Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling

272 Pages·2012·10.15 MB·English

by  Kenneth Kobre

j
Video ournalism
Multimedia storytelling
Kenneth Kobré
San Francisco State University
FPO
m Photographers at a National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) video workshop. ( Photo by Donald R. Winslow)
First published 2012 by Focal Press
This edition published 2013
by Focal Press
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Published in the UK
By Focal Press
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Copyright © 2012, Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

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Application submitted

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ISBN: 978-0-240-81465-0 (pbk)

Cover illustration by William Duke (www.williamduke.com)
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my
wife, Betsy Brill.
m El Capitan and Half Dome
Yosemite National Park,
California. (Photo by Pete
Erickson)
iii
Dedication

Contents
Dedication iii
Preface vi
Contributor List ix
Acknowledgments x
1 9
Telling Stories 2 Combining Audio and Stills 116
2 10
Finding and Evaluating a Story 18 Shooting a Sequence 132
3 11
Successful Story Topics 40 Conducting an Interview 154
4 12
Producing a Story 50 Writing a Script 172
5 13
Camera Basics 62 Editing the Story 186
6 14
Camera Exposure and Handling 80 Ethics 202
7 15
Light and Color 88 The Law 214
8 16
Recording Sound 102 Marketing a Story 236
Index 255
b 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)
v
Contents
Preface
ideojournalism is a new field that has grown out of print
V
photojournalism, slideshows that combine sound and
pictures, public radio, documentary filmmaking, and the best of
television news features. This amalgam of traditions has emerged
to serve the Internet’s voracious appetite for video stories.
Good videojournalism demands a broad set of Overnight, editors reasoned, news sites would be
technical skills and a real appreciation of how dancing with multimedia stories told in sound
to tell a story. But with practice and knowledge and pictures.
borrowed from these traditions, the skill of And more or less, that is precisely what hap-
videojournalism storytelling can be learned. As pened. They got sound. And they got pictures.
a matter of fact, that is expressly what this book Suddenly, every self-respecting news website
is all about. rushed to have a multimedia component. Still
photographers went out the door with their tra-
A VERY SHORT HISTORY
ditional cameras slung over their shoulders and
Around the turn of this century, circulation of state-of-the-art, high-quality sound recorders in
traditional newspapers and magazines began their hands. Editors told the photographers to
falling at a speed corresponding to the skyrock- find stories, shoot them, and record the sound.
eting use of the Internet. At about the same time, The photographers were directed to perform
audiences for local broadcast television news these tasks all at the same time. Then, they
were finding other sources of information, from were told, they should go to the nearest coffee
cable television to the Web. shop, edit the story on a laptop, and upload it
As print publishers’ cash registers emptied, to the publication’s website. A few news outlets
editors were told their savior would be the took the time to train photographers on sound
Internet. Editors’ first reactions were to “shovel” recording, but many did not. Metaphorically
material from their print publications to cor- speaking, the training back then consisted of
responding websites. Then . . . they hoped for the inviting photographers to dive in and swim
best. Needless to say, the “shovelware” approach while manipulating both a camera and a sound
to saving print journalism did not work. recorder. That was the standard—painfully
Media consultants next informed editors insufficient—training philosophy.
that what they really needed to spice up their But, to the surprise of many, photojournalists
sites was multimedia—sound and pictures. willingly grabbed those handheld audio record-
The editors peered from their glass-enclosed ers as though they were a professional lifeline,
offices and noticed the photo department. “Ah,” and proceeded to learn to use those tools by the
they said collectively. “Hmmmh. Yes. Why not? collective seat of their pants. With the advent of a
Photographers can take care of the pictures. simple computer program that facilitates combin-
Let’s send them out with audio recorders.” ing images and audio—“Soundslides”—websites
vi
Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling
across the country and around the world began pressed to save money in the face of declining m Videojournalists are using
all kinds of cameras to shoot
featuring multimedia slideshows. viewership. They, too, espoused the notion that
multimedia stories. (Photo by
These newfangled slideshows were shorter a lone-wolf journalist could report, voice, shoot, Betsy Brill)
than the hour length of a typical TV documen- and edit his or her own story—that one person
tary or 90-minute cinematic release but longer should combine the entire set of what had been
than the typical one minute and thirty seconds unique skills to produce compelling stories.
of a television broadcast news story. At newspapers and magazines, the revolu-
Unlike traditional documentary or broadcast tion did not stop with multimedia slideshows.
news teams—consisting of a producer, an on- Affordable digital video cameras and video
camera correspondent, a video camera operator, editing software for personal computers came
a sound technician, and sometimes even a light- on the scene. And as the speed and bandwidth
ing specialist—this new multimedia maker was of the Internet grew, the ease with which it could
by and large a one-man band, a solo operator, a send and play video also increased. Viewers were
backpack journalist. watching hours of video on YouTube and Vimeo.
Parallel to their counterparts at print So the same editors who had given out
publications, local TV news producers were handheld recorders now wanted video stories,
vii
Preface
too. Why not give photographers—and by now because I sincerely want to assist anyone inter-
reporters, too—video cameras to tell stories? ested in learning how to master the art and craft
Thus, TV stations and an array of publi- of telling real short-form stories with words,
cations assigned one person to do the work sound, and pictures for the Web or television.
of many—to be a one-man band, a backpack This book can be read in the order in which
journalist. Photojournalists, reporters, editors, chapters are presented. Or it can be sampled
and almost anyone who could carry a video in an order that corresponds to a reader’s level
camera were sent out the door and told to bring of knowledge about the subject. For those who
back pieces that would capture and hold viewers’ already know how to operate a video camera,
attention on the Internet and even for on-air the chapters on camera basics and exposure may
broadcast. be superfluous. Readers with a good foundation
And that willy-nilly explosion of assignments in media law need not spend much time with
to print and television journalists that required the law chapter. Anyone with a full-time job will
juggling new skills while still mastering them is likely find the chapter on marketing unnecessary.
where things became chancy. For those just starting out in multimedia story-
Finding riveting stories, shooting them telling, I dare hope that reading the foundation
professionally with a video or hybrid still-video chapters will point you in a steady direction and
camera, interviewing subjects as expertly as a perhaps help lead you to a career in the exciting
talk show host, recording clear sound, writing new field of videojournalism and multimedia
a script filled with pizzazz, and finally, editing storytelling.
the material into a piece worthy of five minutes’
WEBSITE
attention is not easy or straightforward. In fact,
mastering this new form of storytelling and its Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling has its
requisite skills is as challenging to veteran visual own website and Facebook page. You need go to
reporters as it is to newbies to the field. Yes, only one URL to find all the stories mentioned
more or less everyone can do it. But not every- in the book. You also will find “how-to” videos
one can do it well. there. Bookmark this page, and you’re all set to
Indeed, the term “videojournalist” was go: http://www.kobreguide.com/content/videojournalism.
invented to describe this jack-of-all-trades You will see this icon to indicate when
journalist who can and will “go it alone.” Yet to go to the website for information or to
the very concept of videojournalism is so new view an online story. There you will find the title
that the word “videojournalist” is not yet in of the story or reference, the chapter and page
all dictionaries. number in which it appeared in the book and,
when available, an image that corresponds to the
NEW BOOK
one in the book.
I wrote this book with the collaboration of eight To keep up with the latest changes in the
contributors—a collaboration that represents field such as new cameras, new books, new sto-
the merger of traditions that has given birth ries, or editing software, check the site regularly
to videojournalism. I decided to call the book and follow the KobreGuide on Facebook,
Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling www.facebook.com/KobreGuide.
viii
Videojournalism: Multimedia Storytelling
Contributor List
Chapter 1
Regina McCombs, Faculty for Multimedia and Mobile, The Poynter Institute
Chapter 2
Josh Meltzer, Photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University, formerly
with The Roanoke Times
Chapter 3
Josh Meltzer, Photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University, formerly
with The Roanoke Times
Chapter 4
Josh Meltzer, Photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University, formerly
with The Roanoke Times
Chapter 11
Jerry Lazar, Editorial director, KobreGuide.com
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, Thorsby and Associates
ix
Contributor List