What luck! My VCU classmates and I all became “official” employees at the Washington Post on Friday. Well, at least for ten minutes we were. As mock employees, we were able to participate in a video reporting training session that is usually given to Washington Post reporters.
Chet Rhodes, our host for the evening, gave the brief tutorial. Rhodes is the Assistant Managing News Editor at the washingtonpost.com. Though the concepts of the tutorial were basic, the skills he outlined were essential; especially for traditional print journalism looking to cross into the multimedia world.
There were a few skills that he presented in new ways that I would like share in this blog. One such unique idea was his formula for stand-ups. He believes that with this acronym you can’t go wrong:
WP – Who are we? (Washington Post)
WH – What happened?
WN – What next?
So by using this acronym as a guide, a Washington Post reporter what come up with a stand-up that would sound a little like this:
During my undergraduate broadcast journalism training, my professors drilled the “seven second rule” in our heads. That was the time limit for holding shots when shooting B-roll. Rhodes, however, recommended holding shots for the at least 30 seconds. He emphasized the importance of steady b-roll and urged us to only zoom or pan when not recording.
Of course, rules are meant to be broken. If you feel the urge to pan, Rhodes recommends holding the starting shot for seven seconds, panning slowly, and then holding the closing shot for seven seconds.
Though our “employment” was short-lived, our experience at the Washington Post will surely stay with us a lifetime.
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