Video: Reporting Your Event With Mobile Phones – Tips and Recommendations

1. Capture the message and spirit of your event

• Plan how you will showcase the major moments of your action and especially what the main story and purpose is.
• Don’t take a photo when people are standing around not doing anything. Show people being hopeful, energetic, determined.
• Try and include in your photos/video lots of elements, Like including important landmarks as well as your message in a single photo.
• Interview people (with their permission) and ask them why they decided to take action.

2. Use a variety of shots, media and platforms to showcase the full story of your action.

• Takes photos from far away, in the middle and close up. (Or up high)
• Livestream if you’re going to have a big dramatic moment. It’s also ok to just shoot short mobile videos at key moments and upload them. Here is a guide with more details about video and live-streaming.
• For videos, it’s best to hold the phone horizontally, (unless it’s an Instagram Story).
• Decide  if you want to hire professional photographers and videographers also. This can really help.
• Be strategic about which social media platforms you use. You don’t have to share on all of them. Focus on where you have the most followers and where people in your area go to get their information.

3. Some basic equipment can help.

• Backup battery pack for your phone.
• Monopod or tripod  for stability. Hold that phone steady!
• Microphone for audio. (If you don’t have a microphone just be as close as possible to people when you interview). You can use a lavalier microphone for interviews or a shotgun microphone for general sounds. There are versions of both that you can attach to a phone.
• Bring your own pocket wifi or at least make sure you have plenty of data on your phone.

4. Be Safe!

• Go in pairs or as a team and make a plan how you will work together. Maybe one person focuses on Twitter while the other does livestreams on Facebook.
• Have a plan for how you will meet up if you get separated.
• Make sure you have a security plan in place (depending on your situation.)
• For more resources on security best practices for filming sensitive situations, check out the organization Witness.

5. Encourage everyone to share their experience.

• Remind participants to share on their social media about the event – and use the hashtag! It’s great to have coverage of an event from many perspectives.