What is a vlog, anyway?

Simply put, a vlog is a video version of a blog, or a podcast. Like blogs and podcasts, vlogs feature a person or persons sharing information, opinions or a perspective on a certain issue or topic. The tone is usually more informal and conversational than your general news report, and they’re produced regularly, often once a week.

There are vlogs on travel, beauty, technology, gaming, hobbys, politics – just about anything. If you can talk about it, you can vlog it.

You don’t need expensive equipment to vlog (Photo: Kyle James)

Vlog characteristics

–One or more people talk to the camera. Even if talking about more serious issues, like current events or political developments, vlogs have a more informal style and usually try to bring in the personality of the person or people who are in front of the camera. The reporter may share their personal stories or points of view.

One of the reasons people like vlogs is that they seem more conversational and authentic, rather than highly scripted like a TV news report. In this age of social media and sharing, authenticity and personality is highly valued, more so than slick production techniques. The vlog below was done at a media training workshop in Cambodia. While you might not understand what the speaker is saying in Khmer, you can tell she’s got charisma and can connect with the audience.

–They aren’t too long. Web video is often shorter than produced TV reports. In this era of shortened attention spans, shorter is often sweeter when it comes to vlogs. Usually aim for no longer than five minutes.

–They’re produced regularly. Like blogs, vlogs need to be updated regularly, like a series. You want to build interest and have people keep coming back. If you wait a month between updates, interest will start to wane. Luckily, vlogs are not that hard to produce.

—Production can be simple. Often, a vlog is simply a person talking to the camera in his or her home or office. There’s no need for elaborate sets or backdrops.

—The equipment can be basic, too. Many vloggers use the web cameras on their computers to record the videos. Or you can use a digital camera’s video function or smartphone and upload the video to YouTube. But remember, you want to have good audio. So use a good microphone with your video recording device, or at least position yourself close to any device’s built-in mic. There’s not much other equipment necessary.

–Editing can be simple. Keep your edits simple, at least at first. Learn how to edit the beginning and end of the video and add a title. Later on, you can add in transitions and other more advanced edits. There are many software editing options out there, either pre-installed on your computer or free and low-cost options on the internet (Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, etc. Techradar published this list of free programs, but just do a search and you’ll find plenty of other options.) YouTube now has its own video editor you might want to check out.

–Vloggers engage with their audience. Good vloggers are good at talking to their audience. It’s like having a short conversation with them. The beginning should be interesting, or people will click away. And it’s a good idea to ask a question and encourage people to write comments on YouTube or your own site. If they can interact, they’re more likely to come back. (Although be warned, vloggers should have a thick skin to deal with unpleasant or highly critical comments that might pop up.)

–Successful vloggers build and maintain a fan base/community. Many vloggers start their own YouTube channels, ask for topics ideas and even respond to comments in their vlog entries. They upload on a regular schedule (say, every Wednesday morning), and publicize the vlog updates on other social media channels.

Finding a vlog topic to report about

Vlogs might be about providing analysis of a news development, discussing the reporting of a story, or giving a wrap-up of the week’s news.

At a recent workshop on multimedia journalism I helped teach in Cambodia, journalists at the Women’s Media Centre brainstormed about what kind of vlogs they could create with minimal fuss that would appeal to their audience.

Photo: Kyle James

One group decided to discuss the issue of traffic safety in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The debut vlog entry looked at the importance of wearing a helmet when riding a scooter. Standing in front of her scooter, the vlogger talked for about three minutes about her own experience with an accident, but also brought in accident statistics and addressed what the law says on the matter.

Another group tackled the issue of the changing nature of relationships among older people. And a third group, whose vlog you saw earlier in the post, decided to take a lighter route, focusing on dating –  a serious topic in Cambodia. Once the vlog was posted and promoted on the station’s Facebook page, it got around 30 views within 10 minutes.

Online vlogging resources

For more information on vlogging, with step-by-step guides to getting set up, production, starting a YouTube channel, and promoting your blog, check out some of the sites below.

• Vlog Nation
• Simple Vlogging Tips
• How to Be a Vlogger
• 4 Tips to Help You Start Blogging
• How To Start a Vlog: A Beginner’s Guide

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Written by Kyle James, edited by Kate Hairsine

One of their earliest animated shorts to go viral was a wacky 2009 video showing Tiger Woods wielding a gold club at his wife before crashing into a fire hydrant. The video got more than a million views in the first weekend of its release – though that early animation, which was aimed at the Asian market, is pretty cheesy compared to the slick productions coming out of the studio today.

In the past five years, NMA has built up an international cult following, produced animated news stories covering everything from the Scotland independence vote to ISIS publishing a pamphlet on how to treat female sex slaves. It now even has a rangle of TomoNews channels on YouTube in various languages, including English, Arabic and Russian.

But why the heck do you need an animated version of the news you might ask. The short answer is, “Why not?”

The more advanced answer goes something like this …. they fill a gap because they can show events that weren’t caught on camera because they can just create the missing footage. Or we could put it like this:

Q: How do you tell a breaking news story without video footage?
A: Just animate the missing parts

Though at times, it can be unclear in an NMA video what details really happened and what are made up.

Ferocious speed key to success

The company currently churns out more than 20 news videos daily – mainly for Japan and the US market. And they can only do this because of the speed at which they work – they boast they are the fastest animation studio in the world. Whether that’s true or not, turning over videos typically in three hours or less allows the firm to animate all kinds of topics from breaking news to science and medical subjects.

That is why every NMA video begins at a writer’s desk. The writers do the research, gather material and script the story that is subsequently animated and produced by a team using software normally used to produce computer games and motion-capture techniques. (For more how NMA actually create their animations, watch Marcus’ interview with Michael Logan.)

Clicks, clicks, clicks

NMA has partnered with the news agency Reuters to distribute its graphics to Reuters’ global network of television broadcasters and online publishers using a subscription model called News Direct.

But with TomoNews, they are directly targeting the internet generation. There’s  the website, various YouTube channels and their very own TomoNews app for iOS and Android. This content is supposed to be financed by advertisements, which explains the studio’s focus on capturing “the most talked-about WTF stories on the internet.”

Around one in ten videos goes viral, said NMA Content Development Director Michael Logan in a conversation with onMedia.

Inane time-fillers or news of the future?

If you are used to more traditional journalism, perhaps you don’t want to see the other nine out of the ten anyway. Many of the stories are pretty tabloid or as NMA puts it: “The craziest, weirdest, most unexpected stories will get an additional twist with our animations and snarky personality.”

The question is, do shorts about Wife tries killing husband using sh*t or Man dies after slipping and slashing his throat on edge of broken toilet bowl really deserve a place in the news diet of the YouTube generation?

Nobody knows the answer yet. But examples like Vice and Buzzfeed show that once these websites got traction, they introduced more quality content to their sites.

The possibilities for animated news though are huge. Computer generated animation can easily be transformed into games. It’s a field that has shown some promising results in the last years – especially if you consider the enormous possibilities of combining them with Virtual Reality devices. (Just check what Nonny de la Peña has been trying out).

NMA is still miles away from that. They have been testing games, says Logan, and the research and development team is checking out the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset for 3D gaming.

But for now, NMA’s focus is on reach and advertisements, not on exploring other ways to tell the news. Still, it’ll be interesting to see what Next Media Animation will be doing in five years’ time.

Written by Marcus Bösch, edited by Kate Hairsine.

Marcus is a digital journalist, lecturer and co-founder of the Good Evil Game Studio, where he’s currently working on a bunch of games-with-purpose projects. Apart from that, he teaches mobile reporting and the internet here and there.

And by the way, if you’re interested in this topic, he strongly recommends reading the article, Is Virtual Reality The Future Of Journalism?

Still from ‘A Day on the Drina’ by Ines Tanović

While documentary making is a difficult endeavour in any environment, filmmakers also face challenges that are unique to the culture and country in which they work. OnMedia’s Lesley Branagan caught up with three directors from different parts of the globe at the recent DOK Leipzig international film festival, where they sat together and compared their experiences, story inspirations and approaches.

Ahmed Nour from Egypt has made numerous independent films. Waves (Moug), his first feature-length documentary film, is about the Egyptian city of Suez after the Arab Spring.

Ines Tanović from Bosnia has directed many award-winning films. Her short films Ghetto 59 and A Day on the Drina were screened in this year’s DOK Leipzig.

Canadian Daniel Ziv has been living in Indonesia since 1999. His debut documentary Jalanan is a gritty portrait of Indonesia seen through the eyes of three Jakarta street musicians.

What are the main challenges you face in your filmmaking?

Ahmed: Of course, everybody would say funding, financing and distribution. The other thing I face in Egypt is I’m not allowed to go on the street and film without permission. And to get permission, you have to pay money and have police accept and permit you to shoot, which is a very complicated process. We do go without permission and shoot, but it means you cannot use big equipment or a big crew, so then your style is affected. This is a big problem. Everything is a challenge – pre-production, editing, writing. I think our job is full of challenges all the time.

Daniel: I agree. It’s important to recognise that documentary filmmaking is an endurance sport. It’s about stamina and patience more than anything else. I think there’s a tendency today, with the hipster generation, to think that going out and making a film is just the glamorous stage of running around with a camera and shooting cool shit. But the main challenge is about getting to the heart of your story and that takes patience. I shot for almost five years. In shooting in Jakarta, I didn’t have the obstacles that Ahmed faced in Egypt – I didn’t need a permit.

Ines: In my film Living Monument, I made close-ups of people talking about the Srebrenica genocide. It was very hard to get them to open up. Some people had learned how to talk because they are members of a concentration camp association and they are travelling together telling the same story – they are in front of the camera: “blah blah blah” – no emotion, nothing! One woman was talking about raping like going to the market – it’s not the story I want to tell.  I only accepted people who don’t have this kind of travelling story of the genocide. They said they wanted me to blur their face. I said, “no”, that I want emotion on their face, and they slowly, slowly open and then they make a story about rape in the war that is so hard to listen to, and makes you cry… This is what you face in the process of filmmaking – you have to know what you want from the film.

What sort of stories inspire you to make films?

Ines: In Bosnia you have so many stories that intrigue an auteur. I want to make stories that I understand and feel as my story. One is about genocide in Bosnia. The reality in Bosnia is so strong, I have an inner force to make this kind of story.

Daniel: I’m not interested in finding totally exceptional people or overachievers. I look for ordinary people who somehow constitute a microcosm of a bigger issue. I tried to make a portrait of Indonesia during this interesting time of political transition from dictatorship to democracy, and rather than treating that issue on the surface as a political issue, I went into an intimate story of three marginalised ordinary bus musicians, and trusted them and their story to be extraordinary in some way. And the advantage of focusing on the personal is that you have personal drama unfold that really helps the story telling.

Ahmed: I like subjects that give me the ability to create layers. I don’t like classic films where you follow a subject or event and document it. This is not my style. I like to work on creating mood. What should be extraordinary is how to tell the story. I don’t like exceptional heroes.

Where do you sell films? What are your hopes for the future of your film?

Daniel: Of course, I hope to sell Jalanan and make some of the investment back. What’s been unique is the resonance within Indonesia. Jalanan became the first documentary film to go into commercial theatres in the country. That was an amazing experience, to have created a story locally that meant something to Indonesians. We make our stories to be enjoyed for a wider audience. Documentaries used to be dry, boring, and now you’re expected to have a really good story to tell – there’s an appetite for it. The challenge and responsibility for us is to create engaging films.

Ahmed: I definitely agree. In Egypt you don’t have a chance to put your film in cinema, and your film is not for TV, so you’re in the middle – you have nowhere to go. I hope first to have the chance to distribute Waves in cinema theatres in Egypt and in Europe if possible, and to broadcast to a wider audience. This is why we make films. There should be some change in this strategy of TV channels, stereotyping audiences and thinking people won’t like certain films.

Ines: In Bosnia, we don’t have a market for documentaries. I make short documentaries, so TV stations don’t want to show them because they don’t fit the 55-minute slot. Also the length is not right for cinema.  So, these films are lost for the audience.  As an auteur, I make films in the duration that’s best for the topic. My film Day on the Drina was [about searching for the remains of Bosnian war victims in an artificial lake]. The digging in the mud was planned to last for two months. After one day [of filming], they said you cannot come back because you are danger for the forensic team. I made only a 17-minute film because I only had material from one day.  Then this film won prizes and was well accepted at festivals. So I don’t want to be a slave of the slots on TV or cinemas. Festivals are the main channel for this kind of film.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Check out other onMedia posts on video, film and TV. You might also like: Using Compact Cameras to Make Great TV and our three part series on Getting Started with Video for the Web.

DOS

Think about the background
The color of the background is important. You are going to disappear if you wear desert colors in a desert. Likewise, if you wear something dark at night, we will only see your head. In a studio, wearing green in front of a green screen or blue in front of a blue screen means your body disappears. By the way, red works better in front of a blue screen.

Notice how you can see the map behind the presenter through her clothes because she is wearing the same color as the screen behind her. You can watch the whole video here.

Wear solid bright colors
The camera loves vibrant colors. You might not wear bright pink that much in your daily life, but it actually looks great on camera. It’s the same for rich purples or magenta – they might look disgusting in daylight but the camera picks up these colors and so you stand out and catch the viewers’ attention. That said, if a color doesn’t suit you or your skin color, don’t wear it.

This Al Jazeera correspondent is dressed appropriately for the situation

Wear clothing (and makeup) appropriate to the story or event
Think about what you are going to be doing while reporting. You want to blend into the scene and wear appropriate clothing. So if you are covering a business function or some hard news event, wear a suit and tie if you’re male and a blazer with a dressy top if you are female. But a suit is inappropriate if you are reporting from a refugee camp or walking through a forest for a logging story – rather wear casual attire. The same goes for makeup, it should be appropriate for the event so don’t overdo it.

Wear clothing that looks natural for the weather
If it’s clearly raining, it’s not natural if you are getting wet so report from under an umbrella. If it snowing, it’s natural that you are bundled up in a coat and scarf and as you can see below, even gloves are allowed (although most broadcasters would want you to avoid wearing a hat). Correspondents who refuse to report with a coat on and then obviously look as if they are cold on camera just look silly. The same goes for the heat. If it’s blazing hot, take your suit jacket or blazer off or you’ll look ridiculous.

Wear a shirt if you’re a bloke
Always wear a collared shirt. It doesn’t have to be a dress shirt but even if you are doing a casual story, there’s not excuse for not having a collar.

Wear well-fitted clothing
Wear clothes that emphasize the waist and figure. The camera will make you look bigger than you are and if you are wearing shapeless clothing, you will end up looking lumpier on camera. It doesn’t have to be skin-tight though!

Tie your hair back if it’s windy
There’s nothing more distracting than having hair blowing all over your face. Here’s an example where the reporter definately needed a hair tie.

DON’TS

Avoid colors with meaning
Colors can be associated with a certain event or a certain political party. As a journalist, you need to be impartial, so you don’t want wear red when reporting on a party whose color is red. Likewise, don’t wear green if a team playing in a sports game you’re covering has green as their color.

Avoid small patterns and thin stripes
Big checks or wide stripes are fine. When they are too small or close together, however, they start flickering and cause an optical illusion on camera called the moiré effect. This also means no pin-striped shirts where the stripes are close together. Moiré is reduced in some newer cameras, but most still produce this effect, so you still need to be aware of the problem. You can see some examples in the video below.

Avoid all black or all white
Black absorbs lots of light, which means the details of black clothing are less visible on camera. This is especially true if you are light-skinned – when the camera is adjusted for your skin tone, your clothing will appear as a black blob. Conversely, white reflects lots of light, making it hard for the camera to pick up the true color of your face. This is important if you are dark-skinned – when the camera is adjusted for your skin tone, your shirt will glow! Here’s a link that explains more about colors on camera.

Avoid sleeveless dresses and tops
Unless you are covering a ‘light and fluffy’ event like a flower show, sleeveless dresses and tops are inappropriate and can make you look unprofessional. That said, there’s a trend in the United States for news anchors to wear sleeveless dresses but you won’t usually find female reporters with uncovered arms on international broadcasters such as Deutsche Welle, BBC and Al Jazeera. (Although here’s a BBC reporter wearing a strapless top (at 2’02) which in this case actually suits the event – if you watch the whole show reel, you’ll see her clothing in general is a good example of how to dress depending on the situation).

Avoid T-shirts for males (unless you work for CNN and are incredibly buff)
A T-shirt is too relaxed and can take diminish your authority as a reporter. Even if you are wearing casual trousers because you are out in the field, you can still wear a collared shirt. CNN’s correspondents have garnered some media attention in the past few years because of their tendency to wear tight T-shirts, but you want people to be listening to what you are saying, not checking out your pecs.

Avoid dangly earrings or clinking jewellery
Long earrings can be very distracting, as are bracelets or earrings that clink and clank against each other and make a noise on camera. The mics pick up every sound and amplify it.

Avoid shiny jewellery or metal tie clips
This includes oversized rings, bracelets, broaches and necklaces which can reflect the light and be distracting.

Avoid logos, brand-names or buttons
You are a journalist and therefore neutral. So don’t wear anything that has a name on it.

Don’t wear your sunglasses as a headband
Some female correspondents put their sunglasses up on their head to keep their hair from flying in their face. There might be a reason for doing it, but it looks unprofessional.

Don’t wear baseball caps
They might do it on US stations, but baseball caps can cast shadows on your face and it just looks bad on camera. Don’t do it.

You might also be interested in reading onMedia’s tips for journalists reporting on camera.

Compiled by Kate Hairsine from interviews with Ben Fajzullin and Meggin Leigh.

Among his equipment, professional cameraman and documentary filmmaker Christian Parkinson has a small point and shoot digital camera, which he uses to produce quality films for broadcast. He talks to onMedia about his experience of working with compact cameras.

At the moment, Parkinson is using the Canon S110 (pictured above). It shoots full HD and although it won’t take an external microphone, the audio is “pretty good” if you are standing close to your interviewee, Parkinson says.

That’s good news for journalists who want to start producing video stories and are looking for an affordable equipment.

“The technology is now at a level where someone anywhere in the world with a little bit of money in their pocket can go out and make TV,” he tells onMedia.

While covering Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in 2013 for the BBC, Parkinson used the Canon S110 to produce a short news feature about people attending the service at FNB stadium in Soweto.

The image quality produced by a compact camera obviously isn’t as good as a professional broadcast camera and getting the exposure right in difficult lighting situations can be tricky, Parkionson says. But there are often advantages that outweigh the loss of quality when using a small camera.

“I can be filming with it where I’m not meant to be filming or where people would be very uncomfortable if I pulled out the big camera,” he says. With a small camera, “no one even blinks at me.”

“I can even walk up to people and start talking to them filming. And they might give me a funny look but they are not bothered by it. They don’t think you’re a serious journalist so therefore they are more relaxed and you get a real answer from people.”

Sense of immediacy

In another video filmed in Turkey, Christian guides the audience through the former French embassy in Istanbul. In the opening shot, he films his feet as he walks. In the next shot,  he’s holding the camera out in front of his face and introduces the story directly into the lens, which is  an advantage of a lightweight camera. Straight away you see the difference in this form of video journalism and storytelling – the journalist is more agile and the audience gets a sense that they are right there watching events as they unfold.

Practice makes perfect

Parkinson believes equipment is no longer an obstacle to making films. However, he says, equipment alone isn’t going to make you a filmmaker. You need to learn some basic skills and the best way to do that is get out there and practice with whatever equipment you can get your hands on.

“The technology is not as important as the storytelling experience; knowing what works, how to frame a shot and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the tool that you’re using,” he says.

“I think that is just practice and experience and there is no shortcuts for a lot of this stuff. I wish I could give people a sort of bullet point of shortcuts that will make them brilliant filmmakers but unfortunately it is just trial and error.”

If you are interested in more of Christian’s thoughts on using small cameras, take a look at his website and blog where he writes about camera work and video journalism. Christian has recently published a new e-book Camera Confidential which is packed with advice about working as a camera operator and video journalist.

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Written by Martin Vogl, edited by Guy Degen