One-Person Sports Reporting & Backpack Journalism

Video Transcript

I'm Jamal Spencer for Expert Village, here at ABC 3 here in Lansing and we're going to talk about how to be a successful sports broadcaster. So often you get sent out to do a story by yourself. That means you have to report it, edit it, shoot it, all by yourself. They call it backpack journalism. So when you get to an interviewee and you tell them hey, I'm sorry, I'm only one man today. Can you help me out? You either hand them the mic or you do it yourself. And what you do is this, you set the mic up, you focus, you white balance, and you check your audio levels, and you tell the subject to stand still, and you extend your arm as far as possible. You want your subject to be at the end of your microphone and no closer. That way they don't keep getting closer and closer and you have to lean back. Cause when the subject gets too close to the mic, he gets really big. Doesn't make him look (him or her) doesn't make them look that great. So what you'd want to do is you want to ask your question, extend your arm as far as possible so that way the subject knows only go as far as my mic. I'm only got one guy, I can't move around and do different shots, this is all I can do. So when you're by yourself as a journalist, you set up your camera on your shoulder, you get your shot together, you ask your question, and you extend the mic as far as you can. Let the interviewee know, don't go past this point. So that's a little tip for you when you're trying to do it by yourself and you have a camera and a mic and no other reporter, that's how you get it done by yourself.

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