Utilizing social media was a huge goal for my publication to experiment with multimedia storytelling. One afternoon me and my co editor in chief were discussing ways to include more stories within our yearbook. Due to the small size of our publication—about 142 pages—we can not always include every story we wish, but we came up with the idea to overflow our content onto social media.

From this idea, I started filming short video clips whenever I went out to photograph an event, so I could later take those clips and conduct short interviews to make 1 to 2 minute video diaries to share on platforms like Instagram.

This short form videos have been incredibly well received by our schools community as students re-posting them is a common occurrence. I believe short form content like this is the new direction many journalism publication are or will start turning to as they are quick and easy ways for readers to consume content.

This was the first video I filmed and it definitely was a roller coaster. I had little to no experience with videography, so I heavily experimented with different cuts. After watching multiple CNN short form videos, I loved the personal feel they all had, so when I went about filming and interviewing I tried to do it in a way were it felt like the viewer was having a conversation with the subject. Josie’s story was filled with emotion and touched my community’s heart and received over 770 views the first hour of being posted.

First off, props to sports videographers because filming any sort of action is incredibility difficult. When talking to my staff about coverage ideas for sports the boys basketball team was always present in our conversation as the team had done a complete 180 from last season, now winning a majority of their games. We had so many amazing stories for basketball; therefore, I decided to film a short form video about the teams success to leave room in our yearbook for other stories. This was incredibly challenging for me as I’m probably one of the most unknowable people about sports to exist, but through these interviews I grew an appreciation for the time and energy many athletics put into their sport.

When figuring out how to over student council, everyone would always ask the same question- “How to they plan and manage absolutely everything”? Whether it’s the 5 to 6 dances we have a year or the countless assemblies, student council seems to never run out of ideas or time. When presenting Stuco with the story idea, I was invited into their classroom and I got some behind the scenes footage of how they plan and decorate for a dance. This short video was loved by my classmates as it uncovered the long asked question many students had.