(09/15/17)

Presentation by John Strauss, Lumina Foundation
Summary by Ron Jolly, Alabama Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources

John Strauss of the Lumina Foundation hosted the session titled “Shooting and Editing Great Mobile Video – Showing the Story.” Over the two-hour session, Strauss covered the “then and now” of shooting video to convey your message.
The “then” Strauss covered was the basic shooting techniques and principles of video production. As he reminded participants of what good video production required in the past, Strauss covered cinematic techniques, establishing shots, opening shots, tripod use, old-style camera costs and limitations, sound packages and lighting.

Moving into the “now” of video production, Strauss reminded us that the same techniques apply to videos produced for social media. There are, however, some exceptions.
“Video for television is passive viewing. Online video requires fast-paced action, emotion and intriguing story lines. To make the most of online videos, producers need to be able to react quickly and effectively. There is no better way to accomplish that than with a powerful tool most of us have in our pocket, the smartphone,” Strauss said.

Conference attendees gained hands-on experience in creating and editing video on the fly. (Photo credit: Scott Ball)

He then explained how a smartphone using Apple’s iMovie app allows you to efficiently shoot, edit and post videos to the web while on site or in the field. This allows the producer to deliver the story fresh and in a timely manner. It also gives the producer to ability to be the publisher.

As an exercise, attendees paired up to create videos in which one person interviewed the other as the world’s foremost authority on paper airplanes.

Compared to “then” video production, using a smartphone, an app and the web gives you the power and ability to provide timely information to the instant gratification audience we all seek to reach “now!”