Great Tips For Safe Video Reporting - Part 1

Posted April 28, 2020

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Televison and video reporters are under a particular burden in a time of safe distancing.

It's fine for print and radio journalists to work from home, but for compelling TV journalism, you have to be there.

Most TV news operations have reverted to doing Skype and Zoom interviews with their subjets. But this has pretty severe limits. It all starts to look the same - talking heads.

This was on The BBC this morning.

And you want your viewers to experience the kind of intimacy that great video journalism can deliver.

But this means (or used to mean) getting close

And that can be dangerous.

For the next few days, I am going to be sharing tips from Spectrum News ! MMJs who are actualy out in the field working safe

1. Keep Clean / Keep Safe

LA based Spectrum News ! MMJ Tanya McRae sent over a photo of her MMJ reporting kit.

Here's what she wrote:

Hey Michael-

I’m still shooting on my iPhone, selfie stick, directional mic, I wear a mask, and require subject to wear a mask while I’m interviewing them.

I used to have an adapter cord that allowed me to connect the wireless lav receiver to my iPhone but that has stopped working. When I was using that in previous weeks I would have subjects wear gloves and put the wireless mic on themselves. I would wipe it down afterwards with Lysol as additional precaution. Tech department thinks upgrades in phone have stopped allow the connectivity. They haven’t found a suitable replacement, but are sending me one that I can use with a wired lav mic.

Attached pics show you what I’m using to shoot my stories these days:

iPhone selfie stick
Directional mic and windshield (fluff ball)
Wireless receiver and stick mic for use with Sony 280 camera (which I only use for my standups when necessary). They have also given us a free-standing mic holder that I haven’t even picked up yet.
Masks
Latex gloves
Lysol wipes
Hand Sanitizer
Rubbing alcohol
iPhone light stand

Hope this is helpful!

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