2007 Photos of the Year

We figure almost every publication out there has a photos of the year gallery or multimedia piece.

We’d like to check yours out. So please post a link to the piece in the comments area.

Thanks.

Not Forgotten

Will Yurman was supposed to be a coach at last summer’s NPPA Multimedia Immersion Workshop in Portland — he canceled last minute because he had a project that he was working on and needed to be in Rochester. Not Forgotten, Rochester’s Victims of Homicide 2007 published this week in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

It is obvious how much hard work Will has put into this project and to see the amazing repoire that he built with his subjects is remarkable.

Will, we hope to see you next year at the Multimedia Immersion in Louisville, we have a ticket with your name on it.

Uprooted

I haven’t been posting as often as I like, because while I see a lot of Multimedia out there, I don’t always see a lot of good multimedia. And then sometimes I see something that just grabs the foundations and shakes it all up like a rag doll in a pit bulls mouth.

Chew it all up, spit it, change the game.

Dai Sugano of the Mercury News, along with reporter Julie Patel, worked on Uprooted for six months. Examining how land use in the Bay Area has effected the residents of a mobile home park in Sunnyvale from their struggle to stay to the aftermath of relocation as developers take over.

The piece is as moving as it is innovative and for storytellers like us, it makes us reexamine just what effective multimedia can be.

As Dai has shown, there is no formula.

This is without a doubt the most cinematic piece I’ve seen anyone do, anywhere! (Seriously, I’m convinced Dai is ready for Sundance.)

And on my personal list it ranks number two, right behind The Star’s Noir-inspired piece on the Conrad Black trial, as my all-time favorite multimedia piece.

Dai took a brief timeout from partying with his son to say: “I don’t know if you have seen it in the paper. My 6-month project on two mobile home families finally ran last Sunday. UPROOTED. When you have time, please check it out.”

Don’t ever let it be said that the man talks to much.

-Shaminder

The Bottom Line

Dallas Morning News photojournalist Mona Reeder spent three years working on The Bottom Line — mostly on gaining access to some really sensitive situations. The result is some incredibly personal moments, and some heartbreaking story-telling images.

By the numbers, Texas is first in capital punishment. It’s also home to the most Fortune 500 companies. Second in GDP. Second also in the size of the income gap between rich and poor. It’s home to the country’s three poorest counties. Dead last for the number of people without health insurance. And lousy at protecting the environment.

It’s numbers such as these that define a place. Behind every set of numbers is a story of lives ruined, ends not being met, the struggle to survive. Reeder does a great job at putting a face on the issues and shows how the numbers add up to poverty, teen pregnancy and jail time.

Driving Detroit

The Detroit Free Press photo staff decided to jump into the deep end with Driving Detroit, a multimedia piece that uses Google Maps as a foundation and lays over it videos, sideshows, flip book panoramas, written stories, a public forum and infographics to explore the streets, the homes and the people that make the 11th largest city in the US what it is.

The idea was to get a unique view of Detroit, a short-term, street-level survey of Detroit’s 138 square miles, a once-in-a-lifetime snapshot of the city Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and others insist is coming back.

From downtown — where the comeback is evident — through the immense territory of Detroit’s neighborhoods — where the future seems less certain — the trip was never boring.

The 4-month project explores 2,700-miles through 2,100 streets and journeys from the ritziest of digs to the lowliest of slums.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge stride forward in community journalism and using the tools and code available to create something that serves the community and takes a historical snapshot of a city.

-Shaminder

Where it’s all about ME

Instead of boring those of you who come here to see great multimedia with my travel/journal movies, i’ve created a small home on the web to bore you elsewhere. it’s richardkocihernandez.com and i’ve posted my most recent travel log from my trip to atlanta for the photoj seminar. the movies, which i hope to update on a very regular basis are filed under things that move.

enjoy, or not,

-r

Create a chaptered Soundslides menu WAY EASY!

Soundslides creator Joe Weiss rocks us again! 

What does this tool do?

This tool is designed to create a simple chaptered Flash menu for Soundslides presentations.

You can download the resulting Flash menu and host it on your own web site.

Here is an example.

enjoy,

-r

BULLET PROOF VEST Independent Lens Shorts

Independent Lens is pleased to present the second annual Online Shorts Festival. Animation, comedy, drama and documentary provide an eclectic mix of stories and storytelling with this batch of winning shorts. View. Vote. Download. Enjoy!

 

You MUST see this:

 

BULLET PROOF VEST (5:27)
Grand Jury Prize

Nine-year-old Jyeshria wants a bulletproof vest—and she’s dead serious. In a city riddled with gun violence, fed up residents take action.

DIY

DIY Filmmaking: Make Your Own Equipment & Tools

Here’s a few links to DIY resources that give us multimedia shooters alternatives to buying and renting equipment from filmlinker.com

enjoy,

-r

Flash Video Tip

Optimal Frame Dimensions for Flash Video

Compiled by Robert Reinhardt
September 24, 2007

Video codecs such as On2 VP6 and Sorenson Spark perform best when the frame width and height use multiples of 16. While you can use any width and height in your encoding settings, non-optimal dimensions can result in poor image quality and reduced frame rate. For the best image quality and playback, you should always use width and height dimensions that use a multiple of 16 (best), 8 (better), or 4 (good)

A Bonecrusher End to a Story

The awesome series “Inside the Surge” by Chicago Tribune shooters Tom Van Dyke and Kuni Takahashi is coming to an abrupt end after three parts when the military pulled the plug on their embed in Iraq.

They’ve been covering Bonecrusher Troop, 3rd Platoon in a continuing series as they were deployed to Iraq. In the third part of the series, Van Dyke documented life on the homefront as spouses were at war, including a powerful piece on Amanda’s brief reunion with her on-leave husband Josh - with wireless mic on during arrival and departure.

NAWLZ: Future of Story?

Nawlz is an experiment in interactive story-telling.

This is not everybody’s cup of tea but important to experience, because I think there is a lot to learn from this kind of interactive story-telling. Yes this is a nod to my love of graphic novels, but none-the-less important move in the future of the story.

enjoy,

-r

The Peace of Dawn

The Virginian-Pilot’s Rich-Joseph Facun gives us, The Peace of Dawn, a quiet and moving piece. A shining example of journalism for the web. It’s beautifully photographed, with strong audio moments. Well Done.

enjoy,

-r

100 Young Americans

The True Story of Youth Culture in America, It’s a book and an online experience. A must see.

One Hundred Young Americans is the first book to paint the full picture of youth culture in America today. Gorgeously photographed and meticulously researched, this year-long project represents photographer Michael Franzini’s 30,000-mile journey in search of what it truly means to be a teenager in this hyper-connected, media-driven society.

enjoy

-r

Vietnam Orphans: Legacy of Horror

 

Justin Mott, a photojournalist from San Francisco working in Hanoi, and multimedia producer Laura Lo Forti published this piece on Newsweek.com. I love how the ambient sound really transports me to the scene. Well Done.

enjoy

-r

Greenham Common

Thanks to Elliot Smith, Multimedia Producer @ Guardian Unlimited for pointing us to this solid piece about the Greenham Common Protests 25 years later.  Enjoy the human emotion and strong production values.

-r

Whale Hunt

Last May, photographer Jonathan Harris spent 9 days living with a family of Inupiat Eskimos in Barrow, Alaska, joining them as they prepared for and then went on a traditional whale hunt. And in one of the coolest uses of Flash I’ve seen in a long time, Harris decided to document and present his work in a very non-traditional way.

From the photographer’s personal statement:

I documented the entire experience with a plodding sequence of 3,214 photographs, beginning with the taxi ride to Newark airport, and ending with the butchering of the second whale, seven days later. The photographs were taken at five-minute intervals, even while sleeping (using a chronometer), establishing a constant “photographic heartbeat”. In moments of high adrenaline, this photographic heartbeat would quicken (to a maximum rate of 37 pictures in five minutes while the first whale was being cut up), mimicking the changing pace of my own heartbeat.

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