This is a followup to a previous blog post I put up on the Steamboat Ditch Trail. I have now run it’s entire length. The canal runs from an underground tunnel in the east to a fenced off section where the trail hits a residential neighborhood.

The last time I went, I brought my little video camera. The quality isn’t very good, but I didn’t want to risk my more valuable equipment. This video replaces the one I found online.

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I revisited editing video today in a lesson led by Mark Hiland, the digital development director for the Arizona Republic. He boiled down video shooting for news to its most basics.

I learned that my impatience when playing with my video camera out in the field is killing me when I get to the editing table. But here’s the best I could make from the weak footage I shot:

Lessons to learn:

Five video story forms
1. Event: one-time event or ongoing recurring
2. Guide: Tour orientation. Consumer or participant info. How to
3. Profile: Person, place organization
4. Slice of life: Sights and sounds, often familiar
5. Man on the street: Quotes and views from ppl

Structure, shot well, paced, stick on one shot for only a few seconds

Framing: Rule of thirds
1. 1/3 of the frame should be above the person’s eyes
2. 1/3 of the frame should be the person’s face and shoulders
3. 1/3 ???

Controlled vs. uncontrolled
1. Person may do something over and over again. That’s controlled
a. Repetitive action
b. Variety of shots
c. More close ups
d. Match cuts
2. Uncontrolled could be a game, awards ceremony. I cannot control action
a. Action happens once
b. Anticipate shots
c. Be conservative
d. Action enters and leaves frame. Allow this.

Consider shooting every shot four times: wide, medium, tight, tighter

Shooting a sequence
1. Wide 25%-medium 25%-tight and tighter 50%
2. Hold each shot for 10 to 15 seconds
3. Be aware of lighting, focus
4. Shoot cutaways
5. Avoid pans and zooms; instead move the camera
a. This will stop the video on the web
b. This is different than television
6. Anticipate action
7. Keep composition simple, uncluttered
8. Change the angle (low, high, bird’s eye, slanted)

Cutaways
1. Why?
a. Transition
b. Getting from subject A to B
c. Prevents jump cut
2. How?
a. Find related shots away from focal point
b. Letting action enter and leave frame

Shot list: Complete form of anticipated shots before going to assignment)
1. Saves time
2. Shoot to edit
3. W-M-T-T 25-25-25-25
4. Open and close shots
5. Sources of ‘nat’ sound (six sources or more)
6. Cutaways

B-roll checklist
1. Prepare shot list
2. Shoot to edit
3. Shoot interview first
4. Shoot sequence wmtt
5. Compile cutaways
6. Acquire 6 elements of natural sound

5 steps to shooting an interview – SMACK – most storytelling is done via interview
1. Setting
2. Microphone: located 4 inches from mouth, hide cord and wireless box
3. Audio levels – begin recording and set levels during informal conversation
4. Composition
a. Use rule of thirds
b. Try to incorporate items in foreground or background to tell story
c. Leave space in the frame for the title graphic
d. Position yourself to the left or right of the camera
e. Raise or lower camera to subject’s eye level
f. Vary framing between responses
5. Keep monitoring audio quality
a. Always use headphones, use wind screen on microphone. If you hear a problem, stop and start over.

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Week 4, Day 3

Critical Editing: Using your mind’s eye to spot problems in stories

Speaker: Merrill Perlman

What’s going on outside the frame?

What’s wrong with this picture?

It was cropped! Holy crap!

Something similar is happening in this video:

If you look carefully, you can see it’s a looped video. This is the kind of think that once upon a time was shown on television around Christmas time.

The point of all this? Context matters. Repetition drives readers away.

Anecdotal leads
Many editors contend that writer must get nut graf in by 4th paragraph

Flashbacks
Going from present to past
If switching between present and past, foreground and background reader/viewer can get confused

Action
Too many action words and you can’t tell what’s happening.

Think of a story with flashbacks and sequential progressions as a movie film that has been cut in many places. How it spliced back together with determine its coherence.

In an exercise, kids went to launch model rockets as part of a science project inspired by the actual launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The reporter not only missed the importance of teaching children the art of war by superior firepower, it also pieced together the sections of the story poorly.

The story began with an anecdotal lede: seventh grader shouting for everyone to step back because the models are about to be launched.

Rather than switch from anechdote to nut graf in second paragraph, the story continued with quotes from prelaunch.

In my rewrite, I would have explained that the students were gathered for a science exercise inspired by the Air Force’s display of its destructive power. I put a date on the ballistic missile launch, explanation of the origin of the science project and then conclude with the anecdotal stuff. Yay kids having fun.

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I’m in San Francisco, so here’s an SF poem that I like. You can all think of me as I walk along side the beach in the morning. It’s about 200 feet away from my friends’ house where I’m staying. Ha! Then off to the Mission for the afternoon.

The Changing Light

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The changing light
at San Francisco
is none of your East Coast light
none of your
pearly light of Paris
The light of San Francisco
is a sea light
an island light
And the light of fog
blanketing the hills
drifting in at night
through the Golden Gate
to lie on the city at dawn
And then the halcyon late mornings
after the fog burns off
and the sun paints white houses
with the sea light of Greece
with sharp clean shadows
making the town look like
it had just been painted

But the wind comes up at four o’clock
sweeping the hills

And then the veil of light of early evening

And then another scrim
when the new night fog
floats in
And in that vale of light
the city drifts
anchorless upon the ocean

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^{Over the river and into the hills, there’s a place in the outskirts of Reno where the trails climb so steeply that the paths switch back and forth to allow hikers to keep a foothold. I went on a long run after getting home this evening to see what I could find. And find I did …}

I had no idea when I set out southward on Mae Anne Avenue that some of the best hiking trails in the area are less than three miles from where I’m staying in Reno. I jogged downhill to Mayberry Park, figuring I would just run along the Truckee as I have the last couple days. But this time, I went west along the river instead of running the eastbound trails I had found before. There is a footbridge a short distance to the west from the park that crosses the river and leads directly to the Tom Cooke Trail up into the mountains.

That trail leads to a lower peak with great views. Yadda yadda. Do not be deceived. After going up, take the trail down to the south and then head back up again. At the top of that trail is what is known as Steamboat Ditch, a level-flowing canal built into the mountainside in the 1800s to help irrigate ranch lands in the area. A fellow blogger, Marion Vermazen, did some research on it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on me. Mountain jogging and electronics don’t mix so well. But here’s a video I found on youtube.

All in all, the Steamboat Ditch Trail is about 10 miles long. The trail runs right alongside the ditch river. I’ve never seen anything like it, and the views were very impressive. I ran nearly half of it and back, for a grand total of about 12 miles of running. Yow. I will be sore tomorrow. And though the Steamboat Ditch Trail is only 10 miles, it connects to many more trails that go on for miles.

Mountain jogging rules!

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Made you look: Audience engagement and innovation

Speaker: Mark Hinojosa (photographer turned multimedia)

Bio: Director of Interactive Media at The Detroit News. Laid off from The Chicago Tribune

Philosophy and theory about engaging audience

1. Deliver news quickly at multiple times

An aggressive online plan will save us – right?

1. Online is just part of doing business

2. 2007 34 percent of those under 30 got news from internet 68 percent from TV

3. 2008 59 percent of those got their news from online, same as TV

The role of news sites in the lives of readers

1. Newspapers were once the primary source for readers

2. Today ppl sample multiple sources

3. Newspapers need to be a prime source and social influencer

What is news anyway?

1. News is that information that is important to our readers right now

2. News is relevant to and reflective of the lives of our readers

3. News is location and time sensitive (how do you capture that moment is a readers life)

a. Weather or traffic as lead story online!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The role of news sites in the lives of readers

1. So what is “social influencer?”

2. Newspapers need to be at the center of the news conversation

a. When we were the news dictators. We were the only provider

b. You are in your pajamas and you don’t matter

3. But newspapers also need to connect with the other social influencers in our community

We are not good at pointing out other local experts, connecting people in this conversation

Think like the reader

Why we are the wrong people for this job

Journalist need not apply

Think like the user, even if you think they are idiots.

1. All news is about me first, family community second, society nation country third, the rest of the world last

2. This is always true – until it’s not

a. What is a shared cultural experience? 9/11, 24, American Idol?

3. Sale at Nordstrom’s starts at midnight

4. There are two things I can do online

a. Make your life easier

b. Make you smarter

5. The fracturing of media has reduced the number of shared experiences

You have got to make me care

1. Let me see myself in your journalism

2. Tell me about my world, but make me care

a. Headlines matter (Search engine optimization and make them stop)

Innovation Adverse

Why success is killing innovation

The perfect feedback loop – we look like our print readers

1. The 60-y-o managing editor is creating a paper for ppl his age

2. Success/reward comes from imitation. Predicting what his boss wants.

3. The safe path is killing us

4. The 10 percent experiment/failure rule.

Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper?

Ted talks

- Make posters rather than newspapers

- Puls Biznesu

- Think magazine covers

- As redesign caught on, circulation grew

- Design can change newspaper, even change you

Newspapers beat the innovation out of us

1. We are smart people – from a bent that we want to learn stuff

2. What would I want to know from this. What do I want to do

This is the best time to do multimedia

Visualize information

1. What is the information and how do I want them to see it

2. In most newsrooms there has been complete repudiation of multimedia projects

a. They take too much time

b. They are too expensive

3. Mark made a CD rom and inserted it in every paper

a. One million copies

b. $400,000 budget

Stories want to be told the way that works best

1. We finally have a full palette

2. Cut audio, cut video easy

The hardest part about multimedia is envisioning the story

1. If you were telling this story in the bar, how would you tell it?

2. Mark does a lot of story boarding

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Ethics and News Judgement 1: Print

Speaker: Melissa McCoy

“The print world and the online world really merge when it comes to journalistic ethics,” McCoy said.

* If you want to remain a credible news source, you have to keep the same standards.

Putting something online is publishing.

“When I was the deputy managing editor of the LA Times, there wasn’t a single day that I didn’t have to adjudicate a question of ethics,” McCoy said.

There are ways you can approach ethical decision making by asking yourself a series of questions,” she said. “Just going with your gut isn’t going to cut it.”

Ethics: Foundation for everything we do

I’m a copy editor, not a reporter. Does it matter?

Internal ethics

External ethics

Making good decisions

What do I know?

What is my journalistic purpose? — pic of someone who committed suicide????

What are my concerns?

What guidelines do I have?

How to include others in my decision

Who are the stakeholders?

What are the consequences of my actions?

What are the alternatives?

Can I justify my thinking? My decision?

Online, decision making process may be made in a matter of minutes unlike print. Remember, once it’s published, it’s published.

Credibility is everything

“Without credibility, you are no better than Wikipedia.”

Accuracy. The single most important application of ethics?

Fairness

Tone

Balance

Voice. Editors need to let reporters have a voice, but too much voice and you don’y have balance.

Internal ethics

Does your paper have an ethics code? Have you read it?

Is giving money to a candidate OK?

1. Some papers allow it.

Is taking freebies OK?

1. Review tickets, books, CDs?

2. Papers that can afford to should pay for their own.

Other issues?

External ethics

Is the story fit to print?

1. If you take a little time to think about it, you will feel better about your decision.

2. Is it OK to print a pic of celebrity snorting coke at club?

Is it OK to manipulate photographs?

When might a photo be inappropriate for publication?

The power of words

A. Loaded language

1. Calling a woman a grandmother while not calling an older man a grandfather

B. Using shorthand: Unfair when implying meaning where there is none.

1. Elderly, senior citizen

2. Being PC versus just being a good editor

3. Saying conservative or liberal labels

4. Abortion doctor

C. Integrity

D. Tone

More questions

A. Is it ever OK to lie to get a story? While editing a story?

B. Pseudonyms

1. If you are telling the reader this name is made up, the reader should reasonably ask what else in the story is made up.

C. Unnamed sources

1. Big papers use it all the times. In Washington, no one feels obliged to use names.

2. What is the sources motivation?

3. Unnamed sources are way overused.

4. Naming of undocumented workers

a. The New Mexican has a candid conversation with the immigrant about the risk.

D. Giving proper credit

1. Borrowing information from AP. Insert, according to the AP.

2. Radio reading our material. TV ripping off.

E. Precision

1. Correct or clarify information every time

2. Correct it online too. Put the correction at the top of the story online. Do not put the correction in print unless the mistake appeared in print

3. No need to identify who made the mistake

F. Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy

G. Corrections policy and practice

Guiding principles

1. Seek truth and report it as fully as possible

2. Act independently

3. Minimize harm

Social media guidelines

1. Assume that everything that you write or receive is knowable to everybody with access to a computer. Do not post anything that would embarrass you are the newspaper.

2. What does it mean to friend someone, using privacy tools, fan pages, promoting work, how far is too far in promoting? And accuracy in promotion

Guidelines for moderating user-generated content

1. Your Scene submissions

Model of not commenting is outdated

1. In order to keep an audience today, there is an expectation of interaction.

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How we read online

F-shaped reading patter: We read the upper left hand of the portion more than to the right and we’ll follow the left side of the page down

People glance, scan and click. E.g. Readers will skip down to the quote

We must look for words that grab readers’ attention.

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How We Write Online – June 15 – Week 3, Day 2
Speaker: Amy Eisman

Check this out: “The machine is using us.” Michael Wesch

Mediatedcultures.net

What do we need for a good Web story?

1. We need a good story because there is so much junk out there

2. Intriguing visuals

3. Say something: You cannot afford to be vague on the Web

4. Be compelling: e.g. theroot.com

a. One thought per paragraph

b. Paraphrase long quotes

c. Avoid lists of numbers/stats

5. Write for the eye

6. Be obvious: Being too clever turns the reader away. Don’t make them work up front

7. Other writing tips

a. Use active voice

b. Use clear attribution

c. Use strong verbs

d. Use present tense

e. Look at the art while you are writing

What magazines and tabloids can teach us

1. Lots of lists of numbers

2. Pictures

3. Name dropping: Instead of personal handheld devise say Blackberry; Bernanke, Renown Hospital

4. Make navigation clear: 10 tips for perfect abs; make sure 10 or abs etc easy to find inside

5. Try superlatives and rankings: 10 best,

6. Rely on short snappy sentences in blurbs

7. Consider lists advice and other forms of service

8. Tease to unknown outcomes or facts ( like secrets and guides)

a. Things incoming freshman should know

9. Ask questions

Headlines: See hard copy handout

Linking

1. Do we link to hate crime Web sites?

2. Insert disclaimers to show transparency

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My father once told me when I was young that he would never ask one of his employees to do something he couldn’t do himself. Good policy, I thought. That was years ago, and he now has programmers for his company writing software that he could never write himself. But, I still agree with the policy in principal.

But now, I find myself giving strict mandates on reporters to shoot video, edit it and get it online as fast as possible. I assigned my reporters to shoot video, edit it and get it online as fast as possible. I can report, edit, take pictures, like I require all my staff to do. But I had never learned how to edit video myself.

So, to my dad for all his strict codes of conduct and to my reporters for struggling with my increasingly impossible demands, here is my first somewhat poorly edited video:

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