Time is of the essence

One of the basic rules of journalism - in any form - is time, writes our Video Blogger James Shaw.

Get it wrong, and you might as well pack up, go home, and work in the local bakery - but get it right, and everything falls into place.

This issue has come to the fore recently with a survey carried out by Andy Dickinson, which shows that video journalists can vary wildly in the amount of time they take to create a video.

At the Shropshire Star, this has been illustrated over the last few weeks with a range of stories that have - in the main - been of similar length, but with differing production times.

It really has been from one extreme to the other.

Road works on a major traffic island near our offices a few weeks ago immediately struck me as being a potential source for a story…especially as I had been caught in the traffic on the way back from a job.

With a host of traffic lights and one exit closed, the Ketley Brook island had become a nightmare, and it was up to me to get the story, edit it and upload the result by the end of the day.

Bearing in mind that is was already the afternoon, I knew time was of an essence if I was to get home in time for tea.

The result? A two-minute video, filmed and edited within two-and-a-half hours. Crucially, the video contained only a few interviews from passing motorists, so this may hold the key.

Just last week, my video of the snow in south Shropshire took little longer. It contained no interviews and was just a ‘tribute’ piece to the snowy weather, but the time it took to film and edit once again made a point.

From leaving the office as 9am, the video was up and running by 12.30pm. You must, also, consider that travelling to and from south Shropshire on that day took at least an hour.

Anyway, the other side of the coin was brutally exposed just a few days later.

The tragic death of a Market Drayton father and son on holiday in Spain shocked us all and wasn’t the kind of story anyone looks forward to covering.

But being a journalist, I had to get the story and arrived in the town the next day. I know - 24 hours late, but that couldn’t be helped.

Anyway, trying to coax words out of the family’s neighbours was hugely difficult, for the obvious reasons,  especially as most national outlets had been at the same location just a few hours before.

I did find one person willing to talk and while I didn’t get an interview our of the boy’s headteacher, she was very, very, helpful.

The result? One two-minute video that took almost all day to film, edit and upload, but one which was worth it in the end.

I like to think the quality was similar on all the videos - but when there is no set deadline for online video, the wait can sometimes be worth it.