Life According to Krista

Paul King, the Public Relations Coordinator from the Office of Media and Public Relations at George Mason spoke about multimedia in journalism.

He started off by saying that not all news stories are suited for video. Some are better in print or even as audio.

This lead to a conversation about audio and how it is crucial to have good sound in a video. It is easier to fix a shaky video than it is to fix bad audio. This is so important that it is a main

Here are some of the other tips King gave for shooting video:

• Get five shots of your subject. Just make sure you get some wide shots and some tight shots; variation is important to add good visuals to your video.
• When you interview people, have a good background and check to be sure there is good lighting for the camera.
• Before you go out to interview someone, call them or talk to them to make sure they will be a good subject to interview.
• Flip Cameras are great because they’re easy to use and pick up good audio, but you have to have very good lighting to make it look good.
• News deadlines are fast paced, while documentaries are more relaxed and you can go back to people for more interviews or tweak the video as much as you would like.
• You want sound bites from different people that intertwine to make sense as a whole.
• If you are not going to do a voice over yourself, you can always use one of the people you interviews voices.
• Vimeo and Youtube are great websites to share your videos.
• Music is a great tool as background noise in a video. You can purchase rights to a song to use in your video from sites such as Pond5.
• After Effects is a great tool to use to add an introduction and ending to your video.

One of the most crucial things in a video is gaining the audience’s attention. The Washington Post and The New York Times have both done studies on the attention spans of people watching news clips, and this typically lasts about 2 minutes long. In saying this, it is important that your news story does not exceed this limit.

King also gave tips for the college student going out into the workforce. He claims that

“Internships are some of the most important things you can get in college,”

and that you should work hard for opportunities to get experience and internships. Some other tips he gave included:

• Keeping business cards from people you meet because you never know when they might be able to help you with a story.
• Have a blog on WordPress with your portfolio, writing samples and demo reels that employers can see as well as a Twitter account.
• Write about things that will always be relevant, even if they are directed to a local place.

He ended by telling us to be courageous as journalists and to never be afraid to talk to people. The worst thing they could do is decline an interview.