Seven steps to using your SLR camera for video stories

As the saying goes, sometimes the best camera for the story is the one in your hand. Yet, when it comes to shooting video, some still photographers seem to avoid using their digital SLR cameras.
Jeff Achen is an interactive media strategist for GiveMN.org.  He recently wrote a column for Quill magazine on using still cams for video storytelling.
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How to put together a TV news package?

Sometimes it’s fun to poke fun ourselves and British humorist, and journalist Charlie Brooker is particularly good at it.  In the following segment, he explains how to put together the essential elements of a TV pkg.

The truth can be painful, can’t it? In doing a search for the video, I also stumbled across a couple [...]

Natural sound stories: A how-to guide

Some of the strongest stories that ever make air or the Web rely exclusively on pictures and sound, with no reporter track. Putting a great nat [...]

NYTimes VJ shares lighting, basic shooting tips

As promised, here’s a bit more from VJ Patrick Farrell on how to tell strong, visual stories.  Farrell says the best storytelling starts with a hunt for information.
“Do as much research as possible about what visuals are available,” Farrell said.  He routinely goes online and makes multiple phone calls before shooting the first frame of [...]

New York Times VJ on Web video

Patrick Farrell is enthusiastic about what the future may hold for video storytelling.   As a video journalist for the New York Times,  Farrell is certainly working for one of the most robust online sites in the world.
“Especially if you’re working in journalistic video right now, the doors are kind of open,” Farrell said.  “It’s unlike the [...]

Seven deadly sins of video shooting

You’ve heard it before: avoid backlight, hold the camera steady and for goodness’ sake, don’t zoom! But sometimes, telling is less effective than showing. This short piece from Videomaker does a good job of showing what doesn’t work, as well as how to fix it:

Online video for TV journalists

“A video should be as long as it needs to be absolutely compelling.”
Andrew Fitzgerald oversees the online news efforts for Current TV. His view on video for the Web was echoed by the AP’s Kevin Roach and YouTube’s Olivia Ma. All three took part in RTDNA’s “Video-Free-For-All” webinar.
One of the fundamentals expressed is that the [...]

Shooting your own stand ups

Our text, Advancing the Story, details strategies for solo journalists who need to shoot their own stand ups.  One approach involves using your light stand as a stand-in for your body as you frame your shot.
Bob Kaplitz of the consulting firm of AR&D has created a short video explainer of the technique, along with an example [...]

Making Flip cams do more

We’ve written here in the past about traditional TV journalists finding Flip cams useful for certain types of newsgathering.  The lack of an external mic creates challenges, but the video quaility is quite high.  However, the camera was not designed for getting sweeping, panoramic wide shots by any means.
As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention [...]

Why can’t local TV win online?

OK, this is our second year of tracking this and the question still remains:  Why are local TV stations nowhere to be found on the list of Online Journalism Award nominees?  I mean really, when the AARP is winning more awards for great video than local TV stations, it may just be time to hang it [...]