Pull up a chair and dig in – the video is narrated by Chris Dean, who grew up in Memphis in some pretty difficult situations, but rose up to be able to introduce President Obama during a visit to the city.
Powerful stuff.
Learn About Snow Fall
Mar 25, ’13
9:15 PM
On Tuesday, John Branch from The New York Times will be talking about the stunning Snow Fall project he wrote late last year. If you haven’t experienced – and that’s a deliberate word choice – this, you have to click on the link.
He will be speaking at 12:30 in the Tate Reception Hall, which is on the first floor of the Tate Student Center on the University of Georgia campus.
Want to see what the future of journalism may hold? This is a big part of it.
Multimedia Immersion Workshop
Feb 4, ’13
7:04 PM
Info is up on the 2013 edition of the NPPA’s Multimedia Immersion workshop, May 14-18 this year. Have heard nothing but great things about this very hands-on training session.
Video That Matters
Feb 2, ’13
3:22 PM
Every spring, I teach a course titled Documentary Photography and, the lest few iterations, I’ve felt a little funny with that name. It’s now about half photography and half video storytelling, because that’s what my kids need.
Depending on which conference you head to and what pundit has tweeted most recently, you either believe in video our you don’t. There aren’t many journalists who are ambivalent about it anymore.
Me, I’m a believer.
I teach the nat sound model, one where we don’t script it, we don’t have our voices in it, we let characters tell their own story. Those are the pieces I love to watch.
Every now and then, though, a piece gets done that floors me, a story that doesn’t fit my ideal. The Newark Star-Ledger has one of those up right now. It’s big, at 22 minutes you need to invest in it, something a lot of folks may not be willing to do. But if you care about journalism, if you care about connecting, then you have to watch Splinters & Sand.
You just have to.
Journalists Brian Donohue, Bumper DeJesus, Andre Malok and Seth Siditsky have come together to produce an emotional piece of, well, advocacy journalism on why the Jersey Shore needs to be rebuilt.
I have never been to any of the places they report on, but I have felt them all. You will too.
White House Internship Deadlines Coming Up
Jan 24, ’13
11:45 AM
The internship application deadline for the White House’s fall 2013 session is coming up very quickly – Jan. 28, to be precise. While these are unpaid internships, it’s a tremendous opportunity to see what happens behind the scenes and network with a lot of very high-level people.
Were I young again, I would totally go for this. Regardless of your political beliefs, the chance to be inside the most powerful building in the world is one not to avoid.
Required Reading?
Jan 23, ’13
11:45 PM
I bookmarked this a while ago … (wait, does anyone “bookmark” things anymore?) … over at PhotoShelter, Lauren Margolis collected the best blog posts about photography from 2012.
Suspect there’s a semester’s worth of reading in there …
Fact From Fiction
Jan 22, ’13
4:45 PM
Some excellent ideas on how to cross-reference information to verify it. Is this a better system then having known reporters, with known agendas, on the scene? Probably not – but in an era of user-generated content, there is a massive need to verify these reports.
(Thanks to student Tessa Harmon for the link.)
New WordPress.com Photo Themes
Jan 18, ’13
8:23 AM
If you are using WordPress.com to host your photo site, life just got a little better for you as they have introduced some new themes aimed at photographers. If you’re not self-hosting, this is a good option to explore.
Creativity on a Deadline
Jan 17, ’13
8:53 PM
Poynter’s NewsU has a workshop on Saturday titled Video Storytelling with the Pros: Creativity on a Deadline. It’s all online, with a steep discount for NPPA members (pro and student).
Will run through the day and, if you can’t watch it live, you’ll have access to the archives afterwards.
I would hate to catch a cold and not be able to do any work around the house this weekend … cough cough.
The Value of Planning
Jan 13, ’13
9:42 AM
I’d love to know some more about the planning for this clip of Dean Potter tightrope walking across Cathedral Peak. As a full moon rises behind him. Very nice cinematography by Mikey Schaefer and Bryan Smith.
Moonwalk from Reel Water Productions on Vimeo.
If you check the Vimeo page, you’ll see that’s shot with, ahem, a 1600 mm lens. On one heck of a stable tripod, I’d imagine.