CRITICAL PHOTOJOURNALISM

Brian Storm is the award-winning founder of MediaStorm, a film production and interactive design studio that publishes diverse narratives, offers advanced storytelling training, builds publishing tools and collaborates with a diverse group of clients. MediaStorm’s stories and interactive applications have received numerous honors, including 17 Emmy Award nominations and four wins. Prior to launching MediaStorm in 2005, Storm was Vice President of News, Multimedia & Assignment Services for Corbis, a digital media agency founded and owned by Bill Gates. Storm led Corbis' global strategy for its news, sports, entertainment and historical collections and oversaw the division responsible for representing a group of industry-leading photographers with a focus on creating in-depth multimedia products.

The lecture content has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

• Shoot wide, medium and tight, as well as showing action/reaction. 
• Always shoot wide, getting an establishing shot of the whole scene. For example, if you were making a video of a speaker at an event your establishing shot would be a wide view of the auditorium 
• Then you come in a little for a few medium shots of key elements i.e. a frame of the podium and/or the person at the podium 
• Look around for connections across that medium shot i.e. attendees in the audience, and film medium shots on them
• Then you look for details i.e. a hand twisting a pen of someone in the audience, the face of someone nodding off
• Align elements within your frames in a way that draws a viewer's eye from scene to scene across the edit
• Visual cliches are not always bad, they can be good in that they can connect meaning across viewers. But generally avoid cliches unless there is an extremely good reason.
• Tell the story with as few words and text as possible.
• Ask visual questions of the people you’re filming to get a clear understanding of what visual opportunities exist. Instead of saying “what is (the character) doing tomorrow? And they’ll say “he’s going swimming and playing video games'', you can ask “what does it look like for him to swim?” Then you’ll get responses that help map out potential visual sequences for you i.e. “Well, I carry him in the water and slowly walk him across the pool while he holds his breath underwater” etc. From that information you know, OK we want a person on a GoPro underwater and a wide shot locked down close to the surface of the water from the side and then a tight shot at the end of the pool for when the character makes it to the end. 
• Be sure to film process frames. For example, in the case above, if you film someone swimming forward in a pool, also get them going in the other direction with a similar framing. 
• Silence is the most important tool you can use. It shows you care deeply about what they’re saying and you’re hanging on every word.
• Interviews should always be a two-camera set up. One that's setup for a medium wide shot and one telephoto lens that is providing much tighter framing 
• A perfect team for (the MediaStorm crew) is four: a cinematographer/audio person, a still photographer, a producer/interviewer, and an XR person, if possible.
• A tripod is essential. It’s maddening in how it works sometimes but it slows you down, gives you time to think. Use the time when you’re on the tripod to look for your next frame. Video requires that you have to be really thoughtful about the sequencing. Though being off the tripod and ‘playing jazz’ as (MediaStorm filmmaker) Rick Gershon says, can allow for a different visual approach. It’s another tool in the filmmaker’s toolbox.
• If you have to make a film alone, think about spending multiple days where each day you do different things. Start out by making photographs the first day, and as you’re making still photos think about what are the building blocks of this story that video frames can represent.What questions do you want to ask in the interview portion that will bridge the visuals and enhance the story?
• Consider unavoidable noise beyond ambient sound. Make sure to get a visual to show what is making that noise. General noise like planes overhead anywhere you're filming or specific noise like kitchen noise when you’re interviewing a chef. Find the quietest place you can. 
• When interviewing, you want to ask questions in pairs so that the character has to qualify the answer. So, rather than asking: ‘How long have you been a paper boy?’ to which they can just say ‘Seven years’, you want to ask something more like ‘How long have you been a paperboy and what is your favorite part of the job?’ Then you’re more likely to get a reply like: ‘I’ve been a paper boy for seven years and my favorite part is throwing the papers against the garage door.’ This is a better way to lead people into answering questions the way you need rather than telling them not to answer with yes or no responses. 
• Ask midway interview questions like: ‘Do you have anything else you want to tell me?’ OR ‘Can you think of a single sentence to summarize your story?’ Then encourage them to think about it. Get the room tone during that pause. Even better, get a video portrait during that time.
• Include peak action at the start of the film and peak action at the end.