Mindy McAdams, who teaches online journalism at the University of Florida, makes some valid points about embedding, linking and downloading videos for increased viewership. 
"It doesn’t take too much intelligence to conclude that it’s very important to make it very easy to share the videos that you produce."
Be sure to catch The President's Photographer: 50 Years in the Oval Office tonight on PBS. The National Geographic production features Pete Souza, an acclaimed photojournalist who previously served as President Reagan's official photographer, and now performs those same duties for President Obama. The presidential photographer's job is two-fold: one, taking photographs of the president greeting dignitaries, visitors and guests; and two, perhaps more challenging and gratifying: documenting for history every possible aspect of the presidency, both official events, backstage happenings and "off-duty" private moments. "Creating a good photographic archive for history is the most important part of my job, creating this archive that will live on," says Souza. "This is not so much photojournalism as photo-history." Souza and his staff produce up to 20,000 pictures a week.
"The job of presidential photographer is all about access and trust, and if you have both of those you're going to make interesting, historic pictures," Souza says. He earned the President's trust by following Obama on his rise to the Presidency covering then Senator Obama as a photographer for the Chicago Tribune.
Watch the full episode. See more The Presidents Photographer.
Read the Washington Post's excellent review here. Excerpt:Perhaps only Bo the Dog and personal aide Reggie Love have better access to Obama than Souza, who is a constant presence with a couple of cameras slung over his droopy shoulders. Both Bo and Love figure prominently in some of the memorable shots Souza has taken so far; the president, we learn, is particularly enamored of a photograph of himself blocking Love's shot on the basketball court....
Without hammering the point, and with some of the more interesting behind-the-scenes footage yet of the Obama White House, "The President's Photographer" makes clear the lasting power of the still photograph, even in this tech-savvy era. It's possible that Souza's perfect picture of Obama already exists; probably it has yet to be taken. Time has a way of editing all images down to the one that says it all.
We got a note from photographer/filmmaker Gail Mooney today, about an ambitious global video project she's undertaking with her 23-year-old daughter, Erin Kelly, a recent graduate from Northwestern University. It's called Opening Our Eyes. We recently returned from a 99-day journey around the world, shooting a documentary about people who are making a difference in the world. We interviewed and filmed 10 individuals on 6 continents who are creating positive change. I know the power that we as visual communicators have in creating awareness with our cameras and our craft and how that can influence and move people. Our ultimate goal for our film is to inspire and motivate others to be change makers because we believe in the power that the individual has in making a difference, even through small acts in their own communities.Gail still has to edit 150 hours of footage, and is trying to raise funds to hire a professional editor through a Website called Kickstarter, which "supports creative projects and provides a portal through which to raise funds via crowd funding."
Maggie has built a home in Nepal for over 30 children and herself, and has recently completed the construction of a primary school for over 200 students. I knew that there had to be thousands of people like Maggie around the world who were creating positive change, and my daughter and I set out to tell their stories through film and photographs. We made the trip financially possible by cashing in all our airline miles, hotel awards and Amex points, along with some bartering - accommodations for video services.For more info, and to make your pledge, go here.
In total, we filmed ten extraordinary people in Uganda, Poland, Russia, Nepal, Thailand, Australia, Peru and Argentina. We have one more story to tell in North America. Our intent is to create short videos on each subject for their foundations' websites, as well as a feature length documentary that will include all ten of these incredible people.
Our trip was the journey of a lifetime. Not only did we witness the power of the individual and what one can do to "make a difference," but we experienced this together. In the process of making this film and this journey, we learned about each other as the people we are - not just as a mother or a daughter. We formed a bond that will last a lifetime, and that in itself was perhaps the most rewarding part of the journey.
Our ultimate goal for the film is that it is seen by as many people as possible in the hopes that they too will be inspired and motivated to create positive change in their own communities.
You can follow our 99-day journey through our blog posts at: http://www.OpeningOurEyes.net
Newspapers had plenty of opportunity to spiff up their clunky classified advertising sections and customize them for streamlined Web use. They had access to a marvelous new technology, a whole new medium, but they chose to ignore it. They failed to invest talent and resources. They were comfortable and entrenched in doing things the same old way. And while they sat back, while their advertising sections withered and died, Craigslist came along and ate their lunch.
Arun Chaudhary, a former NYU film instructor, is the first person to hold the job of White House videographer. According to today's New York Times profile, he is "part documentarian, part White House-message-machine post. He travels with the president on roughly two-thirds of his trips, documenting the behind-the-scenes occasions and public theatrics."Since at least the time of President Ronald Reagan, successive White Houses have understood the power of video, investing time and effort into creating images for television to record.But Chaudhary claims he is taking the long view, and capturing history in the making for future generations to savor -- especially the largely unseen candid side of President Obama, even the awkward or unflattering moments. All those deleted scenes and outtakes are preserved on huge storage servers and will become part of the official record in the presidential library.
But Obama aides have gone a step further, creating imagery and then filming it themselves, knowing they can inject it into the media bloodstream because of video-sharing sites like YouTube and the increased appetite for new media and technology.
We just received this invitation(below) from the Knight Foundation. Perhaps you can cook up and submit a worthy videojournalism concept.If you have an innovative media technology idea, you might be able to get funding from the Knight News Challenge contest. Run by the Knight Foundation, the grant competition awards up to $5 million annually for innovative projects that use digital technology to transform the way communities send, receive and make use of news and information.Tell 'em @Kobre sent ya!
More info can be found here: http://newschallenge.org. The site includes application information, as well as details about past winners. This year's application deadline is December 1.
The News Challenge is looking for applications in four categories: mobile, authenticity, sustainability and community. All projects must make use of digital technology to distribute news in the public interest. The contest is open to anyone in the world. A simple description of the project is all you need to apply. Submit a brief pitch to http://newschallenge.org. If the reviewers like it, you'll be asked to submit a full proposal later.
If you have questions you can a) reference the FAQ: , or; b) check the archived chat transcript (another live chat will be held before the end of the contest period, time/date TBD). You can follow Knight Foundation on Twitter . The News Challenge Twitter hashtag is #knc .
Today's featured video is courtesy of Michael Rosenblum, who is spending the month in the UK teaching reporters at media organizations, such as the BBC, how to create solo videojournalism projects. In other words, how to interview, light, shoot, record audio, and edit video without benefit of a TV crew or postproduction facility. She was assigned to do a story on local immigrant issues."You tell me," asks Rosenblum rhetorically. "Is it worth it?"
For most local TV stations, that means finding a family and profiling them at home, sometimes with a few photos.
But not now.
Not when for $600 you can buy a plane ticket from London to Rwanda and spend a week going home with a Rwandan refugee who has not been home in 10 years.
Here's the piece that Victoria shot, reported, scripted and edited all on her own, using a small digital camera and a laptop to edit.
The Buzz and Beyond: Reporting the 2010 Midterm Elections from Pierre Kattar.
We told you earlier this week about Doug Block's new documentary, "The Kids Grow Up," now arriving in theaters. For that feature film, Block turned the camera on his daughter Lucy -- from birth until she left home for college at 17. Block's 2006 film, "51 Birch Street" (pictured), intimately chronicles the 54-year marriage of his parents.Filmmaker Doug Block had every reason to believe his parent’s 54-year marriage was a good one. So he isn’t prepared when, just a few months after his mothers’ unexpected death, his 83-year old father, Mike, phones to announce that he’s moving to Florida to live with “Kitty”, his secretary from 40 years before. Always close to his mother and equally distant from his father, he’s stunned and suspicious. When Mike and Kitty marry and sell the longtime family home, Doug returns to suburban Long Island with camera in hand for one last visit. And there, among the lifetime of memories being packed away forever, he discovers 3 large boxes filled with his moms’ daily diaries going back well over 35 years. Realizing he has only a few short weeks before the movers come and his dad will be gone for good, the veteran documentarian sticks around, determined to investigate the mystery of his parents’ marriage. Through increasingly candid conversations with family members and friends, and constantly surprising diary revelations, Doug finally comes to peace with two parents who are far more complex and troubled than he ever imagined.You'll enjoy the surprises that unfold, and mysteries that are resolved, reminding us how little we really know about even our closest family members. At the same time we come to appreciate how much an intensely personal documentary approach can reveal -- not just about its subjects, but about universal truths that embrace us all.
Both unexpectedly funny and heartbreaking, 51 Birch Street is the first-person account of Block’s unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father. What begins as his own intimate, autobiographical story, soon evolves into a broader meditation on the universal themes of love, marriage, fidelity and the mystery of family. 51 Birch Street spans 60 years and 3 generations, and weaves together hundreds of faded snapshots, 8mm home movies and two decades of verité footage. The result is a timeless tale of what can happen when our most fundamental assumptions about family are suddenly called into question.
The Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger has spent years investigating the impact of drunk driving. 
Sometimes the best video stories can be found in your own backyard. That's what Miranda Harple discovered when she and her sisters, and their mother -- scattered throughout the world -- all decided to get "a small tattoo of an anchor, each on different places of their bodies, to symbolize the family's deep connection to sailing." 
Courtesy of Telegraph21, the online video magazine "featuring the best documentary films ... from around the world," we call your attention to three promising new feature-length documentaries."One plausible if not necessarily generous reading of the film is that it’s about how difficult it can be to live with a documentary filmmaker. Or at least with Doug Block, the director of this one.The result? "A chronicle of ordinary life that is partly a scrapbook, partly a memoir and, most movingly, an essay on the passage of time and the mysterious connections between parents and children."
On the evidence presented here, Mr. Block, who lives in Manhattan, has turned his video camera from a domestic accessory (as it is for so many families) into a virtual family member."
Filmed by her father from the moment of her birth, Lucy at age 17 is just months away from leaving home for college. Moving fluidly between past, present, and the fast-approaching future, Block uses a lifetime of footage to craft not only a loving portrait of a girl transitioning into womanhood, but also a candid look at modern-day parenting, marriage, and what it means to let go.Read the N.Y. Times review here.
Her humble but steady sponsorship put Chris through school and eventually launched him into Harvard Law, paving the way to his job as a United Nations attorney.In this featured clip below, Mburu explains how the Hilde Back Education Fund selects scholarship students:
Now in her eighties, Hilde meets Chris for the first time as he launches his own small act of benevolence: the Hilde Back Education Fund for the children of his village. Hilde's astonishment at the potency of her long-ago gift is matched in scale by Chris's surprising discovery that Hilde is not Swedish at all, but a German Jew who escaped the Holocaust.
Exploring the enduring challenges of achieving an education in the developing world, the documentary follows Kimani, Ruth and Caroline -- each at the top of their class at Mukubu primary -- who are pinning their hopes on winning one of Chris’s scholarships. Interweaving their stories with those of Hilde and Chris, the film reveals just how powerful a gesture of kindness and generosity can be, and that an education is perhaps the most generous gift of all.
Congrats to all winners of Online Journalism Awards, presented this weekend at a banquet in D.C. by the Online News Association.Working with Tom Kennedy, Knight Center Professional-in-Residence, each team found personal local stories that shed light and insight on critical global issues, including poverty, maternal health, environmental sustainability, universal education, gender equality, HIV AIDS and children's health.In addition to seven individual mini-documentaries on each of those topics, focusing on seven people from seven African and Asian countries, the project includes a 27-minute documentary, "This is My Goal" (pictured above).
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