Compelling video storytelling

Compelling video storytelling

Our set-up here at The Globe Ingredients of compelling video

(examples from links) Taking advantage of the storytellers

in your newsroom How senior editors can support video Watching the numbers

Boston Globe Video

Who shoots video? Photographers Reporters Multimedia producers

Who edits video? Photographers Photo editors Multimedia producers Reporters

Ingredients for compelling video

Storytelling Visuals Audio Editing Time

Different kinds of compelling video

Examples In-depth documentary Feature On-scene reporter interviews Experiential video essays Hand-out

In-depth documentary

Feature stories

Video opens up with strong natural sound—bat cracking,…“oh, there you go…there you go.”

Then, interview with bullied camper…“I’ve been punched in the stomach, almost got slapped, pushed…people call me a crybaby…”

Ingredients for compelling video

Storytelling Visuals Audio Editing Time

Feature stories

Look for natural sound that transports you to a place. This video by Dina Rudick had great natural sound and a wonderful character. Our most successful videos are character-driven.

Spot news interview by reporter When a reporter interviews the

father of a trolley driver on Flip video while he is making phone calls to try to find out if she’s ok, that’s compelling video.

Be there, with your camera

Storytelling-interview was story Visuals-nothing to write home about Audio-not great, but understood Editing-almost none Time-very little

Essay-like experiential

Beautiful images with essay-like quality, in video form with some kind of sound. Story was about repairing the bridge. The video was complimentary.

Essay-like experiential

Just the event itself, with very little addition

It might not be your own

A secretly recorded videotape of a meeting between a city Councilor and a businessman that allegedly shows the councilor accepting a bribe. It’s at the heart of the federal corruption case.

Handout video

Use the talent you have

In our newsrooms, we have editors, reporters, photographers, photo editors, graphic artists, designers…all working to tell compelling stories in our newspapers. Use them.

Use the talent you have

Don’t say no to anybody. If they raise their hand, give them a chance. You never know who will be good at it.

Ann Silvio was a researcher at The Globe Magazine. She raised her hand even though she had never picked up a video camera. Two years later, she produced the Kennedy Series.

Use the talent you have

Now she works for 60 Minutes

Use the talent you have

Flip cameras for all—or the Kodak Zi8. Reporters and photographers are on the scene and in your communities.

Cross train. Let one of your reporters embed with the videographers for a few months. Have a videographer follow a photographer, a photographer work with a reporter.

Who is your best features editor or story coach? Bring them in to advise the video team.

Find the talent

Invite your artists to collaborate with the video team where appropriate. Encourage the video team to look for opportunities.

Find the talent

Who in your shop has a great narration voice?

I walked around the office with an audio recorder for the Kennedy series and I asked people to audition.

What senior editors can do to support video

Watch it! Comment on it See how it’s produced—understand

what is involved and how long it takes.

Give the video team technical support

Support video

If the people who are responsible for video are constantly dealing with technology, who is dealing with the content?

Spread the responsibility around.

Support video

This is obviously much easier to do at larger papers. We now have someone who analyzes our data and sends out a daily report on the top 20 videos.

We have consultants who deal with Final Cut Server, an asset management system that executes some routine production tasks and also delivers video in multiple formats.

Support video

When we were nominated for a national Emmy award, the publisher, the editor, the managing editor and the Kennedy video team went to NY.

Support video

Let writers and editors know that this is a priority and they all are expected to contribute.

Have somebody give the video report at your meetings.

Support training. Did I say support training? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to learn how to gather audio, light an interview, shoot video with a dslr camera and still be expected to get that page one image?

Video strategy

Get seriousForm a video strategy team

Video strategy

Ours explored content, advertising, and partnership opportunities across screens and platforms and a variety of other issues.

As a result of the strategy team recommendations, we built a studio to take advantage of the talent we already have in the newsroom, using the stories we are already doing.

Series video

The Big Story Tech Lab

Take 2

Globe 10.0The Huddle

Video strategy

We moved our homepage video player from the right rail, to a more prominent position

We redesigned our video section page. Players were rebuilt.

Video strategy

We also now often have videos embedded in our center well position on our homepage so our main art is often a video.

Watch the numbers

Watch the numbers

Which numbers are important? Conversion rate (what % of visitors

to your site watched a video Views Completion rate (when are they

dropping off? Discovery (how the person found the

video) Exit actions (did they watch another

video next?)

Where do you find the numbers? Video hosting services from YouTube, Vimeo,

Blip.tv, etc. all have free analytics tools

Google analytics. Tracks a lot of what pay products have, for free

TubeMogul recently announced it's InPlay product is free

Pay applications (Omniture or Visible Measures)

More questions?