Learn video journalism today
Our cops reporter, Tahlia Ganser, just returned from Florida after spending six weeks at Poynter’s summer fellowship (7/25: link changed, here’s a new one). She returned with many observations, exciting stories and a clear vision of the future.
For reporters, that includes video. To not study video journalism as a reporter is a death knell to your career. So where do we start?
(This video is Cyndy Green’s rebuttal to Andy Dickenson’s Quality and Quantity shorts)
Reporters cannot afford to wait for someone else to train us. No need to reinvent the wheel, there are plenty of training resources if you look in the right places.
Web sites to read about video practices:
- News Videographer
- Mastering Multimedia
- Teaching Online Journalism (video catagory)
Software tutorials:
- Final cut pro or iMovie on YouTube
- Audacity or GarageBand on YouTube
- Soundslides Plus tutorial from the now dead Multimedia Shooter site.
Various training sites:
- National Newspaper Association development and growth guide includes tutorials and discussion on just about everything online from start to finish, including advertising.
- The BBC has an online training site with instructions for specific gear and editing programs. The good shooting guide is a fine place to start.
- NewsU.org has a few courses on multimedia storytelling.
- Knight Digital Media Center
Also, read choosing a new or used camera by Cindy Green and other various gear recommendations she’s made.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
Kate You might want to check out http://campvj.com -a social network and low-cost video for reporters training site. Launched by the Visual Editors charity.
Also should check out http://viewmagazine.tv for the state of the art techniques and discussion.
Small cameras can tell really big stories
BTW, I just filmed a video response (at Niagara Falls) to answer the small camera vs big camera debate for Web video on my blog at http://www.robbmontgomery.com/2008/07/video-small-cameras-can-tell-big-stories/
Feel free to embed clip if you like it.
Enjoy. Print journalists can succeed in this rich story telling medium. I really enjoy teaching them how to do just that. So much potential for the future.
Robb
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 am
Hi Rob, thanks for posting. The video doesn’t seem to work for me (it plays a few seconds with no sound and then hangs up). Fortunately my newsroom already has some small cameras, and we’re getting another one soon.
I definitely want to get my own camera someday. But if I twitch at every tech item I wanted, I’d be broke in nothing flat. Time to search for commonly misspelled items on eBay for a deal
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Try this link to screen the video and get embed code.
http://snurl.com/33swn
July 28th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Kate,
My paper does some video, but seems to be focusing more on online photo galleries. I understand they’ve brought in more Internet traffic, and therefore more online ad revenue, than the videos.
-Franny
July 29th, 2008 at 6:10 am
@Franny, Thanks for the comment.
I have seen some online photo galleries that were done well enough to make money for the Web. Lots of parents want pictures of their kids in athletics, so if you publish an online photo gallery with every decent picture you took, then they can buy prints of said pictures for their scrap books.
Internet advertising in general, from what I understand, brings in very little for each click or page view. Pre-roll on video, that 10-15 second advertisement before you can watch a video, supposedly pays more. But I’m no advertising expert.