Government Communicators: Know Who's Who in a Video Crew

Photo: Patty Mooney

Award-winning video producer Ann Ramsey contributed today's post. She is a senior producer at the US Department of Health & Human Services in Washington, DC.

You probably deal with video crews often in your role as a government communicator. You host press conferences and other events broadcasters want to cover.

From the broadcaster's point of view, any shooting done is considered "field" or "remote" shooting; and it will send specialized crews for it. However, you may not be clear about the taxonomy and makeup of these crews.

Why do some field crews seem to waltz into any situation on their own, shoot it, and pack out with hardly a word, while others can't be satisfied without detailed advance support and extra time, space, access, and control on site?

The answer lies in the differences between two types of field crews: ENG versus EFP. 

The two types of crews have considerably different purposes and needs. Understanding the differences can reduce your headaches and improve your media coverage.

ENG–Electronic News Gathering

ENG refers to a field news team covering a current or breaking story. The term derives from TV news in the 1980s, when field footage was first electronically transmitted to editors, instead of being handed off to them on videotapes.

Photo: Alex Row

ENG footage is recorded for editing and later airing, or for transmitting live. Today’s ENG crew could be a lone reporter, operating her own camera with a headset and microphone; or, it could be a reporter with a one- or two-person crew. If the latter, the crew captures the audio and video, while the reporter concentrates on interviewing or narrating. 

For high-profile or unfolding situations, a satellite uplink or a microwave truck might also be dispatched to the location for live transmitting, and to serve as home-base for multiple ENG crews. Regardless of size, ENG crews are used by TV, web and radio broadcasters to cover press conferences, crime scenes, public events, accidents, rescues, storms, court trials, and battle zones. ENG crews are “on call” day and night for immediate deployment to "get the story." Some stories–a hostage situation, a major fire, or a riot, for example–may attract dozens of crews, who vie for position as the event unfolds.

For an ENG crew, the emphasis is on speed, agility, and fast turnaround of short-form stories, usually for airing the same or the following day. Their set-up and tear-down process is fast; they need minimal B-roll footage (“covering shots"); and, since they are reporting at public press events, don’t need to get appearance releases signed. You will hear them use the term “run-and-gun,” which is the signature ENG style.

As a communications professional in charge of a government event such as a press conference, you and your team will need to accommodate each broadcaster’s ENG crew: give them the event rundown, and let them know how to get into the venue. When crews arrive, show them to the area where they can set up; and let them know if there will be press availability time with the VIP for individual questions. Crews will usually have batteries, but show them a power source for backup. Tell them if they will need to acquire audio using their own mics; otherwise help each crew plug into to your "mult box" for a direct audio feed from the podium or soundboard. (A mult box is a single audio source with multiple outputs. Mult boxes are commonly used at press conferences in small spaces, so that umpteen mics are not all in the speaker’s face at the same time, and so that reporters can all get the same, clean audio.) Crews will want a couple of minutes to run a sound check before the event starts and cameras begin to roll. If your event is happening someplace with local color or visual interest, you should also arrange a few minutes for the cameras to shoot some B roll. After the event, ask the crews if there’s anything else they need, and show them the best way out.

EFP–Electronic Field Production

The EFP crew works to create a narrative, rather than reacting to an unfolding story in real time. Whereas short-form news packages or live stories are the norm for local reporters, longer-form, in-depth stories are covered by national news magazines. In addition, you may want your agency’s in-house video production team (or a crew that you hire) to make a video out of an event as an edited package, or to create "Bites and B roll" to be made available to broadcasters for their use. Any of these more complex situations will call for an EFP crew.

According to the Herbert Zettl's Television Production Handbook:

"[Electronic Field Production] uses both ENG and studio techniques. From ENG it borrows its mobility and flexibility; from the studio it borrows its production care and quality control. EFP takes place on location (which may include shooting in someone’s living room) and has to adapt to the location conditions… Good lighting and audio are always difficult to achieve in EFP, regardless of whether you are outdoors or indoors. Compared to ENG, in which you simply respond to a situation, EFP needs careful planning.”

Typical uses of EFP are: industrial videos (i.e., non-broadcast, which includes government videos), documentary, broadcast magazine interviews and profiles, and promos.

Photo: Ann Ramsey

An EFP crew is unlikely to consist of one person (a “one man band”), although some documentarians operate that way. Most often, the crew is sizable. EFP done on a large scale (for example, the Olympics, the Oscars, or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade) are called “remotes,” and will require crews for multiple-camera setups with videography, photography, advanced graphics, sound, grips, gaffers, and camera motion rigs such as Steadicam, drone, action camera, dolly, crane, and jib. In government's sphere, something like a large town hall or political debate would require so large a crew, but in everyday practice you find most EFP crews that are needed to cover speeches or press conferences will consist of three to six members. Crew members could include a producer/interviewer, one or two cameramen, a sound recordist/mixer, a gaffer (lighter), and a production assistant or grip. They will bring an audio mixer with several types of microphones, and probably a couple of cameras, a case full of lenses, field monitors, and a couple of camera set-ups (a tripod and dolly, for example). Most conspicuously, an EFP crew will arrive with numerous cases of lighting instruments and accessories. All of this equipment needs to be staged where the crew can get access to it as they move through their shoot.

Photo: Ann Ramsey

If a national news organization wants to create a magazine story, your press event will essentially become B roll, with the content of the story (the A roll) likely interview-driven. B roll is typically gathered by a three-man team (a producer, cameraman and audio technician). The crew will want to go to the home or workplace of one or more of the interviewees, or possibly arrange additional locations representative of the story. The lighting and shooting style of A roll and B roll will be consistent with the look and feel of the series. Raw footage can be hand-delivered, shipped on a hard drive, or fed via a local satellite service to the studio, where it's screened and edited. The final product may be aired in a matter of days, weeks or months, depending on the broadcast schedule. 

EFP usually has higher production values and slower turnaround than ENG. As the government communicator, you want to assist the EFP crew to make a terrific video, one that's assured of getting aired. Help them with: scouting locations, securing interviews, and accessing the venue. For unloading, look for alternatives to stairs (since they usually put all their equipment on a rolling cart, EFP crews need elevators or ramps). For set-up, give them space to stage equipment, and allot them at least an hour to light the interview set. EPF crews will want attractive interviews, so they need extra room (“throw”) behind the interviewee to blur out the background. They also need to minimize disturbances and light and sound interference once the cameras are rolling. For multiple interviews, you might want to arrange a separate room that can be pre-lit. You should also accompany the crew to B-roll locations, to ensure they get access and can get the variety of shots they need. Don't be surprised if a two- or five-minute finished piece requires a day or more of production time. At the end of the shoot, ensure the crew was able to get signed appearance and location releases, and give them adequate time to pack up and load out.

Different animals

Because ENG and EFP crews are different animals, they demand different care and feeding. To complicate matters, it's possible you'll find both types of crews covering a single event. So you need to:

• Understand that ENG crews, although more self-sufficient, are concerned about their deadlines. So if they request something, they need it on the double! As appropriate, you will be directing your ENG crews to one or more designated press areas from which they can cover the main podium, plus any immediate follow-ons, such as press avails or facility tours.

• Understand, in contrast, that EFP crews will likely need pre-arranged, one-on-one interviews and multiple set-ups, so they'll require additional space, time and attention during, as well as after, the formal event. Don't begrudge them the time and trouble. The compensation for the extra effort you give EFP crews will show up in the end result: a high-quality, in-depth and compelling video.

ENG & EFP crew roles
Normally, these roles are combined varyingly among a small crew:

• Producer/Reporter - directs crew, conducts interviews
• DP (Director of Photography) - chief camera person
• Videographer - camera person, e.g., second camera
• Sound Recordist - acquires and mixes audio
• Boom Operator - sound recordist who uses a pole-mounted mic
• AP (Associate Producer) - assists producer with logistics
• Gaffer - lighting director
• Grip - assist the DP and sets up the camera rigging
• Dolly Grip - operates a camera dolly
• PA (Production Assistant) - manages gear
• Media Manager - relays or transfers video and audio files

Jesus Lied

If you believe Seth Godin, all marketers are storytellers and all storytellers, liars.

History's most famous storyteller, perhaps, is Jesus Christ, which would also make him history's most famous liar. Jesus told parables, allegorical stories that aim to teach.

Among his best-known is "The Good Samaritan." The parable teaches neighborliness and goes like this:

A man was traveling when he fell among robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and left him half dead. A priest who was also traveling the road saw the man and passed by him. So did a Levite. But when a Samaritan came upon the man, he took pity and stopped; he bound his wounds after pouring oil and wine on them, and set the man on his own beast and brought him to an inn. The next day, the Samaritan gave two denarii to the innkeeper and said, "Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back." Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

Well-told, the parable can be a powerful way to put across a lesson, as contemporary storytellers like Malcolm Gladwell know. Perhaps every salesperson's favorite parable is "The Stingy Customer." It warns against false economy and goes like this:

A rep received a call from a prospect. He told her he wasn't going to hire her company, but instead pay three college students to build his company's shopping cart. He also told her he was nobody's fool: her fees were too extravagant. Four months later, the man called again and asked the rep to look over the students' code, which worried him. The rep saw the students had taken shortcuts, making the application sluggish and easy to hack. With little experience a hacker could steal all the customers' names, passwords, credit card numbers and CCIDs. The rep wished she'd told him four months earlier, "If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur."

TED organizer Chris Anderson says the parable "can entertain, inform and inspire all in one." But he cautions parable-tellers to avoid preaching. "You don’t want to insult the intelligence of the audience by force-feeding exactly the conclusion they must draw from the tale you’ve told," Anderson says. "It’s important to test your material on someone who knows the audience to see if it lands with clarity, but without clumsiness."

A Buck is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Twenty percent of every digital ad dollar is wasted, according to a new study by The & Partnership.

Last year, $12.48 billion of the $66 billion marketers shelled out for digital ads flowed into the hands of crooks committing botnet and adware fraud.

Botnet fraud occurs when an ad is presented, but never viewed by a human; adware fraud, when it's never even presented.

The money wasted exceeds the cumulative digital advertising revenue of all 80 members of Digital Content Next, a trade association whose members include AP, NBC, NPR, PBS, Turner and other publishers.

Fraud will worsen this year. The report predicts $16.40 billion will be lost to it in 2017 (20% of the $82 billion marketers will pay for digital ads).

Who Should Vote?

Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

— Plato

Most philosophers agree "one person, one vote" is the right policy in a democracy.

But who counts as a person?

You could say any individual affected by the government should count. But it's hard to say who is and who's not affected by the government. And would you let children vote? Probably not.

That answer's clearly wrong.

You could also say any adult citizen should count. But would you let POWs, felons, tourists, aliens, and the mentally incompetent vote? Probably not.

That answer's also wrong.

I'd go out on a limb and say any democratically competent adult should count. And I'd determine whether any adult were "democratically competent" by requiring her to answer, in writing, two questions:

Why did Americans fight the Civil War?

Why did Americans fight in the Second World War?

Philosophers call my preferred political system an epistocracy (episteme is the Ancient Greek word for knowledge.) An epistocracy restricts suffrage to the democratically competent, assuming good political outcomes depend on votes cast from knowledge, not ignorance. Philosopher Jason Brennan calls it "rule by knowers."

You might say, "Wait, the Founding Fathers rejected epistocracy!"

That's true; and they also rejected the Ancient Greeks' democracy, in favor of the Ancient Romans' republicanism.

Under the Founding Fathers' preferred system, citizens can vote to elect politicians, who act as a firewall against mob-rule. They defined a citizen as any wealthy white man.

But 230 years later, we have a democracy, the political system Plato called the "agreeable form of anarchy." We let nearly any yahoo vote.

Plato also warned: Democracies inevitably give rise to tyrannies when a populist autocrat can play to the mob's passions.

It's time for an overhaul—before we're led over the cliff.

Expanding Your Boundaries?

According to Bain consultants Chris Zook and James Allen, a company can grow profitably in two ways: by diversifying or by expanding the boundaries of its core business, or what they call entering adjacencies.

Their study of thousands of companies has led them to say there are six ways to enter an adjacency:

• Expand along the value chain (De Beers moved from wholesaling into retailing diamonds, for example).
  
  
• Use new distribution channels (supplement maker EAS moved from selling to nutrition stores to selling to Wal-Mart).
  
  
• Enter new countries (Vodafone expanded from the UK to Europe, the US, Germany, and Japan).
  
  
• Address new customer segments (discount broker Charles Schwab became an advisor to the super wealthy).
  
  
• Offer new products and services (IBM pioneered "global IT" and doubled its earnings).
  
  
• Build a new business based on an in-house capability (American Airlines created Sabre, which in turn created Travelocity).

From their study, Zook and Allen also conclude that companies which learn to enter an adjacency, then repeat their recipe again and again, grow at twice the speed of rivals—at a minimum.

How about you? Are you expanding your boundaries?

My new business partner and I, while our direct marketing agency is still in its infancy, have already added six new products and services to the four core offerings we opened shop with in January, including PR, video production and marketing research.

We're following advice you can find in Competing Against Luck, whose authors say customers never "buy" products and services, but "hire" them "to get a job done."

We're designing a menu based on jobs our customers need to get done. We might not grow at the pace of Charles Schwab or IBM, but we're trying—and learning a lot in the process.

I'll keep you posted, in any event.