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.

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.

The Big Cheese Doesn't Stand Alone

Another controversy is broiling over a digitally manipulated news image on a magazine cover.

This time it's a photograph of President Obama standing alone on a Louisiana beach, for The Economist's June 19 cover story on the BP oil spill catastrophe.

Except in the original unaltered image, by Reuters photographer Larry Downing, he's not alone. By cropping out Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard (routinely acceptable) and Photoshopping out Charlotte Randolph, a local parish president (highly questionable), it appears that he's "looking forlornly at the ground," as a New York Times blog item accurately describes it.

The Economist violated Reuters' own strict photo-editing policies. In its defense, deputy editor Emma Duncan declared (in an email to the N.Y. Times) that cropping Allen was justified, and that Randolph was "removed not to make a political point, but because the presence of an unknown woman would have been puzzling to readers. I wanted readers to focus on Mr. Obama, not because I wanted to make him look isolated. That wasn’t the point of the story."

Still, that was indubitably the net effect -- all the more proof that any photo editing that fudges reality is bound to create more problems than it solves.

My First Flak Jacket & Other Stories from Israel

I was in Israel for a month, shooting my documentary about AP photographers called “Deadline Every Second.”

The first morning I walked into the AP office in Jerusalem, the staff outfitted me with a bullet proof flax-jacket, weighing 16 pounds, a steel helmet, a portable telephone and sent me off to document Pulitzer prize-winning AP photographer Oded Balilty covering the "Day of Rage."

I later found out that protective gear comes in two sizes -- “heavy” for war wear and “light” for clash wear. Unfortunately, AP was out of the “light” at the moment.

The uprising, which was called by Hamas, involved "riots" or "clashes," depending on your politics, between young, rock-throwing, tire-burning Palestinians and Israeli police shooting tear gas, stun guns and rubber bullets. The police also used dogs to chase down rioters. The one place you don't want get caught is between the two groups. Especially when police unleashed the dogs who go after the protesters. The dogs, however, cannot distinguish protesters from journalists. The clashes alternated between the masked teenagers, using an overturned garbage container for protection, advancing on the police by throwing stones or using sling-shots to launch stones, and the police repeling the youth with canisters of tear gas and loud stun guns.

The sound of the stun guns made me think I was in the middle of a war. To add to the overall auditory illusion, the Palestinian youth were firing a series of firecrackers. As soon as the tear gas went off, all the kids ran up the hill with me huffing and puffing behind. AP was fresh out of extra gas masks for visiting photojournalists the day I arrived, so I was left to cough, cry, run away from the cloud of gas. Wearing his gas mask, Balility stayed in the thick of the action when the tear gas exploded, as I made a hasty retreat up the hill and shot the action with a long lens.

Two photojournalists were injured during the day at the clash I covered by Israeli police bullets and tear gas canisters. The Reuters bureau photographer wound up with shrapnel in his leg and the AFP (Agency France Press) photographer was shot in the wrist with a rubber bullet. I did not get hit with anything more than tear gas....

Read the whole story of my month in Israel shooting video of AP photographers in action for my documentary "Deadline Every Second" here.

Photos by Oded Balilty.

Collateral Murder?

Collateral Murder:  U.S. military helicopter slays Reuters  photojournalist.

Callous brutality or the injustices of war?







SEE ALSO:

* Collateral Murder Website

* Video Shows U.S. Killing of Reuters Employees

* WikiLeaks Defends Release of Video Showing Killing of Journalists in Iraq

* For 2 Grieving Families, Video Reveals Grim Truth

* Iraq Video Brings Notice to a Web Site

Is Your Website Ready for the iPad?

What do CNN, Reuters, New York Times, Vimeo, Time, Major League Baseball, the White House, Virgin America, Sports Illustrated, Flickr, People Magazine, and TED have in common?

These are some of the leading Websites that will work seamlessly on the iPad, or what Apple calls "iPad ready."

"iPad features Safari, a mobile web browser that supports the latest web standards — including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript."

Translation: If you're using Adobe Flash, you're screwed. As we've previously noted, Steve Jobs refuses to support Flash, so on Apple's mobile devices (iPhones, iPods, iPads), ubiquitous Flash videos and animations appear as broken icons or empty spaces.

Given the iPad's enthusiastic reception by influential reviewers, and pre-release customer demand, we suspect most savvy Websites will start marching to Apple's drumbeat and customize their Websites accordingly, using native HTML5 tags instead of third-party software plug-ins.

Learn how to test and prepare your Website content for iPad readiness here.

Meanwhile, take an early look at iPad's top newspaper apps (pictured), courtesy of Nieman Lab. See the variety of ways that USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Associated Press, and other major media organizations are taking advantage of iPad's screen size and touch-screen functionality. Note that these paid apps are different than their respective Websites.

Any more questions about the iPad? New York Times tech guru David Pogue is here to answer them for you.

And strictly for your weekend amusement, here's David Letterman playing with his new iPad:



Be sure to let us know what you think of your iPad ... and, more importantly, its customized content.

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"

A New Golden Age of Visual Journalism: KobreGuide's First Anniversary (Part 2)

I conceived of KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism when I could not easily locate quality multimedia and video online. I knew it was out there because I had looked hard to find it. Today, with the KobreGuide assembling all the best multimedia and videojournalism stories in one place, I have for the past year been wowed by the range and quality of the material being produced around the world using this story-telling format.

Since the KobreGuide launched last year, I also have witnessed a vast improvement in the overall quality of multimedia/videojournalism, often produced by former newspaper and magazine still photojournalists. Many of these talented shooters working for local papers or national magazines were handed an audio recorder and/or video camera and told to start making multimedia stories -- while, of course, they were still shooting their daily print assignments.

The first attempts of these newbie multimedia makers were not always polished. Photographers had to learn the skills of interviewing, voiceover, and collecting natural sound. Even their shooting approach had to change. No longer was it enough to watch and wait for the one telling shot that would make the front page or magazine cover, or win a Pulitzer. No longer did the photographer need only seven dynamite pictures for a picture page. The multimedia photojournalist had to bring back 40 good shots -- enough images to cover a 3- to 5- minute multimedia piece. The multimedia photojournalist had to capture images that would serve as transitions, images that would carry a story line, images that would reveal the past or anticipate the future.

Still photographers, who were at home with their Nikons or Canons, were handed a Sony or Panasonic video camera and expected to quickly master this new hardware, which featured strange buttons, XLR plugs and shotgun mics. Not only does a videocamera take pictures at 29 frames per second, it also simultaneously records sound. Photojournalists were expected to interview subjects and gather far more information than traditionally necessary for photo captions.

Still photographers, whose former sole job was to capture meaningful still images to accompany a writer’s story, were now expected to become the writer, the producer and the editor of their story in the new online world. They were tossed into the role of soloist in a one-man-band, with an unfamiliar instrument.

While some photographers balked at the assignment, others leapt into the fray. They had, in fact, chosen photojournalism in order to tell stories with pictures. Now they had their chance. No longer stymied by a lack of space to run photos in the newspaper or magazine, no longer second fiddle to reporters, the new multimedia/videojournalists could find, report, shoot, interview and produce a complete, comprehensive, original package without depending on anyone else.

Today, former newspaper and magazine photojournalists have morphed into complete visual storytellers. Newspapers from the St. Petersburg Times to the Spokane Spokesman-Review are producing memorable multimedia stories. The Associated Press, Reuters, the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times showcase strong short documentaries daily. For many photojournalists, online multimedia and videojournalism have inaugurated a new “Golden Age” of compelling visual journalism.

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.

Reuters Publishes Its Videojournalism Guidelines Online

Much is being made of the fact that Reuters has published its full handbook online. It's a useful compendium of journalism considerations, ranging from prose style to ethics guidelines.

As we clicked through the various sections, what caught our attention, of course, was the "Brief Guide to the Standards and Values of Reuters Video News" and "The Complete Reuters Video News Handbook."

A lot of it is basic journalism principles combined with plain common sense. But, as often happens when you try to define and codify these things, it veers into areas that aren't as neatly black and white as news organizations (and their audiences) would like them to be.

For instance, here's a sticky issue it tries to address:

"Never alter a still or moving image beyond the requirements of normal image enhancement."

Even though that's listed as one of the "10 Absolutes of Reuters Journalism," any professional practitioner will tell you that there's nothing "absolute" about it, as long as the concept of "normal" is open to wide interpretation. Nevertheless:

We have a duty to show the scene of any story accurately without adding or removing – either physically or electronically – any contents. Reuters Television staff must do only what is minimally necessary to improve the technical quality of video. Our staff must never manipulate or add/remove the contents of video. Audio must never be added which may affect the editorial interpretation of a sequence or story.

And speaking of audio, here's a morbidly fascinating precept, that stands out so brazenly in its specificity as to make you wonder whether such a thing actually happened in 1963:

"NEVER add the sound of a gunshot on mute coverage of the assassination of a president."

***
In an age when the "democratization" of our profession is blurring the boundaries of what constitutes journalism, it is refreshing to wade through a document that at least attempts to distinguish good from bad, and right from wrong. So bravo to Reuters for establishing and publicly disseminating a set of guidelines that deserve to be followed -- even if, like all moral beacons, they are necessarily subjective.

Take some time to look it over yourself, and please let us know what you think.

More Webby Winners...

As we poke through the gazillions of Webby Award categories, we keep stumbling across more online film & video honorees (outside the Documentary category) that have previously been showcased on KobreGuide.com , including:

MUSIC:
Project Song
(NPR)

SPORTS:
Courtney Hawkins Comes Home (pictured)
(Detroit Free Press)

NEWS & POLITICS -- INDIVIDUAL EPISODE:
Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War
(Reuters/MediaStorm), nominee.

Congrats to all!

Free $3,500 Advanced Multimedia Workshop

This may be the single best videojournalism training opportunity ever offered.

MediaStorm, which just today won its fourth Webby Award (see below), is inviting applicants to fill eight slots in its next Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, in New York from June 20-26. Here's the best part: citing "the tough economic climate and the critical need for multimedia training," the $3,500 tuition will be waived.

Caveats: "This is not an introductory course. Students are responsible for their own travel, room and board. Reporters are expected to have a high level of competency with still photography, and be familiar with audio and video techniques. Editors are expected to be comfortable in Final Cut Pro."

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.

Applications are due no later than Friday, May 15. Participants will be selected based on the content of their applications, which can be found here. To see work produced in previous workshops, see MediaStorm's Workshop site.

Be sure to visit the MediaStorm channel on KobreGuide.com . The popular video stories "Naked Cowboy" and "An Apollo Legend" were produced during MediaStorm workshops.

The Naked Cowboy's Girlfriend

We've seen video stories before about The Naked Cowboy, the brash country singer who found fame by serenading otherwise unshockable New Yorkers in the heart of Times Square, adorning his buff physique with nothing more than his Texan hat, boots, and briefs that are obscured by his strategically positioned customized guitar. This story's different. It's told by his girlfriend.

The musical Wicked cleverly spins The Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch's perspective. Playwright Tom Stoppard won early fame from his crafty retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet from the perspective of two minor players, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. And now the same "alternate perspective" principle is applied to this gleeful Reuters piece, One Man Brand. Never mind what it's like to be famous for singing in your underwear. What's it like to be the gal who's romantically involved with him? Surprises, and humor, abound.

Reuters senior staff photographer Lucy Nicholson, Reuters head of visual projects Jassim Ahmad, and MediaStorm producer Bob Sacha are to be applauded for their "alternate perspective" approach. The project emanated from the first multimedia workshop conducted by MediaStorm, Brian Storm's fabled multimedia production company. Naturally you can watch a behind-the-scenes video about the making of their Naked Cowboy video, right here.

It should inspire multimedia journalists to ask, "What other voices and perspectives can help tell my story in a fresh light?"