Product Description

Roll! Shells fly overhead as night-scopes capture deadly fire fights with an eerie green hue, a category 5 hurricane devastates the Big Easy, hidden cameras enter a Cambodian village of brothels and a veteran journalist interviews himself throughout his own brain surgery. Part non-fiction drama, part trade publication, part text book, all woven together giving the reader a look through the viewfinders of the very best television photojournalists.

As 19 experts weigh in with their candid, personal stories and photographic tips, its as if youre over their shoulders, following their intuitions and hearing their thoughts as they shoot. The trade term for what they do is called ENG (Electronic News Gathering) and whether theyre called Cameramen, Backpack Journalists, Television Photographers or any other moniker de jour, theyre all paid to bring the worlds events into living rooms around the world. These are the men and women who capture the bleeding edge of history as it happens.

Written in a smooth, unique interview style, this book is a necessary read for photojournalists, videographers and tv photojournalists.

*Interviews with successful, professional TV photojournalists will inspire you
*Lively tone conveys rich, practical know-how and peer advice from-the-trenches
*Explains video shooting techniques within the context of the broadcast news profession
*Loaded with hundreds of interesting photographs

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #455245 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-22
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
The only quibble I have with this excellent work is the title. This advice from some of the most outstanding video photojournalists in the industry is just as useful to the hundreds of former still photographers who now are moving into the video world and posting their work online. Roll! goes way behind theory to the The micro- specificshighlighter of how the best photojournalists do their work.
If you want to know the best lights, best microphones best tripod to use-it is in there. If you want to understand depth of field, motion and shot composition-it is in there. I have been around TV news for more than 30 years and found myself scribbling the pages with my highlighter pen so I could come back to Rich Underwood's advice again and again. This book is a winner.

Al Tompkins
Author, teacher, journalist
The Poynter Institute
St Petersburg, Florida


"The book is both a celebration of top-class news-based camerawork and an excellent primer on the logistics and practicalities of shooting news stories while maintaining high production values. Overall, the book is well structured, informative, and extremely well written, capturing the emotions as well as the technicalities, both on and off-camera, involved in getting the story from camera to screen."

Dudley Darby
Zerb
Guild of Television Cameramen
Spring 2008

About the Author
Rich Underwood teaches Advanced Cinematography at San Diego State University in California. He is a working director and cinematographer. More about the author's production work can be found on www.filmspot.tv.

Customer Reviews

not just a how to do tv
I was afraid it was just going to be another text book by someone who had a small TV background and then went into teaching. However, I was very interested to see the article on how the BBC photographers cover international news...(after all they invented it). The articles on network freelancers I would have liked to see expanded as this is now a major force in top TV coverage. I liked seeing the sidebars on the primary tools each person uses. The book has a blend of large and smaller market stories and is a good read. I wish it was longer! John Treadgold, news photographer

Comprehensive and incredible
Since I bought it, this book has been a hit with the photogs at the station I work at. I would recommend that working news photographers either get their own, or pool some money for at least a "staff" copy. It's a book you will casually pick up and wind up reading for the next hour (or as long as you can!) it's packed with great info, for just about any situation (it'll step you through focal lengths and later on it has info on how to shoot in a disaster. It doesn't matter if you're a student or a seasoned vet, you will find something interesting and valuable in this book (even if it's just to clarify and reflect your own thoughts on shooting).

Each chapter is written by or features a different photographer/TV news professional (there's a few reporters and producers mixed in, but all have strong visual backgrounds) and focuses on a certain aspect of shooting TV news. Whether its just the basics of story structure and editing, how to shoot a visually interesting interview, ethics, shooting sports, major disasters and "spot" news, One-man-bands, live shots, international stories (being embedded, international travel). And, of course, there is more.

I don't normally ooze praise like this, but this book is worth the fairly high price tag. Only one request: Why not include a DVD of pieces done by the great photographers featured in the book? That would really help, especially newer shooters to understand some of the concepts and to see what is possible when you are shooting to the Nth degree. After reading a section of this, you'll want to go out and shoot more than before. It's helped to replenish my desire to pursue this career when sometimes work seems to be getting stale.

BUY THIS BOOK

Excellent College Text
Roll! is a terrific textbook for TV Reporting. If it's at all possible to teach shooting with a book, this is the book. A must for any college teaching TV news. Just the diagrams for different angles in Chapter 7 is nearly worth the price. Rather than drawing diagrams on a white board, just use the book. Properly organized, the book can take students from the first lesson through advanced shooting.

Bob Lissit
Journalism professor
S.I. Newhouse School
Syracuse University