VJ Standups

sixtycyclehum

sixtycyclehum

Well-known member
Couple Questions

Awesome stand-ups, Joe!


littlejoetv said:
I spend 9 out of 10 days as a VJ. The tenth I am blessed with a photog.
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I am convinced there is not one right way to do this. How boring would TV be then?
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Do you plan on VJing the rest of your career or would you like to work full-time with a photographer some day?

On the days you work alone do you wish you had a photographer you could collaborate with?
 
L

littlejoetv

Member
sixtycyclehum said:
Do you plan on VJing the rest of your career or would you like to work full-time with a photographer some day?

On the days you work alone do you wish you had a photographer you could collaborate with?
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I am gonna get killed for saying this, absolutely murdered.

I am a better reporter when I'm on my own. Before anyone flips out, here is why: As I look through the viewfinder, words, lines, quotes begin clicking in my head hours before I sit down to write a script. Or if I have a line in mind, I know exactly what I want to see. Plus, I know what I won't need and don't waste any time on it.

Yes, I can do this with a photog. But those relationships take time to develop. I absolutely hate it when I feel I have to chirp in a photog's ear to ask them, "Did you get that?" I feel like I am disrespecting them somehow, even if I'm not.

The times when I am with a photog, I personally feel out of step with myself. It's not the photog's fault. It's mine. I've grown so accustomed to moving at my own pace and seeing my video before it's edited and then editing it myself.

Is this a trust issue? I dunno. King complex? Probably. If I succeed, I get the glory. If I screw up (which I have), I get the grief.

However, there are plenty of days I wish I did have help. Some things you just cannot do without a photog. Some stories are borderline torture. For example, court cases by yourself is very, very hard. Most of the time I make it through okay. But it would be easier with help. Plus, bouncing ideas off guys who have been lugging gear around far longer than I have is a pretty damn good asset.

To answer your question, which I have artfully dodged for too many paragraphs, I would love to work as a VJ for the rest of my career. But as far as my wife's concerned, I'm gonna do what my boss (and the paycheck) wants me to do.
 
C

chicagoshootr

Well-known member
I watched all 4 plus minutes and am still not sure what the story was about...it seemed to be all over the place. And too many standups!

All kidding aside, that was pretty fun stuff.
 
leftcoastphotog

leftcoastphotog

Well-known member
As one who has...

Personally shot Joe into a corner. I can tell you not only is he creative but fun as well. If he has found his nitch and enjoys it cool. is he a good as shooter as I am? nah, Am i as good as writer as him? ah hell no. but I can say that he was fun to work with and I would jump at the chance to work with him again. That is if he ever gets over this god complex of his.
Now he is going to go nuts trying to figure out who I am, I will give one hint inside this next thought. I see Matt Renoux's work often and yes he is a fine shooter and writer. However, IMHO there are far too many cuts in his stand ups. Once I counted 17...
Lcp
 
verdantFOX

verdantFOX

Well-known member
Thanks to Lenslinger for actually advancing this discussion. Thanks to you Joe for your work. We need more people like Joe. Someone who comes to work ready to prove what can be done, not what can't be done.
 
Lensmith

Lensmith

Member
One of the reasons I like Joe's work...is not because it was done by a VJ...even though it was.

I liked his creative approach to standups. Shot with more imagination, more interesting angles, even a little more thought than many I see every day. How many times does a news photog, working with a reporter, simply plunk down his tripod and frame the reporter to the right or the left and hit the record button. The same framing. The same composition. Stand-up after stand-up.

The stand-up Joe did in front of the closed government building was imaginative framing. An interesting angle that made people notice his work. Having the handle of the door in the foreground helped emphasize an important element of the story. Yes, again, it was a VJ standup but as many noticed these stand-ups looked like more people were involved. Not taking any more time to accomplish than the "formula" stand-up we've all come to expect over the years.

It should be a wake-up call to many. Use more imagination in your stand-ups. Whether you are working by yourself or part of a team.

The days of phoning this job in are long over! ;)
 
A

At the scene

Well-known member
Great job Joe but is he the norm.

Joe nice work. We all have to admit that Joe is a cut above the rest when it comes to the VJ system. Quite a few yrs ago I worked at great photog shop. The quality was amazing, I still keep in touch with some good friends there. They are very upset and rightly so that the station could not afford to send a crew to the inaugration. So to save money they sent the one and only VJ. Here is the future.
http://www.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/bill_rappleye_reports_from_washington/9290/

Not sure if I did this correctly.
 
S

Skipcam

Well-known member
I know this is a photogs web site but lets not lose sight of one very important fact here, (Joe - cover your ears here!), Joe Little has a terriffic personality that just lights up TV! His ideas are excellent, but whether he shoots these or you or I shoot them, it's Joe that brings it to life. He is a talented performer that most camera people cannot match. He reminds me a bit of Robert Krulwich. He does a very good job of working the camera, especially given the OMB world he lives in. But Joes future isn't working as a cameraman, VJ or not. I'm sure his talents, when combined with a good cameraman with whom he developed a strong relationship with, would be even better. That traditional 2 man team concept would undoubtably free up Joe to spend more time coming up with creative ways to tell his story, and a good cameraman to quckly execute them. For those of you who remember what I'm talking about, think about Charlie Kuralt and Izzy Bleckman. Both very talented but if you took away Izzy and handed Charlie Kuralt a camera would you improve the product! Joe, you need to get your own show man, blaze your own trail!
 
Latin Lens

Latin Lens

Well-known member
Look...I am NOT dissing Joe or his work....I watched his stories with the knowledge that he is a VJ and like I said I am NOT that impressed with the stories posted.

If a photog was with him.......then the photog I would have said wasn't that good.

I love Joe's standups...thats not what I am saying. Its hard to shoot by yourself and if you have to then the best product doesn't always come out....quality doesn't always come out even with a two man crew...but if you can focus on your own skill/ job then hopefully you can get a better story on the air....but its also about personal approach to what you do. Some photogs are very creative and imaginative...others can be lazy and are bitter and don't give a crap. So I judge the stories for themselves...if its good then I will say so...if its not then I call it as I see it. I am very active in the Critiques section because I want to help...you can look over any of my posts there to see how I call it.
 
Latin Lens

Latin Lens

Well-known member
Brutal

At the scene said:
Joe nice work. We all have to admit that Joe is a cut above the rest when it comes to the VJ system. Quite a few yrs ago I worked at great photog shop. The quality was amazing, I still keep in touch with some good friends there. They are very upset and rightly so that the station could not afford to send a crew to the inaugration. So to save money they sent the one and only VJ. Here is the future.
http://www.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/bill_rappleye_reports_from_washington/9290/

Not sure if I did this correctly.
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Brutal.....and this is the level we normally see on this forum becuase this is the norm when you give an inexperienced person a camera and tell them to go and get a story.

Joe is far above this level.
 
B

Baltimore's Finest Fotog

Well-known member
For starters, verdantFOX, you can't deny this guy is the EXCEPTION and not the standard. And I still would like to get those numbers from you. I'll get back to you on that.


Chicago Dog said:
While I think Joe's work is well done, I think it's very, very hasty of you to point to him as an example of what OMB/VJs can do. Ninety-nine percent of the OMB/VJs out there simply cannot pull off stuff like this.

According to Rosenblum, Joe should make peanuts and be happy that's what he's getting. He believes that Joe is "replaceable" for the exact same comment you made in the above quote. If Joe were to ask him for a raise because of his obvious talent, Rosenblum would simply replace him with some dumb, inexperienced college kid.

Obviously, Joe's got a handle on what he can do. Management adopting Rosenblum's mindset (like that joke of a station he runs in Washington) will never keep guys like Joe and, as a result, will always fail in the ratings.

Flipside? If stations continue paying anchors such ridiculous salaries for simply reading the news, they can expect failure. Case in point? WBBM, the CBS station in Chicago. They paid her almost two million dollars a year to read the teleprompter and provide a face that was covered up most of the time by VOs and teases. That money can easily hire a few more taltented reporters and shooters. It makes their visual product so much more attractive to viewers. CBS suffered greatly as a result. There's still ripples from the fallout, and there will continue to be ripples for a long time to come.
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What station in D.C. is this? I've heard you reference this more than once, and now I have to know.
 
Latin Lens

Latin Lens

Well-known member
Hey Joe....did you learn everything about shooting from Mr Rosenblum or did you learn by watching a talented photog along the way?
 
A

At the scene

Well-known member
Yes LL you are correct

Latin you are right on with this. This is the kind of work I have been seeing all the time from VJ's in my area. This is the reason most of us say it will not work. Try watching that on a 56" hd tv.

Chicago Dog, I checked on why the track of that piece was so bad and you got it. He actually tracked in a bathroom because everywhere else was too noisy.
 
I

ian515

Well-known member
At the scene said:
Chicago Dog, I checked on why the track of that piece was so bad and you got it. He actually tracked in a bathroom because everywhere else was too noisy.
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was it a combination of that, and laying down the wrong audio channel into the pack? cause it sure sounded like he was talking into a lav or something and laid down the shotgun (and the cam was pointed away from him) track or vice versa . even in a bathroom it would still have sounded better than that if he was talking directly into a mic.
 
verdantFOX

verdantFOX

Well-known member
Baltimore:

I agree, Joe is undoubtedly the exception. But there are others like him here in San Francisco. Gabe Slate comes to mind. I'd don't think Gabe is quite as polished, but he's creative and uses special effects frequently and effectively to tell stories. Most of KRON's VJs are not half as talented as Joe. A small handful are maybe in his league.

But what does it say about the future of VJ when there are people like Joe and Gabe out there VJing everyday? It certainly doesn't spell failure. I also agree that Joe might well be as good and even better if assigned daily to a two-person team. Then again, in his own opinion, he prefers to work it alone.

The fact is, there are exceptional people working as VJs just as there are exceptional two-person teams. The great majority of reporters I've worked with over the years were just OK. So were the great majority of photogs for that matter. Yet the ones who were great were great as individuals. Whoever they worked with or for, they tended to raise the bar for everyone. Joe is that kind of person.

But face it. The fact that a guy like this can do this kind of work by himself as a VJ is strong evidence that VJ itself is not at issue. It's the people who are doing it. Some, like Joe and Gabe, are great at it. Most are mediocre, many not even that. But isn't that the case with the two-person system?

Joe and people like him prove that VJ can be done and done well. So I believe it's less a matter of the right system, but finding the right people to make whatever system you use work and work well. As I've noted in past posts, KRON looked bad coming out of the gate, but they've improved as they found the right people to do the job.
 
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