Solo Video Journalist

Musings and advocacy of the Solo Video Journalist Paradigm. Emphasis on web video journalism, developing compact shooting equipment, editing, techniques, creative vision while remaining true to the journalism perspective.

Archives for the ‘Equipment’ Category

Thoughts on shooting the Obama Rally with my equipment setup

By Cliff Etzel • May 18th, 2008 • Category: Equipment

On Friday, May 9th, I was fortunate enough to have been given access to cover the rally for Senator Obama held here in Eugene, Oregon as a solo video journalist.
Needless to say, I hadn’t been through a trial by fire like that in many years - reminded me of my daysas an unpaid intern at [...]



Camera Size Doesn’t Equate to Content Quality

By Cliff Etzel • May 15th, 2008 • Category: Equipment

Over at Mike Jones’ Blog he has posted what I would deem a warranted scathing commentary on how the vast majority of video shooters equate the size of their cameras to be an indicator of the quality of their content.
And this is especially prevalent with the news videographer detractors who so righteously pontificate about how [...]



Why I love shooting with compact HD Camcorders

By Cliff Etzel • May 14th, 2008 • Category: Equipment
why-i-love-shooting-with-compact-hd-camcorders

In December of 2007, I finally made the switch from my beloved SONY TRV950’s to a pair of SONY HC7 camcorders.
Having shot with them intermittently since that time, I’ve come to appreciate, even love, shooting with them.



Online Delivery Of Content Matters As Much As Equipment

By Cliff Etzel • Feb 17th, 2008 • Category: Content Distribution, Equipment, The Business of VJ

Gear isn’t nearly as important as we are led to believe

Read that again -  Gear isn’t nearly as important as we are led to believe
So how does this fit into the Solo VJ paradigm?
Although having quality video acquisition tools is important, I think the future for solo video journalists will lie more in online content [...]



Consumerism isn’t good for the Solo VJ Profession

By Cliff Etzel • Jan 21st, 2008 • Category: Equipment

Up until December of 2007, I had been a vocal opponent of making the switch to HD - especially for those solo video journalists who were dedicating their craft specifically for the web.
The idea of shooting HD with the end product being a 480×270 pixel end product just didn’t seem practical in my opinion.
Of course [...]