I started my journey in journalism through writing. From online news websites to good old-fashioned newspapers, I found bliss in seeing words being assembled, cut, and re-assembled to deliver thoughts and information to people.
It was what I envisioned that I would be doing in my life, at least until I had enough of pursuing my dream as a storyteller.
But as opportunities come, and the prospect of earning enough as a community journalist dwindles, I decided to try broadcast journalism that opened my senses to other forms of storytelling.
Reporting mainly for radio, video journalism was introduced to me as a matter of necessity rather than a choice as I realised that some stories are best told by showing images rather than just telling words.
Covering the government’s brutal crackdown against drugs, there were times when reporting the 4Ws and 1H of stories from police encounters to extra judicial killings doesn’t seem enough.
The main challenge in doing videojournalism since then and until now is: what to include and what not to include in the frame?
In text stories, news gathering and writing are two different aspect. You can gather details now and write the story later after some reflection. The focus of the story can be changed by re-assembling or totally replacing the words used.
But in video journalism, capturing the moment happens during the news gathering process. In a way, it’s like writing directly as you gather information you need.
Angles you forgot to shoot or moments you missed are all gone, and you can only do so much in the post-editing process.
What I realised after shooting for some time is that brainstorming is an embedded and continuous process in doing videojournalism. While we can always prepare before the coverage, most of the shots we take are decided only moments before we hit the record button.
We rely heavily on our creativity, ego, and even biases in deciding which things to include and remove in the frame, which puts pressure on our own personality as our compass.
While the medium are vastly different, writing and shooting video share a common trick in knowing how to tell a good story.
Like writing, I find it easier to choose which frames are necessary when I know what the story is all about.
Questions such as ‘what is the most important aspect of the story?’ will help in determining the best frames to capture, like determining how to lede up a story.
Even the atmosphere that journalists feel when covering the story— a common element used by text journalists to convey emotions in their writings— is a helpful guide.
It is with this point that I believe visual journalists can be better storytellers if they know how to write because they can utilise the tricks of other medium.
Everyone can hit the record button and zoom in their lenses to the subjects, but only those who can assess what’s important — a critical responsibility of journalists — can tell the story better.
