Just like you, when it came to multimedia I threw my fall 2010 and spring 2011 JRN 200 classes into the lake to teach them how to swim. And actually, people picked things up fairly quickly, and became proficient with minimal instruction. Just like with writing, you learn by doing.
The difference is, you've been writing for most of your lives, and when it comes to video you may have never made an edit before in your lives. Hence, it feels a helluva lot more awkward. Just go with it; I think you'll be surprised how good you get in a short time.
In that we learn by looking at work, I've included some links to the first multimedia assignment from past classes. Let's take a look and see what it looks like when people stop being polite and start getting real ... no, wait, that's the "Real World" slogan.
So again, a reminder: when they did these videos, these people had the exact same amount of video training as you do now. This was their starting point, and I hope it will give you a template of sorts to know what this first assignment could look like in terms of a final form.
First up is a video where the problem isn't the visual. It's the audio. I can barely hear what some folks are saying. Can you?
Yeah, I know you're working with basic equipment, but make sure that you grab audio in as non-echoey and quiet a space as possible. And get a microphone as close as you can to the subject; in the case of using flip cameras, that means shooting very close-up if you are shooting an interview.
In the same way a print story must be easy for a reader to navigate in terms of word use and structure, a video story has to be easy to watch and listen to in terms of clear video and understandable audio. Make sure the audio and visuals are clear and easy to follow for your viewers.
Plus, in that vid the captions are incomplete. Think about the same standard you'd use for attribution in print: what is the minimum amount of information readers need to know to sufficiently identify the interview subject and know why they are credible on this subject?
I'd say you need a full name and some sort of title; like Makia Brooks, JRN 200 student as opposed to just Makia.
You can help show and tell things to viewers via something called B-roll. B-roll is footage showing what your story is about. Like if you're doing a story about a bakery, B-roll would include cooks baking at the bakery, or customers buying tasty basked goods, or even external shots of the bakery building.
B-roll is useful to run while you are doing narration, or during transitions between sound bites, or to help break up a sound bite visual. Think about the typical sound bite; it's just someone going blah blah blah. Not that exciting to look at. But what you can do is start a sound bite with the standard shot of someone talking, then slip in a few seconds of B-roll of what they're taking about as they continue to talk, and then return to the shot of the person talking as the sound bite nears an end. That way, viewers get to see who is talking, and what they are talking about, as they talk.
You can see some decent B-roll use here.
Try to be precise in where you have transitions between interviews. In this video, the first person seems to get cut off. Perhaps you transitioned too quickly. With the last one, the interview subject kind of trails off at the end. Maybe the edit should have been a bit sooner. In the same way you try to be precise in using quotes in print, try to be just as precise in audio and video.
In all fairness, the producer of this vid had previous video experience, so he had a head start from many of you.
Still, I want you to notice -- and even emulate -- the strong points shown. Look at the creativity and variety of B-roll. Look at the use of captions. Look at the use of fairly short and to-to-point sound bytes. Look at the way the producer went to a bite, then someone else's bite, then back to the original person's bite. It nicely breaks up the first person's bite so the viewer doesn't get stuck listening to one person talk on and on and on. Note the narration at the start of the piece, offering a strong lede to the story.
There's a lot to learn from this vid.
Still, I want you to notice -- and even emulate -- the strong points shown. Look at the creativity and variety of B-roll. Look at the use of captions. Look at the use of fairly short and to-to-point sound bytes. Look at the way the producer went to a bite, then someone else's bite, then back to the original person's bite. It nicely breaks up the first person's bite so the viewer doesn't get stuck listening to one person talk on and on and on. Note the narration at the start of the piece, offering a strong lede to the story.
There's a lot to learn from this vid.
This next vid has a lede that's very fun and produced well but not exactly in the most journalistic style; still, for this first assignment it's fine. But what I really like is the back-and-forth use of sound bites. It doesn't feel like an interview; it feels like a conversation the viewer is having with two students. Very nice way to break up what was time-wise a verrrrry loooooong video. It's over three minutes; I'd like you guys to aim for between one and two minutes, max.
One person did something a bit different: a podcast. That is, an audio-only report kind of like a radio segment. It worked well, except for one thing -- it was a bit hard to keep track of who was saying what. Perhaps the person acting as the show host could have prefaced each new commenter with a quick identifier, such as "What do you think, Dave?" or "Devyne?"
You may ask yourself, "Where do you post a podcast?" I didn't know either. So I Googled "podcast upload" and found something in about five seconds. I used podbean.com, which is free (with registration) and which you can link to here.
That wasn't the only bit of different multimedia done by previous versions of this class. This person did an audio slide show, where still images are used instead of video, and sound is run concurrent with the person pictured at the time.
Look at how the author introduced animation of sort, by having the still image pan back slowly. That's a nice touch, making a static shot a bit more lively.
I'm sorry to say this story failed in a very critical area: one name was misspelled in the closing credits.
I wish I didn't have to, since otherwise this was such a nicely-done assignment. But no matter what the medium, the journalistic value of getting it right applies. If I gave you a pass on multimedia, I send the message that it is lesser journalism. It's not. I'm sorry to say this was a fatal.
One person did something a bit different: a podcast. That is, an audio-only report kind of like a radio segment. It worked well, except for one thing -- it was a bit hard to keep track of who was saying what. Perhaps the person acting as the show host could have prefaced each new commenter with a quick identifier, such as "What do you think, Dave?" or "Devyne?"
You may ask yourself, "Where do you post a podcast?" I didn't know either. So I Googled "podcast upload" and found something in about five seconds. I used podbean.com, which is free (with registration) and which you can link to here.
That wasn't the only bit of different multimedia done by previous versions of this class. This person did an audio slide show, where still images are used instead of video, and sound is run concurrent with the person pictured at the time.
Look at how the author introduced animation of sort, by having the still image pan back slowly. That's a nice touch, making a static shot a bit more lively.
I'm sorry to say this story failed in a very critical area: one name was misspelled in the closing credits.
I wish I didn't have to, since otherwise this was such a nicely-done assignment. But no matter what the medium, the journalistic value of getting it right applies. If I gave you a pass on multimedia, I send the message that it is lesser journalism. It's not. I'm sorry to say this was a fatal.
The standards are no different from print. Only the medium is different. We still have to get things right and on-time and organized in a sensible and easy-to-understand form and we still need to offer evidence from sources being quoted directly.
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