Awesome interview tips

I asked my students to come up with five tips for awesome interviews. I received some great responses. Here are some of their tips with a link to their blog post:

Isabel Lauby: It is important to determine the location of the interview that is pertinent to the story line.  For example, when I did my package over boys on the drill team, I interviewed their coach while the band and drill team was practicing, providing a relevant background.  If you capture your interview in an interesting setting it will make your package better.

http://queenofconvergence.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-tips-to-great-interview.html

Pedro Von Simson: Use your first questions to make the subject feel comfortable. Incorporate easier questions about subjects such as their background that do not make the interviewee defensive. If you immediately start off with your tougher questions, your interviewee with be less likely to feel comfortable and therefore provide worse answers.

Tougher questions should close out the interview. These are the "meat" of the package where you get the important and controversial answers that lead to the soundbites that you will most likely incorporate into your package. The first questions are more important to develop background information about your subject for your voice over instead of being used as sound bites.

http://kansaskonvergence.blogspot.com/2014/11/five-tips-to-successful-journalism.html

Quen Barkyoumb:  Prepare everything that you'll need to conduct an interview. Make sure your camera angle is on point, audio is at the right level, your computer is charged, the lights are in the right spots, and every setting is at its correct degree. This will give your interviewee a sense of importance because you're all ready to proceed without any distractions. If you're messing around with your technology during the interview, then your respondent is likely to be annoyed.

http://pickmybrainquenbarkyoumb.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-interview-process.html

Cool Video: ONW A&E Electrathon

I wanted to share this cool video that a couple of my students produced:


Two things really stood out to me in this video:

1. Storytelling. This video has a clear beginning, middle and end. The video starts with an unassembled car. Throughout the video we see students working on and building the car. The final shot is the finished car driving away out of frame. Story. It is so simple, but something that is so hard to do.
   
2. Shot composition. We have worked hard on the six-shot system and sequencing. This video is textbook in my opinion. We see a student turn the steering wheel, and the next shot is the actual wheel turning. Another sequence has the student being interviewed while we see a shot sequence of him: close-up of his hands and face, a medium shot and wide shot. There are more sequences throughout, but this does an excellent job.

Here is the blog post by the editor, Sean McPartland, who does a really nice job reflecting on the project.

September top stories

My convergence journalism students have been producing some great work for ONW...NOW! this semester. Here are some of the top news packages from recent weeks:

Tyler Soetaert and Quen Barkyoumb:




Tiajah Holt, Joe Kolega, Rachel Brookhart:




Samantha McCue and Rachel Brookhart

Challenge: Video sequencing

Challenge #2 dealt with cutting carrots, or sequencing. We saw many great examples of what it takes to do sequencing using the 6-shot system. We also learned that you can never have enough B-Roll to build your sequencing. Shoot, shoot, shoot.

Here are a couple of the top examples:

Backpack journalism: Day #4

Today was the last day of the backpack journalism workshop in Washington, DC. I learned so much during this time, and would encourage any journalism or film teachers to attend to learn about backpack journalism. 

Here is my completed film.

I had a great time learning about backpack journalism from Bill Gentile and my colleagues at the workshop. Special thanks go out to Bill Gentile, Jerry Gartiner, Dr. Gwen Poss and Anna-Lynn Morris who made this experience possible for me.

Receiving my certificate of completion from Bill.

Backpack journalism workshop: Day #3

Screening the rough cut of my documentary.

This is the third day of the Bill Gentile backpack journalism workshop. Today will be spent editing my project.

Let's get started.

Write your script for a 12-year-old. They should be short, simple sentences.

Use the two-column script format. The video/visuals are on the left, and the audio is on the right. I wanted to resist this at first and write my script like an academic paper with big works and complex sentences. Once I simplified things in my script it worked much better.

Make picture stories. Write your words to compliment the pictures. Turn the sound off and see if the pictures tell the story.


How to set up a "platform" - the place where all of your fans can reach you. 

• Use Google Hangouts to live broadcast events. Your video is saved to YouTube.
• Platform - website, blog, Facebook... any place where your friends can find you.
• Should have accounts with all of the top social media platforms (YouTube, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc...)
• You want everyone to be able to communicate with you - so people can find you. Give people ways to get in touch with you (e-mail, address, Twitter, Facebook)
• Build your e-mail list through your website. Have a place on your website for people to sign up for your e-mail address. 
• We all get the same window. Everyone has the same window to release information (You, NBC, Coke, etc...) all have the same platforms available to find you.
• Connect with your audience and Google will reward you for it. 
• YouTube is one of the largest social media platforms. 
• Respond to comments left on YouTube/Blog. This builds your community. (Note: I need to be better about this on my blog!)
• The gatekeepers to broadcasting, publishing, marketing, etc... have all fallen. Anyone can push out their own information. YouTube is your broadcast platform.

Backpack Journalism workshop: Day #2

Working with my new friend Jerry on our documentaries.

This is the second day of my experience at the Bill Gentile backpack journalism workshop. You can read about the first day here.

Review of what we learned yesterday:

• The six shot system. 
• How to hold and operate a camera was huge for me. This is something I will bring back to my students.
• Eye contact with subjects. This is very different from the journalism I am used to with my students where the subject is looking slightly off to the side of the camera. 
• Shooting for 20 seconds. 
• Managing the lights when shooting the characters. 
• Think of the camera as a finger pointing at things. 

All stories have three components: a beginning, a middle and an end. 

My controlling idea: My documentary shows an African man on his first trip to America and how his expectations of America mesh with the reality he sees on the ground.

Dramatic Arc: The spinal column of your story.

Characters are vehicles to get you from point A to point B.

People want to hear stories about people.

In a good documentary you should be able to turn off the sound and understand what is happening.

Formal interviews

Point one leg of the tripod at your subject.

Get in close and intimate with the subject.

Can cut off some of the hair, but not the chin so you can have a lower third if necessary.

Confirm the source of the light. Cast shadow on one side of the face. They should be looking INTO the light. If they are looking into darkness they will look evil. Simple trick - your LCD screen should be pointing into the light.

Last two questions to ask:
Is there anything you would like to add?
What are your deepest concerns and fears about this subject?

AFTER the interview, go to a wide shot and let the camera run for 60 seconds. This will give you great cut-away footage of the subject.