2 New MediaStorm Workshop Videos

Take a look at these two results of the recent eighth MediaStorm Multimedia Workshop.
They're both video profiles. Mr. Blues introduces us to an upscale Harlem barkeep and the neighborhood changes he and his institution have endured and surmounted. Running with Scissors takes us inside the life of a hairdresser who makes housecalls, and is confronting midlife health and emotional issues.

Samuel Hargress Jr. is the owner of Paris Blues bar in Harlem, New York. The bar attracts a cast of characters that could have come from Cheers, Harlem-style. While witnessing dramatic changes in the neighborhood, Sam created a timeless place where regulars dance in their godfather hats, snakeskin leather shoes, and 1940’s styled zoot suits.

See Mr. Blues here.

Hairstylist Brian Machon has been practicing his craft for over 20 years and has close relationships with his clients. When he narrowly escaped a heart attack, questions surrounding his life, and his real family, were raised.

See Running with Scissors here.

The MediaStorm Multimedia Workshops in New York City are intensive, hands-on educational experiences in advanced multimedia storytelling.

"Over the course of a week, participants work in three-person teams, reporting and editing in collaboration with a seasoned multimedia professional to produce a multimedia project for distribution across multiple platforms."

MediaStorm will hold three Multimedia Workshops in 2011:

* March 5-11, 2011 – Application Deadline: Friday, January 7, 2011
* July 23-29, 2011 – Application Deadline: Friday, May 27, 2011
* November 12-18, 2011 – Application Deadline: Friday, September 16, 2011

For additional info, and to apply, go here.

Homegirl at Crossroads

Reuters photojournalist Lucy Nicholson produced one of the best and most popular videos ever showcased on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism.

It's called "One Man Brand" -- about that singer/guitarist in Times Square who performs in nothing but a cowboy hat and tighty whities. He calls himself the Naked Cowboy, and he has female fans aplenty. Lots of other journalists have profiled him, but Nicholson's video -- produced at a MediaStorm workshop -- went one step further. It took us to his home, showed us his off-hours routine, and introduced us to his girlfriend. The multiple locations and perspectives is what gave her project added value.

Nicholson normally shoots stills of major events for Reuters -- from the Olympics to hotspots like Gaza and Afghanistan.

But she recently posted a new video profile worthy of your attention. This one is called "Homegirl Cafe," about Stephanie Lane, a former teen Crips gangbanger. Through Homeboy Industries, a pioneering gang intervention program, Lane left behind a world of drugs and violence, and got a job as a waitress.

Homegirl from Lucy Nicholson.

With text, powerfully intimate images, and video narrated by Lane herself, we get to see a life in transition. She confesses to "backsliding" -- leaving the cafe and returning to the violent and dangerous ways of the 'hood on weekends. After she got shot, and survived two bullet wounds, she took up boxing, rechanneling her energies. Now she's on the path to a career in restaurant management.

Nicholson artfully combines on-camera interviews with telltale B-roll that shows Lane in action -- at the restaurant and at the boxing gym.

Father Gregory Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries, provides background and context, though we admit we would have liked to have heard more from Stephanie's restaurant co-workers and patrons, her sparring coach and partners, her family and friends in her tough neighborhood. Still we get a strong sense of a young lady who is confronted by tough challenges and obstacles, but finally making good life choices, shaping her own destiny, and setting her sights on a more constructive path.

It proves once again that capturing captivating characters closeup during pivotal periods in their life is a key to successful video storytelling.

Watch the video here. See more of Lucy Nicholson's multimedia stories here.

Africa's Climate Conflicts: New Video by Yale Environment 360 and MediaStorm

MediaStorm scores again, with a multimedia project produced for Yale Environment 360, a publication of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

It's called "When The Water Ends: Africa’s Climate Conflicts."

The 16-minute video is about nomadic herdsmen in Kenya and Ethiopia who, because of climate changes that have depleted water supplies, now battle and kill each other over water and grass.

It's "a tale that many climate scientists say will be increasingly common in the 21st century and beyond — how worsening drought in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere will pit group against group, nation against nation."

But the story recounted in “When the Water Ends” is also about how deforestation and land degradation — due in large part to population pressures — are exacting a toll on impoverished farmers and nomads as the earth grows ever more barren...

The herdsmen who speak in this video are caught up in forces over which they have no real control. Although they have done almost nothing to generate the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, they may already be among its first casualties.

According to MediaStorm's site:

Photojournalist Evan Abramson, 32, spent two months traveling and living among these tribal communities. "When the Water Ends" is Abramson's first multimedia piece, and he captured several voices and communities during his reporting. He shot over 10,000 photographs and interviewed several tribesmen and leaders from local NGOs. Yale Environment 360 commissioned the project and asked MediaStorm to produce a video that also included interviews from the scientific community.

Watch it here.

*****
Want to learn how to produce multimedia the MediaStorm way? Enroll in one of their 2011 New York workshops.

* March 5-11, 2011 (application deadline January 7, 2011)
* July 23-29, 2011 (application deadline May 27, 2011)
* November 12-18, 2011 (application deadline September 16, 2011)

Over the course of a week, participants will work in three-person teams, reporting and editing in collaboration with a seasoned multimedia professional to produce a multimedia project for distribution across multiple platforms. Each team will produce a professional-quality, ready-for-publication multimedia story.

Go here for more info.

MediaStorm Multimedia: India's Undesired Women

MediaStorm's latest multimedia project focuses on India, where the preferential treatment of men results in "a near constant disregard for the lives of women and girls."

From birth until old age, women face a constant threat of violence and too frequently, death. The numbers are staggering. Since 1980, an estimated 40 million women are 'missing,' by way of abortion, neglect or murder. 7,000 female fetuses are aborted every day according to the U.N., aborted solely because they are girls. One dowry death is reported every 77 minutes....

Today, eighty percent of Indian states are now facing a shortage of women. To compensate for this differential, young, unknowing women are bought from surrounding countries like Bangladesh and sold to young bachelors. Not knowing a word of the language, these trafficked women now face the same kinds of violence as other Indian women.

Walter Astrada's video is titled "Undesired."

Want to learn how to create MediaStorm-quality videojournalism? Consider enrolling in one of the Brooklyn-based production company's workshops. There's one on Multimedia Methodology coming up January 10-15, 2011 (apply by November 1, 2010). Info here.

2010 Online Journalism Awards Finalists

Congrats to all finalists for the 2010 Online Journalism Awards, announced this week by the Online News Association.

The winners will be announced at the 2010 ONA Conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet on Oct. 30 in Washington, D.C.

Most of the videojournalism finalists were originally showcased on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism.

Online Video Journalism, Small Site:

Huffington Post Investigative Fund: Tapped Out: How an Unpaid Water Bill Cost a Baltimore Woman Her Home

MediaStorm: Take Care

Minnesota Public Radio News: Explaining Instant Run-off Voting

Yale Environment 360: Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining

Online Video Journalism, Medium Site:

The Las Vegas Sun and the Greenspun Media Group: Bottoming Out

Knoxville News Sentinel / knoxnews.com: Death on Chipman Street

The Dallas Morning News: Choosing Thomas

Online Video Journalism, Large Site:

NPR: Krulwich on Science

NPR and ProPublica: Traumatic Brain Injury – The Battle For Care

TIME.com: Sudan Stories

The Toronto Star: William and the Windmill

The Washington Post: Scene In Video Series

Online Video Journalism, Student:

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University: The Fall Workshop

Knight Center for International Media, School of Communication, University of Miami: My Story, My Goal

A complete list of finalists, and links to the projects, can be found here.

Multimedia Gear Guides for Every Budget

You know that a high-end video production company like MediaStorm -- that collaborates with top media organizations and can't go a month without getting tapped for more awards -- is bound to have some fancy equipment at its disposal.

Producer Rick Gershon (pictured) shares exactly what's in MediaStorm's  "current field production kit" in a recent blog entry.

There are a myriad of options out there right now when it comes to tools for multimedia storytelling. The combination of tools you use can be your greatest strength or your greatest weakness. The important thing is to find the right combination of gear that fits your style of shooting and allows you to tell the best story possible. Below is a list of tools that we may use a combination of on any given multimedia shoot. Again the importance is to find what combination works best for you.

Multimedia tools are constantly evolving. There are many options on the market from which you can mix and match to best suit your needs.

Go take a peek at what HDSLRs, HD videocameras, mics and accessories (from tripods and headphones to lights) the big boys use.

Can't quite afford that $4,000 Canon 5D Mark II?

Then Adam Westbrook to the rescue. From across the pond, the UK multimedia enthusiast comes to the rescue of those who are working on a student budget, or bootstrapping it as a fledgling solo practitioner.

In his "Multimedia Journalism Gear Guide (On the Cheap)," he notes that a Canon 7D can be every bit as functional for half the price, or even the new Canon 550D for half the price of that. But even if you don't have $1,000 handy, you can get a lot of mileage out of the pocket-size Kodak Zi8 for only $150.

Westbrook similarly offers more affordable, but still professionaly viable, alternatives to top-of-the-line lenses, mics and other accessories. Go see what might work for you.

Web Documentaries Nominated for Emmys

Congrats to News & Documentary Emmy® Awards nominees, announced this week by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), which remarkably now recognizes the achievements of Web documentaries.

As always, many of these have previously been showcased on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism, at the time of their original appearance on the Web. (Click links below.)

APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: CURRENT NEWS COVERAGE

Behind the Veil (GlobeAndMail.com)

Flipped: How Private Equity Dealmakers Can Win While Their Companies Lose (NYTimes.com)

Times of Crisis (Reuters.com / MediaStorm)

Disabled in Vietnam (San Jose Mercury News / MercuryNews.com)

Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope (Tsunami.Trust.org / MediaStorm)

NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: DOCUMENTARIES

Alabama's Homeboys (LATimes.com)

Driftless: Stories from Iowa (MediaStorm.org)

Secret Life of Scientists (NOVA / PBS)

One in 8 Million (NYTimes.com)

A Life Alone (SoulOfAthens.com)

Ted Kennedy: A Life in Politics (Boston Globe / Boston.com)

NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: ARTS, LIFESTYLE & CULTURE

Obsessives: Soda Pop (Chow.com)

The Iconic Photo Series (Time.com)

Your Shot (NationalGeographic.com)

The News & Documentary Emmy® Awards will be presented on Monday, September 27 in New York. Legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

20 Free Multimedia Resources

Tim McLaughlin (right) is the Director of Multimedia at the Maine Media Workshops and Maine Media College. As a self-described "multimedia documentarian" he has worked with MediaStorm, the Eddie Adams Workshop, and the Rocky Mountain News.

Tracy Boyer's Innovative Interactivity blog invited him to contribute his list of "20 educational (and free!) multimedia resources."  It covers photography, audio, video, post-production, and Web design.

Read it here, or download a printable PDF file here. Lots to learn -- get clickin'!

Webby Nominees for Video Documentary

The 14th Annual Webby Award nominees have been announced, in a broad array of categories, incorporating fiction, non-fiction and everything in between. The ones that most closely resemble videojournalism can be found in the DOCUMENTARY and NEWS & POLITICS subcategories of the ONLINE FILM & VIDEO category.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web's infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

As always, many of the nominees have previously been showcased on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism.

DOCUMENTARY: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE

A Schoolgirl's Odyssey (New York Times)

Driftless: Stories from Iowa (MediaStorm)
(On KobreGuide: http://kobreguide.com/content/Driftless_Stories_from_Iowa )

In Silence: Maternal Mortality in India (Human Rights Watch)

Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining (Yale Environment 360)
(On KobreGuide: http://kobreguide.com/content/Leveling_Appalachia )

Waterlife (National Film Board of Canada)

***
NEWS & POLITICS: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE

Alabama's Homeboys (Los Angeles Times)
(On KobreGuide: http://kobreguide.com/content/Alabamas_Homeboys)

Gun Markets of Pakistan (VBS.TV)

Silverton Saves Its Paper (AARP Bulletin Today)
(On KobreGuide: http://kobreguide.com/content/Silverton_Saves_Its_Paper )

Toxic Waters (NY Times)
(On KobreGuide: http://kobreguide.com/content/Tainted_Tap_Water )

Will This Man Be Able To Keep His Home? (Huffington Post Investigative Fund)

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category -- The Webby Award and The People's Voice Award -- in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile Web. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. However, you, the online community, determine the winners of The People's Voice by voting for the nominated work that you believe to be the best in each category.

You can vote for your favorites in the People's Voice awards at http://webby.aol.com/ .

Congrats to all nominees. Webby Awards will be presented during Internet Week in New York, June 7-14, 2010.

Pictures of the Year: Multimedia & Documentary Award Winners

Congratulations to all Pictures of the Year International award winners in the Multimedia and Documentary categories. Many of these projects were originally showcased on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism when they were first published. So if you want to get a jump on seeing next year's winners, tune in daily to KobreGuide.com!

BONUS: We interviewed Los Angeles Times photojournalist Liz O. Baylen, who won four POYi awards this year. Read our Q&A here.

NEWS STORY MULTIMEDIA

First Place, David Stephenson; Amy Wilson (Reporter), Freelance — "Cutting Through the Competition"

Second Place, David Gilkey, Laura Krantz, Jim Wildman and Carlos Boettcher, National Public Radio — "America's Battalion in Afghanistan"

Third Place, Andrew DeVigal, Tyler Hicks, C.J. Chivers, Nancy Donaldson, Jesse DeWitt, Patrick Witty, The New York Times — "An Ambush and a Comrade Lost"

Award of Excellence, David Gilkey, Laura Krantz and Chris Berry, National Public Radio — "Lucky Dustoff"

+++++++

ISSUE REPORTING STORY - MULTIMEDIA

First Place, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "A Boy's Struggles"

Second Place, Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch — "Motel Manor: Suburban homelessness in St. Charles County"

Third Place, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "His Body A Prison"

Award of Excellence, Laura Ruel, Chris Carmichael, Monica Ulmanu, UNC Chapel Hill — "Mining the Mountains"

+++++++

FEATURE STORY - MULTIMEDIA

First Place, Sonya Hebert, Ahna Hubnik, Brad Loper, David Guzman, The Dallas Morning News — "Choosing Thomas"

Second Place, Chang W. Lee, The New York Times — "Second Chance: The Artist"

Third Place, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "Waiting for Death"

Award of Excellence, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "The Insights of Angels"

Award of Excellence, Chang W. Lee, The New York Times — "Second Chance: Sex Change"

+++++++

DOCUMENTARY PROJECT OF THE YEAR

First Place
Reuters in association with MediaStorm
"TIMES OF CRISIS"

Second Place
Brian Storm, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Eric Maierson, Taylor Gentry, Ben Schmidt, Chris Vanderwall, John Richard, Tim Klimowicz, Jessica Stuart, Tim Hussin, Aaron Preusch, Lindsey Walters, Robin Svec MediaStorm
"DRIFTLESS: STORIES FROM IOWA"

Third Place
Evan Vucci, Maya Alleruzzo and Rick Bowmer, Bernadette Tuazon, Eric Gay, Matt Ford, Paula Froke, Greg Henderson, Michael Walden and Dan Balilty Associated Press
"KILLER BLUE: BAPTIZED BY FIRE"

Award of Excellence
Laura Ruel, Chris Carmichael, Nacho Corbella, Phil Daquila, Zach Ferriola-Bruckenstein, Jenn Hueting, Eileen Mignoni, Melissa Moser, Sara Peach, Monica Ulmanu, Courtney Woo, Anna York, Ashley Zammitt, Jean Folkerts, Laura Ruel, Don Wittekind, UNC Chapel Hill
"POWERING A NATION"

Video Wins National Magazine Award

Clipped from: e360.yale.edu by clp.ly

For the first time, National Magazine Awards were presented for "Digital Media," including an unprecedented Best Video award, which went to Yale Environment 360 (an online magazine) for “Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining,” co-produced by MediaStorm.

The video was one of five finalists in the video category that included National Geographic and The New York Times Style Magazine. Directed by Chad Stevens, the 20-minute video depicts the enormous environmental and human costs of mountaintop removal mining. The practice, which involves blasting the tops off mountains to get at the coal seams below, has destroyed or severely damaged more than a million acres of Appalachian forest, buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams in mining debris, contaminated water supplies, and driven some local residents from their homes.

Published at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale Environment 360 features reporting, commentary, and analysis on global environmental issues. It has been recognized for digital and editorial excellence, including winning a 2009 Online Journalism Award for Best Specialty Site Journalism.

Presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, the winners of the Digital Ellies (so called for the Alexander Calder stabile “Elephant” trophy, pictured) were led by New York and National Geographic, both with two awards.

New York won General Excellence, Digital Media, and Multimedia Feature and Package; National Geographic won Photography, Digital Media, and Community. The other award winners were Billboard.com, Foreign Policy, Men’s Health, Sports Illustrated, Virginia Quarterly Review and three online-only publications: Epicurious, Tablet Magazine and Yale Environment 360.

Stats: 118 magazine Websites and online-only magazines submitted 420 entries, of which 37 were nominated. Six online-only magazines were nominated: Epicurious, The Daily Beast, LIFE.com, Slate, Tablet Magazine and Yale Environment 360.

LINKS:

* "Leveling Appalachia" on Yale Environment 360.

* "Leveling Appalachia" on KobreGuide

* National Magazine Awards winners for Digital Media 2010 (press release)

* National Magazine Awards winners for Digital Media 2010 (complete list)

Harvard's 'Nieman Reports' Devotes Spring Issue to Visual Journalism Trends

Clipped from: http://clp.ly/Mx4 by clp.ly

Harvard's Nieman Reports has devoted its Spring 2010 issue to Visual Journalism, and what a treasure chest it is.

We had to ignore our email inbox and take the phone off the hook* to find the requisite time to delve into it.

Editor Melissa Ludtke's industrious staff and gold-standard contributors have tidily bridged the transition from still photojournalism to audio-slideshows and videojournalism, with essays and galleries that address in detail how and why that migration is taking place.

And we're getting the perspectives of the top practitioners: from Ed Kashi and MediaStorm's Brian Storm to two AP photogs who have successfully made the leap (as well as AP photo director Santiago Lyon's take on how his staff is getting equipped and trained to produce video).

Here are some highlights:

# Brian Storm Q&A, by Melissa Ludtke: "The best thing for photojournalists to do is to slow down, become a little more engaged, and spend a little more time on their projects in a much more intimate way." (With references to MediaStorm's Marlboro Marine, Driftless and Intended Consequences, which have been showcased on KobreGuide.)

# Journey to a New Beginning, by Ed Kashi: "As the doors of established media slam shut, a photojournalist knocks on new ones to find the promise of more authenticity in his storytelling and greater control over his work."

# Carving New Pathways With Photojournalism Students, by Josh Meltzer, who won Picture of the Year International's 'Documentary Project of the Year' for "Age of Uncertainty." He teaches photojournalism and multimedia at Western Kentucky University: "I ask myself what I should be teaching my students. How can I prepare them so they can find good jobs? Figuring this out is my daily challenge."

# Photojournalist Melissa Lyttle and writer Lane DeGregory each share their behind-the-scenes perspective of collaborating on the St. Petersburg Times' award-winning "The Girl in the Window"

# The Camera: It’s Only the Starting Point to Change, by AP director of photography Santiago Lyon (a 2004 Nieman fellow): "So how does a global news organization such as The Associated Press get this technology working for us? How do we train our photojournalists to use it?"

Lyon reveals how the AP has so far trained about 50 photographers in new skill sets, including how to conduct in-depth interviews, shoot and edit video sequences (including cutaway shots), and capture and use audio.

When they shoot video and create multimedia stories for the AP, generally we use what they produce in three ways:

As B-roll for inclusion in our broadcast television products where it will be mixed with other video from a variety of sources.

As broadcast-style pieces for the Internet, usually one minute to one-and-a-half minutes in length with an off-camera narrative voice. Still images are often included as visual punctuation in these stories.

As long-form, protagonist-narrated stories, relying on natural sound when there is not a narrator’s voice. Destined for the Web, these video essays sometimes work for broadcast use as well and they incorporate a lot of still images.

That treatment has paid off well for AP's Julie Jacobson and Evan Vucci, who are each represented here with meaty accounts of how they developed award-winning multimedia stories:

# Crossing the Line: From Still to Video -- to Both at the Same Time, by Julie Jacobson: "The still image was sacred to me. But in 2005 I realized the industry was changing, and if I was to remain viable as a visual journalist, I had to become familiar with this apparently favored format of the future."

She shares the ins-and-outs of the impossible task of simultaneously shooting stills and video. Tempting though it may seem with a state-of-the-art hybrid camera, Jacobson sorts out the competing needs and requirements of capturing single instants, as contrasted with video sequences. Visual journalists who are shooting both, she advises, need to condition themselves so that they don't miss out on key moments or scenes.

# Gift of Training + Shift in Newsroom Thinking = Multimedia Storytelling, by Evan Vucci:

“Killer Blue: Baptized by Fire,” a multimedia project I worked on at AP, blends video, audio and still photography in the service of telling in depth a poignant and powerful story. Those who come to this story hear the voices of soldiers from Blue Platoon who were among the last to serve a 15-month combat mission in Iraq when they returned home in 2009. Meshing photographs and video with these soldiers’ recollections and the raw expression of their feelings enabled us to dig deeply inside of this platoon’s life in Iraq and at home.

And there's plenty more, including online exclusives:

# Multimedia Presentations

# Slideshows

# Visual Journalism Resources

Now go explore for yourself.

*(Anachronism alert!)

MediaStorm Is First Web DuPont Winner

The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism are usually won by prominent TV and radio organizations. Yesterday, for the first time, a duPont Award went to a Web-based entry.

Among such recipients as CBS, HBO, PBS and NPR was Brian Storm's MediaStorm, the Brooklyn-based multimedia production studio that has partnered with news organizations and NGOs around the world to create pioneering videojournalism (as proudly showcased on KobreGuide).

MediaStorm's winning entry was Intended Consequences, "a moving multimedia presentation about Rwandan children born of rape," with photographs and interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik.

In painfully intimate interviews photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik explores an unfathomable question: can a mother love a child born out of rape. The women profiled in this haunting multimedia presentation were caught in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when mass rapes resulted in the birth of an estimated 20,000 children. It spotlights an issue which had not been as widely covered as other war crimes in Rwanda, and is the first Web-based production to win a duPont Award. The women speak simply about their brutal experiences, their isolation and suffering, and the way forward. The producers made excellent creative choices that contributed to the impact of the reporting without resorting to sensationalism.

Jonathan Torgovnik; photography and interviews; Chad A. Stevens, producer; Jules Shell, on-location video; Bob Sacha, Chad A. Stevens, studio video; Pamela Chen, Sherman Jia, composers; Tim Klimowicz, graphics; Brian Storm, executive producer

Well deserved kudos to Brian and his MediaStormtroopers!

DuPont details and other winners here.

Descriptions of winning programs here.

MediaStorm's 'Crisis Guide' Wins Emmy

Congrats to MediaStorm for winning a 2009 Business & Financial Reporting Emmy Award for Crisis Guide: The Global Economy, co-produced with the Council on Foreign Relations -- another well deserved feather in the cap of videojournalism pioneer Brian Storm and his team.

As its name suggests, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences traditionally celebrates TV productions, but online multimedia projects such as this have been sneaking onto the turf once monopolized by the networks. This has led to the creation of such Emmy categories as New Approaches to Business & Financial Reporting, which was the case here.

Meanwhile, be sure to see MediaStorm's similarly themed Times of Crisis, co-produced with Reuters, and showcased on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism.

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.

MediaStorm Videos Focus on Street & Circus Acts

MediaStorm has posted the results of its fifth weeklong Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, held last month in New York.

Six pros formed two teams to hone their skills by creating high-quality stories incorporating audio, video, still photography, and editing -- under the tutelage and supervision of MediaStorm's seasoned producers.

Both videos are highly recommended viewing -- as well as the behind-the-scenes video that introduces you to the videojournalists-in-training.

* Family Kocktail, by Deanne Fitzmaurice, Stan Alcorn and Doug Grant. (6:50)

Kryssy Kocktail was a loner who dreamed of running away from her troubled family to join the circus. Now she eats fire, lays on a bed of nails and sits on an electric chair as a performer in the Coney Island Circus Sideshow in Brooklyn, NY. In realizing one dream, she discovers another: to be a part of a family.

* The Art of Attraction, by Paolo Black, Melissa Pracht and Scott Lituchy. (11:45)

The New York Post called acrobatic street-artist twins Tic and Tac "The Best Buskers in New York City." At seven, twins Kareem and Tyheem Barnes were playing hooky from school and break-dancing on trains for $50 a day each. Tic and Tac catapult themselves into New York's iconic home of street-artists, Washington Square Park, where they pull crowds and big money with their neck-crushing acrobatics.

* Behind the Scenes, by Maisie Crow. (9:05)

MediaStorm intern Maisie Crow takes us behind the scenes of the MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, to see six participants join the MediaStorm team to conceive, report, and produce two multimedia stories over the course of a week... The six participants included a Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer, the head of visual communications at a major international corporation, editors at NGOs, a university photographer, and a brand consultant.

The next MediaStorm workshop will be held in New York, Feb. 20-26, 2010. Tuition is $3,500. Application deadline is Dec. 14.

Photojournalist Lynsey Addario Wins MacArthur Fellowship

Congratulations to photojournalist Lynsey Addario, based in Istanbul, Turkey, who has received a coveted $500,000 "no strings attached" MacArthur fellowship for "creating a powerful visual record of the most pressing conflicts and humanitarian crises of the 21st century."

According to Photo District News, "Addario is the only photographer among the 24 grant winners announced Tuesday. Fewer than ten photographers have been awarded MacArthur Fellowships since the program started in 1981."

Addario's work for the Council on Foreign Relations' Darfur Crisis Guide, produced by MediaStorm, is featured in the sixth edition of our "Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach" textbook.

The MacArthur program notes:

Lynsey Addario is a photojournalist whose powerful images are visual testimony to the most pressing conflicts and humanitarian crises of the 21st century. In a time when many readers are becoming numb to the constant flow of images of war, death, and suffering, Addario combines a rigorous journalistic approach with a keen artistic eye to render events in Afghanistan, Darfur, Iraq, and elsewhere in startling and unexpected ways.

Her vibrant color photographs of refugee camps in Darfur reveal both the cruelties that have been perpetrated as well as the dignity and humanity of the victims. Relentless in her pursuit of images that evoke an overall narrative, she has gained access to regions and peoples often closed to outsiders.

Free of a singular didactic perspective, her photographic essays from Afghanistan and Iraq depict the underlying realities of war: the pain, confusion, and exhilaration of being a soldier; the daily struggles for civilians, especially children, living in a war zone; and the lives of Taliban leaders.

A regular theme in Addario’s work is capturing the lives of women in male-dominated societies. Her most recent project involves photographing survivors of gender-based violence in the Congo and is part of a traveling exhibition intended to increase awareness of the ongoing human rights abuses taking place there. Addario’s dedication to demystifying foreign cultures and exposing the tragic consequences of human conflict is drawing much-needed attention to conflict zones around the world and providing a valuable historical record for future generations.

Her work has been exhibited at numerous national and international venues... and has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, and Harpers, among many other publications.

Addario has been based in Istanbul since 2003 and covers the Middle East for the New York Times. She won a 2008 Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography and contributed to the New York Times staff portfolio that won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. While on assignment in Pakistan, she survived a car crash earlier this year.

The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to "talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work."

LINKS:

* Lynsey Addario's Website

* Darfur Crisis Guide

* MacArthur Foundation Website

* National Press Photographers Association story

Video: MSNBC 'Week in Pictures' Celebrates 10th Anniversary

MSNBC celebrates the tenth anniversary of its creation of an entire subgenre of photojournalism, the "Week in Pictures" online slideshow feature, with this behind-the-scenes video, below (6:23).

The concept was originated by former MSNBC multimedia director Brian Storm (now founding president of MediaStorm).

"It wasn't an effort to recap the news," he explains. "It wasn't the week in review. We were much more focused on showing people the diversity of the world we live in."

A decade ago, MSNBC editors picked through only a couple thousand images each week. Today they look at more than 65,000 weekly -- or 3 million per year.

Ten MSNBC editors select 150 finalists each week; then 3 editors (in case of ties) debate which are the best, finding the right balance between tragic and lighthearted.

When online readers were eventually allowed to start voting on their favorites, they consistently cast their ballots in favor of lighter fare. But Brian Storm says that those images only helped heighten the gravitas of the more newsworthy images. Also, the sunnier images hooked viewers, exposing them to darker issue-oriented images that they might not otherwise have searched for.

In this video, Tom Kennedy also weighs in with his experiences building the same feature as former director of multimedia at WashingtonPost.com . The concept is now a popular staple at online publications ranging from the Boston Globe to Time Magazine to Yahoo News.

Naturally, we at KobreGuide champion these pioneering endeavours, as we think of ourselves as their video counterpart -- sifting through large quantities of videojournalism stories from diverse sources each week, so that we can cull an array of the highest-quality gems for your viewing pleasure.



SEE ALSO:

* Week in Pictures Archive

* MSNBC Slideshow - 10 Years of The Week in Pictures (59 images)

Congrats to 'News & Documentary' Emmy Nominees

Congratulations to all nominees for the 30th annual Emmy awards in the "News & Documentary" category, which includes a number of online videos that we are proud to have showcased on KobreGuide :

Outstanding Informational Programming -- Long Form

* Growing Up Online (Frontline)

New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming -- Current News Coverage

* Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War (Reuters/MediaStorm)

* Choosing a President (New York Times)

* The Healing Fields (Washington Post)

New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming -- Documentaries

* The Boys of Christ Child House (Detroit Free Press/ Freep.com)

* Intended Consequences (MediaStorm)

We're always pleased when judges of major awards select video stories that we've chosen to champion and share with viewers long before they were awards contenders.

Naturally it makes us wonder which stories we pick this week might be vying for prestigious awards next year -- and are pleased to be able to present them to you now, so that when they get tapped for glory, you can say you saw them when.

And, yes, we're still tickled by the fact that the Television Academy is bestowing awards on videos that have appeared only online. "New Approaches" indeed!

The awards will be presented Sept. 21 in New York. Meanwhile, see previous nominees and winners on KobreGuide's Emmy awards channel.

MediaStorm's Advanced Workshop Videos

Eight talented visual journalists recently completed MediaStorm's fourth intensive Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop.

You can watch the results, and an illuminating behind-the-scenes video of their experiences, by clicking on the images below.



"Hold Out"
Developers want to demolish a Brooklyn neighborhood to build a basketball arena and numerous high rises. But a small neighborhood and a handful of residents stand in the way. By Zachary Barr, Jeff Hutchens, Nacho Corbella, Uma Sanghvi.

***


"A Tail of Identity"
Enter the world of identity where sometimes putting on a mask allows you to be your true self. By Toni Greaves, Jeff Davis, Steve Rowland, Gregory Warner.

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"Behind the Scenes"
With a focus on hands-on training, the teams learned about workflow, collaboration and the importance of focus on narrative and visual storytelling. The participating professionals and MediaStorm staff reflect on what they took away from the workshop and what they hope to integrate into their everyday work.

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Inspired? MediaStorm is now accepting applications for its upcoming Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshops:

Workshop Five: September 19-25, 2009
Application Deadline: July 15, 2009

Workshop Six: December 5-11, 2009
Application Deadline: October 1, 2009

For more info, or to apply, go here.