RIP Kodachrome, 1935-2010

The last rolls of Kodachrome, the most revered film for color slides for the past 75 years, are being developed today at Dwayne's Photo, a small family business in Parsons, Kansas. Then the last Kodachrome processing machine will be shut down and sold for scrap, rendered obsolete by digital technology.

[SEE PREVIOUS KOBRECHANNEL posts for related info, images and links:

* Last Roll of Kodachrome
* Mama, They Took Our Kodachrome Away]

Read the New York Times' on-location report,"For Kodachrome Fans, Road Ends at Photo Lab in Kansas."

Eastman Kodak gave the last roll of Kodachrome to Steve McCurry, the noted National Geographic photojournalist. He shot the last three frames of that roll in Parsons before dropping it off at Dwayne’s, and you can see them on the Times' Lens blog, "A Color-Saturated Sun Sets on Kodachrome."

It's the end of an era, and judging from the myriad readers' comments, on the Times Website and elsewhere, many will miss the film's legendary rich colors ... while others happily prefer the relative ease and convenience (not to mention instant certainty) of digital shooting.

Don't miss the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's excellent short video, The Last Roll of Kodachrome, as featured on KobreGuide. In a story within a story, photographer Robert Cohen describes how he dug a final roll of expired Kodachrome 200 out of the back of his freezer, carefully and lovingly shot 36 frames at the colorful Missouri State Fair… and then drove the film hundreds of miles to Parsons, Kansas to have it developed. All the while he was not sure how, or if, any of the images would turn out – a reminder of life in pre-digital camera days. The story cleverly combines beautiful images and a folksy storyline complete with suspense and a climactic payoff.

[UPDATE: Here's the Los Angeles Times' elegy, "Goodbye Kodachrome," with a reproduction of a 1936 May Company ad that included the paper's first mention of the film. "A 100-foot roll of 16mm Kodachrome film, regular price of $9, was on sale for $6.98. After adjusting for inflation, the 1936 sales price would be $107 today." There's also a reprint of a 1938 "Camera Corner" column about the film, its first editorial mention in the paper.]

For those of you who have used Kodachrome, please share with us your thoughts about its demise. Nostalgic for "the greens of summer" -- or is all the world a sunny day with digital?

(Photo by Steve Hebert / New York Times)

America Out of Work: LA Times Video Series

As part of the Los Angeles Times series on the nation's unemployment crisis, America Out of Work, videojournalist Jeff Amlotte produced video vignettes of ten of those who have lost their jobs. Using a creative multi-panel split-screen format, they each tell in their own words how they are coping with long-term unemployment as images of their daily life play alongside.

The first five have been posted, representing a diversity of ages and ethnicities. We look forward to seeing the remaining five.

Why Don't More News Websites Supersize Pictures?

Print newspapers no longer have the physical space to accomodate large images, but high-speed internet and cheaper bandwidth certainly enhance the feasibility of big pictures on Websites.

And yet we rarely see news organizations put big pictures to good use. (Frankly, even in the heyday of print newspapers, when space constraints were less of an issue, big pictures were a rarity, and narrative stories told with a series of pictures even rarer still.)

Gradually some news sites are indeed launching big-picture galleries -- but most focus on individual shots (e.g. "picture of the day") and not a series of images on a unified theme that are sequenced to tell a tale with a dramatic arc.

Storytelling with still pictures, a la Life Magazine, sometimes feels like a lost art form. True, the advent of Soundslides software enabled audio-slideshows -- but most of those are nothing more than photographers talking about their pictures, or pictures of people talking about themselves. Rarely is the medium's potential for dramatic narrative -- complete with you-are-there natural sounds -- fully realized.

But even media organizations that aren't yet willing to dive into multimedia are still puzzlingly standoffish about using large-format photography for narrative stories... even now that bandwidth is no longer an issue.

Glowing exceptions include the Boston Globe's Big Picture, the Chicago Tribune's Assignment Chicago, the New York Times' Lens blog, the Los Angeles Times' Framework blog.

Spokane's Spokesman Review is the latest to join the bigger-is-better club with its Picture Stories. (We can hardly call it "jumping on the bandwagon," since it's still a relatively rare phenomenon.) Their staff's visual journalism guru Colin Mulvany succeeded in badgering the powers that be long enough to finally make it happen. (Read Mulvany's account on his Mastering Multimedia blog.)

Because Mulvany spearheaded the paper's forays into videojournalism, their Web gallery features not just big pictures but big picture stories. So while raindrops shot with a 60-mm macro lens make great eye candy, from our perspective it's memorable stories that make supersizing their images a worthwhile endeavour . For example, Carissa’s Journey (pictured above) tracks an 18-year-old girl battling cancer through her senior year in high school -- including her prom and graduation ceremony. That's a big story, best told with lots of big pictures.

What stories should your newspaper be telling on its Website with big pictures?

Documentary Directors Who Made the Transition to Feature Filmmaking

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at top documentary filmmakers who successfully made the leap to Hollywood moviemaking. It's not as natural a transition as you might expect, but what fascinates us is the qualities they bring with them -- which add up to exceptional visual storytelling abilities.

Documentary directors may be better equipped than most to deliver something that's frequently missing from narrative movies: emotional truthfulness. What's more, nonfiction storytellers directing narrative features are comfortable shooting in the increasingly popular verité style that mashes extemporaneous camera moves with scripted action and dialogue.

Michael Apted is a pioneering example, having produced the 7 Up series, and then giving us features such as Gorillas in the Mist (based on a true story), and now exploring terrain far removed from real life: the next Chronicles of Narnia film.

Paul Greengrass spent the first ten years of his career making documentaries, and his trademark handheld-camera technique ("To be perfectly honest, I couldn't afford tripods") has served him well with hit features such as United 93 (a 9/11 film based on real-life people and events) and two Bourne films.

Some other examples:

Nanette Burstein (pictured)
Documentaries: American Teen, The Kid Stays in the Picture
Feature: Going the Distance

Andrew Jarecki
Documentary: Capturing the Friedmans
Feature: All Good Things

Seth Gordon
Documentary: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,
Features: Four Christmases, Horrible Bosses (upcoming)

James Marsh
Documentary: Man on Wire (Oscar-winner)
Feature: Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980

Amir Bar-Lev
Documentary: The Tillman Story
Feature: Biopic of Jerry Garcia (upcoming)

Jose Padilha
Documentary: Bus 174
Features: Elite Squad 2, The Sigma Protocol (upcoming)

The documentarians-turned-dramatists say the two genres are unexpectedly comparable, and that their nonfiction backgrounds often helped them in critical ways. Even though a feature film may have a manufactured story, directors of documentaries and features are constantly looking for openness from the people in front of their cameras.

Padilha says directors with documentary training tend to be adept at telling stories, and shooting in a style that invites, rather than distances, the audience. "You don't have a script, so you have to focus on the narrative. You come up with a shooting plan based on what you decide the story is," Padilha says.

Documentary directors, Padilha adds, know how to use their cameras in service of that story. In a feature, "Instead of moving the camera by itself, you move the camera with the actors." In a documentary, he says, "The camera is always trying to find what matters in the action, so the audience can find what's relevant."

The documentary filmmakers interviewed for the Times story acknowledged that their hearts may be in non-fiction storytelling, but their wallets do better when they apply their talents to fiction -- especially considering that this year's excellent feature-length Oscar winner, "The Cove," grossed just $857,000 in the U.S.

As feature-length video distribution over the internet becomes more viable (as is already happening via Netflix, Hulu, et al), that financial picture is likely to improve considerably. Might feature filmmakers someday turn their lenses to nonfiction stories?

L.A. Times Launches Visual Journalism Blog

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for its launch of the new Framework blog devoted to visual journalism.

At first glance, its style and format is clearly inspired by the New York Times' excellent Lens blog -- but we're not saying that's a bad thing (except for maybe the reverse white-on-black type, which ironically is hard on the eyes).

Its initial content is a mixed bag. They sent two staff videographers to tag along on a staff photographer's assignment -- a simple portrait of a DJ in his home studio. We were expecting that the video would provide an inside glimpse of the task of capturing a still image of this musician. We thought we'd see and hear about the aesthetic and journalistic choices involved in setting, lighting, posing, props and wardrobe. (The subject is seen with his turntable and pet cat.) But strangely the video is all about the DJ -- who we listen to as he's being photographed -- and very little about the act of photographing him.

The blog's self-described mission is to "celebrate the power and explore the craft of visual storytelling. The blog highlights the work of Times photojournalists who, frame by frame, document the drama, the emotion and sometimes the humor of life. Framework also aims to serve as a resource hub for photography, multimedia and video enthusiasts who share our passion. We will trade insights and discuss the tools and techniques of telling stories through images."

Curiously one of the meatier offerings about tools and techniques, however, is told not through images but with a humorous text article. In his essay, "Need Some Instructions on Those Instructions?", Robert Lachman bemoans the increasing intricacy of whiz-bang cameras, something all photojournalists and videojournalists can relate to.

It’s hard to believe how complicated cameras have become. My new Canon EOS 7D has so many bells and whistles that even I, a so-called pro, sometimes find myself befuddled. It’s part camera, part computer, not to mention that most of the functions can be controlled from various parts of the camera. Push this button down, hold that, turn this…

This got me wondering if there wasn’t a better way to understand my camera.

He started with the manual, but we all know where that leads... Eventually he corralled a shelf full of books and DVDs (pictured) to help him sort through all the confusion, and he offers his helpful recommendations.

Subsequent postings take us behind the scenes in first-person accounts by Jay L. Clendenin, who shot a celebrity portrait of Bono without his trademark sunglasses... and Boris Yaro, who captured the iconic image of Robert Kennedy on the floor of L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel just after he was gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan.

We look forward to watching Framework expand and improve as a valuable resource, and hope you'll join us in checking it out daily for fresh and inspiring material.

P.S. ... and of course, don't forget to check out KobreGuide's Los Angeles Times channel, for their best videojournalism. It was the Times' powerful Marlboro Marine video, by Luis Sinco, that launched KobreGuide two years ago!

Pullman Porter Video Update

Lee Wesley Gibson, 100, (pictured) is not the oldest surviving Pullman Porter. Ben Isaacs, 105, is.

That's the Los Angeles Times update to its touching video profile of Gibson, which was recently showcased on KobreGuide: Pullman Porter and Family Patriarch.

Mel Melcon's audio slideshow detailed how working for Union Pacific Railroad for 38 years enabled Gibson to create his most cherished legacy -- his multi-generational family.

But when that story appeared, it prompted Andrew Isaacs to call the newspaper's attention to his older brother Ben, whose railroad career spanned the years 1936 to 1968... and is now 105.

The 100-year-old Gibson said he was pleased to learn that Isaacs — a man he once knew — was still alive.

"I had no idea," he said. "I've had no contact with him since we retired."

You can read about Isaacs' story here ... but unfortunately there's no video to accompany it!

If you thought this blog update was a thinly veiled ruse to call your attention to the original terrific video about Gibson, you're right! So go look!

Abby's Quest Ends Prematurely... But Safely

Earlier this year, KobreGuide showcased Sachi Cunningham's Los Angeles Times video, "Abby Sunderland's Quest," depicting the outset of the teenager's adventure to be the youngest to complete a nonstop solo sailing trip around the world, and beat her own brother's record.

Acknowledging the extreme perils she would encounter, the 16-year-old high school junior set sail on January 23 from Marina del Rey, CA. Unfortunately, five months into the trip, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, she encountered mountainous waves and strong winds that broke her mast, preventing her from continuing. She sent pre-arranged distress signals, and fortunately has been located -- calmly and safely floating in her damaged yacht, Wild Eyes, awaiting the arrival of a rescue ship which will probably not arrive until this weekend.

She may not have fulfilled her ultimate dream, but she certainly displayed courage and fortitude under extreme duress, and now awaits her next challenge -- getting her driver’s license when she returns home.

We wish her success in that and all future endeavours.

You can follow Abby's journey, including her impending rescue, on her website or blog.

Webby Award Video Winners Announced

The 14th Annual Webby Award winners have been announced, along with the People's Voice Award (chosen by online community voting) in the DOCUMENTARY and NEWS & POLITICS sections of the ONLINE FILM & VIDEO category.

DOCUMENTARY: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE

WEBBY AWARD WINNER:
Waterlife (National Film Board of Canada)

PEOPLE'S VOICE WINNER:
In Silence: Maternal Mortality in India (Human Rights Watch)

NEWS & POLITICS: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE

WEBBY AWARD WINNER:
Alabama's Homeboys (Los Angeles Times)

PEOPLE'S VOICE WINNER:
Gun Markets of Pakistan (VBS.TV)

Awards will be presented during Internet Week in New York, June 7-14, 2010. The ceremony is famous for limiting acceptance speeches to five words. Get tickets here.

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"

Excerpts: Journalism News You Can Use

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

A quick roundup of some items that caught our eye lately...

State of the News Media 2010: An Annual Report of American Journalism

This seventh edition of the annual report on the health and status of American journalism, courtesy of Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, will keep you busy all weekend. Trends, attitudes, behaviors, analyses. It's comprehensive, and massive. Think 180,000 words.

Our goals are to take stock of the revolution occurring in how Americans get information and provide a resource for citizens, journalists and researchers to make their own assessments. To do so we gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, identify trends across media, mark key findings, delve deep into each sector and note areas for further inquiry.

This year’s report is the most interactive it’s ever been, and contains a number of new features...

Read it here.

*****

Facebook Overtakes Google as Most Popular U.S. Website
(Daily Finance)

Facebook has overtaken Google to become the most popular website in the United States for the first time, according to new data from Hitwise, which measures Internet traffic. For the week ending March 13, the social networking juggernaut registered 7.07% market share, beating the search giant's 7.03% market share.

The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame. Facebook briefly topped Google last Christmas and New Year's, but this is the first time the website's weekly numbers have beaten Google.

The new data is sure to unnerve Google, which has been trying to crack into the social networking market -- with controversial results. For Facebook, the data will add further fuel to its push to go public sometime in the next year or two, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has suggested. Analysts predict that when Facebook does go public, it could see an immediate valuation of $35 billion -- a figure which could rise to $100 billion by 2015.

Read more here.

*****

USC Annenberg Launches Multimedia Series

The USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism has teamed up with the Center for Investigative Reporting to launch a multimedia series titled “Hunger in the Golden State.”

The series, to debut March 19, will run in newspapers, on radio stations and online news outlets statewide over the next three weeks.

Over the course of six months, USC Annenberg journalism graduate students interviewed dozens of state and local-level food bank officials as well as the Californians who struggle with food shortages every day. The reporting unearthed new numbers that show hunger is rising at an unprecedented rate nationwide, affecting millions - including those in affluent areas - but is invisible to many.

The stories explore food waste, nutrition in schools and ways to help Californians fighting to ward off hunger. The project reveals that nearly one in eight people in California has asked for food assistance in the last year. Food banks and social services are overwhelmed, reporters found.

The Los Angeles Times teamed a staff reporter with a student to produce a story explaining how California leaves millions of federal dollars on the table because of problems in the way the state runs its end of the food stamp program.

Read more here.

*****

The Newsonomics of Emerging News Video
(By Ken Doctor / Nieman Lab)

The New York Times. Video. Three years ago, that seemed like an oxymoron, save the Times’ occasional forays into TV experiments. Now, Times TV pops up in front of us on airplane TVs and news video has become an emerging feature of Times sites. As Apple and NYT staffers plot behind closed doors in the Times building, we can expect that Times video will be a key element of the iPad NYT launch.

Behind what we see, though, are some critical developments in processing of digital video, the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting that often determines time-to-market, and business failure or success.

For the Times, it’s not a matter of harvesting decades of archived film; it’s about making the most of its last three years of a video push. The Newsonomics are these:

• Make more licensing income off the video. ...
• Better usage of companies’ own produced video (and partnered video) on their own websites, apps, and tablets. ...
• Put your content into new marketplaces. ....

Lastly, the outsourcing here is essential. News companies are in learning mode — what is it they do best?; what do they leave to others. In this case, the Times and others are applying my Newsonomics Law #9: Apply the 10 Percent Rule, the heavy lifting of journalism can be aided and abetted by smart use of technology.

Video is in the air — C-SPAN’s release of its volumimous archives reenforces that notion — but as usual, it’s the less-glamorous, behind-the-scenes work that will separate the winners from the companies stuck in text mode.

Read more here.

*****

Google and Partners Seek TV Foothold
(New York Times)

Google and Intel have teamed with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes.

The move is an effort by Google and Intel to extend their dominance of computing to television, an arena where they have little sway. For Sony, which has struggled to retain a pricing and technological advantage in the competitive TV hardware market, the partnership is an effort to get a leg up on competitors.

The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel.

Some existing televisions and set-top boxes offer access to Web content, but the choice of sites is limited. Google intends to open its TV platform, which is based on its Android operating system for smartphones, to software developers. The company hopes the move will spur the same outpouring of creativity that consumers have seen in applications for cellphones.

Google is expected to deliver a toolkit to outside programmers within the next couple of months, and products based on the software could appear as soon as this summer.

Read more here.

*****

... and this one's just for fun... to prove that, despite all those newfangled high-tech tools, sometimes the old ways are the best ways...

Journalist Scoops Press and Police with Simple Google Search
(Journalism.co.uk)

Danish police had been searching for Rumenian murder suspect Marian Clita for a good 24 hours when Norwegian journalist Andreas Lunde Googled him, found his phone number and got him on the line.

In a scoop that almost beggars belief, ABC Nyheter’s Andreas Lunde, tracked down the man wanted for the brutal murder of Norwegian Scandinavian Airline stewardess Vera Vildmyren in Copehnhagen, a man sought by both the police and the press, with a simple Google Search.

“I found a blog post he had commented on, using his name and phone number when doing so, put the Rumenian land code in front of the number and called,” Lunde told Danish TV2 News.

Clita picked up the phone, confirmed he was indeed Marian Clita, professed to be unaware the police was searching for him, but, when asked if he had any knowledge of the murder, said he would get a taxi to the police station in ten minutes – and kept his word.

Read the whole story here.

Q&A: Liz O. Baylen, Winner of 4 POYi Awards

Hats off to Los Angeles Times photojournalist Liz O. Baylen, a four-time winner in the 67th Pictures of the Year International Awards.

We've been featuring POYi winners for the past few days on KobreGuide, and the rest of this week will be devoted to Baylen's award-winning audio-slideshows and videos.

Plus, KobreGuide senior editor Beth Renneisen got an exclusive interview with Baylen (while she was on assignment in Haiti).

Here are the Baylen gems to watch for this week, starting today with "Waiting for Death," a poetic multimedia profile of a 90-year-old suicide prevention pioneer contemplating his own demise.

FEATURE STORY - MULTIMEDIA
* Third Place, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "Waiting for Death"
* Award of Excellence, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "The Insights of Angels"

ISSUE REPORTING STORY - MULTIMEDIA
* First Place, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "A Boy's Struggles"
* Third Place, Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times — "His Body A Prison"

Exclusive Q&A with Liz O. Baylen here.

Pictures of the Year International winners here.

New USC Study: What's Wrong With TV News?

You don't have to look much further than this new comprehensive study of the Los Angeles TV news market (the nation's second largest) to figure out why TV newscasts are so vacuous.

It's an analysis of the local newscasts on 8 L.A. stations, over 14 days last summer -- that's 11,253 news stories in 980 half-hour programs -- conducted by the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

It's called, "Local TV News in the Los Angeles Media Market: Are Stations Serving the Public Interest?" And you can pretty much guess the answer to that rhetorical question before you even dive in.

(NOTE: A content analysis of the Los Angeles Times on those same days was also performed, and frankly the beleaguered newspaper didn't fare much better -- but that's another story for another day.)

Here's what the USC team found:

A composite half-hour of LA local TV news contains 8:25 of ads; 2:10 of teasers (“stay with us – there’s a story you won’t want to miss”); 3:36 of sports and weather; and 15:44 for everything else. So besides sports and weather, only about half of a half-hour of news is news.

How much of that 15:44 is about events that happened in the Los Angeles media market? Local news takes up 8:17; non-local news gets 7:27.

Considering that, as we recently noted, a new Pew study showed that local TV newscasts are the primary information source for 78% of Americans, you'd hope that at least those 15 minutes would be chockablock with important topics, right? Keep dreaming.

What kind of stories led the news at the top of the half-hour?

The most common topic by far was crime. One out of three broadcasts led with it. Nearly half of those were about murder, robbery, assault, kidnapping, property crime, traffic crime and other common crime. A fourth of the crime leads were about celebrity crime. And nearly a fourth of the crime leads were about crimes that didn’t take place in the Los Angeles media market.

When the broadcasts didn’t begin with crime, what did lead the news?

Nearly two out of 10 broadcasts led with sports/weather or traffic. One out of 10 led with a story about the Los Angeles area wildfires, which occurred during the sample period.

How often did stories about Los Angeles-area government lead the news?

Two-and-a-half percent of the time. One out of a hundred leads was about the unfolding budget crisis.

Did other stories about Los Angeles local issues lead the news?

Yes, stories focused not on government, but on people dealing with local issues, led the news, but only about 6 times out of 100. In addition, stories about water main breaks led the news 5% of the time.

Besides ads, teasers, and sports/weather, what topics got the most of the 15:44 left?

Crime, at 2:50. The next-highest amount of time (2:26) was taken up by soft news, oddball news, human interest stories, contests, make-overs, world record attempts, fashion, travel, cooking, animals going wild, weddings etc. After that came entertainment, at 2:02. These three topics took up 7:18.

How was the remaining time divided?

There were four main topics fighting for the remaining time. Each got about the same amount of attention.

* Business/Economy stories took 1:20. Business/Economy stories about the Los Angeles area took up 29 seconds of that.

* Catastrophe stories took 1:19, of which 1:05 was about the wildfires, and most of the rest about water main breaks.

* Stories about people in the Los Angeles area dealing with local civic issues like transportation, community health, the environment, education and taxes, activism, fundraisers, vigils, changes in services provided by local organizations, etc. took up 1:16.

* Stories about government actions on topics like education, health care and law enforcement took up an additional 1:12. The majority of this time (0:49) was devoted to government actions taking place at the federal level or in other states. Coverage of Los Angeles-area government took up just 0:22. Of that, news about the budget averaged 7 seconds; law enforcement and legal issues, 5 seconds; education, 3 seconds.

The remaining portion of the half-hour (3:19) was spread across international coverage (including war coverage and U.S. foreign policy), health-related stories, traffic reports, science and technology, and unintentional injuries, such as car crashes.

So now you know why all those people-on-the-street that Jay Leno encounters are so ill-informed about ... well, everything.

Depressed yet? Relax, this will cheer you up:



Read the full USC study here.

Read the Norman Lear Centertainment blog here.

L.A. Times: Your Videos Are an Embarassment

Forgive us if we sound grouchy, but the Los Angeles Times has put us in a real funk. Why? With each passing day, the quantity and quality of their once superlative videojournalism is rapidly declining. In fact, it pains us to say, it's become an embarassment.

Months ago, we wondered why they went so far as to remove their video player from their homepage altogether. A top exec there explained to us that they were revamping and redesigning their video player, and rethinking their multimedia strategies. He assured us that their video stories would be back, bigger and better than ever.

That hasn't happened. Mostly we're stuck with their (print-edition) film and TV critics looking into a camera and reading their latest review. So today we're handing out some tough love.

What on earth is going on over there? Sure, the paper is smarting from all the same economic woes that have befallen everyone in the journalism biz. But there are small-town papers, with a tiny fraction of their staff and budget, that are producing much better video stories.

Perhaps it's especially shocking and dismaying for us, because it was a powerful Los Angeles Times audio slideshow, Marlboro Marine, that helped inspire us to launch KobreGuide in the first place. The Times itself had done such an amazing job of hiding its own gems, that we decided to create a Website that would ferret out the best videojournalism stories on the Web and put them under one roof, so that even viewers outside a newspaper's territory could enjoy them.

But we've been scouring the L.A. Times lately for more great stories like that, and they're few and far between. Despite what they're telling us, they've clearly reversed course on making video a priority. Go to the site yourself, and see how long it takes you to find ANY video, much less any video worth watching.

So here's what happened today that really put us in a snarky mood.

First, we saw this tweet, from the L.A. Times' own Twitter feed:

Video: Reporter Alana Semuels on how the housing slump has hurt timber towns. Read more at http://bit.ly/3T3cuD

Well! We got excited! Sounds like a terrific concept for a video piece. If they sent a good videojournalist to one of those towns, just imagine what a terrific visual story you'd get!

But we clicked the link, and were taken here. Actually, we're going to spell out the entire URL for you, to re-emphasize how un-"user-friendly" newspaper content-management software has become:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-logging28-2009oct28,0,3380214.story

Once we arrived, we found a well reported, well written text story, on a worthy topic, by reporter Alana Semuels:

Housing slump hits California timber industry like a buzz saw

Weak demand for lumber is forcing some mills to close and leaving many loggers and truckers unemployed.

We also found a link to an uninspired "photo gallery" -- PHOTOS: Housing downturn hits logging town -- made especially more disconcerting by the fact that the seven images are on a separate Web page, making them feel utterly useless and detached from the article itself (which is an uninviting ocean of gray text). Why couldn't the pix be scattered throughout the text, for more visual appeal, as the print version no doubt would design it?

Next we see a link to a "Graphic" :

Graphic: Lumbering along

Again, on a separate Web page, we are shown bar graphs depicting slumps in the price of wood and lumber production, and a California map highlighting towns where sawmills closed. It looks as boring and uninspired as a science textbook. We're guessing that an editor or art director was ordered to attend a Webinar on how to tart up Web stories, and now routinely assigns unimaginative charts and graphs that are exercises in civic duty, not audience engagement.

So where's the video???? Nowhere to be seen!

Adventurous souls that we are, we do what no mortal should be expected to do -- search high and low for it. Among lists of text links at the very BOTTOM of the L.A. Times Web pages, under the heading "Multimedia," you will find a tiny link for "video." We clicked it.

That takes you to a page of one of the saddest collections of newspaper video we've ever encountered. Among a batch of badly arranged and unenticing thumbnail images (with similarly blah text descriptions), we find this: "Housing slump hits California timber industry..."

Going where probably no human has gone before, we click it.

It takes us to this page:

http://www.latimes.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=c68c643b-c75a-4866-8a4a-82f38bd434f1&src=front

(Again, look at that unwieldy URL!)

...with this title:

"Housing slump hits California timber industry like a buzz saw"

And there, at last, is our video. We rub our hands in anticipation. Hard-hitting investigative videojournalism, that takes us behind the scenes of the text story? Introduces us to the major players? Lets us hear the tale in their own words? Shows us the problem up close with impactful and memorable visuals?

Not a prayer.

Here's what we get for our scavenging efforts:

A 44-second video of reporter Alana Semuels, seated against a black background, doing nothing more than introducing herself to the camera, and reading a text description of her print story.

Thanks to their proprietary and problematic video player (that the paper spent months and mucho dineros developing), a huge "PAUSE" icon obscures her face throughout the entire presentation.

See for yourself:



Now, as though this isn't horrid enough, imagine if you somehow stumbled across this video, and now wanted to actually read the story it's touting? Obviously all you need to do is click the link right next to the video to take you there, right? The link that says... well... hmmmm...

Actually, there is no link whatsoever to the print story. So if you start with the video, good luck finding the story it wants you to read. Which makes you wonder: What was the point of the video in the first place? It invites you to read a story that you'll have to work hard to find. (Remember, we got to the text story via a Twitter posting that advertised "video." ) Did the multimedia department need to fill its daily quota of "Videos on $5 a Day"? Or did they just figure, screw it -- who cares about the boring old California lumber industry? It's opening weekend for Michael Jackson's movie.

*****

Despite promises to the contrary, the L.A. Times joins the ranks of newspapers that are missing a golden opportunity to apply resources to the future of journalism. The media institution should be a shining beacon; instead it's a disgrace.

It's a chicken-and-egg situation that we know well -- the L.A. Times won't spend money on video because they say nobody's viewing it... But nobody's viewing it, because it's so lousy!... Plenty of people are watching engaging, informative, high quality nonfiction video -- and their numbers are increasing. The New York Times has wisely positioned itself in the vanguard of superlative videojournalism, having committed to a staff, budget, and Website navigation scheme that ensure an appreciative and devoted following. It's way past time for the L.A. Times to get with the program.

C'mon, L.A. Times! Here's your opportunity. Half-hearted steps lead nowhere. You've still got more resources and talent than most media institutions these days. Apply them to video. You won't be sorry.

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.

9 Weddings in 9 Minutes, 9/09/09, 9 Guests Each, at a 99 Cents Store

Sure, it's a publicity stunt for the 99 Cents Only store in Hollywood -- inviting nine couples to get married in consecutive ceremonies that each lasted nine minutes, on September 9, 2009.

But the Los Angeles Times took the opportunity to create an upbeat, if slightly surreal, audio slideshow of the event. It gives new meaning to "walking down the aisle."

The images are cleverly accompanied by only the voice of the non-denominational minister conducting the ceremonies. All other info must be gleaned from the accompanying text:

Each couple was allowed to bring nine guests. The couples were supplied with a wedding cake, drinks and fruit after the morning ceremonies. A limousine was provided for the couples and their guests, taking them to the Griffith Park Observatory. The couples were also given a $100 bill in exchange for a penny, and a one-night stay with dinner and breakfast at a hotel in Brentwood.

We would have liked to hear more from the couples themselves -- how they got wrangled into this, what their friends and family think about it, whether they registered at the store. Perhaps the Times will be industrious enough to revisit the couples and see how their marriages are progressing -- next July 11 at a 7-Eleven!

Watch it here.

Photography and audio by Mel Melcon, produced by Bryan Chan.

KobreGuide Showcases 300th Video Story

We just re-counted to make sure, and, yep, we just posted our 300th video story on KobreGuide !

Go team!

We've been showcasing the Web's best videojournalism for nearly a year now, finding and selecting a compelling new one every weekday from the world's top media outlets.

It's a good time to take stock.

As you can see by clicking our Channels tab on the navigation bar, we've featured videos from 55 different media outlets, ranging from big newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times to equally meritorious ones that don't often get widespread attention, such as the St. Petersburg Times or the Detroit Free Press.

Click our "Topics" tab, and you'll see our 20 categories are far-ranging, from Adventure to War, with lots in between.

As you can see from our "Award Winners" section, we've been prescient when it comes to selecting prestigious honorees.

When we launched last fall, we offered a "Got a Minute?" section where time-strapped viewers could find short shorts for a quick hit. Curiously, we're finding that producers and audiences instead are building an appetite for longer online videos... and so we accordingly created our "Got an Hour?" section, where you can find high-quality long-form videojournalism.

To see any of our 300 posted video stories, visit the "Hall of Fame" archives -- or use our handy Search function.

We didn't want the creme de la creme to get lost in the fray, so we created a special room for our "Top Ten." Yeah, we know, there's actually 13 there at the moment -- sometimes it's hard to decide what's the best of the best. Don't sue us!

What else?

Obviously you found your way to our KobreChannel blog, but have you joined our Facebook group yet? Now's a good time, before the venture capitalists seize upon us -- you can say you knew us when.

Meanwhile, KobreGuide is still a labor of love, so please show your support by shopping at our Amazon store for all your videojournalism needs!

On a non-commercial note, the best way to help us in our mission to champion videojournalism excellence is simply to keep us posted when you spot it. We're small but mighty, and appreciate the extra eyeballs. Just click the "Recommend a Story" link on our navigation bar -- and please be sure to read our guidelines first.

So that's our tour. Looking back on our earliest stories, we are fascinated by how this hybrid media form has evolved over the past couple years.

For us, it all started with the Los Angeles Times' powerful multimedia account of the "Marlboro Marine" (above), whose iconic photograph became an emblem of the Iraq war. The soldier and the photojournalist who snapped his portrait relate how it changed their lives and connected them in ways neither could have imagined. That potent combination of audio and images constituted an exciting new form of communications; as well crafted as the text story was, it couldn't carry the emotional impact of the haunting voices and sights that augmented and fortified it.

Coincidentally, our 300th story is also about war. It's an Associated Press video series that takes a closeup look at "Wardak Soldiers: On Foot Patrol" (right), the personal stories of American troops in Afghanistan, coping with the dangerous daily task of loosening the grip of the Taliban.

Numbers 2 through 299 cover a lot of ground -- and a lot of issues that impact all of us. We are perpetually astonished at the variety of storytelling approaches explored in this fledgling field -- visually and journalistically.

Video is proliferating like crazy all over the Web, just as we had anticipated. It's getting harder to find the good stuff, the stories worthy of your limited time. We're here to find those needles in the haystack for you.

So start catching up on any of the 300 you've missed... and we'll be busy hunting for the next 300 gems.

Happy viewing!

Video Stories Deserve Updates

We've often noted how unfortunately rare it is that newspapers follow up on their hard-hitting video stories.

The media has a notoriously short memory, and there are so many great video stories that capture a situation so well that they leave you wondering what will happen next.

Such was the case with the Los Angeles Times' heartbreaking video about Jani Schofield, a 6-year-old schizophrenic, and her beleaguered but devoted parents. We showcased "A Place for Jani" on the KobreGuide's Los Angeles Times channel.

Today the newspaper paper laudably provided an update, "For Jani Schofield, some progress -- and major setbacks."

It is not a video, as we might have hoped, but a text article. Alas, the news is not good -- and so, under the circumstances, we can understand why it might have been more difficult to have sought and gained video access.

Naturally we hope the situation takes a turn for the better, for Jani and her family, and look forward to seeing a video update with some hopeful news.

What Happened to LATimes.com Video?

What happened to LATimes.com video stories? They've disappeared! There used to be a video player right there on their homepage -- but it's vanished!

For a while, the newspaper was on a roll with five fulltime videojournalists generating noteworthy original feature video stories, which we proudly showcased on KobreGuide's Los Angeles Times channel. But they all seem to have evaporated. A victim of budget slashing and cutbacks?

Video director Scott Anger is on an extended leave of absence, reportedly working on his own projects, so we talked to deputy managing editor for visuals, Colin Crawford, who graciously filled us in on the situation.

We were relieved to hear that LA Times videos are on a short hiatus while the paper's tech team is building a new whiz-bang proprietary video player from scratch -- a task that's turned out to be more difficult and time-consuming than originally imagined.

We here at KobreGuide have been researching all the various video players out there, and are putting together our own in-depth report on recommended attributes. Some players are far superior to others, but no single player seems to have all the bells and whistles you would hope for, so we know first-hand what a complicated business that can be. (If you'd like a free copy of our report, email us and we'll reserve one for you.)

Crawford predicts that LATimes.com video will be up and running again in about a month. Meanwhile, he pointed us to a series of wonderful audio slideshows his staff has been producing. By his own admission, they are well hidden on the Website. If you click on their "Photography" text link, buried on the left-side navigation bar on the homepage, you'll eventually get there. But these gems deserve more attention than that -- and that's what KobreGuide is here for!

Ironically, it was the LATimes.com audio slideshow "Marlboro Marine" that served as the impetus for KobreGuide in the first place. We couldn't believe that Luis Sinco's terrific project was so impossible to find. The running joke was that the staff's own photographers had to Google their own names to find their own work! How could the average person be expected to stumble upon it? KobreGuide to the rescue!

So this week, while we're waiting for LATimes.com video to return, we're featuring more of their terrific audio slideshows, hidden treasures buried on their own Website, including:

A Hendrix Experience in Hollywood

Diamond in the Rough

Getting Paid to Not Teach

More coming in the days ahead, so stay tuned!

Get Rich on YouTube?

"YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money," according to last month's New York Times headline:

Making videos for YouTube — for three years a pastime for millions of Web surfers — is now a way to make a living. One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site.

It ain't necessarily so, says the Los Angeles Times:

YouTube video creators make money, but not a fortune. In the year since Google's preeminent video service launched its ad-revenue-sharing program with partner users, some have turned amateur video production into a full-time job. But not everyone is having the five-figure-per-month success of Michael Buckley, host of the WhatTheBuckShow, who was profiled by the New York Times.

Why the discrepancy? Apparently YouTubers sign agreements with Google preventing them from publically disclosing advertising income. Google cleared certain partners to disclose financial earnings for the New York Times story -- obviously, the most successful ones.

The big question, we're almost afraid to ask, is how does the quality of video content correlate to number of viewers and, hence, ad revenues?