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Figure 5.11 Shoot your sources in active situations. Do not rely on interviews to tell your story.

encourage her or do they force her to practice more? Does she eventually master her pitch and impress an investor or client? When you present a goal in a story, your viewer will want to know the results of your character’s effort.

Profiling sources. Video stories can be, and often are, in-depth profiles of your sources or characters. Stories, especially video stories, are best told through people and their actions. Concepts such as unemployment, the housing crisis, education reform, and universal healthcare can be overwhelming, vague, or confusing to the public. Using relatable characters helps viewers to make con- nections to these larger issues.

Deciding which sources to profile can be difficult. As we go about reporting, we often grow emotionally attached to many of our sources, even if they are not the best vehicles for telling our stories. We can become impressed by their goals, struggles, and accomplishments. However, this does not mean that these sources are worthy of their own video profile. Sources can provide invaluable information and may appear in our videos in interviews and short scenes. But, to make a source the primary focus of the story, he or she must meet one of two criteria:

Representative. Is your source representative of a larger group of people sharing a common experience that is noteworthy? For example, your source is going through an extended period of unemployment and is having a hard time paying rent and feeding his children. In this case, your source represents the millions of Americans who are also suffering during the recession.

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Unique. Is your source truly unique or extraordinary? Has your source won the gubernatorial election? Has she sold her smartphone app for billions of dollars? Has your source cured a terrible disease? For

a source to be truly unique, he must have accomplished something that none or very few have been able to do before. Profiles of unique or extraordinary sources are much rarer than profiles of sources who represent a larger group of people.

In a segment on the rising number of homeless families in Florida, the CBS news program 60 Minutes profiled a brother and sister who were living with their father in a van (www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2hzRPLVSm4). The program follows the siblings throughout the day. In the morning, they wake up and brush their teeth at gas stations. Then they go to school like other kids. At night, they stay at the library until it closes so they can use the computers and read. For fun, they participate in a community theater musical. This grip- ping, emotional story features these siblings as representatives of the millions of people in Florida trying to survive through a crippling recession.

In 2013, ESPN profiled Richie Parker, a designer for Hendrik Motorsports (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiLDMBDPCEY). Hendrik is one of the most successful racing organizations on the NASCAR circuit. At first, neither Parker nor his story seem to be especially unique or special. However, we soon learn that Richie was born without arms, and he has been navigating life with just his feet and his spirit for problem solving. The video shows Parker learning to ride a modified bicycle as a young child. We see him driving a car with a steering wheel at his feet. We see him deftly using his toes to manipulate a

Figure 5.12 Only one in a million people are affected by diseases such as XP. Sufferers can become deathly ill from exposure to the sun.

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computer mouse to design racecars. Richie is not representative of others. He is extraordinary, and warrants a video profile. Throughout his life, he has engi- neered ways to overcome his handicap, eventually landing at the premiere NASCAR racing team.

During the production of deepsouth, a feature-length documentary about the rise of HIV and AIDS in the southern United States, over 400 sources were interviewed. Lisa Biagiotti, the film’s director, traveled tens of thousands of miles from Chicago to North Carolina and through the Delta to find characters for the film. She researched and reported the story for nearly a year before

I joined the project as a producer and the film’s director of photography. Her reporting all happened without a camera.

From those 400 sources, Lisa and I had to find the best characters to tell a very complicated story. What had caused the rise of HIV/AIDS, a disease that so many had thought to be contained? How were those infected being affected by the communities in which they lived? How were people reacting and responding to the resurgence of the disease? There were volumes of data in Biagiotti’s reporting, but to produce the film, we needed real, live people to illustrate and to humanize this information. Each of the characters we eventually chose to feature were individually remarkable, but they truly represented

a larger community of HIV/AIDS survivors and activists.

Figure 5.13 Director Lisa Biagiotti shooting during the production of deepsouth.

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Figure 5.14 A candle lighting ceremony for victims of AIDS.

Unfortunately, in most cases, the sources you meet while reporting will not

be representative or unique enough to be profile-worthy. These sources may

be able to give you important information, data, and context, but they may not be reflective of a larger group or trend. Your sources may be interesting, but they are likely not extraordinary enough to merit a video profile. Be care- ful in choosing your sources for profiles.

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