Another very common type of video is a news story. These can keep people informed about major events, or introduce a new product, idea, opportunity, etc. Usually they’re done by one “reporter” who will interview a number of people to compile information for the story. These are generally factual – nothing is made up or opinion-based, just the facts, ma’am!

To create a good news story, you should follow the tips outlined below:

1) Journalism isn’t fiction writing – you can’t create stories from your imagination. You have to find newsworthy topics worth writing about. When you identify a topic, check with your teacher to make sure it is OK.

2) Make a list of people you would like to interview about the topic. Talk to these people about your topic before you interview them to gather more information.

3) Write out your interview questions. Note: Your questions may vary from person to person

4) Conduct your interviews with your subjects on camera.

5) Film any footage of your subject in action that will complement your story. (eg if you’re talking to someone about hockey, have footage of him/her playing hockey.)

6) Collect “Viz” footage. These are the visuals that we see while you’re doing your voiceover. This would be footage of things related to your topic. Again, if this is a story about the hockey team (which it shouldn’t be… season’s over!), you would have footage of the team getting ready for the game, sitting on the bench, playing, celebrating, etc.

6) Film yourself:

• Reporting on the subject
• The Standup/Sign Off – The conclusion of the story followed by your name and who you’re reporting for.

8) Choose the best footage from each interviewee (you don’t need to include everything, just the pieces that make your story shine).

7) Edit the film footage using Premiere Pro

8) Record narration to go with your video footage (make sure to include a “lead” – The hook at the beginning that introduces the story in an interesting manner)

Your News Story must be at least 1 minute in length

In order for news stories to be relevant, they need to be done QUICKLY. If you don’t report on your topic right away, it’s too late! That having been said, we’re new to this and we have a little bit of extra time, so we’re not in as big a rush this time.

You can do this one of two ways:

1) REAL NEWS: Pick a school activity/event, team, department and tell us about what’s going on. You’ll have to come up with some real questions and do some real interviews. This involves a bit less planning in advance, but there is more pressure to do it right.

2) Made up news: Yeah, you can do something fun instead if you want. If you do it this way, you have the luxury of being able to plan everything in advance, so you will! This will require a full script/storyboard plan before you shoot anything.

Yes, you will need other people in your video, but you will each write, plan, shoot, and edit your own video. NO GROUPS THIS TIME. You can ask other people to be in your story, but each person needs to come up with a separate idea and a separate story!