Video on NFL player who coaches high school football

[ericseals]

Hi,
This is my first post.
I'm a photojournalist for the Detroit Free Press and have been shooting college, pro sports, news, features here since 1999. With the newspaper push to more multimedia on the web, I started shooting video in June of 2008 and have done about 7 videos, many in Beijing when covering the Olympics in August.

Anyway, I spent most of October story boarding, shooting and editing my first long video piece (about 10 minutes) about a former NFL wide receiver who came back to his old high school to teach kids lessons on the field and about how to be a man off it.

Here is the link to it.
http://freep.com/article/20081026/HSS/810260405&template=altart
The video player is embedded into the page. Any thoughts and feedback would be great.

Really getting a lot out of this site. Thanks

Eric

 

[Buck]

Overall good job. I could tell a lot of time and effort was put into it.

I would have like to have seen just a little more of the actual game footage with a mic on him capturing sound during the game. That part flew by. Then again it was a loss so I guess there wasn't a need to spend a lot of time on it to make the point. I still would have liked to have heard him mic'd up there though.

I like the fact that you did interviews at a lot of different times and different setting with him instead of sitting him down just once and going back to him each time.

Do you get this much time to put together all of your stories?

 

[cameragod]

Eric I sat down to critique and to be honest I just don’t know were to begin.
For you seventh story it was a good effort. You obviously have a good eye. I loved some of the framing but the rest… well it’s a mess.
You’ve got about four or five different shooting styles going on here, too much for one story and I think a lot poor of shooting was probably saved in the edit.

Have you got someone you could get some mentoring with?
With a bit of help with the basics, a bit of tidying up, no off mic sound ups, learn to shoot sequences and look at the locations of the iv’s don’t waste them with brick wall backgrounds, I think you could do some very good work.

Oh and watch the verticals when you are handheld… with video we crop in camera and if someone opens a door or the sun comes out behind you when you are shooting an interview and it throws more light on the face of the interviewee, ask the question again.


Good luck

 

[Lensmith]

Eric,

Good job. I was expecting less and got more.

Use more imagination when shooting b-roll of your subjects. Specifically...the walking shots. Weak. Especially the one of coach and his mom. It could have been so much better and showed a better connection between them instead of a predictable, poorly lit and framed obviously staged walk. Something with more interaction and some nat sound would have added a lot to the story especially since it's a long form piece and his mother was so important to him and his life.

Like cameragod...I was disappointed in your one, locker room interview, poorly lit and framed with no attempt at creativity from the locker room. Why did we need to see that? You could have used the sound and covered it. The shot looked terrible.

Like I said, overall it was a very good effort but I was surprised when I was reading the caption before playing the story and saw, if I'm correct, that you shot both the still photos and the video. Why are they so different in quality? It's not the camera that is making that difference. It is you. You need to be more consistent. Learn to tell your story better with video and not just with an audio track. The final game stuff is an example of you not having shots that told any kind of story about why or how they lost that game. I couldn't tell if I was watching a half time speech or an end of game speech. There was no visual story during that key final section and the entire story suffered because of it.

Enough from me for now. Again, good job overall. That was, as a viewer, a person worth getting to know and worth sitting down and listening to...and you brought him to me.

Now work harder to match the quality...meaning framing, lighting and composition...between your still photos and your video. Don't try and blame the camera for that difference. Too many of us know better.

 

[ericseals]

Guys,
Thanks so much for breaking it down for me and giving me great constructive criticism that will help in making me better in this brand new medium for me.
With help, advice etc I hope this is a case of one year from now I can look back at this video and laugh and do a "what the hell was I thinking" moment.

A couple of my colleagues at the Detroit Free Press have been doing it longer than I but we all enjoy it and feed off each other even if we are at different levels in shooting video. Here are two links to a web packages they did. The Band of Brothers one is really good.

http://media.freep.com/respect/index.html

http://media.freep.com/2006Emmy/index.html

Buck;

My newspaper gave me the month of October to shoot practice, games, interviews, features and edit it in FCP.

CameraGod;

When you say there were four or five different shooting styles...too much for one story what do you mean? I was just looking out for good visuals.
I don't have anyone mentoring me but would love to. Any suggestions? There are many photojournalists at newspapers now shooting video, some are natural at it others are struggling and grasping this new tool. I'm winging it (trial and error with video) for now but is one reason why I spend time on this site and others and watch documentaries online.

What are off mic sound ups? Is that like a dog barking in the background etc?

Hey Lensmith;

Thanks for really breaking it down for me!

For better b-roll of courtney and his mom besides walking towards the camera what could I do with lmited time? He brought us over to her house for a interview then we had to leave for his football practice. In hindsight perhaps I could have asked him when is the next time he and his mom are going to be going out, eating together, cooking etc right?

Any good tips for lighting? We don't have a lighting kit and with the newspaper industry going into the tank our budget is tight. Any suggestions on cheap but affective lighting I can build or get used? As you can tell I'm relying on natural light.

Again guys thanks for the advice. I'm a rookie at this and have a long way to go but love the challenge.

Eric

 

[JimmyS.]

Eric.. I thought you did a wonderful job of capturing the story. But, I agree with the others. There were some lost moments and at times I was confused as to why the story was relevent in the first place. One thing that bothered me other than the composition and lighting was nat sound... Especially toward the end. There were plenty of opportunities to allow the story to breathe with nat sound. Plus natural sound under the narration is necessary to build depth. When the coach is shaking hands with people, you want to hear it. When the game is on, you want to hear background noise. I'm not suggesting rapid fire edits, but natural sound under the voice track is necessary.
Overall, good job. But, don't get lost in the story that you are shooting. Remember, when it airs, it will be the first time the viewer see's it and it must make complete and total sense or all of your work is for nothing.
Keep it up.

 

[Lensmith]

Hey Lensmith;

Thanks for really breaking it down for me!

For better b-roll of courtney and his mom besides walking towards the camera what could I do with lmited time? He brought us over to her house for a interview then we had to leave for his football practice. In hindsight perhaps I could have asked him when is the next time he and his mom are going to be going out, eating together, cooking etc right?

Any good tips for lighting? We don't have a lighting kit and with the newspaper industry going into the tank our budget is tight. Any suggestions on cheap but affective lighting I can build or get used? As you can tell I'm relying on natural light.

Eric,

First about the lighting...learn to use the natural light to your advantage. Don't immediately think about buying lights. Think about using what is available naturally to your advantage. For the interview...YOU are in control of where he talks to you. Move him to where the light is best. Sure, if you're in the mood to spend some money on a light, go ahead, but I think you'd be better off going without for a while. You'll be faster and your product will be more "real". Plus you won't waste as much time with your subjects as you already are working alone with them. Sometimes waiting and running out to set up a light while working as a VJ interrupts the flow of things and gives your subject time to get nervous or simply they decide not to talk to you. In the case of this story you've shown...you had a compliant subject. You should have moved them to a better lit location in the locker room. There had to be one instead of what you used.

B-Roll of the son and mom...be rolling when you walk into the house with the guy. Have mom and son sit around the table. get a glass of water or iced tea together from the fridge. Just a few "home" shots like that would have helped sell their relationship instead of a long lens/small cam tripod shot of them walking together. If you must walk with them...walk with them! Get off the sticks and learn to walk backwards so you can get some sound while they talk and walk. We'd at least be able to see their faces and expressions better than what was shown in the story b-roll.

You have a couple of spots in the story where I can tell you have an idea of how to sequence video. You did well in those instances. I'm guessing here...but I didn't see any good sports shooting. No real plays of the final game that would have helped seal the story.

Still photogs aren't used to shooting sports. Not the way tv photogs are. We have to capture the whole play, beginning to end. You need to learn to do that no matter what the sport. Sideline reaction shots by themselves are not going to cut it.

Last quick thought...said with total respect for your abilities and, again, reinforcing I felt you did a good job...steady up your shots. This is not still photography where you can wobble the camera around and shoot a pic ending up with a crisply focused shot that you can crop. Learn to shoot steadier. Learn to frame your shots and then hold them steady! Don't wobble all over the place. That makes your work look like home handy cam stuff shot during a kids birthday party and that's not what you want people to think of your abilities. You can...and will...do better. You have the talents. Keep heading in the direction you are going. It's the right one which will make you even better than you are now.

This story is not something you should ever be ashamed of no matter how many years go by before you look at it again

 

[cameragod]

Eric as John said you will look back at this in a few years see what you would do different but there is nothing here to be ashamed of.
That said I’m going to be real picky. Please don’t hate me.

The stills you start with is a cool intro but to me it makes implied promises about the tone of the story. It says Top quality, high cost production NFL style to follow, but it doesn’t deliver.
The long lens tripod shots say one style the handheld wide interview says another.
The shots of decay… fantastic, the iv with Marty Crane unfortunate. Two totally different styles.
The Coach, red hat against a red wall… face half in shadow… show me his eyes.
The handheld on the field is bad. If you are going to go off axis go off axis don’t be half hearted about it make a statement.
When you are following sport you need to make your moves positive. Have a start and an end, don’t waffle especially if you are handheld. After a while you will learn to sense when a shot should end and hold in place.
I love your use of reflections, that’s normally the sign of an experienced shooter.
The Schoolroom good solid sequence. The gym teacher what were you thinking?
The guy in the stands cool but jarring, it doesn’t mach any of the styles so far.
The sister, how tall is she?
The iv with his mother why is he talking off mic? Who were you interviewing? If her did he need to be there? If so he should have a mic on.
The walk, after showing us you know how to shoot this sort of shot at the start you totally cock this up with jerky half moves that look even worse on the net. Set the shot and let them walk through frame… what sort of tripod do you have? Is it a fluid head? If not that might explain a lot.
While I’m at it have mum lift the back of her glasses behind her ears so they tilt forward slightly on her nose and that will cut some of the window reflection.
Love the line machine sequence!!!
Did you shoot the stuff in the locker room? It looks like amcam.
The game montage is disappointing… you almost would have been better to go back to stills with some game sound up.
The yelling in the locker room felt like amcam again.
The end of the game was a natural end for the story.
The rest is more of what we have already seen.
Why not just use the footage from the winning game?
Ok I was expecting a killer image as an end shot. Something that will be burned in my mind for days. A picture that summed it all up in one evocative image… that or a shot up his nose with a car roof behind him

Eric I’m really looking forward to seeing your work in future. I don’t think it would take long before you were shooting some outstanding stuff. Good luck

 

[John M.]

The stills you start with is a cool intro but to me it makes implied promises about the tone of the story. It says Top quality, high cost production NFL style to follow, but it doesn’t deliver.

What's the point of this? The guy should have not made an open so good because the rest doesn't live up to it? No.

Lensmith pointed out the thing that consistently plagued the piece: the unnecessary wobbling in what should have been static shots. That's the simplest thing you can do to vastly improve the quality of your work. Make sure the camera is rock steady on the static shots.

He also gave you good advice about the lighting.

Who wrote and narrated the piece? You or the reporter?

 

[cameragod]

What I’m trying to say is in a 2min news story you don’t normally have to worry about a shooting style. In 9min feature you need to think of things like shooting style otherwise it looks like a muddle. You are not just shooting you are producing as well. You need to think like a producer as you shoot.
Once you use a technique like the still montage it’s a good idea to reference back to it. The game shots were so poor a montage of exciting game stills there would have tide in and reengaged the viewer. Because the end shot was nothing an inspiring still shot with his voice over to end would have been better and completed the circle, we’ve finished like we started, its an old trick but it works.
Shooting is just part of what we do.

 

[ericseals]

WOW!! Great stuff and feedback from you guys. Gives me tons to think about and try.

I'll respond etc after I'm done with election coverage.

Feel like I've learned more from this board than the others I'm on.

Thanks!!

JimmyS
CameraGod
and
JohnM

 

[NEWSSHOOTER3]

Timing

I hate to be so simple, but everyone here's hit it on the head. This was a pretty damn good piece, but the timing, in key places was just a bit off.

Keep up the great effort, it will come...