A much more compelling video about Santa Barbara
David Besemer is the Chief Technology Officer for Composite Software of San Mateo, California.
And even though he used to live in Colorado (a land-locked state), he had a lifelong passion for boats.
That passion was so strong that in 2008 he and his wife and then 14-year old daughter departed for a multi-year cruise around the world.
He documented that trip on his own website, Three@sea, which I invite you to visit.
Prior to departure, David enrolled in the 4-day Travel Channel Academy in Santa Barbara, held at the Brooks Institute of Photography.
Even though David had never touched a video camera before, he proved a good student of the art, and followed all the directions perfectly.
He produced the video above, about Little Toot, a small harbor ferry that operates in Santa Barbara.
Brooks has produced a very good travel video. What makes it work is that it focuses on a fairly small yet interesting story unique to Santa Barbara. It makes Lil Toot the kind of thing you might like to do yourself if you visited Santa Barbara – and not the kind of thing you might have known about before you saw the video.
This works very well as a travel video.
What does not work as a travel video is the narrated to b-roll ‘overview’ of Santa Barbara (or anywhere else for that matter) – ie, (“this is Santa Barbara, with a population of more than 25 thousands, this quaint village, perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean is home to many good restaurants and hotels, such as blah blah blah… ). This kind of video is living death. Â It reminds me of when we used to copy the first four paragraphs out of the World Book to fulfill a school ‘report’ on Colombia.
Don’t do this.
No one wants to watch these things (not even the President of Colombia).
Instead, find a small story with a character – like Lil Toot, the character in David’s piece, and tell that small story.
Small stories work the best. The smaller the better.
And note how David follows the rules to a “T”.
Don’t move the camera!
Michael Rosenblum
For more than 35 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.