A great Web site for video novices January 22, 2008

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything here, but I’m back for another semester of multi-media training! This semester is all about video, a topic that, I will admit, makes me a bit nervous. My past attempts to make good, non-home-movie style videos have not been as successful as I would like.

But, my confidence is bolstered by my accomplishments last semester with photo, audio, editing and Soundslides – overall, I did better than I anticipated.

So – back to video – I LOVE this series of Web sites called ‘Make Internet TV’ (Thanks to my professor, Mindy McAdams for directing us to it). The simple tips are practical and easy for people who want to learn, but don’t have all the money or technical know-how to use lots of extraneous equipment – (use a broom to make a boom mic – use a skateboard to get a good panning shot – my kind of advice!)

And the simplicity of the illustrations makes it all seem so – not scary. As far as instructional Web sites go, I give this one five stars! I have a feeling I’ll be visiting this site many times this semester.

Looking back on a semester of multimedia training December 12, 2007

I have learned so much this semester in Journalist’s Toolkit 1: how to record and edit quality audio in an ethical manner; how to take decent, journalistically ethical photographs; how to write a professional-quality blog and get it out there for others to read; how to make soundslides and FusionCharts and web pages.

There’s more to all of these skills than I thought before taking this class. I now appreciate the immense potential of audio, photos, Web packages, databases, soundslides projects and blogs for journalism uses and, while I think I’ll always be a writer at heart, I look forward to telling stories using these new skills. I also find myself evaluating media in ways I didn’t before taking this class. I watch a ‘reality’ TV show, see a photo, or listen to a recording and wonder if the images and sounds I’m taking in are true representations of the situations, people and places they portray, or if some things were staged to gain a desired effect.

While I appreciate all these skills and the knowledge that comes along with them, one of the things I’m most grateful for is the increase in my knowledge about how to use my computer for useful things, beyond just writing papers and news articles. I am more confident about my computer and multimedia journalism skills than I was at the beginning of this course, and that in itself is a wonderful gain.

As I already knew, and have learned even more this semester, computer assisted reporting and multimedia presentation are where journalism IS today and where it will continue to go. I know that I have much to learn about all this, but I also know I have a good base understanding of how to do some very crucial things. And, I’ll add, they’re things that I know many of my reporter friends who work at papers where I’ve worked in the past few years don’t know how to do. I hope this will give me an edge when I graduate in a few semesters and head back into the work world.

Hunger in North Florida – A Story Package

Hunger in America is a big problem, even here in Alachua County. This story package describes the problem with statistics about the population in several North Florida counties deemed at risk of hunger and the percentage who receive food stamps, as well as a Soundslides presentation telling a more personal story. The presentation, called “Filling in the Gaps,” is about the struggle to keep hungry people fed. It contains photos from Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, St. Francis House and Gainesville Community Ministries, all in Gainesville.

These agencies sometimes struggle to get the food they need to provide for the people who depend on them. The people who receive the food really appreciate it, as you’ll see in the part of the story about Willie Stewart, a very nice man who was able to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year thanks to Gainesville Community Ministry. I hope you enjoy the show!

Getting to know Mr. Goodbike November 7, 2007

This Soundslides project (one of my first!) is about a bicycle shop called Mr. Goodbike (that’s also the name of the Soundslide). Mr. Goodbike grabbed my attention one of the first few times I passed it. You can tell from the outside – with brightly colored walls, goofy looking bikes and lots of rocks and foliage – that this is a place with character.

A trip inside gives the same impression. The place is a bit crowded, but if you look around, you’ll see lots of unusual items that give the place a feel all its own.

In this Soundslides, two employees talk about Mr. Goodbike’s unique personality, the shop’s friendly employees, loyal customers, and fun activities – like weekly night bicycle rides.

It’s definitely a place with a character all its own.

Critiquing a Soundslides: University of Florida Bike Repair Service October 25, 2007

Overall, I liked Matt’s Soundslides, University of Florida Bike Repair Service. I thought the pictures were of good quality, and I found them interesting. The sound bed underneath the interview was great – it added a wonderful dimension to the Soundslides project.

However, I have to say that while I found it interesting, I don’t think it’s a ‘real’ story in terms of a conflict and resolution. It’s very informational, but I can’t really pick out a specific part that’s a conflict and one part that’s a resolution. I like that the student speaking talks about what he likes and dislikes about working for the bike service, though, and that’s probably the closest to these aspects of storytelling.

I like the beginning of the story. The music in the background and the tinkering of the tools really gets my attention and makes me curious as to what’s happening. That question is quickly answered with the first two photos: the opening photo showing the two students fixing bikes, and then the sign that says “student government free bike repair.” The sign also answers another question: when this bike repair service is available. That information is on the sign as well.

It’s a good transition into the student’s more detailed descriptions of the bike repair service: how many employees there are, how much money they make, what’s good and bad about the job, when it’s really busy, etc.

The conclusion of the Soundslides was kind of abrupt, I felt. The closing part of the interview, where the student says “This is UF student government bike repair and we fix bikes,” is just kind of hanging there. I guess before this point, you can’t tell that the project is approaching it’s end.

I think the Soundslides maintains a good proportion between the “campus life” part and the “profile part.” I would say it’s about 75% “campus life” and about 25% “profile” (the profile part being the part where the student talks mostly about his personal experience with bikes, etc). For the most part, he talks about “we” and describes basic things about the job.

The one thing about this story that I would improve is quite basic, but I think it would be pretty valuable. I really wanted the student to tell me who he is. He never introduced himself during the project, and, since I viewed the story with the captions off as we were instructed, I was clueless about who the student is.

The thing that I like best about the project is the audio mix. Like I said earlier, the soundbed with the music and the tools is terrific. I especially liked how at one point, when there was a photo of a bicycle wheel that someone was holding up in there air and the spokes were showing, you could hear the sound of the bicycle wheel spinning. That was neat.

Evaluating a photo story: is there more to Mia? October 20, 2007

The photo story about Mia, the woman who lives in Copenhagen and is addicted to drugs, impressed me as the most varied of the photo stories posted on the NPPA “Best of Photojournalism 2007” site (by David Hogsholt of Getty Images). Mia
It shows the conflict in this woman’s life, but not a resolution. Unless you consider it a resolution that she continues to live her life the same way: addicted to drugs, working as a prostitute or stripper, and seemingly separated from her family. Through the captions, the story also conveys details about the conflict – her daughter has been in foster care for years but sometimes sends her letters or pictures, she has attempted rehab at least once and she spends nearly all her money on drugs.

The story’s focus is pretty narrow – her work and her drug habit – so that it seems those things are all this woman does. Maybe that is true, or maybe it is no, although the fact that she can spend $500 before she even reaches home after earning it makes me assume that it is true.

In some ways, this photo story seems like it could be a good representation of life for drug addicts in Copenhagen’s red light district. But, my ability to judge that is limited – since it’s a way of life with which I have no familiarity. Surely, there are other aspects to this slice of reality a photographer could explore: people who make it out of their addictions into healthy lives, for instance.

Mia’s presence in the images and the black and white look provide the continuity for this story.

For those interested in knowing more about Mia, like myself, I think Kobre’s section on page 155 about using ‘existing pictures’ would have been helpful. The photographer could have inserted some photos from Mia’s childhood, happier days, may have given a dramatic contrast to her present life. It’s apparent that the photographer has contact with Mia’s family, since at least one quote from her brother is included in the captions.

I find myself wanting to know more about Mia and wonder if a longer project, like the one on “Motel Dad” that Kobre discusses in chapter 8, would have led to a happy ending. I hope so.

My growth as an interviewer October 10, 2007

I really liked the interview tips offered in “Sound in the Story.” The tips about asking simple questions instead of long, complicated ones was good. The advice not to ask double-barreled questions was totally opposite of what one of our other recent readings said on the topic. But I guess it’s good to get a variety of viewpoints.

I’ve been working in journalism for a while, and I feel like my interview skills have markedly improved since I first started, but there are different things to take into consideration when you’re recording an interview for the purpose of editing it and putting it out there for people to hear.

I found that when I interviewed my subject for the Soundslides 1 assignment last week, it was difficult to get responses that were “self-contained” – that is, the listener could tell from the sound bite what topic the interviewee was discussing. I couldn’t direct her responses, obviously, so I’ll just have to see what I have when I edit.

I remember the kinds of interviews I used to do when I first started reporting. They were awkward, disjointed, repetitive – boring. I’ve gotten much better at it and learned many of these techniques just by working in the field. It’s neat to have a new revelation about interviewing- how to deal with particularly difficult (crabby, quiet, too talkative, obviously media savvy) subjects or just how to conduct a better interview. It just makes the job so much easier and more rewarding – it lets you get to the good stuff you’re really seeking.

I can especially relate to the part about making subjects feel comfortable. Since I interview people all the time, it surprises me how reticent people can be sometimes to talk, even about simple matters. It shouldn’t, but it still does. I know I handle these situations better now than I used to.

Just a few weeks ago I was doing a phone interview with a woman who told me she was quite nervous. I could tell. By the end, she said I made her feel very comfortable. That made me glad. After all, I like the people aspect of journalism just as much as I like the writing aspect.

It made me feel good to read the section about “mopping up” after an interview – speaking with the person later to clarify things, ask other questions, etc. I don’t have to do this as much as I once did, but I still do it and I wasn’t sure if it was something most other journalists regularly did or not.

The tip about recording the room was quite helpful. This reinforces another mantra for journalists: get there early! That way you can capture the ambient/room sound/noise before the subject arrives and your attention switches to him/her. In my opinion, leaving things to be done after the interview is a bad idea – my attention is always focused then on what the subject said/didn’t say, the quality of my recording, the question I just realized I should have asked, the great anecdote he/she told that will make a perfect lead, etc.

Audio recordings – beyond the basic interview October 2, 2007

The readings for our Sept. 27 class contained a lot of good info – some of which I still need to learn more about to fully understand.

Like the tip about recording in stereo to fill different speakers – I still need to make sure I know exactly how to do this. Also, the tip about watching out for mechanical noise from cameras, etc. was great. It’s probably not something a beginner like me would really think about until it’s too late – and a great interview or natural sot is ruined by annoying equipment noise.

The reading titled “Natural Sound Stories: A How-to Guide” also was helpful and expanded on some things I’ve been thinking about as I prep for the audio 2 assignment. Getting great audio of an interview really requires great interviewing skills – thinking ahead and planning to make sure you ask questions that will let the subject explain (in natural sounding, flowing dialogue) what is in the photos.

It’s also important to find a good balance between capturing background noise on its own, background noise during the interview and interview with as little background noise as possible. I think it will be challenging, for a while, to make sure I get all three of these elements – especially with limited equipment – but just like interviewing and writing, it will get easier with time as I know how to prepare and what snafus to avoid.

I LOVED the soundslide titled “Art of Listening”

from Jesse Seay at the Chicago Tribune. The technique of including lots of blank screen and a few pics to accompany the audio really made the viewer/listener focus on the sound. I was wondering, though, how Seay got the sound of the animals at the zoo and the sound of the traffic, both so clear, without the traffic overpowering the animals.

The NPR piece “Studying a Koala Mystery in Eastern Australia” (6 min., 32) was equally compelling, even without the visuals. I noted some neat techniques they used in putting the sound together.

Some of the background noise carried from one ‘scene’ to another, adding continuity. The sound of walking and grass rustling, along with the difference in the sound of some of the voices (which told you they were farther away from the recorder than they had been before) conveyed movement. I also liked how the sound of koalas was absent from the beginning of the piece and the listener didn’t hear any of that until the people in the recording had found some koalas – it let the listener be somewhat ‘involved’ in the search for koalas and the experience of finding them. The end was great, with the surprising sounds of the male koalas finishing out the piece after the people stopped talking.

I hope to keep these ‘composition’ techniques in mind when editing audio in the future.

Ethics in photojournalism September 22, 2007

Before taking this course, I didn’t realize how much thought about ethics goes into photojournalism. I knew news pictures should not be staged and that photographers must exercise caution when photographing sensitive subjects/events, but I didn’t understand how many other things there are to consider.

I thought the discussion of ethics in Kenneth Kobre’s book Photojournalism – The Professional’s Approach was extensive, detailed and thoughtful. While I was not surprised to read on page 303 that ethics and values in photojournalism have changed in the past several decades, I wonder why this is true. Perhaps it stems from a new understanding – post Watergate, the Vietnam War and other historical events in our nation’s history – of the serious responsibility the press has to act in the public interest.

Still, I found it surprising that so many photographers asked by Walter Wilcox about the act of ‘choreographing’ crickets to get a ‘better’ shot said they did not totally object to this (p. 302). To me, this is a clear case of manipulating a scene and conveying inaccurate information to the readers. This survey was conducted in 1961. I wonder if the results would be different today.

The discussion about Mike Meadows, who was accused of asking a firefighter to splash water from a swimming pool on his head (p. 303), also got me thinking. Meadows claimed he merely mentioned what would “make a nice shot” and the firefighter took the suggestion.

I think this is definitely a problem, but I guess I never really thought about how easy it would be to accidentally get into a situation like this. Most subjects probably do not give much consideration to journalism ethics and wouldn’t see a problem letting themselves be influenced by a photographer’s “suggestion.”

But here’s an interesting question: don’t reporters, in a way, prompt sources to say things? Even if they aren’t directing sources as to what they should say (which they obviously never should do), asking questions definitely imposes some directions on the sources. Sources may choose to answer or not answer the questions reporters ask, but  in interviews the words they speak are responses to the behavior (questions) of the reporters.

I’m not saying journalists should give up interviews – that would be crazy – but I think it’s an intriguing question to ponder.

Photojournalism September 16, 2007

As I read more about photojournalism, and after attempting to take a variety of good shots of one of my classmates in motion the other day, I see more and more why good photojournalism is such a challenge.

On page 19 in Photojournalism – The Professional’s Approach Kenneth Kobre talks about the importance of using the right lens. Personally, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of changing lenses while trying to shoot a moving person or a developing event.

I guess the key is to follow the action of the scene as it “builds to a peak and then settles down again” (Kobre, 20). This statement seems obvious, but I find it helpful to think about photojournalism in this way – to anticipate a continuous flow of action and movement, not just sporadic bursts of potential shots (which is how I view my amateur efforts at photography when I’m out with my friends or on vacation).

I also liked Kobre’s advice in a subheading on page 55 to “photograph the topic, not the talker.” In the little bit of photojournalism that I have done (while working at small papers, etc.), I always knew that the standard “speaker pictures” were boring – but I never knew what else to get! I like the idea of looking for the “topic” in the audience, or in some other visual manifestation of it – protesters outside, etc. Again, this directive may be basic to more experienced photographers, but I think it will help me “think outside the box” a little more.

The discussion on page 56 of staged events is interesting. While I agree that photographing – or writing about – run-of-the-mill, over-dramatized awards ceremonies, press meetings, etc., is often just a way of pandering to people seeking media attention, I wonder how far one could carry this logic. Lots of people do lots of things – some of them actually newsworthy – with hopes that the press will pay them some attention. We can’t ignore them all – often it’s a matter of sifting through the packaged “PR” stuff and figuring out what’s at the heart of the story – or photo.

I can really relate to the discussion on pages 91 and 92 about different methods for taking candid photos. I am not usually at ease taking pictures of people I don’t know. I’m not sure if I’d prefer for the subject to consent to being photographed, or if I’d rather stay more removed from the scene. But, I hope that photographing people will become more natural and comfortable for me. I believe that it will.