If the title of your piece is "Faces of Foreclosure" then I wanna see faces....wide, medium, AND tight....let me see the pain in their face of losing their home thats what a tight shot does for you.
I agree...it's a very valid point. "Faces of Forclosure" was a self-applied title that I gave to this post. Perhaps it became immediately misleading. The story in the rundown that day was called "Rocket Docket".
No nats of courtroom judgements? Why? I am sure the judge was saying something to these people...get the goods and your pieces will improve. Don't shoot scared.....shoot with confidence. Put your camera and mic in a place to gather the best video and sound....if you need to move around and reshoot then do it....but keep looking around find your next shot move camera around to find new and different shots.
A couple of things I'd like to clarify: There were no nats of the courtroom because the judge refused to turn up the house sound in the press room--typically you can plug an XLR cable into the wall and it works fine, but for whatever reason he refused to turn me up, even when I complained (also this is why I turned to the gavel prop more than I probably should have because it was the only bit of nat sound I had).
I think it's unfair to say that I was "shooting scared". I wasn't allowed inside the courtroom, no photographers are. In court, your only vantage point is in a tiny room with a glass 2-sided window two inches from your lens. Moving around was not an option for this story unfortunately.
I think we're going to do this story again for the book, with a lot more time and effort put into it, ie, following people back to their homes, getting with the judge beforehand to assure we'll have courtroom sound, etc.
I'll be sure to post it up if and when we do it. It deserves a better effort.
