Knight's Free 2011 Multimedia Workshops

The Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley is accepting applications for its next round of multimedia workshops. The KDMC offers free week-long training to working journalists in multimedia storytelling, including how to capture and edit video, photos and audio.

All food and lodging expenses are covered. Travel to Berkeley is to be paid by the applicant's news organization.

***
Multimedia Training

Jan. 9-14, 2011

Application deadline: Nov. 19, 2010

Intensive training that covers all aspects of multimedia news production; from basic storyboarding to hands-on instruction with hardware and software for production of multimedia stories. Participants will be organized into teams to report on a pre-arranged story in the Bay Area, and then construct a multimedia presentation based on that coverage.

Participants are taught skills they need to produce quality multimedia stories including:

• Video recording and editing
• Photography and audio slideshows
• Audio recording and editing
• Voice coaching for narration or stand-ups
• Photoshop and Web design concepts
• Producing Adobe Flash interactive story graphics

WHO SHOULD APPLY: Professional print and broadcast journalists who want to develop multimedia skills to support their publication’s web publishing effort.

***
Web 2.0 Training

Feb 14-18, 2011

Application deadline: Dec 10, 2010

Hands-on, newsroom-focused training on innovative publishing tools and technologies.

This training takes participants through the progression of reporting news for multiple digital platforms, starting with quick text posts and moving through photos and video and finally ending with a full multimedia presentation. The workshop provides hands-on training using Twitter and Facebook for reporting and driving web traffic, creating data-driven map mashups, dynamically updating a blog for breaking news, publishing photo galleries and audio slideshows, producing videos and editing videos using Final Cut Pro. Participants will leave with new tools for reporting and with fresh insights on how to serve new and emerging audiences.

During five days of intense, hands-on instruction, the fellows selected for the Web 2.0 training will:

• Blog breaking news using Twitter
• Post photos in interactive news maps
• Produce and publish photo galleries and audio slideshows
• Create and edit videos with Final Cut Pro
• Incorporate user-generated content in breaking news stories
• Use Facebook and publication widgets for news distribution
• Learn technical specifics for optimizing breaking news rankings in Google

WHO SHOULD APPLY: Professional print, radio, broadcast and online journalists who want to develop Web 2.0 technology and techniques to support their publication's Internet publishing effort.

***
Multimedia Training

May 15-20, 2011

Application deadline: March 18, 2011

Intensive training that covers all aspects of multimedia news production, from basic storyboarding to hands-on instruction with hardware and software for production of multimedia stories. Participants will be organized into teams to report on a pre-arranged story in the Bay Area, and then construct a multimedia presentation based on that coverage.

Participants are taught skills they need to produce quality multimedia stories including:

• Video recording and editing
• Photography and audio slideshows
• Audio recording and editing
• Voice coaching for narration or stand-ups
• Photoshop and Web design concepts
• Producing Adobe Flash interactive story graphics

WHO SHOULD APPLY: Professional print and broadcast journalists who want to develop multimedia skills to support their publication’s web publishing effort.

For more info, and to apply, go here.

POSTSCRIPT: See Knight Digital Media Center's free online Video Tutorials, on topics such as videocameras and accessories, editing software, shooting techniques, standups and voiceovers, and more.

Newsday Explores Documentary Filmmaking

Excellent interview today on Knight Digital Media Center's Online Journalism Review.

Robert Niles (pictured) talks to Newsday's Thomas Maier about the paper's ambitious multimedia investigation into the aftermath of U.S. nuclear testing in the Pacific.

The topic: Can the Web forge a marriage between newspaper investigations and documentary filmmaking?

I asked Thomas if he'd answer some questions for OJR readers about the project. His responses got me thinking about the ways that newspaper investigations are naturally evolving into the same space as documentary filmmaking, thanks to multimedia convergence on the Web.

Having sat through so many PBS shows and pledge drives where hosts offer up copies of the network's documentaries on DVD for $20 a pop and up, Newsday's initial steps into documentary production suggest, to me at least, a possible alternate medium for newspapers to pursue their so-far elusive paid-content dreams. Forget about reading text on the Web for a moment. How about getting folks to pay for newspaper-produced investigative documentaries on Blu-Ray and DVD? Or pay-per-view or short-term rental via cable, satellite or movie distribution networks such as Netflix? What are the possibilities for long-form video news storytelling?

The in-depth interview explores Newsday's ambitious pioneering efforts, and is well worth your attention. It concludes:

Robert: How do you would justify future multimedia of this magnitude to a skeptical, cost-conscious management? (And if your management loves you now and is willing to fund future projects, how would you advise journalists in other newsrooms to elicit that kind of support?)

Thomas: The future for smart literate newspapers and magazines is clearly in multimedia presentations, showcased in ways that reflect who you're trying to attract as an audience. The old style of newspaper editors who prefer simply car accidents and cop arrests, turning the Web into a police blotter, are quickly fading. The challenge for newspapers will be in translating the "brain" of the newsroom – all those reporters working beats and developing sources and able to write print stories on deadline – into compelling and complementary video that can be quickly produced, scripted, narrated and edited with the quite efficient technology already available today like Final Cut Pro and Avid. Developing video and print stories together – under the same newsroom umbrella and not as separate units wary of one another – is the only way to go. That's especially so if your idea is to extend and capitalize on the affluent, well-educated audience of a suburban paper like Newsday and bring it profitably into the video age. This is no easy task, but it should be embraced by any journalist who wants to bring their stories to the widest audience possible. I do believe any print reporter – armed with a small HD camera and after some quick training on Final Cut Pro – can produce a five-minute video to accompany the next important print story you do. ... Documentary-making is the natural video expression of the newspaper investigation series. It's only a matter of time until newsrooms and their audience realize this.

Links:

* Interview here.
* Robert Niles bio here.
* Robert Niles Website here.
* Newsday multimedia investigation here.

Multimedia News Reporting Workshop

The Knight Digital Media Center's Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop, May 17-22, 2009, offers intensive, short course multimedia training for mid-career journalists.

The UC Berkeley workshop covers all aspects of multimedia news production, from basic storyboarding to the incorporation of multimedia features in storytelling.

Participants are taught the technical skills they need to produce quality multimedia stories including audio/video recording and editing, Flash graphics, digital cameras, Photoshop and web design concepts. Guest speakers discuss the future of journalism, the role of technology and the importance of audience engagement.

The application deadline is March 13. Info here:

Multimedia Workshops at Berkeley

The Knight Digital Media Center is currently accepting applications for the 2008-2009 technology and multimedia training workshops -- hands-on, newsroom-focused computer training for mid-career journalists. The workshops — delivered to accepted fellows at no charge — are held at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

This year the KDMC will deliver five multimedia and two technology training workshops. Each workshop accepts 20 applicants. All lodging, meals, training and materials are provided without fee. Accepted fellows must pay their own travel expenses.

Participants in the intense, six-day Multimedia Workshops produce publication-ready multimedia stories using proven journalistic story-telling techniques and the latest hardware and software.

Topics covered include using digital video cameras, photo cameras and audio recorders; doing storyboards, stand-ups, voiceovers and other broadcast techniques; digital video, audio and photo editing using Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Photoshop; creating photo slide shows with Flash; Web page creation using Dreamweaver, and multimedia Web site design. Also included are presentations by experts on the most pressing issues in online publishing.

To apply: http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/training/