Roll! Shooting TV News: Shooting TV News:Views from Behind the Lens / Edition 1

by Rich Underwood

Overview

Roll! Shells fly overhead as night-scopes capture deadly fire fights with an eerie green hue, a category 5 hurricane devastates the Big Easy, hidden cameras enter a Cambodian village of brothels and a veteran journalist interviews himself throughout his own brain surgery. Part non-fiction drama, part trade publication, part text book, all woven together giving the reader a look through the viewfinders of the very best television photojournalists.

As 19 experts weigh in with their candid, personal stories and photographic tips, it's as if you're over their shoulders, following their intuitions and hearing their thoughts as they shoot. The trade term for what they do is called ENG (Electronic News Gathering) and whether they're called Cameramen, Backpack Journalists, Television Photographers or any other moniker de jour, they're all paid to bring the world's events into living rooms around the world. These are the men and women who capture the bleeding edge of history - as it happens.

Written in a smooth, unique interview style, this book is a necessary read for photojournalists, videographers and tv photojournalists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780240808482
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/19/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rich Underwood teaches Advanced Cinematography at San Diego State University in California. He is a working director and cinematographer. More about the author's production work can be found on www.filmspot.tv.

Table of Contents

The History of Television Photojournalism - From the Beginning; John DeTarsio, A Storyteller's Story; Larry Hatteberg, The Chain Of Command; Eric Kehe, The Photographic Department - People and Equipment; The Language of Lenses; Stephen Hooker, Camera Techniques for Spot News; Christian Parkinson, General News - From Kings to Commoners; Ray Farkas: Interviews - Talking Heads and Voyeurism; Corky Scholl, Feature Stories, B-Roll, Sequencing and Great Moments; Lisa Berglund, Truth and Filmmaking, Objective and Subjective Camerawork; Ian Pearson, Legalities and Ethics - Do the Right Thing; Mitchell Wagenberg, Covert Camera - The Fangs of the Fourth Estate; Heidi McGuire, The One - Woman - Band; Greg Stickney, Live - What TV News Does Best; Sam Allen, Get Into the Game - Athletic Photography; Brian Weister, Editing - A Cut Above; Mike Elwell: Embed - War Coverage; Bart Noonan, World Coverage - From the Top Down; David Hands, Freelancing in TV News; Rustin Thompson, From News to Independent Documentaries; Kevin Sites, The Future of Journalism
Parting Shots; Appendix A Video Formats; Appendix B Setting Up a Video Monitor; Appendix C More on Lighting; Appendix D RCFP First Amendment Handbook;
Appendix E RTNDA Code of Ethics; Appendix F NPPA Code of Ethics; Appendix G Sound

Editorial Reviews

The only quibble I have with this excellent work is the title. This advice from some of the most outstanding video photojournalists in the industry is just as useful to the hundreds of former still photographers who now are moving into the video world and posting their work online. Roll! goes way behind theory to the The micro- specificshighlighter of how the best photojournalists do their work.
If you want to know the best lights, best microphones best tripod to use-it is in there. If you want to understand depth of field, motion and shot composition-it is in there. I have been around TV news for more than 30 years and found myself scribbling the pages with my highlighter pen so I could come back to Rich Underwood's advice again and again. This book is a winner.

Al Tompkins
Author, teacher, journalist
The Poynter Institute
St Petersburg, Florida

From the Publisher