Zach Wise’s Newest Multimedia Shines

Zach Wise is currently a multimedia producer for the New York Times. Before going to the Times, he was the senior multimedia producer for the Las Vegas Sun. Before he left the Sun he finished this great multimedia piece on Nevada’s water woes. Great navigation, interactive elements throughout and great reporting are all part [...]

2 Week Documentary Workshop in The Mississippi Delta

From Chandler Griffin:
2 Week Documentary Workshop in The Mississippi Delta
Start Date:  February 15th, 2009
This 2-week DV workshop is designed for photojournalists who are looking to make the move to videojournalism and the web, new documentary filmmakers who want to launch their careers in web and television documentaries and for those with experience in some aspects [...]

James Nachtwey Releases Latest Story: XDRTB

James Nachtwey, one of the greatest living photojournalists today, just released this story as part of an effort to spread the word on XDRTB through TED. For more information go to the XDRTB website.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Sample Video

Here is a link to Canon Global and some great examples of video shot with the new camera. (http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/eos5dm2/02.html#01)

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Could Change the Equation

I’ve been reading all the flurry of activity over the new Canon EOS 5D MII that will be available near the end of November. Vincent Laforet, a New York based commercial and editorial photographer, was given a prototype to use for 72 hours. His report and the stills he has been able to show are [...]

Top 25 Film Festivals

Want to get your best independent work seen? Here’s a great resource from AJ Schnack from “All These Wonderful Things.” AJ is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Los Angeles.
The 25 Top Film Festivals For Documentaries
“You’ve just completed your film. Now it’s time to decide which festivals to target. Maybe all along [...]

Reel Venus Film & Video Festival For Women

Just received this from Melissa Fowler. Might be a good place to showcase your better stories and long term projects.
ATTENTION: ALL WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS/MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISTS
Reel Venus is seeking entries of short films, photography/multimedia slideshow presentations for its 5th Annual showcase which is set to take place October 2,3 & 4 2008.
Reel Venus is an eclectic [...]

Platypus Workshop

My recent postings on the Platypus workshop have been taken down due to proprietary issues. Suffice it to say that if you ever get the chance to go to the Playtpus workshop you should take it. It was one of the best experiences I have had at a workshop in a long time and one [...]

Value of MediaStorm’s New Multimedia Training

I asked Lucy Nicholson, a senior staff photographer with Reuters based in Los Angeles, about the value of MediaStorm’s new workshops. Lucy attended in May. I’ve read a few posts that have questioned the cost, $3,500 for tuition only, and whether or not the course was worth the price of admission. Here’s her answer:
I think [...]

Lucy Nicholson at MediaStorm Workshops in New York

Lucy Nicholson, a senior staff photographer with Reuters based in Los Angeles, attended the first MediaStorm multimedia course in May 2008. Lucy did a great job on this story about New York City’s Naked Cowboy. Just click on the graphic below

“At War” Trailer 3

David Leeson and Scott Kesterson have posted their third trailer for “At War“, a heartrending and powerful look at the cost of war on everyone involved. The film is due for a January 2008 release. I’m in Dallas to interview David as part of my research on the changes facing photojournalism today and how we [...]

Barefoot Workshops: Documenting the Mississippi Delta

In February 2008 the Barefoot Workshops, run by Chandler Griffin, will hit the Mississippi Delta. This is a 2-week workshop designed for new documentary filmmakers who want to start a career in film and television documentary. Chandler Griffin runs the Barefoot Workshops, a a New York City-based not-for-profit 501(c)3, that offers short, intensive workshops around [...]

Out and About and Moving On

It has been a very busy few weeks. I have been working on my research, teaching classes (I’m even teaching an extra class this semester), working on getting out the educational journal I work on, and filming interviews for my documentary. Which usually means that writing suffers.
I just got back from Dallas after interviewing David [...]

Deborah Scranton Talks About “War Tapes” at TED

Filmmaker Deborah Scranton talks about and shows clips from her documentary The War Tapes in this video from TED. She put video cameras in the hands of Charlie Company, a unit of the National Guard, for one year in Iraq. The soldiers footage and diaries tell a very personal story of the war [...]

“At War”: Documentary Filmmaking at its Best

Check out Scott Kesterson and David Leeson’s excellent work on a feature length film, “At War“, based on Scott’s documentary footage shot in Afghanistan over a one year embed. David Leeson is editing the film now and has completed a few trailers that can be viewed on the site. Scott is an interesting story, [...]

Final Cut Pro Tutorials

Here’s a link to Ken Stone’s fantastic Final Cut Pro tutorial site with an extensive list of video and text tutorials, white papers, and audio tutorials.

Ed Kashi on Changes in Photojournalism

Great article this month in Digital Photo Pro Magazine by Harlon Mitchell on photojournalist Ed Kashi and his take on the changes in multimedia today.
Photojournalism Now
For freelance photojournalists, these are chaotic times. But in chaos there’s opportunity if you have the daring to go for it.
By Harlon Mitchell
The age of traditional freelance photojournalism is no [...]

Brenda Ann Kenneally: Finding the Way Home

Now on the MediaStorm site: Photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally, originally on assignment for The New York Times Magazine, documents the seemingly endless struggles some families face as they set about Finding the Way Home: Two Years After Katrina.

Pauline Lubens: Women in Photojournalism Report 2

Well, the first couple of weeks of teaching classes this fall have been interesting. I’m teaching a new course this semester, the role of images in mediating reality, for honors students. The course introduces them to visual literacy and teaches them that visuals influence their perception of reality and their behavior. Needless to say I’m [...]

Still Time to Register for Cutting Edge IX (8 September)

A reminder from Shawn Montano:
The Cutting Edge IX: The Order of the Edit
Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee
September 8th 2007
Less than a 2 weeks before the Cutting Edge IX: Order of the Edit, the annual NPPA workshop with an emphasis in editing, lands in Nashville Tennessee. Belmont University ’s New Century Journalism Program has graciously offered the [...]

HD for Indies Interns Needed

If you live in the Austin, Texas, area, and you are a student looking for a way to break into film, learn film, editing, etc. then contact Mike Curtis (see below):
Thursday, August 23, 2007 Fall 2007 HD for Indies Interns Needed Hey all – The summer intern program went so well, I [...]

Simple Happiness in Vietnam

A very well done soundslide piece titled “Simple Happiness” about a widowed Vietnamese woman and her son living on the streets of Hanoi from Ehrin Macksey, managing director of Relative Exposure and Asian Stock in Vietnam. I like the way Ehrin worked in the Google map with the story as well. His agency has [...]

Top Ten Rookie Mistakes

Some very good tips from professional videographer Bill Pryor. Some you’ve heard, but it’s always good to have a refresher!
Top Ten Mistakes of Rookie Filmmakers
by Bill Pryor
Nobody can can cover everything you need to know in a short article, but I can point out the ten most common mistakes I see over and over.
Bad sound. [...]

Editing for Your Audience

Nice article from Simon Wyndham in the UK on editing and pacing. His work is geared toward corporate production, but the points he makes are universal.
Shoot like you watch, edit with natural flow
In recent years feature films at the cinema have become longer and longer. Many scenes that really should have been consigned to the [...]

NPPA Women in Photojournalism Report 1

I just arrived home from this weekend’s National Press Photographers Association Women in Photojournalism conference in Austin, Texas. Needless to say it was a fantastic experience and the theme from this summer’s NPPA Summit was carried through to this conference – multimedia is the future but excellent storytelling is still key.
I was very impressed and [...]

Women in Photojournalism This Weekend in Austin

Last reminder, the National Press Photographers Association Women in Photojournalism conference and workshops in Austin, Texas, is today through Sunday (August 17-19) at the Hyatt Regency Austin. Tonight (August 17) is the ice-breaker, the conference starts in earnest tomorrow morning (August 18). You can still register at the door. This conference is not just [...]

Animoto Slide Show Video Creation Tool

While it may never be used by news sites, a very interesting slide show tool from Animoto that was just released after finishing beta testing:
From the website: Animoto is a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos, each a customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Using patent-pending Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology and high-end [...]

Not so Rosy News for 2006 Graduating Journalism Students

Some bad news thrown in with some good news from the recent release of the Cox Center 2006 Annual Survey Findings of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates. I do like the fact that more journalists are working on the web. I don’t like the fact that they are not being compensated properly for it [...]

Multimedia Tutorials: Video, Audio, Photo, & Web Design

“Five Steps To Multimedia Reporting” is a great site for multimedia training from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the USC Annenberg School for Communication. The site is geared to reporters who need to learn how to create multimedia stories. The tutorials cover video (cameras, accessories, shooting tips, stand-ups and voice-overs, iMovie, Final [...]

J-Schools Must Teach Multimedia

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s (AEJMC) annual conference has wrapped up and one theme coming out of some of the research presentations is that journalism schools need to do a better job teaching multimedia to new journalists. I can count our school as one that is forward thinking enough [...]