I was recently in New York City and had the opportunity to visit B & H Photo and Video. The place is amazing-the holy grail of video and photo equipment on the planet. We were there on a Wednesday afternoon and the place was packed with customers scooping up video cameras, lights, mics, you name it. Literally anyone could walk into this superstore (albeit with a decent sized budget) and pick up anything and everything you would need to be able to shoot and edit professional grade video. But while walking the store aisles I wondered, how many of these video aficionados actually know what they were doing? How many are true visual storytellers? After all, creating a great video is much more than owning a high-end camera and pushing the record button.
After more than twenty years telling visual stories in television news, I ventured into private sector video production and opened my own business. While my clients have changed, my story telling hasn’t. Whether a corporate video, small business web video, commercial or government video; years and years of conducting interviews, selecting sound bites, scene selection, and producing stories under deadline pressure has left me well-trained for the private and government sectors. It’s also why I continue to exclusively work with former TV news photographers and editors. In my experience, there are no better story tellers in the video world than those who have crafted amazing television news stories. No matter what you may buy at B & H.