Three good points

I got my first interview by being assertive and confident and polite. I wasn’t submissive or aggressive. I developed a relationship over the phone with my source by properly listening for five minutes. Then I explained his having him explain his experiences on camera was essential to my story. I put him on the spot by asking where he was and what he was doing at that moment. He said in his office. So I said I’ll be there in 15 minutes, the interview will only take five minutes. I was efficient with my interview, I kept my word, it took five minutes.

Then I spent a quick few minutes developing the relationship with my source by meeting his boss and swapping business cards. The source was happy with how the interview went and encouraged his boss to call me anytime he had a story. It was a quick way to open myself up to a whole new network of contacts.

I put the effort in to be look professional. I sometimes get tired of the showiness of always having your clothes all perfect and suspect sources think of TV reporters as pretentious and self obsessed. However after talking to a friend who was interviewed for a KOMU8 story by a fellow reporter, I considered that if you turn up looking like a very well dressed reporter and interview like a very good reporter, people will treat you like a very good reporter. As long as you look great and act stupid, a lot of people can be won over by the super professional look of TV news, and therefore be more willing to go on camera and talk to a serious looking TV news reporter.

Three bad points

I focussed too much on making the good components better and not enough on getting rid of the bad components of my story. I tried to lay my video so it fitted exactly as I said the related word. But I overlooked that I had some shaky shots.

I should have called ahead requesting my graphic. If the producers want me to cover a meeting at 7pm and then be back and editing a package in time for the 10 news, they can also take away some pressure by writing my graphics requests to save me some time.

I should have only got shots I knew I was going to use for my story. If I am going to put the effort in to make a shot, I should ensure it is of perfect quality and good enough for high definition TV. If I’m not putting complete effort into the shot and just shooting something quickly, I shouldn’t do it at all because it will be of too poor quality to put in my story.

Here are some quick reflections on good and bad points of my reporting work for the day.

Things I was happy with:

I was happy with the way I spotted some interesting construction taking place. I considered how it was affecting people and that it would have good visuals for a TV news story.

I was happy with the way I found an entertaining interviewee to go on camera. And used a relaxed style of questioning to relate to the man and get him to relax. This way he gave honest, blunt and emotive soundbites.

I was happy with the way I was creative and set up my tripod and camera on the roof the car so I was able to a clear shot of the giant screen over the fence.

Things I was disappointed with:

I only had one person on camera in my mini-package. I had an opportunity to an interview but thought I had another interview secured later in the day, so I didn’t do the first one. The latter one changed their mind. I should always get people on camera in case latter interviewees fall through. I would like to get interviews done earlier during my shift when I first meet people so I can get it out of the way then I can spend as much time as needed to shoot b-roll.

I was angry with the way I left before I had everything I needed for a PKG. I should have stayed longer. I presumed the producers would only want a VO-SOT with only one source on camera. But the newscast was light and they needed a PKG. So I should have at least done a vox-pop and a stand-up so I would have enough for a PKG.

I should have used more nat sound in my mini-package. I could have used more nat sound bridges to help the audience hear and feel what it was like at the constrctuion site, instead of telling them with lots of narration.

Last week I covered a protest by dairy farmers around the European Commission. I also started planning coverage of the arrival of  three men taking a pedal boat from Athens to Amsterdam, while at Reuters Video News in Brussels, Belgium.

This week I learnt to find ways and arguments which will help a source see the benefit for them if they help you inform your audience. With almost any source, you will be able to find a reason that talking to you could benefit them. Never make up or infer benefits to a source that aren’t true.

But explaining to a charity how by allowing you to film their buildings will give them coverage and recognition by a lot of people is not misleading.

Never promise a source coverage. Furthermore never promise them sycophancy positive coverage. Report everyone impartially no matter how  cooperative or frustrating a source may have been.

It sounds simple, but you must remember to use your medium to most effectively communicate to the audience what you directly observed as an impartial reporter. If you see something that is high up, use a pan up in video to show the audience the height of the object. If you are doing a story about a person who feels alone, show the subject in focus by getting them to stand very still in a crowd. Then blur the movement of the people behind them, making the subject stand out and appear alone.

You can inform you audience in creative ways as long as it is for the purpose of impartially informing them, not manipulating them.

Last week I covered an exhibition of futuristic plant buildings while at Reuters Video News in Brussels, Belgium.

Some of the things I learnt were to plan ahead. Investing five minutes the day before your cover a story can save hours of work the next day.

Organising interviews days ahead is much more effective than trying to talk to people on the same day. Not only will you be more prepared, your source will be able to prepare, find documents to give you, things to show you on camera and have more thought out answers prepared. For preconfirmed interviews, making a quick call to a source to confirm they are still available for an interview can avoid a lot of stress from finding out someone has cancelled on the day.

Look up or printing out maps, reliable maps, of where you are driving to is also essential.

On the way back from a story, start mapping out your video package. If you are driving, do it in your head, if you aren’t write it up on a timeline. This allows you to use the preciously time on the editing machine for just editing, not planning how your story should develop.

Specify the angle of your story. Don’t try to cover everything in your story. Exploring one angle effectively is the best way to inform your audience. Think of an angle as how the events and issues of the story may affect your audience. An event may affect many people in many different ways. But in a two minute video story you can’t explore all the potential affects. Look at how one affects a particular group of people in a particular way.

‘Kill your babies’. Get rid of the parts of your story which don’t advance your audience’s understanding of your particular angle. Part of your story may be entertaining or cute. It may have taken your hours of work and effort to get it. But if it’s not essential to the story, chop it out.

Last week I covered the world’s largest sand sculpture festival taking place in the coastal town of Blankenberge, while at Reuters Television News in Belgium. Like most things strange or about a celebrity death, the story was very popular. See China’s CCTV’s aired edit of the story.

One of the essential things I learnt for the week is to not expect others to double check your work. In large news organisations, where a story will get looked over by many people, spelling or grammatical errors can usually be picked up. But no one is going to spot a mistake about specialist information you only found out by covering the story. In a big news organization everyone is under a lot of pressure to deal with a lot of stories from a lot of different people.

Moreover, if someone further up the editing chain of command from your spots a mistake in your work, they will be angry they had to waste their time fixing it. Also, your reputation will be tarnished, especially if it is a shameful mistake worth emailing around the office for a laugh.

Asking the basic details of a source before an interview is not just a formality. Misspelling someone’s name or reporting their nationality incorrectly may seem insignificant. But this can be hugely insulting to sources and their national pride. This could especially be the case if the story is on an issue that elicits nationalistic feelings, such as a story about a war memorial.

Vox-pops can be overused. They rarely provide any new information or specialist analysis. All you get is what people think first think and decide to say with little consideration. This can be a good thing when you want to quickly find out what people honestly and think without the chance for preparing their answer. They are effective in a story that is specifically about public opinion on an issue. But many people will have an opinion on any issue worth covering as a news story. Therefore people having an opinion on an issue doesn’t justify doing vox-pops. But ‘voxys’ can be useful  when public opinion is changing enormously on an issue in a measurable way, or public opinion will be able to quickly and concretely change something, like when it shifts just before an election.

General vox-pops, where you ask people on the street what they think about an issue or if they like an artwork, provides no information to the audience that they couldn’t get from just talking to their neighbour.  If you are asking general questions to anyone who walks past, you might want to consider the angle of your story. It may not focused enough.

But if vox-pops are necessary in your story, get them done efficiently. Don’t try to use vox-pops to get fair representations of an entire population. Asking a Jewish person, a Catholic person and a Muslim person on the street does not mean you have heard from all religious perspectives on an issues. If you want to get a general understanding of what many Jewish people may think about an issue, find an organisation that may represent many (but definitely not all) Jewish people in an area, such a social group or synagogue.

Be efficient. Often the fairest way of hearing from people on the street is just to ask questions to the first three who walk past. Do one vox-pop, then without moving, turn the camera to face a new direction. Then do a second, turn the camera and do the third. As vox-pops often provide little new or specialized information, get them done quickly. Then focus your time and resources on interviews with sources who have a great deal of specialized information they can contribute to the story.

In international news you will often have to interview a source in a foreign language. If you are totally unable to ask questions in the native language of the interviewee, ask your questions in a language you both have some understanding of. But get the source to answer in their native language, you can get perfect translations latter. Then get them to summaries as basically as possible what they said in a language you understand. This gives you the opportunity to ask follow up questions if they give a particularly interesting answer.

Keep things simple and don‘t ask abstract questions. Asking stupid questions will get you stupid answers in any language. But asking thought out but linguistically simple questions can give you great answers. It is a challenging skill to be able to elicit great emotive sound bites with straightforward questions. However this principle often still applies to doing quick news interviews with people who speak the same language as you.

Moreover, for international news agency stories, the language the interviewee is speaking in makes little difference. As an agency story may be used by broadcasters in many countries with many different languages, they will subtitle or dub the sound bite into their preferred language. The is no international langue the interviewee can speak in that will be best for clients across the world.

Finally, look after yourself. Commitment to covering a story well is great. But if you have barely drank, eaten or slept, the quality of your work will suffer. The best investment in the quality of the journalism you are doing can be to take a break.

Any TV story will be a winner if it features Kai Moon, the Asian elephant recently born in Antwerp zoo

Last week I covered the a small demonstration about the Iran elections and the extreme temperatures while at Reuters Television in Brussels, Belgium.

Last week I covered the a small demonstration about the Iran elections and the extreme temperatures while at Reuters Television in Brussels, Belgium.

When shooting b-roll of people under the sun in Brussels, I needed to get close shots of people’s faces. This detail helped illustrate the discomfort of some people in the intense heat.

If you have to get up close to people to record them, quickly say hello and explain you are a journalist and which organization you work for. Moreover, briefly explain the story, and therefore why the person needs to be on camera.  Many people presume as you are from the media you will be trying to catch them doing something illegal or exploit or attack them. By simply saying you just need shots of them doing what they were doing for your story they can relax.

When people relax they will happily let you record them and will probably encourage anyone else they know to be on camera to. They will also act more naturally, allowing you to show them, and what is going on around them in a realistic setting.

Furthermore, while shooting video in hot or unpleasant conditions, deal with the pain and don’t become sloppy or try to finish quickly. It is worth spending an extra few seconds before every shot to ensure the basic components of focus, lighting and framing are perfect. Otherwise the video will be unusable as an agency package and your hard work will have been pointless.

Reuters also covered a story in Antwerp zoo, where the animals are being given ice treats to stay cool. A common concern for framing a shot is getting the complete object in the frame. It is more attractive to the eye to see a whole elephant with some space from the edge of the frame, instead of just its front half. However, as one Reuters cameraman explained to me, in news video, where time is a huge constraint, this rule can be broken for the sake of conveying as much information as possible in a shot.

You only need to show enough of an object for viewers to be able to understand what the rest of the object is outside the frame. In the zoo story there were many close ups of a baby elephant. A wide shot of the baby’s mother then close ups of the baby with another trunk in the frame were enough to demonstrate the trunk belonged to the mother elephant. A close up of the baby provided more detail, and the interaction between just trunk of the mother and the baby demonstrated the close relationship between the family of animals.

Moreover, follow moving objects with the camera. Any camera movement is often lambasted as being amateur. However if a moving object stays within the same framing while it is moving, and doesn’t half disappear from the frame, the movement of the camera will be barely noticeable.

I also covered a demonstration by about 20 people in front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels. With such a small scale protest, we chose to not cover the event and turn it into a package. There are many criticisms about international news coverage being like a spotlight that puts a huge focus on a story then quickly shifts attention onto something new. International news coverage can certainly fail its audience when it is disconnected and lazy reporting.

But international news coverage must inevitably do this. If nothing new is happening in somewhere like Iran, there is no change people need to be informed about. This doesn’t mean journalists don’t think it is an interesting story worth covering. However new stories and changes that are occurring have to take place of older stories. The alternative option to staying focused on one story. This means ignoring other stories.

In the case of the protest, we choose not to cover it because a protest of 20 people is not major international news. We did not ignore it just because coverage on Iran is fading in other places. Choosing to continue to cover small events like that, when other news stories are occurring, would be pushing the cause of the demonstrators and not at all impartial. Reporting new stories and shifting resources away from the coverage on Iran may be very frustrating for people who feel passionately about the Iran election results. But in agency reporting the role to cover what new news is happening. If nothing new is happening in a story, focus must shift to places change is occurring.

For the last week news has focused on Michael Jackson’s death. While different angles on the story have been explored in other countries, the story is in Los Angeles. But tomorrow, if the rain stays away, I’m heading to the beach in Belgium where at life-size sand sculpture of MJ is being built.

The cameramen at Reuters explained the importance of getting close ups on people’s faces. The close shot in a wide, medium, close sequence should actually go very close to people’s faces. This is best way of capturing people’s emotions, especially if they are crying or yelling. Close shots are great at protests, where by showing the detailed emotion on someone’s face you can help the audience relate to how the people are feeling and help viewers understand why people in the story may be so angry or elated about their cause. Otherwise protest stories can be masses of faceless people that the audience will have no understanding or interest in why and what they are protesting about.

When two people are talking to each other, get a close shot of one person, then pan to the other. Don’t just frame the two people in one wide shot. It can make stories about meetings boring and impersonal. People wearing sunglasses can inhibit emotion showing close shots. However, faming the shot so the audience can clearly see something significant reflected in the sunglasses can be very effective.

Fading in and out between shots, especially to show how something changed over time (by shot of old fading into new) is a great technique. However news agency stories should not do this as it may not be liked by all broadcasters. These fades can be inserted by the broadcaster with editing software if they like.

Furthermore working in a team with cameramen requires a lot of teamwork, cohesive thinking and the ability to get along with the other half of the team you are almost useless without. Moreover the huge amounts of time waiting at events means you must have the ability to overcome language and cultural differences and relate to people you are working with. You have to understand your team mate well enough to talk to them about topics unrelated to work. You cannot spend a two hour drive disucssing tripods. You also have to be able to argue the most effective way to cover a story (a positive process you do for every story) while not taking personal insult.

The producers at Reuters explained to me how, as a on the spot agency reporter, you are only a witness. For all the technology and skills, your best asset is being there for every story. Being a great impartial reporter means you go and see for yourself. You are never enough of an expert to be able to answer your questions yourself. Presuming about what is happening, why people are doing something or what they want, and reporting it, is at best a logical guess based on your prejudices and limited knowledge. If you hear dogs barking on the other side of a wall don’t presume what they are barking at, talk the guard into letting you through the gate. Or if you have to, climb over the wall. Only by seeing for yourself can you be sure about anything. If that isn’t possible, find a witness, who is the best source. Only by meeting people in person can you understand them, interrogate them and build a trust with them to ensure you get the most reliable information from them.

Audiences often expect journalists to be experts who have all the answers and can’t be wrong. However you are not an expert and while being a witness may seem simple, being an excellent impartial witness on every story is a challenging skill and essential job.

Moreover, I discussed with the producers at Reuters how covering international news can be frustrating as you must often suppress your journalistic traits. If you are driving down the street and see a house on fire, your inherent journalistic curiosity is to not just look, but look closer. You want to ask witnesses, firefighters and the owners what happened. You want to find out how the fire started and why it was unable to be stopped.

But when working for an international news agency, you usually have to ignore events that don’t have international ramifications. In local news, where a half hour news cast has to be filled with stories, a house fire may be a local news story. Almost anything is a story in local news until it is pushed out of the newscast by a bigger story. If no bigger news story than a house fire occurs that day, the house fire will lead. But in international news agency, a bureau does not have to produce a 30 minute newscast, or deliver a set number of stories in a day. Therefore, unless a major international story breaks in the bureau’s area, as a reporter, you will have to ignore the house fire and not cover anything at all. This can be annoying. But by realizing the importance of covering major international news stories well, you can be satisfied overlooking some smaller local stories while preparing to tackle the big international stories most effectively.

Some points I learnt on camera work are to pan only on one axis. Either go up or down or left or right. Diagonally panning is challenging, even more so without a tripod, and it will most likely look shaky and unnatural to the eye.

Furthermore, when doing a pan, hold shot still for five seconds, pan for a couple seconds, hold shot for five seconds, pan back and hold shot for five seconds. You then can choose between a still of the first frame, the pan forward, the pan back or the still of the second frame.

A German cameraman I was working with explained to me how a video camera is just for recording. When using a camera you must search with your eye and plan framing, shots, sequences and the logical visual story telling in your head. Then record it. Never just hit record and go searching for the anything and everything.

Another cameraman showed me how using monopod the bottom tucked into a ‘bum bag’ or ‘fanny pack’ is a great way to hold steady, level and maneuverable shots when you are unable to use a tripod.

When using a boom microphone from a long way away, an interviewee will often finish their comments then another interviewee meters away will start talking. At this point 20 cameras, boom microphones and reporters turn to the other interviewee. Often you will have trouble getting your microphone into a good position before the interviewee starts talking. But it is better to spend 15 seconds positioning your boom microphone so it is within 50 centimeters of the interviewee’s mouth, and missing their first answer, rather than having the boom microphone only vaguely close, where their answers are barely heard. Sound and vision in agency stories needs to be of  perfect quality, and except for exceptional circumstances where your low quality work is exclusive, and are often worth little if they are substandard.

When in a media pack and trying to get doorstep interviews off people arriving at an event, get in position at the entrance where sources will have to be as close to you as possible. Otherwise, a potential interviewees may be able to walk on the other side of the room and avoid you. This way, even if they hear your question, they can pretend they were too far away to hear, and not answer. Also, ask your question at the perfect time. If you yell your question when they are far away they may avoid you. Ask just as they come into position for perfect interview framing with the camera. This way if you ask a question, everyone watching the recorded video will be able to see the interviewee heard the question, and if they ignore you then they risk looking like they are avoiding the topic in front of the audience. Therefore when stuck in this position a politician will give you an answer.

When doing agency news stories it is essential to always explore the international angle of a story. However prime ministers are usually concerned more about what voters in their country think of them, rather than people from across the world, who can’t vote for or against them. Therefore when trying to get a doorstep interview with prime ministers, a good first question to get their attention is one that focuses on their country’s domestic politics. Once you have them on camera you can then turn to more internationally focused questions.

Ask impartial, not leading questions. But ask questions that elicit sources to defend their position. Instead of asking Irish prime minister Brian Cohen, ‘Do you think the Irish people will accept the amended Lisbon Treaty?’, I asked ‘What will you do if the Irish people reject the amended Lisbon Treaty?’ This forced him to consider his concrete responses a potential outcome, rather than allowing him to only discuss the outcomes he wants to talk about.

Finally, make interviewees justify, explain and give examples for their answers. Often when a politician chooses to speak to the media for a quick doorstep interview, they will have something they want to say. No matter what question they are asked, they will give the answer to the question they wish they were asked. Therefore allow them to give their preferred answer without cutting them off with a new question. This way they will be comfortable speaking to you. But  once they finish their practiced line, ask them to justify and explain their answer and any potential gaps of information in it.

Next week read how the Brussels Film Festival will give more creative opportunities. But the challenge lies in turning them into stories that pulls viewers across the world, not just a niche film audience.

Last week I covered the European Union elections and the reactions, analysis and potential consequences of it. I also covered the NATO summit.

I learnt the importance of staying with the photographer you are working with. If they have to go to certain position to film and you need to separate, keep an eye on them. You and the photographer may need to move quickly if you see someone you want to interview and need to chase the source as a team.

The editing program Edius is an excellent tool for improving the appearance of your story. If a shot is too dark increasing the lighting can really improve the shot and make it fit well with brighter shots before and after it. But complex editing raises ethical issues. Some journalists argue you should not do any editing to a image that you could not do in a dark room.

Non-linear editing programs allow you to flip images, add and remove tracks of sound, distort colours and speed up or slow down the video. But there is a point where fixing minor details becomes deceiving your audience. When using an editing tool, consider why you are doing so. Your choice should always be impartial. Helping to brighten a overly dark shot can help show your audience something. But darkening a shot to change the mood or make a person look sinister is misleading, partisan and never acceptable under any circumstances.

Furthermore, when editing an agency story, include plenty of ‘cut-aways’. These shots help provide a break between talking heads. They are also necessary for broadcasters who may use the story but also add their own interviews. Therefore they need cut-aways to put between their extra interviews.

Try to shoot people at eye level. However at a press conference with the cameras at the back of the room, peoples’ heads will be the way if the camera is at eye level. Therefore you need to ensure the camera is high enough on the tripod so you can shoot down at the speakers without getting other people or objects in the shot.

Arrive 20 minutes early at a press conference to get my microphone on the table where the speakers will sit, get the best position for your camera and have to time to get establishing shots as people walk into the room. A good establishing shot can be showing something that signifies the location, group or topic the story is about, then panning across to the people speaking. However pans should be used sparingly in TV news.

When getting quotes off people as the arrive at a meeting (a ‘doorstop’), ask what they want to achieve at the meeting, if they think their goals are achievable and how they will be trying to convince others.

Finally, don’t forget basic writing principles in the rush to send out a story. Never use the same word twice in a sentence. Avoid all loaded words.

Next week is the meeting of all European heads of state at the EU summit in Brussels. Read agin next week about the challenges of competing with hundreds of other cameras and reporters for the best shot.

This will depart from the on the road story chasing style of reporting at KOMU 8 News in Columbia, Missouri. Instead interviews with political figures will be the major focus of my work. This warrants review of interviewing tips.

Ask short sharp questions. If you can’t phrase your question or the focus of your story in a short sentence, you probably don’t understand it, or the topic is too wide.

Moreover, silence is golden in an interview. Silence is especially in a TV interview where your gratutious ‘ahhs’ and ‘okays’ kill potential sound bites. Nod your head and keep eye contact with your interviewee to show you are listening. 

Listen to your interviewee’s answers and respond with questions to their answers. Also, always get clarification to what your interviewee said. Don’t assume they meant something by what they said. Ask if you are not sure. Build up your 

Get interviewees to speak their own words. Don’t recite the work of a poet you are interviewing. Get the source to say the poem. They will be able to read it much better, putting emphasis in the right place.  This makes it more interesting and informative for the audience.

Your equipment needs to be second nature so it is not distracting during interview. Set up everything before the interview starts so you can go straight into your questions. Then, while asking your questions, glace at the camera to ensure your interviewee is framed and lit correctly and you are getting good sound.

You might not be interested in a topic or a person. But this doesn’t mean other people aren’t interested in it, or that it doesn’t affect many people.