A Lesson In How To Do A Safe, Yet Compelling Video Story In The Time of Covid.

Posted April 07, 2020

Share To

 

  TweetEmail

There are several institutions that are essential now 

Hospitals

Food

Pharmacies

News

Now, more than ever, news organizations have to continue to function. They not only provide vital information, they are also, in a time of intense isolation, a vital community lifeline.

The reporters who still go out daily to report stories and provide content are the lifeblood of that lifeline.  Without them, contact with a large part of the community, and to a great degree, a sense of stability and normalcy would be cut off.

A print or a radio journalist can work from home. But how does a video journalist or MMJ continue to work safely?

In the story above,, Spectrum1 LA MMJ Itay Hod gives us an excellent example both of working safe AND of producing a compelling story in video on his own.

First, the safe part.

Shooting the story on his own, Itay kept at a safe distance.  He wiped the radio mics down with Clorox cloths and left them on a seat, instructing the subjects on how to wire themselves.  When the shoot was over, they deposited them, and he wiped them down again.

But there is another lesson here in this story.

When we started to work with Spectrum1, we set out to create a different kind of news story. Millions of people watch Netflix or Hulu every day. But when they turn to local news, they are more often than not faced with static, boring stories: stand ups and talking heads and b-roll. Local news has barely moved since the 1960's.

We thought we would take classic movie making techniques from Hollywood and marry them to great journalism. Character, movement, arc of story.

You can see all that in Itay's story.  We are with the character. We stay with her.  There are no reporter stands ups, no hand held mics shoved into people's faces. No generic b-roll to cover endless narration.  

It's like a little movie.  

And, it has been done safely - by one MMJ, pretty much on one day.