Journalism comes in many forms: yearbook, newspaper, online, literary magazines, etc. However, one form of journalism that a lot of students don’t know much about is video production. What, exactly, is video production? It’s the portrayal of news events occurring in the community in the form of videos rather than stories.

Manhattan High only has three video producers right now: seniors Hans Ahorro, Gavin Larios and Chandler Mixon. Here’s a look at what the typical planning process for a video package entails.

Pre-planning

Like with any project, planning is crucial. What event is happening? What should the angle be? What’s the best way to tell the story in a visual way? When is it happening? Who’s taking what shots?

“Planning for a video is 75 percent of the video,” Mixon said. “Knowing what you need and knowing what you are looking for is very important. Having good planning skills will take you a long way in video.”

Cover the event

Obviously the biggest key to creating a quality video package is to actually show up to the event that’s being covered and do the recording. Without footage of the event, a video package won’t be possible to create.

“It’s a fast-moving process,” Larios said. “You can’t get caught up on one step because then it will slow you down in the rest of the process. Always make sure that the pace never slows down and you’ll be fine.”

Edit everything together

Covering the event may be a huge factor in producing a video package, but editing everything in a way that makes sense to the audience is just as important. It requires diligence, focus and creativity.

“My favorite thing about video production is mostly about the editing,” Ahorro said. “The editing part is probably the most trickiest thing to do in video production…I’m a person that likes technology. My other favorite thing about editing is seeing your compilation of videos together and seeing something that is unique, in a way. You’re sort of trying to tell a story when you’re trying to edit a video. It’s like trying to write an essay, but you have the ability to make several drafts in the same time frame that you are working on it. Video editing is like my way of writing out my thoughts on, instead of paper, on video.”

Export and post the final video

When the editing is all said and done, it’s time to actually export the video and post it on mhsmentor.com for the audience to see.

“To be a videographer, you need to have a good creative outlet for yourself, so take any idea — even if it’s very wacky — and just try to make it a video because at the end, it’ll be something that you’ve made and you will be proud of,” Ahorro said.