Web Video Reporter and Vlogging for Journalists

A Facebook friend of mine asked me a couple things about video cameras the other day. My answers got so involved (because I'm anal, remember?) that I figured - hey, why not turn it into a blog post?

First, let me mention that "Web Video Reporting" and "Vlogging" (or video blogging) might not be identical. Lots of people "vlog" on video sites or by embedding videos onto their regular blogs. Much of their vlogging has nothing to do with hard journalism. It might be entertainment news or commentary. Lots of times, vlogging is just done for the hell of it. Pros with large audiences monetize their blogs/vlogs. Vlogging generally focuses on the person who runs the blog and on his or her own interests. Viewers come for the personality and the flavor. There are vloggers who specialize in comedy, how-to's, politics, the stock market, and so on.

"Web Video Reporting" is an extension to traditional reporting, carried out by journalists who now feel the need to write, shoot photos, and even gather some short supporting videos. We're not talking about broadcast news people running to a scene to shoot with their $20,000 company-owned Genlock-equipped video cameras. This is more like on-the-beat indie journalism and local event reporting by writers who are actively involved with their community. Television broadcast and cable news stations have been asking the public to send in "iReports" for several years. Mainstream media figured out a way to be omnipresent by proxy. The indie reporter learns to be where a good story is through his or her community participation... it seems to be more than just an assignment. And because it's not the local station's gig, the fancy crew isn't going to be there either.

So what does the Web Video Reporter need to know when starting out with video technology? Should the gear be cumbersome? Will you need fancy editing software? How much money should you spend? This all depends on whether you want to focus on being a journalist or being a camera crew and video producer. If the event needs a nice production for promo purposes, it's best to get a pro. Video work can tie up equipment staff, a production house, and marketing department for one shoot. If you solo an ambitious project, prepare for little sleep and no days off until you reach your deadline!! But if you just want to whip out a cam to get impromptu moments of an event, you'll still need to know some do's and don'ts. Straight-forward stuff is easier to gather. Just remember the editing will be waiting for you soon after.

Basics:
Keep it simple when it comes to reporter-style video. Focus on your story. When shooting, watch out for geometric inconsistencies, like the floor and ceiling lining up unevenly. (I have a few videos with that problem due to being in a hurry.) Most importantly, get good audio whenever someone is speaking. I don’t always have the opportunity to use microphones, but when I can, I do. Keep a mic in your bag of goodies. You’ll also need the mic to add narration. Zoomed-in shots will make shaking appear more noticeable no matter how steady you hold the camera. Avoid zooms or use a tripod. Lighting your subject is essential, however you will often have no control over that as a reporter. Try to correct what you can during editing. Most Windows-based PC's and Mac's have free video editing software included. Unless you need clever graphics and animation, or you need to bring in multi-camera angles, etc, these should do the trick. Lastly, use fades and hard cuts for your scene transitions in editing. I have experimented with cool-looking transitions, and they always came out looking like Uncle Eddie’s Family Reunion video. Avoid. (I don’t have an Uncle Eddie… but you know what I mean.)

Geeky:
I don't mean to bombard you with technical info, but you'll be seeing these terms come up a lot with video, especially in editing. 1080i is the highest resolution you can get with a consumer cam. The settings for 60, 30, 24 (on many video cameras) are frames-per-second. If you are buying a newer HD cam, 1080i at 60p will probably be the preset. Older cams will have lower resolution, like 640 or 720. The funny part is that after editing, the typical setting for uploading to most web video host sites will be tops 640x480, and similarly the same resolution for rendering your video in post-production (the time when you make your final copy of the file ready for viewers). If you are uploading video to the web, render them to MPEG2 or 4 as they are the best compressed files at the smallest size that hosts will accept, except maybe flash. Uploading to YouTube changes them to a flash type file, called .FLV. Be aware that you will have time and file size limits on all free host sites.

Legal:
I don’t know if signed releases are used in reporting, but for video you might need to have a generic video release on hand for people to sign. People’s likeness and voices as well as recognizeable visibilty of private enterprises, their properties, structures, employees, and customers are delicate issues that can have legal ramifications. (Usually not a problem if you are cleared for an event, unless you add people on the fly.) For commercial purposes, it’s mandatory. Either way, to cover your butt, add a disclaimer notice on your video web site stating that you will remove anyone’s likeness if they object and have your contact info available for them. Trust me on that one. Also verify that your current insurance covers all aspects of media.

Last Thoughts:
I would recommend the Flip – they are nice and I myself had been tempted to buy the Flip 8 gig HD cam for $299. The Flip is very easy to use and non-threatening to those you are shooting/interviewing. If you think shooting up-close is all you’ll need, then go with the Flip. If you want more control, $500-600 range is the starting point and pre-owned will be even better because you essentially will be getting an $800-1000 cam.
Think of what you can and cannot live without as far as features. Also consider what media you want your video to be recorded on, if it matters to you. For the reporter on-the-go, perhaps hard disk memory or a chip is best.

Each of the above categories has so much more to discuss. I will have to continue some other time... Good Luck and have fun!!! See you around Downtown!!

Video Killed The SEO Star

Dead, you say?? How dare... oh wait, I did just look around to see if the last website had any videos, didn't I?? (Yup, you probably did.)

Even the phonebook companies are gearing up for video. Let your eyeballs do the walking? Hell yes! So let your video ad do all the talking, baby!

There was a comprehensive report done recently by DoubleClick (See Report here) wherein they analyze the effectiveness of ad formats. Rich media involves complex flash, animation and/ or video ad formats. The study includes these as well as the older formats of images and simple flash.

We have been heading toward total visual for a long time, if you count the 60 plus years of television and about 100 years of motion pictures, not to mention early animation. (Remember those booklets with a hundred pages of drawings of a cat that seemed to move when you filed through the booklet? No, well then you ain't old enough and you probably think I'm kidding.)

Don't get me wrong - people still do read. The difference is that today, if it's in words, it needs to be interactive for the reader. A blog or forum would be useless if readers couldn't post comments. Cellphone texting is another example in which people read messages, but the idea is to participate in real time. This is much different than how we started off using pagers twenty or so years ago, and it advanced quite rapidly after that, from just static sending of alerts and cellphone photos to the texting we do today.

For websites, again we need to hold people's interest, and that improves by reducing their burden to read too much information - ah, that wordy explanation of your product or service typically needed for accomodating spiders, crawlers, and that whole google search engine phenomenon.

Not only is visitor interest important, that is getting them to stay on your site and navigate it. You want visitors to make a proactive decision: Buy your products or services!! Well, they have to FIND you first, right? And this is the best part about using videos.

For those looking to rank and be found, a well-titled video hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or other video-sharing sites, will markedly improve your search status without spending thousands of dollars on SEO. The video can be a traditional-looking 30 second ad, but your options are many. Don't limit yourself. You also do not have to limit your ad to just the video hosting site. Once posted, take the video file's link and drop it in any of the popular online social networking sites you belong to. Of course, you can include the video on your company's (or org's) site, too. If you have the marketing budget, and you carefully choose an effective online marketing consultant or company, they can provide some strategic SEO solutions. But for guerrilla marketing, which is what most small businesses are doing these days, videos are a more cost-effective and results-effective way to go. (Hell, even huge corporations are going this route.)

If your company or proprietorship is already popular and you have top ranking on search engines, you still should think about staying on top of your game. There are always competitors out there selling cheaper, faster, better, more. What you present in a video can make the difference. A kind and sincere welcome to your services, a product demonstration, an entertaining invitation to visit your location, or a sincere customer testimonial are some nice ideas. Personal, helpful and familiar are the way to go in our socially-driven online world.

I know you all know from my blog that I cover lots of events and music in the Roanoke area. I shoot videos of all types and genres. These include videos for commerce. They can be short or long, for online or for DVD presentations, and for-profit businesses or for non-profits. I am always interested in working with new and current subjects, clients and ideas to bring your best visual message up front and out into the world.

My latest video is a Real Estate listing. (I also shoot for a phone company's online business pages. Those are 30 second "ads" and a bit formulaic.) This residential home video includes a voice-over, which I also produce here at my studio. I run an audio recording and video production company. Professional audio tracking is essential in many different shoots - and not every video producer offers that. This is why I call Star City Fame a Media company. I built this company by expanding my existing pro-audio studio, adding professional video for on and off-location shoots.



(Source for the graph posted above is: Dynamic Logic MarketNorms®, 2008. Fixed frequency level of 1. Campaigns using online display advertising of any format N=547-765)