This is quite exciting, to me anyway, because I've done print interviews and I've taken video – now I've finally put both together. There are lots of mistakes but on the whole I'm not unhappy with it, especially as it runs uncut with no major hiccups.
Video interviewing feels kind of like driving a car. You can steer perfectly well but then you have to learn to duck-paddle your feet at the same time. Ie, you can ask questions but you also have to be thinking about the shot, and the directional mic (oops), and a good final line, and what they are saying, and what you might ask next, and oh dear, did I not even mention the name of the shop or who Chris and Pete are. (Well, it was spontaneous.)
In digital journalism, you'll also most likely be holding the camera, too – fortunately, it was an easily manageable Flip in this case – but it can be hard to hold it steady when you're gesturing with the other hand to keep on talking or trying to direct Pete Ashton back into shot…
Then you'll need to write up a traditional news intro for your BBC Midlands Today presenters (or whoever), something like:
'Retail is hard!' – that's the view of two local bloggers who have become shop managers overnight after opening the BullRing's first-ever pop-up arts shop.
Local artists in Birmingham will be competing alongside big names such as Debenhams and Selfridges, after Chris Unitt and Pete Ashton were offered the chance to turn their arts blog into a retail opportunity in one of Europe's largest shopping centres.
Called Created in Birmingham, after the blog, the shop aims to sell everything from paintings and prints, t-shirts to local photographs, all made by Birmingham artists. Shoppers are even being encouraged to come in and have a chat on the sofas to find out more about the artworks and how they are made.
It opened last night [25.02.2010] and we went along just as they let out their last customer…
Created in Birmingham shop opening night from Katchooo on Vimeo.
Then simply finish with a few quick voxpops with local grizzled shoppers, a cheesy chat between Nick Owen and Suzanne Virdee, and that's a wrap.
Ok, well maybe I need a bit more practise first.
For more on the CiB shop, here's the lowdown from the CiB blog.