Video is an increasingly important part of a reporter’s repertoire, whether it’s taking part in them or producing them myself.

Here’s a sampling of a few videos I’ve helped create:

Appearing as an informed voice about city and county government issues has become a routine part of my duties representing myself and the Herald-Tribune in the community. The local ABC affiliate’s nightly debate program has been one of my most frequent television stops, especially during the heated City Commission election this spring.

This timely answer from former Texas Gov. Rick Perry came the morning after a gunman killed several moviegoers at a theater in Lafayette, La. It’s just a piece of  a longer interview I had scheduled with the Republican presidential hopeful for a project I led ahead of the “First in the South” primary in South Carolina to try to interview each of the candidates. Since I knew I was the only reporter with access to Perry that morning, I used my opportunity to ask his thoughts on the shooting and inject them into the already swirling gun control conversation following the shooting.

Hilton Head Island leaders held a cheeky celebration for a town award this summer, but I’d already written a bit about the announcement and it didn’t merit a second text story. Instead, I used my phone and some quick editing after the town meeting that evening to get the essence of the event out the only way that made sense — visually.

The most common way I use videos during my reporting is to complement the written story I’ve planned with my editors. This interview with Chuck Todd is a good example. He spoke in May on Hilton Head about national politics, and I wrote some of the highlights in a text story. I then used my few minutes with Todd after his speech to take a deeper dive with him about a specific issue that supplements the text highlights.