McClatchy’s Video Lab and “First Women”/ “How Trumps Election Changed My Life”
Covering the news these days requires journalists to tell increasingly sophisticated and complex stories. This is especially challenging for visual storytellers. While the two-minute video is the hallmark of most online video, it’s very limiting.
McClatchy’s DC-based Video Lab are at the vanguard of solving this dilemma, tasked with finding new ways of telling video stories for an online audience. These productions are added to the mix of productions being pushed to, and pulled from, their network’s newsrooms across the country like the Miami Herald and the Sacramento Bee.
The name “lab” is no accident. From breaking news to long form, their job is to experiment with new forms of social media and digital storytelling.
Increasingly, to solve this challenge, they are turning to VERSE. Recently, producer Natalie Fertig and videographer Ali Rizvi criss-crossed the country, with 7 cases of gear including a backdrop and dolly, to talk to eight female pioneers. “(VERSE) solved the problem videographers always have. We have too much content and no one will watch the online documentary if it’s 30 minutes long. You always want to give your characters more time and more ability to tell their story, but you have to weigh that against what users will sit and watch,” Fertig said.
They had collected 30–90 minutes of interview with each woman. Each woman would be asked the same questions, but only the best single answer would make it into the 6 minute mini-documentary that leads the package. What to do with the other great responses to the same question?
They planned for each subject to have their own interactive Q and A that branched off from the main narrative. Having this option was a relief to Fertig who had been texting favorite quotes to her friends as she reported, knowing not all would make the main narrative. “It was good to know that those voices were going to be heard in another setting.”
Fertig said users are served too. “I think people will watch more when they have control over what they’re watching.”
The video lab team had previously used VERSE in “Voters Make the Call,” a broad look at voters nationwide in the run-up to the election. Based on that experience with the tools, lead producer Ben Connors spent about 30 minutes getting Natalie and Ali up to speed on the VERSE basics, and then another session or two to plan the specific VERSE approach for First Women. Soon after, they did a short turnaround project called “How Trumps Election Changed My Life” that was published within 18 hours of shooting ending.
“In a news organization, it’s very easy to focus on your next deadline or the bottom line of the next quarter.” Connors said, “From a storytelling point of view, I think of emerging technologies as set pieces. We want access to as many new tools as possible, but in the end, it’s all about building the right set for the story the editorial team is trying to tell.” These projects were on opposite ends of the spectrum, from long form to quick turn. According to Connors, these projects explored “two different ways of using VERSE. (First Women) was super intentional and takes time and polish. The second (How Trumps Election Changed My Life) was a much more quick turn in news fashion. Both of them are totally workable,” in the VERSE tools.
This article was written by Meredith Hogan, Executive Producer at Verse.
