I’m still cranky from too much Lemsip Max, but grateful to Robert Freeman for pointing me to an example of how online video should be done.

On the award-winning Eastern Daily Press website the video for ‘Your chance to name leopard cubs‘ ticks every box for me:

• Short (53 seconds)
• Illustrates something that couldn’t be described as well in words alone (by most people)
• No anchor – in fact, no commentary at all
• It runs alongside, and complements, a text-based article, rather than replacing it.
• Compelling content (i.e. cute animals – well, until they start snarling)

Interestingly, the lack of commentary initially confuses, but you quickly get used to this. In fact, it reminds me of the moving images on newspapers in Harry Potter films – perhaps we need to think of video in those terms, though not always.