Chapter 8: telling stories with Video

Sometimes a story is too compelling and rich for photography to give it justice. Video has become a great tool to capture the story.

Digital Media has allowed video journalism to be come much cheaper and easier to use. It's an extremely versatile form of journalism.

For example, The Wall Street Journal online features Walter Mossberg simply talking from a home computer and uploading his thoughts. Mainstream has become completely forgiving in accepting these forms of news.

AS a journalist, one should understand how to create a video.
First, planning!
-use different approaches for different projects,
-try storyboarding to get an idea of where you want the story to go
-mix your shots, have a variety of angles and vantage points.
** According the the BBC Training and Development site, a good video sequence would consist of 5 elements***:
-close up of the specific action
-close up of the person's face
-wide shot
- over-the-shoulder shot
- creative shot

The next step, is the sound aspect of the video production.
-Learn effective video interviewing, for example: have a several pre-written questions
- use a standup and make sure to:
~have clear, concise and interesting content
~write a script and warm up
~be stable, breathe easy
~ don't be afraid to talk with your hands
-control your story with voiceovers

Now, it's time to get out there and shoot!
Do some research on what camera, computer editing software, and accessories will suit your needs best.

Focus on shooting good video. Pay attention to the focus, zoom, and exposure.

Don't worry about spectacular clips. It's much more important to have solid good clear clips. Don't try to be fancy with the zoom, it takes away from professionalism. Along the same lines, aim for good audio. Use external microphones to get clearer and better sound quality.

Now comes the editing part.
-Keep it short, you don't want to bore people
-look into buying a video editing software, such as Final Cut Pro, to edit your videos professionally.
-practice visual storytelling by following some basic rules of stories, i.e. have a beginning, middle, and end!

Lastly, it's time to publish your video online.
Within your editing software, you can "export" your video to an online form. Then use a website such as Youtube.com to host your video online.

Now you have a work of video journalism online!