Contest winners, prizes sent

Remember the MMS contest?  Just a quick note to the 10 winners. Check your email, gifts were sent. Since I'm on a bit of a budget with the site, I opted for the above gift, versus paying the postage on all the hefty prizes. So forgive the false advertising. But hey something is better than nothing. Maybe I'll work on getting some ads, then I can spend the money on sending the prizes. P.S. If you entered and won and you live outside the US, your prize has been mailed.

enjoy,

-r 

On Assignment by Dai Sugano

MercuryNewsPhoto.com » Blog Archive » On Assignment

Download Audio, Video, Editing, Multimedia tip sheets

Can you believe this picture! Get it, gun+camera=multimedia shooter. Maybe it's a stretch. After attending POYi in Berkeley, I was walking back to my car and saw this image inside the parking garage.

Anyway, while surf'n around this week I ran into a few articles with a few decent tips, so along with what I gleamed from those and my own advice I've come-up with a printable list. Cut it out, paste it up! Here are the tips. Read more

Invisible Children - Displace Me

Invisible Children - Displace Me

The Question of Training

 

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you should know by now, that I only write extended pieces when I've just gotten my "drink on" see Corona haze or had way too much caffeine see a desperate plea. Well, I went too far this morning and had an extra cup of coffee, making it 7 instead of 6.

Now you know where I'm coming from.

Everywhere I look, in dark corners of our building, at the cocktail party for POYi last night, in my emails, in my dreams…training, train us! How come they won't train us to do multimedia? When will they get it? And on and on it goes.

Well, guess what? I have an answer. Or at least some advice. Ready? Read more

The ‘Gods’ have spoken! Multimedia is OK.

First the titans of old school photojournalism, Magnum, gave us the go-ahead with their website Magnum-InMotion, now the current new school of 'photo gods' have given their 'collective blessing' to multimedia. Rejoice! In an April 21st article post by Graham Harrison titled Editorial Photographers UK | Multi-media leaves stills standing as ten into VII adds up in London. All ten members of the influential VII Photo Agency gathered in London last week for the first European VII Seminar and said good things about the scary thing called multimedia. Listen, if the gods of VII and Magnum are doing it, what's stopping you? Maybe some of these quotes from the guardians of 'truth' will inspire you to pick up that audio recorder, finally.

“It’s not a choice you want to make necessarily, but this is how younger people are learning today and part of being a photojournalist is to provide historical material and to be an educator.” “If in a short production you can grab people for five minutes on a web site then your work does have value”.- Eugene Richards

"On multimedia (a term he- Nachtwey- thinks dated and ill-defined) the world’s greatest living war photographer told EPUK “something is lost and something is gained”, elaborating that there are definite changes in the way a moving image and a still image are perceived and felt by the viewer. But Nachtwey believed that eventually all photographers working in mass media would incorporate their work into multi-media."

The article mentions a short black and white film ‘The Dear Leader’ from Christopher Morris. It may never be shown in public as Morris worries about the copyright of the music and Time would be unlikely to ever put it on their web site. Which is a pity. Damn, if anybody ever sees this, make bootleg, please. Well, be not afraid. enjoy, -r

Crisis Guide: Darfur - Council on Foreign Relations

Crisis Guide: Darfur - Council on Foreign Relations

globeandmail.com Special Report: Conjoined Twins

globeandmail.com Special Report: Conjoined Twins

Audio Goodness

Here are some recent audio related finds, enjoy.

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This looks like a fantastic new audio editor, easy to use, especially for the beginner but powerful enough for the pro?

Fission is a streamlined audio editor designed to get you editing in minutes, not hours. Fission lets you copy, paste and trim audio, as well as split files, all with no quality loss! Rapidly edit mono and stereo files in MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless and AIFF formats.

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Journeys in Sound

Some of the most inspirational audio advice/tips yoou could hope for in this article from Poynter. It's a shame it's buried in the TV/Radio section, we could all learn a lot from this. 

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Advanced Audio Tips Froom the BBC Their website contains a variety of free online tutorials to develop technical and editorial skills. SWEET!

• Using a microphone
• Using recording equipment
• Recording vox pops
• Interviewing
• Writing for radio
• Presentation
• Recording links
• Editing Working with a large group

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Time for some none audio related goooodness… 

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photographyVoter is a collobarative project that lets you share and vote for information, articles and photography resources with the photographyVoter community.

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An interesting list of inspiring photography podcasts, via the MacShooter blog. 

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A blog you should be reading Digital Rangefinder by Dr. Bob Carey is currently chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Gardner-Webb University where he teaches photojournalism, digital media convergence, media law, and theory.

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Finally something for the students….

 Insomnia Photo Festival

Turn 24 hours of insanity into 15 minutes of fame.

One concept. One photo. One insane day.

The first ever Insomnia Photo Festival challenges you to shoot the perfect picture in just one day. On Friday, April 27 at 5 p.m. Eastern (2 p.m. Pacific), we will post a photography assignment for you to complete. From that time, you will have 24 hours to finish and submit your ideal image.

BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!! Check this post from Digital Rangefinder. 

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enjoy,

-r 

 

 

SWFObject [tutorial], Adobe Design Center, Make Internet TV, Final Cut Server, JerryTime! Audio recorders

A few people have asked for this as a tutorial and I found this PowerPoint: How to Use SWFObject via [Mindy McAdams]

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Some really fantastic and useful video tutorials here at the Adobe Design Center/Video Workshop. 

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This guide by Make Internet TV [via Angela Grant] has step-by-step instructions for shooting, editing, and publishing online videos that can be watched and subscribed to by millions of people. Worth a look.

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Meet Final Cut Server, Apple’s powerful new media asset management and workflow automation software. Final Cut Server takes the headache out of managing large collections of media files, then extends to tracking job status, managing reviews and approvals, and automating complex sequences of tasks—all with Apple’s legendary ease of use, and all in a single product designed to work seamlessly with Final Cut Studio. Hmmmm.

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How about some fun? I found this link [via ThePulp] I love JerryTime! and if you like Will Ferrell yoou have to see The Landlord. Finally, check out the Finalists in the FITC Awards, some good Flash inspiration.

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Final catch! Transom's great field recoder reviews [via DeVigal via Weiss]

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enjoy,

-r 

Flash Tutorial [video]

PLEASE READ:
I have put this together as a starting point. It's 30 minutes long. I tend to ramble. I don't think it's what I wanted it to be, but I tried. Actually, I tried something new. Something called PULP MOTION. It didn't work so well. User error. [I should have used more than my webcam and during compression the sound sync went off.] Live and learn as they say. But since I put so much time into it, mostly  compressing time, maybe there is something in there for you to learn. But, just in case there isn't, I found over an hour of great and FREE intro to Flash tutorials for you, at Lynda.com

enjoy, hopefully,

-r 

[Runtime 30min: Size: 22MB] 

Inspiration, unique tools and more…

An animated sequence from OPERATION HOMECOMING.

I saw this short film last night OPERATION HOMECOMING on PBS. See it, buy it when it's released.  It was a pinnacle of story-telling for me. Why? "The film takes a handful of this writing as a central element – presenting powerful readings of the soldier’s words. These readings are brought to the screen through a variety of innovative filmmaking techniques that push the boundaries of traditional documentary, but avoid clumsy re-creations. Some stories are told through archival news images of the war. Several use striking visual collages to accompany the words of a poem. A few will move even farther a field to illustration or animated still photographs, yet always rooted in a reading of the writer’s original words." Enough said. _______________________________________

More inspiration comes from this recent NOLA.com piece, Strong Roots, from Jennifer Zdon and crew. 

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Via Zach Wise:

In a brave new world of multimedia journalism, the award-winning Visual Communication School at Ohio University lead by Brian Storm of MediaStorm.org and Zach Wise of digitalartwork.net dares to ask the question: What is the soul of the 200-year-old community of Athens, Ohio?

Athens soul is restless. Its stories lie beneath the bricks, waiting to be exposed. Precariously balanced on the tip of cosmopolitan Appalachia, its uninhibited subcultures test the bounds of predictability.

Go to http://soulofathens.com, tell us what you think the soul of athens is. Come back May 28th and see what we discover. _________________________________________ 

 

What is it? Only the coolest freaking, gravity-defying, mind-boggling tripod ever created! Monsterpod is a Viscoelastic Polymer-based tripod that's the stuff of science fiction. This marvel sticks to and peels right off just about anything.

via Photojojo.com

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Already know Quark, but don't know Flash? Well….

"With Quark® Interactive Designer for QuarkXPress®, you can create vibrant, interactive SWF projects — complete with features for sound, movies, and animation — using the same powerful tools that make QuarkXPress the world's premier design and page layout application. There's no need to learn a new authoring environment; interactivity and animation flow naturally from your existing QuarkXPress design skills"

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Love the way iTunes displays your album artwork? Wanna use that in your next project? Then you need this…

The photoFlow Flash component displays multiple images with a stack effect, perspective and reflection. Images can be flipped automatically (like a slideshow) or by user interaction - clicking on another image in the stack, scrolling the mouse wheel or using the provided skinnable scrollbar. Includes XML support. From Flashloaded.com Warning: You need to own Flash 8 to use this product.

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Finally, news on the ever evolving camera front, Sony introduces a  camera that records to a flash drive. The high-def video cam records directly to two ExpressCards. That's good news for us MacBook Pro users. We can just pop the card into the slot and edit away.

"Sony's PR guy told us the camera would ship later this year, probably in the fall, with a price somewhere in the neighborhood of $8000. Of course all of this is speculation at the moment, but the company's Z1U camera retailed at that price when it was introduced three years ago. Sony was quick to point out the EX was not a replacement for the Z1U or the V1U but instead an intermediate camera between those two and the high-end HDC-950." via Gizmodo

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enjoy,

-r 

 

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune STRONG ROOTS

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Graphics

MiamiHerald.com | Che Guevara

MiamiHerald.com | Che Guevara

New site, 6 Billion, Stop, Press! Final Cut Pro2

Almost a month of being on the road, blabber'n about multimedia and then a nice vaction in Mexico, has made me feel like Superman! I'm launching a NEW website soon, called Multimedia365. More to come…Speaking of Superman, this cool game is back…

No, it's not more news about doctored photographs in the newspaper, it's a hella fun game, with a photo twist. I point this out because if you're a multimedia producer and you haven't thought about making games for your newspaper, that's right, games, then you're behind the curve. IMO, they can be very useful in driving traffic, if tied to the right event or story. We did one for our local Grand Prix and damn are they traffic 'drivers.' Anyway, have fun with this one.

Next is a MUST READ for all students.

Getting Started in Photojournalism

by Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography, NPPA Past President, and all around great human being. Next, for all you lucky folks in the Big Apple…

Website coming soon. Boy, I'd love to live in NYC, hint, hint, NYT! (just kidding, Geri)…..not really! YES I AM!!!!! Andrew Devigal doesn't read this anyway, He's too busy with INACTIVE NARRATIVES, opps, I mean InteractiveNarratives.org, PLEASE UPDATE!!!!! We miss you! Finally I leave you with some real meat, since I can hear you screaming, "Where's the beef?"

Well, check out this for inspiration, 6 Billion Others an Arthus Bertrand project. I loved the Road Books portion. Advice: think of a way to localize this porject. Hmmm…..

This just in……

NAB coverage - Apple's Final Cut Studio 2 announcements. Any 'techheads' know if this will end our HDV import from hard drive woes? Please let me know.

enjoy,

-r 

Voodoo, Clarin, PDN

→ April 2007 Contents → Column

It's here, tells us what you think or how you can improve it and share with the rest of us. Here's the download link. And you might want to keep an eye on Bob's SportsShooter thread about this very topic, here.

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This inspiration from Rodger Randle:

"There are some really wonderful examples of effective multimedia sites outside the USA that merit our attention. The best single site I have found is the multimedia collection of the newspaper Clarin in Buenos Aires. Even for those who don't speak Spanish, it is possible to appreciate the technique and the great work they do. This page is a treasure of magnificent multimedia. Here is the link to the site:" http://www.clarin.com/diario/especiales/index.html

Some very 'wow' looking desgin, nice inspiration for producers. Click on any of the shows on the left-side some of my favs:

	SABINA EN BOCA
	El sueño del pibe

	CUBA SIN FIDEL
	Transición tras la enfermedad del líder cubano

	BORGES EN CLARIN
	Los textos que Borges publicó en Clarín entre 1980 y 1986

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A little publicity never hurt. In the latest PDN this site is mentioned on page 118, yeah! More eyeballs, thoughts, inspirations, ideas, conversations!  

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enjoy,

-r

“UseFlashMore, Because You Can!”

For the six of you who want a ThumbnailGrid tutorial, well, see below. And for the rest of you voting for the Flash tut, DAMN YOU! I might have to stuff the ballot box. Just kidding…

The video tutorials can be found here: Accordion Nav

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6EZNZUl9QU

Thumbnail Grid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLKNyP89E0Q

Major 'props' to

Justin Winter  of Useflashmore.com for the product and the tuts.

enjoy,

-r 

p.s. i'm back from Mexico next week, more on the t-shirts and bottles of tequila for all the contest winners. You wish! But the prizes will be in the mail soon. Tnxs for your patience. 

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