Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

Anybody can put video up on YouTube. Does that mean we doomed to watch America's Funniest Home Video one million times online, or will we ever see something new?

That's up to the people who tell stories. One of my favorite journalists, William T. Vollmann has always shot photographs to mix with his written stories, and those pictures haunt his books like The Atlas. For the next generation of Vollmann-inspired journalists, we must consider web video as just another freelance tool.

If you want to get excited, read this essay about professional-style video journalism. Following the advice of journalist Regina McCombs will take you light years beyond the average, annoying YouTube videos.

Check it out: 

"Cameras should be DV with firewire. If not, you’ll need additional hardware to capture video to your computer. There are plenty of good microphones available for under $100. A tripod is important because keeping shots steady is critical for Web encoded video. Every change in pixels makes the encoder work harder and makes your picture fuzzier. A list of audio and video equipment options at several price points is available here on Visual Edge's site." 

After you survive that introduction to web video, check out the Online Media God guide to see the whole buffet of multimedia options you can add to your work. Thanks, as always, to Journerdism.