Daniel Sato

This post was written for an internal blog that I have been keeping for my work:

Here is a recap of our first multimedia training session, which focused on audio gathering and editing:

• Though video is important, it is not the revenue generating magic bullet that many made it out to be a few years ago. Also, we only have one video camera as compared to three audio recorders and four cameras. That said, whenever possible, we will be deciding what media to use based on what best suits the story being told.
  • To get an idea of how to determine what will work best, please read this post I wrote today (it will take a mere three minutes)

• Audio gathering tips
  • Control is key. You want as much control over the conditions in which you gather audio as possible. Good sound in = good sound out.
  • Be aware of surrounding noise when conducting interviews. Alter your location or move if it is too noisy.
  • Do not be afraid to
    • Turn off computers
    • Unplug refrigerators
    • Turn off lights, especially large banks of fluorescent lights
    • MOVE
  • When outdoors, consider shielding yourself from the wind by:
    • Hiding between buildings
    • going into your car
    • using your body to block the wind
    • going inside

• Audio gathering is more than just conducting an interview
  • You want your audio piece to be strong enough to stand on its own without any visuals or print accompaniment.
  • Gather interviews, ambient sound and detail sounds
    • Interviews – Watch your levels and hold the mic approx. 4 inches from subject. Yes, that is close, but subjects will understand that you are doing your job and trying to make them sound as good as possible. Have your subject say the question in the answer and avoid yes or no questions.
    • Ambient – Turn recorder on at location and record 30 seconds to one minute of sound from the environment. This will serve as the base for your audio project.
    • Detail sounds – Often overlooked, these include things like typing on a keyboard, a coach yelling, shoes squeaking, etc.

• Examples – From traditional to artistic, a few examples to get your creativity flowing and expand what you may think of as newspaper multimedia.
  • A more traditional piece, as far as structure and content, by Renee Byer of the Sacramento Bee. This won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007.
  • A feature piece by Mercury News photographer Dai Sugano. Notice there are no voice over or interviews.
  • Another feature, this time by Roanoke Times photog Josh Meltzer. This is an example of how a stand alone in print can be turned into an engaging multimedia presentation online. Things like this can be done by our photographers.
  • Another example mainly for our photogs. This shows that you can be creative with how you use imagery in multimedia presentations. Consider stripping photos in, making cutouts, shooting sequences, juxtaposing images, etc.
  • Two examples of using typography/infographics to help drive your story. First example. Second example.
  • This last piece is most likely to be emulated by the reporters. It includes a voice over of a reporter likely reading the copy of the story, on camera interviews of subjects, pretty standard video shots (nothing too artsy) and some basic infographics.

• Learn by doing
  • The best way to learn how to both gather and edit audio is to do it. Luckily for you, two of your coworkers were nice enough to gather sample audio and images today in order to practice editing in Final Cut Express. These files, and other sample files, will be available online in the next day for you to experiment with.

This post was written for an internal blog that I have been keeping for my work:

Multimedia is a relatively new endeavor for newspapers, and The Telegram is no exception. As an industry, we are still feeling our way around in the dark, trying to find what works and what does not work. What was once the golden bullet can quickly turn in to a resource black hole.

Here at The Telegram, there has been an emphasis on shooting video when possible, however, according to Richard Koci Hernandez, founder of Multimediashooter.com and current Ford Foundation Multimedia Fellow at UC Berkeley:

Unless your org has advertising dollars waiting for video content, then stick with the marriage of audio and still images.

first, research shows a bigger *bang* in terms of hits and time on site for, let’s call them *soundslides* on news sites over video. video itself gets better number on the web, but not on newsites. the public doesn’t traditionally come to news sites for video anyway.

second the ROI return on investment is very minimal for video. the $$$ and time to produce and train is never made back in terms of revenue. this is why you see most papers beginning to scale back. Not the biggies like Wapo and NYT, because they have the advertising dollars waiting for content.

At The Telegram, we will not be shooting video for video’s sake. Nor will we shun the medium as time and resource intensive. Instead, we should evaluate what media we choose based on what the story lends itself best to.

I will use two examples. Currently, I get the sense that video is associated with sporting events. However, many sports are about peak action. It is about moments such as a spectacular catch, exuberant celebration, or painful collisin … moments which have a far greater impact frozen in time for viewers to digest, as opposed to played through in a video.

I think the best example of this is the great Neil Leifer photo of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston.

Most certainly this is an iconic image but, in reality, the moment itself lasted less than a second. Watch this YouTube clip below and you will see what I mean. Pay close attention at two seconds in.

Did you catch it? That was how quickly that iconic moment was over. In video, it doesn’t even feel memorable.

That being said. There are times when video works far better than stills. Rachael’s Culling the Herd video comes to mind. Even with audio and a sequence of shots, video of the bull struggling in the chute is much stronger than and stills.

When deciding what media you want to use for your story, ask yourself, How is this story best told? What effect will telling it with stills have? With video? What images/clips can you expect to get each way and which produces a greater variety of content and/or stronger content? On the news side, we should be concerning ourselves with providing the best content to our readers in the most appropriate ways, not with what the magic bullet of the day is, because that will no doubt change.

In the beginning of December, I wrote a short post on some of the realities of working in a small newsroom. Today was the first day of work for our new paginator/copy editor and, in many ways, marked the first day of my real job as well. As such, I thought I would share a couple of thoughts on doing multimedia in a small newsroom.

You can’t just focus on those that are interested. Yes, this goes against most posts on the subject of multimedia training by people that matter. Perhaps this is possible in a larger newsroom, where it one is more likely to find at least a few journalists in each area of the newsroom that have already hopped aboard the multimedia express. However, if I were to work with ONLY the people that have shown a strong interest in multimedia, I would have no photographer and no one in sports. Don’t get me wrong. I do encourage those that are interested. I try to let them be as creative as they want to be, share multimedia others have done that is related to their beat, produce their work when they are writing on deadline, etc.

In the end though, it seems to me that it is those that are currently uninterested that will hold the key to whether or not multimedia truly takes off here. Perhaps it is overly optimistic of me, perhaps naive, but whether they are afraid of technology, beaten down by the daily grind or unhappy with putting out work that does not meet their standards of quality, the passion that brought them into the field is still there. It my job then, to find the right inspiration/motivation to get them excited about multimedia. The good thing is, once the ball starts rolling, things snowball.

Pick your battles. This one practically goes without saying, and I am sure is something that we all have run in to at some point in our lives. Back in journalism school, I remember a time when the photojournalism students were upset with just about everything that was going on in the department. At some point, we realized that clamoring for a suitable (and permanent) photo professor and keeping our program alive was more important than whether or not he had access to the lights in the gym or that the photo studio was converted into a lounge (I am actually unsure that current students even know there are lights in the gym or that the lounge is a photo studio).

Along the same lines, you can only do so much, especially at a smaller newspaper. If I am managing social media accounts, moderating forums, posting content, training staff and producing multimedia, it is likely that I will not have time to sit down and become an expert in database journalism (however much I want to) or fully versed in Flash. People have asked me how I like using Vuvox, or why I keep going back to it. It is obviously not a perfect multimedia platform, but, as with Soundslides, it allows me to build projects that have the basic functionality I am looking for, while still leaving me with the time to do the daily aspects of my job.

There will be naysayers. In our newsroom, it is the one who says not to try anything new because what was done before did not work. Ignore them.

Lead by example. I think I first REALLY learned this in hearing how Richard and Dai first built mercurynewsphoto.com, spending hours after work, at times even sleeping under the desk (or so the story goes). As Seth Godin recently wrote, “In my experience, once it’s clear you’re willing (not just willing, but itching, moving, and yes, implementing) without them, things start to happen. People are rarely willing to step up and stop you, and often just waiting to follow someone crazy enough to actually do something.”

Yes I know it’s been done before. In fact, quite a few papers have their very own photo blog where they share their favorite staff and wire photos. Now you can add the Telegram into that mix. At best, it will provide interesting visuals on a consistent basis as well as provide an outlet for photographers to showcase their work (until a more in-depth multimedia landing page is created). At worst, it helps to keep my eye fresh even though I am not shooting by scanning through the AP wire every day.

My editors are hoping to keep the focus of the photo blog within the confines of the Midwest, but that may prove difficult as, in scanning the wire the past two weeks or so, I saw mainly sports and single news images.