Video Journalism

Increasingly, there is more to being a local journalist than just writing news stories. Many newspaper websites such as the Express and Star and the Nottingham Evening Post now use videos and it is journalists who are responsible for making them.

Putting a video package together is a skill that needs to be learned. But the basic aim is the same – the ability to tell a story in a coherent and concise way.

If you are expected to make videos then you should be given training by your newspaper. The NCTJ has also made an excellent video explaining the technical side of video journalism.

According to Will Roberts, a district reporter for the Northern Echo, one of the most important parts of shooting videos is making sure you give yourself enough time as it can often stake much longer than you think.

Will has also given JournoWorld his top five tips for people who are making videos:

• Check and double-check your kit - newspaper journalists just need notebooks and pens, but there are a lot more things that can go wrong with videos.
• Always have headphones. People can tolerate slightly out of focus/shaky/off centre shots, especially online. But they will not tolerate bad sound quality.
• Still remember the journalistic basics. Take a notepad to take down correct spellings of names/titles for captions and any background information that you might need for a voiceover.
• Get a colleague to check your video before you upload it. If you spend three hours doing a video you sometimes cannot see the wood for the trees so it's sometimes a good idea to get someone to watch it before it goes live.
• Try not to repeat what is going to go in the paper. I always try and make the video slightly different. It need not be a different angle necessarily (although that would be good), but perhaps different quotes or different interviewees.