What makes good online video - BBC News
The BBC College of Journalism has just put up a great post on what makes good online video, which highlights how they chose what content gets used on the BBC News website.
Click the link to watch the full video, but I’ve pulled out a few of the key findings below. They are well worth paying attention to and are very close to the criteria we use at Which? to decide what videos to produce.
All best content has same things in common, they are:
Succinct, visually powerful and focused. They use the very best pictures to tell a story with a beginning, middle and an end.
Piece should have:
Clear simple headlines focusing on a single idea or sequence
Clear strong images (the piece should be visual)
It should be easy to sell
Audience wont put up with anything vague and wont click on anything that says ‘news’ or ‘headlines’
There are four types of video content that go up on the BBC News website:
1 ‘The moment when’ – the most dramatic pictures of a news event
Rough and ready clips, no production, most important thing is speed and impact.
2 Authored ‘show and tells’ – a correspondent’s own impressions of a story
Stand alone video with it’s own content that needs no other story to make it work, plenty of movement with little post production. Tour of a situation.
3 Contextual video – background analysis or discussion of a story
Gives context to a text article. Could be demonstration images or a case-study. element of the story that is best delivered in video.
4 Highly produced interactive multimedia content.
Highly interactive. Video is part of images, stats, graphics.