Look at Me!

I love web video where we can ask about “the rules” and change them so they make sense. It’s one of the reasons I shoot my interviews with the subject looking directly into the lens so they can better connect with the viewer.

Now it makes total sense that the person should be looking off-screen if the correspondent is present or there is the voice of a narrator since that’s  who the subject might be looking toward  in the shot. But if the piece is non-narrated, who are they looking at?

One of the justifications I’ve heard over and over is that only two people are allowed to look directly into the lens: the President and the news anchor.

I wondered if those folks might reconsider that argument based on this latest bit of television . This week the folks at Fox News are all looking directly  into the camera, acting as “truth tellers” as it were, while insisting that, of course, both Santa and Jesus were

In terms of trusting people who look directly  into the lens, I think I’d rather go here for my news. Ironically, I polled my Graduate J school class for their favorite broadcast source of news and 50% of them named the same source.