First, after you've shot the standard wide, medium and closeup shots of the story, put the camera in different positions. If you've used a tripod to get the basic shots, then your video has likely been shot at the same height so that you could easily look through the viewfinder.
See what happens when you place the camera on the ground and shoot upward. Can you find a way to get above your subject to shoot down? Sometimes, all it takes is a change in angle to add drama to the video you're recording.
Using a tripod is usually best in order to guarantee your shot is steady and level. After you capture your standard video, experiment with taking the camera off the tripod and holding it or shooting off the shoulder.
This will improve your mobility if you're trying to record something with a lot of action involved. If you were shooting a loud protest rally, you would be able to get into the middle of the action, rather than stand away from it so that you could use the tripod. It's best to get video both on and off the tripod so that you have a mix to choose from when it's time to edit.
Finally, use your camera to represent the eyes of your subject. For example, if you were doing a story profiling a nurse, you could shoot creative video of her pushing a stretcher down a hospital hallway.
That shot would be taken from the side as she pushes the stretcher from the left side of the screen to the right side. Your next shot could be from your shoulder as you push the stretcher in the same way as the nurse. When it comes time to edit, you would cut from the first shot to the second, so that it appears that the viewer is seeing exactly what the nurse sees as she rushes down the hallway.
There's no limit to your creativity. You'll quickly find out that sometimes the experimental shots you record turn out brilliantly, but sometimes they are a bust. Just remember to get the routine shots you've always gotten to use as backups so you're not left with nothing.
