Howard's being inspirational

You don't see this every day! :-)

But I like it.

Show, don't tell

Tom Costello of the Ashbury Park Press posted links to videos from his paper.

This video of the aftermath of a small plane crash is an excellent example of how video is compelling when you are showing people things they want to see.

This video of the murder of a nine-year-old boy is an example of a bad video. It's telling, not showing anything good. The voiceover contains a lot of relevant facts about the murder, but the images are not showing me anything meaningful. This story would have been better as text only.

Television news has no choice but to make video stories like the second example. The only medium television can use is video. But on the web, we have the freedom to choose which medium is best to tell the story. Use your judgement! Don't do something just because you can--do it because you should.

Video compression with Sorenson Squeeze

I posed a question on the Newspaper video yahoo group a few days ago about Sorenson Squeeze, and I got really good answers. I'm posting them here so I can keep them forever ...

My question:

I understand that Squeeze allows two-pass encoding, and that makes a big difference? Will we have better-looking videos at about the same file size?

ANSWERS:

Chuck Fadely: One of the biggest advantages of Sorenson Squeeze is that it is the swiss army knife of compression programs. You can compress to and from most any format. You can drop one file in and get several different compressions out. You can put in an HDV file and get a couple different size web videos, an ntsc file for tv, and flash files also.

The quality is a little better but not dramatically so what it does have is both simple idiot-proof and advanced set-everything control choices. It can watch a folder for auto-encoding, for example. The two-pass sorenson spark setting gives (I think) a Flash-mx compatible file that's pretty good quality, so more people can see it than On2-VP6 encoded ones.
----------
Will Sullivan: More endorsements for Sorensen:
- You can encode batches of video... which helps a lot if you have many projects to encode at once (especially at the end of the day when everyone files).

- You can also do basic trimming, fades and a little bit of color/saturation correction in Sorensen. Even luddite reporters could do it!
----------
Craig Porter: At the Free Press we use Squeeze for all our videos, creating .mov files as our master copies and then have to export/resize them in both .wmv and .flv formats.

If you need that kind of flexiblity, then Squeeze may be the way to go. Note, however, that you'll still need the Flip4Mac software if you want to create .wmv files on a Mac.

On Macs, both Quicktime Pro (one alternative way to make .wmv files) and Squeeze (and FCP, IIRC) rely on the flip4mac algorhythms to make .wmv files. So if you're on Macs and need to make .wmv files you can't say you're able to jettison Flip4Mac if you get Squeeze.

In general, 2 pass should look better than 1 pass. VBR is supposed to look better than CBR, but we've stuck with CBR because we're trying very hard to hit the streaming numbers asked of us by corporate. (That would be 300kbps/wmv and 350kbps/flv.)

(Our videos run in a 400x300 pixel window (letterboxed) and are 400x225 pixels as 16x9 videos.) We have Squeeze letterbox everything and send it out as a 4x3 letterboxed video to be sure certain browsers won't squoze (technical term) the 16x9 picture and make people look REAL TALL...
----------
Michael Sears: ... Word on the street is its faster and better than Flash 8 video encoder but who knows without testing them all. Even then it might get down to hair splitting ... Make sure if you order the compression suite, that you buy the On2-VP6 plug in for another 150.00 as well, if you dont use it today you will be shortly. Its a very nice program for all the reasons Chuck said. Also I just downloaded flash 9 for both my Mac and Pc. Its about time people on the info superhighway have at least flash 8. The On2-VP6 with 2 pass encoding is very very nice and it needs to get used to drive people to update their flash player and put better quality video on the web.

Heading to Nashville!

I'm leaving work for the airport, going to Nashville! I'm teaching the video training workshop at the ICM conference. When I get back I'll post all the lesson materials I've prepared.

Harsh words for MySA.com

theBivingsreport yesterday had some good words for the Express-News print product, but harsh criticism for our Web site, MySanAntonio.com.

As a long time reader of the San Antonio Express-News, I think this [a redesign of our front page] is a nice step forward for the print edition. However, now that I live in Washington, DC I only read the Express-News print edition around ten times a year. I visit the website a couple of times a week.

Their website is horrible and I don't think it has changed much in five years. So, in the end, I wish they'd spend as much time and money reinventing their website as they did tweaking their slowly dying print edition.

The criticism extends into the comments too:

We can only hope that the website undergoes a similar revamp soon. I check it out frequently and it’s one of the most annoying sites out there. But then again, I’m a hometown boy too (as you know). ...
----
Of the sites I visit regularly, that is my least favorite.

I won't argue with the assessment. But I will say that MySA does the best possible work with what they've got. Also this is all going to change soon. The MySA staff has been working really hard to find a new content management system, and when it is in place, a redesign will be mandatory.

Link via Journerdism.

A good reason not to be like TV news

Check out JibJab's funny video dissing the TV news media.

Link via Cronkbyte.

My NPPA multimedia package picks

Birding on the Upper Texas Coast. Thank you for providing audio control on the intro sound!

The 2nd Forgotten War. I think the videos are really boring. The reason it's a pick is because I like the way they integrated the multimedia with the story.

Lake County Homeless. I wouldn't pick this. Just wanted to comment on how annoying it was for me that all the multimedia popped up in its own window. Especially since I use firefox, and they popped up in new tabs which forced my whole window to shrink to the size of the multimedia. Annoying.

Red Hot Rails. Great design.

Barrier Breakers. A good way to organize and present this information. I love the design and the functionality of the different multimedia components. I thought it was cool that the videos have a frame that looks like an old TV.

Gimme my money!

My blog is worth $16,371.66.
How much is your blog worth?

I don't know whether this thing is accurate whatsoever...But it's kind of fun anyway.

Paraplegic dog video

This is an amazing video about a paraplegic dog.

My NPPA team video picks

Last words. Congrats to Brian Kaufman for his move from Naples to the Detroit Free Press! He continues to produce great work.

Robbery turned fatal fire. Not the greatest video shooting in the whole world, but such compelling content makes a fabulous video regardless.


First person: Running out of room for snow. Yikes! I'd hate to live in a place with this much snow.

My Favorite Child.

Oooo, Ahhhhh - New Flash version

Aye, they're coming out with a new version of Flash.

* Adobe Photoshop® and Illustrator® import
* Animation conversion to ActionScript™
* Adobe interface
* ActionScript 3.0 development
* Advanced debugger
* Adobe Device Central CS3
* Rich drawing capabilities
* User interface components
* Advanced QuickTime export
* Sophisticated video tools
* Timesaving coding tools

Link via Mindy McAdams.

Does multimedia need its own Web site?

MultimediaShooter today points out a couple of papers who have launched new Web sites for their photo and multimedia content. I particularly like the way the twincities.com one is set up, because each multimedia piece has tags, allows comments, and social networking/bookmarking tools.

I think I can understand why it's necessary for some papers to set up whole new Web sites for photo and multimedia content. Some content management systems require rigid templates that make it difficult to work multimedia in. Lots of multimedia pages are designed poorly, and the content is forced into pop-ups.

Is that why these papers are creating new sites for multimedia? So they can have more freedom with design and technology decisions? Are there any negative impacts to creating whole new sites for multimedia?

Pick a color, any color

This online color picker, Color Jack, is pretty fun to play with. I think it could come in handy when I design my next Flash package.

Link via Journalistopia.

For how many hours do you want to pick up poo?

Dooty Diva is a hilarious audio slideshow from roanoke.com. Real good quotes in there.

Found via Cronkbyte in a post about good multimedia stories that stay within the 1-2 min. range.

Fake news video from The Onion

According to this AP story (subscription only?), The Onion today will launch fake news video! I bet this'll be pretty funny. Check out their new video page.

Having already blossomed as a newspaper, Web site and book publisher, The Onion perhaps the most dominant provider of fake news anywhere is bringing its brand of humor to the hot medium of the moment: Online video ...

But on the Web, The Onion will be going up against several others who have already established themselves in comedy video, including Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

My NPPA individual video picks

Conversion. I can't get enough of these videos made from time lapse photos. With this one, I questioned the music choice, and I would suggest speeding it up so it all fits in two minutes.

"Cookie Lady" supports Rangers. I just liked the story.

The Extreme Southwest. It's one of those artsy fartsy "sights and sounds" videos, and I couldn't watch the end b/c I wasn't getting any interesting information. But it's still one of my picks because the editing is interesting and the images are beautiful.

Asian Festival. Disclosure: My coworker Kin Man Hui produced this video. I like the fast pace of the editing, how the images move the story along, and the interaction between the images and soundtrack. I think it should have been shorter. I might have enjoyed more information/narration.

Illinois State Snowboarding. A very video-worthy subject. I would have liked to see even more snowboarding images, and less of the talking heads.

Blood, Killing and Mayhem. I love the fast pace set by the editing. Great use of nat sound. I think it was way too long. Maybe it would have been better as three short videos instead of one long one.

King Tut Visits Philly. The images were nicely lit; I've always had an interest in Egyptian history.

The Heart Gallery - Love at first sight. It's a good story, and so well edited, coming in at only 55 seconds.

Difference between newspaper/TV video

Last night I produced a video about the visitation and rosary service for two San Antonio children who were found buried beneath an apartment complex; Their mother later admitted to beating one baby to death, and accidentally killing the other baby.

I think this can provide an example of the differences between newspaper and TV video. The link above goes to the print story. Under "more coverage" you'll see a link to my video, and the KENS 5 TV version.

Boring: Exploring Antarctica

I hate to say this, but I was pretty bored with Exploring Antarctica, a new multimedia package on washingtonpost.com. It's a shame that it's so boring, because it obviously took a lot of time and resources to produce.

First, good things. I think the design is beautiful. The image quality - stills and video - is top of the line.

I appreciate the beauty of the photos in "The Frozen Desert" section. The photos play with music. The presentations are SO LONG. I don't get any interesting information from the music. I see the photos, and I start to think I've already seen enough of the same thing. If no new information comes into a multimedia story, it just drags on and bores me to tears. I didn't finish watching the first one, watched less of the second one, and didn't even click the third since I figured it would be more of the same.

In "A closer look" the audio clips are pretty boring in themselves. They have like two photos for a minute or more of audio. The voice drones.

I'd say the third section is the best (that's not a good thing though). The voice over on the video actually made me laugh out loud on several occasions! It's so cheesy and the information it provides is often extremely redundant. Image: a penguin walks buy. Voice over: A penguin waddles comically. Image: Penguin feeds its baby. Voice over: the baby penguins eat hungrily. Image: Water. Voice over: the water is below freezing (DUH ... you're in ANTARCTICA).

I'd like to humbly suggest one thing that could have made this much better. Instead of having all that audio by itself, starving for visuals, in "A closer look," the producer could have used it in the audio slideshows, which were rich in visuals but starving for worthwhile information. Maybe some of that audio could have gone in the video, to get rid of that hilarious voice over.

Link via Melissa Worden.

I can learn to do video better here

I'm constantly reading good advice about how to do video on Cyndy Green's blog. I really like this advice about how doing good video takes time.

... Time...time...time... it takes time to get each of these elements done properly. Time to take out the sticks and set them up. Time to check out the light and move your sticks over a bit to get better light or pull out the stand light and umbrella and find an outlet and light your subject. Time to attach the mike and check audio levels. Time to really look at the story and get more than the obvious shots. Time to see the details that will really impact the audience. Time to think and do it right ...

Go check out winning NPPA multimedia packages

Mindy McAdams did a great job of listing some of the NPPA multimedia awards.

Don't fear the voiceover

Colin Mulvany used a voiceover to tell this story about the clean-up of a toxic waste site, and I think it worked well. I also agree with his comments on the post:

Recently, I have been using more and more of my voice in my videos because I felt that the objective narration helps move the story along. When I first started producing videos, my mantra was “let the subject tell the story.” There was such a desire on my part to not be like “TV,” that I felt adding my voice would take away from the story. As I have experimented along the way, I’ve come to the conclusion that narration is not such a bad thing.

I just have one critique of the voice over: I wanted to know much sooner why the toxic waste was in a residential area, and why the homeowner was storing it in her garage. I had to wait until the middle and end to find those things out.

Video journalist boot camp

This training opportunity sounds pretty interesting.

with the web going to video, the demand for these skills is greater than ever. The ability to take a camera and a laptop and produce a good piece of video will certainly become a necessary skill for anyone who wants to participate in the 21st Century in any creative way.

Up until now, our courses have been mostly for professionals…. and admittedly very expensive.

Now, however we have entered into a partnership with The Travel Channel, part of Discovery Communcations, to run 4-day course, open to everyone.

Important and useful teacher abuse project

I'm really impressed with this package, Broken Trust, about physical and sexual abuse by teachers in Florida schools. The data search feature is the most impressive an useful. A parent could look up their child's teacher before sending them to school, to find out if the teacher has had any abuse complaints before. If you click on a teacher that comes up in the search, you can actually look at the original administrative complaint form. I really like the way it pops up. Another really useful function is the "report abuse" tab ... The paper offers to forward abuse reports to the authorities. The function of the "read stories" tab is cool...They did a good job of integrating the print stories into the online presentation. No pop-ups...And when you click "next" there's a cool page-turning effect.

The only problem I had is that the tab buttons at top didn't seem to work all the time on first click. Or maybe it did, but the transition lagged or something. Also, under "Case Flow" there's an audio clip that wouldn't stop playing even though I had moved on to other tabs.

10 good questions

Here's a great interview with Tom Kennedy, managing editor of multimedia at washingtonpost.com. Via ICM.

Interesting snippets:

Who do you view as your competition in the market?

I would say that all forms of media are competition for us and that there is no one "main competitor". Our competition is ultimately for the time and attention of audience we can reach through the Internet.

As you gaze into your crystal ball, what do you see in terms of the future of video news?

I believe there is room for experimentation that is not occurring now in more mainstream broadcast media ... There are economic equations that have proven to be adequate to support earnings expectations and broadcast properties driven by the need to "make numbers" are unwilling to indulge further experiments with presentation — except at the margins — because the perceived downside risks are so great. Starting from scratch has been a real advantage because some of the economic constraints and risk/reward assessments have been different for us. I think we are still in a very early stage of the game and it is hard to know whether the economic models are going to arrive in parallel with the experimentation we're doing to enable us to continue to grow and develop in the ways that the broadcast industry did between 1947-1975 ...

I also believe there is a chance to develop this form of story-telling and create the vehicles that enable it to find an audience just as surely as today's "reality shows" have worked for mainstream broadcast media. I would argue that we are the ones creating the true "reality shows" of our planet's stories. I would also argue that public appetite for our content is there once people find it and are exposed to it ...

I am excited about continuing to see where our stories can be displayed and find an audience. As cable continues to replicate and fracture, I see no reason why a channel couldn't function to expose our content parallel to and in conjunction with exposure on the Internet. That is a reality I expect to see in the next few years.

This is hyperlocal

Can you imagine a newspaper web site covering Little League in town? It would be time consuming, but I think it would be worth it. Families of Little Leaguers can't get the news in many other places. They'd come to your site ... While they were there, maybe they'd read some other articles too. To cut down on the time and resources it would take to cover little league, maybe a paper could create the forum for the stakeholders to cover it themselves (like blogs and user-submitted photos).

UPDATE: Ryan Sholin has more really good ideas about hyperlocal.

Requesting critique on my work

We just launched the project I've been working on all month, Roller Derby Rundown. It's a new ongoing feature about the Alamo City Rollergirls league here in San Antonio. We're targeting a hyperlocal, niche audience. There will be a monthly video and pictures from the bouts, a blog written by the players, user-submitted photos, and evergreen multimedia Flash graphics, "meet the players" and "rules" (the thing in rules is a placeholder for now; the real deal will be ready shortly).

All of the different elements of the package were my idea, but I was extremely lucky to be able to convince a bunch of more talented people to help me. Gloria Ferniz, Express-News photographer, shot all the portraits in the "meet the players" section. Felipe Soto, Express-News assistant art director, is doing the animated multimedia "rules" graphic. Matt Thompson of MySanAntonio.com created and will administrate the blog. Shane Cooke of MySanAntonio.com designed the page, and Christian Gonzales of MySanAntonio.com coded it. Lisa Krantz, Express-News photographer, shot and produced the "E-N pics" slideshow. MySA managing editor Mike Howell worked tirelessly to make sure it all came together. Whew! I'm lucky to work with a bunch of talented people who know how to do a whole lot of great stuff that I don't. I did the bout video, and the videos and Flash production for "meet the players."

Ostrich

Over the past week I've been like an ostrich with my head in the sand that is Adobe Flash. I've worked hard on a project that's launching today (god willing) and later I'll post a link and ask for a critique.

I haven't been reading my blogs or checking out multimedia to write for my blog. I'm way behind, but hoping to get back on track soon.

I'm not that into this conversation

I'm not that interested in continuing this argument about whether online video is ever going to make money for newspapers (see last seven comments).

The general argument on the other side is that there's no way, ever, that newspapers will make any money from their online videos. Papers are wasting time and resources buying equipment and training employees to do video. It doesn't matter that the audience for online video is growing, because those studies don't talk specifically about news videos.

This type of argument isn't my bag, mainly because I think these claims go against the facts and sound somewhat ignorant. After reading tons of studies and articles over the months, I know that the audience for Web video reached "critical mass" is still growing. I don't care if the studies don't specifically speak of news videos. I also know the advertising market for the Internet grows at a rate much higher than TV stations or newspapers (or any other advertising market). Put those things together, and the logical conclusion is newspapers WILL find a way to make money with this online video stuff.

I don't care about wasting my time arguing further, but if any readers want to, feel free to use this forum for your thoughts. The truth is I'm a lot more interested in using my daily blog-writing time for my critiques, reviews and discussions of news items. I'm a content producer: The thing that's important to me is producing good content. I'm on the editorial side.

I have faith in the business managers that they'll do their job and figure out how to make money from the videos I produce.

Cut the artsy fartsy

I'm with Will on this one.

I’m already growing weary of photographers turned videographers trying to be too artsy fartsy with every single video they produce. Photojournalists are not just artists, at least half of their title is journalist… Act like it. Three minutes of random “sights and sounds” on video doesn’t cut it. Respect your reader/viewer’s time.

Note to self

I need to watch all these videos when I have time.

Attn multimedia producers

Want a job?

The Bakersfield Californian is looking for a multimedia producer to help lead our audio and video efforts ...

The multimedia producer will be required to:

-Record and edit video, audio and slideshows for daily, weekend and enterprise use.

-Work with staff to improve their multimedia skills.

-Help manage multimedia reporter ...

ETC.

The disappointing interactive that came from the fridge

I'm really disappointed with this "interactive" from boston.com about what's in the fridges of different types of families. At first, I thought it would be pretty cool. But then I found out all you get to do is put your cursor over some buttons and read a little bit of text.

I think it would have been more cool if you got to listen to soundbytes of the fridge owner talking about the stuff in there.

Link via Cronkbyte.

Rake in the cash with web video

How do you do it? (From the Visual Editors blog). According to a video forum of the Online Publishers Association, here's how you make money with web video:

... add mini players, embed video in the website (instead of a pop-up player), focus on live content and have a simple content management system ...

There is little doubt for him that the Web will become the world’s largest broadcasting platform. Thus newspapers must attach importance to online video development – papers already are at an advantage over TV broadcasters for online video ad revenue ...

Develop a new economic model

This from the state of the news media online economics section. I find it very interesting and just wanted to save it to think about it later.

The old journalism model of advertising was broadly based on audiences coming to look at content and staying to read or view the ads.

Online, that connection is looser. When people visit the Web for news, they often do so in short bursts, with little attention to ads. Advertising online is more like the Yellow Page listings (except for big display and video ads). People are looking for a good or service or researching a topic. (That is the commercial essence of search, and it also applies to classifieds.)

The poses little problem for online sites such as Yahoo or Google, in which search is part of the advertising structure. But it is a major issue for news sites, where ads are incidental to the reason people visit ...

Those in journalism will need to develop a new economic model, not wait for this one to grow.

I'm wowed by a "first" video

You've got to watch this video about a family whose son was murdered. I'm really amazed because I found it on the newspaper video yahoo group, with the message, "We still have no cameras--we did this with a reporter's--but this is our first, by John Tlumacki."

For a first-ever video, the photography is very good. And the story!

Interesting assignment yesterday

A women's "professional" pillow fighting league is forming in San Antonio.

Severely screwed?

Here's an interesting take on a news media study that came out today. Info on argumentative news talkshows, news orgs chasing niche markets, and the corruption of the blogosphere.

I'm checking out the online section of The State of the News Media 2007. You'd think this section would give a good outlook ... But I'm not so sure from the intro.

After a decade of growth, the online news audience for now has reached a plateau, despite the increase in the number of people with high-speed connections ...

It may just be that not everyone will move as eagerly to the Web for news as did the earlier generation of users.

I have to rush to work now, but I'm planning to examine the report in more detail later.

AUDIENCE

The number of Americans who said they go online every day for news dropped 7 points, from 34% in June 2005 to 27% in June 2006, according to the Pew Research Center, sending it back to where was in 2004. When the question was asked slightly differently, did you go online for news yesterday, the numbers were flat, slipping from 24% to 23% over the last two years ...

The Web has gradually become a part of the working day; thanks to increasing broadband penetration in the workplace, workers log on for the bulk of the day. As part of that, people are multi-tasking more. They may not log on for one specific reason, such as getting news, but use the Web in multiple ways simultaneously. In doing so, they come across news and information from time to time. Thought of as “news grazers,” they get news sporadically throughout the day ...

Ode to a video player 1

As I crawl the web blasting or regaling people's multimedia, I can help but get all teary-eyed about some of the good video players that are out there. I really want a nice video player for MySA.com, and we're going to get one soon, but I'm not sure when.

Anyway, I'm going to occasionally write about some of the other players out there and stuff I like and don't like about them.



This one is from dallasnews. I like the simple menu on the left and the "information" space on the right. I don't like that they have pre-roll. I don't like that it's windows media video ... But I point it out b/c MySA.com is also using WMV right now until we get a Flash streaming service.

The AP also has a WMV player.



I like the organization of the menu at the bottom: You can search for videos within different topics or the "most watched." I like that you can create a playlist. I don't like the giant ad that almost has as much space as the video window. The AP also uses pre-roll advertising, and that sucks.

Hate to admit it, but ...

Here's a breaking news video from dallasnews.com about the aftermath of a large apartment fire. Well ... I guess it's not all that breaking since the fire was already over. But we get to hear the voices of the victims.

Similar to MySA.com, The Dallas Morning News web site is a partnership between the paper and a Belo station. WFAA also covered the fire.

The TV station video is MUCH better than the newspaper video. I'm not talking about technical stuff; I'm talking about content. The TV news video IS written in the style that we all enjoy talking trash about. But when you get right down to it, the TV video has so much more important information; it tells the complete story. Also, the TV crews were there when the news happened, and got better video of the fire and the aftermath. They sent a camera up in a helicopter and got an aerial shot of the burned apartment building, which really adds understanding about how serious a fire it was.

At the Express-News, we've struggled with whether we want to do breaking news videos at all. MySA is partnered with KENS 5; They've got our four-person multimedia crew beat hands down on covering breaking news. They've got the resources and the organizational structure to do that.

Flip it

Here's a source-narrated slideshow from NYTimes.com about the lives of three roommates with mental retardation. It's a good story but it runs too long. The ending is really compelling ... I think I would have put it at the beginning instead.

Video, audio, soundslides training

NPPA Multimedia Immersion Workshop.

A four-day intensive workshop training in audio, video and Soundslides for journalists of any ability.

Drama for your momma

Have you checked out the dirty fighting going on about online video standards at howardowens.com? Whew! I added my two cents towards the end.

UPDATE: Comment republished here for convenience:

I agree with parts of both positions here.

Agree with TV photogs
Video and audio quality are really important. I often argue with Howard about this. Right now, the majority of newspaper video folks are doing video wrong. We could learn a lot from studying good TV video journalism. Videos with technical errors should not win awards.

Agree with Howard
Video for the web should be different than TV, and right now newspaper folks are doing it right (regardless of previously mentioned technical errors). Newspapers are creating video specifically for the Web. TV stations are still simply shoveling their TV content on the web. It’s 2007; That’s pathetic.

Two possibilities could level the playing field
1. TV stations get their heads out of their asses and start creating video content specifically for the Web. If they do that NOW, the TV photogs will clearly produce better work than newspapers are producing (NOTE: I haven’t seen any indication TV stations will pull their heads out of their asses).
2. Newspaper folks continue on the upward trajectory they are already following. They learn from their mistakes and get better (NOTE: This is happening as we speak).

If I was a TV photog interested in online video, I would quit my job at the station and go work for a newspaper.

Inspirational but solid advice

Just getting started in this multimedia thing? Go over and read some solid advice about how reporters, photographers and graphic artists can jump into multimedia.

Just a few comments.

If you're already a photographer, you will be shooting interesting video pretty quickly. If you're a reporter with no photo background, you really need to do some homework so that you understand the grammar of the medium and are able to improve the visual content of your work.

I agree with this comment; reporters have so much to learn to shoot video. But I would just like to point out that still photographers also have some homework to do. Photographers are trained to find and capture the perfect iconic image to illustrate a story in one shot. But videos suck when shot with this same strategy. With a video, instead of one perfect image in one shot, you have to take that image and cut it apart into a whole bunch of separate but related sequences of shots. There's a difference and it takes some retraining! Photographers are also trained to be the "fly on the wall." They have to fight that instinct and become comfortable with a more active role in storytelling. I'm not saying it's easier or harder than the considerable transition that reporters must make as they move to shooting video. I'm merely saying that there IS a transition for both.

I don't think anyone could say this one better:

... anyone who shoots video should sit down with an editor and watch (and listen to the complaints) to learn how to shoot better video next time.

I can't count the number of times, in the beginning, when I was editing and I just wanted to kick myself in the ass for not shooting something better.

• "Hold the shot a couple more seconds, dummy!"


• "Damnit! Keep the camera still!"


• "Fix the exposure NOW!"


• ETC.

Those self reprimands stuck in my head the next time I was out with the camera. Mistakes are such wonderful learning tools.

Exciting changes in our newsroom

About a month ago we bought Canon Elura 100s for the reporters in our newsroom. Now we're beginning to offer training; yesterday I taught the first video workshop. This was the beginner-level class, and the point was simply showing them how the camera worked, and the function of all the buttons and features.

I had about 13 reporters/editors in the class, and divided them into smaller groups. Each group had a camera. I systematically went over the whole camera, and explained all the buttons while everyone followed along on their group's camera. We went really slowly to make sure everyone was on the same page before moving to the next feature. When we were done with the buttons on the outside, I taught them to navigate the internal menu and offered a brief explanation for what they saw there. I told them they could usually ignore most features (and D.EFFECTS is the devil. I pointed out and explained in detail the important things.

That part of the workshop took about one hour. Then we spent 15 minutes exploring and figuring out the tripods. I told them the most important advice I could give about shooting good video was to use their tripods at all times; the only exception would be if they were going to miss their shot if they took time to use the tripod. I said that I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass, but they really had to do it if they wanted a good video. I hope that lesson sticks!

Overall, I really enjoyed teaching this workshop and I got a really good response. I think the participants found the information useful. Afterwards, I emailed the group asking them to call me with any future questions.

The other multimedia team members will teach this same workshop on March 14 & 21. We've had such an enthusiastic newsroom-wide response ... Registration fills up in no time. When we're done teaching this beginner-level course, we're going to offer a more intermediate shooting course. It'll cover the basic shots, shooting in sequences, collecting a visual variety, lighting, sound, etc.

Potentially useful resources

Bryan at ICM posted a link to this great site that lists open source audio and video software. This could be awesome for students who don't have cash for expensive software, news orgs that don't have cash, or people who want to do things at home and don't feel like spending money on expensive software.

I looked through some of the stuff, and I haven't heard of most of it. If you've used any of it, or if you download and try it, post a quick review here!

Cops crashing cars

Here's an interesting video about a course for police to learn to investigate traffic accidents. The intro shot is a real hook! When he saw a good lead, my old journalism professor would say the lead was so tight, you could bounce a quarter off it. Well, I could bounce a quarter off that intro shot.

This makes me feel dumb

What do you think about the navigation on this AIDS Orphans package? I find it hard to use; It makes me feel dumb (That breaks several of my new favorite design guidelines).

If you get past that, this is a huge and comprehensive package. It's truly multimedia, with audio slide shows, some video, and some stand alone audio. Due to time constraints, I only checked out "A Florida Story." The pictures are as personal as you can get and the voice over tells a clear and concise story. I challenge you to puzzle out the navigation and watch the "documenting hope" slide show. Even though the audio is just the photographer talking (which I generally don't like much), the pictures are amazing and the show almost made me cry towards the end--You'll know the part. The other slide show DID bring tears. This story puts an understandable, human face on a monstrous tragedy in the world. I think this work represents journalism at its best.

This package may pass the "when is multimedia worth it" test (I counted five points). The story IS worth the considerable resources it took to produce. And using multimedia to tell this story is SO MUCH more effective than words or pictures alone.

It makes me worried and upset that with today's online news consumption habits, it's highly unlikely that people will take the time to watch all of it (I guess I'm guilty of that too--ironic, huh?). I wonder how long it would take to watch every single video, audio slide show, and audio snippet in the entire four-part package?

Should multimedia producers be designing packages with these real-life time constraints in mind? I wonder if more people would see it if the web site featured one section per week, or something like that? And leave the featured section SOMEWHERE on the homepage for at least one time block every day during that week?

Link via multimediashooter.

AP video share?

Big news about Microsoft partnering with the AP to develop a video player and sharing ability.

The new system is aimed at the 7,000 newspapers, TV and radio stations that belong to AP, who will be able to create their own content locally — either by staff or through user-generated content initiatives — and then upload it and generate revenue from it. Beet.tv says that for the 1,000 TV stations that belong to AP, “the opportunity to publish and monetize video is immediate.”

Seems like a great idea. I wonder how much a news org could make from a very popular video?

Link via VisualEditors.

Good strategy

APME did some dinky survey about multimedia at newspapers. The survey had only 13 responses. Still, I agree with one conclusion for the survey:

The AP can clearly provide lots of material on national, international and regional stories that would free resources at news sites to focus on multimedia that may be of local interest.

I feel that all my multimedia stories should be local. I'd prefer to use all my time on them.

Link via VisualEditors.

Jump over for this discussion

I'm real busy at work today, but not too busy to read this post about judging standards for online video. I'm hoping it spurns a good discussion. Go over there and add your two cents!

Nutritious and delicious?

I'm intrigued by a site I discovered today, ThePulp.

The Pulp was created out of a desire to push the limits of multimedia documentary stories. We want to utilize all of the technological possibilities to produce content from some of the best visual and audio journalists of today. Through innovative uses of visual media, audio, design and animation we want to create a cinematic experience that will attract a larger audience to documentary stories on the Internet.

Link via multimediashooter.

New contest

Check it out.

At least they improved the idea ...

Ryan Sholin found a gem of a multimedia project about murders in Oakland, CA by The Oakland Tribune. It's beautifully designed and organized, there's an awesome interactive map, and a bunch of chances for user interaction. Ryan writes a great review, so check it out.

There's a chance the site swiped the idea from the San Francisco Chronicle's package Oakland: Plague of Killing. This isn't flagrant plagiarism like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's golf package that copied, to the T, an earlier golf package by Joe Weiss.

I think this is more like seeing a good idea, and improving on it. I like the Tribune's package better than the Chronicle's because it's so well designed, and everything seems integrated better. I also think the interactive map is more suave, and I love the idea of inviting so much user participation.

UPDATE: I was totally wrong on this post (check comment by producer Sean Connelly at the bottom). Seems that the producers didn't swipe the idea at all. They started working on it long before the Chronicle version came out. I guess they just waited a couple months to long to launch, and they got scooped. Sucks for them ... But my original thought stays the same, that at least they did it better.

Great design guidelines

I want to keep Joshua Porter's design principles in mind for my Flash packages:

Technology Serves Humans.
People should never feel like a failure when using technology. Like the customer, the user is always right. If software crashes, it is the software designer’s fault. If someone can’t find something on a web site, it is the web designer’s fault.

Design is not Art.
When people enjoy Art, they say “I like that”. When people enjoy Design, they say “That works well”.

The Experience Belongs to the User.
Designers do not create experiences, they create artifacts to experience ... the experience of a design doesn’t happen simply because the designer says it does, it happens when a user actually reports it.

Great Design is Invisible.
An interesting property of great design is that it is taken for granted. It works so well that we forget that creative effort was involved to bring it about ...

In a great irony of the world, bad design is much easier to see than good design ...

Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.
As Saint Exupery said, "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Link via visualeditors.

I still think shorter is better

Chuck Fadely did a review of popular video on google, and asks the question: Who says web video has to be short? He does write in his post that none of the popular videos he lists are journalism related. They're entertainment. People are willing to spend more time and energy when they're being entertained than when they're being informed. I don't think that at this time someone would watch a 90 minute journalistic video online.

I think it's encouraging that people are watching those 90 minute entertainment videos online ... Maybe it indicates a change in viewing habits that will eventually allow journalists to create longer videos. But for now, I still think shorter is better.

Loaded info graphic

I really like this info graphic package about Syracuse University men's basketball. It's odd for me to say that, because I dislike basketball; in fact, I dislike any sport involving a ball. But I can still appreciate that this is a nice way to present information. It uses a chronological organization and the navigation doesn't make me think. The transition between sections is clean and sophisticated. Even though I hate basketball, I really enjoy the historical photos in each section, and it was a great idea to pull the newspaper archives. This package would pass the "when is multimedia worth it" test. Talk about evergreen! And it's easily update-able to boot.

Brian Cubbison of The Post-Standard emailed me this link.

Spiffy taser graphic

There's things I like, and things I don't like about this graphic about tasers from the Houston Chronicle. On the good site, I think it's extremely well designed, and a good medium for the information presented.

My favorite section is "how it works." The art and movement is awesome. My eyes wanted to stay glued to the image, but distracting text popped up and forced me to look away. I wish the information was delivered via voiceover. Then I'd get the info, without the two elements competing for my attention.

I'm not at all impressed with the "statistics" section ... It kind of makes me mad. My brain doesn't work that way. I wish I could have seen the information in a visual format, like a line or bar graph ... Something easier.

Nice little short video

I like this video about students learning ballroom dancing. It's only one minute. It's only got nat sound (music). There are some nice sequences, and there are some nice close-ups despite the obviously challenging shooting scenario. It's truly showing something, simple, short and sweet.

Madness

Along the lines of my earlier post today ... This is an unique and intriguing Flash presentation about mental institutions and the people who live there. During some parts of it I actually started to feel crazy.

Link via trinetizen.

Pulling my hair out

I've been stuck on one technical problem all day. I'm about ready to jump, screaming, from the building. If you can help, I will love you forever.

Ever since I saw this package on roanoke.com about capoeira, I've been intrigued by the idea of cut-out video people. Seth also used the technique in that multimedia job posting.

Well, finally a project has come up where I'd like to do something similar ... Can't tell you right now, it's super secret.

So I emailed Seth and he called me back to help me! What a nice guy. He pointed me to this great tutorial by Tom Green about Creating a Talking-Head Flash Video. The tutorial is written for someone using Adobe Premiere to edit video. I'm using Final Cut Pro.

Mostly you can just follow the instructions; the filters are in the same place and basically work the same. Here's where I get all hung up: When I export the video, I use the Animation codec with millions of colors+. But then when I create the Flash video and import it to the stage, the part that is supposed to be transparent is black! (Yes, I clicked "encode alpha channel").

I've done some googling and found that others have had the same problem attempting to export an alpha channel from FCP. UPDATE: Here's a thread a guy wrote about the same problem. Has this ever happened to you? How do I fix it?

Smart people runnin' wild

ICM interviewed Rob Curley. Here's some pretty cool parts of what he said:

I try to hire smart people and protect them from the bureaucracy, and then let them run wild. When you let smart people have freedom, they will almost always build something cooler than you had originally hoped for.

Curley hires people with the "right mindset"

You can see and hear their excitement. Or you can tell that what they did was done out of passion, not assignment.

The job of a new media editor:

Someone who knows when stories need to be posted early, when stories need some sort of multimedia, when stories need a live chat with a key source, when a story would be better by scanning in some supporting documents, when a database would be hugely important in helping to tell a story, etc. Not to mention all of the other things that go along with being a real new-media editor, such as alternate delivery, the technologies used, etc.

Premature baby slideshow

Here's a good audio slideshow from the Houston Chronicle about a mother praying for her premature baby.

Feb. contest results

The results of the Feb. NPPA contest are in.