Week 3: “I Can Visualize It All…”

Week 3 of class was all about thinking of ways we would capture an experience and tell a story using video.  So there were 3 main parts of this week’s class I thought were significant in helping us transition into this visual thinking.

1. Camera Basics and Shooting Techniques

Before a journalist can tell a story using video, he or she must be able to operate the equipment.  This week Mindy gave the class information on how to use the cameras and make sure the material we capture on tape is quality.  We were assigned to read part of chapter 2, Camera Basics, of  Make Internet TV, which is a user-created site connected to the MITV Wiki library of information about publishing video on the internet.   Some of the things I especially took note of are:

A. Holding Options

• Single Hand- w/ free hand supporting elbow that is kept near the body
• Two Hand- w/ elbows near body for leverage
• Above Head- for events w/crowds

B. Stabilizing Your Camera

• Lean against walls
• Knee on elbow
• Tripod

C. Sound

• Decide what sound you want to focus on  or capture
• Use controlled surroundings when possible
• Move subjects away from extraneous noises
• Make sure subject are as close the the mic as possible
• Omni-directional mic vs. Directional mic

D. Composition & Motion

• Zooming-stay tight on subject, only catch significant movement or surroundings
• Tilting-changing the angle of the lens up or down
• Panning-sweeping the lens left or right
• Dollying-physically moving camera while it’s fixed on an object

On our first shooting assignment, the tips that helped me the most (as a person who is new to video) were the tips about stabilizing the camera and thinking of interesting angles and shots to include. 

Other important tips: record a little longer than needed to allow wiggle room for editing, monitor sound with headphones, and always think about shot variety

2.Visual Thinking

In this class Mindy stressed the importance of  “thinking visually” when we walk around with our cameras- even before we start shooting.   She lead us in an exercise where we took a print story and planned the way we would retell the story using video.  We basically planned and organized the story from beginning to end by talking about what we would see through the camera.  And we realized the order of our scenes didn’t always match the order in the print story.

For class we had to watch “Red Hot Rails”, a video by the San Jose Mercury News, and think about shots.  I thought the beginning shots of the interview subjects face were shot at an interesting angle and the flickering of between the train images and the subjects face was particulary creative. There was never any boring shots of one person being interviewed because the videographer would get interesting profiles of the side of the persons face or for example, frame the driver’s reflection in the glass lenses of the train’s gauges.  The shot variety was amazing.  You would think shooting railroads would be boring, but there were a lot of close-up shots of the train tracks the videographer shot while the train was moving that gave the video a great sense of rhythm.  I also thought the framing of the camera looking through the train windows  at other trains passing was eye catching.  Even the still images went along with the rest of the video because they had interesting shadows and sunlight.

In class we watched 40 Years of R-E-S-P-E-C-T, a video by the Detroit Free Press about the 40th anniversary of Aretha Franklin’s version of the song.  I love this project.  The story was told in a stylish and engaging manner mixing old photos, video and music to create a very textured and complete project.  I think the best part is how the journalist linked the song to the social climate of the 1960s. While I was watching I was thinking about the decisions the videographer made about when to use music along with photos or when it was appropriate to interject an interview.   I liked the way the camera moved as it focused on the still images.  This helped keep me attentive to the video. I think the video leaves the viewer wanting to see and hear more about the topic.

3. Visual Storytelling

Our homework for this class was to read Chapter 12 in Documentary Storytelling (Bernard).  Mindy summed up the main points of the chapter in her Journalists’ Toolkit blog.  I thought the section on creating visuals (p. 183) was really helpful because some stories don’t lend themselves naturally to visual representations.  I realized how difficult it was to visually tell a story about an issue last semester.  Bernard gave examples of “wallpaper” material, which is generic visuals not specifically linked to a particular character or story, but they just sort of “fit in” with the topic.