In a crowded social media landscape, video journalists face the difficult task of persuading viewers to watch a piece of content instead of continuing to scroll. This challenge requires journalists to think carefully about every frame, sound, and edit.
Since joining Vox in September 2025, video producer Nate Krieger has learned a lot about how to use documentary storytelling, animation, archival material, sound design, and original footage to explain complex topics. His work ranges from longer explanatory videos to Pin Point, a short-form series in which he throws a dart at a map of New York City and investigates the history behind the address it lands on.
The Institute spoke with Krieger about how he produces and edits his videos to create more visually engaging stories, as well as his advice for aspiring video journalists.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
When it comes to the type of journalism you do where you’re explaining a topic, how much of your narration consists of your own research, and how much is what you learned during interviews?
Krieger: Usually a mixture. When I start researching a topic, I’ll try and read up on it, but when I first start doing pre-interviews with sources, that’s when I start really learning about it. Then, I do my own research to augment that, and then we do the actual interviews. I feel like I learn the most when talking to an expert, usually in some sort of pre-interview. That’s when I get the lay of the land the best, because I have to onboard to the information pretty quickly. It’s not a topic I’m spending months on usually, and then by the time we do the actual interview, hopefully I’m not learning anything that new, and I’m just getting good sound bites.
How do you edit your videos to ensure they maintain an engaging pace, especially for longer projects?
Krieger: Definitely just getting a sense for how long a soundbite can be. I feel like in an interview section, we’ll often be alternating voiceover or me on camera with the interview section and figuring out, “OK, where do they have really good soundbites?” or, “That’s a really good quote I want,” and then how much of that is just info? If it’s just info, I can summarize that and paraphrase it and make it quicker, but if it’s something really complicated, it’s nice to have them say it to make sure I don’t get it wrong because I don’t want to paraphrase that.
We’re working on a video about F1 [Formula One] right now, and there’s a physiologist talking about what happens to a driver’s body — because of the temperature — while they’re driving an F1 car. That’s the kind of thing where it’s nice to have them say that on camera. For the most part, it’s using the voiceover to bridge the gaps and get it moving as quickly as possible so that we’re really just getting the great quotes from them.
How do you make sure the answers you get out of your interviews are actually usable in your videos, whether through the way you talk to your interviewees or through editing?
Krieger: I try to be as conversational as possible. Sometimes, I’ll even say things like, “Would you say this?” and, “Feel comfortable to correct me if you feel like I’m putting words in your mouth.” Then you’ll get them laughing a little bit, and maybe you’ll get them to say it. What’s really frustrating is if someone has said a great quote in a pre-interview, and then I can’t get them to say it once we’re recording. I’ll do a half-hour and 45-minute interview, and we’re probably only using three minutes of that, so I might say, “Would you mind rephrasing that more concisely or in layman’s terms?” or something like that because they know that their words will get cut up.
How is your approach to storytelling different with your short-form Pin Point series compared to your long-form videos?
Krieger: Just how much you can cover. A minute is really short, and I’ve learned so much about figuring out how to choose your targets better. I feel like in Pin Point, I can touch on something and not go deeper on it, so it’s fun for stuff where the headline is the only interesting thing about it. With an eight-minute video that’s going on YouTube, I can’t pull up something where there’s only one headline, so it’s really fun to be able to highlight something where, “I think that’s one interesting fun fact, but there’s not that much more to it,” versus, “This is something that’s worth going deeper on.”
Whether you have too much footage or you didn’t shoot enough, what do you do in those situations to get your video to be the length you’re targeting?
Krieger: I don’t think it’s ever about trying to get to a runtime. If anything, we’re usually trying to get videos shorter. That’s the direction things go in nonfiction, where if you have a 15-minute first cut and you’re trying to get that down to eight minutes, that comes down to, “Well, where do we have the least footage?” That’s got to be what goes. We’re never padding it out, but we might have an eight-minute video where we only have coverage for six minutes of it. Then you get creative. Can I film a prop? Can I film the physical book on the table? Can I get creative with stock video or news articles? You just have to always have something visual that ideally is adding to your video and not just a direct one-to-one.
When you report on something that might be a sensitive subject, how do you balance having the appropriate tone without overly sensationalizing your topic?
Krieger: With something like that, often that’ll be a bigger story that other people are covering, too. When I did a video on ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], I’m not the only person who’s talking about ICE on the internet that day, so I tried to put it through my perspective. I know if it’s through my perspective, then I’m comfortable with it because it’s how I think. I was looking into this and I found this really interesting, and I think the audience likes being along on that journey. That’s part of my role as a creator or as a producer whose face is on camera, but I think it also helps insulate me because I’m on camera. Is this something I would say to my friends or to my boss? That makes it easier than if I’m writing a voiceover for someone else to say or something like that, so I keep it grounded in my own perspective. And then we also have fact-checkers. We have a whole politics and news team, and we’ll run stuff by them and by editors on the text side as well.
Vox videos are known for their aesthetics. Do you think you could share some of the techniques you use to breathe life into your videos?
Krieger: I think the biggest one I learned since coming to Vox is sound effects, especially in animation. I try to not have anything happen on screen without a sound effect motivating it a little bit. If we’re flipping between photos, I’m using a click to go between the photos. If the animation is writing something on screen, we’re using a sound effect of a pencil writing, and that helps it feel grounded and not like some sort of abstract concept. I feel like that’s the biggest thing I learned: using sound and music to ground things and just make it feel more tactile.
What are mistakes video editors might make that lead to a worse presentation?
Krieger: When you have something on screen, what I try to avoid is having something that is just a direct one-to-one representation. Then we’re not gaining anything by this being a visual medium, if I need to show you something visually interesting and just have a wallpaper up. If I’m talking about apples, and I’m just showing you stock video of apples, then this might as well be a podcast. We’re not doing anything visual. Let me instead go out and find some really interesting archival video of apples, or just something that looks different and feels like it’s adding to it, rather than what I think becomes a visual poem, where you’re just cutting to the rhythm of what you’re saying and showing what’s being said. Ideally, I want to be showing something that is contrasting with what I’m saying, or adding to it or undercutting it in some way.
Also, shoot things yourself if you can. If you’re going to use photos, you can print out the photos and film your hands flipping through the photos and pointing to something rather than doing a zoom in post, or circle it yourself instead of circling it on screen. It’s just nice to have something else to show, and it’s pretty easy to just shoot something at your desk. Even if there’s stock footage of it, it’ll match the rest of your stuff better.
Tags: video