In the last few months, I’ve noticed the leading station in my area’s home market using their iToys to shoot quick OTFs while the truck operator finds a place to park & break out the ENG camera. That content is then intercut with the ENG content. So crap is mixed with pro content within the package. Then this new product’s info was posted on the b-roll. It just never ends but these tools do have their specific uses. It’s also kind of stealthy because the subject isn’t being approached with a large intimidating camera whether it’s an ambush or friendly interview.
A local cop told me that a reporter held a phone too close to his face and he didn’t appreciate that being done to him recently. It looked really bad on the air too. So if reporters that aren’t shooters or decent shooters are going to use this often, they’re going to have to understand and respect the subject’s personal space when trying to get that ‘dramatic’ close up with these fixed wide lenses.
This station mentioned is superfunded and has ALL the right tools already so this shortcut is indicative of what’s to come if they are doing this. Although time efficient for unfolding breaking news, I’ve noticed the subtle but annoying strobic-type corrections when the phone’s EIS is trying to stabilize the handheld video along with the auto-iris corrections.
If the action is something that will be missed while waiting on the ENG package, then I think phone or tablet video, live or later is acceptable to capture it. This is in-the-moment, news field video we’re talking about, not in controlled produced conditions. It is also the near future whether we like it or not. But to use it just because it’s new, cool, cheap and it exists would be foolish but it will happen for those reasons.
What are your thoughts on this?