It’s pretty much official. My powerbook’s motherboard is making a ticking sound. I removed the hard drive to make sure the sound wasn’t coming from it. It wasn’t. So now I have ordered an external enclosure for the drive.
What I will connect it to, I have no idea. Maybe this iBook.
I woke up at about 5 a.m. for some water and figured I’d see whether my Powerbook had been resurrected yet. It wasn’t. So I figured it was time to do some heat therapy by leaving it on top of some appliance that gets pretty warm, like the big honking CRT I got from the government auction. So I turned on my iBook and…
…for the first time in probably four years I see a picture on its screen. Now I remember its problem: when it was time to turn on the screen, more than half the times it would not turn on. But once it was on it was fine until slept or turned off.
Anyway, I’m setting this thing not to sleep at all so I can get this CRT to cook off some of the moisture that’s left in the Powerbook. Either that, or I will kill the CRT by blocking the vents on the back with the Powerbook. Or the cat will choose to step on it and make it fall. Maybe this is not such a good idea after all.
(update: boo. I adjusted the screen forward and the light went out. Ssss.)
I’m writing this from my old iBook, which I have not used in about four years because its monitor died. Now that I have an external monitor I can use it. (I got the monitor for $20 or so at a government surplus auction.)
Anyway, the reason I dug this out is because there was a fierce storm today that toppled trees and also soaked my bedroom floor because my windows were open. My Powerbook was on the bedroom floor.
I think in a few days it will turn on again. I really hope so, anyway.
Give your viewers a reason to watch your video all the way to the end.
It’s a simple principle. Chances are, a large chunk of your viewers may be stumbling onto your video from a story they read. Maybe you wrote it, or maybe a reporter wrote it.
If you are lucky enough to go out to shoot a video with the reporter, try to see if your report can have a different angle than the reporter’s story. Or maybe see if your video can just support the story (which is a lot easier than trying to tell the story yourself.)
If your report when it’s all done tells the exact same story with the exact same quotes as what your viewers just read, most of them will probably not be nice enough to watch the entire thing. (That is, unless you promise lots of explosions or something else that makes the video extraordinary.) If the video feels redundant after reading the story, you’re probably wasting your time.
Pick different quotes. Explore different angles.
I don’t think that goes the same way for photo galleries. People can look at image after image and still see your video and it won’t be redundant because video adds the elements of motion and real-time sequence.
But if there’s a story involved, try to make sure your video piece accentuates rather than duplicates the story.
Previous: Be better than the competition
Next: Details: It’s My report
Technorati Tags: video production, newspaper, video, msm, media
So, I’m not writing these bits and pieces in any specific order. When it’s time to make this into a book, I’ll put them in a better order. But right now, this goes after all that general stuff.
I titled this chapter “It’s my report” because it’s something I want you to say. “It’s my report.” Add a “darn it!” at the end, if it makes you feel better.
OK, now here’s where things get esoteric. But try to follow along.
If you read that Zettl book I referred to earlier, you know about index vectors. These are vectors (or, invisible arrows) created when someone points or looks.
When you interview a subject, you don’t want them to look at your camera. Why? Because they’re looking at your viewers and talking to them directly when they do that. That’s not something you want them to do (unless they’re making a plea for the return of their lost kitten, and are asking for your viewers to help.)
Video journalism for the last fifty years or so has been about letting viewers see pieces of the conversations a reporter had with a source. This is much like when a print journalist quotes a source in a story, because they’re also letting readers see a bit about what the source said to them. If you look closely (at least in good markets), you’ll notice that in news, you rarely see a source looking directly at the viewers (unless it’s a press conference and someone is reading a prepared statement and looking at various cameras for a few seconds. The other exception is interviews by satellite). If you watch a week’s worth of newscasts, you will notice there are only a few people who regularly get to address the viewers directly by looking into the camera: reporters and anchors. Anchors read the readers and the VO portion of the VO/SOT pieces (which you probably can’t do unless you have an anchor), and reporters do what you’re trying to do (at least, I hope that’s what you’re trying to do - tell a story.)
This doesn’t mean that you have to do a standup in your story. (A standup is when you address the camera directly, usually to say a few things that add to the report. It gets you some face time, but it’s not all that necessary. I remember watching lots of packages from Jeannie Moos on CNN and wondering what she looked like, because she rarely did standups when I was watching in the early 1990s.) But if you do, be sure to look into the camera, not off-screen at some cue card.
This is very much a “control” thing. Subconsciously, viewers pick up on the fact that people who look into the camera are reporters and anchors, and are speaking to them with some authority. So if your interviewee tries to look into the camera, politely ask them to look at you. Don’t give them that authority. If they are authoritative, they already have enough authority… 
You may also notice who else looks into the camera: car dealers, carpet dealers, and anyone else trying to make a pitch. Readers notice this subconsciously as well. Possibly, the person trying to look into the camera against your wishes probably knows this, too. Don’t let this person take advantage of you. Tell him or her to buy a pre-stream if they want to address your viewers directly.
There is another “It’s mine” factor to think about: The handheld microphone.
Phallic jokes aside, it’s a very powerful icon on the screen. It indicates who is in control. It tells viewers who has the power.
Watch any show and see who has a hand-held microphone: Emcees. Hosts. Reporters. Vocalists. Preachers. Leaders. And that’s about it.
NEVER let your interviewee hold the microphone. Or, if you do, make sure nobody can tell they are holding it. They don’t get the power. You do. If people can see an off-camera person is holding the mic, subconsciously they can tell that the person being interviewed is not powerful enough in the context of that show to hold their own microphone. Not a host. Not a reporter.
You’re the only one who gets to hold your mic.
The other benefit of this arrangement is if someone is trying to waste your time you can just walk away if you hold your mic. Otherwise, you’re just tethered to the person that just told you his name was “Oliver Closeophe.”
It’s my report, darn it. You’re not holding my mic, and you’re not talking to my viewers. You’re talking to me.
(That’s a good principled position, but you can be more tactful than this when trying to explain why you feel this way.)
Previous: Be better than the competition
Next:
Technorati Tags: video production, newspaper, video, msm, media
Attention users of Microsoft Windows XP and Vista:
If you are interested in the bleeding edge of web browsers, check out Safari for Windows. It is only a beta release right now, but Apple says it is faster than Internet Explorer. (Update: So does a fellow named John Tracy.) (My own experience on the Mac side is that it is the fastest browser. But as always, your mileage may vary.)
The system requirements are Windows XP or Vista, at least 256MB of RAM, and a 500Mhz Pentium-class processor or better.
You may need to keep a copy of Internet Explorer around just in case (for the occasional site that uses bad scripting that breaks in all other browsers). But you may also find that Safari is faster and better much of the time.
Technorati Tags: Windows, Safari, web browser, internet explorer, microsoft
The Washington Post reported today that Mei Xiang, a panda at the National Zoo, may be pregnant.
I remember when I was a kid in suburban Maryland, every time the panda got pregnant, all the kids would swoon at the thought of baby pandas. Our teachers would build the event into their curriculum because it was all anyone was talking about. Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were their names back then, but heck if I could tell you today which was the female.
About the only other thing that was exciting back then was the Redskins winning the Superbowl. They were better at that than Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were at having babies: all the panda babies of my youth died. You could say the pandas at the zoo were like the Buffalo Bills in the 1990s: they kept going to the superbowl but never came back with a trophy.
Technorati Tags: panda, national zoo
Powered by WordPress