting commercial use of drones and in many cases criminalizing “surveillance.” Tis is an area of law where the freedom of the press is in direct contravention of privacy rights discussed in the next section. Almost half the states have passed such laws, and more are in the ofng. Barbara Streisand, the celebrity singer and actor, unsuccessfully sued photographer Kenneth Adelman for invasion of her privacy for taking aerial photographs including her Malibu home. Adelman was working for the California Coastal Records Project. California legislature passed one of the most restrictive drone statutes. A person is liable for constructive invasion of privacy when they attempt to capture, in a manner that is ofensive to a reasonable person, any type of visual image, sound recording, or other physical impression of the plaintif engaging in a private, personal, or familial activity, through the use of any device … [that] enters onto the land or into the airspace above the land of another person without permission.

 Barbara Streisand, the celebrity singer, sued a photographer for taking a picture of her California beach house from the air.

 A Photo of Streisand’s Beach Front Property. The lawsuit triggered a restrictive drone law passed by the California legislature.

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Because many states are amending their current statutes to signifcantly limit the use of drones privately and commercially, you will want to check the laws of any state in which you contemplate use of a drone for reporting purposes. Drone laws in each state can be tracked at the following link: https://www.fndlaw.com/ consumer/consumer-transactions/drone-lawsby-state.html

At the Invitation of Police or Fire Ofcials Can police or fre ofcials invite a journalist onto private property as part of the routine conduct of their duties? In the aftermath of a house fre in Jacksonville, Florida, that killed 17-year-old Cindy Fletcher, members of the press were invited to enter the Fletcher home by a police sergeant and the fre marshal. Florida Times-Union newspaper photographer Bill Cranford was asked to help by taking pictures that could be used to investigate the fre—the fre marshal had apparently run out of flm. Cindy’s mother, Klenna Ann Fletcher, was away at the time, but when she opened the next day’s edition of the TimesUnion, she saw a gruesome photograph showing the silhouette of her daughter’s body, burned into the scorched foor of her home. Fletcher sued the Florida Publishing Company, which owned the Times-Union.

Among the legal issues at trial were these: • •

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Can members of the press enter private property during a newsworthy situation? Do police and emergency services personnel have the right to invite a journalist onto private property? Which is more important, the public’s right to know, or a private individual’s right to be free from trespass and intrusion?

Te Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Florida Publishing Company, saying that it was customary for photographers to accompany police and frefghters onto private property to cover newsworthy events. In addition, the homeowner was away, and no one asked the press to leave. Finally, the journalists did not force their way onto the property and caused no damage. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court let the ruling stand when it refused to review the case. However, according to the Legal Handbook for Photographers by Bert Krages, the Florida case seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Most courts have ruled that government ofcials do not have the right to invite members of the news media onto private property without the owner’s permission. And in 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court took a dim view of so-called “ride-alongs,” saying that law-enforcement agents who invite journalists to accompany them when they enter private property in the line of duty run afoul of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against illegal search and seizure. Te court fnding suggests that inviting a journalist to accompany a cop could nullify an otherwise legal arrest.

 Invited by the Authorities into a Private Home. In the aftermath of a house fre that killed a young girl, a Florida TimesUnion news photographer was invited to enter the home by a police sergeant and the fre marshal. After the picture was published, the girl’s mother sued, raising numbers of legal issues. (Photo by Bill Cranford, Florida Times-Union)

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 Jackie Kennedy Onassis, widow of President John Kennedy, sued Ron Galella, a self-styled paparazzi photographer, for harassment and won. The court eventually restricted Galella from taking pictures within 25 feet of Onassis.

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Private Property Open to the Public What about flming on private property that is normally open to the public, such as a restaurant or a shopping mall? Te rules in this situation are not clear. Does the management need to post a sign saying that photography and videography are prohibited? Can you legally shoot unless someone in authority tells you to stop? In a 1978 case from New York, Le Mistral Inc. v. CBS, a television news team entered Le Mistral restaurant, cameras rolling, to flm an investigative piece on health-code violations by a number of restaurants. Te Supreme Court of New York ruled that the journalists and CBS were guilty of trespass. Why?

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First, the manager of the restaurant ordered the news team to leave, and they did not comply. Second, the news team had no intention of dining at the restaurant, which was the purpose of its being open to the public. Tird, the news team was disruptive to the ordinary business of the restaurant, particularly by using bright lights for flming purposes. And fnally, patrons of the restaurant had no obligation to be on television. In fact, many left the restaurant, hid their faces behind napkins and tablecloths, or ducked under a table. Te court rejected the network’s First Amendment defense and said the First Amendment’s guarantees do not override all other rights.

 After Marlon Brando broke the jaw of the photographer Ron Galella began wearing a football helmet for protection whenever he snapped pictures of the actor. (Photo by Paul Schmulbach)

Large shopping malls often serve the function of a traditional Main Street or town square where people meet, converse, window shop, and even exercise. Tese malls often have special events such as art shows, plant exhibits, concerts, and holiday celebrations. Tus, it would seem that photography and videography in a mall’s walkways and courtyards should not be a problem. However, in some states, you still must obtain permission from the mall’s owners or management to flm on the premises. And you may also need permission from the people involved in the event you wish to photograph. Generally, the owner of the mall or their representative, such as the security police, can ask you to stop flming and you must obey their request.

They Can’t Take That Away from You Even though you may be asked to leave a particular location or to stop flming, all of the footage you shot prior to that moment is protected by the First Amendment’s prohibition against prior restraint—perhaps the amendment’s highest protection ensuring press freedom. In other words, no one can demand your camera, video camera, your MiniDV tape, or your memory card. In fact, anyone touching your camera, or your person, may have committed the crime of battery. You are free to publish and otherwise distribute the images you made while on private property. But bear in mind that you can be punished if the images are found to violate other laws—such as those involving privacy, defamation, or copyright.

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PRIVACY: THE RIGHT TO BE LEFT ALONE Te right to privacy is not mentioned in the Constitution, yet it is a fundamental right enjoyed by everyone in the United States. How did this come to be? Many legal scholars point to an article in the December 1890 Harvard Law Review (Vol. 4, No. 5) written by two alumnae of the law school, Louis D. Brandeis, who went on to become a renowned U.S. Supreme Court justice, and Samuel D. Warren. In what amounts to a tirade against the press and modern technology—such as half-tone reproduction of photographs at that time—the two lawyers proposed a right to be let alone—free from “the evil of invasion of privacy by the newspapers,” whether by news reporting, photography, or “any other modern device for recording or reproducing scenes or sounds.” Te two were particularly peeved by gossip columns that exposed the sex lives of the rich and famous—material apparently as irresistible in the Victorian era as today. Tus the “right to be let alone”—expressed in Brandeis’s 1928 dissent in Olmstead v. United States—began to make its way into the legal framework of our country, culminating in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which found a “right of privacy” in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action. “However, with the Court having overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, and the fact that the small number of the Supreme Court’s ‘decisional privacy’ cases concern reproductive and contraception rights, the privacy rights the Court previously found implied in the Constitution are greatly diminished,” according to Bo Bogatin of Bogatin, Corman and Gold, an intellectual property and First Amendment law frm. But what about the public’s right to know, and the right of the press to be free from all but the most necessary restraints? Tese rights are often at odds, as Brandeis and Warren knew when they wrote their seminal article.

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What Do Privacy Laws Protect? Privacy law has four main branches: intrusion, revelation of private facts, placing someone in a false light, and misappropriation of a person’s name or likeness. You can run afoul of privacy laws whether you are a still photographer or videojournalist. However, not every state recognizes all four branches of privacy law. Additionally, some states have enacted statutes regarding privacy to supplement the laws already recognized. Te best guide to privacy law is the Photographers’ Guide to Privacy, an online publication of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Te guide contains a primer on invasion of privacy, a state-by-state guide to case law, and nine ways to avoid invasion of privacy lawsuits.

Intrusion You may be liable for invasion of privacy if you intentionally take pictures or flm people in a place where they could reasonably expect to be free from media scrutiny, such as on private property and out of view of passersby. Tus, if you try to sneak into their home and photograph them inside without their knowledge or consent, you may have invaded their privacy.

Privacy from the Media? Private property is clearly of limits. But what about recording in other circumstances, where people might have an expectation, if not of complete privacy, at least of having their images and conversations shielded from the media? Ruth and Wayne Shulman, mother and son, were injured when their car veered of Interstate 10 in Riverside, California, fipped over into a drainage ditch, and trapped them inside. Two other family members were with them in the car. A rescue helicopter from Mercy Air was dispatched to the scene. On board was a videographer employed by Group W Productions, Inc. Te fight nurse working on the helicopter was wearing a wireless microphone. Te videographer flmed the couple’s rescue from their car,

the frst aid they received at the scene, and the medical attention given during the helicopter ride back to the hospital. A few months later, the rescue footage, combined with the audio, appeared as a nine-minute segment of the television documentary On Scene: Emergency Response. Te Shulmans sued for invasion of privacy—claiming both intrusion and unwanted publication of private facts. Te trial court ruled in favor of Group W Productions, Inc., citing the First Amendment. Te appeals court, however, reversed, and the case went to the California Supreme Court. In its ruling, the state’s highest court cited three main factors in ultimately concluding the broadcast was newsworthy. Te court considered the social value of the facts published, the extent to which the article intruded into private afairs, and whether the person voluntarily assumed a position of public notoriety. Since the broadcast was newsworthy as a matter of law, it could not be the basis for tort liability. However, the court

agreed with the couple’s intrusion claim. It had merit, the court said, because a rescue helicopter, like an ambulance or a hospital room, is a place where accident victims and patients have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Te court found “no law or custom” allowing the press to ride in ambulances or enter hospital rooms without the patient’s consent. Also, the audio recording itself may have constituted intrusion, because it transmitted conversations that the parties may reasonably have thought were private. Was recording aboard the helicopter and the recording of conversations “highly ofensive to a reasonable person”? Te court said a jury might well conclude it was: “Arguably, the last thing an injured accident victim should have to worry about while being pried from her wrecked car is that a television producer may be recording everything she says to medical personnel for the possible edifcation and entertainment of casual television viewers.”

 A Home (or a Hospital Room) Is a Person’s Castle. You can flm legally in a person’s home or a hospital room only with the permission of the homeowner or the patient. In her own home, a hospice patient who was dying of lung cancer gave the photographer permission to flm as the hospice nurse and the doctor stopped by for a visit. (Photo by Andrew Craft, Fayetteville Observer)

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 No Permission Needed.  A fre captain comforts a woman trapped beneath a pickup truck in which she had been riding. The photographer had the right to shoot this scene without asking permission because he was shooting while on public property. (Photo by Rick Roach, editor, Vacaville Reporter)

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No Permission Needed Note that nothing in this ruling prevents you from flming at an accident scene if you are on public property. You may also flm in a rescue helicopter, ambulance, or hospital room—provided you have the patient’s consent. Despite the obvious newsworthiness of a celebrity, however, the limit of press freedom was crossed more recently in the Hulk Hogan claim against Gawker Media for posting a sex tape of his online in 2012. In 2016, a Florida jury agreed with Hogan that his right to privacy had been violated by Gawker’s posting. He was awarded a $140 million judgment for his

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emotional distress from the leak, resulting in Gawker’s bankruptcy. Te issue is even more complicated in today’s social media world. In two recent mass shootings, the gunmen live broadcast their attacks: the New Zealand shooting on Facebook in 2019, and the Bufalo, New York shooting on Twitch in 2022. Even though Twitch was able to take down the video of the Bufalo shooting stream within minutes, that was time enough for the video to be shared elsewhere online. So far, the news media has not rebroadcast these video feeds despite their obvious newsworthiness.

However, there is a debate in the news media about whether its policy of not screening such footage is one reason that there are so many mass shootings. Some scholars argue that if the public was exposed to the horror involved, gun violence might be addressed by legislative organizations more aggressively. If people saw the carnage produced by the bullet of an AK 15 long gun as it tears through the body of its tenyear-old victim perhaps future mass shootings could be averted. Perhaps the families of victims of mass shootings would withhold their privacy claims, or such claims deemed subordinate to the rights to broadcast the truth, if broadcast of such imagery led to major gun reform. Privacy of employees in the workplace. Do employees in the workplace have a valid intrusion claim against an undercover reporter who secretly records them on both video and audio? In 1999, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of workers at a “telepsychic” hotline who were the subjects of an investigative report. Even though they knew their conversations could be overheard by their coworkers, the court ruled the employees had an “expectation of limited privacy” when it came to scrutiny by the press. Tus, in California, at least, privacy is not black and white, but tinged with shades of gray, according to Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar,

who wrote the court’s opinion in Sanders v. American Broadcasting Cos., Inc.: “Tere are degrees and nuances to societal recognition of our expectations of privacy: the fact the privacy one expects in a given setting is not complete or absolute does not render the expectation unreasonable as a matter of law.” Te judge was careful to state that the use of hidden cameras and microphones does not automatically violate the law. However, investigative journalists need to be wary, lest they fnd themselves and the organizations that employ them sued for invasion of privacy. To protect yourself, make sure you understand the privacy laws in the state where you work.

 For posting an online sex tape, wrestling star Hulk Hogan sued Gawker Media. Hogan won the suit putting the online site into bankruptcy and out of business.

 President Barack Obama in Aurora, Colorado visits a victim of a mass shooting in a movie theater. Should footage of mass shootings be shown using mass media?  (Photo by Peter Souza, White House)

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Private Facts

Criminal voyeurism statutes are related to invasion of privacy laws but are specifc to surreptitious surveillance and recordings of someone who has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Te laws specifcally restrict the broadcast, dissemination, publication, or selling of these recordings. According to an article in the Winter 2007 Penn State Law Review by Timothy J. Horstmann, 26 states have anti-voyeurism statutes designed to restrict photography and videography in certain places and under certain circumstances. What Horstmann calls “Peeping Tom” statutes target people who trespass onto private property or loiter nearby for the purpose of spying on, secretly flming, or audio recording the inhabitants. “Circumstances” statutes make it a crime to secretly flm or photograph any part of a person’s body—clothed or unclothed— regarding which the person had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and in a circumstance in which they would have a reasonable expectation of privacy. “Place” statutes criminalize secretly photographing and flming people—in full or partial nudity—in places accessible to the general public, such as restrooms, tanning salons, and changing rooms, in which a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Horstmann’s article “Protecting Traditional Privacy Rights in a Brave New Digital World: Te Treat Posed by Cellular Phone-Cameras and What States Should Do To Stop It” is specifcally about a repugnant practice called “upskirting,” in which voyeurs use cell-phone cameras to peak under the skirts of unsuspecting women in public places and then post the images to pornographic websites. For the purposes of his article, Horstmann used the term “upskirting” to include another obnoxious practice, known as “down blousing,” which requires a high vantage point. Not surprisingly, many states have found that their privacy laws are outdated when it comes to this sort of digital skullduggery, and some are scrambling to catch up. Te federal government has also taken steps to curb this disturbing practice, with the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act of 2004. Tis act makes it a crime to photograph, flm, or broadcast “a private area of an individual” without consent, provided the individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

If you publicly disclose information concerning the private life of another person, you may be liable for invasion of privacy. Te information would have to be highly ofensive to a reasonable person and not be of legitimate concern to the public. Photographers and videographers who flm newsworthy people and events from public property are generally shielded from a private-facts claim of invasion of privacy. If you somehow gained access to private property and flmed a politician having sex with his mistress, broadcasting the video on YouTube would be a private-facts invasion of privacy, says Jay Bender, an attorney and journalism professor. Also, you need to be very careful when photographing crime victims—especially victims of sexual crimes—and witnesses in court cases. Some courts have held, for example, that although a rape may be newsworthy, the identity of the victim is not.

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False Light Disclosing to the public information about a person that places them in a false light may make you liable for invasion of privacy. Te false light would have to be highly ofensive to a reasonable person. Also, you would have to have known the information was untrue and would place the other person in a false light or have known of the falsity but disclosed the information anyway. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a condensed or fctionalized story could expose a videojournalist to a claim of false light invasion of privacy, as could the use of generic stock footage that includes recognizable people. It’s usually not the photograph or video footage, however, that puts someone in a false light. But when you add words, either as headlines, captions, text, or voice-over narration and post it on social media, you may run into trouble. Not all states recognize an invasion of privacy claim for false light. In states that do, you can be liable even if you had the right to flm your subject—and even if your depiction of the person was not defamatory. How can this be? Te tort of false light takes into account psychological damage and considers the subject’s emotional state—did your depiction clash with a subject’s view of himself and cause him mental anguish?

Defamation, as we shall see later, concerns injury to reputation. A famous false light invasion of privacy case involved major league baseball player Warren Spahn. A fattering biography portrayed him as a hero during World War II, largely through made-up dialogue and fabricated incidents. In Spahn’s view, however, he was not a hero, just an ordinary soldier. Being called a hero in a book certainly did not damage Spahn’s reputation. But the portrayal was inconsistent with his view of himself and what had occurred to him during the war. So he sued in New York State for false light invasion of privacy and won. Although Spahn was a well-known personality, he could recover damages when his personality was fctionalized and then exploited for private gain. More often, false light claims are based upon objectionable treatment of the subject. Te Braun v. Larry Flynt case is a good example of one of these. Ms. Braun performed an act at an amusement park where she swam with a

pig. Larry Flynt obtained a picture of her with the pig. He published it in his magazine which featured naked women. Braun felt she had been falsely associated with the other woman in the magazine. She argued that she had been sexually exploited. A jury agreed and awarded Ms. Braun $55,000 on her false light claims.

Misappropriation Using someone else’s name or likeness for personal gain makes you liable for misappropriation invasion of privacy. What’s the logic behind this liability? First, how would you feel if your name or your image appeared in an advertisement for a product or service without your permission? And what if the ad were for something you detested? Second, if you are a famous person, you have probably invested a lot of time, energy, and perhaps money to create your unique identity. You own it—your identity is your property. No one can “borrow” it without your permission.

 The parents of this child claimed  that the combination of words and pictures implied that they were careless. The combination of the words and pictures placed them in a false light. When they sued the Saturday Evening Post, the court decided in the parents’ favor. Whether printed or broadcast, or distributed online, someone can sue over the words used in combination with visuals. (Reprinted from the Saturday Evening Post, ©1949, The Curtis Publishing Company)

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So, if you shoot a clip that contains the image of any identifable person. And you allow a video clip to be used to sell or endorse a product or service, you can be liable for damages—unless you have consent in the form of a model release signed by each person in the video. Te purpose of a model release is to protect you against liability for misappropriation invasion of privacy. If the use is primarily educational or informational such as a news broadcast, there is no misappropriation, so a model release is generally not needed. Usually, you need releases when shooting a documentary to receive errors and omissions insurance. Broadcast networks require this insurance before airing your documentary. When you are covering news these releases are not needed.

Advertising or Editorial Use? A shorthand way of referring to this distinction is to contrast “advertising” with “editorial” use. Advertising use would be a video segment that appears in a paid advertisement, such as you might see on the Internet or on television. Editorial use would be journalistic videos and multimedia pieces whose purpose is to inform or educate.

 Candid footage of friends enjoying a day in the park, shot originally for journalistic purposes,  cannot be used to advertise a particular soap brand that produces extra-large bubbles, without the explicit and signed permission of the subjects. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

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Note: Te legal test is not whether you have been paid for your work or whether your employer is out to make a proft. Some people mistakenly think that what matters is whether the use of the images is commercial or noncommercial. Newspapers, magazines, books, and journalistic websites are all commercial ventures—they need to be proftable in order to stay in business. But the editorial content of these publications is designed to provide news and information to the public. Paid advertisements contained within these publications, however, have a diferent goal—to sell a product or service. Releases needed or not? Consider the following hypothetical scenario. You are covering an environmental demonstration on a public street outside the corporate headquarters of British Petroleum, the company responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Do you need model releases for the people pictured in your shots if you want to post the video to a news organization’s website? Because this was a newsworthy event occurring on public property, and the use is for news and informational purposes, no releases are needed. During the flming, though, say you happened to capture images of several people

talking on their iPhones. Te marketing director for Apple Inc. sees the video, sends you an email, and ofers you a hefty chunk of change to use the footage in one of its upcoming ads to stress the company’s commitment to the environment. Do you need a model release? You bet. Same footage, same images, but now the purpose is to advertise a particular product. Because people have the right to control their name and likeness for trade or advertising purposes, you and Apple Inc. could be sued for misappropriation invasion of privacy if the footage is used without model releases.

DEFAMATION: DAMAGE TO REPUTATION At its most basic, defamation means harming the reputation of another person. Defamation is a tort, meaning if you defame someone, you may be liable for damages. Defamation that is printed or broadcast is called libel. Defamation that is spoken is called slander. Te confict between defamation and the First Amendment—holding someone liable for something they have said or written, despite the guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press—is what makes this area of media law so challenging. Suits for defamation give people a way to protect their reputations and clear their good names in situations where they may have no other recourse. But the threat of defamation suits can have a chilling efect on the news media, hindering their ability to act as the people’s watchdog and to protect our democracy.

Is the Person a Public or Private Figure? Te frst thing a court must decide in a defamation case is the status of the plaintif, that is, the person making the claim. If the person is deemed legally to be a “public ofcial” or a “public fgure,” there is almost no chance he or she will succeed in winning the case. Why?

 Although truth is an absolute defense for libel, and this picture was “true,” Mr. Burton sued when he saw what he looked like in a Camel cigarette ad. Burton had given permission for the ad, yet the court found publishing the picture was libelous.

Te answer comes from the New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court made it much more difcult for public ofcials to win a libel suit compared with other people. When the case frst went to trial in Alabama, the jury decided that L.B. Sullivan, an elected ofcial in Montgomery, had been defamed by an ad placed in the New York Times by a civil rights group and awarded him $500,000, a huge amount in the 1960s. Te Alabama Supreme Court upheld the verdict. However, in a historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan that if the person is a “public ofcial,” that person cannot be awarded damages for false and defamatory statements relating to ofcial conduct unless the public ofcial proves “actual malice.”

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What Is Actual Malice? According to the court fnding, a public ofcial must prove that the defamatory statement by the journalist was made “with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.” Although the ad contained factual errors, and the New York Times may have been negligent in not checking the facts, its conduct did not rise to the level of actual malice. Later U.S. Supreme Court rulings extended the actual malice test to defamation cases involving people deemed “public fgures.” Who is a public fgure? Te Court gave the following guidelines: someone can become a public fgure by playing a powerful or infuential role in society. Being caught up in newsworthy events can transform a private individual into a “limited purpose” public fgure. Similarly, a person can thrust himself into a controversial issue for the purpose of infuencing its outcome, thus also becoming a limited-purpose public fgure. In these cases, the Court said, people suing for defamation have the same almost insurmountable hurdle faced by public ofcials— proving that the defamatory statement published about them was a knowing or reckless falsity, and not just the result of careless reporting or sloppy journalism. Defenses to a Defamation Claim Truth is an absolute defense to a claim of defamation. If what you present in your video or multimedia piece is a truthful representation of what your subject said or did, then you cannot be successfully prosecuted for defamation. And in many jurisdictions, if your reporting captures the essence of the story truthfully, you will be forgiven minor, inconsequential errors of fact. Tis is called the “substantial truth doctrine.” Be an excellent journalist. To protect yourself, be an excellent journalist and adhere to the highest standards of truthful, unbiased reporting. Be extremely careful with identifcations. Are you absolutely sure you’ve gotten the correct name, spelled correctly, with the correct middle initial (to help avoid confusion with another person with the same name)? Be especially scrupulous when your reporting involves people accused of a crime or other form of misconduct.

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Check and recheck your voice-over script to avoid any legal hassles later. Take nothing for granted. Take nothing for granted, especially from “ofcial” sources. How do you know the person giving you the information has gotten it right? Is your source reliable? Confrm the information you’ve obtained with your subject, or at least try to do so. Avoid making unsubstantiated conclusions. Let the facts speak for themselves. You are responsible for the accuracy of not just your own words spoken on camera or in a voice-over narration, but also for the words of anyone you have interviewed.

Other Common Defenses Additionally, there are other common defenses to defamation. Statements made in judicial, legislative, and administrative proceedings are privileged, which means they are defamation-proof. Similarly, your coverage of public bodies, such as the county board of supervisors, is generally protected. And anyone with an already damaged reputation will have a hard time claiming defamation. If your video is an opinion-based piece—a condemnation of a particular environmental abuse, for example—you may be forgiven if you use extra emphasis in your voice-over narration, because most people will interpret it in context. Finally, if you are threatened with a libel suit, most states have laws allowing you to publish a retraction within a limited amount of time following notice of the defamation claim—and this may end the legal proceeding against you.

Defamation Issues with Text, Narration, and Music Defamation concerns can certainly arise once you marry images with text, voice-over narration, music, and other audio tracks. Let’s say you are doing a video documentary on the club scene in your hometown. You prowl the streets after dark, getting colorful footage of people hanging out in front of bars and restaurants, strolling arm in arm, enjoying themselves. You get permission to flm a few bands on stage and people dancing to the music. Edited, titled, and mixed with some

interviews and natural sound, you’ve got yourself a nice little slice-of-life feature story. Now let’s take the same video footage, but we’ll jazz it up a bit for more impact. “Cruising Main Street, U.S.A.” will be our title. A voiceover narration will introduce the story. We see a shot of couples strolling down the street, while the narrator says, “Prostitution is on the rise in small-town America, and police are helpless to stop it.” Cut to a shot of several young women hanging out in front of a bar. Fade up music: Roy Orbison singing “Pretty Woman.” Next shot: a group of guys walking by. Music changes to the theme from Jaws. Suddenly your nice little feature becomes an ominous undercover exposé of a crime-ridden section of town. Changing the Meaning Clearly, text, narration, music, and other audio can completely change the meaning of images. Tey can push your truthful documentary over the line and make it potentially defamatory. Not that you ever said the women in the shot were prostitutes and the men were johns—but taken as a whole, that was the implication. Your only defense? Tat these implications are actually true. You would have needed solid evidence that the guys and gals were exchanging sex for money. Admittedly this is an exaggerated example. But when you consider how easy it is to edit video and mix in various audio tracks, you can appreciate the caution needed to make sure that you are presenting a truthful picture, not one that could be interpreted as defamatory.

Defamation Issues with Editing Are there defamation issues that can arise when you set up shots or combine scenes shot at different times? Yes, says attorney and journalism professor Jay Bender. If you combine footage shot at diferent times and in diferent places to give the impression that the action was happening at the same time in a single location, the resulting falsehood could be defamatory if it injures someone’s reputation. But I was just on vacation. Bender uses the hypothetical example of someone flmed in front of a hotel in the Bahamas—stock footage that

later shows up in a documentary on the Mafa’s control of gambling in the Caribbean. Te person has no connection to the story, yet the documentary makes it look as though he is involved with the Mafa or with gambling. Clearly, that falsehood could be injurious to his reputation. Let’s just move a few things around to get a better shot. What about setting up a shot to illustrate your story? Bender describes a libel case involving a newspaper photographer who was assigned to illustrate a story about drinking alcohol in public parks. Te photographer found a group of young people in a public park and asked them to sit on a picnic table. Te photographer had collected beer cans from around the park and put them in front of the picnic table. Bender says the photographer had envisioned a photo illustration in which the young people would not be identifable. Unfortunately, the newspaper ran the photograph without any modifcation, and everyone pictured was clearly recognizable. What’s worse, says Bender, is that the young people were part of a Sunday school class having a picnic in the park. Were the photographer and his newspaper at fault? Certainly, Bender says. “Where you juxtapose diferent images and diferent scenes and sounds to create an impression that’s not the reality, you’re exposed to a libel claim.” To avoid the problem of combining elements that seem to show someone in an unfattering light, avoid setting up situations under any circumstances. Tis principle will protect you from both the legal and the ethical quagmire of staging shots (See Chapter 17 “Facing Ethical Dilemmas” for more on staging).

Model Release Is No Protection Against Defamation Would model releases from the Sunday school picnickers have protected the photographer and his newspaper? No. A model release protects you against a claim of misappropriation invasion of privacy. Having releases won’t help if you broadcast footage that contains falsehoods damaging to any of your subjects’ reputations.

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COPYRIGHT: WHO OWNS YOUR WORK?

 Aftermath of a Tsunami. This photo was taken after a tsunami hit Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The tsunami killed 230,000 people worldwide. If the photographer had been working for a media company when he recorded the scene, the publication would own the copyright to the image. In this case, the photojournalist was a freelancer and therefore owns the copyright to the image. (Photo by Ken Kobré)

Tere are many misconceptions about copyright—about what it does and does not protect. Creative professionals who are in business for themselves depend on copyright law for protection. Without it, they could be stripped of the ownership of their intellectual property and the prospect of ongoing income from their video, music, photograph, etc. Protecting the creative work of individuals was seen by the framers of the Constitution as so important that they enshrined it in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which details the powers of Congress: “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

What Work Is Eligible for Copyright Protection? In order to be eligible for copyright protection, a work has to be fxed in an original, tangible form of expression. In other words, a photograph or a video is eligible for copyright protection, but your idea for a video documentary project is

not—at least not until you write the script or prepare a storyboard. Te moment you hit the “record” button on your video camera and flm a scene, you have created a work that is copyrighted. You own the copyright of the work; it is a form of property called “intellectual property.” You don’t have to do anything to copyright the work. When it’s created, it’s copyrighted. (But there are things you have to do to reap the full benefts of the law if your copyright is infringed, or violated, as you will learn later.)

The Benefts of Copyright Ownership So what does owning copyright of a work allow you to do? Let’s use the example of a short video documentary. You have the right to reproduce the work. You can distribute the documentary to the public, either by sale, transfer of ownership, or some form of licensing; you can also give it away for free or broadcast it on cable TV. You can broadcast your documentary on the Internet or show it at a flm festival. You can create what is known legally as a “derivative work” based on your documentary, such as a magazine article or blog using the material you gathered through researching and interviewing.

No restrictions on your rights. Notice that copyright law places almost no restrictions on what you can do with your work. You can sell it, give it away, lock it up in a vault, or make it available to anyone who wants it. You can leave the copyright to your work to your heirs, just as with other forms of personal property. About the only restriction is that if you transfer exclusive rights to your work to someone, the transfer must be in writing.

Employee or Independent Contractor? If you are an employee, and your regular duties of employment include photography or videography, your employer owns the copyright to everything you shoot. Tis is called “a work made for hire.” But let’s be clear—this has to be regular, full-time employment for which you receive a paycheck with deductions for Social Security, Medicare, and other benefts. And photography or videography must be in your job description. If you are a newspaper staf photographer, the paper owns all your images—still and video. But if you are an online reporter and videography is not one of your regular duties, the footage your shoot may be yours, not the online site’s, even though the online site may have a right to use it based on the terms of your original employment agreement. If you are an independent contractor, which is the status most freelance creative professionals fall under, you own the copyright to all your work—even if your client pays all your expenses or provides you with equipment. Te only exception is if you sign a “work for hire” agreement, giving up your copyright. Tis distinction between employee and independent contractor is crucial in determining who owns the copyright.

Other Examples of Work for Hire Even as an independent contractor, you can be stripped of your copyright if you sign a “work for hire” agreement. Te key word here is “sign.”

A work for hire agreement is a contract signed by both you and your client before work starts. Remember, you don’t have to sign the contract as it was handed to you. You can ask the client to change the contract language that gives the buyer (client) the right to use the footage in specifed situations but lets you keep the copyright. Ask yourself if you would have any other use of the footage. If you do have other potential outlets for the footage you can bargain with your client. You can allow the client the right to use the footage in any manner they need in exchange for lowering your price for undertaking the work and retaining the copyright.

Copyright Notice Although no longer required by law to secure your copyright, it is still recommended that all works you create and distribute contain a copyright notice. A proper copyright notice contains three elements: the symbol ©, or the word “Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.”; the year of frst publication of the work, using the copyright law’s defnition of “publication”; and your name. Tus, a proper copyright notice looks like this: © 2011 David Weintraub.

How Long Does Copyright Protection Last? In most cases, your work is protected from the moment it is created until 70 years after your death. Tis means that you never have to worry about seeing your work fall into the public domain, where anyone can do whatever they want with it. Also, the life-plus-70-years formula ensures that you and a few generations of your heirs are entitled to any income produced by the work. In the case of work for hire, the copyright lasts for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. In the case of work for hire, it is typically a corporate owner that receives the longer copyright protection lasting for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

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 Passover Preparation. Ultraorthodox Jews in Jerusalem receive food before Passover. If you shot the scene as a freelancer, you own the copyright. You can sell the video, post it on the Internet, show it at flm festivals, or do nothing with it. If you were working as an employee and shot the scene as part of your regular work assignment, your employer would own the copyright.  (© 2010 Photo by Ken Kobré)

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Copyright Registration Copyright registration involves flling out some simple paperwork, depositing a copy of your work with the U.S. Copyright Ofce, and paying a modest fee. Online registration is greatly favored, taking less time and for a lesser fee. You can register multiple unpublished works at the same time for a single fee. Although it is not necessary to register copyright in your work, registration has several advantages, including establishing a public record of your copyright. Te most important advantage, however, involves what happens if your copyright is infringed—meaning someone has used your work without your permission—and you wind up in court. If you have registered your work in a timely manner and win your case, you are entitled

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to what the law calls “statutory damages” and recovery of your attorney’s fees. Statutory damages for willful infringement can be as high as $150,000 per infringement, although this certainly doesn’t mean every award will be that much. If you didn’t bother to register, or missed the deadline, all you can recover are “actual damages” and profts of the infringer, which often will not be enough to pay your legal fees which will be out-of-pocket. Remember, although your work is copyrighted from the moment it is created, registration is what puts the real teeth in the copyright law and protects intellectual property. Given the risks of having to pay large statutory damages and your attorney’s fees and court costs, it is much more likely that an infringement claim will be settled without the necessity of a lawsuit.

Creative Commons License Te Creative Commons copyright license gives you a way to share your work inside the traditional “all rights reserved” standard that copyright law creates. Te Creative Commons tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work, often just for name credit to the original author creator. Tere is a vast and growing digital commons, a pool of content that can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law. Check it out.

WHEN CAN YOU USE OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK IN YOUR FILM? What about looking at copyright law from the point of view of the user, rather than the creator—do you always need copyright owners’ permission to reproduce their work? Surprisingly, the answer is no. Te copyright law has carved out a narrow limitation to protect certain kinds of activities that otherwise could not fourish. Te Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission for very specifc purposes. Among these are criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research, and parody. People engaged in these activities often need to use someone else’s work without their permission, in order to do their work fairly and impartially.

 Creative Commons is an online licensing system  that enables photographers to give advance permission for others who fnd the images online to use them free of charge. The permission to use an image is attached to the photograph itself. To apply the Creative Commons license to an image, go to creativecommons.org which will guide you through licensing choices, and then add the Creative Commons URL to your credit line on the image on your website or other online sharing platforms.

Share Your WorkCreative using Commons Licenses and Tools.

 Original Vanity Fair Cover. The copyrighted Annie Leibovitz cover image is used here for informational and educational purposes only. The image is iconic as a magazine cover featuring a notable actress in the nude while pregnant, and it engendered fame for both the actress and the magazine. (Photo by Annie Leibovitz, Vanity Fair)  Movie Poster Parody. Demi Moore’s appearance nude on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine while seven months pregnant spawned imitators such as this poster for the movie Naked Gun 331: The Final Insult with Leslie Nielsen in a parody of the Moore cover. The image used on the Vanity Fair cover, although copyrighted, could be recreated because no alternative to it could possibly exist to create the parody, which is a form of comment and criticism. Leibovitz, the creator of the original Demi Moore portrait, sued Paramount Pictures Corporation and lost.

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Let’s say you have a blog that comments on the current state of videojournalism as displayed on the Internet. Clearly, you need to be able to show examples of what you consider excellent videojournalism and poor videojournalism. What would happen to your blog if you needed to get permission from each copyright owner? Some might deny you permission to use any of their videos. Others might say, “Sure, why not?” And some might say, “You can only use the ones you consider excellent.” So much for your ability to be a fair and impartial media critic. Four tests for fair use. Copyright law has four tests to determine whether a particular use is fair: 1.

2. 3.

4.

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Te purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonproft educational purposes. Te nature of the copyrighted work. Te amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. Te efect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

Note that there is nothing here about number of words, lines, video frames, bars of music, or pixels, so forget everything you’ve ever heard about how much or how little you are allowed to copy. Here’s all that matters: is the type of activity you are engaged in primarily educational or commercial? Is the nature of work you are copying mainly factual, or is it a creative, imaginative work of art for which the creator expects a fnancial return? Have you grabbed the entire work or its most important part, or have you merely taken a small slice to use as an example? Has your use caused a drain on the copyright owner’s present or potential future income? If you take someone’s entire video and post it on your blog without an analysis or critique, that’s probably not fair use. If you use a sequence to illustrate a particular critique, you have a better chance of claiming fair use.

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Respecting the Copyrights of Others Clearly, copyright is one of the most valuable rights enjoyed by creators of original work. So, it is essential that you respect the copyrights of others, just as you expect other people to respect your copyright. Tis means no pirated software or music, no appropriation of other people’s work to include in your own, and no copying of other people’s words, graphics, pictures, or video. Check out U.S. Copyright Ofce Fair Use Index.

But Hasn’t Everything Been Shot Before by Someone Else? Now this doesn’t mean that your video of a cable car climbing Hyde Street in San Francisco with Alcatraz in the background constitutes infringement, just because someone else (probably thousands of other people, in fact) have shot the same scene. What matters is whether you willfully set out to copy another person’s creative work, as pop artist Jef Koons did when he made a life-sized wood sculpture based on a photograph taken by Art Rogers called “Puppies.” Koons, a famous artist, claimed that his artwork was a fair-use parody rather than an appropriation of another person’s work, but he lost in court. Te court found that because Koon’s sculpture did not “comment” on the original photograph but was supposed to be fne art, it was not fair-use parody. When in doubt, either get permission from the copyright owner or don’t copy. It’s as simple as that.

What about Stuf in the Background? Sometimes copyrighted work forms part of the background for the scene you are shooting. If you are flming a news interview in someone’s ofce, and there is a copyrighted photograph on the wall, do you need to get the photographer’s permission to include that part of the wall in your shot? Te artwork behind an interview subject is called “incidental and fortuitous reproduction” of a copyrighted work, and it is allowed under the fair-use limitation for news and other informational purposes. If you were flming an

advertisement or a feature flm, you would be wise to get the photographer’s permission or replace the photograph with one of your own. Similarly, if the photograph or other copyrighted work were the main element of your video, you might have a hard time claiming fair use. Many muralists have been known to make claims for infringement of their artwork as the intention backdrop for products being advertised. However, if you are reporting on the mural’s creation or their copyright infringement claim, your use of the mural in your report is allowed.

 Copyright Infringement. Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los Angeles-based street artist, this image has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay. Only when confronted with a lawsuit did the artist acknowledge that he had used an AP photograph as the basis for the poster. (Original photo by Mannie Garcia for AP; design by Shepard Fairey)

Unauthorized Use of Someone Else’s Work Attorney and journalism professor Jay Bender says his biggest concern about copyright is the unauthorized use of someone else’s work. “Te taking of someone else’s image and downloading it and using it as part of your work might ultimately be a derivative work for which a separate copyright could be obtained. But if you don’t have the license to use that work, you’re infringing the original copyright holder’s rights.” An example of this is the Obama Hope poster. “Te artist who created the poster has fnally acknowledged that he used an AP photograph as the basis for the poster,” Bender says. “Tat’s an infringement of AP’s copyright, and there’s been litigation over it.” Te Associated Press and Shepard Fairey, the artist, eventually settled. “In settling the lawsuit, the AP and Mr. Fairey have agreed that neither side surrenders its view of the law,” says a statement on the AP website. “Mr. Fairey has agreed that he will not use another AP photo in his work without obtaining a license from the AP. Te two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the Hope image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the Hope image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on AP photographs.” Not all infringement suits are likely to be settled as amicably. Bender says he is worried because many young people have grown up with the ability to download fles from the Internet and use them however they please, and they don’t see anything wrong with that. “Unfortunately, we’re training a generation of people to use technology to steal,” he says.

SUBPOENAS, WARRANTS, AND PROMISES OF CONFIDENTIALITY As a videojournalist, you may flm an event that is of interest to law enforcement. For example, you may be shooting a peaceful political protest when a small group of demonstrators decides to block trafc or destroy property. Te police move in and make arrests and you capture all the action with your camera and post your video online. Te next day, you receive a subpoena asking for all the footage you shot during the protest, not just the segment you made public. If you are subpoenaed or served with a search warrant, what should you do? First, consult with an attorney. If you are working for a news organization, make sure you discuss the subpoena or warrant with your editor. Above all, do not destroy any of the footage you shot. Tis may expose you to a citation for contempt of court or other serious legal problems. Also, be very careful when promising a subject that you will not reveal his or her identity. You should be prepared for a legal battle and possible jail time if you don’t keep your promise.

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Why Journalists Object to Subpoenas

“We’d Like to See All Your Film”

Some videojournalists fnd promising confdentiality to subjects necessary to get the story. Te First Amendment protects freedom of the press, and many journalists say the press cannot truly be free if reporters, photographers, and videographers are constantly under scrutiny by the government. Investigative reporting, which upholds the role of the press as the public’s watchdog, would be severely hampered without the ability to promise confdentiality to sources, some journalists claim. Also, trust in the press would be seriously eroded if the public believed that journalists worked hand in hand with law enforcement, routinely turning over unpublished material to further police investigations.

Documentary flmmaker Joe Berlinger made a flm in 2009 called Crude: Te Real Price of Oil, alleging Chevron played a role in polluting the Ecuadorian rainforests. Chevron and two of its executives subpoenaed all of Berlinger’s unused footage, claiming they needed the material to help with criminal and civil lawsuits in Ecuador and with an international treaty arbitration. Under U.S. law, federal courts can order the production of evidence needed for foreign cases. Berlinger claimed a First Amendment privilege not to provide Chevron with his unused footage—more than 600 hours. He also said he had promised some of his sources confdentiality and that turning over the unused footage would break that promise. In May 2010, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the District Court for the Southern District of New York agreed that flmmakers were indeed eligible for the qualifed privilege available to journalists under state law. But the judge also held that Chevron had a compelling need for the unused footage, and that Berlinger had not proved his confdentiality argument. Judge Kaplan briefy stayed his order to allow for an appeal. In July 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Berlinger had to turn over those parts of the unused footage that might help Chevron win its cases. To learn more about law and shooting a documentary video check out Gordon Firemark https://fremark. com/2022/10/21/legal-dos-and-donts-fordocumentary-flmmakers/

“We’d Like to See All Your Photographs” Photojournalist David Morse works for the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, or Indybay. On December 11, 2009, Morse covered a protest at the home of Robert J. Birgeneau, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. Dozens of people converged on Birgeneau’s home to protest budget cuts and a fee increase. Tey broke windows and lights and overturned planters; eight people were arrested by University of California police, including Morse, who was carrying an expired press pass but repeatedly identifed himself as a journalist. Te police then obtained a search warrant to view all of Morse’s photographs of the demonstration, never telling the judge who signed the warrant that Morse was a journalist. California has a shield law that prevents police from subpoenaing a journalist’s unpublished information, including photographs obtained in the course of newsgathering. In June 2010, an Alameda County Superior Court Judge said that the campus police had obtained Morse’s photographs illegally and ordered them returned.

 Crude: The Real Price of Oil. Images from documentary flmmaker Joe Berlinger’s video. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Berlinger must turn over those parts of the unused footage that might help Chevron, the oil company featured in the video, fght its cases. (Joe Berlinger, producer)

Gordon Firemark https://fremark. com/2022/10/21/legal-dosand-donts-for-documentaryflmmakers/

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 Emergildo Criollo, a leader from the Cofán indigenous community, testifes at the trial against Chevron in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador. From the flm Crude, directed and produced by Joe Berlinger. (Photo by David Gilbert)

 Cancer victim Maria Garofalo refected in the stream behind her home in the Ecuadorean Amazon. From the flm Crude, directed and produced by Joe Berlinger. (Photo by Juan Diego Pere)

No First Amendment Privilege Te U.S. Supreme Court in Branzburg v. Hayes (1972) refused to recognize a First Amendment privilege for journalists that would release them from the requirement—shared by all other citizens—to answer subpoenas and testify in court. Te Court did add that Congress could enact a federal shield law—as narrow or as broad as necessary—to protect journalists from having to disclose the identity of sources or to testify when subpoenaed. However, eforts to pass

such a law have repeatedly failed so far. Many states have shield laws of one form or another to protect journalists. For a state-by-state rundown of journalist shield laws, visit the Citizen Media Law Project (https://cyber.harvard.edu/research/ dmlp).

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 Bruce Gilbert Films in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Some museums require special permission to flm depending on the restrictions of the current exhibit. (Photo by Betsy Vliet)

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Index 60 Minutes 32, 155, 164, 234, 318 76 Days 30, 69 180-degree rule 206–207 360 cameras 96–97 915: Hunting Hispanics 37

A A Tousand Little Cuts 56 ABC News 335 absolutist set of rules 314, 316 action video cameras 94–95 action/reaction shots 186, 193–194 active voice 253 actors 317, 327, 329 Adams, Randall Dale 328 Adelman, Kenneth 351 advertising 362–363 AGC (automatic gain control) 168 Age of Uncertainty 55–6 Ahmad, Jassim 273 AI transcription programs 283–284 Al Jazeera 57, 74, 340 All Rights Reserved 309 “all rights reserved” 309, 369 All Tings Considered 165 Allred, Jefrey D. 248, 249 Alvarez, Barbara 333 Amazing Race, Te 8 ambient noise, checking 230 analogies 81–82, 258 Anatomy of a TV News Story 4, 243, 250, 253, 264 Andrews, Nancy 308 animals 42; ethics of flming wildlife 331–332 aperture 110–111 appeal, broad/niche 65 A-roll 195 artifcial intelligence 333, 341, see also deepfakes artifcial light 155–156, see also lighting equipment Ascher, Steven 338 aspect ratio 140, 140–141 assembly, as editing step 303 Associated Press 300, 335, 339, 371 audiences: controlling attention with depth of feld 112–113; eliciting emotion in 64

audio cross-fade 305 audio tools 167, see also microphones Aufderheide, Patricia 326, 328 Austin American-Statesman 336 authenticity see deepfakes; reenactments auto white balance 148 autofocus 107–109, 119; eye detection 108; face detection 108; failure of 109; for fast-moving situations 107; selecting the focus area 107; tracking 107–108 automatic gain control 178, 179 availability of characters 78 AVCHD 140 AVI 140

B backlighting 152–153 Barton, Farrell 317 batteries 137 Battle of the Blondes 216–217 Bauby, Jean-Dominique 192 Beckett, Tracy 287 beginning stories 268–274, 279, 280; delayed lead 273–274; humorous 271; immerse the viewer 272; importance of 268–269; powerful quote and shocking action 270–271; unanswered questions 271; “What the hell was that?” 272 Behrends, Rob 186 Bell, Martin 270 Bender, Jay 347, 349, 360, 365, 371 Bentham, Jeremy 314 Bergen, Wendy 330 Berglund, Lisa 2, 101, 171 Berlinger, Joe 372–373 Berry, Sean 169 Big Exit, Te 42 Black Lives Matter 349 Blass, Eileen 24–26 Blind Worker Sees with His Hands 117 Bostrom, Denise 245, 261 bottom lighting 160 Bourdain, Anthony 333 Bourdon, Charles 347 Bowling for Columbine 291 Boys of Christ Child House, Te 196 Brabant, Malcolm 293, 310–311

Bragg, Rick 278 Brandeis, Louis D. 356 Brando, Marlon 355 Brandon, Bob 317 Branzburg v. Hayes 373 Braun v. Larry Flynt 361 breaking news 36–38 Breckinridge, Mary Marvin 319 bribes 334 brightness see exposure Brill, Betsy 179, 214 Broekema, Tim 76 B-roll 195 Brook, Yoni 286 Brooklyn Bridge 295 Brooks, Ethan 15 Brown, Ernie 18–19 Brown, James W. 335 built-in mic 168–169 bulletin boards 52 Burgess, John 348 Burns, Ken 66–67, 295, 305 Burns efect 66 butterfy lighting 161

C Cairns, Kathleen 250, 262 camcorders 91 cameras: 360 cameras 96–97; action video cameras 94–95; built-in mic 168–169; camcorders 91; digital cine cameras 92; drones with cameras 98–100, 201; DSLR (digital single-lens refex) 89–90; exposure see exposure; focus see focus; frame rate 139–140; hidden 335; lenses see lenses; memory cards 136, 138–139; movements 209–210; moving for visual variety 199–213; panning/tilting 208–209; selecting 85–101; sensor size 86, 116; setting up 141; shooting angles 200–202; shoulder-mount video cameras 93; smart-phones 87–88, 169; speciality video cameras 94–100; stabilizing 131–135; starting and stopping 205; try before you buy 101; viewfnders 136 Candlelight Vigil for Teen Crash Victim 50 Capra, Frank 266

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Caring in Time: Emergency Medical Training in the Congo 31–32 Carrier of the Economy 38, 307 Chambers, Bruce 202 Chandra, Mridu 326, 328 character-driven stories 16–19 characters: availability of 78; best to represent story 79–80; experts 81; extroverts 78; fnding 76–78; introducing 254; motivation 14; nuanced 17; ofcials as lead subject 80; over-eager subjects 80; strong 17, 61–62; unforgettable 18–19; unique talent 16; use of to personalize an issue 16–17; voice of central 26–27; wanting change 15 Chen, Weixi 69 Chiu, Jef 201 Choosing Tomas 61 cinéma vérité 28–29 Circus Nuns: Tese Sisters Are No Act 44 Cision Survey 52 citizen journalists 323–324 Citizen Media Law Project 373 City Hall 29, 286 classifed ads 51 Climbing Sequoia Trees for Climate Change 53 clips: juxtaposing 336; labeling 252 close-up shots 186, 190–191, 194 codes of ethics 332 Cohen, Robert 276 colliding footage 206–207 Collin Rocks 16 Collingwood, Charles 319 color: altering 339; balance 147; white balance 147–50 commitment statement 73–76 common cuts 294 Common Ground 58–59 complication and resolution 13–15; character motivation 14; coming to a resolution 13; external/internal confict 13–14; protagonist wants change 15; signifcant problem 13 condenser microphones 170 confdentiality 371–372 confrontational interviews 228 Contreras, Evelio 78 Conway, Mike 320 cooperative subjects 61–62 copyright 366–369; benefts of 366–367; copyright notice 367; Creative Commons license 369; employee or independent contractor 366–367; length of protection 367; of others 370; registration 368; work eligible for protection 366

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Cornish, Tom 75 Costanza, Karl 2 Costas, Bob 218 courtrooms 348 Coyote, Peter 245 Craft, Andrew 5, 345, 357 Craigslist 51–52 Cranford, Bill 352 Creative Commons license 369 credit 308–309 Criollo, Emergildo 373 C-roll 195 cross-dissolves 299 Crossing the Cross-Country Finish Line 68 Crow, Maisie 6 Crude: Te Real Price of Oil 372–373 custom white balance 149–150 cutaways 208 cuts: common 294; cutaways 296; cutting an audio interview 298; cutting on action 294; fne cut 303; J cuts 297; jump cuts 206, 297; L cuts 297; parallel/cross-cutting 296; radio cuts 291–292, 303; rough cut 303 Cutting through the Competition 39–40

D Dail: Life Unbarred 272 Dalley, Nick 264 Damaske, Jim 348 darkness 115 Day, Aaron 288 day-in-the-life stories 24–26 de la Cruze, Ben 223 dead cats 175 Deadline Every Second 166, 235, 337 deadlines 65 death 23, 45 DeCandido, Robert 19 deepfakes 333–334, 341 defamation 361, 363–365; common defenses 364; and editing 365; malice 364; public or private fgures 363; and text, narration and music 364–365 Delozier, Dave 340 DeMille, Cecil B. 54, 66 Denied 17 depth of feld 112–117 DeSilva, Bruce 274 Detroit Free Press 282, 296, 308–309 digital cine cameras 92 digital zooms 130, 212 dip to black 299 direct cinema 28–30, 69 direct sunlight 151 dirty lens 153

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disasters 77–78 Diving Bell and the Butterfy, Te 192 Do What You Can’t 269 docudramas 328–329 Dogfght 330 dolly shots 209–210 Donaldson, Sam 331 Donovan, Ronan 331–332 Dooty Diva 43 Double Wave Productions 37 Downs, Bill 319 Dreamscape Media 37 Drew, Robert 28–29 Driver, Michael 158, 344 drones 98–100, 201, 351–352 DSLR cameras 89–90; hybrid 89; mirrorless 90 Duf, Craig 7, 14, 27, 69, 256, 264, 326, 333, 340 Durlach, Darren 78, 80, 318 Durso, Anthony 132 “Dutch-angle” 203 dynamic microphones 170

E Ebert, Robert 328 edge detection 105 editing 267–287; beginning stories 268–274, 279, 280; cutting see cuts; defamation 365; ending stories 274–277, 279, 281; ethical dilemmas 336–339; getting organized 278, 282–287; levels of “internal edits” 298; nondestructive 277; radio cuts 291–292, 303; screen direction 298; sequence-by-sequence edits 291, 292–293, 303; Seven Boxes method 278–281; transitions 197, 299–300; two approaches to 290–293; video-editing software 277; workfow 289–311 Eisenstein, Sergei 304 electronic viewfnders 136 Else, Jon 334 ending stories 274–277, 279, 281; punchlines 276–277; three essentials 274–275 ESPN Just Made Drone Racing a Mainstream Sport 65 Estrin, James 339 ethical dilemmas 313–341; and audio 335, 337–338, 340–341; deepfakes 333–334; in documentary flmmaking 324–329; and editing 336–339; ethical decisionmaking 314–316; ethical test 341; ethical traps 334–335; fake news 332–333; in the “good old days” 317–319; impact of Edward R. Murrow 319–322; online videojournalism 323–324; reenactments

67, 322, 327–31; wildlife flming 331–332 Ewen, McKenna 40, 42, 44, 117, 131, 275, 290, 300 Ex Libris: Te New York Public Library 196 experts 81 exposure 110–119; auto-exposure 114, 118–119; controlling brightness with ISO 116; creative use of 117; darkness 115; depth of feld 112–117; manual 110–111; overexposure 117; shutter speed 118 Extreme Couponers 217 extroverts 78 eye autofocus detection 108 eyelines 235, 238

F face autofocus detection 108 Fairey, Shepard 371 fair/unbiased journalism 80–82 fake news 332–333 Farkas, Ray 175 Fay, J. Michael 63 feature-length 286 Federal Aviation Administration 351 feedback 304 Feldstein, Mark 228 feld music 300 fll lighting 152–153 Filmic Pro 87, 88 Final Cut Express 168 fne cut 303 First Amendment privilege 344, 346–347, 349, 354, 363, 373 fve-shot formula 186–194 Flaherty, Robert J. 324–326 fat-panel LED lights 158 Fleck, Mike 16 foodlights 160 Floyd, George 349 Flynt, Larry 361 focus 103–109; autofocus 107–109, 119; focus assist magnifer 105; manual 104, 109; manual focusing aids 104–105; rack focus 106 focus assist magnifer 105 Forty Years of Respect 308–309 Four Sisters on Top-Ranked Basketball Team, and Tat’s Not the Best Part of the Story 9 Four Stories on Healthcare 57 Fox, Tom 342 Fox, Travis 24, 66, 76, 118, 175, 186, 252, 323, 328 frame rate 139, 139–140 framing individual shots 203–204

framing the interview 234–235, 238 Franklin, Jon 13 Freytag’s Pyramid 11 Friedman, Tobar 310 Friendly, Fred 319 front lighting 161 Frontline 26–27, 28, 66, 186, 271 Frost, David 228 Frost/Nixon 228 future, challenges of flming 69

G Galella, Ron 354, 355 Garcia, Alexandra 77–78, 300 Garofalo, Maria 373 Gates, Robert 320 Gawker 358 general profle 16 Ghost Bikes 15, 23 gifts 334 Gilbert, Bruce 374 gimbals 210–211 Gimme Shelter 29 Glass, Ira 52, 306 Goheen, John 174–175, 178, 193, 202 Goheen, Josh 104, 105 Going Down in History 52 Golden Rule 314, 316 GoPro 94–95 Grant, Oscar 346 Green, Bill 233 Green, Kyle 43 Greene, Robert 326 Grey Gardens 29 Gross, Terry 218 Grossman, Djamila 216

H “Hail Mary” shots 201 Halstead, Dirck 164 Hamra, Khali 166 handheld audio recorders 167, 167–168 handheld stabilizers 134 handle for dissolves 299 Hansen, Chris 263 Harris, Shayla 217 Harte, John 315 Hartman, Steve 319, 322 Harvest of Shame 319, 320 Has Firestone Liberia Gone Far Enough in Workplace Reforms? 82 Hawks, Tomas 346 headlines 76 headphone socket 169 headphones 176 Hebert, Sonya 45, 61

Heist, Stanley 153, 240, 250, 262, 263, 337, 339 Herbst, Anne 46, 156, 174, 232, 233, 271, 272, 286 Hewitt, John 175, 189, 246, 286, 293 hidden cameras 335 Hogan, Hulk 358, 359 horizontal video 197 Horstmann, Timothy J. 360 Hottelet, Richard C. 319 How a Brooklyn Sneaker Head Turned Her Passion into a Business 280–281 Hsu, Warren 205 human interest 38 humor 43, 271 Hungry: Living with Prader–Willi Syndrome 6, 12, 14 Huppert, Boyd 9, 16, 44–45, 67, 68, 74–75, 174, 251, 254, 260, 261, 264–265, 285–286 hybrid DSLR cameras 90

I In Event of Moon Disaster 334 inciting incidents 15 Indianapolis Indy’s Original Twitter 165 Inside Look at Parkland, Fla School Shooting 36–37 interchangeable lenses 123 International Documentary Association 328 intertitles 302 interviews 215–239; after the interview 229–230, 251; audio logistics 230–232, 239; background research 218; cleaning up quotes 339; computer screen/ Zoom interviews 237–239; conducting 225–228; confrontational 228; cutting an audio interview 298; developing questions 222–224; diference between print and video interviews 228–229; factfnding 219–220; framing 234–235, 238; lighting 154–155, 225, 238; paying for 321–322, 334; planning 221–222; pre-interview checklist 219; pre-interview pros and cons 220–221; preparing for 239; transcribing 251, 283–284, 303; use of in story 218; video logistics 233–236 Irby, Kenny 319 Irizarry, Abade 346 Irizarry v. Yehia 349 Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma 63

J J cuts 297 Jamboard 72

Index

377

Jaszi, Peter 326, 328 Johnson, Gabe 220 Judy Jackson: Letting Go of Bobby 46 jump cuts 206, 297 Jury Finds ABC Network Committed Fraud in Food Lion Investigative Story 335

K Karvellas, Chris 374 Kashi, Ed 34 Katz v. United States 349 Kaufman, Brian 38, 86, 196, 284, 292, 307 Keaton, Buster 302 Kelley, Steve 6 Kennedy, John F. 323 Kennedy Onassis, Jackie 354 Kieliszewski, Kathy 308 Knowlton, John 16, 38, 219 Kobré, Ken 87, 101, 110, 115, 122, 124, 126, 145, 146, 149, 152, 153, 157, 176, 179, 181, 192, 193, 203, 204, 206, 207, 209, 228, 234, 246–247, 362, 366, 368 Komenich, Kim 181–182 Koons, Jef 370 Koplin, Michael 374 Krages, Bert 345, 352 Krasner, Larry 286 Krulwich, Robert 57

L L cuts 297 ladders 188 Lancaster, Kurt 14, 32 Land of 10,000 Stories 9 Landau, Robert 156, 327 Larson, John 254 Lau, Adam 125, 187 Laughlin, Doug 347 lavalier microphones 170, 174–175; attaching 174; combining with shotgun mic 173; plus wireless transmitter 171 LCD screens 136, 191 Le Mistral Inc. v. CBS 354 Leacock, Richard 28 Lee, Spike 286 legal issues 343–373; confdentiality 371–372; copyright 366–369; defamation 363–365; privacy 316, 356–363; subpoenas 371–372; trespass 344–356; using other people’s work 369–371; warrants 371–372 Leibovitz, Annie 369 length of stories 285–287 lens fare 153 lenses 120–141; dirty 153; interchangeable 123; moving for visual variety 199–213;

378

telephoto 128–129; types of 123–130; wide-angle 123–127, 190; zoom 130 Levy-Freed, Sharon 73 Li, Alice 77–78 light 142–161; artifcial 155–156; backlighting 152–153; darkness 115; direct sunlight 151; equipment see lighting equipment; indoor available light 154–155; natural light 154–155; time of day 144–146 Light Honthaner, Eve 308 lighting equipment 156–161; fat-panel LED lights 158; foodlights 160; moving the main light 160–161; ring lights 159; soft boxes 156–7; spotlights 160; umbrellas 158 Lin, Da 243, 245, 253, 262, 264 Living on the Brink: One Family’s Struggle to Survive the Pandemic 76 Livingston, Mary 73 Lo, Elizabeth 23 localizing large issues 38–39, 57 location sound recordist 177 Logan, Laura 32 Long, John 338 Long, Monica 216–217 Long, Travis 272 Lord’s Resistance Army Hunts Children in Sudan, Te 67, 191, 244 Los Angeles Times 51 Lyman, Will 28

M Macartney-Filgate, Terence 28 Macy, Beth 56, 59 Maierson, Eric 69 Making of Mojo: A Wrestler’s Quest for WWE Stardom, Te 275 Malat, Jonathan 16, 44–45 malice 364 Malmberg, Jef 285 manual exposure 110–111 manual focus 104, 109 manual focusing aids 104–105 Mark, Mary Ellen 270 Marwencol 285 Maysles, Albert 28, 29 Maysles, David 29 McCall, Cheryl 270 McCarthy, Joseph 319–320 McCarthy, Terry 320 McComb, Regina 299, 324 McQuade, Greg 263–264 Means, Kaia 202 medium shots 186, 189–190, 194 Melcon, Mel 216

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

Meltdown: Tree Mile Island 327 Meltzer, Josh 37, 55–56 memory cards 136, 138–139 microcosm profle 16–17 microphones 168–179, 262; aiming 173; camera’s built-in mic 168–169; condenser 170; dynamic 170; how to use 172–176; lavalier 170; lavalier + wireless transmitter 171; omnidirectional 172; riding the gain control of 177–179; shotgun 172, 173; unidirectional 172 Mill, James 314 Minn, Charlie 37 mirrorless DSLR cameras 90 misappropriation 361–362 “Missed Connections” 51–52 model release 365 moments, catching 196–197 monopods 133, 201 Moore, Demi 369 Moore, Michael 291 Morley, P. Kevin 374 Morris, Errol 322, 328 Morse, David 372 Moss, Michael 220 Motel Manor: Homeless in Suburbia 276–277 MOV 140 MP4 140 Muhtadi, Dean 275 Mulvany, Colin 50, 296 Murrow, Edward R. 319–322 music 299–300, 340, 364–365; feld music 300

N Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry 246–247 Nanook of the North 324–326 narration 26–32; combination of styles 31–32; direct cinema 28–30, 69; natural sound or narration 247; recording 263–265; reporter 27, 242–243, 245; voice of central character 26–27; “Voice of God” 245–246, 302; voice-over narrator 28, 243–245, 245–246 narrative arc 7–8, 10 narrative story 7–8 narrative tension 63 narrator 28 National Association of Broadcasters 317 National Geographic 331–332 National Press Photographers Association 73, 74, 314, 332, 338, 347 National Public Radio 52, 57, 339 natural light 154–155

natural sound 165–167, 246–247, 341 Neighborhood of Love 44–45 Neistat, Casey 269 Nelson, Stanley 328 Never Forget 310–311 Neverland: A Short Film 64 New York Reacts 175 New York Times 217, 219, 220, 323, 363–364 New York Times v. Sullivan 363–364 news report 7–8; as source for ideas 50 Newton, Katy 51–52 Nextdoor 52 Nguye, Huy 316 Nichols, Michael 63 Nichols, Nick 331 Nicholson, Lucy 48, 273–274 Nielsen, Leslie 369 Nixon, Richard 228 nondestructive editing 277 Nordengren, Fritz 316

Obama, Barack 359, 371 ofcials as lead subject 80 Olmstead v. United States 356 Olsen, Erik 27, 41, 53–55, 66, 70, 72–73, 221, 236, 245, 284 omnidirectional microphones 172 On Scene: Emergency Response 357 On Tinner Ice 81 One Man Brand: Naked Cowboy 48, 273–274 optical zooms 130 over-eager subjects 80 overexposure 117

POV 287 pre-interviews 219–220 Premiere Pro 168 pre-production checklists 83 present, challenges of flming 66 press credentials 349 Primary 29 Prime Time Live 351 privacy 356–363; advertising or editorial use 362–363; false light 360–361, see also defamation; intrusion 356; from media? 356–357; misappropriation 361–362; permission not needed 358–359; privacy laws 356; private facts 360; video voyerism statutes 360 privacy, right to 316 private facts 360 production 71–83; best characters to represent story 79–80; commitment statement 73–76; fair/unbiased journalism 80–82; fnding great characters 76–78; ofcials as lead subject 80; planning 72–73 profle approaches 16 public assembly 349 public buildings 348–349 public places 344–345 Public Radio International 52, 339 Puliwa, Ida 60–61 “pure visual” stories 69, see also direct cinema Putnam, Tom 307 Pygmies in the Congo: When the World Looks Down on You 283–284 Pygmies Tame Wild African Bees 101, 181

P

Q

pacing 306–308 Painchaud, Kevin 229 panning 208–209 Passon, Ted 286 past, challenges of flming 66–68 PBS NewsHour 310–311 peaking 105 Pennebaker, D.A. 28 Person to Person 320 personal stories 10 Philly D.A. 285 Pie Queen, Te 76, 232–233, 271, 272 Pierce, John 236 Piolot, Gaëtan 98, 99 Playing Piano with a Mind-Controlled Robotic Arm 64 Pogue, David 211 point-of-view shots 186, 192–193, 194 police 342, 346–347, 352 Portrait of Coney Island 24

Quack Attack Is Back 99 Quartz 41, 54, 65, 173, 287 questions: to close 225; core 224; developing 223–225; getting the best response from 227; organizing 225; providing ahead of time 320; structured in themes 225; types of 224, see also interviews

O

R rack focus 106 radio cuts 291–292, 303 Radio Television Digital News Association 332 Radiolab 52, 165 Raleigh News & Observer 272 Real Dirt on Farmer John, Te 65 reality TV 8 reenactments 67, 322, 327–31 reframing 204–205 Reginette’s Story 233

Remarkable Journey of Mr. McCloud, Te 164 reporter, voice of 27 Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press 360 reshoots 197 revealing moments 64 reverse-angle shots see action/reaction shots Rhodes, Steve 165 Riecken, Astrid 200 ring lights 159 Rising from the Wreckage 282, 296, 308–309 Riski, Rich 320 Roach, Flick 358 Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain 333 Rob of the Park Knows New York City Birds Best 19 Robbins, Ed 20, 22, 23, 67, 82, 164, 172, 187, 190, 191, 233, 236, 252, 268, 278–279, 293, 307, 326 Rocco, Shawn 272 Rockford, Marv 330 Roe v. Wade 356 Rollins, Ed 244 room tone 167 Rose, Howard 320, 322 Rosenthal, Alan 246 rough cut 303 Rusanowsky, Christopher 342

S Sacha, Bob 21–22, 23, 24–25, 30, 62, 69, 72, 74, 75, 81, 268, 273–274, 300, 322, 340 Salazar, Nicole 286 Salesman 29 Sanders v. American Broadcasting Cos., Inc. 359 Sanhueza-Lyon, Jorge 336, 338 Saul, Stephanie 217 Schools Are Tiny; the Game Is Huge, Te 22–23 Schuh, Mike 252 science 41–43 screen direction 298 screen proportions 140–141 scripts 241–265; after the shoot 250–252; challenges of scriptless story 248–249; format 258, 261; preparing to record 262; recording 263–265; sample script 259; three approaches to narration 242–249, see also narration; writing 252–258, 260 See It Now 319 sensor size 86 sequence: arranging 303; building with shots 182–183; catching moments 196–197; constructing 301; fve-shot formula

Index

379

186–194; sequence-by-sequence edits 291, 292–293, 303; shooting 181–197; turning individual shots into a story 184–185, see also shots sequence-by-sequence edits 291, 292–293, 303 Serbia, Selina 78 Sevareid, Eric 319 Seven Boxes method 278–281 sharpness see focus Shattered 32 Shiefte, Whitney 6–7, 76, 98, 131, 233 Shirer, William 319 shock mounts 175 shooting angles 200–202 short documentary length 287 shotgun microphones 172, 173 shots: action/reaction 186, 193–194; building sequences with 182–183; close-up 186, 190–191, 194; common shooting errors 206–208; dolly shots 209–210; fve-shot formula 186–194; framing the individual 203–204; “Hail Mary” shots 201; logging 251–252; medium 186, 189–190, 194; one is not enough 186, 213; point-ofview 186, 192–193, 194; reframing 204–205; shot list for interviews 239; that help move the story 197; tracking shots 210; turning individual shots into a story 184–185; wide 186, 187–188, 194; zoom shots 211–212 Shots Fired 28 shoulder-mount video cameras 93 Shulman, Ruth and Wayne 356–357 shutter speed 118 side lighting 161 Siegel, Taggart 65 Sign o’ the Times: Rock ’n’ Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip 327 Sims, David 69 simulations see reenactments slow motion 139 smart-phones 87–88, 169; lenses for 87; rack focus on 106 Smith, Howard K. 319 Smith, Stephanie 220 social media 51–52, 287 Society of Professional Journalists 332 soft boxes 156–157 Solomon, Ben 26 Sorkin, Andrew Ross 329 sound 162–179; ambient noise, checking 230; audio logistics of interviewing 230–233, 239; audio tools 167–168, see also microphones; essential accessories for recording 175–176; ethical dilemmas

380

335, 337–338, 340–341; fne-tuning audio 304–305; importance of 164; music 299–300, 340, 364–365; natural 165–167, 246–247, 341; record separately to video 168; recording narration 263–265; six rules 179; unblended audio 305; volume 177–178 South High: Fighting against the Odds 40 South High: Fighting Against the Odds 300 Spahn, Warren 361 specialty video cameras 94–100; 360 cameras 96–97; action video cameras 94–95; drones with cameras 98–100 speed, changing 337 sports 22–23, 40 spotlights 160 spray and pray approach 72 stabilization 131–135, 210–211; in-camera 135; e-stabilization 211; gimbals 210–211; monopods 133, 201; tripods 131–133, 201, 209 Stableford, Tyler 32 staging events 317, 324–326, 330–331 Stair, Jim 330 Standard Operating Procedure 322 Stephenson, David 18–19, 39–40, 96, 97 Stevens, Chad 57 stories: beginning 268–274, 279, 280; best characters to represent 79–80, 216–217; character-driven 16–19; complication and resolution 13–15; ending 274–277, 279, 281; evaluating potential 60–65; fnding 49–69; length of 285–287; many ways to tell 5–7; pacing 306–308; personal 1; producing 71–83; “pure visual” stories 69, see also direct cinema; Seven Boxes method 278–281; shaping 10–12; successful topics 35–47; telling all sides 19; use of interviews in story 218; who gets to tell see narration styles story structure 10–12 storyboards 72–73, 278 storytelling approaches 33 Stray 23 Strazzante, Scott 58–59 Streetwise 270 Streisand, Barbra 351 strong characters 17, 61–62 subpoenas 371–372 Sugano, Dai 62, 78, 79–80 Suicide Tourist 271 Sullivan, L.B. 363 Sumner, Jake 19 Sweitzer, Steve 188, 191, 211, 235, 335

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

T Tainted Meat: Te Sickening of Stephanie Smith 220 take-away message 63 Tami Tushie’s Toys 224 Taylor, Ross 263 teamwork 336 telephoto lenses 128–129 Templin, Jacob 7, 41, 65, 173, 269, 271, 272, 287, 293 Tethered to Tradition 24–26 Texas’ Droughts and the Cost of Cattle 7 text, use of 302 Taler, Shmuel 128 themes 35–47; breaking news 36–38; competitions 39–40; concise description approach 23; consume by date 46; dayin-the-life stories 24–26; death 23, 45; disasters 77–78; localizing large issues 38–39, 57; love 44–45; match with audience 46; odd amongst the ordinary 44; science 41–43; universal 21–24 Tey Get Brave 77–78 Tiels, Zacchaio 41 Tin Blue Line, Te 328 Tis American Life 52, 165, 340 Tis Time Would Be Diferent 16 Tompson, Lonnie 81 three-act play structure 11 tilting 208–209 Time 34, 41, 67, 82, 173, 191, 323 time of day 144–146 time-lapse 139 Too Big to Fail 329 topics see themes Torn Apart 62 tracking shots 210 transcribing interviews 251, 283–284, 303; advantages/disadvantages 284; AI transcription programs 283–284 transitions 197, 299–300; cross-dissolves 299; dip to black 299; handle for dissolves 299; text, use of 302 trespass 344–356; authority and control 347; permits 345; privately owned places 349, 352–355; public assembly 349; public buildings 348–349; shooting in public places 344–345; undercover 351; using drones 351; video of police 346–347 tripods 131–133, 201, 209 Turtle Man, Te 18–19 Twitch 358

U ultra high frequency transmitters 171 umbrellas 158

Uncovering a Buried Movie Sphinx in California 54, 66 undercover 351 unidirectional microphones 172 universal themes 21–24 Uprooted 79–80 Utilitarianism 314

Wright, Scott 330 Wurtzel, George 117

V

Zapruder, Abraham 323 Zaritsky, John 271 zebra patterns 117 Zoom interviews 237–239 zoom lenses 130 zoom shots 211–212 Z’s Brain 41 Zurawik, David 295

vertical video 197 very high frequency transmitters 171 video cameras see cameras video fle formats 140 video voyerism statutes 360 viewfnders 136 viewing screens 137 virtual reality 96 Vliet, Betsy 374 vocal range 264 “Voice of God” 245–246, 302 volume 177–178

Y Yurman, Will 7, 27, 39, 76, 94, 155, 164, 220, 227, 284, 292

Z

W Walk Walk Walk: Te Story of StandProud 12–13, 14, 23 Wall Street Journal 219 warrants 371–372 Warren, Samuel D. 356 Warriors 22 Washington Post 42 Werdegar, Kathryn Mickle 359 We’re Kids But We’re Also Journalists 36–37, 76 Wessenberg, Sheila 17 When the Levees Broke Part 1 286 white balance 147–150 Who Is Ida? 60–61 wide shots 186, 187–188, 194 wide-angle lenses 123–128, 190 Wilson, Amy 18 windscreens 175 Winokur, Julie 17 Winslow, Donald R. 336 wireless transmitters 171 Wiseman, Frederick 23, 29–30, 196–197 WMV 140 Wohl, Michael 190 Wolfe, Charles 245 Wolman, Baron 156 Wood, Robert 328 workfow of editing 289–311; two approaches to editing 290–293 World News Tonight 331 World War II Vet Spends COVID Time Weaving 400 Hats for Salvation Army 75

Index

381

 Sound technician Michael Koplin positions a microphone as cameraman Chris Karvellas flms in the men’s room at the Lee-Davis Texaco in Mechanicsville. Michael Hof Productions is producing a spot on the bathroom for the Travel Channel. The bathroom was selected as one of the top fve public restrooms in the country in an Internet poll. (Photo by P Kevin Morley)

382

Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling