video – Page 7 – The Linchpen

First video for The Miami Herald: Volunteers build new playround

My internship at The Miami Herald — now in its fifth week — continues to offer more great journalism experiences. Recently, I jumped at an opportunity to shoot and edit a video with one of my stories, which ran Saturday.

Volunteers return to finish work on Plantation park

Here is the video:

Click here to view the video on The Miami Herald’s site.

I currently have to travel to downtown Miami to edit, which I don’t mind, but Miami traffic is a huge pain. I’ll (hopefully) be able to edit on my own computer in the coming weeks. I’ve been saving for a MacBook Pro and plan to buy soon since I’m driving myself bonkers waiting for a new model.

Check out some other recent articles I’ve written:

As you can see, I’m keeping pretty busy — writing almost every day.

Thoughts on Fish At Bay interactive storytelling class project and convergence

After a semester of work, my interactive storytelling class launched its site about fish in Biscayne Bay launched last Wednesday: Fish At Bay.

Hats off to our converged class of “print” and visual journalism students: Walyce Almeida, Maria Arroyave, Erica Landau, Brian Schlansky, Jen Shook, Jamie Straz, Alex Thacker and Jason Walker.

Our professors, Kim Grinfeder (visual journalism) and Sam Terilli (print journalism), did a great job overseeing the project — and recruiting everyone. Also, thanks to our TA, Zeven Rodriguez.

To provide some background, Grinfeder and Terilli have collaborated the past two fall semesters with their Web production and in-depth storytelling classes, respectively. I was in the fall 2008 in-depth class.

With this spring’s (experimental) interactive storytelling class, they took it to the next level of convergence. As far as I know, this was the first class at the University of Miami School of Communication to combine the talents of print and visual journalism students in one class.

I took advantage of the opportunity to get more experience shooting and editing video, as well as to become proficient with Final Cut Pro. I particularly enjoyed being able to work in so may areas:

Write history story
Shoot b-roll and take photos for history video
Edit history video
Edit and write cutlines for history photos
Edit Delicate Balance video
Shoot an interview for the Building on the Bay video
Copy edit all stories
Write about page
Add p tags and hyperlinks (plus find links for) all stories

I’m usually critical of the lack of collaboration between the print and visual programs, but I’ve seen some very encouraging strides this semester.

Grinfeder and Terilli get it. Chris Delboni, my online journalism professor, and Michelle Seelig, the spring Web production professor, get it. (More thoughts on the online journalism class and our collaboration with the Web production class to follow).

So, what now?

Without a question, the interactive storytelling class should be a standard course, and it should be required for all journalism students at UM. Yes, that means bringing in broadcast as well. And there needs to be more converged classes, like an introductory storytelling class (more on this to come as well).

Resistance is futile. You must adapt.

Weigh in: What do you think of the Fish At Bay site?

What’s the best video equipment for a student paper’s first purchase?

(Preface: It’s not about the technology. It’s about the story and how you tell it. Technology is just a tool.)

Kevin Koehler, contributing editor at the Wake Forest Old Gold & Black, asked a question via Twitter Tuesday evening:

kev097 Need to recommend HD camcorder for newspaper today. Probably going with hard drive. Suggestions on models, accessories, research?

Kyle Hansen (TheSpartanDaily.com editor at San Jose State), Kevin and I discussed ideas via Twitter and I volunteered to post the equipment The Miami Hurricane plans to purchase before next fall:

Canon HV20 a mini-DV, HD video camera (2) [should we get the HV30 instead?]
Canon BP2L14 battery (2)
Rode shotgun microphone (2)
Sennheiser Evolution G2 EW100 wireless mic combo kit (1) [looks like this this has been discontinued from B&H]
- Includes EW100 G2 Combo System, EW100 G2 Lavalier System, ENG Handheld Microphone, Storage Case and Cables
Hosa MIT-156 XLR to mini connector (1)
EH 150 supra-aural closed back stereo headphones (2)
Sunpak 7001DX tripod (2)
- Three-way pan/tilt head with quick release
Tiffen 43mm UV filter (2)

This year we have primarily used Flip video cameras after starting off with point-and-shoots (Matt Bunch and I). These have worked OK, but the big problem was audio. The best quality videos came when we checked out equipment from the School of Communication.

And I’ve used my HV20, which I bought during spring break, for the paper. For example, a video of the PD press conference after a student died on campus:

(This is the pretty one the assistant multimedia editor, Matt Wallach, edited. Here is the quick-and-dirty version I posted right after the press conference, sans b-roll. I miked the chief with a lav.)

I love my HV20. It’s not perfect, but it does everything I need.

More about video: Newspaper Video – Yahoo! Groups

Weigh in: What video equipment does your organization use? What do you think about The Hurricane’s planned list?

"The Paper" used to be my paper

I learned last school year that MTV would be doing a multi-part “documentary” about my high school newspaper, The Circuit. I was skeptical of how the network that brought you “My Super Sweet 16” would cover a journalism class/newspaper and I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Here is the trailer for “The Paper”

The show premiered Monday night after being released Thursday for free on iTunes.

I’ve met most of the kids featured and I didn’t notice any such rancor when I visited, but obviously there’s a wee bit of tension — or more than a wee bit. Nevertheless, they’ve put out some great issues this year, so I can report [spoiler warning?] that the newsroom does not burn down.

As a “reality show,” it is of course not actual reality because people are always going to play to the camera, particularly when two of the featured staffers have been in drama club. Try to guess which ones by commenting below.

I’ll be visiting again sometime during the week of April 28 and perhaps I will do an interview with the featured players and Mrs. Weiss, the most awesome high school newspaper adviser ever.

Stay tuned for that, and the rest of the series — Mondays at 10:30 p.m. on MTV.

Side note: The Miami Hurricane was approached last year by a group that wanted to a reality show about us called “The Chronicles.” We got a good laugh from the mock-up flyer/poster, which hangs in my office, because of how hyped the concept was.

We thought it would be a pretty boring show since there was no office drama and declined.

Weigh in: Did you watch “The Paper?” What did you think?

Mad Journalism

We had an assignment a few weeks ago in my online journalism class to do a “video bio.” After two tries that involved yawn videos, I decided to try something completely different.

Sports Editor Matt Bunch joined me on April 7 to help shoot the third version. We put our heads together to get what you see in this final video. Enjoy!