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Breaking news in video

Most of the work we’ll be doing this semester is slower-paced video where you’ll have the ability to take your time to put together a thoughtful, carefully edited final product. But you might one day find yourself in a spot news or breaking news situation where you’re filing material throughout the day as you get it.

If you are working or stringing for a wire service, they will have a system for filing footage and still images. When sending in photos, you have to enter a lot of information in the metadata fields of your editing program.

Freelance Image Metadata Fields

With video, you’ll need to file something called a dopesheet along with your footage. The dopesheet is basically a summary of what you’re sending them so they can see it all at a glance.

Information Document for AFP TV

Here is an actual dopesheet I filed on a breaking news assignment; feel free to use it as a template:

Chiromo dopesheet

 

 

The actual video file you’ll send them (I usually use WeTransfer, although some places may have another system in place, often via FTP) will be minimally edited, but the trick is that you have to work fast. You pull out soundbites, transcribe them, and cut together a sequence of your best B-roll. Then you put it all in one video project (sound bites first, then B-roll), export, and send. It will look something like this:

Discuss: What are some of the practical considerations you might want to keep in mind when covering a breaking news event?

Assignment:

At some point during the semester, you must cover one breaking news event. You will file a video with at least two sound bites (from different interviews) and 45 seconds of sequenced B-roll, with accompanying dopesheet. The trick is that you must file it within 3 hours of wrapping your filming.

It’s up to you what you want to cover: the Queens St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the first Saturday of March (I highly recommend this one over the big official parade in Manhattan; I covered it once and I don’t want to be responsible for any of you quitting journalism), the March for Our Lives on March 24 (this should be a really good one to cover), the Phagwah/Holi parade in Richmond Hill on April 24, the Cherry Blossom Festival on April 28-29, etc. Just make sure you pick something that takes place at least two weeks before final projects are due so you’re not scrambling to get them both done at the same time.

In addition to the material you film with the school cameras, you will cover the story on social media. I’ve set up an Instagram account for our class where you will post at least one photo and three Stories updates before you leave the scene.

What makes a good journalistic Instagram post and a good Story update?

Kerri MacDonald, @nytimes photo editor, talks about her job.

Reminder: Bring your footage to class on Monday! We will be devoting both classes next week to in-class editing/production.

 

For the visual poem, I wanted to do something on the fun side. I am thinking of doing “life of an 8th grader,” I would use my sister and just record her from the moment she wakes up to her going to school and coming back and maybe even capture some of her friends and just how the life of a 13 year old is in her eyes.

For my visual poem, I’d like to do a sort of “day in the life of a toddler” using my cousin’s 2 year old. The family lives in DUMBO in BK, and he’s a rambunctious little kid who spends a lot of his time exploring parts of Brooklyn (they take him everywhere). I’d like to spend a day capturing the typical emotions and experiences (sort of through his eyes- but also giving the viewer a sort of nostalgic childhood feel- watching the genuine emotions of a child), working mostly with natural sounds, light, and different angles.

For the visual poem assignment, I’d like to do a kind of “visual portrait” of Port Authority terminal. While stations like Grand Central and Penn Station (more so the old Penn Station) are often seen as emblematic symbols of the city, Port Authority is often dismissed. In many ways it is a chaotic, messy, badly designed station, but it has a great deal of character. Bus travel, the people waiting for greyhounds going far out of state, or upstate, as well as the job of working at a place like PA, have always really interested me. I would love to make a short “visual poem” documenting the strange world of Port Authority terminal.

There are two major concerns when it comes to this idea: one is light, I’m not sure if the light quality of the station will be easy to work with. More importantly, I’m worried that the police and security in the station won’t be happy about me filming. It’s very possible that this idea isn’t feasible because of these issues—but I’d like to do a couple of test visits/shots to see. I have a backup plan, in case this doesn’t work. I should know by the end of the week whether this plan is workable.

For my visual poem I wanted to attempt to document the creative process of writing a song. The angle I would use is that of an artist struggling at night to come up with something he thinks is worth recording. Some key images would be shots of his home made studio. This would include his microphone taped to his working desk and a laptop right next to it. His room would be messy and his mattress would be close to the ground. I’d really try to communicate that these are not ideal conditions to be recording in and that the artist is very new to all of it and is working on a really tight budget. I would also use shots of the clock and show time passing. I’m worried that I run the risk of being cliche which is why I’m going to refrain from crumbling paper or scribbling out words as a scene itself. I think I’m going to use the artists emotions and make his frustration very visible when I need it to be emphasized. I want the visual poem to climax with the artist finally coming up with something he’s proud of and the audience being given a cue that signifies this moment of clarity. I’d like to end the poem with the camera cutting off on the artist right before he begins to deliver his vocals.

Today we’ll be workshopping your pitches and getting everyone set up with equipment.

Reminders

Upcoming due dates:

A rough cut of your visual poem will be due by midnight on Wednesday, Feb. 28. This means that for both classes that week (Monday Feb. 26 and Wednesday, Feb. 28) we will be doing in-class editing and production. This further means that you will need to have footage to work with by that Monday. PLAN ON DOING YOUR SHOOTING THIS WEEK AND NEXT WEEK.

For the visual poem my partner and I (Pauline) want to make a project about sleep; specifically the lack of it. We feel as though a staggering amount of people in this city don’t get enough and sleep and if you’ve ever gonna hours or days at a time without sleeping things become… hazy. New York is more confusing than it already is, the mass of people surrounding you become that much more terrifying and any emotional or mental stresses you feel become exacerbated. We’d like to recreate those feelings through the camera.

For my visual poem, I was thinking for working with one of my friend’s friends who is a contemporary dancer. She has recently start a personal project where she goes to public spaces in the city and showcases her dancing, which is improvised most of the time. Her style of dancing is rather memorable and incorporates both smooth movements and shapes, along with choppy motions, which I feel would look interesting in contrast to each other, especially if paired with the right music. In addition, I feel as though the fast paced city and people moving around her as she dances would also look very interesting visually. I could maybe speed up some of my shots and slow some others down to convey the contrast between her serenity and the rush of everything around her.

My visual poem will be a little bit more staged, I am planning on recreating a scenario: when a person goes through heartbreak.

Being heartbroken definitely does have an effect on your everyday life. It affects your performance, way to think, it makes you angry and it does show. I am planning on utilizing a tripod and creating scenes that show the before, in the midst, and after a heartbreak. How do you carry yourself? How do you get over it?

I also plan on showing the infamous “7 stages of a heartbreak” and do close-up shots on my face when crying, or laughing, I want to create a narration that will represent my mind/conscience and I want to record myself in different places where I will be doing everything I do normally.

I want it to be a little bit more artistic in hope to recreate certain feelings like anger, sadness and frustration using not only my facial emotions but also sound and cinematographical strategies