Newspapers & Internet Video Delivery Reporting
 

Are newspapers in your area beginning to use more and more video on their websites? I've seen nothing but crap video produced by the ones in my area.

AH! It's such an odd thing and I have seen it first hand. We had an old school reporter (a guy who obviously wanted nothing to do with a camera) come in and shoot an interview with our executive director.

He brought some rinky dink camera - I think it may have actually been a digital camera with video capabilities and a walmart tripod. He set it up where he thought was appropriate and every interview I saw for that story turned out awkward to say the least. Each person interviewed looked like they were in prison as he always framed them too close, against a blank wall and they would drift in and out of the frame.

I had a conversation with him afterward on how he felt about these new responsibilities. He said he was just going with the flow, but was not pleased - he's a journalist, not a "movie maker" as he put it.

He did tell me the paper claimed at some point they were going to have reporters "take a class" to learn how to properly produce an interview.... yeah, I'm sure that'll turn it all around...

But such is life, I can't blame the "videographers" here, but rather the management who want to expand their service without investing in any new hires or appropriate training.

I heard that our local paper tried to put their existing still shooters through some quick video production classes attempting to bypass something that can't be taught from a book, years of practical experience! And their video product shows their failure at trying to take shortcuts. Then, their cheap answer to that was to get about 5 interns from the local colleges probably working for nothing or next to it. I really feel sorry for them because nothing they are shooting now, like car wrecks, kindergarten plays, garden clubs, government meetings, etc., will ever further their careers in this industry as far as being a shooter. They also shoot too many tight shots and because of it, the person's face that's being interviewed is covered by the lower third graphics for their name and position. It's like watching public access television. Of course, to them it's all about being first and the quality of the product comes second.

The shooters on B-Roll.net have hashed this out about a 100 times and I see no end in sight.

I tend to think VJ is a bad model for local TV news.

I'm not sure about local newspapers.
I just watched an excellent video story by a still shooter on our local paper's site the other day.
It all comes down to the time alloted to shoot, write, edit, the story and the passion of the photog as to the quality of any story.

I will admit that I watch very few videos on news websites. I refuse to sit thru the commercial/s prior
to the story.
Do you guys and gals wait it out when perusing news sites?

I have to be fair and say that I have seen some nice video work and storytelling in about 5 stories...... out of 50!