Platypus Workshop in San Jose, 3/27 - 4/2

For those who want hands-on lessons in videojournalism, the Digital Journalist's Platypus Workshop for February is sold out, but there's still time to register for the March 27 - April 2 session at San Jose (CA) State University.

Platypus founder and leader Dirck Halstead writes:

You will learn how to use your DSLR, along with tips and tricks to make it an incredible tool for you in editorial, corporate and filmmaking settings. We will teach you field sound recording, cinematic storytelling, the use of lenses, tripods, multimedia applications, and Apple's Final Cut Pro editing software.

We teach high-definition digital shooting, editing, and multimedia with an emphasis on storytelling. We have taught over 300 photojournalists since our inception in 1999. Our graduates have gone on to do television documentaries, Web videos, especially for newspapers, and even films. One of our graduates was a nominee for an Oscar in 2006. The 2010 winner of the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Award for his film "Restrepo" was Platypus graduate Tim Hetherington (currently nominated for an Oscar).

Students provide their own HD DSLR camera and lens -- all else is supplied. The cost of the workshop is $1795.

To register, contact Michael Cheers at duane.cheers@sjsu.edu. For more information about the workshop, contact Dirck Halstead at dhalstead@mac.com

First Platypus Workshop for 2011

Dirck Halstead's next Platypus Workshop for videojournalism will be held February 13-19, 2011 at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX.

"The only thing you need to supply is your own DSLR capable of shooting HD video. We also recommend you get a Zacuto finder for the camera as well as a hard drive."

You will learn how to use your DSLR, along with tips and tricks to make it an incredible tool for you in editorial, corporate and filmmaking settings. We will teach you field sound recording, cinematic storytelling, the use of lenses, tripods, multimedia applications, and Apple's latest Final Cut Pro editing software.

Since its inception in 1999, over 300 photojournalists have been trained in multimedia at the Platypus program.

Our graduates have gone on to do television documentaries, Web videos, especially for newspapers, and even films. One of our graduates was a nominee for an Oscar in 2006, and the 2010 winner of the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Award for his film Restrepo was Platypus graduate Tim Hetherington.

You can attend the workshop as a shooter or as a producer, to collaboratively create the class exercises and a final 3–5 minute documentary or news story.

The cost of the workshop is $1795. NPPA and ASMP members are eligible for a 10% discount.

Register at the Precision Camera & Video website - or at (512)467-7676 Ext. 360.

For more info, email Dirck Halstead at dhalstead [at] mac[dot]com

Good Storytelling Is Always in Style

Dirck Halstead and PF Bentley's 10-day Platypus workshops are celebrated for their intensive hands-on instruction in videojournalism. Gail Mooney (pictured) attended their bootcamp ten years ago, and returned this year as an instructor. As she reports, a lot has changed technologically in those intervening years .

However, we're glad that one underlying lesson endures, and that's the eternal quest for high-quality storytelling. Yes, it's important to master cameras, mics and editing software. But the prettiest pictures and loveliest scenes don't mean diddly if the viewer is not engaged by a compelling narrative.

If I had to make one distinction that separates the Platypus Workshop from so many of the other DSLR workshops that have sprung up of late, it’s the workshop’s emphasis on telling the story – and the story is everything. Before you even set out to start shooting your final project, you need to get your “commitment” approved by PF or Dirck. You need to present to them in a concise sentence or two what your story is about. If you can’t articulate what your story is about – you ‘re sent back to the drawing table to refine or define what your message is. That’s a pretty big distinction if you think about it because without a solid story, even the most technically proficient videos will fall short with a viewer and end up being an unmemorable piece of fluff....

Good story telling never goes out of fashion , no matter what tools one chooses to use to tell their story. A good story is a good story....

The tools may have changed since my days at the Platypus Workshop but the fundamentals of video journalism are pretty much the same. I’m grateful for that foundation because telling the story is what it’s all about and that never goes out of style.

Gail Mooney's blog, Journeys of a Hybrid, is chockablock with excellent insight into straddling the worlds of photojournalism and videojournalism.

Upcoming Platypus workshops:
Prague, Czech Republic: July 9–18.
Rockport, Maine: July 25–August 3.

More info here.

How the Platypus Can Change Your Life

An open letter to photojournalists and videojournalists from DigitalJournalist.org publisher Dirck Halstead:

In the late Nineties I knew I needed a lifeboat in a hurry.

After 29 years of trotting the globe for Time magazine, I could see that the photojournalism I had known was sinking. Budgets that today would be unimaginable were being slashed, not just at Time but at all the other magazines and the movie studios that I had worked for.

If you are a photojournalist today, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Fortunately for me, a guy named Michael Rosenblum came along with his radical prediction that the new Hi8 video would revolutionize TV. I helped him get his idea funded, and Video News International was born. VNI was later bought by The New York Times and eventually faded away, but from this dream, the Platypus Workshops emerged.

In the first workshop, at the University of Oklahoma, four Pulitzer Prize winners were among its students.

Now after 37 workshops, it is hard not to find a leader in photojournalism that has not attended one. Among them are David Turley, Peter Turnley, Kim Komenich, Don Doll, Gail Mooney, David Leeson and Kimberly Acquaro, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.

Many have become leaders in the industry and have won countless awards.

This year, the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for documentary went to Tim Hetherington, a 1999 Platypus graduate, for his feature film about a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan, "Restrepo." Since attending the Platypus workshop, Hetherington has also won three World Press Photo Awards, in 2000, 2002 and 2007.

The most common remark made by graduates is "this workshop changed my life."

We still have a few places left in our Las Vegas workshop that starts April 2nd, but if you want to learn a new skill, which can transform your own life, you need to register now. Invest in yourself. Invest in your future.

More Platypus info here.

Haiti Photos: Creating Art Out of Horror

Dirck Halstead's Digital Journalist is down but not out. After Canon withdrew financial sponsorship, it looked as though the online magazine would have to pull the plug after more than a decade of covering photojournalism, and that the December/January issue might have been its last.

The staff is still searching for corporate funding -- and accepting financial contributions from readers via its homepage Paypal button. But it has forged ahead with its February/March issue, now online with photographic coverage of the Haiti earthquake by Damon Winter of The New York Times and Shaul Schwarz of Reportage/Getty Images.

"We chose to profile their work because not only have they produced memorable images," writes Halstead, "but in a way they have created art out of horror."

Our executive editor, Ron Steinman, takes issue with those who object to seeing the many shocking images from Haiti in print and on Web sites. Also from Ron, a Q&A session with freelance American TV cameraman Tim Cothren, who was working in Haiti for the German TV channel N24.

Jim Hubbard, who has been one of the leading advocates of teaching children to take photographs of their environment – "participant photography" – writes that there is no better time than now, nor place than Haiti, to provide citizens with cameras in order for them to document the rebuilding of their shattered country.

E-Bits Editor Beverly Spicer scoured television broadcast and online media to get a comprehensive take on events in Haiti. She presents multiple links to photo galleries, video and news reports.

And there's lots more, including an update on the publication's highly regarded 2010 Platypus Workshops for DSLR Video Journalism, Multimedia and Filmmaking.

"This year, we are switching to the Canon 7D DSLR," notes Halstead. "This camera is a breakthrough for filmic video."

There is only a week left to register for the Las Vegas workshop, April 2–11, at the Flamingo Hotel. It precedes the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Expo, April 12–15, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which videojournalists are advised to attend.

Other upcoming Platypus Workshops:

Prague, Czech Republic: July 9–18.

Rockport, Maine: July 25–August 3.

Workshop info here.

The Digital Journalist here.

Help Save DigitalJournalist.org

Sadly, publisher Dirck Halstead has announced that, after 12 years of monthly issues, the December issue of The Digital Journalist may be the last. Its chief sponsor, Canon, has had to withdraw financial backing, and now he is undertaking fundraising efforts -- including a Paypal donation button on TDJ's homepage that so far has raised about $2,000 toward keeping the online publication alive.

In addition to providing an expert look at, and behind-the-scenes of, photojournalism, Halstead has been instrumental in helping still photographers make the leap to videojournalism, with his Platypus workshops that he's taught around the world. He invited KobreGuide to guest-edit the April 2009 issue of The Digital Journalist, which was devoted to videojournalism.

In short, for more than a decade, Halstead and TDJ have been on the cutting edge of visual journalism trends. They have had their eye on leading its practitioners through the stormy economy ahead:

Even before Canon's decision, we were planning to reorganize. We are aware of how badly our readers who make their living from photojournalism have been hit not only by the recession, but also by the failures and cutbacks of countless publications, magazines and newspapers, as well as TV and cable. Our goal in our reorganization is not only to be able to continue The Digital Journalist, but to actually provide funding to help photographers to go out into the world and do their work, documenting the important stories that shape our lives and history.

So now is not the time to allow the plug to be pulled. We encourage you to pledge whatever you can to keep the voice of visual journalism alive and thriving as a shining beacon to all of us.

LINKS:

Photo District News Pulse:
Canon Pulls Sponsorship of The Digital Journalist

NPPA News Photographer:
Dirck Halstead's DigitalJournalist.org May Shut Down

DigitalJournalist.org Donations

KobreGuide's Special Videojournalism Issue of TDJ (04/09)

DigitalJournalist: Berlin Wall Photos (11/9/89)

The November issue of Dirck Halstead's The Digital Journalist, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain, is now online.

When the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, the Iron Curtain was lifted on Communist Eastern Europe. In short order, the Soviet Union was itself in the dustbin of history. Contributing photographer Peter Turnley witnessed all of the tide-turning revolutions in Eastern Europe, and was there when the Berlin Wall was literally torn apart. According to Turnley, "This period not only affected the geopolitical life of the world in a decisive way, but impacted the personal life history of anyone present, including my own."

Included with Turnley's photographs is a video that he recently did for CBS News Sunday Morning.

Coming Soon: The Ethics of War Videojournalism

We salute editor Dirck Halstead and the staff of The Digital Journalist, the monthly online magazine for visual journalism, on the occasion of its 12th anniversary -- that's 143 issues of high-quality reporting and commentary on photojournalism, a remarkable accomplishment.

As with other recent installments, the Sept. '09 issue includes another elegy to the commercially beleagured industry, and yet another remedy for rescuing it: How to Start to Save Photojournalism. "Is there a way to turn this situation around?" it asks. "In our view, there is only one way: Philanthropists must come to the rescue."

While we're not sure we agree that's the only way, we're always glad that the publication adds more voices, and solutions, to the mix.

What especially caught our attention in this issue was the number of thoughtful pieces devoted to AP photojournalist Julie Jacobson's controversial photo of a dying soldier in Afghanistan. (See her narrated audio-slideshow, Death of a Marine, on KobreGuide):

As it happens, Jacobson is a 2006 alum of Halstead's pioneering Platypus Workshops, that train still photographers to embrace multimedia and videojournalism. This issue carries her journal entries while she was embedded with the Marines in Afghanistan, a must read.

Columnist Beverly Spicer contributes a comprehensive report on the brouhaha surrounding the decision to publish the disturbing photo, and ponders:

As Jacobson says in her notes, "It is necessary to be bothered from time to time. It is too easy to sit at Starbucks far away across the sea and read about the casualty and then move on without much of another thought about it. It is not as easy to see an image of that casualty and NOT think about it."

With the current crisis in journalism, most U.S. news organizations have greatly reduced their conflict coverage out of economic necessity, and many are consolidating with others for information gathering.

How will the same debate and struggles evolve in the future? As forms of media and access to information shift and change, as print media collapses and professional journalism is threatened, how will the equation change between the press's efforts to release information and countervailing efforts to control it?

In their ethics column, Karen Slattery and Mark Doremus conclude:

The Associated Press made the correct decision in not caving to the pressure. Critics will argue that the photo is tasteless and adds no value to the story. Not so. If everyone knew what the actual horror of war looked like, the image would not shock or appall.

For those who don't want to think about what the picture genuinely represents, the criticism affords a convenient excuse to look hard the other way. As a nation, this conflict belongs to all of us, not only to the military or the government. The image of the injured Marine forces us, as citizens, to ask ourselves what we are going to do about our war.

Those discussions are as urgent as they are necessary. They must be responsible, thoughtful and honest. We owe that much to Cpl. Bernard and his parents, and all of the soldiers who have been and will be sent to the Middle East.

It is common decency.

As we survey developments in the evolving sphere of ethics pertaining to moving images with audio, we have to ask:

What's going to happen when a videojournalist captures a soldier dying -- which will be even much more graphic and "real" than Jacobson's still image that shocked and upset so many?

What will happen when we are able to not just see a bloody soldier, but are able to watch one bleed? When we will be able to hear a soldier's agony, as he suffers and cries for help?

We've all seen and heard this in movie theaters -- how long before we see the real thing on newspaper Websites?

Will videojournalists shoot it? Will editors allow it? Will the public accept it?

Is it the right thing to do?

Who will have to make those hard decisions, and what criteria will they use? And what impact will those powerful video stories have on all of us?

The Death of Photojournalism: 1 Day Later

Dirck Halstead thought that maybe he came off as sounding more bleak than he had intended in our post yesterday, so he followed up with this much cheerier email we think is well worth sharing:

I am afraid that I have become increasingly realistic and therefore pessimistic about the future of our trade, which is not really my nature.

I find that when I get in these moods, the best thing for me to do is to go out and speak to young people. I had that chance today. Cornell University sponsors a summer program for what they consider to be "the brightest high school students in the land."

They split them up in three groups of twenty, and one of the groups is spending the summer here at [University of Texas].

I was asked to talk to them . These are not photojournalism wannabes. They are, however, at the exact age that I decided to run off to Guatemala for my first LIFE story. So I took it seriously, and after showing them some pictures, spent the next hour just talking about journalism and what a wonderful career it is to aspire to, that will open so many doors to so many different kinds of people.

They were very attentive and asked very good questions (which you don't normally get from college students), and the way I left it with them was this:

"Most of you will now be going off to four years in a college or university. Many of you have scholarships already. Thank God for this opportunity at this time, because while you are in school these next few years, EVERYTHING will change. From journalism, to business, to world affairs, to how crops are harvested. This will be the period of the 'big reset.' If you can huddle inside those ivy cloisters, do so. Bar the door. Ride it out.

"Because when you emerge in 2015, a lot of things will have been settled. There will be opportunities which have scarcely been thought of, and your time in college will allow you to prepare for this new world. Above all, don't be afraid. Dare to dream, and to work to make those dreams come true. The new future will be entrusted to you. Use it well."

Halstead's original article ("Revisiting the Death of Photojournalism, Ten Years Later") appears in the July issue of The Digital Journalist, the monthly online magazine for visual journalism that he has published for the past twelve years -- itself an indicator of his ongoing passion for, and commitment to, our eternally evolving field.

The Death of Photojournalism: 10 Years Later

The July issue of The Digital Journalist is online, featuring a gloomy essay by editor/publisher Dirck Halstead (right): "Revisiting the Death of Photojournalism, Ten Years Later."

Way back in 1999, I wrote an editorial lamenting how difficult it was becoming to pursue a life in photojournalism. Budgets were being slashed at the newsmagazines for photography, entry-level jobs at newspapers were becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, and once such an internship was secured, it was hard to move up the ladder. Compared to the glory days of photojournalism in the 1970s, the situation was looking bleak.

As I reread that article recently, I realized that what I was talking about then were some cracks in the dam. Today, the whole damned dam is gone.

Halstead's lament about the demise of suitable outlets for photojournalism, notably print newsweeklies, is more pertinent than ever -- along with his campaign, then and now, to encourage still photographers to augment their skills with audio and video so that they can be transferred to the Web. (He applies the term "Platypus" to the new breed of hybrid photojournalist/videojournalist.)

And even though videojournalism struggles as media outlets withdraw resources, Halstead is hopeful:

In a recent Platypus class, my students asked me, "Why would you be a photojournalist today?" I answered, "You have to be crazy."

I have always considered being crazy as important to a photographer as being curious. Constitutionally, we thrive on chaos and challenge. Being a photojournalist is more a calling than a trade. Those people who will do anything to come back with a story will be out there shooting for a long time.

Apply Now for Next Platypus Workshop

There are still a few open slots for The Digital Journalist's Platypus Workshop next month, headed by award-winning photojournalists Dirck Halstead and PF Bentley, July 26- Aug. 4 in Maine.

In nine days, we teach high-definition digital shooting and editing, with an emphasis on storytelling. We have taught over 200 photojournalists since our inception in 1999. Our graduates have gone on to do television documentaries and Web videos, especially for newspapers and even films. One of our graduates was a nominee for an Oscar in 2006.

Participants are supplied Canon cameras, Sennheiser mikes, and a MacBook Pro loaded with Final Cut Pro.

Tuition ranges from $750 to $1,995. To register, contact Kerry L. Curren: registration@theworkshops.com .

Special Videojournalism Issue of 'Digital Journalist'

Dirck Halstead invited me to guest-edit his special April issue of The Digital Journalist, the monthly online magazine for visual journalism, now on a Webstand near you!

TDJ has been on the front lines of reinventing photojournalism since its first issue 11 years ago. This month, the issue is devoted to videojournalism, and we’re blessed to have some of the nation’s top practitioners contribute. They tell and show how they are changing this emerging field, and we strongly encourage you to head right over to DigitalJournalist.org and see what they’ve prepared for you. Here are some highlights:

Spokesman-Review’s Colin Mulvany is a highly decorated visual journalist whose portfolio and commentary serves as the cover story. Colin was among the first and best to make that bold leap from still photography to video. He also personally trained and groomed his paper’s photography staff to produce great videojournalism along with him. He recently received yet another award -- second place in NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism contest for Web news video for Warming the Homeless. Read about his long, steady trek to the top.

Kathy Kieliszewski generously shares her perspective as leader of the Emmy Award-winning video staff of the Detroit Free Press. Their staff keeps wowing us with their labor-intensive projects, each one reflecting a strong level of collective commitment. How can such a small unit spend a year chronicling life inside an orphanage? How did they ever find the time to put together their ambitious multi-faceted Emmy-winning 40th anniversary salute to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” ? And how many staffs would dare to undertake a 50th anniversary celebration of Motown Records by preparing FIFTY short video stories? Kathy takes us behind the scenes at freep.com to show us how they keep churning out the hits.

New York Times videojournalist Erik Olsen treats us to an inside look at how he personally made the transition from ABC TV news shooter to creating video stories for a newspaper – and why he’s so much happier for it. As a “one-man-band”-style VJ, he finds that having the opportunity to edit his own stories (instead of handing over footage to an editor, as usually happens in TV) helps him better visualize the final result as he’s shooting – making for a better story overall. As part of a crack team of fifteen videojournalists, Erik lends fresh insight into how one of the nation’s top news organizations is wholeheartedly committing itself to pioneering first-rate videojournalism.

With newspapers shrinking and dying, videojournalists worry that there will be no outlet for their work. One solution, for the entrepreneurially-minded, is to strike out on your own and take a shot at freelancing. But who will buy your pieces? How much will they pay? (A budget-slashing paper surely can’t be a potential customer.) What are the protocols and procedures? Do you pitch ideas, or only peddle finished stories? So many questions, so few people in a position to answer them. Luckily we found one – Brent Foster, a former L.A. Times videojournalist who packed it in this year and headed for New Delhi, where he’s setting up shop as a fulltime freelance VJ. We asked for details, he graciously provided them, in his “Email from New Delhi”

Probably the best potential market for freelancers is not cash-starved newspapers, but organizations and associations whose Websites are designed to communicate to their membership. A few have already experimented with videojournalism. Among those who’ve produced the most successful results is the gargantuan 40-million member American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). The good news for videojournalists who’ve been laid off is that AARP.org represents a viable freelance market. AARP multimedia producer Nicole Shea, whose background includes stints at National Geographic and Getty Images, gives us the inside scoop on what AARP is looking for – which should open your eyes to other possibilities for institutional videojournalism markets.

For this special issue, the KobreGuide mavens distilled a list of “Ten Tips to Improve Your Videojournalism.” One of those tips is to tell a story from an alternative perspective. When Reuters’ award-winning photog Lucy Nicholson attended an intensive MediaStorm workshop (her first foray into videojournalism), she impressed us with her fresh look at an old icon, by profiling the underwear-clad Times Square musician who calls himself “The Naked Cowboy” -- from his girlfriend’s point of view. Our Q&A with Lucy illuminates her creative process.

Another tip is to find a singular character on which you can hang your story. It’s such important (and oft-neglected) advice, that we asked KobreGuide contributor Kathy Strauss, an accomplished visual journalist in her own right, to share her favorite character-oriented videos from KobreGuide, and demonstrate why each story was immeasurably improved by having a single human stand in for an abstract issue or theme.

To illustrate what differentiates videojournalism from other media, we created a hypothetical story – “Building a Sandcastle” – that also serves to show how a videojournalist can show us something we couldn’t find anywhere else. In “The Future of Videojournalism,” we offer a peek at some new and emerging trends that we feel will soon be used to improve the medium’s viability and versatility.

We’re confident that you’ll find plenty in this issue to help you improve the quality of your own videojournalism. If you’ve found or created something worthy of KobreGuide.com, please let us know by clicking the “Recommend a Story” tab on our homepage – we’re grateful for all the extra eyeballs that help us locate those proverbial needles in the haystack. And if your newspaper wants to join the KobreGuide Consortium, enabling it to feature the Web’s best videojournalism on its own site – and to have its own video appear on Websites around the world – both at no cost, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We’re grateful to Dirck Halstead and his professional team at DigitalJournalist.org for this golden opportunity to guest-edit this special issue and share our videojournalism adventures and insights with you. Please enjoy it, and let us hear your feedback.

HD Platypus Workshop: May 1-10 in Portland

Dirck Halstead says there are still a few spots open in his upcoming Platypus Workshop in Portland, OR, May 1-10, a comprehensive boot camp for staff and freelance photographers, picture editors and media producers making the transition to high-definition digital video storytelling. You can attend as a "Shooter" or as a "Producer."

As a Shooter you are the storyteller. You get to use a new Canon XHA-1 HD camera, wireless and on-camera mikes from Sennheiser, tripods from Libec and an Apple laptop MacBook Pro with the latest version of Final Cut Pro for editing. You may work alone, or with a Producer, to create the class exercises and a final 8-minute documentary or news story. Tuition for Shooter = $1,995

Producers are an integral part of the process and the course. They attend all classes and team up with shooters as they research stories, make arrangements, conduct the interviews, go out on the field exercises and co-produce the final project . . . as a team. The Producer and the Shooter both come back to the edit bay and cut the projects together. Tuition for Producer = $995

Participants will learn about the newest HD digital cameras, field sound recording, cinematic storytelling, the use of lenses, tripods, and Apple's latest Final Cut Pro editing software.

Register here.

Digital Journalist's Platypus Workshops

The Digital Journalist will be hosting four domestic Platypus Workshops this year.

These 9-day workshops teach high-definition digital shooting and editing, with an emphasis on storytelling. More than 200 photojournalists have attended since their inception in 1999, and graduates have gone on to create television documentaries, Web videos and even films. (One graduate was an Oscar nominee in 2006.)

There are two ways to attend a workshop. As a Shooter you are the storyteller. You get to use a new Canon HD camera, wireless and on-camera mikes from Sennheiser, tripods from Libec and an Apple laptop MacBook Pro with the latest version of Final Cut Pro for editing. You may work alone, or with a Producer (see below), to create the class exercises and a final 3-5 minute documentary or news story.

Everyone who joins the class will learn about the newest HD (High Definition Digital Video) camera, field sound recording, cinematic storytelling, the use of lenses, tripods, and Apple's latest Final Cut Pro editing software.

As a Producer you do what the name implies in broadcast. Producers attend all classes, team up with shooters to "produce" the various segments of the course work: research stories, make arrangements, conduct the interviews, go out on the field exercises and co-produce the final project . . . as a team. The Producer and the Shooter both come back to the edit bay and cut the projects together.

The workshops are taught by award-winning photojournalists Dirck Halstead and PF Bentley.

TUITION: Shooter: $1,995. Producer or educator: $995. Student: $750. (10% discount for NPPA and ASMP members).

SCHEDULE:

MAY 1 – 10: PORTLAND, ORE.

To register for Portland, contact David Lyman .

JULY 26 – AUGUST 4 (session 1): MAINE

AUGUST 6 – 15 (session 2): MAINE

To Register for Maine, contact Kerry L. Curren .