Shooting video: check Reuters & BBC CoJo

I’ve just been reading the Reuters Handbook of Journalism, specifically The Complete Reuters Video News Handbook.

It’s an excellent guide and really breaks down the company’s requirements for video, scripts and journalism.

If you’re inexperienced in gathering video to broadcast standards then there’s lots of detail here about standards, shot types, audio quality etc. I shoot video, but while I focus on the story and how my shots can be edited to fit that story, I must confess I’m not strict on things like composition, angles, lead-in shots, establishing and cover shots etc. My background is in radio broadcasting, so my audio is good, but I’ve got a lot of learning to do for broadcast video.

I’ve spent a lot of time on the BBC’s COJo Website (College of Journalism). That’s a fantastic resource, with loads of how-to videos – especially on video journalism. I especially like the short videos on the shots that work best, how to avoid boring and repetitive images and so on.