This lovely post from mediajobsdaily came to my attention today. I wonder if this new optimism on the behalf of employers is for show and self-assurance or if they really feel as though they’ve weathered the storm and are ready to refill the ranks.
Fifty-three percent of employers will be beefing up full-time staff in the next year, and 40% plan to hire contract or temporary workers, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder.com and Robert Half International Inc.
The companies that are hiring will be looking first for technology, customer service and sales staff, followed by marketing/creative, business development, human resources and accounting/finance.
This number seems more realistic:
40 percent plan to hire contract, temporary, or project professionals.
But maybe that’s just my view from the media world.
Last week I taught a 1-day intensive on-camera workshop at mediabistro. (Click here for a course description and my welcome video).
This morning I got the most lovely e-mail from one of my clients, Andreas Fuchs. He’s a cinema exhibition consultant and analyst who is starting to do video for an online magazine. Andreas also wants to include a welcome video on his website (so many uses for video online!).
As an instructor, it’s incredibly useful to have someone outline exactly what they took away from the class.
Here are Andreas’ Top 6 Takeway Points:
1) The introductions of fellow attendees set the tone and provided an excellent overview about the many different ways to use video. (It helped that we had such a diverse and interesting group of people who would have made how to use a pencil fascinating.)
2) The “Tips for Compelling Video” emailed prior to class were great. (Coming a tad earlier would’ve been even better.)
3) Your coaching during the taping process: Calm, cool and collectedly, with a smile and honesty.
Encouraging me to act as if I was in front of a group of people (which I feel more comfortable with).
4) Editing the speech with an outsider’s perspective, yet respectful of what I was trying to say.
I do not recall if you actually encouraged this. I found it crucial to go over the text again after you were done and making sure it still worked for me. It turned out after the edit something flowed better in a different place than originally.
5) Changing “everything there is to know about movie theatres..” to “all there is…,” turning a statement that could’ve potentially come across as arrogant into a matter-of-fact. Just brilliant!
6) Teleprompter is the way to go.
There were many more, but those are my tops.
In fact, I am so inspired that I want to conduct my first video interview this week, on-site at a theatre opening. It’ll be with the little webcam on my netbook and I still have to convince the subjects… but, thanks to you and the class, I will definitely have a go at it.
Thank you and kind regards, Andreas.
I must point out that I don’t agree with 6) “Telemprompter is the way to go”. I try to encourage my clients to learn how to prepare well so they don’t need teleprompter and can feel comfortable in any situation (including live). Regardless, I’m beaming. Thanks, Andreas!
Check out my previous posts for more media tips and my top 5 especially for guys.
A pretty interesting on-air part-time job in Westport, CT is listed on mediabistro’s job listings:
dLifeTV, an award winning nationally distributed TV program about diabetes, seeks qualified talent with diabetes or otherwise connected to the condition to host its weekly magazine style program and perform certain spokesperson duties.
With anchoring/presenting/hosting jobs becoming fewer and fewer, it’s heartening for us on-camera “talent” to see jobs like this out there. Even if it is incredibly niche, a show like this could be great experience and exposure.
I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know about Persepolis 2.0, an update of graphic artist Marjane Satrapi’s wonderful books. Two artists/authors, who go by Payman and Sina, have added new captions to Satrapi’s drawings (it doesn’t look like they’ve done any drawings themselves) that tell the story of this year’s Iranian election and its aftermath. Apparently the site was done with Satrapi’s permission but the authors have posted this.
DISCLAIMER: THE AUTHORS OF PERSOPOLIS 2.0 WERE INSPIRED BY THE WORK OF MARJANE SATRAPI. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY, HOWEVER, THAT THE VIEWS EXPRESSED HERE REFLECT HER OWN.
If you want to learn more Persepolis 2.0, this Guardian article is pretty good, better than the blurb in the NYT today.
By the way, I understand the Persian-American community is mobilizing for a big event in NYC next month, the night before Ahmadinejad is expected to address the UN General Assembly.
I’m going shopping today with a TV host to freshen up his wardrobe. Which got me thinking, what are the basic tenants of looking good on-camera for men?
1. Think bold/rich colors when it comes to ties (if you wear a suit on camera) or shirts (if you are casual). Skip the red and try purple, orange, or a light green. I know 2 reporters (who shall remains nameless) who only wear ensembles composed of grays and browns. Jeez, if you want to come across as dynamic, look dynamic!
2. Deal with your hair. If you’ve got a “Jewfro”, get some product. If you’re thinning, accept it and nix the combover. If you have none, get rid of the shine. Which brings me to…
3. Buy some translucent powder at CVS. Looking shiny and sweaty on-air is a huge distraction. So stop making such a big deal about shopping in the makeup aisle. No one cares and no one is going to question your manhood. My husband now enjoys shopping at the makeup store MAC. There, I said it.
4. Don’t wear thin striped or bright white dress shirts. Unless you have a lighting team that are willing to spend the time , it’s too risky. The stripes might strobe and the white might glow, making you look like you descended from heaven. But maybe that’s the look you’re going for.
5. Facial hair. Commit to the beard or stay as close shaven as possible. Even shaving every morning won’t cut it for some. If you have dark hair and a heavy shadow, it’s worth investing in foundation makeup so you don’t look like Fred Flintsone. Those who can get away with the stubble look are: Enrique Inglesias, Eric Bana, or an under 30 successful internet hotshot.
There you have it. Let me know if I missed anything!
Dina Kaplan is the COO of blip.tv, the online video distribution site. There’s a great profile of her in this week’s Observer. She went from local tv reporter to COO of a company that hosts and distrubtes 48,000 original web shows.
In the article she describes her ah-ha moment, when she finally decided to jump ship:
“Later that September, an interview she had with Andrew Heyward, then the CBS News chief, made up her mind.
“We had a pretty formal interview,” Ms. Kaplan recalled. “At the very end he said, ‘What else do you do? What are you interested in?’ And I said, you know, ‘On Wednesday nights, I get together with some really smart friends of mine and we are starting a company, which is a platform for people creating Web shows on the Internet.’ And—I will never forget this—he pulled his chair back and looked at me in a whole new light. That sort of glaze of interviewing yet another reporter, only the seventy-five thousandth of his life, ended and he snapped out of it. He looked at me directly as a person rather than another local TV reporter, and he said, ‘Do that. That is the future. Forget this TV reporting thing.’”
Dina goes on to explain how she secured venture capital and turned herself into an online video powerhouse. She spoke on Wednesday night at mediabistro’s panel on Producing Online Video Content (I hosted it- see the top tips gleened from the event here). She brought a male co-worker with here- and in the article, she explains why she feels the need to travel with a male escort. It’s pretty depressing- otherwise people don’t take her seriously.
Anyway, the story will inspire TV reporters wondering what their next move should be and get budding online video content producers to start shooting. Tell Dina what you think at the blip blog.
I haven’t told my friend Katty Kay that she looks like Alex from The Desperate Housewives (seriously, don’t they look alike?). I spied Alex at the sandbox in Cobble Hill a few weeks back. And yes, we were with our kids.
Katty’s book Womenomics is now #5 on Amazon’s Women & Business list. She wrote it with ABC correspondent Claire Shipman. I was Katty’s producer in the nineties when she first started reporting from the US for the BBC in Washington.
Her book is about getting the career you’ve always wanted without sacrificing your life. It applies mostly to corporate lasses…and I have to say, the freelance/consultant model is working better for a lot of us. I went and joined Katty backstage when she appeared on Colbert in June (watch it here, he was such a pushover for a strawberry blonde Brit!)…and went to Diane von Furstenberg’s studio that night for the book party. Very entertaining to watch the mainstream media machine move into place to support its own. Almost everyone I spoke to was looking over my shoulder to see if there was someone better else to talk to…not that I took it personally!
I hosted a truly fascinating (if I do say so myself) panel discussion last night on producing content, specifically entertainment video, for the web. Mediabistro, of course (props to Kirsten), put together the awesome lineup: Adam Eland of Bright Red Pixels, Heather Gold, Colin Moore of IFC.com, Diane de Cordova of NextNewNetworks, Paul Kontonis of For Your Imagination, & Dina Kaplan of Blip.tv.
Their top 6 tips for creating & distributing your video online?
1. Speak to the brand that you are producing for. In other words, if it’s something for IFC, for example, make sure you are staying true to the IFC brand and being authentic. (this was from Colin Moore, the one proponent of scripted content rather than nonfiction)
2. Maintain intimacy with your audience. (Adam Elend) That’s what viewing on your computer/phone is all about, right? Adam works closely with CBS.com….interesting to hear what the big networks are thinking about all this.
3. What works on the web is fun & real. (from the very fun and real Heather Gold who was determined to prove during the discussion that making what you love will triumph over making what you think will sell)
4. It’s just gotta be good. (Paul Kontonis- he says a video is deemed a success if 50% of the audience make it through 75% of the video. yikes)
5. Keep it fresh, like sushi. (Diane de Kordova- in other words, originality is KEY)
6. Develop the brand, ie, keep the packaging/color scheme/graphics etc. consistent. (Dina Kaplan- and she should know! She says Blip is sending checks from $25 to tens of thousands of dollars to their content providers…48k shows on Blip right now.)
As for the Vampire Mom, Dina also says that if you’re thinking of producing a show, think which “vertical” your product will fit in…moms? political junkies? gamers? Bikers? The more specific your niche, sometimes the better. We decided moms and vampires are big right now so we should do a show on vampire moms. Then I started thinking- I’m a mother and work in the media….so I guess I actually am a vampire mom. Although I sometimes feel it’s my child sucking the life out of me…vampire toddler.
I just finished up a great all-day intensive on-camera workshop at mediabistro. Clients included a priest, interior designer, and toy curator. Much of the discussion focused on how to USE video not just MAKE it. We shot website welcome videos, a PSA, a show pitch, fitness tips…and discussed the various different audiences that these videos need to appeal to: potential clients, casting agents, journalists, etc.. Many of the students have multiple jobs (a fact-checker AND an actress)…so should they separate websites for their different careers? NO. Because these days you are the whole package. I, for example, am a better media trainer because I’m also a working journalist. My work informs my other work, and so on. So the key is to come across in any on-camera work you do as presentable, quotable, instructive, and likable. In other words, look good, speak concisely, don’t talk crap, and exude warmth. Personally, and I think I drove this home, I believeall that requires very thorough preparation. Winging it on camera doesn’t work for 99% of us. P.S. Thank you to Justine of GreenScoutReport for sharing her secret tip- before an interview, use a paper toilet seat covers from a public restroom to blot the shine/sweat.
I’m on the twitter bandwagon after telling people why they should be tweeting for far too long. Even downloaded the tweetdeck app. At this point, multimedia journalists and anyone in the public eye have little excuse for not checking it out. It’s not just for reporting what you had for breakfast; it’s for polling, scooping, driving traffic, observing…. twitter.com/Manoushz
