Video about currency

Sarah Steffen

I chose a video about the relationship between Euro and Dollar which I found at www.spiegel.de/video (it was made by reuters). I picked this video, because I thought it would be good to see how they illustrated their hard fact story with footage.
The way how the video was shot was very classical. It started with a shot of a a machine printing new Euro bills, showed some scenes from the German stockmarket (long shots as well as detail shots) and included interviews with two experts who didn't look directly into the camera. The only thing I really didn't like at all was the scene where they showed a man fueling his car. First there is a very boring (and predictable) detail shot that is supposed to show the process of fueling. Right after that shot the same shot is used again but with a wider angle. So you see the man who's fueling his car standing in the same boring position (facing the camera with his whole body and staring at the camera). That's the end of the report.
I don't like the fact that videos tend to show a man/woman refueling his/her car whenever the reporter says something about oil prices. That is so boring! Otherwise I thought it was a good example on how to support such a topic with footage.
If the video was a text only story it might have provided more numbers and facts. It is always a little difficult to include too many details in video, because normally people can't watch it again. Also they could provide additional information and links to previous stories which are related.