Online Video: An Overview
Video on the web is different than broadcast journalism.
There is different context.
There are different expectations.
The way it’s viewed is different.
In many ways, a simple, no frills video, shows readers something that can’t be adequately matched in text or photos. A great example is a simple sports video about a young baseball player.
Adam Bender is a one-legged baseball player in Kentucky. A reporter writing about Adam used a simple web video — with no narration or interviews — to show Adam playing the game.
Compare the video to the above great photo of Adam playing catcher at a game.
Online News Video Examples
Online news video falls in different places along a continuum depending on the purpose, the news outlet and the resources available to the reporter.
You have options for how to use video online. You are not limited by the typical rules of broadcast. That said, you have to be discerning and provide enough context that the video is a part of your reporting — not just superfluous material on the web.
Raw footage
Sometimes all you need is raw video footage to accompany your story. This could be a way to put public officials on the record, set a scene for a story you’re reporting or provide documentation of something you’re reporting on (such as the surveillance footage of a pit bull being shot by police).
Reporters today are expected to get video footage to go with stories just as they’re expected to get quotes. It’s now a required part of the job.
- Facebook live video: Press conference after plane crash | Hartford Courant
- AP raw footage
- AR-15 demo, CT News Junkie
- Election acceptance and losing speeches, Valley Indy
- Video, 911 Call Detail Pit Bull Shooting in Ansonia, Valley Independent Sentinel
Raw footage with some edits
Other times, that raw footage helps provide context to a story, but needs some slight editing to help it out.
- (See the full New Yorker story “Up and Then Down” here.)
- New Piper Comes to Town, New Haven Independent
These help provide a little more context or streamline the content so the viewer doesn’t have to sift through hours of unnecessary material to get to the most important part.
More Professional Edits, No Reporter’s Voice
In terms of edited video, a common technique you’ll see online is a more traditional news package, but without a reporter’s voice anywhere in the piece. You don’t need the context of the reporter telling the story because the video appears within a text story, typically.
Even so, most of these videos could stand alone, as the subjects do much of the narrating.
This is a level of editing that requires more time and a sense for visual and audio storytelling. This kind of video makes sense with feature stories or longer reporting projects. It’s not really logical to use on a breaking news assignment.
Cars vs. Potholes | Detroit Free Press
This category includes some social media video edits that aim to tell a story in 15-second bits of footage, text and background music. The BBC has been consistently using this style on its Instagram page for a couple years now.
Broadcast Style
Some online video mirrors broadcast style by design. That includes videos that just need more context and online newscasts.
Stamford High Principal Arrested, ItsRelevant.com
I include a link to this early Timescast from the New York Times to point out that appearing in front of a camera is difficult and requires practice.
New Styles
Tiny Docs | See examples on assignment sheet
360 Video | AP 360 vR | NYTimes Daily 360
Other examples:
134-year-old fruitcake| Detroit Free Press
Cedric Givens, Backwards Jogger | Washington Post
Mini Maestro |Pat Shannahan
Octobass | The Arizona Republic
Tips for recording video
Tips for one-camera set-ups.
Tips for two-camera set-ups.
Five Shot Sequence
Sequencing shots is helpful in deadline video editing, because you are shooting an action in the order you will then edit the action. It helps make sure you get a variety of shots, in order, that will be easy to edit on the fly.
The five shots are:
- Close up of the hands
- Close up of the face (answering the question: Whose hands are these?)
- Medium shot (showing the hands and face together)
- Over the shoulder shot (showing the action again, from a different angle)
- Creative shot (try something different to show the action from a different place)
These steps are outlined well in this blog post from Poynter and in this handout.
