 So, hello, we have a few people already arrived. Hello. My name is Lucy. I'm not going to be presenting this webinar, but I'm just going to first of all take you through a little bit of an introduction to Zoom, I think, for people who are new, and yeah, and just introduce you to what we'll be doing. So, welcome to live coverage skills. I'm Lucy. I'm going to be the tech today, so that means you can reach out to me if you're having any problems with Zoom, anything at all. So this is going to be basically a webinar where, you know, we're going to give advice on capturing really great content and making sure that it's shared in a way that's impactful, that's going to tell you a story. So, first thing that you might notice is that you're muted. So you're going to be muted for the duration of this call, but there will be times when you can come off mute and ask questions and that kind of thing. So we're going to be using the chat, most of all, really, to communicate with each other during this call. So if you want to pull up the chat box, it's in your Zoom window as like a little speech bubble icon. And type in your introduction there, type in your name, where you are, that kind of thing, so that we know kind of who's on this call. Make sure that when you are typing into the chat box, there's like an option for who is reading your posts. So make sure that it's set to all panellists and attendees, because that will mean that everybody gets to see what you're writing. So some other tools we might be using, there's a Q&A box, so there's a little question and answer box. There's an option to use that if you want, if you want to post questions in there, we'll try and answer them live. I'll try and answer them live, but if not, then we'll get round to them when we have a little Q&A session during the webinar. You can also raise your hand, and this is generally if you want to ask a question or you want to give an example or anything like that. And we can take you up mute and you can ask your question during the Q&A session. We're also going to run, in just a moment, we're going to run a short poll. And this is again just to see, you know, what's the kind of experience level in our virtual space. You won't be able to see that yet, though it will pop up onto your screen. So just to let you know, we are recording this webinar. And so if you're good with that, that's just basically for you if you want to watch it back, really. So we'll kick off with a poll. And this might just pop up onto your screen right now. So please do start completing it as soon as you can. And this is basically, as I said, just to get a kind of sense of the experience level here, who's, you know, who's who are the regular activists in the room, whether there's any complete new people in the room. And if you're joining by phone, I'm afraid you won't be able to see this, but I'll walk you through the questions now. So first question, have you been involved in a climate action event before? Either no, this is going to be my first time taking action, or I've participated in at least one day of action before, or I'm a regular activist. And second question, are you connected with other local activists? So either yes, I'm involved in the local climate action group, or there's a group locally, but I'm not involved yet, or there isn't a local organized action group. But I want to start one. Or I don't want to be in a group. That's another option as well. So I'll give a couple more seconds for people to complete that. And you should be able to see the results now. So it's 5050. So we have half of you are completely new. And some of you, and the other half of you have kind of participated in at least one day of action before. And Daniel's saying it was the 350.org last year, organized by Pacture in Kenya. Okay, cool. And and a lot of you know about groups that are near you, but not not involved yet. But the operative word there being yet. So great. Thank you very much for participating in the poll. And I'm now going to hand over to your presenter, your trainer for today, who is Thelma. Hello, Thelma. Hi, everyone. I'm so glad that you could join today. Today's call, we're going to be talking about live coverage. What this means is there's going to be thousands of climate strike events all over the world. And we want to make sure that anyone who's organizing an event knows how to make sure that they are able to record and report back about their action. We want to see the beautiful photos and videos and beautiful stories from everyone's actions. And this is so important to help even more people all over the world be connected and see the power of the climate movement. Before we kick off, I'll just introduce myself. My name is Thelma. I'm American, and I am 350 social media manager. But I live in Fiji now, and that's where I am based. But I'm so excited to speak with you all. And if I talk too fast, you can just put a note in the chat box and tell me to slow down. Sometimes I can talk too fast or if you have a question. But something I love about social media is that anyone can be a part of it, you don't need fancy camera or fancy equipment to take good photos and to share your stories. With a basic mobile phone, there's a lot that you can do to to share the stories, especially of your climate strikes event. So that's what we're gonna be going over today. Second. Sorry. So there's five simple tips that I want you to keep in mind as you think about building a team together to document and report on your action, basically to be digital reporters there on the ground sharing about what's happening. I have this video here that you can click on and watch. We're not going to watch it now. But this is something that you can watch and share around to anyone. And it explains these five tips. Number one, before you go into an event, you want to think about how you can capture the message and spirit and energy of your event. I want you to think about, you know, what are the key things that you want to communicate about your event? Is it stories about how you want to fight coal? Is it stories about how we need renewable energy? Do you want to spotlight your local culture and your local community? Think about how you want to capture that and how those messages will be shared during the event. Maybe there's going to be music or banner or art. Think about you want to make sure that you capture that spirit and energy. You don't want to take photos of people standing around doing nothing. You want to showcase the beautiful energy that is brought to an event. So think about how to capture that. Number two, I want you to think about how to use a variety of shots, media and platforms to fully showcase the story of your action. And this can mean a lot of different things. When I say a variety of shots, you know, get photos that are close up. So take close up photos of people maybe holding signs, then take photos also far away where you can see the size of the group and where you're at and how big they are. So you want to take lots of different kinds of photos. When I say different media, I mean video or photo or even audio sometimes. Using photo and video, how they're different pros and cons and usefulness. And you can use them in different ways to show different kinds of energy and your message of your event. And in regards to platform, what I mean there is which social media platform? Do you want to share on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or any other or even WhatsApp? What platform are you going to use? And when you're thinking about what platform to use, I want you to think about who you want to reach and who your audience is and where they go to get their information. For example, if you're based in Kenya, as I know some of our participants are, I know that that Twitter is very popular in Kenya. So you might then want to prioritize sharing your photos and videos on Twitter to make sure to reach people there because that's where people are at. So you want to prioritize what platforms you want to use. Number three, if you can, some basic equipment can really help with your needs. And simple things like making sure you have a battery pack because your phone will lose battery really quickly. Even just a cheap one you can find at many stores, a cheap little battery pack to keep your phone charged. And then also if you can think of some ways to keep your camera stable. Especially if you're recording videos, stability is absolutely crucial. You can use a selfie stick. Sometimes those are really easy to find, or you can just hold your phone tightly, but you want to think about that in other ways. Another simple piece of equipment that can really help is microphones, especially if you're doing interviews. Having a microphone can really help increase the audio level. However, I know microphones can be hard to find. And a simple trick is actually, if you have a headset, kind of like the one I have on now, just a simple headphone headset, this is a microphone here. So you could actually use this as a microphone to interview people to pick up that audio quality. So that way the videos you record have good audio and people can clearly hear what the person you're interviewing has to say. So yeah, you can use the microphone on your headset as just like a simple microphone as well in interviews. And number four, the fourth tip is we want everyone to be safe and to have a safety plan as they're doing the digital reporting. It's really important to work as a team. It really helps you stay safe, but also think strategically. So have a buddy that can come with you. And also think about what you need to do to make sure that you're that you're safe, and that you're also protecting safety of all participants who join. Number five, and this is really important is that social media is all about not just one person sharing, but everybody sharing. We want everyone who's there at these climate strike events to be sharing on their own personal social media accounts, what that action means to them and their stories of the day. So this is really important ahead of time. And when you're there, you should tell our participants and everyone who comes, please share share about this moment and use the hashtag. Globally, we're using hashtag climate strike, but I know many countries and many languages also have their own hashtag. But encourage everyone to also be sharing their stories of the action. If you can capture these five simple tactics, these are simple things to keep in mind to really help you be a better digital reporter on the ground as you report on your event. Now, before you start, I have on this presentation a checklist of important questions that you can do to sit down with your team. Sit down with your wider team and go through these questions together. And this will really help you come up with a plan. I just realized I forgot to share the link to the presentation. And so I'll do that actually now my apologies. This presentation feel free to use and share with anyone. But if you want to look along. So this is a checklist to, again, think through with your team that will help you prepare to cover those five points that I talked about. And again, one, you want to think about the messages, what are the key stories and messages and images that you want to share for this action? And here's a list in the slide of different things that you can talk about. Who do you want to interview? Who? What hashtag are you using? What are the stories you want to tell? Really want to think about it and think about how you can showcase that. Next one again, digital reporting and live coverage is so much about a team and a partners. It's more than one person. So you should prepare ahead of time and think about who is on your team? Who are your partners? And who do you need to bring into this process? Are there other people who are going to be there taking photos? Are you going to be hiring a professional photographer, videographer? Are there any communities that you especially want to highlight? And then also who's going to be your team? So you want to think about your team and your partners and really plan to have a group. It really takes a good, amazing group of people to do a really awesome digital reporting. Number three is to think about some tech and equipment. Kind of like I talked before, you want to make sure that your phone's charged. You want to make sure that you have a battery pack. You want to make sure that your data on your phone is topped up so that you are ready to hit the ground running. And the most simplest equipment, which is always really important is to wear comfortable shoes or comfortable clothes, bring a water bottle and bring snacks. Sometimes when you're there at an event and running around taking photos, it can be so exhausting. So make sure that you're comfortable and that you have food and water and snacks and that you are ready to go for the day as you run around. I often also keep a backpack or another bag with me to make sure that it's all together, but something that's really comfortable so I can move really well. So prepare all your equipment ahead of time. And number four, as we talked about before, security, make sure you're thinking through and talking with your teams on any security concerns you might have and what you'll do in different scenarios. And also think about, you know, the people who are coming to the action, are they okay being photographed or do they want to hide their faces? There are some apps that help you blur faces of peoples in photos that you can also do afterwards, if that's necessary. But again, we want everyone who's coming to these actions to feel safe, whether you're a digital reporter or an activist or anyone, we want you to think about safety. So that's some good things to help you with your planning. And now I'm going to talk about just some specific quick tips to help you take better photos and videos. And again, you don't need a lot of fancy equipment. If you just have a mobile phone, you can be a photographer and a videographer, you can tell your own stories. And that's what's going to be so beautiful about the global climate strikes, is we're going to see stories from all over the world. And that's so, so important that people can tell their own stories this way. So for tips for taking good photo, I have four quick tips, and they spell out lamb, so that can help you remember what is lighting, angles, the message and the background. And I'll go over these some more lighting. When you're taking a photo, you want to be really aware of where the sun or where the light is coming from. Because depending on the sun, it'll hit your hit the people in lots of different ways. If the sun is behind you, you'll be backlit. Or if the sun is in front of you, it could be too strong. So if you're taking a group photo, if you're taking photos of people, you might need to ask people to move around based on the light, so that way you can get a stronger photo. A simple thing that I do to test the light is I actually hold out my hand, and then I can move my hand and rotate it and kind of get a sense of how the sun falling on my hand and the shadows it creates. And that helps me know where I should stand to take the photos. So you want to keep light in your mind. You also want to think about angles. And this is super important, especially if you're doing event. You want to get down low with your camera. You also want to get down high, get up high or move around. Because going at different angles tells a different story in a lot of ways. And I'll show you two photos. There's this photo. And then this photo. And they're at the same event, but they really tell a different story in a lot of ways. So think about as you're taking photos, make sure that you're moving around and all over to get photos from lots of different angles. Number three, as we talked about, you want to make sure that your message is coming across. And I'll show you two examples from an action in South Africa. So if people are holding banners, you want to make sure that that banner is seen. And that's soup. It's so simple, but it can be really important. We have this photo right here of Loretto holding a banner, but you can't see the rest of it, only the start of a website versus the second photo where you can clearly see what their signs say, and what they what they're calling for what their message is. It can be sometimes tricky, but you really want to think about how can someone in a split second understand what your story is. Remember with social media, people are scrolling, people are busy. You have half a second to get someone's attention. So you want to make sure that in that second, your photo tells a clear story about what you want. So really think about how your message gets in your photo. And number four, the B is background. Think about what is behind you. Sometimes we forget about this as our images, but it can tell it can also tell so much about the story. This is that an action in Indonesia, and they're protesting coal. So what they have behind them is an actual coal mine. And this says so much more about the photo. Especially if you're doing an action. It's good to have behind you any images that symbolize where you are any major icons in the city. If there's major statues or other symbols, having that in your background will also tell who you are and where you are and not communicate something else. So those are four quick tips on taking good photos. And now I'll share really quickly about taking good videos. This is a really great video that you can watch here. It was created by the Pacific Climate Warriors. But I think it's a really great video that anyone can use to get a better understanding of how to take great videos. And the YouTube link is in there. Lucy, could you actually do me a favor and grab that YouTube link and post it in the chat so everyone can make sure that they have it? We're not going to watch it, unfortunately. But it's a really great video to watch and share and anyone can use it. But when you're taking a video, it's really similar to photos. So you have still have those four main things of lighting, angles, message and background. With video, you also add two other elements, and that's stability and audio. And so these six things together will help you film and do better videos from your action. So we already talked about lighting, angles, message and background, both audio. When you're when you're recording a video, your audio is so important. Often people think video is about the image, but that's only half the story. It's easy to fix bad video, but you can't really fix bad audio. So there's simple things that you can do. Like if you're interviewing somebody, make sure that you're really close or see if you can move to a quieter space where you could record them. If if you can get a microphone or use a microphone that you just have really simply. Another thing that I do, I forgot my phone. But if I'm, you know, holding my phone and recording someone, you have the end of the phone where the microphone is. I like to create a little cup. So you're creating basically an amplifier like this around the edge of the phone. And then someone is speaking to the phone and it helps kind of guide the noise into the phone. So you can create a little cup on the end of your phone. Also be kind of help get good audio in. Especially if you're especially if you're doing interviews, think about the audio and how to be in a quiet space so people can clearly hear what they're saying. So that's audio. And number two is you want to make sure that your bit your camera is stable. And this can be really tricky in a day of action. And that's why I like to have a selfie stick or a tripod or some other device that helps me keep my my phone really stable as I move around in the action. The other good thing to be aware of is to hold your shots. Often with our videos and actions were tempted to move around a lot. But you should actually try and be as steady as possible. So hold your phone for at least five seconds in a steady place before you move it. Move your phone a lot slower than you think you than you think you should. And that'll help you get a better shot. The photo in this slide is from when I did this workshop with participants in the Pacific. And this was a team in Papua New Guinea. And they just created their own tripod using sticks. There's lots of different ways you can create a stable phone. And there's also some more tips in that video I showed you. So you don't need a lot of fancy equipment, but you is important to think about how to hold your camera really steady as you record a video. Another key part of doing a digital reporting on the ground is live streaming. And this is becoming very, very popular. But now we almost have too many people doing the live stream. So lots of people don't pay attention. So we need to be really thoughtful about how we do a good live stream. Number one, I always do a live stream as a team. It's really useful to have two people, one person who's behind the camera and another person who's in front of the camera. The person in front of the camera can basically be your guide or your narrator, your TV host. They can describe to the viewers what's going on. They can go and do interviews. And they also can be much more aware of what's happening in the action. So always do a live stream in teams of two. And as I was saying, it's really helpful in a live stream to kind of have a host, to tell people what's going on and describe it and also to go out and interview people. Though what I usually do is if I want to interview people, I ask their permission before. So I tell people, Hi, I'm from 350. I'm going to be doing a live stream. Is it okay if I interview you? That way I don't surprise people as I come upon them in the action, but they're ready and that they feel comfortable talking to the live stream. Another good thing to keep in mind with a live stream is the very beginning. Again, lots of people on social media, they're not, they may not watch the full 15 minutes. They're going to watch the first couple seconds. Most views of live streams don't happen when it's live. Most views of live streams happen after it's been fully recorded and then it gets published onto Facebook where then people watch it afterwards. So you want to think about the first five to 10 seconds of your video and how to make sure that it's really engaging. So don't start, don't start your live stream and have it staring at the ground and then you're painting around. Start your live stream very, very strong and that's super important. You want to get people from the beginning so that way it's powerful in the moment of live and also when people watch it afterwards. Another important live stream tip is people often think you need to live stream the whole event and I often say that that's not the most best use of your time. Again, most people are not going to watch an hour long live stream. So you want to think about the most important parts of your action. Where is there going to be the most drama, the biggest moment, the key moment of your action and you want to live stream for that and be prepared for that moment. So that way when people are watching, they're really hooked into it. It feels exciting and engaging and also for when people watch the recording, they're watching the best part of the day and they don't have to spend time on either end with lots of things. Livestreams do not have to be long. And another trick is often what happens with your phone, especially with Facebook Live. You want to hold your phone horizontal but sometimes Facebook doesn't quite shift and so you want to make sure though that it actually is horizontal before you hit live and you also want to put in some description about your event into the text description so people know what the live stream is about. Put in the description, make sure it's horizontal and then you hit record. And that's really, really important. And lastly with live stream, be steady. People don't like watching shaky live streams, so be as stable as you can. If you follow these simple tips, you can have some really powerful live streams of your moment. And then I also have some other guides here that you can click on and read through to help you with your event. And that's the end of my presentation, but I'm so excited to see everything that comes up on the Global Day of Action and to see everyone's stories. And I think we'll open it now to a Q&A. Does anyone have any questions? I think Lucy, if you can help me. Sure. So we don't have any questions in the Q&A box so far. So if anybody has any questions, maybe the best thing to do is raise your hand if you're comfortable speaking into the mic or you can also type your question into the chat box as well. We'll just give it a few moments. You can think about any good questions that you have. And I'll redrop in the presentation link into the chat in case you missed it. And because you guys also joined this presentation, I'll also share with you, if you're on Twitter, I'll share with you my personal Twitter account with a 350 Twitter. We get so many people sending us app mentions and inboxes that sometimes we don't catch anything. But I'll be checking my Twitter. So if on the Day of the Climate Strikes, you're doing reporting from your event and you want to make sure that 350 sees it and that we retweet it, you can actually send it to my personal Twitter and then I'll make sure that it gets shared on 350. So this is me on Twitter. If you have any questions or you can also tag me on Twitter and any of your climate strike tweets from your action and I'll make sure that it gets shared on 350's social media channels. Omar, does that clarify your question? If you tag me on Twitter, I'll make sure it gets shared on 350 from your action. We're really glad that everyone was able to join this call. How worth it is it to do Facebook Live Stories? Lots of people are doing stories nowadays and I actually really enjoy both Instagram stories and Facebook Live Stories. I think it's really good for an action because you can really tell a story over time. Like you can tell the whole story of say a three hour action but in those short little snippets, that makes it really easy for people to follow along and often with Facebook stories or Instagram stories, they feel really immersive, meaning that they feel like people are a part of the action. So if you have the capacity, if you have the time, if you have a good team, I would recommend doing Facebook or Instagram stories. They're really easy but really fun to do at the same time. What is the most reliable platform for streaming in terms of reliability? I have found Facebook Live to be the most reliable and also has the best access to people. There's other live stream services that have more capabilities and lots more options, but they may be on a platform that not as many people have access to and use. So again, you can get really advanced with your live stream, but if you just want something simple and reliable, Facebook Live is pretty good. If you're focused though on an audience who's on Twitter, maybe your audience doesn't use Facebook. On Twitter, I think Periscope is still a really good option. Oh, and we're assistability. So for stability, it's not about the platform that you're using, it's more about your own equipment. So that's why it's important to have a selfie stick or a tripod or something that can help you hold your phone stable because that will then make your video quality much more stable. These are all great questions and I hope this has been helpful. I'll just leave it open for any last minute questions. Awesome. If we have no more questions and maybe I'll pass it back to you, Lucy. Yeah, sure. So thank you Thelma. So I just wanted to say if you do kind of, you know, end the webinar, go away and then think of one question you wish you'd asked, then maybe we could type in, I can type in my email address and maybe also Thelma's email address if you're happy to get questions so that people can send their questions in. So I can pop that into the chat, but also just to let you know that you will receive a follow-up email after this. So I'll make sure that I put in all of these links and all of these kind of contact details. As Thelma said, please do share these resources as well because you might have other people in your team or in your networks who you know who could really benefit from these tips and this advice as well. So I'll just type in my email address but you'll also get an email from me from that email address so you just need to reply to me if you've got any questions. So I think thank you very much for being such an engaged group and thank you Thelma for the enlightening presentation and do look out for that follow-up email and I think we all just want to say, you know, best of luck, this is the big week, it's going to be kind of busy, take care of yourselves, stay hydrated, all that stuff and yeah, looking forward to seeing your stories. So thanks everybody so much. Bye bye.