Mobile Reporting

from your syllabus:

Final Project (30 points) Rough Draft April 25, Final Draft May 2
This is a team project. You must use three video sequences for this story, and use an opening and closing clip. Add an audio interview to play over part of the b-roll sequences and use ‘nat’ sound liberally, +250 words. Deduction of 5 points if rough draft deadline is missed.

This assignment builds on mobile reporting skills that you have developed throughout the semester. Here’s the breakdown: Your 90 second movie will be driven in part by an interview of your subject that is recorded with a Zoom recorder. Please edit your interview with appropriate pauses between strong sound bites. Your interview does not need to go wall to wall, it’s a good idea to pause the interview for your audience to hear ‘nat’ sound and focus on strong visuals. Mic placement (XLR shotgun or lav) and gain settings are important – record and edit gain at -12 to -6 db. It is important that you include distinctive ‘nat’ sounds in your story.

You should film the interview, but you should only briefly show talking head shot in your final movie.

You also need to shoot and edit strong b-roll clips to play along with your interview. Try to film your subject in three different situations. And try to shoot a sequence of actions of each situation. Include wide, medium, tight and detail shot in each sequence if possible. Use manual exposure. Proper exposure and white balance are important. Please, no shaky shots and make sure your focus is sharp.

Basically your assignment is to record a 60-90 second interview that has a strong narrative arc, and shoot b-roll of your subject to tell a visual story. The success of this story largely rests on your ability to find an interesting subject with a story to tell, and one who will give you several hours of their time. And obviously their must be a strong visual component to your piece.

The preferred camera for this project is a smart phone for fast, fluid shooting. This assignment will help you to build your visual mobile reporting skills. Smart phones are easier for handheld shooting. My JO205 Visual Storytelling class does a similar assignment, but uses DSLR cameras and tripods. So the look and feel of your results will be different, but equally professional. 

Shoot lots of b-roll and find a good opening and closing shot to use for your story!

Here’s a an example of a movie with strong b-roll:

https://buphotojournalism.smugmug.com/JO515-classes/JO515-fall-13/Final-Project/i-MrqnzhN/A

The above movie by Justin Saglio was shot with a dslr and does not contain your ‘nat’ sound requirement.