For me, the best way to learn something has been to find a project to work on. I learned html/css first through customizing my Blogger blog, and then by building my own website (the iteration before the current one). Most recently, I wanted to build something to help readers navigate our recently created financial literacy page. As it is now, stories are sorted based on the date they were published, even though they can be written for very distinct age-based audiences. I had recently read a tutorial on using jquery to show and hide content and utilize hover effects, and thought it could easily be translated to an interactive that allowed users to show and hide content after selecting a particular age range.

My advice if you want to learn a new skill. First, find a project that you know you want to work on and that will hold your attention through the distractions that are bound to come up. Then, determine what skills will be needed to complete that project and go from there. It has been much easier for myself to address a need that already exists as opposed to trying to create a need because someone has said this is a skill I should have.

Going in to the assignment, my editor was hoping that I would just grab some scene shots and interview a bunch of fans in a manner similar to a piece I did with fans tailgating during last year’s World Series. I had plans to try something new, and luckily I am, for the most part, given the freedom to do pretty much as I please (in regards to trying new forms of storytelling).

At first, I thought I would do some form of timelapse … perhaps shoot fans going through turnstiles, players on the field, seats filling and emptying, etc. However, after hearing that one of our photographers AND a photographer from Cherry Hill (a neighboring Gannett paper) would be doing that same exact thing, I decided to go the opposite way and experiment with slowing down time instead of speeding it up.

While there are some definite issues in some of the shots (athletes were moving too fast and I tried to slow them down too much) I do hope to use the effect for future profiles on local athletes. And next time, I will avoid hand-holding a 300 …

We all know the basics of what goes into a typical tv news piece:

• Interview and/or voice over narration
• Lots and lots of b-roll (footage to lay over interviews/narration)
  • Establishing shot
  • Medium shot
    
  • Detail shots (anything to do with hands, eyes, mouths talking, etc)

Some general rules of thumb for shooting (Again, these are just rules of thumb, and rules are made to be broken once you have a grasp of them):

• Use a tripod. Given the small size of our video camera, camera-shake while hand holding is almost guaranteed. Film your interview, establishing and medium shots and some details with the camera on the tripod. No one wants to feel like they are watching the Blair Witch Project. I can barely watch this video by ESPNwith commentators Michael Wilbon and Jon Barry (Apparently the video was so bad, they took it down)
• Take the camera off of the tripod. I know I just told you to keep it on the tripod. And you should, to gather all of the basic elements of your piece. For a photographer, this is similar to grabbing the shots you know will work in print. For reporters, I imagine it is getting the who, what, where, when and why in a story. Once that is done, you are free to get creative and find that well-composed shot.
• Change your angles. This applies mostly to when you take the camera off of the tripod. Place it up high, down low, frame your subject by shooting through something. Move back, get close. Try and avoid shooting from the same distance at the same height for each clip.
• When interviewing, control is key. As we discussed last week during the audio gathering training, you want to have control over your environment when conducting interviews. In the case of video interviews, whenever possible, you want both good sound and good light. Just as in audio gathering, this means moving your subject to a quiet location. As for light, window light works well indoors, shade outdoors.
• Avoid unnecessary zooming, panning and tilting. The most common culprit is the zoom while filming.
  
• Keep your shots static. Related to the last item, compose your shot as if you were taking a still photograph. Let your subject walk into and out of the frame, rather than following him/her around.
• Storyboard your video ahead of time. Just as you have a list of questions you plan to ask before heading in to an interview, you should have a sense of what shots you want before you start filming. This will be a great help when you are back in the office editing, which is the real time-intensive part of video production. Having to sort through and make clips of five to 10 minutes of footage is far easier than 30 minutes of footage.

Some video examples:

One of my favorite multimedia producers. Katy Newton, and her husband Sean Connelly used to work up in the Bay Area. This ongoing multimedia piece features profiles of people that Katy finds on the Missed Connections area of Craigslist. They also have done a great package for the Oakland Tribune called Not Just a Number, which puts a name, face and, at times, a story, to all of the murders that happen in Oakland and the surrounding area. It is an amazing piece as well.

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.

I have at least two more in the works.

Below, you will find a map I created on mapalist.com, which I have since linked to a spreadsheet. It is set to update automatically, though I do not know how often it refreshes. Currently, the balloons on the map vary depending upon the date. I only wish you had the option of turning various dates on or off while browsing the map. It ain’t pretty, but it’s a start.

You can add points to my map by filling out the form associated with the spreadsheet linked to the map.

Flat land, expansive skies and cold winters. After two stints in Minnesota and one in Iowa, I find myself back, once again, in the Midwest/Plains area. One week ago I started my new job as the web editor at the Garden City Telegram in Garden City, Kansas.

As the web editor, I will be maintaining the main web site as well as a few niche sites that the Telegram has developed. I will be maintaining the Telegram’s presence on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, working with reporters and photographers to develop multimedia content, shoot and produce my own content and paginate and copy edit for the print edition.

In my first week, I have helped to put out three videos and one audio slideshow. We have also started to experiment with using blip.tv to host/stream our video, as opposed to embedding .mov files into the story and sidebar.

We have a talented staff that, overall, is excited about new media. Of course, there is a ton of work to be done, and I know one of the biggest constraints will be resources, be it staff or equipment. If you have any ideas on how a small newsroom can approach new media in a realistic way, I would love to hear them (though I think that I have already asked the two or so people who read this blog).

Speaking of the blog, I am not quite a photojournalist anymore, and I am officially no longer a student (my mother can rest easy now), so I am no longer sure that the name is appropriate. In any case, while I figure that out, I will try and document the successes and failures along the way in the hope that someone reading will either be able to offer advice or learn from my mistakes.

Audio by Yowei Shaw