Notes on filming, editing and running a newsroom, written by the people who shoot and cut television news packages every week.
Short, practical pieces on breaking-story filming, studio lighting, camera technique and newsroom workflow. A new article appears about once a day, and the latest are listed first.
Edit and delivery
A practical walk through the edit, captioning and file delivery steps that decide whether a news package reaches the broadcaster on time and in the format they asked for.
Training
Six questions to settle before committing a crew to a hands-on camera training day: who attends, what kit comes, which skills matter, where it is held and what happens afterwards.
Workflow
Most newsroom delays come from habits nobody questioned. Here are the workflow mistakes I see most often when mapping footage, scripts and approvals, and the plain fixes for each.
Pricing
A plain account of how we price a camera operator and editor on a developing story, which choices raise or lower the bill, and what to settle before the van leaves.
Case Story
A short case from the studio floor: how we lit Marcus, a first-time interviewee, so he looked like himself on air and the programme kept to its slot.
Edit Desk
Shorter days and heavier schedules change how packages are cut, captioned and sent. Priya Chauhan sets out what to settle in these weeks so winter deadlines do not catch the edit desk out.
Trade Terms
A plain-words explanation of a rule we teach on every camera technique day: expose for the brightest part of the face, and why it matters when a story is moving fast.
Workflow
Daniel Okafor compares fixing a newsroom's approval chain in one planned pass with changing it stage by stage, and says which he would pick for a regional team.
Behind the Scenes
A producer's account of what happens between the first phone call and a filed package: how our crews travel, shoot, edit on location and send material while the story is still moving.
Studio Lighting
The question we hear most about studio portrait lighting: why a presenter looks fine in the room and wrong on screen, and the small changes that usually put it right.
Company news
A look at how our rapid edit desk takes material from the field to a captioned, correctly formatted file, and what editors can do to make those minutes count.
Training Methods
Part three of our camera technique series looks at the tools, materials and methods we rely on when we teach news shooters framing, handheld movement, exposure and sound.
Workflow Guides
A practical walk-through for mapping footage, scripts and sign-offs in your own newsroom, so you can see where minutes disappear before you change a single tool.
News Crews
Priya Chauhan sets out what a news desk should settle before it commits a field crew to a developing story, from file formats and sign-off to who answers the phone.
Studio Lighting
Most lighting problems in a news studio are habits, not equipment faults. Here are six common mistakes in presenter and interview set-ups, and the small changes that fix each one.
Prices
A plain look at how fast-turnaround editing, captioning and file delivery are priced, which choices raise or lower the quote, and what to tell us so the figure is right first time.
Client story
A regional reporter named Marcus spent a day with our lead operator learning framing, handheld movement, exposure and sound. This is how his footage changed once he was back in the field.
Workflow
Shorter days, early darkness and weather-led stories put pressure on how footage moves from field to air. A practical list of workflow changes to make in these weeks.
Trade Terms
A term from the trade explained in plain words: filing as you go means sending finished pieces of a package to the desk while the story is still moving, and why crews work this way.
Studio Lighting
Two ways to light a presenter or interviewee in a studio: broad soft sources against a shaped key with fill. We compare them for news use and say which we would put up first.
Television news video production in Gloucester: breaking-story crews, studio lighting, newsroom workflow design, camera training and fast edit and delivery since 2013.