How to Properly Set up an Interview

How to Properly set-up an Interview

Being in the broadcast journalism business doing interviews area a very common thing. Interviews are the most useful ways to relay information out to the public and setting them up correctly can being more appealing and overall easy to relay the info. Here are the steps to correctly and properly setting up an interview.

1. Find someone to interview 

     - Obviously you would need someone. You would need someone who can relate to the package topic and deliver correct info.

2. Find an appropriate backdrop to set-up the interview.

     - Finding a relative backdrop isn't a huge deal but wouldn't be bad to have. Find somewhere that has even lighting doesn't have a lot of activity. Notice: The shot is in front a white wall and basketball player picture. Having nothing to do with the actually story.

3. Lighting

     - Lighting is a major key to having a great shot. Lighting can be tricky with finding the "gray area" of lighting. If too much light is shown the shot will be too bright and the interviewee is in heaven or is ghost white. If the lighting is not enough the person will be fading to darkness and the overall shot will be darker and hard to see.  Notice: The front of her face as well as the left side of shot is darker than the background. Even it out.

4. Sitting the person

     -  When sitting the interviewee down make sure you are eye level with the person. Whether you are standing or sitting. Keep the camera as close to eye level with the person as well. Another key part to sitting to person for the shot is having the person look across the camera shot.  Notice: How she is looking straight up. She should be looking to the left side of the shot and straight eye level with the interviewer. 

5. It's complete

     - The shot is complete. Press the record button and ask good questions that require more than one word answers. 

Senior Year Final Blog

News Package 

For one part of our video final was to make a short news package about any topic. I made a package about what it is like for someone to have a birthday on christmas and how it has effected their day. I interviewed my mom Leesa Gabel and friend Steven Parker who both were both on the 25th. They mentioned how much more the holidays have an effect on them and how much they love them. 

I did my interview with Leesa in my living room (Because she loves christmas our living room is very festive) and Steven at a church with a Christmas tree behind him. Everything was shot on my Canon Rebel T5. I Interviewed, filmed B-roll, and wrote voice over all in one evening and voiced the package and put the pieces together that next morning.

Article Review

CNN Article - Mexico Firework Explosion

The CNN article is a quick news update about the recent Mexican firework factory explosion where near 30 dead and 80 injured. A something caught fire in the factory and ended up looking like a firework show finale all going off at once.

The article itself done to look pleading to the eyes and easy to read. The heading is large and bold and catches the reader's eyes. The the news package video is the first thing to appear on the article with a shorter paragraph giving a quick recap of the news package. Three paragraphs are spread throughout the article with images of the factory put on the left and right throughout the article. It then ends with a twitter post by the Mexican Red Cross which is inter-actable (Meaning I could follow and like the tweet).

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/20/americas/mexico-fireworks-explosion/index.html

Project Review

CNN Article - Mexico Firework Explosion News Package

A short 50 second breaking news update about the Mexican firework factory explosion. The news anchor talks over a clip of the explosion updating about the what as happened at the factory. She matches up the voice over with the footage on screen talking about the "people on the right of the screen as the camera pans" and how the viewer can hear the fireworks go off during the footage. She lays out any and all details about the event and quick goes through it all.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/20/americas/mexico-fireworks-explosion/index.html

 

JR Year Summary

Throughout this year in e-Comm I have learned more in the ways of Convergence Journalism and how televised news works. I have strengthen my skills in filming, recording voice-overs, writing scripts, anchoring, how to properly put a news package together, and working with deadlines.

The beginning of the year was a little rough on learning how to do all these skills due the fact that I was just pushed into this class and half expected to know how to do this. Has the year progressed I strengthen my skills with the help of others (Val mostly).

I want to go to KU for Convergence Journalism and hopefully find a job in the field later in my life. Along with that the class has taught me how to work better with others and easily talk to people and convey messages to them. These skills can be used throughout life and help me get better jobs.

I like to think my greatest strength is filming B-roll and anchoring. I always try to get more b-roll then I would need and to keep it as interesting as possible and keep it still as possible as well. My b-roll has gotten a bit more diverse in the shots I  get with maybe a close up of the hands or feet. I think I’m doing good with anchoring (I’ve only done it twice so i don’t quite have a system set yet). I try to dress as nice a possible but it’s hard to get any nicer with the plaid jacket. I have gotten better between my two times. I was much more relaxed and comfortable than before.   

As I had said earlier I plan on going to KU for what I’m doing here and work on the KU New station and hopefully land a job with a local station or maybe even a major national station. Either is fine with me. My sister is showing a little interest in e-Comm so I’m showing her a little sneak peek of how ONW Now works and get her hooked on it.

There are a good amount of things we could change but the biggest one is maybe having more than one show a week. What’s on the shows is up to the group but having more than one show a week will help everyone get more work done and the school pay more attention to the show.

Overall I enjoyed the class and can’t wait for next year.

Semester Reflection

News Packages

Brendan Dunwiddie Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN78pQwXfQw

This was my first story with Val of this year. We interviewed Brendan on why he switched from football to cross-country. It took us about five days for us to make this story. We had to find time to interview Brendan and the head coach. We also had a hard time getting b-roll for this. Val had to go and run with the team one day.

Concussion Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfq30NqejxA

We had our second story on why the amount of football players is going down due to concussions. We went to Blue Valley South on a Saturday to film b-roll of the Blue Valley Little League Football Club. Val interviewed the commissioner of the club before we went out. Later that week we interviewed our School's Trainer. In total the project took five days to make. This story was put into a competition for an award of the best news packages that month. I don't know we placed but it wasn't the top three. But the feedback we got was very good so we probably placed pretty high.

Band Festival Package: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEBPl3otGv4

This is the B in one of ONW Now's newest segments: ONW A to Z. Olathe Northwest, North, South, and East had a Band Festival On Monday October 5, 2015. Val and I went to this festival and brought three cameras. One was set for a wide shot of the whole show while Val brought another one to get some closer shots of the band. I also brought my DSLR camera with one of my really good zoomed up lens to get a different angle of close ups. We interview ONW's principal Dr. Gwen Poss about this festival. We filmed all this on Monday and edited and voiced over on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Plagiarism Package: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hem34XfkGc

A few weeks back our former teacher Court Allam asked Val and I if we could do a story over plagiarism and what it is and how ONW is keeping it from happening. This took us a few days to make. probably around six to seven days. First we had to do our research on what plagiarism technically is. Then we had to find the right people to interview who were little more passionate on the subject (It was more we had to find some english teachers who had no classes when we were filming). Interviewing took about two or three days to secure them and actually do them. Then we had to find B-Roll to use and that was harder then it sounds to do. Val had got some in the library but that wasn't good enough so he went into a classroom of one of the teachers we interviewed. Finally we had everything we needed and now all we needed to do was voiceover and we were done. But I got sick and I had the script. Val got it from me a day later and had the package done that next day.

Veteran's Day Package: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5Y93A23_E

This was the first story I had done by myself and I think it was great. I had gone to a Veteran's Day event at the Johnson County Armory when many WW2 and Vietnam War veterans attended along with Senator Pat Roberts and State Rep. Kevin Yoder and others. I filmed a ton of B-Roll since thats about all I could get. A lot of it was just people talking or some large pans of the crowd. The ONW Band was there so I got some good shots of them and got plenty of sound bytes. I had filmed the event on a Wednesday and wrote the voiceover script and voiced over by next Monday.

Playground Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoDQiWYpiow

Val and I went to a groundbreaking of a new adaptive park for special needs kids. The Kansas City Royals had finished their week of giving with this ceremony. A few former royals players were there like Jeff Montgomery (We got to interview him and it was so cool.) We had got the film and wrote the script that day and voiced over and and finished the story that next Monday. It was a lot of fun to go this ceremony and if had learned anything from it is to wear gloves when filming so your fingers don't get cold. #LifeLesson

A Special Christmas Story: Video soon to come.

There are a group of "Elves" who are planning on taking a girl with a brain tumor to the "North Pole". This will happen on December 22nd. Essentially they are going to take here from the downtown airport to the Johnson Country Airport. One of the hangers will be converted into Santa's workshop. The ONW sports teams will have to make empty christmas boxes to help complete the north pole.

Strengths

I don't like to talk myself up and say how good I am. It just seems mean and self-centered. All I could say is I think my strengths are editing and filming B-Roll shots.

Improvement

I could talk more about my areas of improvements more then my strengths because  realize what i could work on. I could work on getting more work done, like finishing packages a little quicker so i can get more stories out there. I also could work on taking stories and going out of school to record more footage for packages. Last quarter if you don't count the summer camp I had about six hours out of twenty. I feel like I need to take more stories we get outside of school.

What I have learned

With the only thing I've done outside of this class was making a package my sophomore year for my final I love this class. I've learned a lot like how to edit a proper news package and more importantly how to "get myself out there" to the world. I have learned how much easier it is with two people to go and film and have two minds think of a script and editing compared to one mind have to think of a script and try and get all the cool shots and edit in a creative way to keep people invested in my story.

I plan on coming back next year and my senior year and try and push out a story every two weeks in not every week. That would be about nine more stories if I had one every two weeks or eighteen if I had one every week. 

A Special Playground for some Special Kids

This video is about an adaptive playground being built over by CBAC on College and Lone Elm. A groundbreaking ceremony was held last Friday hosted by The Kansas City Royals Charity, Variety.

Veterans Day

An ONW Now story about a celebration at the Overland Park Armory for WW2 and Vietnam War Veterans.

Plagiarism

An ONW Now Story about what plagiarism is and how Olathe Northwest is stopping it.