NEW STORY: Snake Invasion In Florida

Previously unknown in Florida, many species of snakes -- such as boa constrictors and pythons -- are so well adapted to the State's subtropical climate that it's not unusual to see them in the streets of Miami.

American scientists say these invasive species could endanger native wildlife in parts of the United States.

Click here to view this story I produced for AFP-TV.

Here I use a series of close-up shots to really illustrate these creatures to the viewer. This piece is taylor-made for tight shots. The interview with the snake handler was tough. The light source was behind him, so I over-exposed the shot to guard against silhouetting. I then corrected the picture in post-production. Over-exposing using the aperture also allowed for a very shallow depth-of-field for the interview.

Interview with President Bill Clinton

Here is an interview with former President Bill Clinton that I filmed for Newsmax TV in New York with my colleague Brad Zerivitz.

The former president expounds on a variety of topics, including the current heated political debate, the Clinton Global Initiative, an upcoming book about Clinton, and Jimmy Carter's recent comment about racism.

A clip from this interview was used on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report:

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Mixing up shots in stage discussion events

Recently I was asked to edit a couple of highlights packages for The Atlantic magazine's website. The pieces were daily round-ups of a two day discussion event at the Newseum in Washington, DC called "The First Draft of History."

These packages, narrated by Nathan King, were to be a maximum of four minutes long featuring the top soundbites from each day's speakers. The pictures I had to work with were from four Sony EX3 XDCAM cameras: two located in fixed positions facing the stage, another fixed position for audience cutaways, and another roaming camera to gather shots from around the event as a whole.

Here is the first day's package



As you can see, the trick to editing these kinds of pieces is to make sure you try to keep the video interesting despite having a limited range of shots to work with. Cutaways of audience members, interviewers and so on are very important. Also important are the shots from the fourth roving camera which really help break up the sequence of shots from the debate hall.

Here is the second day's package



These packages were edited using Final Cut Studio HD and XDCAM Transfer. Footage from this event was used on several networks including MSNBC

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Some tips for when you're pushed for time

Here is an example of how I conducted and shot a short interview with the Foreign Minister of India. I was only given a couple of minutes to speak with the minister, so in this kind of case it is important to carefully select the questions you are going to ask.

This interview slot included no time for set-up, so I used no lights - just a lamp across the room to prevent silhouetting again the window behind the minister. There is also very little depth to the shot, but placing the subject in front of a window with a net curtain sometimes makes the shot look a little bit deeper if the light outside is right - ie. not too bright and not too dark.

In house, Times Now cropped the shot so b-roll could be included on screen during in the segment. This also helped make the interview look tidier.

Basically, if you are very rushed, consider what is really necessary - the basics you need to create a broadcastable picture. If you know you only have to fill a short on-air slot, and you are covering breaking news for immediate transmission, you can sometimes get away with a slightly lower production value.

NEW STORY: America's workers getting grayer

The American workforce is getting grayer. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the number of workers between 65 and 74 years old will grow by more than 80 percent between 2006 and 2016.

As Steve Mort reports from Florida, economic hard-times are causing members of the so-called 'baby-boomer' generation to postpone their retirement plans.

How to shoot public hearings

Over recent days I have been shooting a series of videos for a non-profit organization called Broadband for America.

These videos are essentially highlights of public meetings held by the FCC into how to bring broadband for far-flung corners of the country.

The key to producing a three minute video from a public hearing is to get interesting bites of as many compelling speakers as possible into the piece. I also interspersed one-on-one interviews with the interviewee looking straight into the camera as if doing a location remote.

Cutaways are also critical in pieces like this, not only in order to avoid jump cuts, but also to illustrate the types of people that show up for these hearings and are directly impacted by the subject in question - in this case, a lack of high-speed internet.

Because there is no script and no narration, the editing of the video needs to tell the story. The upsounds, bites and graphics alone should be able to illustrate what is going on without the need for a voicetrack.

This video was shot in HDV 1080 interlaced format, but then compressed into an H.264 codec HDV 720 progressive video format. The graphics utilize a simple slate and Final Cut Pro machine fonts.

You can view all the videos here.

NEW STORY: 12-year-old broadcaster

The news on television and radio sometimes can be dominated by wars and global economic troubles. But one U.S. school student from is trying to change that.

As we hear from Steve Mort in Orlando, Florida, Max Jones is making a difference by reporting positive stories on his Internet newscast.

NEW STORY: Defibrillator Vests

In the United states, an estimated 300,000 people die every year of sudden cardiac arrest although internationally, it's unclear how many are at risk.

Many patients have a device called a defibrillator implanted that delivers a shock to restart the heart. Now, some doctors are prescribing the device in a vest worn outside the body.

And the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is testing the effectiveness of "The LifeVest."

Thousands wear the device and the Pittsburgh-based manufacturer says it expects the number of patients using the technology to double this year. Steve Mort reports.