10.7: Shooting the Video

When you’re starting out, there are essentially two types of video assignments: A documentary-style video story and a breaking news/highlights/news clip style. Either form requires you to approach it with more than an attitude that you’re “just getting some video.” With a little more effort and planning, you can capture and produce great video, no matter the form.

Armed only with a cell phone?

So-called “citizen journalists” are increasingly using their mobile phones to capture video if they witness a news event. They may upload these videos to hyperlocal sites or they may send one to a news organization that welcomes on-the-scene reports.

To capture mobile video you need, of course, a mobile device that can shoot video. Many cell phones are now equipped with USB ports that allow you to connect your phone directly to your computer so you can transfer your video and edit it. If that’s not an option, you can also e-mail the video to yourself and then edit it.

To e-mail video, your cell phone must be able to send MMS (Multimedia Message Service) messages and have an Internet access or data plan from your mobile service provider.

Increasingly, news sites are inviting people to send them raw video footage, especially of breaking news. CNN.com’s I-Reports and the video-hosting site YouTube invite mobile videographers to upload their videos directly from their cell phones or PDAs.

You must create an account. This will give you an e-mail address where you can send your videos. Then you can e-mail your video as an attachment.

Documentary-style video story

The best way to make a solid video story is to think about it the same way you think about writing a story. Indeed, it’s critical to think about how the video will “tell the story.” Once you envision what the story should “say,” it’s simply a matter of filling in the spots with the most appropriate footage. Here’s how.

Plan the shoot before you go out: Just like the elements of a good news story that are second nature to you (background, quotes from more than one source, documentation), there are basic elements of a shoot you will need to construct an interesting video story. You need a mix of shots:

• Wide-angle — These shots, also known as “establishing” shots, give viewers a sense of the environment, so shoot the outside of the building or back up and shoot the entire room.

  

• Medium — Somewhere in between wide and close-up, these shots are the ones you are probably most comfortable shooting.

  

• Close-ups — These shots zoom in on who’s talking or what they are talking about. Remember: Always zoom first, then record, instead of recording and zooming at the same time.

  

A good mix would be 25 percent wide-angle, 25 percent close-ups and 50 percent medium or mid-range shots.

Breaking news/highlights/clips style video

For these types of video, you rarely know what the “story” will be in advance. You simply know that news is happening or has happened and you want to capture some essence of it on video.

For a breaking news event like a highway crash or a school shooting, you probably won’t get to the scene in time to capture the actual action. However, the reaction from witnesses and investigators as well as footage of the scene are well worth capturing.

Press conferences (if they are tied to compelling news events or delivered by news figures) can make good video and are about the easiest to shoot. You have a fixed subject and the lighting will be good (especially if there are TV cameras around).

Highlights clips, especially in sports, can be among the most popular content on any news site. Shooting sports video can be challenging, however. The constant movement of the subjects requires large capacity in the digital video file and can be hard to follow once the video is downsized and compressed for Web display. As a result, short clips of the best action is the way to go, either edited together with voice-over descriptions or linked to a news story as raw clips with caption information next to the link.

Other important tips to remember:

Be selective in shooting. There are two good reasons for this: You don’t want to waste tape and you don’t want to waste time editing.

Avoid panning, zooming. Stop recording when switching between wide, medium and close shots. Avoid zooming and panning if possible. Simply shoot a shot, stop recording, then adjust for the next shot and hit record again.

Hold your shots. Since you can make a shot shorter in the editing process — but not longer — make sure to hold each of your shots for at least 15 seconds. Even if it’s a wide environment shot that you’ll likely use for 5 seconds, shoot the full 15 seconds. You’ll be glad you did.

Be silent when you shoot. The camera will pick up every sound you make — a sigh, a cough, a chuckle or anything you say. So keep your lips zipped when recording because you won’t be able to edit out the unwanted audio later.

Frame your subject carefully. When framing your shot, it is best to avoid a static composition by keeping the main subject slightly off center. To do this consistently, follow the “rule of thirds,” which recommends dividing the frame, using imaginary lines, into thirds both horizontally and vertically. If you position your main subject (usually a face) near one of the intersections of these lines, you will achieve a pleasant, active composition.

The gridlines show you how to compose video using the “rule of thirds.”

Seek the best short clips. Understand that the best video stories are comprised of many short clips edited together, and your job is to get the best short clips. The best way to fully comprehend the array of clips you need to capture is to actually perform the editing — or at a minimum sit with the person who edits the video. It’s the only way to see what types of clips you shot work best and what types of clips you missed.

If you shoot video footage and hand it off to a Web producer or multimedia editor to await the final product, your video story skills will never improve.