StoryMaker™

Hi all --

I'm unsure where in this project site I should be asking questions or commenting, but this seems like the right spot.

The new adds to the wiki look good, and very well cover basic journalism skills and security concerns.

I'm also interested to know, though, how the templates are coming. That's a feature that will have a great impact on effectively attracting and informing end viewers, and could be another point where a skillset or thinking process should be taught, specifically on producing the packages.

The basic video news story, when done for maximum clarity and impact, still has good storytelling technique. Even many "minute thirty, quick and dirty" packages do. I'm a big advocate of Fred Shook's textbook on TV news production (here: http://www.amazon.com/Television-Field-Production-Reporting-5th/dp/0205577679/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345698292&sr=1-1&keywords=electronic+news+field+production+frederick), and I've loaned my copy out to several journalists here making the switch from stills or print. It contains a great breakdown of how to approach a story in the field (whether hard news or feature); how to think in the field, in case the story changes; and how to make sure you come back with the video you need to make a proper package; it also has great guidelines on scripting and editing.

For shooting tips, one of my wire clients has a great technical guidelines sheet. The part of it that I think would help in this regard is a section called "basic shots" with an explanation of what they are and how you use them in an edit (wide or establishing shots, medium shot, CU, cutaways). Good tips on pans and tilts (although Fred Shook is more thorough in this). The guide is written mostly for their text reporters who now occasionally shoot video packages, so very applicable here.

Also, and only semi-related: I saw in the issues tracker that there's tickets for L cuts and adding audio to slideshows. Does this also apply to video package voiceovers? Or would video packages run only nat sounds and have text overlays?

And thanks for adding me to the project!

Cheers,
rick