Ahrens' piece provides support for an idea that's seemed intutively true to me for some time: we don't need to be creating 60 Minutes quality television to get in the game. In fact, you might well argue that the
opposite is true. I'd love to see us using cinéma vérité video to add value to all kinds of reporting. In Fresno, they've had good success using little digital video cameras that sell for less than $200.Why couldn't a foreign correspondent use a weekly, five-minute video post to set up what to watch for in the coming week? ("This week in China, observers will be watching to see how the visiting North Korean delegation is received when it arrives on Wednesday. I'll have coverage outlining the issues before arrival and expect to be writing extensively after the visit about what new direction blah blah blah ...") Shouldn't we webcast editorial board endorsement interviews with candidates for city council? Wouldn't coverage of the new art museum be enhanced with a video walk-through online?
From Aherns' piece:
Newspapers know that it is far cheaper to ask entry-level videographers to shoot digital video of a news event and post it on a Web site than to pay a TV reporter, video photographer and producer to create a three-minute news report for television. Many newspapers, including The Post, are training their reporters to shoot video with their stories. Some reporters carry video cameras and shoot video to accompany their articles when they appear on their newspaper's Web site.
Some of you are doing some of this now. More of us need to be doing more of it, soon.
The MI Newsroom has purchased a GL-2 camcorder and a nice Mac for audio and video editing. We'll be looking to incorporate more video content into our line of offerings for affiliates and will also be available to grab video/audio that affiliates request.
ReplyDeleteOne of our producers staffed the Carolina Hurricanes - Florida Panthers game last night and posted audio clips for affiliate use. This is new territory for most of our producers but I am pushing them to "be fearless" when trying new things and to adopt a motto that I appreciate (courtesy of adidas) "Impossible is Nothing."
In Modesto, we've been shooting video with a Sony FX1 that produces both standard definition video and high definition, which allows for still grabs from the video to be used in print. Since March '06. we've published 175 videos that can be found at www.modbee.com/videos
ReplyDeleteWe also started a YouTube channel that has received a good amount of traffic:
http://youtube.com/modbee
Brian
Also at the Island Packet, we purchased an M-Audio Microtrack handheld audio recorder. It encodes directly to MP3 or WAV on a compact flash card, and records high-quality audio in stereo or mono.
ReplyDeleteIf you plan on podcasting, or featuring audio of a pleasing timbre in your multimedia projects, I fully recommend the purchase. The drawback is the price.
Michael "Eddie" Edenfield