Production degree comes in handy

As we were given our camera gear today, I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic about my past career and college days. Before becoming a teacher, I worked in television for six years fully utillizing my radio and tv production degree. Having written and produced commercials and my own feature segment, I felt pretty comfortable with the camera. But then again, it wasn't quite the same.

Shooting for the web is a bit different from shooting a commercial. As we were told by Dave Seibert, the video we would produce for online viewing would need to be short, direct and edited without gimmicks. Seibert, (shown right) is Senior Video Producer for the Arizona Republic/azcentral.com. He spoke at length about what makes a great online video. Many of the techniques were similar to the ones we had learned the day before from his co-worker, Photographer Patrick Shannahan.

The best tip from both gentlemen was to "zoom with your feet". In the past, as I took pictures for the yearbook, I had tried to stay as far back as I could from the action so I wouldn't be a distraction. The result was often low quality, grainy or pixilated pictures. But now I know better and when you know better, you do better.

Another tip from Seibert was to use a tripod. I am one of those people who hate "The Blair Witch" effect in my videos. I would hate for people to have to take a dramamine to view my video. This will be something I will drill home to my students. As well as the complimentary tip of avoid panning and zooming. I will teach them that people want to see the story not your fancy camera tricks. A lesson I didn't totally heed while shooting my groups video as I found myself, panning and zooming lilke a bad flashback scene in 60's sci-fi movie.

These weren't the only lessons we learned, however, these were the ones jumped out at me. Sort of like the crazy zooms I did while shooting. I guess I got a little too nostalgic and was going for a time traveling effect. Next, time I will just hold each shot for 10 seconds (another tip) until that nostalgic feeling passes.

Alma A. McDonald

Hattiesburg High School

Hattiesburg, Miss.