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Video

ASSIGNMENT: LOOK AT VIDEOS
ASSIGNMENT: PRODUCE A VIDEO FOR THE ZINE
COMPRESSING VIDEO FOR YOUTUBE
CONVERTING VIDEO TO FLV & IMPORTING TO FLASH
     LONG WAY
     SHORT WAY
FINAL CUT EXPRESS
SHOOTING GUIDES
STORY PLAN
TERMS
     COMMON TERMS
     TYPES OF SHOTS
WRITING FOR BROADCAST & BEYOND

SHOOTING GUIDES If you’re new to video, please review the following:

Carol B. Schwalbe One of the most photographed spots in the Galapagos, Pinnacle Rock overlooks a quiet lagoon.

• Video Survival Guide by Chuck Fadely
  This straightforward how-to about shooting video is perfect for print reporters and photojournalists who are just getting started. Everything is geared toward giving the video editor decent material to work with. Check out Chuck’s videos for the Miami Herald.

• Good Shooting Guide from the BBC
  
  
• Ira Glass on Video Storytelling
  The producer of NPR’s “This American Life”  talks about story ideas, anecdotes, techniques of good storytelling, reasons to kill bad stories,etc. (You have to register at YouTube to view it, but it’s a quick, easy and free.) There are four different segments of the interview--each about five minutes long. I recommend #1, #2 and the trailer.
  

• Some Useful Words for Video Newbies

CONVERTING VIDEO TO FLV & IMPORTING TO FLASH: LONG WAY
Mindy McAdams created an eight-page PDF on how to take a finished video file, convert it to the FLV file format and import it into Flash. It’s specific to Flash 8 because it uses the Flash 8 Video Encoder, which comes with Flash 8. Using Import to Stage, you can select from a variety of controllers pre-built in Flash. It’s quite easy!

The handout also explains how to create a separate Flash interface that allows users to choose from multiple videos and play any one of them. If you don’t want that part, then all you need to read are pages 1-3 and page 8.

This page links to tutorials on how to embed a Flash file

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CONVERTING VIDEO TO FLV & IMPORTING TO FLASH: SHORT WAY

1. File > New > Flash document.
2. File > Import > Import movie.
3. Where is your video file? Find your .mov file.
4. How would you like to deploy your video? Progressive download from a web server.
5. Please select a Flash Video encoding profile: Flash 8 - Medium Quality (400kbps).
6. Skin: Pick something you like.
   A name with All gives you all the controls.
   A name with External puts the controls below your video.
   A name with Over puts the controls on top of your video. Later, you can make this disappear when you play the video.
   
7. Save your video where you can find it. This may take a while. Please be patient!
8. To make the controls disappear when you play the video and move your mouse below the video, click on the video, then click on Parameters on the Properties manager. Scroll down to skinAutoHide. Change it to true.
9. To make the stage fit nicely around your video
   • IF it has controls on top of your video, move the video to the upper left so there’s about a quarter inch on the left and top. Click on the stage, then click on Properties, then Size. Click Match: Contents.
   • IF it has controls below your video, you’ll have to experiment and change the dimensions by hand.
10. IMPORTANT! Keep all the files you’ve created together: NameOfVideo.swf, NameOfVideo.flv AND MojaveOverAll.swf (or whatever the name of your skin is).
    

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Carol B. Schwalbe From atop Isla Bartolome, Pinnacle Peak still looms along the shoreline.

WRITING FOR BROADCAST & BEYOND (by Al Tompkins)

• Tell the story in three words. One theme per story, one thought per sentence. Select, don’t compress, what goes in your stories.
• Tell complex stories through strong characters. Readers and viewers will remember what they feel longer than what they know.
• Use objective copy, subjective sound. Journalists’ copy should contain objective words, facts and truth. Let the characters evoke emotions, express feelings and give opinions in their sound bites.
• Use active verbs, not passive ones. Consider the difference between “the gun was found” and “the boy found the gun.” Ask, “Who did what?”
• Give viewers a sense of time passing. Show me the character in more than one setting, in more than one situation.
• Remember, leads tell me “so what,” stories tell me “what” and tags tell me “what’s next.”

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TYPES OF SHOTS (courtesy of Mindy McAdams)

Will Kirkland Volcanic activity formed the Galapagos Islands millions of years ago.

Wide shot (WS): “Reveals where the scene is taking place. Also referred to as a long shot or master shot, a wide shot helps orient the audience. A wide shot also gives the actors room to move within a shot, without the camera having to follow them. Medium shots and close-ups are often cut into a wide shot for variation.” (source)

Establishing shot: “A type of wide shot that can [for example] establish a building before the camera cuts to an interior office.” (source)

Medium shot (MS): Basically people from waist to top of head—that’s the distance we’re looking at here.

Close-up: A person’s face fills the screen. While you’d use these less often than medium shots in a lot of TV video or other filmmaking, the intimacy of the computer screen (you are only 12 inches away) makes the close-up preferable for most talking-people shots. You’ll also be getting in super-close for detail shots of objects, as well as hands and feet.

Always remember to vary your shots.

Don’t underestimate the difference between TV viewing (12 feet away) and computer use (12 inches away). Visually you should exploit the medium for which you are shooting.

Precise framing conventions for standard shot descriptions vary from studio to studio and from one broadcast operation to another. One director’s MCU might be another director’s MS.
BCU, ECU	Big Close-Up, Extreme Close-Up Most of face or subject fills frame in order to show detail.
CU	Close-up Bottom of frame cuts where the knot of the tie would be.
MCU	Medium Close-Up Bottom of frame cuts where top of jacket breast pocket or waist would be.
MS	Medium Shot Bottom of frame cuts at waist or thigh.
MLS	Medium Long Shot Most, if not all, of figure, but less of setting than in LS.
LS, WS	Long Shot, Wide Shot Subject takes up the full frame, often in a landscape or setting.
XLS, VWS	Extreme Long Shot, Very Wide Shot Person is small, perhaps barely visible, as in aerial shots. Emphasis is on setting.
EWS	Extreme Wide Shot Overview of scene, often used as establishing shot. Person isn’t visible.

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COMMON TERMS (courtesy of Mindy McAdams)

Will Kirkland Red sand and teal water highlight Isla Bartolome in the Galapagos.

ASSIGNMENT 1 : LOOK AT VIDEOS

Cecil Schwalbe The male lava lizard is bigger and more brightly colored than the female. Animals that live on lava are darker than those that frequent sandy habitats.

1. onBeing video profiles (Washington Post)
These are reminiscent of Richard Avedon’s B&W portraits.

2. Figure skater Patrick Chan 2:20 (Toronto Star)

“I wanted to play hockey, really, but my mother told me to try figure skating ... I never left figure skating because I loved it so much.”
—Patrick Chan, Olympic hopeful

Sports shooters will tell you that a lot of getting that perfect single shot is luck. The right equipment and long experience in knowing where to look MAKE that luck, of course. But in this sports video, luck has nothing to do with how good it is. It’s a combination of wonderful editing (the images are perfectly edited to the audio track) and a solid (audio) interview. This was shot and edited by newspaper photojournalist Bernard Weil. (See more Toronto Star video here.)

3. HD in Full Bloom (1:30 BBC)
Stunning time-lapse videography. At home on DSL, this might hang up on you, but only briefly. Right-click (CONTROL + CLICK on aMac) to get the true full-screen option.

4. Journey into Amazing Caves trailer (1:30 Flash Video Factory)
More stunning videography in a trailer for a movie called Journey into Amazing Caves. According to multimedia engineer Fabio Sonnati, “The movie is smoothed and filtered with On2’s deblocking and deringing filters. What do you think? Is Flash video ready to enable real HD Web contents?”

If you’re interested in Flash video, check out Fabio Sonnati’s blog.

5. Wyoming Cattle Drive by Cyndy Green (3:25)
The reporter, shooter and editor is Cyndy Green, who spent 28 years in TV news. But she didn’t shoot this for TV. Her blog explains the “making of” backstory. She writes: “Shot this with a low end camera (Canon ZR60 purchased on eBay for about $80), a nine dollar mike, and a thirty dollar tripod.”

6. Washington Post Online

7. Between You and Me by Patryk Rebisz (length: 5 min.; frame rate: 8 fps)
Don’t miss the kitty at the end.

Patryk Rebisz, 27, wrote about how he made this video (a fictional story) in Still Life magazine (summer 2005). More than 2,000 still photos are stitched together to form movement.

“A friend recently bought the Canon EOS 20D. I tried its burst mode and was in seventh heaven. In this mode we could record at five frames per second (as opposed to film’s 24). We could shoot for about 12 seconds before the camera’s memory buffer would fill up, so our takes had to be really exact—no long, hypnotic shots. I did a series of tests beforehand to find the best setup...

Carol B . Schwalbe Paradise in peril? Increasing numbers of visitors threaten the Galapagos’ unique habitat and wildlife.

We would shoot until the camera’s memory card filled up (1 GB—about 650 stills), and then we would take a break to transfer the pictures to our laptop.”

In an interview with ABC News, Rebisz said he was inspired by La Jetée, a 1962 French film made up of still black-and-white photos. (La Jetée was also credited as the inspiration for Terry Gilliams’ 1995 American feature film Twelve Monkeys.)

8. Video blogs from The Spokesman-Review
The toxic waste clean-up blog explains why the producer has been using more and more of his own voice in videos rather than letting the story tell itself.

9. Fuel truck explosion in northeast Spokane (1:28): This breaking-news video (shot by a newspaper photographer) illustrates what you can do if you’ve worked at the craft. Note that the fire started about 5:30 p.m., and Colin Mulvany posted this video at 8:59 p.m. On top of that, the footage is edited very well. Notice how many different shots he has and how informative his interviews are. He’s a real pro.

10. Leonard’s Look: The Ride of Our Lives (4:21): Life’s greatest lessons by ordinary people. Note the scenes of the videographers (Mike Leonard and his son) at work, including one that reveals emotional sensitivity and distance. The video touches on universal experiences—love and loss and the small moments that really matter.

ASSIGNMENT: PRODUCE A VIDEO FOR THE ZINE
Before You Post That Video, Read This

Goals

• Produce a 1:30 to 3:00 video that your audience will watch to the end.
• Find a subject and a CCC (central compelling character) relevant to your zine section.
• Keep your subject tightly focused. You’re not producing a piece for 60 Minutes!
• Problem-solve and make good editorial choices.
• Discover the opportunities and limitations of working in video.
• An important thing to remember: If you shoot bad video, it will only get worse after you compress it for the Web.

Outcomes

• Shoot and edit a compelling, focused video that might help you land an internship or a job. Or you might have to shoot video on the job.
• Understand the power of video to enhance storytelling, particularly in conveying emotion and action.
• Appreciate the challenges that videographers and video editors face so that when you work with video colleagues, you’ll have realistic expectations for assignments and deadlines.
• Emerge with a video vocabulary so you can communicate clearly as part of a team of professionals creating a multimedia package.

Shooting

• No panning (in other words, do NOT sweep the camera from side to side).
• No zooming.
• Get in close. Very close.
• Hold the camera steady. Use a tripod if possible.
• Do NOT talk while your subject is talking.
• Shoot action and movement.
• Shoot lots of B-roll on location.
• Wear headphones while you shoot. Use an external microphone whenever possible.

Grading

Quality of video shooting
      • Steady shots (you used a tripod)
      • No panning or zooming
      • Clear audio, both natural sound and interview
      • Well-lit
      • Avoid talking heads, but if you have any, shoot them at eye level from a
      slight angle to the left or right. Interviewees should not be looking directly at camera.
      • You are silent during interviews (no laughter, “uh-huhs,” etc.)
      • Composition
           o rule of thirds
           o in focus
           o level
           o no distracting backgrounds or poles emerging from people’s heads
           o close to source or action
           o varying angles and perspectives
           o fill the frame

Quality of video editing
      • No jumpcuts
      • Appropriate shot lengths; good pacing
      • Good mix of wide, medium and close-ups
      • Good transitions
      • Title
      • Credits
      • Good audio levels
      • Audio matches action
      • Every edit has a purpose
      • Opens with strong visual
      • Continuity of content, movement, sound
      • Compressed properly and uploaded to our jmc460 folder

Quality of overall storytelling
      • Coherent story arc: beginning, middle end
      • Good character(s)
      • Captures emotion and/or action
      • Tightly focused
      • Strong visuals
      • Good sequencing

COMPRESSING VIDEO FOR YOUTUBE (courtesy of Mrs. Dodge)

Compression Type: H264
Data Rate (Restrict To): 4:3 - 300-350kb/s for 320x240 video
Keyframes (every): 120
Resize to (custom): 4:3 - 320x240
Sound
Sound Settings
Format: AAC
Channels: Stereo
Rate: 32000Khz
Quality: Normal
Data Rate: 96-128kbps

Upload to your account and check the quality.

FINAL CUT EXPRESS

• Storyboard tutorial
• Creative Cow Final Cut Pro Podcast
• Final Cut Help - Absolute Training for Final Cut Studio
• Izzy Video
• Small, easy-to-digest lessons at Make Internet TV.
• iMovie tutorial
• Windows Movie Maker if you have Windows (see online tutorial); you can download this (free) if you have Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2).