The students’ final projects
There were eight students, and they worked together in teams of two.
Here are their final videos from the spring 2008 semester.
Wrapping up a very interesting year
This has been quite a journey for me as a teacher, and I’d like to thank my students for their enthusiasm and their patience.
I think the students’ blog posts about the spring semester, in which we focused primarily on video, were very fair and helpful.
Brittany wrote:
I’d like more experience covering actual news this way, not necessarily an issue story, but a news story. Not that they couldn’t be both. But at times, I felt I was seeking the documentary story, and not the news story, which is hard for a journalist and a little confusing. I like the challenge of telling a news story in a way, a visual way, that might not be expected, or in the normal reality of a standard news publication.
Curt wrote:
Now, the best part of the course was, I believe, the time I was able to spend with my hands on a video camera or editing tool. The worst part of the course was, I believe, the (lack of) time I was able to spend with my hands on a video camera or editing tool. While I understand the structure of telling a story, telling that story through video took me well out of my comfort zone.
Kecia wrote:
Out of al the things I learned, I think I am most confident about telling a story and making sure I have a variety of interesting shots and audio. I wasn’t as creative with shot angles and ideas in the first video I shot for class, but now I’ve become more comfortable with thinking about how the angles, sequences and pacing of shots can add visual interest. Now, I also know how to use the tripod appropriately for interviewing and also for controlled movements like panning, tilting and dollying.
Cher wrote:
I feel like there were many practices in this class that were not reflective of regular newsroom practice, and I am not sure how helpful they will be in producing short news videos for web packages for a newspaper. I am not sure that the emphasis on documentary film making and broadcast news styles will serve online journalists. I simply do not think the documentary film making methods is appropriate for producing news.
Eisa wrote:
For the past few years, I have been experimenting with video … back then I thought I was doing a great a job.
The first day we experimented with the camera in class, however, changed that thought right away. The 5-shot technique along with the 10 second rule of shooting opened my eyes to that art of video and film. I have already made two videos that I am really proud of, and I am pretty sure that I will continue producing more video projects.
Laura wrote:
I have enjoyed our class’ exploration of longer films to help us gain perspective about storytelling in shorter formats, which is what I will do the most as a journalist. As much as I loathed doing it the first time, I now see how making a log of shots before capturing the video from the tape is beneficial. The same goes for writing a script. It can be tedious, but it does make the rest of the editing process easier. And, I think the more I edit video, the better I will become at identifying the best shots and writing a script that really facilitates the storytelling process.
Iñigo wrote:
The important issue is that Toolkit II is about how to create journalistic stories and learning how to tell them using a video camera, a bunch of cables, and a microphone. I think that is the real goal of the class. And it is not easy at all.
Shifen wrote:
Shooting video footage, a task that demands extensive visual work and creative thinking, offers me a chance to develop my storytelling skills. It is always a thrill to find a lead, dig the story and present it creatively. In comparison to last [semester's] Soundslides, video storytelling has been a greater challenge for me, as it is difficult to effectively calibrate details such as view angles and lighting. I believe that a great video narrator must be a careful observer in daily life. I am glad to have spend time learning how to edit video footage, a task that, though it may seem boring, is actually very enjoyable. [I] only wish I could have more experience using Final Cut Pro.
Thanks to all the students. It has been a privilege.
Timing for a broadcast script
It’s helpful to know how long the voiceover is going to take before you record it. A common estimate in broadcasting is 180 words per minute. News anchors read at about 150 to 175 words per minute.
Let’s say you have a sequence of three shots, total 15 seconds. How long can you make a VO to cover that?
Some math: 180 (words) divided by 60 (seconds) equals 3 words per second. To cover 15 seconds, you can’t say more than about 45 words. Never try to speed up your talking — that won’t communicate effectively, and you know it. Notice that broadcast anchors read MORE SLOWLY than 180 wpm.
How long is 45 words? What’s something you know or remember that uses only 45 words?
I happen to know that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is exactly 45 words:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Of course, you might not be able to intone that intelligibly in 15 seconds. (It takes me 22 seconds to do it.) Time yourself and see!
Errol Morris’s new documentary
I have to see it: “Standard Operating Procedure” (view the trailer).
Now read about the ethical questions it raises: Errol Morris – re-enactments and truth (a blog post by Peter Ralph, videographer).
What you need to know to make better video
Colin Mulvany of The Spokesman-Review has been writing many great, great posts about newspaper video and online video in general. In his latest, he has just about condensed everything you need to know into one single post. Here is the outline:
- Speed up the pacing.
- Define your story — in the first 20 seconds.
- Start it with a very strong visual.
- Start it with natural sound.
- Stop zooming and panning already! What are you, 12 years old?
- Use a wireless microphone.
- In and out, in and out: Mix nat SOT in with narration.
- Be diligent in the fight against wind noise.
- Shoot creatively.
- Edit to include surprises.
- Leave the viewer feeling fulfilled.
Isn’t that a wonderful list? Now just remember to do all of that!
Video dimensions (important!)
You need to know what the aspect ratio of your video is. If no one has changed the settings on your camera, your aspect ratio in this class is 16:9 (widescreen). I set these myself, so I know all of the HV20 cameras started out with that setting.
The first time we captured with Windows Movie Maker, I told you which settings to select — BEFORE you captured — so that your video would have the correct aspect ratio. The default setting in WMM is not 16:9! (So you must change it! Change it every time — because the lab computers reset themselves.)
Six of you did not set the aspect ratio correctly when you captured the second video. As a result, your videos look a bit squished, as if someone pressed the left and right sides toward the middle. Not really what you want.
I expect you to select the WMM settings correctly for your final video!
Aspect Ratios
16:9 (widescreen) is 720 x about 400* pixels; however, WMM will output a file that is 720 x 480 pixels with black bars (letterbox) at top and bottom to make this right (if you selected the correct settings).
4:3 (old style TV) is 720 x 480 pixels.
*For a scary level of detail, see History of Aspect Ratio.
Settings in Flash Video Encoder
Because the output from WMM will be 720 x 480 no matter what (well, if you selected the proper output settings, that is …), you will use 720 x 480 in the Flash Video Encoder when you are converting the .wmv file to an .flv file.
THEN you will CROP the video’s black bars, as I demonstrated in class on April 3.
Download the notes from class about how to select the Flash Video Encoder settings (PDF file, 100 KB).
Making an FLV If You Do Not Have Flash
The image and sound quality might NOT be as good, but there are several Web sites where you can upload a .wmv file and have it converted to the FLV format, free. One is Zamzar. Another is YouConvertIt. If you find others that work well, please add a link in the comments to this post.
If you have access to the Flash Video Encoder (as all UF students do, in the labs), then please use that — and NOT the online converters.
Resources
All the stuff about the FLV Media Player and SWFObject is linked on the Week 13 syllabus page!
Why big video files cause trouble
See this post by Curt for information.
If your external hard drive is formatted as FAT32, it would be better to reformat it to NTFS.
It has been more than a year since I bought my external hard drive and did the research to use it correctly, and I had forgotten about the formatting business. Curt’s post gave me a flashback. (Thanks, Curt.)
Of course, if you do reformat your hard drive, that ERASES EVERYTHING on it. So first you would copy everything to some other location (like a hard drive on another computer) — and then do the deadly reformat procedure.
Video interview with B-roll
Watch this example (2 min. 37 sec.) and notice two things:
- Do you feel like you are seeing too much of the interview subject? Her voice and her story are very good, but do you really want to keep coming back to her so many times? (Maybe we should see her only two or three times in total.)
- By the end of the story, you may have been distracted by the owners and the dogs — you may have forgotten what the event was about. The storytelling very effectively returns us to that idea — it is a photo shoot for the dogs — by saving the dog portrait photos until the end. This creates an ending that feels satisfying — a very good ending.
You can obviously make a video like this one!
Tight shots help you avoid jump cuts
The wonderful Colin Mulvany explains how this works in a comment on a blog post by Angela Grant:
Avoid putting two mediums or two wide shots together [side-by-side]. Also, tight shots make great scene transitions between two similar shots. I’ve also found that by having a lot of tight shots available, my edits goes much quicker than if I had to cobble the edit together with two wide shots.
Even though the extreme close-ups are harder to get on the site, they will save you in the editing process!
The blog post links to a good example of a bad jump cut. Learn to recognize these so you can avoid making them.
Shooting sequences really matters
I know I’m overloading the course blog this week — sorry!! But this is really good:
The sequence is the foundation of all video storytelling. Sequences compress time in a video story. Without this compression, what you’re left with are long video clips that visually bore viewers to death.
Proper sequencing gives the video editor a better way to pace a story by using a variety of wide, medium and tight shots. This helps move the viewer through a story efficiently.
That’s from a blog post by Colin Mulvany, the videographer from The Spokesman-Review. He started blogging very recently, and I LOVE his blog! It’s very enlightening!
