MOUNT VERNON — With the variety of media outlets available today, it is important for a printed newspaper to stay on the sharp edge of technology. One popular way the Mount Vernon News does this is by featuring video stories on the paper’s Web site. Special projects director Samantha Deem and videographer George Breithaupt gave a Brown Bag Chat at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County at noon, Wednesday, to give an overview of the paper’s ongoing video project.
“We’ve learned over the years to focus on how people really want to see themselves,” Deem said, discussing the learning curve that has seen the video department learn how to not just master the equipment, but also grasp the subtleties of flow and pacing, which influence the viewer.
When the video project began, it was autumn, and Deem knew just what autumn subject would kick them off to a good start.
“It was football season,” said Deem, “so we took advantage of that. And people loved it, they went crazy over it.”
She then showed a video that she shot and narrated last fall of a Centerburg football game. With the News’ video format, nearly two minutes of highlights could be seen, along with comments from the team’s coach. In contrast, local game highlights are only shown on Columbus television for only a few seconds — if they’re shown at all.
Deem said three main trends have emerged among newspapers featuring video Web sites. In addition to featuring video, some sites have taken to doing anchored miniature newscasts. Deem said that although the News wouldn’t rule out the possibility of someday doing that, it has instead achieved variety by creating audio slide shows.
She played a slide show about the Owl Creek Produce Auction in Waterford, which featured beautiful black-and-white still shots and narration by Breithaupt. This gave the video department a way to echo the old-fashioned style of this Amish-run auction, while also using still pictures instead of video so that no Amish faces are accidentally caught in moving video shots.
Next Deem showed a video from the extremely popular “Knox County on High” bicentennial series, which has been running on Monday in both the print edition and in video. In the series, lifestyle reporter Kimberly Orsborn and Beheler have been climbing up clock towers, church steeples and belvederes all around the county, providing unusual perspectives on familiar sites. The video shown, featuring the clock and bell tower of the Knox County Courthouse, showed Orsborn and News photographer Virgil Shipley honoring the tradition of tower visitors signing their names and adding the date they visited.
The value of video in breaking news was demonstrated by footage of a SWAT team operation at a Mount Vernon hotel, shot by former News videographer Brooke McCann. The footage ended up being borrowed by a Columbus channel for its news broadcast.
The historical documentation angle of video projects was demonstrated by footage Breithaupt shot and narrated showing the demolition of the old iron bridge in Howard last summer. The footage caught the exact moment when a backhoe dislodged the mooring of the superstructure, sending it plunging into the waters of the Kokosing River.
Library program coordinator Janet Wacker commented that it made her heart skip a beat, seeing the final moments of that long-standing landmark.
Other videos included springtime footage and the sound of the Honey Run Waterfall acquired last year by the Knox County Parks District, a biplane flight over Mount Vernon during last year’s Waco Reunion at Wynkoop Airport and a profile of the popular Kokosing Gap Trail.
Wacker said she was very pleased with the program, and added she was particularly pleased to support the Mount Vernon News.
“It’s one of the last few locally owned, locally controlled newspapers, and I believe democracy depends on local newspapers,” Wacker said.
She said the additional value of having these video productions documenting daily life in Knox County in the early 21st century will be priceless to future historians.