View the original video at AJC.com

Matt Singer is CEO of Videolicious, a Knight Foundation investment through its venture capital initiative, the Knight Enterprise Fund. This is part five of five in a series exploring ways journalists are using Videolicious to enhance storytelling. Videolicious is available for iOS. READ THE COMPLETE SERIES

“Atlanta Journal-Constitution engages readers with Videolicious reports” by Matt Singer on Knight Blog, 12/22/14

“St. Louis Post-Dispatch uses Videolicious to help increase audience” by Matt Singer on Knight Blog, 12/15/14

“Videolicious expands storytelling at the Los Angeles Times” by Matt Singer on Knight Blog, 12/08/14

“KCCI reporter uses Videolicious to hep promote stories” by Matt Singer on Knight Blog, 12/01/14

“Videolicious helps add depth to local reports at the San Francisco Chronicle” by Matt Singer on Knight Blog, 11/25/14

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is ramping up its video creation, with a clear mandate from its audience.

AJC Senior Editor of Visuals Sandra Brown explains that the paper’s recent expansion of video reporting is a result of listening to what the audience wants—and delivering it. With video the paper can “tell stories and engage readers,” says Brown, especially given the growth of its audience online and on mobile devices.

The AJC takes video creation seriously; reporters are evaluated on how well they incorporate video into their reporting, and the paper supports this expectation with significant video creation training. Reporters are also supplied with automatic video editing software from Videolicious.

After her video training, airline reporter Kelly Yamanouchi was off and running creating videos. She recently created an engaging video story on the hazard of debris on runways, featuring volunteers who walked the runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. For the piece, Yamanouchi collected multiple interviews and supporting shots, then used Videolicious to combine them with her voiceover. Her guiding principal: to “capture the emotion and the feel of the event”; one interview subject, for example, exclaimed how fun it was to get the rare opportunity to be on the runway. Yamanouchi supplemented the interviews with high-quality supporting shots of the volunteers in action, backed by the rising sun; for these, she used a small tripod to stabilize her iPhone.

 Yamanouchi advises journalists new to video that “It’s always good to shoot as much video as you can; shoot way more than you expect you’ll need.” She’s also found it helpful to shoot in 10-second increments, generating lots of footage while saving her the time of sifting through long shots.

Brown explained that the efforts of reporters such as Yamanouchi, along with the AJC’s photographers and multimedia specialists, enables the paper to create video for significantly more stories. She says that video is ideal for “immersive” stories, such as a recent series about a family affected by Alzheimer’s. On another front, a quick video covering breaking news lets readers know that reporters are on the scene and ready to send updates as they happen. The result of the new video initiatives? “A significant increase in video views,” Brown says.