We have less than a week before the JAMA Video Project embarks on its first client assignment at the U.S. embassy in Kinshasa, so it was important to get the team out with the cameras to see how they perform under a bit of pressure. The assignment today was to shoot a 1-minute package about the smallpower offices. They would be permitted 1 hour to shoot and 1 hour to edit their package.

Felix editing his segment

The key principles that they had to incorporate in their packages were:

• 80-90% of the shots MUST be on a tripod
• Use the "5 second" rule and take longer shots of each piece of video. (see previous post for what the "5 second rule is)
• Tell the viewer a story using the images they record. I should be able to understand what smallpower is just by watching the visuals.
• Demonstrate understanding of wide, establishing, close and cut-away shots.

Each segment is available to view and you will notice that they definitely achieved all of the above key principles, but also revealed that some other basic concepts of news-style videography do need some work. I encourage you to watch some of the clips and follow their progress.

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