Press Release Roundup

Publicola has been running a new feature called the Press Release Roundup. Josh Feit hosted the first 5, with Erica C Barnett hosting the 6th. Erica makes for a better host than Josh, in part because Josh talks sooo sloooow. As an editor I'm always looking for ways to speed up the pace of a video, and nothing makes that harder than a slow talker. I won't go in to the technical issues here because this whole video is one big technical issue, all I'll say is that if they were trying to make Erica look like tiny and non-authoritative, then they succeeded.



Overall though, I think these videos really show the potential of video to take dry subject matter and make it interesting, so kudos to publicola for trying this out.   Even with the low production value these videos are more interesting than an article with the same info would be, in no small part because of the personality and opinions of the on camera host. Speed up the pacing, add in some some stock photos to illustrate the topics and the press release authors, and some screen shots of the press releases and you've got the makings of a solid little video. It wouldn't take long either, a skilled editor should be able to bang out a video like this with around an hour of editing time.

In essence, this series is like a scaled down version of a clip show like Infomania, or The Soup.  I think Infomania describes the genre the best with their tag line, "Chewing up the week's media so we can regurgitate it, half digested, into your mouth."

I think there's an opportunity here for local news organizations to do this kind of video, either recapping their own content each week, or just recapping the week or months worth of Seattle news.  It's a great format for online video; fast paced, personality driven, and it's quick & easy to produce.

In the comments, Josh Feit says they're shooting this on a flip video camera.  Here's a tip for anyone shooting on a flip... don't zoom in! There's a definite difference in the image quality between #4 (below) and #6 (above) and I'm guessing it's because they zoomed in on #6.  Flips only have digital zooms, not optical zooms, so zooming sacrifices image quality.  You're much better off just moving the camera in closer.

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UPDATE -  Josh Feit on Publicola, "Never, in my whole life, have I been told I speak too slowly. Or as Albright says: “Josh talks sooo sloooow.”"

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