Class 3/20: Writing and Editing a Video Segment

In class today, we talked a bit about storyboarding, and the way that it helps to visualize the visual narrative that you are constructing.

In order to build your storyboard, you need to answer a few questions:

• What is the story? (personalize it, show the stakes)
• Whose perspective do you need to show it from?
• What images do you need?
• What interviews do you need to line up?
• What locations should you show?

We also talked a bit about writing and structure.

Conceptually, you need to understand that for video, images run the show. Your writing needs to provide the facts behind your story, but your images should provide the drama, illustrate your points, or provoke insights. If you need to add a little "oomph" to your narration, try to have that come from your interviews, rather than from your commentary--unless the piece is itself an editorial.

How do you plan that? Here is some advice from Al Tompkins of Poynter, which centers on committing to a formula and staying disciplined in your editing. Here is a BBC Academy piece on writing to images. Most of all? Keep it simple. You want your sentences to be straightforward, clear, and to the point (unlike this one!)

For practical tips, here is an article by Lee Powell of the Associated Press, a videojournalist who records standups (direct-to-camera stories) mostly working by himself. Here is a piece by Poynter on sequencing shots.