The Daily Telegraph is one of Britains foremost newspapers.
The paper was founded in 1855, and has been the voice of conservative Britain ever since.
Highly respected both in the UK and worldwide, the Telegraph is now moving into video as it
migrates online.
Two weeks ago, we trained the first group of Telegraph print journalists to add video to their reportage,
using iPhones.
It was a most successful exercise.
Immediately following the bootcamp, they headed off to Brazil to cover the World Cup.
One can imagine the cost of sending video crews to accompany them to Brazil. It just would not have happened.
The great thing about iPhone video is that the journalists already have one, and they carry it with them all the time.
This transcends even small video cameras, which you have to remember to bring with you.
With iMovie on board, the journalists can then edit their video on their phones, lay in track and upload them back to the
paper immediately. No need for satellites! No need to even go back to the hotel to use a laptop.
Remarkable.
There was some initial concern amongst the journalists that having to create video would hamper their first task – creating print.
However, working with iPhones (and using our shooting and digital story construction techniques), the video actually enhances
their print. The phone can be used as a kind of digital notebook, recording both quotes and events for later reference when
stories have to be written.
As well, in our experience, shooting and editing a broadcast quality video on an iPhone can be as simple as writing a piece on a
laptop – even simpler. The trick is in the economy of shooting.
The first thing we teach people is to only shoot what they will need. Shoot for the timeline. Shoot for the story you want to make.
This is the methodolgy we have been perfecting for more than 25 years, and it works, but it is in stark contrast to the conventional
‘shoot a lot to give the editor choices’. When you are the editor, that is insane. Print journalists don’t write 10,000 words to create a
250 word item and they can and should work in video the same way. With experience, most of our people shoot almost 1:1 ratios.
It’s fast, it’s efficient, and it gives you a much more professional and focused piece.
The Telegraph is but the most recent in an increasingly long string of newspapers and magazines we are taking into online video in this way.
We hope to do more with them.
Copyright Michael Rosenblum 2014
