Meet the WSJ producer on the one thing publishers MUST deliver on when they’re making videos
Happy Monday, Deezers! Here’s the Deez Interview we held from last week, with Adam Falk from The Wall Street Journal. He gave us some serious video tips, what programs to know if you’re into motion graphics, and what it was like to help launch one of WSJ’s first apps back in the app-happy days of 2015. Enjoy!
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The interviewee: Adam Falk (follow him @amfalk!)
The gig: Producer on the video team at WSJ
The hustle:
I’m technically focused on Life & Arts coverage, but my days tend to take a lot of unexpected turns. Though they always start with coffee
I work on a variety of videos, from shorter, newsier pieces to series to documentary-style stories. The timelines for these tend to vary too, so I have plenty of deadline days where I’m responding to the news and staying late to edit, and others where I come in and spend the entire day planning for an upcoming shoot or editing a single sequence. Of course, I prefer the pieces that I have more time to work on, but it’s nice to test my quick-turn news side every once and a while.
What’s one aspect about producing good short video content that a lot of publishers don’t totally get?
You must deliver on the headline. No matter the publisher, getting people to watch your video from start to finish is always a challenge. The easiest way, I think, to frustrate people and get them to drop off is if they feel like the video isn’t actually the story they clicked to watch. Related: video engagement > video click.
Before you joined WSJ’s video team, you helped launch the What’s News app, which was the outlet’s first-ever mobile-only product. What was that like? How long does something like that take from concept to launch?
Frankly, it was too long. I joined WSJ about a year before it officially launched, though I was given a different timeline when I started. That said, I learned that having some time to produce content in an environment that’s not live is helpful. Maybe not quite as long as we had, but we made a ton of changes in that year that the users were better off for.
The What’s News app was shut down last year, and parts of it became integrated in the WSJ’s main app, which has still stuck around. What unique advantages you think a news app offers readers in 2018?
I think for us, we still have enough older readers that like to sit down with our paper — or in this case, our iPad app. I think news apps, on any device, are unique because they’re a more active choice and offer readers more information directly from the outlet of their choice though push alerts.
Finally, you’ve had extensive experience not only in videography, but also in motion graphics. If someone wanted to get into that field more, what programs/skills should they know?
I use Adobe Premiere and After Effects for video and motion graphics work. You don’t need formal training to pick up motion graphics skills. You can learn how the mechanics of After Effects or Motion (Apple’s version) from a site like Lynda.com pretty easily — that’s what I did. The part that’s a little bit harder to pick up is designing itself. For that, identify what you like and try to figure out how they did it, or try doing it yourself.
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That’s it for today. Have a very DIY Monday, Deezers! Don’t forget to keep up with Adam’s work @amfalk.
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