Once again we're sharing some video tutorials about videojournalism from the International Journalists' Network. They're from top pros in Washington, D.C.
The first two are from Pierre Kattar, who produced Emmy-winning videojournalism for the Washington Post, and now flies solo.
*** These next two are from Bill Gentile, a pioneering videojournalist who teaches at American University in Washington, D.C., where he founded and directs the school's Backpack Journalism Project.
Want to see what real reporters look like when they're working? Pierre Kattar and Jill Drew followed three political journalists -- Don Gonyea of NPR News, Mark Leibovich of The New York Times, and Alexander Burns of Politico -- "as they scour the country for insights into Congressional candidates and their campaigns."
VJ Movement, an online collaboration of videojournalists who pitch and vote on story ideas to determine which ones will be assigned, is celebrating its first anniversary with a site redesign. In addition to videos on individual themes, they explain, "we've started organizing our content into projects."
In the absence of natural predators, non-native species of plants and animals can become invasive, unbalancing local ecosystems and causing material harm. Every year the European Union alone spends some twenty billion euros on damages and control costs of invasive species. Yet some argue that we should let invasive species be, and that the natural environment can manage without our interference.
This project looks at how countries deal with invasive species and asks if we should be spending huge amounts to eradicate them.
The videos include "Invasion of the Lionfish" (Isaac Brown & Ana Paula Habib), "Mexico's Future Corn" (Greg Brosnan), "Native vs. Non-Native" (Pierre Kattar), "Extreme Eradication of Japanese Knotweed" (Adam Westbrook).
Headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, VJ Movement features the work of 150 videojournalists from more than 100 countries.
Hurry! The first round of YouTube's Project: Report contest ends tomorrow (Sunday). Upload your three-minute video (about a day in the life of someone who's making a positive impact on their community), and you could win a $10,000 grant to pursue videojournalism internationally.
We've previously shared YouTube's video tips for producing your video, here and here.
Now we've got another half dozen doses of advice about media management, story building, editing techniques, compression, audience building, promoting your video, and incorporating print journalism techniques into your video reporting.
Each short video features an accomplished professional videojournalist. So whether or not you choose to enter the contest, you're bound to glean some useful instruction here:
Project Report Production Tip #9:Media Management
(Whitney Shefte, Washington Post videojournalist)
***
Project Report Production Tip #10:Story Building
(Pierre Kattar, former Washington Post videojournalist)
***
Project Report Production Tip #11:Editing Techniques
(Robin Bell, Bell Visuals production company)
***
Project Report Production Tip #12: Compression
(Michael Rickley, Azimuth Media video producer)
***
Project Report Production Tip #13:Increasing Your Audience
(Mark Stanley, New Media Strategist, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting)
***
Project Report Production Tip #14:Print to Video Journalism
(Jason Motlagh, Pulitzer Center international multimedia journalist)
***
CRITERIA: What makes a great videojournalism story?
If you decide to enter, be sure to read the rules. And even videojournalists who don't enter would do well to heed the judging criteria below (which, not coincidentally, is remarkably similar to the checklist we use to select video stories to showcase on KobreGuide to the Web's Best Videojournalism).
# Is the story topic interesting and compelling?
# Was the story reported from an original and unique perspective?
# How thorough was the reporting?
# Did the Entrant have an engaging storytelling style?
# How well did the Entrant technically execute the video? (i.e. the use of camera, sound, lighting, and editing)
# What was the overall impression?
With massive layoffs at newspapers and TV news departments, photojournalists and videojournalists are legitimately complaining that their industry is passing them by. Even the best and brightest are being sent to pasture. Top newspapers in our nation's capital have recently lost the award-winning talents of luminaries such as Travis Fox and Pierre Kattar (Washington Post) and Mary Calvert and Janet Reeves (Washington Times) -- a horrifying scenario that's reverberating in newsrooms throughout the land.
Every photography and journalism trade publication wails, "How can this be happening?" and "What can we do to stop the bloodbath?" Sure, we know all the economic reasons, but it's so... unfair! To rob these superstars of their forum, and deprive audiences of their work is so... wrong!
Then we read this recent blog post by marketing superguru Seth Godin. Though he was addressing mass marketers, his wisdom applies to visual journalists as well: "Just because you're good at something doesn't mean the market cares any longer."
He imparts cold truths by reminding us of the career of comic genius Groucho Marx.
The Marx Brothers were great at vaudeville. Live comedy in a theatre. And then the market for vaudeville was killed by the movies. Groucho didn't complain about this or argue that people should respect the hard work he and his brothers had put in. No, they went into the movies.
Then the market for movies like the Marx Brothers were making dried up. Groucho didn't start trying to fix the market. Instead, he saw a new medium and went there. His TV work was among his best (and certainly most lucrative).
It's extremely difficult to repair the market.
It's a lot easier to find a market that will respect and pay for the work you can do. Technology companies have been running this race for years. Now, all of us must.
If some cultural shift has turned what you do into a commodity, don't argue. Find a new place before the competition does. It's not easy or fair, but it's true.
OK, all you visual storytellers. Now that your stock photos sell for pennies, media staff positions are drying up, and "citizen photographers" are cornering the market with shoddy goods at the right price (free!) -- what are you going to do with your talents?
What's your plan?
Are there avenues still open for you to explore? Probably not. Those days are gone, kaput -- get used to it, live with it, deal with it. Can you forge new avenues, create new paths, blaze new trails? Pioneer and conquer new territory, like Groucho did? You bet your life.
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Once again we're sharing some video tutorials about videojournalism from the International Journalists' Network. They're from top pros in Washington, D.C.
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