Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Sound Bite
Audio is an essential part of video stories. In fact, it's the backbone that drives the story. That's why you hear media types obsessing over "the sound bite". It's a brief snippet of audio, usually gotten during an interview, that quickly and neatly tells the viewer what they need to know. This piece was shot as an afterthought of fellow photograher extraordinaire Shannon Szwarc telling how he scored a premium office chair. It's a good example. By the way, Shannon has already moved onto another chair. Such is the fast paced life of the photojournalist.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Objects are closer than they appear
When shooting video it's really easy to get tunnel vision and lose track of your surroundings, especially when shooting football and a great play is heading right towards you. You just keep hanging in there until you have an "oh crap" moment and realize the big hurt is just around the corner. If you get lucky, the athletes in question have enough natural athletic ability to not crush you. Thanks be to their ability. I didn't get hit..and did get the catch. Too bad the receiver was out of bounds and it was ruled incomplete
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Goody Goody Memories
Columbus is losing baseball. The Columbus Catfish are leaving Columbus, and Golden Park, behind and as of yet there is no replacement team on the horizon. We wanted to talk with a few fans and put together a short video for the website. I was able to use a better camera for this assignment...one with XLR inputs....and so was able to get better audio but faced a few more challenges. From my night at the ballpark, here are a few things I learned about audio.
....If you're still a newbie at this, make yourself a list to work from.Don't worry about it being overly detailed. Miss one tiny item and you may end up with nothing.Or, have a friend help. I asked our reporter to ask me, before each interview started, to ensure the wireless mic was turned on. I don't mind looking like a dummy if I get what I need.
....Definitely mic the subject with a wireless microphone if one is available.The sound is much better, especially when you have to interview someone in a noisy environment. If you don't have one, pull the subject to an area that's quieter....but not so quiet you can hear a pin drop. You'll still want some of the ambient sound in the background.
....If you mic one person, mic them all. When I interviewed the PA announcer, the acoustics sounded OK to my ears and so I didn't mic him. Mistake. The audio from his interview just lacks some punch.
....Monitor the audio with headphones(I didn't, but will next time) or at least check the levels via the display on the camera to make sure both channels are recording.
....If there is still too much distracting noise, try just using the wireless mic on the subject. I finally did this out of desperation(I just unplugged the other one) and it worked OK.
....The wireless mic doesn't need to be clipped to someone. During a spring multimedia workshop at the University of Georgia, a team of students did a nice piece on a dog jog. They got great audio of a dog slurping water from a water dish by simply holding the wireless mic near the dish, just out of the frame. So, experiment and play around when you can.
....If you're still a newbie at this, make yourself a list to work from.Don't worry about it being overly detailed. Miss one tiny item and you may end up with nothing.Or, have a friend help. I asked our reporter to ask me, before each interview started, to ensure the wireless mic was turned on. I don't mind looking like a dummy if I get what I need.
....Definitely mic the subject with a wireless microphone if one is available.The sound is much better, especially when you have to interview someone in a noisy environment. If you don't have one, pull the subject to an area that's quieter....but not so quiet you can hear a pin drop. You'll still want some of the ambient sound in the background.
....If you mic one person, mic them all. When I interviewed the PA announcer, the acoustics sounded OK to my ears and so I didn't mic him. Mistake. The audio from his interview just lacks some punch.
....Monitor the audio with headphones(I didn't, but will next time) or at least check the levels via the display on the camera to make sure both channels are recording.
....If there is still too much distracting noise, try just using the wireless mic on the subject. I finally did this out of desperation(I just unplugged the other one) and it worked OK.
....The wireless mic doesn't need to be clipped to someone. During a spring multimedia workshop at the University of Georgia, a team of students did a nice piece on a dog jog. They got great audio of a dog slurping water from a water dish by simply holding the wireless mic near the dish, just out of the frame. So, experiment and play around when you can.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Am I ready for some football....Third Quarter
Back to the gridiron for more high school football. This time, we didn't have any specific players we needed video of, so I just shot game action like I would for a "regular" assignment. This wasn't too bad, since Hardaway hung 51 first-half-points on Columbus. If you want to do this, and add a voice over narrative, here are a few pointers.
....Make sure you get a program listing all the players. You'll be keeping notes of particular plays, but will find other video where you'll need to identify someone who makes a good tackle or a hard hit.
....Shoot the scoreboard after each score. Still photographers do this to keep track of the action and identify important plays/moments.
....Keep an eye on the sideline. In this game, Columbus' starting quarterback was injured, but on the sideline hobbling around on crutches. This turned out to be an important part of the story.
....Identify your weaknesses and plan to concentrate on them during your next outing. I'll be working on following pass plays, since I had very little luck at this game. It's always a good practice to mentally go over every aspect of a shoot both immediately afterwards and then later to develop a list of things you did well and those you need extra wok on.
....Make sure you get a program listing all the players. You'll be keeping notes of particular plays, but will find other video where you'll need to identify someone who makes a good tackle or a hard hit.
....Shoot the scoreboard after each score. Still photographers do this to keep track of the action and identify important plays/moments.
....Keep an eye on the sideline. In this game, Columbus' starting quarterback was injured, but on the sideline hobbling around on crutches. This turned out to be an important part of the story.
....Identify your weaknesses and plan to concentrate on them during your next outing. I'll be working on following pass plays, since I had very little luck at this game. It's always a good practice to mentally go over every aspect of a shoot both immediately afterwards and then later to develop a list of things you did well and those you need extra wok on.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Am I ready for some football?
Ah, high school football season in the south. Time to change my schedule and clear my Friday nights. This year, though, we want to try some video. Specifically, we want to create a video preview for the upcoming week. So we decided to use a scrimmage between two leading teams to grab the necessary video. So here are a few lessons learned from the venture.
....To give it more of a preview feel, focus on a handful of players from both teams.
This will make it a little easier to shoot.
....Start off shooting from behind the line of scrimmage. If you haven't shot much football, it's easier to initially follow the action."Start off shooting tight on the quarterback and zoom out as the play progresses" was the advice I got. It seems to work pretty well.
....Don't bother with the tripod. Too dangerous for both you and the players.
....Plan for the unexpected. Make sure to shoot every punt and punt return. The one you don't shoot will be the one that is blocked or run back for a touchdown.
....To give it more of a preview feel, focus on a handful of players from both teams.
This will make it a little easier to shoot.
....Start off shooting from behind the line of scrimmage. If you haven't shot much football, it's easier to initially follow the action."Start off shooting tight on the quarterback and zoom out as the play progresses" was the advice I got. It seems to work pretty well.
....Don't bother with the tripod. Too dangerous for both you and the players.
....Plan for the unexpected. Make sure to shoot every punt and punt return. The one you don't shoot will be the one that is blocked or run back for a touchdown.
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