“If you don’t really love doing it, you’re not going to do well,” she said in an NPPA interview. “It’s such a monster that you battle every day. You have to be so many things in a day.”

Here’s one of Michael’s prize-winning stories, a story that she says changed her life because “it showed me a lot about what people are willing to give up and do for other people.” It’s also an example of the value of listening. Michael says she met the man in the story when he demanded to see her ID as she entered a government building. She had to put down all her gear to find it. She wasn’t all that happy to see him again on her way out, but when he asked if she wanted to hear his story, she stopped long enough to hear what he had to say.

Michael does plenty of stories like that without a stand-up, but when she does decide to include one she spends a great deal of time setting up and shooting it. The result is often a multi-part stand-up, like the one in this story.

Did you count the number of shots in that stand-up? How long do you think it took Michael to get that done, working alone? Here’s the answer, in a behind-the-scenes look at how she produced that stand-up:

Thanks, Michelle Michael, for sharing your work and showing what it takes to do it well.

Sourced from: NewsLab

Planning means everything from setting up interviews to selecting the right gear for a particular shoot. For Steve Noviello, consumer reporter for KDFW in Dallas, it means thinking about what he’d like the story to look like on the air and sharing his ideas with the photographer he’s working with.

At a recent journalism workshop sponsored by the Texas Association of Broadcasters, Noviello shared a couple of stories that benefited from careful planning. For a story about a woman who’s a champ at saving money by coupon-clipping, Noviello wanted to use quick edits and speeded up video to reflect the woman’s frantic pace. “We needed twice as much B-roll as normal because we were going to double speed it,” he says. For a story about a late-night designated-driver service, Noviello knew he’d need video shot from a moving car. Planning ahead allowed him to use a colleague’s convertible, not a news vehicle. The story won a National Headliner Award for best TV feature.

Noviello started in the news business 13 years ago as a one-man-band, which he says taught him the greatest lessons he’s ever learned. What would those be? Watch our interview, in which he also talks more about his approach to planning:

Sourced from: NewsLab

We’re using a 4:3 format (not 16:9) which matches photo aspect ratios better, and also advising on avoiding portrait shots, or keeping them to a minimum. In the past, we’ve found leaving students to their own devices, the arbitrary alternation between landscape (full frame) and portrait (with black bars on sides) is distracting after a dozen shots. We’re exporting to YouTube and embedding that “video” into a page. We’re also giving advice to be restrained with transitions and moves.

Downsides: user-controlled captions and self-pacing not possible if done as a video. Stuck with single resolution of video.

Upsides: Don’t have to teach confounding FTP commands to users and find server space for Soundslides. Build on existing knowledge of video editing tool (FCP) and full control of image keyframes/motion.

What Lih says makes sense — if you’re already using or plan to use Final Cut Pro for video editing, taking this approach eliminates the need for purchasing and learning another piece of software.

Of course, Soundsides also offers an option to create detailed captions, which is possible using titles in FCP, but certainly less elegant.

Curt Chandler, a senior lecturer in multimedia at Penn State, also weighed in on the Facebook discussion, suggesting that it may be easier to teach video if you get the hang of Soundslides first.

But what on earth is action-reaction-reaction? CBS News photojournalist Les Rose introduced that idea at a workshop I attended recently by showing this video of a TV commercial:

At first, there’s really no action at all. The first action is merely hinted at about ten seconds in–a slightly obscured shot of the soldiers entering the airport. Three shots later, you first hear the reaction and then see it when the man reading a newspaper looks up. As the clapping spreads, we see the reaction to the reaction, 24 seconds in, when the soldier smiles.

Think about this simple structure when you’re putting together a news story: Anticipation, action, reaction, reaction.  The structure can be applied not only to video and natural sound but to sound bites as well. Using what comes before and after the action puts the action itself in context.

Freelance journalist Mikki Harris worked for many years as a news photographer at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Today she produces content across platforms using still photos and video, along with other tools.  As a self-taught video storyteller, Harris shared the 5-step approach she learned to shooting sequences.

1. The hand shot.  For example, if you’re shooting someone working at a computer or hitting a ball or fixing a car, get that close-up of the person’s hands on the keyboard, gripping the bat or turning the wrench.  It doesn’t literally have to be a hand shot, but it’s a very tight shot of the action. (Translation:  extreme close-up.)

2. The face shot.  Get a shot of the person’s face as they type or address the ball or tinker with the car.  You may not want to see the hair in their nostrils, but be close enough to get a sense of how they’re feeling or what they’re thinking. (Translation:  close-up.)

“Make sure the close-up or face shot fills two-thirds of the frame,” says Harris.

3. The medium body shot. This shot features the top half of the human body, so it’s the person sitting at the desk, batting the ball or leaning over the car from the waist up.  (Translation:  medium shot.)

4. The over-the-shoulder shot.  This visual gives you another angle on the action and may be useful as a tool to transition between shots. (Translation:  cutaway.)

5. The creative shot.  This is where a photojournalist just experiments and tries something to provide a unique angle on the story.  He or she may stand up on a chair and shoot down at a scene or get down on the ground to show a unique perspective.  This might be a good establishing shot or it may not work at all. (Translation:  possible establishing or wide shot.)

Harris also suggests that you take these shots in the order suggested.

“It will make the editing easier because you’ll be able to find the shot you want more quickly,” Harris says.

Last year’s national winner in the small market category was Jason Lamb of KTUU in Anchorage, AK.  In this first of a two-part post, Lamb shares how he crafts his award-winning stories by spending more time than most with his video.

“It’s important to remember that the goal of any memorable story should be to get information across in a way that makes it easy for people to relate and connect to,” says Lamb.  ”Logging your tapes (or your cards or your disks) well is a crucial step in that process.”

For Lamb, “logging” is much more than registering the clip number or time code.

He has three key components to his approach:

1.  Log as much of the video as time allows
Many less experienced reporters say they’re just too time-crunched to spend time logging, but even a few minutes can improve a story.  ”There is so much more of the raw footage to log than just the framed up ‘interview shots.’  I log as much as I can: interesting shots that I might want to write to, spontaneous moments with the person I’m interviewing, etc.,” Lamb says.

2.  Log “the moments”
According to Lamb, a “moment” is something captured on camera that helps make people forget they are watching a “news report” and makes them feel closer to the story.  ”They help people relate to what your story is about.  It could be the moment that a stem-cell recipient meets his donor for the first time, or a spontaneous reaction to a section of land being eaten away by a raging river.  Moments help drive your story,” says Lamb.

3. Log “the layers”
Lamb says good stories have multiple levels or layers to them that keep the audience engaged throughout.  ”A different layer could be an interesting detail or added ‘twist’ you can introduce in your story at just the right moment to keep people interested,” Lamb says.

Check out one of Lamb’s stories below and check back later this week when Lamb shares how he strives to put words and pictures together in the most compelling way.

This year, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for large market TV feature reporting has gone to some old friends of Advancing the Story — Boyd Huppert, Jonathan Malat and Bill Middeke of KARE 11 in Minneapolis. The story leverages everyday visuals and strong writing and editing to create a memorable moment.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This team of storytellers works on a series called, “Land of 10,000 Stories.”   (WARNING!  Don’t click the link unless you have some time to spare — the stories are so good, you may want to watch them all.)

For those trying to learn visual storytelling or to improve their skills, notice how Boyd weaves his writing in and around the natural sound. He’s also well-known for the little surprises he sprinkles throughout the story — “gold coins” as he sometimes refers to them. The viewer gets little payoffs throughout each piece as he reveals more and more of the good information he’s gathered.

Congratulations to Boyd, Jonathan, Bill and all the SDX winners.

That’s debatable, of course. I’m not sure most online journalists have that much more time to shoot stories than their TV counterparts. And letting stories “run as long as the streaming platform will allow” doesn’t strike me as good practice, even though it’s technically possible. But even if you accept Westbook’s premise, there are good arguments in favor of keeping at least some of the conventions he wants to scrap.

Take the way interviews are typically framed–the “three-quarters shot,” as Westbrook describes it. Instead of having interviewees talk directly to the camera, they’re positioned so they face the person asking the questions. Multimedia journalist John McQuiston of WWSB in Sarasota, Florida, says it has nothing to do with speed.

Reporters realized that if you make the interviewee part of a conversation instead of a television production, the person will be more comfortable and more candid. It is the rare subject who is not immensely relieved when I tell them, “as best you can, ignore the camera and just talk to me.” If I do my job well, the camera becomes just another piece of furniture in the room. This cannot happen if you ask the interviewee to address the camera.

Westbrook also slams the convention of using cutaways to “splice an interview together without distracting the audience with your edits.” He calls that misleading and proposes replacing cutaways with flash wipes or dissolves. Now, I’m no fan of cutaways or reversals. My rule of thumb is to shoot them and use them only rarely, not because they’re misleading but because they’re boring. Even Westbrook admits you need to do something to cover jump cuts that could be distracting to the audience. I don’t see how flash wipes or dissolves are any less distracting.

A third TV “convention” Westbrook wants to dump is the use of voice-overs. He contends TV never does stories without them, which is demonstrably untrue. (Check the stories on this year’s winning NPPA Television News Photographer of the Year entry.) Westbrook is right, however, when he says voice-over is used “to cover gaps in narrative and explain complicated things in a short space of time.” And that’s a good thing. As McQuiston points out, “summarizing is the essence of a reporter’s job.”

There is another reason for voice-overs: It’s easier on the viewer. A reporter who has had time to reflect and write something should be able to explain something more concisely than an interview subject speaking extemporaneously. This is true even if your medium theoretically allows you all the time you want to tell your story.

It’s hard to argue with Westbrook ‘s final two points. TV news should be more transparent about the source of video. A lack of transparency is what got a Minnesota station in trouble with the FCC, after running a video news release without identifying the source. And TV news should do more than scratch the surface. With fewer time constraints, online video stories can go deeper. Butas McQuiston points out, “Don’t mistake having time to go in-depth for an excuse to bore someone with an unfocused narrative that doesn’t justify the time you ask them to invest in watching it.”

In the end, McQuiston argues, the things that make video worth watching on television, including steady shots and good lighting, still apply online.

The people telling you how new and different online video and one-man-band reporting are are trying to sell you something. And it’s a bag of excuses why their video doesn’t look as good as it should. It’s not unconventional; it’s crap.

Westbrook’s original post has drawn a lot of comments. I suspect this one may, as well. We’ve already had a fair bit of discussion about this over at NewsLab. Feel free to weigh in there or here. (No personal attacks, please.)

Sourced from: NewsLab

Now, here’s one more thing to remember – finding an angle is important in both writing and shooting.  Too many journalists shoot everything at eye level and that can make a story feel flat.

Check out this piece from one of Michael Rosenblum’s students and pay careful attention to the use of unique angles.

Thanks to AR&D’s Bob Kaplitz who added the subtitles and suggests this is an excellent example of how minimal copy can enhance a story as well.

Here are a few tips for getting creative wth your video:

• Climb up on something — a chair, the hood of a car or the bleachers in the stadium.
• Get down on your knees or even flat on your belly to give us another perspective.
• Think about using the foreground as a frame for the action — something still photographers have done for years.

For one thing, what used to be drudgery is now a snap. I can’t remember the formula for percentage change, for example, but I can calculate it in seconds with this online tool. It’s also much easier to get your hands on data than it used to be. Carry a thumb drive everywhere and you’ll find people willing to hand over data sets that might have taken months to get otherwise. And as Simon Rogers of the Guardian’s Datablog points out, some of the biggest stories lately have been based on data.

There’s nothing that makes journalists sit up and take notice like other people getting stories. I’m noticing lots of young reporters really taking an interest in this area now. Can you imagine a reporter not using the internet now? That’s what it’ll be like for reporters who can’t be bothered to learn to use a spreadsheet.

In an Q&A with the new Datajournalism blog, Rogers says you don’t need programming skills to work with data because there are so many free and simple tools available, like Many Eyes and Googledocs gadgets. But you do need computer skills and the ability to work with statistics. Rogers’ top five tips for working with data.

• Make it manageable. Break the data down into chunks you can use.
• Keep it simple. Ask simple questions of the data and try not to get too complicated.
• Mash it up. Some of the best data journalism is about joining datasets together you wouldn’t have thought of.
• Don’t be scared of the number – or trust it too willingly. Journalists are often terrified of numbers to the extent that they don’t question them properly.
• Try not to go native. Remember you’re a journalist and your mission is to explain the data and interrogate it properly.

I’d add one more: Get inspired. Search for great examples of data journalism, like those Rogers recommends at his paper, the New York Times and the Texas Tribune. Then see what you can do on your own using free tools like the ones I’ve written about at the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media. Here’s a quick introduction to one of the simplest tools: Google Maps.

I’ll put more how-to videos up on my YouTube channel in the near future, so stay tuned. And in the meantime, dig in and make some data visual.

Sourced from: NewsLab