Smart Video School

Smartphone Gimbal This is part 2 of, " HOW TO MAKE A VIDEO NEWS RELEASE: SEVEN LOW-COST TOOLS TO MAKE IT PROFESSIONAL/PART 1 ". You can click on the title to read part one. During my summer break from teaching college courses, I took on an extended video project that fits into the category of a video news release. The video was posted on the local school district's social media and a regional online news outlet. One of the video's main goals was to give an inside look at a new high school addition and sports complex. Instead of shooting a lot of sequences , I opted to use the DJI Osmo 2 smartphone gimbal. Image Source:  https://www.dji.com/osmo-mobile-2 The DJI Osmo 2 keeps the camera movement smooth as you move, pan and tilt. The controls allow you to rotate the camera horizontally and vertically. If you want to see a demo and learn more about the Osmo, here is a link to the DJI webpage . The Shot List and B-Roll After interviewing multiple people, I ...

People travel from all over the world to visit Yellowstone National Park. I'm fortunate to live about an hour away from this natural treasure. It is one of the most beautiful and unusual places on earth. There is everything from rock basins and bison to geysers and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Although I enjoy shooting video on my smartphone, on my most recent trip to the park, my video tool of choice was a Panasonic LUMIX 4K ZS60.   Image Source:  https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41M6my4HIbL._AC_.jpg For many situations, shooting on an iPhone with FilMic Pro works wonderfully. However, zooming with your feet to get close-ups of wild animals and spouting geysers isn’t recommended and can be downright dangerous.  Walking along the wood boardwalk near some hot pots, we heard a rustling of branches up a hill in a thicket of trees. We were face-to-face with a bison . . . face to face from about sixty feet, that is. With the help of the 30x op...

Video News Release What is a video news release? The good news is that it isn't what it used to be. When I worked in TV news in the pre-internet days, a video news release or VNR was a big gamble. A company or organization would assign someone to produce a news-style story and then pitch the video to news stations via videotape or DVD. It required a lot of work without guaranteeing that anyone in the public would ever see the finished product. Not so anymore, thanks to the internet. During my summer break from teaching college courses, I was looking for an opportunity to shoot some new videos. The local high school had made major renovations over the summer, including a new athletic complex and football field. After doing some background research, I pitched a story idea to the media coordinator for the school district, Jessica. Our plan was to shoot the video for the district's website and social media and to pitch it to a local online news outlet. The Plan The new fie...

Peleton CEO John Foley Shares His Story Salt Lake City, Utah - Silicon Slopes Tech Summit was the place to network for employees and enthusiasts of Utah's tech industry. Over 23,000 people registered for the two-day event at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. It was a packed house for the main sessions where CEOs of companies like Domo, Qualtrics, Pluralsight, and others shared their backstory and gave advice. The event was a mix between a trade show and a motivational conference. There was jamming music and lights to get the crowd pumped for the presenters and a hall filled with companies showing off their products and services and looking for employees. Events like this are perfect for smartphone journalism. The smartphone is unobtrusive and easy to pack into each session and event. To shoot video at the Tech Summit, I chose to shoot with my iPad mini with FiLMic Pro using a Rode Video Mic for smartphones. Rode Video Mic from B&H Photo Video I edited ...

I played tackle football from the fifth grade through high school. I had my share of bumps and bruises, but my worst injury was a sprained ankle and perhaps a concussion or two (concussions weren't of great concern in those days). My son, who is starting the eighth grade this fall, wasn't quite as lucky. Before any games have been played, he is out for the season . . . broken leg. In the spirit of "go big or go home", his leg is broken in three places. We drove him in the minivan from the practice field to the hospital and every bump and turn made him wince in pain. It was a long drive!  At times like this, most of us aren't thinking about taking photos and videos. I'll admit, capturing the moment was the last thing on my mind as I struggled to get my son out of the car and into the emergency room.  However, once a shot of morphine kicked in (for him, not me), it was time to record this experience for posterity. These days, most of us pack around a very...

It's not what you expect to see as you make your way to the local Walmart--even in Idaho. Usually, when you see police lights flashing near an intersection in the middle of winter, it's because of a fender-bender on the slick roads. Not this time. This time the officer was helping direct traffic . . . and cattle. Cows in the Crossing That is right! Parading down the side of the highway were hundreds of cattle herded by cowboys on horseback. This is the first time I've seen a cattle drive in December, especially across the street from Walmart.  The ranchers did a great job. The cattle were in near lockstep trotting on the edge of the highway before making a right down a less-traveled road.  The good news in all this is that my wife had her trusty iPhone 8. While she drove, I shot some video and took a few photos. There is truth to the saying, "the best camera is the one you have." It is always more powerful to have proof when you tell the tall tales of ...

They call it the happiest place on earth! The happy times don't come without a lot of work. My family and I recently spent four days in Disneyland and California Adventure. It was definitely a lot of fun, but not a casual vacation. We were up earlier than a regular workday and stayed up until way after midnight.  This year we invested in an unlimited PhotoPass. That means whenever we saw a park photographer, we asked them to take our photos. The photos were immediately uploaded to our account and available on our smartphones. Totally cool! Here are some of the family shots from the park photographers. In addition, I brought my own camera along, a Panasonic Lumix 4K ZS60.   Here are some of the photos from the ZS60.

It was a beautiful day for a trip to Yellowstone National Park. The fifth of July was prime time for tourists and bison. This bison couldn't keep his eyes off of us and started sauntering our way. This was a good time to employ the zoom lens on my Panasonic Lumix 4K ZS60. Not only does it shoot 4k video, but it also has a 30x optical zoom. That comes in handy when you are face to face with an ornery bison.   Crazy Bison at Yellowstone National Park The Lumix did a nice job with the landscape shots as well. It is tough to capture the grandeur of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, but I liked this shot. I have yet to take the time to learn all the settings, so I took most of the photos in auto mode. I'm excited to see what the camera can do once I know all the manual settings. ...