From the cameraman to the field reporter, from 30 seconds stand-up to few minutes video clips – these are just some elements of the spectrum that, for the School of Advanced Journalism students, opened with the help of one of the most complex courses – TV Journalism. Within a few modules, the students learned how to better handle the camera, how to edit a video, how to make a TV news story, and finally, how to create a story in images. This time too, the course was focused on practical exercises on fieldwork as well as on the ability to work in a team. The students were t rained by the best local TV professionals: Dorin Scobioală, Denis Rusu, Eugenia Creţu and Andrei Cibotaru.

The course was structured on three modules. The first trainer who initiated the SAJ students in TV Journalism was Dorin Scobioală, director of “Cat Studio” Production Company and correspondent in the Republic of Moldova for Reuters TV and Antena 3. He explained to students what is intro, beta, synchronous, vox, stand-up, voice over and other key teleporter-specific key concepts. He also told them how the reporter and his/her interviewee should stay during filming, and how to get a good ambient sound. To test all these things in practice, the students were armed with tripods, video cameras, microphones and went on the field. The second instructor, the producer Denis Rusu came to help them. He taught them how to set up a camera and how to work with video editing programs, explained how to make a fitting or a bruiser, how to shoot a panorama or detail – essential elements in the day-to-day work of a TV journalist.

The second module, entitled Video storytelling, was delivered by the journalist Eugenia Cretu, reporter of “Pure and Simple” TV Project at Radio Free Europe. Eugenia helped the students discover and learn the art of telling stories through video.“The most important thing, said the instructor, is that the messages reach the hearts of those who look at them”. For this, they have together sought out characters and new destinies, which they have transformed into video stories.

The last module, TV Newsroom, was the most challenging and complex. During one week, trained by Andrei Cibotaru, the students worked as editors, feeling on their own skin what it means to be a television reporter. As reporters too, the SAJ students participated in the Regional Conference Misinformation as a Propaganda Tool: Regional Trends and Impact, organized in Chisinau by the Association of Independent Press within the “Stop Fals!” Campaign. From here, each student realized his own TV report, and the instructor made a comparative analysis of how the event was reflected. After hours of searching information, intense work in the field and montage, the last day of the course, the young journalists presented a TV News bulletin, with internal, external, political, economic, cultural and weather news.

At the end of the course, the students together with the trainer Andrei Cibotaru, visited TV8 channel, where they talked with the presenter Angela Gonţa, from whom they learned a new lesson. “We had a choice: investing in new TV cameras or in the best mobile phones? We have chosen to invest in people and smart minds”, said the journalist. At SAJ we do the same, we invest in students and future specialists!

In the next few weeks, digital journalism courses will be held at the school.