Hello. I didn't intend to write again ever on Wichita TV News. Why did I stop? I dont know why. Then 12:00PM hit.
KWCH's Dave Roberts did a teaze for coverage later on in the day for the trial of one of 2 men accused of racing down Kellogg when the car jumped a barrier crashing into a vehicle, killing a 5 year old. Roberts took his cell phone, held it feet from his head outside of the courtroom and did a teaze saying he will have more coming up in the day. It looked very amateur. Bad video and grainy. The viewer got nothing from this. NOTHING!!!! It was like they were showing off they could do this. I think its safe to say most people dont have bag nor brick cell phones anymore and most phones have cameras on them so shooting video from a cell phone isn't that big a deal. An anchor could have easily teased the story or have Roberts shoot a standup outside the courthouse earlier in the day. Plus in this HDTV world where cameras and televisions are becoming so very clear, video from a cell phone really looks bad. Let me say this, Im not setting blame on Roberts. I think he may be a "multimedia journalist" a 1-man band who shoots and voices the stories. He does a nice job doing something that probably many coudn't do daily. Sadly its becoming a standard around the country. In that case its me blasting the industry, however if you are doing that, KWCH needs standards on how to do teases and not with cell phone standups!! The KWCHers will reply complaining that I have in the past always been hard on them. Actually local news product on all 3 stations have been decent lately (there have been some exceptions), but this example at Noon was terrible. The video quality was bad and cell phone use in this case (any case) degraded what couldve been good product. I would rather see black and white news film from the 50's then this digital stuff.
Hal
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2 comments:
Woah Hal you are back. Dont think thats news, but that catches me off guard. You criticize KWCH using video from a phone for a teaze. You should know even the Networks are using devices to get video out that may not be perfect, but obviously you just awoke from a deep sleep. I wouldn't call you "Sleeping Beauty" but since you went away, most networks will use live shots from time to time, using an internet service Skype. It uses a regular camera, but it goes through the internet live and even if it as a few flickers, isnt too bad.
Just because "the networks" are using it, doesnt make it right. Plus some of the time they are using it in war-torn areas or places it is difficult to get a clear live Satellite signal out from. I do not think Wichita is one of those places. -Hal
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