Using Videos To Tell Stories Online

One of the biggest mistakes newspapers going online when it comes to using videos to tell stories is to try to buy and use the best in the market. While budget may permit expensive indulgences, one needs to be reminded that web limitations certainly will not do justice to near-Hollywood productions.

Here are some tips on what to look out for if you decide to use videos to tell your story.

Choosing Equipment:

Size and Price: You don't need monstrous shoulder-mounted videos used by TV news crew to record videos unless you aim to stand out in the sea of media people at press conferences. Smaller palm held ones are just as good these days, cheaper and offers much mobility. They also offer easier playback and can be set up in a jiffy. Bigger doesn't mean better recording and the bigger ones often do no better than the smaller video devices, including cameras and camera-phones like the Nokia N95. Besides, do you need really hi-tech video cameras to record videos for posting onto video sharing sites like YouTube which has a relatively small viewing window?

Audio Playback: While you don't need top-of-the-range video cams, you need a decent audio recorder. Of course, if your video recording equipment offers good playback, that would be the most ideal. But if it doesnt, then you may need to get a good microphone with good pick-up. This will ensure that your natural sounds on your video is crisp clear. These microphones will allow you to record in a variety of situations such as one-to-one interviews or in groups such as press conferences. A note of advice when using microphones is to remember to switch it on when doing video recordings. You will be surprised to find how many videographers forget to switch it on only to find out their folly after returning to the office.

Stabilising Devices: Tripods are a must in a good videographer's bag. They help steady the video when filming sit-down interviews. Used well, they will not make your video appear as if you were filming while on a boat or in an earthquake. Image stabilisers, a recent development in cameras and video recorders, are devices that help prevent blurred images from camera shake. Most mid-range priced video recorders come with image stabilisers. Get recorders that have this feature installed if you can afford it. It will be worth your money spent.

Display Screens: Most video recorders have flip display screen. This is extremely useful if you are a one-man videographing unit. Flip screens allow you to record yourself such as when doing commentaries and recording videos.

Software: There are a number of free and paid softwares for editing videos. Best known among free ones is the Windows Movie Maker which not only allows you to edit but also do enhancements such as transitions, subtitles, credit lines, etc to produce a somewhat 'professionally done' video pieces. But of course, if you wish to have better ones and can afford them, Adobe Premiere Elements, Ulead VideoStudio and Final Cut Pro are good choices - allowing you to do more than just cutting the frame sets on the recording.