In a relative short time frame the Plain Dealer photography staff has turned from being still photographers to visual journalists thanks to the new Canon Mark II 5D.
Plain Dealer director of photography Bill Gugliotta shares his thoughts about the newspaper’s efforts in making the transition.
The Plain Dealer has taken a giant leap forward in producing video for its host web site cleveland.com. In January, each still photographer received a Canon Mark II 5D, a Sennheiser shotgun microphone, and a copy of Final Cut Express for their laptops. Deputy director of photography/multimedia Dale Omori is conducting ongoing training and Canon representative Mary Mannix spent time with the staff going over the camera’s features.
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We realize that the Mark II 5D is not a video camera, but we feel it gives us video capability on any assignment we choose at a reasonable cost. Equipping a photographer with a Mark II kit costs abut $3,200, while a video kit costs about $7,000. We think it’s an excellent way to produce “quick hit” videos and increasing our video output. Eventually, we think it will be just another storytelling tool for our staff and the possibilities are exciting.
We still have three staffers who use the Canon XHA1 HD video camera exclusively. And now that others on the staff can shoot video, they are free to explore more in-depth stories with a cinematic, narrative approach. In addition, we also have trained about a dozen reporters to shoot video with Sanyo HD point-and-shoot video cameras. In January, photographers and reporters produced 79 videos that encompassed the full spectrum of news, sports, features and entertainment. That number should increase in the coming months.
We’ve been pleased with the results so far. While there are limitation with focusing and exposure, the HD video quality of the Mark II 5Ds is outstanding. It’s a great still camera, too, and several photographers are using it as their main body. One of the hardest aspects of the transition has been integrating the video assignments and editing into our workflow, but that’s an issue we’re resolving with smarter scheduling.
Here are some of the videos shot with the Mark II 5D: