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Getting the most from your camcorder: tips, tricks, and new products for those who want to take better videos.
Camcorders, Tech and Random Rants Blog
Getting the most from your camcorder: tips, tricks, and new products for those who want to take better videos.
Sep 4, 2008 9:00 AM
Posted by Joseph Devlin
Camcorder Overkill for Print Reporters
Posted by Joseph Devlin
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As we all know, newspapers are in trouble. The only growth area for papers has been online readers -- and it looks like even that is starting to fail. And the rats (reporters) are beginning to jump ship. No surprise then that papers are looking for new tricks to keep readers online. Lots of editors are betting that adding video to their online property is one rabbit that will pull more readers out of their hat. Is this true? We won't know until we give it time to shake out -- and that can't happen if we set the initial hurdles too high. There are two ways for papers to collect the video they show Some papers collect video by asking readers to send in footage they have captured with personal camcorders or cell phones. Here the problem is coming up with a way to focus eyes on the more interesting submissions. The other approach that is being tried is to ask reporters to start videotaping interesting events they are covering and people they are interviewing. The problem here is that most print journalists don't know squat about video. Problems with asking print reporters to become videographers Reporters often assume that have all the chops needed to become great documentary film makers - After all telling a story is telling a story! Isn't it? Unfortunately different mediums require different skill sets. When you interview someone for a print all that matters are the ideas. The writer can fix the interviewees language and fill in all the necessary details. With video the ideas still matter, but so does the flow of the speaker's presentation, and the light levels, and the sound quality, and a thousand other variables a print writer can ignore. If the papers want print reporters to produce compelling footage they need to provide them with training about the medium, give them time to experiment and hone their craft -- and you have to equip them with a lot more equipment than a pencil and pen.  Picking the right video equipment for a print reporter How much do you need to spend to equip a reporter with a video kit good enough to get the job done? That's the subject of an interesting new PBS MediaShift article, Newspapers Can Do Online Video on a Modest Budget. In the Media Shift article, Mark Van Patten, the general manager of the Bowling Green (Ky.) Daily News talks about the unrealistic expectations reporters have about the equipment they need to do this job. In Van Patten's words all too often newspaper people get "too involved with looking the part rather than getting results". By this he means that reporters and photographers demand prosumer camcorders, not because they need them, but because these cameras will make them look like serious journalists. In Van Patten's estimation prosumer equipment is usually way overkill for the job at hand. Remember we are producing "web video not broadcast video". They all want $5,000 prosumer cameras, I tell them that "excellent video and sound can be captured without spending more than $700 total on equipment including a camera, tripod, and microphone." That upsets them because they all want to look like the photographers they see from the TV stations. I agree with much of Van Patten is saying in this article. These reporters don't need Hi-Def, 3 chips, or 24p. To my mind, the best kit for print journalists being asked to grab an occasional video clip is one that is lightweight and flexible. In my experience, cameras tucked away in the corner of a backpack ready to be whipped out when the moment arrives capture much more useful footage than better equipment sitting in a padded case far away in a car trunk. Check out the videos listed the Daily News website and you will see that much of the work these guys are posting could be much improved by not by better optics but by judicious use of a $200 lightweight tripod with a good floating head and a $100 external microphone. The Media Shift article does a good job of discussing how these reporters also need easier to use editing software with a better selection of customizable graphics, effects, titles, music, and templates than is required for most other video editing professionals. Yes, higher end cameras can give a good videographer much more control, but you have to learn to crawl before you can run. And most of print reporters are still learning how to crawl in the video world. Give them time and some of them will get there. Then they will be ready for that prosumer camera they all covet. Technorati Tags:
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