Serving the reader
Posted on August 29, 2007
The New York Times has a special section devoted to the U.S. Open, complete with:
>> Stories (of course)
>> A blog
>> Photo galleries (tennis makes for some funny looking moments in time, doesn’t it?)
>> Men and women’s scoreboards, which include links to player stats
>> Two videos so far (In the Shadow of the U.S. Open and Life on the Pro Circuit)
>> And much multimedia.
The videos are somewhat interesting, but at 5 minutes, I think they’re too long. (I started to get bored at 1:45/2 minutes.)
I was so glad to see a handful of interactive graphics and database multimedia:
>> Interactive brackets. The men and women’s matchups also include links to stories and other interactives
>> An interactive timeline of Serena Williams’s professional career. This graphic shows her rise to the top 20, her fall in 2006 and her comeback in 2007.
>> An interactive look at court types. In The Master of Clay Takes Aim at the Fast Courts, readers get a look at Rafael Nadal’s approach on three of the game’s surfaces.
I was reminded of Nora Paul’s talk about interactive graphics at the Multimedia New Producers Workshop when I saw this piece. Should we have to click a “next”? Paul posited that forcing readers to always take an action rather than sitting back and viewing the interactive could possibly annoy them.
Could be true in some cases, I agree. However here there’s a lot of information to digest, and I think breaking it up in chunks helps the reader. I almost wish I had more opportunities to click around and interact.
I also really like the 3D graphics used here with the tennis ball and the different turfs. The surfaces of the courts look quite realistic and it makes the interactive much more interesting too look at.
>> An interactive audio graphic. How do you beat Roger Federer? NYTimes.com asked friends, tennis players, coaches and the chair of the American Board of Sports Psychology for their theories. This is a great idea, and I think the presentation is nicely done with the large photo. I just wish they had a counter on the audio clips.
>> And a map, which is not interactive. This is a missed opportunity. Why not put it in Google maps or something like it so I can get personalized directions, find other areas of interest and print out larger views as needed?
Note: The headline is a groaner, I know. But I couldn’t resist.
Newspaper video back in the day
Posted on August 29, 2007
I found this video on YouTube, which shows a 1924 film made by the Oakland Tribune newspaper and the American Theatre. The two teamed up to sponsor a weekly contest for the most unusual dream. Winners received a $25 grand prize and “the privilege of acting on screen.”
Good reads for 08.26.07
Posted on August 26, 2007
>> Change your RSS feeds, Patrick Beeson (who previously blogged at huffyinthestreet) designed a new Web site and took over his name at www.patrickbeeson.com. “The redesigned patrickbeeson.com is now live, minor CSS and template bugs notwithstanding. And the word on the street is baseline grid. And Movable Type 4. And pink,” he says.
>> Need some Final Cut Pro tips? Doug Fisher found some on how to configure your Mac OS X for FCP.
>> Listen to the paper via iTunes. 24dash.com reports that “Slough Borough Council claims it has become the first local authority in the country to have its community newspaper available as a podcast on iTunes.” I couldn’t find it on iTunes, but a listen on their site leaves me less than impressed, particularly when the reader gives URLS way too fast. Actually, all of it is read quite fast. (Link via The Editor’s Weblog)
>> Vision 20/20 has created a national sex offender database/map mashup. (Link via Jack D. Lail)
>> The Sacramento Bee experimented with a Flash-made interface/style I’ve seen around for awhile, but never as the presentation of a news story. “I don’t care what you think of the interface or how ‘flashy’ it might be, BRAVO to them for even attempting, risking, trying, failing, etc,” says Koci. Bravo indeed. Robert Niles interviewed the paper to get the scoop on how/why it was created this way: “In all, this required two videographers, the multimedia editor, Manny Crisostomo (who provided quality control and designed the intro to all the videos), the multimedia reporter who designed the site and, of course, an uploading staffer, Dorian Francel, to make sure everything on our regular site pointed people to these extras.”
>> HD-DVD now has Paramount and DreamWorks Animation on its side in the high-definition platform war. “HD-DVD offers slightly cheaper players and media, but Blu-ray packs the better storage capacity,” Motley Fool reports.
>> Speaking of video, Bill Pryor shares the top 10 rookie mistakes. “If the concept and story are good enough you can sometimes get by with amateur production values, but it’s rare. Very rare. If you’re going to go to the trouble of making a film, you should learn to do it right,” he says. (Link via Angela Grant, via David Nolan)
MNPW: How to teach a cat to fetch (or training your newsroom)
Posted on August 22, 2007
On the second day of the Multimedia News Producers Workshop, Photojournalist Mike De Sisti of postcrescent.com and Multimedia Producer Jenni Pinkley of startribune.com talked about how to take all this knowledge back to our newsrooms.
Pinkley put together a YouTube video (above; you have to click on it, I can’t embed it, unfortunately) describing how we get everyone as excited about multimedia as we are. It’s as simple as:
>> Measure and gauge interest
>> Create a buzz; show them they can have fun
>> Be patient (they’re scared).
Just watch the video. It’s much more fun.
Which reinforces to me that learning has to be as fun and exciting as all these new applications with which we’re now working.
Reporters, photographers, copyeditors and assignment editors are used to a certain workflow, and they know what’s expected of them. And now we’re asking them to redefine how they tell stories. Oh, and at the same time, they need to figure out how to operate this machinery and navigate these software applications and content management systems they’ve never seen before. Yeah, and do everything they’ve already been doing on the job, too. Thanks so much.
I don’t mean to stereotype here because there are exceptions in hopefully every newsroom. But I do feel the majority of people find change to be stressful, even when it’s good change. Add on top of the stress of changing workflows and expectations that people are just plain worried about keeping their jobs. This is a tough time to be asking them to move outside of their comfort zone.
So it’s important to remind them that this is fun. And it’s for them. These audio and video clips, interactive graphics, slideshows and more enhance their stories. It makes their writing more accessible to readers, which, I imagine, can only make them shine as multimedia stars when the company is looking for ways to downsize.
Pinkley described how she teaches her newsroom, which is a part of the paper’s overall training program for their staff. Classes are for about 6-10 people in two sessions of approximately three-hour blocks, during which they gather and edit audio.
She also worked on SeeSaw, a compilation of life samplings told through multimedia, with reporters and photographers in her newsroom. The benefit of this evergreen content is that as it adds to the community development of the site, it gives the newsroom a chance to learn and play with multimedia projects and storytelling.
Mike De Sisti teaches reporters video at his paper. In this example video shown below (click on the image to go to the page to watch it), which he played during the session, he worked with Post-Crescent reporter Kate McGinty to produce a video project.
What a great way to educate a.) the public on what reporters are doing with video, and b.) reporters on what they can do in telling a story through video. And as a bonus, she got a chance to show off what she learned.
The mechanics are a critical part of learning multimedia, but it’s also essential to understand what kind of multimedia to use when. For his paper, De Sisti has put together a multimedia production star system that rates the overall necessary skill level of each project.
I’ve heard of other papers using tiered systems for multimedia projects, and I think these are important to share with reporters and photographers and particularly assignment editors so they can understand the different levels of projects. I particularly like the production time guides given.
>> One star: Raw video, recorded for no more than 45 seconds. The final product has no editing or titles. Production time: 1-2 hours, which includes shooting, ingestion, formatting and posting.
>> Two star: Very rough cut video. Two to four cuts in a short video with limited titles. Production time: 2-4 hours, which includes shooting, ingestion, formatting and posting.
>> Three star: Project is shot, edited and posted the same day. Includes 1-3 brief interviews (A roll) with other shots (B roll). Titles are used as intro and to introduce people. Production time: 4-6 hours, which includes shooting, ingestion, formatting and posting.
>> Four star: Often supplements in-depth enterprise stories. Video may contain several interviews and voiceovers or on-camera reporter interviews. Production time: May take several days to complete, which includes shooting, ingestion, formatting and posting.
MNPW: The master speaks
Posted on August 22, 2007
Ken Speake, a “master storyteller” who worked in TV for more than 37 years and KARE-11 in Minnesota for 28 years, talked to the Multimedia News Producers Workshop group about, well, storytelling.
And he showed us some samples of his work, too, which reminded me of a CBS News Sunday Morning tone/style. They’re informative and fact-based, but personal and pull out the emotional side of the story. He is retired now, and he still talks about his first story at KARE, which won a silver medal at the New York Film Festival.
OK, so what can this TV reporter tell us online newspapers about video? After all, *we’re* supposed to be doing things different and better than TV, right? Not so fast. These guys and gals have been working in their craft for years. And it’s wise of us to learn from their experiences.
And, after talking to him, we may have more in common with TV than we think — or, rather, we SHOULD have more in common with TV than we think.
For instance, he explained that his workflow process was highly collaborative. He was responsible for telling the story. He’d shoot the video and write the script, and then he’d hand it off to the editor to put it together. That person would do “the second half of the storytelling,” he explained.
Hmm. Sounds a lot like what newsrooms are forced to do because of time/resource constraints — reporters and photographers recording the video and then handing it off to an online editor back in the newsroom.
To make this process successful, he said, TRUSTing your coworkers is CRITICAL. And he admitted he didn’t even sit with the editor and most often would never see the piece until it aired. It’s their job to do the editing, he said.
I think this may be hard for a newsroom to accept that is so used to having control of a project throughout its entire creation.
OK, so how do you tell a good story?
>> Become relaxed with yourself and spend time with the people you’re interviewing. “It’s an attitude thing,” Speake said.
If people show up with an arrogant viewpoint as a TV reporter, you’ll find resistance. But if you show up and say you want to help them tell their story, they’ll be more likely to help you.
Humble yourself. Be modest. Make yourself vulnerable. Make yourself human. Ask for help from them.
>> Be curious. Learn something from the story and challenge yourself to present it in a new way.
>> Report with your ears. Notice your surroundings because something better could be going on that no one else is noticing.
>> Gather sound. Find the “evocative” sound.
>> Listen hard so you can really hear what the person is saying and can ask the right follow-up questions.
>> Think ahead of time. An example of this is the release of the swans in a video he showed (unfortunately, I can’t find it online). He took waders with him so he got close shots of the swans from the front as they swam into the water. None of the other photographers thought of this, and they were stuck on land, shooting the backs of the birds.
>> Don’t be afraid to break the rules.
And speaking of breaking the rules … we ended the session with an discussion about how online newspapers are different from TV because we “never” use narration (that’s what the attendees said). So what advice can Speake give us in telling those type of stories?
That’s a tough assignment, he said. If you don’t use your own voice, the challenge is to get all of your story on tape. Listening carefully and stringing the cuts together becomes even more important.
But are there times when the reporter’s voice can or should be incorporated? The Web interview is being formed to be a “the subject tells the story,” but are we limiting ourselves by doing this? Maybe we should break the rules once in a while?
Angela Grant brought up this same concern in a recent post “Use a FREAKIN voiceover already.”
Facebook app gets hyperlocal
Posted on August 21, 2007
I’m enjoying developing my Facebook page and catching up with friends with whom I had lost contact. And I noticed yesterday a little application that my friends have started using: Neighborhoods.
Which got me thinking that this could be a worthy rival to newspaper hyperlocal Web sites that are being developed. If I can use a social networking site that I’m already fond of to connect with my neighbors, why would I log onto a newspaper Web site?
Then I came across a LostRemote posting that confirmed my fears:
Already in Seattle, 1,200 users have selected their neighborhoods, which means they can now meet their neighbors, invite their neighbors to events, upload photos, browse real estate listings and post items on “The Wall” — a bulletin board of sorts. With the social network already established, you can just imagine what else they could add to the application. While media companies struggle with launching financially-viable hyperlocal destinations, Facebook is well on its way to doing it.
Arg.
Newspapers have to hurry, hurry, hurry, and get their community sites going.
The most frustrating part of this is that Bakersfield’s Northwest Voice has been doing publishing a hyperlocal site (and doing it very well) for three years and it was no secret in the industry. Other newspapers have no excuse. They should have taken notice earlier and established community interaction BEFORE this Facebook application could be any sort of threat.
YouTube is …
Posted on August 21, 2007
… ridiculous, unzipped, laughter, possibilities, community, friends, knowledge, life-changing, inspirational, and more …
Web reading impacts book publishers, too
Posted on August 21, 2007
I’ve been focusing my attention so much on what’s going on with newspapers, that I hadn’t thought about its effect on books, as shown in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll:
The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.
That choice … is reflected in book sales, which have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely.
Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion.
If the root of what newspapers are doing is telling print stories, it’s wise to look at what’s going on with comparable industries. People clearly are changing the way they’re consuming information (not just news).
It also underscores how important it is for newspapers to redefine their business as information providers. If people identify a newspaper as being only a “paper” we could likely start hearing quotes like this, as they apply to news video:
“If I’m going to get a story, I’ll get a movie.”
My first video story
Posted on August 18, 2007
After a micro-mini Final Cut Pro tutorial this morning, attendees in the video track at the Multimedia News Producers Workshop captured video and got to work on editing. We had five hours to pull it all together. Five hours!?!? Surely it was only two. The time passed by so quickly.
Julie Jones and Mike De Sisti were on hand to answer all of our questions from “wait, how do I start??” to “how do I export this?” and many, many more in between.
And also to remind us that we needn’t get too stressed out about the final product because we’re going to fail beautifully on our first attempt. That’s how it goes when you’re learning. It relieved a lot of pressure for me, at least, and I think our class did a great job for 1 1/2 days of video instruction. You can see the full lineup on the MNPW YouTube channel (TK soon).
Here’s what I came up with from my trip to The Wienery, a hot dog/burger joint in Minneapolis:
Lessons learned (of many):
>> I need more nat sounds and video. I had a lot of b-roll but very little I could use for transitions. But I really liked the guy playing the piano while he waited for his order (could you hear the burp at the end?). Mike recommended I use that to move the piece along. Voila. It saved me, I think.
>> As I suspected, I, in fact, got no sequencing whatsoever. So I’ll need to practice that next time.
>> I must GET CLOSE to the person I’m taping. I missed a lot of good cooking/food prep shots because I was too timid to get right up to the stove. This is going to take some practice to feel comfortable interacting with them with a camera in my hands. Julie explained it to me that it’s like having a conversation with the person. You have to interact with them to be able to get the shots you need to tell the story. And if I don’t feel comfortable doing that, they’re certainly not going to feel comfortable, either.
>> If I could edit again, I’d put an outside or establishing shot near the beginning that shows where we’re at so I don’t have to set it up in the text.
>> Shake much? I need to use a tripod. They didn’t supply us with any, but the camera’s just too heavy to hold steady.
>> I’d use a wireless mic on the owner/cook because the background noise is too loud; he was wired to Barbara’s (my video buddy on this assignment) camera, not mine. We didn’t have time to try to share clips.
Getting off the theoretical cloud
Posted on August 17, 2007
Today Nora Paul and Julie Jones kicked us out of our oh-so-comfy video classroom nest at the Multimedia News Producers Workshop, and we hit the streets of Minneapolis with our loaner Canon XH A1 cameras and in search of a video story after picking a neighborhood spot from a list of assignment options.
My video buddy (Barbara) and I headed over to The Wienery for some practice.
Poor Barbara got to hear me whine and cry and “cluck” all morning about how nervous I was to go out. Really. I was so WAY outside of my comfort zone.
And I’m not sure why because I certainly don’t have any qualms about sticking a big microphone in someone’s face to gather audio.
It must have been a mental block for me. Or maybe because I SO hate to be on camera, I feel uncomfortable trying to capture someone else on film, too?
Regardless, I was both looking forward to and dreading my assignment. But I traveled all the way from Florida to Minneapolis to do this, so I HAD to do it.
Before I went out, Joe Weiss (also at the workshop to teach an audio slideshow track) reminded me that this is all about storytelling. Good journalism. And, of course, he’s right. It’s what I enjoy doing, and video is my new tool with which I can tell it.
And you know what?? It was a lot of fun.
When we first arrived, I got my feet wet by shooting the outside of the restaurant for a bit. Shot some b-roll of the area and the people hanging around outside. And when I got bored of that, I marched right in the restaurant, introduced myself, told the cook/owner, two women patrons sitting at the table, and a biker dude that walked in later that I’m learning and could I practice on them?
I tried out some wide-medium-tight shots, looked for opportunities of sequencing (although that was quite difficult; I’m not sure if I got that), tried to always enter frame, tried to keep my fingers off the zoom, got to play with a wireless mic, tested my interviewing skills, and overcame a fear I’ve had for really absolutely no reason.
I’m tired; since we didn’t use tripods, my arm hurt from holding the camera (note to self: go to the gym!); and I have no idea if what I shot can be edited into any form of video (we do that tomorrow morning).
But I had fun. And I learned so much in just one afternoon.
Currently reading
-
I am melissaworden on del.icio.us.
Add me to your network
