Bill Gentile is spearheading the Backpack Journalism Program at American University and his insights in this video are worthwhile on what the basic equipment needs are for shooting self contained – or as I like to term – SoloVJ.

Having said that, as I watched this video, I got my feathers a little ruffled around the fact that one of the first things he states is NEEDING to have a MAC Laptop and Final Cut Pro.

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Rubbish I say.

The fact that one, for whatever reason, doesn’t work with a MAC shouldn’t  elude to the fact that one cannot create & produce compelling content in the field.

I’ve done a fair amount of testing of Windows based laptops and can tell you that if you want an NLE that can literally run circles around Apple’s Final Cut Pro – one only has to look at a decent spec’d Windows 7 based laptop and Edius Neo 2 or Edius Pro 5.5.

No transcoding to an intermediate, no need to worry about spending boat loads of money on what I term “the worlds largest dongle for Final Cut Pro”.  Now don’t get me wrong, the MAC and Final Cut Pro are very capable post production tools – but it shouldn’t be touted as the ONLY platform for post production work.

My real world experience shows that with Windows 7 64bit and Edius, you have more than just one option – something that Apple doesn’t give you.  You can pick the price point of your laptop or desktop and then live within those limitations.  In reality, the MAC is nothing more than an overpriced Intel machine anyways.  Now with the latest generation of Windows 7 based laptops are utilizing Intel’s i5 & i7 quadcore CPU’s laptops are, in many ways, surpassing desktop machines for the basic editing needs of solo video journalists – either in the office or out in the field.

Final Cut Pro (as of this writing) cannot contend with native AVCHD without transcoding to a ProRez intermediate.  Edius can handle as much as 4 streams of native AVCHD on the timeline with an i7 driven computer – desktop or laptop.  With the introduction of SONY’s HDR-AX2000 and HXR-NX5U tapeless AVCHD cameras, the acceptance of the highly compressed acquisition format is now taking hold in the prosumer realm of cameras – a camera that is very desirable for serious solo video journalism projects.  Even smaller single chip tapeless cameras like the Canon Vixia HFS21 provide a small camera with excellent image quality.

Which brings me to another point of contention for me lately. Brandon Tompkins posted on his blog about the issues of the hybrid DSLR and the near fanatical purchasing of these camera without any thought given to what shooting with one entails. He and I are in basic agreement.  It’s my opinion that the Hybrid DSLR is the flavor of the moment – the transitory tool and the fact that everyone feels as though they have to have one in order to shoot compelling content have it backwards.

It’s my belief, if you can’t create compelling content with your current set of tools, then you need to work on improving your story telling skills – both in production and post before you go out and purchase the latest and greatest in cinematic looking uber cool shooting gear.

Let’s get over the fanboism of tech and get back to producing compelling content.

I want to keep my words brief and to the point.

This video is one of the finest pieces of video journalism I have seen in a long time.  The trite content produced these days has left me cynical and thinking there wasn’t anything being produced of high quality that told a true human story.  I was proven wrong.

Watch and be moved by what you see and hear.

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SoloVJ.com is an advocacy platform for the SoloVJ/Backpack Journalist Paradigm and as such, I’m constantly looking for new information on this brave new world of video journalism that ascribes to less is more.

Bruce Jones posted this video on his blog about the Backpack Journalism Project Bill Gentile is teaching at American University.   I felt that those who are considering moving into this profession should have a rough idea of what’s going to be expected of them to participate in what I feel is a highly fulfilling career/endeavor.

Watch and listen to what is being said and draw your own conclusions as to whether working as a solo video journalist is for you.

For me, working as a solo video journalist is one of the best decisions I made as a visual content creator.

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Adam Westbrook has been the go to person lately with his insights into the new paradigm of solovj’ism.

This time around I’m looking at the realities of going freelance – and why it’s not as scary as many would have you believe it is.  It requires a certain self discipline and thoughtful purpose to go that route, but the rewards of freelancing far outweigh cubicle life.

Adam goes into his experiences in Multimedia Journalism and how freelancers can use audio and video to create compelling reports without breaking the bank (Make sure you choose go to full screen to view this presentation completely)

I decided to take this audio presentation and combine it with the above slide show that was used to present his case for going freelance and why it’s not as scary as many think it is.

As a contrast to my posting regarding the CineVJ debate that has ensued, I thought I would post what an established solovj is capable of producing abiding by the current production standards for video journalism today.

Since the news of  Travis Fox being let go from the Washington Post late last year, I had wondered what would befall this award winning solo video journalist.  It appears he’s found his bearings by producing this  piece in collaboration with NPR and PBS.

Leaving aside the technical aspects of equipment used, this piece demonstrates – at least in my opinion, the subtleties of certain elements of of cinematic techniques, yet they are not so obvious as to detract from the story itself – a marked contrast from the over utilization of such cinematic tools as dolly shots and heavy handed color grading.

The story is an excllent example of utilizing all the tools necessary to tell a story.  Solid shooting, well produced audio and titles that enhance, not detract from the story itself.

A hotly debated issue has arisen over on Dan Chung’s DSLR News Shooter Blog that I believe bears witness to yet another coming change in the new paradigm of solo video journalism.

The issue is when does one draw the line with over stylized footage  - ie; heavy post production manipulation of the final content with color grading, using cinematic techniques such as dollies, etc when producing a journalistic piece.

The shooter who has brought this issue to the forefront is Khalid Mohtaseb,  a young film maker that was given the opportunity to travel to Haiti to work with two international news agencies to produce news packages for distribution.  In the process, he brought his experience as a film maker and created a montage of footage to reflect his personal vision as a film maker.

The footage is visually stunning and his skills as a cinematic filmmaker aren’t being called into question.

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The challenge as I see from my experience as a visual journalist is at the very root of what is becoming yet another segue’ in the field of video journalism – he claimed to be a journalist without journalistic training and claimed what he shot as documentary video journalism.

That is treading a very fine line and heres why.

To quote Khalid directly, he states that:

“Aside from the documentary I shot in Egypt and Lebanon (which is also called a montage), this was my first time shooting with a journalistic mindset. Having to document a natural disaster of this magnitude was very difficult to grasp…” Yet he clearly states that this was a montage of footage as clearly stated in the title of the video he posted.

The question I ask and rightly so is “Which is it?”  Is it a montage of one’s cinematic vision or is it video journalism?  To not clearly define it creates a vague notion of what is fact or fiction.

Various Before & After screen grabs

Khalid’s training is not in journalism according to my research, which further complicates the issue since without that framework, one will do as what one pleases for the sake of one’s art.

I ask these important questions as a solovj as we continue to move headlong into the 21st century, clearly defined guidelines of journalistic integrity are being called out and reexamined to reflect a new aesthetic of visuals to tell a documentary/journalistic story.

Personally, I do believe it’s time for this new aesthetic to be considered and here’s why.

The latest statistics indicate that 23 hours of video is uploaded every minute to YouTube – that in itself is astounding.  But it also points to a new reality.  The viewing public is becoming video literate.  The gatekeepers to projects like documentaries being told and distributed are being side stepped with the democratization of online content distribution - which as Michael Rosenblum has stated “is very messy” .

On the other hand, this new cinevj aesthetic, as visually appealing as it is, also needs to be looked at with a certain amount of detachment - with a journalistic framework that provides the freedom to express one’s personal vision without moving into the realm of make believe due to heavy handed over stylization.

To not do so takes the realm of visual journalism and creates fiction where fact should be shown.  So called reality tv has proven this for the sake of ratings.

Organizations such as the NPPA and SPJ have published Codes of Ethics to help give visual journalists a framework by which they should adhere to when producing their work.  These guidelines have proven the sounding board for what is and isn’t acceptable from a journalistic point of view.  But it may be time to revisit them and rethink some of the issues that preclude a more artistic perspective, while still maintaining those tried and true guidelines.

In accordance with these published codes of ethics, Khalid missed some very important elements of his montage that resulted in a community venting some pretty harsh comments – a lack of engagement of his subjects, no proper beginning, middle and ending story arc, no use of actual audio content of his subjects to create a narrative, instead relying upon emotive music only as the audio foundation for the montage.

This is where his lack of video journalism skills came to the surface from a practical story telling stand point.

From a creative standpoint, Khalid has a vision that is compelling and emotionally moving.

As both visual artists and journalists, we need to ask difficult questions as a result of this topic being raised.  Has the realm of visual journalism become so entrenched in it’s ideologies that it has become too rigid in allowing a shooter to have a personal vision that can build upon the actual story itself?

As a solovj, I stand in the middle looking at both sides and wonder if we can find common ground that allows for that journalistic framework to stay in place – in principle, yet allow the personal vision of the visual journalist to create a body of work that is also visually aesthetic at the same time.

I believe a healthy discourse in debating this topic is going to create a new video journalism aesthetic that will raise the bar of not only story telling execellence, but visual excellence as well.

Welcome to the new paradigm of CineVJ.

In my never ending search for quality video content, I discovered this 1st Place Documentary Video winner in the NPPA Best Of Photojournalism contest for 2010 entitled “Leveling Appalachia – The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining”

Although not completely done in the solovj paradigm, the credits do show that the vast majority of the content was produced by Chad A. Stevens, the Director, Producer, Cinematographer & Photographer for the bulk of the content for this award winning documentary.

Produced in collaboration with Yale e360/milesfrommaybe productions/MediaStorm, the 20 minute piece is a wealth of production values that far exceeds the vast majority of content that is produced for tv broadcast, again showing that the bulk of  tv shooters lack what it takes to produce quality, compelling content that brings to the forefront rich story telling with well executed video, stills and audio with just the right amount of motion graphics that produce a documentary package well worth the time to watch.

I’ve watched this piece several times, taking notes, absorbing every nuance I can in Chad’s excellent shooting skills and quality of post production.  Executive producers Brian Storm of Media Storm and Roger Cohn of Yale e360 provided, I am sure, the vision to create such an outstanding piece of work.

I highly recommend taking the time to watch what is an outstanding piece of documentary story telling.

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I’ve been voraciously consuming Adam Westbrook’s blog postings lately and this came in over the weekend and thought I would take liberties and apply it to the solovj paradigm.

Adam raises a very important question in this video:  What if???

Take the context of the video and apply it to the solo video journalist paradigm.  What if we were to think outside the box?  Do our preconceived notions of success as solo video journalists get in the way of our actual success doing what we do?

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This video presents very important questions that we need to ask ourselves as we continue headlong into this brave new world of online video content broadcasting.

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With all the fallout  that occurred in 2009 for journalism, I’ve been trying to figure out what trends, ideas, etc. I needed to look at to stay agile and find new avenues of not only creative video journalism projects, but to maintain some form of revenue stream coming in.

Hey, let’s face it – do what you love and the money will follow – right?

I was having a difficult time trying to come up with this list and then I came across Adam Westbrook’s website – with a link to the video below.

Although posted three months ago, it still provides a foundational basis by which to formulate a direction for a working business model for the solovj paradigm.  Adam does a great job in his analysis of the trends to watch for and implement in our profession.

My thanks to Adam for providing his insights.

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A lecture by Tom Kennedy

Former National Geographic Director of Photography and Managing Editor of Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive speaks about his and the visual journalism profession’s transition to the digital age.

Mr. Kennedy uses examples from his illustrious career to shed light on the future of journalism and lay out the 20 lessons he has learned from his experiences. Kennedy is currently a Resident Professional at the Knight Center for International Media at the School of Communication, University of Miami. This lecture took place on February 17, 2010 as part of the School of Communication’s annual “Communication Week.”