Field Shooting for TV News: Lighting, Audio, and Storytelling

1. Chap. 4 Shooting TV news • Reader, VO, VO-SOT/VSV, package, wraparound/live shot • Reporters & photographers / live truck operator • “One Man Band” / VJ / backpack journalist • Assignment desk / producer • Feed to the station (more later) • Transmit / receive / line of sight • Receive station / newscast insertion • Field IFB (market size)

2. Field shooting -- lighting for news • On camera light • Available light • Color temperature -- auto / indoor /outdoor • Never point a camera toward a light • 2-point / 3-point lighting • Low lighting situations -- iris / gain • “The art of capturing and controlling light”

3. Field shooting -- audio for news • Close (isolated component) vs. distant miking • Foreground audio (narration, sound bites, stand up) • Nat sound (in camera mic) • Lavaliere, boom / shotgun, ‘stick’ • Other equiment • High pass, low pass, band pass, notch filters • EQ, compressor, other processing equipment

4. Telling the news story live • What you know ./ don’t know • What happened, is happening, will happen • Storytelling -- beginning, middle, end • Focus of story • Who, what, when, where, why, how, so what • Balance of reporter voice and sound bites • PKG: 1:30 / VSV: 1:00 (SB :15)

5. Backpack journalism • iPhone storytelling • Prosumer gear / GoPro camera • Quality lens and zoom issue • Task oriented sequence (see outline) • Script, Logging / EDL • Recording ‘track’ • Quicker editing • Instagram, Videolicious, etc • Quicker posting

6. Chapter 4: the frame • Horizontal • Rule of Thirds • Golden Spots • Where our eyes go • Look space / lead room • Sometimes ‘break the rules’

7. Some guidelines • Show viewers what you want them to see • Think before you shoot • Pre-visualize the shot and sequence • Elevate the ordinary • what you see in the viewfinder makes you say ‘wow,’ • Make good use of the entire screen • Balance, fill screen, background, lighting • No ‘dutch angle’ mistake • See several other tips on page 64

8. Guidelines • Avoid calling attention to the zoom • ‘invisible’ zoom, pan, transition, lighting • SHOOT SEQUENCES • A proven method to heighten the viewer’s sense of involvement in the story is to shoot matched-action sequences.

9. Guidelines • Shoot and move • Remember to help the editor avoid “pop cuts” • Anticipate action • Fleeting / perishable video • Shoot only the shots you need -- Avoid indiscriminate shooting

10. Edit in the camera • When you edit in the camera, it is important to concentrate on three shots at a time: the shot you’re taking, the shot you just took, and the shot you will take next. • ‘Visualize your production’ then capture those shots

11. Guidelines • Involve the camera in the action • Working with people • tell your stories through people • Avoid distracting the subject • Because the camera and other hardware interrupt reality, try to avoid drawing attention to yourself or any of your equipment whenever you work with people. • Staging versus motivating

12. Guidelines • Shooting news interviews • Process, sit-down, ‘non-interview’ interview • Shooting your stand-up • Safety / Distancing • Plan to Make Mistakes • Shakiness, color balance, audio, wrong filter, exposure (lighting), focus, contrast, composition, panning & zooming, wind, dead batteries, no recording media, protecting equipment

13. Interviews • What gives a story personality and depth? • Interesting people and their ideas • Why do you interview people? • Gather facts about the story – research • Gather sound bites to put into your story • How do you interview people? • Process interview • News interview • No question questioning – just chat

14. Chapter 3 -- Editing • News gathering is field shooting and editing • EFP vs. ENG • As we said – shooting and editing is ‘writing’ – developing a message for an intended audience • Editing is the ‘invisible art’

15. Editing • Editing, in its simplest definition, is selection, arrangement, timing, and presentation. • Only through editing can one enhance the story and the storytelling process. • Editing, then, begins not at the final stage of the storytelling process but rather at the beginning.

16. Editing • Your choice of shots and how you compose them is one form of editorial selection. Only through selection is emphasis possible. • The order in which the shots appear is a form of editorial arrangement. Shot length is a form of editorial timing, a way to control dramatic tension through quick cutting or a more relaxed mood that lets the eye wander across the screen.

17. Editing • Fades, Cuts, Dissolves, DVE • Cold cuts vs. sound bridge • Matched action sequences require overlapping action shot • Into frame / out of frame or matched action shot to shot • Expand time or compress time • ‘Filmic time’ / ‘real time/

18. Editing • Jump Cuts and Pop Cuts • Continuity editing / seamless editing • The typical news package, even the typical theatrical film, is a series of sequences. • Transition shots give the editor a way to pivot from one sequence to the next, a way to link separate scenes.

19. ... Chapter 3 sample questions

20. Chapter 3 says ___________ is vital to a video storytelling process because it duplicates the manner in which the mind 'sees.' editing

21. In television, every scene has a relationship to at least two other scenes: The one before it and the one after it

22. ________in action occur when action jumps unnaturally forward or backward in time. Jump cuts

23. When editing shots from a single camera set-up, it is possible for the editor to produce matched action on the screen only if the photographer in the field has shot _______ action. overlapping

24. If edits / cuts / shot changes while the action progresses, the technique is called cutting on _____, but if the edit occurs at a moment in which action on the screen has stopped, the technique "cutting __________ ." Action / at rest

25. The most commonly used device to eliminate jump cuts is the _________, a shot of some part of the peripheral action that diverts the viewer’s eye for a moment. cutaway

26. The __________ shot provides the audience with close-up essential detail about some part of the main action. Cut in / insert

27. A distinct visual jump called the “_______cut” occurs if the camera is allowed to remain on the same axis line from one shot to the next, typically seen when shooting a WS followed by a WS or MS without moving the camera off the original axis line. pop

28. Intercutting between separate but developing actions Parallel cutting

29. The 'subjective' shot as we describe it is what is called a ___ shot in the text POV

30. A ______ shot give the editor a way to pivot from one sequence to the next, a way to link separate scenes. transition

31. Rapid montage cutting is also known as _______ cutting flash