Thought Piece #1
I learned a lot from this reading about thinking like a director. One of the biggest things I learned was something I didn’t expect; equipment is not the most important thing about making good videos. The book states, “This book is not about equipment.” I liked how the book starts with that statement. A big insecurity of mine when shooting video is how my equipment is perfect for photos but not the best for video. I know I will probably check out equipment but it is good to know that equipment is not the biggest thing but knowing what looks good for video and how to capture it is the most important thing. I got most excited when the book said, “The book will show you how to shift your focus to how the video works.” I feel like this alleviates the stress a bit more for me about shooting video.
I liked the section about intent, it helps me understand why making a video is important. At the end of the chapter, it shows an exercise about intent. I think this will help me come up with video ideas that are actually important to me. As of now, I think my first video will be a feature about Kota who runs a car business in his garage. My intent will be to show how difficult running a business can be and to show how maintaining and fixing cars can be a good an interesting business. I will probably still come up with more examples of my intent with the video, but I think it is a good start.
The most difficult process for video and photojournalism is brainstorming. In Chapter 4, Steve Stockman talks about how people come up with ideas and how it is the first part of creating videos. Stockman lists his stages of brainstorming, which are making a list and making choices. After these, the next steps are to plan a shoot and make choices during a shoot. For me, the advice I will use the most right now is brainstorming by creating a list of ideas. Stockman says to make a list of ideas no matter how dumb or awful; just anything someone can think of. My biggest setback is trying to only come up with ideas that can work; this really limits the number of ideas I have and makes the whole process more difficult. I would like to try this throughout my time in this class and after as well. I think this information can be useful for both video and photo projects.
Another important thing I learned in the reading was to keep the video short. A big thing about video is that people may have short attention spans or only want to watch what is interesting. So, it is important to keep the video short and only put what is entertaining or important in the video. I liked how earlier in the book, Stockman said to keep each clip shorter than 10 seconds. I think this is a good rule to follow and will help keep me trying to get a wider variety of shots. I shot a video last year of the OBU Fashion Show for my JRN 340: Intro to Digital Journalism class. In this video, I was not sure of how much footage to get. I was filming an entire fashion show, so editing was difficult because I had so many long clips and had to go through them and choose the best footage from each clip. I wish I shot shorter clips, but it was difficult when filming dancing and a fashion show. I will definitely learn from that and shoot shorter clips; this will allow for more interesting clips from different angles.
Overall, this reading helped ease my anxiety a bit about shooting videos. I have had experience with photography throughout my whole life but have not done much with video and it has always scared me. This reading by Steve Stockman makes it seem less intimidating than it was before. I am still a bit worried that my camera is not good enough due to its lack of good video quality, but I feel better about finding and approaching subjects now.
Thought Piece #2
The first thing that stuck out to me in this reading by Steve Stockman is the section called “If you wing it, it will suck.” Today, an opportunity arose to shoot the Presidential Debate Watch Party at CMU tomorrow, September 10, in the French Auditorium. Although it is last minute, I still need to plan my ideas. Stockman discusses how even though a script may not be necessary, having a plan for the shooting is important. Since I have not really shot a video before, it is difficult for me to plan out what I want to do and how I want my video to look. In the next section, “Plan with a Shot List,” Stockman goes more into depth about what having a plan really needs. I haven’t exactly thought about needing a shot list before since I usually do photography. In photography, it is good to have some sort of a plan of photos needed, but I feel like the shot list for video is a bit more in-depth. My biggest worry is staying organized and making the process flow easier as I am quite overwhelmed when it comes to video. The book states, “The easiest way to stay organized is with a shot list.” Since I am shooting my first video tomorrow, I do not have as much time to create a shot list, but I will do what I can tonight. I am shooting the debate watch party. A quick list of shot ideas for that can include reactions of people from both parties (Democratic and Republican), interviews with the organizers of the event, and maybe some crowd shots of the turnout. I will try to brainstorm some more ideas tonight. I think this is a good kickstarter to creating these videos and a good way to ease my anxiety. Creating a shot list can break down the video and make it less daunting by giving me more guidance while I am shooting.
I think one of the most important things I don’t usually think about regarding video is from the chapter “Make Your Star Look Great.” This chapter talks about how it is important to help the subject feel comfortable and ready to be on a video because most people may be uncomfortable on video if they aren’t used to it. It is my job as the director to have the subjects do what they do best and make them look natural on camera. If the subject cannot act or something along those lines, I should avoid from having them do that and have them do something else. Since we are doing journalism with these videos, I will likely not have to worry about people acting. Most of my videos will be shooting people doing things candidly or in interviews. Videos can be ruined if people do not seem comfortable, so it is one of the most important things for me to make sure that my subject feels comfortable and looks good on camera. Tomorrow, my biggest challenge will be making sure the subjects are comfortable with being on video since some of the subjects I will find the day of.
Since we are doing journalistic videos in this class, we have very little control over the location. In the French Auditorium, where my news video will take place, it is rather dark and can be crowded. This may be difficult to work with to make the video interesting, but I am excited to work with the challenge. The book talks about how it is important to pick good locations but does not really discuss much about what to do if you cannot choose a location. This will be something I will have to work with on my own. I will try my best to use the light of the screening of the debate to my advantage. I can also take interviews out to the hallway where light can be controlled a bit more there ideally.
All in all, these sections in the book bring more awareness on where to shoot video, how to come up with shot ideas, and how to help ease subjects. I think these are crucial elements to shooting videos and I will definitely use these tips to help shoot my first video for this class tomorrow.
Thought Piece #3
Something that cannot really be taught until I do it is, “Thinking ahead as your shoot gives you a feel for the flow of a video that you won’t get any other way,” (pg 99). Since I do not shoot video much, this is something I do not have experience with, but is something that is crucial to learn as I go. It is not good enough to just think about the current footage, but to think what I will be shooting next in order to keep building a strong video. Something else I need to work on is shooting video that is interesting and that is actually usable. Since I am so new to video, I tend to shoot a lot of useless video I would never use just because I am worried about not having enough footage. I know I need to stop and think more about what I would actually use rather than just having way too much garbage footage than I can use.
A thing that I find the most difficult about this video is finding time. A big thing Steve Stockman talks about is “playing with your camera” and “practice practice practice.” These are extremely good tips for people learning how to do new things, however this semester I am busier than I have ever been. This week alone I have over 10 meetings, classes, filming and photographing times, three jobs, a relationship, and other times for relaxation and hygiene. This year has been the most difficult to properly manage my time. It extremely difficult to find time, if any, to just sit and mess with equipment to practice with video. I am trying to find time, but it is rather hard. Last week was the most helpful with my one-on-one session with Jeff Sauger, and Neil Blake coming in to help. I extremely value the time spent in JRN 423 as a class learning how to shoot video and edit; it greatly relieves my stress when trying to find time to practice shooting. I am trying to find additional times to practice, but these times help a lot. To me, the biggest obstacle to overcome with video is finding time to edit, practice, shoot, etc. Time is the biggest issue this semester for me, and it is a great challenge to try to overcome.
An important section for me that Stockman discusses is “Shoot the Details.” As a photojournalist, I always know to shoot the details and get what’s called “detail shots.” I am good at getting detail shots for photographer, but for some reason it is always difficult for me to get them for videos. I think since I’m not used to video, I try to always focus on people and the main subject rather than trying to get good details of things. Detail shots are extremely important when it comes to B-roll though, so it is definitely something I am working on. In addition to detail shots, changing the angle is another super important thing to getting entertaining and unique B-roll. This is another thing I need to work on when stepping out of my comfort zone. I’m normally too focused on getting decent video of the subject to actually be creative and get unique shots that make viewers want to watch. For the Fire Up the Vote event, I plan on getting on the ground, maybe trying to get up high (standing on a table) to get unique angles people would not normally see just walking through. I lost all my footage from the Debate Watch Party event, so I really need to get creative in getting footage that both looks good but also takes up the whole time for this news video. It is definitely a set-back, but a lesson to learn to be more careful with SD cards and the files.
Thought Piece #4
The beginning of Part Five discusses how to shoot video that is not journalism-related. This section is not necessarily helpful towards this class specifically, but it can help me know if I want to pursue some video in the future and how to do that. Some of these chapters include how to record children, vacations, weddings/graduations, music videos, job application videos and many more. Even if I don’t want to do video journalism professionally in the future, this section helps how to create at-home videos a bit better. If I ever want to shoot videos for friends/family on the side, this helps to do so. This would also help me be able to create videos of my own family in the future easier. There is something that most all of these have in common; that is having a plan. The most important thing I have learned when shooting video is to be prepared and have some idea of what I want to shoot and what I want it to look like. Having a plan reduces the stress anxiety and makes the process go a lot smoother.
Later, Steve Stockman finally discusses post-production. Another thing I am not confident in is my skills with Premiere Pro and editing video in general. I did a little bit of video editing in Lori Brost’s JRN 340 Intro to Digital Journalism class. I just used a software on my laptop Wondershare Filmore, because I was more comfortable with that than Premiere Pro. Stockman even says, “Editing programs can seem scary,” (Pg 196). I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. I know the basics already that Stockman talked about including: cut, copy, and paste. I am more nervous about adjusting audio, transitions, and stuff like that. Stockman mostly discusses the basics of editing in this section and not really the advanced details of editing like I need. I did appreciate his section about “seamless” editing. Editing two clips together is crucial and will happen when editing video, the key is to make them look “seamless.” If they look sloppy and just thrown together, this will confuse the video and turn them off to the video. A thing I know I need to work on is editing clips together better. I had a lot of jump cuts in my video for the JRN 340 class. I feel like sometimes they can work in a video, but not all the time.
Personally, the first part of editing is my favorite part. Stockman talks about how the beginning of editing is basically just cutting out parts of a video you do not like. This is my favorite part, because it seems the simplest and it is the most satisfying. I really like being able to get rid of the bad clips and seeing the good video clips I am proud of shine more. It can be the most time-consuming part, however. Looking through each clip and assessing what clips are usable and what is not can be difficult at times, but it is super important. Another important thing Stockman said was, “You’ll instinctively start avoiding shots you know won’t cut later, giving you more time to shoot the good stuff,” (Pg 197). I like how the theme of this book really is “practice makes perfect.” It makes me feel good to know that even the professionals must start somewhere, but hard work and dedication through practice is what pays off and makes someone better.
Thought Piece #5
One of the first things Steve Stockman discusses in this section is the variety of transition effects on computers and editing software. I have edited two videos in the past; one for my JRN 340 class with Lori Brost and one for my girlfriend’s graduation party. The journalistic video for Lori’s class was about a model in the OBU Fashion Show last year. In the editing, I mainly used a “cut” and a “dissolve.” For the graduation party video, it was just a long video of over 25 dance videos of my girlfriend compiled together to play throughout the grad party. As for transitions, I mainly used dissolves the whole time to go from one dance to the next. Stockman discusses how these are the main three transitions, and professional videos do not really use much else. When I first got into photography and digital media, I would try to use all of the random transitions on my random videos of friends, animals, and anything I saw. I had no clue what I was doing and it was rather obvious since I had no clue what transitions to use. After reading Stockman’s reading, it is nice to know the main three to stick to from here on out.
I really enjoyed “Chapter 66 – When in Doubt, Cut It Out,” because the advice talked about by Stockman was helpful to me for video but also for photography. A big thing I struggle with is knowing what to cut out and not have in my video or photo stories. In the JRN 422, The Picture Story class, I always had issues with liking all of my photos and not wanting to cut out photos. This chapter discusses how important it is to cut out good things and only leave the great things. I know one of my flaws is that I build an attachment to my work and find it hard to get rid of photos I am proud of. I know it is something I need to work on for both videos and photos to know what is necessary to keep in order to make the stories as strong as possible. I know it will be hard for me, but with my news video, I have been trying to get rid of footage I found good but not great in order to make my video as strong as possible. I really like that Stockman says, “You really have to man up to get from mediocre to good.” This is important to me because I am not very good at strict editing and keep the very best footage and I know it is a big thing I want to work on this semester.
I liked “Chapter 74 – How to Take Feedback” because I learned a lot but also disagree with some of what I learned. Stockman said, “Remember, as the critic makes you doubt your thinking, that their one opinion is no more valuable than yours. It’s less important, in fact, because it’s your video!” I am not entirely sure how I feel about this statement. I understand that my opinion as the director is the most important because I get to make the final calls, but I think calling a critic’s opinion less important isn’t exactly accurate or fair. For me, I don’t know much about video so I feel like any critic’s opinion is important and I will always take it into consideration. If I get an idea, I will try it out before I decide to use it or not so I can keep my options open. But I do like how Stockman talks about if several people have the same critique, it is a trend and that should likely be listened to. I like that perspective on it more. But as for me, even if one person suggests something, I would still like to try it out to open up my options.
Jo Kenoshmeg Visual journalism 