McNerthney went over some basic tips about video from his personal experience. It is worthy to note that he does not have any fancy equipment and all of the software he shared is free. In this realization lies the value of his training: You don’t need expensive equipment. Anyone can do this.

His equipment/tools:

• Canon Powershot
• Windows Movie Maker (WMM tutorials on YouTube, or iMovie)
• A computer for editing, nothing too fancy

Most importantly is the attitude he brings to every story. McNerthney said he bought his Powershot about a year ago. Since then he appears to interview most, if not all, of his subjects with his Powershot running. His reason for videoing everything: “Sometimes daily stories turn into something big.”

(Note: I record audio of almost every interview I conduct. Not only does it help me keep quotes straight, I also have the option of using the audio later for a multimedia project. Obtaining audio in this way requires no extra effort on my part and I can only imagine if I had a small video camera with me all of the time, it would be just as easy.)

He shared one particular example of video he shot recently, about a crane operator who helped police nab a fleeing fugitive:

McNerthney talked about what shots you need to get if you’re going to record your interviews. Check out the crane video. It only takes a few seconds to get b-roll (the flavor shots of the crane in the middle of the story).

A few other tips he shared:

• Pay attention to lighting and don’t be afraid to move your subject to a more favorable location.
• If it is breezy outside, try to shield the camera’s microphone from the wind with your hand. You can also try to aim the microphone at the subject to get better sound quality.
• Everyone has a couple of seconds to talk to you. The man in the orange shirt said he didn’t have time, and yet McNerthney still got a great interview out of him.
• Evaluate who will care and why. If the video does not generate hits, then editors will be reluctant to approve projects in the future. Examples of videos many people will watch include technology, events with lots of participants and breaking news.
• Some people are not used to media exposure and shy away from the camera. Try to keep examples of your work on the camera you carry to convince them to consent to an on-camera interview.

How does he shoot video and write the story? He practiced with his friends by holding the camera and notepad at the same time, at about lower-chest height. Then he would watch the resulting video and adjust the camera angle accordingly. Now that’s multitasking!

For me the most valuable item out of the training was a free Web site he shared: Media Convert, which converts dozens of file types. This site saved my bacon a few times when editing audio for a SoundSlides last week. He also shared, Picnik is a photo-editing Web site with the functionality of PhotoShop.

A final note. McNerthney said there is a time and a place for quality multimedia. He frequently called his video “crappy,” and from a quality standpoint, I suppose it is. But his videos are interesting and, most importantly he said, they keep people on the site for a few minutes longer than they otherwise would have. Video is another layer to the reader experience.

Watch Kirk Mastin’s test of a $3,300 Canon XH A1 camcorder vs. a $120 Flip Camcorder (he also used a an iPod nano with a mic to record audio for the Flip video). Mastin is in the University of Washington’s masters program for digital media. Compare the footage between the two cameras. (He syncs Flip video and iPod audio with a hand clap in front of the camera and then match the audio spike in a video editing program.)

Mastin’s comparison has been making the rounds as of late, even though it was posted back in February. (There’s also a three-part Mexican Wrestling video shot with a Canon Powershot SD800 by Max Morse of ESPN.)

Also, lots of people are posting training tips lately:

• David Nolan at Multimedia Evangelist has posted several reports from a $2,000 training he’s attending on how to shoot video. Quick tips: shots are at least 10 seconds with no pans or zooms, get lots of b-roll and shoot many angles of the subject to help compress time for the viewer. (Thanks to NewsVideographer for the heads up.)
• Video for newspapers, by Mindy McAdams. This is an incredibly useful list of links, including shooting video for editing, what makes a good video and examples of video you have to see (like the Spokesman Review’s video of a paraplegic dog).
• 17 video tips, by Sue Robinson, guest blogger on Mindy’s Teaching Online Journalism.

For reporters, that includes video. To not study video journalism as a reporter is a death knell to your career. So where do we start?

(This video is Cyndy Green’s rebuttal to Andy Dickenson’s Quality and Quantity shorts)

Reporters cannot afford to wait for someone else to train us. No need to reinvent the wheel, there are plenty of training resources if you look in the right places.

Web sites to read about video practices:

• News Videographer
• Mastering Multimedia
• Teaching Online Journalism (video catagory)

Software tutorials:

• Final cut pro or iMovie on YouTube
• Audacity or GarageBand on YouTube
• Soundslides Plus tutorial from the now dead Multimedia Shooter site.

Various training sites:

• National Newspaper Association development and growth guide includes tutorials and discussion on just about everything online from start to finish, including advertising.
• The BBC has an online training site with instructions for specific gear and editing programs. The good shooting guide is a fine place to start.
• NewsU.org has a few courses on multimedia storytelling.
• Knight Digital Media Center

Also, read choosing a new or used camera by Cindy Green and other various gear recommendations she’s made.

Check out the new online primer for video production. It’s got advice from B roll footage to equipment purchasing guides to how to promote your online video. There is even a guide on how to market video ads (because, face it, news is a business in most places in the country).

“Zooming In on Online Video: A Development & Growth Guide for Newspaper Web Sites” is intended to help newspapers of any size develop profitable video applications. As competition heats up for online video mindshare, newspapers have an excellent opportunity to leverage their skills and content and capture an even larger share of online advertising spending.

Also from the ad front, what makes an online video ad less annoying? Read what Mark Glaser wrote on MediaShift (hint: keep it short, silly).

There is so much information here that I’ll likely spend several hours surfing the links. I am glad to see a news tutorial that applies to the ad department.

Thanks to Beth Lawton on Wired Journalists for the heads up on the NAA video training site.

Reporters asked how they would ever find the time to learn this new style when many of them have story quotas. The short answer was prioritize your work and realize that not every story deserves your full attention. The long answer was learn at home, read books, try new things with your copy on your own time.

The same can be said for multimedia. I know a number of reporters who want to wait on the company to teach them multimedia skills.

Colin Mulvany, the multimedia editor at the Spokesman Review, says reporters should train themselves on their own time.

For you to be successful, you’ll need to take ownership of your evolving career. I’m always surprised at how many journalists in newsrooms demand training, but when their newspaper fails to deliver, they refuse to invest any of their own time in reinventing themselves. This is not a time for complacency.

Why should you bother? Easy. If you are valuable you won’t lose your job:

The problem is that many smaller newspapers in these lean times do not have the money or staff knowledge to provide training to their employees. Why invest your own time in training yourself? If you want to stay relevant in the journalism world you’d better have new media skills. This latest round of personnel shedding by newspapers will not be the last. When all the volunteers and those near retirement are gone, where do you think the next round of people targeted is going to be? If I am a publisher or senior editor and I have already cut to the bone, I’m going to probably start icing employees with the least amount of online skills.

I read Mulvany’s blog whenever he has a new post. In this post, he says “three more reporters are being outfitting with Macbooks, Final Cut Express and video cameras.” That would be huge for my paper, but we are under a hiring freeze and couldn’t afford to buy one Macbook for the newsroom unless we won a chain-wide contest (which we did).

For now, my paper has one laptop for seven reporters, three audio recorders that the ME had me purchase last December and two lav mics. They also have two copies of SoundSlides on a photographer’s computer (makes sense), a few copies of GarageBand installed, but no audio conversion software (the recorders tape in WMA and GarageBand doesn’t like that).

Training means nothing unless you practice. My learning process will be incredibly enhanced because my husband is buying a new laptop (he’s a graduate student in physics at UW, where he is working on an experiment to figure out the mass of neutrinos or something). Therefore, I get his old computer, an Asus F3F. I have a decade-old point-and-shoot digital camera, an Olympus DS 40 audio recorder, a lav mic and headphones. I plan to install my Adobe software onto the computer, including CS3 Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. I’ll end up buying SoundSlides ($40) and Switch ($19.40, unless someone else has an idea for cheap file conversion). I’ll also need an audio editing program, and I know about audacity, but I’m really addicted to GarageBand which is what we use at work. I hear Mixcraft is a good substitute for PC users. So all in all, I’m out probably $60 for software after all is said and done. Video will have to come later. Editing programs are out of my reach for my personal budget, as are video cameras.

Reporters who cover education believe overwhelmingly that the beat requires specialized knowledge. Yet 39 percent of education reporters surveyed in February 2008 by the Hechinger Institute say they’ve received no such training …

When I arrived at the SVH in September 2007, I had no idea what SIP, AYP, ELL or IEP stood for, let alone what they really meant. But I learned (School Improvement Plan, Adequate Yearly Progress, English Language Learners and Individualized Education Program).  My training consisted of meeting with people and using Google. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. Hey, I’m a resourceful person, I can find things out.

Education is an important beat. While other newspapers have different staff compositions, every paper has an education reporter. But news is changing. Responsibilities are changing, and veteran reporters are either leaving the business or changing their focus.

The most common concern Stephens hears expressed by school leaders is turnover on the education beat. “They really value a reporter with expertise,” Stephens said.

I can see why. With no formal training, other than a list of acronyms passed down by my predecessor, I feel it took me about six months to really understand what education is about. Guess who is doing the training? The superintendents, principals and financial officers of these districts (no wonder they’re frustrated).

I’ll cap off with a quote of how I hope to feel someday wherever I am (or whatever beat I cover):

For veteran education reporter Marilyn Brown of The Tampa Tribune, the education beat, despite its politics, demands and complexities, remains vitally important and in need of perspective and context. In her case, that means continuing to do what she’s done for the last 10 years: “trying to keep up with the main issues and trends, and not being frustrated that I can’t do all the great stories I find every day.”