Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter Sixteen Visual and Multimedia Storytelling 511 another interview the story needs. You will also decide how to pair the visual (what the viewer sees) with the verbal (what she hears). Visual-verbal pairing can be diffi cult for beginning video journalists. Instinctually, you try to “match” audio to video. In Aim for the Heart, Tompkins reminds video journalists that “words should explain pictures.” The words should tell viewers something they would not know about the pictures, even if they were standing next to the photojournalist when the pictures were taken. When words and pictures compete, the pictures win. But when they work together… the words make the pictures even more powerful and meaningful. Just as photo captions should not state the obvious, the reporter’s words over video should add signifi cant or interesting information. If you show football players singing on the bus and the reporter cuts in to say, “The players have made a ritual of singing before games. Here they are, singing Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect,’” the viewer learns next to nothing. Instead add information from your interviews and observations: • Senior Cody Jones acts as DJ, beat boxing in the background to keep them together. • The captains’ create a song list before the ride, but sometimes they improvise if the mood calls for it. • Juniors Juan Gomez and Darryl Shaw can hit the high, long notes. With those details written into the narrative, the viewer gets value from both the words and the picture, and that multisensory experience increases engagement. That is how you hook your viewers. Post-Production: Editing Post-Production: Editing Video editing software allows you to assemble all your clips, sound, stills, voiceovers and stand-ups into compressed time, so your audience understands the story and feels its impact. Rough Cut Rough Cut Create a rough cut by arranging collected clips in a logical order that is about as long as you intend your fi nished piece to be. This is something like copying chunks of your notes into a rough outline. It is not yet time to worry about specifi c transitions. Tracks Tracks Most video editing software allows you to use at least two tracks, so you can layer content. Each track may contain audio, such as music or recorded voiceovers, video clips or graphics. Content placed on different tracks at the same point in the video will play simultaneously. While voiceover on one track and video clips on a second track may work well together, guard against overwhelming your audience with a cluttered visual frame or too much competing audio.