You guys had some excellent ideas today, but here are the details of what you need to do this weekend. For your story you need to think about this in three ways:
WORDS: You will need to produces a 250 word story that sums up and connects your video and still photos. This is pretty short, so you’re going to need to keep it tight – this is not a New York Times Sunday center piece. The goal here is to tell the story in about one screen, meaning a reader wouldn’t have to scroll down on a web page.
PICTURES: You need to shoot a 5-10 image photo story to go with your words. Think about long shots, medium shots and closeups. It would be entirely reasonable to have a portrait in here, perhaps even a mug shot (thought the latter shouldn’t be part of your 5 photo minimum). Give us a sense of place and time, give us a sense of who your subject is and what they are about. Look for moments and interactions – those are the key to great images. Then look for details, the little things that we are trained to look for, things that add texture to the story. Look at hands or tattoos or scars or photos or tools – whatever it is that your subject surrounds themselves with.
VIDEO: This is the big part, this is what you really want to concentrate your efforts on. Hearing your subject tell their own story is so phenomenally powerful … it’s just an amazing thing. Keep it tight, you’re aiming for a 90 to 120 second long piece. Get a great interview, then go find the b-roll to make it work. Long, medium and closeup – use the formula, learn to love the formula so at some point later in your career you can ignore the formula. Keep the camera steady, always thing about sound. We didn’t do much with this as on my examples we took all the b-roll sound out, but we can layer it underneath your main interview audio if it helps. We can blend it in so it’s back there, ever so subtle or really prominent. We have a lot left to learn in this area.
Watch the American Soldier piece and look at the way Craig Walker builds images. Even though the core of that story is still photos, it’s still a powerful visual narrative. Look at the moments. Look at the light. Look at the backgrounds, or lack thereof. Look at the way he controls your movement through the frame.
Think about composition, especially the rule of thirds – it will make your video look so much more polished. Watch out for low light situations – image quality plummets on these Kodak cameras when you get into very low light levels.
On Tuesday, you’ll have 45 minutes to finish up your matched action video, then we’ll export and watch those – that will help get you ready for your major project. From there, I’m going to let you work at your own pace. Each morning, we’ll convene at 9 and talk about some small things, then let you get to your work. Your words, photos and video will be due on the server by 12:15 p.m. on Friday, June 3. We will watch them on Monday and then you’ll have until the end of class on Tuesday, June 7 to get the final versions of these on the server.
Remember, there are two reasons you’re doing this. First, because this is the future of journalism, this is what you’ll be doing through most of your career. Second, because these stories matter. The only reason you should be doing this – journalism – is because you care about your communities and you want to tell their stories.
Lastly, have fun. This is cool.
