How to build vertical videos for TV newsrooms (and what not to do)
Television newsrooms should be best positioned to adopt vertical video as a distribution platform, or so goes the common hypothesis. Our teams are already familiar with the necessary tools and with storytelling on camera.
So why does it feel like TV newsrooms are behind other legacy newsrooms in this effort?
In my market, the first journalist to break through and gain widespread recognition with vertical video was from a radio station.
Perhaps it’s because some of our hard-learned linear viewership strategies don’t translate to the new platforms with audiences that don’t like to feel managed? Or because too many in our industry still look at digital platforms as a promotional opportunity?
While it seems like it should be easy for TV to make a small pivot, I believe we’ve had a hard time because a series of small adjustments can be more challenging than wholesale change, especially while the old ways remain in use on other platforms.
You’re doing good work, why not share it to a larger audience?
That’s long been the argument for getting legacy newsrooms on social media and it continues to be relevant today.
I want to go beyond content creation. I want to be a content engineer.
To help myself work more purposefully and also to evangelize the process to others, I have collected and organized these helpful strategies:
VIDEO CATEGORIES
I find it helpful to prompt myself by asking, “What sort of video could this become?” From there, I find it easier to identify my moments and plan my edit.
Common categories for news-oriented videos include:
Moments (Minimal editing, voice over or on-camera work required)
- With these, we are looking for unusual incidents, genuine interactions, shock, surprise or other emotional resonance.
Experiences (Most often told through a presenter’s point of view)
- This is our opportunity to be a guide, showcasing some unusual access, enviable experiences or the process of our storytelling work.
News du jour (Rearrangement or summary of content we’re already gathering)
- As journalists, we’re on the frontlines of gathering new information, breaking it down and asking questions on behalf of our audience. We can showcase that work in these videos, and keep them simple enough to produce in minutes.
Unique to [Your Community] (Acting as a tour guide, this is the most influencer-like content)
- What’s new, changing or rarely seen? This is another way to make the most of those opportunities and reach new audiences.
Accountability (Showcase what we do for the community)
- Showcase the parts of our work that underscore our service on behalf of the community, investigating potential wrongs, checking facts and asking tough questions of the people responsible.
STRUCTURE
Generally speaking, short vertical videos have a series of 3-6 acts. I’ve heard a few versions of this from different members of the industry, but the most important part of any video, they all agree, is the first few seconds.
They also agree that these move quickly — almost breathlessly. Each of these phases of the video will last only a few seconds, so that the total is often less than 90 seconds.
- Hook: We only get a few seconds (sometimes only a few frames) to convince a user to stop their scroll. This needs to very purposefully showcase the best moment, a surprising revelation or an intriguing question, even if you return later in your clip.
- Develop and contextualize: Provide some pay off for your hook, begin giving the information that audiences need and develop their interest in the issue.
- Make it personal: What about this topic relates to the viewer, someone they know or their neighborhood?
- Callback: An opportunity to return to your hook and put it in greater context.
- Climax: This is what you’ve been building toward. What’s the outcome or takeaway that you want the audience to learn? This should build upon previous elements
- Next steps: Do you have a question for the audience? Are you going to do additional work in the future?
EDITING OPTIONS
Like the old saying that the best camera is the one you have available when you need it, so it goes for editing. Prepare to be flexible by experimenting with your software before crunch time.
Nearly all of these options offer the opportunity to add titles, overlay text and, most importantly, captioning over your videos. That helps make it accessible to users who may not have the sound turned up
For me, editing on a computer is the easiest because it is the most familiar option.
Adobe Premiere is an industry standard and offers a great deal of flexibility. Integrations with graphical libraries and After Effects offer a lot of opportunities to fancy things up, if time allows. None of this is free, but many in the industry already have access.
If you start a new timeline in Premiere, I usually turn the settings to Custom, set the size for 1080x1920px and a frame rate of 30.
There are also several phone-first options offering presets designed for vertical video:
- Adobe Violet or Rush
- Rush, the older app, offers great automated centering on the focal point when converting horizontal footage to vertical, and has an option for layered video timelines, but it can be hard to fine-tune on a small screen using fingers. Violet appears to be the next generation, offering many similar features but adding the popular and important auto captioning.
- Instagram
- The editing tool built into Instagram is very comparable to the Adobe apps offered below, but be warned that some of the bells and whistles may be a bit kitschy and offered music or sound integrations may not translate to rights on other platforms or business accounts. Best of all, this is free.
- Adobe Express
- More feature-heavy but not always entirely successful (for me), this app tried to remove my hand when testing the cut-out feature. It’s also full of social graphic tools and is jammed full of templates that may not work for you, but quick actions to crop or resize video could be very helpful and branding standardization could help to reign in a style guide.
- CapCut
- Feature-heavy, with a great teleprompter option, but suggests many AI options that may not be appropriate and offers popular music that may pose rights issues. As a ByteDance product, there could also be concern about terms of use and TikTok integration for some companies. The features and low, low cost of $0 might make you overlook some of those issues.
- Apple Clips
- Very simple and offers automated captions, but not good for reformatting from one video size to another.
SOUND OPTIONS
To reiterate: Don’t rely on sound alone. Remember that many viewers will start with the sound off and many never turn it on at all. Captions, titles and overlay text are ways to make your content more accessible and engaging.
- Natural sound: Must be extraordinary to draw attention and creator should consider using titles or overlay text to let the audience know there is something to hear.
- Interview or selfie sound: Do your best to consider sound while you also consider the framing of your recording. Is there traffic or noisy equipment nearby? Do you have sufficiently good microphones to compensate? If working on a phone without external microphones, how close can you get to give the built-in mic the best chance of filtering ambient noise?
- Voiceover: Recording an audio track in a controlled environment, even inside a car, can significantly improve the quality of the sound, particularly in lieu of a high-quality microphone.
Don’t go too cheap on the microphones. Some are available for $25 or less but cheap gear generally sounds cheap and functions poorly. Some other options are large, clunky or branded and you don’t want the gear to be distracting either. This can be a tough decision, but if you’re working in noisy environments often, a good mic can be valuable.
WHAT NOT TO DO?
Each newsroom and each content engineer will need to decide on what’s comfortable and appropriate.
Some standards of television video or audio quality may be relaxed somewhat in vertical videos built for social media, but if people look unkempt, lights are too dark or sound is inaudible, viewers are unlikely to stick around. Worse, they may begin to associate our professionals with low standards.
Regarding topics and content, I want to grant teammates the maximum freedom while advising them to always put the news brand and their personal reputation front and center. It may not be consistent to chase every challenge, try out trending dance moves or get too personal and behind the scenes. Tread carefully and consider the way each piece of content will reflect with your audience.
Finally, read the comments with caution. Only a fraction of those exposed to our work ever leave a comment, and those who do are more likely to be negative than positive. If you have the stomach for it, respond to the reasonable but cast aside the rude or unreasonable. The platforms do say this can help with reach. However, if it affects you personally, I believe it is OK to suspend your engagement with the comments.