10 Tips for Adding Music to Video

Courtesy of MediaStorm's Eric Maierson, here are ten techniques that their team uses when adding music to their multimedia productions. We'll give you the essence, and then point you to their excellent blog for the details (and examples).

First and foremost, decide if you even want or need music -- and that's a completely subjective consideration. Many purists believe that, unless you're using music that was actually heard at the scene (i.e. natural sound), it's a violation of journalistic ethics to add it to your video, since your choice of music (and its tempo and mood) demonstrably affects how viewers process and interpret what they're seeing.

If a soundtrack is indeed desired, here are some "notes" to consider:

1. If the music you’ve chosen is not exceptional, don’t use it. ... If you do use music, don’t steal it. ...

2. Don’t needle-drop [i.e. play a song from beginning to end]. You’re going to need to cut up your music... Try to avoid using music for the full duration of your work. ...

3. Use music with a strong rhythm...

4. Use music with strong stings [i.e. final notes] to provide a definitive conclusion to a section of your production...

5. Turn off other audio tracks when editing music. ...

6. Keep levels consistent. ...

7. Strategically place imperfect music edits. For example, hide an imperfect edit by lowering its volume and placing a voice track over it. ...

8. Create an interplay between your narrative and music. ...

9. Fade music levels as interview bites begin. ...The fade between music and interview should be smooth enough to not draw attention to itself. ...

10. Learn an instrument. The more you understand music, the more skilled you will become at editing music...

For details and examples, read the article here.

Study Video with Me in Perpignan, France

I'm going to be teaching videojournalism next summer for the Institute for Education in International Media's study-abroad program in Perpignan, France.

It’s a four-week multimedia program co-sponsored by San Francisco State University and ieiMedia. Students will study French language and culture, as well as reporting and multimedia storytelling, for the first week and then focus intensively on video shooting and editing in Final Cut Express for the last three weeks.

Students will each produce at least one short, documentary-style video as well as text stories about the community; together they will create an online video gallery about the city.

We've got room for about 20 beginning and advanced students, from all schools and disciplines (and from all over the world). The program is open to undergrads, recent grads, and grad students. Here's some basic info for those who might be interested.

When: June 24 - July 23, 2010.

Where: Perpignan is near the Spanish border, eight miles from the Mediterranean. (See map.)


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Tuition: $4,900 + airfare ($200 early-bird discount for those who apply by Jan. 15, 2010). Scholarships are available to SFSU journalism majors only, although financial aid is generally not available for summer study-abroad programs.

Credits: 3 transferable, upper-division journalism units from the SFSU College of Extended Learning. The course is called JOUR 677 Multimedia Study Abroad.

Faculty: I'll be teaching the video module. Jennifer Ward, assistant managing editor-interactive media for the Fresno Bee, will teach Multimedia Storytelling and serve as technology director. Laird Harrison, a former correspondent for TIME and People magazines who lived in France for a year, will teach Reporting. Rachele Kanigel, an associate professor of journalism at SFSU and a former news reporter, will direct the program.

Equipment: The program will provide digital video cameras and computers with video editing software for teams of students to share. Students are encouraged to bring their own equipment as well.

Language: Most classes (except 30 hours of French instruction) will be taught in English. In your reporting you will work with interpreters.

Apply: Students must fill out an application (PDF)and submit one letter of recommendation, along with a $500 deposit. Deposits will be refunded only if a student is not accepted into the program.

More info: PerpignanProject@gmail.com or ieiMedia's Website.

'Waiting Topless' Tops KobreGuide Nov. List

Here are the top 10 most viewed video stories on KobreGuide.com for November 2009:

* Waiting Topless (pictured)
* Conjoined Twins
* Pit Bulls: Companions or Killers?
* Bolivia's Women Wrestlers
* Being Aron Ralston
* Acid Attacks
* Burned in the War
* Being a Black Man
* The Sand Dancer
* Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr

As with all the videojournalism we showcase, these stories represent a wide array of topics from a variety of media organizations.

Int'l Documentary Ass'n Awards Announced

The 2009 International Documentary Association's Awards ceremony will take place on Friday, Dec. 4 in Los Angeles.

Winners were announced today in several major categories, including Limited Series (Sundance Channel’s Architecture School); Continuing Series (PBS' POV, in its 22nd season); and Music (Anvil! The Story Of Anvil).

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil also competes against Afghan Star, Diary Of A Times Square Thief, Food, Inc. and Mugabe And The White African for IDA's top feature prize, which will be revealed at the event.

More winners:

The IDA/Humanitas Award, a new prize established this year and recognizing a film that strives to unify the human family, goes to Mai Iskander’s Garbage Dreams, which follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. Here, the Zaballeen, Arabic for ‘garbage people,’ are suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade.

The IDA/Pare Lorentz Award, in homage to the pioneering filmmaker’s legacy, goes to Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Oscar nominated short The Final Inch, about a vast army of health workers who go door-to-door in some of India’s poorest neighborhoods, ensuring every child is vaccinated for polio.

IDA continues to recognize the next generation of documentary filmmakers with its prestigious David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Award. This year’s prize has been awarded to Stanford University’s Peter Jordan for his short documentary The First Kid To Learn English From Mexico, the story of 9-year-old Pedro's reluctant journey through elementary school in pursuit of the American Dream.

Errol Morris will receive a Career Achievement Award. This American Life host/producer Ira Glass (a former IDA Award recipient) returns as host.

More info at Documentary.org .

Which Digital SLR Should You Buy?

For those who are ready to make the budgetary leap from $100+ point-and-shoots to $1000+ digital SLRs, one of your first considerations is which brand and model to go with. That's a subjective decision, but New Orleans Times-Picayune photojournalist Andrew Boyd, who's been shooting professionally for three decades, took a shot at sorting out some points to think about.

On his Discerning Photographer blog, he recommends picking and sticking to one manufacturer:

Buying a camera is the beginning of a long-term commitment. You’ll most likely end up buying additional lenses, strobes, and other accessories for this camera, all by the same manufacturer. Eventually you’ll need another, better camera as well. You’ll want your lenses to fit on the new body. And on and on ... so choose carefully, and plan on staying committed to the choice you make.

OK, so which DSLR brand does he recommend? Canon or Nikon.

Dollar for dollar, day after day, year after year, these are the two camera manufacturers who have consistently led the technological charge and delivered high quality, innovative yet very sturdy, dependable products for the advanced amateur and professional photographer. There are other excellent cameras on the market, and you can buy into another system if you choose. But I will tell you unequivocally that Canon and Nikon are the two safest bets you can make.

Which is better? Well, for that you'll have to read his blog, where he makes some side-by-side comparisons of specific models -- including the (under $1000) Nikon D5000 vs. Canon T1i, and the (over $1000) Nikon D90 vs. Canon 50D.

A lot depends on your specific needs and preferences, and ultimately you should go to a shop and try them out for yourself, but Boyd gives you some important criteria to think about. Plus, as it's often been pointed out, quality photojournalism (and videojournalism) has more to do with what's behind your eyes than what you're holding in front of them.

(Image copyright 2009, Andrew Boyd)

Follow Reporters' Tweets on MuckRack.com

More newspapers and media organizations are having each of their reporters maintain individual Twitter accounts for professional use. By following these reporters -- ranging from network anchors and hotshot columnists to small-town weekly general assignment reporters -- readers can get a sense of developing news stories, with links to updates.

Now one site has corralled them under one big roof. At MuckRack.com, you can find an overwhelming but well organized array of journalists' tweets, representing news sources ranging from ABC and AP to Wired and the Wall Street Journal.

What if you could get tomorrow's newspaper today? Now you sorta can, by tracking the short messages on Twitter written by the journalists who do the muckraking for major media outlets. Muck Rack makes it easy to follow one line, real time reporting.

Muckracking? Frankly, we don't see much of that here -- or anywhere these days, for that matter. But on Muck Rack you can follow not just individual reporters and theiremployers, but also specific "beats," which include major cities and also topics (e.g. Politics, Arts, Sports, etc.).

It's Animal Video Week on KobreGuide.com

In case you haven't already noticed, it's Animal Week here at KobreGuide.com .

We've showcased videos on sea turtles, hunting beagles, orphaned marsupials and, um, bull penises.

Normally on KobreGuide, we present a diversity of topics from a variety of sources each week.

We found ourselves with a few critter-related stories, and rather than space them out over a period of several weeks, we asked ourselves, "Why not just create a theme week?"

Now you know how those big important editorial decisions are made.

Serendipitously (or, by design, if you'll fall for that), what each story has in common is the relationship between animals and humans.

We see a divorced woman bonding with her hunting beagle; boys who once poached sea turtle eggs now rescuing them to protect the endangered species; a couple cheerfully raising hopping kangaroos and wallabys in their own living room; and a revered chef who faces the challenge of turning a seemingly unpallatable animal body part into a gourmet delicacy.

The locales range from Costa Rica to Taiwan to Australia.

Among other things, it's taught us that, as much as we look down our nose on all those amateurish piano-playing kitten YouTube videos, professionally produced animal-themed stories can indeed make for excellent videojournalism.

Indeed, KobreGuide.com has an entire Animal channel devoted to them, and video stories such as The Amazing Skidboot and Turtle Man consistently rank among our most popular offerings. Ditto for even serious-minded fare such as Gorilla Massacre and Pit Bulls: Companions or Killers.

What distinguishes them, of course, is that they are not "citizen journalism" (i.e. home movies), but rather good storytelling... and good journalism.

And, yes, we do realize it's Thanksgiving week, but you'll notice that, among our animal-themed video stories this week, there's not a turkey among them!

Oh, OK, if you insist. Here's a lively video snapshot of life on a free range turkey farm in Michigan, courtesy of Eric Seals at the Detroit Free Press (freep.com):



Enjoy! And save room for dessert.

LINKS:

* Bull Penis (National Geographic)
* For the Love of Dogs (Eddie Adams Workshop)
* Saving Sea Turtles, One Nest at at Time(N.Y. Times)
* Kangaroo Foster Parents (Time)
* KobreGuide Animal channel

Happy Thanksgiving!