Shropshire Star

One of the more terrifying aspects of being a video journalist is the dreaded piece to camera, writes Star video blogger James Shaw.

If, like me, the limit of your thespian outpourings has been a stint as Worzle Gummage in junior school, then it will take some practice.

But some of my latest videos have featured a piece to camera . . . and with it, I’ve found a whole new set of problems.

Firstly - cut your hair, or at least brush it.

My ‘hairstyle’, if you could call it that, has often been compared to Chris Evans/Mick Hucknall/Kate Hoey - longish, but curly and rather red.

Appearance is, naturally, key when presenting your story - if you don’t make a good impression, who on earth is going to believe what you are saying?

Secondly, watch what you are wearing.

Again, pretty obvious, but essential nevertheless. Like my last point, nobody will believe what you are saying unless you present a relevant image.

And colour of your clothes matters . . . a lot.

My recent piece to camera after I had spent the evening with AFC Telford fans in their Learning Centre said it all.

None of the supporters were at all happy after they had seen their team lose 2-0 to Barrow, and I did my best to cheer them up.

But the combination of a brown jumper (told you ‘Brown’ was to blame), unbrushed hair and garbled speech didn’t really make for the best image.

And it certainly told in the piece to camera - I won’t be making those mistakes again.

But these things have to be done if you are to make a success of video journalism - mistakes are all part of the learning process.

Talking of AFC Telford, I must say well done to the club for finishing second in the Blue Square North this season.
You nearly did it, lads - better luck next year.

The final game of the season, against Barrow, was filmed using two camera angles. It is amazing what a difference this makes to the whole experience - hopefully, we will be doing the same next season.

Again, we made plenty of mistakes with our match coverage, but we learned a lot as well.

And, once more, to Onyx and Blue - bet you’re tired of them now. Well, that is assuming anyone reads this column…

Anyway, does anyone know why cats and dogs playfight? The first few times, Claire and I separated Onyx and Blue immediately and thought they would kill each other.

But it has become increasingly obvious that they are playfighting and basically having fun with each other.

So why do they do it?