Basic Shooting Tips for Video Journalists

The basics of shooting video for news and journalistic-style stories are not difficult but they aren't necessarily intuitive. It is important to master the basics so the technical part of acquiring video and sound doesn't get in the way of telling a good story. 

Here is a link to a great resource of tips to help you better understand the basic video techniques for shooting for news and journalism. 

Tutorial: Video Techniques

By Paul Grabowicz, Ellen Seidler, Pamela Reynolds

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/shooting_tips/

MOJO or Mobile Journalism

I've been teaching multimedia journalism for many years now. One thing that I've debated many times is whether students are better off learning how to use professional/prosumer-level cameras and audio gear or if they would be better served learning mobile journalism with smartphones and lower cost peripherals.

Currently I'm leaning toward the MOJO route because of the high-quality video available on smartphones and the ease of access, as most students have smartphones. As I've researched, I found a number of great resources for mobile journalism that I share on this blog.

Mobile-storytelling.com

mobile-storytelling.com

One of the resources I recently discovered is the website mobile-storytelling.com. 

Mobile-storytelling.com a has many great examples of smartphone journalism (MOJO) as wells as information on apps, software and equipment.

LumaFusion / Professional Editor for iPhone & iPad

The link below will take you to information on the app LumaFusion. LumaFusion is a multi-track video editor for ipads and iPhones that goes for $19.99.
https://luma-touch.com/lumafusion-for-ios/

LumaFusion

Here is a sample of a video edited with LumaFusion. You get the timeline view as the video plays so you can see the interface. Very cool!

Camera Basics for Video Storytelling

Whether you're shooting a short video of the CEO to put on YouTube, an interview with the police chief, or a full documentary, you need to know the basics. Everyone who shoots these types of stories needs to understand how to frame and light an interview and how to shoot sequences of shots for b-roll. 

There are many great resources to help you get started or to refresh your skills if it has been a while. A great free resource is a creative commons e-book written by Nancy Kalow. It is called, "Visual Storytelling: The Visual Documentary. You can download the PDF file. The book goes over the basics, like the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule.

Another free resources is mediacollege.com. Here is a link to some basic information on how to conduct a video interview.

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/interviews/composition.html.

Typeforms

Build beautiful, engaging, and conversational online forms, surveys, quizzes, landing pages, and much more with Typeform. Try it FREE & without signing up!