As the appetite for video content online keeps growing, many media organizations are scrambling to put video on their websites. But for those doing video for the first time, it’s not necessary to shoot documentary-level quality to attract viewers. A simple alternative is video blogging, or vlogging. Vlogs are easy to produce and can quickly build up a following. Here’s what vlogging journalists should think about before letting the camera roll.

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Online news video continues to rapidly grow, but how are newsrooms producing video? What formats are working? How important is mobile and social media? And what is the return on investment in allocating staff and resources to produce video journalism?

A new report, Video Now: The Form, Cost, and Effect of Video Journalism, produced by Professor Duy Linh Tu, of Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, has examined the video production of several American newspapers and online media organisatons.

It’s well worth watching the whole report.

The responses from producers and editors are both candid and insightful, especially regarding time and staff required to produce video and the number of views their pieces attract.

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Producing online video offers a lot of possibilities for creative visual storytelling – even for news items. But if you’re just starting out, honing your basic camera and editing skills and being able to produce simple formats competently will help you to take the next steps.

So far in our Getting started with video for the web series we’ve introduced you to some standard video equipment and accessories as well as discussed how to produce simple video clips and interviews.

In our final post we’ll take a look at producing short reporter dispatches and get you started with shooting simple video sequences.

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In our first post on Getting started with video for the web, we looked at some of the basic equipment for video production you would need to think about using; important considerations for filming such as lighting and audio; as well as some of the essential skills to practice before hitting the record button.

 

Remember, your camera is a tool for telling stories and no camera is perfect for every situation you’ll encounter. Importantly, try to become familiar with the operation of your camera.

– Know how to operate the focus controls
– Know how to manually adjust the main exposure settings of  S-I-N-G: shutter speed, iris, neutral density and gain;
– Know how to adjust audio settings
– Know under what conditions your camera produces its best images
– Know the limitations of your camera: this will help your planning and workflow

Really, what it comes down to is practice. Video for the web offers you the chance to use almost any camcorder. But no matter what camera you have, you need to start clocking up the hours of using it under a variety of conditions. Practice. When you are comfortable and confident in using your video camera you can concentrate more on your story.

In this post, while you’re still practicing with your camera and equipment, we’ll introduce some basic video for the web formats that will hopefully offer some ideas that you could apply or adapt to your online stories and newsroom workflow.

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There’s much more to producing video than flicking on a camcorder and hitting record. And it’s unfortunate that journalists are often expected to go out and film something for their online site with little or no training.

Keep it simple, keep it short and a little bit of planning helps of lot.

 

That’s probably the best advice for anyone who needs to start producing video for the web content.

It goes without saying that we’d recommend you do a proper video for the web course. Or even better, a video journalist course to learn more about the techniques of filming and the craft of visual storytelling.

But if you’re looking for some tips to get started, our blog series on producing video for the web will cover some of the basics and point you in the right direction for online resources.

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