Great visuals are all part of a plan…

Here’s a Baker’s Dozen ways to get and improve your visual content

By Robert G. Nulph


art-lens-hunenterrr
Creative Commons: hunnnterr

A student sits in front of her editing set-up. On one side of her desk is a sandwich piled so high it would make Jared proud; at her feet sits a 44-ounce big drink guaranteed to quench her thirst; and on the other side, sits a rainbow of SD cards.

Now, this could be a great dream, or the true definition of hell. It all depends on the work she does before she enters the field as well as during a shoot.

When instructing students in a practicum or lab setting, it’s hard to convince them to plan. They just want to jump in and presume they will land well, the heck with planning ahead! And for the first assignment, it’s tempting to let them run out the classroom door without planning and seeing how they land in that editing bay later (“miserable!”), learning a hard lesson about not planning. Such a lesson is similar to teaching News Writing students who don’t do their research in advance of their interviews. Continue reading “Great visuals are all part of a plan…”