Blast-video

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...

videojournalism 2017

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:58 GMT

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

I'm doing a lot more video this year as part of my video 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 they have a section of 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

Mind your health new journalists & video journalists

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:22 GMT

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

Video reporting and editing workshop (Berlin, Germany)

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:30 GMT

Camp VJ is a hands-on and very practical three day video journalism workshop designed to teach the fundamentals for producing great videos for the Web.

Come to Berlin to learn:

-- Fundamentals of camera usage
-- Shooting and editing sequences
-- How to gather audio
-- Elements of visual stories
-- Writing scripts, recording voice overs and editing scenes
-- Final Cut shortcuts and workflows
-- Compressing, uploading and filing videos for Web

Participants will film, edit and post videos and get group and individual critiques. Video expertise is a must-have skill in our new digital media world.

Who is this designed for?
Field correspondants, reporters, journalism educators, photographers, photojournalists, web producers, and publication editors.

REGISTER: http://campvjberlin.eventbrite.com/

BBC's video sharing deal met with opposition from News International, Press Association and ITN

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:25 GMT

The BBC's announcement that it is to share video news with UK newspapers has been met with opposition by several media organisations. News International, the UK arm of News Corp, the Press Association and ITN have all expressed concern at...

BBC to share video news with UK newspapers

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:16 GMT

The BBC is to share video news with major British newspapers, in what the Guardian described as a "landmark deal." The first papers involved are the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Independent and the Telegraph, but the publicly funded corporation...

Sweet presentation on marketing online video

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:01 GMT

How to Use Online Video for Marketing

View more presentations from Hubspot Marketing.

Link via Will Video For Food.

Sweet presentation on marketing online video

Looks like I'll be staying up even later at night

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:34 GMT

Reel SEO published a huge list of video-related blogs (including this site – yay!).

With the online video industry in what seems to be a continual rapid growth mode, it is difficult to keep up with all that is going on with regard to news and information about online video platforms, online video marketing, video advertising, mobile video and everything else.

… here are many other great sources out there that I suggest you take a look at.

Caution: Don't look at this list unless you're prepared to grow your feed reader out of control.

Looks like I'll be staying up even later at night

How to gather, shoot, write for video

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:36 GMT

This is a great resource: the Television Scripts portion of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism, online for free, accessible by anyone. Check these sections:

I'm saying this from the perspective of a journalism educator who struggles to find good professional materials for my students to learn from. Too many textbooks are written as if for idiots, and the prices are ridiculous. I'm embarrassed to ask students to spend $50 for a book that contains only 10 or 20 valuable pages — and far too many journalism textbooks fit that description.

(One of the more notable exceptions is Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production [2008] — less than $20, and every chapter is truly useful.)

I'm stunned to see this Reuters handbook. From the BBC (public, not-for-profit), I wouldn't be so surprised. But from Reuters, a fully commercial enterprise? I think someone should give Reuters a medal, a prize, a commendation. The entire Handbook of Journalism is cool, but this video news portion is so much more clear and concise than all the TV news textbooks I have ever examined — awesome. The whole handbook is a wiki (NOT editable by the public, of course) to make for easy corrections and updating. It's brilliant.

Thank you, Reuters. Every journalism program in every college and university should thank you for this.

(Tip of my hat to the broadcast journalism blog Advancing the Story, where I learned about the Reuters handbook.)

Great service for online video quality

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:29 GMT

I think YouTube has done a great service to online video with its new Reporters Center, which is meant to train citizens how to cover big news events with video. YouTube approached the biggest names in the business like Katie Couric, Bob Woodward and Ariana Huffington. They have created how-to videos covering topics like interviewing, telling a story, and checking facts. It goes on and on.

It launched only one week ago, and already the videos are getting tens of thousands of hits. Katie's interviewing tutorial has nearly 80,000.

This is pretty awesome. Read more at Poynter.

Link via Journerdism.

Great service for online video quality

The importance of writing to your video

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:48 GMT

Shawn Montano of the Edit Foundry has a post that, to me, illustrates how important it is for video journalists to write scripts based upon the video that accompanies the story.

Quite often I’ll get a story that a reporter has written with more than a few lines in which I challenge myself to find shots that are relevant to the story. This is one of those stories. A majority of the story I felt the shots I chose worked well. But there are some lines of track I really struggled finding the right shot to edit in.

For those tough lines, Shawn chose shots that carried a symbolic meaning that was close to what the reporter said.

In a perfect world, the reporter would have figured out that her script didn't fit the video, and she could have rewritten. Alternatively, she could have simply shot all of the video that she needed for the story she wanted to tell. But everyone knows the world isn't perfect. When both options fail, people like Shawn save the day.

Go check out his post to watch the story and read about how he did it.

The importance of writing to your video

CBSNews.com overhauls site with emphasis on video

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:32 GMT

Yesterday CBS News revealed its new site, which aims to ease navigation and put more focus on video content. The CBSNews.com landing page now features a mix of the latest news articles, pictures and video, with prominent placement for CBS...

Tips from a reporter who learned the basics

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:36 GMT

John Tedesco is a San Antonio Express-News reporter who I had the pleasure of teaching video during my time there. He was a good listener and a quick study. Now he's ready to share what he learned with others. Go check out his post where he lays down the basics of shooting video, with a great attitude:

As a newspaper reporter, I think it’s challenging and fun to figure out new ways to tell a story with video, which can reveal some things better than the written word.

To illustrate his tips, John posted before and after videos.

Here's an example of what John would have produced before training:

Here's an example of what he can produce after learning the basics:

Tips from a reporter who learned the basics