Freelance/Student £165
Members £130
*Tickets include lunch
If your purpose in interviewing goes beyond getting a quick quote, then this workshop is for you. It’s about gathering reliable answers and rich detail from human sources.
Typically people don’t give straight answers: They tell you what they have rehearsed, they speak in abstractions, or they evade your questions. First, we will show you how to “scenarise” an interview so that you can predict such moves, and prepare counter-strategies.
In role play you are going to apply techniques that build two key assets: “the second story”, another name for buried truths; and narratives that can be used to construct powerful scenes.
You will learn to improve your questioning and listening skills, to recognise important signals, and to save the interview when it gets difficult.
This one-day workshop is aimed at journalists, documentarists, story researchers and fact checkers. The emphasis is on background interviews, not on news interviews for TV or radio.
Throughout the day we will be covering:
- What can be the return on interviews?
- What are the best techniques to open people up?
- How to create scenario’s for an interview?
- How to deal with difficult situations?
- Role play and feedback
Mark Lee Hunter and Luuk Sengers are award-winning investigative journalists and interviewers who have worked in print and television. They have helped thousands of professional and student journalists and managers on five continents to improve their questioning skills. They are co-authors of the global benchmark investigative journalism manual, Story-Based Inquiry (UNESCO 2009), as well as The Story Tells the Facts (Logan Handbooks/CIJ 2013) and The Hidden Scenario (Logan Handbooks/CIJ 2012). For more details on these resources please go to www.storybasedinquiry.com and you can also get a free download of following books (in PDF), “Story-Based Inquiry: A Manual for Investigative Journalists” (UNESCO 2009) and “Power is Everywhere: How stakeholder-driven media build the future of watchdog news” (Stakeholder Media Project 2017).
Freelance/Student £140
Members £115
*All tickets include a light lunch
More and more journalists are now using their smartphones as an electronic news gathering device as online magazines and newspapers increasingly expect reporters to add multimedia content to their story. This one-day course will teach you how to record audio and how to shoot video using your smartphone.
The workshop will cover the following:
- Learn how to record audio interviews and use a microphone to get the best sound
- Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
- Film voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots and film multiple interviewees
- Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
- Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
- Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
- Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
- Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
- Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.
Before the course, we will contact participants to find out what type of smartphone they’ll bring to the course and with a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list will include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.
About the trainer
Bill Shepherd is a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a member of the Guild of Television Professionals.
Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
More and more journalists are now using their smartphones as an electronic news gathering device as online magazines and newspapers increasingly expect reporters to add multimedia content to their story. This one-day course will teach you how to record audio and how to shoot video using your smartphone.
The workshop will cover the following:
- Learn how to record audio interviews and use a microphone to get the best sound
- Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
- Film voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots and film multiple interviewees
- Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
- Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
- Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
- Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
- Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
- Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.
Before the course, we will contact participants to find out what type of smartphone they’ll bring to the course and with a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list will include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.
About the trainer
Bill Shepherd is a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a member of the Guild of Television Cameramen.
Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
More and more journalists are now using their smartphones as an electronic news gathering device as online magazines and newspapers increasingly expect reporters to add multimedia content to their story. This one-day course will teach you how to record audio and how to shoot video using your smartphone.
The workshop will cover the following:
- Learn how to record audio interviews and use a microphone to get the best sound
- Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
- Film voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots and film multiple interviewees
- Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
- Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
- Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
- Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
- Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
- Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.
This workshop is currently not compatible with Android devices.
It is specifically aimed at those using an iPhone or iPad, as iOS devices are currently more compatible with video and audio apps.
Before the course, we will contact participants with a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list will include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.
About the trainer
Bill Shepherd is a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a member of the Guild of Television Cameramen.
Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
More and more journalists are now using their smartphones as an electronic news gathering device as online magazines and newspapers increasingly expect reporters to add multimedia content to their story. This one-day course will teach you how to record audio and how to shoot video using your smartphone.
The workshop will cover the following:
- Learn how to record audio interviews and use a microphone to get the best sound
- Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
- Film voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots and film multiple interviewees
- Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
- Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
- Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
- Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
- Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
- Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.
This workshop is currently not compatible with Android devices.
It is specifically aimed at those using an iPhone or iPad, as iOS devices are currently more compatible with video and audio apps.
Before the course, we will contact participants with a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list will include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.
About the trainer
Bill Shepherd is a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a member of the Guild of Television Cameramen.
Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
More and more journalists are now using their smartphones as an electronic news gathering device as online magazines and newspapers increasingly expect reporters to add multimedia content to their story. This one-day course will teach you how to record audio and how to shoot video using your smartphone.
The workshop will cover the following:
- Learn how to record audio interviews and use a microphone to get the best sound
- Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
- Film voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots and film multiple interviewees
- Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
- Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
- Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
- Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
- Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
- Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.
This workshop is currently not compatible with Android devices.
It is specifically aimed at those using an iPhone or iPad, as iOS devices are currently more compatible with video and audio apps.
Before the course, we will contact participants with a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list will include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.
About the trainer
Bill Shepherd is a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a member of the Guild of Television Cameramen.
Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
More and more journalists are now using their smartphones as an electronic news gathering device as online magazines and newspapers increasingly expect reporters to add multimedia content to their story. This one-day course will teach you how to record audio and how to shoot video using your smartphone.
The workshop will cover the following:
- Learn how to record audio interviews and use a microphone to get the best sound
- Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
- Film voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots and film multiple interviewees
- Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
- Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
- Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
- Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
- Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
- Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.
This workshop is currently not compatible with Android devices.
It is specifically aimed at those using an iPhone or iPad, as iOS devices are currently more compatible with video and audio apps.
Before the course, we will contact participants with a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list will include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.
About the trainer
Bill Shepherd is a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a member of the Guild of Television Cameramen.
Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
More and more journalists are now using their smartphones as an electronic news gathering device as online magazines and newspapers increasingly expect reporters to add multimedia content to their story. This one-day course will teach you how to record audio and how to shoot video using your smartphone.
The workshop will cover the following:
- Learn how to record audio interviews and use a microphone to get the best sound
- Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
- Film voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots and film multiple interviewees
- Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
- Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
- Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
- Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
- Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
- Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.
This workshop is specifically aimed at those using an iPhone or iPad rather than an Android, as iOS devices are currently more compatible with video and audio apps. Before the course, we will contact participants with a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list will include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.
About the trainer
Bill Shepherd is a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and a member of the Guild of Television Cameramen.
Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak
]]>In conversation with Vin Ray, Matt Frei let us into the deepest, darkest and funniest recesses of his journalistic mind. Here is his advice for putting together a good story for television.
1. Pictures
Writing well for TV is quite simple, Frei says. The lesson is just to “get out of the way” of the images or the sound:
“It’s kind of a nerdy thing to say but if you’re doing television writing you’ve got to look at the pictures – they won’t tell you what points to make but they’ll confine what you can say.”
Frei says that former BBC correspondent Martin Bell is the ‘go to’ man on writing:
“Martin would look at [the shots] and pace up and down… then out would come twelve seconds of words followed by the sound of a dog barking or a shell going off.”
2. Immediacy
For Frei, the carefully managed journalism event comes as a distant second to the immediate.
A piece to camera by ITVs John Irvine standing on a road in Baghdad as US army trucks scrape by him at high speed is a good example.
“It’s not a kind of standard piece to camera where I’m standing here for thirty seconds telling you what I think this is all about… [John Irvine] writes simply – it’s the light touch.”
And in carefully orchestrated Washington, where Frei works at the moment as correspondent with Channel 4 News:
“These unscripted moments, they’re gold dust.”
3. Humour
In the same way that Frei’s chuckling asides gave this discussion momentum, he says that laughter can be great for telling stories:
“There’s a lot of funny stuff out there and if you don’t use it you’re missing a trick.”
4. Detail
Noticing small, hidden things can bring a difficult story to life.
In South Korea, where the economic crisis had a huge impact on the personal lives of people made redundant, was a bridge that people jumped off to commit suicide. But how do you tell the story with no obvious pictures?
The authorities had put grease up the bridge to stop people climbing up, but slip marks showed that not everyone had been put off trying to reach the top:
“You’re not going to get someone jumping off a bridge and going to funerals isn’t going to do it either, so you have to find something that works… in that little scratch signature in the grease you can see the agony, you can imagine what was going through his mind… it’s a little glimpse in that detail into the desperation that makes people do something like this.”
5. Interviews
In America, Frei says that getting people to talk isn’t hard, but he concedes that interviewing well is a tricky business, albeit one with a simple solution:
“My policy is to start off with a big fat smile and just try and disarm the situation by being unthreatening – then go for it afterwards”
Watch the full event here:
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