Videojournalism Workshop at Harvard

I had a great time over the weekend leading a videojournalism workshop at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. It was intense - trying to teach the basic concepts and technique of shooting and editing videos in just two days - but it was interesting to approach videomaking from this new angle. And I loved getting to know this group of very distinguished journalists from leading institutions all over the world.

Two discussions kept recurring during the course of the workshop. One was about the complex equipment and technique required to shoot professional videos, and the reality that most editors send their journalists out with a tiny point-and-shoot camera and no extra staff or time to produce a video story on top of their print story.

The other question was about how the professional and ethical standards of print journalism translate into motion picture media. Is it okay to hack up an interviewee's sentences, in order to condense a 30-minute interview into 90 seconds? Print journalism has the ellipsis (...) to indicate edits, but there is no equivalent in video.

It was a neat experience - helped greatly by my very able teaching assistant, Julie Reizes.