In Point

Hello and welcome to my first blog post.



An interesting discussion popped up over at Multimediashooter.com the other day in a column penned by Richard Koci Hernandez. In his article, entitled "Say NO to video: Conversations with the Video God" he asks that we as audio-visual journalists take a step back and look at video for what it is and is not. It is not one true savior of newspapers, and it is not the only tool which can tell a compelling web based story.

What caught my eye was in the comments section where Brock Meeks, former Wired Magazine and MSNBC journalist, wrote:

"Ever wonder why the folks at NBC, CBS, ABC produce videos every single day that just kick ass on 98 percent of the video produced by newspaper? It’s because they work in teams; a cameraman (or woman) does just that; the sound person is bulked up with his or her own gear. The cameraman never, natch, rarely, does the audio, and vice-versa and then there is the “talent” (yes, that’s what they call the on-air correspondents)."

I couldn't agree with him more.

One looks around the landscape of multi-media journalism today and finds that most papers have saddled their photographers with video gear, kick them out the door, and expect them to produce compelling video in between their efforts to shoot and process stills from the interstate pile up, city hall, and the new pizza place that opened on main street.

It simply cannot be done. There is not enough time in the day to be both a still photographer and a videographer and expect them to produce in both mediums with equal results. The time it takes to produce a good still photograph is dwarfed by the time required to produce a video of equal quality.

Newspapers instead need to treat their videographers more like regular reporters. Split the video from the photo departments and implement therein a traditional film/video workflow and hierarchy, with producers, production assistants, and editors. Treat your video less like a still photo and more like a documentary and you will end up with better video.

Case in point: In my senior year of college I took a Documentary Journalism course. The semester project was to produce a 15 minute documentary on any subject. Our professor acted as the producer and our teams were sort of like the production assistants/cameramen. I went out and produced House of Pain, a short documentary about a professional wrestling school in Hagerstown, MD. During the course of production I shot 15 hours of tape over the course of a month and when it came time to edit I still struggled to fill 15 minutes. The video was a small success, gaining acceptance to two film festivals and winning 2nd place in one. But I'll never forget the lesson I learned: producing compelling video requires time, a lot of time, and it's a luxury that still photographers don't have today.