Photojournalism From A Student’s Eye

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.

Some outtakes from the High-Plains League basketball tournament, held this past weekend at Garden City Community College.

Girl A: “Rawr! It’s my ball! Mine I say!”
Girl B: “Pshhaw. Whatever. I didn’t want to play basketball anyways. Ima go get my nails did.”

The sky is falling!

Left: Kid on the left: Mmmmm brains! Brains…. brains! Hand from the right: Brains! Must get brains!
Right: High-five FAIL.

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.

As a child growing up in Los Angeles, I was only vaguely aware of the Rafu Shimpo. It was that paper that my grandmother would cut box scores out of after my Crescent Bay Optimist basketball games. It was not until college, when I took my first photo internship at the paper and took an asian american studies course that touched on the paper and its role in the community prior to and after internment during World War II, that I got a a greater sense of the importance that the Rafu has had in the history of the community.

Now, like so many print media organizations, especially ethnic media, they are in danger of being shut down. The Nichi Bei Times, the Japanese/English newspaper in northern California, was closed on Sept. 30 of last year, after 63 years of operation. The Rafu Shimpo began printing in 1903, ceasing operations from 1942 to 1946 before starting up again.

Recently the Rafu announced that they will be holding a town hall forum to discuss ways to renew interest in the product:

To Rafu Supporters: “Save the Rafu” Town Hall Forum

===

If you’re reading this “first-hand,” you may think this does not apply to
you. However, it does. Your opinions and suggestions to keep The Rafu
Shimpo from following the path of so many print media, both mainstream
and vernaculars, into extinction are very much needed.

Equally-and maybe more so-input from the non-reading and non-subscribing
population is vital. Answers to such questions as:

What would encourage you to subscribe? Does the **Rafu** address your
interest areas? If not, and if they did, what kinds of news would bring
you in to the readership? If your local organizations’ newsletters keep
you informed of local community news, would you see the value to the
greater community to send articles to the Rafu?

To subscribers, do you have issues you would like to dialogue with the
Rafu staff to improve your reading enjoyment? Have you said to yourself
and family and friends, “I wish the Rafu would…”  ”Why do they…?” “Why
don’t they…?” What do you see for the future of the Rafu?

On Sunday, Jan. 17, these and any other comments, questions, and points of
information will be aired at the “Save the Rafu” Town Hall Forum, from 2
to 4 p.m., at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute (GV JCI),
Veterans Hall, 1964 West 162nd Street, Gardena 90247.

Rest assured: this is NOT a fundraiser. Also, you will NOT be given “the
evil eye” if you’re not a subscriber.

For questions, please email/call Iku Kiriyama, (310) 326-0608,
goiku@sbcglobal.net or George Yoshinaga, horsesmouth2000@hotmail.com

I still believe that one of the Rafu’s greatest strengths is in the recognition of its name and that they can use their name to maintain a bit of unity in a community spread out across LA county and with no main hub (Little Tokyo is only a few blocks across, and, except for Nisei Week, I rarely venture there) and grow online into a hub for the entire southern California JA community, from community centers and martial arts clubs to temples and Boy and Girl Scout troops.

Already, there is a page on the Rafu Web site that tries to compile useful community links and organizations. Rather than going to the Rafu and then pointing users out, the Rafu could become the home for many JA community organizations.

In its most simple form, a Ning group could mean that sports leagues could form a group to upload photos and maintain scores and schedules, JA churches/temples could form a group to keep each other updated of upcoming events and people outside of the southern California (such as myself, in Kansas) could remain connected to all aspects of the community on one Web site.

No, this would not automatically equate to advertising dollars and no, traffic would not immediately start pouring in. It would take a good deal of time and effort to build the community site into something that people check on a regular basis. But I think that it fits in well with the purpose of the Rafu Shimpo, and could be a positive step in any web effort taken by the company.