Video journalism is all about visual storytelling. It is annoying to see video reports that is obviously just a voice-over with a bunch of visuals dumped over it that makes no sense. The best way really is to not have an voice-over, because if you do have it, it just means your visuals can’t do the storytelling for you.

Newsshooter.com’s Matt Allard, who used to live in Kuala Lumpur as a cameraman with Al-Jazeera, makes this point in a video documentary he shot recently about a knife making expert in Taiwan called Maestro Wu. No voice-over… not even an interview soundbite.

There is also a technique known as the ‘one-shot’, where a news story is done in just a single shot on the camera with no editing cuts. This one is even more of a challenge, but when done right, it can give quite an impact. Best suited for a solo-journalist, if I do say so.

Sometimes people forget the basics when it comes to video storytelling. If you keep things simple, a lot can be said. Below is a story I did about the Empire Shopping centre blast in Subang a while back. No voice-over but I had an interview though to explain a little bit of facts.

And another one I did… on the demolition of the historical Pudu Jail in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.