| VJ Pros and Cons
by Scott Atkinson, news director, WWNY-TV
We've been shooting one man/person bands since 1999, which gives
us a very long track record [using "video journalists"].
Let me throw in my two cents on what works and what doesn't [in
response to the AJR article].
It does not produce a new, more intimate style of journalism.
My biggest disappointment: I thought I'd get great stories from
mad monk reporters who were just itching to do everything. That
person does not exist, and more importantly, the constraints of
TV news work against it, no matter the person or equipment used.
Time and patience, as in documentary work, are much more important
in getting a different kind of journalism.
You can produce really, really good visual stories.
We hire most of our kids from Syracuse University. Most of them
want to be reporters, and the price of admission is learning to
shoot. As your column suggests, most people
are better at one thing (the word part) than the other (the shooting
part). So what's a news director to do?
First, we train 'em hard, and then we talk every single day about
good pictures and not-so-good pictures, and good storytelling and
not-so-good storytelling. That means we talk about movies and TV
shows we like, and we pass around feed/net stuff that catches our
eye. This is a serious big deal for us. Results: I have yet to produce
an incompetent visual storyteller. I have produced some mediocre,
a majority of good but not great, and a handful of brilliants. One
guy won the AP's photographer of the year in New York State (class
3, TV) this year, and came in as runner-up in the reporter catagory.
It's not the pictures, and it's not the words. It's the story.
My mantra, and if memory serves, yours too. It's like Strunk and
White's 'omit unnecessary words.' I stress it because it helps young
reporters think about the pictures, sound and words as one thing,
rather than two things to be picked between.
You can't get something for nothing.
You can't get as many stories out of a one man band as
you can out of a two person crew. Simple fact: you're not writing
in the car if you're the one driving it, and you're not starting
the vo/sot if you're cutting your own package.
Equipment breaks in $8000 increments, so budget accordingly. We
shoot Beta SX, and as such I have 110 pound reporters lugging around
fairly heavy equipment. It will fall off a tripod and be uncatchable,
and when it does, you're out $8000. (We're moving to P2s this year,
so I expect my fanciful $8000 will end up being some other number.
No matter, the principle still applies.)
One person bands will cost you more in equipment repairs, and -
if you have half a brain - you will also budget for continuing training.
Also, also, those 110 pound reporters will develop strains, aches
and other problems.
One person crews can't do it all.
You don't send one person crews out to do live shots. It's
irresponsible to make a reporter set up a live truck, frame himself
up and be the talent. Stupid beyond belief. You don't send one person
crews out to potentially dangerous situations. We live in a rural
area, and I don't let reporters walk up to the door of the accused
sex offender who lives on on a deserted country road without back-up.
You stay in touch. That means the desk, the producers and me. I
don't think there's much worse than being out on a story and feeling
alone, and with a one person band, you don't have that misery-loves-company
fallback of the reporter-photog combo. In keeping with that, you
also don't have someone to bounce an idea off. That synergy (ugh.
Hate the word) between reporter and photog can't exist, so we try
to kick some of it back in with phone talk.
Finally, to borrow a Dr. Phil phrase, you have to give the one
person band a soft place to fall. As in, be prepared to help out
if there's no way to get both the pictures and the news. As in,
make sure your folks
know they can fail, that they're being expected to do a hard thing
every day and you understand that. Then you have to believe it yourself
and convince your boss to believe it.
Do all that, and one person crews work. But you can't be stupid,
you can't be cheap and you can't plan only for the best case.
[Scott's comments and the AJR article also
drew a response from Michael Rosenblum, a
VJ consultant and trainer.]
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