Win $25,000 in Vimeo Contest

Here's a chance to win $25,000 for your short documentary video, in the first annual Vimeo Awards, but before you submit your entry, be sure to read the fine print.

First, "Documentary" is one of several categories, and the one and only cash prize goes only to what is judged the best video of all categories. The only other awards are exposure on Vimeo's website. Also, buried in the rules is the small matter of a $20 entry fee ($5 for Vimeo Plus paid subscribers). Many top awards charge entry fees -- usually quite higher than this, and often when no cash prizes are awarded. But those are usually established prestigious awards, and this is the "first annual" go-around for Vimeo.

Deadline for submissions is July 31. Winners will be announced by October 9.

The contest is accompanied by a "jam-packed two-day festival," Oct. 8-9 in New York. It will include panels, parties, and screenings of winning entries, but details so far are scarce.

Here are the guidelines for Documentary entries:

Short films/videos that seek to document compelling actuality or reality

Maximum Length: 20 minutes

Description: Short films/videos that seek to document compelling actuality or reality

Requirements: Your submission must be a short documentary piece that exemplifies the art of non- fiction storytelling.

Submissions may include a variety of storytelling methods: presenter led or narrated, fly on the wall, point of view, ambient or personal stories, etc.

Your Submission should be a complete idea that is presented in a clear, innovative and original way.

Judging criteria: We are looking for creative excellence in pieces that push the boundaries of documentary filmmaking.

Documentary judges include Doug Pray, Lucy Walker and Morgan Spurlock.

The grand-prize winner for all categories "will receive a grant from Vimeo to create a new, original work. The winner will be invited to premiere their work at the Vimeo Festival and Awards in 2011 as well as on the homepage of Vimeo.com."

Winners of individual categories "will be promoted heavily on Vimeo.com's homepage as well as on the Vimeo Festival and Awards Site."

Submit your video here.

NPPA BOP Judging Begins Today for Websites

Judging begins today for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Best of Photojournalism Awards for Website categories. "The goal of this contest is to recognize the best visual journalism being produced online."

Categories include:

* Audio Slideshows

Audio-enhanced collections of still photographs presented in a gallery or slideshow format, that tell a clear story. This category is for still photography combined with audio only. There is no video allowed in this category. Subcategories: News, Feature, Sports, Natural Disaster.

* Multimedia Package

Highlights the use of audio, video and animation in the presentation of web-based stories. Judges will pay special attention to the use of available technology to complement and enhance the art of visual storytelling. Entries may include single galleries, slideshows or video, as well as packages that include multiple elements that were grouped and published together as a single story or theme. Content, usability, and interactivity are key to this celebration of cutting-edge storytelling. Subcategories: News or Feature, Natural Disaster.

* News Video

A story that covers a planned or unplanned news event or a subject of general interest and importance. It can be spot news or a follow up or side bar to spot news. The event should be timely. The entry should contain no music, except where it's part of the natural sound of the story. Stories must have been shot, edited, and posted on the web within 48 hours. Maximum viewing time: 10 minutes.

* Feature Video

A feature or human interest story, or series of stories. Maximum viewing time: 20 minutes.

* Sports Video

A planned story or series of stories about the preparation for, analysis of, or audience reaction to a sport, or coverage of a sporting event. Greater weight will be given to stories that have sports action video and focus on the competition. Maximum viewing time: 20 minutes.

* Documentary Video

A planned story or series of stories about a subject of general interest and importance, where the photojournalist has put considerable time and effort into the production of the entry. Documentaries must show imagination and creativity in story choice, execution and editing. Maximum viewing time: 30 minutes.

* Natural Disaster Video

A feature or human interest story, news story, or series of stories related to coverage of the natural disasters in 2009. Maximum viewing time: 20 minutes.

* Special Awards

Once the judging for the Audio Slideshow, Web Video, and Multimedia categories is complete, the winners will go head-to-head to determine the absolute best of web photojournalism. The winner will demonstrate a mastery of photographic and visual storytelling in an online environment. Content, interface design, navigation, and interactivity will all be evaluated to find the site or multimedia team that best furthers the evolution of online visual journalism. Categories: Best Audio Slideshow, Best Web Video, Best Use of Multimedia, Best Use of the Web.

We'll be posting some of the winners on KobreGuide -- where you can bet many have been showcased since their original publication!

This week KobreGuide will showcase some of the NPPA BOP winners in the News Video Photography division, which was judged earlier this month. Because more TV news outlets are migrating versions of their broadcast segments to the Web, contest officials acknowledge that there are increasingly overlaps in many of the News Video and Website categories -- which we predict will consolidate before long, like the industries themselves.

Meanwhile, take a look at last year's NPPA BOP winners in the Web categories.

NPPA Web Video & Multimedia Contest

Entries are now being accepted for the 7th annual National Press Photographers Association's Best of Photojournalism Contest, which features a slew of Web video categories.

It's free to enter, for both NPPA members and non-members. Entries must have been originally posted during 2009. Deadline for submissions is January 29.

Web video entries "are for video-based stories that are written and produced for the web. These stories must have been posted on a website before any other use in the broadcast arena."

Here are the Web categories:

48 Hour
A story that covers a planned or unplanned news event or a subject of general interest and importance. It can be spot news or a follow up or side bar to spot news. The event should be timely. The entry should contain no music, except where it's part of the natural sound of the story. Stories must have been shot, edited, and posted on the web within 48 hours. (Max. length: 10 minutes)

News Feature
A feature/human interest story or series of stories where the photojournalist has put considerable time and effort into the production of the entry. News Features that score highly show imagination and creativity. (Max. length: 30 minutes)

Sports Feature
A planned story or series of stories about the preparation for, analysis of, or audience reaction to a sport or coverage of a sporting event. Greater weight will be given to stories that have sports action video and focus on the competition. An outcome must be given. (Max. length: 20 minutes)

In-Depth
A planned story or series of stories about a subject of general interest and importance where the photojournalist has put considerable time and effort into the production of the entry. (Max. length: 30 minutes)

*****

There's also an opportunity to enter "Audio Slideshows" and "Multimedia Packages."

Multimedia Package

Highlights the use of audio, video and animation in the presentation of web-based stories. Judges will pay special attention to the use of available technology to complement and enhance the art of visual storytelling.

Entries may include single galleries, slideshows or video, as well as packages that include multiple elements that were grouped and published together as a single story or theme.

Content, usability, and interactivity are key to this celebration of cutting-edge storytelling.

Audio Slideshows

Audio-enhanced collections of still photographs presented in a gallery or slideshow format, that tell a clear story. Animation can be used only to advance from one photograph to another.

This category is for still photography combined with audio only. There is no video allowed in this category.

An entry is defined as a single gallery or slideshow; not a group or collection of slideshows. Web packages that include multiple slideshows should be entered as Multimedia Packages.

The emphasis here is on presenting great News, Sports and Feature photographs with the additional level of detail that audio can provide.

*****

For inspiration, you can revisit last year's winners in these categories:

Best Web Video:

“Hoping for a Miracle Amid the Rubble” by Travis Fox(WashingtonPost.com)

Best Documentary Video :

“Trapped: Mental Illness in America's Prisons” by Jenn Ackerman.
(Featured on KobreGuide.com)

Best Feature Video:

“Common Ground” (MediaStorm)
(Featured on KobreGuide.com)

Brian Storm, Executive Producer
Scott Strazzante, Photographer
Chad A. Stevens, Producer
Wes Pope, Video
Tim Klimowicz, Graphics

Best Use of Multimedia :

“Thirst in the Mojave” (Las Vegas Sun)
(Featured on KobreGuide.com)

Zach Wise: Photographer, Videographer, Producer

*****
Contest info here.

Your Dream Documentary?

We've started a new discussion topic on the KobreGuide Facebook Group page.

If funding weren't an issue, what would you make a feature-length documentary about?

What other obstacles would you need to surmount besides raising money?

Click the "Discussions" tab and join the conversation.

'Honest Truths' Studies Ethical Issues for VJs

Videojournalists face a slew of moral and ethical quandaries in every stage of shooting and editing their stories. A new study intelligently and engagingly addresses some of the most prevalent.

It's called Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work, published by American University School of Communication's Center for Social Media.

This study provides a map of perceived ethical challenges that documentary filmmakers—directors and producer-directors—in the United States identify in the practice of their craft. It summarizes the results of 45 long-form interviews in which filmmakers were asked simply to describe recent ethical challenges that surfaced in their work.

The interview pool consisted of 41 directors or producer-directors who had released at least two productions at a national level and who have authorial control. Most of those makers had experience both with nonprofit outlets, such as public TV, and with cable or commercial network television. Also included were four executive producers in national television programming organizations. The population spanned three generations.

Documentary filmmakers identified themselves as creative artists for whom ethical behavior is at the core of their projects. At a time when there is unprecedented financial pressure on makers to lower costs and increase productivity, filmmakers reported that they routinely found themselves in situations where they needed to balance ethical responsibilities against practical considerations. Their comments can be grouped into three conflicting sets of responsibilities: to their subjects, their viewers, and their own artistic vision and production exigencies.

Filmmakers resolved these conflicts on an ad-hoc basis and argued routinely for situational, case-by-case ethical decisions. At the same time, they shared unarticulated general principles and limitations. They commonly shared such principles as, in relation to subjects, “Do no harm” and “Protect the vulnerable,” and, in relation to viewers, “Honor the viewer’s trust.”

Among the topics discussed:

* Staging, restaging, and effects

* Framing and editing

* Paying subjects

* Sharing decision-making and/or control of final cut

* Protecting vulnerable or endangered subjects

* Reselling or distributing images in other contexts

* Deliberate deception to achieve a greater good

The report concludes:

When filmmakers face ethical conflicts, they often resolve them in an ad-hoc way, keeping their deep face-to-face relationship with subjects and their more abstract relationship with the viewers in balance with practical concerns about cost, time, and ease of production.

The ethical conflicts put in motion by these features of a filmmaker’s embattled-truth-teller identity are, ironically for a truth-telling community, unable to be widely shared or even publicly discussed in most individual cases. Sometimes filmmakers are constrained by contract, but far more often they are constrained by the fear that openly discussing ethical issues will expose them to risk of censure or may jeopardize the next job.

Filmmakers thus find themselves without community norms or standards. Institutional standards and practices remain proprietary to the companies for which the filmmakers may be working and do not always reflect the terms they believe are appropriate to their craft. Their communities are far-flung, virtual, and sporadically rallied at film festivals and on listservs. Filmmakers need to share both experience and vocabulary and to be able to question their own and others’ decision-making processes without encountering prohibitive risk.

Documentary filmmakers need a larger, more sustained and public discussion of ethics, and they also need safe zones to share questions and to report concerns. Any documentary code of ethics that has credibility for a field with a wide range of practices must develop from a shared understanding of values, standards, and practices. A more extended and vigorous conversation is needed in order to cultivate such understanding in this field of creative practice.

Download the study here (PDF file).

Video Dominates Globe's Kennedy Package

Even before Ted Kennedy died, the Boston Globe assembled an ambitious seven-part multimedia biographical series on its home-state Senator that first appeared in February.

Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab couldn't help but notice how video dominates the series. Bennie DiNardo, Globe deputy managing editor for multimedia, confirmed that "people were heavily consuming the video," contributing to the Website's huge surge in traffic especially after Kennedy died.

Some of the data suggests that video is the better entry point for long-form content. Certainly, the Globe designed its Kennedy package to give the videos more prominence than the articles. “This was the first time we tried to really produce documentary-quality video,” DiNardo told me. He said finding and making arrangements to use archival footage was particularly difficult: “It was just a whole world that us newspaper folks aren’t used to.”

Once again, proof that there's ample reason for newspaper folks to start getting used to that whole video world.

Boston.com Kennedy package here. Videos only here.