This video here appears much darker than it was on the camera, so I will take that into account for future assignments.

Written Description (More in-depth, shortened on film to keep under two minutes):

In class on Friday we discussed the importance of multimedia reporting and the differences between alternate types of editing, Nina's background, and finally the actual rules to setting up and making a film.

Most journalism today contains print, audio, and visuals. This is why this class will benefit us in real life. We will be trained to report stories with words and multimedia tools. We discussed the different ways we could edit and incorporate videos, with some of our choices as Avid Editing, Finalcut Pro, iMovie, and Movie Maker. Our professor's background was originally in print yet she developed her skills in video along with the changing tide of journalism today. She demonstrated her work, using some of these videos and others to illustrate some of the differences between different kinds of video journalism.

One video followed a false alarm evacuation of people from downtown D.C. during Reagan's funeral. This video was impromptu, and she gave us some tips on how to capture this type of sudden news. She stressed that if you are in the position to capture news, that don't waste time focusing on the production but instead concentrate on capturing what is going on at the moment. It is important, however, that you put your safety first in many of these situations. Sometimes news just happens, and if you can get it then get it!

The second genre of video was the one covering music genres in Mexico. This was a lengthier, more edited piece that you could tell had more time put in to it. It was even narrated. Because this was more of a feature, it had time to be edited and produced. The next videos covered Obama's election on U Street and at the White House. These were very impromptu as well, but Nina reminded us that however raw the footage is, you need to absolutely make sure that the visual and audio are clean and clear. If you cannot tell what is going on, the video will be useless. The content of all of these videos really added to the story as well; the U Street one was even comical.

We segued in to the rules of interviewing by viewing the Washingtonpost.com piece on funeral homes, where we watched the subject being interviewed. From here, we covered tips for filming an interview. First was the rule of thirds, which covers the placement of the subject. The subjects eyes should be in the upper third, and for an anchor type interview the subject should be sitting directly in the middle of the frame and looking right at the camera. For an interview, the subject can be off centered and not looking directly at the camera. Avoid shooting into the light or having distractions in the background, such as windows or other things in the room.

At the end of class, we practiced setting up shots and recording our classmates.