This project was the perfect end to the semester. It really solidified our ability to organize B-Roll and tell a story through a camera. Like the Mobile Journalism project you had to organize a story with an interview and then tell a story around that B-Roll. I wish that we could have done more with this project like incorporating it into a headline news broadcast. I also felt that my mic skills might have been a little weak but overall our group did good on the project.
Working on a full blown newscast can sound a little intimidating at first, but then again it wouldn't be a challenge if it wasn't intimidating. We started off researching our stories and writing our story briefs for the newscast. We chose stories about weather, sports, school, international, local, and national not necessarily in that order. The project however was not just about writing shorter versions of the story, we also had to present it as anchors and work in the control room for other peoples projects. Being the anchor had to be the most intimidating part of the project. This was because the project had to be + or - five second off of 2:10 sec which made you want to either slow down or rush through the broadcast. Also when you watch a broadcast you feel a connection with the anchor, the way he's looking into the camera, but believe me the anchor does not feel the same way when he is trying to read the words as clearly as possible off of the telaprompter. All in all it was a fun project that taught me more about the news broadcast business when it goes live.
Mobile Journalism is the starting base for all other forms of TV journalism. These stories are the ones that people want to see but these people might not realize the amount of precision that goes into making these short stories. This project I realized is all about rules. Its simple you follow the rules, you produce a good story, you don't follow the rules and it can go downhill fast. When I was working on this project toward the end something clicked in my mind. I all of the sudden understood what my teacher was talking about. For me that was my greatest accomplishment on this project. I thought that it was challenging to get the person you were interviewing to say what you wanted them to say. Sometimes when I would ask a question in my head I would Be saying "Just give me the right answer and it will make my life so much easier" however I realized that you will never get exactly the answer that you want, and that you have to work with what you have. This project was an eye opener to me in the world of video journalism. I have already taken newspaper journalism and learning how to tie together strategy's from that class and strategies from this class has been fun, and I look forward to sharing more projects.
This is what the people want to see, the interview. But first you must make sure that you know whats going to happen before going into the interview. It's not and interrogation its a conversation. Before diving into the actually interview you want to let the subject get comfortable with you and vise versa. If the subject seems edgy throughout the whole interview then you might lose your credibility. So when interviewing someone you always want to ask questions that start with, "Tell me about..." or other sayings of that nature. Another important point is that after each question give the subject time to think and answer. Even if they don't answer right away wait. These points are essential for a well done interview.
Obviously every interview needs sound. But the kind of sound that people might not think about in an interview is natural sound. If you are outdoors this would be the wind, or the running water in a stream. you might not realize it at the time but sound is one of if not the most important item in an interview that makes you feel like your there. When you are filming you must figure out a way to incorporate this sound into your interview, because without it the audience would be lost.
When you shoot a story, you do not simply just point the camera at the person and talk. If you do not film from the right camera angles or have the right sequence of filming then you will quickly lose the interest of your viewers. Part of filming correctly is having good B-Roll. B-Roll is the video where the subject of the story is performing his or her action. This allows the audience to get a sense of what the topic is about visualy. The sequence is in the form of WALLDO. This stands for Wide, Angle, Low, Linking, Depth, and Opposite. The help you sequence the video correctly so that the viewer does not get confused.
Visual storytelling is in essence the aura of the interview. It is how you tell the story, and also how you get the audience to feel like they're there. For instance if you are watching a singer perform on TV in front of judges, but they only show the singer you would be confused. This is because you can tell if it sounds good to you but if you can't see what the judges think of it then you don't know how good the singer was in their eyes. This is why visual storytelling is so important.
In every story there is action and then there is reaction. These element are what makes a story's emotion. Like the fans screaming after a home run, or the girlfriends response to being proposed to. Emotion is what hooks you to every story and makes you feel apart of it. Kind of like that feeling when your watching a movie and its almost as if your there. This is why Action and Reaction are so important in visual storytelling.
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