Stay Classy, Nashville

In September I’ll take six days off from blogging at Nashville is Talking to train as a video journalist. WKRN, the station by which I am employed, is moving to the "VJ model" wherein current photographers and reporters and editors are trained to write stories, shoot video with small digital cameras, and edit their footage on laptops. This gives the station the ability to send more cameras out in the field (20-30 vs. 3-7), which provides for breadth of coverage. There is a lot of debate, particularly online, about whether WKRN (and San Franisco’s KRON) are making a good decision in moving to this model. But that is not what this post is about.

This post is about how excited I am to have the oppurtunity to train for this. I mean, I can understand how people who have been in the business for 10-20 years would be hesitant about the transition, but for me it is nothing but beneficial. My journalism education didn’t include a single course about television. When I arrived at WKRN I’d make lists of jargon I heard and look them up later. For me, this six-day training week (with 12-16 hour days) is going to be a crash course in how to tell a story with a video camera and a computer. I’ve long known how to tell a decent story with my fingers, on this keyboard, but I’ve dreamed of being able to tell a story in vsual way. I am a major film buff, you know.

I mean, people pay good money for training like this and I’m getting paid for it. As my momma always said, you can’t beat that with a stick. And I’m totally up for the challenge. I used to get off on 16 hour study days in college, cramming for tests, beating that looming deadline. I miss it in a way.

But I’m a little nervous I’m going to suck at it. I mean, a few of my digital photos are pretty good, but I’ve never held a video camera except at parties. My family never owned one. I think my Dad bought one later, but I never used it. I have been told that I have "a good eye," and I wouldn’t disagree with that. But that may be a whole different kind of eye than the one you need to shoot good video. We’re about to find out.

Writing the stories won’t be a problem so much. I’ve heard scary things about how tough the editing software is, but I am slightly more technically advanced than some of those going through training already, so maybe it won’t be so hard.

Anyway, I just wanted to say how stoked I am to acquire these new and hugely useful skills. I look forward to storytelling in an entirely new way, a completely foreign medium. And I wouldn’t mind saying, "For News 2, I’m videojournalist Brittney Gilbert."
That would be okay.