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

At the San Francisco Chronicle, exciting developments are happening in video. 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

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‘Four tips to help journalists create more videos‘ by Matt Singer on Knight Blog

@Videolicious on Twitter

“A lot of newspapers feel that video is the future, but I think it’s really the present,” says Chronicle news and sports producer Katie Dowd. “Video is so ubiquitous on the Internet; people really expect to see it, and for good reason. It adds so much more to the story.”

But not just any video will do, Dowd emphasizes. Local, exclusive video helps the Chronicle stand out. “Our ability to have reporters shoot video—that is, the only video of its kind that exists—has been a huge asset for us.”

One Chronicle journalist making such original, local video content is Vivian Ho, who covers crime and breaking news. Ho recently used an iPhone to create an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at a United States Marine Corps medical crisis response demonstration. She sees video as a way to share a “snapshot” of what she experiences while reporting. Ho has learned the craft of creating article videos through great training, advice from colleagues in the photography department, and, at the heart of it, “practicing.”

“I’m a print kid, through and through,” Ho says, but she committed herself to experimenting with all aspects of video creation. “After a while, you just learn.”

Ho uses Videolicious to quickly edit and file her videos. “Being introduced to Videolicious was like taking four years of journalism training and putting it into an app.”

In her coverage of the crisis response drill, Ho recognized a truly “visual situation,” one that included images of a live-action demonstration—and a ride in the Osprey aircraft used in the training exercise. Stretching herself technically, Ho included multiple sound bites to give the story narrative movement, using video and audio interviews to describe what was going to happen, then showcasing the events.

“Normally, I would use one long interview clip and put visual shots on top,” she explains, but for the demonstration, she used her new skills to interweave multiple visual and audio elements, yielding a richer story. “It was very different from anything I’d done before,” says Ho.

The surge in video creation has paid off for the Chronicle.

“It’s been encouraging to see so many reporters all over the newsroom trying to do video—and doing great video,” says Dowd. “We’ve been seeing an increase in video views, and we think a lot of that has to do with producing our own content.”