Multimedia Reporting Fall 2022

Reminders and Upcoming Dates

Here are a couple of student videos for inspiration:

This last one was made for the advanced multimedia reporting class I typically teach once a year. If any of you are interested in pursuing video further, I recommend looking into this class.

The classic sequence that every budding videographer learns when starting out is the five-shot sequence.

• Close-up on the hands.
• Close-up on the face.
• Medium shot.
• Over the shoulder shot.
• One additional creative angle.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h1QeTIWqQwA%3Ffeature%3Doembed

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SUjnEc6Ak6o%3Ffeature%3Doembed

You won’t always edit things in this exact way when you do a sequence in the real world; sometimes it’ll only be three shots, or it might be ten, and they might be in a different order. But the five-shot sequence is a useful framework for thinking about depicting an activity clearly and engagingly with video. We’ll be shooting a five-shot sequence when we’re in Corona next week.

DSLR Camera Settings
…and how we apply these settings to video

White Balance

You can always use auto white balance on the fly or if you’re uncertain as to the light temperature. The problem with AWB though is that it can change when light changes, even a little bit. So if you’re shooting a person talking and they lean forward, the colors in your shot could potentially take on a different tint.

• White balance will only appear in the menu as an option if you’re not shooting in Auto.
• There are little pictures in the camera to help you with white balance.

• The picture of the light bulb is TUNGSTEN LIGHT. Tungsten light is most indoor light (except for FLUORESCENT LIGHT, which has its own setting)—lamps, non-fluorescent overhead light, most stage lights, etc. Tungsten light is ORANGE. So when you tell your camera you are shooting in this orange Tungsten light, it corrects for it by adding what is at the opposite end of the color wheel (blue).
• The picture of the sun is for outdoor light, or KELVIN LIGHT. Kelvin light is BLUE, so the camera corrects for it by adding orange. There are also pictures for different gradations of light (i.e. shade, cloudy).

• You can also MANUALLY set your white balance in numbers based on the KELVIN SCALE. This is very useful for two-camera shoots where you want the light temp of both cameras to match.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iu1LxvYUXZo%3Ffeature%3Doembed

EXPOSURE

When you are controlling for exposure, that means you’re telling the camera how much light to let in.

What overexposure looks like.

When using a DSLR, there are THREE WAYS to tell the camera how much light to let in

• Shutter speed
• ISO
• Aperture (F-stop)

SHUTTER SPEED

• For still photos, the shutter speed is important because it tells the camera in what way you want it to freeze motion (do you want a bike whizzing by to be a blur in the photo or do you want it to be completely frozen so you can see every detail?) Since we are shooting moving images, we don’t have to worry about this. For video, as a rule of thumb, you want your shutter speed to be double the number of frames per second you are recording. Since with these cameras, we’ll be shooting in 30 frames per second, WE SET OUR SHUTTER SPEED AT 1/60.

• We shoot with our shutter speed at 1/60 probably 99% of the time. However, to let more light in in a low-light situation, you can get away with setting your shutter speed at 1/30.  DON’T SET IT LOWER THAN 30 BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE YOUR IMAGE STUTTER.
• If it’s really bright out or you’re shooting a performance with hot stage lights and you want to let in less light, you can, however, set your shutter speed higher than 60 (in multiples of 30—so you can set it at 90, 120, etc.)

ISO

 ISO tells your camera sensor how much light to let in.

• THE HIGHER YOUR ISO NUMBER, THE MORE LIGHT YOU ARE LETTING IN.
• Remember, with DSLRs it is always a give and take, push and pull relationship with letting in light and image quality. So the higher your ISO number, the grainier your image.
• In general, if you are outside you’re using a lower ISO (like 100 – 320) since outdoor light is brighter, and inside you’re using a higher number (like 800 – 1600) since indoor light is weaker.
• Generally if you use an ISO 2000 or higher you start to see grain on these cameras (although that doesn’t mean you should never do it.) 

APERTURE (F-STOP) 

• F-stop tells your lens how much light to let in
• THE LOWER YOUR F-STOP NUMBER, THE MORE LIGHT YOU ARE LETTING IN
• The other important thing your f-stop controls is your DEPTH OF FIELD
• DEPTH OF FIELD: the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects in a shot that appear in focus.
• The LOWER your f-stop number, the SHALLOWER your depth of field.
• The HIGHER your f-stop, the DEEPER your depth of field (i.e. more is in focus)
• Even though a shallow depth of field looks really cool and cinematic, you have to ask yourself if it is serving the story well. There are absolutely storytelling reasons you would want everything in the shot in focus and other storytelling reasons you would want only a small portion of the shot in focus.
• MAINTAINING FOCUS WHEN SHOOTING WITH A SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD IS WHAT TRIPS A LOT OF PEOPLE UP. At f/2.8, for example, your subject’s eyes might be in focus, but the tip of her nose is not. If she moves forward even half an inch, her eyes are no longer in focus. So you have to be on your toes at all times shifting the focus ring to maintain focus on her when she leans in to tell you that juicy secret, or your moment is lost.

The relationship between the ISO and the f-stop is what you’re always negotiating when deciding what to shoot.

The LCD screens on our cameras skew a little dark, so it is easy to OVEREXPOSE (let too much light in so your shot is blown out—similar to blowing out your audio because your mic levels are up to high, or “too hot.)

But if you can master depth of field, you can use pull-focus or rack focus shots to great effect.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=I-N_7QXA6xE%3Ffeature%3Doembed

FOCUS

 It is really easy to shoot video that is OUT OF FOCUS with these cameras. If your stuff isn’t in focus, you just wasted a lot of people’s time. So pay attention to focus at all times.

• Use the focus ring on the lens to shift focus (turn ring with your elbow down, not sticking out sideways)
• Zoom in all the way on your subject and focus, then zoom back out to your desired framing; the subject will stay in sharp focus

Video Camera Workshop

Practice setting up your tripod and mounting the camera.

Connect the wired lav microphone to the camera and have your subject clip it to their collar, with the mic facing their mouth. Once again, I’ll remind you of the importance of good audio:

Practice framing an interview with your subject on one of the thirds, looking slightly into frame, not directly at the camera. Position yourself in the correct location as the interviewer to draw their eye line.

Try your hand at a pull-focus or rack focus shot.

Pull up your interview clip on one of the computers and listen back to confirm that your microphone was working.

Intro to Video Journalism

With video, we build on the compositional techniques of photography and the structural, storytelling aspects of audio with one obvious additional element: Motion.

How does video storytelling for the web and mobile differ from TV and film?

• Need to be CLOSER to your subject. Web videos are smaller and more compressed.
• A large percentage of online viewers bail on a video within 10 seconds. So you don’t have a lot of time to grab your viewers and make sure they stick around.

How important is audio?

Good audio is of paramount importance. If you have low-quality video and good audio, the video will still be watchable. If you have gorgeous visuals but terrible audio, it will not.

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Shooting Your Video

There are two main components to any video: your interviews and your B-roll. The rules of composition we learned for photography (thirds, colors, patterns, symmetry, etc.) all apply here, but you also need to keep an eye out for motion. Tracking shots involve following the action with your camera, while static shots involve keeping your camera still, but that doesn’t mean there’s no motion involved; you might just be letting the action go in and out of the frame.

As with the photo essay, since you will be shooting on your phones for this assignment, it is hugely important that you DO NOT SHOOT VERTICALLY.

What is B-roll? And what difference does it make?

A big difference.

Things to keep in mind while you’re shooting B-roll:

1. Shoot more than you think you’ll need.
2. Get a variety of shots. Close-up, medium, wide, detail shots, static shots, tracking shots.
3. Use a tripod whenever possible. If you don’t have one or you’re shooting in a mobile, chaotic situation, be resourceful about stabilizing your shots.
4. Think about your interviews and let them inform your B-roll shooting decisions. Look for shots that illustrate what the person is talking about.
5. Hold your shot longer than you think you need to. A good rule of thumb is to hold it for at least 10 seconds (AFTER it’s already steady).

Things to keep in mind when you’re shooting your interviews:

1. Frame the shot with your subject on one of the thirds, angled so that they’re looking slightly INTO the frame. Have them look at you, not at the camera, so be mindful of where you are sitting. It’s a bit intense when someone looks directly into the camera.
2. If you’re working with a translator, be mindful that the subject will want to look at them, so make sure they are positioned in the ideal place to draw the person’s gaze.
3. Prioritize good audio.
4. Make sure their face is lit, but not too harshly.
5. Think about composing the shot in a way that allows for some negative space where the Lower Third will eventually go.

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When is narration necessary?

Sometimes, you can let the subjects of your video tell the story all on their own — as long as you edit with care, presenting what they’ve told you in a way that makes narrative sense. One benefit of non-narrated videos is that they can feel more organic. There’s no disembodied voice stepping in to tell the story, which keeps the focus on the characters in the story.

But sometimes, for clarity’s sake or for stylistic reasons, narration is necessary, or text.

Narrated videos

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000007049738/as-coronavirus-approaches-mexico-president-looks-other-way.html?playlistId=video/Most-Viewed

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000005277141/the-last-taushiro.html

Text-Narrated videos

These are more and more popular thanks to social media distribution because they automatically start playing as you scroll through your feed and they can be watched without sound.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=E2h0bltV6Rc%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Non-Narrated videos

Islamic exorcisms used as a ‘cure’ for homosexuality in Indonesia: ‘If I am Muslim, I can’t be gay’

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Upcoming Dates

As a reminder, we will NOT be having class as usual this Thursday Oct. 27; instead, we will be doing one-on-one edit sessions. Please sign up for one (that day or Friday) here if you haven’t already. The edit sessions will be over Zoom unless we have discussed otherwise; the Zoom link can be found in the sign-up sheet document.

Your final, mixed radio stories will be due by midnight a week after your edit sessions, either Thursday Nov. 3 or Friday Nov. 4. Please post the final script on the class blog along with the Soundcloud link. (So if you have your edit session on Thursday, it will be due the following Thursday night at midnight; if it’s Friday, due the next Friday night.)

On Tuesday next week (Nov. 1) please bring your cameras to class, as we will be shooting a practice assignment. I will be signing out tripods to everyone that day.

Thursday Nov. 3 will be a production day for your radio stories. Attendance is not mandatory. If you want to come in so I can help you with your final sound mix, or to record narration, or have me look at a last-minute change to your script, I will be here. If you need to do some last-minute reporting or prefer to edit at home, that’s fine too.

Tuesday Nov. 8 will be our annual Roz Bernstein reporting day, which will take the place of regular class. This year’s will involve a reporting trip to Corona, Queens. You are welcome to attend the full day of activities if you like, and get a free lunch, but please RSVP to me by email by the end of today.

11:45 am to 1:30 pm: Lunch at Evelia Tamales 

96-09 Northern Blvd, Corona NY 11368

2 pm to 2:45 pm: Dessert at The Lemon Ice King of Corona

52-02 108th Street | Corona, NY 

3:30 pm: Location TBD

Thursday, Nov. 10, we will be attending a screening and discussion of “The Territory” as a class. This will also be taking the place of our regular class. It takes place at 6pm at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. Please register at the link here. If you cannot attend since it is outside of regular class hours, please let me know in advance and I will give you a separate but related assignment.

Pitches for your final video assignment will be due on Tuesday, Nov. 15: a two-minute video news story/mini documentary. (Give or take as much as 30 seconds depending on how tightly paced and edited it is.)

This video can be narrated if you are interested in broadcast video and want on-camera clips of you doing “stand-ups” for your reel. A stand-up is that clip at the end of a news package where the reporter is typically standing there with a microphone summing things up and doing their sign-off.

If you are not interested in being on-camera, the video can be non-narrated.

Multimedia Reporting 

Julia Cuttone

HOST INTRO: Being that Baruch College is known as a commuter school, having a social life is tough. Many do not get the typical college experience one would if they were on a college campus. Baruch College is located in New York City which makes it challenging to have a typical college experience. For Baruch College students to have a social life, they must make the effort to get involved in clubs, join extracurriculars or go out of their way to make friends in their classes. Elissa Leung, junior at Baruch College majoring in math, talks about how she adjusted well at Baruch College after being virtual for two years. 

AMBI: Sound of Baruch College campus in New York City on a typical day of classes.

TRACK: I am here with Elissa Leung in level B2 of the Newman Vertical Campus at Baruch College next to the entrance of the gymnasium and the overhead of the swimming pool. She is a junior undergraduate student-athlete at CUNY Baruch College. Leung says she has been able to improve her social life by being on the women’s basketball team and the Baruch Scholar Honors program. She said her junior year is going well as it is a work in progress. She talks about a STARR Career Development program that she believes is going to help prepare her for her future career.

ACT: ELISSA: I am personally interested in working in data science in the future. I really want to in the future work in technology and be able to pursue a math degree and that is where data science comes in. This Technology, Leadership, Development program meets twice a week during club hours. It is honestly the commitment of another class so basically taking five classes because we have assignments due and we have to work on team projects with our team members and things like that.

TRACK: On top of her academics she is focused on her future career but also makes her social life a priority. Leung talks about how she developed a strong social life after being online for two years during the pandemic.

ACT: ELISSA: I was fortunate because I am part of the Baruch Scholars Honor program and I actually have friends in Macaulay Honors. I know at Baruch it is hard to find friends and make a social life. Outside of school I am on the Baruch women’s basketball team which also helped me with my social life. I also gained new friends with my teammates and other student-athletes. 

TRACK: Something that has helped Leung have a social life is being in athletics and her programs that she is involved in. It gave her a sense of community with being on her team and having her program from the start helped her be around like-minded individuals that help her excel into the best version of herself. 

ACT: ELISSA: I think it is big to know what you are passionate about and there are clubs at Baruch for everything like video games, business, things like that. You don’t have to limit yourself just to go to business heavy clubs there are also social clubs. So just putting yourself out there, as hard as it is, it is the best thing to do if you want to have a social life at Baruch.
TRACK: Junior, Elissa Leung will continue to make the best out of her college experience as she is working towards her future career goals. For Baruch College, I am Julia Cuttone.

Host Intro: I’m here with Ava Xie of Baruch College. Transferring from one college to another can’t be easy but for Ava, it helped her realize what she wanted to pursue in the future.

Ava: I originally wanted to go to Hunter for sound engineering because i did do music for a couple years in high school and sound engineering is in the same realm in terms of music where you deal with sound audio.

Track: However, Hunter College ended not being a right fit for her. But taking time off of school did help her realize what she was interested in pursuing.

Ava: I was working a part time job and working there made me kind of realize I have interests in the management realm.

Track: After spending some time at a community college bringing up her GPA, Ava transferred to Baruch College.

Ava: There were other colleges I was considering as well but I wanted to go to Baruch because it was a CUNY. Financially, I didn’t think I’d be able to afford going to a private, especially to study business.

Track: Almost a senior now, Ava’s had more time to study operations management, her current major. However, her most favorite class she’s taken at Baruch is in the Sociology department.

Ava: I enjoyed the fact that he made the class very realistic and he taught lectures and lessons based on real time events as opposed to teaching strictly based on a textbook.

Track: She’s not hesitant, however, to experiment with majors and says she would pursue sound engineering if given a second chance, as long as it’s at a different school.

Ava: But i definitely would want to continue doing what I would do now so maybe something along the lines of majoring in sound engineering and then minoring with something business or management related just to see what those two would bring me.

Outro: For Baruch College, this is Marziya Hasan. Thank you.

Track: In a spark of Kanye West’s recent controversy I wanted to get some thoughts on the things he’s doing and thoughts on his White lives matter movement and I was able to ask a Baruch student, Saad his thoughts on the matter.

Act: Saad: The nuance that people don’t get about the shirt needs to be talked about is yes, that’s a problematic statement to make because it’s not predominantly white people getting violently killed by police it’s a predominately black issue. So, in of itself its problematic, the nuisance is, if you saw Kanye’s interview with Tucker Carlson he made a point to say it was about all lives but if it was about all lives why did you explicitly wear a shirt that says white lives which he does to be contrarian for the sake of being contrarian which is what Kanye always has been. People getting outraged by what he says is what he wants but that doesn’t excuse how like he has a point to make but he makes it out the wrong way it doesn’t take away that it’s problematic but I think people need to see the nuance he wants to say but I still think he’s going about it the wrong way.

Track: I also asked Saad his thoughts on Kanye’s recent tweet which could have come off as a little anti-Semitic so I asked for his thoughts on the matter. 

Act: Saad: There was a tweet that he made which was “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up, I’m going death con 3 on Jewish people the funny thing is I can’t be antiemetic because black people are actually Jew, also you have been toying me and trying to blackball anyone who doesn’t follow your agenda”. There’s a lot to unravel here so the first thing is the death con 3 remark which had people up in arms about it because he mentioned death con which is a security system, but I think it’s a figure of speech like he didn’t mean it that way. And the “I can’t be antisemitic because black people are Jewish” is similar to the I can’t be racist because I’m black it doesn’t hold any weight to it but i will say a lot of people don’t understand the nuisance of Judaism and if you look at the story of Moses that takes place in the Nile River in Egypt, so I think that’s what he’s referencing. So, the third part of the statement where he says you guys could be a bit problematic because he doesn’t specify but it’s so vague so we can’t really tell. But it could be referencing the stereotype that Jewish people own everything and its always so vague so I can see how people see it as problematic. But I think that anyone who knows Kanye knows that he can be controversial just to be controversial but there’s also the flip side of the coin, so people think he’s being stupid to be stupid which I disagree with this because I think he’s pretty smart and knows what he’s doing and there is context to what he’s saying it’s just that its misplaced.

Track: Well, no matter what the intention was for the tweets or wearing the shirt none of us can really say except for himself. And with that, I’m Justin Espinal and I’m signing off.