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The overview
Included in this video style guide are steps to follow to create a video story. These are simple guidelines. The steps should be applied to both news and feature video reports. They’re designed to help the video producer find a focus for video stories and also provide an outline for newsrooms to follow to bring consistency to a paper's videos and among all GateHouse Media video reports.
It also aims to provide structure to adhere to our targeted goals in our Web Cube program, which outlines multimedia expectations for newsrooms.
The strategy
1. Length of video
Video lengths will vary at times. However, the guidelines here are set for the typical daily video report you'll file. If you are working on a larger video project, or these limitations do not work for your report, an editor should be consulted to determine if the video warrants departing from these guidelines.
News videos | These should be no longer than two minutes. If a report goes over two minutes, a
discussion between an editor and a producer should take place to determine if it needs to get re-edited or it goes long.
Feature videos | These should be no longer than three minutes. If a feature video goes over three minutes, a discussion between an editor and a producer should take place to determine if it needs to get re-edited or it goes long.
Hint | Typically, to get a two-minute, edited video, you should be shooting about 15 minutes of raw footage, such as interviews and B-Roll footage (supplemental footage); about 15 to 30 minutes of raw footage for a three-minute piece.
2. The focus of your video
In order to adhere to the recommended time limits of our videos, like in print stories, the most important thing to do before shooting is to find the focus of your piece.
Every video producer should be able to answer the following two questions before pursuing
a video report:
What is the story about? Like in print, a producer should be able to explain the story in one sentence before planning a video.
Why should this story be a video? Here are some things to ask:
• Does the story provide some visual supplemental coverage for your print story?
• Does it provide explanatory (how-to) journalism, best shown in video; or, if just a supplement for a print report, does it show something interesting?
• Does the story have an emotional topic/subject hook that is best presented in video?
• Does the story have an interesting “character” (subject) that is best captured in video?
The overview
Included in this video style guide are steps to follow to create a video story. These are simple guidelines. The steps should be applied to both news and feature video reports. They’re designed to help the video producer find a focus for video stories and also provide an outline for newsrooms to follow to bring consistency to a paper's videos and among all GateHouse Media video reports.
It also aims to provide structure to adhere to our targeted goals in our Web Cube program, which outlines multimedia expectations for newsrooms.
The strategy
1. Length of video
Video lengths will vary at times. However, the guidelines here are set for the typical daily video report you'll file. If you are working on a larger video project, or these limitations do not work for your report, an editor should be consulted to determine if the video warrants departing from these guidelines.
News videos | These should be no longer than two minutes. If a report goes over two minutes, a
discussion between an editor and a producer should take place to determine if it needs to get re-edited or it goes long.
Feature videos | These should be no longer than three minutes. If a feature video goes over three minutes, a discussion between an editor and a producer should take place to determine if it needs to get re-edited or it goes long.
Hint | Typically, to get a two-minute, edited video, you should be shooting about 15 minutes of raw footage, such as interviews and B-Roll footage (supplemental footage); about 15 to 30 minutes of raw footage for a three-minute piece.
2. The focus of your video
In order to adhere to the recommended time limits of our videos, like in print stories, the most important thing to do before shooting is to find the focus of your piece.
Every video producer should be able to answer the following two questions before pursuing
a video report:
What is the story about? Like in print, a producer should be able to explain the story in one sentence before planning a video.
Why should this story be a video? Here are some things to ask:
• Does the story provide some visual supplemental coverage for your print story?
• Does it provide explanatory (how-to) journalism, best shown in video; or, if just a supplement for a print report, does it show something interesting?
• Does the story have an emotional topic/subject hook that is best presented in video?
• Does the story have an interesting “character” (subject) that is best captured in video?
