Best videos?

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/video/

http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/category/video/

Check out The Digital Journalist at http://www.digitaljournalist.org. And also David Lesson’s website at http://homepage.mac.com/davidjleeson/PhotoAlbum3.html. His Dust To Dust film is as good as it gets.
Keith

Marcin,

I came from the newspaper world, and I’d seen the way local TV news handled stories. So, I was VERY reluctant when my boss at MSNBC handed a video camera to me and told me to go shoot a story. I had NO idea how to begin approaching narative, linear storytelling. As you suggest is it very different from still photography. Stills are about finding, heightened moments that sum up the story. Video shooting is a lot more like realizing that at the end of the day you have to build a table. So, you need to go to the lumberyard and get the wood you’ll need for 4 legs (not 3, not 5). You need something for the table top, etc. I hope you get my point.

So, the best thing I ever did (concerning video) was go to the NPPA video workshop that is held in Norman, Oklahoma. It’s an increbibly immersive week in which you are exposed to the best work and people in the video story telling industry.

I had one of those lightbulb moments while I was there. I was watching a video news story, and I began crying. The story was SO good that I forgot I was sitting in a room trying to learn about video. No other media does that as well. So, check the NPPA website and see if there are still some openings. Go if you can. It’s well worth the time and money. It will chang the way you see the story telling potential of video.

Don’t bother to sign up as a shooter. Sign up as a participant. Take your notebook, and take more notes than you think you’ll ever need.

I hope this helps.
- Robert Hood

Exellent!!! Please keep the ideas coming. I think we could all benefit from a list of good resources for newspaper video making. Where else do you guys get your inspiration and know-how from?

Robert,

Thanks so much for your post. I think you’re right on the money with the table allegory. You kind of need to pre-visualize main components of a video and how to shoot it before you even get the camera rolling. I’ve done slideshows and that helps me to think in terms of visual story telling, gathering good audio and matching it with video, however video just seems so much more complex… I feel like there is this whole tradition of movie making out there, well shot documentaries (like Born into Brothels), student movies, experimental stuff, great movie directors and camera people, even some Hollywood movies. Newspaper videos need to be equally good to keep audience coming back. I mean we all strive to get some emotional reaction from viewers, be it through still photos or video. The best way to get your message through is to get your audience to the point of tears or laughter.
I will try my best to convince my paper to send me to a NPPA video workshop, but tutition always an issue… I may also take a course at a local college.

Sion and Keith, thanks so much for the links. Richard Koci Hernandez and others do a very good job at the Mercury News, they have some of the best use of video at the newspapers today. Spokesman Review is another paper that pioneers multimedia among smaller circulation dailies. David Leeson is an excellent and charismatic still photographer who made a succesful transition to video. Finally, The Digital Journalist is a great resource. Thanks so much for reminding me of all that. Most major newspapers have some videos on their websites, NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times and others. VII Agency has some really cool videos here as well: http://www.viiphoto.com/74video.html
Magnum has some fascinating multimedia stuff, including podcasts, on their Mangum In Motion website.
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/
MSNBC has also some good stuff on their website.

What else do you have?

I’m keen to get into “m/m” work as well. The possibilities of it are endless at least to me. You have more than one way to tell a story and by doing so compliment each piece in a newspaper or magazine. Photos and audio can go with a print piece. Video can compliment photos or help explain the atmosphere of an event in a way words can not.

(I have done some m/m work, a slideshow, while in Iraq but it was just me messing around on a day off and the results are, well, a little sophmoric. The idea to try layering audio and stills captured that chaotic day didn’t occur to me until I was sitting in my room looking at my photo returns doing a post-post-edit. I edited the audio on Adobe Audition, resized photos on Photoshop and threw it together on Windows Movie Maker.
But after going to The Eddie I realized my stuff needed a lot of help. I’m actually thinking about redoing it once I buy Adobe Premiere. I am researching one now, longer and around 5-7 minutes in length, and will start work on it after Xmas. )

its gonna sound nuts… but the truth is.. while all of you guys are just getting to this.. my generation has been shooting and editing video bread and butter for a decade….... GO PICK UP A SKATE VIDEO>>>> i know it sounds nuts.. but the end result of all skate films.. is incredibly short sections… that put together a total idea in minutes… its different but in many ways its the same… of course translating meaningful content is another issue.. but formaly.. if you want to become as bang bang with video as you are with stills.. pick up a skate film…and with out saying.. get a wide angle lens.. and always shoot low with video… head level shots look SOOO bad with video…. in terms of action… and pulling apart action…putting it back to convey meaning.. i can think of no better breeding ground for formal principles than the skate films we were making in late 90s early 2000s…...

ps…. video will never be shooting stills… i started on video.. and i put it down for this reason… it will always be cheap there is a line about this in boogie nights….... many video artists… by the way.. compose with 35 mm… not for results.. but for framing..and then recomose the video to match…. seriously though..you should go bug the little grommet skater kids in philly.. ask them to show you whats up… im serious….. this was our old grounds!!!!!! if your going to cover action.. (most likely in urban areas).... there is no one better to show you… im repeating myself.. i hope my point comes across…too much coffee… anyway my generation grew with video technology and the internet….... (all contemporary tv advertising fast paced edits etc.. long done in skate films… early 90s….)

while this will cover formalistic issues…conveying meanign in space and time…. the content stuff….well… that is somewhat different.. but i think one is supposed to learn formal issues first right? isnt that how they teach photo in the beginnning??? hmmm.. cant remembr…

Hey Ethan,

Thanks for the post, I did check out some skate video clips. Found a couple good ones, but most were quite repetitive, focusing more on tricks than on the camera work. If you have any specific recommendations, especially available online, please let me know. One clip I really liked is below.

http://www.board-crazy.co.uk/yeah-right-intro.php

You’re very right about the fast paced edits, some skate clips do look like TV commercials, they also remind me of music clips. Avoiding head level shots is actually a very good idea. I think shooting low and high and wide, mid range and close may be even more energetic than just low.

I had a bit of time on Friday afternoon before the Friday night football assignment, so I took a video camera to an outside basketball court to play around and shoot some pick up games. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and I had a blast, but I was mainly focused on the struggle with the camera, cables, buttons, mics etc. I did learn som things though – like that strapping a wireless mic to a shoe of a player doesn’t seem to work…. too much wind noice….

PS. Hey Bill, did you go the last Eddie? I did too. It was an awesome experience.

Funny you should mention strapping mikes to people – here’s a video I did for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper here in the UK a few weeks ago, for their travel section. It was a bit o’ fun to co-incide with the British release of the new James Bond film:

mms://telegraph.wmod.llnwd.net/a689/o1/BUNGEEDONE.wmv

I had a camera and a wireless mike stapped to the journo, Charlie, as he jumped off a 750 ft dam in Switzerland on a bungee rope. The roaring noise is the wind travelling at 125mph through the mike, although his scream managed to muffle some of it :)

My first multi-cam endeavour, which was nerveracking, and only one take of the ‘big moment’ of course, so Charlie wasn’t the only one sighing with relief when it was over…

Hi Marcin,
I did go to The Eddie last month and had a good time.

What did you think of Leeson’s talk? You can see that video he showed on YouTube. I’ve watched it a few times and still get worked up. “Get some!”

Bill.

Hey Sion, I couldn’t open your link to the Sunday Telegraph video and I would really love to see this jump (and hear the scream…:) I went to the Telegraph website but couldn’t play the video on my laptop either…. :( Do you have a Quick Time or Real Player version of it?

Bill,
You mean the video made by this guy who went to Iraq and shot a video under Leeson’s supervision? I really admired the guy’s determination and I think he did a great job there, especially his lack of video experience. I couldn’t find it on YouTube though. Drop me a link, will ya?

The Telegraph story was Windows media only, but you can see the thing her in Quicktime format: www.sionphoto.com/BUNGEEDONE.mov

http://www.b-roll.net/
A forum for the moving images type of camera-person and generally a lot less up it’s own anal oriface than some souls on this site.
Recommended.