What is "compelling video" anyway?

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F4 Fan

F4 Fan

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The term “compelling video” is one of those buzz words bandied about by news directors and out of work photographers. But what is it really?

Four years back I was hired by a small network in San Francisco that was focused on technology. In the two plus years I worked in the news department there, I had the privilege of working with 3 or 4 of the best shooters I ever known. (Stoney are you out there?) The news director and senior producer loved to challenge us to shoot compelling video, but they could never define for us exactly what that was. One month the edict would come down and we would shoot network style, the next month we would shoot MTV style. It got to the point where some days I would fluctuate between 2 or 3 different styles depending upon the producer or reporter that I was working with. Talk about split personalities. Eventually we settled into styles that best suited our own individual personalities and backgrounds. But the experience made me a much better and more flexible shooter.

I’m not convinced that compelling video equates to intelligent, thoughtful, insightful or educational story telling, or even good TV for that matter. But the term is still out there being kicked about, and in my mind still undefined, in fact I cringe whenever I hear it. What are some thoughts from the B-roll.net community?
 
At my station compelling video is any video the other stations in the market don't have.

[ November 05, 2005, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: Stouthearted ]
 
Something that makes me go "damn, that was cool. I gotta start doing stuff like THAT every now and then"...


It depends on the situation. It's hard to make EVERYTHING compelling. That would kinda water-down the stuff that REALLY is compelling, ya know?
 
Compelling video is an image which captures an actual moment of reality which will never appear again.

It's the moment a wall falls during a house fire.

It's the moment a parent is reunited with their lost child.

It's the moment a person hears for the first time after getting a cochlear implant and you see the look on their face.

It's the moment a person is rescued, pulled from flood waters or some other bad situation.

Things you can't reshoot. You have one chance to record the image and if you miss it, you miss it.

It's not how you shoot it.

It's what you shoot. ;)
 
At WKRN or KRON, "compelling video" would be steady shots that are in focus, shot with professional cameras withough jumpcuts and the same shot 15 times. :D :D

Warren
 
Originally posted by F4 Fan:
Four years back I was hired by a small network in San Francisco that was focused on technology.
Click to expand...
F4, did you work at Tech TV then? I used to love that network. We got it just before Ziff-Davis became Tech TV. Then when Comcast became involved it started going down hill. Then Comcast purchased 100% and combined Tech TV w/ G4 and it became total crap. I don't even watch the network anymore. Anyway, just asking.

Warren
 
Lensmith

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. In photography it’s called the decisive moment. Unfortunately, I’m still convinced that most management types feel that style is more important than substance.

Warren

Yes it was TechTV. Most of my work was for the shows Techlive and Fresh Gear. If not the best job I’ve had in television, certainly the most interesting. Thanks for watching - we were never sure if anybody really was. Good people top to bottom. We had a lot of green kids who really rose to the occasion. As for Comcast/G4 – we’ll don’t get that argument started with the TechTV alumni. Eighty percent of us were given pink slips…and thus my career as a freelancer began.
Mark
 
Yeah, those were great shows and Tech TV was one of my favorite networks. You guys did a great job, always entertaining. Bummer Comcast screwed it up.

Warren
 
I echo that. I loved TechTV, and their seemingly one-of-a-kind shows like "Call for Help". It was incredibly aggravating when they "merged" with G4. I hope a start-up station fills the void.
 
I've found that if you have to ask if it's compelling, then it isn't. You just know it when you see it.

John totally summed it up though.
 
F4, I miss the old crew at TechTV about once a week. Remember shooting the lab stuff. Now that was UNcompelling! Hah!

Worley's narcoleptic goats, now that was compelling.

Glad to see that folks watched TechTV. Nobody in San Francisco did because it wasn't on local cable. Too bad, it was the most compelling technology telelvision I ever worked on! Of course, it was pretty much the only technology television I ever worked on.
 
F4, We facilitated the Tech TV Washington
office. I personally worked a few stories with them. Their producer here unfortunately was
a bit green and was afraid of missing something
so you ended up shooting more quantity than quality. The stories as I remember were interesting though not really condusive to
"compelling" video. It's a shame they didn't make it. I thought it had a good look and and
figured it to have a sizable built-in audience given
the technical aspect. Guess it wasn't promoted enough or on enough cable outlets to make it. Do you remember the
blooper that appeared on there when this guy
was holding some rare object and dropped and broke it
on the set live? If you can remember it, maybe
you can elaborate..
 
That was Chris Pirillo's guest on the show "Call for Help"... I think. It was a very funny clip, but I think it turned out to be a gag.
 
I saw that! Wasn't it on the "Call for Help" Marathon the day after Christmas? Though I can't remember if that perticular episode was hosetd by Chris or Leo Lepotre. But w/ the dropping of the F-bomb, how could it have been a gag? Or is that what Chris was fired for?

The guest, an older gentleman, was explaining how this old recording device (pre phonograph days) worked. It was some sort of tube shaped thing that spun in place but used a needle to create grooves on the surface of the tube which when played back replicated the recorded sound.

Anyway, back on track, he said the one he was holding in his and was very rare, maybe the only one left. Then he accidentally lost control of the tube and it smashed to the floor in a million pieces. The guest uttered something like "Oh ffff...." Then you heard the F-bomb drop.

Gotta hand it to either Chris or Leo, whoever it was, he held his composure, didn't miss a beat and kept on going w/ the show. Oh the fun of live TV.

Damn, I really do miss Tech TV.

Warren

[ November 11, 2005, 01:00 AM: Message edited by: Baltimore Shooter ]
 
Yeah, I am pretty sure it was a gag but the clip I saw of it later had the f-bomb... so who know's? It was before I came on board at TechTV.

Chris was let go for personality issues. He was the quintessential TechTV geek and I thought he was good on the show. However, TechTV had a problem of bloating people's egos (look at me, I'm green as hell but on tv so pay me a bucket-load of money) and I think that might have done him in eventually... that's my guess. You can still catch Chris online, he runs this site:

http://www.lockergnome.com

[ November 11, 2005, 12:33 PM: Message edited by: Stoney ]
 
Tech TV was truly one of the greatest sources for technology news I have ever had the pleasure of watching. I would look at those shows and know that, when I got a few more years of experience, it would be one of my dream jobs. Why not? It combined two of my favorite interests, shooting and technology.

Moving to Baton Rouge was like moving away from friends, because Cox here had it on the digital tier, and I couldn't afford that just for Tech TV. The hosts were great and really connected with the audience. They are some of the best at making it easy for nearly anyone to understand the tech featured. The Screen Savers was really great: a live, two hour call-in and interview show with a good level of polish for a start up network.

It has been good to see that some of the personalities have been able to get other work, like Sumi Das, one of my favorites.

When I could watch, it was appointment televison. Thanks for being one of the people involved in bringing it to me.
 
MOShooter,

Thanks for the comments. Not every day did TechTV do compelling video, but we darn sure tried. TTV was a wonderful mix of veterans, like myself, and youngsters all working together to put a quality product on the air. The break-even point for a start up cable network is 5 years and 40 million households. We had hit those benchmarks and were actually poised to have our first profitable quarter in 2005. The network in it’s early years was run more like a dot com company than a television network, but the people in charge in the final months knew what they were doing and made the difficult changes that had to be made in order to make the channel profitable. Unfortunately the folks at G4 decided to just about totally dismantle the network, which is now only a distant memory.

The B-roll community may not know this but Stoney, was an award winning “tog” for over two years with us at TechTV.

Do you think we miss TechTV – heck yes! Somewhere in the television universe there is a place for a network like TechTV.

Oh, and Sumi Das. Just as nice a person on the inside as she is lovely on the outside. She left us to cover the Scott Peterson trial and the last I saw of her, she was chasing hurricanes for CNN. :)

"Do what is right. You will amaze your friends and astonish every one else." Mark Twain

[ November 15, 2005, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: F4 Fan ]
 
Compelling video = shots nobody else has that won't make you fall asleep or retch from motion sickness. I think it's a term invented by consultants.
 
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