VJO at Broadcast Video Expo 2011

By Umar Farooq

Last month, a few of us at Video Journalism Online (VJO) were fortunate enough to attend the Broadcast Video Expo 2011. The 3-day event at Earls Court 2 was home to production staff and broadcasters keen to market the future of the industry.

We felt the event had to hold an online element and we weren’t far wrong. Upon arrival, I was able to track down representatives from three different online video providers and conduct short video interviews. The key question was: how does your website help or promote video journalism in the online world? The analysis follows the video:

Maria Elena, ClipTV

Clip TV describes itself as an online viral video agency. The company deals with caught on camera reality footage from the comedy to dramatic rescue. In other words, the site encourages and promotes citizen journalism and clients can browse through a selection of the material online. Looking through the site, I came to the conclusion that the agency was like a ‘You’ve been framed’ video library. So, how does it help the video journalist? Well, although it doesn’t help them directly, Maria makes an interesting point when she says that the film-makers tracking reality footage have a great deal of variety to look through on Clip TV. However, whilst the market for viral video cannot be ignored, the lack of journalistic content on the website is a worry.

Cato Salter, Clip Canvas

At Clip Canvas, the attraction is high quality HD footage and graphics. In simple words, the website hosts an online catalogue allowing potential clients to look through a number of animations, backgrounds and landscapes. The site offers top quality stock footage for documentary and studio-programme makers. The catalogue itself is generic and some of the content can be used in journalistic video. There are, at the moment, 140,000 clips online so the diversity and variety cannot be questioned. The only small criticism which Cato himself alludes to in the interview is once again the lack of journalistic content on Clip Canvas. Despite this, providing high quality and HD video for clients means they’re on to a winner.

Emma Simpson, Journeyman Pictures

It was a pleasure to meet Emma from Journeyman, a film distributor specialising in “topical news features and documentaries.” The website is a video store, allowing you to either watch online or purchase on DVD. The YouTube channel has video clips from over 350 films and around 112,000 subscribers. The company itself was found in the 1990’s but the online elements are the most fascinating for our purposes. Content is journalistic, most specifically current affairs documentaries and there is a great variety once again. The ability to watch the documentaries online upon the payment of a subscription fee is a feature worthy of praise. It means Journeyman is a niche video-sharing website with a catalogue which can only be described as immense.

I will be back with more video journalism analysis, in the meantime don’t forget to take part in the “Online News Video Watchers Survey.” The results will be analysed very soon.

Thanks.

* The links in this post can be accessed and shared on the VJO delicious page.