Svetlana Panyushkina for Telekiritika Magazine, 27.08.2008

Making your video news available online is the focus of a new special project at Digital Future of Journalism school.

The material is first published in Telekritika Magazine № 5/2008. 

 
Reading news is good but often we want to watch what is going on. Just remember the famous address of Kharkov mayor to the citizens “words are but wind, but seeing is believing”. This was proved by over 1m of users who watched the story of Kharkov mayor’s speech. Along with eloquent appeals, football goals that deliver victories or defeats, exciting performances of women-gymnasts, fragments of Oscar Ceremony, stories though taped by a mobile (quick record is more important than quality here), etc. are also of high interest.

The Internet provides broad opportunities to watch interesting videos online. Web-technologies enable the users to watch the stories whenever they like and without any limits as to the broadcasting time.

 
Just several years ago video on the news websites was considered rather extraordinary, with very few TV channel posting their videos online. Russia initiated the process long time ago. Modern holdings have been making own videos that are highly acclaimed.

 
Today posting videos online is a common practice in Ukraine too, as it is introduced alongside other interactive technologies and means of web-promotion like podcasts, blogs and comments online. According to Olga Karashchuk, manager for corporate web-projects development at Inter media group, newswires must post videos online to keep their leadership. Mikhail Ganitskiy, deputy editor-in-chief at Segodnya, supports this idea. He says editors start posting videos online to beat the rivals and provide more news formats for the readers. However, Andrey Yukhimenko deputy editor-in-chief at Kommersant, complains that being rather new the idea of online videos for print media is far from being broadly applied by the leading newspapers. Woefully enough, the editors know very little the use of online videos as well as their competitive advantages. Though, Andrey Yukhimenko leaves open the possibility that IT development will push the editors to develop the trend  in the nearest future. “The video might act as a teaser, encouraging the user to read the publication, which gives a detailed layout of the problem”, points out Mr Yukhimenko.

 
Editor offices practicing development and posting online videos on their portals believe that text news is suitable for reports and analytics, while videos are required for news with something spectacular and dynamic. Olga Baida, deputy editor-in-chief at Korrespondent.net says as the multimedia and gadgets market expands, the text is sidelined giving priority to the image. Abundance of information today prevents people from getting filled with news all day long. Consumers take more interest in a picture, so video is suitable when verbal description can be rather monotonous. Impressiveness can be partially conveyed by a photo camera, while motion is the objective for a film camera.
 
As online video in Ukraine expands, the users expect both gags and serious stories, such as on-the-spot reports and news. Moreover that internet is being increasingly accessible in houses and mobile phones.

 
Who needs video?

At first glance, online editor offices of TV channels have more opportunities to create their own videos. The assumption is based on the fact that large TV companies have a range of benefits: a team of reporters providing ready-made videos that just need to be digitized in the required format. According to Olga Karashchuk, traditional online editor offices have to work hard: cooperate with TV companies, make own videos with semi-professional cameras or resort to involve users to make video content.
 

By the way, video stories submitted by the “readers” are a common practice at big Russian TV channels. Vesti channel successfully implements Mobile Reporter project:  www.mreporter.ru.  The best stories are put on TV.
 

Print media have just started training their reporters to make videos. Yet it is still the main priority for journalists of e-newspapers, like Seichas (Ligabiznesinform), Segodnya. Others are just watching how their competitors publish videos on their portals. Anna Kibovskaya, editor at Dengi.UA website, believes that non-TV media in Ukraine rarely practice video stories, unless they intend to develop a highly-informative website. Interviews and videoblogs are chiefly used as video stories.
 

Challenges of online video are due to extra efforts and expenditure, the editors say. Benefits from this innovation are not that obvious. According to Andrey Yukhimenko, effective business-models are not in place yet. Meanwhile, the process remains a dry theory. However, as soon as the above mentioned model is established and delivers profit, the media will find necessary funds and way to realize it.
 

No doubt, though, that online video is well-demanded. Broad popularity of video servers like YouTube confirms the point. In 2006, the internet user became USA Time’s Magazine Person of the Year. It’s notable that the cover of the magazine displayed a monitor with YouTube interface.
 
 

To Start With

Making online video is not that difficult. According to the listeners of Digital Future of Journalism program, it took them only three days to master the skills of video making: day 1 – shooting, day 2 – cutting and posting online. Cutting was the most difficult to learn, since 80% listeners had never done that before. Learning to make a high-quality picture was quite easy for everybody. Today, the students of the program are sure that cutting can be learnt within maximum a day with specialized video-cutting software and a user’s manual. Quality of online videos is certain to be poor compared with those made by TV channels. However, no one in the web claims the level of experience shown by TV cameramen. A regular video camera or mobile phone camera is quite enough to capture the event. Most online videos are made by a mobile phone.
 

Making videos for their offices, skilled journalists say they can make up to 15-18 stories a day. But it is hard to cope with such a big number of tasks. On average, ten stories a day is the optimal number for TV. To make videos one has to buy a video camera (on average UAH 2,000–3,000) and software (up to UAH 4,000), attend a master-class on cutting and shooting (tutor fee – up to UAH 5,000). After that, you can take up modern technologies. Aksiniya Novikova, journalist of Channel 5, argues that making online videos doesn’t require any special cutting skills. “You just learn some rules and buttons and become the God and king in your video studio. You swap pictures and create the mood. When you do cutting, your brain relaxes from all words and letters, and it’s always useful to switch over to something else”, Ms Novikova explains.
 

TV specialists don’t recommend to let an unskilled journalist make videos immediately. If a person shows commitment and earlier managed to attend several press-conferences a day and write stories on each, then give him the green light. Everything is down to a journalist and his readiness for new technologies. Mikhail Ganitskiy insists you can encourage him financially. An American editorial office said once that during a module within the Digital Future of Journalism held Washington, editors would assure their employees that online videos promote both the editorial office and the journalist doing stand-ups. This is a step forward to publicity – most common for TV reporters.

We must realize that video stories must be in good supply. You can speak about a full-rate video service only when three to ten new videos appear on the website daily.
 

If you have witnessed an interesting event or just want to make a video for your blog, all you need is to have a mobile phone with camera and PC-access.
 

 
What you need.                                                   Configuration.

                                                                    Minimal                    Average  
PC                                                                 $450                         $900

Fire-Wire controller for video capture (modern motherboards and most laptops have a controller installed)

                                                                     $10
Board of video capture/video cutting CANOPUS EDIUS DVX (equipped with a video cutting program EDIUS 4 Pro)

                                                                                                     $549

Digital video camera or telephone with a video camera.
                                                                     $300                         $800
Camera holder                                                                               $50 
Speakers or headphones                               $10                            $80
Microphone                                                  $10                            $100
                                              
SOFTWARE   

Video cutting program Canopus EDIUS 4 Pro (is part of the video capture board CANOPUS EDIUS DVX)

                                                                                                     $0,00
Video cutting program Windows Movie Maker
                                                                   $0.00 
Graphic editor Adobe Photoshop CS3                                            $860
Graphic editor GIMP                                     $0,00
    
Total:                                                          $780                           $3,339
 
 

 
 
Philosophy of Video Content
 
 
Dmitriy Krapivenko, editor-in-chief, News.1plus1.ua website
 

 
I used to work in business print media. I remember well that when Delovaya Stolitsa was published for the first time, many rivals were enraged with the aggression, which newspaper showed to outdo the veterans of the market. Even its bright orange colour made the competitors mad (it was not down to politics then, for in 2001 orange colour was not symbolic) as  the leading business media were black and white. The brightness of the new rival was regarded as a hype luxury or a whim of well-to-do investors. But two year later, all leading business media of Ukraine became colourful. This helped them pay back the expenses, boost number of ads and satisfy the reader. Same is with our e-media: some still regard online video as a whim from the top. Someone is reluctant to film and edit the material. There is also a fake excuse that many Ukrainian users don't have high-speed Internet connection. But we see that the top websites have been posting videos for long and the number is claiming upwards. Leaders come first, the rest will follow later. 

To my mind, video has the highest trustworthiness, while the text always makes you feel doubtful – what if the author misinterpreted something, or missed some key detail, or was too personal. Seeing means believing. Our website offers a wide range of videos by Reuters marked "no comments". Wanna see the natural disaster in Australia or mass disorders in Kenya? - You are welcome. Or for instance you’ve missed an evening TSN program (Television News Service) - stayed late at work or got stuck in a traffic jam. You can go to the website any time and watch the whole program or some individual stories. And the users, let's be honest, are a bit lazy too. They are not inclined to read a lot, so online video is a very desirable content.

Our channel has a bit different situation with the website: first came the video. TV channel video. As soon as internet-market was ready to consume online video, we went online and improved our positions here. Not many in Ua.net can offer video of the same quality and amount.
 

As for our own video we do not totally depend on the channel in terms of video content. We make some stories ourselves at the internet department. We made some stories at "Dancing with a Star" TV show. Frankly speaking, video is part of our job just like text and graphics. Whenever a journalist attends some event he always takes a video- or photo-camera. We are lucky to have a relatively young website. We have initiated a custom from the very beginning - if someone works with content, he has to do everything - text, photo, video. There is no separation of duties here and we, so to say, lump everything together. We are lucky in this respect. Dozens of video stories emerge on the website during a day. These are mainly stories by 1+1 and Reuters, but we also have videos of our own. Some musicians sometimes record readily their clips for us, e.g. Haidamaky music band and singer Katya Chilli. We also regularly diversify information sources.
 

Launching the video online requires some technical preparation. You need to understand formats and test them. Then you choose a proper player, and there you go! Once the decision to post the video online is made, you needn't be afraid of facing the risk. Sure enough, the quality of online video - unless the site is owned by a TV company - will be lower. However, there is an advantage – the users will highly appraise homeness and "intimacy" of the content. You must never make video for the sake of video obviously, so to say “to keep with the Johnses”. The clips must have an appealing picture. Users will never appreciate gloomy faces, improper camera angles and “toilet” sound. This might produce the effect of a jacuzzi in a remote village house, which had never seen a proper water supply.
 
 
Simple and Smart Technology Solutions 

Olga Baida, deputy editor-in-chief, Korrespondent.net website
 

Although looking rather simple, the question of online video is not that easy to address. It is not only about buying some cameras and installing necessary software and services. Moreover, the process gives rise to a big deal of funny stories, which become legend later on.

First, the publication must understand that news texts are a priority for information agencies rather than websites intended for reader. Users don’t want to overload their brains with a bunch of letters. And the reader is right just because he is always right a priori.

 
At the current stage of internet development in Ukraine, a growing number of users have a high-quality unlimited Internet access. No doubt, you would rather listen to Tymoshenko (prime-minister) speaking about the attempts of Viktor Baloga (chief-of-staff of the President) to undermine anti-inflation initiatives of the government, instead of reading the text of her speech. Just for the reason that Tymoshenko is an eloquent speaker with the ability to outline the problem in excellent words. You can’t show emotions on paper.

You don't necessarily have to go to the Parliament with a professional camera and a journalist to film the story. You can use a video adapter instead. Most Ukrainian TV channels always make live broadcasting of similar events. Sure enough, you will post your video online prior to TV channels, thus making the story rating skyrocket.

 
Apart from video adapter, a professional editorial office must have a couple of video cameras. They don’t need to be big but reliable and offer good quality. Small camera enables you to get closer to the hot point as well as speed up transportation of video to the website.

Purchase of cameras should be accompanied with training of your staff to operate them. Latest equipment is easy to handle but you must keep some aspects in mind.

 
The worst mistake made by all beginners is zooming and panorama views in every fragment. Before you push Zoom, you must clearly understand why you are doing it. Before you push the button, think about whether you really need a close shot or you are just zooming because you can do it. Instead of zooming you'd better halt the filming or just move closer to the object.

 
Our first attempt to make a video for the website was nothing but pushing Zoom button. Later on we broke the habit making the video easier and more challenging. Another common mistake of journalists acting as cameramen is picture jerking. Some music videos and commercials use this effect as an art tool. If you strive for the same effect, you may tremble as much as you want! But in most cases picture jerking should be avoided.

 
Though, a camera support is not commonly used, especially in the USA, if you intend to make a panorama view, you'd better take one.

 
The following advice relates to picture shots. When watching home videos, you might often see some images showing people with only a part of their heads in the shot. To avoid this, one should keep in mind that almost every TV screen cuts about 10% of the picture from each side as well as from top and bottom. We received an excellent video with an important public announcement once. But only half of the speaker was seen the camera. Thus, we never posted it online.

 
Light is another aspect you should remember. Light from behind the speaker's back can black out the whole picture. Our website contains a range of example of the kind. It's true. To be honest, it is for the organizers of the event to ensure proper light, since both participants and the media will blame them for a poor quality of video. However, if the organizers didn't make any provision for the light, you must never take a picture of a person with his back to the source of light. Ask him/her to move aside. Otherwise he will look rather odd in the video –it's for his benefit to follow your instructions. The camera might have special light features, though, helping you make some adjustments. Mind for the source light to stay off-camera. If outside, you'd better film in the shade using a reflector to brighten the picture.

Nonetheless, apart from technical aspects, you should think about the story plot. This will facilitate the process of cutting. You will not have to listen to an hour-long speech of a statesman to find out that the most appealing words remained off-camera.

So, let's sum it up. Online video is appealing, as it attracts the user and keeps him interested. Online video is simple to make, one should just get some skills. Moreover that online video must not necessarily have the quality of a TV channel. And finally, your video should be clear without any explanations. A perfect video is the one without a voiceover and a presenter in-camera. This is what one should strive for.

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On 20 August, Digital Future of Journalism started admission of students for the next academic year 2008-2009. The course will start in October 2008. Students will be admitted until 19 September. For detailed information, please visit www.dfj.com.ua or www.j-school.kiev.ua.
 

Digital Future of Journalism is the project initiated by the Foundation for Development of Ukraine and implemented in tandem with the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) and SCM Group. Academic news room matching the best global practices is located in NaUKMA. This is the first and unrivalled program focused on studies of digital technologies in media and converged principles of media work.

http://www.telekritika.ua/magazine/infoproject/2008-08-27/40226