Blast-video

Video cameras for reporters as newspaper moves into the digital age

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:15 GMT

All reporters at the Journal-Register Co. (JRC) will get video cameras, under an ambitious plan to bring the newspaper into the digital age, the company's 3,100 employees have been told. The company's new CEO John Paton has also told...

Videojournalism - how easy is it?

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:30 GMT

The power of attraction - video storytelling

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:50 GMT

I'm not a journalist with a video camera -Videojournalism

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:39 GMT

The Art of My Praxis - Video journalism film making

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:53 GMT

Video: Videojournalism – past, present and future

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:25 GMT

A brief visual history of video journalism -from BBC to newspapers

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:05 GMT

Flashmob "Freeze" Berlin

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:03 GMT

Video-capable DSLRs and news shooting

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:31 GMT

After months of drooling over the visual possibilities, I finally cracked and bought myself a Canon 7D (the "cheapest" of Canon's video-capable DSLRs). The decision was motivated almost purely by greed--I just HAD to have that gorgeous detail, that shallow depth of field--but now I'm left wondering how to make it work for news gathering.

Has anyone out there tried this? What worked? What didn't?

There are, I realize, dozens of forums dedicated to VDSLRs (God, what an unfortunate acronym), but they're all very thin on using the cameras specifically for NEWS video.

I'll be taking my camera back to China, where I plan to put it to use on a couple short feature pieces, and will post my impressions here. In the meantime, if anyone else wants to jump in with advice, questions or other thoughts, I'm eager to hear it.

Here's a little sample of what these cameras can do (shot the day I pulled mine out of the box).

New AP video essay online about Afghanistan War. Have a look and let me know what do you think!

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:19 GMT

New AP video essay online about Afghanistan War.
Afghanistan. July 2, 2009
Operation Strike of the Sword Begins. The largest US Marine Air Assault since the Vietnam War. The operation pushed US troops behind enemy lines. This is the diary of the US Marine CPL. Jack Hausmann giving his grunts eye view of the first days of the Offensive.

Part one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7rNHD4zgMc

What are the feelings and emotions before going in one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan behind enemy lines?

Part two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOINrMFg_5g

The harships of an opeartion where the conditions, the terrain and the heat became as dangerous as the taliban.

Part three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m79aW8C1jp4

The reality of Afghansitan can be so diferent from the one at home build by the media or in the Military headquarters. The truth of the situation and the people of Afghanistan can give more than one lesson to the US Marines. Some of the lessons will be important to bring back to the US.

Video essay by Raul Gallego Abellan
Music by Ian Mader

The holy grail of digital media

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:56 GMT

God: What are you doing now?
King Arthur: Averting our eyes, oh Lord.
God: Well, don't. It's just like those miserable psalms, always so depressing. Now knock it off!

A bit of link bait that title I know. But imagine that you had followed the link and before you could read the first line of text a video ‘overlay' appeared and covered the whole page with adverts. You could try it. Hit refresh then close your eyes and count to 30.

That's the idea behind ex-CNN.com chief David Payne's new venture ShortTailmedia. Beet.TV reported on the plans for this bug hitter, just out of beta

The company, an ad network of sorts, allows publishers to insert television spots or “pre-roll” video advertising into users experience as they call up text pages to read.

So essentially its like your first click is ‘end of part one' and then you have to watch an advert before you get to see the page and get to enjoy ‘part two'

Payne himself has called this the holy grail of digital media. But in this world of timeshift recording will it really work?

We are still having the debate about people skipping ads through when they use DVR's. Do we really need to strong arm that part of the TV experience back in? Do we really need something that produces ‘unit' (their words) that “are part of a recent movement to bring bigger, more interrupting ad units online”. More interruptions to my browsing? Oh yeah. That'll endear me to you.

It sounds like a bit of dud to me. So it'll probably be a huge success.

Person of the year - video makers

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:35 GMT

Video advertising on the rise

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:47 GMT

At a time when ad pages and profits are taking a plunge, there is a news media that is seeing an increase in traffic and revenue- video advertising. While more dependence is already being placed on Internet advertising, many news...

VideoWTF?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:49 GMT

Here's a cool new site to ask and answer questions about video: VideoWTF?

The site has great functionality. Anyone can post questions, answer other people's questions, rank them, tag them, etc. It seems like there are some really knowledgeable people contributing to this site.

Check out this one. I learned something new!

VideoWTF?

Advice on using your flip to shoot video

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:33 GMT

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I'm doing a lot more video this year as part of my digital teaching. One reason for that is we have bought a boat load of Flip video recorders to play with. That means we can do video without the big camera issues.

Whilst pulling together resources for video (I'm expecting the students to do a lot of reading around the basic technical stuff) I came across the Flip video spotlight site.

Flip Video Spotlight provides steeply discounted access to selected Flip Video products to qualifying charitable organizations. To start, charitable organizations apply online to become a Participating Partner. If approved, Participating Partners join our online community and receive access to the Flip Video Spotlight storefront. For each Flip Video Ultra camcorder purchased through the storefront, Flip Video Spotlight donates a free unit.

How nice is that.

As part of the site there are basic tips on storytelling, shooting, production and distribution. They also have a couple of neat videos offering guidance for using for the flip. So even if you don't fit their criteria you can still benefit from the advice

Newsy.com's iPhone app's ranking rises

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:55 GMT

Newsy.com, an online video news service started in the spring in partnership with the Missouri School of Journalism, announced that its iPhone application is currently ranked number six on the list of free news apps in the iTunes app store,...

Using iPod Nano for video interviews

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:33 GMT

So you walk into someone's home or workplace and do an interview. After you've finished taking notes, you whip out your iPod Nano and do a 2-minute video interview for the Web. This iPod is so small, you might lose it inside your pocket!

To test whether this new Nano (released last week) would produce usable video interviews, I tried it out with 10 of my colleagues in the College of Journalism and Communications. I wanted to keep the editing to a bare minimum, so I told each of them this: Name a place you have visited, when you went there, and one thing you did there. You'll see and hear the different lighting conditions and sound quality.

I've been especially impressed by the audio, which is omnidirectional. I'm not wild about the image quality. My Canon PowerShot (still camera) does a better job with the visuals.

The biggest problems I had were stopping the recording (it does not want to stop!) and keeping the Nano steady. I'm pretty well practiced at keeping a little Canon PowerShot steady, but this was a lot harder. Let me know if you think it's too shaky.

Here's the Tech Specs page for this Nano — “H.264 VGA video, 640 by 480 pixels, up to 30 frames per second with AAC audio.” There are two models: 8 GB and 16 GB. Video capture runs at about 18 MB per minute. Battery life seems good so far.

The user's manual for the Nano is online (PDF; 2 MB).

Video Journalism Training: Filming in Berlin

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:07 GMT

Video journalists film and interview people at The Jewish Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, River Spree, Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany.

A film by Robb Montgomery.

Camp Video Journalism follows filmmakers as they document and learn how to edit and produce documentary news films in a five day workshop.

Features CampVj.com student Jens Weber who is an editor from the Rhein-Zeitung newspaper in Koblenz, Germany.

Compelling vlog covering courts

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:36 GMT

Ron Sylvester of The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle sent me the link to a video blog he produces covering the city's courts. He publishes a video per day that show significant moments from interesting trials.

Each post includes a paragraph of background info to explain what the video is about. Each video is about two minutes long, and as you can imagine, they show mainly talking heads of the defendants and judges talking about the case in court.

Usually, talking heads are boring and do not make compelling video. But I think the way Ron is using the talking heads here is actually very compelling. Maybe it's because the subject matter is naturally interesting. Maybe it's the easy-to-digest format: One graph of info, followed by a short video. Whatever it is, I think it's successful because I was able to watch like 4-5 of these in a row and I stayed interested the whole time.

With such reliably published and compelling content, I'd wager that the blog has a loyal following.

What do you think about Ron's video blog? Leave comments for him here.

Compelling vlog covering courts

Syncing two video cameras

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:14 GMT

We're starting our great video experiment at The Eagle-Tribune shooting daily "in studio" videos. Yes, it's been done and abandoned many other places and now we're taking our shot. So, in most cases, this will be two or three people in a 5 to 10 min. format show or interview. Where I'm hitting a wall is in how to effectively edit two cameras.

Ideally we'll have two cameras set up to alternate between the folks on our stage. When we shoot live video and broadcast on livestream, it's relatively easy to switch back and forth between camera views. However, if we're recording, I'm going to wind up with two tapes. Is this difficult to try to sync in FinalCut Express later on? Should we be be investing in some sort of video editing board that will combine the two camera signals into one final recording I can then import into FinalCut and add the finishing touches? Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about? Do I?

-Noah