Covering crowds, traveling light

When you're a one-man-band reporter, traveling light is essential. This is especially true when out covering events with large numbers of people, such as protests, vigils etc.

I have included a story here that I produced for the Pan-Asian satellite network, Channel NewsAsia, on the Michael Jackson memorial in Los Angeles. I covered the event for several international radio outlets too. Clearly, the footage from inside the Staples Center is from the pool feed, but the material shot outside among the crowd is my original b-roll.

In the piece I use a couple of wide-shots filmed from an elevated position. This gives a reasonable idea of how big the crowd is (not very big), followed by mostly tight-shots of faces. The key to this story is the color - trying to demonstrate to the viewer the colorfulness of the characters there.

In cases like these, there is no need to insert into the script one's own views of the Jackson fans. Let the pictures tell the story. It is what it is. This is always a good lesson, plus helps keep down time.

For this shoot, all I took with me was a stick mic, camera, tripod and reflector - that's it. It was a sunny day so no need for lights. It was also a quick turnaround for air so there was no time for a major production.