Clickers - make sure you have your clicker and that it is registered properly. Here are the OIT instructions for registering your clicker. Bring it to class. You will need to be on Channel 5 for this course.

The video interview

Reporting is about talking to people.

It doesn’t matter if you are working for print, the web or broadcast. You have to know how to speak to people, ask them the right questions and get the information that you need. Here we talk about some of the specifics related to video interviewing.

• Talk to the right person(s). The right person is the one who has the information that you need for the story. The right person is also the one who is available and who is willing to be on camera. The right peson is the one who can speak articulately and can answer questions in a straightforward manner.
  
  
• Get a good setting for the interview. Many factors come into play here. You don’t necessary want a scene background or the scene of the action. Remember that for the interview, you want viewers to concentrate on the questions and answers. Consequently, a noisy or busy background – one where people are going back and forth – can be distracting or can simply overwhelm the interview.
  
  One famous example of this was when Sarah Palin, then governor of Alaska and former vice presidential candidate, returned to her home state after the 2008 election. At Thanksgiving she was interviewed by a television reporter at a turkey farm. In the background, a workman was killing a turkey as Palin was answering questions. That interview was shown again and again, not because of what she said but because of what was going on behind her. (You can see the Palin interview on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJd_vm9VhpU.)
  
  
• Ask the right questions in the right way. The questions you ask of an interviewee should be the ones that solicit the information you want. You want to conduct the interview as efficiently as possibly because you don’t want to have to wade through a lot of unnecessary video during the editing process. So, have the questions you want to ask in mind before you ask them. Better yet, write them down.
  
  The questions should be short and to the point. Don’t ramble and don’t explain. Ask the question and stop talking.
  
  And don’t interrupt. Let the interviewer speak and be ready with another question, if necessary, when the interviewee stops talking.
  
  
• Keep it simple. Ask short, direct questions. Don’t repeat questions unless there is a reason to do so. Let the interviewee speak, but when you are finished with the questions and the answers, shut the camera off. You may want to get shots from a few more angles, but once you have done that, you should leave. You still have eiditng to do.

Editing the video

Video stories are imagined in a newsroom and shot on location.

But they are made in the editing process.

Video editing not long ago required lots of equipment, technical expertise, time and practice. Editing for video journalism was particularly demanding because of the deadlines imposed by news programs. Video editing required a specialist who could work quickly.

Such specialization and experience is no longer necessary. While video editing may seem technically daunting, video journalists have developed many techniques and practices that make it straightforward and well within the reach of any journalist.

And the hardware and software have changed to such an extent that video editing – while still not “easy” – is not nearly the task that it used to be.

But the hardest part of video editing was not what the videographer did but what the video journalist still does: zero in on the story idea.

Every story should have a simple, central idea that can be stated clearly (see module 9.2 <link>). If you have that, then you can apply journalistic practices and techniques to make that story come to life. The presence of a single, well-formed story idea allows you to tell the story in a brief, simple manner, which is a requirement for good video journalism.

A number of principles govern the practice of editing video for journalism:

• Choose accuracy over everything else. Video journalists are journalist, and their primary mission is to present accurate information to viewers. Nothing should get in the way of that.
  
  
• Clarity and simplicity are the marks of good video journalism. Viewers should know what the story is about from the very beginning. They should be able to follow it logically through its presentation. One scene, cut or sequence should follow logically from another.
  
  
• The more thought, planning and working that goes into the writing and shooting of a story, the less editing will be necessary. If you sit down to edit with no plan in mind – just lots of “great” video – you are likely to be at it for a long, long time. And then, what you produce is likely not going to be very good.
  
  
• Write the story -- or at least begin with an outline of what you think the story will be. Know what shots you will need. Get those shots. (Be ready if something unusual happens.) And when you get to the editing part, follow the plan.
  
  
• Video editing, even with good planning, can be time consuming. Learn the techniques for making it more efficient. Most video journalists do many of the same things again and again. They don’t try to be creative with the techniques. Rather they try to be creative with the content they present.

So, what are the techniques?

Storyboards. One of the time-tested tools for putting together a video story is the story board. The storyboard is a series of boxes that show different parts of a story. It can be as formal or informal as the journalists wants. It allows the video journalist to picture the story in its entirety. The words written beside the box may include the script for the story or just a phrase or two with an indicator of how much time that piece of the story takes.

Avoid repetition. Using the same shot more than once is the mark of an amateur.

Simplify transitions. Editing software gives you a wide variety of transitions to use between shots. They may look cool to the editor, but they are distracting to the viewer and they take away from the information you are trying to present. Select the simplest transitions and use them unless compelled to do otherwise.

Cutaways. Cutaways are shots that relate to the main video but not necessarily of the main event. For instance, a person giving a talk is the main video. A cutaway would be of someone in the audience listening to that person. Cutaways are used for variety – to break up the main video and prevent it from becoming boring. Plan to get cutaways when you are shooting.

Establishing shots. Get shots that give a full picture of where the event is occurring, and work those into your story in a logical way. Using a storyboard (see above) helps this process.

Pacing. The concept of pacing means presents shots in a sequence that is interesting for the viewer. One of the assumptions of pacing is that no single shot or angle should stay on for too long. How long is too long? That, of course, depends on the story. There is no general rule of thumb for how long a single shot can be before it should be reviewed to see if it is seems too long. Tight editing using a variety of short scenes and shots is better than one longer sequence where the scene and angle do not change. But the video journalist must develop a good “feel” for the three kinds of movement:

• movement of characters or items within the frame or the sciene
• camera movement
• movement between shots

Sound. Always check the sound to make sure that it is high quality. This part of editing is where most beginner forget and fail.

James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men from Jim Stovall on Vimeo.

University of Tennessee professor Paul Ashdown discusses the seminal work by James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Ashdown tells how this book came about and how it eventually became an object of study for academics. He calls it a "one of a kind" work.

Weekly news quiz

You can find some of the quiz questions that might be asked in lecture here.