Page 150 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

EDITING FOR MOVING PICTURES

to tell the assignment desk to send back another videographer in the
morning to get some aftermath shots while the fire crew is still on the
scene. The fire chief has now signaled that he is willing to take a few
questions. Tim from Channel 18, your biggest competitor, asks the
obvious question: “Chief, do we know how the fire started?” The chief
responds: “I would prefer to let the arson investigators do their job first
before we begin speculating.”
“But, Chief,” you ask, “something was found sprayed in every room,
wasn’t it?” “How did you know that?” the Chief snapped. “Oh, well,
and this is strictly off the record” (you raise your hand to cover the
still rolling camera lens) “we did find something rather odd. Someone
seems to have spray painted the same words in every room of the
house.” “What did it say, Chief ?” you ask. “I’ve said enough already.”
He quickly turns to walk off and rejoin the other firefighters.
Early the next morning, you call in to the assignment desk and ask
if a video crew has gone back to the site of last night’s big house fire.
The desk manager confirms that a live unit is currently on the scene.
You quickly get dressed and drive over. You have an idea. You grab
140 the videographer, Cheryl, and have her change cameras. Cheryl, the
senior photographer at the station, also does a bit of freelance work
on the side. She always carries her own camcorder with an extra long
telephoto lens to use when she shoots the occasional kayak race on
weekends.
You have Cheryl pop a tape in the camera and then you walk with
her around to the rear of the now blackened house. You tell her to
zoom in as tight as she can through a big window on the home’s lower
level. The sun is behind you this early in the day. Cheryl lowers the
camera to steady the shot on a tripod setup just outside the police line.
“What are we looking for?” she asks. “I’ll know it when I see it,” you
proclaim. Suddenly Cheryl takes a deep breath and says, “I think I
see something.” She then mutters to herself, “That makes no sense,”
but she records what she sees. Once she has a few good takes, she
motions you to the viewfinder. You see exactly what you were looking
for. You ask for her tape and run back to your car. Back at the station
you hurry in to find an open edit suite and sit down with all of your
tapes. While Final Cut Pro is launching, you remember that there is
going to be an emergency press conference about the fire at 10 a.m.
Because you normally do not work the day shift, another reporter will
be covering the conference. You call the assignment desk and ask them
who is going. It’s Barbara, the noon anchorwoman who also happens